Book Buds Kidlit Reviews

A Mom's Dream

The Nightmare Before Christmas
by Tim Burton

Reviewed by Deb Clark

When The Nightmare Before Christmas came out in 1993, I was in my early 20s, Tim Burton looked hot and the comically macabre story was a welcome respite from the usual treacly holiday fare.

Now I’m within spitting distance of 40, Burton looks dumpy and I’ve developed a deeper understanding of main character Jack Skellington’s imprudent aspirations and disenchantment with his day-to-day work. Just in time, evidently, for a reissue of this book.

Really, can’t every mom relate to Skellington’s desire for a job change, even just for a day? I don’t care whether you stay at home with the kids or have another job on top of your mothering duties—we all want a break from the routine, some more often than others.

I’d like to think I’d feel less insane if, for a few hours each week, someone else would watch the kids so I could do crossword puzzles, sip a Hendrick’s gin and tonic and nap. (I also like to think my dreams will grow more ambitious as my kids get older, but who knows?)

So anyway, 13 years haven’t dulled my enthusiasm for this morbidly charming story and Tim Burton’s inspired illustrations. I had fun reading it to my daughters using different silly-spooky voices for all the characters.

As for my kids, they liked it okay but are a little too young to really get it, which is a good thing. Full appreciation of irreverence like this requires a loss of naivete that can be so unpleasant in the preschool set.

Rating: *\*\*\*\

Counting critters

Ninety-three in My Family
by Erica S. Perl; illustrated by Mike Lester

We had a lot of pets growing up. A dog, gerbils, tropical fish of every stripe and variety. But that ain't nuthin. When the boy in this story is asked how many are in his family, he mentally adds up all the owls, gophers, lions, flamingoes, llamas, and, oh, I forget how many pets.

Honestly, who can keep track? But it's fun trying. Seth instantly ripped this from my mitts and has been scouring the book for all its hoofed, pawed, clawed, finned and feathered characters.

Sure, most preschoolers already love counting, but even if they didn't, Perl and Lester slyly sneak it all in with rolicking verses that careen from kitchen to car to bathtub and even the bed, mounded high with sleepy critters.

Lester hand-sketched everything then digitally colored it, but it perfectly imitates the splotchy, impromptu feel of watercolors that just shouts "zany!"

Nothing kills incentive like telling kids math is hard, but you'd never know it here, where you'll be hunting for that poor, carsick gerbil or making sure you've spotted all the tigers (wait, they're not spotted, they're striped. Hah!)

The boy's teacher finally lists them all on the blackboard, and you may be amazed at what you missed.

I want to hire this team to make broccoli taste like cupcakes. I bet they could do it too.

Rating: *\*\*\

Welcome, Buzz-ards!

Okay, that's probably not the best greeting, but it's what I could think of while my toddler tosses kitchen gadgets at me. Ouch. That was a salt shaker.

A big howdy to all those coming here from Melissa's Buzz Off. Make yourself at home. Pull up a few reviews and browse a bit.

And many thanks to Melissa too.

Gotta go. My Julia Child-wannabe is about to bean me with a can opener.

Rhapsody in blues

So Sleepy Story
by Uri Shulevitz

Uri Shulevitz has racked up more awards than I can name, and his Benjamin of Tudela is my personal gold standard for mind-boggling achievements in kidlit. This is a less ambitious effort, but intriguing in its own way as he experiments with composition and color.

The spare text is just a few dreamy dabs of "sleepy sleepy" this and that, as a household is jarred into wakefulness by sudden music outside. The real story is the changing illustrations. I've noticed Shulevitz likes to shift styles as the mood or story suits him, and to my untrained eye, it looks much like Picasso's blue period, with its seeping ceruleans and indigos for a drowsy feel.

As the dishes and toys awaken, we get a dose of late Cubism, with its fractured picture plane, boxy shapes and sparse dabs of color. For the most part, though, his palette is still subdued and shadowy, as if the room were only faintly illuminated by a nightlight.

The book's dedication mentions Lyonel Feininger, a member of the  Blaue Reiter group of Expressionists who also taught at the Bauhaus, a famous center for art and architecture in pre-fascist Germany. I only know that because I Wikipedia'd him, but it provoked several "ahas!" as it recalled long-ago art history lectures.

So there you have it: an ode to Expressionism, but with a Minimalist story. Its somnolent feel is  just right for a quiet night's reading.

Rating: *\*\*\*\

Just one more hectic day

No review today. Grr. You'd think I'd have six, what with my pre-schooler being on a major playdate with his new bestest friend ever, who likes superheroes. Cool!

But my toddler had other ideas. She had Mommy all to herself. Naptime? Feh! Let's par-teee!

So instead, I'm reprinting a comment from several posts ago that deserves to be dragged up here and dusted off. I'm not a big podcast person, but lots of people love them, including kids. Just One More Book!! is a very cool idea, but I'll let Andrea tell you:

Just One More Book is a thrice-weekly podcast in which we take a few minutes out of our morning coffee ritual to discuss one of our many favourite children's books.

Through this podcast and its website, we are building a lively, interactive community linking children's book authors, illustrators, readers (parents and children), librarians and publishers.

Episodes range in length from 5 to 12 minutes and can be played directly from our web page or downloaded to an ipod for listening on the go. Each episode is an informal discussion of one of our family's favourite children's books. We also feature interviews with authors, literacy related discussions or audio reviews submitted by our listeners.

This podcast is powered by passion. We have no advertisers or sponsers and there is no financial gain to be had. Our goal is to link children with great books and help create happy memories for children and the adults that read to them…and to have fun!

Andrea
www.JustOneMoreBook.com
"A Podcast about the children's books we love, and why we love them"

I checked out the site and it has even more categories than I do, which is pretty amazing, but is still easy to navigate.

But now that Ms. Center-of-the-Universe is finally napping, I'm going to get something done while I listen.

No snickers over snickety sale

I'd personally like to thank whoever ordered the final book in the Lemony Snicket series AND The Beatrice Letters from Amazon. See, clicking on any of the Amazon ads on this blog or at Cybils.com and then buying something puts a few pennies in my pocket. And today when I checked my latest report, there was Lemony and Beatrice popping up to say hello.

Good timing. The publicist for this book just dropped me a line. Did I get my free copy of the first Lemony Snicket book okay? Did I? Huh, huh?

And, y'know, I just feel awful wheedling a review copy and then not writing anything. I can blame that whole Cybils thing for keeping me preoccupied.

But I'm conscientious, so I thought I should thank you, whoever you are, for getting me out of a tight spot. I can now tell the publicist that even though I'm trailing the herd on this thing, I've sold two actual books for him.

Phew.

Over the Edge ...

The Edge of the Forest is out for October. I realize most of you read this notice elsewhere, but just in case ... Now, go read!

The nicest kid in the world

Mama, I'll Give you the World

by Roni Schotter; illustrated by S. Saelig Gallagher

When's the last time you did something nice for your Mama? Huh? How about for her birthday? What, you ask, flowers aren't enough? I write, I call ...

Well, little Luisa has you beat hands down. Her Mama works at Walter's World of Beauty transforming the neighborhood divas into raging beauties, or, uh, at least gussied-up versions of their middle-aged selves. But Mama wears a tired expression, now that Papa's out of the picture. We never learn why, but then it's probably none of our business anyway.

Walter's World is Luisa's world, where she does her homework, creates playful pictures of the customers and deviously plots to put a smile back on Mama's face. No spoilers here – the plot's about as predictable as can be, but Schotter has such lovely phrasing and vivid descriptions, you don't mind traveling down this oft-visited street where a happy ending lives.

Gallagher used oil paints, which makes the compositions seem older, yellower and faintly cracked, emphasizing Mama's fading youth and diminishing bloom. Exaggerated features, particularly noses, give everyone a comic air, but their softly padded frames and round, shining faces could only belong to a generous, kindly bunch. Only Mama is slender, but she looks more shopworn than chic.

Between Gallagher's loving details and Schotter's artful descriptions, I knew the World so well, I found myself firmly in joyful Luisa's orbit.

Rating: *\*\*\*\

Elephant Issues

I’ve Got an Elephant
by Anne Ginkel; illustrated by Janie Bynum

Reviewed by Deb Clark

The little girl in I’ve Got an Elephant does indeed live with a cute, relatively small pachyderm that wears Superman pajamas when they snuggle at night. But when the girl goes to school, her big, gray buddy gets lonely and brings home a friend and now she has two elephants.

As it turns out, the little girl is a magnet for elephants with profound isolation issues. Every time she leaves the house, her elephants get lonely, prompting them to bring home another friend until there are 10 of them. Along the way, the assorted elephants join the girl in various activities, like swimming at the local pool, fishing, playing dress-up and dancing ballet:

I’ve got five elephants who dance so gracefully.
They’ve learned how to point their toes and how to bend their knees.
My ballet teacher says that they make a pretty sight
In their pretty pink tutus and their ballerina tights.

Pastel-colored illustrations capture the joy of each activity as well as the increasingly cramped conditions until the little girl has had enough and finds a happy new home for the elephants.

This is a sweet book that I might have turned into a teaching moment by making my older daughter count the elephants on each page if I weren’t so tired already from dealing with her budding independence and the assorted little rebellions that accompany it all day long. My 1-year-old broke her silent enjoyment of the story only once to excitedly exclaim “PIZZA!” when the little girl brought a pepperoni pie for her elephant friends. All in all a pleasant book.

Other books by this illustrator:

Hokey Pokey, Bathtub Blues, Get Busy, Beaver!

Rating: *\*\

Ancient herstory

Muti’s Necklace: The Oldest Story in the World
By Louise Hawes; illustrated by Rebecca Guay

Retelling old stories from the woman’s point of view isn’t exactly a new idea. Ursula Le Guin gave us a wiser – and more subversive – Eve than the Bible’s in “She Unnames Them,” arguably the definitive work of the “herstory” genre.

When such retellings are done well, I think of an old house that’s been rehabbed inside and out, adding windows for bursts of insight and fresh air, tossing out the musty carpeting of machismo and the stark furnishings of the male ego. (And I say that with great affection for the starkly furnished men in my life.)

Now, I never read the original version of this story from an ancient papyrus about a pharoah’s magician who salvages a girl’s keepsake. But Hawes’ retelling from the girl’s perspective feels like she took a few brazen liberties, adding some pluck and good luck where there might have been none.

Muti’s a serving girl, a commodity, a thing, who happens to catch the pharoah’s eye. Usually, that meant a berth in his bed. But this pharaoh wants her and 20 others like her to row his pleasure boat around the royal pond. Okaaaay … men have wanted stranger things from young girls.

But when her beloved necklace drops into the water, she’s toast. Or she should be toast, the way she refuses to budge. It reminds her of her family. Somehow, she gets her way.

There’s a piece I’m missing here. Sure, she’s unmoving. But that’s it. Her only action is no action at all. There’s some stamp of her little foot or lilt in her voice or gleam in her eye that’s moving the pharaoh to not snuff out her execrable life with one flick of the royal wrist. He’s attracted to her gracefulness, which is a wholly different attribute than grace, and offers to marry her, which she refuses and which I don’t for a second believe.

But I'm too much of a cynic. Offer this one to the rebellious daughter in your own household, if she can keep from drooling over the pharoah's brooding masculinity. Guay has a way with the human body without getting steamy, though Muti perches lusciously on the edge of womanhood.

Rating: *\*\