Month: November 2010

Day and Night: Movie to Picture Book

| Tasha

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Day & Night by Teddy Newton

The Pixar short film that accompanied Toy Story 3 in theaters has been transformed into a picture book.  Showing the same style, humor and charm of the film, this book captures the interplay between day and night.  Told in short sentences on black paper, the two characters immediately see their differences but through their interaction develop a friendship.  In the end, they discover they have a lot more in common than they had thought at first glance.  There is a wonderful whimsy about their interaction as they both use their bodies as a canvas for communication.  Each shows off the wonders of their time of day.  There are parades, rainbows and butterflies for Day.  Night responds with fireworks, outdoor movies and fireflies.  Told mostly in images, the story will appeal to young and old.

Newton’s illustrations carry this story, infusing it with appeal.  The use of the black background makes the characters really pop.  This creates a dynamic look and feel for the book.  The most effective piece of the book is the ending when day changes to night and night changes to day.  When their bodies fit together to create the horizon and to complete the sunset and dawn, it is very visually arresting.

Children who have seen the short film will enjoy this picture book version, but so will children who are looking for a friendly book with inviting illustrations.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from copy received from Chronicle Books.

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Mostly Monsterly

| Tasha

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Mostly Monsterly by Tammi Sauer, illustrated by Scott Magoon

Bernadette had claws, a tail, fangs, and pointy ears.  She was a monster.  She caused all sorts of mayhem, but underneath she was different.  She liked flowers, kittens, and baking treats.  So Bernadette was nervous to go to school with the other monsters.  Her niceness did not fit in with the group well.  She asked for a group hug and got glares.  She sang a sweet song and someone ate her microphone.  Even her cupcakes with sprinkles get the monsters to turn tail and run.  How was she going to make friends?  Bernadette had a plan, a very monsterly, yet sweet one. 

Sauer nicely turns the pink and princessy on its head with this small blue monster.  The mix of sweet and monster is a winning one, nicely cleansing the saccharine that can accumulate from too many pink sparkly picture books.  Sauer has a great sense of humor that is on display in her title.   The things that the monster children hope are in the box as treats are silly and great fun.  Sauer does not limit herself to normal picture book words in a any way.  Make way for slobber, conquer and dismantle, among others.  Magoon’s illustrations offer plenty of monster styles and types for the reader to gape at.  None of the monsters are frightening.  This is a funny book and the illustrations stay in that style as well.  They are bright, intriguing and silly.  Bernadette is a monster we can all relate to, thanks in large part to the way she is depicted in the illustrations.

A book that celebrates our diversity and differences, this is a great monster book to add to your not-so-scary stories pile.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from copy received from Simon and Schuster.

Check out the trailer:

Mostly Monsterly Book Trailer

John Belushi Is Dead–The Movie

| Tasha

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Kathy Charles’ novel, John Belushi Is Dead, has been optioned by the producers of Because of Winn-Dixie, Ralph Singleton and Joan Singleton.

Joan Singleton plans to adapt the book and produce the film with Ralph Singleton.

Published by MTV Books in August, the book’s protagonist is obsessed with celebrity deaths, including Belushi, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, and Sharon Tate.

From Variety.

Let’s Count Goats!

| Tasha

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Let’s Count Goats! by Mem Fox, illustrated by Jan Thomas

A manic and very funny counting book that will have readers laughing at the antics of the goats that they are trying to count.  Can you count the single seaside goat?  How about the goats buzzing by in airplanes?  How about the loud trumpet goats?  Or the ones in the snow?  The talents of Mem Fox and Jan Thomas are delightfully displayed here in one of the top counting books of the year.

Some counting books suffer from trying to maintain counting on each and every page.  Part of the success of this book is that Fox has written other silly goats into the book that do not needed to be counted.  So the book has a nice flow that really works well.  It feels much more like a picture book than a counting book.  Fox’s rhymes are simple, offering Thomas a grand place to build from with her illustrations.  Thomas takes innocent words and transforms them into scenes where her goats munch on the props.  The book is filled with goats doing all sorts of things, drawn in Thomas’ wonderfully simple style that children will immediately relate to. 

Highly recommended, this is a counting book that could be used very successfully in a story time.  The illustrations are large enough to work with a group and the text is readable as well.  Appropriate for ages 2-4.

Reviewed from copy received from Beach Lane Books.

Also reviewed by A Year of Reading.

Nic Bishop Lizards: A Beauty of a Science Book

| Tasha

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Nic Bishop Lizards by Nic Bishop

Nic Bishop books combine fascinating science with exquisite photographs.  They are magnets for reluctant readers who love animals and nonfiction.   His latest book on lizards continues with the high quality standard he has set with previous books.  See a lizard hatching, so close that you can almost feel the rubbery egg.  Look right into the eyes of a bright-green baby chameleon.  Marvel at the skin of the thorny devil.  Run across water with a basilisk in a series of stunning shots.  Gawk at the geckos in all of their diversity.  Linger with lizards here in this book that makes science accessible, fascinating and beautiful.

Bishop excels at creating nonfiction for children.  His writing turns scientific facts into accessible and fascinating prose that points readers to reasons for wonder.  With his stunning photographs accompanying his prose, it is too easy to ignore the fact that his writing works so well.  And of course, you have his amazing gift for photography.  Photography that is crystal clear and brings readers so close to the subjects.  Make sure you read his author notes at the end for details about what it took to get the photographs you see in the book.

Highly recommended, this belongs in every school and public library along with Bishop’s other titles.  Get this in the hands of animal lovers, both reluctant readers and non.  But beware, bring it home and you too may be looking into a pet gecko for Christmas.  I hear his name is going to be Bob.

Reviewed from copy received from Scholastic.

That’s Not Funny

| Tasha

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That’s Not Funny! by Jeanne Willis, illustrated by Adrian Reynolds

When Hyena put a banana peel in Giraffe’s path, he set off a chain of events that he found extremely funny.  When Giraffe slips on the banana peel, he knocked into a tree.  Which in turn caused a coconut to fall onto Hippo’s head.  Hyena kept laughing and laughing, even as Hippo stumbled around very dizzy and stepped on Snake.  Snake bit Ostrich, Ostrich kicked Rhino, and it went on and on.  Until finally Hyena was laughing so hard that he stepped on his own banana peel, hit the same tree, bonked himself on the head with a coconut and fell into a pile of Elephant’s poo!  Now it was the turn of all of the other animals to laugh at Hyena who doesn’t see what was so funny.  Action-filled and bright-colored, this book has huge child-appeal right down to the stinky ending.

Willis may let the gag run on a little long, but her timing is great.  The book offers a huge dose of humor for the preschool set, designed with plenty of sight gags to keep them eagerly listening.  Reynolds’ illustrations are large, bright and very child-friendly.  His illustrations add to the hilarity of the book nicely.

This book is one that children will enjoy again and again.  It will also make a star of a book for a story time and with so many different animals in it, it will fit easily into different programs.  Appropriate for 3-5 year olds.

Reviewed from copy received from Andersen Press USA.

Best Book Lists

| Tasha

 

Reading is funphoto © 2009 John Morgan | more info(via: Wylio)

Two new best book lists were released recently.  I love these for adding to my to-read lists but also for finding my favorites on them too. 

The New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2010 has a delightful list of books this year.  So many of my favorite reads made the list that I am quite tickled! 

Publisher’s Weekly also has their Best Children’s Books out.  Sadly, I can only get the first page to show up because it wants me to log in.  I will have to wait rather impatiently for the library’s copy to cross my desk.  Perhaps you will have more luck. 

Behemoth

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Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld

This second book in the Leviathan trilogy continues the riveting steampunk story.   Deryn, a girl masquerading as a boy in the British Air Service, serves aboard an immense living ship called the Leviathan.  Alek, the heir to the Austrian-Hungarian empire, is masquerading as a commoner aboard the same airship.  The two of them are fast friends, though both are hiding their true identity from one another.  Now the Leviathan and her crew find themselves up against an amazing new weapon wielded by the German forces: a Tesla cannon that fires electricity.  Driven to Istanbul to shelter and resupply, the Leviathan must finish its business in only 24 hours before she will be forced to leave.  Alek and his protectors are desperate to leave the Leviathan while there, hoping to disappear to safety off of the ship.  But things never go as planned, including Deryn’s covert mission to open an access way for the behemoth monster to attack.   A brilliant setting for Westerfeld’s novel, Istanbul offers a spicy new space to further explore the wondrous world he has created in this series.

Westerfeld is one of those authors where readers can simply relax, knowing they are in good hands.  He is a skilled world builder, where his vision is clear, detailed and beautifully rendered.  I love the interplay of the steampunk with the Darwinist beasties, a natural tension that really works as a framework for war.  He also excels at creating characters who are deeper than expected and richly drawn.  Deryn is a strong female character who belays off of airships without hesitation, rescues others with ingenuity, and puts herself in harms way as only a hero can.  Yet she is also bothered by regrets, first love, and the horrors of war.  Alek too is a well-drawn hero, a great counterpart to Deryn.  He is highly educated, very bright, and a natural problem-solver and mech driver.  What a pleasure to have a book with two such heroes side-by-side.

Make sure that you have read Leviathan before picking up this second book.  This is a trilogy in every sense of the word.  Westerfeld does a find job of bringing readers who may have read Leviathan awhile ago up to speed with the world and the story again.  It is handled in a subtle way so that readers enjoying them back-to-back will not be bothered at all. 

Highly recommended, this book is a great second part of the trilogy.  Get it into the hands of happy fans and convert new fans to this amazing blend of fantasy and science fiction.  Appropriate for ages 12-15.

Reviewed from copy received from Simon Pulse.

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Matched: A Dystopian Romance

| Tasha

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Matched by Ally Condie

Released November 30, 2010.

An enticing mix of dystopian science fiction and romance, this is the first book in a trilogy.  Cassia trusts the Society with her entire life.  She trusts it to pick the best job for her skills.  She trusts it to decide who she will love.  She trusts it to decide when people die.  So when she attends her Matching ceremony and the face of one of her best friends is shown as her ideal match, she knows it is meant to be.  Xander is handsome, clever and kind.  That’s what makes it all the more confusing when Cassia looks at his data and she momentarily sees the face of another boy she knows.  Ky is quiet, a mysterious handsome loner who moved to their area from the Outer Provinces.  Cassia finds herself drawn to Ky and starting to think outside of the rules of the Society.  Learning to write in cursive, a skill lost for the people of her city, Cassia discovers a longing to create things for herself outside of the limits assigned by the Society.  Their love itself is forbidden, and something that could bring them to the attention of the Officials at any moment.  Now Cassia must choose between the comfort of life as she has always led to or the danger of the unknown and love.

Condie has created a society that is detailed and fascinating.  Within the Society, she asks questions that modern teens should be considering about privacy, personal choice, and the public good.  These questions are present in the book, but offered up in a subtle way.  The world building here is logical.  Condie excels at slowly revealing the horrors of this world, at first allowing readers to see the world as Cassia does, one with few troubles and many answers. 

Cassia is a great protagonist.  Even though this is a romantic novel, Cassia is strong and brilliant.  A large part of the success here is that Cassia is not concerned about her looks, but more concerned about looking beyond the glossy surface of perfection.  Happily, both of Cassia’s love interests are equally interesting, kind and bright.  This is not about a villain vs. a hero.  It is far more nuanced than that, as are all of the choices that Cassia faces in the novel.

I look forward to the next in this trilogy.  This first book finished with just the right amount of unanswered questions to keep readers intrigued for the next book and not so many as to be frustrating.  Appropriate for ages 13-15.

Reviewed from ARC received from Penguin.