Picture This, How Pictures Work: Molly Bang

Calling all design students, illustrators, or those who want to understand more about visual composition. Chronicle Books released a revised and expanded 25th Anniversary Edition of Molly Bang's Picture This, How Pictures Work.

Brian Selznick calls the work, "the Strunk and White of visual literacy." Leonard S. Marcus calls it, "a peerless handbook and guide for anyone who wishes to make picture books."

Molly's book grew organically out of her quest to understand picture structure. She first tested the concepts successfully with 8th and 9th graders and then adults. With input from Rudolf Arnheim, the dean of the psychology of art in the United States, the book took its illuminating final form.

Dive into this perfect work and see the connection between shapes and emotions. You'll be ready to build the emotional content of your own imagery with a book you will reach for again and again.

Picture This, How Pictures Work
by Molly Bang
Chronicle Books, 2016

Holiday Fun: Guilty as Charged!

Here's a step away from the usual at rgz for the holiday season. Guilty as Charged! the Party Game of Pointing Fingers offers fun exchanges for friend and family gatherings. After reading a topic card asking such as, Who's most likely to:
,
Compliment a complete stranger on their moustache
Alphabetize their book collection
Take the last piece of pizza,

everyone in the group uses a pointer to reveal their answer. When we played, there was laughter, denial, and groans of agreement in our family. If you are looking for that last minute gift or searching for the perfect party spice, add this from Chronicle Books. You'll be amazed how others perceive you. It may be something to write about...

Guilty as Charged!
Chronicle Books

Celtic Tales: Kate Forrester

Everything about Celtic Tales, Fairy Tales and Stories of Enchantment from Ireland, Scotland, Brittany, and Wales calls to be held, read, and visually absorbed. The design is simple but beautiful. Kate Forrester's imagery is beguiling. I've awaited this release with images from the catalog taped to my wall. In the sophisticated art, there's a refined simplicity. The Celtic tales themselves are fresh and surprising.

This is a beautiful pick to gift someone for the holidays. Just be aware:

"Do not think the fairies are always little.

Everything is capricious about them, even their size...

Their chief occupations are feasting, fighting, and making

love, and playing the most beautiful music."

~William Butler Yeats, Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry.

Celtic Tales
illustrated by Kate Forrester
Chronicle Books, 2016

This is the Story of You: Beth Kephart

Each Beth Kephart book which sails onto the shelf is like polished sea glass refracting the light of truth. This is the Story of You is a poetic rendering of loss and isolation after an epic storm. Mira is asked if she is strong enough to stand on her small, destroyed island and help the community that has shaped her every heartbeat. With her mother and brother off-island, she finds her family is broader than she ever expected.

Find the work, readergirlz, and listen to Beth's love of the sea. Draw your mind in directions unexpected, and finish the last page with the sound of the ocean and one girl's resilience shoring you up in your own story of you.

This is the Story of You
by Beth Kephart
Chronicle Books, 2016

#GiveBooks

So many publishers are participating, rgz! Just hashtag #GiveBooks and publishers are matching the mention with donations to #FirstBook. Isn't that amazing? So well done!

Here's the link to make it super easy if you want to hit your multiple sites.

#ReadReflectReachOut

Happy holidays!

Diva Delight: Artists and Their Cats

It's always fun to find a non-fic pick to recommend to you all. I saw this little treasure and am happy to share it.

Drawn to cats, artists over time have found them to be subjects for their works and companions for their late night creations. How about a collection of photographs of artists and their felines? From Andy Warhol to Georgia O'Keefe to John Lennon, it's a joy to see creators and their muses caught by the camera in Artists and Their Cats. Various backstory is included, enriching the imagery.

"Behind every great artist is a great...cat."

Consider this little gem as a gift to yourself or another cat-lover. Especially with all the Siamese included. :)

Lorie Ann Grover (me) with Yzma

Artists and Their Cats

by Alison Nastasi

Chronicle Books, 2015

Watch for It: One Thing Stolen

Thank you, Chronicle Books and Beth Kephart, for preparing to release another of Beth's beautiful novels into the world!



The book itself is a nest of treasure with rich imagery, lyrical language, metaphor, and winged flights through the city of Florence. Nadia is trapped in theft, a loss of words, and a loss of reality while she repeatedly loses consciousness during her family's relocation in Italy. And there is a boy, a boy whose hair glows, who leads her through the streets of Santa Croce, and there is a best girlfriend, who will give all to find him again for Nadia, never losing hope for her.

Keep this one in mind, readergirlz. You'll have a wait for its release. But isn't Beth always worth it?

One Thing Stolen
by Beth Kephart
Chronicle Books, April 7, 2015

Diva Delight: A Monster Calls and Rhyme Schemer

Don't miss these even if they are catalogued in middle grade. A good story is a good story, right? When I picked up both of these works, from the first pages there was that feeling of instantly knowing these are brilliant books. These are the ones to savor and then share. Go. Find. Them.



"At seven minutes past midnight, thirteen-year-old Conor wakes to find a monster outside his bedroom window. But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting-- he's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the nightmare he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments. The monster in his backyard is different. It's ancient. And wild. And it wants something from Conor. Something terrible and dangerous. It wants the truth. From the final idea of award-winning author Siobhan Dowd-- whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself-- Patrick Ness has spun a haunting and darkly funny novel of mischief, loss, and monsters both real and imagined."

A Monster Calls
by Patrick Ness
Candlewick Press, 2013



"Kevin has a bad attitude. He's the one who laughs when you trip and fall. In fact, he may have been the one who tripped you in the first place. He has a real knack for rubbing people the wrong way—and he's even figured out a secret way to do it with poems. But what happens when the tables are turned and he is the one getting picked on? Rhyme Schemer is a touching and hilarious middle-grade novel in verse about one seventh grader's journey from bully-er to bully-ee, as he learns about friendship, family, and the influence that words can have on people's lives."

Rhyme Schemer
by K. A. Holt
Chronicle Books, 2014

Diva Delight: Going Over by Beth Kephart

I trotted home with one book from ALA Midwinter. I was so excited to see Beth Kephart's upcoming Going Over being released from Chronicle. I love Beth. I love Chronicle. That's enough for me.

As always, the language is gorgeous, the love full of meaning, and the plot tight and tense.

"We live with ghosts. We live with thugs, dodgers, punkers, needle ladies, pork knuckle. We live where there's no place else to go."

Set in a 1983, within a divided Berlin, two teens in love are separated by the wall. The work is told in both their voices so that the reader can sit in the East and the West. An unexpected layer adds the plight of the immigrants of Kreuzberg and the further oppression of Turkish women.

Aside from the language, the imagery, and the sensory input, I marveled at the pacing. Beth creates these moments of stall, rewind, and then a lurch forward, over and over. As the story progresses, the pauses shorten and the reader is launched farther and farther. That so perfectly mimics the passing of time for the characters themselves, caught on either side of the wall. Simply brilliant.

Don't miss this important novel. There's a great giveaway over at Goodreads right now. Click here and leap over! Congrats, Beth, and bravo, Chronicle!

Me, I'm off to read: Nest. Flight. Sky. Beth's new memoir!



Going Over, starred review from Booklist
by Beth Kephart
Chronicle Books, 2014

Diva Delight: Pure Vegan

readergirlz, let's talk food! When I saw this coming from Chronicle Books, I knew I had to check it out. I've been a pescatarian for awhile, so not a vegan, but this collection is accessible, brilliant, and beautiful. As the tag for Pure Vegan says, here are  "70 Recipes for Beautiful Meals and Clean Living." Author Joseph Shuldiner, a non-vegan, delivers. There's no political positioning or religious slant, but rather, wonderful recipes you are encouraged to adapt or change to your own taste.

I love how the work is divided into sections: Morning, Afternoon, Evening, Late Night, and Very Late Night. Each portion is printed on a different muted color. The photography by Emily Brooke Sandor and Joseph Shuldiner is artistry itself. The texture of the paper and cover feels wonderful in your hands.

The encouragement to present food beautifully and use pure, fresh ingredients is easy to act upon. I recently cooked the cover dish, Tomato and Three Bean Salad, for an elegant party. It was hard to decide which dish to share, but I can say, this one was very well received. I can't wait to try more, like Garbanzo Bean and Tomato Soup, Pistachio Olive Oil Cake, and Hazelnut Halvah!

readergirlz, take charge of your diet and health! Pure Vegan will lead the way so easily.

Pure Vegan
by Joseph Shuldiner
photographs by Emily Brooke Sandor and Joseph Shuldiner
Chronicle Books

Diva Delight: Promise the Night

I have a fresh work to recommend with one feisty protag, and it's an ADVENTURE! When was the last time you picked up an historical work of fiction and were taken away to Africa? Michaela MacColl's latest work Promise the Night delivers.

Based on the true life of Beryl Markham, readers are taken on a journey alongside this British girl being taught by Nandi warriors in the early 1900s. Eventually, Beryl is the first pilot to fly solo from England to North America. The tales that Michaela MacColl weave together convince you of the spunk needed for such a feat. Beryl faces down a warthog, leopard, lion, and ultimately an abusive governess. She survives a year of training to be a proper young lady in order to return and find her place among the British in Africa, alongside the Nandi.

With convincing characters and an awesome sweeping setting, you'll fly right alongside Beryl. And cheer!

Promise the Night
by Michaela MacColl
Chronicle Books, 2012

Diva Delight: Dan Eldon, Safari as a Way of Life

Do you know the story of Dan Eldon? His life and work as a photojournalist? Chronicle Books has released a collection of his imagery, collages, and pursuits in Jennifer New's Safari as a Way of Life. Here is a visual biography that will inspire your own journey.



Dying in the field at the age of 22 in Somalia, Dan Eldon's philanthropy, creativity, and robust life are caught in this collection. The above left spread is included in this work. (Further imagery can be found in The Journey is the Destination.)

Every page of Safari as a Way of Life is moving and inspiring. Whether it is Dan's photo in Newsweek, his record of starving Somalian children, or his homage to a recent love interest, the man's spirit and life are captured and shared. You cannot leaf through this work and leave unchanged.

Along with journal collages, postcards, an iron-on, a poster, and sticker in Safari as a Way of Life, Jennifer New has pieced together Dan's biography with her own words and others who knew him well. You can learn more about Dan at http://www.daneldon.org/site/ and daneldon.com

Do not miss this book, readergirlz. It embodies so much of what believe in our community. Read, reflect, and reach out!

Dan Eldon, Safari as a Way of Life
by Jennifer New
Chronicle Books, 2011

Diva Delight: The Space Between Trees

I finally had an opportunity to read Katie Williams' The Space Between Trees on Chronicle Books' exceptional YA list. Engrossing, with such fresh metaphors, I was amazed with each page turn.

As the back of the book states, Evie finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time. A former childhood schoolmate is murdered in the nearby woods, and she witnesses the body's removal. Before she realizes it, she's caught up in her own lies to gain friendship in her isolated life. Pursuing the killer with her new friend, Evie opens herself to more and more danger, until truly damaging choices are finally made.

There's a hint of The Crucible to me, as teen girls are caught in their own stories with severe consequences. Evie herself concludes:

"The world is not set to rights. It is a small, sad, messy world, and I am a small, sad, messy girl. I didn't understand that having a story changes you. You have to have gone through something, after all, to have something to say. Now I have my story. But I can't bear to speak a word of it."

I have to say again that Katie's metaphors were startlingly original. Here is an example where Evie is thinking of how she used to tell her acquaintances false stories for reaction:

"-how I'd weigh a phrase or spit out a particular word like I couldn't hold it in my mouth any longer, how I'd say a sentence quietly to make them lean in, how I'd collect their wide eyes and sucks of breath like beads I could string on a bracelet."

Beautiful, right? You are going to love Evie's straightforward, raw observation of people's movements, expressions, and quirks. I highly recommend The Space Between Trees. Brava, Katie Williams!

The Space Between Trees
by Katie Williams
Chronicle Books, 2010

Diva Delight: Prisoners in the Palace

First, a shout out for the beautiful cover of Michaela MacColl's novel, Prisoners in the Palace. Gorgeous, right? I'm so impressed with the list Chronicle is creating for YA. Brava, to this independent publisher for keeping it small and powerful.

It's my pleasure to recommend Prisoners in the Palace, A Novel of Intrigue and Romance About How Princess Victoria Became Queen with the Help of a Maid, a Newspaperman, and Scoundrel. The title encapsulates the plot. Historical fiction lovers will certainly embrace this work about Princess Victoria's 17th year, while other YA lovers will be won over to the genre quickly. Stringing together true events with a fictional protagonist, the work is compelling and fresh for today's readers.

A recently orphaned Liza finds herself as lady's maid to the princess. While finding her own path, voice, and power, Liza assists the future queen in her own journey as well. 

Visiting Michaela's blog I found she had said this at a recent school visit:

"I can’t have Victoria take a jaunt to Paris because I know she didn’t do that. But I can create new characters to move in and around documented facts. I told the kids that I do this not only so they will be interested in reading the book, but so I will be interested in writing the book."

Interesting! Here's to our historical fiction authors bringing to life the past! *a royal curtsy*

Prisoners in the Palace
by Michaela MacColl
Chronicle Books, October, 2010

Diva Delight: My Listography

Hey rgz!

I was just cruising through Chronicle's catalog and came across My Listography, My Amazing Life in Lists. I thought it looked fun and sure enough, it totally is.

Why not create an autobiography of your life this summer through lists? Get down 10 wishes, what you've been for Halloween, the cities you've been to, and of course fav books, right? There are many more opportunities to list, and each is accompanied by Nathaniel Russell's funky drawings.



In closing, there's a Best & Worst section, and pages to make further lists of your choice. Archive who you are this summer. My Listography will be fun to share now and a treasury of memories in your future.

My Listography
by Lisa Nola
illustrated by Nathaniel Russell
Chronicle Books