book recs for kids

Anyone want to chime in with book recs for Christmas presents for my cousins? They're very sporty boys, aged 9 and 11, and neither of them had much use for books until they belatedly got the Harry Potter bug this summer.

For the nine-year-old, I'm thinking to get Half Magic by Edward Eager and The Lives of Christopher Chant by Diana Wynne Jones. If Chris' Corner is out of either of those titles this evening, I'll go for something else by the same authors.

For the eleven-year-old, I have Lawrence Yep's Dragonwings that I've been holding in reserve since the summer, and I want to get something else. He's interested in U.S. History, Native Americans, and wilderness/naturalism - before he got into Harry Potter the books that had most caught his interest were My Side of the Mountain and The Sign of the Beaver.

because everyone I know could use some cheering

Here is the link to my all-time favorite (and currently quite meterologically relevant) Straight Dope column, which makes me laugh out loud just about every time I read it.

What are the nine Eskimo words for snow?

red, the blood of angry men...

One of the reasons I went down to DC last weekend is that L bought me a ticket to Les Miserables for Saturday night. She was so sweet as to say that it shouldn't count as a gift, because she was so happy to have someone to go with her.

I expected to enjoy it, but I didn't expect to enjoy it to the degree that I did. I expected it to be like Lloyd Webber's Phantom, a wind-up toy of a production, all insanely elaborate sets and tiny doll-like players who might as well have been lip-synching to the original cast recording. (I didn't see the recent movie; the stage version was a movie.) It certainly has some of those qualities, but it is comparatively spare, relying on the actors as much as the machinery for effect and actually giving the performers space to interpret their roles a bit. And I do love a tale of people struggling to do the right thing - to figure out what the right thing is. I sat back (figuratively - our seats were such that a little leaning, craning, and squinting was required), submitted to the manipulative score and heavy exposition, and had a very fine time. I really ought to read the novel, I suppose. Next library booksale...

The cast was very good. Valjean was excellent; perhaps the weakest link was Fantine, who while very good at writhing in pain was mediocre when it came to selling the silly blocking that required her to dart hither and yon across the stage. Mme. Thenardier was far, far more grounded than I expected anyone in that role to be. In some of the big company numbers it seemed like the cast had actually been performing for 17 years, but for the most part they were sharp and energetic. Cosette and Marius failed to transcend their roles, but as those roles are so very silly I can't really fault them for that. (Even as a twelve-year-old Broadway-struck girl, I wanted to be Javert, or when I felt particularly ambitious, Valjean. I wanted to be the Phantom, too, and Che in Evita. Possibly King Arthur. Definitely Peter Pan.)