Favorite May Reads

I feel pretty happy with the books I read in May. Most were pretty good. I read a few of the graphic fiction versions of The Babysitters Club books, several teen and juvenile books for booktalks I gave to a local middle school, and lots of good poetry (most in literary journals).  Here are my favorite May reads!

The Witch Boy series by Molly Knox Ostertag (Juvenile Graphic Fiction)

Though I enjoyed the first book in The Witch Boy series, the second book is even better! I am really enjoying watching the characters and their friendships develop. I was impressed by Charlie's commitment to her friendship with Ariel and how she refused to give up on her, even when Ariel's despair threatened to consume both of them. Also noteworthy is Aster's blossoming friendship with Sedge. I am beside myself with anticipation for the third book, which comes out in November.

The Woman I Kept to Myself by Julia Alvarez (Adult Nonfiction)

Favorite lines: 

From Family Tree - "Until by emigration, seeds were cast on foreign lands: a maternal great-aunt married a German and our name was lost in guttural-patronymics..." 

From Weeping Willow - "A year later, we rented a small house with its own yard in which there grew a tree I'd never seen before: its long branches hung down and wept when the wind blew through them." 

From All-American Girl - "I didn't know if I could ever show genuine feeling in a borrowed tongue."

The Complete Pattern Directory by Elizabeth Wilhide (Adult Nonfiction)

A wealth of beauty and inspiration for artists to absorb and interpret in different ways. I'm already thinking about how to intertwine a couple patterns in collage or embroidery. It's one of those beautiful, heavy books you take out on a rainy day to stare at its pages until your world is transformed and you're surrounded by color again.

Harold and Hog Pretend for Real! by Dan Santat and Mo Willems (Early Reader)

I was devastated and nearly inconsolable when the very last Elephant & Piggie book was published. With this terrible news, came the announcement that Elephant (also known as Gerald) & Piggie, who are learning to read, were going to share their favorite books with their fans. The child in me was tentatively curious. The adult in me was skeptical and unconvinced that these books were going to be even half as amazing as the Elephant & Piggie books. It was a sad day when the adult in me turned out to be right. This happened again and again with each new book that Elephant & Piggie introduced. They're good books, don't get me wrong, but they're no "Will I Share My Ice Cream?" But then something truly magnificent happened. That magnificent something is a book called Harold and Hog Pretend Again! Unlike other books that Elephant & Piggie are learning to read, Harold and Hog is about an elephant and a pig who want to be just like Elephant & Piggie but Harold is carefree unlike Gerald, who is careful, and Hog is careful, unlike Piggie, who is carefree. Oh the drama! If you like books that keep you on the edge of your seat (and also have you falling out of that seat each time you laugh), this is the book for you. Dan Santat illustrates Harold and Hog, and he has done a fine job channeling his inner pig and elephant to create them. I would say his mind meld with both pig and elephant is comparable to Mo Willem's, and they make a great team in this book.