Book Buds Kidlit Reviews

Odysseus returns

The Adventures of Odysseus
by Hugh Lupton and Daniel Morden; illustrated by Christina Balit

I've had a tough time with this new version of the Odyssey, truth to tell, and even now I'm only halfway through. I blame it on my high school English teacher who fed us abridged snippets, all plot points and travelogue. Adventure on the high seas! Travel to exotic lands! Meet sea creatures and monsters! 'Cuz y'know them crazy kids, you gotta keep 'em innerested, right?

So I was wholly and mutely unprepared for the abject pathos in this retelling that hit me square between the eyes. You'd think after writing so many essays on quest stories and journeys-as-metaphors and blah blah blah that I'd know this was the granddaddy of them all, no?

Add this to the list of teachers I've wanted to go back in time and throttle. 

Odysseus' long and fraught return from Troy is sorrowful in a profound and relentless way, with each new misstep, each foreseeable and preventable error, inspiring an ache that wells up in your throat until you want at every turn to comfort him, to find him a shortcut  to the fragrant shores of his beloved Ithaca.

Lupton and Morden are oral storytellers, which shows in this pared-down version of the Greek classic that moves at a brisk clip without losing its epic sweep. Their Odysseus is a broken, haggard figure, deeply conscious of what his quarrel with Poseidon has cost him in human lives, wasted years and lost glory.

Their prose doesn't merely soar, it glides, it arcs up and around anything I've read since I started this blog. This is their description of the Sirens' song:

In the song I heard so many sounds: the beating of a swan's wing, the hiss and drag of the sea on sand, the moan of the wind as it blows across the broad face of the world, the rhythm of the passage of the seasons, my wife singing--and all the sounds I heard were in harmony. For those few moments I heard the Song of the Spheres. Ever since then, all music has been clatter to me; the sound of a shield as it falls on a cobblestone floor.

Balit's illustrations echo the Greek's own portrayals of themselves, often in sideview or with the picture plain fragmented like a mosaic, and borrows heavily from the bright, aqua- and marine-hued palette we know the Greeks favored, tinged with gold.

Her Circe smolders, her Odysseus bursts with vigor at the peak of manliness, her seas threaten and storm, pummel then recede, each wave or fish or sea monster as clearly articulated as any character.

I rarely tell people to go out and buy a particular book. Until your child is old enough to read a fuller translation, this one is a must-have.

Rating: *\*\*\*\

Watch out "Below"

Below

Photography and story By Nina Crews

Reviewed by Brett Levy of DadTalk

When my 4-year-old son plays on the floor with his trains, I often overhear him say “Thomas did this” and “James did that.” Ask him what’s going on and he’ll respond, “I’m not talking to you, dad.”

I suspect there is more going on in his world than he’ll ever relate. So I try to imagine what he is imagining.

Using rich, easy to decipher photo collages and bold black and white captions, Nina Crews captures another young boy’s fantasy world in “Below.” While the main character’s name is Jack, it could be any young boy.

The story begins with Jack and his action figure Guy exploring the staircase of a narrow house. Like any curious child, Jack wonders what mysterious universe lays below a hole in one of the stairs.

Jack sends Guy on expedition into the much-deeper-than-expected crevice. Jack soon misses Guy, so he launches a rescue mission for his action figure employing his army of toys. All the while, Jack wonders what adventures Guy must be having. The result is a charming story for adults and children.

Crews has several other similar titles, including “The Neighborhood Mother Goose” and “You are Here.” Well, it’s time to go now.

I need to rescue toys my 1-year-old daughter dumped into a desk drawer. Oh Nina, I may have another story idea for you.

Rating: *\*\*\

Yep, pond scum, that's me

Okay, so last October this very cool, funny author-type person contacts me about a chapter book he's written about a boy and his bugs. I tell him I don't really review anything but picture books, but okay, I'll make an exception.

I get the book. It sits there.

And sits.

For seven months it sits by my bedside. Sometimes it gets knocked off to eventually be retrieved and dusted off. Twice it made its way to the bottom of a stack of laundry.

Every time I flipped through it, I'd think "This looks so darned FUNNY, now why don't I read it?" And then I never would.

Basically, a boy's family is under threat from an alliance of bugs, slimy critters and an evil crow. You can read the Amazon descriptions here but the coolest part is that the boy gets to transform himself into an animal too.

It looks like it has everything you need in a book for boys: disgusting stuff, action and adventure and big battles with more excuses for disgusting stuff. I say "looks like" because Book Buds was recently under orders from our family's chief executive (that would be my husband) to pack everything up and put it in storage so we could sell the house.

And, so, uh, well, um ... I put the book in storage. And this isn't short-term, just-until-we-move kinda storage. It's sitting under a stack of family china I never used, Depression glass plates, and these linens. Plus a bunch of stuff I can't recall.

And plenty more books. Pond Scum is in good company, I'm afraid.

And then Alan Silberberg emailed me again last week to remind me about his book.

Ahhh ... I hope he'll forgive me if I only plug the book instead of reviewing it. Alan's planning a big summer promotion, which you can view here.

I'm so sorry, except that this may happen to a few more authors over the summer as Book Buds becomes temporarily homeless. (Oh yeah, we're in escrow. But, um, we don't have a new place picked out.)

Just imagine the trouble I'd be in if I blogged about china.

Square-jawed satire

Traction Man is Here!

by Mini Grey

This spoof of superhero comics and their ubiquitous action figures is so damn funny it’s impossible to get through a first reading without pausing to hold your ribs. But it has a Shrek problem: its best lines zoom straight over kids’ heads and target Mom and Dad.

This is welcome news if you’re weary of countless nights re-reading Pooh or Seuss ad nauseum. But it’s tough to explain to a toddler why the sight of a foot-tall plastic toy diving in a sink for the Lost Wreck of the Sieve provokes such snorts and guffaws.

Traction Man’s a Christmas gift to an unnamed boy, whose imagination turns him loose on unsuspecting household objects. But both meet their match with Granny, who knits the doll a puke-green coverall that fairly screams “dork.” Picture the matching bonnet and it’s easy to summon similar mortifying moments from your own childhood.

Reviewed by Anne Levy

Rating: *\*\*\*\