As you guys know, I’m a very impatient person. So even though it seems kind of backwards, I’m willing to go the extra mile in order to save time. If I want to see a TV show, I record it so I can fast-forward through the commercials. If I want to know what the President said in a speech, I’ll go online afterwards and skim the text transcript. If I know where I’m going to eat dinner, I’ll look at the restaurant’s website beforehand so that I’m already familiar with the menu when I get there. Like I said, I’m VERY impatient.

But in the last few weeks, I’ve watched three big-deal spectacles in real-time — which just goes to show you how super important they were. And the three events were: the Golden Globe Awards, the playoff game between the 49ers and the Giants, and the announcement of the American Library Association Youth Media Awards (ALAymas)!

What? You don’t know that last one? Well, I bet you’ve heard of the Newbery Medal, which is one of the ALAymas. Every January, it’s given to “the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children” in the previous year. Past winners include completely-awesome-major-big-deal books like The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo, Holes by Louis Sachar, The Giver by Lois Lowry, and Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis.

And earlier this week, a new winner joined the ranks of this prestigious group:

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos

As you may recall from our book trailer for Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key, Nancy and I have been fans of Jack Gantos for a while now. So we extend a hearty congratulations to the man of the hour! But we also have to give ourselves a disapproving shake of the head and a look of pure disdain because, well, we haven’t read this book yet!

But we definitely plan to read Dead End in Norvelt ASAP — not just because it won the Newbery, but also because it sounds totally awesome! Here’s part of the official description:

Melding the entirely true and the wildly fictional, Dead End in Norvelt is a novel about an incredible two months for a kid named Jack Gantos, whose plans for vacation excitement are shot down when he is “grounded for life” by his feuding parents, and whose nose spews bad blood at every little shock he gets. But plenty of excitement (and shocks) are coming Jack’s way once his mom loans him out to help a fiesty old neighbor with a most unusual chore — typewriting obituaries filled with stories about the people who founded his utopian town. As one obituary leads to another, Jack is launced on a strange adventure involving molten wax, Eleanor Roosevelt, twisted promises, a homemade airplane, Girl Scout cookies, a man on a trike, a dancing plague, voices from the past, Hells Angels … and possibly murder.

Cookies and murder in one book?! Obviously, WE ARE IN!

And we’ll also be adding the 2012 Newbery Honor Books to our To Be Read list:

• Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai
• Breaking Stalin’s Nose by Eugene Yelchin

So, if you’ll excuse us, we need to go out and obtain some books, like, right now. But if you have already read any of these big winners, leave a comment and us know!

— Karen

Karen used to get lots of nosebleeds when she was a kid. She did NOT enjoy putting tissue up her nose to stop the blood. But to be honest, she kinda liked the feeling of pulling it out once the bleeding had stopped. That’s not gross, right?

More about Karen »

Remember when we used to have themes for our podcasts? Well, this time we accidentally created a themed podcast — by reading each other’s minds! Or maybe it was just coincidence… Either way, we’ve got superheroes all over the place! Take a listen to meet Captain Amazing, Captain Nobody, a few animal crime-fighters, and — completely unrelated — a sweet mother of potatoes!

Listen now:
  (5:54)

Download the MP3 (5.4 MB)

• Dictionary people, are you paying attention?
  
• Karen’s book review: Sidekicks by Dan Santat
• Nancy’s book review: Captain Nobody by Dean Pitchford
• A review from YOU: Never Mind by Avi
• A new exclamation marks record!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And don’t forget: write in with a book review below. We’ll feature a kid review in our next podcast!

— Karen and Nancy

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January is almost over, so you have probably already acquired a calendar for 2012. Perhaps it’s a celebrity-themed calendar. Perhaps it’s an adorable kitten or puppy calendar — maybe you went rogue and have an adorable duck calendar! But just in case you’re a procrastinator (like yours truly) and have not yet obtained a calendar, I offer you: The-Awesome-Book-Characters-from-Your-Favorite-Kids-Books-Themed-Calendar-for-2012! (The title is still a work progress…) Each book character represents a month this year:

Click on the thumbnail to see each month larger:

Although I’d love to have a meal with Mr. Fox’s gang, I think my favorite month in this calendar is July. That might be because I wouldn’t mind going to the beach with Percy Jackson. Hey, don’t judge — I’m not so great at swimming and Percy would be the perfect lifeguard.

How about you? Leave a comment below and let us know what month embodies your favorite book character!

— Nancy

Nancy is SO over January. She demands that February get here ASAP.

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A few months ago, we made beautiful (if we do say so ourselves) sandscapes based on The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The crafty instructions came to us from our friends at The New Victory Theater in New York, which puts on AWESOME shows for the whole family. Recently, they staged another show based on a children’s book: Miss Ophelia, based on Ophelia’s Shadow Theatre by Michael Ende. And this time we invited them to share their own craft gallery! Here’s the scoop from Mara Richards over at the New Vic…

Earlier this month, we had the pleasure of introducing Miss Ophelia to our New York audiences. The magical story of a sweet old lady and her shadowy sidekicks was brought to life through lively storytelling and puppetry — and you and your family can make a tabletop puppetry set like the one in the show!

You can re-create a street in your neighborhood or create one from your imaginations. The set is easy to make and can be made with household items. The New Victory Education Department made one of our neighborhood on 42nd Street. Take a look the photos of our creation and follow the instructions below to make your own tabletop set!

Before beginning: You and your family should collect different sized cardboard boxes like the ones that cereal, instant oatmeal, or toothpaste come in. You’ll also need paper to cover the boxes (we used brown paper), scissors, markers, and either masking tape or glue. You’ll also need a table or other large area to lay out your set.

To create the buildings for your neighborhood, begin by covering each of the boxes with the paper. We wrapped ours like you would a gift. If you want your tabletop set to be similar to the one used in Miss Ophelia, you’ll want to use the same color of paper for all of the boxes. You can either glue the paper into place or use masking tape (which is easier to use but less durable).

After covering the boxes, you can either use different colors of construction paper to cut out and paste things like windows and lettering on signs OR you can use markers to draw those details in. If you want your set to be like the one in the show, you should use black markers to draw in the details.

When you’ve finished decorating the boxes, create the street for your neighborhood by placing a large sheet of paper (or several small sheets) on a table or other flat area. Be sure to draw in the details of the street like the center lines and lane dividers.

Finally, arrange the buildings you made on either side of the street, and voila!

After making your tabletop set, you can draw and cut out two-dimensional puppet characters like the ones used in Miss Ophelia to play with on the set. Cardboard or thick cardstock work best for these puppets. Then you and your family can use your puppets to make up a story. Have fun and share your stories with us in the comments!

— Mara, Kidsmomo Guest Blogger

Mara Richards is the Education Manager for Curriculum and Resources at The New Victory Theater. Mara oversees educator resources and creates the School Tool resource guides. She holds a BFA in Drama (NYU), an MA in Performance Studies (NYU), and an MS in Educational Theatre (CCNY) and is a certified Theatre teacher with Initial Certification in Theatre for grades Pre K-12. Before returning to grad school in 2008 for Educational Theatre, Mara worked in arts fundraising for 8 years.

Yesterday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and it was definitely lovely to have a vacation from work. It seems like there’s a pattern to how I spend the holiday: in this post I wrote on MLK Day 2010 I mentioned eating lots of desserts, and this year I made two desserts! (Pecan bars and chocolate + nut + marshmallow clusters, in case you were wondering.)

But obviously, MLK Day is not just an excuse to take a break and stuff your face with sugar. So I also spent some time thinking about the man we honor and looking at photos taken during the civil rights movement.

When you look at those pictures, it’s truly amazing to think that they were taken in the 1950s and 60s. That wasn’t so long ago, and yet our country was SO backwards! Check out this picture of students getting food dumped on them as they staged a sit-in to protest segregated eating areas, or this photo of a “colored-only” water fountain.

It can be hard to look at these kinds of images, but it’s really important to remember what MLK fought for. And if you want to know more, there are plenty of books about that time in our not-so-distant history. Here are book trailers from around the interwebs for just a few of them:

The Watsons Go to Birmingham — 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis
[This is an awesome video, but... WARNING: spoiler alert!]

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams Garcia

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose

Have you read any of these books, or any others about the civil rights movement? Leave a comment and let me know!

— Karen

This MLK Day, Karen discovered a new quote from King that she absolutely loves: “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’”

More about Karen »

What better way to ring in the New Year than to scrutinize the latest and final book cover of Rick Riordan’s Kane Chronicles series, for The Serpent’s Shadow? Check out the beautiful, newly released cover by illustrator John Rocco:

(Click to see the cover larger, so you can study each pixel individually!)

Based on previous posts, you know the drill. I’ll put out my guesses about the final installment, and you should leave YOUR thoughts on the cover in the comments below!

First, an official description of the book from the Kane Chronicles website:

He’s b-a-a-ack! Despite their best efforts, Carter and Sade Kane can’t seem to keep Apophis, the chaos snake, down. Now Apophis is threatening to plunge the world into eternal darkness, and the Kanes are faced with the impossible task of having to destroy him once and for all. Unfortunately, the magicians of the House of Life are on the brink of civil war, the gods are divided, and the young initiates of Brooklyn House stand almost alone against the forces of chaos.

Whoa. That is quite a lot to digest from one paragraph! Let me collect my thoughts…

• First, I just love the color scheme of the whole series: It goes from dark rust red, to bright purple, to brilliant blue. It reminds me of different types of flames.
• Apparently Rick Riordan himself claims that this is his favorite cover yet.
• Carter stands on the left, ready to use the Crook and Flail of Ra, the weapon he used after he lost his khopesh.
• So then that’s probably Sadie standing on the ledge, but I can’t really make out if she’s doing anything — is she ready to jump in or holding on for dear life?
• What is this body of water Carter and Sadie are standing in front of? Does it look like to anyone else that the rocks and boulders are creating a path across the water?
• A spiky serpent shadow (presumably the super duper evil Aphosis, God of Chaos) looms ominously in the distance.
• Floating above and around the obelisk (is it the Washington Monument in D.C., or a different one?) are white birds, which look comforting to me for some reason. Perhaps some combat avatars? They don’t look like Carter’s falcon form…
• I can’t make out any of the symbols on the obelisk, so I’m guessing they’re intentionally drawn to be vague.
• Hey, what’s that shape above the obelisk? Let me take a closer — OMG IT’S A REALLY CREEPY GIANT EYE STARING RIGHT AT ME. Okay, it’s probably staring at Carter and Sadie. But still, really creepy.

So, Kidsmomo readers, what do you think of the newest (and sadly, last*) cover for The Kane Chronicles? I can’t wait to follow Carter and Sadie’s adventures once more on May 1, when The Serpent’s Shadow comes out!

Meanwhile, you can keep busy until then by reading a preview of The Serpent’s Shadow from the official website, maybe a couple (hundred) times…

— Nancy

As you can tell, Nancy is not a fan of creepy giant eyes.

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*Unless Rick Riordan writes another book/series with Kane Chronicles characters. He IS a writing machine, after all!

Yesterday I was looking at stuff online and came across a poster that was all about reminding people to recycle. The poster said: “Don’t be trashy.” I said: “HA HA HA HA!”

As you can tell, I LOVE puns! Don’t you love puns? They really make life punderful.

One of my favorite punny books is Un Lun Dun by China Miéville. Unfortunately, it’s not nearly as well-known as the pun-packed classic The Phantom Tollbooth, so I’m here to spread the word. Get it? Spread the word! Just consider me a pun prophet, if you will…

Un Lun Dun is a fantasy adventure about two London schoolgirls who find their way to an alternate version of the city that lies underground (UnLondon — get it?). This subterranean world is populated with ghosts, trash that’s come to life, a talking book that announces prophecies, and a colorful cast of characters — some friendlier than others, and some less friendly than they might seem. Can two girls from regular London save this fantastical world from an evil pollution being called the Smog? Obviously, I’m not going to tell you; you’ll just have to read the book to find out!

And you REALLY REALLY REALLY should read this book. Not only is the story completely gripping, but as I mentioned, it’s also full of PUNS! Broken umbrellas as known as unbrellas. Black windows (ferocious windows with eight legs) guard Webminster Abbey. And, of course, there are ninja trash cans known as binjas. Of course.

So if you love wordplay as much as I do (if that’s even possible), or if you just want an exciting read, then it’s time for a journey to Un Lun Dun!

— Karen

Like all New Yorkers, Karen spends a good amount of time beneath the city — riding the subway. But luckily, she hasn’t spotted any trash moving around. Unfortunately, there’s already plenty of movement from the rats…

More about Karen »

Here it is… our very first podcast of 2012! Yaaaaaaaaaaay! Throw the confetti! Blow on your noisemaker! Welcome a new year of awesome-sauce Kidsmomo podcasts!

Btw, our new year’s resolution is to be more humble. How do you think we’re doing so far?

Anyway, let’s not delay the podcast any further. In this edition: Karen sings, we discuss sibling rivalry, and we share a VERY enthusiastic kid-submitted book review.

Listen now:

  (7:24)

Download the MP3 (7.1 MB)

• Karen sings; are you listening?
  
• Karen’s book review: The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies
• Nancy’s book review: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente
• A review from YOU: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
• Exclamation marks!!!!!!!

And don’t forget: write in with a book review below. We’ll feature a kid review in our next podcast!

— Karen and Nancy

Do you ever wonder if authors have favorite words? Words they just HAVE to include in their books and sneak in as many times as possible? I decided to investigate with the first chapter of each of the Harry Potter books with the help of the site Wordle.net, which provides a visual representation of how many times a word is used — the more times a word is mentioned, the larger it appears.

Click on each image to see it larger.

Sorcerer's Stone Chapter 1: "The Boy Who Lived"

Alright, nice start with Sorcerer’s Stone: “Dumbledore” and “Dursley” were expected, but I’m pleasantly surprised that Professor McGonagall received so many mentions (and therefore also “cat,” of course).

Chamber of Secrets Chapter 1: "The Worst Birthday"

Chamber of Secrets: Harry’s killing it in this one! But since he’s usually at the Dursleys’ in the first chapter, it’s understandable (though unfortunate) that we have to see “Vernon,” “Petunia,” and “Dudley” so many times.

Prisoner of Azkaban Chapter 1: "Owl Post"

Prisoner of Azkaban: I really like this Wordle design because the words are all jumbled up, just like how Harry’s world is just starting to get really jumbled up in this book.

Goblet of Fire Chapter 1: "The Riddle House"

Goblet of Fire: (Spoiler alert) When we think Goblet of Fire, we think the Tri-Wizard Tournament, Quidditch, visiting magical schools, and Cedric Diggory — but these aren’t mentioned in Chapter 1. Instead, we meet the doomed Muggle Frank Bryce and get a taste of how evil Voldemort is… Rowling really sets the mood of this book from the beginning! I also like that the Wordle looks like a (sideways) goblet.

Order of the Phoenix Chapter 1: "Dudley Demented"

Order of the Phoenix: I originally chose this design, but then decided against it because I thought it was more fitting that the large “Harry” was so close to “Dudley,” since Harry saved Dudley from the dementors.

Half-Blood Prince Chapter 1: "The Other Minister"

Half-Blood Prince: It’s a shame that I don’t see “Snape” in there at all. I like that this is green (like the book cover) and it really shows how important of a role the Ministry of Magic eventually plays in the Second Wizarding War.

Deathly Hallows Chapter 1: "The Dark Lord Ascending"

Deathly Hallows: I am SO excited I found this Wordle presentation for Deathly Hallows. Voldemort is giant (boo! hiss!) and the position of Snape’s name is so meaningful!

Conclusion: Okay, so my investigation shows that as much as J.K. Rowling loves the word “bemused” (at least, I think she does), she’s not going to include it as many times as her characters’ names!

— Nancy

Nancy did a test of Kidsmomo on Wordle and found that KAREN appears many more times than Nancy. Time to remedy that: Nancy Nancy Nancy Nancy Nancy Nancy Nancy Nancy Nancy…

More about Nancy »

Last week, Nancy posted a great Top 11 list of our past year at Kidsmomo. I thought it would be fun to take you behind the scenes to see what was really happening in some of those moments…

Guys Read: Thriller Video

I’m not sure how it happened, but somehow this video shoot ended with our friend, Taylor, shaking tree branches all around his head while Nancy (and the camera) looked up his nose.

I suppose I could have helped by doing the shaking for him, but I was too busy snapping this photo and laughing in the background.

Halloween Tale of Terror

I purchased the teddy bear for this feature, and I got kind of attached to his cute little face and soft, cuddly body. So I forced Nancy to do the decapitating when it came time.

But my fondness for the little guy certainly didn’t stop me from taking photos as Nancy cut off his head and later artfully arranged his stuffing in the bathtub (lit beautifully by our friend, Connie, holding Nancy’s desk lamp).

LeakyCon Antics

We posted about a gazillion bazillion photos from LeakyCon right after we got back, but here are a couple we didn’t share:

The very first thing we did when we got into the Universal theme park that night? Nancy bought funnel cake, immediately cut it up into little pieces, and then gobbled those pieces as we raced to Hogwarts.

This is a version of the photo we incorporated into our review of Deathly Hallows, Part 2. Believe me, it took many many many MANY tries to get this…

As you can see, we have lots of fun behind the scenes of Kidsmomo… but we’d be nothing without you guys! Keep those book reviews and comments coming — here’s to a fantastic 2012!

— Karen

Karen’s favorite experience of 2011 was definitely attending LeakyCon. In 2012, she hopes to visit the Harry Potter movie studios in England. And then in 2013, she will find Hogwarts. For real.

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