Month: June 2014

Review: Swim, Duck, Swim! by Susan Lurie

| Tasha

swim duck swim

Swim, Duck, Swim! by Susan Lurie, illustrated by Murray Head

Told in rhyme, this picture book illustrated with large photographs explores one day in the life of a duckling who just won’t get into the water.  His parents are with him, encouraging him to try and so are all of the other fuzzy ducklings that are already swimming around.  But he is not sure that swimming is for him.  He might sink!  He hates to be wet!  And this might just be the perfect time for a nap. But with his parents encouraging him to keep on trying, there is suddenly a splash and he is swimming around merry and proud. 

Lurie’s rhymes have just the right amount of bounce and energy.  She captures the obstinate toddler who just won’t do what his parents are pushing him to try.  Children and parents alike will relate to this battle of wills where patient and positive parenting wins out in the end.  The text is simple and jaunty, keeping the duckling clearly an animal but giving words and emotions to his actions.

I’m a huge fan of photographs in children’s picture books.  Particularly when they are done as beautifully as Head’s.  The large format of all of the illustrations works beautifully, and I appreciate that they run all the way to the edge of the page rather than being framed in white.  The effect is an expansive one, these are pictures that pull you in until you too are pond-side and cheering on the duckling.

A great pick for kids heading to their first swimming lessons, this book would also make a nice addition to story times on ducks or trying something new.  Appropriate for ages 2-4.

Reviewed from library copy.

This Week’s Tweets, Pins & Tumbls

| Tasha

Here are the links I shared on my Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr accounts this week that I think are cool:

"I am a product of endless books" -- C.S. Lewis

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

10 Questions With…Illustrator Debbie Ridpath Ohi | ALL THE WRITE NOTES http://buff.ly/1o9O5vN #kidlit

BEA 2014: Diversity in Children’s Publishing http://buff.ly/1pIRK5P #kidlit

BEA Buzz: Five graphic novels to look forward to this year — Good Comics for Kids http://buff.ly/1jQyECV #kidlit

Cameron McAllister’s top 10 amazing machines in children’s books | Children’s books http://buff.ly/1ulw6o4 #kidlit

Harry Potter And The Forbidden Books : NPR http://buff.ly/1pIWLbH #kidlit

Here’s What Would Happen If Your Favorite Childhood Books Were Written Today http://buff.ly/1oS19I6 #kidlit #humor

Judy Blume: Parents worry too much about what children read – Telegraph http://buff.ly/1ob6xUM #kidslit #reading

Librarian Preview: Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group (Fall 2014) — @fuseeight A Fuse #8 Production http://buff.ly/1pIQ9gv #kidlit

Predictions! 2014 NYT Best Illustrated Children’s Books — @100scopenotes 100 Scope Notes http://buff.ly/1jRdi8D #kidlit

RAISING A READER Organization Offers Tips for Getting Children to Read During Summer Vacation – BWWBooksWorld http://buff.ly/1pPTWWw

Robert Sabuda’s top 10 pop-up books | Children’s books http://buff.ly/1oS0S84 #kidlit

Welcome, Little One | Great Books about Babies | School Library Journal http://buff.ly/1jQxirY #kidlit

Writing advice from Roald Dahl | Simon Read http://buff.ly/1jR7BHL #writing #authors #kidlit

LIBRARIES

5 Ways Libraries Cultivate Community Art| Erinn Batykefer | http://buff.ly/1jQxCXG #libraries

Check Out the Internet: Libraries Lending Internet Access http://buff.ly/1oG5FJG #libraries

How your library can get a gig – District Dispatch http://buff.ly/1kyzBWC #libraries

Libraries see light after years of cuts http://buff.ly/1ulvqiq #libraries

PRIVACY

TechFiat – Decentralized Economics • Today is the day we Reset the Net http://buff.ly/1pIM2RB #privacy

For every book I read, 10 more are added to my to-read list.

TEEN READS

I Say Awkward Things To Authors: BEA 2014 Edition | BOOK RIOT http://buff.ly/1oa1y74 #bea – I thought I was the only one who did this!

The Muscle-Flexing, Mind-Blowing Book Girls Will Inherit The Earth : Monkey See : NPR http://buff.ly/1jVUHIn #yalit

Review: Migrant by Jose Manuel Mateo

| Tasha

migrant

Migrant: The Journey of a Mexican Worker by Jose Manuel Mateo, illustrated by Javier Martinez Pedro

In this bilingual book, a boy from Mexico talks about the changes in his family and his village as people leave Mexico to find work in the United States.  The story begins with the boy speaking about his village and how it used to be as a farming community with small farms where he would play.  But then things changed and soon the village was just women and children with all of the men gone to find work elsewhere.  When his mother was unable to find work in the village and his father’s money stopped arriving, the had no choice but to leave too.  The story changes to one of escape, hiding and running, one that mirrors that boy’s games as a small child, but they are no longer fun here.  The family makes it safely to Los Angeles, but there are new barriers in the way with the new country.

migrant inside

Told in a unique vertical format that echoes the ancient codex, this book uses its format to great effect.  First, it mirrors the sense of a journey across distances, across cultures.  Just opening this book feel different and special and then the length of the single page captures that sense of travel and quest.  The voice of the book is also exquisitely done.  The boy looking back on his childhood, seeing the changes and then the contrast of his childhood with the frightening present is filled with a taut tension that never goes away.

migrant pages

Even as I gush about the writing, I can’t say enough about the art.  Done in a single pane that continues through the entire vertical book, it shows the village, the train that allows their escape, and finally LA.  The art has an ancient feel to it, filled with tiny details, many people, plants, houses, and more.  It’s a tribute to the history of Mexico, the thousands of people who cross the border, and the beauty of their courage.

Unique and incredibly lovely, this book is one that won’t work in public libraries due to the format.  But it’s one that is worth celebrating despite that limitation.  Get this in special collections!  Appropriate for ages 7-10.

Reviewed from copy received from Abrams Books.

Review: Pom and Pim by Lena Landstrom

| Tasha

pom pim

Pom and Pim by Lena and Olaf Landstrom

When Pom heads outside, the sun is shining and the day is beautiful.  Pim, a stuffed toy, goes out too.  But the day isn’t completely full of good luck, in fact Pom and Pim experience a lot of bad luck along the way.  Somehow though, these bad moments turn into good ones.  So when Pom falls down, there is money on the sidewalk and they get to have ice cream!  The ice cream gives Pom a tummy ache, but then there is a balloon in the room.  The balloon pops when Pom takes it outside, but it’s just in time to make a raincoat for Pim before the rain comes.  Then it’s a lovely rainy day.

Landstrom plays with optimism in this book.  Pom goes from merry to dejected in moments, just like any toddler, bouncing right back again with the next new distraction or change.  The story is very simply told with the illustrations telling much of Pom’s reaction to the described situations.  Pom is never given a gender, making this a book that will speak to all genders equally and children will see themselves reflected on the page. 

The illustrations clearly reflect Pom’s emotions, as Pom changes moods from one page to the next.  They are also wonderfully simple which fits into this story very nicely.   The result is a book for toddlers that they will understand and relate to.

Grab this one when looking at emotions with toddlers, its everyday events will be something that any child has probably experienced.  Appropriate for ages 2-4.

Reviewed from library copy.

2014 Golden Kite Winners

| Tasha

SCBWI 

The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators has announced the winners of their 2014 Golden Kite and Sid Fleischman Awards.  Here are the winners:

Sophie's Squash Forest Has a Song: Poems

Picture Book Text Winner:  Sophie’s Squash by Pat Zietlow Miller

Picture Book Text Honor:  Forest Has a Song by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater

 

Mr. Tiger Goes Wild Niño Wrestles the World

Picture Book Illustration Winner:  Mr. Tiger Goes Wild by Peter Brown

Picture Book Illustration Honor:  Niño Wrestles the World by Yuyi Morales

 

Better Nate Than Ever Rose Under Fire (Code Name Verity, #2)

Fiction Winner:  Better Nate Than Ever by Tim Federle

Fiction Honor:  Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein

 

Call of the Klondike: A True Gold Rush Adventure 17165899

Nonfiction Winner:  Call of the Klondike by David Meissner

Nonfiction Honor:  The Dolphins of Shark Bay by Pamela Turner

 

Openly Straight

Sid Fleischman Humor Award:  Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg

Britain’s Top Loved Books

| Tasha

pooh honey pots

Winnie the Pooh tops the list of Britain’s best loved children’s books.  Here is the entire list and you can check out more information on the Telegraph website. You will note the entire list if dominated by classic reads rather than more modern titles.  Don’t expect to see Harry Potter on the list!

1.  Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne

2.  Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

3.  The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

4.  The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien

5.  The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson

6.  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

7.  Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

8.  Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

9.  The BFG by Roald Dahl

10.  The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis

Barbro Lindgren Wins Lindgren Prize

| Tasha

Benny and the Binky Sam's Cookie

The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Prize is the largest monetary prize in children’s literature.  This year’s prize when to Swedish author, Barbro Lindgren.  Here is more information from the New York Times article:

In its citation, the 12-member prize jury called her “a literary pioneer” and praised her adventurous use of language and the psychological nuance of her writing. “She has reinvented not only the picture book for the very young,” the citation reads, “but also the absurd prose story, the existential children’s poem, and realistic fiction for young adults. With perfect pitch, she presents to us both playful shenanigans and moments of bright joy, the inscrutable nature of life and the nearness of death.”

Review: It’s an Orange Aardvark! by Michael Hall

| Tasha

its an orange aardvark

It’s an Orange Aardvark! by Michael Hall

Five little ants are woken up by the sound of rain outside their tree stump.  In order to figure out what is making the noise, they drill holes in the stump to look outside.  One ant explains that aardvarks are gray and sneaky, and of course hungry for ants!  But when they drill the first hole, they see orange not gray.  Perhaps it’s an orange aardvark come to eat them!  They drill another hole and that one shows blue, so they think it’s an orange aardvark wearing blue pajamas.  As they drill more holes, more colors are shown and their story about the orange aardvark gets more and more elaborate.  Savvy young readers will know what all of these colors mean, but the pleasure of this book is seeing just how silly the little ants become.

Hall is the author of My Heart Is Like a Zoo and continues to display his skill with bright colors, large formats and die cuts in this new title.  The mix of surprise, guessing and silliness makes this book great fun to read.  Add in identifying different colors and the book becomes almost a game to read aloud.  Even better, there is wonderful suspense with each page turn as the ants come up with their next spectacular speculation.

Done in large format and pops of bright colors, the illustrations have the same appeal as Lois Ehlert and Eric Carle with their sharp edges and cut paper format.  The die cuts are used just enough to make the book more suspenseful and fun.  They also all line up, consistent throughout the book.

A jolly picture book that is full of fun, this is a colorful and witty way to learn about colors and aardvarks.  Appropriate for ages 2-4.

Reviewed from copy received from Greenwillow Books.

Review: The Lion and the Bird by Marianne Dubuc

| Tasha

lion and the bird

The Lion and the Bird by Marianne Dubuc

One day a lion discovers a hurt bird in his garden.  He bandages the bird’s damaged wing, but then the rest of the bird’s flock flies away, migrating for the winter.  So the lion takes the bird into his home.  Throughout the winter, the bird and the lion spend each day together doing all sorts of things.  And the lion notices that the winter doesn’t seem as cold with a friend along with him.  Then spring arrives and the bird’s wing has mended, so the bird heads off to join its flock as they return for the warm weather.  Lion is once again alone and now he misses his friend.  Lion spends all summer alone, tending his garden.  Then autumn comes again and Lion hopes to see his friend return, but will he?

Dubuc is a Canadian author who is internationally known.  She has a decidedly European vibe to her work with its quietness and the message of larger things written in the small world she creates on the page.  She cleverly shows the passing of the seasons using pages of white that allow space for the time to pass for the reader.  The book is also a lovely riff on The Lion and the Mouse, except in this book the lion is the one doing the kindness for another creature and the payback of the kindness is more delicate in the form of friendship.

Dubuc’s art is exceptional.  Her fine lines show both close-ups of the friends together and also vistas of the world they live in.  There is a feeling of smallness, closeness and a limited world that Lion lives in.  That contrasts with the bird leaving on migration and exiting this close world.

A noteworthy picture book, this new title by Dubuc is charming and warm.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from copy received from Enchanted Lion Books.