Picture Books

Book Review: Blackout by John Rocco

| Tasha

blackout

Blackout by John Rocco

It was a normal summer night in the city.  That meant it was hot and noisy.  In their apartment, the family was busy.  Her older sister was on the phone.  Her dad was cooking.  Her mother was using the computer.  Everyone was much too busy to play a board game with her.  So she started playing a video game on her own.  Until the lights went out all over the city.  At first, the family huddled in the dark near their candles.  But then as it got hotter and hotter inside, they headed to the roof where they found a party going on.  They headed out to the street where there were more people enjoying the blackout.  The family wasn’t busy anymore.  But what would happen when the lights came back on?

Rocco tells this story in a nearly wordless format, allowing the illustrations to carry the story itself.  The illustrations are framed like a graphic novel, giving the entire book a hip feel.  Rocco’s illustrations have a wonderful play of light and dark, celebrating the stars, candlelight, the cool glow of a screen, and the warm yellow of flashlight beams.

This is a book about slowing down, enjoying the time together, and yet the book never becomes didactic or preachy.

Share this with a group of children, but prepare to have some time with the lights off to allow them to have their own adventures in the dark.  Just a few candles around the room, and it’s magical.  Appropriate for ages 4-7.

Reviewed from library copy.

Check out the trailer!

 

Book Review: Animals Home Alone by Loes Riphagen

| Tasha

animalshomealone

Animals Home Alone by Loes Riphagen

When the humans leave the house, the animals are left all alone and do some wild and silly things.  In this wordless book by a Dutch illustrator, there are fifteen animals to try and keep track of.  From one page to the next, they escape their confines, eat things, watch TV, and even fall in love and have babies.  The front endpages have the animals’ names while the rear ones have questions about what happened in the story.  It’s a fun book that requires eagle eyes to spot everything.  It’s not a book you can read entirely in the first sitting.

Riphagen’s illustrations have a great quirky quality to them that adds to the humor and silly feel of the book.  With the crowded page, bright colors and engaging animals, this book has so much to look at and see.  Then add the stories that each of the animal characters is engaged in and you will find yourself flipping back and forth pages to figure out how the jam was spilled, why the goldfish is now yellow, and what happened in the bathroom!

A visual game that has some very funny moments built into the various storylines, this book will be a hit with children who enjoy Where’s Waldo and I Spy books.  Appropriate for ages 6-9.

Reviewed from copy received from Seven Footer Press.

Also reviewed by Bookie Woogie.

Book Review: Seasons by Anne Crausaz

| Tasha

seasons

Seasons by Anne Crausaz

Explore and celebrate the seasons in this lovely picture book.  A little girl moves through the seasons, seeing each one through the changes in nature that occur.  She experiences them with all of her senses:  seeing the green of spring, smelling the tomatoes, basil, verbena and mint in the garden in summer, tasting the blackberries in fall, and feeling the cold of snow in winter.  This is a book that reminds all of us to treasure the time we currently in, to slow down and notice the seasons, to savor the tastes and smells around us.

Crausaz’s text is spare and poetic, allowing readers to experience the moments in the book without any excess words.  A few sentences per page at most, the book takes readers through a sensory journey where they too can remember the colors, smells, tastes, sounds and feels of each season. 

Her art is equally simple.  Using only a few lines to denote facial features, the illustrations are done in bright colors that play well against each other.  The horizon is done in colored bands, the sky and clouds in other colors, trees and leaves play against that background.  It is a stylized and very successful look for a picture book.

While the seasonal picture book shelf can get crowded, this fresh, poetic book should find a place there.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from copy received from Kane Miller EDC Publishing.

Also reviewed by:

Book Review: Meet the Dogs of Bedlam Farm by Jon Katz

| Tasha

meetbedlamfarm

Meet the Dogs of Bedlam Farm by Jon Katz

This is the very engaging story of the four dogs who live with the author at Bedlam Farm.  Each of the dogs has a particular job that they do and do well.  All except for Lenore, she doesn’t have a clear job to do.  Rose, a border collie, helps out with farm chores like herding sheep.  Izzy is also a border collie, and his job is to visit people who are sick as a therapy dog.  Frieda, part rottweiler and par German shepherd, guards the farm, even chasing the farm cats up trees.  But what does Lenore do?  Lenore reminds Rose that it is OK to play.  She showed Izzy how to live in a house and eat from a bowl.  She shows Frieda how to be friendlier.  She has the most important job of all, creating a family from the individual dogs.

Katz has captured the personality of each of his dogs in both his writing and his photographs.  He tells the story of each of the dogs, how they came to live at the farm, and portrays the jobs that each of them have.  The book is engagingly written with a repeating question of “But what is Lenore’s job” at the end of each section on another dog.  The details of their lives are funny, touching and underline the connection of this family of canines.

An ideal addition to any public library, this book will fly off the shelves and into the hands of dog lovers.  Happily, it is also a nonfiction book that will work when shared aloud, so consider it for your next dog-themed story time.  Appropriate for ages 4-7.

Reviewed from copy received from Henry Holt & Company.

Also reviewed by BookDragon.

Check out the book trailer too:

Book Review: Those Darn Squirrels and the Cat Next Door by Adam Rubin

| Tasha

Those_Darn_Squirrels_and_the_Cat_Next_Door

Those Darn Squirrels and the Cat Next Door by Adam Rubin, illustrated by Daniel Salmieri

This sequel to Those Darn Squirrels continues the story of the squirrels and Old Man Fookwire.  Old Man Fookwire has been waiting for spring when his beloved birds would return.  The winter has been long with only the squirrels for company (and trouble).  After a pleasant spring morning spent painting birds, Fookwire is shocked to hear kabooms coming from the house next door.  Little Old Lady Hu was moving in along with her evil cat, Muffins.  She had moved to the country so that Muffins could make some new friends, but Muffins was not a friendly cat at all, as the squirrels were about to find out.  This time the squirrels craftiness just might help out Old Man Fookwire too!

Rubin plays with words to great effect here.  Not only with the names of Fookwire and Little Old Lady Hu, but with the birds’ names: baba birds, yaba birds and the floogle bird too.  Throughout the book, the language is silly and rich, making for a great read aloud.  Rubin also has a great feel for pacing, allowing the humor really stand strong and the story to roll along merrily.  There is plenty of humor here, including the attacks of Muffins being wedgies, noogies and wet willies.

Salmieri joins in the humor with his illustrations as well.  The fine-lined illustrations have a natural silliness to them.  Old Man Fookwire has a great red nose, huge glasses, and a body that manages to be skinny and paunchy at once.  The squirrels look crafty, bright and foolish all at once. 

If you haven’t read the first book, you should, but you will be able to enjoy the second all on its own.  Get this into the hands of any kids who enjoy a brains vs. brawns match where the brains win, but you get to giggle at wedgies along the way.  Appropriate for ages 4-7.

Reviewed from library copy.

Book Review: The Voyage of Turtle Rex by Kurt Cyrus

| Tasha

voyageturtlerex

The Voyage of Turtle Rex by Kurt Cyrus

Follow the story of a baby sea turtle starting with her hatching under the sand.  But there is something very special about this little turtle, she’s growing up surrounded by dinosaurs!  So what is a little turtle to do to survive?  She’s got to find safety and then grow, grow as big as she can.  She eventually grows into an enormous two-ton archelon.  Eventually something inside her calls her to return to the shore, so she leaves the safety of the silt at the bottom and heads back to land.  There she digs a nest for her eggs and buries them before returning to the sea.  The book then talks about modern shelled animals who are descendants of the great prehistoric sea turtles.

Cyrus, author of Tadpole Rex, has added another thrilling book that extends the landscape of the dinosaurs to include more creatures.  Here sea turtles are celebrated in rhymes that make the book very entertaining and fun to read.  Cyrus offers just the right mix of scientific fact and story line, keeping the book anchored in fascinating science but also fast-moving.

His illustrations are dramatic as the tiny turtle struggles to survive at sea after a harrowing crawl to the water near dinosaurs.  All of the many predators around her add to the interest and excitement both in the text and the illustrations.  Cyrus uses bold lines, effective textures and a surprisingly soft color palette to create the images. 

Perfect for both dinosaur and turtle fans, this book is sure to find an eager audience in elementary and public libraries.  Appropriate for ages 4-7.

Reviewed from library copy.

Also reviewed by Wrapped in Foil.

Book Review: Leap Back Home to Me by Lauren Thompson

| Tasha

leapbackhometome

Leap Back Home to Me by Lauren Thompson, illustrated by Matthew Cordell

A little frog takes his first small leaps over a ladybug, over a bee, and over the clover before returning to his waiting mother.  His leaps get bigger and he leaps over the creek and over the beavers.  Then they get even bigger, leaping over trees and hills!  After every outing he returns to his mother who is waiting for him with either a book to share, food to eat or a hug.  Soon the little frog is leaping out into space and the stars, but no fear, his mother is still there for him.

Thompson has created a picture book that is very simple with just a few lines on each page and a gentle concept.  Her text has an infectious rhythm to it, adding to the jaunty tone of the book.  The humor of the book builds as the little frog leaps over larger and larger things.  Children will love the humor and will delight in the final pages as the little frog enters outer space. 

Cordell’s illustrations echo the jaunty tone of the text and add a friendliness, warmth and plenty of color to the story.  The little frog soars into the sky with a joyous freedom, his froggy legs and arms waving merrily. 

An ideal book for toddler story times featuring frogs, this is sure to become a favorite of young listeners.  Appropriate for ages 2-4.

Reviewed from copy received from Margaret K. McElderry Books.

Also reviewed by 100 Scope Notes.

Book Review: Meadowlands by Thomas Yezerski

| Tasha

meadowlands

Meadowlands by Thomas F. Yezerski

This nonfiction picture book tells the story of the history of the wetlands that are now known as the Meadowlands in New Jersey.  From hundreds of years ago, when the wetlands had 20,000 acres of marshes through to the 1800s when the land was drained and filled in with dirt to the 20th century when the industries came to surround the Meadowlands with their factories.  The wetlands were used as a garbage dump, filled with waste and filth.  It became a problem area in New Jersey until the state decided that it needed to be cleaned up.  By 1985 with the clean up and then the developers, there was less than 7000 acres of wetlands left.  But the wetlands began to recover, with time the lack of pollution and the rivers and tides cleaned the water and allowed plants, birds, fish and animals to return.  This is a celebration of wetland recovery and the strength of the ecosystem as well as a stirring call to action.

Yezerski offers just the right amount of information here for an elementary-aged audience.  From the brief history of when the wetlands were unchanged, readers see how steadily the impact of humans deteriorated the size and quality of them.  The garbage portion of the story is startling, stark and brief, indicating the small amount of time it took to do such extensive damage.  When the book turns to the recovery of the Meadowlands, the tone lifts and the text turns to celebrating the nature returning to the area.

The pages of the book are bordered with objects pulled from that illustration.  So the two-page spread of the 1800s is bordered with a knife, musket, scythe, trap, kettle, muskrat and more.  This adds to the feeling of time changing and the area changing along with it.  The watercolor illustrations are often looking at the wetlands from above, showing the devastation and changes.  Beautifully, as the wetlands recover, the illustrations become more close and intimate with the wetlands and the animals.

Get this one on your elementary nature and ecology shelves.  It is a readable and very successful look at wetland renewal for children.  Appropriate for ages 7-10.

Reviewed from copy received from Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 

Book Review: Underground by Shane W. Evans

| Tasha

underground

Underground by Shane W. Evans

Using only the shortest of sentences, the smallest of words, Evans has created a picture book that captures the fear and hope of escaping slaves on the Underground Railroad.   The well-chosen words add to the tension, keeping it taut with danger.  It reads as if the author too is trying to be quiet, near silent and to escape notice. 

The palette is one of darkness with bright whites of eyes shining, the colors capturing the oppression of slavery.  As freedom nears, the colors change, almost glowing with the light and brightness of freedom.  The art here is what makes the book so special.  The images are collage mixed with the texture of brushstrokes, all evoking a rustic, roughness.  Yet in the faces there is a nobility, a grace, a hope that shines through.

A beautiful, evocative book that is haunting and ever so strong.  It will work beautifully for elementary aged children learning about the Civil War and slavery.   Appropriate for ages 7-10. 

Reviewed from copy received from Roaring Brook Press.