Book Buds Kidlit Reviews

A ratty little sister

Rosie and Buttercup
by Chieri Uegaki; illustrated by Stephane Jorisch
Kids Can Press

Everybody who'd be perfectly happy swapping their siblings for a bag of chips, raise your hand. I have both mine in the air. Can I swap them even if they're full-grown? Please? I promise to eat the chips slowly.

Yeah, okay, I'm over the sibling rivalry thing. Mostly.

But if it weren't for that ages-old tussle over birth order, there'd be so much less fodder for adorable picture books, this one included. Rosie's a rat with pet crickets and a taste for dried dandelion puffs. She looks mighty cute in a tu-tu too, as depicted with European flair in Jorisch's watercolors.

Buttercup ruins a perfectly good solo act, and a fed-up Rosie offers her free to a good home. Fortunately, it's the babysitter down the street, who takes Buttercup off Rosie's hands long enough for her to cycle through her immediate bliss, then gradual remorse and finally, sheer panic.

If you've seen this before in other forms, it's fine to recycle the idea, as it rarely gets old. Rosie gives it a girly girl spin, though I'd have liked to see more of Buttercup's personality to better underscore their conflict.

Rating: *\*\

Better than Benadryl

Little Rabbit and the Night Mare
By Kate Klise; illustrated by M. Sarah Klise

Reviewed by Kelly Herold

Sisters Kate and M. Sarah Klise make bedtime safe again with their newest picture book.   

School is stressing Little Rabbit out: It's Monday and the teacher tells the class they're to prepare a report on any topic they'd like. Mother Rabbit suggests a variety of topics to Little Rabbit, "But Little Rabbit didn't like those topics."

Little Rabbit begins to worry and then at night, "a mysterious creature appeared in his dream and carried him away." Mother explains that Little Rabbit had a nightmare, but Little Rabbit hears only "night mare." Now he has two worries--his report and the night mare. And the only way Little Rabbit can conquer his fears is to face them head on and to "look [the night mare] in the eye."

Kate Klise serves up Little Rabbit's universal tale so sweetly and with such compassion, that you'll cheer when the hero chases his night mare off and finishes his report. M. Sarah Klise's warm illustrations draw the reader in to a comforting world of a lucky, loved childhood.  Little Rabbit and the Night Mare is a cozy blanket for light sleepers of every age.

Rating: *\*\*\

Nighty-night, li'l critters

Animals are Sleeping
by Susanne Slade; illustrated by Gary R. Phillips
Sylvan Dell Publishing

This short but sweet bedtime book sneaks in some lessons about animal habitats, showing polar bears, sloths, fish and other critters catching some zzzz's. Slade's simple verses aim for the preschool crowd with plenty of repetition and easy-breezy rhymes, and Phillips' lush illustrations almost glow, with touches of day-glo colors shimmering out amid the somnolent dark blues and greens.

The book's been vetted by a zoologist for accuracy, so there's no anthropomorphism or cutesy antics. The animals are shown as they would be in the wild. What I like is how it confers instant genius status on the reader, making you a hero to your kids, who have know way of knowing that you'd never seen a sloth sleeping, either.

The "For Creative Minds" exercises in the back reinforce lessons on what the pictured animals eat and where they sleep. But it's also fine for reading just before you tuck your human cub under the blankies too.

Rating: *\*\*\

Up, up and away

Pilot Pups
by Michelle Meadows; illustrated by Dan Andreason
Simon & Schuster

My son never had much enthusiasm for stuffed animals, which generally gather dust on his shelves, with a new, notable exception. His kindergarten class just did a unit on pets and created a stuffed animal shelter. Families donated their less-beloved plush toys, which were renamed and kept in a "kennel" (really wire baskets stacked on their sides). Each kid adopted one for a $1.00 donation to the Anti-Cruelty Society.

Seth brought home "Fluffy," which Brett and I renamed "Scruffy" for the kitty's much-abused condition. Don't tell that to Seth, who gleefully described how she jumped out of her cage to him and purred in his arms. Fortunately, she eats only Lego blocks and hasn't needed a litter box, though she could probably use a good stain-sticking and some judicious restitching.

I thought of Fluffy as I read Pilot Pups, since it captures so well the absolute, unshakable belief of kids that their favorite plush toys do indeed have a rich, inner life--when we're not looking. In this one,  two stuffed puppies soar around the house as the human family obliviously goes about their morning.

Meadows keeps the rhymes short and spirited, with plenty of alliteration, repetition and other nifty tricks for beginning readers:

Canines cruising,
in control.
Searching, searching--
on patrol.

Andreason strikes a playful tone in his oil paints, which are infused with a cheerful, golden glow. We had fun with this one, though I'm told Fluffy gets jealous.

Rating: *\*\*\

A crazy time of it

What's Going On?
by Elena O'Callaghan; illustrated by Africa Fanlo
Kane/Miller

Hmmm ... the household's falling to pieces. Mom and Dad used to be so efficient, so on top of things, until about three months ago. Now Dad wears mismatched shoes, the place is a wreck, Mom puts bug spray in her hair. Whaaaa?

That's one little boy's reaction as his whole house is turned upside-down. Graph paper's used to give Fanlo's mixed-media creations a retro feel, but a bit off-kilter, like the Jetsons having a series of bad hair days. One one side--Then--is how things used to be: squeaky clean kitchen, ultra-calm parents. On the opposite--Now--is Mom wobbling under armloads of laundry or Dad missing the easy shots in soccer.

Of course, you'll know exactly what's happened in the last three months, but let's not spoil the surprise. The narrator is clueless, an unusual trick to see pulled off so convincingly in a book for very little kids, but they'll have fun figuring it out in the last page or so.

And you can always point out what caused your tot's parents to lose their last shreds of sanity. They'll probably think that's pretty funny too.

Rating: *\*\*\

Not so nuts-o

Scaredy Squirrel at the Beach
by Melanie Watt
Kids Can Press

Okay, Scaredy fans, the squirrel's back, with his neuroses kicked up a few notches. This time, he's off to the beach. Or, er, not. Maybe just a rendition of the beach at the foot of his nut tree, made with kitty litter and an inflatable pool.

Yep, he's just as jittery as ever, armed this time with enough protective gear for a minefield, and he doesn't miss an important opportunity to play dead. And, yes, he does wind up at the real beach after much fuss and to-do.

If you've read the other installments (reviews here and here), you're going to find this one a tad predictable. For kids, that's a good thing. They know where Scaredy lives, they have his overcautious M.O. down pat and there's still a giggle a page, perhaps more so for all the anticipation.

Still, it's overdone compared to the previous books, with Watt cramming ever more items into maps and diagrams. I end up vaguely pointing to a page, exclaiming, "Look at all the stuff he's got on!" and leave it at that. The crowding overwhelms the small format, which Watt used so adroitly to comic effect in the previous books.

Scaredy fans who must have this book will still welcome their nutty friend, but I'm starting to fret that the franchise is losing some of its freshness.

Rating: *\*\

Curing with cookies

Doctor Ted
by Andrea Beaty; illustrated by Pascal Lemaitre
Margaret K. McElderry Books (Simon & Schuster)

Beaty brings her sharp wit to another character with a fertile imagination who runs afoul of us numskull adults. Ted's a bear who wakes up and bangs his knee. When he can't find a doctor anywhere in his room, he dons a labcoat and stethoscope and goes about diagnosing everything from gingivitis to mumps and dispensing cookies.

Sounds like my kinda medicine!

But his Mom, teacher and principal just don't appreciate Doctor Ted's contributions to modern medicine and order him back to reality. I don't know what it is about us grown-ups that we're always portrayed as such sticks in the mud. We're fun! We like to play too! Just look at ex-New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer. Okay, that's probably not the kind of fun we had in mind here.

Ted wins the day, of course, after a playground incident that requires medical assistance. Kids like that sort of predictability--and seeing us grown-ups get our lumps too.

Rating: *\*\*\

Note: Other books by Beaty include Iggy Peck, Architect.

Sweet surprise

When Ruby Tried to Grow Candy
by Valerie Fisher
Schwartz & Wade

I want to be the crotchety lady next door who's really just misunderstood, and even knows a trick or two about the right way to plant jelly beans. I'm not far enough along to be the old lady in purple, but I'd settle for the middle-aged misfit who teaches an imaginative girl some unusual gardening techniques.

Ruby's wary of the rickety fence that divides her house from her reclusive neighbor, until her red ball goes over the top. Does she go after it? Why, no, she stays home and there's no story and we all go to bed. Not! Of course she goes after it, and comes face to face with Miss Wysteria, in her green wellies and floppy sunhat in a garden straight out of a '60s acid trip. Teacups grow on trees and playing cards form a shrub in these lush watercolor, ink and mixed-media renderings, where much of the background's out of focus in a happy fusion of color.

Ruby's smitten, even if Miss Wysteria's all business. When's the last time you were warned to "pick eggbeaters before a storm. Otherwise, when the wind blows, the din is deafening."

The book's title tells you what crop Ruby tends, and I'm thrilled to report there's no underlying message or moralizing whatsoever, or at least none that's obvious. Nope, this lighthearted nonsense is just pure, delicious fun.

Rating: *\*\*\   

S-s-s-s-s-s-Slugs!

Sally and Dave: A Slug Story
by Felice Arena
Kane/Miller Books

reviewed by Kelly Herold

Warning: Unintentional Alliteration Ahead

Sally Slug is a stuck-up gastropod mollusk, proud of her sports skills and sleek physique.  Dave Slug is more rounded, prefers "sleeping sideways in his own slime," and is fond of sweets. Felice Arena's Sally and Dave: A Slug Story is a sweet tale featuring lots of s-alliteration and a clash of sluggish personalities.

Sally's Type-A Slug finds Dave to be woefully lacking in ambition:

"'Why don't you get off your slimy slug bottom and do something special?' Sally         
sneered one day.

'But I always thought I was special,' sighed Dave. 'And I like sitting on my slimy slug bottom.'

'I've never heard anything so silly,' snapped Sally. 'It's slobs like you that give slugs a bad name.'"

The reader sympathizes with Dave who just wants to live a happy life of relaxation, food and sun. And he proves himself in the end as slackers often do, rescuing Sally when she's gobbled up by a sparrow.

Sally and Dave: A Slug Story begs to be read aloud.  Toddlers to emergent readers will enjoy hearing the hiss of the words as they stream by.  But what really makes Sally and Dave a hit are Arena's inspired illustrations.  His cartoon-like slugs are obsessed with sports, food and the good life.  Their expressive googly eyes tell a tale of friendship all their own and are fun to follow throughout Sally and Dave's epic story.

A not-to-miss read aloud for the three- to eight-year-old set.

Rating: *\*\*\

Everything but the kitchen sink

My Mommy's Tote
by P.H. Hanson
Workman Publishing

Mommy's totes are always black holes for keys, lipsticks, stray paper clips, dogearred photos and whatnot. I'm not sure that a cardboard version can compete with the real thing, but Hanson has fun with it, and at least this version doesn't leak cookie crumbs or ink.

Part board book and part toy, it comes with the standard warning about small parts, not for children under 3, etc. But the sturdy cardboard construction should withstand mauling by eager toddlers. Each "page" or fold in the tote holds items you'd typically find, like a wallet or cell phone, and some surprises, like a wounded teddy bear or stray stiletto shoe. The text heaps praise on Mommy and daughter, or provides a humorous aside:

My Mommy says 'always put your best foot forward."
Maybe that's why she has so many shoes.

Flaps open within flaps making peaking fun and keeps the surprises coming, though with all the loving plaudits for Mommy, it may feel as much like a big, slurpy kiss for Mother's Day as a treat for the kids.

Rating: *\*\*\