humor

Review: Picture Day Perfection by Deborah Diesen

| Tasha

picture day perfection

Picture Day Perfection by Deborah Diesen, illustrated by Dan Santat

Picture Day is a day when you want to take the perfect picture.  That doesn’t come easily!  In fact, the boy in this book has been planning his Picture Day for months.  But nothing seems to be going well at all.  First is the bedhead hair that makes his brother laugh, then his favorite shirt is stained and smelly, and that all leads into the incident with the syrup at breakfast.  The day continues this way and when he gets to school he starts to get into trouble with how he is acting.  He won’t practice his smile, choosing instead to stick out his tongue.  He sends paint flying during art.  He doesn’t get a comb to fix his hair.  In the end though, it all comes off just like he planned, or does it?

Diesen has a wonderful kid-like sense of humor that is very evident throughout this book.  Her timing is great, the story will have everyone laughing.  Readers will figure out what is really happening in this book just as the author decides to reveal it.  Then the entire book still makes sense, but in a different way.  It makes for a great read.

Add in Santat’s vibrant and equally funny art and you have a real winner.  Santat captures the funniest moments in the text with great style.  The image of the syrup incident is my favorite but I also love the picture taken at the end of the book. 

Funny, pure silliness and just right for the start of a new school year.  Try this one out with older elementary students since they will love the humor too.  Appropriate for ages 5-8.

Reviewed from copy received from Abrams Books for Young Readers.

Review: Crankee Doodle by Tom Angleberger

| Tasha

crankee doodle

Crankee Doodle by Tom Angleberger

Brace yourself for a picture book that is entire silliness and proud of it!  In a riff on Yankee Doodle, this story tells readers that it was all the pony’s idea.  Yankee Doodle is bored and goes off on rants about how he doesn’t want to go to town or go shopping.  Then the pony suggests a feather for his cap, which starts another rant.  The pony finishes with a suggestion to call it macaroni.  After that rant, he explains that macaroni is another word for fancy, and that Yankee Doodle may want to call it lasagna instead.  In the end, the two of them head off to town, just like the pony wanted all along.

Angleberger writes with such a wry sense of humor here.  The rants by Yankee Doodle are a hoot to read aloud, the text heavy with indignation and exclamation points.  The sly pony seems to know just what he is doing as he lets Yankee Doodle blow off steam but gets his own way in the end.  The book ends with a historical note about the real history of the song.

The illustrations are done in gouache with a thick black line and bold colors.  The entire book pops visually and will work with larger groups of children thanks to its clarity and strong shapes. 

This one is a winner for story times.  Expect guffaws from children who know the song!  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Benjamin Bear in Bright Ideas by Philippe Coudray

| Tasha

bright ideas

Benjamin Bear in Bright Ideas! by Philippe Coudray

This is the second Benjamin Bear book and it is just as wonderful and successful as the first!  This graphic novel offers single-page comic spreads that tell very short but very clever stories that are filled with humor.  Sometimes the gag is visual, other times there is a verbal joke.  What Coudray does best though is to vary the stories enough to make the book entirely surprising and great fun to read.  One never knows what the next page will bring, just that it will be funny and a delight. 

As with the first book, Coudray’s illustrations have a crispness to them.  Done in flat color and fine black lines, the illustrations are made for fun.  If there is humor to have, then Coudray does not shrink away from making it wonderfully bold and large. 

This is a great book for reluctant readers and a graphic novel for elementary-aged children that belongs in every public library.  Appropriate for ages 5-8.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider

| Tasha

beginning of everything

The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider

After finishing the galley for this book, I was surprised to find that the title has been changed.  I think it’s an unfortunate choice, since Severed Heads, Broken Hearts was a title that really reflected what the book is about.  I will also try to cope with the sunny yellow of the new cover, something that also jars me compared to the muted colors of the original cover.  But enough with my confusion, on to the real review!

Ezra was one of the popular kids at school.  Captain of the tennis team, he struggled to keep his sarcastic humor from confusing his teammates.  Then in one moment, his entire life changed.  Leaving a party after finding his girlfriend “entertaining” another boy, he was struck by a car and his entire athletic career disappeared in an instant.  Now he has to walk with a cane, has lost his girlfriend entirely, and also lost touch with his group of friends.  None of them came to visit him in the hospital or at home during his recovery.  So the first day of school after the accident has him wearing all black, pale from being indoors all summer, and sitting by himself in the front row of the bleachers since he can’t climb any higher without being a spectacle.  His childhood best friend sits next to him, someone who has also known tragedy, and who is no longer friends with Ezra.  But tragedies do strange things, close some options and open others.  The question is whether Ezra has the courage to reinvent himself.  The hot redhead doesn’t hurt things either.

Told in the voice of a John Green novel with intelligence and lots of humor, this book hooks you from the very first with its tale of a beheading at Disney World.  Schneider writes with a great deal of confidence here, taking readers on a journey of rediscovery that involves debate teams, rivalries, jealous ex-girlfriends, and lots of fun along the way.

Schneider has written teens who read like real people.  They are all complex, interesting and unexpectedly tangible.  Even the support characters are funny and intriguing, leading me to want to know more about them as well.  Though readers may see the ending coming, it is entirely satisfying to see it play out.  Schneider does not back away from tragedies, embracing them instead as moments of change and courage. 

Strong writing, great characters and plenty of puns make for a book that teens should love, no matter what the title is.  Appropriate for ages 15-18.

Reviewed from digital galley received from Edelweiss.

Review: It’s Monday, Mrs. Jolly Bones by Warren Hanson

| Tasha

its monday mrs jolly bones

It’s Monday, Mrs. Jolly Bones! by Warren Hanson, illustrated by Tricia Tusa

Mrs. Jolly Bones has specific tasks that she does each day of the week, but you will be surprised at how she works!  Monday is laundry day.  She starts normally enough with sorting the clothes, washing them, drying them, ironing them.  But then she flings them out the window and decorates the street!  On Tuesday it is gardening day and that one ends in a similar way.  Wednesday is cleaning day and my she works hard.  It all looks so normal until you find out where Mrs. Jolly Bones takes her bath.  The week continues on in this silly fashion with shopping on Thursday, baking day on Friday, friends over on Saturday, and resting on Sunday.  They are all done in surprising and striking fashion. 

Hanson has written a rhyming story that has just enough of a lilt and a rhythm to add to the silliness of the entire book.  This is a wild frolic of a book that needs that gentle sway and not more.  The humor is entirely over the top, much to my great joy.  Hanson takes jokes all the way, ending up with surprises and humor that will have children howling.  It is the type of book that simply must be shared.

Tusa’s illustrations have her signature style to them, resulting in a book where the humor is spot on and the pictures have a cheery, bright quality all their own.  They are done in subdued colors with primarily white backgrounds, making the action pop.

A kindred spirit to Amelia Bedelia, this humor doesn’t rely on wordplay so Mrs. Jolly Bones makes a great early friend for silly kids.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: The 13-Story Treehouse by Andy Griffiths

| Tasha

13 story treehouse

The 13-Story Treehouse by Andy Griffiths, illustrated by Terry Denton

Andy and Terry live together in an amazing 13-story tree house.  It has a bowling alley, a secret laboratory, swinging vines, a see-through swimming pool and even a man-eating shark tank.  Unfortunately, all of these fun things around them are distracting them from finishing the book that is due in to the publisher!  They have barely started and it needs to be finished quickly.  But what are you supposed to do when there are flying cats, giant bananas, an evil sea monster, gangs of rampaging monkeys, and burp-filled bubblegum bubbles around you?  You will just have to read the book to find out how Andy and Terry managed to finish their book in time.

Wildly funny and perfect for children who enjoy books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  The author and illustrator worked together beautifully, creating a hilarious world that is a pleasure to visit.  The book has illustrations throughout, black and white line drawings that add to the silliness of the story.  Do not read this one looking for logic, just enjoy the giggles!

A great pick for reluctant readers who will appreciate the silly storyline and funny illustrations that effectively break up the text.  Get this into the hands of your Wimpy Kid fans!  Appropriate for ages 6-10. 

Reviewed from copy received from Feiwel and Friends.

Review: Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong by Prudence Shen

| Tasha

nothing can possibly go wrong

Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong by Prudence Shen and Faith Erin Hicks

Released May 7, 2013.

Nate and Charlie are friends, but mostly it’s about sharing a ride to school.  Then when the cheerleaders threaten Nate’s robotics competition, Charlie is caught up in the middle of the conflict.  Nate decides to run for Student Body President and Charlie’s cheerleader ex-girlfriend forces him to run against Nate.  Things quickly get out of control in this jocks against the geeks sort of storyline that ends with both groups stripped of their school funding.  Now the only way forward is to work together to fund and build a robot that can win the robot death match.  And of course, just like with all plans, nothing can possibly go wrong.

The storyline could have been cliché, but it steps away from that fairly quickly and into much more intriguing collaborative efforts.  Shen and Hicks have created a great gang of characters here.  Nate is laid back and really the normal one of the group.  Charlie is alpha-geek, neurotic, ballsy and intellectual.  Mix in the cheerleaders who are clearly at the top of the popular food chain, and this is regular high school on steroids.  While some of the characters are left as stereotypes, Charlie and Nate are well developed and interesting. 

The art is hip and fun.  Done in black and white, the images play up the funny moments beautifully and often the dance of words and image is sheer perfection.  It’s hard to believe that it was done by two people rather than just one.

Geeks and jocks alike will enjoy this one, after all who doesn’t love to see a robot death match!  Appropriate for ages 13-15.

Reviewed from copy received from First Second.

Review: Follow Follow by Marilyn Singer

| Tasha

follow follow

Follow Follow by Marilyn Singer, illustrated by Josee Masse

This is the second book of reverso poems by Singer, following her amazing Mirror Mirror.  In a form she invented, Singer tells the stories of fairy tales using a poem and then reversing the lines and changing the punctuation to tell the other side of the story.  The result are brain teasing poems that illuminate the darkness inherent in the tales themselves.  This group of poems includes stories that may not be familiar to readers, so the index of stories at the end of the book will be welcome.

As with her first book, some of the reversos work better than others.  Here my favorites are The Little Mermaid, Thumbelina, and The Tortoise and the Hare.  All of the poems have a wonderful cleverness and wit to them, making them all infinitely readable and a great deal of fun.  This is a celebration of poetry, fairy tales and word play all wrapped into one delight.

Masse’s illustrations are done on wood, giving them a wonderful texture that is reminiscent of tapestries and medieval images.  Her use of jewel tones evokes that period even more.  All of the images are also double-sided, showing both sides of the poem in one united image.

Perfect for fans of fairy tales, this clever and delicious book will have them seeking out the unfamiliar tales to read them in full.  Appropriate for ages 7-9.

Reviewed from copy received from Dial Books.

Review: The Highway Rat by Julia Donaldson

| Tasha

highway rat

The Highway Rat by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Scheffler

The creators of The Gruffalo return for an uproarious version of a beloved poem.  Beware, for the Highway Rat is coming and he’s out to steal everyone’s snacks.  He rides along with food dropping out of his saddlebags, accosting poor travelers at sword point, demanding their goodies.  He steals clover from a rabbit who has nothing else, a leaf from some ants, even hay from his own horse.  Eventually though, the Highway Rat meets his match in a juicy-looking duck who directs him into a cave where the echo seems to promise food.  Then the Highway Rat rides no more.

I love a good riff on a traditional poem, and this one is very clever.  Those familiar with The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes will particularly enjoy the play Donaldson makes with its form.  She incorporates familiar phrasing like “And the Highway Rat went riding – riding –riding – riding along the highway.”  Somehow her other words which are quite different from the poem have a similar rhythm and evoke the poem effortlessly.

Scheffler’s illustrations have a wonderful bold quality to them.  The Highway Rat is truly a bad guy and his naughtiness is clearly shown in his actions and his aspect.  His googly-eyed horse is a pleasure, almost always making eye-contact with the reader and sharing the joke of this evil rat riding on his back.  The rich colors of the landscape add a depth to the illustrations that is very welcome.

The tale of an evil highwayman (or rat) makes for a great read.  Add in strong illustrations and the play on a well-known poem, and you have picture book magic.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from copy received from Arthur A. Levine Books.