Month: June 2009

Grizzly Dad

| Tasha

Grizzly Dad by Joanna Harrison

Dad wakes up in a bad mood, so he returns to bed to sleep some more.  When Mom and his little siblings head out, a little boy goes to wake his father.  He discovers that his Dad has turned into an enormous grizzly bear!  The little boy gets the bear all ready for the day and feeds him breakfast too.  But when the bear makes a horrible mess of the kitchen, the little boy scolds him soundly.  So the two of them head out and have adventures through the day.  They see a movie together, climb trees in the park, do nothing at all, and then return home for a lunch of honey sandwiches.  Dad is a bear the whole day, until the little boy thanks him for a grand time and suddenly when they hug, he returns to normal, just as Mom is returning home. 

We all have grizzly, grumpy days and this book captures that nicely without ever showing real anger toward a child.  It is nicely handled throughout the book.  Harrison’s text is wonderful, offering just enough information to keep the story moving and never remarking on the wonder of the dad turned bear.  Her illustrations are equally nice, with hints towards the transformation ahead of time, and the nice touch of the bear wearing glasses.  There is also a nice twist at the end.

This is a great dad book that will brighten even the more grumpy days, especially if your children or class are getting grizzly on you.  Add this to a story time on bears, but also any story time on emotions.  Appropriate for ages 3-6.

Also reviewed by Young Readers.

Tacky Goes to Camp

| Tasha

Tacky Goes to Camp by Helen Lester, illustrated by Lynn Munsinger.

Another great entry in the Tacky series, this time Tacky and his fellow penguins are headed to summer camp.  It is a rather frozen and snowy, summer camp, but most of the activities are the same.  There is swimming, sleeping in tents, archery, canoeing, and arts and crafts.  Tacky does things in his own unique way, especially compared to the other penguins who follow the rules, march in line, and don’t ever color outside the lines.  At the campfire, there are smores and stories.  Tacky eats as many smores as possible and  tells a very scary story, Beware the bear, that ends with a joke.  The other penguins are unimpressed until a bear enters their camp that night. Tacky is asleep in a smore-induced stupor but still manages to save the day.

Tacky is great humor for kids.  They will relate to his messiness, his inattention to details, and his amazing hunger for sweets.  They will laugh along with the story, happily knowing that Tacky will save the day.  Lester manages to create a story with humor and drama but no real fear for children.  Munsinger’s art sings along with the storyline, carrying some of the more visual humor. 

This light-hearted winner is a perfect for hot summer days or cold wintry ones.  It is a book that I would read aloud to slightly older children who will enjoy the humor and the setting.  Appropriate for ages 4-6, though children as old as 8 will love the story read aloud.

Confused YA Lit Article

| Tasha

Why should I be surprised, really?  Isn’t it just the norm to have a look at teen literature that is shallow, dismissive and uninformed?  This time it is the Wall Street Journal that has an article like this.  The title alone should have warned me away:  It Was, Like, All Dark and Stormy.

The author of the article, Katie Roiphe, manages to minimize The Hunger Games, Thirteen Reasons Why, Wintergirls, and If I Stay in a single article.  Quite the accomplishment!  All of them are lumped together into proof that the pink and purple world of teen books (when was that?!) has morphed into a frightening rollercoaster ride straight to doom. 

She shows a remarkable confusion about why teens read darker fiction:

Unsettling as it is, there is a certain amount of comfort to be gleaned from the new disaster fiction; it makes its readers feel less alone. What is striking in the response to these books is how many teenagers seem to identify with their characters, even though their experiences (suicide, car crashes, starvation, murder) would seem to place them on the outer fringes of normal life.

The one redeeming feature is that by the end of the article she seems to start to get it.  She calls these books “more uplifting” than light teen books.  And she concludes her article with:

As alarming as these books are, there is in all of this bleakness a wholesome and old-fashioned redemption that involves principles like triumph over adversity and affirmations of integrity.

Too bad she didn’t go back and use that insight to fix the beginning of the article!

Thunder-Boomer!

| Tasha

Thunder-Boomer by Shutta Crum, illustrated by Carol Thompson.

This picture book starts with a hot summer day, filled with tractors plowing, no breeze, and a panting dog.  Then a small breeze comes, bringing with it dark threatening clouds.  The family runs to get the laundry off the line and the chickens in the hen house.  Then with a rumble of thunder, the rain comes. Dad is forced back into the storm to rescue one wayward chicken.  As the storm worsens, the wind blows, the lightning crackles and the thunder – Booms!  Everyone in the house, including the chicken.  After a bout of hail, the sun returns and Maizie, the chicken, heads off alone again.  When the little girl checks on her, she gets a surprise.

This picture book perfectly captures the power of a big thunderstorm, the wonder of the wind, the dance of hail, and then that amazing clearing afterwards.  One can almost hear the tentative birdsong and the dripping afterwards.  Filled with sound words, young readers will enjoy making noises but soon will be caught up in the drama of the storm.  Thompson’s illustrations are lively and dramatic, offering both smaller detailed pictures and larger images that capture the action.  The engaging inclusion of a lost pair of Dad’s underwear in the storm helps to keep the storm from being too powerful for young children. 

Appropriate for ages 4-6, this book is a great summer book to share.  It reads aloud well, just make sure to leave time for plenty of putt-putting tractors, booms of thunder, and clucking chickens in the audience.

Faith, Hope and Ivy June

| Tasha

Faith, Hope and Ivy June by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Even though they both live in Kentucy, Ivy June and Catherine live very different lives.  Through a school student exchange program, now they each have a chance to see how other people live.  Ivy June lives in a small cabin in the hills by Thunder Creek with her grandparents because her parents’ home was too crowded.  They don’t have an indoor bathroom but they do have an incredible view of the entire mountain just a short walk away.  Catherine lives with her family in Lexington.  She attends a private school, wears designer clothes, and has more than one indoor bathroom.  On the surface the two girls will have nothing in common but when tragedy strikes, all differences are forgotten.

Naylor has created a story of two girls who have a chance to be friends but may not be able to see past their differences to reach that point.  There are twists and turns in their relationship with one another that refreshingly have nothing to do with their economic status.  Naylor also does an admirable job of making the harrowing job of coal mining real to young readers.  It is a joy to read a book with a heroine like Ivy June who is complicated and refreshingly unashamed of her poor upbringing.  It is equally wonderful to find a wealthy girl like Catherine who faces challenges when staying with Ivy June but remains eager to see what her life is really like.  Naylor never strays near stereotypes, instead focusing on the similarities of the two girls even when they can’t see it themselves. 

A complex tale of friendship and connection, this book will have readers questioning what stereotypes they believe in.  Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Gay & Lesbian Graphic Novels

| Tasha

Library Journal has a great roundup of graphic novels where either the superhero is gay or the novels feature leading LGBT characters or themes.  Though I don’t read a lot of graphic novels, some of my favorites are on the list:

Skim by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki (a great graphic novel from last year)

Pedro and Me by Judd Winick (one of the first graphic novels I ordered in my small library at the time!)

Any of your favorites on the list? 

The Hermit Crab

| Tasha

The Hermit Crab by Carter Goodrich

The hermit crab was very shy and enjoyed being just out of sight rather than part of a group.  So he was an unlikely hero!  One morning a wooden trap descends from above and the fish, crabs and lobster debate about what it is.  The hermit crab was off by himself when it arrived and was unaware of the stir.  As he looked for food, the hermit crab found the most amazing shell!  It had pieces that moved and a torso and a head and a lightning bolt too.  Back with the others, the flounder was caught under the trap, but no one would help him because they could get caught too.  The hermit crab with his new “shell” in place arrived and remembered he was hungry.  He shoved the trap, trying to reach the good smells.  All the others could see though was the head and shoulders of the shell he was wearing.  They cheered.  Suddenly the trap ascended to the top again. Everyone came to congratulate their new hero.  What is a shy crab to do when the spotlight is focused on him?

So often we read books about characters who like to be the center of attention or are bossy, pushy, or vain.  This book offers the other side of the shell, giving readers a lead character who is shy, reserved and quiet.  Even better, the hermit crab doesn’t dream of being the center of attention.  He isn’t constrained by his shyness.  He is just himself. 

Goodrich has written a great character in the hermit crab and surrounded him with a cast of loud, friendly characters to play off of.  The writing here is lovely to read aloud with great phrasing and pacing.  Goodrich’s illustrations are even more successful as they reveal the open vastness of the sea, the varied colors of underwater, and interesting perspectives on scenes.  I particularly enjoy the deep colored emptiness surrounding hermit crab as he looks for food.  Not dangerous, not lonely, just alone.  Lovely.

Appropriate for ages 4-6, this book is a great addition to any story time about the sea.  It could also be nice as a compare/contrast with a louder character-based book.  Children should be able to see themselves in both types of character.

Dragonbreath

| Tasha

Dragonbreath by Ursula Vernon

Danny the dragon wants to please his father and breathe fire, but he just can’t seem to do it.  His father advises him to “think hot thoughts” but that doesn’t work.  Delayed by his father’s fire-breathing lesson, Danny has to write his report about the sea on the bus.  Though he comes up with a clever but imaginary sea creature, he ends up getting an F but has a chance to redo the assignment.  So he and his best friend Wendell, an iguana, head to the Sargasso Sea (which happens to be on the bus route) and meet up with Danny’s cousin Edward, a sea serpent, who takes them on a great tour of the sea complete with adventure, danger and laughs. 

This book is a great mix of comic and novel with panels inserted regularly that carry the story forward via cartoons.  The story is then picked up again in prose form interspersed with illustrations.  This makes it very child-friendly and welcoming for children who enjoy reading on their own but may not be ready for a picture-free book yet.  The style of the book also works well with the comics, filled with jokes, humor and lots of laughs.  There is a great sarcasm about the dialogue that makes this a book that children throughout elementary school will enjoy. 

Danny and Wendell are a great pair of friends.  Danny always upbeat and ready for anything (with the exception of breathing fire.)  Wendell rather morose and cautious, often the butt of the jokes, but also intelligent.  The characterization throughout is nice, never being lost at the expense of the humor or short length of the novel.

Appropriate for ages 7-10, this book makes a great read aloud too.  The voices are distinct and lots of fun to portray when reading aloud.  That said, this is also a good book to give to reluctant readers.   I’m looking forward to the next book in the series with its promise of ninja frogs! 

You Are the First Kid on Mars

| Tasha

You Are the First Kid on Mars by Patrick O’Brien

What would it be like to be the first kid on Mars?  This picture book takes readers on a journey to the red planet, offering intriguing details along the way.  First, readers learn a bit about the planet itself, then there is docking with the space station and the four month trip to get to Mars.  Landing on the dusty planet surface, plus a look at the station on Mars are highlights of the book.  Also intriguing is the question of life on Mars, answered without sensationalism. 

The entire book exudes a feeling of reality, which makes the reading all that more immediate and satisfying.  Children will find new questions as they read, intrigued by false gravity aboard the ship, inflated green houses, and robots used to explore the planets.  O’Brien’s text is like that of a nonfiction book for children, offering captions and a mix of close-ups and smaller images.  His illustrations are clearly paintings, but such lifelike ones that readers may just forget they aren’t looking at a photograph.

Sure to rocket right off the shelves, this book will satisfy space-loving kids.  Appropriate for ages 5-8. 

Check out O’Brien’s website for some gorgeous images from the book.

Children interested in Mars exploration will enjoy the Mars Rover Documentary that can be found on YouTube: