Book Reviews

Review: Henry’s Map by David Elliot

| Tasha

henrys map

Henry’s Map by David Elliot

Henry was a pig who believed in being neat and tidy with everything in its place.  So when he looked out from his very clean sty, he was bothered by the messiness of the farmyard.  He decided to make a map, so that everyone could find things on the farm.  That meant he had to travel around the farm and write things down.  He included the sheep and the woolshed, Abigail the cow with her tree, Mr. Brown the horse and his stable, and the chicken coop.  Then all of the animals climbed up a nearby hill to look down on the farm and compare it to Henry’s map.  But when they looked closely, none of them were where they were marked on the map!  Luckily though, they all knew right where they belonged thanks to the map and back they all went, even Henry.

Elliot has a feel for writing picture books.  His pacing is delightful, the storyline is dynamic but not frenetic, and the characters are personable and ones that you want to befriend.  Henry is a little pig with a big vision, and there is satisfaction in him completing a big project on his own.  Elliot also nicely navigates having just the right amount of text on the page, enough to tell a full story but not too much to overwhelm or bog it down.  Add the twist of the animals being alarmed at not being in the same place as the map tells them they should be, and you have a very strong read. 

Elliot is the artist behind the Brian Jacques series of books.  Here his art has a wonderful playfulness but also a timelessness.  This book is beautifully illustrated with lots of jolly characters and one very serious pig.  The map itself looks like something a child would make complete with drawings and misspellings. 

A top pick, this picture book is perfect for map units in preschool and elementary school.  It also makes a fun addition to any farm or pig story time.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from copy received from Philomel.

Review: 123 versus ABC by Mike Boldt

| Tasha

123 vs ABC

123 versus ABC by Mike Boldt

The letters and numbers just can’t agree in this book!  Is it a counting book or an alphabet book?  You will just have to read on to figure it out.  As the pages turn, it just gets more confusing.  Sure the first animal to appear is an Alligator, but there is just One.  Then there are Two Bears, Three Cars, and on and on it goes.  The book is narrated by the number one and the letter A, both of them arguing over what the book is really about.  Happily, they are both right in this mash up of an alphabet and counting book that is funny, silly and a romp of a read.

Boldt manages to make a counting and alphabet book that has a real freshness to it.  A large part of the success is in the humor, much of which is contributed by the two main characters, A and 1.  There little rivalry and clever asides add to the tension of the premise but also resolve in the end to something much more friendly.

Boldt’s art is bright colored and pays homage to vintage picture books.  The two main characters have a cartoon-like appeal to them with their broad expressions and Mickey Mouse gloves.  Boldt makes good use of white space throughout the book, allowing the mix of alphabet and numbers space to breathe on the page, something that becomes particularly important as the pages get more crowded.

Fresh and funny, this is one clever mash-up of ABCs and 123s that will appeal to every child who likes a lot of laughs.  It will work well with preschoolers who will enjoy the jokes as they review the content.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from copy received from HarperCollins.

Review: 45 Pounds (More or Less) by K. A. Barson

| Tasha

45 pounds

45 Pounds (More or Less) by K. A. Barson

When Ann’s parents divorced and then her parents remarried and started new families, Ann turned to food to soothe herself.  Now she is 16 years old and wears a size 17.  Her mother on the other hand is a perfect size 6.  When they shop together, it is torture for Ann.  Her mother tries to motivate her, but picking out a tiny bikini as motivation is not the right way!  Then Ann is asked to be a maid of honor in her aunt’s wedding and she decides to lose 45 pounds by the wedding in 10 weeks.  Ann starts out by ordering a kit from an infomercial and eating according their diet.  To do that, she has to get a job to pay for the food.  Her summer suddenly becomes about a lot more than watching TV and eating.  Now she is attending dance lessons for the wedding, gets invited to the party of the year, and has a boy flirting with her!  It’s a summer of change, and it’s not all about losing weight.

Thank goodness for the lightness of this title.  This subject can be heavy handed at times, but not here.  Happily, the book deals with weighty topics (pun intended) but manages to remain positive and not didactic at all.  Instead it is a voyage of self-discovery for Ann and the reader.  One notes quickly that she catches the attention of the cute boy before losing lots of weight.  The book does address fad diets and infomercials as well as the way that parental pressure can backfire. 

Yet the book is not all about weight loss.  It also explores divorce and its impact on children, the way siblings can drift away, the loss of friendships, and the way that all of that impacts self esteem.  It is this depth that makes the book so rich.  One understands Ann’s pain and why she was eating to cover it all up.  Beautifully, readers are also shown that thin people may not be quite as comfortable or healthy as they may seem either.

A great pick for teen readers, this book is about being comfortable at any size.  Appropriate for ages 13-16.

Reviewed from copy received from Viking.

Review: Al Capone Does My Homework by Gennifer Choldenko

| Tasha

al capone does my homework

Al Capone Does My Homework by Gennifer Choldenko

Released August 20, 2013

This is the third and final book in the Alcatraz trilogy.  Moose is growing up on Alcatraz where his father has just been made Assistant Warden.  But with the promotion also comes dangers that he had not faced as a guard.  Moose quickly discovers that the inmates have a point system where his father is now worth a lot more points if he is attacked.  Moose has far more to worry about though, when there is a fire in their family apartment.  Moose feels very guilty because he had been watching his sister Natalie who is autistic, but he fell asleep.  Others are all too quick to blame Natalie for setting the fire, though Moose and his family don’t see her doing something like that.  Now Moose feels that he has to solve the mystery of the fire as well as protect his father as best he can, but there may be more mysteries along to solve, one that is even hinted at by a note from Capone himself!

I have loved this series from the first book.  The historical perspective of a family living on Alcatraz is tantalizing.  Yet it is Choldenko’s skill in creating characters who are immensely human and wonderfully heartfelt that makes this series so good.  Moose is a character who grows from one book to the next and within each book as well.  The growth is strong and believable.  The mystery here fits nicely in the historical setting and one finds out from the Author’s Note that the reason it is so credible is that Choldenko based much of it on real events of the time.

This series has been strong from the first book, never suffering from lagging in the middle book or from the final book trying to do too much.  Nicely, each book is individually satisfying as well, so they stand just as nicely on their own as they do in a trio.  However, I could never not find out what happened next to Moose and the other children on the island.

Satisfying and superbly written, this book is a great conclusion to a wonderful trilogy.  Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from ARC received from Dial Books.

Review: I Am Blop! by Herve Tullet

| Tasha

i am blop

I Am Blop! by Herve Tullet

The author of Press Here returns with another simple and charming book.  Here the entire book is based around the shape of a “blop” which is something like a four-leafed clover, or a flower, or a butterfly.  With just a few words on each page, the youngest readers will discover a world of blops between these covers.  There are blops of different sizes, different colors, and they do a variety of things too.  Concepts are taught cleverly, such as mixing colors, what appears in a mirror, and opposites. 

While there are punch-out pages at the end of the book, this would still make a great pick for libraries to circulate.  I was particularly pleased with the mirror page and color mixing pages that add a special twist and fun to the book. 

Another great pick from Tullet, this book belongs in library collections and would make a great toddler read.  Expect to be drawing and seeing blops afterwards!  Appropriate for ages 1-3.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Boy Nobody by Allen Zadoff

| Tasha

boy nobody

Boy Nobody by Allen Zadoff

Boy Nobody enters schools, follows his orders, identifies his target, and completes his mission.  He is a soldier, working for The Program.  He is invisible, just another teen, but he is so much more.  His life changed when he was taken into The Program at age 11.  The Program fixed him, turning him into someone who can notice the smallest things, who can kill silently, and who has no emotions.  But when Boy Nobody is asked to do the fastest and most dangerous mission of his life, he discovers that he does have emotions.  And that is perhaps the most dangerous thing of all.

I have deliberately given a vague summary above, since a large part of the pleasure of this read is piecing things together.  Written in the first person, the reader gets to see the world from Boy Nobody’s skewed point of view.  This adds to the immediacy of the read, making it all personal, particularly the violence.  And there is violence, fights and murder, done with a coldness that makes it all the more sinister.  Throughout, you have Boy Nobody’s voice explaining just why it is all alright and how his life works.  Then as he begins to feel again, that voice changes and expands.  It is subtle but also powerful. 

This book is written with pacing in mind, the entire book reading like a movie script that plays before your eyes.  There is no hesitation here, little lengthy prose, just vibrant details that are necessary to hurtle the novel forward.  It makes for a read that is riveting and a joy to read. 

The ideal beach read for teens, this book has a thrilling combination of contract killing, subterfuge, and intelligence.  Appropriate for ages 14-17.

Reviewed from ARC received from Little, Brown.

Review: Flood by Alvaro F. Villa

| Tasha

flood

Flood by Alvaro F. Vila

This wordless picture book shows the impact of a flood on a family.  The book starts with a sunny day at a house along the river.  The children are playing outside, the house is wrapped by a picket fence, and the windows are being replaced.  It is idyllic, beautiful and peaceful.  The storm front arrives along with the rain.  Sandbags are brought to the house and the family builds a wall of them to protect their home.  The new windows are boarded up and the family leaves their house behind.  Water quickly surrounds the house and soon it breaches the sandbags, rushing violently into the house.  The waters recede and the house is left, broken and damaged, filled with mud and muck.  But all is not lost, as the family rebuilds.

Though wordless, this book tells a powerful story of family, floods, loss and rebuilding.  The illustrations range from those colorful images of the perfect family home to images of destruction.  Vila captures the violence of these storms and the water itself.  There are several images that are very powerful including the first glimpse of the large storm front coming across the landscape to the close up of the water entering the home.  These natural images have a beauty to them but also a sense of foreboding.

This is a wordless book that will work well with a range of ages.  It is a timely read as well as weather systems grow more powerful and more families are facing natural disasters.  Appropriate for ages 4-7.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Wait! Wait! by Hatsue Nakawaki

| Tasha

wait wait

Wait! Wait! by Hatsue Nakawaki, illustrated by Komako Sakai

Translated from the Japanese, this little book is perfect for busy toddlers.  It follows some time in a toddler’s day when they move from one distraction to the next.  First, there is the butterfly fluttering past that won’t wait.  Then the lizard on the sidewalk slithers off without waiting.  Then come pigeons and next cats.  Finally, the little child is scooped up by a grown up and carried off on their shoulders with obvious delight.

This simple little book captures so nicely the speed of a toddler’s thoughts and the way that they can keep so busy with new discoveries in their day.  There is a wonderful gentleness to the book, where the animals and then the adult are just as much fun and intriguing as one another.  At the same time, there is a sense of discovery and awe as each new creature is found.

The text is very simple with the title repeated throughout and then one additional sentence added for each creature.  The illustrations shine.  They are wonderfully organic with textures while the colors remain subtle and natural. 

This book begs to be shared with one little child at a time, so that the animals can be identified and new discoveries of their own can be shared.  Appropriate for ages 1-3.

Reviewed from copy received from Enchanted Lion.

Review: The Mouse with the Question Mark Tail by Richard Peck

| Tasha

mouse with the question mark tail

The Mouse with the Question Mark Tail by Richard Peck

I thoroughly enjoyed Peck’s first mouse characters in Secrets at Sea, so I looked forward to meeting more whiskered characters in this new book.  The two books are unrelated except for Peck’s elaborate mouse society which has the same charm as The Borrowers or The Littles.  In this book, we meet a little mouse who really doesn’t even have a name.  He has no idea where he came from, but he is now cared for by his Aunt Marigold who is the Head Needlemouse in the Royal Mews in London.  He is sent to school at the Royal Mews Mouse Academy, where he is quickly bullied by bigger mice.  Finally, he ruins all of his prospects by appearing in front of a human wearing clothing.  Now he has to find his own way, his destiny and his past. 

Peck weaves a fine adventure in this book.  The romp of mishaps and close scrapes make for fun reading as does the mystery of this little mouse’s past.  Add to that the appeal of being near royalty, even speaking directly with Queen Victoria herself, and you have a book where you never know what is going to happen next. 

The writing is skilled and detailed.  Peck offers action enough for any book but also builds a wonderful second, shadow society with the mice too.  There is just enough detail to tantalize and clearly visualize the world, but not so much that the story slows.  In fact, the pacing here is superb.

Fans of Stuart Little and The Borrowers will enjoy discovering life in the Royal Mews and a little nameless mouse with a big destiny.  Appropriate for ages 7-10.

Reviewed from ARC received from Dial.