conuly

This is a review of the book Two Little Trains by Margaret Wise Brown. Now, I haven't seen much of the original illustrations. This book has been newly illustrated for the reprinting.

It's really a cute book except for one... little... problem. You see, when Brown wrote this book originally back in 1949, she saw nothing odd about mentioning at one point that the trains hear "a black man singing in the West". And not a few reviewers thought that was a little... well... weird. I did too, actually, and most of my review is taken up with discussing this issue. (And if anybody would care to comment, I'd love to hear it. Really.)

I was concerned enough that I actually posted two images of the spread in question, to help people decide.

This is what well-meaning E. Hoffer thinks:

A good book, but needs a little white out

I was shocked to find the phrase "...of a black man singing in the west" in this book. I realize it is an older book, but shouldn't it be edited to be P.C.?? I used some white out so our copy now reads "of a man singing in the West." A good book other than that.

I know her intentions were all for the best, and it's no different from everybody else just carefully not saying That Word, but... I can't help laughing over here. Too much "black man" in your book? Just use... white out!

(I am so there. That series is surprisingly not-terrible.)

The guy I was with scoffed at "you were underwater for 7 minutes!!" with "That's not possible", but clearly he doesn't understand the secret filmmaking that indicates "this isn't actually possible, but suspend your disbelief a little". (One wonders how he reacted when he saw trailers for the first ever HP movie, years ago. Broomsticks? Flying? That's not possible!)

As it happens, Greek/Roman mythology is a bigger topic in kidlit than you'd imagine. Aside from the aforementioned Percy Jackson series there's one about Pandora and various deadly sins (or something...), and now there's... this series. It's on Goodreads as a giveaway.

Authors Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams put a modern spin on classic myths with the Goddess Girls series. Follow the ins and outs of divine social life at Mount Olympus Academy, where the most privileged godboys and goddessgirls in the Greek pantheon hone their mythical skills.

Yes, it appears to be a High School AU for Mount Olympus.

...

This is either going to be super sucky or it's going to be SO AWESOME. All it needs is for the "students" to sparkle, right?

There's another one as well. They're both in the First Reads program so I entered.

Persephone often "goes along to get along" instead of doing what she really wants. But when she meets Mount Olympus Academy bad-boy Hades, she finally feels she has found someone with whom she can be herself. He's the first person who actually listens to her, and she finds herself liking him, despite the fact that the other goddessgirls think he's bad news. But if he makes her feel so special -- and so comfortable -- can he really be all that bad?

My goodness. I've never felt so much LOL-ing anticipation towards a book before in my life. If you can snag me a copy when I don't win, I'd very much appreciate it. (I think this is even better than cannibalistic time-traveling mermaids!)

Edit: It turns out - thank you, rho! - that it is definitely possible to hold your breath underwater for well more than seven minutes. I had no idea!