Picture Books

Grizzly Dad

| Tasha

Grizzly Dad by Joanna Harrison

Dad wakes up in a bad mood, so he returns to bed to sleep some more.  When Mom and his little siblings head out, a little boy goes to wake his father.  He discovers that his Dad has turned into an enormous grizzly bear!  The little boy gets the bear all ready for the day and feeds him breakfast too.  But when the bear makes a horrible mess of the kitchen, the little boy scolds him soundly.  So the two of them head out and have adventures through the day.  They see a movie together, climb trees in the park, do nothing at all, and then return home for a lunch of honey sandwiches.  Dad is a bear the whole day, until the little boy thanks him for a grand time and suddenly when they hug, he returns to normal, just as Mom is returning home. 

We all have grizzly, grumpy days and this book captures that nicely without ever showing real anger toward a child.  It is nicely handled throughout the book.  Harrison’s text is wonderful, offering just enough information to keep the story moving and never remarking on the wonder of the dad turned bear.  Her illustrations are equally nice, with hints towards the transformation ahead of time, and the nice touch of the bear wearing glasses.  There is also a nice twist at the end.

This is a great dad book that will brighten even the more grumpy days, especially if your children or class are getting grizzly on you.  Add this to a story time on bears, but also any story time on emotions.  Appropriate for ages 3-6.

Also reviewed by Young Readers.

Tacky Goes to Camp

| Tasha

Tacky Goes to Camp by Helen Lester, illustrated by Lynn Munsinger.

Another great entry in the Tacky series, this time Tacky and his fellow penguins are headed to summer camp.  It is a rather frozen and snowy, summer camp, but most of the activities are the same.  There is swimming, sleeping in tents, archery, canoeing, and arts and crafts.  Tacky does things in his own unique way, especially compared to the other penguins who follow the rules, march in line, and don’t ever color outside the lines.  At the campfire, there are smores and stories.  Tacky eats as many smores as possible and  tells a very scary story, Beware the bear, that ends with a joke.  The other penguins are unimpressed until a bear enters their camp that night. Tacky is asleep in a smore-induced stupor but still manages to save the day.

Tacky is great humor for kids.  They will relate to his messiness, his inattention to details, and his amazing hunger for sweets.  They will laugh along with the story, happily knowing that Tacky will save the day.  Lester manages to create a story with humor and drama but no real fear for children.  Munsinger’s art sings along with the storyline, carrying some of the more visual humor. 

This light-hearted winner is a perfect for hot summer days or cold wintry ones.  It is a book that I would read aloud to slightly older children who will enjoy the humor and the setting.  Appropriate for ages 4-6, though children as old as 8 will love the story read aloud.

Thunder-Boomer!

| Tasha

Thunder-Boomer by Shutta Crum, illustrated by Carol Thompson.

This picture book starts with a hot summer day, filled with tractors plowing, no breeze, and a panting dog.  Then a small breeze comes, bringing with it dark threatening clouds.  The family runs to get the laundry off the line and the chickens in the hen house.  Then with a rumble of thunder, the rain comes. Dad is forced back into the storm to rescue one wayward chicken.  As the storm worsens, the wind blows, the lightning crackles and the thunder – Booms!  Everyone in the house, including the chicken.  After a bout of hail, the sun returns and Maizie, the chicken, heads off alone again.  When the little girl checks on her, she gets a surprise.

This picture book perfectly captures the power of a big thunderstorm, the wonder of the wind, the dance of hail, and then that amazing clearing afterwards.  One can almost hear the tentative birdsong and the dripping afterwards.  Filled with sound words, young readers will enjoy making noises but soon will be caught up in the drama of the storm.  Thompson’s illustrations are lively and dramatic, offering both smaller detailed pictures and larger images that capture the action.  The engaging inclusion of a lost pair of Dad’s underwear in the storm helps to keep the storm from being too powerful for young children. 

Appropriate for ages 4-6, this book is a great summer book to share.  It reads aloud well, just make sure to leave time for plenty of putt-putting tractors, booms of thunder, and clucking chickens in the audience.

The Hermit Crab

| Tasha

The Hermit Crab by Carter Goodrich

The hermit crab was very shy and enjoyed being just out of sight rather than part of a group.  So he was an unlikely hero!  One morning a wooden trap descends from above and the fish, crabs and lobster debate about what it is.  The hermit crab was off by himself when it arrived and was unaware of the stir.  As he looked for food, the hermit crab found the most amazing shell!  It had pieces that moved and a torso and a head and a lightning bolt too.  Back with the others, the flounder was caught under the trap, but no one would help him because they could get caught too.  The hermit crab with his new “shell” in place arrived and remembered he was hungry.  He shoved the trap, trying to reach the good smells.  All the others could see though was the head and shoulders of the shell he was wearing.  They cheered.  Suddenly the trap ascended to the top again. Everyone came to congratulate their new hero.  What is a shy crab to do when the spotlight is focused on him?

So often we read books about characters who like to be the center of attention or are bossy, pushy, or vain.  This book offers the other side of the shell, giving readers a lead character who is shy, reserved and quiet.  Even better, the hermit crab doesn’t dream of being the center of attention.  He isn’t constrained by his shyness.  He is just himself. 

Goodrich has written a great character in the hermit crab and surrounded him with a cast of loud, friendly characters to play off of.  The writing here is lovely to read aloud with great phrasing and pacing.  Goodrich’s illustrations are even more successful as they reveal the open vastness of the sea, the varied colors of underwater, and interesting perspectives on scenes.  I particularly enjoy the deep colored emptiness surrounding hermit crab as he looks for food.  Not dangerous, not lonely, just alone.  Lovely.

Appropriate for ages 4-6, this book is a great addition to any story time about the sea.  It could also be nice as a compare/contrast with a louder character-based book.  Children should be able to see themselves in both types of character.

You Are the First Kid on Mars

| Tasha

You Are the First Kid on Mars by Patrick O’Brien

What would it be like to be the first kid on Mars?  This picture book takes readers on a journey to the red planet, offering intriguing details along the way.  First, readers learn a bit about the planet itself, then there is docking with the space station and the four month trip to get to Mars.  Landing on the dusty planet surface, plus a look at the station on Mars are highlights of the book.  Also intriguing is the question of life on Mars, answered without sensationalism. 

The entire book exudes a feeling of reality, which makes the reading all that more immediate and satisfying.  Children will find new questions as they read, intrigued by false gravity aboard the ship, inflated green houses, and robots used to explore the planets.  O’Brien’s text is like that of a nonfiction book for children, offering captions and a mix of close-ups and smaller images.  His illustrations are clearly paintings, but such lifelike ones that readers may just forget they aren’t looking at a photograph.

Sure to rocket right off the shelves, this book will satisfy space-loving kids.  Appropriate for ages 5-8. 

Check out O’Brien’s website for some gorgeous images from the book.

Children interested in Mars exploration will enjoy the Mars Rover Documentary that can be found on YouTube:

Being a Pig Is Nice

| Tasha

Being a Pig Is Nice: a child’s-eye view of manners by Sally Lloyd-Jones, illustrations by Dan Krall

It’s tough to be a kid!  You have to be polite and clean.  But what if you were another kind of animal?  If you were a pig, you could be just as dirty as you want.  If you were a monkey there would be no such thing as table manners.  If you were an owl, you could make noise at night.   A little girl explores the freedom of being different kinds of animals instead of herself.  Of course with each animal comes some additional rules that make it not quite such a great thing to be.  This is a humorous and clever look at manners through the eyes of a child.

Lloyd-Jones has a great ear for what will make children giggle and groan with delight.  Her text is humorous and has a great romping rhythm without being really structured.  Krall’s art adds a lot to the book, offering plenty of parental glares of all shapes and sizes as well as lots of delightfully googly eyes too.

A funny look at manners yes, but make sure you don’t save this book for a discussion of manners!  It is worth sharing at any time.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

For a feel of the text and illustrations you can take a peek at the book trailer below.

A Book

| Tasha

A Book by Mordicai Gerstein

Deeee-lightful!  I found this book to be fresh, clever, surprising, and great fun.

When the book opens, the lights inside go on and the family in the book wake up.  One day, the little girl asks a question that she has been thinking about for some time.  “What is our story?”  Each of her family members (including the pets) think that the book is about them and head off the page.  The readers are eventually left with the little girl alone.  She heads to the next page where she discovers a big goose who thinks that the girl is from a fairy tale.  Nope.  Perhaps a mystery?  Alice in Wonderland?  A pirate tale?  Historical fiction?  Outer space?  Nope, none of them.  But the little girl has decided what to do about the situation.

I love the perspective of this book, peering down to the page from above as the characters live their lives.  Gerstein uses humor, wonderful bits of stories, and themed art work to make sure that readers know just where they are.  My favorite genre page is the historical novel.  I guffawed out loud.  Yes, guffawed.  Truly.

Children who know how books are supposed to work (which means almost everyone) will get the joke right away and love laughing along.  This book has the feel of The Monster At the End of this Book where that fourth wall is removed and the reader becomes a participant in the tale.  If I had a class of children to read to, this would be my clincher at the end.  Appropriate for ages 4-6 – older for reading aloud since they too will enjoy the humor.

Adios Oscar!

| Tasha

Adios Oscar!: a butterfly fable by Peter Elwell

Oscar is a caterpillar with big plans to turn into a butterfly and head to Mexico.  His caterpillar friends don’t believe that they will ever turn into butterflies, but Edna the bookworm takes him to a library for bugs where he learns about butterflies and caterpillars.  Oscar also learns that they speak Spanish in Mexico, so he sets out to learn the language.  Soon Oscar is ready to build his cocoon and transform.  He has dreams of monarch butterflies but when he emerges he finds that he is a moth instead!  He is expected to fly around lightbulbs and eat socks, not fly to Mexico.  What is a small gray moth supposed to do with his bright sunny Mexico dreams?

This book is a great blend of factual information on butterflies and caterpillars and a story about one’s dreams and reality.  Elwell has married the two divergent subjects into a nicely cohesive book.  His illustrations are a large part of the book’s success, offering a silly, fresh feel.  As a reader, I was pleasantly surprised by the twist of Oscar being a moth and the choice that he faces about expectations for moths and his own dreams. 

Appropriate for ages 3-6, this book is a great addition to a butterfly unit or story time and will offer a discussion opportunity about everyone’s dreams. 

Ten Days and Nine Nights

| Tasha

Ten Days and Nine Nights: an adoption story by Yumi Heo

A little girl waits for ten days and nine nights for her new sister to arrive.  As each day passes, she prepares for the new baby, keeping a countdown all the while.  She helps redecorate her room, practices with a doll, washes her teddy bear, and waits.  In between the little girl’s activities, readers will glimpse what is going on with her mother in Korea as she travels there to get the baby. 

Heo’s text is friendly and the countdown keeps the pace of the book brisk.  Her art is filled with sunshine yellows and deep reds, a palate that is warm and bright.  The images featuring the mother in Korea are done in deep blue tones with bright pops of color, making the two settings easily distinguishable for young readers. 

An engaging look at an older siblings waiting for an adoption to be complete, this is a universal story that all readers will relate to whether their siblings are adopted or not.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.