I write a regular column called GLOBAL BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS for The International Educator, a print and online magazine that reaches thousands of educators at international schools around the world.
Access it here: https://blog.tieonline.com/category/margriet-ruurs/
You will find more than 500 books reviewed here. Books that have global appeal, often dealing with friendships, the environment and different cultures.
Enjoy!
Sometimes I get the feeling that it is not me selecting the next book to read, but that the book is waiting for me to read it.
Recently I read two books that beautifully complemented each other without me realizing it until I delved into the second one.
The first book is by one of my favourite nonfiction authors: Ross King. His books take place in Italy and are all based on historic facts. I loved Brunelleschi’s Dome and Michaelangelo and The Pope’s Ceiling. Both books took me straight into medieval Italy.
When I saw the new, and beautifully executed title The Bookseller of Florence, I had to read it.
The book is a feast for the eye and focuses on all things book: the history of writing, printing and producing manuscripts. I have never left so many sticky notes all over the pages because I wanted to remember all of the fascinating tidbits.
I did find this book lacking in story line. It did focus on one person: Vespasiano da Bisticci who created and preserved many important books and was the hub of scribes and book producers in medieval Florence. However, unlike the other books, I did not get swept away with strong characters and a spell binding plot. The nonfiction facts, however, were fascinating enough to keep me reading. I learned much about the creation of original books, and enjoyed meeting Gutenberg and learning more about his press. Ross King’s knowledge about politics, economy and life in Europe in this era, is more than impressive.
• The Bookseller of Florence, Ross King, ISBN 978-0-385-69297-7, Doubleday
Having read that book first, I was amazed when I got into my next book, a fictional story called The Scribe of Siena by Melodie Winawer. I am not crazy about adult fiction but this one really appealed to me because of the ‘scribe’ part and because I spent time in Siena. Having been there, I could totally picture the setting: the streets, the Campo, the tower, the church.
This story starts in New York and is contemporary. Neurosurgeon Beatrice Travato inherites a house in Siena. It’s well written but involves time travel – something I wasn’t sure about in an adult novel. I enjoyed time travel in children’s books like The Root Cellar by Janet Lunn. But in this realistic adult book? Hhhmmm… However, the story is so well told that I did not mind the time travel aspect, although I did find I had to buy into it. Beatrice time travels, in a solid, believable manner, to Siena of the mid 1300’s. The book is mysterious and exciting. The solid research behind it makes the characters (names I recognized from the nonfiction book), life and setting real. I was glad I had the knowledge of the previous book, The Bookseller of Florence, because this one too, focused on a scribe copying on parchment. A fascinating read and highly recommended as a twosome.
• The Scribe of Siena, Melodie Winawer, ISBN 978-1-5011-5226-9, Simon & Schuster
With Halloween and Día de los Muertos coming up, I can’t resist sharing some wonderful appropriate reads with you! These books are a treat, not a trick!
Brand new this Fall is a book that I immediately fell in love with: The Strangest Thing in the Sea by Rachel Poliquin, with art by Byron Eggenschwiler is brilliant. The clever text tells us about the strangest creature that lives in the ocean. But when you flip the flap over, it reveals the real amazing creature, together with lots of fascinating nonfiction information. But – this is not the strangest thing in the sea… So continues each page, each flap to reveal something even more bizarre. Vampire Squid, Goblin Shark, Yeti Crabs that resemble a pile of skulls… But guess what the strangest creature of all is, who could not survive its explorations of the deep sea without equipment and inventions… A beautifully executed picture book for deep sea lovers of all ages ánd fun to read at Halloween. ISBN 978-1-77138-918-1, Kids Can Press
FROM FAR AWAYby Robert Munsch. This might be Robert Munsch’s least well known book but it’s one of my favourites. He co-wrote this picture book with Saoussan Askar (age 9). She wrote a letter to Robert Munsch, of Love You Foreverfame, to share her story of immigrating from Beirut, Lebanon. She was happy to live in a safe place, but when Halloween came around she was suddenly confronted with ghosts and skeletons in closets. Munsch skillfully turned her scary tale into a funny one that highlights differences in cultures and the difference a caring teacher can make. Great to share at this time of year! ISBN 1-55037-396-X, Annick Press
GHOSTSby Raina Telgemeier is a graphic novel. Its word choices and story content make this is a great story for slightly older readers. Catrina, her sister Maya who suffers from cystic fibrosis and their parents move to a new town. Catrina does not like it there. Nor does she like the town’s history full of ghosts, which is celebrated during Diá de los Muertos. Catrina is very hesitant to go out on Halloween night but she and her sister meet many ghosts who help change their perspective. ISBN 978-0-545-54062-9, Scholastic
MARY WHO WROTE FRANKENSTEINby Linda Bailey is the beautifully crafted background story of Mary who, as a little girl who learns to read by tracing the letters on tombstones. At age 19 she is challenged by Lord Byron and Percy Shelley to write a scary story. Mary Shelley ends up creating the most terrifying, and enduring, tale of all: Frankenstein. This gorgeous biography showcases captivating art by Júlia Sardá. A great book to use, even in high school, to discuss the origins of Frankenstein and where stories may come from. ISBN 978-1770495593, Tundra Books
Rarely do I pick up a new book (for kids) and know this will be an instant classic. But such is the case with this season’s new title by J.K. Rowling – The Christmas Pig.
Take all-time favourites and classics like The Phantom Toll Booth, The Velveteen Rabbit and The Polar Express. Stir into a cauldron of great language and word play, sprinkle liberally with the magic of Harry Potter and add some outlandish adventures such as in the 80’s movie Flight of the Navigator, and you come close to The Christmas Pig.
This thick novel, which can be read aloud to the whole family, curled up together by the Christmas tree, or read by avid young readers themselves, is a whirlwind adventure of Christmas and bedtime, stuffed animals and evil villains. Black and white art by Jim Field lends a classic feel to the book.
The story starts off dealing with an ordinary family. Jack is little when his parents end up getting divorced. You come to understand the little boy who bottles up his feelings and heavily relies on his favourite stuffed animal, you guessed it – a little piggy, to keep Jack’s whispered secrets to itself.
Enter a new man in his mom’s life, who brings along Holly, who becomes Jack’s new stepsister. Being a teenager, Holly brings mood swings and bad tempers into the family. One Christmas Eve, Holly is fed up with everything that is unfair and tosses Jack’s trusted stuffed pig out of the car window. That night, Jack falls asleep, full of anger and tears.
The adventures that follow are Harry Potter-esque: toys and objects come to life, whisking Jack away to the Land of Lost Things. Told in typical J.K. Rowling style, everything that happens seems quite plausible: there’s a land where everything that is Lost ends up. The objects, and feelings too, are sorted into ‘much loved’ or ‘barely missed’ Things. If no human cared about them at all, and does not even miss them, these Things eventually will be eaten by the terrible, scary, voracious Loser. But if there is a glimmer of hope, they might rise again to live on earth among their beloved humans.
Jack’s adventures, as well as the writing style, are brilliant. He travels to snow covered villages, on toy trains and is pursued by Loss Adjusters. Once I got to the part where a lost garden glove plays the honky-tonk piano, I realized that I was ‘seeing the movie’ in my head. This story will undoubtedly become a favourite Christmas movie before long.
Only J. K. Rowling can use her brilliant fantasy to bring to life a king called Power, a queen called Happiness and some very plausible Principles, all lost to their original owners and now leading a life under the painted ceiling of the Land of the Lost. Perhaps my favourite character is Poem, a papery thin lady who only speaks in rhyme as she helps the hero along.
The story starts of with a very young child and stuffed animals – making this a great book to share with small children. However, towards the middle the story turns dark and quite scary in places. As the Loser ‘sucks life’ out of Things and discards them in the ever burning fires, I thought… hhhmm… not sure I want to read these, sometimes quite graphic, descriptions to 6 year olds. But suddenly I remembered myself as a six-year-old eagerly listening to the books my mom read to me. My favourite stories came in a thick, leather bound book: Grimm’s Fairytales. The best ones were those in which the wicked witch’s head was chopped off or she was stuffed in the oven. Never did I suffer a sleepless night from those gruesome tales. They showed me what was right and what was wrong. They taught me morals. They ensured me that wicked ways were punished.
In her important book Touch Magic, Jane Yolen demonstrates the importance of folk and fairy tales which imparted morals on people for centuries until we started to replace all the scary parts with syrupy sweet ones because they were too scary for kids to handle, even if the evening news on TV is much scarier. Perhaps J.K. Rowling is doing kids a favour by reverting back to the strength of classic fairytales in this new Christmas story. The underlying message of ‘too much stuff’, of reduce, reuse and recycle is a bit much and I would have liked to know with a bit more certainty that the evil Loser disappears in the end. But it’s good to know that Things like Hope, Happiness and Love will conquer all. Even if Jack appears to wake up and perhaps it all was a dream, there’s enough evidence to make me buy into believing in the magic of Jack’s adventures. Including the wisdom and support he was given by Santa Claus himself.
I can see this book becoming a beloved Christmas tradition to be read annually in any family. And if I were a movie maker, I’d snap up the rights quicker than you can say ‘Merry Christmas’!
ISBN 978-1-338-79023-8, Scholastic
You know those great books that you get ‘into’ and you can’t wait to find out how it ends. But you don’t want them to end…?
Well, I picked up Unravel by Sharon Jennings and I started turning pages. Couldn’t stop reading. The story reads so well, so true. I was right there in Toronto with Rebecca and her strange father. She is such a spunky, independent girl that, despite her strange upbringing, she seems to be alright. But Rebecca struggles with how different her “family” of two is from other families that she observes in her neighbourhood. She doesn’t go to school. She can’t even get a library card even though she is a voracious reader. Books might well be what saved her. She shops at thrift stores and rides the bus by herself.
As soon as she settles and makes friends, her dad packs up and forces her to leave again. But as Rebecca get older, she realizes that something is wrong. Things don’t ring true anymore. The story is so well written that you just have to find out what exactly it is that is wrong.
In the 1990’s I had a favourite book called The Face on The Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney. I used that book a lot in writing workshops because the short content was so intriguing. Unravel is every bit as good. A fabulous story for middle graders to sink their teeth in, learn about what life can be like and how what you see on the surface may not be the entire truth…
ISBN 9780889956193, Red Deer Press
Wow. The power of stories is exemplified in this novel. It’s fiction BUT based on absolutely true events and people. If books are mirrors of the world, of real life – then this book can only teach us empathy and compassion…
Published by Scholastic and written by a skilled writer of books for children, this one is for older readers. I would not quite give this to my 11 year old grandson yet. Three horrific stories in one:
Three different kids, three different eras, but the same mission for each of them and their families –
Josef, a Jewish boy in 1930s Nazi Germany. Having survived Kristalnacht and with the threat of concentration camps looming, he and his family board a ship bound for the other side of the world…
Isabel lives in Cuba in 1994. Riots, hunger and unrest plague her country, and she and her family set out on a raft, hoping to find safety and freedom in America…
Mahmoud lives in Aleppo, Syria in 2015. With his homeland torn apart by violence and destruction, he and his family begin a long trek toward the safety of Europe…
Each faces a harrowing journey in search of a safe place to live. All face unimaginable dangers – from drownings to bombings to betrayals. But for each of them, there is still the hope of tomorrow. Josef, Isabel, and Mahmoud are separated by continents and decades, yet surprising connections tie their stories together in the end – showing that each of us has an obligation to help others in this life, in this one world we share.
A portion of the sale of this book is donated by the author to Save The Children and UNICEF.
The Library of Ever by Zeno Alexander
As soon as I spotted this novel for young readers in my local bookstore, I knew I had to own it. And it was a wise choice. As I read, I met Lenora and traveled along on her wild adventures through the ages and around the globe, all entered through a library.
Lenora is ‘hired’ as Fourth Assistant Apprentice Librarian and climbs her way up the library ladder, through solving problems and risking her life for knowledge. ‘Knowledge is a Light’ is the library’s slogan, chiseled in stone, and Lenore knows it’s true, especially when she encounters dark forces who want to get rid of books and ban others from gathering knowledge through reading.
I’ve read many other books with a library theme: Escape From Mr. Lemoncello’s Library for instance. But those books are merely fun entertainment. The Library of Ever actually has a whole layer beyond its entertainment value that, almost imperceptibly, demonstrates the importance of books, research and the freedom to read.
I soon loved how this unique book blends fantasy with true questions, asked at the Help Desk and whose answers can be found only be doing research. The book is very cleverly written because we all have asked some of the questions and often have made the mistake of not enough fact checking. Reading, I learned some very interesting facts – from the highest point on earth (not what you think!) to Minoan Literature, from leap years to hieroglyphs. Readers’ minds can truly grow on this book.
Underlying all of Lenora’s adventures is the threat of Dark Forces. As the Chief Librarian states at one point: ‘the value of a Library cannot be counted in money.’ Same with the book – it was well worth the 10.- purchase price and both my grandson and I gained much more from the reading experience than just fun hours spent reading together. We kept sharing what we learned by saying “Did you know this? And listen to this!”…
Fantasy is not normally a genre I enjoy but now I can’t wait to read the next title: Rebel in the Library of Ever.
@ZAlexanderBooks
ISBN 978-1-250-23370-7
Eric Walters is one of the hardest working authors I know.
He has written over a hundred books, gives presentations in schools day after day. He tirelessly helps and supports other writers. He spearheaded the #IReadCanadian campaign and has taken many other initiatives to help put Canadian books in the hands of children.
Now he has written a book in record time: 7 weeks. Don’t Stand So Close To Me is the story of the current pandemic. It shows Quinn, Isaac and friends and how they are all effected by the sudden school closure. Their family lives are changed as their parents’ work demands and hours change (one is a police officer, another is a medical doctor, etc). Suddenly they only see each other and their teacher via Zoom meetings. But the story also shows how kids can take initiatives and make the best of a difficult situation, how they can even help others.
The story brings the Covid-19 situation to an understandable level for kids. It’s nice that this is a fictional novel, not an information books with facts about Covid-19 but a story in which many kids can recognize themselves. This book is aimed at 9 – 12 year olds. It’s an easy read at about 120 pages and available as e-book only until the print version comes out in September. I can see this story making a great class read to discuss (on Zoom?) and to help children see that they are not the only ones whose lives are effected.
ISBN: 9781459827899
Price: $7.99
https://www.orcabook.com/Search.aspx?k=don%27t+stand+so+close+to+me
Every once in a while you pick up a book that – like an arrow – goes straight to your heart. Here are two books that recently did that for me. The first one is a brand-new book. A monument in itself, a tribute to booklovers and wordlovers in the broadest sense of the word: Alphamaniacs, Builders of 26 Wonders of the Word, written by Paul Fleischman and illustrated by Melissa Sweet. 
The text is a poetic description of 26 people who made a difference in the world of language – some are writers, others invented a new style or printed books in a new, unique way. Rather than a summation of biographiesthe author chose to use the voice of acircus ringmaster to introduce each ‘Wonder of the Word’. There is Jean-Dominique Bauby who became paralyzed except for one eye lid and ended up dictating an entire novel by blinking the letters. An astonishing feat. Jumping back and forth through the ages, the book celebrates Europeanwriters and native Americans, among others. One is Jessie Little Doe Bairdwho singlehanded saved her Wampanoag language, actually bringing it back from extinction. There’s the inventor of Klingon as well as the creator of Esperanto, a universal language created by Ludwik Zamenhof in Poland in hopes of promoting peace and understanding between people.
Each story is accompanied by a piece of art by the incredible master of collage, Caldecott Honor illustrator Melissa Sweet, making this book is a feast for the eye and ear of any booklover.
Candlewick Studio, ISBN 978-0763690663 
Another book I recently fell in love with, but which was published a few years ago, is the picturebook A Child of Books by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston. One of those fabulous books for anyone who knows the value of stories, this one starts with a pen and a blank page. Then the main character takes us along on a celebration of books, through illustrations composed of words from those very books. While sailing the ocean, the words forming the waves are from books like Ten Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, The Swiss Family Robinson and more. Kids climb mountains of words from Peter Pan to reach the sky. They discover treasure and wander through forests made of book spines. I love this book and its powerful images, and I suspect that booklovers of all ages will love it, too.
Candlewick Press, ISBN 978-0-7636-9077-9 
Emma was growing up… from a dandelion chick to a feathery, white hen.
But what to do with all those beautiful eggs she was now laying? She decided to make her eggs the way people seemed to want them: from scrambled to painted! But nothing pleased the farmer until Emma gave up and sat on her egg
Have fun this Easter sharing all four Emma books. You can checked them out from your local library, purchase them from your local bookstore or order here.
And here is a fun colouring sheet designed by illustrator Barbara Spurll!
Happy Easter!
Make paper bag Emma’s!
Make Emma’s Egg baskets!
