MotherReader

It is time to make good on my promise to give away a copy of Don’t Let the Pigeon Run This App! Last night I took all of the entries, created one list, and read them to my family. TeenReader was the prime audience, with both her fine-tuned sense of humor and her tendency to literally roll on the floor laughing. A tendency that could only be more pronounced given her lack of sleep during her play performance week.

As I pulled the list together, I found patterns among the titles. There was inadvertent poetry:

Don’t Let the Pigeon Dance with the Stars!
Don’t Let the Pigeon Fly to Mars!
Don’t Let the Pigeon Fly Over Your Head!
Don’t Let the Pigeon Become One of the Undead!

Which we will consider my contribution to Poetry Friday, hosted today at The Opposite of Indifference. There were the cautionary tales:

Don’t Let the Pigeon Write My Tax Refund!
Don’t Let the Pigeon Give Root Canals!
Don’t Let the Pigeon Plan your Wedding!
Don’t Let the Pigeon Anywhere Near the Oval Office!

All very practical advice. There was a layered, meta response:

Don’t Let the Pigeon Write a Children’s Book!

It invokes BACA, Bloggers Against Celebrity Authors, with the notion that now that the Pigeon is a celebrity, we would be against him writing a children’s book. But he’s in a children’s book, so how does that work? I know. We just blew your mind.

A holiday entry caught our eye for its creepy cleverness:

Don’t Eat the Pigeon for Thanksgiving!

But in the end it was less wordplay than imagery that tickled our funny bones. The winner of the app is Joanna Freeman for:

Don’t Let the Pigeon Learn the Bagpipes!

While the visual sold this, word choice is important in its humor. “Learn” here is funnier than “play,” because we assume an ineptitude on the part of our feathered friend, which is funny. Bagpipes is (are?) a great choice, being a silly-looking instrument that gives an instant visual. It also could be a rather annoying instrument, which plays nicely against our Pigeon — who considers annoyance a personality trait. It also would be a brilliant title to include in the actual app or a new book. I can picture it. Can’t you?

Thanks to everyone for playing, tweeting, and promoting the contest. And thanks to Mo Willems for giving me my first app. I’ll never forget it.

You know those articles where you learn which local doctors the doctors would go to? Well, here is one part of my version — which picture books I will give to my beloved three-year-old niece out of all of the Cybils-nominated picture books I’ve seen. To find out, head over to Booklights and lend your support, thoughts, or suggestions in the comments.

Speaking of Cybils, I’m having great fun going through the many, many nominated picture books. I’ve read about 140 of the 176 titles and have seen some truly wonderful books. It’s going to be very hard to narrow my favorites list down, much less work with the other panelists to bring seven books to the final shortlist. But I’m looking forward to the challenge.

Speaking of challenges, I totally bailed on NaNoWriMo as my fifth grader hit the skids with her schoolwork. We’re having some issues with the amount of work involved this year and her own ability to do that work. The teacher has not been helpful. So, I spent November doing far more work on fifth grade homework than on my novel, but I was glad to get the firm starting point that NaNoWriMo offered. I am very proud of my buddies Abby and Sarah who met their goals. Congratulations! (They’ve both also got great gift-giving blog posts going with 12 Days of Giving and Tween Book Buying Guide.)

Speaking of gifts, don’t you want to win a free book you can give as a present this holiday season? Enter by leaving a comment with your favorite 2009 book for a chance to win The Day Glo Brothers plus a surprise picture book. And of course I have to plug 105 Ways to Give a Book for your holiday book-buying needs.

As lists go, I’m partial to my list of 105 Ways to Give a Book, featuring books paired with toys, trinkets, and activities. But as much as I favor my labor of love, I cannot ignore that it is also the time for Best Of 2009 lists. There are lots of these lists. Lots and lots of them all over the Internet. Fortunately, they are rounded up for easy use at Chicken Spaghetti. Thank you, Susan!

For me, there are only three lists for this season, and top of those is the one from School Library Journal. I like the format, and I generally find myself in agreement on the books selected. I also think it tends to balance a bit more kid-appeal into the literary value equation. The list from Publishers Weekly also has a good format, but their reviews have less punch. I enjoy looking at the Kirkus supplement in paper, but hate leafing through the PDF, where it can be hard to tell at times where the list ends and the ads begin. Plus they have inserts like “Second Look: Our Recap of previously featured books that also represent The Best of 2009,” which included The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate and The Day-Glo Brothers. But they don’t seem to be on the official list... or are they? I find that confusing.

My favorite lists have yet to come out. The Cybils short lists will go live on January 1, 2010, and I’ll be doing my part in the Fiction Picture Book category to turn out a wonderful selection. I also await with excitement the ALSC Notable Children’s Books list that comes out right after all the cool awards are given at ALA’s midwinter meeting on January 18th.

But for now, here are of my favorites of the year from the School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and Kirkus lists.

• All the World, by Liz Scanlon (SLJ, PW, Kirkus)
  
  
• The Curious Garden, by Peter Brown (PW)
  
  
• The Lion & the Mouse, by Jerry Pinkney (SLJ, PW, Kirkus)
  
  
• Pigs Make Me Sneeze, by Mo Willems (SLJ)
  
  
• The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau, by Dan Yaccarino (Kirkus)
  
  
• The Day-Glo Brothers, by Chris Barton (SLJ, PW, Kirkus*)
  
  
• Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom, by Eric Wight (Kirkus)
  
  
• The Storm in the Barn, by Matt Phelan (Kirkus)
  
  
• When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead (SLJ, PW, Kirkus)
  
  
• The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, by Jacqueline Kelly (SLJ, PW, Kirkus*)
  
  
• Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins (PW)
  
  
• Liar, by Justine Larbalestier (SLJ)
  
  
• Lips Touch: Three Times, by Laini Taylor (PW)
  
  
• Marcelo in the Real World, by Francisco X. Stork (SLJ, PW)
  

In fact, start at age two and this would be a pretty good list of books to give at each age up to fifteen. I’m just sayin’ — holiday season and all.

Speaking of which, Liz B. is hosting a Gift Giving Idea Round-Up and updating it as the posts come in. Go and check it out as another way be inspired to Give Books!

And speaking of giving books, I’m in the mood to give one away. Comment here with a favorite book from 2009 different from the ones I’ve listed, and I’ll pick one person at random to win The Day Glo Brothers, by Chris Barton, and a surprise 2009 picture book. Winner selected and announced Friday, December 4th, at 3:00 EST.