Five favourite chapter books from my childhood

Near my bed are bookshelves with children's books and science fiction/fantasy, along with mysteries. Looking at the kids' books, I am struck by five chapter books which were absolutely memorable and which had an effect on the person I later developed into. Here they are (in no particular order):

The Cay by Theodore Taylor
The Light in the Forest by Conrad Richter
Sounder by William H.Armstrong
Black Gold by Marguerite Henry
The Grey King by Susan Cooper

What five chapter books do you consider integral to your childhood?

Major Tom for a new generation

David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’ Transformed Into Picture Book for Kids

The David Bowie song “Space Oddity” probably shouldn’t have been made into a children’s book: The haunting 1969 track about an astronaut who loses contact with Earth to float around the universe would probably give most kids nightmares.

That didn’t stop illustrator Andrew Kolb from turning the space-rock song into an illustrated book. As seen in the gallery above, the artist lays down Bowie’s hit about a spaceman in a “tin can” line by line. It was an odyssey Kolb said wasn’t as easy as one might imagine.

'Space Oddity' by David Bowie (1969)


and let me just throw this in...

'Major Tom' by Peter Schilling (1983) [the English version, a tribute to 'Space Oddity']
I have this (and the German version) on tape. :)

I love my birthday present

Okay, yes, my birthday was in April, but my present didn't come out until July:

It's a parody of Clifford the Big Red Dog based on the HP Lovecraft tale, 'The Dunwich Horror', which is one of my favourites, as a librarian, Dr Armitage of Miskatonic Library, figures prominently. One of my Cthulhu characters is even related to the Whateleys (which is not a particularly good thing). Librarians figure well in "Cliffourd the Big Red God (the title name being a nod to Lovecraft, who like me, favoured old spellings and the ever-present British 'u'). There is one page where Wilbur is listing Cliffourd's bad points and he points out that librarians don't like him.

And there's the end, of course, but if you haven't read 'The Dunwich Horror' I won't spoil it for you.

Anyway, thank you to YKWIA! Thanks to him this is the latest in my Mini Mythos collection. There's also Where the Deep Ones Are, based on 'The Shadow over Innsmouth' and a parody of Where the Wild Things Are and The Antarctic Express, based on 'At the Mountains of Madness' and a parody of The Polar Express. If you are familiar with Lovecraft, I highly recommend them. If you aren't, quite frankly you won't get it.

Is this surprising?

Gender Bias Uncovered in Children's Books With Male Characters, Including Male Animals, Leading the Fictional Pack

Among the study's findings:

• Males are central characters in 57 percent of children's books published per year, while only 31 percent have female central characters.
  
• No more than 33 percent of children's books published in any given year contain central characters that are adult women or female animals, but adult men and male animals appear in up to 100 percent of books.
  
• Male animals are central characters in more than 23 percent of books per year, while female animals are in only 7.5 percent.
  
• On average, 36.5 percent of books in each year studied include a male in the title, compared to 17.5 percent that include a female.
  
• Although books published in the 1990s came close to parity for human characters (with a ratio of 0.9:1 for child characters; 1.2:1 for adult characters), a significant disparity of nearly 2 to 1 remains for male animal characters versus female.
  

Here's the citation: J. McCabe, E. Fairchild, L. Grauerholz, B. A. Pescosolido, D. Tope. Gender in Twentieth-Century Children's Books: Patterns of Disparity in Titles and Central Characters. Gender & Society, 2011; 25 (2): 197 DOI: 10.1177/0891243211398358 [The PDF is available there for free!] Via LISNews.

It's award time!

A Very New York Novel Wins Newbery Medal

A list of all the award winners can be found on the American Library Association's web site.

Sounds like a fun read for your favourite child in your life

Where the Deep Ones Are, coming soon from Atlas Games. Hail to my game master for pointing me to this one. Here's the blurb:

After refusing to eat his fish like a good boy, young Bobby is sent to his bedroom without any supper at all. But Bobby escapes when the Manuxet River runs right through his room carrying an old boat that takes him to Innsmouth. When the Deep Ones come for him he flees, but when he eventually joins their wild rumpus under the ocean, they crown him the most Deep One of all.