Vote for me, please!

It's time to vote again for the best book-tour blogger for the recent Darkwood tour, so if you've got a minute or two...to spare...and if you think I'm deserving, go vote. The poll is in the sidebar. Thank you!

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

African Acrostics

Harley, Avis. 2009. African Acrostics: A Word In Edgeways. Photographes by Deborah Noyes. Candlewick.

I never know what to expect from a poetry book. Will it be entertaining or intimidating? Fun or boring? I was pleased with African Acrostics. Each poem--each acrostic to be precise--is paired with a photograph of an animal.

There are eighteen animal poems in all (if I can count correctly!) and three of these are extra-special. Two poems are double acrostics whose first letters and last letters spell out words. And one poem, Impalas in Peril," is even more special--five vertical arrangements can be found in that one!

And the poems are good--many quite clever. It would be hard to choose which ones were my favorites. I thought they were all well done. But my favorite would probably be "Above All" (the giraffe one) whose acrostic spells Cloud Friends.

Above All

Celebrate these
Long-standing giraffes,
Opening
Up clouds and eaves-
Dropping on the wind!

Far
Removed
In airy
Elegance,
Nibbling on high, they
Decorate the
Sky.

The book also features an introduction and explanation to the concept of acrostics. Not a poet? More of an animal lover? Don't worry. There are extra-notes for you too. The book features "nature notes" about all the animals featured in the book. The note about giraffes (to match the poem Above All) is as follows:

The giraffe is the tallest land animal, and its neck makes up one third of it's height. The tallest giraffe ever measured was 19.3 feet (5.9 meters) in height. To feed its huge body, a giraffe must spend sixteen to twenty hours a day browsing shrubs and trees. Giraffes do not have leaders in their small herds, and they are very social creatures.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

To Be A Slave (MG, YA)

Lester, Julius. 1968. To Be A Slave.

This book is a 1969 Newbery Honor Winner. And it's easy to see why. What should you expect from this one? Why should you read it? Well, Lester has woven together compiling primary sources into a book that is powerful and moving. The thing that impresses me most about the book is its richness. It presents first-hand accounts, primary sources. Accounts from both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Stories from slaves and ex-slaves. Stories from men and women. These stories don't need a lot of dressing up. They don't need to be sensationalized. In their very simplicity, they speak volumes.

To be a slave. To be owned by another person, as a car, house, or table is owned. To live as a piece of property that could be sold--a child sold from its mother, a wife from her husband. To be considered not human, but a "thing" that plowed the fields, cut the wood, cooked the food, nursed another's child; a "thing" whose sole function was determined by the one who owned you.

To be a slave. To know, despite the suffering and deprivation, that you were human, more human than he who said you were not human. To know joy, laughter, sorrow, and tears and yet to be considered only the equal of a table.

To be a slave was to be a human being under conditions in which humanity was denied. They were not slaves. They were people. Their condition was slavery.

They who were held as slaves looked upon themselves and the servitude in which they found themselves with the eyes and minds of human beings, conscious of everything that happened to them, conscious of all that went on around them. Yet slaves are often pictured as little more than dumb, brute animals, whose sole attributes were found in working, singing, and dancing. They were like children and slavery was actually a benefit to them--this was the view of those who were not slaves. Those who were slaves tell a different story.

Highly recommended.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Library Loot: First of July

I've still got all the books from last time. Yes, ALL. (I've finished Old Man's War. I'll be reviewing it soon.) But I did pick up two new books to add to the list:

On the Beach by Nevil Shute
The Android's Dream by John Scalzi

I think that makes seventeen books to-be-read and one book to be reviewed.

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Wicked Lovely (YA)

Marr, Melissa. 2007. Wicked Lovely. HarperCollins. 328 pages.

"Four ball, side pocket." Aislinn pushed the cue forward with a short, quick thrust; the ball dropped into the pocket with a satisfying clack.

Aislinn is special, but she'd rather be ordinary. She's grown up seeing fairies. (As has her Grams.) She'd give anything to not be able to see these mischievous to menacing fairies. It means living life carefully. Following three important rules: don't stare at invisible fairies, don't speak to invisible fairies, don't ever attract their attention. By the end of the book, how many rules do you think Aislinn has broken?

Not that it's her fault. Aislinn seems rather destined to have this adventure. It all starts when the Summer King (a fairy), Keenan, begins dreaming about Aislinn. The game has begun, and poor Aislinn doesn't stand a chance. Keenan senses that she is the one. The mortal girl who will become his queen. (Hereby joining him in immortality.) Whether she wants him or no, she's about to become immortal. And she has three choices: becoming a mindless summer girl--a mindless, easy girl, or accepting the challenge and trying to become Keenan's queen: if she succeeds, she becomes queen; if she fails, well, you don't want to know how awful that can be. Just ask Donia. She's the last girl who tried to become queen. Now she's helplessly in love with the Summer King, but in the service of the Winter Queen, the Summer King's mother, the evil Beira. But when you're Aislinn, all of these so-called choices mean heartbreak. Because she wants to be mortal. She wants nothing to do with faeries. She wants only to have a normal life, to be with her best friend, Seth. He's the guy that she is dreaming of. He's the guy that makes her life worth living. Keenan? Don't even think about it. Seth's the one. The guy that understands and accepts her.

I enjoyed this one. It was fun. It was dark in places, but it wasn't too dark.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews