A Big Book Pile Announcement

On the eve of the two month anniversary of Auntie Karen's Book Pile, I am pleased to announce a change to your regularly scheduled programming.

Beginning tomorrow, July 1, a new book review will be posted three days a week: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I have three goals in mind:  keep up with this blog (which I love), satisfy you, the reader, with good content,  and maintain my sanity. I believe scaling back to three days will meet these goals!

Thank you for reading and commenting. I'm happy to report just over 2600 hits in the first two months. That's a pile of hits for Auntie's pile of books. Keep sharing the blog with your friends - it's one of the best ways for me to get new readership.

Do you have a book you want me to review so others will know about it? Email me at karenboss[at]gmail[dot]com. It doesn't matter how new or old it is - if you love it, chances are others will too. You might've noticed some holes in my pile: I don't read a lot of fantasy and while I love nonfiction, it seems lacking. Got those? Let me know.

Are you an author or illustrator who would be interested in doing a "Meet the Author/Illustrator" post? It's easy - I send you the questions, you send me your answers and some other things and up it goes. Let me know.

So, from under the piles (there's one on my bed and four on my trunk and three on the bottom shelf of my book case right now, not to mention the two random books next to my pillow that never seem to get moved), I'll see you Monday with a new post!

Auntie Karen

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

written and illustrated by Grace Lin

Little, Brown | July 1, 2009

Even if this Newbery Honor Book wasn't a good story (which it is) or was horribly written (which it isn't), the design alone would still make it worth picking up. Full color illustrations, gorgeous chapter headings, whimsical font, and intricate spot art all carry it along. (I've only seen the paperback, so imagine what the hardcover must be like!)

Grace Lin's Asian-inspired story about the Jade Dragon and her four children and young Minli's attempt to reunite them to allow Fruitless Mountain to prosper again, thus ending the poverty of her family and village is awesome, to use that word properly for once.


Part adventure story, part fable part folktale, and part coming-of-age tale, Lin creates in Minli a believable young girl who faces down her parents' expectations, danger, and her own fear to make her fortune and to change the fates of those around her. She is both a traditional heroine and a modern-day feminist-leaning protagonist. She has a doubting mother and a dreaming father, allowing her to see the limitations and benefits of both ways of being. If someone wanted a recipe for the perfect way to write a story of this kind, Grace Lin could provide it, using this book as template.

The book includes back matter from Lin, explaining the background of the story and of her life as a young Asian girl in the United States. She provides photographs to show her inspiration for some of the illustrations, too, a nice addendum to the book.

The Gardener & The Library

written by Sarah Stewart
illustrated by David Small
Farrar, Straus, & Giroux | Library 1995; Gardener 1997


If you don't know these books, go get them right now. If you don't know wife and husband team Sarah Stewart and David Small - seek out all their other collaborations while you're at it. They are all pretty wonderful.

The Gardener, a Cadecott Honor book, is about young Lydia Grace Finch, who is sent to live with her Uncle Jim in the city from her family's home in the country during the Great Depression ("Papa has been out of work for a long time, and no one asks Mama to make dresses anymore"). She's used to a lot of space and tending garden with her Grandma, so the move is a shock. She helps out in the bakery her Uncle runs. Soon, she is cultivating seeds and growing flowers in window boxes and in the storefront and has earned the nickname "The Gardener." Finally, she notices a secret spot on the roof, and prepares a surprise for her Uncle Jim.


The Library is about Elizabeth Brown, a young girl who loves books. As she grows older and her personal library also grows, soon she can't even get into her house! So she opens a lending library so others can enjoy her books, too. Written in short, sweet verse, the book is incredibly endearing.


David Small's art is a joy. Visit his site here if you aren't familiar with him or check out my post on his newest illustrated book, One Cool Friend. An example of the brilliance of Small's art: when Lydia gets off the train in the city, the double page spread is of the station, huge and ghostly, looming in gray tones with light streaking from high windows. Lydia stands, small and alone in the bottom left hand corner with a spot of white space around her. She is the only color on the page in her blue dress, green ha,t and bright orange hair. She stares up towards the top right corner. She is vulnerable, wide-eyed with adventure and trepidation. Small provides for us, on a wordless page, and important transitional moment from the country to the city - from innocence to maturation, from being cared for to being more independent. Beauty.

Elizabeth Brown always with
a book!

The two books are similar in style and they make a fantastic pair, much like Stewart and Small themselves.

Lydia earns her nickname after prettying
up her uncle's bakery.

Blink & Caution

by Tim Wynne-Jones

Candlewick Press | March 8, 2011

Blink is roaming the streets, homeless, lurking in the hallways of hotels to find food when he overhears a bunch of thugs, steals a wallet, and sets out on the run.

Caution is a runaway, convinced she can't live with her family anymore after what happened.

They collide, entwine, join forces, split, and come together again.

This 2011 Boston Globe Horn Book Fiction Award Winner is an emotional trip through the city streets and back woods of Canada with two young people in pain. It's a story of looking for truth and meaning and purpose while trying to make sure every day ends with somewhere to sleep and some semblance of safety.

The one thing I will say is that it's a tiny bit hard to get into. The seemingly strange use of the second person creates a distance between the reader and Blink at first. As Blink works through his self-doubt, the text itself stops doubting so much, allowing the reader closer to him. Don't stop - keep with it in the beginning and very soon, because it is so well written, it grabs the reader and insists one stays.

Wideness and Wonder: The Life and Art of Georgia O'Keeffe

by Susan Goldman Rubin
Chronicle Books | April 6, 2011

Many of us are familiar with Georgia O'Keeffe's art. But what of her life? This succinct portrayal of her life from childhood through death is fascinating. In what we've come to expect from Rubin, it's put together beautifully with the younger reader in mind and it works perfectly. In what we've come to expect from Chronicle, it's well-designed and beautiful to look at, which is apropos - a beautiful book about art.

Lots of archival photos are included as well as O'Keeffe's art, as well. The brightly colored pages are reminiscent of the bright colors in her works. A full bibliography, photo credits, and index make for an extensive back matter.

If an adult reader wants to know more about O'Keeffe, go here first. And if your 6th or 7th grader is doing a report on someone next year, encourage them to choose this subject just so you can put this book on your coffee table afterwards!

You Are Here

This is the paperback cover.
It is much better than the
original cover.

by Jennifer E. Smith
Simon & Schuster | May 19, 2009
paperback April 24, 2012

Emma is an almost-17 year old living with her academic parents in a college town. She has siblings who are are far older than she, all of whom are also very smart and academic-focused. She has always felt out of place and like something is missing. When she finds the birth certificate of the twin she never knew she had, she heads out on a road trip to find his grave in the town where they lived when she (and the twin) were born.

After the car she "borrows" dies, she calls her neighborhood friend, Peter, to come with her, since she's stranded at a rest stop on the Jersey Turnpike. He arrives in yet another "borrowed" car, from the tow lot at the police station where his father works, and he and Emma set off on a road trip. Peter is a Civil War buff, a lover of maps, and can't wait to get to the academic life of college. He and Emma are an unlikely pair.

The story is well-written and the pacing is good. The character development is fine, but could be stronger - I don't really get a good feel for who Emma is, so it's harder to root for her (and cheer later). Peter is better developed, I think.

In any case, it's a story about loss and love and figuring out where one belongs even when "you are here."

Toot and Pop!

written and illustrated by Sebastien Braun

Harper Collins Children's Books | June 1, 2012

The opening spread in this new picture book is a wordless view of the harbor, with Pop, the small little tugboat is speeding across towards the lighthouse. All the boats, the crane, the helicopter, the lighthouse - everything - has a little face upon it. The brightly colored row houses along the shore seem reminiscent of Copenhagen or Portland, Maine. (Braun is French and lives in London, according to his website.)

Pop works in the harbor. One day, an enormous boat, Toot, comes to the harbor. Pop explains, "It is my job to help you around the harbor." But Toot laughs him off, "You!...I'm big and strong. I don't help from anyone, especially you!"

Famous last words, those. After Toot crashes into the seawall, causing all kinds of problems for himself and others, Pop still comes to his rescue. Toot learns his lesson and a friendship is forged.

The illustrations are awesome. I read this one night with an adult friend and we were both oohing and ahhing over the simplicity of the art. I don't know what media the images in Toot and Pop! were made in, but Braun's website shows he works in diverse formats. Everything from the cover to the title page to the bright orange endpapers is awesome here. Enjoy with your littlest ones!