The Good Earth by Pearl Buck

Pearl Buck's 1932 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel begins on the morning of Wang Lung's wedding day in pre-revolutionary China. He is a poor farmer, about to marry O-Lan, whom he has never met. O-Lan had been sold into slavery at a rich man's house when she was nine years old. With hard work, Lung and O-Lan survive many hardships and build a prosperous family estate. I thought I might find the book dated, but instead I was impressed. There was a point where I got so irritated with Wang Lung's infatuation with a prostitute that I almost had to stop reading - I felt so bad for O-Lan. I'm glad that I stuck with it. Buck is said to have honestly portrayed the cultural attitudes of the times - it was not a good time and place to be female. Knowing details about Buck's life (through Anchee Min's Pearl of China) gave me insight into the story as well. For example, Wang Lung's "little fool" seemed to be based on Buck's daughter, who was born with a developmental disability. This is a good story for readers who like family sagas, characters who develop over time, and detailed historical settings.

Stanley Park by Timothy Taylor, dramatized by Betty Quan

Young chef Jeremy Papier believes strongly in sourcing local ingredients for his small restaurant located on the edge of Vancouver's Chinatown. What could be more local than Stanley Park pigeons, ducks, raccoons and squirrels? Add a greedy coffee shop magnate, a bunch of homeless people and a decades-old murder and you've got a recipe for entertainment.

I listened to a BTC audiobook dramatized by playwright Betty Quan. The production is only two hours long, but the full cast plus music by The Colorifics go a long way to compensate for what's been cut from the original.

Canadian Railroad Trilogy by Gordon Lightfoot and Ian Wallace

I lead an adult storytime every Monday at noon at the Woodcroft library. The program is open to everyone, but the audience is mostly made up of developmentally handicapped adults and their caregivers. Nonfiction picture books are popular with this crowd, especially when I combine the stories with music.

The picture book edition of Gordon Lightfoot's song Canadian Railroad Trilogy seemed like a natural choice for the group. I was very impressed with Ian Wallace's vibrant artwork. It adds so much poignancy to the text that I got choked up with sadness the first time I read it. I almost decided against using this book for storytime, since I didn't want to embarrass myself with tears. It was too powerful to miss, however.

Canadian Railroad Trilogy has been nominated for the Canadian Children's Book Centre Awards. The book turned out to be an excellent choice for the adult storytime. It was also good to have the opportunity to talk about an issue which is highlighted by the art - the negative impact the railroad had on the lives of so many people as well as the environment. Lightfoot wrote the song in 1967 to celebrate our centennial and it's really the story of the settlement of Canada.

Other picture book/music combos that I've used for adult storytime include:
Skit-Scat, Raggedy Cat by Roxane Orgill and Sean Qualls (plus Ella Fitzgerald CD)
Shake, Rattle & Turn that Noise Down by Mark Alan Stamaty (plus Elvis Presley CD)
Jimi Sounds Like a Rainbow by Gary Golio and Javaka Steptoe (plus Jimi Hendrix CD)
The Long Gone Lonesome History of Country Music by Bret Berthold (plus Patsy Cline CD)

Chime by Franny Billingsley

The opening lines drew me right in: "I've confessed to everything and I'd like to be hanged. Now, if you please." Briony Larkin hates herself thoroughly and yet I found her immediately endearing. This book is a must for readers who are suckers for a strong and original narrative voice, like I am. Briony is brilliantly witty and her actions - like the way she cares for her twin sister Rose - make it clear that she isn't a bad person at all. To heal her psychological wounds, Larkin must face the pain and unravel the mystery of her past.

The fantasy setting is Swampsea, a remote part of late-19th-century United Kingdom in the vicinity of a seaside swamp inhabited by various Old Ones like the Boggy Mun, Mucky Face, the Reed Spirits and the Dead Hand. The Old Ones cannot survive proximity to metal and industry, so everything is on the brink of change when Mr. Clayborne comes to town to drain the swamp and build a railway through it.

Along with Mr. Clayborne comes his bad-boy son, Eldric, who has been expelled from school. Briony believes herself both unloveable and unable to love, but Eldric is determined to change that. If you follow my blog, you'll know that I barely tolerate romance. Chime is a blend of fantasy, mystery and romance. I loved every powerful bit of it, including the romance. I even wept at the end.

Readalikes: For edgy romance and dangerous magic, Tithe by Holly Black. For an erie swamp setting and complex plot, Useful Idiots by Jan Mark. For a similarly strong narrative voice and romance (but no magic) The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson. The closest match I can think of is Franny Billingsley's fabulous earlier novel, The Folk Keeper.

Evil? by Timothy Carter

In his northern Ontario hometown, Stuart Bradley finds that being gay only raises a few eyebrows, but being caught masturbating - committing the sin of Onan - results in "spiller" graffiti on his high school locker. He gets thrown out of his home and the situation escalates. Angry mobs fill the streets carrying torches, ready to drive Stuart and the other "spillers" out of town. It turns out that fallen angels are the source of all the hatred in this satirical novel for teens. Grade 8 - 12.

The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

The ancient Sanskrit epic Mahabharata, the story of a great battle between two sets of paternal cousins - the Pandavas and the Kauravas - is made fresh in this retelling from the viewpoint of a woman named Draupadi. I listened to an audiobook (Blackstone: 12.5 hours) read by Sneha Mathan. Her voice kept me enthralled and also prevented me from stumbling over the pronunciation of the multitude of Indic names. (When I encounter unfamiliar names in written text, I tend to invent a shorthand name without pronouncing it and recognize who it is each time I see that combo of letters. This method doesn't work well when there are many roughly similar names.)

Draupadi and her twin brother were born out of fire, but other than that unusual start to life, she seems like a normal princess. A normal princess whose best friend is Krishna (an incarnation of Vishnu). Draupadi fights unsuccessfully to have the same education as her twin brother. She gets more valuable lessons from a sorceress who teaches her things like how to make a delicious curry from only an eggplant and a tiny bit of oil and salt.

Arjuna, one of the Pandava brothers, won Draupadi's hand in marriage through a test of strength and skill. When he returned home with her, Arjuna's mother said he must share whatever he had won with his brothers and that's how Draupadi ended up with five husbands. Meanwhile, Draupadi's romantic desire rests with another man, Karna, whom she had shamed at the marriage contest in order to save her brother from harm. I believe Divakaruni diverges from the traditional tale on this point; it certainly adds dramatic tension.

I love the way lots of magical bits - like a cow that grants wishes - pop up in the story that otherwise seems to be historically realistic. Fantasy fans and other readers who enjoy great world-building and a sweeping saga told from the viewpoint of a fascinating woman will probably enjoy this as much as I did.

Uncle Andy's by James Warhola

In this lively picture book, Jamie Warhola remembers one of many trips taken by his family of eight from their farm to visit their grandmother and uncle in New York City. Warhola's youngest uncle moved from Pittsburgh to New York City in 1949, dropped the a from his name, and became known as Andy Warhol. In 1962, the year of this particular trip, Warhol had his first solo exhibition, in which he introduced his soup can paintings.

Young Jamie sleeps in a makeshift bed surrounded by wooden boxes painted to look like Campbell's cardboard shipping cartons. "Uncle Andy had twenty-five cats, all named Sam. They were always hiding in a house that was just like a giant amusement park." The children's excitement is infectious and the story radiates creative energy.

The book's dust jacket shows Warhol's reaction when the family shows up announced on his doorstep. An interior page shows the same scene from the opposite perspective, behind Warhol's shoulder looking out his relatives. I love all the little details in the bright watercolour artwork; it's possible to spend a lot of time examining each spread. One page, for example, shows Jamie's grandmother at work in a corner, adding her penmanship to a piece of art. I learned at the Art Gallery of Alberta's current Warhol exhibit that Andy admired his mother's decorative Old World handwriting.

At the end of their visit, Jamie goes home with a box of art supplies given to him by his uncle. (And this book is proof that Jamie grows up to be an artist too!) It's a wonderful, kid-friendly introduction to the zany art of Andy Warhol.