Month: September 2008

Knucklehead

| Tasha

Knucklehead: tall tales & mostly true stories of growing up Scieszka by Jon Scieszka

I firmly believe that Jon Scieszka set out to write the most boy-friendly book in the world, and succeeded.  This autobiographical book has all the elements that boys want.  It is guaranteed to fly off the shelves thanks to the amazing vintage comic-book cover.  When boys read it, they are bound to share it with their friends thanks to the firecrackers, peeing, barfing, and continuous wild antics of the Scieszka brothers.  But what the cover and the louder moments of the book won’t reveal is the lovely tone of the book that captures boyhood and brotherhood with such ease.  The author is right there laughing with us at each event, loving looking back into his childhood together. 

He is also doing other important things, vital things for his young male readers.  He is showing boys that it is just fine to be pure boys.  To be silly, wild, crude, and violent.  That humor is contagious and that laughing together is powerful.  That being unique or even a little odd is just fine.  And that adults need not approve for it to be a great great story.

I read this book aloud to my sons at bedtime.  During the two weeks we shared the book together, they asked to go to bed EARLY multiple times to hear the story continue!  There was a visceral connection there, a community of men and boys being built, there was wonder, humor, and definitely wild abandon.

Anyone looking for an incredible read aloud for boys has found it here.  Age appropriateness is up to you as a parent.   There are crude things here in all of their bodily-function glory.  I happily read it to my own seven-year-old, but probably would not use it with a class of 2nd graders.  This is a treasure of a nonfiction book.  Share it with the knuckleheads in your life.

Shift

| Tasha

Shift by Charlotte Agell

In a frighteningly possible future, Homestate rules the land.  Evolution is not allowed to be discussed let alone taught in schools, watching religious programming is required, and the End of the World is approaching according to many.  This all happened after terrorists bombed Boston with nuclear weapons, creating a swath of dead land across the Eastern United States.  To the north of the Deadlands which still swirl with radioactive dust lies a land of horrible devastation and crazy people.  At 15-years-old, Adrian has seen his friends disappear for not believing, his mother change from a scientists into a shell, and his little sister grow into her strange psychic abilities.  Now he finds himself on an adventure across the Deadlands with a girl he barely knows, his little sister and a penguin.  And all they have to look forward to on the other side is a frightening unknown.

Agell has created a world that is all too possible.  I applaud her for not shirking away from what religious zealots could create in this world, though at times her tone can be too strident about the dangers.  The book is gripping and impossible to put down.  It vibrantly mixes humor and horror together.  One worry I have is that it does belittle the dangers of nuclear weapons, rather than showing the devastation to the extent it should be.  There were also some mixed messages about what food was safe to eat.  But the heart of the story and the journey were a treat.

This book is a mixture of action, adventure and disaster and is well worth the time to read thanks to its writing.  While I have quibbled about some of the points in the book, it is a strong novel with a strong voice.  Appropriate for ages 10-13.

Doctor Meow's Big Emergency

| Tasha

Doctor Meow’s Big Emergency by Sam Lloyd

The author of Mr. Pusskins has a new series.  This first in the Whoops-a-Daisy World series, follows a day with Dr. Meow and her trusty ambulance driver, Woof.  When the phone rings saying "Emergency, emergency,"  Dr. Meow finds that Tom Cat has fallen out of a tree.  Off she rushes with Woof driving to find him.  They take him back to the hospital, x-ray his broken leg, and put on a cast.  In the end, even Mr. Bird, who was being chased by Tom Cat when he fell, is in a happy mood.

This book has a very small-town, old-fashioned feel that will appeal to adults and children alike.  Dr. Meow is a calm, rational character whose thrilling job is handled with just the right tone.  Allowing children to be excited about racing to the rescue, but also offering a calm reaction to an everyday crisis.  Lloyd’s illustrations and text work well together, filled with sunny yellow and bright reds. The text is equally friendly and warm. 

A lovely first visit to Whoops-a-Daisy World, I look forward to the others in the series.  Great read aloud potential for even toddlers because of the friendly nature of the book but also the amount of action.  Appropriate for ages 2-5.

Sourpuss and Sweetie Pie

| Tasha

 

Sourpuss and Sweetie Pie by Norton Juster, illustrated by Chris Raschka.

Return to the effervescent, colorful world that Juster and Raschka created in their award-winning The Hello, Goodbye Window.  Nanna and Poppy never quite know who is going to show up, Sourpuss or Sweetie Pie.  Their granddaughter can be either one.  At times she is kind, polite, respectful and a joy.  But at other times she is rude, angry, and hurtful.  This picture book looks with clarity and spunk at the temperament of a child and will be familiar to all children, all parents and all grandparents.

Raschka’s illustrations are just as evocative as in the first book.  They remain loose, brightly colored, and perfectly capture the emotions swirling through the book.  The pleasure of returning to these wonderful grandparents and their loving relationship with their creative granddaughter is particularly sweet.  Juster’s words capture the emotions of a small child with ferocity, delight and high contrast.  The book makes a great read aloud and will spark plenty of discussion about feelings and self-control.

If you loved the first book, you will adore this second outing.  This is a book to share with children, who will connect to it effortlessly.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Guardian Prize Winner!

| Tasha

Patrick Ness has won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize for his amazing Knife of Never Letting Go!  Hurrah! 

Here is my review of the book, if you missed it.  One might call it gushing. 

The Guardian article about the award has a great interview with Ness.  After several authors being apologetic about writing for teens and children, this quote from the interview is particularly refreshing:

"The thing a teenage audience will do for you is that if you don’t insult their intelligence, they will often follow you to strange places, so you can really really go for it. This story felt like something that’s got to be really gone for, really shouted out from the rafters, and teenage fiction is where you can do that and still not be shoved into genre," Ness said.

The rest of the interview is definitely worth reading too.  I also like his take on truth and teens.  Great stuff.

I Feel a Foot

| Tasha

I Feel a Foot! by Maranke Rinck and Martijn van der Linden

This is a clever new take on the Blind Men and the Elephant story.  Here, five animals come across something strange on a dark night.  Turtle thinks it is a huge turtle because of the foot.  Bat thinks he feels a huge bat wing.  Octopus feels a long tentacle.  Bird feels a beak.  And finally Goat discovers a large goatee.  By the end, children will have figured out the animal easily, but the five animal friends are all surprised to find an elephant! 

The text and illustrations work perfectly together here.  The text is simple and great fun, though the tale has a timelessness about it, the text and dialogue have a modern, up-beat feel.  The illustrations really shine, especially against the dark background.  The colors are vivid and pop right off the page.  This is a perfect story time read for a large group because they will be caught in the mystery at first and the illustrations will project well to a big audience.

Highly recommended for story times, this would be a wonderful addition to elephant, turtle, bat, or even octopus themed programs!  Appropriate for ages 3-6.

Who Made This Cake?

| Tasha

Who Made This Cake? by Chihiro Nakagawa, illustrated by Junji Koyose

Take the sweetness of baking a cake, mix it with construction vehicles, and populate it with charming tiny beings, and you have this book.  A family calls to order a birthday cake, and they spring into action.  The little people are about a quarter-inch tall as seen in scale with a stick of butter, so they need construction vehicles to make the cake.  Along the way, children will see the stages of baking a cake and will enjoy the fun and color of the tiny people using large machinery to do such easy work.

The illustrations are large and vibrant, but because of the small figures it is best to read this to one or two children at a time.  A large part of the fun is poring over the actions of the tiny people as they work hard to make this cake.  The illustrations make great use of white space and pops of color.  The story is secondary to the illustrations, and with few select words talks of the steps of baking.

Charming, delicious and clever, this book will appeal to all sorts of children.  From those who only want books with diggers to those who love to cook to the broad number of children who enjoy the tiny and interesting.  This book will zoom off of shelves all on its own.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Inkheart Trailer

| Tasha

 

You can take a look at the newly released Inkheart trailer here at Moviefone.  Comingsoon also offered links to it and quite a conversation erupted about originality and quality.  I’m not completely sold on the casting of the film.  People certainly don’t look the way I thought they would.

I also have some reservations about a book this literary and verbose being made into what looks like an action film.  Yes, there was plenty of action in the novel, but I remember the stillness in some passages, the tension, the waiting breathlessly.  And I don’t see that here.

How about you?  Are you looking forward to the film?

The Black Book of Colors

| Tasha

The Black Book of Colors by Menena Cottin, illustrated by Rosana Faria.

This is a remarkable book.  One that offers insight into what it’s like to be blind.  It is a book about colors that contains only the color black.  Each color has a separate page with glossy raised pictures that are meant to be touched, not seen.  White text accompanies these images, describing what you are touching. 

Here’s an example of the text from the "green" page:

He says that green tastes like lemon ice cream and smells like grass that’s just been cut. 

Lovely, isn’t it?  Each page is like that, offering different ways to sense color and experience it. 

I applaud Faria, the illustrator, for not only taking on a colorless project, but creating images that when touched as just as evocative as when seen.  When we finished reading this book, my sons started trying to read the braille alphabet and traded back and forth going over the dark images again and again.  There is something wondrous in this book.

Highly recommended for art classes, diversity units, and just for the amazement of the book itself.  Sure to start discussions and interest, this could be nicely paired with Helen Keller’s biography.  Appropriate for a wide range of ages because of the fascination inherent in the book.  This could be used with even middle school students successfully.