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WORK TITLE: House of Dreams: The Life of L.M. Montgomery
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 2/3/1955
WEBSITE:
CITY: Binghamton
STATE: NY
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
| LC control no.: | n 84031148 |
|---|---|
| LCCN Permalink: | https://lccn.loc.gov/n84031148 |
| HEADING: | Rosenberg, Liz |
| 000 | 01047cz a2200205n 450 |
| 001 | 110124 |
| 005 | 20081120061034.0 |
| 008 | 840910n| acannaabn |a aaa |
| 010 | __ |a n 84031148 |
| 035 | __ |a (OCoLC)oca01199130 |
| 040 | __ |a DLC |b eng |c DLC |d DLC |d OCoLC |d DLC |d OCoLC |
| 053 | _0 |a PS3568.O7874 |
| 100 | 1_ |a Rosenberg, Liz |
| 400 | 1_ |a Rosenberg, L. M., |d 1955- |
| 670 | __ |a Her The angel poems, 1984: |b t.p. (Liz Rosenberg) jkt. (teaches creative writing at the State Univ. of N.Y. at Binghamton) |
| 670 | __ |a Her The fire music, 1986: |b CIP t.p. (Liz Rosenberg) data sheet (b. Feb. 3, 1955) |
| 670 | __ |a Her L.M. Rosenberg [SR] 1983. |
| 670 | __ |a State University of New York at Binghamton, English Department faculty Web site, June 8, 2004 |b (Liz Rosenberg; professor; Ph. D., SUNY Binghamton) |
| 670 | __ |a State University of New York at Binghamton Web OPAC, June 9, 2004 |b (Rosenberg, Liz–Earth-shattering poems [Thesis (Ph. D.)–State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Comparative Literature, 1998]) |
| 953 | __ |a br02 |b ta30 |
PERSONAL
Born February 3, 1955; married John Gardner (an author; died, 1982), married David Bosnick (deceased); children (second marriage): Eli, Lilly.
EDUCATION:Bennington College, B.A.; Johns Hopkins University, M.A.; State University of New York at Binghamton, Ph.D., 1998.
ADDRESS
CAREER
State University of New York at Binghamton, Binghamton, NY, professor of English.
AWARDS:Agnes Lynch Starret Prize, 1986, for The Fire Music; Claudia Lewis Award for Poetry, and New York Public Library “Best Book for the Teen Age” citation, both 1998, both for Earth-Shattering Poems; Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Prize, 2000, for Light-Gathering Poems; also received Paterson Prize and the Center for the Book Prize.
WRITINGS
Also consulting and contributing editor, Rivkah Slonim, editor, Total Immersion: A Mikvah Anthology, J. Aronson (Northvale, NJ), 1996, 2nd edition, Urim Publications (New York, NY), 2006; Rivkah Slonim, editor, Bread and Fire: Jewish Women Find God in the Everyday, Urim Publications (New York, NY), 2008.
SIDELIGHTS
Binghamton University English professor Liz Rosenberg has earned a reputation as a novelist and a poet, but she is perhaps best known for her children’s books. These include titles such as Adelaide and the Night Train, Window, Mirror, Moon, The Scrap Doll, A Book of Days, Monster Mama, The Carousel, Moonbathing, Grandmother and the Runaway Shadow, Eli and Uncle Dawn, A Big and Little Alphabet, The Silence in the Mountains, I Did It Anyway, Eli’s Night-light, We Wanted You, On Christmas Eve, Nobody, Tyrannosaurus Dad, and What James Said. Rosenberg has also published a collection of traditional verse (Mama Goose: A New Mother Goose) and edited a couple of anthologies of poetry suitable for children and youths: The Invisible Ladder: An Anthology of Contemporary American Poems for Young Readers, and Roots & Flowers: Poets and Poems on Family.
Rosenberg’s House of Dreams: The Life of L.M. Montgomery tells the story of the Canadian author who composed the beloved series of stories featuring a young orphaned girl named Anne Shirley growing up on Prince Edward Island at the close of the nineteenth century. Those who have already encountered the “Anne” books, which Montgomery based loosely on her own life, said Shoshana Flax, writing in Horn Book, “will find context for where beloved books fit into Montgomery’s career trajectory, as well as plenty of anecdotes that will sound familiar.” She “explores Montgomery’s fierce attachment to Prince Edward Island,” explained a Publishers Weekly reviewer, “as well as her family loyalty … and relentless ambition.” “Rosenberg,” related Kate DiGirolomo in School Library Journal, “also details her subject’s imagination, zest for nature, and her perfectly imperfect characters who still continue to touch so many.”
Montgomery’s novels became runaway bestsellers almost as soon as they were published—but they did not earn a fortune for the author herself; she was victimized by a hugely unfair contract with her publisher and had to sue him to be released from its terms. She also married a minister who suffered severely from depression, and there is evidence that she suffered from depression herself later in her life. “The family bought a house in Toronto where she died,” stated Myra Junyk in Resource Links, “but it was not until 2008 that her family released the details of her final days.” The college professor “writes clearly and honestly, making liberal use of Maud’s own words,” wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor, “allowing Maud’s courage and joy to shine despite her very real problems.” “The dedicated research of Rosenberg,” declared Pamela Thompson in Voice of Youth Advocates, “provides young readers with a well-rounded biography of an iconic author.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, November 15, 1995, Stephanie Zvirin, review of The Carousel, p. 565; April 1, 1996, Hazel Rochman, review of Grandmother and the Runaway Shadow, p. 1373; June 1, 1996, Stephanie Zvirin, review of Heart and Soul, p. 1702; September 15, 1996, Hazel Rochman, review of The Invisible Ladder: An Anthology of Contemporary American Poems for Young Readers, p. 228; October 15, 1996, Susan Dove Lempke, review of Moonbathing, p. 422; May 15, 1997, Annie Ayres, review of Eli and Uncle Dawn, p. 1581; November 1, 1997, Hazel Rochman, review of A Big and Little Alphabet, p. 484; December 15, 1997, Hazel Rochman, review of Earth-shattering Poems, p. 688; February 1, 1999, John Peters, review of The Silence in the Mountains, p. 982; March 15, 2000, Hazel Rochman, review of Light-gathering Poems, p. 1377; March 15, 2001, Gillian Engberg, review of Roots & Flowers: Poets and Poems on Family, p. 1392; March 15, 2001, Gillian Engberg, review of Light-gathering Poems, p. 1393; June 1, 2001, Gillian Engberg, review of Eli’s Night-light, p. 1895; September 15, 2002, Hazel Rochman, review of On Christmas Eve, p. 246; November 15, 2002, Frances Bradburn, review of Seventeen: A Novel in Prose Poems, p. 589; November 15, 2005, Gillian Engberg, review of I Just Hope It’s Lethal: Poems of Sadness, Madness and Joy, p. 36; October 15, 2014, Cortney Ophoff, review of The Moonlight Palace, p. 24; May 15, 2015, Maryann Owen, review of What James Said, p. 59; June 1, 2018, Biz Hyzy, review of House of Dreams: The Life of L.M. Montgomery, p. 73.
Boston Globe, May 30, 2013, review of The Laws of Gravity.
Girls’ Life, April-May 1997, review of The Invisible Ladder: An Anthology of Contemporary American Poems for Young Readers, p. 23.
Horn Book, March-April, 1993, Nancy Vasilakis, review of Monster Mama, p. 200; November-December, 1996, Nancy Vasilakis, review of Heart and Soul, p. 746; January-February, 1998, Nancy Vasilakas, review of Earth-shattering Poems, p. 88; May, 2000, review of Light-gathering Poems, p. 327; November-December, 2005, Jennifer M. Brabander, review of I Just Hope It’s Lethal, p. 733; July-August, 2018, Shoshana Flax, review of House of Dreams, p. 138.
Horn Book Guide, fall, 2010, Susan Halperin, review of Nobody, p. 313; fall, 2011, Carrie Harasimowicz Sullivan, review of Tyrannosaurus Dad, p. 328; spring, 2016, Sam Bloom, review of What James Said, p. 46.
Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, April, 2003, Nick Hart, “17,” p. 608.
Kirkus Reviews, January 15, 2002, review of We Wanted You, p. 108; September 1, 2002, review of Seventeen, p. 1318; November 1, 2002, review of On Christmas Eve, p. 1625; October 15, 2005, review of I Just Hope It’s Lethal, p. 1146; October 1, 2008, review of This Is the Wind; April 1, 2011, review of Tyrannosaurus Dad; April 1, 2018, review of House of Dreams.
Kliatt, September 2005, Beth Lizardo, review of I Just Hope It’s Lethal: Poems of Sadness, Madness and Joy, p. 32.
Library Journal, May 1, 2009, BetteLee Fox, review of Home Repair, p. 71.
Nation, December 27, 1986, Grace Schulman, review of The Fire Music, p. 742.
Publishers Weekly, March 30, 1990, Diane Roback, review of Window, Mirror, Moon, p. 61; January 25, 1993, review of Monster Mama, p. 87; September 25, 1995, review of The Carousel, p. 56; May 13, 1996, review of Grandmother and the Runaway Shadow, p. 76; February 3, 1997, review of Eli and Uncle Dawn, p. 105; March 22, 1999, review of The Silence in the Mountains, p. 92; May 14, 2001, review of Eli’s Night-light, p. 80; February 25, 2002, review of We Wanted You, p. 66; September 30, 2002, review of Seventeen, p. 72; May 31, 2010, review of Nobody, p. 46; January 5, 2009, review of Home Repair, p. 31; March 28, 2011, review of Tyrannosaurus Dad, p. 54; April 20, 2015, review of What James Said, p. 75; April 23, 2018, review of House of Dreams, p. 91.
Reading Today, October, 2000, Lynne T. Burke, review of The Silence in the Mountains, p. 32.
Resource Links, June, 2018, Myra Juneyk, review of House of Dreams: The Life of L.M. Montgomery, p. 22.
School Library Journal, June, 2000, Kristen, Oravec, review of Light-gathering Poems, p. 170; May, 2001, Herman Sutter, review of Roots & Flowers, p. 170; Gay Lynn Van Vleck, review of Eli’s Night-light, August, 2001, p. 160; April, 2002, Judith Constantinides, review of We Wanted You, p. 121; October, 2002, Virginia Walter, review of On Christmas Eve, p. 63; November 2002, Susan W. Hunter, review of Seventeen, p. 174; December, 2005, Jessi Platt, review of I Just Hope It’s Lethal, p. 172; October, 2006, review of I Just Hope It’s Lethal, p. S73; October 2008, Julie Roach, review of This Is the Wind, p. 121; May, 2010, Anne Beier, review of Nobody, p. 90; May, 2011, Marge Loch-Wouters, review of Tyrannosaurus Dad, p. 88; October, 2015, Megan Egbert, review of What James Said, p. 83; May, 2018, Kate DiGirolomo, review of House of Dreams, p. 122.
Voice of Youth Advocates, June, 2018, Pamela Thompson, review of House of Dreams, p. 79.
ONLINE
All Readers, http://allreaders.com/ (September 5, 2018), review of The Laws of Gravity.
Binghamton University, https://www.binghamton.edu/ (September 5, 2018), author profile.
BookPage, https://bookpage.com/ (June 9, 2015), Julie Danielson, review of What James Said.
Book Wars, http://thebookwars.ca/ (June 2, 2015), review of What James Said.
Dear Author, https://dearauthor.com/ (April 20, 2015), review of The Moonlight Palace.
Historical Novel Society, https://historicalnovelsociety.org/ (February, 2017), review of Beauty and Attention.
Jewish Book Council, https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/ (September 5, 2018), review of The Laws of Gravity.
Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/ (September 5, 2018), author profile.
About Liz Rosenberg
Liz Rosenberg is the author of 5 novels, 4 books of poems and more than 20 award winning books for children. She has edited five prize winning poetry anthologies (including THE INVISIBLE LADDER and LIGHT GATHERING POEMS) and her picture book, THE CAROUSEL was featured on PBS' Reading Rainbow. TYRANNOSAURUS DAD (illustrated by Matthew Myers) is a Children's Book of the Month Club bestseller and has garnered praise from Publisher's Weekly, Kirkus, School Library Journal and elsewhere, and was an Amazon top 10 children's book. WHAT JAMES SAID, her newest children's book, (ALSO ill. by Matthew Myers) is a Best Book for Social Studies. Her children's book, MONSTER MAMA, is currently under option as a feature movie.
Her long-awaited first non-fiction book, HOUSE OF DREAMS, a biography of author L.M. Montgomery, (Anne of Green Gables) will be published June 2018. It is a Junior Library Guild Selection.
Her first novel for adults, HOME REPAIR was a Target Breakout book, a BookBub pick, and voted top ten for Book Clubs and Most Likely to be Next Oprah Pick on Goodreads. Her second, THE LAWS OF GRAVITY, has been a best-seller in the United States, Canada, Germany and the UK. and was a Jewish Book Network selection for 2013. The Boston Globe hailed it as "a thoughtful story about morality, personal responsibility, the law, and above all, the complicated, sometimes incomprehensible ties of family."
THE MOONLIGHT PALACE was the #1 best-selling Kindle book on Amazon. It was chosen to be a Kindle First, and was a #1 best-seller in the US and UK. BEAUTY AND ATTENTION, published in fall, 2016, is an updated re-telling of Henry James' classic, PORTRAIT OF A LADY.
Her newest novel is INDIGO HILL, due out in November, 2018. About INDIGO HILL, author John Dufresne writes, "Liz Rosenberg loves her characters and makes us love them, too. She knows what Faulkner knew, that the past isn't dead; it isn't even past. She knows, as well, that every story is many stories, and she handles the complex intersecting tales of unspeakable loss, astonishing secrets, familial chaos, and heartbreak, with intelligence, poise, and tenderness."
Liz Rosenberg was born and raised on Long Island. She met her late husband, David Bosnick, when they were 7 and 8 years old respectively, at summer camp. They became friends in high school, married other people, and ten years after they had met in high school, finally got married. They have an actor, podcaster & magician son, Eli, and a 14 year old daughter, Lily.
Liz Rosenberg's first husband was the late great American novelist John Gardner, author of Grendel, Nickel Mountain, and more than 25 other works of fiction, non-fiction, and scholarship. Together they taught at the State University of Binghamton until his untimely death in l982. She continues as a full professor at Binghamton University's English Department and has guest taught all over the world, from Russia to Austria to Singapore, and throughout the United States. Ms. Rosenberg spends her time reading and writing. Her hobbies are reading and writing and her passions are-- right, reading and writing.
A children’s book author and novelist, Liz Rosenberg attended Bennington College and earned a PhD from SUNY Binghamton. Her collections of poetry include The Fire Music (1986), winner of the Agnes Lynch Starret Prize; Children of Paradise: Poems (1994); These Happy Eyes (2001); The Lily Poems (2008), a chapbook; and Demon Love (2008).
Rosenberg has edited a number of anthologies of poetry for young readers, among them The Invisible Ladder: An Anthology of Contemporary American Poems for Young Readers (1996); Earth-Shattering Poems (1998), winner of the Claudia Lewis Award for Poetry and New York Public Library Best Book for the Teen Age; Light-Gathering Poems (2000), winner of the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Prize; and I Just Hope It’s Lethal: Poems of Madness, Sadness, and Joy (2005).
Rosenberg has received the Paterson Prize and the Center for the Book Prize. She teaches creative writing at SUNY Binghamton.
headshot of Liz Rosenberg
Liz Rosenberg
Professor
English, General Literature and Rhetoric
lrosenb@binghamton.edu
607-777-2574
TU 3E
Background
Liz Rosenberg is the author of five adult novels, four books of poetry, and more than 30 books for young readers, from picture books to poetry anthologies and YA biographies. For about 25 years, she was Book Review Columnist at the Boston Globe, and her work has been published in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Harper's, Paris Review and elsewhere. She was a 2014 Fulbright Fellow to Belfast, North Ireland. Her specialization is creative writing and American literature.
Education
PhD, Binghamton University
MA, Johns Hopkins University
BA, Bennington College
Research Interests
Children's literature
American literature
Teaching Interests
Creative Writing: fiction, poetry and non-fiction
The Experience of Place, Telling the Family Story, etc.
Awards
Fulbright Fellow
Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
IRA Children's Choice Award
Center for the Book Award; Atlantic First Award; NEH Fellow
English, General Literature and Rhetoric
Undergraduate
Graduate
Faculty
Faculty Publications
Research Areas
Creative Writing
News & Events
Resources
Contact
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MA...
Print Marked Items
Rosenberg, Liz, and Julie Morstad.
House of Dreams: The Life of L.M.
Montgomery
Pamela Thompson
Voice of Youth Advocates.
41.2 (June 2018): p79. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2018 E L Kurdyla Publishing LLC http://www.voya.com
Full Text:
Rosenberg, Liz, and Julie Morstad. House of Dreams: The Life of L.M. Montgomery. Candlewick, June 2018. 352p. $17.99. 9780-7636-6057-4. Table of Contents. Timeline. Source Notes. Biblio. Illus.
4Q * IP * J * S * NA
This detailed biography of the beloved writer of Anne of Green Gables, Maud Montgomery, is well researched and filled with information from Montgomery's own journals and diaries. As a child, Maud loved stories, books, and pretending. She was a lonely girl raised by stern, elderly grandparents. Deeply religious and die-hard "homebodies," her grandparents rarely ventured outside their home. Lonely, Maud began naming everything in and around the house, even naming trees Little Syrup and Monarch of the Forest. Imaginative and playful, Maud began to think of writing stories of her own. Because she was an orphan, Maud was treated as a "charity case" when she began to attend school, even by her peers. The author describes her childhood as being "heart hungry." This revealing biography, which makes abundant use of Montgomery's own words, details her marriage and describes her children, as well as the loss of her second child.
For decades, little has been known about Montgomery, except for her birthplace on Prince Edward Island and her pen name, M.L. Montgomery. The dedicated research of Rosenberg provides young readers with a well-rounded biography of an iconic author. This is recommended for large collections and magnet schools for fine arts. --Pamela Thompson.
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Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Thompson, Pamela. "Rosenberg, Liz, and Julie Morstad. House of Dreams: The Life of L.M.
Montgomery." Voice of Youth Advocates, June 2018, p. 79. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A545022990/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=b66f2320. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A545022990
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ROSENBERG, Liz: House of
Dreams--The Life of L.M.
Montgomery
Myra Junyk
Resource Links.
23.5 (June 2018): p22+. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2018 Resource Links
http://www.atcl.ca
Full Text:
ROSENBERG, Liz
House of Dreams--The Life of L. M. Montgomery Illustrated by Julie Morstad.
Candlewick Press, 2018. 352p. Illus. Gr. 6-10. 978-0-7636-6057-4. Hdbk. $19.99 (Reviewed from Advance Reading Copy)
L. M. Montgomery is the much loved author of Anne of Green Gables. Liz Rosenberg's biography, House of Dreams--The Life of L. M. Montgomery, examines the writer's childhood, lengthy writing career, struggles with depression, and difficult married life. Using information from the writer's personal journals, Rosenberg reveals Lucy's emotional struggles and shocking details about her final days.
Lucy Maud Montgomery was born and raised in Prince Edward Island. She was very proud of her island heritage, and it became a prominent feature in her most famous novel, Anne of Green Gables, as well as many subsequent novels. She was raised in Cavendish by her maternal grandparents who were reclusive and stern; however, her grandmother provided both moral and financial support for Lucy for many years. After her grandmother's death, Lucy married the fragile Presbyterian minister, Ewan Macdonald, and moved to Ontario. Lucy's life was full of
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both great literary success, and emotional turmoil. She was raised as a lonely only child, but enjoyed wonderful friendships with her cousins and her schoolmates. Eventually, Lucy became a teacher, but her real passion was writing. Anne of Green Gables was her first novel published by L.C. Page publishing company in Boston. Although it brought her great fame, the publisher took advantage of her lack of experience and gave her a very low royalty for her work. She eventually sued him to free herself from the unfair contract. As her writing career progressed, so did Lucy's bouts of depression. Her marriage was turbulent. Her husband suffered from mental breakdowns, and their oldest child, Chester, was a continual concern for Lucy. The family bought a house in Toronto where she died, but it was not until 2008, that her family released the details of her final days. Liz Rosenberg's text is full of interesting details about the life of a Canadian literary icon. Julie Morstad's black and white line drawings at the beginning of each chapter are intricate and detailed, showing the isolation of a worldrenowned writer struggling with depression, throughout her life. Readers will be shocked by the details of Montgomery's final days. Lucy was famous and popular, but she faced a personal life full of anguish and disappointment in her imaginary "house of dreams."
Thematic Links: Biography; Writing Process; Publishing; Family Relationships; Marriage; Friendship; Depression; Suicide
Myra Junyk
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Junyk, Myra. "ROSENBERG, Liz: House of Dreams--The Life of L.M. Montgomery." Resource
Links, June 2018, p. 22+. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc /A547267531/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=6f9987aa. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A547267531
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House of Dreams: The Life of L. M.
Montgomery
Shoshana Flax
The Horn Book Magazine.
94.4 (July-August 2018): p138. From Book Review Index Plus.
COPYRIGHT 2018 The Horn Book, Inc.. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.hbook.com/magazine/default.asp
Full Text:
House of Dreams:
The Life of L. M. Montgomery
by Liz Rosenberg;
illus. by Julie Morstad
Middle School, High School Candlewick 339 pp. g 6/18 978-0-7636-6057-4 $17.99
The author best known for Anne of Green Gables left behind extensive letters and journals; Rosenberg has gathered information from these and other sources to create a detailed narrative that allows Montgomery's personality to come through. Readers will find context for where beloved books fit into Montgomery's career trajectory, as well as plenty of anecdotes that will sound familiar, since the author borrowed liberally from life in her fiction. But House of Dreams is frank about aspects of Montgomery's life that didn't make it into her books: legal disputes with her publisher, a dalliance with one man while she was engaged to another, and struggles with her family's mental health and her own, including the circumstances of her death, which may have been suicide. Rosenberg reads between the lines of her subject's records, noting Montgomery's father's flaws and grandmother's sacrifices even as Montgomery herself glosses over them. Morstad's ink line drawings illustrating Montgomery's life would be right at home in an Anne book, capturing a meaningful glance at classmate Gilbert Nate at an idyllic picnic or a young woman writing dreamily while ignoring a broom. A well-balanced biography that offers plenty of tidbits for fans and that acknowledges what Montgomery means to many, without overly romanticizing the author or her story. Appended with a timeline, source notes, and a bibliography.
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Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Flax, Shoshana. "House of Dreams: The Life of L. M. Montgomery." The Horn Book Magazine,
July-Aug. 2018, p. 138. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc /A548321847/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=fb9638d3. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A548321847
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Rosenberg, Liz: HOUSE OF DREAMS
Kirkus Reviews.
(Apr. 1, 2018): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Rosenberg, Liz HOUSE OF DREAMS Candlewick (Children's Informational) $17.99 6, 12 ISBN: 978-0-7636-6057-4
The first middle-grade biography of Canadian author L.M. Montgomery in over 20 years.
Drawing primarily on the author's personal journals (published only in edited form until very recently but available to the author in their entirety), Rosenberg presents a balanced and sympathetic portrait of a lonely young girl who grew up to write cheerful novels despite her always-challenging life. Maud (she was never called by her first name, Lucy) lost her mother to tuberculosis in 1876 before she was 2 and her father to wanderlust before she was 7. Raised by her puritanical grandparents in Cavendish, a small village on Prince Edward Island, she early on retreated into her imagination, naming the trees in her grandparents' yard. Her first novel, Anne of Green Gables, was published to instant success--but Maud, by then 34, had broken off an engagement and was the sole caretaker of her elderly, difficult, and ailing grandmother. Prone herself to bouts of severe depression, she married a preacher who suffered from severe mental illness, and troubles with her elder son haunted her last years. Rosenberg writes clearly and honestly, making liberal use of Maud's own words, allowing Maud's courage and joy to shine despite her very real problems. Morstad's black-and-white drawings effectively set the mood, underscoring the ethnic homogeneity of the largely white PEI.
A kind, thoughtful, nuanced portrayal of one of the icons of children's literature. (Biography. 10-14)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Rosenberg, Liz: HOUSE OF DREAMS." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Apr. 2018. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A532700511/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=49f1ee66. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A532700511
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House of Dreams: The Life of L.M. Montgomery
Publishers Weekly.
265.17 (Apr. 23, 2018): p91. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
House of Dreams: The Life of L.M. Montgomery
Liz Rosenberg, illus. by Julie Morstad. Candlewick, $17.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-76366057-4
Rosenberg's comprehensive biography of the author of the beloved Anne of Green Gables series presents a multidimensional portrait of a complicated and conflicted writer. Opening with 30- year-old Montgomery starting to write the book that brought her international fame and wealth, the story circles back to her early abandonment by her parents, her childhood with stern grandparents, to the publication of a poem when she was 15, marking the beginning of a career that encompassed more than 20 novels and countless stories and poems. Rosenberg explores Montgomery's fierce attachment to Prince Edward Island, as well as her family loyalty, passions, and relentless ambition. While tracing Montgomery's growth and success as a writer, Rosenberg doesn't shy away from presenting her failings--the lies of omission in her journal, her entanglements with unavailable men--and her struggles with chronic depression, a mentally unstable husband, and a less-than-trustworthy publisher. Though initially slow going, this illuminating and satisfying biography takes on life and depth as Montgomery's own voice grows more prominent. Ages 10-14. June)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"House of Dreams: The Life of L.M. Montgomery." Publishers Weekly, 23 Apr. 2018, p. 91.
Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A536532989 /GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=54c3dc0d. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A536532989
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Rosenberg, Liz:
Kirkus Reviews.
(Apr. 1, 2011): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2011 Kirkus Media LLC http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Rosenberg, Liz TYRANNOSAURUS DAD Neal Porter/Roaring Brook (Adult Picture Books) $16.99 5, 10 ISBN: 978-1-59643-531-5
Who knew the favorite topics of baseball, dinosaurs and father-son relationships could come together in such a winning combination? Rosenberg and debut illustrator Myers pull it off in this impressive collaboration. Human boy Tobias eagerly awaits Elmwood Elementary Field Day, when the big game will be played. He would love for Dad—who just happens to be a Tyrannosaurus—to go, but he is always working. In not-so-subtle ways Tobias reminds his hulking father how important this is to him, but the dinosaur remains absorbed in the newspaper, swamped with paperwork and glued to his laptop. Field Day arrives, and Tobias goes alone. All seems well until the dreaded Chickenbone Gang comes, demanding to play ball. Tobias is about to take on the head bully over a rules dispute when "an unexpected voice" thunders, "I'LL UMP!" The reptile's level-headed problem-solving and firm yet fair presence save the day. " 'What made you come today?' asked Tobias. 'Family first.' Tyrannosaurus Dad said. 'Work can wait.' " Rosenberg's well-paced dialogue and succinct descriptions result in a most engaging read. Myers' oil paintings truly amaze. Faces gain an almost three-dimensional expressiveness, and the spreads are rich in scene-setting detail. His reluctantly kind Tyrannosaurus is cleverly portrayed as a larger-than-life creature with a mean countenance but a warm heart. Sounds like many dads out there. (Picture book. 4-7)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Rosenberg, Liz:." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Apr. 2011. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A256559107/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=01523ad1. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A256559107
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Rosenberg, Liz. 17
Frances Bradburn
Booklist.
99.6 (Nov. 15, 2002): p589. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2002 American Library Association http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
2002. 160p. Cricket/ Marcato, $16.95 (0-8126-4915-X).
Gr. 9-12. In a series of intense prose poems, Rosenberg reveals the excitement and obsession of Stephanie's first love at 17, from her initial all-consuming happiness ("Everything shines") through the tentative discovery ("She thrills in her little power over him, though she doesn't understand the power; it's like having a magic wand that moves on its own volition") to the inevitable end ("The ax, once fallen, loses its sharpness. Loses its terror"). As time passes from autumn to winter to spring, she moves from giddiness to deep despair and then to renewal and transformation. Rosenberg's thoughtful choice of each word, each spare sentence, conveys the complexity and insecurity of mismatched love and also the struggle in a dysfunctional family, the fear of mental illness, and the manic hope and sadness of adolescence. There's a lot packed into this small poetic novel, but the whole is remarkably effective.
Bradburn, Frances
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Bradburn, Frances. "Rosenberg, Liz. 17." Booklist, 15 Nov. 2002, p. 589. Book Review Index
Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A95358269/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=a316e3ef. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A95358269
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Rosenberg, Liz. Home Repair
BetteLee Fox
Library Journal.
134.8 (May 1, 2009): p71+. From Book Review Index Plus.
COPYRIGHT 2009 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
* Rosenberg, Liz. Home Repair. Avon A. May 2009. c.328p. ISBN 978-0-06-173456-4. pap. $13.99. F
Eve thought being a young widow was pain enough for one life. Now, second husband Chuck takes off during the family garage sale. Poet and children's author Rosenberg's aduk debut is a tale of family and community that brilliantly illuminates its title as Eve's whole world, including her Binghamton, NY, home and university job, is in serious need of an overhaul. She tries to maintain her balance for the sake of her nearly 18-year-old son and nine-year-old daughter, as well as her mother, Mrs. Dunrea, who moves from her retirement home in Tennessee to help out. Eve's mother has never been the comforting type, and her brutal commentary doesn't ameliorate Chuck's departure or Eve's "heartbreak diet." But Korean student Mia, park worker Jonah, and colleague Lev work their way under Eve's brittle veneer. Will it be in time before the roof caves in? Rosenberg's prose sings in this winning novel with a fragile heroine capable of change and a cast of unique characters, none more so than the upstate environs both Eve and the author call home. Highly recommended for general readers.--BetteLee Fox, Library Journal
Fox, BetteLee
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Fox, BetteLee. "Rosenberg, Liz. Home Repair." Library Journal, 1 May 2009, p. 71+. Book
Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A272485654/GPS?u=schlager& sid=GPS&xid=8f170478. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A272485654
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Rosenberg, Liz. On Christmas Eve
Hazel Rochman
Booklist.
99.2 (Sept. 15, 2002): p246+. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2002 American Library Association http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Illus. by John Clapp. Sept. 2002. 40p. Millbrook/ Roaring Brook, $15.95 (0-7613-1627-2); lib. ed., $21.90 (0-7613-2707-X).
PreS-K. With a moving blend of realism and mystery, this picture book captures the Christmas holiday spirit. Driving through a snowstorm on Christmas Eve, a small boy and his family are forced to stop for the night in a shabby motel. The boy worries that Santa won't find them there. But Santa does come in the night with his reindeer, and the boy helps deliver the family gifts. Then the sled takes off into the starry sky. The spare words, with just the right details, and the powerful pictures, filled with shifting light, set the close-up portraits of the contemporary family--the boy, his parents, his older brother, and his baby sister--against the wild, stormy night. One of the letters in the motel's neon sign has gone out, but the pictures show a neon star flashing above the letters. The magic is focused on Santa, but there's also just a hint of that other Christmas mystery about a family that sought shelter at the inn.
Rochman, Hazel
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Rochman, Hazel. "Rosenberg, Liz. On Christmas Eve." Booklist, 15 Sept. 2002, p. 246+. Book
Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A92614671/GPS?u=schlager& sid=GPS&xid=b1120337. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A92614671
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Rosenberg, Liz: THIS IS THE WIND
Kirkus Reviews.
(Oct. 1, 2008): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2008 Kirkus Media LLC http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Rosenberg, Liz THIS IS THE WIND Neal Porter/Roaring Brook (Children's) $$16.95 Oct. 1, 2008 ISBN: 978-1-59643-268-0
In a "House That Jack Built" format, a gentle verse takes a mother and father to the hospital for the birth of their child and, in a parallel tale, a mouse in from the wind for the birth of her own babies. As the mouse arranges a tiny bed and dresser into a home for herself, the humans drive the icy road to the hospital. In the end, both mothers sit rocking with their children in the now- calm darkness, telling them of that windy night when they were born. Reichert's brilliantly colored pastel illustrations convey a sense of movement as the wind blows throughout, curvilinear design unifying the individual vignettes of human and mouse stories, abetted by text placement that loops about the page. Facial expressions and body language speak volumes. While sweet, however, this just misses the tone and sense of complete package found in Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born by Jamie Lee Curtis, illustrated by Laura Cornell (1995) and On the Night You Were Born by Nancy Tillman (2006). (Picture book. 3-7)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Rosenberg, Liz: THIS IS THE WIND." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Oct. 2008. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A185662322/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=fb963506. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A185662322
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November, Deena & Rosenberg, Liz
eds. I just hope it's lethal: poems of
sadness, madness and joy
Beth Lizardo
Kliatt.
39.5 (Sept. 2005): p32. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2005 Kliatt http://hometown.aol.com/kliatt/
Full Text:
NOVEMBER, Deena & ROSENBERG, Liz, eds. I just hope it's lethal: poems of sadness, madness and joy. Houghton Mifflin, Graphia. 208p. index. c2005. 0-618-56452-7. $7.99. SA
Brought to life by college professor Liz Rosenberg and her student, Deena November, this anthology contains a wide variety of poems that in one way or another deal with the themes of depression and madness. Its purpose, as Rosenberg states in her introduction to the book, is to serve as a "guide for those who find themselves lost in a dark wilderness," for "poetry can help us survive." It is a collection that comforts its readers with an impressive number of poems by poets like Sylvia Plath, T.S. Eliot, and Rumi, as well as the equally moving poems of unknown young poets. Rosenberg and November even throw a few of their own poems into the eclectic mix.
It is a collection that ultimately shows how common feelings of depression and instability really are--even among the greatest of minds. As May Sarton puts it in her poem "A Glass of Water"--"Someone in dark confusion as I was / When I drank down cold water in a glass, / Drank a transparent health to keep me sane, / After the bitter mood had gone again." Beth Lizardo, College Student, NY
S--Recommended for senior high school students.
A--Recommended for advanced students and adults. This code will help librarians and teachers working in high schools where are honors and advanced placement students. This also will help extend KLIATT's usefulness in public libraries.
Lizardo, Beth
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Lizardo, Beth. "November, Deena & Rosenberg, Liz eds. I just hope it's lethal: poems of sadness,
madness and joy." Kliatt, Sept. 2005, p. 32. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A136122254/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=677bd454. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
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Liz Rosenberg and Deena November,
collectors: I Just Hope It's Lethal:
Poems of Sadness, Madness, and Joy
Jennifer M. Brabander
The Horn Book Magazine.
81.6 (November-December 2005): p733. From Book Review Index Plus.
COPYRIGHT 2005 The Horn Book, Inc.. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.hbook.com/magazine/default.asp
Full Text:
Liz Rosenberg and Deena November, collectors I Just Hope It's Lethal: Poems of Sadness, Madness, and Joy
190 pp. Graphia/Houghton 10/05 Paper edition ISBN 0-618-56452-7 $7.99 (High School)
Rosenberg and November have arranged this poetry collection that focuses on depression and related themes into five sections. "Sadness without Reason: Moods" contains poems about depression but also about other intense moods experienced in adolescence; another section explores "the ways in which the world itself can be deranged"; a third includes poems about being "crazy in love"; another section is about madness; and the final section looks at "the relief of coming up out of a bad period." The scope of this anthology of ninety-one poems allows for the inclusion of the expected (Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath, Stevie Smith, John Berryman) but also the unexpected (William Blake, Lewis Carroll, Dorothy Parker); the wide range of styles, from poets both famous and lesser known, from various time periods, also adds interest. In their introductions, both editors mention their own struggles with depression. November wants teenagers to understand that depression is common and that poems, especially by poets who have been there, can offer comfort; Rosenberg discusses her teenage search for books that "spoke to my own up-and-down experience." Good biographical notes and indices of authors, titles, and first lines conclude the volume.
Brabander, Jennifer M.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Brabander, Jennifer M. "Liz Rosenberg and Deena November, collectors: I Just Hope It's Lethal:
Poems of Sadness, Madness, and Joy." The Horn Book Magazine, Nov.-Dec. 2005, p. 733. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A138481980 /GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=330e61fc. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
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Monster Mama
Nancy Vasilakis
The Horn Book Magazine.
69.2 (March-April 1993): p200+. From Book Review Index Plus.
COPYRIGHT 1993 The Horn Book, Inc.. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.hbook.com/magazine/default.asp
Full Text:
Illustrated by Stephen Gammell. This outrageous book's premise is stated baldly in the first sentence: "Patrick Edward was a wonderful boy, but his mother was a monster." The maternal grotesquery lives in a big cave at the back of the house, and when she isn't gardening or painting, she is teaching her son how to roar or cast spells that put people to sleep. So monstrous is she that she has to cover up in a cloak and hood when she drives him to school. The startling contrast between the benign, often lyrical, text and Gammell's extravagant illustrations - which portray Mama as a hirsute, evil-eyed Medusa not unlike the characters he dreamed up for Alvin Schwartz's popular Scary Stories series - produce the impish dynamics that are at the heart of this original book. When Mama sends her son out one day to pick up dessert, Patrick Edward is waylaid by a gang of bigger boys who gobble up the strawberry tarts, then throw away his hat and tie him to a tree: He fights back valiantly but without avail, until one of the young hoodlums insults his Mom with that age-old curse: "Aw, your mother wears army boots." Suddenly Patrick is transformed. Pictures and text converge expertly in a visual and literal turning point as the young boy, with his red hair standing on end, mouth wide open, eyes ablaze, becomes every inch his monster mother's son: "You leave my mother out of this!" he roars. Readers can only wonder what such righteous wrath might have wrought, for Mama arrives in the nick of time "like a fast- moving freight train," marches them all home, and stands guard over them as they bake a strawberry tea cake for supper. "Strength is for the wise, not the reckless," Patrick admonishes the now chastened bullies and potential friends. Mama, with a lesson of her own in mind, envelops him in a rib-crunching embrace and assures him that she will always be there when he needs her because "I am your mother, even if I am a monster." One person's monster is another's Mom. Young readers know that already, but they have been reminded in a hilarious way.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Vasilakis, Nancy. "Monster Mama." The Horn Book Magazine, Mar.-Apr. 1993, p. 200+. Book
Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A13582553/GPS?u=schlager& sid=GPS&xid=125b9334. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A13582553
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17. (Children's Books)
Kirkus Reviews.
70.17 (Sept. 1, 2002): p1318+. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2002 Kirkus Media LLC http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Rosenberg, Liz Cricket (160 pp.) $16.95
Oct. 2002
ISBN: 0-8126-4915-X
The story of a teen's sexual coming of age, twinned with her struggles with anorexia and depression, is distinguished from so many of its ilk by an exceptionally fine and precise prose style. Steph is 17, prey to all the usual doubts and insecurities of that age, but her situational angst is compounded by the difficulties attendant upon having a manic-depressive mother. On the days when her artist mother is up, it's "like coming into a room with party lights on where you had extended a hand forward, frightened, expecting to fall into pitch darkness," but in Steph's household, the yawning blackness seems to be much closer to the norm. Absent any real emotional security at home (her father is loving but ineffectual), when Steph begins a romance with the almost frighteningly intellectual Denny, she finds herself becoming more and more unhinged and alone. There is no hint of the cautionary in the deliberate examination of Steph's first sexual experiences--with the possible exception of an almost hilarious scene w here she blurts out her fears of an impossible pregnancy to her grandfatherly history teacher--just a celebration of erotic awakening. This celebration, however, is followed almost immediately by a corresponding awareness of a growing emotional void as her relationship with Denny becomes increasingly joyless. The present-tense narration puts the reader almost claustrophobically into Steph's increasingly uncomfortable head; its tendency to refer to her much more as "the girl" than by name emphasizes her growing sense of alienation. Steph's tentative steps back to health are charted as deliberately as her decline. If some subplots--notably a most peculiar one involving Denny's unfaithful, alcoholic father--do not add to the narrative as a whole, neither do they materially detract. As noted, the story itself is not particularly new--but Rosenberg's (We Wanted You, 2002, etc.) of telling it is beautifully, hauntingly effective. (Fiction. YA)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"17. (Children's Books)." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Sept. 2002, p. 1318+. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A92683131/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=08869989. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
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On Christmas Eve. (Children's Books)
Kirkus Reviews.
70.21 (Nov. 1, 2002): p1625. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2002 Kirkus Media LLC http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
* Rosenberg, Liz
ON CHRISTMAS EVE
Illus. by John Clapp
Roaring Brook/Millbrook (40 pp.) $15.95
PLB $21.90
Sep. 2002
ISBN: 0-7613-1627-2
PLB: 0-7613-2707-X
Christmas Eve isn't always a time of calm, peace, and perfect plans. Sometimes a family is traveling to another destination and complications ensue, as is the case with this short, touching story by Rosenberg (17: A Novel in Prose Poems, p. 1318, etc.). The unnamed first-person narrator looks back to a snowy Christmas Eve when he was four or five and on the way to his aunt's house with his parents, older brother, and baby sister. A snowstorm forces the family to stop for the night at a roadside motel with a star on its sign (and as luck would have it, there is room at this inn). The moody, dark illustrations, both in colors and in feeling, effectively show the disappointed children and the exhausted parents trying to do their best. Will Santa miss them in their snowbound motel? As the mother in the story says, "He always finds away." The young narrator wakes in the middle of the night in time to hear the bells, see the reindeer, and meet Santa himself. Clapp's (The Prince of Butterflies, p. 332) stunning illu strations make readers into believers: in one spread that is pure magic, the child's face is lit with joy as Santa flings toys and packages into the room, each gift surrounded by golden light. Another memorable spread shows Santa pointing at the starry sky, where mysterious, misty letters spell out the beginnings of Christmas wishes. The understated text, nighttime setting, and varied perspectives will remind many of Van Allsburg's Polar Express, but this Christmas Eve tale creates a magic all its own.
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(Picture book. 3-6)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"On Christmas Eve. (Children's Books)." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Nov. 2002, p. 1625. Book Review
Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A94329790/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=8548934d. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A94329790
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Grandmother and the Runaway Shadow
Publishers Weekly.
243.20 (May 13, 1996): p76. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 1996 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Liz Rosenberg, illus. by Beth Peck. Harcourt, $15 (32p) ISBN 0-15-200948-5
A classic theme--emigration to America-is considerably garbled by Rosenberg's (Monster Mama; The Carousel) addition of a "runaway shadow" that accompanies the heroine to the new world. Fleeing a Cossack raid, Grandmother, then a young woman, meets the shadow one moonlit night "in the middle of a potato field in the middle of nowhere," and tells it of her plans to go to America. The whimsical shadow speaks ("I will go with you"), engages in independent actions (the shadow "raced along with one foot in the gutter, and one in the street, scaring the horses") and, when Grandmother finds work in a garment factory, it even tells "funny stories that made all the women laugh." The episodic story of the brave young woman who journeys across the ocean alone and makes a new home seems at odds with the presence of a mischievous storybook shadow with whom she is "best friends despite their differences." Even Peck (A Christmas Memory; How Many Days to America) chooses to portray the shadow as a smudge rather than visually represent its capricious individuality. The unity and power of her scumbled oil paintings are not enough to clarify Rosenberg's message, but, in conveying the notion that Grandmother is alone even in a crowd, enhance the perception of Grandmother's inner strength. Perhaps the most moving element of this book is the author's note, which includes photos of Rosenberg's and Peck's immigrant grandmothers. Ages 5f8. (Apr.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Grandmother and the Runaway Shadow." Publishers Weekly, 13 May 1996, p. 76. Book Review
Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A18284097/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=f5e92a12. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A18284097
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We Wanted You. (Children's Books)
Kirkus Reviews.
70.2 (Jan. 15, 2002): p108. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2002 Kirkus Media LLC http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
WE WANTED YOU
Illus. by Peter Catalanotto Roaring Brook/Millbrook (32 pp.) $16.95
PLB $23.90
Mar. 2002
ISBN:0-7613-1597-7
PLB: 0-7613-2661-8
Rosenberg (Roots and Flowers, 2001, etc.) and Catalanotto (The Dream Shop, 2002, etc.) team up to create a love letter from a mother and father as their adopted son heads off to college. Unfortunately, while the sophisticated blend of words and images may spark discussion, it is likely to present more questions than it answers, especially for younger children. To begin with, Catalanotto's realistic illustrations, which add a back-story not evident in Rosenberg's spare text, are disorienting. The title spread shows a teenager in cap and gown; the final spread shows the young man in a college dorm in front of a banner that reads "Welcome Freshmen." And it's only in the end that the child's name and ethnicity are clearly revealed: a party scene shows the proud white parents holding the brown-skinned infant; behind them, a sign reads, "We Love You, Enrique!" Interior illustrations, presented in reverse chronological order, portray memorable moments in the child's life. Along the way, Rosenberg conveys the parents ' longing, the anticipation and preparation that precedes the child's arrival, and the events that unfold when the baby is finally bom. After a phone call delivers news of the baby's birth, Rosenberg writes, "And so we came. We flew!/Because that's how much we wanted you." Then, addressing the birth parents: "Somewhere in the world a/mother gave birth to you/a father gave life to you/We weren't your first father/ and mother." Considering the title, this unassuming passage carries insensitive undertones and flies in the face of positive adoption language. An unsatisfactory addition to the adoption oeuvre. (Picture book 5-8)
Rosenberg, Liz
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
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"We Wanted You. (Children's Books)." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Jan. 2002, p. 108. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A82608003/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=8592aef5. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A82608003
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Earth-Shattering Poems
Nancy Vasilakas
The Horn Book Magazine.
74.1 (January-February 1998): p88. From Book Review Index Plus.
COPYRIGHT 1998 The Horn Book, Inc.. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.hbook.com/magazine/default.asp
Full Text:
Liza Rosenberg, Editor 127 pp. Edge/Holt 11/97 ISBN 0-8050-4821-9 15.95 g (Older)
In her insightful introduction, Liz Rosenberg recognizes that people frequently turn to poetry in "peak moments--moments of extreme joy, or sorrow, or confusion." The more than fifty poems in this volume are ones that seem to her to register such intense emotions and, matching the intensity of adolescents, are therefore suitable for that audience. This eclectic collection contains works by the ancient Greek Sappho; the Japanese masters of the haiku, Basho and Issa; the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century English poets Blake, Keats, and Tennyson; and on this side of the Atlantic, Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes, and Emily Dickinson. Rosenberg also includes a healthy smattering of more contemporary poets from around the world--Pablo Neruda, the Soviet poet Anna Akhmatova, Rainer Maria Rilke--although the preponderance of modem writers are American. The choices, as one would expect from such a subjective premise, are highly personal. Words that "shatter [one's] sense both of time and place" may not strike another in quite the same way. But with the exception of a few, like Langston Hughes's "Harlem" and Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach," these poems are not ones that usually make their way into anthologies for young people. That fact, along with the biographical notes and lists of suggested readings on the individual poets, as well as an extensive list of books on poetry and the writing of poetry, make this a particularly useful resource.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Vasilakas, Nancy. "Earth-Shattering Poems." The Horn Book Magazine, Jan.-Feb. 1998, p. 88.
Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A20301186/GPS?u=schlager& sid=GPS&xid=a2d2dde5. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A20301186
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Eli and Uncle Dawn
Publishers Weekly.
244.5 (Feb. 3, 1997): p105. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 1997 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Liz Rosenberg, illus. by Susan Gaber. Harcourt, $15 (32p) ISBN O-15-200947-7
Deploying a color-saturated blend of watercolor, acrylic and colored pencil, and setting a lively visual pace that skips from full-page illustrations to small insets, Gaber (Bit by Bit) crafts a stimulating backdrop for this imaginative tale. Eli and his bright-eyed stuffed elephant, George, are inseparable. On a picnic one day with Uncle Dawn--a magician and part-time handyman who lives with them--George is accidentally left behind, and Eli is inconsolable. Bedtime turns into adventure time, however, when the boy sails away on his window shade in search of his lost friend. Is the excursion just a dream? A surprise twist to the happy ending will keep readers guessing. Rosenberg's (The Carousel) fluid, lyrical prose spins out in a seamless line, making the story a most inviting choice for a read-aloud, and the artwork deftly pins down the tale's magical essence. The nighttime scenes are especially effective--Eli floating above the rooftops, face aglow, the rich indigo of his window shade contrasted against the deep blue-gray of the starlit sky--and a view of Eli on the porch, a tiny figure looking out into the darkness, is simply masterly, evoking as it does the despair and helplessness that he feels over the loss of his toy. A perfect pairing of author and artist. Ages 3-8. (Mar.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Eli and Uncle Dawn." Publishers Weekly, 3 Feb. 1997, p. 105. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A19089198/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=6e5944ab. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A19089198
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We wanted you. (Picture Books)
Publishers Weekly.
249.8 (Feb. 25, 2002): p66. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2002 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Liz ROSENBERG, ILLUS. BY PETER CATALANOTTO Roaring Brook/Porter, $16.95 (32p) ISBN 0-7613-1597-7
With a simple, poetic elegance befitting her tender subject matter, Rosenberg (Monster Mama) taps into the feelings of longing, love and joy that accompany the adoption of a child. Catalanotto's (Emily's Art; Dad and Me) images create an effective subplot: on the occasion of their son's graduation from high school, a couple reminisces about the boy they embraced as part of their family--even before he was born. The author creates a warm story of one family's experience, yet incorporates accessible explanations of adoption applicable to many situations ("Somewhere in the world a mother gave birth to you, a father gave life to you. We weren't your first father and mother"; "One day we got a telephone call telling us to come. For you"). Working within the emotional rhythms of this heartfelt trip down Memory Lane, Catalanotto presents a series of radiant paintings that form a kind of treasured photo album. With a combination of contemporary and timeless background details, he depicts young Enrique as an infant be ing rocked to sleep by his father, a beaming boy at the beach and, ultimately, as a proud young man washing his car and heading off to college. A welcome addition to the canon of picture books on the subject. Ages 5-9. (Mar.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"We wanted you. (Picture Books)." Publishers Weekly, 25 Feb. 2002, p. 66. Book Review Index
Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A83375268/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=c839a165. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A83375268
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Moonbathing
Susan Dove Lempke
Booklist.
93.4 (Oct. 15, 1996): p422. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 1996 American Library Association http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
* Rosenberg, Liz. Illus. by Lambert, Stephen. 1996. 32p. Harcourt, $14 (0-15-200945-0).
Ages 3-8. Without a trace of the nostalgia that marks so many beach books, Rosenberg evokes the splendid pleasures of an unexpected trip to a familiar beach transformed by moonlight into a new world. A few times each year, a young girl gets a surprise visit from her older cousin, Michael. She puts on her pirate sweatshirt and heads to the seashore with him where the pair notice the sights, the smells the sounds, and how the sky looks like a dark ceiling pierced with holes to let the light shine through." She hunts for pebbles, digs for treasure, and even enjoys an encounter with a harbor seal. At the end, when the girl is safely in her cozy moonlit bed, her blissful expression shows the satisfaction of a fully appreciated experience. In a closing double- page spread presented as if the author were showing the beach to a child, Rosenberg gives tidbits of information--the saltiness of oceans and the distance from Earth to the stars, etc. Lambert's chalk pastel illustrations catch the luminous, velvety quality of water and sky at night. They draw viewers in with detail, and leave the mysterious shadows that are part of the wonder reflected on the girl's face.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Lempke, Susan Dove. "Moonbathing." Booklist, 15 Oct. 1996, p. 422. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A18837059/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=92c04d42. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A18837059
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Seventeen. (Fiction)
Publishers Weekly.
249.39 (Sept. 30, 2002): p72+. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2002 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Liz ROSENBERG. Cricket/Marcato, $16.95 (160p) ISBN 0-8126-4915-X
This series of prose poems voicing the many woes of 17-year-old Stephanie teeters between art and melodrama. Third-person narrative calls on specific details and imagery ("All day she tastes his lips and breathes in the dark, musty old smell of his wool jacket") to evocatively convey the angst of the heroine, but the author squeezes too many complex issues into this slim volume to delve into any of them deeply. The development of Stephanie's character is over-shadowed by the conflicts arising from unstable relationships with her mentally disturbed mother and Denny, her fellow-poet boyfriend. Stephanie plummets into depression as she battles irrational fears that she is pregnant (before they have sex), experiences a strangely intimate moment with her boyfriend's alcoholic father and discovers Denny is gay. Her only positive distraction comes with high-school wrestler Ben, who amuses himself by writing rude comments in students' poetry journals. Teens will no doubt find Stephanie's struggles darkly intriguing, but her self-despair eventually becomes tedious. At one point, she makes an elaborate list of the things that make her cry ("The smell of onions frying. Denny's worried face; his long scrawled letters. Long-distance telephone commercials"), but readers may be left to ponder what, if anything, makes her laugh. Ages 14- up). (Oct.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Seventeen. (Fiction)." Publishers Weekly, 30 Sept. 2002, p. 72+. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A92528316/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=db263b9e. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A92528316
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Heart and Soul
Nancy Vasilakis
The Horn Book Magazine.
72.6 (November-December 1996): p746. From Book Review Index Plus.
COPYRIGHT 1996 The Horn Book, Inc.. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.hbook.com/magazine/default.asp
Full Text:
Seventeen-year-old Willie is a promising young music student who has left school in the middle of her senior year and returned home to Virginia in a state of depression. Rosenberg describes the scene at home during the steamy August days: Willie wandering the rooms in a foggy torpor; her ambitious father absent as usual; her mother indulging in dubious dreams by poring over brochures of Africa, the lemonade and vodka at her side offering other avenues of escape. Willie's days begin to take some shape when she is invited to a party along with a classmate from school. An eccentric and brilliant social misfit, Malachi Gelb is conducting his own search for identity. Later, on their way to the airport in a pre-dawn odyssey, Willie and Malachi have a tremendous argument that clears the air. She senses that the journey to self-discovery is a life- long task, one that she is ready to begin. A tantalizing air of unreality pervades the poetic first- person narrative. Is her father the ogre Willie makes him out to be? "You're so much alike," her mother tells her. At the party, Willie inexplicably confuses her friend's mother for a cloakroom attendant; a dead neighbor waves at her in the rain. The novel's murky atmosphere requires a persistent reader, and Willie's adolescent angst can sometimes seem as thick as the heavy Richmond air, but the adolescent characters are compelling, and Willie's resolute search for her center grabs at your heart.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Vasilakis, Nancy. "Heart and Soul." The Horn Book Magazine, Nov.-Dec. 1996, p. 746. Book
Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A18917257/GPS?u=schlager& sid=GPS&xid=f3d99e0c. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A18917257
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The Moonlight Palace
Cortney Ophoff
Booklist.
111.4 (Oct. 15, 2014): p24+. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2014 American Library Association http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
The Moonlight Palace. By Liz Rosenberg. Oct. 2014. 196p. Amazon/Lake Union, paper, $14.95 (9781477824429).
In 1920s Singapore, Agnes Hussein is the last of her line. Descended from the country's last sultan, she lives with her aging relatives in a palace reminiscent of better days. Now the once favored family has resorted to taking in boarders to supplement the money they get from her British grandfather's pension, and their once beautiful home has become no more than a crumbling antique. Even in its diminished state, though, the palace, which was a gift to Agnes' sultan ancestor, has become the center of a web of plots, all with the intent to wrest the decaying landmark from the family. With only her elderly kin at home, it is up to young Agnes to protect her family's interests, but as she nears marrying age, the palace is not the only thing she will have to keep safe. This sweet coming-of-age story weaves the blush of first love amid the dangers of political intrigue. Rich with historical detail and rounded out by an entertaining cast of characters, it is sure to enthrall historical fiction fans. --Cortney Ophoff
YA: Teens will identify with Agnes as she navigates the intense emotions of her first love. CO.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Ophoff, Cortney. "The Moonlight Palace." Booklist, 15 Oct. 2014, p. 24+. Book Review Index
Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A388965944/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=b37afd4e. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A388965944
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Tyrannosaurus Dad
Publishers Weekly.
258.13 (Mar. 28, 2011): p54. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2011 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text: Tyrannosaurus Dad
Liz Rosenberg, illus, by Matthew Myers. Roaring Brook/Porter, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-59643-531-5
In the "How do Dinosaurs ...?" series, it's the dinosaur kids who are beastly; Rosenberg (Nobody) and Myers (Clink) turn the tables with a story about a regular kid, Tobias, whose father is a "terrible lizard." Tobias is pretty cool with this arrangement: T. rex Dad may be a lot bigger and a little gruffer than other dads, but with his love of corny jokes and backyard grilling, he fits right in. No, what bothers Tobias is that his dad is "always, always working." Myers, in one of the book's uniformly terrific images, sums up the situation by showing Tobias tucked into bed, while Dad, still wearing his office clothes (an ill-fitting button-down shirt and tiny tie) is in the moonlit backyard, working on his laptop. Will Dad get his priorities straight in time for Field Day at Tobias's school? Despite some well-played lines that hit their comedic marks, the storytelling sometimes slackens, and the mood can feel like it's teetering between bittersweet and depressed. But the premise shines through, thanks to Myers's saturated, sculptural musings on what happens when Cat's in the Cradle meets Jurassic Park. Ages 4-6. (May)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Tyrannosaurus Dad." Publishers Weekly, 28 Mar. 2011, p. 54. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A253304902/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=f259d5cb. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A253304902
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What James Said
Publishers Weekly.
262.16 (Apr. 20, 2015): p75. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2015 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
What James Said
Liz Rosenberg, illus. by Matt Myers. Roaring Brook/Porter, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-59643908-5
The team behind Tyrannosaurus Dad examines how conflicts often arise from simple misunderstandings. The narrator is a primary school-aged Caucasian girl with brown hair and freckles; her friend James is an African-American boy with glasses and an openhearted smile. She stands glowering on the left side of a spread, hands on her hips. "I'm never talking to James again," she announces. James stands on the facing page, innocently balancing books on his head. What has James done? He said, the girl has heard through the school grapevine, "that I think I am perfect." She shuns him at school, and James, whose clowning hides sensitivity and intuition, knows something is wrong. A school art show and a blue ribbon for a picture the girl drew reveal what James actually said: "I think it's perfect.... That's what I tell everyone." Phew! Rosenberg lets the characters tell their own story without moralizing, and Myers's attention to emotion makes it easy to sympathize with them. There's lots to talk about here. Ages 4-8. Author's agent: Jenny Bent, Bent Agency. Illustrator's agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. June)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"What James Said." Publishers Weekly, 20 Apr. 2015, p. 75. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A411335299/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=37c32cf4. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A411335299
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Monster Mama
Publishers Weekly.
240.4 (Jan. 25, 1993): p87. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 1993 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
* MONSTER MAMA
Liz Rosenberg, illustrated by Stephen Gammell. Philoreel, $14.95 (32p) ISBN 0-399-21989-7
Patrick Edward's mother is a monster--literally. An impish-faced woman experiencing a decidedly bad hair day and needing a manicure, "Monster Mama" lives in a cave behind the family house. In addition to her roaring and spell-casting skills, this unique parent bakes cookies, drives Patrick Edward to school in bad weather and nurses him with "the sweetest touch in the world" when he is feeling poorly. But when three bullies ruffle Patrick Edward's feathers with a crack about Mama, the boy gets his chance to prove he's his mother's son--roar and all. Rosenberg creates a light mood with her matter-of-fact description of strange circumstances. Any thrill here is derived from curiosity rather than gruesomeness, and youngsters will find comfort in the oddly tender mother-child relationship that permeates the story. Gammell's trademark electric palette and airy, spattered paint technique make for illustrations that crackle with childlike energy. Except for a couple of portraits, many of the scenes are abstract, with some indiscernible shapes and obscured faces. The effect, however, is not distracting, and gives the text a sense of universality. Ages 4-up. (Mar.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Monster Mama." Publishers Weekly, 25 Jan. 1993, p. 87. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A13418199/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=5cee6587. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A13418199
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Nobody
Publishers Weekly.
257.22 (May 31, 2010): p46. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2010 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Nobody
Liz Rosenberg, illus, by Julie Downing. Roaring Brook/Porter, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-59643-120-1
George and his imaginary friend, Nobody, are the heroes of Rosenberg's (This Is the Wind) extended play on words. Downing (No Hugs Till Saturday) gives the small boys more than a passing resemblance--both have pudgy bodies, pajamas, and bedhead, though Nobody is depicted in black and white, and his wild curls hint at his mischievousness. He shows up when George wakes up one morning to help with a cooking project, and the word fun flies as fast as the food: "Nobody helped him take everything out of the fridge"; "Nobody mopped up the first few mistakes." Wild splatters of paint convey the pair's culinary progress (Nobody stomps on a bottle of ketchup when he gets angry), while closeups from inside the refrigerator and a mixing bowl play up the action. Notably, George's parents are only slightly disconcerted by the chaos that greets them in the kitchen: "Pineapple, sweet potato, puppy treats... George, what were you thinking?" Young readers will enjoy being let in on George's secret while the grownups are oblivious-and stories about food chaos are always a hit. Ages 4-8. (June)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Nobody." Publishers Weekly, 31 May 2010, p. 46. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A228166425/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=ccac7098. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A228166425
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Light-Gathering Poems
Hazel Rochman
Booklist.
96.14 (Mar. 15, 2000): p1377. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2000 American Library Association http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Light-Gathering Poems.Ed. by Liz Rosenberg. Apr. 2000. 141p. Holt, $15.95 (0-8050-6223-8). DDC: 808.81
Gr. 6-12. This is a beautiful anthology of mainly classic poems from everywhere, for reading aloud in the classroom or library or for reading alone. Some of the best-known poems by famous poets are here--favorites by Byron, Dickinson, Frost, Ginsberg, Hughes, Keats, Oliver, Stafford, Yeats, and lots more. There are also several fine accessible poems in translation (including exquisite selections by Issa, Rilke, and Rural), as well as a few by new American voices. Forget theme; the arrangement is alphabetical, and readers will browse and stop and move on and come back, one poem at a time. The inviting biographical notes are at the back, to refer to after reading, and there are suggestions for those who want to know more about a poem or a writer they love. In her lyrical introduction, Rosenberg writes simply about the music of poetry, about rhyme, simile, and metaphor as promising the hope of connection and possibility ("This is like that. You feel as I felt"). There are no illustrations to intrude on the lasting images and rhythms of the words.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Rochman, Hazel. "Light-Gathering Poems." Booklist, 15 Mar. 2000, p. 1377. Book Review Index
Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A61913271/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=a6dce6c4. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A61913271
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Rosenburg, Liz & Deena November-
Eds.: I Just Hope It's Lethal: Poems
of Sadness, Madness, and Joy
Kirkus Reviews.
73.20 (Oct. 15, 2005): p1146. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2005 Kirkus Media LLC http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Rosenburg, Liz & Deena November-Eds. I JUST HOPE IT'S LETHAL: Poems of Sadness, Madness, and Joy Graphia/Houghton Mifflin (208 pp.) $7.99 paperback original Oct. 24, 2005 ISBN: 0-618-56452-7
This intelligent anthology will accomplish two amazing feats: It will please teen readers and simultaneously satisfy their teachers. Poet, children's author and anthologizer Rosenberg, with former student, November, collect verse that sensitively addresses those readers who are susceptible to emotional downdrafts and uptakes. The poems range from the classics (Wordsworth, Blake) to the contemporary (James Wright, Gerald Stem, Stephen Dobyns) to the just composed (Das Lanzilloti, Deena November)--which guarantees the teen authenticity. Moreover, the poems, organized in five sections, "speak" to one another across time and through generations, addressing theme and subject and giving young readers a sense of immediate connection and belonging. They also lay a foundation for young readers to begin to see for themselves how one work of literature may spark another. For example, included here is Paul Laurence Dunbar's "Sympathy," which features the line "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." Unforgettable characters such as J. Alfred Pmfrock and Richard Cory make their appearances here as well. Handy backmatter includes poet's biographies and an index of first lines. A must have for teachers who need the just-right book for their eighth-graders. (Poetry 14+)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Rosenburg, Liz & Deena November-Eds.: I Just Hope It's Lethal: Poems of Sadness, Madness,
and Joy." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Oct. 2005, p. 1146. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A138313013/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=dfa0ec1d. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A138313013
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I Just Hope It's Lethal: Poems of
Sadness, Madness and Joy
Gillian Engberg
Booklist.
102.6 (Nov. 15, 2005): p36. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2005 American Library Association http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
I Just Hope It's Lethal: Poems of Sadness, Madness and Joy. Ed. by Liz Rosenberg and Deena November. 2005. 176p. Houghton/ Graphia, paper, $7.99 (0-618-56452-7). 811
Gr. 9-12. Rosenberg and her former university student November have both struggled with debilitating depression, and in this personal project, the poets have brought together poems that, as Rosenberg writes, address "various aspects of sanity and madness." The organization is loose and a bit chaotic. Categories include moods, the madness of love, the "deranged" world, and the relief of finding stability. There are works by famous writers, such as Shakespeare, Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, and Rumi, as well as contemporary poets, such as Naomi Shihab Nye, whose poem "Kindness" is unforgettable. Many selections extend the dark humor of the collection's title, and there are contributions by young writers who, in the words of a 19-year-old autistic poet, view "the world called normal" with "a mind called abnormal." These raw, honest words from peers may speak most directly to teens. Comprehensive poets' biographies close this deeply affecting, sophisticated collection, which will resonate with readers in all states of mental equilibrium.--Gillian Engberg
Engberg, Gillian
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Engberg, Gillian. "I Just Hope It's Lethal: Poems of Sadness, Madness and Joy." Booklist, 15
Nov. 2005, p. 36. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A139306145 /GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=725ee8eb. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A139306145
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Roots & Flowers: Poets and Poems on
Family
Gillian Engberg
Booklist.
97.14 (Mar. 15, 2001): p1392. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2001 American Library Association http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Roots & Flowers: Poets and Poems on Family. Ed. by Liz Rosenberg. Apr. 2001. 242p. illus. index. Holt, $18.95 (0-8050-6433-8). 811.
Gr. 9-up. "Poetry ... is the language with which we speak of the things that matter most to us. And so, poetry is also the language of the family," writes David St. John in this excellent anthology. Rosenberg combines photographs and statements from well-established and emerging poets with selections of their work that explore many aspects of family relationships. There are poems about parents and children, siblings, grandparents, and even children outside traditional family borders. Naomi Shihab Nye writes about the poignancy she feels for a child she once held on a plane. Some poems are so rooted in adult concerns that younger readers may have trouble connecting; others have immediate appeal for teens, such as a Maria Mazziotti Gillan piece about fitting in and finding a voice. Even the book's handsome design, reminiscent of a family album, speaks to the theme with a lovely recurring botanical image suggesting flowers pressed between pages. Biographical notes conclude this deeply affecting collection.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Engberg, Gillian. "Roots & Flowers: Poets and Poems on Family." Booklist, 15 Mar. 2001, p.
1392. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A73890885 /GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=cae35f7f. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A73890885
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Light-Gathering Poems
R.S.
The Horn Book Magazine.
76.3 (May 2000): p327. From Book Review Index Plus.
COPYRIGHT 2000 The Horn Book, Inc.. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.hbook.com/magazine/default.asp
Full Text:
Liz Rosenberg, editor Light-Gathering Poems 141 pp. Holt 4/00 ISBN 0-8050-6223-8 15.95 (g) (Young Adult)
Thoughtfully eclectic, Liz Rosenberg's latest anthology collects "poems that in one way or another turn toward the light." Radiance and redemption are insistent themes here; love, romantic and otherwise, is a frequent topic; wisdom and regret tether epiphanies as well as simpler optimism. The collection seems almost daring in its inclusion of such chestnuts as "She Walks in Beauty" and "Invictus"; the alphabetically-by-poet arrangement allows for such surprises as Frank O'Hara's funny and romantic "Having a Coke with You" being closely followed by the Twenty-third Psalm. With around eighty poems collected, the balance between old and new, formal and free, and long and short is democratic; almost all the poems are, verbally and/or conceptually, more challenging than most collected for young people.
(g) indicates that the book was read in galley or page proof. The publisher's price is the general retail price and does not indicate a possible discount to libraries. Age levels are only suggestions; the individual child is the real criterion.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
R.S. "Light-Gathering Poems." The Horn Book Magazine, May 2000, p. 327. Book Review Index
Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A62363842/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=990e9b3b. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A62363842
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Grandmother and the Runaway
Shadow
Hazel Rochman
Booklist.
92.15 (Apr. 1, 1996): p1373+. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 1996 American Library Association http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Rosenberg, Liz. Illus. by Peck, Beth. Apr. 1996. 32p. Harcourt, $15 (0-15-200948-5).
Ages 5-8. Based on the author's and the illustrators own family immigration stories, this picture book tells of a young Jewish woman coming to America to escape persecution in Eastern Europe around the turn of the century. "When my grandmother came to this country,a run away shadow came with her." Her shadow gives her courage, makes her laugh, and shares her memories as she runs from her village, crosses the ocean, and finds a home, work, and friends in America. The idea of a secret companion will appeal to children, but the repeated mention of the shadow on every single page is overdone, especially since the immigrant story is drama enough. The oil paintings, in shades of brown, with rhythmic, sweeping lines, capture the vitality of the period, the flowing crowds in the tenement streets, the workers in the garment factory, and the brave young woman who finds in herself--in her own shadow--the strength for her journey. There's a story like this in nearly every family.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Rochman, Hazel. "Grandmother and the Runaway Shadow." Booklist, 1 Apr. 1996, p. 1373+.
Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A18202608/GPS?u=schlager& sid=GPS&xid=b4f08e0f. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A18202608
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What James Said
Maryann Owen
Booklist.
111.18 (May 15, 2015): p59. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2015 American Library Association http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
What James Said.
By Liz Rosenberg. Illus. by Matthew Myers.
June 2015. 32p. Roaring Brook, $16.99 (9781596439085). PreS-Gr. 2.
A young freckle-faced artist is angry with her used-to-be best friend, James, a bespectacled African American boy. It appears James told Aiden something about her, and Aiden told Hunter, and Hunter passed on the remark, and so on, until the comment made its way back to the main character. A humorous double-page spread, reminiscent of Norman Rockwell's Telephone, shows children's expressive face-to-face relaying of James' comment. The girl, shocked and saddened by her friend's cruel words, gives him the cold shoulder, while James, puzzled by her aloofness, tries throughout the school day to discover its reason. Delightful pen-and-watercolor illustrations on crisp white backgrounds reveal the girl's artistic inclinations as she tells her sorry story. Anger is demonstrated by splotches of paint on the pages, applause is revealed by colorful handprints, and, at times, other children are simply drawn outlines as the girl and James take center stage in their conflict. A charming tale of misunderstanding and reconciliation.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Owen, Maryann. "What James Said." Booklist, 15 May 2015, p. 59. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A417738627/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=83e9194c. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A417738627
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The Carousel
Stephanie Zvirin
Booklist.
92.6 (Nov. 15, 1995): p565. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 1995 American Library Association http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Rosenberg, Liz. Illus. by LaMarche, Jim. 1995. 32p. Harcourt, $16 (0-15-200853-5).
Ages 5-8. Fantasy blends beautifully with reality in a book that speaks to the emotions that stir in the wake of a parent's death. Rosenberg's nostalgic text is never saccharine, and LaMarche's artwork is as satisfying in recording precise physical details as it is in catching the special radiance of the story's magical goings-on. Pictures colored in wintry twilight tones follow two young girls who discover that the horses in the park's closed carousel have come alive. A broken carousel part has caused their transformation, and it takes the separate skills of each girl to bring order to the chaos--the younger with her toolbox, the older with her flute. As the girls work their earthly magic, they're each reminded of their beloved mother, whose love and inspiration is at the heart of their talents. Their return home to warm hugs from their father gives closure to this subtle story that shows the arc of memory as it gently sweeps from wistful sadness to serenity.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Zvirin, Stephanie. "The Carousel." Booklist, 15 Nov. 1995, p. 565. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A17806724/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=0aa7b99a. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A17806724
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Heart and Soul
Stephanie Zvirin
Booklist.
92.19-20 (June 1, 1996): p1702. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 1996 American Library Association http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Rosenberg, Liz. 1996.213p. Harcourt, $11 (0-15-200942-6); paper, $5 (15-201270-2).
Gr. 8-12. The consummate self-conscious outsider, Willie is having an identity crisis that has plummeted her into depression. Neither parent is much help: her dad is never home, and her mother seems barely able to take care of herself. It is only when Willie reluctantly becomes involved in helping prickly, troubled Malachi, a Jewish schoolmate with a chip on his shoulder, that she is able to see a clear path for herself. The first person narrative, by turns vague and inspired, plunges readers into Willie's melancholy and confusion, but it's really Malachi who is the novel's strongest character. He is as much (perhaps even more) an outsider as Willie, and his prickly personality makes for some explosive scenes. This is an ambitious book, with many themes vying for attention--parent-child relationships, divorce, religious and class prejudice, self- esteem. But because most of them remain only partly developed, it will be patient readers who will be this novel's best audience.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Zvirin, Stephanie. "Heart and Soul." Booklist, 1 June 1996, p. 1702. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A18412168/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=aee50e0d. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A18412168
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The Carousel
Publishers Weekly.
242.39 (Sept. 25, 1995): p56. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 1995 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
THE CAROUSEL Liz Rosenberg, illus. by Jim LaMarche. Harcourt, $16 (32p) ISBN 0-15-200853-5
When two sisters take a shortcut through the park one rainy winter day at dusk, the horses on the canvas-shrouded carousel magically come to life and take them for a thrilling twilight ride, soaring up into the sky above town. Something goes awry, however--the horses go wild, and it's up to the girls, with the help of their mother's tool kit and the elder sister's flute serenade, to set things right. Throughout the poetic text, there are hints of the girls' mother's death--the use of the past tense when she's mentioned, and a lingering sadness--and by story's end readers sense that a hurdle has been crossed on their road to healing. Rosenberg's atmospheric tale is greatly enhanced by LaMarche's (The Rainbabies) singularly luminous artwork; mist all but lingers on the pages, and his superb use of light and shadow underscores the element of magic threading through the story. Ages 4-8. (Oct.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"The Carousel." Publishers Weekly, 25 Sept. 1995, p. 56. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A17489171/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=9d119dd4. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A17489171
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The Invisible Ladder: An Anthology
of Contemporary American Poems
for Young Readers
Hazel Rochman
Booklist.
93.2 (Sept. 15, 1996): p228. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 1996 American Library Association http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
In the tradition of Paul Janezckos's this anthology combines modern American poetry with commentary by the poets and photos of them as children and adults. Rosenberg says that children don't need special poetry. Like Ruth Gordon, Naomi Shihab Nye, and other fine YA anthologists, she introduces many exciting new adult voices to young people. Some of the poets, commentaries are sophisticated, some are pretentious; but most are immediate and extraordinarily moving, nearly as powerful as the poetry they lead into. Sharon Olds writes exquisitely about the sound and rhythms that are part of her, and her poem "The Race" is breathtaking. Marvin Bell's poem" Being in Love" is funny and intense. The arrangement is alphabetical by poet, and other poets include Rita Dove, Allen Ginsberg, Galway Kinnell, Kyoki Mori, David St. John, and Alice Walker - 38 altogether. Many talk about how poetry made them feel less alone when they were young. In an afterword, which may be used more by teachers than by kids, Rosenberg makes brief suggestions for using each of the poems, mainly as a stimulus for students, own writing.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Rochman, Hazel. "The Invisible Ladder: An Anthology of Contemporary American Poems for
Young Readers." Booklist, 15 Sept. 1996, p. 228. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A18714829/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=22a56a29. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A18714829
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Home Repair
Publishers Weekly.
256.1 (Jan. 5, 2009): p31. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2009 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Home Repair
Liz Rosenberg. Avon A, $13.99 paper (336p) ISBN 978-0-06-173456-4
Rosenberg, a poet and children's book author, makes a clean break into adult fiction with the story of a middle-aged woman whose journey to independence begins at a garage sale. Forty-six- year-old Eve's garage sale takes an unexpected turn when her husband, Chuck, goes on an errand and never comes back, leaving Eve to raise teenage son Marcus and nine-year-old daughter Noni. Drawing support from her sometimes helpful mother, old friends at the university where she works and new friends--such as the man she meets in the park and a Korean graduate student and his non-English-speaking wife--Eve discovers the locals offer all she needs in her life. Rosenberg achieves remarkable emotional range--comic to tragic, dysfunction to triumph, irony to wisdom-- for an engaging, often touching story of survival on a heartbreak diet. (May)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Home Repair." Publishers Weekly, 5 Jan. 2009, p. 31. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A191954636/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=460564b9. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A191954636
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The Silence in the Mountains
LYNNE T. BURKE
Reading Today.
18.2 (Oct. 2000): p32. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2000 International Literacy Association http://www.reading.org/publications/reading_today/index.html
Full Text:
The Silence in the Mountains by Liz Rosenberg (Orchard, 1999, US$15.95, ages 5 to 9)
War forces Iskander to flee his country. Though his family packs up their most prized possessions and settles into a life in the United States very similar to the one they had, the young boy senses something important is missing. When he tells his family he wants to go home they try to convince him that he's got everything he needs. Only his grandfather understands what Iskander seeks: a sense of what it feels like, what it means to be home.
Brilliantly detailed watercolors portray the emotional journey of one family from the mountains of the Middle East to a place in the heart of America.
Lynne T. Burke is a syndicated columnist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
BURKE, LYNNE T. "The Silence in the Mountains." Reading Today, Oct. 2000, p. 32. Book
Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A66671760/GPS?u=schlager& sid=GPS&xid=5dd2c33e. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A66671760
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Eli and Uncle Dawn
Annie Ayres
Booklist.
93.18 (May 15, 1997): p1581. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 1997 American Library Association http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Rosenberg, Liz. Illus. by Gaber, Susan. 1997. 32p. Harcourt, $15 (0-15-200947-7).
Ages 4-8. Eli's father thinks Uncle Dawn, a magician who lives upstairs in their attic, should get a real job, but Eli understands that his uncle's magic is real. After Eli forgets his stuffed elephant, George, on an afternoon picnic in the woods, the boy sails through the night on the billowing blue shade his uncle made and meets his uncle, transformed into a huge bear, rescuing George Safely back at home, the entire family shares a midnight snack of peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Brushy watercolor and acrylic paintings portray the loving bonds between the little boy and his young uncle in this soothing story about a child's acceptance of his uncle's "magic" and the security in their shared love.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Ayres, Annie. "Eli and Uncle Dawn." Booklist, 15 May 1997, p. 1581. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A19485891/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=8d73c67d. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A19485891
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Window, Mirror, Moon
Diane Roback
Publishers Weekly.
237.13 (Mar. 30, 1990): p61+. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 1990 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
WINDOW, mirror, moon With illustrations as blue-hack as the night itself, this lullaby about a mother returning home to her sleeping infant will comfort small readers. Unlike Brown's Goodnigh Moon, the images in Rosenberg's poem are abstract, but its gently rocking rhythms and musical language are soothing. Nature's animals dwell just outside the baby's room, as "Below the window was the sea, / a blue-back mirror, flashing," where a fish lives "with eyes as large and bright as windows." Above, a crow steals a tinfoil mirror and takes it to his home, where an owl "whose eyes [are] like two shining mirrors" watches the mother in her car returning home. Above the baby's cribe is "a silver mirror," reflecting the silver moon hanging in the window. Richardson's muted paintings are broadly outlined, almost like woodcuts, and the repeated designs nicely echo the tone of the tightly written story. Ages 5-7. (Mar.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Roback, Diane. "Window, Mirror, Moon." Publishers Weekly, 30 Mar. 1990, p. 61+. Book Review
Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A8869101/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=d98c5431. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A8869101
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The fire music
Grace Schulman
The Nation.
243 (Dec. 27, 1986): p742+. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 1986 The Nation Company L.P. http://www.thenation.com/about-and-contact
Full Text:
THE FIRE MUSIC.
By Liz Rosenberg. University of Pittsburgh Press. $15.95. Paper $6.95. This is a powerful first book of poems, the writer's voice like no other, her music resonant and new. Liz Rosenberg has the uncommon ability to make the familiar unfamiliar. She writes of helping a drunkard in her town and hearing "church music and his breath/pulling like oars against the dark.' Or, of rain on regal trees, "rattling the leaves, the kingdom's gold,--/and tossing down one by one its miserly dime-thin alms.' With apparent naturalness, she expresses a transcendent vision and a commanding sense of beauty.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Schulman, Grace. "The fire music." The Nation, 27 Dec. 1986, p. 742+. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A4600993/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=1365c3ac. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A4600993
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Invisible ladder
Girls' Life.
3.5 (April-May 1997): p23. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 1997 Girls Life Acquisition Corp. http://www.girlslife.com/
Full Text:
Liz Rosenberg (Henry Holt, $16.95)
This book came to be because its creator could not find the poems she likes in any other anthology. This is a fantastic collection, and you learn how the authors came to love and write poetry. As a result, the poems seem more important because of what you know about the poets.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Invisible ladder." Girls' Life, Apr.-May 1997, p. 23. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A30231751/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=0fd0f3c0. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A30231751
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Light Gathering Poems
Gillian Engberg
Booklist.
97.14 (Mar. 15, 2001): p1393. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2001 American Library Association http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Light Gathering Poems. Ed. by Liz Rosenberg. 2000. Holt, $15.95 (0-8050-6223-8).
Gr. 6-12. Well chosen and classic, the poems in this unillustrated anthology celebrate universal human experiences and include works by Dickinson, Byron, Ginsberg, Oliver, and Yeats, among others. Biographical notes and an eloquent introduction enhance the collection.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Engberg, Gillian. "Light Gathering Poems." Booklist, 15 Mar. 2001, p. 1393. Book Review Index
Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A73890897/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=3308aef7. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A73890897
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THE SILENCE IN THE MOUNTAINS
Publishers Weekly.
246.12 (Mar. 22, 1999): p92. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 1999 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Liz Rosenberg, illus. by Chris K. Soentpiet. Orchard, $15.95 (32p) ISBN 0-531-30084-6
This portentous picture book about a child exiled by war gets tripped up by its pacing. While the book's opening sounds like a fairy tale ("Once there was a boy named Iskander who lived in a land so sweet, so beautiful, some people called it paradise"), with the turn of a page ("Then war broke out"), the peaceful family picnic scene is abruptly transformed into barricade explosions and street fighting, and the next spread shows Iskander and his family packing up to leave their farm. The balance of the book takes place in America, where everyone tries to console the homesick boy, but only his understanding grandfather knows that the peaceful woods alone can comfort Iskander. More than the text, it is Soentpiet's (More Than Anything Else) portraits of lined faces and the sunlit countryside that lend the book its emotional appeal. Unfortunately, both Rosenberg's (Monster Mama) text and the artwork muddy the title metaphor. Although the reader is told that Iskander's initial paradise was "changed" as "the fightin g went on," the family departs from a peaceful farm where Iskander can still hear "the silence high up in the mountains." Iskander's desire for pre-war "silence" in his own war-torn country seems too subtle for the grasp of most young readers who may wonder why he is not happy with his peaceful new land, or what the silence in the mountains represents. Ages 5-9. (Mar.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"THE SILENCE IN THE MOUNTAINS." Publishers Weekly, 22 Mar. 1999, p. 92. Book Review
Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A54211411/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=53aba07e. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A54211411
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The Silence in the Mountains
John Peters
Booklist.
95.11 (Feb. 1, 1999): p982. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 1999 American Library Association http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Rosenberg, Liz. Illus. by Soentpiet, Chris K. The Silence in the Mountains. Mar. 1999. 32p. Orchard, $15.95 (0-531-30084-6); lib. ed., $16.99 (0-531-33084-2).
Ages 6-8 When the threat of war (in an unnamed country, but Rosenberg dedicates the book in part to the people of Lebanon) drives young Iskander and his family from their hillside home to a farm in America, his grandfather eases his homesickness by taking him into the woods and sitting with him until he finds a silence like the beloved mountain silence he left behind. Except for one fiery spread, and another showing Iskander standing on an apartment balcony looking down to a busy American street, Soentpiet portrays a prosperous-looking family moving without much difficulty from one peaceful, sunny, bucolic setting to another; consequently, the war and the trauma of dislocation seem abstract, less immediate than the sadness on Iskander's downcast face. This makes a less emotionally intense story than Florence Parry Heide's Sami and the Time of the Troubles (1992), with its heartrending portrayal of children living in the very midst of destruction, but Iskander's feelings are certainly valid--and shared by refugees from violence the world over.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Peters, John. "The Silence in the Mountains." Booklist, 1 Feb. 1999, p. 982. Book Review Index
Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A53914604/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=e3786b2f. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A53914604
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Print Marked Items ELI'S NIGHT LIGHT
Publishers Weekly.
248.20 (May 14, 2001): p80. From Business Collection.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"ELI'S NIGHT LIGHT." Publishers Weekly, 14 May 2001, p. 80. Business Collection,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A74827390/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=6b78873d. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A74827390
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Earth-Shattering Poems
Hazel Rochman
Booklist.
94.8 (Dec. 15, 1997): p688. From Book Review Index Plus.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Rochman, Hazel. "Earth-Shattering Poems." Booklist, 15 Dec. 1997, p. 688. Book Review Index
Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A20105245/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=76a5d4a1. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A20105245
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Eli's Night-Light
Gillian Engberg
Booklist.
97 (June 1, 2001): p1895. From Book Review Index Plus.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Engberg, Gillian. "Eli's Night-Light." Booklist, 1 June 2001, p. 1895. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A76628792/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=a143f211. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A76628792
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A Big and a Little Alphabet
Hazel Rochman
Booklist.
94.5 (Nov. 1, 1997): p484. From Book Review Index Plus.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Rochman, Hazel. "A Big and a Little Alphabet." Booklist, 1 Nov. 1997, p. 484. Book Review
Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A20018819/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=0c96df36. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A20018819
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House of Dreams: The Life of L.M.
Montgomery
Biz Hyzy
Booklist.
114.19-20 (June 1, 2018): p73+. From General OneFile.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Hyzy, Biz. "House of Dreams: The Life of L.M. Montgomery." Booklist, 1 June 2018, p. 73+.
General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A546287624/GPS?u=schlager& sid=GPS&xid=da91e5ee. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A546287624
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ROSENBERG, Liz. House of
Dreams: The Life of L.M.
Montgomery
Kate DiGirolomo
School Library Journal.
64.5 (May 2018): p122+. From Business Collection.
COPYRIGHT 2018 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
ROSENBERG, Liz. House of Dreams: The Life of L.M. Montgomery, illus. by Julie Morstad. 352p. bibliog. chron. notes. Candlewick. Jun. 2018. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9780763660574.
Gr 6 Up--Most known for Anne of Green Gables, author L.M. Montgomery (1874-1942) endured many hardships while dedicating herself to a prolific and renowned career. This account of her life buzzes with energy and emotion reminiscent of her own writing, and incorporates her diary entries for a more personal telling. Readers will share in her bemusement as she rejects a string of suitors in favor of her ambitions, celebrate her triumphs as a successful--though unfairly paid-- author, and feel the overwhelming demand for more Anne. Rosenberg crucially doesn't shy away from discussing mental health, sometimes using Montgomery's books as analysis for her state of mind. Her experiences with depression is laid bare, her moments of freneticism or despondence vivid through riveting prose. Rosenberg also details her subject's imagination, zest for nature, and her perfectly imperfect characters who still continue to touch so many. Devotees will relish the tidbits of Montgomery's daily life that found their way into Anne's world. The book also boasts Morstad's delicately and prettily penned illustrations and an expansive bibliography. However, Rosenberg's biggest misstep is not tackling Montgomery's problematic works, notably Kilmeny of the Orchard and the short story "Tannis of the Flats." Considering the deep dive Rosenberg takes with the iconic author's other writings, the absence of it here is strongly felt. VERDICT A poignant though incomplete look at a renowned author. Consider for Montgomery fans.--Kate DiGirolomo, Library Journal
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Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
DiGirolomo, Kate. "ROSENBERG, Liz. House of Dreams: The Life of L.M. Montgomery."
School Library Journal, May 2018, p. 122+. Business Collection, http://link.galegroup.com /apps/doc/A536988148/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=d90ffffa. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A536988148
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Rosenberg, Liz. 17: a Novel in Prose
Poems
Susan W. Hunter
School Library Journal.
48.11 (Nov. 2002): p174. From Business Collection.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
142p. CIP. Cricket/Marcato. 2002. Tr $16.95. ISBN 0-8126-4915-X. LC 2002006454.
Gr 9 Up--At 17, but looking 14 with her slight, underdeveloped figure, Stephanie is "the girl" with long red hair who writes poetry and takes advanced classes at her Massachusetts high school. On the first day of her junior year, she attracts the eye of Denny Pistil, son of a rich attorney, who soon sweeps her off her feet with his interest in her poetry and his passionate attentions. He makes her wonder if she is "betraying ... the world of her mother, the untouched, unscathed world of her self." Her mother works at home as a potter; her struggle with mental illness is an integral part of the family's life. Stephanie fears she may have inherited her mother's craziness in the guise of her own anxieties and her phobias about food. As the romance with Denny progresses, she fears pregnancy and feels a growing ambivalence about lovemaking. Denny begins to grow cold and distant, and Stephanie experiences symptoms of depression and anxiety when their relationship unravels over his nascent sexual attraction to a male friend. She recovers her hopefulness in the early spring as she begins a new friendship with Ben, who loves poetry and has the gift of putting her at ease. Rosenberg's sensitive writing is structured in complete sentences and paragraphs, like prose, with the figurative language and economy of word characteristic of poetry. Breaks are provided not by chapters, but by poem titles, to render a touching third-person narrative, enhanced by resonant images of nature and the changing seasons.--Susan W. Hunter, Riverside Middle School, Springfield, VT
Hunter, Susan W.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Hunter, Susan W. "Rosenberg, Liz. 17: a Novel in Prose Poems." School Library Journal, Nov.
2002, p. 174. Business Collection, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A94640187 /GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=836d401d. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
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Rosenberg, Liz. What James Said
Megan Egbert
School Library Journal.
61.10 (Oct. 2015): p83. From Business Collection.
COPYRIGHT 2015 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
* ROSENBERG, Liz. What James Said. illus. by Matthew Myers. 32p. Roaring Brook/Neal Porter Bks. 2015. Tr $16.99. ISBN 9781596439085.
K-Gr 3--Telephone is a game that many children have enjoyed for generations--that is, when the game is intentional. But what about when something gets passed from person to person and it isn't fun for everyone involved? In Rosenberg's charming picture book, a girl is upset by what she perceives to be a derogatory comment coming from her best friend. James has never treated her unkindly before, which makes the comment even more surprising. Through some persistence, some patience, and even some luck, she finally unveils "what James said" and realizes how she misinterpreted it. This simple story will resonate with young readers who are learning to navigate the tricky waters of friendship. Myers's illustrations are created with "cheap ballpoint pen and watercolor." Don't let the description dissuade--they are simply delightful. Sprinkled with additional childlike embellishments, the realistic artwork shows great emotion and detail that will engage the intended audience. A clever read that can be shared with a group and is perfect for independent reading. VERDICT Witty, relatable, and a great purchase for children in any setting.--Megan Egbert, Meridian Library District, ID
Egbert, Megan
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Egbert, Megan. "Rosenberg, Liz. What James Said." School Library Journal, Oct. 2015, p. 83.
Business Collection, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A431724824/GPS?u=schlager& sid=GPS&xid=5a0883c0. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A431724824
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Rosenberg, Liz. Nobody
Anne Beier
School Library Journal.
56.5 (May 2010): p90+. From Business Collection.
COPYRIGHT 2010 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
ROSENBERG, Liz. Nobody. illus, by Julie Downing. unpaged. Roaring Brook/A Neal Porter Bk. May 2010. Tr $16.99. ISBN 978-1-59643-120-1. LC number unavailable.
PreS-K--Young George wakes up early one morning while his parents are asleep. His imaginary companion, Nobody, is there to keep him company and inspires plenty of mischief. George decides to create omelets using lots of ingredients, just like Dad does. Into the bowl go eggs (bits of shell included), grapes, corn chips, whipped cream, chocolate syrup, strawberries, and dog biscuits. Thankfully, George remembers he's not allowed to turn on the stove with Nobody around, and without parental supervision. After losing a game of Go Fish to Nobody, he ups the stakes with a new challenge that requires lines of ketchup to be drawn on the kitchen floor. Finally, mom and dad arrive at the kitchen; instead of losing their cool, understanding and love prevail. George fesses up to his parents about Nobody, creating a story arc with depth. Color pops off the page with playful illustrations done in watercolor, colored pencil, pastels, and china marker. Downing cleverly contrasts Nobody in black and white. The visual impact is strong but simple and underscores the tightly written text, and the facial expressions are priceless. Perspective is creatively used, particularly in a spread where George and Nobody are exploring the contents of the refrigerator. Kids and their parents will love this one.--Anne Beier, Hendrick Hudson Free Library, Montrose, NY
Beier, Anne
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Beier, Anne. "Rosenberg, Liz. Nobody." School Library Journal, May 2010, p. 90+. Business
Collection, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A226162125/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=4954deb3. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
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Rosenberg, Liz. Tyrannosaurus Dad
Marge Loch-Wouters
School Library Journal.
57.5 (May 2011): p88. From Business Collection.
COPYRIGHT 2011 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
ROSENBERG, Liz. Tyrannosaurus Dad. illus. by Matthew Myers. unpaged. CIP. Roaring Brook/A Neal Porter Bk. May 2011. Tr $16.99. ISBN 978-1-59643-531-5. LC 2010022010.
PreS-Gr 2--Tobias's father is a lot like other dads ... well, except for the fact that he's "forty feet long and fifteen feet high," has "teeth as sharp as steak knives," weighs "as much as a steam locomotive," and is soon revealed to be a T. rex. There are advantages and disadvantages to having a dinosaur dad, but the worst is that his work keeps him so busy that he can't come to his son's big Field Day at Elmwood Elementary. But when the baseball game is almost taken over by the rough and tough Chickenbone Gang, Tyranosaums Dad comes unexpectedly to the rescue, and soon all the kids are playing together under his firmly benevolent direction. The quirky, retro full-color illustrations are filled with details that are simply hilarious: dino dad, stuffed into a shirt and tie, delicately taps his computer keyboard; cracks the bathroom ceiling as he scrunches in to brush his teeth; and shelters kids in a rainstorm beneath his .massive body. The flowing art, varying between full pages and spreads, features surprising perspectives and an inner logic that show a human boy and a dinosaur dad as a natural, loving family. This twist on a great dad/son relationship will be appreciated both as a read-along and a read-aloud and will have dinosaur lovers and dads going back for more.--Marge Loch-Wouters, La Crosse Public Library, WI
Loch-Wouters, Marge
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Loch-Wouters, Marge. "Rosenberg, Liz. Tyrannosaurus Dad." School Library Journal, May
2011, p. 88. Business Collection, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A255493871 /GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=27cc5949. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
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Rosenberg, Liz: Nobody
Susan Halperin
The Horn Book Guide.
21.2 (Fall 2010): p313. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2010 The Horn Book, Inc. http://www.hornbookguide.com
Full Text:
Rosenberg, Liz Nobody
32 pp. Roaring Brook/Porter ISBN 978-1-59643-120-1 $16.99
(3) illustrated by Julie Downing. George's imaginary friend, Nobody, wakes him up one Sunday morning, and they proceed to play messy games and concoct crazy breakfast ideas-which, fortunately, George is not allowed to cook "when Nobody was around." When parents arrive there are no repercussions. Messy but pleasing illustrations mirror the disarray and the humor of Rosenberg's delightful wordplay.
Halperin, Susan
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Halperin, Susan. "Rosenberg, Liz: Nobody." The Horn Book Guide, Fall 2010, p. 313. Book
Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A239814773/GPS?u=schlager& sid=GPS&xid=0cea309c. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
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Rosenberg, Liz. On Christmas Eve
Virginia Walter
School Library Journal.
48.10 (Oct. 2002): p63. From Business Collection.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
illus. by John Clapp. unpaged. CIP. Millbrook/Roaring Brook. 2002. Tr $15.95. ISBN 0-7613-1627-2; PLB $21.90. ISBN 0-7613-2707-X. LC 2002019951.
K-Gr 2--When a snowstorm forces his family to stop at a motel late on Christmas Eve, a boy worries that Santa won't be able to find them. This is a classic childhood concern, of course. Here the author and illustrator combine a straightforward realism with a touch of magic and wonder to create a simple, satisfying picture book. The photo-realist quality of the paintings helps to enhance the sense of enchantment as Santa and his young friend tiptoe "past the registration desk and the humming ice machines" to deliver gifts. This is the perfect selection for children who are old enough to know that some people don't believe in Santa but young enough to cling stubbornly to their own belief.
Walter, Virginia
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Walter, Virginia. "Rosenberg, Liz. On Christmas Eve." School Library Journal, Oct. 2002, p. 63.
Business Collection, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A93088299/GPS?u=schlager& sid=GPS&xid=119828f1. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
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Rosenberg, Liz: Tyrannosaurus Dad
Carrie Harasimowicz Sullivan
The Horn Book Guide.
22.2 (Fall 2011): p328. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2011 The Horn Book, Inc. http://www.hornbookguide.com
Full Text:
Rosenberg, Liz Tyrannosaurus Dad
32 pp. Roaring Brook/Porter ISBN 978-1-59643-531-5 $16.99
(4) Illustrated by Matthew Myers. Like many dads, Tobias's father works all the time; unlike other dads, Tobias's father is a (grumpy) T-rex. At Field Day, the dino dad ends up saving the day after a gang of bullies descends. The story's focus is scattered; however, the painterly illustrations of the tie-wearing, newspaper-reading, lawn-mowing suburban T-rex are almost worth the price of admission. CHS
(CHS) Carrie Harasimowicz Sullivan, formerly assistant editor of The Horn Book Guide, holds a master's degree in children's literature. She teaches English in Brunswick, Maine.
Sullivan, Carrie Harasimowicz
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Sullivan, Carrie Harasimowicz. "Rosenberg, Liz: Tyrannosaurus Dad." The Horn Book Guide,
Fall 2011, p. 328. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A271051417 /GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=bbd55c7f. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A271051417
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Rosenberg, Liz: What James Said
Sam Bloom
The Horn Book Guide.
27.1 (Spring 2016): p46. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2016 The Horn Book, Inc. http://www.hornbookguide.com
Full Text:
* Rosenberg, Liz What James Said
32 pp. Roaring Brook/Porter ISBN 978-1-59643-908-5 $16.99
(2) Illustrated by Matt Myers. Published spring 2015. The narrator, a budding artist, is peeved at her best friend James; she's heard that James said she thinks she is perfect. Only when she stops to listen does the girl realize he's been singing her praises all along. Mixed-media illustrations ably convey simple emotion, the girl's wrath punctuated by angry splotches of paint. This story will resonate with the primary-grade crowd. Review 7/15.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Bloom, Sam. "Rosenberg, Liz: What James Said." The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2016, p. 46.
Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A448904507 /GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=ffaad5b9. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
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Rosenberg, Liz. This Is the Wind
Julie Roach
School Library Journal.
54.10 (Oct. 2008): p121. From Business Collection.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
ROSENBERG, Liz. This Is the Wind. illus. by Renee Reichert. unpaged. Roaring Brook/A Neal Porter Bk. 2008. Tr $16.95. ISBN 978-1-59643-268-0. LC number unavailable.
PreS-Gr 1--In the spirit of "The House That Jack Built," this cumulative tale recounts a baby's birth on a windy night. As it builds, some of the phrases lose their rhythm, becoming a mouthful that can leave readers gasping for breath. However, the lush, dreamy illustrations in rich, deep hues bring a great deal of loveliness to the story. Opening and closing with the image of a mother rocking her baby, the book is tied together with a wind that blows through the open window and whips around each spread, both dividing and highlighting phrases and images, until it dies down peacefully where it started. The pictures also show a parallel story as a mother mouse moves in and has a litter of babies. Mothers might enjoy sharing this attractive book with young children.-- Julie Roach, Cambridge Public Library, MA
Roach, Julie
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Roach, Julie. "Rosenberg, Liz. This Is the Wind." School Library Journal, Oct. 2008, p. 121.
Business Collection, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A187686980/GPS?u=schlager& sid=GPS&xid=b860f196. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
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Rosenberg, Liz & Deena November,
comps. I Just Hope It's Lethal: Poems
of Sadness, Madness, and Joy
Jessi Platt
School Library Journal.
51.12 (Dec. 2005): p172. From Business Collection.
COPYRIGHT 2005 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
ROSENBERG, Liz & Deena November, comps. I Just Hope It's Lethal: Poems of Sadness, Madness, and Joy. 190p. index. Houghton/Graphia. 2005. pap. $7.99. ISBN 0-618-56452-7. LC 2005004257.
Gr 9 Up--The poems in this diverse collection range from classic (Shakespeare, Lord Byron) to modern (by the compilers themselves). While some of selections might be too complex and antique for reluctant readers, most of the pieces are powerfully written and easy to understand. Sylvia Plath, Dorothy Parker, and Rumi are among the poets included. Two short introductions explain the inclusion of many of these selections and the significance of each of the book's five sections. A biography section gives interesting summaries of each poet's life. This efficiently organized, concise, and interesting collection is an excellent choice for libraries serving teens. However, as November states in her introduction, "This book is for everyone and anyone."--Jessi Platt, Auburn Public Library, AL
Platt, Jessi
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Platt, Jessi. "Rosenberg, Liz & Deena November, comps. I Just Hope It's Lethal: Poems of
Sadness, Madness, and Joy." School Library Journal, Dec. 2005, p. 172. Business Collection, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A140523914/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=30cee5ba. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
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17.
Nick Hart
Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy.
46.7 (Apr. 2003): p608. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2003 International Literacy Association http://www.reading.org/publications/journals/jaal/index.html
Full Text:
Seventeen-year-old Stephanie is just getting ready to start the 11th grade, arguably the most difficult year of high school. Not only does Stephanie have to deal with the hardships of school, but she also has problems and responsibilities at home. Her father is always working, and her mother is always "sick" and sleeps for long periods of time. Stephanie's 8-year-old brother Justin requires a lot of attention, and Stephanie has taken on the role of mother in addition to her role as high school student.
At the start of the school year Stephanie meets Denny Pistil, an intriguing, intelligent, and handsome young man. Denny has his own problems: a distant mother, a bratty sister, and an alcoholic father. Stephanie and Denny become friends and eventually fall in love. Their initial bond comes in the form of poetry; Stephanie loves to write it, and Denny loves to read it. For both Denny and Stephanie this new relationship provides a refuge from other distractions.
17 is written in lyrical prose, each little section flowing into the next to make up the overall story. This style allows for a more intimate and moving portrayal of Stephanie and her world so that the reader's emotions not only rise with Stephanie's joy, experiences, and accomplishments but also fall when she experiences loss, sadness, and depression.
Young people who have experienced tough times will find it easy to relate to this book and its candid portrayal of life. Topics addressed include sex, depression, homosexuality, loss, mental illness, isolation, despair, and eventual triumph. Rosenberg's overall message is one of hope and perseverance and of the belief that no matter how bad things may get, they can get better.
Liz Rosenberg. 2002. Chicago, IL: Cricket Books. 142 pp. ISBN 0-8126-4915-X. US$16.95. Nick Hart, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA.
Hart, Nick
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Hart, Nick. "17." Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, vol. 46, no. 7, 2003, p. 608. Book
Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A99982973/GPS?u=schlager& sid=GPS&xid=9c92647f. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
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We Wanted You
Judith Constantinides
School Library Journal.
48.4 (Apr. 2002): p121+. From Business Collection.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
ROSENBERG, Liz. We Wanted You. illus. by Peter Catalanotto. unpaged. CIP. Millbrook/Roaring Brook. 2002. Tr $16.95. ISBN 0-7613-1597-7; PLB $23.90. ISBN 0-7613-2661-8. LC number unavailable.
PreS-Gr 3--Beginning "From the moment you were born-and even before that moment--we knew we wanted you," a poetic text and Catalanotto's glowing illustrations distinguish this book on adoption. As the parents explain how they waited and searched and hoped for Enrique, the illustrations show the boy during several milestones of his life, beginning with his high school graduation on the title page and moving back through his life with his adoptive parents: catching the school bus, getting measles, fishing with his father. Text and art work perfectly together; the pictures show the child getting younger and younger as the text culminates with the parents receiving their baby and ending, "We wanted you so much, back then. And we still do." The endpaper shows Enrique entering a new stage of his life: college. Although there are quite a few good books on this subject for parents to use with their children, this one is a lovely choice. --Judith Constantinides, formerly at East Baton lot Rouge Parish Main Library, LA
Constantinides, Judith
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Constantinides, Judith. "We Wanted You." School Library Journal, Apr. 2002, p. 121+. Business
Collection, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A84970820/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=ae482f34. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
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Light-Gathering Poems
Kristen Oravec
School Library Journal.
46.6 (June 2000): p170. From Business Collection.
COPYRIGHT 2000 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
ROSENBERG, Liz, ed. Light-Gathering Poems. 146p. further reading, index. CIP. Holt. 2000. Tr $15.95. ISBN 0-8050-6223-8. LC 99-049231.
Gr 7 Up--A companion piece to Earth-Shattering Poems (Holt, 1995), this collection is billed as a "healing answer" to the turbulent nature of the selections in that anthology. Indeed there are some "lighter" themes here, such as lighthouses, summer, beauty, and eternity. Lord Byron's "She Walks in Beauty," Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "Sonnet #43" ("How do I love thee? Let me count the ways"), and Allen Ginsberg's "Sunflower Sutra" are among the inclusions. Some of the other uplifting poems are Amado Nervo's "Ecstacy," Omar Khayyam's "Awake!," and Christina Rossetti's "Hurt No Living Thing." However, some poems have a heavier tone, such as D. H. Lawrence's "Song of a Man Who Has Come Through" and William Stafford's "Learning How to Lose." Overall, the selections gel smoothly, with each poem bringing its own unique voice to the theme and adding its own layer of understanding. The book concludes with 36 pages of biographical notes.--Kristen Oravec, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Strongsville, OH
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Oravec, Kristen. "Light-Gathering Poems." School Library Journal, June 2000, p. 170. Business
Collection, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A64490540/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=08872c61. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A64490540
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Roots and Flowers: Poets and Poems
on Family
Herman Sutter
School Library Journal.
47.5 (May 2001): p170. From Business Collection.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
*ROSENBERG, Liz, ed. Roots and Flowers: Poets and Poems on Family. 244p. photos. further reading. index. CIP. Holt. 2001. Tr $21.95. ISBN 0-8050-6433-8. LC 00-59663.
Gr 7 Up--A wonderful anthology from 40 contemporary poets (some famous, some lesser known), all touching somehow on the subject of family. As an added attraction, the poets have included a family snapshot and a brief note on their family and its effect on their poetry. The selections are well chosen, and the personal details in the notes may help to draw some readers more eagerly into the poems. The styles are diverse, and the poems vary in length from Naomi Shihab Nye's seven-line "How Far Is It to the Land We Left?" to the six pages of Stanley Kunitz's "Journal for My Daughter." Some are humorous, some confrontational, many are soothing, and at least one includes street language. This is a great picture of what's going on in contemporary American poetry.--Herman Sutter, Saint Agnes Academy, Houston, TX
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Sutter, Herman. "Roots and Flowers: Poets and Poems on Family." School Library Journal, May
2001, p. 170. Business Collection, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A75090730 /GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=896f5663. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
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I Just Hope It's Lethal: Poems of Sadness, Madness, and Joy
School Library Journal.
52.10 (Oct. 2006): pS73. From Business Collection.
COPYRIGHT 2006 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
ROSENBERG, Liz & Deena November, comps. I Just Hope It's Lethal: Poems of Sadness, Madness, and Joy. 190p. index. Houghton/Graphia. 2005. pap. $7.99. ISBN 0-618-56452-7. LC 2005004257.
Gr 9 Up--Poetry is the language of feeling, and this collection of both classic and modern poems speaks directly to the feelings that bombard teenagers. A fine, accessible anthology with a biography section offering interesting summaries of each poet's life. B
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"I Just Hope It's Lethal: Poems of Sadness, Madness, and Joy." School Library Journal, Oct.
2006, p. S73. Business Collection, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A153361398 /GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=11942b64. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
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Eli's Night Light
Gay Lynn Van Vleck
School Library Journal.
47.8 (Aug. 2001): p160. From Business Collection.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
ROSENBERG, Liz. Eli's Night Light. illus. by Joanna Yardley. unpaged. CIP. Scholastic/ Orchard. 2001. Tr $15.95. ISBN 0-531-30316-0. LC 00-39149.
PreS-Gr 1--When Eli's light burns out in the middle of the night, he takes comfort from other sources of illumination such as clock dials, headlights, and, finally, the stars. Rosenberg creatively addresses the child's fear ("His closet yawned like a dragon's hole ...") and gradually soothes with the wonder of a clear, calm night sky. In two spots, the narrative switches to rhymed couplets, brusquely creating a challenging change of tempo for a readaloud. Deep blues dominate Yardley's palette of pastels to craft realistic scenes while atypical perspectives and full-spread layouts provide pleasurable exploration of details.--Gay Lynn Van Vleck, Henrico County Library, Glen Allen, VA
Van Vleck, Gay Lynn
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Van Vleck, Gay Lynn. "Eli's Night Light." School Library Journal, Aug. 2001, p. 160. Business
Collection, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A77749003/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=113ea21a. Accessed 12 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A77749003
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Book Review
‘The Laws of Gravity’ by Liz Rosenberg
By Diane White Globe Correspondent May 30, 2013
Liz Rosenberg’s “The Laws of Gravity” is her second novel for adult readers.
David Bosnick
Liz Rosenberg’s “The Laws of Gravity” is her second novel for adult readers.
Veteran children’s book author Liz Rosenberg’s “The Laws of Gravity” has the superficial elements of a three-hankie weepie, but there’s more substance to this novel, the author’s second for adult readers.
Rosenberg has written a thoughtful story about morality, personal responsibility, the law and, above all, the complicated, sometimes incomprehensible, ties of family. This emotionally compelling novel sometimes veers over into emotional manipulation. But Rosenberg gets away with it. “The Laws of Gravity” has “book group” stamped all over it.
The central issue is a legal dispute over cord blood, a rich source of stem cells that, thanks to advances in technology, can be stored and later used to treat a variety of diseases. Two cousins, one of them seriously ill, end up in a highly publicized court battle. The presiding judge refers to it as “the blood case,” and it is indeed all about blood, in more ways than one.
Ari Wiesenthal and his beautiful red-haired cousin, Nicole Greene, were extremely close as children. In fact, Ari was quietly in love with his cousin. Now in his 40s, Ari is married to Nicole’s best friend, Mimi, a comedy writer. Nicole, eight years younger than Ari, married Jay, a high school teacher and coach. Over the years the cousins have grown apart somewhat, but Mimi and Nicole have a close, intense friendship, and Ari and Mimi’s 11-year-old son, Julian, adores his younger cousin Daisy. The families are close, despite a certain amount of tension resulting from their different economic circumstances. Ari’s success in real estate enables his family to live in a posh neighborhood of Glen Cove, on Long Island. The Greenes live more modestly in nearby Huntington.
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When Nicole is diagnosed with leukemia and lymphoma, Ari promises to do anything he can to help her, including sharing the cord blood saved from Julian’s birth. When other treatments fail to slow the progress of the disease, it seems the blood that nourished Julian in the womb may be Nicole’s only hope. But after Julian comes down with a brief illness, Ari changes his mind. His children come first, he tells Mimi, who is dismayed and angered by his decision not to help Nicole. Julian, too, is bewildered and angry about his father’s refusal to share the cord blood with his cousin.
Nicole sues Ari for the cord blood. Judge Solomon Richter reluctantly agrees to take on the case, even though it means postponing his retirement. He senses something “ugly” about Greene vs. Wiesenthal. But he has never liked adjudicating family disputes. “For every rare instance where a family situation was resolved peaceably outside the law, there were three where each side stubbornly held its ground. He was used to this, if saddened by what it said about humanity.”
Rosenberg’s writing is straightforward, deftly conveying intense emotions without turning soppy. She has created complex and sympathetic characters. She delves into Judge Richter’s life and the lives of his family, his wife, Sarah, and their unmarried daughter, Abigail, who has recently adopted a baby girl, Iris, from Thailand. Sarah is preparing for her adult bat mitzvah with a group of over-60 women. Her rediscovery of Jewish religion and tradition adds a spiritual dimension that illuminates the issues of the case.
Nicole is fully drawn, but Ari remains impenetrable. His motivation in withholding the cord blood is a bit of a mystery. It’s not just that he’s stubborn, controlling, and self-centered, although he appears to be all of those things. If he wanted to protect his children why would he make a decision that completely alienates his own son? His refusal may be rooted in some resentment of Nicole, who is beautiful, well-loved, and, for him, unattainable. At one point he lashes out at her, “Every sentence for you begins with ‘I want.’ But the answer is no.”
Ironically, Nicole may be the only person who understands him. “Poor Ari,” she tells Mimi. “Ever since he was a kid no one liked him best.”
Diane White is a freelance writer in Georgetown, Ky., and can be reached at duxwhite@aol.com.
Book reviews
What James Said
Friendship tested by a little misunderstanding
BookPage review by Julie Danielson
Web Exclusive – June 09, 2015
Nearly every person, no matter what age, has experienced the sting of knowing a friend said something behind her back. And all of us know what it’s like to misunderstand something and let a situation get out of hand. This is the drama at the heart of Liz Rosenberg’s What James Said, where one elementary-age girl tells readers how she refuses to talk to her friend James. “We are in a fight,” she declares. Word has gotten around, you see, that James said that he thinks our narrator thinks she is perfect.
This is hurtful to the girl, and she lays out the reasons she is, in fact, not perfect. Her hair is plain brown, and she’s not very good at spelling—to name but two things. She’s good at art, however, and one of her pieces has been chosen as “Best of Show” in art class at school. And while she does her best to ignore James all throughout the story, readers will notice his confusion and his stubborn attempts to convince her to talk to him. “Are you feeling okay?” he eventually asks her. When the misunderstanding is revealed—he thinks her art piece is “perfect,” and the girls’ friends clearly misunderstood James and started an impressive game of Gossip—readers breathe a sigh of relief.
Rosenberg’s elegant text channels the way children this age think and feel, and Matt Myers’ uncluttered artwork, in clever ways, lets the girl and James have all the focus. When other children are part of a spread, Myers often outlines only their bodies in muted and thickly lined watercolors. And for several highly emotional scenes, he covers the moment with watercolor splashes: When the girl hears the unfounded gossip, her hands cover her eyes and she’s covered in pink splashes of watercolor paints. Myers’ use of these paint splashes to communicate the strong emotions of the story really works.
It’s an honest exploration of best-friend dynamics. Spread the word: This one is not to be missed.
Julie Danielson features authors and illustrators at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, a children’s literature blog.
Medium
What James Said
By Liz Rosenberg and Matthew Myers
Roaring Brook
$16.99
ISBN 9781596439085
Published 06/09/2015
Children's / Children's Picture
Beauty and Attention
By Liz Rosenberg
Find & buy on
In 1954 Rochester, New York, Libby Archer, whose parents have both died, is sorting through items in her home with her friend Henrietta. Most of Libby’s well-meaning friends, and her suitor, Casper, expect she will now marry. Instead, Libby decides to take an extended visit to her wealthy aunt and uncle’s country estate, Gardencourt, in Ireland. There Libby is entertained and charmed by her invalid cousin, Lazarus, as well as his friend Lord Warburton. Although Lord Warburton proposes to Libby, she turns him down, favoring a trip to the Continent with her aunt. In Paris she meets another socialite, Madame Merle. Libby’s terminally ill uncle dies shortly after but mysteriously bequeaths Libby a large fortune. In Rome, Madame Merle introduces Libby—now a rich lady—to a struggling artist, Gilbert Osmond. He is a widower with a young daughter. Libby’s independence takes a turn, but not in the direction she wishes. She has to struggle out of the devious bonds that entangle her.
As acknowledged in the author’s note, many readers will recognize that this story is based on Henry James’s classic The Portrait of a Lady, from the plot and similarity of characters’ names. Rosenberg has closely followed James’s writing style, including his refined prose and use of ellipses. Although James had captured the norms of 1860s Victorian society, the transporting of some of these to this novel’s setting of the 1950s seems odd, such as when Libby’s aunt doesn’t permit her to socialize in the drawing room in the late evenings with Lord Warburton and even her cousin Lazarus present. Nevertheless, the perils to women are still real today. An enjoyable read even for those unfamiliar with James’s novel.
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April 20, 2015
REVIEW: The Moonlight Palace by Liz Rosenberg
JennieB Reviews1920s / mixed-raced heroine / non-romance / Singapore3 Comments
moonlight palace_Dear Ms. Rosenberg:
I got this book for free as part of Amazon’s Kindle First program – if you’re an Amazon Prime member, you’re offered a choice of one of four books free each month. I’ll confess these books have been piling up on my Kindle. I did try one, and dumped it early on (rare for me; I’m kind of a compulsive book finisher) because I really couldn’t get into it. The Moonlight Palace was the second one I tried, and if it wasn’t an unqualified success, it was at least a modest one.
What drew me to the book was the unusual setting – 1920s Singapore. The heroine (and first-person narrator) is 17-year-old Agnes Hussein, last in a line that descended from a Sultanate. Agnes and her unorthodox (more on that in a moment) family reside in a crumbling edifice known as the Kampong Glam Palace. For as long as she can remember, Agnes has been absorbed in the struggle to hold on to the palace and keep it from falling down around the family’s ears.
Agnes’ parents and brother died during the 1918 worldwide flu pandemic; she lives with Uncle Chachi (actually her paternal grandfather’s 88-year-old brother), as well as British Grandfather (her mother’s father), and his wife, Nei-Nei Down. Nei-Nei Down is so called because Uncle Chachi’s late wife was addressed as Nei-Nei (meaning “grandmother” in Chinese) Up – Uncle Chachi and Nei-Nei Up had lived upstairs in the Kampong Glam Palace, while British Grandfather and Nei-Nei Down lived downstairs. The household also includes an aged servant (the only one left of what were once many) and several paying boarders, including Agnes’ childhood friend Dawid.
Agnes is a “Singapore mixed breed” as she puts it – half Chinese, a fourth Indian and a fourth British. It’s unfortunately not made very clear if her mixed status has any effect on her social standing in Singapore. There is a reference late in the book to British Grandfather having lost his military commission when he married a Singaporean, but other than that it’s treated as something of a non-issue, which seems unlikely to me and a missed opportunity to give the story some depth.
The plot of The Moonlight Palace feeling strangely episodic – I say strangely because it doesn’t somehow feel like it’s *intended* to be episodic, yet the narrative somehow never really achieves cohesion. Agnes is in her last year of high school – she gets a job in a jewelry store through her Uncle Chachi, in order to make some desperately needed extra money for the family. Later, she gets another job, writing society and food columns for a local newspaper. The major dramatic turning point of the novel occurs on the night of the festival of Deepavali (also known as Diwali; the Hindi Festival of Lights). Agnes and Dawid are out celebrating, hoping to see fireworks, when one of the family’s boarders, Omar Wahlid, is arrested for a serious crime. In the course of trying to help him and another boarder, Wei (of whom Agnes is fond and who is blameless but arrested along with Omar), Agnes meets a British policeman named Geoffrey Brown and becomes seriously infatuated with him.
One of the problems with the narrative is that Agnes misses obvious signs that Brown is not all that he seems. Nei-Nei Down hates him, as does Agnes’ best friend from school, Bridget. There’s something obviously going on in relation to a deal that British Grandfather made with the police to save Wei and Omar Wahlid from imprisonment and execution. But Agnes remains blissfully, deliberately (it seems) ignorant. She is young, of course, and dazzled by Brown’s attention and his British good looks – his blond hair, white teeth and air of success. But it’s frustrating to read a first-person narrative in which the narrator so clearly telegraphs things that she herself is missing at the time.
The things I liked about The Moonlight Palace: the writing, the unusual setting, the strong sense of place, and the characters. In addition to Agnes, who is a likable heroine (even when she’s being obtuse), and her family, there is Mr. Kahani, the kind owner of the jewelry store where Agnes works. Mr. Kahani is blind (though he sometimes shows an uncanny knowledge of things that only sighted people should know, making Agnes wonder about his blindness), an Indian Jew and apparently, it comes up late in the book, an opium addict. This last detail was one of the things that gave the book an episodic feel – it’s not a big plot point and I’m not sure why it even comes up, since it’s mentioned then dropped. There are also Agnes’ friends Bridget and Dawid; Bridget is a red-headed Irish girl from a poor family; Dawid is a sweet boy who clearly pines for Agnes. There’s Mr. Williams (called by Agnes “Mr. Wms.”, because that is how he always signs himself, “as if he could not be bothered to write out his own name”), the terrifying managing editor of the Singapore Gate, the newspaper Agnes goes to work for. Many of these minor characters add color and a bit of depth to the story, but they also left me as a reader wanting more.
Which brings me back to what I didn’t like about The Moonlight Palace: the story feels superficial and lacking in narrative tension. Stuff happens; Agnes doesn’t know about Geoffrey Brown’s true nature, then she does. She confronts him, but it lacks the dramatic payoff it should have. The Kampong Glam Palace (or rather, the family’s ownership of it and continued residence in it) is threatened, but there’s never any doubt that the matter will be resolved (and it is, in a bit of a deus ex machina that also provides Agnes with a more suitable beau). The setting is lovely and often evocatively drawn, but opportunities are missed to really give the reader a sense of what Singapore was like in that era – for instance, there are clearly political and likely racial tensions between the various groups occupying the island, but as Agnes seems largely oblivious to these, the reader only gets glimpses of deeper issues. The book can be frustrating to read it at times, because it feels like there could have been more – more to the story, more to the characterization, more context for the events that occur.
My final grade for The Moonlight Palace is a straight B.
Best regards,
Jennie
AmazonBNKoboAREBook DepositoryGoogle
The Laws of Gravity
Liz Rosenberg
Amazon Publishing 2013
298 Pages $14.95
ISBN: 978-1611099546
amazon indiebound
barnesandnoble
A beautiful novel set in Long Island about friendship and love, what pulls us together and what tears us apart, and the lengths to which a parent will go to protect a child. Nicole discovers that her life is in danger. She turns to her cousin and childhood best friend Ari for the cord blood he's been banking for his own children. His decision brings them before the scales of justice. Solomon Richter, a Jewish state Supreme Court judge on the brink of mandatory retirement, finds himself embroiled in a legal battle unlike any other. The case calls into question the very things we live for: family, loyalty, friendship and love. It's Nicole's last chance, Ari's last stand, and the judge's last case. The uniquely Jewish cast of characters negotiates the universal difficulties of family, love and justice with heartbreaking honesty, humor and depth. Woven through the story are a Jewish conversion, an adult bat-mitzvah, a Shabbat dinner, and a rabbi as romantic hero.
Review: What James Said by Liz Rosenberg and illustrated by Matt Myers
Posted on June 2, 2015 in picturebook, Picturebooks, Review, Review Copy
22718681
Hardcover, 32 pages
Expected publication: June 9th 2015 by Roaring Brook Press
Source: Raincoast Books
What James Said is an important book for a multitude of reasons. The protagonist has a best friend named James who according to the grapevine told people that she thinks she is perfect. This hurts her feelings because though this protagonist (she isn’t named, more on this later) rightly feels that she is good at art and takes pride in her talent, she knows that there are other things she most certainly is not good at, like math. So she avoids James and his overtures for friendship preferring to freeze him out instead of talking to him about what is troubling her. Still, she cannot avoid him forever and learns in a beautifully understated way the truth behind all the rumours she has been hearing.
IMG_20150209_181957
This little picturebook has diverse characters that properly reflect what a multicultural classroom looks like. I think books like these that don’t comment on the diversity but presents it in a matter of fact, accepted way do a lot to increase acceptance. The art is sublime and as befitting a book targeted at a young audience, bright and vivid (redundant? eh.). I love how the main character is the only one drawn properly on some pages while everyone else around her are stick figures drawn in water colour. This truly underscores her feelings of isolation and sadness beautifully.
IMG_20150209_181915
I really also like that moment when the truth comes out and the protagonist realizes that she ought to have just spoken to her best friend about what she heard instead of ignoring him. I like what she does to reconcile with James which is once again understated but all the more profound for it. I found the fact that protagonist isn’t named to be interesting and the use of the first person perspective in a picturebook is odd because I believe generally picturebooks are usually written in third person. However, the use of first person, in this instance, has both pros and cons. One of the cons (the only one really) is that reading this out loud may get a bit confusing to a younger child so the target reader is fixed at an age where a child is able to read and comprehend for herself the story and the message in it. The positive aspect of first person perspective is that the reader will be able to fully immerse herself in the story. Books for teens and older YA readers are generally written in first person precisely to make immersion in the story easier and quicker.
Parents and guardians could potentially use this book to talk to children about friendship, the danger of gossip and rumours and the harm they can cause./ The book can also be used for discussions about the importance of communication. I recommend it!
The Laws of Gravity Book Summary and Study Guide
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Detailed plot synopsis reviews of The Laws of Gravity
Nicole, who is four, and, Ari, who is seven, are cousins who become best friends. They maintain their friendship all through their growing up years, from college to marriage. Nicole becomes good friends with Ari's wife, Mimi, and their children become close friends, as if repeating the cycle. All seems well until Nicole is diagnosed with leukemia and her only chance for survival is acquiring cord blood from a match. The good news is that Ari had saved cord blood after the birth of his children that is a match for Nicole, but the bad news is that he refuses to let his cousin have it in case his children will need it in the future.
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Author Rosenberg explores the family dynamics of such a difficult topic, making the reader wonder just what would they do? Nicole and her husband decide to sue Ari for her right to have the cord blood and this puts a strain on her relationship with her best friend, Mimi, who is put in the middle, as well as with her cousin. The case goes before Supreme Court Judge Solomon Richter who is about to retire. I would have preferred to stick to the storyline of Ari, Nicole and Mimi, but the author brings us into Judge Richter's world and his struggle with this decision. For some reason, I envisioned Richter being played by Spencer Tracy, if this were a movie and he were still alive, especially when the judge gives us his summation.
While we watch Nicole become weaker and weaker, the cancer taking its toll, we hope for a miracle, for a change of mind. We also hope for Ari to have some compassion toward his cousin and give in to her demands. What transpires would be a spoiler if I were to reveal it here, but Rosenberg leaves the reader with food for thought, making us wonder if being at death's door would force us to demand something that doesn't belong to us. Or, if witnessing someone we have loved for so long at death's door, would we trust in a higher power and save them with the cord blood we have banked for our own children while hoping that we will not regret that decision later.
Best part of story, including ending: I didn't love this novel nor did I hate it. The reason I didn't love it is that I felt the storyline with the judge was extraneous and unnecessary. I would have preferred to stick to the story of Nicole and Ari.
Best scene in story: When Ari's son speaks to the judge. I ached for this young man being put in the middle of this very sensitive and passionate argument.
Opinion about the main character: Nicole had a nice personality, which I liked, but I am on the fence about her trying to force her cousin to give her the cord blood he saved in the event his children would need it.
The review of this Book prepared by Carol Hoenig a Level 3 Eurasian Jay scholar
Chapter Analysis of The Laws of Gravity
Click on a plot link to find similar books!
Plot & Themes
Tone of book?
- depressed
Time/era of story
- 2000+ (Present Day)
Family, struggle with
- Yes
Struggle with:
- Cousin
Internal struggle/realization?
- Yes
Struggle over
- dying
Is this an adult or child's book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Main Character
Gender
- Female
Profession/status:
- homemaker
Age:
- 20's-30's
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Unusual characteristics:
- Physically sick
Setting
United States
- Yes
Writing Style
Amount of dialog
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
Books with storylines, themes & endings like The Laws of Gravity
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The Walled Garden by Catherine Dunne
Thorns of Truth by Eileen Goudge
Eye Of The Storm by V.C. Andrews
Ground Cover by Edith S. Marks