Rabbit and Squirrel: A Tale of War and Peas

So I am watching my peas grow (go peas!) and thought that it would be a nice time to take a look at a pea related book that arrived recently--Rabbit and Squirrel: A Tale of War and Peas, by Kara LaReau and Scott Magoon (2008, Harcourt).

Um, this isn't a happy gardening book for kids. This is Picture Book Noir, one I think snarky adults will appreciate lots and lots more! The Rabbit and the Squirrel are scary looking, the colors somber, and the plot fearsome and rather pessimistic.

It's not my cup of tea, but here are two other reviews, from Three Silly Chicks and Fuse #8, who liked it lots. I guess I'm just so anxious about my precious baby garden right now that I have no vegetable sense of humor at the moment. Probably in September, when I am sick of the whole wretched thing and tomatoes are dripping down around me and the crabgrass has won (again), I will appreciate it more.

Imanginary Menagerie, a Book of Curious Creatures

Imaginary Menagerie, A Book of Curious Creatures poems by Julie Larios, pictures by Julie Paschkis (Harcourt, 2008).

After I read this book, I went out and bought a powerball ticket. I wanted to be able to buy one of the paintings...as usual, I didn't win. And today, after enjoying this book in our home, we are handing it over to the library, where it should disappear quite quickly into other homes. "No Mama!" cried my 4 year old, "No! Don't take it away!" In short, the paintings of mythical creatures in this book are some of the loveliest I've ever seen. I can't do them justice (Lindisfarne Gospel meets Ukrainian egg decoration? With variations, such as North West coast art? see below), so go look at the book yourself. (Although all the three styles I mentioned do share the commonality of occupying empty space with color and pattern and loving detail, so perhaps I am not so far off).

The downside of having such gorgeous pictures is that the poems end up a bit overshadowed. Ten of the fourteen poems address the reader with direct questions, giving them a certain sameness of voice that I found a bit disappointing. Here's my favorite:

Dragon

The air around me
burns bright as the sun.
I tell wild rivers
which way to run.
I'm arrow tailed,
fish scaled,
a luck bringer.
When I fly,
it's a flame song the world sings.
But you can ride safely
between my wings.

A nice touch to this book is the glossary of imaginary creatures at the end, where those who aren't quite sure what hobgoblins are can find out.

You can read another poem, Thunderbird, here at Kelly Fineman's blog.

And Harcourt has created a classroom kit for National Poetry Month and Young People's Poetry Week (April 14-20) based on this book--here's the link.

The Poetry Friday roundup is being hosted today at the lovely blog of Wild Rose Reader.

Just for kicks, here (not as beautifully laid out as they were supposed to be, grr) are a closeup from the Lindisfarne gospel, some eggs, and a North West coast chest:

I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean!

The first wave of books from my recent expenditure of library booksale money arrived yesterday, and included a picture book I've wanted to read for ages-- I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean, by Kevin Sherry (Penguin/Dial, May 2007, 32pp).

It was just as good as I had hoped it would be. It is, in fact, the best picture book I’ve read since Scaredy Squirrel. The “biggest thing in the ocean” is a Giant Squid, who smugly says on the jacket flap, “I’m bigger than this book!” Encounters with other sea creatures bolster his conviction that he’s the biggest, until the much, much larger Humpback Whale appears—bye bye squiddy. This is a powerfully illustrated scene (in a bright and playful way), showing the squid’s tentacles dangling horrifically from the whale’s mouth. We were a bit taken aback. Was squiddy gone for good?

Spoiler

No! On the next page, there he was inside the whale, with all the other sea creatures, looking sad and bewildered, but then --- “I’m the biggest thing in the whale!”

And don’t neglect to look at the back of the book -- “I’m bigger than this bar code!” says Squid, gleefully.

In a nutshell, I might have to actually spend my own money on another copy of this book. My 4 year old does not want it to go to on to its new life at the library, and the fact that we are going to keep the complimentary bath clings with which it came does not mollify him. I don’t think that bath clings are really something that should circulate, somehow…

This is Kevin Sherry's first book, but since he signed a three deal book with Dial, there should, d.v., be more to come.

Here's another review, at Pixie Stix Kids Pix

Block Party Today!

Block Party Today! By Marilyn Singer, illustrated by Stephanie Roth (2004, Random House).

Last fall, many of us were busy promoting Robert's Snow, and the wonderful snowflakes created by children's book illustrators that were auctioned off to raise money for cancer research. As well as donating their time for snowflake making, many of these great illustrators offered prizes to folks reading the snowflake posts. I was lucky enough to receive a copy of Block Party Today! from Stephanie Roth, and now I don't have to worry about reading 123 YA books for the Cybils (see below), I'm happy to have a chance to say Thanks! And what a neat book!

Block Party Today! is about (surprise) a block party, in a multicultural urban place pretty far removed from where my kids live (a New England mill village). They were most interested in the street scenes, the different people, and the whole concept of closing off a street for a party. Roth's illustrations are great-colorful and detailed, interesting without being overwhelming. This is more than just a description of the party, though--Lola is mad at her friends Yasmin and Sue, and plans to stay in her room all day. She can't help but come down to her front steps, and she and Yasmin and Sue forget their quarrel in the fun of fire hydrant play. And the block party ends happily, with friendship triumphant. Just what a block party is supposed to do!

Thanks, Stephanie,for the book, and for making your snowflake (a really charming one, featuring Two Christmas Mice, which you can see here at the blog Writing with a Broken Tusk).

Itty and Bitty -- Rose Mary Berlin

Itty and Bitty are two miniature horses who live in Texas, and who have their own website here. They are cute as buttons in real life, and also as pictured by Rose Mary Berlin in their latest story book --Itty and Bitty, Friends on the Farm (by Nancy Carpenter Czerw, 2006). I recently had the pleasure of reading Itty and Bitty to my boys (7 and 4), thanks to Rose Mary Berlin, who kindly sent us a copy. They were both utterly charmed by the funny pictures of the little horses (and went off and played with their own toy horses, which had been gathering dust for months, so it was all to the good). These are the sort of pictures where the everyday becomes silly--I especially like the picture of Itty and Bitty on their moped, racing to keep up with the big guys. The text appealed to me less than the pictures, being the sort of writing where rhyme and rhythm take precedence over everything else, but it didn't bother the boys.

I first met the work of Rose Mary Berlin when I featured her snowflake for the Robert's Snow Auction (more information at right). Her truly adorable penguin is up for auction RIGHT NOW (until Friday, Nov. 30).

Reading Cinderella to my boys--Glass Slipper, Golden Sandal

After being struck dumb by Julie Paschkis' snowflake over at the Excelsior File, I couldn't say no when one of the books she illustrated caught my eye at the library. Glass Slipper, Golden Sandal, by Paul Fleishman, illustrated by Julie Paschkis (2007, 32 pp), is subtitled "A Worldwide Cinderella" which sums it up nicely (and, for parents who like books to multi-task, it promises geographical as well as literary benefit for the Young)--basically, it is bits of Cinderella stories from around the world, joined together in a single narrative: the cow "poured honey for her from its horn...and a fairy gave her figs and apricots...and Godfather Snake gave her rice." Each place has its own beautiful illustrations, which are a cross-cultural education in themselves.

"Here, boys," I said when I got home from the library. "Come read with me."

"Read what?" they asked, suspiciously.

"This book about Cinderella!"

Their jaws dropped. "Cinderella???" they whined. Unspoken, the words "disney" "princess" and "pink" hung in the air.

"Yes," I said, "Come here."

Miraculously, they came, and we read the book. And they loved it, and I loved it, and it was indeed both a literary and a geographical trip. Because the story moves from place to place, tale to tale, culture to culture, making no attempt to explain or apologize for discongruities, it has a surreality to it that makes it freshly magical to people like me (who have in fact seen Disney's Cinderella) and makes it enchanting for people like my boys (who haven't). They have asked to have it read repeatedly (and what higher praise is there), and they think it would be a nice Christmas present for their girl cousin. And, of course, her little brother.

So now the ice is broken, and I shall try reading them other princess stories...

Diary of a Fly

Yesterday, for the first time, my older son read a book to his little brother. It was a good book too--Diary of a Fly, by Doreen Cronin, illustrated by Harry Bliss (40 pages, 2007).

Diary of a Fly continues the story of Worm and Spider, each featured in his own book by Cronin and Bliss, but it is by no means a case of same old same old. For one thing, the humor in the illustrations is just as sharp and engaging as ever. This book definitely bears repeated re-looking. For another, Fly is a girl, and a strong girl at that. A plot element of her diary is her dream of being a Super Hero, a dream that Spider constantly dumps on. At the end, Worm points out that even worms and spiders and flies can be heroes, and us readers are taught a little lesson in respecting the creatures who might seem disgusting, but are vitally important to our world. Which leads to another reason Diary of a Fly is worth reading--it imparts lots of information about flies.

All this being said, I still like worms and spiders much more than flies.

Little Rabbit Goes to School

We've gotten the second grade class list and the new pencil cases, tomorrow little one eats lunch at pre k for the first time, and bigger one is practicing saying "hello" to his new teacher (Make Eye Contact!). So here's my favorite back to school book, a picture book that we read year round in our house: Little Rabbit Goes to School, by Harry Horse (American edition 2004).

It is Little Rabbit's first day at school! And Charlie Horse, his beloved wooden toy, is going too. Mama does her best, but "No, Mama," says Little Rabbit (I hear that a lot too...). Off go Little Rabbit (very cute in his blue jumpsuit) and Charlie Horse. School is fun, but Charlie Horse keeps getting into trouble. He wants to gallop, he wants to dance, and he jumps in the class cake batter! The worst comes on the nature walk, when Charlie Horse leads Little Rabbit away from the group, and they are lost. They are soon found again, but that night, Little Rabbit tells Mama that the next day Charlie Horse can stay home-- "He's too naughty for school."

It is a clever, sweet and funny book, perfect for any Mother or Father who's a bit worried about the First Day. And the children will like it too, and perhaps decide not to take their own Charlie Horse equivalent to school. Even though my little one's dragon, Red Fire Flyer, still goes, he's learned he has to sleep in the cubbie during the day.

There are three other Little Rabbit books--Little Rabbit Lost, Little Rabbit Runaway, and Little Rabbit's New Baby. They are all lovely.

Wild About Books

Wild About Books (by Judy Sierra, illustrated by Marc Brown) came out in 2004 to rave reviews. I read it for the first time last week, and was very taken by it myself. A book mobile arrives at the zoo, and next thing the reader knows, "In a flash, every beast in the zoo was stampeding To learn all about this new something called reading." It was a pleasure to read out loud--as the example shows, Judy Sierra knows how to write lines that scan, in a Seuss-ian way. Not only do the animals learn to read, they learn to write their own books. I especially enjoyed the bug written haiku, accompanied by scathing scorpion reviews--

"Roll a ball of dung--
Any kind of poo will do--
Baby beetle bed."

"Stinks."

My husband was inspired to write his own contribution to this review:

"Anapestic tetrameter's surely not easy
the first line is simple, the second a queasy
grasping at any syllable in sight
and jamming it in but not getting it right"

Judy Sierra gets it right, so you hardly notice it's there."

He did have two quibbles:

"I do think she risks leaving other hippo would-be authors in tears by raising unrealistic expectations about first-time publishing." (The hippo wins the Zoolitzer Prize).

And in reference to the clever and amusing insertion of actual books and authors into the rhymes, he writes:

"There should be some marine mammals, then she could rhyme "fin" with "LeGuin" and point the kids in the right direction." (Hear,hear, I say. Anyone else looking forward with great happiness to Powers, coming this September?)

Wild About Books is brightly illustrated by Marc Brown. He's not my personal favorite (I like my animals a tad more realistic than his colorful caricatures), but his creatures rollick along nicely with the text. According to the Random House teachers catalogue, his illustrations "reflect the naïve spirit of folk art at its best." Hmph. Sounds, perhaps, a tad patronizing...And what the heck does it mean anyway.

Wiggle and Waggle

Wiggle and Waggle by Caroline Arnold, illustrated by Mary Peterson (2007, Charlesbridge, 48 pp, ages 4-8)

Wiggle and Waggle tells of the simple doings/diggings of two worms (the eponymous Wiggle and Waggle), in 5 well-illustrated chapters. This book works very well both as a read-aloud and as an early reader. I tried it on my children (4 and 6) last night as both, with great success. Of course, its worth as an early reader was perhaps compromised by the fact that I had to read it out loud three times at the request of the 4 year old before the 6 year old got a chance to try.

The doings of the worms are simple--they work in the garden (dig dig dig), go on a picnic, go swimming, and dig some more. As an adult forced to re-read ad nausem, I would have liked a bit more--the worms are not as well characterized as Frog and Toad, for example, and their adventures not as compelling. But according to my children, this book was just as good if not better.

Caroline Arnold has written more than 130 children's books, mainly non-fiction, so it's not surprising that this book also includes an information page about worms at the end. I appreciated this, although I am not sure that my life is better for knowing that there are earthworms that grow to be 22 feet long. That's too long.

The illustrations are simple, with touches of whimsical detail -- after eating their picnic, for instance, the worms have round little tummies, which delighted my youngest. It is a tricky thing, I imagine, to illustrate an early reader--one doesn't want illustrations that distract too much from the text, but they still should be interesting. I think Peterson does a fine job striking that balance. The book itself is very handsome. Even thought the words themselves are simple, and the chapters short, the hardcover edition I have looks much more like a Real Book than most early readers, which is all to the good.

I am doing my best to ensure that my children like worms. We go to the compost pile to look for "wormies" -- "Oh wormy-squirmy! wormy-squirmy! how sweet!" says 4 year old; but sadly, my 6 year old has been affected by peer pressure, and has been known to say "gross." So I was glad to bring home this pro-worm book (joining the ranks of Diary of A Worm, and Richard Scarry's books about Lowly).*

"This book should be called Cute Wormies," said my 4 year old, a pretty good summation of this charming, but not particularly deep (dig related pun) book.

From Arnold's website, here's the story of how Wiggle and Waggle came to be written, here's a link to an activities page, and finally, here's a link to a Wiggle and Waggle YouTube video.

*Lowly Worm is still my favorite fictional worm, even though I didn't get the pun until I was about 25. Sigh.

NB: I was given my copy by the publisher.

Welcome to Zanzibar Road, by Niki Daly

Welcome to Zanzibar Road, by Niki Daly. Clarion Books, 2006.

"One hot day in Africa, Mama Jumbo was walking down Zanzibar Road. "What a nice place to live," she thought." So begins Niki Daly's utterly charming tale of an elephant who settles down on a bright and bustling African street, builds a house, and adopts a young chicken (which sounds strange, but is rather sweet). The five chapters take Mama Jumbo from her entry into town to a happy ending of family and community.

When Mama Jumbo starts to build her house, all the neighbors come to help. The house was soon built, and a number sign (Seven Up) was found for it. But Mama Jumbo was lonely. She visits all the neighbors, a colorful group of African animals, looking for a house mate, but to no avail. Then she sees little Chico, a chicken, who "looked and smelled as if he needed someone to look after him." Soon Chico is clean and snuggled and loved. Chapter Three--"Where's Little Chico?" is the most amusing. When Mama Jumbo wakes up, she can't find Chico! The observant child will find him immediately--on Mama's head! Mama visits all the neighbors, giving us a tour of town--the grocery store, the bookmobile, Baba Jive the crocodile's music club--but no Little Chico! "Just wait until I find him," says Mama. "I'll pull his tail for making me worry so." But when Juju the Monkey tells Mama Chico's up on her head, she is so happy that instead of pulling his tail, she hugs him tight (been there, done that). In Chapter Four, "A Shadow on the Wall" (which, if this were a Victorian girl's book, would suggest that Little Chico were about to get TB, but of course it's not), a new cactus casts a monstrous shadow. Little Chico is scared, but Mama puts her hat on it, so now the shadow looks like her, and all is well. And finally the book concludes with a birthday party for Chico, and all the friends from Zanzibar road come to the party.

This is a marvelous book. It is marvelous at a surface level--fun story, fun pictures. At a deeper level, it gives children a wonderful picture of what it means to be a happy family and part of a community, even if you aren't born part of one. And on a final level, I really liked this book for its portrayal of an African community, a portrayal at once realistic and idealized. Finally, on a completely practical level, this is a great "easy reader" -- perhaps a quarter step up from Frog and Toad.

Mungo and the Picture Book Pirates

While over in England last week, we were given many English picture books and young readers, the majority of which I've never seen over here. One of our favorites was Mungo and the Picture Book Pirates, by Timothy Knapman and Adam Stower (an American edition was published in September 2006).

Every night Mungo's mum is forced to read him the same pirate book over and over again. Every night he thrills as Admiral Mainbrace and "plucky cabin girl Nora" are rescued from the clutches of Barnacle Bill and his gang of pirates by the swashbuckling Captain Fleet. But one night, after Mungo's mum has read him the book six times (instead of the more usual four), she refuses to read again, leaving Mungo and the book alone.

Captain Fleet has had enough too. Looking for peace, he climbs out of his own book (much to Mungo's astonishment), and climbs into a slim volume entitled "At the Seaside." But now there is no-one to save the admiral and the plucky cabin girl! No-one but Mungo. And so Mungo enters the book and rousts the pirates, but unlike Captain Fleet, he does not end up marrying Nora.

The engaging illustrations have lots of humorous details, and the text is enough of a spoof of the pirate genre to amuse the adult reader (selfishly, I appreciate this in a book), while captivating the child. My boys were captivated.

Despite the "message," that you don't have to be a strong white male to be a hero (although Mungo is a sturdy white boy), and the inclusion of plucky cabin girl Nora (whose pluck is more on paper than in her actions), this book doesn't challenge any stereotypes. It is entertainment at a fun, flippant level, and for those looking for such, it is great.

In view of the most recent salvo across the bows of the kid lit bloggers (discussed at A Chair, a Fireplace and a Teacozy here) I write the following postscript:

ps. As a blogger of no qualifications, I of course do not expect anyone to take one word of this (hmm, can't be a review, because that would suggest I called myself a reviewer, which actually I don't much, so that's ok) emotion ladden summary (?) with any more seriousness than it deserves.

An Island Grows, by Lola M. Schafer

An Island Grows by Lola M. Schafer, illustrated by Cathie Flestead (Greenwillow Books 2006)

I picked this up last week in the library's new book section--it seemed to fall nicely into the non-fiction that will appeal to both boys (6 and 3) category, and I liked the cover. It was a good choice.

"Deep, deep beneath the sea" the earth splits apart, and an island begins . The journey from a crack in the ocean floor to a tropical paradise is pleasantly told in rhyming couplets and simple but very satisfying pictures. The text was easy enough for 6 yr old to read, although sometimes rhyme was given more weight than simplicity-"Rocks appear, black and sheer." But heck, sheer is a fine word. My 3 yr old was very taken with the underwater buildup of magma. We all liked the dense page of factual information at the end; I, for instance, was able to share with my co-workers today the fun fact that the earth's plates move at the rate our fingernails grow, which is a lot faster than I would have thought.

The book gets a tad strange when people come into the picture--it appears to be an island of racial utopia, with people of all skin tones living and working side by side. This is lovely, and it looked unremarkable to the children (and of course in an ideal world this scenario should look "normal"). However, one of my main professional interests is the history and archaeology of European colonization, and I was a more than a bit jarred by the happiness of the island's integration into the capitalist world system, and I had to bite back a diatribe. But that aside, it was a very pleasant and instructive read-out-loud experience, and I'll be happy to read it to them again.

P.S. (added 4/15/07) My 3 year old has asked for this book at bedtime every night since we got it out of the library, and I have not particularly minded, which shows how appealing it is!

Traction Man is Here!

As my boys and I were preparing to leave the library on Saturday, our dear librarian picked up Traction Man is Here!, by Mini Grey (2005), and put it on top of our stack. I am glad she did; I wouldn't have touched it with a barge pole myself--picture books about militaristic action figures are not my cup of tea (being one of those parents determined to shield their sensitive Young from guns etc--oh the shock and horror when I realized there was gun violence in The Cat and the Hat Comes Back).

My husband and I have now read Traction Man is Here to our boys 8 times (4 in a row, then at intervals), and we still find it funny ourselves. It is brilliant. The first half of the book is straightforward imaginative play--Traction Man arrives in a box, equipped for various rescue environments, and, thanks to the wonderful imagination of the boy he now belongs to, he goes forth and rescues.

It is very well done. My favorite adventure was the descent into the deep waters of the Bath to search for the Mysterious Toes. But the brilliant part kicks in when Traction Man gets his own present from Granny. And what a present it is!

Recommended for those who like Toy Story II, Scaredy Squirrel, and Ten Minutes till Bedtime.