Llama Rocks the Cradle of Chaos, by Jonathan Stutzman, for Timeslip Tuesday

 

A fun picture book for today's Timeslip Tuesday, as my brain is somewhat fried.  Llama Rocks the Cradle of Chaos, by Jonathan Stutzman, illustrated by Heather Fox (July 22, 2022, Henry Holt).  This is the third adventure of the titular llama, but happily I am a strong enough reader that I was able to plunge right in.  

Llama is a creature of many interests.  Chief among them  is eating delicious baked goods, especially donuts.   When his birthday donut proves to be the most delicious thing he's ever eaten, the sadness of not being able to eat it again overwhelms him.  Fortunately, the time travelling pants he has on hand can solve the problem!  And so he sets off to the past to be reunited with the donut....unfortunately, without reading the instructions....

And things go haywire, ending up with Llama, his younger self, and a whole bunch of other creatures brought along by mistake in Llama's house, which is getting wrecked....All ends well though, and more treats are eaten.

It is a bright and cheerful romp, a good introduction for the very young to the central question of time travel--the peril of changing the past!  Interestingly, some reviewers on Goodreads seem to have found the time travel confusing, but I do not think children will have this problem, because of course if you have time travel pants (or a time travel diaper, as Baby Llama has), you can travel through time and of course things can get mixed up.....and of course if you are reading, as I have done, time travel books where the time travel gets confusing, the only thing to do is shrug and role with it because otherwise your head hurts.  This did not make my head hurt, and Bably Llama was adorable.

Two great dog picture books

 I was lucky enough to be at ALA this past weekend in D.C., and enjoyed not only seeing friends, but filling tote bags with (mostly) kids books. Now that me and my books are home again, I'm determined to get on top of reviewing the finished books in particular, so that they can get on the library shelves and into the hands of their target audience!

So here are two fun dog picture books that even a cat person can appreciate (although cats won't; my cat, needy after my ALA absence, didn't like how much room they took up in my lap....)

I'm Not Missing, by Kashelle Gourley, illustrated by Skylar Hogan (May 2022 by little bee books)

I'll start by saying how much I adore the side-eye of this book's fictional dog narrator!  He's a dog who grew tired of being a pet--the costumes he was forced to wear, the tricks he had to perform, the lack of toilet privacy, etc.  And so he snapped one day, and took off on his own, looking askance at the missing dog posters adorned with his image, scrounging for food, and finally pooping without an audience.  But then he sees his little girl loving a new dog.  Though he tries to just nonchalantly accept that she's moved on to another relationship, when he realizes she was just pet-sitting, and when he sees her weeping while looking at his missing dog picture, he gives being a pet again another chance.  Fun and adorable, and thought-provoking too with regards to relationships, with illustrations that made me grin.

Woof! The Truth about Dogs, by Annette Whipple, illustrated by Juanbjuan Oliver (June 2021 by Reycraft Books)

This non-fiction book is perfect for young dog-lovers wanting to learn more about their beloveds, but also great for kids who aren't familiar with dogs. Information about all sorts of dog topics is presented in a kid-friendly question and answer format, such as "How do dogs help people?" with lots of pictures of dogs doing their various jobs (helping, guarding, herding, and loving) as well as basic information in the text focusing on service jobs.


There are questions I'd never thought to ask, like "do dogs sweat?" (yes, from nose and paws), questions whose answers are nicely science-y, like "why are puppies born with closed eyes?" and "why do dogs smell everything?" and one that (many) kids might have wondered, and will find transgressively delightful --"why do dogs smell butts?" (which is answered with lovely matter-of-factness). I think two of the most important questions, though, are "how do dogs communicate?" and "how to meet and great a dog." Lots of good information here that might well keep enthusiastic but un-dog- smart kids from harm!

Plus there are lots of cute dog pictures, both illustrations and photographs, and instructions for a tug toy kids can make.

The Trouble with Time Travel, by Stephen W. Martin, illustrated by Cornelia Li, for Timeslip Tuesday

Gee.  The past few weeks have been the longest I've ever gone without reviewing anything since my blog started over a decade ago.  But I got the pre-Thanksgiving home renovations that needed finishing finished (mostly), got the house clean (mostly) and had a lovely time with my dear extended family!  And now I'm back, easing myself in gently with a picture book review...

The Trouble with Time Travel, by Stephen W. Martin, illustrated by Cornelia Li (Owlkids, October 15, 2019), is a charming (though stressful) story of Max and her dog Boomer, and a too-enthusiastically thrown Frisbee that shatters a family heirloom, the one thing saved from the mysterious sinking of her many-times great-grandmother's houseboat.  Max decides that the only thing to do about the shattered vase is to build a time machine, and go back in time to smash the vase before it ended up in her living room.

Happily, building a time machine is but the work of minutes (a nice bit of girl engineering power), and off go Max and Boomer!  Controlling the machine, though, is tricky, and they bounce along the millennia from ancient Egypt to a robotic future, before reaching the houseboat....and causing it to sink (and the vase is, as it always has been, is saved...).

Faced with this disaster, Max decides confessing right at the beginning would have been a better course of action, and so she finds herself just before the fatal Frisbee is thrown, and delivers the important message.

Obviously, young readers will assume that "don't throw the Frisbee!" would be a great message.  But instead, Max gives herself a different warning--"do not build a time machine!"  And the book ends with the Frisbee about to begin its fatal flight....

It's a funny story, with attractively detailed illustrations adding lots to the text.  The plot, and the twist of the end, gives lots of room for discussion and contemplation, making this a very nice "my first contemplating the consequences and paradoxes of time travel" sort of book!  I myself would have liked more time bouncing around the past and future-there are only three spreads of time travel, and I think a bit more would have made it clear how difficult time travel can be, and heightened the tension.  And the picture of the houseboat being crashed into isn't as clear about what's happening as it could have been; the adult reading the book aloud might well  have to explain.  But still, lots of fun!

Sleeping Bear Books' picuture books!

Sleeping Bear Press kindly sent a package of review copies of their picture books of 2018 for distribution at Kidlitcon 2019 last month, but sadly the package ended up in the shrubbery next to the door I don't use, so I didn't see them until after the fact.  I've mailed them off to folks who follow the Kidlitcon twitter account, but also wanted to spotlight them here by way of a thank you and an apology to Sleeping Bear for not checking the shrubberies….

The Hanukkah Hamster, by Michelle Markel, illustrated by Andre Ceolin

It's December in the city, and Edgar, a young cab driver, is busy taking holiday shoppers to and fro.  One evening he finds a little hamster in the back of the cab, and is charmed.  Little Chickpea becomes his friend, and is company each night Edgar when lights the candles on the menorah, thinking of his home back in Israel.  But Edgar did the right think, and reported the hamster to lost and found--will his new friend be claimed by its rightful owner?  The happy ending is just right for this sweet and poignant story, and Chickpea is cute as all get out!

Aim for the Skies: Jerrie Mock and Joan Merriam Smith's Race to Complete Amelia Earhart's Quest, by Aimme Bissonette, illustrated by Doris Ettlinger

Jerrie and Joan both loved flying.  In 1964 they independently decided to complete Amelia Earhart's dream of flying around the world alone.  When the press found out, they made it race--which of the two would be the first woman to achieve what Amelia hadn't been able to do?  After careful planning, they took off...and the reader sees all the difficulties and dangers they faced as they flew around the world.  It's an inspirational and exciting story of adventure, and a nice geography lesson, with a bonus backmatter section of social history and additional details.

Kindergarrrten Bus, by Mike Ornstein, illustrated by Kevin M. Barry.

The Jolly Roger Bus company has a new driver--a pirate!  He and his parrot welcome their new shipmates on the first day of kindergarten, and though the little kids are apprehensive, he encourages them to be brave and tough, as is the pirate way.  But when the seas get rough (potholes), and Polly the parrot flies out an open window, the pirate bus driver breaks down.  Now it's up to the kids to encourage him to stay strong, and though he doesn't feel brave at all, they share the lesson that they've learned from their own parents that it's ok to be scared, and to keep doing what you have to do.  So it's off to school, all encouraging each other (and Polly comes back at the end!).  A funny book about facing fears that will hearten young kids!

Hannah's Tall Order: an A to Z Sandwich, by Linda Vander Heyden, illustrated by Kayla Harren

Hannah's a loyal customer of  McDougal's sandwich shop, but not necessarily the most welcome one, because boy can she eat!  When she orders an A-Z sandwich, it's the toughest order yet...Hannah has a list of all the alphabetical foods she wants on it!  And so Mr. McDougal slices and dices everything from avocados to zucchini, creating a towering masterpiece with some dubious ingredients (marshmallow fluff, for instance)--but oh no!  He had to make it on white bread, not the wheat bread she wanted...Written in lively rhyme with detailed illustrations of the towering sandwich growing, it's a fun foody adventure for the young!

Four Seasons of Fun, by Pamela Duncan Edwards, illustrated by Sylvie Daigneault

Here's a celebration of all the ways kids can enjoy the each season! Rhyming couplets tell of flying kites and exploring pond life  on through summer and fall to building snowmen and painting pine cones in winter.  Most of the activities take place out doors, so parents might well welcome this encouragement to get the kids outside.  The illustrations have a sweetly old-fashioned feel to them (reminding me a bit of the Little Golden Books of my own childhood); though there are a few more white kids than not, there's diversity in the range of kids shown.

Junk: a Spectacular Tale of Trash, by Nicholas Day, illustrated by Tom Disbury

Sylvia Samantha Wright is very good at finding trash treasures to take home with her in her little red wagon.  Every day of the week she finds something new.  She  isn't sure what she's going to do with all her finds (from empty paint pots to a box of discarded party hats), but an elderly neighbor reassures her that the part before you know is the best part.  And when the town's water tower begins to leak, setting in motion a cascade of catastrophe (including animals escaping from the zoo!), Sylvia is able to step in an fix things with the help of her junk!  This fun story celebrates creative thinking, and (possible warning) might inspire kids to fill the family garage with found treasures of their own for future projects!

A Tuba Christmas, by Helen L. Wilbur and Mary Reaves Uhles

Ava's family all makes music, and now it's time for Ava to choose what instrument she wants to learn so she can play with them in the family holiday concert.  But the family is dismayed when Ava chooses the tuba.  And they are dismayed as well by the ghastly noises she makes on it when she's starting out.  On top of that, the kids at school make fun of her.  Her teacher, though, is supportive, and at the end Ava gets to play in the coolest holiday concert of all--a tuba Christmas!  The tuba ensemble includes some diverse musicians, and Ava's teacher is a young black man.  I enjoyed this one lots--it should inspire young readers to follow their dreams!

Dragons Love Tacos 2, by Adam Rubin and Daniel Salmieri, for Timeslip Tuesday

Here's a fun picture book for Timeslip Tuesday (which is code for "yet another week in which Charlotte wasn't organized enough to read a longer book in a timely fashion"). I have to confess I have never read Dragons Love Tacos, by Adam Rubin, illustrated Daniel Salmieri.  I feel, however, that I grasped the point, and the sequel (Dragons Love Tacos 2) gracefully fills in what happened in the first book.

In this sequel, dragons still love tacos, but there are no more tacos to be had!  They are all gone.  The unnamed human protagonist fortunately has a time machine, and he takes a few of the dragons back to when there still were tacos, so they can bring them back and plant them and restore tacos to the grieving world.  Time-travel with taco-eating dragons is tricky; spicy tacos make Dragons flame, which is bad for the time machine, as is accidently using salsa in place of engine grease...so things get a little wonky, and the pure time travel of the first few hops in the machine, looking for a time before the dragons ate the spicy tacos, gives way to surreal alternate universe travel (dragons love diapers!  tacos love dragons!).

As a time-travel purist, I can't quite approve--there's a lack of clarity to the time travel even before it gets weird.  Why did the protagonist think they'd travelled too far back in time on the second hop?  Yes, it's prehistoric (mixing "cave man" and triceratops, sigh), but the tacos look fine... I don't understand why the protagonist kid thought there was a problem.  (If anyone can answer this for me, please do!).

So don't read it for the time travel, but take it for what it is--a silly (in the positive sense of the word) story with illustrations that are pleasantly relaxed and whimsical.

Two fun underwater picture books

Sometimes it's a nice change when the books you get in the mail, unasked for and unexpected, are picture books!  Especially when they are fun, and rather relatable, picture books such as one can happily write about.  Both are by Carrie Bolin and Jessica Firpi, illustrated by John Graziano, from Ripley Publishing (May 2018).

Bremner and the Party is the story of a puffer fish who becomes just a mess of nerves when he gets a party invitation.  All those horrible anxieties many of us feel are his--will he be too early? too late? will everyone else know each other?  and so forth.  But he has one anxiety that is more particular to him--will he puff up if  the stress gets to be too much?  He bravely goes to the party anyway, and sure enough, he puffs....but many other guests are puffer fish too, and they join him, and all is well!  Though most of us don't puff, we might well have other quirks that make us feel different and awkward, so it's a nice message that other people might be dealing with similar things, and you can be social and make new friends regardless!  A nice reminder for all shy readers that they probably aren't alone in feeling dread when facing the prospect of a party, and that quite possibly they will have a good time after all.

Sharkee and the Teddy Bear starts with a teddy bear falling into the ocean...Sharkee has never seen one before, but he wants it, and now it has sunk out of sight, so he drags his fishy friend by the fin to ask all sorts of other sea creatures if they have seen it.  A fairly standard, but gently humous, hunt ensues, leading to an ending of surprising sweetness when the bear is found, cradled in the many arms of a baby octopus.  Sharkee is tempted to be fierce, and take it by force, but instead he snuggles down and cuddles both the bear and the octopus....

In short, two pleasant and entertaining picture books!

(I was surprised they are from Ripley, but this mystery was solved when I cleverly read the jacket--the heroes of both books are mascots at Ripley's aquariums, the shark in the US and the puffer fish in Canada).

The Rock Maiden, by Natasha Yim, for Multicultural Children's Book Day

Today is Multicultural Children's Book Day! Part of this celebration is for bloggers and publishers/authors to pair up, with the reviews becoming part of a beautiful explosion of links.

I was lucky enough to get two books from Wisdom Tales.  The first is a lovely picture book, The Rock Maiden: a Chinese Tale of Love and Loyalty, by Natasha Yim, illustrated by Pirkko Vainio (March, 2017).

Long ago in Hong Kong, Ling Yee feel in love with a young fisherman, Ching Yin.  Many more wealthy men would have gladly married her, but Ching Yin's kindness won her heart.  And they were happy, and had a son.  Then a tremendous storm scattered the fishing fleet, and when it passed, Ching Yin did not come home. Every day Ling Yee took her baby up to the headland and looked out over the sea, waiting for her beloved in vain.


Ling Yee's parents prayed to Tin Hau, the patron goddess of fishermen, for help.  The goddess was touched by the young woman's sorrow, and decided to end it (rather drastically). She sent a lightning bolt from the heavens, and turned mother and child to stone.  But about a year later, a young man came to town.  No one recognized him at first, but he was Ching Yin.  Happily, Tin Hau once more intervened, undoing the stone enchantment, and reuniting the little family.

It is a beautiful and haunting story, with lovely, evocative illustrations in soft colors.  The tension of the story is great enough to keep a young child's interest, and the happy ending offers reassurance.  The stone mother and child, standing looking out to sea, is an image that will stay with young readers for their whole lives.  If you are looking for picture books that will widen your young child's world, this is a lovely one!

When Natasha Yim was a girl growing up in Hong Kong,she was fascinated by the actual rock that is the basis for the story.  Amah Rock is a natural formation that looks like a mother and child, and though of course (since it is still there) the happy ending of the book never happened in real life, that story seemed to sad to her, so she transformed it.

Thank you Wisdom Tales, and thanks to all the sponsors of WNDB and to the organizers and hosts for another tremendous event!

The Adventures of Gracie and MonkeyBear, by C.S. O'Kelly

I don't often say yes to picture book review requests, but when I was offered The Adventures of Gracie and MonkeyBear, by C.S. O'Kelly, illustratd by Jordy Farrell, I thought it would make a fun change so I said yes. And it was a cute book and a fun change (although being a picture book, it was about a five minute change; not a criticism, but just a comment on reading time....).

Gracie is one of the imaginative, smart sort of kids, who is able to make her urban backyard into a place of magic and adventure.  With her faithful dog and super intelligent comrade-in-arms, MonkeyBear, she sets out to meet all the challenges that come her way. A  young T-Rex, entombed in soil, is freed and set on its way.  The duo then come to the aid of a distressed Voosurian starship (MonkeyBear has a helpful Voosuiran starship repair manual. He's that sort of dog).  And finally a third adventure, involving a whale in the backyard plastic pool, shows that deep adventures can be found in what looks like an ordinary small city yard....

Spending a day (of book time) skipping from one adventure to the next with Gracie and MonkeyBear is well worth it.  Especially MonkeyBear--he is the most nerdy genius type dog I've met for ages!  There are lots and lots of fun details to point out to young readers (or for them to spot and point out to you).  A good one for kids love pretend games themselves--it will give them lots of encouragement!  It's an especially good for kids who themselves live in a city, who will enjoy seeing adventures happening in their own environment.

For a picture book, it seems on the high on the word count, making a good one to read with an older child of five or so. And just as a final note--Although independently published, there's nothing about the writing, editing or the illustrations that seemed to me at all unprofessional. 

Here's another review at Kid Lit Reviews, and here's the (starred) Kirkus review.

Nobody Likes a Goblin, by Ben Hatke

The arrival of a new book by Ben Hatke is always a happy thing in my house.  Even though my boys are several years beyond the ostensible target audience age for picture books, and I am too, we all enthusiastically read his latest offering, Nobody Likes a Goblin (First Second, June 7, 2016), and enjoyed it very much.  There's something just so friendly and pleasing about his art, and when paired with a good story, it's all just as nice a read (and look) as all get out.

A goblin lives a peaceful subterranean life in a dungeon with his best friend, a skeleton, not doing any harm to anyone.  Then adventures invade, in true Adventuring style, and plunder, while the poor goblin hides under his bed. When he emerges he finds all the dungeons' treasure is gone, but much much worse, the adventurers have taken Skeleton too!  So Goblin sets off to find his friend, and to find the "honk honk" stolen from his troll neighbor, despite the troll's warning that "nobody likes a goblin."

And he finds that this is indeed the case.  Chased by a farmer, an innkeeper, a band of elves, and the original adventurers, Goblin finds shelter in a cave, where he finds that there are those who like goblins lots--other goblins! 

And now its the adventurers et al. who are on the run, and Goblin brings all his new friends (including a young woman the adventurers had tied up in their spoil heap) and his old friend Skeleton back to the dungeon for happily ever after.

The goblins are portrayed in  suitably non-human ways, in various permutations of the monstrous, but still manage to have just tons of appeal, some being downright adorable.  The party of adventurers, on the other hand, are pretty much the clichés one expects, and it's nice to see them losing!   It was good to see the young woman who was tied up as part of the loot getting a bit of retaliatory smiting in once the goblins had surged out of their cave to attack.  (The troll's goose gets to attack too, which I also appreciated).

It's a rather inspiring story, not just for the obvious inspiration of finding the courage to save a friend part.  There also the message that even if you feel alone, and people are mean to you for no good reason, there's a good chance that somewhere there's a tribe of friends for you (yay for finding "your people"), and (one can hope) a good chance that the jerks will cease to matter. 

Here's the Kirkus review, in case you want independent confirmation that this is a good book.

disclaimer: review copy gratefully received from the publisher

Katie and the Dinosaurs, by James Mayhew, for Timeslip Tuesday

This is the sort of Tuesday when I fall back on a picture book--Katie and the Dinosaurs, by James Mayhew (1991), because I am a pathetic reader in terms of what would make sense to read (instead of reading a nice time travel book over the weekend, I read some nice books that don't come out for months and months....

But in any event.

So Katie's grandma takes her to the museum to see the dinosaur bones, and promptly sits down to have a nap, leaving little Katie to explore on her own. Bad idea!  Katie, after happily viewing all the fossils, goes down a dark corridor, opens a forbidden door, and finds herself in Dinosaur-time!  There she meets and greets and sees from afar various dinosaurs, helps a hadrosaur find its family, and is chased by a T-rex.

It is an old book, so there are no dino feathers in evidence.  It's also dino stew--with dinos who didn't live in the same time period all running around together.  So though it feels written as a first guide to dinosaurs, it's better not read as science, but more as a merry little story for the very young (3 or 4) who won't become agitated by factual inaccuracies.   So should you bother at all with it?  There are many more accurate dino books around these days, I imagine, but the art here is rather charming, and the timesliping through a forbidden door is a magical twist of memorableness.  Here's a sample page:

Harlem Renaissance Party, by Faith Ringold, for Timeslip Tuesday

Harlem Renaissance Party, by Faith Ringold (Amistad, January 2015), is a somewhat didactic time travel book--a magic airplane (at least one assumes its magic) transports a young boy, Lonnie, and his uncle back in time to celebrate the Harlem Renaissance.  The book basically introduces Lonnie to all the great writers, artists, and musicians, and then he goes home again.  So not much actually happens that has story to it; there's no narrative tension--it's basically just the meetings and greetings and listing of accomplishments.  In short, a celebration more than an adventure....time travel as learning opportunity for character and reader.

I happen to know, because I read Faith Ringold's earlier book, Bonjour Lonnie, that Lonnie's grandfather was black.  But it might be confusing to readers who don't know for sure that Lonnie is multiracial to see his red hair and pale skin, although his uncle is clearly black, so one can assume even before Lonnie confirms it that he identifies as African American.  I think it's rather useful, though, to show that identity can't always be assumed from appearance, something that doesn't come up much in picture books....
 
Faith Ringold's art just doesn't work all that well for me, but that's a matter of personal taste (Lonnie on the cover doesn't look happy at all, for instance, which I feel he should!).  If you want a celebratory introduction to the Harlem Renaissance, this might work well for you (back matter provides more information about the great people Lonnie meets); if you want time travel where the time travel is nuanced and complicated (which picture books are capable of), not so much.

Shh! We Have a Plan, by Chris Haughton

It is not often that I review picture books these days, but sometimes the stars align such that it happens.  On Monday I had the very great pleasure of visiting Candlewick up in Boston, and meeting author and illustrator Chris Haughton (in town on his way to accept the Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Award), and coming home with a copy of his most recent book--Shh! We Have a Plan (thank you Candlewick!).

This is the sort of picture book that almost makes me wish I had small children around again, because it would be so much fun to share it with them.   Four wooly-hatted persons are off on a bird hunt, three taking it seriously, the fourth and smallest delighting more in simply seeing the colorful birdy!  The organized efforts to hunt all go wrong (amusingly), and finally fourth person uses crumbs to lure the birdies to him...and lots of birdies, both small ones,  and ones alarmingly large and beaky, arrive!  No more bird hunting (too scary!).  But undeterred, the hunters see a new target--a squirrel!

The birds (and squirrel) provide the only bits of color, but the hunters and their dark landscape are rendered in so lively a way in their dark background that there's plenty of visual interest.  And I know it works well as a read-aloud, because Chris himself read it to us, and it was much enjoyed.

Here's an interview Chris did for the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation.

Elephantastic! by Michael Engler, illustrated by Joelle Tourlonias

I don't often review picture books these days....but a little while ago, one came unasked, unlooked for, unexpected, in the mail-- Elephantastic! by Michael Engler, illustrated by Joëlle Tourlonias (Peter Pauper, Jan. 2015).  And I enjoyed it (in as much as a klutsy person can enjoy reading an unbound galley--there were droppings and muddlings of pages) and I shall now try to review it, unpracticed though I am in the gentle art of the picture book critique.

The rich, warm tones of Tourlonias' illustrations invite the reader to go on a journey far from the confines of an urban apartment deep into an imagined Africa....or something.

Basically, an imaginative boy opens a large box that wasn't meant for him and inside is an stuffed elephant who is alive.  Boy and elephant play games of African exploration and adventure...but then, Sadness!  The elephant must go to its intended recipient, the girl in the apartment upstairs....tears are shed.

Happily, the girl and the elephant come back down to play with the boy, and all is well.

The elephant and the kids were drawn all friendly-like, with a pleasingly skritchy line quality.  The story was a good one of imaginative fun.    The pedant in me questions the idea that Mount Kilimanjaro is "so high only elephants could climb it" but since elephants can't talk either, I let it pass; just don't go to this one expecting to learn Valuable Information about Africa/elephants.  Do expect romanticized stereotypes offered uncritically--lions roaring on the savannah, a rain dance, a dense dark jungle...

I now go to check what the pros (in this case, Kirkus) had to say.

My eyebrows shoot upward at their leading line-- "Inattention results in a potential domestic tragedy in this German import."   This is more sturm und drang-ish than I think is warranted.  I do, however, agree that the type is rather small (reading it aloud in dim bedrooms with inadequate light might be tricky) and more happily, I can agree that it is "a sweet celebration of the imagination" (although with reservations viz portrayal of Africa...).

Julia's House for Lost Creatures, by Ben Hatke--utterly charming

Ben Hatke became a favorite author in our house with his lovely graphic novels about Zita the Space Girl, and we were tremendously excited about his first foray into the world of picture books-- Julia's House for Lost Creatures (First Second, September 2, 2014).  It did not disappoint, so much so that my eleven-year-old son said it was one of his favorite books ever.

Julie's house comes to town on the back of an enormous tortoise, and settles by the sea.  It is a lovely house, warm, with tea and toast, but Julia is lonely.  So she quickly makes a sign, proclaiming it "Julia's House for Lost Creatures."   And creatures come--all sorts of strange fantastical creatures.

It is too much of a good thing.  Before she knows what's happening, Julia is running a house party of huge proportions, all is chaos and mess, and Julia is being run ragged.  Clearly it can't go on...

So Julia makes a giant chore list, taking into account everyone's unique attributes (the little ghost is a natural duster, and of course dragons are the best suited for hot kitchen tasks) and everyone pitches in....but it takes one last guest for everything to be perfect!  (and owners of old houses, creaking at the seams like Julia's is, will want a guest like this one for themselves....)

The illustrations are charmingly friendly and detailed--just really darn nice to look at.   Julia's a lovely character, and the fantastical visitors are fun and whimsical.   The charm of it all makes this one that will appeal to readers older than the standard picture book audience; there is really nothing not to like. 

This is an obvious one to offer a child who needs to contribute more to the smooth running of the domestic side of things (I cough meaningfully in the direction of the above-referenced eleven-year-old).   But it's fun to read without driving any moral point home! 

Julia's House is currently on a blog tour--check out these stops for a bestiary of the lost creatures!

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher.

Boy + Bot, by Ame Dyckman (from the Reading is Fundamental STEAM collection), a science fiction picture book

A few days ago, a beautifully heavy box of books arrived  on my door step, containing the Reading is Fundamental STEAM collection-- a prize from June's 48 Hour Reading Challenge, to be donated to the institution of my choice (thank you RIF!).  It is a lovely, lovely, collection--if you click that link, you'll see the list of  forty beautiful children's books for grades K-5, focused on science, engineering, technology, arts and math, that RIF is working to get into the hands of schools and programs serving kids in need.   Unpacking the box took a while, because it was hard not to just sit and read each book as it emerged...

One that I couldn't resist reading immediately was Boy + BOT, by Ame Dyckman, illustrated by Dan Yaccarino (Knopf Books for Young Readers, April 2012) .   It begins thus "A boy was collecting pinecones in his wagon when he met a robot."  The boy asks if the robot would like to play, and the robot answers in the affirmative.  But during their play, the robot's power switch gets bumped to off, and the boy thinks the robot is sick, so he takes BOT home for applesauce and bed rest...

When BOT's power switch gets bumped on again during the night, it sees the sleeping boy--and thinks he's malfunctioned!  Now it's BOT's turn to take the boy home for oil and a read-through of an instruction manual, and just as it's about to try a fresh battery on the boy, the inventor enters the story, and explains everything.

And as time passes and the seasons change (shown in smaller size illustrations), the friendship of the BOT and the boy stays a lovely thing.  The illustrations are simple yet satisfying, with enough detail to make for interesting looking, but not so much so as to overwhelm the story.

It's a beautiful about robots and friendship that will make kids laugh, and I recommend it tons and tons.  I really  appreciate that those who decided which books should make up this collection included this one--it is a solid introduction to the concept of robots and a great story all at the same time.  I am all in favor of teaching science through story, because that's how I learn best!

Most of the collection will go to my local library, which serves a relatively low-income neighborhood;  I will look in the city for a place to take those that are already in its collection.   But it might take a while for the books to reach their new homes, because I do want to spend a bit of time with them myself!

Three great picture books from Lee and Low, including one I loved about a kid who types

So back when it was still a (relatively) cool, rainy summer I took part in Armchair BEA...and was the lucky winner of three picture books from the great multicultural publisher, Lee and Low.  In all frankness, I selected this as my prize with my library in mind, and not so much for myself, but to my great pleasure I was able to enjoy one of them as a book for me, which is to say, I liked it especially much.

The other two were fine books.  There was Rainbow Stew, by Cathryn Falwell, about vegetable harvesting in the rain (would that I were so lucky), a picture book told in rhyme, and if you like fun in mud and rain outdoors, and tasty veggies of all colors, you'll enjoy.  And there was How Far Do You Love Me?  by Lulu Delacre, a lovely one about grown-ups loving children all around the world, in beautiful far off places (I lingered at the glacier.  Me want glacier right now), and it's a book I can see making a perfect baby shower gift.

And there was the one that struck a chord for me--As Fast As Words Could Fly, by Pamela M. Tuck and Eric Velasquez.   It's the story Mason Steele, a black boy in the south, in the 1960s, who serves as a secretary for his father, busy working on civil rights.   Mason's dad gives him an old manual typewriter, and so Mason learns to type on it...and when the issue of school integration is forced, and Mason and his brothers are unwelcome integrators, Mason's typing shows that he is as a credit to the school and brings him honor. 

I like books in which people do skillful things, and this book showed me that I can include typing on that list.  I am not at all kidding when my heart beat more quickly as Mason chose a manual typewriter instead of the snazzy electrics at the great typing competition....was this the wrong choice??!?  Yeah, sure, I was concerned when he was dissed by white "friends" when he got on the bus, and confronted prejudice in various ways, but the typing, and the un-underlined Point of writing as a valuable tool for effecting social justice made the book sing for me.

In any event, I though it was the most excellent picture book on school integration I've ever read, because while all the Issues were there in force, the typing (the practicing, the proving, the showing the value of your ability, the finding the thing you can do and making it your own) made the story one that all of us who try to do things can utterly relate to, and takes the big issue of school integration, and makes it personal.

This could just be me.  But anyway, I thought it was a lovely book....it is fiction, but based on the experiences of the author's father.

The Boy, the Bear, the Baron, the Bard, by Gregory Rogers, for Timeslip Tuesday

I am very sad about the recent, and horribly untimely, death of Australian writer and illustrator Gregory Rogers.  I've already featured one of his wordless time-travel picture books (The Hero of Little Street), a book I liked well enough, but today I'm posting about the book I think is his masterpiece, one that is truly a classic, and the one that makes me wish something fierce that Gregory Rogers was still here to give us more --The Boy, the Bear, the Baron, the Bard (Roaring Brook Press, 2004).

In this wordless picture book, a boy kicks his soccer ball into an empty theater, and goes in after it.  It is strange, and dark, and abandoned...and utterly fascinating.  The boy finds himself in the costume room, and dressed as an Elizabethan actor, he pulls the curtains aside to go out on the stage....and WHOM!  He's back in time, Shakespeare himself is tripping over the soccer ball, and the play is ruined.

Now the boy must run through the streets of London, pursued by the furious playwright.  He hides behind the cage of a dancing bear...who asks (wordlessly) to be set free...so boy and bear together set off to experience what the city has to offer them. But Shakespeare is nothing if not persistent.  Fortunately the cell block off the Tower of London offers a refuge, and there they find another prisoner (the baron of the title) to be released!

Now Baron, Bear, and Boy are on the run together.  But all is not lost!  Their path takes them right to Queen Elizabeth, and she is charmed...

Shakespeare, however, still wants revenge.  And he chases the boy back to where it all began--the empty stage, and so back home again.

It is sweet and lovely and funny and fascinating, and utterly wonderful.  The story flows just beautifully, despite being wordless.  The artwork is full of detail, full of enthusiasm, and captivating as all get out.  It is a book that is a delight to share with children of just about any age.   Critical and cynical though I am, I cannot think of anything negative at all to say about it.

Thank you, Gregory Rogers, for making me and my children laugh and learn.

Bonjour, Lonnie, by Faith Ringgold, for Timeslip Tuesday

April is such a hard month--all I want to do is to be outside, getting everything weeded and planted and spruced up, but it's the busiest month at work, busy with the kids' homework, busy busy busy...and so no time to read the big long book that was supposed to be this week's Timeslip Tuesday offering.

So I turned to a quick picture book read -- Bonjour, Lonnie, by Faith Ringgold (Hyperion Books for Children, 1996), and, um, it's kind of strange.

Bonjour, Lonnie, is a picture book that uses rather vague magical bird-assisted time travel in order to show an orphaned boy, Lonnie, his family, and to give him loving guardians in his own time.   The magical bird in question is a singing French one, known as Love Bird, and when it visits Lonnie, it takes him back to early 20th-century Paris...and then vanishes, leaving him to wander past famous monuments to look for it (basically three pages of Paris is great, that don't advance the plot, but are not uninteresting....).

Then Love Bird shows up again, and leads the little boy to a small house wherein are his grandparents--a black man and a white woman, which surprises Lonnie.  His grandfather explains he came to France to fight in WW I.  He was a great singer  (and we have a rather nice introduction to the Harlem Renaissance, and black culture flourishing), but  when he went back home, he was oppressed by the prejudice that he found there, and went back to Paris, married a beautiful French girl, and became a famous opera singer.

The scene then changes; Lonnie sees his parents and himself as a baby...he finds out his father was killed as young soldier in WW II, and his Jewish mother sent him to the US to safety with a young friend.  She in turn fell ill, no-one could find the kin she had hoped to leave Lonnie with, and so he was there in the orphanage, waiting, all unknowing, for Love Bird to find him.

And because of the love bird, the missing kin are found (and Lonnie's mother reassures him that his new Aunt Connie "has dyed her own graying locks red like yours," which I find very odd) and all is well.

So it's rather strange (the love bird device in particular).  The reader knows it's timeslipish, because of being told so, but basically it reads like a dream of shifting scenes and flashbacks.  It's not a story, so much as an explanation of the family history with underlinings of African American and WW I and WW II history.  It's not un-compelling, and it is rather interesting (especially in it's multicultural emphasis) but I find it hard to imagine curling up and reading it with a child...especially since it might provoke a child to ask questions that they might not be ready to fully grasp--like why Lonnie's Jewish mother felt she had to send him to safety.   It's definitely one to read yourself before you read it to a child, so that you can expect what's going to happen next.

Ah gee.  I know Faith  Ringgold is a famous artist, but her people didn't appeal to me personally (speaking frankly, they looked like zombies, with stiff arms and staring eyes--vibrant, colorful zombies, but still).  This, I'm quite prepared to admit, is just my own reaction.

(if you look it up on Amazon, be warned that the blurb given is for another book, so it won't be useful)

Three new non-fiction books for kids for Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day!

By Happy Chance I got three new picture book non-fiction books for little kids last week, all of which are great picks for Earth Day (or any day) reading.

Ocean Counting, by Janet Lawler (National Geographic Little Kids, May 2013), with photographs by Brian Skerry, starts thus:

"Explore our beautiful blue ocean while learning how to count.  Visit colorful coral reefs, warm and sunny seas, sparkling ice packs, and other special spots where marine animals live and play.  And on your way, discover new ocean friends on a worldwide counting adventure."  For the numbers one through ten, there are double spread pictures, and short blurbs and supplemental "did you know" insets that offer interesting information.  A very nice book!

The cute baby seal and its mama (for Two) are particularly kid-friendly, although I myself was especially taken by the four reef squid--a stunning picture in which the squids obligingly arranged themselves in a line by size (sweet squids!).

Flowers by Number, by David Shapiro, illustrated by Hayley Vair (Craigmore Creations, April 2013).

This is one for the child who appreciates beautiful illustrations--the flower paintings are lovely, in a calm, painterly way.  They aren't your common or garden flowers either--instead, they are wildflowers from across the country, including new ones for East Coast me, like the six Pacific Starflowers.   The text is minimal, but interest is added by occasional metaphorical language.  For the nine lupines, for instance, the text says "Named after the wolf, they howl in purple when many flower at once."

The Latin names of the flowers are included, though a little note explaining what these foreign words are might have been useful. 

This one is strong on aesthetics and floral interest, could for peaceful appreciation of the beauties of nature.  I particularly liked that it started with Zero, which so often gets overlooked--it's a snowy landscape with no flowers at all.

The World is Waiting for You, by Barbara Kerley (National Geographic Children's Books, March 2013), is a photographic invitation (and a very compelling one) to get outside!!! From woods to water to fossil hunting in the desert, the imperative commands, like "Dig deeper" or "Take a peek.  Go on--get a little nosy" reinforces the beautifully clear message of the pictures that there are wonderful things to do out there in the great big world of nature.  And if that cave full of huge crystals really is real (I assume it is, but it boggles the mind!) I want to go there myself!  It is a joyful celebration of the outdoors that manages to enthuse without any sense of didactic preaching.

This is a truly inspiring one that I wholeheartedly recommend.

So, have a happy Earth Day!  And just to close, here is my own go-to saving the earth tip--keep a bucket in your shower, to catch the water while its warming up, and use that water to flush the toilet.   If you have four shower-ers in your family, like me, and an old plumbing system that takes ages to warm the water, you'll save hundreds of gallons a year.

For more great non-fiction for kids, visit this Monday's Non-Fiction Roundup at A Mom's Spare Time

disclaimer:  review copies received from publicist

The Hero of Little Street, by Gregory Rogers, for Timeslip Tuesday

Did you ever read The Boy, the Bear, the Baron, The Bard, by Gregory Rogers?  It's a  wonderful wordless picture book, involving time travel back to the age of Shakespeare, that I really must review as a Timeslip Tuesday book someday, because it is truly excellent.   In any event, the titular Boy returns in The Hero of Little Street (Roaring Brook Press, March, 2012).  This time around, the boy inadvertently provokes a gang of boys, and must flee.   A handy art museum offers a refugee,  and there magic again enters his life when the little dog from this famous painting --

 -- comes out to play with him.

The little dog jumps into another picture, the boy follows... and finds himself, via Vermeer--

 --back in 17th century Holland.   More than a little mayhem ensues, as boy and dog hurtle through Delft, until at last the boy saves a pack of caged dogs from become sausage meat.  He then heads home to the present, with the grateful dogs close at hand to save him from the bullies.

Told with no words whatsoever, it's a story to savour with a child at hand, enjoying the details, and laughing at the humor of the various situations in which the boy finds himself.   And as well as being utterly engaging as a graphic story, it's a nice introduction to the world of 17th-century Holland!

I myself can't help but prefer The Boy, the Bear, the Baron, the Bard, because I do like the bear awfully much, but dog lovers and Vermeer lovers might like this one more!