DadTalk

Book Review It’s Good to Be Bad

I reviewed this book for my wife’s site, Bookbuds.

Evil Genius
by Catherine Jinks
Harcourt Children’s Books

Evil Genius is a better-than-usual attempt at capitalizing on the Harry Potter phenomenon. In this version, Cadel Piggott, who is being raised by nasty, uncaring parents, is directed toward the Axis Institute, a school for criminals seeking world domination.

Cadel hopes to find acceptance at his new school, but intrigues – such as the rapidly declining student body – test the boy’s super talents. Along the way, Cadel learns about his father’s evil plans, a little humility and more importantly, about his true nature.

While the discovery process is fun, creative characters and complex subplots blow by without much clarity; it’s a wonder an adult, much less young adult, can follow without a scorecard. Worse, it’s hard to really like and identify with any characters in this 496-page book. Still, I can’t help suspect that Evil Genius will be enjoyed by bored, smart teenagers who dream of running the world. 

Stumble It!

Cybils Announces Finalists in Kid’s Literature Contest More Categories to be Announced Next Week

Do you sometimes wonder what books you should buy for your children? My wife and I don’t have that problem, because Anne runs The Children’s & YA Bloggers’ Literary Awards.

What are the Cybils? A team of 90 writers and bloggers who slog through a year’s worth of children’s books picking out the best of the best. (Let me tell you, there are a LOT of books published each year.)

This week, Cybils announced the finalists in these categories:

• Fantasy/Science Fiction
• Fiction Picture Books
• Middle Grade Novels
• Poetry

On January 7, finalists for Graphic Novels, Non-Fiction Picture Books, Non-Fiction MG/YA and Young Adult Novels will be announced.

One of the odd conundrums since Anne started blogging about children’s books is her audience: highly educated authors and librarians. The odd part? Not many parents come to Cybils – or Anne’s other site – Bookbuds, in search of books for their kids.

Why would that be? In part, I think parents simply are unaware of these two blogs and others like it. After all, the decline of newspaper book review sections is a relatively recent phenomenon.

I also think it has to do with how the human mind works: book readers like to peruse the shelves of their favorite genres or get recommendations from friends or Oprah.

Of course, the big elephant in the room is parents themselves: many don’t buy books for their kids for reasons ranging from cost to language barriers. And let’s not forget other media such as TV and video games are stealing time away from reading.

Regardless of the reasons, it will take time to win the hearts of Americans. In the meantime, if you are wondering what books to buy for your toddler, preteen or teen, head over to Cybils for an amazing list of books.

And I’ll let you in on a secret: these books are so good, most adults will enjoy them too.

My Poor Wife (and I’m Not talking About Money)

This post is an apology to my wife. No, no, it’s not what you think – I haven’t cheated or smashed up the car. It’s just that while I am at work, Anne has to contend with two sick kids and her own cold while I play with spreadsheets and Customer Relations Management systems.

Don’t worry about what a CRM is. It’s not important to your life. Well, I suppose my life story isn’t all that important to your life, but you come to read anyway.

What was I talking about again? Oh yeah, and apology to my wife. Rather than explain it myself, just read this e-mail I received from Anne:

Re: Buena Park tots mark most destructive day ever, Mom says

CHICAGO (AP) – A preschooler who persuaded his mother to let him stay home from school and his toddler sister wreaked record destruction on their parents’ apartment this morning.

Seth, 4, and Lael, 20 months, waited until their mother was in the shower before dumping an entire bin of puzzles onto the floor and scattering the hundreds of pieces across three rooms. Lincoln Logs, Lego pieces, piles of books and torn pieces of pop-up books soon followed.

“If this keeps up, I’ll be eligible for FEMA funding soon,” said their mother, Anne Levy, with a sigh. “I’ve dubbed them Hurricane Lael and the Sethinator.”

Experts predict the mess will take several hours to clean up, as the kids keep getting into more mischief with every attempt at cleaning.

“It would help if Lael stopped whacking everyone with the broom,” noted Levy.

It all started with Seth insisting he was still recovering from a cold and didn’t feel up to going to preschool. Reluctantly, Levy agreed to let him stay home. But no sooner did she hop in the shower than they began to run amok.

A handyman who stopped by to fix a closet door noticed the mess.

“Hi guys!” said Handyman Nick, who fled the scene soon after fixing the door.

The kids haven’t gotten into any trouble in the past five minutes, according to their mother.

“They’re snacking, so they’re quiet,” she said. “Of course, there are now crumbs on top of the puzzle pieces, but you can’t have everything.”

Need I explain more? I apologize hon. Really, I do.

Interview With a Wife (Mine)

If you want to find out how funny a writer my wife, Anne, is, there is a great interview of her on the site Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. Here’s a sample:

7-Imp: What sound or noise do you love?

Anne: Call me crazy, but I love the sound of my daughter snoring. She’s snored since she was born; I snuck her into bed with me when the nurses were out of the room and haven’t managed to kick her out of my bed yet. I never had to fret that she’d stopped breathing; I’d just pick up my head and listen for those soft zzzzz’s.

7-Imp: What sound or noise to you hate?

Anne: Babies screaming. Any baby. I’m still lactating so it causes all kinds of unpleasant and messy reactions.

Note the photo of my cute wife on Seven Things. Nice things were said about me, too. Here’s my wife’s take on the interview.

Valentine’s Day Will Never Be the Same

Where is my wife this Valentine’s Day? Behind a computer … but for a good reason. Today Cybils announced the winners of the book contest Anne has been organizing with another blogger, Kelly Herold. Cybils, by the way, stands for Children’s and YA Bloggers’ Literary Awards. Try saying that 10 times fast.

So if you’re interested in buying books for your kids this year, jump on over and find out which are the best of the best. Then order a book from the site, which will help pay for the awards. You better, my nearly-over Valentine’s Day depends on it.

Next year, I’m hoping my wife will pick a holiday that is less romantic, like President’s Day.

Read This Post to Learn Magic Word of the Week

Before I tell you the magic word, let me provide some background. Moving to Chicago has been expensive, really expensive.

In fact, until the new business is off the ground, we are living in the red. Serious, brightly-hued red. We knew the risks going in, but bleeding cash hourly is, well, stress-inducing. Consider unexpected expenses: a dental problem (me), broken glasses (Anne), and preschool (Seth.) Okay, the last wasn’t unexpected, but the price was shocking.

Which brings us to the magic word. I had mentioned to my wife, Anne, long before we came out here that if the money situation looked too ugly, she would have to go back to work.

Did you catch the magic word? W-O-R-K. Why is it magic? Because Anne, who has claimed for years she wants to go back to work, now believes that swimming naked in Lake Michigan during the middle of the winter would be preferable to a 9-5 job.

Not that what she does isn’t work. She’s a full-time mommy and blogger. But as we all know, neither pay. At least, not in this country.

As soon as I started mentioning the magic word, though, Anne suddenly became immensely motivated to kick life back into her blog – er blogs. You can read about BookBuds relaunch here. You can read about her idea for an entirely new blog here, here and here. And you can see the new blog here.

If you don’t want to jump to the links, let me sum up quickly: Bookbuds reviews children’s literature. Her relaunch offered two books in a contest format. The new blog, called the Cybils, will honor the best children’s and young adult literature of the year.

Will it bring in any money? Well, we’ve had a $5 tip already. If we can keep that up for a year, we’ll have $1,825 a year. Um, okay so we can’t retire yet. (Actually, the amount is even less since Typepad took 40¢ of the tip. Grrrrr)

I can’t wait to see what happens next week when I bring up the next magic word: “poverty.”

‘Below’ Is Above Board

I like to plug my wife’s website BookBuds, which is dedicated to analyzing children’s literature. Today I have a post on her site about “Below,” a charming books by Nina Crews that captures the imagination of a young boy. If you’re planning to buy a book or two for children, please head over to my wife’s site and look around.

Thanks.

Hotels Are for Vacations not for Day-to-Day Life

My little family is suffering from cabin fever. Can you blame them, being crammed into a tiny hotel room?

It’s tough keeping kids happy in such a small space. They are more prone to fight because there is less to do. The heavy rains yesterday made matters worse. Soggy parks mean fewer options for my wife to keep the tykes happy.

I’m at work already, so I’m of no help. My wife asks for hugs to keep her spirits up. I provide some when I get home. I hope it’s enough.

Food is a big problem, too. We have a two-burner stove with just two plates and two bowls. We augment those with paper plates and plastic spoons and forks I use for hiking. We don’t have a real knife for cutting up food.

Anne has done a great job of making meals, but she can only do so much in a kitchen smaller than a half-bath. So we sometimes eat out, even though we can’t really afford to.

We just have to hold onto Sept. 2nd. We know it’s just around the corner, but it can’t come soon enough.

We’ve Arrived in Chicago

While my three favorite bloggers have been enjoying their vacations in the Northwest, Northeast and South, my family finally arrived at temporary housing in the Chicago area. Essentially, we’re homeless.

While there were some fun moments during the trip, it was not exactly a relaxing vacation, either. Even the minivan could not comfortably fit three adults, two kids and 48-pieces of luggage. I guess I have vacation-envy at this point.

Since we’re still strapped for time, I will have to post all the goings-on in dribs and drabs over the next few weeks. Problems have held up our house sale, and we need to find an apartment soon. Plus, I have to start working in earnest on Monday while leaving my wife in a 350-square-foot Extended Stay Hotel in Skokie, Illinois. Fortunately, there is a huge shopping mall across the freeway. Unfortunately, we don’t know what to buy for the apartment we don’t have yet.

To get a taste of our experiences, here is an excerpt from my wife’s e-mail to family members:

We’re heeeeere!

Oh, thank G-d. I was just about to kill someone. The drive stopped being interesting somewhere after Denver, when we were faced with nearly 1,000 miles of row crops. It was all pretty and green and all, but very, very repetitive. Zzzz ...

We’re staying in an Extendedstay America in Skokie, about 1/4 mile from the mall. The room is small and smells a little like cat pee. The motel in Omaha -- where I spent my birthday -- was even worse. It was a Day’s Inn that reeked of mildew, had wet carpets, a broken toilet and the water was too foul-tasting even to brush your teeth. We piled everyone into the car and went to a giant pizza place/arcade sorta like Chuck E Cheese on steroids. I didn’t hear any phone calls above the din, unfortunately, but thanks to everyone who called and left birthday messages. I’ll call you all on Saturday.

We get twice daily calls from the private school where we hope to enroll Seth. I’ve heard from two of the administrators, one of the rabbis (they have three, from each denomination) and two parents. We have invitations for Shabbat dinners for three weeks running, if we want them, and playdates for Seth whether he wants them or not (he does).

And I haven’t even contacted the Jewish Federation yet, which promised to send a volunteer to our doorstep to show us around. They probably will extend another Shabbat dinner invitation. I think our Friday nights are booked for a while.

As for the house sale, things are grim. We’ve hit more snags in the sale and we’re insisting on a fine of $50 a day for every additional day they stall. If they don’t sign off on the per diem tomorrow, we put the house back on the market. ...

We’re looking at the terrible prospect of having to dip into our savings to make ends me’t while we get the house sold, which we’re loathe to do. But we have to pay our mortgage still, and now rent and Seth’s tuition, so I may have to get a part-time job for a while. We’re not happy. But we’re hanging in there, and one way or another the house will get sold and we’ll be okay.

For now, I’m bushed and headed to bed. Talk to you all on Saturday.

My wife has a way with words, doesn’t she? More to come later.

NOTE: I’m using a new laptop, so some of the typography may look different than previous posts.

The Write Stuff

In preparation for our trip, I wrote an advance review for my wife's site, Book Buds, which reviews kid literature. Click on this link if you want to give it a read. Thanks.