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.

Roald Dahl Funny Prize 2013 Shortlist

| Tasha

 

The Roald Dahl Funny Prize was launched in 2008, so this is the sixth year the prize has been awarded.  The award goes to authors and illustrators who use humor in books for children.  The prize has two categories based on age.  You can see the shortlist below for each category:

 

Ages Six and Under

Do Not Enter The Monster Zoo Monkey Nut Noisy Bottoms. Sam Taplin

Do Not Enter the Monster Zoo! by Amy Sparkes, illustrated by Sara Ogilvie

Monkey Nut by Simon Rickerty

Noisy Bottoms by Sam Taplin, illustrated by Mark Chambers

 Troll Swap Weasels

Spaghetti with the Yeti by Charlotte and Adam Guillain, illustrated by Lee Wildish

Troll Swap by Leigh Hodgkinson

Weasels by Elys Dolan

 

Ages Seven to Fourteen

 Geek Girl (Geek Girl, #1) The Grunts All at Sea

Fish-Head Steve by Jamie Smart

Geek Girl by Holly Smale

The Grunts All at Sea by Philip Ardagh, illustrated by Axel Scheffler

17137682 My Parents Are Out Of Control 

I Am Still Not a Loser by Jim Smith

My Parents Are Out of Control by Pete Johnson

Pants Are Everything by Mark Lowery

Final Trailer for Catching Fire

| Tasha

The final trailer for Catching Fire was released yesterday.  Enjoy!

Review: Reality Boy by A. S. King

| Tasha

reality boy

Reality Boy by A. S. King

Gerald became a reality TV star at age five when his mother brought in a television nanny to help him with his anger issues.  He had been putting holes in the walls.  He then started crapping around the house, often caught on camera.  Now Gerald is seventeen and still struggling with anger in his life.  His abusive older sister is back home, living in the basement.  His closer sister has gone to college in Scotland and never calls.  His mother and father are both entirely ineffective to stop anything.  Gerald spends much of his time in Gerland, a world filled with ice cream and candy, where no one is angry or mean.  But he can’t live there forever, and he has to return to the real world where he has no friends and people call him The Crapper.  It’s all too much sometimes for Gerald to handle, but he has to figure out a way to handle things that doesn’t have him escaping to a fantasy world or beating someone bloody.

I found this book to be entirely gripping.  The premise of a boy who is damaged by a reality show that is meant to help (at least on the surface) is very clever.  As the layers of the story are pulled back, one discovers who the true problem is.  King does this in surprising ways though flashbacks that continue to shock even though one thinks all is revealed.  This is a book that will do much to show teens that abuse by siblings and children happens to others.

King has created a wounded hero in Gerald.  He is stunted by his family, unable to grow up and unable to control his outbursts.  The reader aches for him, roots for him and yes is also frightened by his lack of control.  He is a teen caught by his past and unable to see a future.  One weakness of the book is the depiction of Gerald’s family.  They are not fully developed and the book loses something because of that, given that they are so much of the story of Gerald’s dysfunction. 

Gerald is a magnificent character, and the book is compelling and harrowing.  Appropriate for ages 15-18.

Reviewed from digital copy received from NetGalley and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

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.

This Week’s Tweets and Pins

| Tasha

Here are the links I shared on my Twitter and Pinterest accounts this week that I hope you find interesting:

25 Funny Books For Kids

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

Award-winning author Cynthia Voigt talks about her new mystery for kids | http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2013/10/24/3275598/award-winning-author-cynthia-voigt.html …

Hervé Tullet: The Illustrated Interview — @100scopenotes 100 Scope Notes http://buff.ly/16n1NFA #kidlit

Ten Best Read-Aloud Halloween Picture Books for Kids http://buff.ly/1h1fRqp #kidlit

“You can’t go broke overestimating the intelligence of children” – Chris Van Allsburg — Fuse #8 http://buff.ly/1h1fGvm #kidlit

The Kirkwood Public Library in New Castle, Delaware

LIBRARIES

Detroit’s Heartbreaking Bankruptcy, Told Through Stunning Photos of One Public Library – PolicyMic http://buff.ly/1aEGJ9w #libraries

Japan’s public libraries add services to get more people reading – The Japan Daily Press http://buff.ly/1aEGtHx #libraries

A Library By The Highway Serves As Billboard For Reading, Learning, Exploration http://buff.ly/1aEGBa3 #libraries

Turning A Page Inside A Rural One-Room Library : NPR http://buff.ly/HdjTOx #libraries

READING

E. B. White on the Future of Reading: Timeless Wisdom from 1951 | Brain Pickings http://buff.ly/16vepdT #kidlit

How Amazon and Goodreads could lose their best readers http://buff.ly/16vdCcZ

TEEN READS

The Compulsive Reader: The Road Less Traveled: YA Books that Break from the Mold http://buff.ly/16mYLB8 #yalit

First Chapter of ALLEGIANT » EarlyWord – http://buff.ly/178p78G #yalit

Stacked: October Debut YA Novels http://buff.ly/16n06rJ #yalit

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.

Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize Awarded

| Tasha

Liar & Spy

Rebecca Stead has won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize for Liar & Spy.  Stead is the first American to win the prize.  It was opened to American writers in 2012. 

"It’s always interesting in children’s fiction to see what’s coming from the US, and it’s appropriate that this Newbery-winning author be highly regarded in the UK too," Eccleshare said. "It is a quiet book, but although the drama is finely-tuned, the overall impact is powerful, moving and surprising."