Staff writers at The Guardian recently compiled a short list of the best books in children’s literature. The list is broken down into five different age groups (0-2 years, 2-4 years, 5-7 years, 8-12 years and 12+ years) and is “a combination of personal recommendations, enduring classics and currently popular borrowings from school and public libraries.” Included are some time-honored classics like the The Very Hungary Caterpillar by Eric Carle, some more recently acclaimed books such as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, and a few lesser known titles like Stig of the Dump by Clive King, which was the first original work published by Puffin press in 1963. The staff intends this list to be a starting point, and hopes to encourage parents and children to explore the wonderful world of reading together.
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Borders Group Inc. is now accepting pre-orders for Kobo, its new offering in the eReader area. Priced at just $149.99, it sells for a little more than half the price of Amazon’s Kindle, and some technophiles believe this new device will give other eReaders some stiff competition. “It looks like a huge threat to the Kindle, and Kobo seems to have trimmed just the right features to get to this low price,” writes Charlie Sorrel on Wired.com. Its form factor is very similar to the Kindle, with measurements of 4.7 x 7.2 x 0.4 inches and a 6-inch E-ink display. The controls underneath the screen are more minimal, with just a blue D-pad. The back surface is rubber with a quilted texture for comfort, and the battery can hold a charge for up to two weeks, ensuring numerous hours of reading enjoyment.
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"The Secret of the Old Clock" 1930 edition cover illustrated by Russell Tandy (left). New 80th anniversary limited edition cover (right).
The world’s most famous girl detective turned 80 last week. The Nancy Drew series, beloved by generations of young girls, debuted on April 28, 1930 with three adventures The Secret of the Old Clock, The Hidden Staircase and The Bungalow Mystery. These would be the first in a series of over 300 books written by numerous writers under the pen name Carolyn Keene. The constant throughout the books was Nancy’s perky, brave and inquisitive character. At the dawn of the series, Nancy was a uniquely independent and capable female lead, and some of today’s most powerful women, including Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, have named her as an early role model. In an interview with USA Today, Melanie Rehak, author of Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her (Mariner Books, 384pgs) explains the character’s lasting popularity. “The writing was formulaic, the plot twists implausible, but it’s Nancy Drew herself, ‘daring, intelligent, with tons of initiative,’ who continues to appeal to young readers,” she says.
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By Evan Thomas
Little, Brown and Company | 480pgs
Release Date: April 27, 2010
The unexplained explosion of the USS Maine, near the coast of Cuba on February 15, 1898, put the gears of war in motion and inflamed relations between the United States and Spain. Evan Thomas examines the confluence of events that triggered the Spanish-American War, and studies the characters of the key players in the U.S’s push to battle, in his new book The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898. Though the cause of the explosion was never determined, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge whipped the public into a war mongering frenzy with the help of newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst and his yellow journalism. Hearst’s outlandish accusations in his New York Journal that the USS Maine was destroyed by Spain’s “secret infernal machine” (WMDs anyone?) helped Roosevelt and Lodge convince a compliant President McKinley, and the country as a whole, that war was the answer. Thomas theorizes that the men’s hawkish behavior stemmed from the shame of their fathers’ lack of participation in the Civil War, and the inherited sense of Anglo-Saxon superiority of the upper class.
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Amazon announced the upcoming release of Kindle (and Kindle DX) Software Update Version 2.5 on their website this week. The updated software will first be released to a small group of Kindle users, with a full launch planned in late May 2010. Among the new features will be the ability to share passages of your favorite books with friends on Facebook and Twitter, and zoom or pan around PDF documents for easier viewing. The highlights of the new features listed on Amazon’s site are as follows:
- Collections: Organize your books and documents into one or more collections.
- PDF Pan and Zoom: Zoom into PDFs and pan around to easily view small print and detailed tables or graphics.
- Password Protection: Password protect your Kindle when you’re not using it.
- More Fonts & Improved Clarity: Enjoy two new larger font sizes and sharper fonts for an even more comfortable reading experience.
- Facebook & Twitter Posts: Share book passages with friends on Facebook and Twitter directly from your Kindle.
- Popular Highlights: See what the Kindle community thinks are the most interesting passages in the books you’re reading.
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Earlier this month, online magazine Miller-McCune.com posted a very interesting article discussing the findings of a recent study on the correlation between home libraries and children’s educational success. A team of researchers analyzed data from the World Inequality Study, which surveyed more than 70,000 people in 27 countries. Their analysis determined that “growing up in a home with 500 books would propel a child 3.2 years further in education, on average, than would growing up in a similar home with few or no books.” This advantage is independent of a nation’s economic stability, political climate, and even the educational level of a child’s parents.
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Today marks the centennial anniversary of the death of celebrated American author Mark Twain. The people and themes that Twain wrote about still strike a chord with modern audiences, as Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer remain among the world’s most beloved literary characters. Also a testament to his enduring popularity, is the fact that many of his books are still in print. In an interview with USA Today, author Wally Lamb (I Know This Much Is True) calls Twain “America’s most influential writer.” Lamb believes “Huck Finn‘s young narrator…is a prototype for J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.” Scholars and writers continue to be fascinated with Twain’s novels, as well as the rocky events of his real life. Several new books analyzing the author’s life and work are slated to be released this year, including Mark Twain: The Adventures of Samuel L. Clemens by Texas A&M professor Jerome Loving (University of California Press, 491pgs) and The Mark Twain Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Works edited by Shelley Fisher Fishkin (Library of America, 492pgs). Additionally, several new editions of his books will are schedule to be published this year in Portuguese, French, and Japanese.
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By Alexander Mccall Smith
Pantheon | 224pgs
Release Date: April 20, 2010
Botswana’s intrepid lady detectives return in The Double Comfort Safari Club, the eleventh installment of Alexander Mccall Smith’s charming No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series. Precious Ramotswe and her assistant detective Grace Makutsi tackle a variety interesting cases, investigating a potentially adulterous husband and extricating another client from the clutches of a gold-digging girlfriend. Mma Makutsi also battles personal difficulties as well. Her patience is growing thin, waiting for her fiancé Phuti Radiphuti to set a wedding date. But, things get worse when he suffers a serious leg injury and his abrasive aunt does everything in her power to keep Grace from visiting him in the hospital. A more upbeat case involving an unexpected inheritance sends the ladies to a safari lodge on the Okavango Delta, where the stunning beauty of nature leaves them in awe. Yet, the beautiful landscape is soon forgotten when a guest turns up dead, and the detective duo work to solve the case with their unique mix of logic and compassion.
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An article published in The New York Times earlier this week discusses the threat to government funded literacy organizations posed by changes in the proposed 2011 federal budget. Currently, established nonprofit groups like Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), which supplies literacy resources and free books to underserved children, get funding directly from the Department of Education. For the past 34 years, RIF has received an annual government grant, amounting to approximately 75 percent of the organization’s annual revenues. However, under the proposed 2011 budget, the Department of Education will pool money previously earmarked for specific nonprofit literacy organizations, and give the funds to state and local governments to distribute as they see fit. RIF, along with the other previously funded groups, will have to apply for grants in each state, and compete to maintain their funding.
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The American Library Association (ALA) celebrates the first annual National Bookmobile Day today, as part of its National Library Week 2010 (April 11-17) festivities. For over a century, bookmobiles have provided outreach services to communities in rural, tribal and urban areas. As an integral part of library services throughout the county, bookmobiles have helped bring reading and educational materials to people of all classes and ages. Even today, these mobile units offer many of the same services as a traditional library branch, allowing people to check out books and DVDs, take classes, and access the internet. The ALA hopes this celebration will underscore the importance of bookmobiles and help expand their scope.
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