Today I Will Fly! by Mo Willems - review

Today I Will Fly! by Mo Willems
It is obviously completely superfluous for me to review this book. I have lauded the Elephant & Piggie series frequently on this blog. I have personally handed Elephant & Piggie books to dozens of parents, some of whom have actually sought me out later to tell me that little Susie didn't think she was "a reader" until Gerald and Piggie showed her that she was. Heck once I even hired a skywriter to fly over a teaching convention and spell out "GERALD & PIGGIE TAUGHT ME TO READ!!"

But today, my six year old son sat down and read this book to me, cover to cover, sounding out the words. I didn't know he knew how to read. When I told him that, he said, "Neither did I!" We are so proud, and so is he. When I asked him what he wanted to read next, he instantly responded, "Percy Jackson and the Olympians".

In all fairness, I did hear him sort of struggle through Time to Pee! last night with his dad, but I was half-asleep and literally thought I had dreamt it.

What do you hear in your dreams? If it's not a six-year-old reading Mo Willems, you're doing it wrong.

There are cats in this book by Viviane Schwarz - review

There are cats in this book by Viviane Schwarz
I'm a pretty big Scrooge, it's a fact. I jumped up and down and kissed everyone within reach when I realized we didn't have to put up a Christmas tree this year because we're going out of town. And anyone who knows me knows I hate our cats. Cat. I keep forgetting the one died. See? Isn't that terrible?

But the cats in There are cats in this book can come and hang out with the children at my house any time.

The book first grabbed me with its understated title. Running across the bottom of the front cover, "There are cats in this book" is a whisper from a kid who has something to show you. Does not hurt that the book is bound in that super-matte, sort of toothy ivory paper that makes you want to stroke it.

On the page facing the endpaper, the book tells you, "The cats aren't on this page." On the next page we're told, "The cats aren't on this page, either. They're on the next page. They'd love to play with you. They're very friendly."

And do you know what? Those cats - Moonpie, Tiny, and Andre - play with the reader! SO cleverly, the cats encourage the reader to turn pages: "Could you turn a whole PAGE?" "Because there's YARN on the next page. LOOK!" Flaps and page cuts assist the cats in their efforts to play. Oh, it's fun. AND it's an amazing teaching tool, demonstrating page order, sequence, even dimensionality. I am kind of done with the "i" word, but when the cats get you to blow on them to dry them off after they are caught in a tidal wave... that's interactive, baby.

Nice swooshy brushy drawings are augmented by brightly-patterned bits of collage to keep There are cats in this book as fun to look at as it is to play with and read. I'd give this book to the littlest kids, to medium-size kids, and I think even older kids would be charmed by these fourth-wall-busting kitties. If it could happen to me, it could happen to anyone!

Oooh! Oh God, Viviane Schwarz has patterns so you can knit your own cats! There's still time before Christmas, you crafty crafters!

Silly Lilly and the Four Seasons by Agnes Rosenstiehl - review

Silly Lilly and the Four Seasons by Agnes Rosenstiehl
I'm calling in reinforcements on this one. I found myself sort of over-charmed by the retro illustrations, like a French version of Nancy and Sluggo. Also, the production values on these TOON books are so seductive! So, not trusting my own reactions, I handed it to my avid assistants, Nature Girl and Mao, both seven, and Zhou, who is five.

Your Neighborhood Librarian: How was this one?
Nature Girl: It wasn't the right age for me.
YNL: Teenage book?
NG: Oh, sarcasm! No, it's like [Zhou]'s age.
YNL: Ok then read it to [Zhou].

So she did, and then, unprompted, started interviewing him about the book.

NG: [Zhou], how did you like it?
Zhou: Fine.
NG: Did you think it was silly?
Z: No, I think there was just a lot of talking.
NG: Do you know what the book's about?
Z: Um, no.
Mao intercedes: You know, it says right here, the FOUR SEASONS.
YNL: Did you realize it was about the four seasons?
Zhou: You mean the five seasons?
NG: Four. You mean because they did spring twice
Mao: Is there a certain part you liked? Like this, or the winter, or the summer?
Z: Summer.
NG: What was it about the summer that you liked?
Z: Well that's my favorite season.
YNL: Do you think that's Lilly's favorite season?
Z: Maybe.
YNL: What about the pictures?
Z: I think the pictures are great except for the red spot in her cheek. Because people don't have red spots here and here. And she has a boy head, girl hair
Mao: ... and everybody body.
YNL: Ok last question: Would you like to read that book again?
Z: No thank you.

Stinky by Eleanor Davis - review

Pirates prefer comics, a conversation with Captain Kid

Captain Kid: Avast! Who goes there?
Your Neighborhood Librarian: Why look! it's my old friend Captain Kid! How's it going, Captain? It's me, Your Neighborhood Librarian!
CK: You again! I just be here to be usin' the computer.
YNL: Well, sure, we'll sign you up for the computer, but your mom, I mean, Commodore... uh, AtHerWitsEnd, asked me if I could help you pick out a book.
CK: Ta read?
YNL: No, to use as a Frisbee. Yep, we'll find a fun book to read. I bet you're the kind of pirate that likes books about princesses.
CK: Belay that bilge!
YNL: Barbie?
CK: Nay, ye seaweed-haired trollop!
YNL: Why, Captain, where are you learning that kind of language?
CK: Wiggles.
YNL: Oh.
YNL: Ok, so no Barbies and no princesses. How about... a funny book?
CK: I guess.
YNL: How about... a funny comic book?
CK: What?
YNL: No, seriously, look, it's got a hard cover like a book so your mom, er, the Commodore, won't think it's a comic book, but look at this inside: it's a comic book! Look at this purple monster, what's his name?
CK: SSSSS... ST.. IN.. KEE. STINKY!
YNL: And he lives in a swamp, and that's his room - look at all the other animals, they've got clothespins on their noses, why do you think that is?
CK: Because he smells so bad!
YNL: Why do you think he smells?
CK: I bet he farts all the time!

And... my job just got a lot easier.

A long time ago, maybe 20-25 years ago, comics stopped being for kids. I'd blame Alan Moore, but you can't blame Alan Moore for everything. (Love Alan Moore, by the way. I would never have started reading comics if it weren't for V for Vendetta.) It's not a tragedy that people started taking the illustrated medium seriously - no way - but along the way, as beautiful autobiographical works and creaky experiments and pustule-plagued dark junk became the norm, people stopped making comics for kids. Any superhero worth his tights gained a conscience and a dark side. Even the Spider-man strip in the newspaper isn't for kids anymore - it's just TOO DULL AND NOTHING EVER HAPPENS. Seriously, when there's more plot in Apartment 3-G, you know it's time for new personnel on a strip.

So when Francoise Mouly and Art Spiegelman, creators of the original RAW "graphix magazine" (and, you guys, I still have my original copies, if you ever get to Baltimore and feel like signing stuff), started making books for children - actual comic books (although the produce of RAW JUNIOR is hardbound, as I note above), they were bridging a really big gap.

I have finally gotten my hands on their first three books... briefly. My sons, 5 and 7, took off with Mo and Jo, crawling into a corner, the big one reading it to the little one. He would have read it again (he went for it again this morning as soon as he was out of bed), but I wanted to read Jack and the Box together. I love the shapes of Spiegelman's characters.

So that left Stinky. I don't know the artist, and it's not about superheroes. But Eleanor Davis's way with color and detail won me over. She uses page and panel composition masterfully to set tone and pace, but her pages aren't so complicated that a kid will lose track of the sequence. Plus, the story is a charmer and the dialog fresh.

"You were afraid of me? Don't monsters eat kids?"
"What? YUCK! No way! Ha, ha!"

Captain Kid: But... aren't all comic books full of heartbreak and zombies and women with big boobs?
Your Neighborhood Librarian: What? YUCK! No way! Ha, ha!

Tuff Fluff: The case of Duckie's missing brain by Scott Nash - review

Tuff Fluff: The case of Duckie's missing brain by Scott Nash

Thank goodness for Scott Nash. With this book, the first of a series, the illustrator of the Flat Stanley books shows that he, like his late partner in crime, out there thinking of the first graders. Not everybody is. I mean, I love Elephant and Piggie very much, but I bet that when Mo Willems's daughter grows out of Beginning Readers he'll move on to kids' graphic novels (please? that would be really great!). In fact, I wonder if, after my kids grow out of Beginning Readers, if I'm going to continue trolling those aisles for something, anything fun and readable and cool-looking.

Well, hopefully, Scott Nash will always be there for the little guys.

My recent graduate of first grade snatched up Tuff Fluff as soon as he saw it, plopped right down on the floor, and started reading it to his younger brother. That's the highest endorsement I know.

Audio book roundup - little kids

Well, it's road trip season again. Ostensibly. Although I would have thought that my family would be the only ones fool enough to be paying for gas from here to the Gulf of Mexico and back this summer, I have already walked plenty of people though the kids' audio book section, trying to fix that panicky look that parents get when they contemplate 9 hours trapped in a vehicle with a semi-incontinent person who doesn't know how to read yet.

For really little kids, say, up to 4 or 5, you have to go with collections of shorter stories. Long narrative is kind of lost on them, and they can get bored and cranky when they've lost track. On the other hand, you the parent are going to be in that vehicle too, and all is lost if the story or voice makes you so crazy that you drive into a bridge abutment before you make it to the family reunion. Unless your goal is to give everyone else something to talk about in years to come, and hell, you could do that just by talking about your intestines every chance you get (we miss you, Cousin Roy!).

Luckily for you, some of the most accomplished professional voices in the world occasionally record children's books. Here's a good long list (remember, they're short, so grab a big stack!) of audio books that small people enjoy and bigger people don't hate:




The One and Only Shrek by William Steig, read by Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci
I reviewed it this March, and I was incredibly impressed. Worth listening to again and again, whether you're an adult marveling at Meryl Streep's virtuosity, or a kid who thinks that a talking bone is just funny.




The Stink books by Megan Mcdonald, read by Nancy Cartwright
Nancy Cartwright is one a hard-working person. Among other things, she's Bart Simpson - Bart Simpson! Some adults (my husband, for one) find her Stink voices grating, but kids think they're hysterical. She injects plenty of variety, so kids can tell the characters apart, and the mechanics of her reading - pace, emphasis, etc. - are flawless.

In addition, I find Stink Moody to be a more sympathetic character than his older sister Judy. McDonald includes informative sidebar material and unexpected incidental funny stuff. I love that one of Stink's friends insists on being called Sophie of the Elves, and that bit is carried through all the books. Also available: Stink and the World's Worst Super-Stinky Sneakers & Stink and the Great Guinea Pig Express and Stink and the Incredible Super-Galactic Jawbreaker.


Three Tales of My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett, narrated by Robert Servra
This CD of three stories is gentle to the point of lullaby. But kids love 'em. We listened to this CD last summer in the car, and this year when my son's first grade teacher read it aloud, he was a big celebrity in class because he knew what was going to happen. It's old-fashioned and well-written and original and underappreciated.




Dr. Seuss on audio
Anyone who's ever had to read If I Ran the Zoo every night for about two months knows that reading Dr. Seuss aloud is no laughing matter. It's written in anapestic tetrameter, a term that certainly sounds like it was invented just for him, and is chock-full of made-up words and names that would stop even the most nimble-tongued truck. The Bippo-No-Bungus, the It-Kutch, the Tizzle-Top-Tufted Mazurka, and the Fizza-ma-Wizza-ma-Dill? You've got to train for that kind of thing, else you're going to injure yourself.

John Cleese, Walter Matthau, and Dustin freakin' Hoffman are among the name-brand voices that read Seuss stories on The Cat in the Hat collection (image above).
On Green Eggs and Ham and Other Servings of Dr. Seuss, we are read to by brave enunciators such as David Hyde Pierce, John Lithgow, and Michael McKean, who will always be Lenny to me.
Billy Crystal, Hoffman and Mercedes McCambridge (also the voice of the possessed Linda Blair in The Exorcist!)do the voices on Horton Hears a Who and Other Sounds of Dr. Seuss.
Lithgow and Ted Danson read the more message-y stories on Oh, the Places You'll Go! and The Lorax.
If you can't find these collections, the British comedians Adrian Edmondson and Rik Mayall (Vyv and Rick from The Young Ones (dating myself, fine, but it was a very funny show)) are the improbable narrators of the cassette-and-book versions of One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and The Cat in the Hat Comes Back . I would give a lot to get my hands on those.




Other audio collections for very young audiences that I would recommend:

• Geronimo Stilton (read by Edward Herrmann)
• Hank the Cowdog (my colleague Mercedes swears by these from when her boys were younger)
• Flat Stanley (above)
• Russell Hoban's Frances (narrated by the throaty yet refined Glynis Johns)
• Little Bear (read by Sigourney Weaver - perfect!)
• Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad stories read by the author
• ...and Piglet Meets a Heffalump and Other Stories read by Dame Judi Dench, Mister Stephen Fry, and Jane Horrocks (Bubble from AbFab and Angelina from Angelina Ballerina) among others.

Round it all out with Fry reading A Bear Called Paddington, and there you are, pulling into the hotel parking lot.

Whew!

The Cat on the Mat is Flat, written by Andy Griffiths, illustrated by Terry Denton - review

Oh, baby. As the mother of a first grader, let me tell you how happy I am to see this book. It's a first reader that's actually entertaining and funny. Cats get hit by baseball bats. Bees menace children. There are accidents involving both superglue and cactus. THANK YOU. I can hear my son giggle as he pushes his way through page after page. Learning to read is hard - you've just got to make it worth the effort, and not a lot of books do.

The pen-and-ink Krazy Kat-like illustrations hit just the right slapstick note, without looking slapdash.

Actual cats, however, are apparently not impressed with this book.

Smash! Crash! by Jon Scieszka - review

Smash! Crash! written by Jon Scieszka, characters and environments developed by David Shannon, Loren Long, David Gordon
Not sure what all that "characters and environments" stuff is all about, but Jon Scieszka is the new Library of Congress Ambassador for Children's Literature or something, and he can pretty much do no wrong in my eyes. Having David (No, David!) Shannon along for the ride is also a plus.

What strikes me about this truck book is that it's totally a Beginning Reader. Word count, number of words per line, etc... if it can hold a first grader's attention, that first grader can read this book. Hmm. Large-format Beginning Readers - why don't we see more of those?

One quibble, though... Smash! Mash! Crash! There Goes the Trash! is only a couple of years old, and still fairly popular. You'd think these guys would notice that when they were titling this book.

Elephant & Piggie by Mo Willems - review

Mo Willems, god of line and shape, has an I Can Read series (yay! hooray! if he can get my one kid toilet-trained, he can surely teach the other one to read!). Called Elephant and Piggie, all titles are recommended. Not since Hop on Pop ("The simplest Seuss for youngest use") has there been such entertaining fare for the youngest readers.

I paged through Today I Will Fly! with one of my librarian colleagues, and she said, "This reads just like the play I saw last night."

"Which play?" I asked, thinking, dude, that might be a play I'd like to see.
"It was called Betrayal," she answered.
"Betrayal? The Pinter play?!"
"That's the one!" she said.

So, happy me, I get to be probably the first to proclaim Mo Willems' dialogue "Pinter-esque"!