A Barrel of Laughs, A Vale of Tears - Kid Book Review

Title: A Barrel of Laughs, A Vale of Tears
Author: Jules Feiffer
The Reviewer: Lucia, Age 9

If you liked The Phantom Tollbooth, you’ll love this book! Prince Roger is so happy that when he comes near even the saddest and angriest people, they burst out laughing! This care free prince is set on a quest by a wizard. Will he complete it, or is his quest to find a quest? But after three reports of “no progress” from the wizard, King Watchamacallit, Roger’s dad, loses faith in him. Does Roger have the skill to get through this, or is this a quest you don’t need skill for?

Read A Barrel of Laughs, a Vale of Tears to see if Roger is born a barrel of laughs, and then drowned in a vale of tears.

Read More kid reviews!

Better than the pencil

Quote of the week:

Pencilly
The pencil is a splendid thing
For which there's no replacer.
But better than the pencil is
The little pink eraser.

- Douglas Florian, Bing Bang Boing

Words filled the night

Quote of the week:

Words
Words filled the night like the fragrance of invisible flowers. Words made to measure, written by Orpheus with his doughpale hands, words taken fromthe book that Farid was clutching tightly and then fitted together into a new meaning. They spoke of another world, a world full of marvels and terrors.

- Cornelia Funke, Inkspell

Madeleine L'Engle

I am a few days late in posting this but Madeleine L'Engle, author of A Wrinkle in Time and other great children's books, died last Thursday.

From the Associated Press:

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Author Madeleine L'Engle, whose novel "A Wrinkle in Time" has captivated generations of schoolchildren and adults since the 1960s, has died, her publicist said Friday. She was 88. L'Engle died Thursday at a nursing home in Litchfield, said Jennifer Doerr, publicity manager for publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

The Newbery Medal winner wrote more than 60 books, including fantasies, poetry and memoirs, often highlighting spiritual themes and her Christian faith.

For many years, she was the writer in residence and librarian at the Episcopal Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City.

Although L'Engle was often labeled a children's author, she disliked that classification. In a 1993 Associated Press interview, she said she did not write down to children.

"In my dreams, I never have an age," she said. "I never write for any age group in mind. ... When you underestimate your audience, you're cutting yourself off from your best work."

Read the entire article here.

Every child is like a little world

Quote of the week:

Every child is like
A little world with ever-changing weather,
nights and mornings. And somehow, here we are,
Spinning through the universe together.

- Helen Frost, Spinning through the Universe

Silverwing - Kid Book Review

Title: Silverwing
Author: Kenneth Oppel
The Reviewer: Lucia, Age 9

Silverwing is an entrancing story you just can’t put down! Shade, a young Silverwing bat is separated from the rest of the Silverwings in a storm while the bats fly south. Shade has to get back to them! Along the way he tries to discover the meaning behind the silver bands on some bats’ wrists.

On this adventure he meets Marina, a Brightwing bat with one of the metal bands on her leg, Goth, a large, ferocious vampire bat, Zephyr, a mysterious albino bat, and many others.

But the journey doesn't end here – read Sunwing, a companions to Silverwing, and another wonderful fantasy. Will Shade get back to his family and stop the owls’ plans, or will he be the next victim?

Here's a quote from the Silverwing.

The book whispers its story to you at night

Quote of the week:

The book she had been reading was under her pillow, pressing its cover against her ear as if to lure her back into its printed pages. "I'm sure it must be very comfortable sleeping with a hard, rectangular thing like that under your head," her father had teased the first time he found a book under her pillow. "Go on, admit it, the book whispers its story to you at night."

- Cornelia Funke, Inkheart