They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but when the cover is arrestingly attractive, why wouldn't you judge in favour of picking up the book to see what it's like inside?
This week's Reading Challenge was to find a book with an appealing cover. Now, if you've read a few of our reviews, you're probably thinking "I bet they raided the Curriculum Collection for this one." Well, you're mostly right. Brenda managed to find something in the religion section though, so hooray for thinking outside the box!
Brenda Carter read Mandalas of the World: A Meditation and Painting Guide by Rudiger Dahkle
If you’ve visited the JCU Cairns library recently you will have seen and maybe helped colour in some beautiful mandalas we have on the ground floor. If you would like to learn more about mandalas and photocopy some more to colour yourself (up to 10% of the total pages of course), Mandalas of the World may be just the book for you.
Not knowing what mandalas symbolize, I was interested to read about their origins, designs and how they have been used throughout the world. What, you ask, is a mandala?
The Mandala is movement – is a wheel of life – the image of the universe, constantly emerging from the one centre, striving towards the outside and at the same time converging out of the diversity to the one centre. Every person recognizes this basic pattern, because it is carried within the self (p. 22).
The author invites us to read and paint our way through the book as an act of self-discovery, a ritual in which how and why we do things is more important than what we do.
You can find Mandalas of the World on the shelf at 291.37 DAH – just look for the book with the appealing cover.
Scot Dale read Baloney (Henry P.) by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith.
Never judge a book by its shiny cover. When I saw that this week’s Reading Challenge required a book with an appealing cover, I moved straight towards the Curriculum Collection. The book I selected, Baloney (Henry P.), has a cute, green alien face on the cover and a metallic background.
Baloney (810 SCI) has a simple plot:
• Henry is late for school
• Henry’s teacher threatens lifelong detention
• Henry invents a “good” excuse
This simple story is made interesting by the use of language Scieszka has employed and the great artwork by Smith (this is the same team that brought us Squids will be Squids).
The story includes words from many different languages throughout the story. These non-English words appear in a yellow font so that they really stand out. This leads the reader to try and figure out the word meaning from its context. There is a “decoder” at the back of the book for verification. The decoder lists each of these non-English words along with their meaning and their language of origin.
The artwork is similarly diverse, employing mixed materials and methods to show us the space world of Henry P. Baloney.
It’s great to learn new things from unexpected places. I now know that the Latvian word for pencil is zimulis and that pordo is the Esperanto word for door.
Sharon Bryan read The Shop at Hoopers Bend, by Emily Rodda.
This book was one of those lovely random selections that usually bring me so much joy. You see, my manager (bless her soul) said, "Hey, it's Reading Hour - let's all grab something and read it in public for an hour!" Since I didn't have anything I was currently reading with me at the time, I grabbed a book with a pretty cover from the Children's Book Week display, and then sat down to discover what it was.
Emily Rodda has been writing books for middle-school kids for a couple of decades, and she does it well. You may know her from the Deltora Quest books, or the Rowan of Rin series, or perhaps the Rondo trilogy, but her place on my bookshelf when I was growing up was held by The Best-Kept Secret. I loved that element of fantasy within the here-and-now.
The Shop at Hoopers Bend (which can be found at C820.94 ROD, when not on display) is a special kind of wonderful. It's a stand alone book (so rare these days) about a shop in a country town (the kind with a house at the back) which just happens to be Home (capital H) for a young girl, a recently "retired" (made redundant) woman and a dog - it's just that they don't yet know they all belong in that shop as a family. A little bit of magic (or is it just coincidence?) and a sprinkling of stardust built into the very fabric of the universe pulls everyone together, where they should be.
If there is any justice in the world, this book will become beloved by generations of readers, and the idea that we click or clash with people based on the stardust in our atoms will become widespread.
There are a few books I have borrowed from libraries in my time that have made me say, "I will spend money on that book and buy one for myself" - this is one of them.
This week's Reading Challenge was to find a book with an appealing cover. Now, if you've read a few of our reviews, you're probably thinking "I bet they raided the Curriculum Collection for this one." Well, you're mostly right. Brenda managed to find something in the religion section though, so hooray for thinking outside the box!
Brenda Carter read Mandalas of the World: A Meditation and Painting Guide by Rudiger Dahkle
Not knowing what mandalas symbolize, I was interested to read about their origins, designs and how they have been used throughout the world. What, you ask, is a mandala?
The Mandala is movement – is a wheel of life – the image of the universe, constantly emerging from the one centre, striving towards the outside and at the same time converging out of the diversity to the one centre. Every person recognizes this basic pattern, because it is carried within the self (p. 22).
The author invites us to read and paint our way through the book as an act of self-discovery, a ritual in which how and why we do things is more important than what we do.
You can find Mandalas of the World on the shelf at 291.37 DAH – just look for the book with the appealing cover.
Scot Dale read Baloney (Henry P.) by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith.
Baloney (810 SCI) has a simple plot:
• Henry is late for school
• Henry’s teacher threatens lifelong detention
• Henry invents a “good” excuse
This simple story is made interesting by the use of language Scieszka has employed and the great artwork by Smith (this is the same team that brought us Squids will be Squids).
The story includes words from many different languages throughout the story. These non-English words appear in a yellow font so that they really stand out. This leads the reader to try and figure out the word meaning from its context. There is a “decoder” at the back of the book for verification. The decoder lists each of these non-English words along with their meaning and their language of origin.
The artwork is similarly diverse, employing mixed materials and methods to show us the space world of Henry P. Baloney.
It’s great to learn new things from unexpected places. I now know that the Latvian word for pencil is zimulis and that pordo is the Esperanto word for door.
Sharon Bryan read The Shop at Hoopers Bend, by Emily Rodda.
Emily Rodda has been writing books for middle-school kids for a couple of decades, and she does it well. You may know her from the Deltora Quest books, or the Rowan of Rin series, or perhaps the Rondo trilogy, but her place on my bookshelf when I was growing up was held by The Best-Kept Secret. I loved that element of fantasy within the here-and-now.
The Shop at Hoopers Bend (which can be found at C820.94 ROD, when not on display) is a special kind of wonderful. It's a stand alone book (so rare these days) about a shop in a country town (the kind with a house at the back) which just happens to be Home (capital H) for a young girl, a recently "retired" (made redundant) woman and a dog - it's just that they don't yet know they all belong in that shop as a family. A little bit of magic (or is it just coincidence?) and a sprinkling of stardust built into the very fabric of the universe pulls everyone together, where they should be.
If there is any justice in the world, this book will become beloved by generations of readers, and the idea that we click or clash with people based on the stardust in our atoms will become widespread.
There are a few books I have borrowed from libraries in my time that have made me say, "I will spend money on that book and buy one for myself" - this is one of them.
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