Picture Books

Review: Captain Cat by Inga Moore

| Tasha

captain cat

Captain Cat by Inga Moore

Captain Cat is a trader, but he’s not very good at making profitable deals.  You see, instead of trading for riches, he trades for cats.  So his ship is full of them.  All of the other traders make fun of him for this, but Captain Cat is very happy surrounded by the furry creatures.  He decides to head off and see new places, far from the trade routes he usually travels.  On the way, he is caught in a violent storm that blows him off course, right off the map!  There he discovers a small rocky island led by a young queen.  She and the population are very friendly, and have never seen cats before.  When the cats take care of the island’s rat problem, the queen begs Captain Cat to leave them behind.  What is a cat-loving caption to do?

This is a very engaging book.  It was different right off of the bat with a sailor surrounded by cats who hate water.  Throughout the story, it continues to surprise and delight.  It never heads where you expect it to, yet ends up being completely delightful both along the way and in the end.  Unlike many picture books, Moore tells a full story here.  It not only has the structure of a full story, but also has a depth that can be missing in picture books.

The illustrations are finely done with lots of details.  Done in mixed media, they have fine lines and soft colors.  Thanks to their detail, this book would best be used with small groups or individual children.

Take a feline-filled journey with this clever picture book.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Little Santa by Jon Agee

| Tasha

little santa

Little Santa by Jon Agee

Christmas books are tricky.  They are often too sugary and sparkly or simply dull.  Happily, each year there are little holiday gems.  This is one of those.  It is the story of a young Santa and how he grew up and became the Santa everyone loves.  Santa grew up at the North Pole along with his large family.  While he loved it there, everyone else in his family hated it.  They planned to move to Florida instead.  But just when everyone was packed and ready to leave, a huge blizzard hit.  It was up to Santa to figure out how to save his family.  He set off to look for help and along the way found a flying reindeer and a group of elves.  Soon it was Santa to the rescue!  The elves, reindeer and Santa made such a great team that the rest is history.

Agee keeps far away from anything too tinsel-filled or cute.  He uses his trademark simple illustrations to keep a straight-forward tone to the book that is very refreshing in the crowded Christmas market.  He also manages to be a bit sly and silly along the way, adding a bit of zest into this Christmas treat.  The writing is clear and crisp, perfect for sharing aloud.

Grab a cup of cocoa with plenty of marshmallows and get ready to share a stellar new Christmas gift.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Whale Shines by Fiona Robinson

| Tasha

whale shines

Whale Shines: An Artistic Tale by Fiona Robinson

Published November 5, 2013.

Whale is a living billboard, swimming slowly through the ocean with a poster to advertise the upcoming art show.  Along the way, he passes all sorts of sea creatures creating art.  The hammerhead shark is working on sculptures from sea debris.  Eel is forming lines in the sand.  Octopus, cuttlefish and giant squid were scaring each other to collect their ink.  Whale mutters to himself that he wishes he could make something too.  That’s when the plankton around him tell him to try.  But whale just can’t think of anything that he’d be able to do.  After all, he doesn’t squirt ink, and he can’t slither in the sand.  It’s going to take a lot of creativity and some risk for whale to even try creating art.

Robinson has created a simply gorgeous book here.  Her writing is lovely, slow-paced and languid just like Whale floating by displaying his advertisement.  Whale is a solitary figure in the story, lone and distant from the others.  As he drifts past, he is separate from everyone else.  Robinson successfully manages his transformation from wallflower to fully-engaged artist in a way that rings honest and doesn’t seem rushed.

Her art is lovely, filled with the deep colors of the ocean.  It is green and blue hues that shine.  Popping against those are the bright colors of the creatures and the coral in reds and yellows.  The result is a picture book with stunning visuals that truly evoke life underwater. 

A luminous picture book with glowing underwater scenes, this book will speak to all artists, even those reluctant to reveal themselves.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from copy received from Abrams Books for Young Readers.

Review: Rawr! by Todd H. Doodler

| Tasha

rawr

Rawr! by Todd H. Doodler

Meet Rex, a very polite and well-behaved dinosaur, who is here to tell you that being a dinosaur in modern human society is hard.  He’s bigger than everyone else in his class, even his teachers.  He doesn’t fit in a desk.  He isn’t good at hide-and-seek.  And he is so big that everyone thinks he is scary.  But really, Rex isn’t scary at all.  He is helpful, polite and even has a great (big) smile.  What everyone should remember is that when Rex gives a really big “Rawr!” he is trying to say hello.  So don’t be scared of dinosaurs, they just might be as friendly as Rex.

Doodler has created as story that simple and straight forward, making it perfect for very small children.  He has inserted plenty of humor into the story, which will be a welcome diversion for both parents and children.  Rex is a character that pops off of the page with his energy and his size.  Doodler’s art has great appeal and is filled with bright colors encased in thick black lines. 

Expect this to be a new favorite at bedtime!  Appropriate for ages 1-3.

Reviewed from copy received from Scholastic.

Review: The Tortoise & the Hare by Jerry Pinkney

| Tasha

tortoise and the hare

The Tortoise and the Hare by Jerry Pinkney

Wow.  This companion book to Pinkney’s Caldecott Medal winning The Lion & the Mouse is another outstanding book.  Set in the deserts of the Southwest, the story has all sorts of animals gathered to watch the race, including badgers, lynx, mice, and vultures.  All of them wear at least one piece of clothing, from hats to bandanas to pants.  As the pages of the book turn, readers will get to see how each of the animals approaches the race, from the frenzy and then sloth of the hare to the steadiness of the tortoise.  Readers will get a sense of the slowness also from the words on the page that every so tantalizingly make out phrases as the pages turn. 

Told in few words, the book is all about the illustrations which are magnificent.  Filled with tiny details to linger over, each illustration is beautifully composed and helps move the story forward.  Pinkney stays true to the classic tale, not changing any of the storyline.  He manages to take stories that can become overly wordy and with images alone tell their story and make them appropriate and thrilling for a young audience.  I will always see his illustrations when I hear this story.  That is talent!

Quite simply, this is another masterpiece by Pinkney.  A must-have book for every library serving preschoolers.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Tea Cakes for Tosh by Kelly Starling Lyons

| Tasha

tea cakes for tosh

Tea Cakes for Tosh by Kelly Starling Lyons, illustrated by E. B. Lewis

Tosh loved spending time with his grandma Honey, who baked him tea cakes.  She told him stories of the cakes, dating all the way back to his great-great-great-great-grandma Ida who made the best tea cakes around.  But those tea cakes were not for her children, they were for her owners since she was a slave.  Sometimes though, she would make some extra cakes for her children to promise that things would change.  Honey started to forget things, like where she parked her car and phone numbers.  Then one day, she forgot how to make tea cakes.  Luckily, Tosh knew just how to help.

Lyons has created a relationship between grandmother and grandchild here that is warm and loving and filled with sweet baked good too.  She shows the importance of generation in a family by tying in the history of the tea cakes.  I appreciate seeing a boy’s relationship with his grandmother where the boy is also interested in his heritage and being in the kitchen. 

Lewis has illustrated the book with realistic watercolors that capture the relationship of the two main characters.  He switches to black and white images when family history is discussed and shows the tea cakes on recipe cards too.  The entire book is filled with warm colors that speak to the sunny relationship being depicted.

A beauty of a book, this picture book celebrates family heritage, grandparents and the power of food to bring people closer together.  Appropriate for ages 5-7.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Moo! by David LaRochelle

| Tasha

moo

Moo! by David LaRochelle, illustrated by Mike Wohnoutka

Told in just a couple of words, this picture book is one wild ride.  When the farmer puts a sign up that says that his car is for sale, it catches the attention of a cow nearby.  She jumps right in and starts off driving up hill and down:  Moooooooooooooooo.  But then disaster strikes:  Moo!  And she lands in trouble with the police.  She tries to explain herself, but the officer just sends her back home, walking.  When the farmer finds out, what is a cow to do?  You will just have to see how this romp of a picture book ends.

The partnership between author and illustrator is so seamless that I not sure who came up with the concepts.  The text in the book is entirely animal noises and is so simple that any small child will be able to read it on their own after just one shared reading.  Who knew that “moo” could say so much!  The illustrations are simple as well, and play up the jolly humor of the book. 

A simple book perfect for storytime, expect lots of giggles on this joy ride.  Appropriate for ages 1-4.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Night Light by Nicholas Blechman

| Tasha

night light

Night Light by Nicholas Blechman

Count from one to ten in this picture book all about lights at night.  The book begins with a black page and just one light shining through from a die cut to the page beyond.  Turn the page and you see that one light is a train.  Keep turning and you start counting more and more lights, each attached to a different vehicle.  Some of the pages have clues so that you can guess what sort of vehicle it is.  This is a book perfect for small children to start to count and ideal for children who love trucks, planes and trains.

Blechman keeps his writing very simple.  The real draw of the book is the clever use of die cuts to show just the lights before you turn the page.  The blackness of the page also adds to the drama and suspense very nicely.  The book is printed on heavier pages, making it very friendly for toddler hands.

A simple and engaging book for young truck lovers that is a mix of counting and guessing game.  Appropriate for ages 1-3.

Review: Dusk by Uri Shulevitz

| Tasha

dusk

Dusk by Uri Shulevitz

On a snowy December evening, a boy, his dog, and grandfather talk a walk.  They stop to watch the sun sink over the river and then they head into the city.  There people are in a great hurry.  There are people shopping for gifts for their children, others heading home to feed their cats, and even an alien speaking its own language.  As darkness falls, the lights in the city start to turn on.  First just a few, then more, and finally the boy and grandfather are downtown near the large shop windows and it is revealed that this is a holiday book with different windows celebrating Christmas, Hanukah, and Kwanzaa. 

It took until that final reveal to realize that I was reading a holiday book, and that is a wonderful thing.  Instead of centering on the holidays, this book is about quiet moments and time spent together just looking at the changing light in the sky and in the city.  The text is so simple, then becomes dancing complexity when the people start to talk, then returns to the simplicity again.  Readers will be jolted by the change, just as if their own quiet walk at dusk was interrupted.

Shulevitz’s art is so beautiful.  He captures the setting sun with colors that will make readers linger alongside the characters in the book.  He plays throughout the book with shadows, light and darkness.  As the lights come on in the book, the light is warm against the winter darkness and pools in liquid on the ground.  In the reveal of the holiday windows, the illustrations become detailed and honeyed.  Again, a place to linger and bask in that holiday mood.

A top holiday pick, this book is a lovely companion to Snow and stands on its own too.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from copy received from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.