Wednesday, January 31, 2007

obscurity

Awards are great, but does it make a great book? Who knows? But I do know there's lots of wonderful books out there naked, without stickers. Here are some of my old favorites that I suspect are lavishing in obscurity:

I am Dodo I loved this book,if only for the goofy, quirky illustrations. It's about the one dodo bird that survived extinction and now hangs out in NYC. No matter how many times I've seen it, the illustration of the dodo bird dancing makes me smile.

Secret Voice of Gina Zhang On the other hand, this book never fails to make me cry. A middle grade novel of a Chinese-American girl with selective mutism who uses Chinese folktales, like the Monkey King, to escape (and in the end communicate). Why is this out of print?


See you Soon Moon
Simple story for those sick of reading Goodnight Moon, or at least want and alternative on other days of the week. It's the illustrations I love in this book--they're like frosting.

Mordant's Wish A heartwarming book about a mole who wishes for a friend and how the wish comes true. With soft illustrations to match this book is truly lovely.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, a chance to list lesser known favorites. The first two to come to mind (I could probably go on forever...)are:

Waffle by Chris Raschka - A wonderful book with delightfully expressive illustrations.

Sleepy Boy by Polly Kanevsky - Beautiful prose matched by exquisite illustrations.

What a great idea for a post, Grace. I will be certain to look for the books you have listed!

Katherine

Elaine Magliaro said...

Grace,

I love Don Carter's illustrations in WAKE UP HOUSE! and HELLO SCHOOL!, two of my favorite poetry books for vey young children. WAKE UP HOUSE!, published in 2000, is now out of print.

A TOAD FOR TUESDAY is now out of print, too! It's such a shame. It was a really popular book at the school where I worked.

There are wonderful old and new books that, unfortunately, go out of print or go unnoticed. I sometimes get upset when I see how much money some publishers spend to promote books that they know, in advance, are going to be bestsellers. I wish they'd spend a little more to promote the quiet books, the mid-list books that might just prove to be popular books once attention is called to them.

Linda S. Wingerter said...

i love mordant's wish, thanks to Grace who pointed it out to me.