Book Reviews

Review: Comics Squad: Recess!

| Tasha

comics squad recess

Comics Squad: Recess!

Released July 8, 2014.

Join your favorite children’s graphic novel authors as they romp together in a celebration of recess!  This graphic novel has been contributed to by authors like Jennifer and Matthew Holm, Jarrett Krosoczka, Dan Santat, Gene Luen Yang, and Raina Telgemeier.  Favorite characters like Lunch Lady and Babymouse make an appearance in their own stories as well as appearing throughout the book with a little commentary.   In other stories, new characters make their first appearance which will delight young fans.

It’s hard to be too enthusiastic about this title, since young readers are sure to adore it.  The release in mid-summer is ideal since this will make great summer reading, though it will also be a great addition to any school library or classroom.  Put together cleverly, the book has a nice flow to it and a brisk pace that will have even reluctant readers eagerly turning the pages.

Get multiple copies of this one, since it’s sure to be a hit!  Appropriate for ages 7-10.

Reviewed from digital galley received from Random House and Edelweiss.

Review: From There to Here by Laurel Croza

| Tasha

from there to here

From There to Here by Laurel Croza, illustrated by Matt James

This sequel to the award-winning I Know Here continues the story of a little girl who has moved from Saskatchewan to Toronto.  She now contrasts their life in the rural woods with that in a new city.  So much of her days are different now.  Her father no longer comes home for lunch.  They live on a city street instead of a quiet gravel road.  Here they lock their doors, there everyone kept their homes open.  There you could see the stars in the sky at night, here there are only the lamps shining.  There the children played all together and there wasn’t anyone her age.  Here there is!

Croza deftly shows the differences between two places, drawing them each with an eye to the positive.  Even as the little girl misses and even yearns for her nature-filled home, she starts to see what is good about the new place she lives.  Any child who has undergone a move will see themselves in this book, yet Croza has also written a very personal story of one little girl.

James’ art is rich and layered.  He uses sweeps of colors on the page to convey motion and change.  At the same time, he also uses parallel images that show the similarities of the places at the same time examining the differences.

Another triumph of a picture book, children will enjoy this as a sequel but it also stands nicely on its own.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Oliver’s Tree by Kit Chase

| Tasha

oliver's tree

Oliver’s Tree by Kit Chase

Oliver, Charlie and Lulu are three best friends who love to play together outside.  When they play hide-and-seek though, Oliver doesn’t have as much fun as the others.  Lulu is a bird who loves to hide in the trees and Charlie the rabbit does too.  But Oliver is an elephant, and he doesn’t like trees at all, since he can’t climb them.  So the three friends set out to find a tree that will work for Oliver.  The low trees are too small for him.  Trees with big branches are too tall.  When they finally find a big low branch, Oliver is thrilled.  But then the branch breaks.  Oliver has had enough and runs off to be on his own.  He settles down on a huge tree stump and dozes off.  That’s when his friends have one great idea that saves the day and creates a tree that even an elephant can love!

Chase sets a pitch-perfect tone here for young children.  It’s a pleasure to see three children playing together in a picture book that is not about jealousy.  This instead is a book that celebrates differences and has children who work together to solve a problem in a creative way.  The result is a jolly book that has a fast pace and a cheery personality.

Chase’s illustrations have the same bounce as the text of the book.  They have a friendly quality that children will immediately respond to as well as a sweet humor that is cheerful.

It’s perfect tree climbing season right now, even if you are an elephant!  Appropriate for ages 2-4.

Reviewed from copy received from Putnam.

Review: The Shadow Hero by Gene Luen Yang

| Tasha

shadow hero

The Shadow Hero by Gene Luen Yang, art by Sonny Liew

Released July 15, 2014.

The Green Turtle first appeared in comics in the 1940s, the Golden Age of Comics, for a short run.  He was the first Asian-American super hero.  Now he has been given a back story by acclaimed graphic novelist, Gene Luen Yang.  Hank was the son of a Chinese immigrants.  His father was a grocer, who also carried within him a turtle spirit unbeknownst to his wife and son.   His mother was a cleaner of rich people’s homes.  Hank was a normal kid who grew into a normal young adult, until his mother though being a super hero would be the best career path for Hank.  She sewed him a costume, tried to get him special powers through a variety of techniques, and then had him train in fighting with someone.  But it took Hank awhile to find his super hero mojo, perhaps it was finding a man who rules China Town with an iron and greedy fist or perhaps it was vengeance.  Whichever it was, Hank grew to become the Green Turtle.

This is one graphic novel that does not take itself too seriously, making for great reading.  Fans of comic books will love the irreverent humor here that plays up the stereotypical origin stories of most super heroes.  That is matched with a clear respect for immigrants, the difficult choices they have to make, and the desperate need at times for a hero to save them.  It makes for a book that dances the line between drama and humor skillfully and to great effect.

Liew’s art has a freshness that both hearkens back to old comics but also forges ahead with a modern vibe.  The colors are used carefully, often more muted and subtle and then popping into bright colors when important events happen.  It’s very cleverly done.

An amazing and complex superhero arrives in this graphic novel that both pays homage and reinvents the first Asian-American super hero.  Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from digital copy received from NetGalley and First Second.

Review: Sleepyheads by Sandra J. Howatt

| Tasha

sleepyheads

Sleepyheads by Sandra J. Howatt, illustratedc by Joyce Wan

Head out on a journey in the night to find out where different creatures are sleeping.  Each one is tucked into the space they like best at bedtime.  There is the bear in his cave, the otter rocking back in the water, the pig in the hay, and many more.  Then the owl is on the page, not sleepy at all.  The book then turns to the house and the pets sleeping, but the little human bed is empty!  Where can that last little sleepyhead be?  Safe asleep in Mama’s arms. 

Simple and beautiful, this book has a gentle rhyme that soothes also with a rhythm that is like rocking to sleep.  Young listeners will get to identify the different animals as the pages turn, since the book leaves that up to the reader.  The quiet mystery of where the last sleepyhead is found is a wonderful little twist at the end, just right as children snuggle down to their own beds.

Wan’s art is dark and beautiful.  The night is lit with fireflies and the moon, the darkness deep and velvety but not frightening at all.  As the reader visits each dark page, there is always a source of light beyond that in the sky so that the characters themselves shine on the page. 

A wonderful bedtime read, this one shines with moonlight and dreams.  Appropriate for ages 1-3.

Reviewed from copy received from Beach Lane Books.

Review: The Feral Child by Che Golden

| Tasha

feral child

The Feral Child by Che Golden

Maddy’s parents died recently, so she is sent to Ireland to live with her grandparents.  She misses London and her friends dreadfully and doesn’t like her cousins or the town of Blarney.  Though she has been told not to enter the grounds of the castle in town, she does anyway one evening because she is so angry and just doesn’t care.  She stays longer than she means to when her grandparent’s dog George runs off.  It is then that she meets a strange boy.  That same boy returns to her house later, tapping at the window and asking Maddy to join him, but she refuses to go to the window at all, because she has realized that he is not what he seems to be.  When the boy goes to her neighbor and steals their little boy from out of his bedroom window, Maddy sees it all.  But with a changeling in the little boy’s place, no one even knows he is actually missing.  It is up to Maddy, her cousins, and George the dog to save him, because no one else can.  They must enter the faerie realm to do so and face incredible dangers on their quest.

Golden manages to not actually modernize the faeries and their world, which is quite refreshing.  Instead what you have in this middle-grade novel is a modern girl thrust into the strange and timeless world of the faeries.  She takes the most menacing and amazing parts of folklore and brings them fully to life, creating a dazzling array of faeries and beasts as the children travel.  The dangers are brutally displayed and there are times when death is so close, readers will be amazing that the characters survive.

Maddy is not a particularly likeable character at first in the novel, nor are her cousins.  Maddy is the main protagonist and undergoes a believable transformation into heroine as the novel goes on.  The same can be said for one of her cousins who comes out of her shell and into her own.  The other cousin, the bully, has too easy a transformation and it happens a bit to early in the book as well.  But that is a quibble in an impressive faerie tale.

Faeries, Ireland and an amazing quest all come together to create a book that is frightening, riveting and a rip-roaring read.  Appropriate for ages 10-12.

Reviewed from copy received from Quercus.

Review: The Baby Tree by Sophie Blackall

| Tasha

baby tree

The Baby Tree by Sophie Blackall

A young boy is told at breakfast that a new baby is coming.  He has a lot of questions, but the biggest one is “Where are we going to get the baby?”  So he starts asking different people.  His babysitter Olive who walks him to school in the morning says that you plant a seed and it grows into a baby tree.  At school, he asks his teacher where babies come from and she says “from the hospital” but he can’t ask any more questions because it’s time to clean up.  That afternoon he asks his grandpa about babies, because he is the only person that the boy knows who has been to the hospital, and Grandpa says that a stork brings the baby in the night and leaves it on your doorstep.  The mailman says that babies come from eggs.  The boy is very confused, so that night he asks his parents and they explain about babies growing inside their mom, about seeds and eggs and the hospital.  Now all the boy has to do is explain it to Grandpa who is clearly uninformed!

Blackall weaves an age-appropriate look at reproduction in this picture book.  I particularly appreciated that when the older characters explained it to the boy, there were touches of honesty in each of their answers that come together cleverly in the end, except for Grandpa’s of course!  It is a book that explains just enough of the details to answer preschool questions, without going into details that they are not interested in at that age. 

As always, Blackall’s illustrations are fresh and unique.  Her illustrations are friendly and lovely, focusing on the relationships in this boy’s life beyond his parents.  They demonstrate a richness of connections that is a delight.

A great addition to library collections, this is an ideal level of information for preschoolers expecting a new sibling soon.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from copy received from Nancy Paulsen Books.

Review: I Am Otter by Sam Garton

| Tasha

i am otter

I Am Otter by Sam Garton

Based off of characters from the blog: I Am Otter: The Unheard Ramblings of a Modern Day Otter, this picture book oozes with good natured humor.  It tells the story of an otter who lives with a person that she calls Otter Keeper.  Otter Keeper had to go to work on Monday, so Otter and Teddy (her teddy bear) tried to stop him by doing things like hiding his keys and his lunch.  But Otter Keeper left for work anyway.  So Otter decided to have her own job and chose to open a toast restaurant.  But there were problems from the start.  Teddy had forgotten to take reservations, so the line was very long.  Teddy forgot to tell the customers the prices of the items.  And finally, Teddy got the orders wrong.  It all ended in a horrible mess, just as Otter Keeper returned home.  Quickly, Otter hid as much as she could of the mess, but in the process Teddy disappeared!  Can Otter find her best friend?

Garton cleverly tells two stories in this picture book.  First is the written story in Otter’s voice that explains exactly what is happening from her perspective.  That is that Teddy makes poor choices, Teddy makes messes, and Teddy forgets things.  The rest of the story, the true version, is told in the pictures where even the youngest readers will understand that it is Otter who is creating all of the ruckus and mess as well as the drama. 

Garton’s art is just as clear as his dual story.  Done in full-color, the illustrations have a quiet and homey feel to them that contrasts delightfully with the messes that Otter creates.  The illustrations are busy with small objects, showing a real home filled with toys, plants, pencils, and more.

Funny, smart and a pleasure to share aloud, this British picture book is “otterly” incredible.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from copy received from Balzer + Bray.

Review: Pigsticks and Harold and the Incredible Journey by Alex Milway

| Tasha

pigsticks and harold

Pigsticks and Harold and the Incredible Journey by Alex Milway

Pigsticks hasn’t done anything with his life yet, unlike his very distinguished ancestors.  So he decides that he will travel to the Ends of the Earth but unlike his forepig, he will make it back alive.  Pigsticks quickly realizes that he will need an assistant, someone to carry all of his gear and cook.  Everyone in town came for an interview, but Pigsticks could not find the right person for the job.  That is until Harold the hamster showed up with a misdelivered package.  Harold wasn’t sure he wanted to be Harold’s assistant, but after much negotiation involving how many cakes would be brought on the journey (three of them) Harold agreed.  The two set off the next day, fording rivers, marching through jungles, crossing frail bridges across deep ravines, and then entering a vast desert before climbing an immense snowy mountain.  It’s a journey filled with mishaps and perils, most of which befall Harold, on their way to the elusive Ends of the Earth.

Milway has created a very clever early reader that will have new readers giggling right along.  Pigsticks is a wonderfully inattentive character, never noticing the various perils that Harold is facing along the way.  One might think be would come off very negatively, but he actually is a likeable character throughout, just a little self-absorbed.  Harold on the other hand is the voice of sanity on the trip, the one who sees danger ahead, but also the one doomed to not be listened to.  Their odd relationship works well in this book, creating very funny moments with just the right tone and humor for the age group.

Milway’s art is clever and cartoony.  He uses the art to fill in much of the story and provides art throughout at just the right amount to make the book appealing to new readers who are daunted by full-text pages.  The art adds to the zany humor of the text and further builds the dynamic between the two characters.

Funny, clever and cake-filled, this quest to the Ends of the Earth is sure to “end” up as a new reader favorite.  Appropriate for ages 5-7.

Reviewed from digital copy received from Candlewick Press and NetGalley.