Book Review–Cat Secrets by Jef Czekaj

April 19, 2011 | Tasha

This book is for cats only, so if you want to read it you will have to prove that you are, in fact, a cat. The cats in the book are hard to deceive. If you keep turning the pages, they will be on to the fact that you are not a cat at all. They will test you. You will have to meow. You will have to purr. Can you stretch like a cat too? And then the final test. Can you nap like a cat? This is a book that happily breaks down the fourth wall, celebrating silliness through a very interactive story line.

Czekaj follows the likes of Mo Willems and one of my childhood favorites, The Monster at the End of This Book, as he allows the audience into the book and to feel as if they have input into the storyline. His very simple illustrations have a modern feel to them. They let the humor stand on its own and don’t oversell it at all.

This is a book that will read aloud extremely well. It’s one that I would save for that final book of a story time because it will stop the wiggles immediately. Appropriate for ages 2-4.

Also reviewed by 100 Scope Notes and Creative Literacy.

More Hunger Games Casting

April 18, 2011 | Tasha

Entertainment Weekly has the news that Lionsgate has cast the District 11 tributes, Thresh and Rue. Nicely, they are both played by newcomers. Thresh will be played by Dayo Okeniyi. The vital part of Rue will be played by Amandla Stenberg. Look at that face!

You can keep tabs on the casting via Liongate’s Hunger Games Tributes Casting Tab on Facebook.

Board Book Reviews–Hello Friends Series by Emma Quay

April 18, 2011 | Tasha

Good Night, Sleep Tight by Emma Quay and Anna Walker

Let’s Play House by Emma Quay and Anna Walker

Puddle Jumping by Emma Quay and Anna Walker

Yummy Ice Cream by Emma Quay and Anna Walker

Four new board books welcome the youngest readers into a group of three friends. There is Panda, Sheep and Owl, who are all different, enjoy different things, but manage to be the best of friends despite that. The series has warm illustrations that are done with a mix of paint and fabric. This lends a real richness and friendliness to them. The text of the books is brief, humorous and engaging. These are stories that are simple and great fun.

Good Night, Sleep Tight is a bedtime story. The three friends decide to go camping in their sleeping bags. They all settle in, but both Owl and Sheep are uncomfortable. Only Panda is cozy, so the other two decide to join Panda in the one sleeping bag.

Let’s Play House has the friends building a play house together out of a blanket and some chairs. But the house doesn’t work out so well, especially after Panda stands up to leave, taking the roof with him. But all is not lost, as a new game is invented.

Puddle Jumping is about bravery. Owl and Panda have great fun jumping over a big puddle the three friends discover. But Sheep is scared to try, scared she will fall on her bottom and get hurt. Eventually Sheep does try to jump the puddle, and she ends up having a lot of fun in an unexpected way.

Yummy Ice Cream is about sharing. Sheep and Panda both have ice cream cones that are very yummy. But Owl doesn’t have any. The three friends find a very inventive way of making two ice cream cones into more.

As you can see, children will recognize their own play and activities in these books. These are modern, stylish board books for the youngest of children. Appropriate for ages 1-3.

Reviewed from copies received from Penguin Books.

Book Review: Enclave by Ann Aguirre

April 18, 2011April 18, 2011 | Tasha

Enclave by Ann Aguirre

Deuce lives underground in her enclave where life expectancy is short and live is brutal. From the time she was a brat, she knew that she wanted to be a Huntress. Now that she is 15, she goes through the naming ceremony and is given the role of Huntress in her community. It is her job, along with her partner, to protect the enclave from the strange beings, Freaks, that share their underground world. Deuce is paired with Fade, a Hunter who was not born in the enclave, but found wandering underground. As Deuce learns more about their society, she begins to question the enclave’s rules and the injustices she sees. When she sacrifices herself to save a friend, Deuce is thrown out of the safety of her community and forced to survive with just Fade to help her.

The strength of this book was in the underground world, the enclave and its lies, the brutality of the life, the unquestioning people, the darkness and danger. The world Aguirre created underground is compelling and intriguing. Deuce’s character is equally successful. She is a strong heroine whose weakness is ignorance thanks to the enclave. She experiences real growth as a character as she learns the truth.

Unfortunately, the book does not stay underground. When Deuce and her partner head to Topside to survive, the book loses some of its strength as well as its unique society and setting. For me, the book seemed to drag despite the high level of violence.

But for me, worst of all was that the world building that worked so well underground began to fall apart. The Topside misuse of women angered me, but even worse was the insistence that one of the raped women accept one of the gang as a compatriot in their travels. That she had to let her repeated rapes go and learn to cope seemed to trivialize rape and survival at the same time.

Readers of dystopian fantasy may enjoy this series, but I will stop reading with this first book. Appropriate for ages 15-18.

Reviewed from copy received from Feiwel and Friends.

Also reviewed by:

Book Review–The Loud Book by Deborah Underwood

April 15, 2011 | Tasha

The Loud Book by Deborah Underwood, illustrated by Renata Liwska

The author and illustrator of The Quiet Book return with a much noisier book that celebrates the different kinds of loud there are. The noises follow a bunny through his day from waking up with alarm clock yard to a sister snoring at bedtime and finally crickets singing. Many of the loud moments could be considered quieter ones, focusing on the noises that can seem loud in different situations. This is a great noise-filled foil to the first book.

Underwood has collected lovely moments throughout a day that range from very loud and disruptive to funnily loud like a burp in a classroom to noises that only seem loud because of the circumstances. For each noise, she offers a little phrase that explains the situation and the noise, often with a wry sense of humor.

Liwska’s illustrations offer a fuzzy, warm group of animal characters. She has a great sense of humor in her work, capitalizing on the most humorous moments and capturing them to great effect.

A perfect companion to the first book, this noise-filled book is sure to be a hit with any noisy group of preschoolers, meaning all of them. Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from library copy.

Also reviewed by

Harris and Me by Gary Paulsen–A Family Favorite

April 15, 2011 | Tasha

Harris and Me by Gary Paulsen

When I first read Harris and Me, I had it along with me on a family trip with my husband and parents. I ended up reading entire portions of it aloud to a room of adults who all hooted and laughed and begged for me to continue. Then when my older son was around the right age, I read it aloud to him. He loved it. This week, I finished reading it aloud to my younger son, who loves to be read to but doesn’t care to read to himself much. He asked for his own copy so he could read it whenever he liked.

Some lines from the book have entered our vocabulary in our family. If I get grumpy, my husband (far too often) says “Now, Buzzer…” Whenever a little car revs past our house, I say “the engine starved for oxygen its entire life.” And perhaps even worse, we all get the joke and laugh, immediately thinking of the scenes from Harris and Me.

Paulsen has created a book that is so funny. It reads aloud like a dream, and having read it aloud cover-to-cover at least 3 times by now, I should know. The humor is often naughty, involving things like peeing on an electric fence, being kicked in the groin by a cow, and attempting to kill a very evil rooster. At the same time, it is belly-laugh funny, quoting lines great, and will linger with you after you finish it.

And the ending, well. Let’s just say it’s the most challenging part to read aloud because no matter how many times I read it, I will always cry.

So if you are looking for a book to hook a kid with its humor, with its inappropriateness, with its pure appeal, look no further! This one is a winner with every person I have ever shared it with. It’s a definite family favorite for three generations of our family.

Candace Bushnell Signs for Two More Teen Novels

April 14, 2011 | Tasha

HarperCollins has signed Candace Bushnell, author of Sex and the City, for two more novels for teens. Bushnell had good success with her first teen novel, The Carrie Diaries, that focused on a teenaged Carrie Bradshaw. Her sequel to that novel, Summer and the City, will be released on April 26th.

It is not yet known if the next two books Bushnell has signed for will continue Carrie’s story or if they will introduce new characters.

Via EW’s Shelf Life

Book Review–Oliver by Christopher Franceschelli

April 14, 2011 | Tasha

Oliver by Christopher Franceschelli

This minimalist board book has an interesting novelty piece at the end. On most of the pages there are only an egg and one line of text. The text explains the limitations of being an egg. An egg can roll from side to side, even stand on its head, but still it is just an egg. Until something happens.

In this book, the final moment where the egg becomes something else is told through a non-removable ribbon that runs through two pages. Turn the page and the egg is transformed into a chick. The process of turning that page is fascinating and will have children turning the page back and forth from egg to chick to egg.

The book has a sturdy feel that would make it a novelty book that could survive a public or school library. Appropriate for ages 2-4.

Reviewed from copy received from Lemniscaat.

2010 America’s Most Challenged Books

April 14, 2011 | Tasha

ALA has announced the most challenged books of last year. Interestingly, the ones I have read are favorites of mine. I’m considering using the list as a recommended book list for my future reading. Here are the books: