Wrapped in Foil

May 5, 2011

Eoin Colfer

Our question from last week was:

Our mystery author today has to tell people how to pronounce his first name, and in fact, he has the pronunciation prominently displayed on his website. Born in Ireland, this young adult author started out as a teacher. When his book about his teaching experiences in Tunisia was published in 1998, he began writing another. Before long he was able to retire from teaching and took up writing books full time. His books are consistently on the New York Times bestseller lists. Can you pronounce today’s author’s name? What book series is he best known for?

Eoin Colfer (pronounced “owen”) is the famous Irish author has to tell people how to pronounce his first name. His Artemis Fowl books are so popular that they have their own fansite. Believe it or not, the first one was only published in 2001.

If you have never seen Eoin Colfer speak, there are several videos of interviews available on the Internet.

Only a sampling of his books:

Have you read a book by Eoin Colfer? What did you think of it?

April 29, 2011May 24, 2012

Children’s Author Trivia Volume 33

April 26, 2011April 26, 2011

The Ugly Duckling Dinosaur: A Prehistoric Tale

We have been on a dinosaur kick this week. Today we have the delightful fiction picture book The Ugly Duckling Dinosaur: A Prehistoric Tale by Cheryl Bardoe and illustrated by Roy D. Kennedy, a new take on the well-known ugly duckling tale.

When mother duck’s last egg takes an extra long time to hatch, she isn’t worried. But when the newest duckling pops from the shell, everyone thinks “That is the ugliest duckling I’ve ever seen!” Through a humorous series of mishaps, the ugly duckling learns he is not a duckling at all, but a magnificent Tyrannosaurus rex.

Like yesterday’s The Voyage of Turtle Rex, this book mixes fiction and nonfiction. In this case, the book falls squarely on the side of fiction, although a lot of research went into getting the details right. As she points out in her Author’s Note at the end, Bardoe based her mother duck and ducklings on an actual bird that lived during the time of the dinosaurs, Vegavis iaai. The creatures that the main character stumbles across are actual dinosaurs, like Stegosaurus, and Deinonychus.

The watercolor illustrations by Roy D. Kennedy of big-eyed birds and dinosaurs add to the child-friendly silliness of the book. In the Artist’s Note in the back he writes he used watercolors because that is the medium used by scientific illustrators, but that “there had to be some poetic license.”

As an adult reading this book you might think the plot is stale or the premise a bit of a stretch, but in the eyes of a child it is fresh and fun. The message that it is okay to be different definitely stands up well in today’s environment. Plus The Ugly Duckling Dinosaur could be just the right book to tempt the dinosaur fan enamored with nonfiction to branch out into fiction.

For a fun romp through prehistory with a worthwhile message, be sure to give it a try.

Reading level: Ages 4-8
Publisher: Abrams Books for Young Readers (May 1, 2011)
ISBN-10: 9780810997394
ISBN-13: 978-0810997394

Book was provided for review purposes.

Be sure to look for more information about children’s books at today’s Book Talk Tuesday.

April 25, 2011April 25, 2011

The Voyage of Turtle Rex

Kurt Cyrus has done it again with his new book, The Voyage of Turtle Rex. Cyrus travels on the border between fiction and nonfiction successfully with the dramatic story of a giant sea turtle’s adventures growing up in ancient seas.

If you are familiar with Cyrus’ previous award-winning book, Tadpole Rex, you already know about his breathtaking, vibrant illustrations and tightly-crafted rhyme. Although a computer screen does not do them justice, Cyrus has examples of some of the illustrations at his website. How does Cyrus create the stark black lines of varying width that give such depth to each page? He uses a scratchboard technique and adds details like bubbles and a crust of barnacles to make the giant sea turtle come alive.

Not only has Cyrus done his research about the creature, Archelon, itself (he even includes the fact the turtles may sleep under the mud for long periods), but also he obviously spent the time to craft the story to perfection. Showing the contrast in size between the tiny baby turtles on the beach in the beginning, to the adult turtles laying eggs on the same beach at the end, by including the same local dinosaurs for scale in both scenes is pure genius. He also brings the story neatly to present day with a few perfectly-chosen words.

The Voyage of Turtle Rex is a must-have book for your shelf, because it can be used in so many ways. You could pull it out for a poetry unit, a science unit, and for any reader interested in dinosaurs. This book sure to thrill and entrall dinosaur-loving children of all ages.

See an interview with Kurt Cyrus at Miss Rumphius Effect

Growing with Science has related science activities

Reading level: Ages 4-8
Publisher: Harcourt Children’s Books (April 4, 2011)
ISBN-10: 9780547429243
ISBN-13: 978-0547429243

Book was supplied for review purposes.

Nonfiction Monday is a blogging celebration of nonfiction books for kids. We invite you to join us. For more information and a schedule, stop by the new Nonfiction Monday blog to see who is hosting each week.

This week’s post is at Writing Nonfiction for Children.