individuality

Review: Love Monster by Rachel Bright

| Tasha

love monster

Love Monster by Rachel Bright

Love Monster lives in a world filled with soft and cuddly pastel animals and everyone loves them.  But no one loves a red, googly-eyed monster who isn’t so cute.  So Love Monster decides to head out and see if he can find someone who will love him despite not being cuddly.  Love Monster searches and searches for someone like this.  He even thinks he’s found them, but then discovers that he has not.  He’s just about to give up, but learns some things are worth working hard to find.

Bright does an admirable job of creating a book that has a very large message without it consuming the story too much.  She uses a narrator voice that is strong and individual which helps keep the book from becoming to sweet as well.  Love Monster is a great character, primarily because he isn’t a complainer and refuses to just settle for a life alone.

Bright’s art is bight and large.  Love Monster pops against each pastel page with the pages getting darker colored as the story progresses.  Finally, night has fallen and the stars come out in a black sky and Love Monster pops there too.

Monsters and love, sounds like a great Valentine’s Day book for little monsters.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from copy received from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Review: Mo’s Mustache by Ben Clanton

| Tasha

mos mustache

Mo’s Mustache by Ben Clanton

Mo just got a brand new mustache in the mail!  But when he shows it to all of his friends, they all get their own mustaches and soon it isn’t special anymore.  So Mo decides to wear a striped scarf instead and leave his mustache off.  Then all of his friends get scarves too.  Mo loses it and shouts at his friends, demanding to know why they are copying him.  Everybody explains to him that he has a great sense of style, so they like to imitate him.  Mo had never thought of it like that.  So he sets up a fashion show where everyone can show off their own sense of style.  And you will never guess what Mo wears to the party!

Clanton’s writing is brisk and brightly funny.  He uses dialogue from the various monsters to tell much of the story and each one has an impressively different voice and tone from the others.  It all makes this book a treat to share aloud.  It is also a book that celebrates being yourself and having your own personal style. 

The art is modern and zany.  Mo himself has a star on the end of his tail, other monsters are furry, still others are tiny with just one eye.  They are all clearly individuals from the start and so it is a treat to see how they all use the new accessory in their own unique way. 

Clever, smart and full of zest, this book will have you picking out your favorite mustache and scarf too.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Fat Angie by E. E. Charlton-Trujillo

| Tasha

fat angie

Fat Angie by E. E. Charlton-Trujillo

Angie has hit rock bottom.  She tried to kill herself in front of the entire school and now she just wants to make it through each day.  She numbs herself with lots of junk food, eating her way past the pain of her sister being held hostage in Iraq and her adopted brother being cruel to her both in public and at home.  Her mother is just anxious for Angie to be normal or at least to appear normal to everyone.  But Angie’s entire world changes when the new girl is nice to her.  KC Romance is not from Dryfalls, Ohio and it is obvious.  She is innately cool, something that Angie has never even tried to pretend to be.  Best of all, KC sees past the fat and the walls that Angie puts up to the real Angie, the one that Angie herself has never really known was there.  Now Angie is inspired to do more and that means big changes both inside and out.

This teen novel deals with all sorts of issues, all focused through Angie herself.  There is suicide, binge eating, being overweight, a sister missing in Iraq, cutting, and sexuality.  One might think that it all doesn’t fit into a single novel, but it does thanks to the incredible character of Angie.  The author writes with a wonderful snarky voice yet one that is ultimately human and smart.  She is entirely herself even though she isn’t sure who that is. 

I particularly enjoyed the snippets of therapy that are shared along with the therapist’s notes.  This is the sort of humor that pervades this book.  Yet there is incredible sadness within it as well.  There is grief that others don’t share, mean girls that are beyond cruel, and a family that doesn’t try any longer.  Angie has a lot to be angry and sad about, but somehow she rises beyond that.  Most remarkable of all though is that in this book, she does it herself.  And along the way, she helps others rise too.

Beautifully written, dark and wildly funny, this book will have you crying, raging and cheering.  Appropriate for ages 15-18.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Bink & Gollie: Best Friends Forever by Kate DiCamillo

| Tasha

bink gollie best friends forever

Bink & Gollie: Best Friends Forever by Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee, illustrated by Tony Fucile

Bink and Gollie return in their third book of escapades as best friends.  The first of the three stories in this book has Gollie wondering if she might have royal blood while Bink is much more interested in pancakes.  The second has Bink worrying about being short and buying the incredibly complex Stretch-o-matic that requires “excessive assembly.”  The third story has the girls wondering what collection they should start to get a record in Flicker’s Arcana of the Extraordinary. 

In all of these stories, we get to see Bink and Gollie as pure individuals.  It’s a relief as always to return to a storybook world where girls are not bedecked in glitter, ruffles and pink.  These are two girls who read as real and tangible and completely unique.  I also enjoy the way that the friendship between the two girls always has space enough for them to be themselves and not try to even mimic one another.  As always the stories are clever with great endings and completely readable by young readers.  The illustrations continue to have the same freshness as the stories and characters, with wonderful humor embedded in them.

Fans of Bink & Gollie will be clamoring for the third book and thanks to the unique characters and easy reading format, these books belong in every library.  Appropriate for ages 5-7.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Starring Jules (As Herself) by Beth Ain

| Tasha

starring jules

Starring Jules (As Herself) by Beth Ain

When Jules is singing her new jingle for a fizzy ice-cream cone to her little brother and making lots of bubbles in their milk glasses, she is discovered and invited to audition for a mouthwash commercial.  But even for a girl with lots of “pizzazz” there are difficulties to overcome.  First, Jules finds out that the mouthwash is orange flavored, a flavor that makes her want to puke.  Second, the only one she can see who can help her is her old best-friend Charlotte Stinkerton Pinkerton.  Third, there’s a new girl in Jules’ class who may just be the perfect best friend ever, but Jules has to get to her first, before she joins the new clique that Charlotte has formed.  It’s a complicated situation for Jules and the question is whether it will be just too much for this girl who is fizzy and filled with pizzazz.

Ain has created a character that reads like an older Clementine.  Jules is wonderfully and innately quirky, obviously happy in her own skin.  All of the small details and Jules’ unique view of the world serve to make her a beautifully human character.  Happily, the same is true for the secondary characters as well.  They are all richly drawn and complex.  Friendship is shown in all of its miscommunication and mistakes.

Written with a light hand and a jaunty pace, this book will appeal to readers who have grown up with Clementine and are looking for a new heroine with plenty of individuality.  Appropriate for ages 7-9.

Reviewed from ARC received from Scholastic.

Review: Island’s End by Padma Venkatraman

| Tasha

islands end

Island’s End by Padma Venkatraman

A remote island in the Bay of Bengal is the setting for this novel by the author of Climbing the Stairs.  Uido is a teen who can communicate with spirits.  Just before strangers arrive at their island, Uido dreams of it.  The tribe has conflicted feelings about the strangers, some are drawn to the technology of their fast boats and matches, while others see the end of their ways if the new ways are adopted.  During this confusing time, Uido studies to become her tribe’s spiritual leader.  There is danger in the studies, from braving the dangers of the island to finding her spirit animal.  But nothing is as dangerous yet beguiling as the strangers and their new ways, as Uido is soon to find out. 

Venkatraman creates a vivid world here surrounded by water and coral reefs.  It is a world where everything is different.  The island itself is a character in the book as seasons turn, Uido journeys across the island, and finally in the climactic ending scenes.  The island is beautiful, wild, untamed and irresistible.

Uido is a heroine who faces many self-doubts, but rises to the challenges she is faced with.  She has a spirit herself that is true and strong.  She struggles with a friend who doesn’t understand her, a brother who is jealous, and the loneliness of being away from her family.  Plus the allure of the modern world.  Yet in Uido, readers will also see a young woman who is tied to the traditional ways in a strong and compelling way.

Beautifully written, this book is a journey into an unknown, primitive world where readers will discover a radiance and wonder.  Appropriate for ages 13-15.

Reviewed from ARC received from Penguin Young Readers Group.

Book Review: No One But You by Douglas Wood

| Tasha

No One But You

No One But You by Douglas Wood, illustrated by P.J. Lynch

This radiant picture book speaks to each of us having individual experiences in the world.  Only you can feel things the way that you do.  Only you taste, hear, smell and see things in the way that you do.  No one else breathes with your breath.  No one else wishes on the same star in the same way.  And no one else feels the emotions you do or says I love you the way that you mean it. 

Wood’s writing reads like a poem, a verse that dances, expresses and moves.  He turns his lens onto different specific moments, emphasizing how we all experience things differently.  Using small moments of life, the book also quietly asks people to slow down and really experience what they are doing then.  Because no one else will feel it but you.

Lynch’s art is quiet and powerful.  His realistic paintings focus on diverse children doing day-to-day things.  The expressions they show are candid, real and vibrant.  His colors range from bright to dark, all of them filled with a special light that emanates from the children’s faces.

A gorgeous picture book, this is ideal for bedtime reading and is sure to make any child who hears it think about just how special they are.  Appropriate for ages 4-8.

Reviewed from copy received from Candlewick Press.

Book Review: Ten Miles Past Normal by Frances O’Roark Dowell

| Tasha

10miles

Ten Miles Past Normal by Frances O’Roark Dowell

All Janie wants is to be normal, but she can’t shake her stinky reputation that comes from her family’s goat farm.  The lump of something strange in her hair one day didn’t help and neither did the clump of goat poo on her shoe that stunk up the bus.  To make it worse, her group of friends from middle school don’t have the same lunch as she does, so she has taken to wolfing down her lunch at her locker and then spending the lunch period in the library.  She keeps hoping that someone normal will enter the library and befriend her, but there are only weird kids around.  No friend material, and no boyfriend material either.  The real trouble is that Janie herself is not normal: she makes her own clothes, is sassy, smart and vibrant.  Now the question is when she’s going to figure that out.

Dowell’s writing is funny, intelligent and spot on.  She writes dialogue that is snappy and a pleasure to read.  Janie’s journey from hoping for normal to embracing her own uniqueness is written with great pacing, lots of truth, and a joyousness that is infectious.  There are many places in the book that clichés could have been used, but Dowell never turns to them.  Instead, she uses those moments to make the book ever more special.

A large part of the success of the novel is the character of Janie.  She has a voice that is clear and consistent, filled with humor.  The novel really traces her growth as a teen, finding her own way that is certainly not normal.  Yet despite being a unique path, it is clear that the person she grows into is the one she was meant to be from the beginning.

A book that celebrates being exactly who you really are, even if you aren’t sure who that is yet, this is a treat of a read.  Appropriate for ages 13-15.

Reviewed from copy received from Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

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Book Review: What’s Special about Me, Mama? by Kristina Evans

| Tasha

whatsspecialaboutmemama

What’s Special about Me, Mama? by Kristina Evans, illustrated by Javaka Steptoe

A child asks his mother what makes him unique.  She responds, “So many things, Love.”  He asks for examples.  She tells him that his eyes are unique, because they tell stories without words.  He dismisses that answer because he has always been told he has her eyes, so that’s not unique.  His mother goes on to talk about his skin color, which is just like his father’s.  Then his freckles, which are like Auntie Jade’s.  His hair is like his grandmother.  She starts to talk about the things he does, his special behaviors.  He continues to ask for more, until she explains that there is nothing little about love and that he is loved more than anyone in the world. 

The beautiful words by Evans have a rhythmic quality to them, a to and fro that works especially well here.  The conversation has its own ebb and flow, and then the mother speaks in a poetic and joyous way about her son.  It is a book that really speaks to the worth and special qualities of all children, but also of this specific one. 

Steptoe’s illustrations are done in collage and feature many different shades of skin the the same family.  The illustrations have bold colors and strong lines.  Done in crinkled paper, they have a texture and heft to them that is gorgeous.  I should also mention that the illustrations do not make it clear if the child is a boy or girl, making the book even more adaptable and interesting.

A joyous look at what makes someone special and unique, this book will have you smiling with its bright colors and embracing message.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from library copy.