Thank You's, Goodbye's, and Archives

Four years, three months, and 530 posts. Also a move from California to Utah and two new books published. But life gets crunched up sometimes, and what I really need is more time for my own writing. So Book Aunt is coming to a close, and I just want to thank you all for sharing the joy of talking about children's books with me.

Yesterday I was standing in a bookstore and overheard a woman trying to pick out a book for her nine-year-old niece. Naturally, I entered into the fray. My only difficulty was that when I asked the child questions about her reading habits and interests, the aunt kept trying to answer for her (incorrectly). I finally got a few words from the girl herself and managed to seal the deal with Half Magic by Edward Eager, though we decided that E.D. Baker's books would be a good option to look for at the library. And so it goes: Book Aunt may not be posting, but she's still lurking in the shadows of the local bookstore, leaping out to hand books to unsuspecting and presumably grateful children plus the adults they haul along with them for purposes of paying for things.

I will keep the site up for a while so that people can access the archives, most notably my large posts overviewing a genre or different versions of the same well-known story or book. Here are some of the more useful posts in various categories:


About Fairy Tales and Folktales

Standout Fairy Tale Books, Collections, and Retellings

Fairy Tales and Books about Witches (A Halloween Post)

Classic Fairy Tale Retellings

An Overview of Trickster Tales


Versions of a Well-Known Story or Book

Versions of A Child's Garden of Verses

Versions of Mother Goose

Versions of Cinderella (Plus Notes on the Possible Demise of Picture Book Fairy Tales)

Versions of Beauty and the Beast

Versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Versions of the Snow Queen


Picture Book Themes

Picture Books for Grieving

Picture Books to Sing

Picture Books about Water

Picture Book Lessons about Being Yourself

Thoughtful Picture Books You've Never Heard Of

Oddball Picture Books:

    --Not Your Grandma's Picture Books

    --Picture Books with Bite

    --Feeling Kinda Crazy: Three Unusual Picture Books


Other Book Batches

Many Mouse Books

Poetry Anthologies for Small Children

A Selection of Christmas Books

Books by Authors about Writing for Children


Best Book Lists

Best Picture Books Ever (2009)

Best Middle Grade Books Ever (2009)

Final Favorites Lists (2013)


How to Pick Books for Kids

Secret Weapons: Choosing the Right Books

Ten Books at a Time


The Pistachio Awards

First Annual Pistachio Awards (March 2011)

Second Annual Pistachio Awards (April 2012)


In Case You Didn't Know...

Why I Love Picture Books (Anarchy of the Imagination)

Again, thank you to all of my visitors. I've made so many nice blog friends. I hope to be able to keep in touch through comments, tweets, and e-mails. And of course, let's continue to rejoice in children's literature and the love of reading!

For those of you who follow my books, I have a picture book called The Tooth Fairy Wars, illustrated by Jake Parker, coming out in Spring 2014 and a poetry collection called Monster School that will probably be out in Spring 2015. No middle grade fiction at the moment, but I'm working on something, so we'll see what happens next. (Isn't that always the case with life and everything?)

Note: The first image above is a detail called "Young Woman Writing" from a wall painting in Pompeii. The second image is a detail from "Lady Writing a Letter with Her Maid" by Vermeer. The third painting is "Three Reading Girls" by Walter Elmer Schofield. A print of it used to hang in my grandmother's home. She was a very good first grade teacher and reading tutor as well as a voracious reader who passed the love of books on to her children and their children. The picture now hangs in my office.

Summer Writing Class

It occurred to me that I should let you know I'm teaching an online class about writing for kids in July. Last summer I taught a class on picture books and middle grade, which ended up being a fairly tricky combo, so this year it'll be MG and YA instead. You're welcome to join us! Here's the info:

July 5-30, 2010
"Creating Strong Middle Grade & YA Fiction"
by Kate Coombs
$30 at http://www.writeruniv.com/

You want to be the next Roald Dahl, E. B. White, or even J. K. Rowling or Stephenie Meyer, but how do you get from here to there? The answer, of course, is to make your manuscript strong enough to stand our in a crowded, competitive field. Join us for a workshop in which we get you started or refine the work you've already drafted with an eye toward improving your chances for publication. If possible, try to have at least one chapter of your manuscript written when class begins, however rough it may be.

Course topics include:

* Good/bad news - where your book falls in today's market
* Targeting hidden obstacles that keep books from fulfilling their potential
* Strengthening character and plot
* Tightening text, brightening language
* From irresistible beginnings to slam-bang endings
* Finding your spot and maximizing your voice
* Tips about submissions and publishers
* Developing new children's book projects

Kate Coombs has three books in print, a 2006 Parents' Choice Recommended picture book called The Secret-Keeper and a 2007 American Library Association Notable Book called The Runaway Princess along with a well-reviewed sequel, The Runaway Dragon. Kate has three more books coming out in 2011-2012. In addition, she maintains a children's book review blog called Book Aunt. Kate has also worked as a college writing teacher, a K-12 teacher, and a curriculum specialist.

A Review of Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit by Nahoko Uehashi, translated by Cathy Hirano

The problem is that when a water spirit has to be reborn every hundred years to avoid a major drought, and politics have reshaped the legend to make the water spirit out to be an enemy of the state, it’s awfully hard on the human carrier of the water spirit’s egg. Warrior Balsa is crossing over the Aoyumi River by way of the commoner’s bridge when she sees a carriage on the royal bridge. The carriage crashes, throwing the young Second Prince into the rushing water. Balsa acts swiftly and saves the boy. For her troubles, she is secretly appointed his bodyguard. It seems Chagum is possessed by a water spirit, and his own father is quietly trying to have him killed for the good of the kingdom.

The true hero of Nahoko Uehashi's Moribito is Balsa, a hardened thirty-something female warrior who will let nothing stop her from performing her duty. But as the secondary characters spring to life, we find that each of them is also compelling and dimensional. The emperor’s men aren’t faceless bad guys: for example, we meet the Star Readers, priests who read the night sky for their ruler. One young priest, Shuga, must begin to question the official version of the water spirit legend before it’s too late.

Meanwhile, Mon leads the Hunters, the emperor’s elite group of spies and assassins. An earnest sort, Mon is determined to fulfill his duty by killing the Second Prince. He's got a little Sam Spade thing going as he tries to track down the elusive Balsa, who turns out to be a better warrior than a mere woman should be.

Balsa’s own allies include a couple of beggar children, a healer named Tanda, and Torogai, a wily old woman who weaves magic. Each character, including Chagum, seems realistically conflicted without being scripted. Chagum is properly horrified by the magical egg he carries. He also begins to grow tougher under Balsa’s tutelage, even as he feels loved by the little band of travelers. Together they journey to find the fulfillment of the water spirit’s legend, along with escape from danger.

As if the death threats from Chagum’s own father aren’t enough, Balsa and the Second Prince are pursued by the Rarunga, a demon beast whose favorite food is water spirit’s egg (and who is one of the reasons the legend got mixed up in the first place). Ueshashi’s descriptions of the monster really pop—imagine giant claws emerging from beneath the ground to grab you, with the rest of the creature initially remaining unseen.

Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit is the first of the author’s series of ten best-selling books in Japan, where it is also a TV series (that apparently shows on Adult Swim in the U.S.). This translation by Cathy Hirano just won the 2009 Batchelder Award, the American Library Association’s award for best translated children’s book originally from another country.

Moribito will obviously appeal to the anime crowd, but we should really get this book into the hands of any fantasy or adventure fan. Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit is one of the best fantasy adventures I’ve read in the past few years. Pick it up for boys who like warriors and monsters or for girls who like kick-butt heroines. They'll join Balsa and Chagum on their quest to save the water spirit and will live in a new world for days.