Month: August 2011

Board Book Reviews

| Tasha

American Modern Books shared two new board books that are coming out in September.  Both have a modern art vibe that is captivating:

colors harper counting in the garden

Colors by Charley Harper

This is the third board book by Harper and follows his alphabet and counting books.  Here the colors correspond to animals and natural colors in the illustrations.  There are red birds, blue water, orange leaves, and a yellow moon.  There are also some more man-made items in the book like fire hydrants, cars and hats.  The design here is very successful with the small size of the board book format creating a very nice frame around the illustrations.  There is also a lot of variety in the images, though all are thoroughly modern.

Counting in the Garden by Emily Hruby, illustrated by Patrick Hruby

This counting book counts visually as well as in the text of the book.  Steadily count from 1 to 12 with items from the garden.  After each new number is counted, readers turn the page to see that item added to the garden.  What starts as a green and brown, but fairly open and plain field becomes robust and crowded with plants.  The illustrations are strong with plenty of color and lots of energy.  They have modern lines and are very clean and clear.

These two books are sure to please parents looking for books that they too will enjoy reading again and again. 

Reviewed from copies received from AMMO.

Book Review: The Babysitter Murders by Janet Ruth Young

| Tasha

babysitter murders

The Babysitter Murders by Janet Ruth Young

Dani seems to have a normal life on the outside, but she starts to have violent and invasive thoughts that she can’t control.  She has visions of doing inappropriate things or saying rude things about people she loves.  When she starts to think about murdering the little boy, Alex, she babysits for, she knows she has a problem.  When the thoughts start, she hides the large sharp knives in the garage and keeps checking on Alex to make sure she hasn’t hurt him.  Though she tries to tell her mother and her best friend, they don’t understand what she is trying to express.  Finally, in desperation, she decides to stop babysitting altogether, but while doing so admits to Alex’s mother what she has been thinking.  Soon the Dani is at the center of a media frenzy about a killer babysitter and is the target of an extremist group.  Everyone wants justice, but what is justice for something that never happened except in her mind?

This book builds slowly allowing readers time to understand Dani’s situation and relationships.  The book really picks up in the middle and ending, with even the length of the chapters shortening.  It reads at a very fast pace towards the end, making for a satisfying and riveting read. 

Dani is a very successful character.  A girl who is so sweet and kind, so afraid of disappointing others.  She is also an athlete, a musician, and on the way to having a boyfriend.  It is this normalcy that makes her mental illness work so well in the book.  This is not a girl who is a loner, but one with a healthy family life and social life.  Young has excelled at creating a girl who is normal but abnormal at the same time.

Young also works to emphasize the point that mental illness is not accepted by our society, though it should be.  The book is also about the speed of media frenzy, the overreaction of a community, and the targeting of a teen who has done nothing wrong.   It is about the fear of mental illness and the media’s disdain for it and yet their thirst for a big juicy story.

An outstanding look at mental illness in a teen, this book asks big questions many of which remain only to be answered by the reader.  Appropriate for ages 14-16.

Reviewed from copy received from Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Also reviewed by

William Sleator Dies

| Tasha

School Library Journal has the news of William Sleator’s death in Thailand at age 66.  He was the prolific author of over 30 books for all ages. 

I have two favorite Sleator books.  As different as can be.

  

Interstellar Pig is one of those books that you can hand to reluctant readers who enjoy science fiction.  It also book talks beautifully thanks to its great premise of a board game that is actually a battle for the survival of the human race. 

Oddballs is a short story collection.  But what stories!  Weird, funny and completely great.

Tuxedo Gin–The Movie

| Tasha

Disney will be adapting the Japanese manga Tuxedo Gin into a film called Tux.  Robert Ben Garant, co-writer of Night at the Museum, will be writing the script.  Garant will also be executive producing along with Isamu Kamei.

One wonders what Disney will do with what is said to be a gritty storyline.  We know they can handle the penguin element, but how much Disney-fication will have to occur to make the story work for them. 

Has anyone read the original graphic novel series of Tuxedo Gin? 

Via Deadline

I Am Eight!

| Tasha

368548511_fdd413a7f4

It’s the 8th anniversary of this blog!

This year its name changed from Kids Lit to Waking Brain Cells, as I changed jobs.  Happily, I am able to continue blogging at my new job as well, even though I’ve left children’s work behind years ago.  But I never stopped reading children’s books or supporting children’s programs. 

I am also very happy to have readers like you, who continue to read my reviews and other content year after year (after year)…   Thank you for your comments, your support, for being a community of readers that I love being a part of.  You all make it a joy to blog, read and share. 

So thank you!  New readers and vintage readers (tried to avoid that “old” word) you make my day over and over again throughout the year.

Photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/t3mujin/368548511/

Book Review: Bear with Me by Max Kornell

| Tasha

bear with me

Bear with Me by Max Kornell

Owen had a great life before Gary showed up.  One day his parents just showed up with a big bear.  They said they had always wanted a bear.  But Owen didn’t want a bear at all.  Gary was going to sleep in Owen’s room, share Owen’s toys, and live with them as part of their family.  Now his parents were busy with Gary and Gary snored when he slept!  He even left the covers off the markers so they dried out and broke the swing in the backyard.  Owen finally had enough and went outside by himself.  Gary found him there and slowly, slowly the two of them became friends.  Perhaps having a bear join the family wasn’t as bad as Owen had thought.

Kornell writes with a wry sense of humor that works very well here.  The use of an intruding bear as a stand-in for a new sibling works well in his hands.  He keeps the text straight-forward but humorous.

The illustrations add much to the book.  They are done in an intriguing style of cut-paper that has been drawn on and then added to the scenes.  Each character is often their own cut out on a background that is one large sheet.  The lines are simple and the colors bright.  Gary is a wonderfully large bear that is completely non-threatening and looks just as worried as Owen.

Ideal for blended families or new adoptive siblings, this book has loads of appeal.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from copy received from G. P. Putnam’s Sons.

Check out the book trailer:

Book Review: A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

| Tasha

monster calls

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, from an original idea by Siobhan Dowd, illustrated by Jim Kay

Released September 27, 2011.

Conor awoke at 12:07, just after midnight, from his nightmare, the one he had been having for years.  Then he realized that something was calling his name.  It was a monster, but not the monster from his dreams.  It was another monster, a monster who came walking to tell him three stories and then Conor had to tell him the fourth and final story.  And it had to be the truth.  Conor had not told anyone the truth for some time, not since his mother had first gotten sick.  Now she was worse again.  So Conor turned to the monster in the hopes that he could save her, that that was what had brought the monster walking.

Ness has created a powerful book from the final idea that Siobhan Dowd left before she died.  It is gut wrenching on so many levels.  You have a monster who is breathtakingly real, a boy who is disappearing into his mother’s illness, and a story of cancer and all of the feelings and emotions it creates and doesn’t allow to be expressed.  This is a book about the time before the loss, the anguish of the waiting, the hollowness not only inside the surviving family but around them as well, and the anger that is a part of grief too. 

Ness does not duck away from anything difficult here, rather he explores it in ways I haven’t seen before.  He takes the darkness and makes it real, makes it honest, creates truth from it and lays it all bare.  It is a book that is difficult to read but too compelling to put down.

Kay’s art runs throughout the book, framing the text.  It helps create a mood for the entire work, one of darkness and lightness too.   He plays with such darkness in his art here that it is sometimes a matter of black and blacker.  The art, done just in black and white, speaks to the power of the monster, the blaze of life, and the fragility of it as well.

I simply can’t say enough good things about this book.  It is a stunning work that truly does tribute to Siobhan Dowd’s idea.  Appropriate for ages 12-14.

Reviewed from ARC received from Candlewick Press.

Also reviewed by:

Book Review: Little Croc’s Purse by Lizzie Finlay

| Tasha

little crocs purse

Little Croc’s Purse by Lizzie Finlay

This little morality story features Little Croc who found a purse one day.  He had to decide if he was going to return the purse with its money or keep it all for himself.  He decides to return the purse, but on his way to the police station, he meets with several temptations.  He manages to avoid spending any of the money and once he’s at the police station finds out that the woman who owns the purse wants to meet him.  When she arrives, she checks for a special locket in a hidden pocket and then leaves the entire purse and the money for Little Croc.  Little Croc doesn’t spend it all in one place either, leading to a very satisfying conclusion to this book.

Finlay manages to make not only a morality tale, but a picture book that works as a story as well.  While there is definitely a moral about honesty here, the story is about more than that.  Her writing is light-toned and even the moment with the bully is brief and easily handled.  This helps lift the tone of the entire book. 

Her whimsical illustrations also do that with a tiny crocodile lugging a very large, very flowery, rather pink purse.  Even better, when Little Croc does buy something for himself, it is a pair of very red boots.  He also never shrinks away from carrying the purse and owning it as his own after it has been given to him. 

A book about honesty, thoughtfulness and caring for others, this book is sweet and jolly.  Keep it in mind for parents looking for books about manners and honesty for preschoolers.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from copy received from Eerdmans Books for Young Readers.

Book Review: No One But You by Douglas Wood

| Tasha

No One But You

No One But You by Douglas Wood, illustrated by P.J. Lynch

This radiant picture book speaks to each of us having individual experiences in the world.  Only you can feel things the way that you do.  Only you taste, hear, smell and see things in the way that you do.  No one else breathes with your breath.  No one else wishes on the same star in the same way.  And no one else feels the emotions you do or says I love you the way that you mean it. 

Wood’s writing reads like a poem, a verse that dances, expresses and moves.  He turns his lens onto different specific moments, emphasizing how we all experience things differently.  Using small moments of life, the book also quietly asks people to slow down and really experience what they are doing then.  Because no one else will feel it but you.

Lynch’s art is quiet and powerful.  His realistic paintings focus on diverse children doing day-to-day things.  The expressions they show are candid, real and vibrant.  His colors range from bright to dark, all of them filled with a special light that emanates from the children’s faces.

A gorgeous picture book, this is ideal for bedtime reading and is sure to make any child who hears it think about just how special they are.  Appropriate for ages 4-8.

Reviewed from copy received from Candlewick Press.