Monday, September 12, 2011

Briar’s Journal (September 13 to 20, 2011)

Dream Entry*
May 23, 2007

Bigfoot is whittling.

“It’s a snake,” he tells me.

He sets down his knife and runs his fingers over the long, crooked stick.

“Nice and scaly,” he says.

He whips back his arm and then launches the stick across the field. I’m running after it before it hits the ground. When it does, I can’t see it through the tall grasses and wildflowers. I sniff for it, but the only scent I pick up is the sweet tang of peanut buttercup blossoms. I hear a sound like paper rustling. A snake slithers past me.

“Fetch me if you can,” the snake says.

I chase him, but he’s too fast. I run into a duck.

“There!” the duck says, pointing his wing under a fallen tree trunk.

I grab under the trunk and come out with a piece of a broken hula hoop.

“Oh! That’s where I put that!” the duck says. “I’ve been looking everywhere for it.”

I hear the papery sound again. I follow it to the snake who is now racing back towards Bigfoot. Bigfoot reaches down and easily snatches him up. The snake wriggles in his hand. When Bigfoot takes out his knife, I want to look away. But when he scrapes the blade across the snake’s back there’s no blood, only curls of wood shavings. The snake is a plain stick again.

“What are you making now?” I ask.

Bigfoot doesn’t answer. With each stroke of his knife, a curled wood shaving falls from the stick. As each one drifts to the ground, it becomes a piece of paper. I collect all the pages and assemble them into books for my friends and the duck.



Books for BIGFOOT:

BLUEFISH by Pat Schmatz
[YOUNG ADULT]
Candlewick
September 13, 2011

DEAD END IN NORVELT by Jack Gantos
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
September 13, 2011

GOING UNDERGROUND by Susan Vaught
[YOUNG ADULT]
Bloomsbury USA
September 13, 2011

THE UNFORGOTTEN COAT by Frank Cottrell Boyce
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Candlewick
September 13, 2011

THE FINGERTIPS OF DUNCAN DORFMAN by Meg Wolitzer
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Dutton-Penguin
September 20, 2011

HOUND DOG TRUE by Linda Urban
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
September 20, 2011


Books for MORZANT:

WITCHES: THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE TALE OF DISASTER IN SALEM by Rosalyn Schanzer
[YOUNG ADULT—NON-FICTION]
National Geographic Children’s Books
September 13, 2011

EVERY THING ON IT by Shel Silverstein
[POETRY—MIDDLE GRADE]
HarperCollins
September 20, 2011


Books for PENNY:

AFTER OBSESSION by Carrie Jones and Steven E. Wedel
[YOUNG ADULT]
Bloomsbury USA
September 13, 2011

THE AVIARY by Kathleen O’Dell
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Knopf-Random House
September 13, 2011

CIRCLE NINE by Anne Heltzel
[YOUNG ADULT]
Candlewick
September 13, 2011

FROST by Marianna Baer
[YOUNG ADULT]
Balzer & Bray-HarperCollins
September 13, 2011

THE ISLE OF BLOOD by Rick Yancey
[YOUNG ADULT—THIRD IN THE MONSTRUMOLOGIST SERIES]
Simon & Schuster
September 13, 2011

AS I WAKE by Elizabeth Scott
[YOUNG ADULT]
Dutton-Penguin
September 15, 2011


Books for the DUCK:

DOWN THE MYSTERLY RIVER by Bill Willingham,
with illustrations by Mark Buckingham
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Starscape-Tom Doherty
September 13, 2011

WISDOM’S KISS by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
[YOUNG ADULT]
Houghton Mifflin
SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

DARK OF THE MOON by Tracy Barrett
[YOUNG ADULT]
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
September 20, 2011


Books for NORMAN:

JOURNAL OF A SCHOOLYARD BULLY: NOTES ON NOOGIES,
WET WILLIES, AND WEDGIES by Farley Katz
[MIDDLE GRADE]
St. Martin’s Griffin
September 13, 2011

LUNCH LADY AND THE FIELD TRIP FIASCO
by Jarrett J. Krosoczka
[MIDDLE GRADE COMIC—SIXTH IN THE SERIES]
Knopf-Random House
September 13, 2011

THE ONLY ONES by Aaron Starmer
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Delacorte-Random House
September 13, 2011

GUYS READ: THRILLERS edited by Jon Scieszka
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Walden Pond-HarperCollins
September 20, 2011


Books for BEVERLY:

BLOOD WOUNDS by Susan Beth Pfeffer
[YOUNG ADULT]
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
September 13, 2011

THE MIDNIGHT ZOO by Sonya Hartnett,
with illustrations by Andrea Offermann
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Candlewick
September 13, 2011

WAITING FOR THE MAGIC by Patricia MacLachlan,
with illustrations by Amy June Bates
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Atheneum-Simon & Schuster
Septmeber 13, 2011

WONDERSTRUCK by Brian Selznick
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Scholastic
September 13, 2011

JEFFERSON’S SONS by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
[MIDDLE GRADE]
Dial-Penguin
September 15, 2011

WHAT YOU WISH FOR: A BOOK FOR DAFUR
by Book Wish Foundation
[YOUNG ADULT]
Putnam-Penguin
September 15, 2011


Books for OLIVER:

THE CROWN ON YOUR HEAD by Nancy Tillman
[PICTURE BOOK]
Feiwel & Friends-Macmillan
September 13, 2011

ROOSTER’S REVENGE by Beatrice Rodriguez
[PICTURE BOOKS]
Enchanted Lion
September 13, 2011

TOYS COME HOME: BEING THE EARLY EXPERIENCES
OF AN INTELLIGENT STINGRAY, A BRAVE BUFFALO,
AND A BRAND-NEW SOMEONE CALLED PLASTIC
by Emily Jenkins, with illustrations by Paul O. Zelinksky
[CHAPTER BOOK—THIRD IN THE SERIES]
Schwartz & Wade-Random House
September 13, 2011

BLUE CHICKEN by Deborah Freedman
[PICTURE BOOK]
Viking-Penguin
September 15, 2011


Books for LENNY:

COWS TO THE RESCUE by John Himmelman
[PICTURE BOOK]
Henry Holt
September 13, 2011

EVERYTHING GOES: ON LAND by Brian Biggs
[PICTURE BOOK]
Balzer & Bray-HarperCollins
September 13, 2011

MR. PUTTER & TABBY RING THE BELL by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Arthur Howard
[EARLY READER]
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
September 13, 2011


Books for VIOLET:

LEVI STRAUSS GETS A BRIGHT IDEA:
A FAIRLY FABRICATED STORY OF A PAIR OF PANTS
by Tony Johnston, illustrated by Stacy Innerst
[PICTURE BOOK]
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
September 13, 2011




* The dream entries from Briar’s journal contain premonitions of books that will be published in the future. Briar’s dream self foresees the books’ summaries and knows which will likely appeal to each of her friends. Briar always wakes up before she can see whether her friends will enjoy the books.

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