Rebecca Reads » winners

Like Water For Chocolate Winner!

Rebecca Reid — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 03:33:10 +0000

I’m back to blogging after a busy family-filled weekend. My brother got married on Saturday. The bride was beautiful, and it was a wonderful day (and weekend) overall.

I wanted to write a post with the BBAW meme, among other things, but I just spent more than two hours going through Google Reader and reading and commenting on blogs. Instead of staying up later, I’m going to dispense with the meme for now and give you a winner.

The winner of Like Water for Chocolate is….

Brittany of Deckled Edges!

I’ve sent you an email; please send me your address and I’ll get that to you this week.

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Author Spotlight: Margaret Wise Brown + Giveaway Winner

Rebecca Reid — Fri, 29 May 2009 18:48:38 +0000

I’ve got a winner to my contest!

No one guessed the most popular book searched for on Rebecca Reads. The book that I get the most searches for is a children’s book. It is one that I think almost everybody has read at least once: Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. I wrote a post about it here last August, and it has always gotten the most hits on my site. In connection with the contest, I thought I’d take this chance to read some others of Margaret Wise Brown’s picture books.

As for a winner for my giveaway, I chose a winner, then, from all those who did make a guess. (It pays to make a random guess, sometimes!). I’ll send the winner a copy of any of the books I reviewed in the past year.

Out of the twenty people who made guesses, the winner is ……Penny from Penny’s Pages!

Penny, I’ve sent you an email. Please send me your address and which book you’d like out of those I’ve reviewed since I started blogging. The archive is here for your browsing.

Margaret Wise Brown

Goodnight Moon is one of my favorite picture books. My son likes it too. But I hadn’t read any other books by Margaret Wise Brown, so in the past few weeks, I’ve remedied that: some of the others I like a lot, and others I didn’t.

The Runaway Bunny features our little bunny friend from Goodnight Moon and is again illustrated by Clement Hurd. The little bunny tells his mother that he will run away. But no matter where he says he’ll go, his mother has a solution to get him back again. In the end, he decides to stay right where he is. The illustrations alternate between black and white with text to full-color with no text. It’s a very sweet story, and I like to read it to my son. I got the large-sized board book from the library, and he likes turning the big pages.

My World is subtitled “a companion to Goodnight Moon,” but I did not enjoy this one nearly as much. It is illustrated by Clement Hurd and obviously pictures the same room, house, and little bunny as that in Goodnight Moon. It tells the story of a little bunny introducing you to his world. But the things he points to in his world are not always illustrated on that same page, and there is no story to drive the entire book. It randomly ends with:

How many stripes
On a bumble bee?

Tell me: what did I miss with this story book?

It’s interesting how illustration can give a completely different feel to an author. Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown was illustrated by Felicia Bond, and Bond’s illustrations are playful and simple, and yet amazingly realistic. Brown’s text is rhyming and simple. The story is that of the animals going about their animal days and then going to sleep at night. It reminds me very much of Goodnight Moon in its rhymes and simplicity. It’s kind of the equivalent of Goodnight Moon for animals, and I like it just as much.

The Little Island is illustrated by Leonard Weisgard, which provides yet another different feel for a very different kind of story. The story tells of a little island in the middle of the sea, the animals and plants that grow on it, and a kitty that visits and asks how the island is a part of the world. In a subtle way, The Little Island tells that we can be comfortable with ourselves, knowing that we are a part of the world, even if no one else believes us.

And it was good to be a little Island.
A part of the world
and a world of its own
all surrounded by the bright blue sea.

The Caldecott Medal winning illustrations are bright paintings that give life and texture to the island, its vegetation, and the sea that surrounds it.

Margaret Wise Brown’s The Golden Egg Book was published as a Golden Book, and illustrated by Leonard Weisgard. It tells of a rabbit that found an egg and tried to open it. While he sleeps, the little yellow duck comes out of an egg. The rabbit and the duck are friends. The illustrations are bright and engaging, but this book irritated me to no end. Maybe it was because the duck came out of the egg looking rather old, not like a newborn chick. But maybe there was another reason. I’m not sure.

The Quiet Noisy Book is another odd book, also illustrated by Leonard Weisgard in a completely different style. A little dog awoke to a strange noise. In the end, he determines the noise is a new day. The book provides lots of (ridiculous) analogies of things that are quiet: a bee wondering, butter melting, a fish breathing. In some respects it may be educational for children trying to understand analogies:

As quiet as a chair.
Quiet as air.
Quiet as someone whispering a secret to a baby.

As an adult, I didn’t enjoy reading it aloud. But maybe a child would enjoy reading it and learning from it.

Garth William’s illustrated animals in Margaret Wise Brown’s The Little Fur Family seem a little too furry to me, but this is a story about a fur family, so I suppose it’s appropriate. The book I got from my library was a cute little size, so he enjoyed walking around with. The story of the little fur child is entertaining, I suppose, but I found the occasional rhymes rather annoying and the story less than engaging. Again, maybe a child would like it more.

The Color Kittens, illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen, was originally a Little Golden Book, and this one I like. In this story, two kittens mix pails of paint to discover other colors, and they paint their world. The kittens were adorable, and I liked the colorful world they created together. There is a rhythm to The Color Kittens that also makes it pleasant to read aloud. I think it is a winner.

The Caldecott Honor A Child’s Goodnight Book, with pictures by Jean Charlot, has color pencil illustrations to show the different creatures and things around the world that are sleepy or quiet. It doesn’t rhyme as some of Margaret Wise Brown’s books do, but it does have a “sleepy” feel to the language, as each page ends with something sleepy: Sleepy fish, Sleepy sheep, sleepy bunnies, sleepy children. It ends with a prayer, which seems out of place today, but was probably pretty normal given the original publication of 1943.

The library also has a number of stories by Margaret Wise Brown that were originally published for magazines; now they have been reissued with modern illustrations for a picture book format. It was interesting to read some of them. Although I wouldn’t consider them great stories, it was nice to see that stories written fifty years ago can be translated into modern stories with the right illustrations.

In the end, I feel Margaret Wise Brown wrote some winning children’s books. I’m glad for her legacy, and I’m all the more interested to learn about her life and her impact on children’s picture books.

Which is your favorite book by Margaret Wise Brown? Did I miss it?

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Really Old Classics Mini-Challenge Round-Up

Rebecca Reid — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 02:48:48 +0000

A number of people got some Really Old Classics read by the end of February. I’m sending a lucky winner a book of your choice. But first, here’s who participated in the first half of the Really Old Classics Challenge. I’ve formed it like a mini-blog carnival so you might get an idea for your next Really Old Classics read.

It’s All Greek to Me

Worthwhile Books enjoyed reading Aesop’s Fables, saying “not just for kids!”

A few people read Homer. I reviewed Fagles’ Iliad and loved it, and ChainReader also reviewed Fagles’ Iliad, saying it was a 4/5 enrichment factor.

Tuesday in Silhouette read the Fitzgerald and Chapman versions of The Odyssey at the same time, enjoying them both but for different reasons. (I, alas, am still working on Fagles’ Odyssey. My recent move did me in.)

I also reviewed the play Hippolytus by Euripides, which was my first experience with Euripides’ plays – and one I hope to repeat.

Roman Holiday

Tuesday in Silhouette visited Virgil’s Aeneid, but found the Knight prose translation to be “stiff cardboard.” So sorry!

Really Old English

The Curious Reader found Le Morte d’Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory to be nearly impossible to finish, not just because it was 900 pages long but because it was in Old/Middle English. But finish it she did. Way to go, Jeska!

Tuesday in Silhouette was “pleasantly surprised” by the modernity, obscenity, and variety of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (Glaser trans.).

Becky at Becky’s Book Reviews (and Operation Actually Read Bible) loved reading Wycliffe’s New Testament.

Spanish Conquest

Becky at Becky’s Book Reviews made it through 1,200+ pages of Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote (Putnam translation), saying “Did it live up to my expectations? Was it everything I wanted it to be? Yes. And then some.”

A Winner

Not counting my own, there were eight entries. I submitted them into a random integer generator. and the winner is……..

8. Becky of Becky’s Book Reviews

Congratulations! I have sent you an email. In addition to your address, let me know which book (any book, up to $15 not counting shipping) you’d like me to send you.

The Really Old Classics Challenge is half over, but that just means there are still five months for you to keep reading and reviewing – and linking to your reviews on this post. I hope that the reviews of the other challenge participants got you excited for your next “Really Old Classic.”

There may be another mini-challenge of some kind in the coming months, so watch for it!

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Winner of Anthem + Swamped

Rebecca Reid — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:00:59 +0000

The winner of my copy of Anthem is …Jessica at The Bluestocking Society!

Send me your address and I’ll send the book to you, probably with my Christmas packages, which are still not ready to go quite yet. (They may be later than Christmas…Oops!)

I have three Christmas-y reviews that I was planning to write and post this week but I still haven’t written them (including A Christmas Carol, which I read in November and still haven’t reviewed it!). I was going to have a Christmas-y giveaway too but it’s not going to happen this year!

Imagine that, I have lots of other things to do, like decorate Christmas cookies with my nieces and nephews, write Christmas cards, wrap and mail presents, eat more fudge, etc. I love the holidays and I was really looking forward to sharing my love for Christmas with my fellow readers. But I’m trying to stay afloat right now: Let’s see if I get just those three posts up before the holiday gets here!

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A Meme, A Farewell, and A Giveaway Winner

Rebecca Reid — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 14:00:56 +0000

Bookshelf Meme

Eva at A Striped Armchair created a fun meme about the books on our bookshelves.

The book that’s been on your shelves the longest: Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery, which was a tenth birthday gift.

A book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time, etc.): Beloved by Toni Morrison, which I read for the first time in high school. I always think of my mother, an English teacher who helped me see that reading good literature is delightful, even when challenging. Even though I haven’t loved Beloved as much on subsequent reads, I still think of my mother and that time of discovering literature.

A book you acquired in some interesting way (gift, serendipity in a used bookstore, prize, etc.): Since I started blogging, I’ve won at least a half-dozen books! My first win was a two-for-one: Memoirs of a Geisha and Too Late the Phalarope by Alan Paton from Maw Books Blog. (I still haven’t read either yet, but I’ve been hearing lots of good things about Memoirs of a Geisha, so it may be coming soon!)

The most recent addition to your shelves: I discovered a used and new bookstore this Thanksgiving. It was so much fun choosing books. I bought Gone with the Wind, The Complete Stories of John Cheever, The Fixer by Bernard Malamud, Pale Fire by Nabokov, and Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe, among others. (None were more than $3.)

The book whose loss would traumatize you the most: I don’t think I’m all that attached to the physical books I own, as much as I love them and enjoy owning them. I can get any of them again, if need be. That said, I really like the Everyman’s Pocket Poets editions. I only own one (Wordsworth) but I love the feel of it and I’d be sad to lose it.

A book that’s been with you to the most places: The only book I’ve taken with me to six continents (Africa, Middle East, Europe, Australia, North America and South America) would be the scriptures, I suppose due to limited packing space on most occassions.

A bonus book that you want to talk about but doesn’t fit into the other questions: My favorite book to reread has to be To Kill a Mockingbird. I love that book so much!

Farewell

I have only been blogging for a few months. Nonetheless, Dewey of The Hidden Side of a Leaf has been a great influence on me as I discovered the wonderful book blogging community through the Bookworms Carnival, Weekly Geeks (which I participated in sporadically), and other community building formats.

Unfortunately, Dewey passed away last week. My thoughts and prayers are with her family. Although I never met her in person, I feel a connection to her through the books she shared. Her presence in the book cyber-world will certainly be missed!

A Winner

Dewey’s last post was about the spirit of giving this season and about all the books she intended to give away. While Dewey is no longer able to do so, I’m going to do my part and giveaway some books in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.

To begin, the winner of my lightly used copy of The Planets is Amanda! I’ve sent you an email; please send me an address to send it to.

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Spooktacular Winners

Rebecca Reid — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 12:30:18 +0000

With 27 entrants to the Spooktacular Hatchette Book USA giveaway, there are three winners of boxes of books. Each person was assigned a number, and using a random number, I selected three winners. They are:

Lisa at Books Lists Life!

Natasha at Maw Books Blog!

Jupiter at crazy dumbsaint of the mind!

There was one winner of the international giveaway of Dracula, courtesy of me.

Myrthe of The Armenian Odar Reads!

I’ve emailed all of the winners. Thanks for reading Rebecca Reads.

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Harry Potter Giveaway Winner

Rebecca Reid — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:17:19 +0000

There were 37 comments on the post, 36 of which were entered into the contest. I assigned everyone a number (in the order you commented, excluding the person who didn’t want to be entered.) Using a random number generator, the winner is…..

Book Dads!

Book Dads, I can’t give you Flo Powder; you’ll have to hang on to your gas guzzling car a little longer. I hope Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and a Harry Potter bookmark is consolation!

I will email you; if I do not get a response with an address within in three days, I’ll have to select a new winner.

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BAFAB Week Winner

Rebecca Reid — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 11:03:13 +0000

The winner of the Buy a Friend a Book week giveaway is Alessandra! Alessandra wants to read Henry James’ Portrait of a Lady. I’ll send you an email, Alessandra.

For the rest of you, I’m sorry I can’t buy you all a book. Happy reading, all the same!

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HTR&W Winner + BAFAB Week

Rebecca Reid — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 02:58:19 +0000

Today I have a winner and another giveaway. (My budget won’t let me do this every week, though.)

HTR&W Giveaway Winner

Seven people (Nicole, Kim, Care aka Bkclubcare, Ahava, Rose City Reader, Susan, Susan L.) indicated their interest in reading the HTR&W works. I’ve been intimidated and excited by the list this weekend, and I’m excited that others are similarly interested in reading the works on it.

Using a random number generator, the winner of the giveaway is commenter number 4, Ahava! I’ll send you a copy of HTR&W.

I’ve purposely made this challenge open-ended for me: I want to make sure I’m reading to read, not to cross the work off a list. I’m going to read them all, mostly in order (although I may do some of the novels out of order to begin with), however long it takes me. For those of you who are also reading the works, you can make your personal challenge however you want: read x books in a year; read all the books in x time period; read all the books except ____; read in whatever order; etc. You decide. There are no “challenge police,” as someone once told me.

In a moment of wasting time, I designed some buttons for this challenge. I’ve based these on the book cover(s).

Or, you can continue to use the full book cover (as above).

I’ve also started a Shelfari HTR&W discussion group. Even if you won’t be reading all of the HTR&W works, come join our discussion there!

BAFAB Week

It was so much fun giving away a book this week that I am going to do it again. It’s Buy A Friend A Book Week. If you leave a comment on my blog, you’re my blogging friend! But I can’t buy you all a book.

To promote the HTR&W works, I’d love to giveaway a novel, play, collection of stories, or collection of poetry from the HTR&W list to anyone; you don’t have to have “committed” to the HTR&W challenge. If you want to be entered into a drawing to win one of them, leave a comment on this post, telling me which work on the HTR&W list you’d really like to read.

Next Sunday, I’ll randomly select a winner and send him/her that novel or play or the collection of short stories or poetry. This is open to anyone who can receive a shipment from Amazon.com, which I believe is the entire globe. (Please correct me if I’m wrong.)

Happy reading!

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