Feeling Sad by Sarah Verroken - review

Feeling Sad by Sarah Verroken
Add this to your arsenal of 'feelings' books. Do it right away.

Duck is sad, and it's a gloomy day. Why? Doesn't really matter. It happens, right? Nothing to be alarmed about or belabor - best to just find a way past it and see if we can brighten things up a bit. Which is exactly what Duck does, inspired by a friendly frog who suggests merely, "Cheer up. Look ahead!"

Duck looks around and finds one small bright spot. Then she takes action, calling to the clouds to help her find the sun. This is good stuff. This is the kid participating in and taking control of her mood. This is also not demonizing sadness. By the way, this is also not about grief, which is a different sadness, and is addressed in other books.

I want to draw special attention to the art. Big and textured, starting out scratchy and dark and then, as Duck's mood lightens, getting brighter and more colorful. I want to say these are monoprints, but there is certainly some digital alteration in there, and maybe a little collage. Sarah Verroken's blog showcases more of her work. Looking forward to seeing more from her.

Trouble Gum by Matthew Cordell - review

Trouble Gum by Matthew Cordell
Here is a book. A book with gum. A book with two brothers. A book with two brothers stuck inside on a rainy day who aren't usually allowed gum because - oh my god gum! Gum on the furniture! In the carpet! Gum in the hair! Swallowed gum! Gum on the wee little faces! NO GUM!

My colleague La Mirabile (also the mother of boys) is sitting next to me cackling over this book. Seriously, she's laughing so hard I'm worried she's going to swallow her own gum.

Matthew Cordell illustrated one of my favorite picture books about brothers, Righty & Lefty. Maybe he has sons. Maybe he has brothers. But he sure as heck knows how funny it is when a little boy jumps off the couch and into a pile of cushions and momentarily stuns himself.

Creature ABC by Andrew Zuckerman - review

Creature ABC by Andrew Zuckerman

Andrew Zuckerman has made an entire little industry out of the images from his big fat Christmas-present book Creature. There are notecards and floor puzzles and a calendar, and now there's an ABC book.

I kind of can't fault the guy for it, either. When I swung open the cover of Creature abc, I gasped. His pictures of animals great and small - details, portraits, and full-length shots - are lit so brightly I worry for their fur, and shot (and printed) at such a high resolution as to appear three-dimensional. I just looked through the portraits (of humans) on his web site, and I didn't actually want to be that close to Nick Nolte.

The big bold black sans-serif text is easy to read. The little fact boxes about each animal that appear at the end are easy to digest. And there is just nothing funner than turning each thick page with a three year old. "What is that animal? It's a LION, you're right! Is that lion gonna eat you? NO! You eat that lion up first!"

Definitely my new favorite present for two- and three-year-olds.

The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney - review

The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney

Jerry Pinkney is a god. I think that's my whole review. No, wait, I have to mention that this book is wordless (except for beautifully lettered onomatopoeia incorporated into the paintings).

In a year when Jerry Pinkney also illustrated The Moon Over Star, I think he is his own stiffest competition for a Caldecott.

Call Me Gorgeous by Giles and Alexandra Milton - review

Call Me Gorgeous by Giles and Alexandra Milton
I have the eyes of a lemur and the beak of an octopus, the skin of a monitor lizard and the broken toes of an unfortunate debutante.

Actually, none of that is true. What I have are the eyes of a Scots-Irish Protestant and the posture of a Hungarian peasant - my fractious temperament is like that of my New England ancestors and my ability to tan comes from generations of watermen on Maryland's Eastern Shore.

Pieces of various creatures (eye of frog, feet of chicken) lead the reader of the happy, beautiful Call Me Gorgeous! to expect a monstrous chimera, when instead, the creature at the end of this book is quite fabulous - and she knows it! Colored pencils and collages of handmade paper make the teeth of the alligator look sharp and the ears of the pig soft, the chameleon's tail scaly and the bat wings veiny.

We are all hybrids, and this book exalts our stitched-together-ness without whomping the reader over the head with bullhorned messages about DIFFERENCES! CHERISHING THEM! and LABELS! BOO TO LABELS! Would make a fun read-aloud.

Endpaper bonus: each animal shown in its entirety.

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.

The Big Elephant in the Room by Lane Smith - review

The Big Elephant in the Room by Lane Smith
Ok. I'm going to have to heavily synopsize this book, which I don't usually do, because - SPOILER - this is kind of a negative review, which I am stunned to be doing about a Lane Smith book. THE Lane Smith. The Lane Smith whom I love for John, Paul, George & Ben, and for BIG PLANS, and Madam President, not to mention his many excellent collaborations with Ambassador Jon Sczieska. So I need extensive backup if I'm going to even remotely disagree with any line or syllable of a Lane Smith book.

We have two friends - donkeys, although that's not important right now - and the first donkey says to the second donkey, "Can we talk about the big elephant in the room?"

The second donkey assumes that "the big elephant" is code for "the large and obvious issue that we have until now wilfully chosen to ignore, lest it foment outright conflict between us." (A classic example of "the elephant in the room" might be, say, my cousin-in-law's sexual orientation, of which her mother is unaware, thanks to scores of relatives not mentioning it. For decades.) Let's leave aside for the moment that this euphemism is maybe a little grown-up, not to mention obscure, for some kids, and move on to the issues that the second donkey thinks could qualify as "the elephant in the room."

Second donkey thinks his friend might be angry that he (second donkey) ate all the ice cream. Or that second donkey broke first donkey's computer. Deserted him when the bully came around. Took the cool bike so that first donkey was left riding the tricycle. Glued him to his chair. Made fun of his backpack. Laughed at first donkey when he laughed so hard he peed his pants - and then told another kid about it. Aaaand about a half-dozen more things that second donkey has done to (or by omission of action caused to happen to) his good buddy first donkey.

But no. There is, in fact, a big elephant in the room. His name is Stanley, and he's watching TV and eating ice cream - apparently he's a friend of second donkey. I personally would have been more satisfied if the "big elephant in the room" had turned out to be a thug hired by first donkey's mom to come and beat the squee out of second donkey.

I mean, sure, friends pull crap on each other, and forgive each other (and to be fair, first donkey in the end exhibits a scowl - he didn't know that second donkey had spread it around school that he'd peed his pants, and he is, finally, ticked off), and usually come up karmically even in the end. I think it's good to demonstrate to kids that even if your pal Jason or Jacob or Courtney or Michaela was dicky to you today, tomorrow is another day... BUT. That second donkey kid (am I out of line to call him a jackass?) is WAAAY over three strikes here.

I love me some Lane Smith. He's one of the few authors whose books I buy sight unseen. But this doesn't work for me.

Little Beauty by Anthony Browne - review

Little Beauty by Anthony Browne
I am joined in my review of this book today by my friend Juicy, who is 5.

YNL: Juicy, say hello to the folks.
Juicy: [waves. Juicy likes to keep 2 fingers in his mouth]
YNL: Looking at the cover of this book, what do you think it's going to be about?
Juicy: It's about a guy who doesn't have a brain and who gets one.
YNL: That's not a brain, kid, that's a kitten on the gorilla's head.
Juicy: I SAID "FRIEND" not "brain".
YNL: Sometimes it's hard to understand you with your fingers in your mouth.
YNL: So here's the gorilla using sign language to ask for a friend, and here are his keepers. Can you tell what they're doing by the way they're standing?
Juicy: Thinking.
YNL: That's called body language, like the gorilla uses sign language. And then one of them has an idea. What do you look like when you have an idea?
Juicy: [Takes fingers out of mouth, crosses arms in front of him.]
YNL: How does the gorilla feel about his new kitten?
Juicy: He loves her!
YNL: How can you tell?
Juicy: Because she's cute?
YNL: Some people don't like cute. What makes you think the gorilla loves the kitten?
Juicy: Because the gorilla's happy?
YNL: How can you tell the gorilla's happy?
Juicy: Because he has a smile on his face. [Juicy is beginning to think I am a little stupid]
YNL: "They did EVERYTHING together." What are they doing here?
Friend the Girl (Juicy's sister, 8) interjects: POOPING!
Juicy: POOPING AND PEEING!
Juicy: He's SWINGIN ON THE LIGHT!
Juicy: He turned into a polar bear. He's turnin brown he's gettin dirty.
YNL: Uh-oh. What's happening here?
Juicy: The gorilla's angry at the TV. He busted it.
YNL (reads): "'We have to take Beauty away now,' said another."
Juicy: They're starting to cry because they love each other.
YNL: So what did the kitten do when they asked who broke the TV?
Juicy: He lied.
YNL: Do you think it's ok that Beauty lied?
Juicy: No.
YNL: Do you think the keepers believed Beauty?
Juicy: Yeah.
YNL: Really? So why did they let Beauty and the gorilla stay together then?
Juicy: I don't know. Because grownup cats can... It's the same as humans. Babies act different than kids, kids act different than grownups. So the the kitten acted... if that actually happened... I don't want to explain it because it's a long story.
YNL: But if they believed the kitten broke the TV... I don't get why they didn't take the kitten away.
Juicy: Me neither.

Ok, that didn't turn out how I expected. Well, we all really enjoyed the book, and Juicy kept his fingers out of his mouth kind of a lot. Cheers to Anthony Browne, wherever he is!

Always lots of heinies at the zoo, written by Ayun Halliday, illustrations by Dan Santat - review

Always lots of heinies at the zoo, written by Ayun Halliday, illustrations by Dan Santat
The author of the zine East Village Inky has written a picture book. That's it, my world just exploded.

I read Ayun Halliday's account of new motherhood, The Big Rumpus, when my older son was just a few months old. In that book, Ayun carted her daughter India around the East Village in a sling, wondering if her Dead Kennedys t-shirts were ever going to shrink back to normal after having worn them over her pregnant belly. Or something like that. As Ayun listlessly swiped at crusty wads of mushy peas on the kitchen floor and speculated over random puddles (apple juice? or pee?), I laughed the laugh of the unbelievably sleep-deprived. Good times.

Good times at the zoo, too, I'm happy to report. "No one tries to hide his heinie at the zoo." Like Chicken Cheeks (reviewed earlier), we get lots of fun heinie synonymy: tushy, glutes, can, and even caboose. Unlike Chicken Cheeks (reviewed earlier), we have an elephant with "junk in her supplemental trunk" - kind of steep slang for the K-3 set, and I think they're going to love it.

The vaguely Adam Rex-y, J.Otto Seibold-y illustrations are fine, not super-noteworthy (although, gotta say, GOOD MONKEYS), but composed very well. I love the portraits of Ayun and her husband Greg on the dedication page.

By the way, Ayun, if you're reading this: my colleague Dances with Chickens thinks this book would make a terrific little song. Maybe Greg can run something up.

Life-size zoo by Teruyuki Komiya - review

Life-size zoo by Teruyuki Komiya
Quivering, wet noses. Fluffy red panda fur and coarse capybara hair. Soft brown anteater eyes. Sharp tiger teeth. These oversized, luscious photographs of many of our favorite zoo friends show ever aardvark whisker and elephant eyelash in bright, sharp detail. Yum!

As advertised, each animal is shown life-sized. Majiron the armadillo takes up about half a page, while Lulu the giraffe gets a double fold-out. The right-hand border of each page gives information about the animal: name, age, interesting facts (tapirs can open and close their nostrils!), and details to look for in the photo.

Gonna be a storytime favorite and a very popular item in the school library. It might even end up my default birthday present for the summer.

Tillie Lays An Egg by Terry Golson with photography by Ben Fink - review

Tillie Lays An Egg by Terry Golson with photography by Ben Fink
Chickens, like penguins, are always funny. When I had chickens, and, yes, I had chickens in my city backyard, I used to go out a couple times a day to just sit and watch them bumble around and giggle to myself. Chickens - well I don't think I'm going to offend them by saying this - chickens are... not bright. My chickens, for example, were dumb enough to get themselves eaten by anything with teeth, and at least one thing without teeth. I've sworn off keeping chickens because I can't endure the heartbreak of losing any more. Hawks, foxes, raccoons, a dog, and I think possibly a family of possums consumed a total of eleven chickens at my house.



So I dedicate my review of this darling book in loving memory of Micker-Micker and Mrs. Miller, timid Penguin, big beautiful Barge, rock star Lou, Lou Two, three pullets that the kindergarten had raised from chicks, and two bad-tempered Polish hens whose names I can't remember. The funny, fun, beautiful photographs in Tillie Lays an Egg made me heave a wistful sigh thinking of how wonderful it was for my kids to have a chance to observe the life cycle firsthand, to think about food and where it comes from, and how nice it was to pet those gorgeous girls.

As you can probably tell from my photos, taking pictures of chickens is not easy. Either they are curious about the camera, and you get freaky close-up pictures of beaks and eyes - not the most attractive aspect of a chicken - or they are terrified of the camera, and run like idiots as soon as they see it. So the photographs in Tillie Lays an Egg, which are well-lit, in focus, and STAGED, for goodness sake! are not only entertaining, but really impressive.

As is the concept as a whole. Tillie, a chicken who thinks outside the coop, prefers wandering in search of worms to waiting for her turn in a nesting box. Every day she explores a different corner of the farm, and every day she lays her egg in an unexpected place. Children and adults have been observed enjoying the hunt for Tillie's eggs in each day's picture, and chuckling over the vintage chicken-themed items that pop up here and there - a chicken doormat, board games, table linens, and a juice glass that I covet.

I can't think of a more lovely hommage to these sometimes underappreciated farmyard friends, and I was so pleased to read that the chickens in the book - and all the chickeny props - are the author's own. I look forward to the further adventures of Tillie.

Patrick the Somnambulist, written and illustrated by Sarah Ackerley - review

Patrick the Somnambulist, written and illustrated by Sarah Ackerley
To all of the tedious, obvious, cheery-fake picture books that try to demonstrate that Being Different Has Hidden Benefits! REALLY! Your Love of Ballet / Eccentricity / Fashion Sense / Favorite Color / Intelligence / Strabismus / Bipedalism / Love of Poetry / Lack of Athleticism / Species / Size / Diet / Unusual Color Makes You Special (and ok, most of these books are neither tedious nor obvious, I am just being lazy, because I tend not to remember books I don't like) - I finally have a response: LOOK AT THIS ONE.

Patrick is a normal penguin kid who is also a sleepwalker. His concerned parents take him to therapy. The therapist confirms that Patrick is a normal penguin kid who is also a sleepwalker. Teaches Patrick a fancy word for himself - somnambulist. Patrick adores his new word, is empowered by it, does great things under its imprimatur. Goes on Conan. Becomes a multi-millionaire at the age of six.

The little full-page watercolor illustrations are witty and sweet, done in a rather somber nighttime palette that in no way harshes the happy, giggly mellow of the text. Love the mute, soulful penguin expressions (no mouths on these penguins and yet we know just what they're thinking). Kids will get a laugh out of all the odd situations Patrick finds himself in as a result of his sleepwalking, and parents will surreptitiously enjoy, "At first his parents just thought he was just weird."

Who hasn't thought that at one time or another?

Endpaper bonus: Patrick wrapped in toilet paper, rocking an umbrella, and wearing a plunger on his head.

Chicken cheeks by Michael Ian Black, illustrations by Kevin Hawkes - review

Chicken cheeks by Michael Ian Black, illustrations by Kevin Hawkes
It's a fact, I'm a sucker for the bold, chewy acrylics of Kevin Hawkes. His love of orange and blue is apparently nearly as ardent as mine own. The guy's color contrast always puts me in mind of Maxfield Parrish. And in Chicken cheeks, his slightly just-past-normal expressions and colors are perfectly tuned to the subject matter.

And the subject matter is butts.

Yes, butts. But cute butts, not crass butts. Rhyming, alliterative, clever butts. Sure, it'll have the kids rolling on the floor (because - look - it's butts!) but it won't set parents to wincing, unless said parent is the type that thinks "caboose" as a term for "butt" is offensive. Or "patootie". Myself, I'd be thrilled if my children started using more creative terms, and I didn't have to hear "butt butt butt" all day.

I wonder where they picked that up?

A Penguin Story by Antoinette Portis - review

A Penguin Story by Antoinette Portis
Edna's whole world is white and black and blue, and she yearns for something else.

"'There is white ice for sliding,' says Edna. 'There is black night for seeing stars. There is blue sea for hunting fish. But there must be something else.'"

She is not Lost, or gay, or afraid to swim, or an unusual color (Not that I am saying there are too many penguin books out there - hey man you can NEVER have too many penguin books. Penguins are perfect for picture books - they are graphically interesting and inherently funny. My dad says they're pesty, but more on that later. I think they're funny - they waddle.)

I could quibble and say that Edna, living as she does in an environment wholly populated by carnivores, is surely acquainted with the color red, in addition to white, black, and blue, but really, how is Antoinette Portis going to work that in? "There is red blood when the seals come to visit." Yeah, no.

So anyway, Edna goes looking. And do you know what she finds? MY DAD, circa 1963! (or my uncle, circa 1961-1963, or my brother in 2001) Edna stumbles upon a detachment of scientists from USAP (formerly the United States Antarctic Research Program), who have been wearing the same shade of orange (cosmonaut orange, for high visibility on the ice) for more than fifty years.

Oh, wait, you wanted to know about the book? Well come on, it's Antoinette Portis. Not a Box is one of the most genius kid books of ALL TIME, and A Penguin Story is both different - doesn't have that empowering kid-is-the-one-who-gets-to-say-no thing going on - and the same - same terrific, simple drawings, excellent use of a limited color palette. Also, one strong, determined, curious, creative kid with a lot going on upstairs.

Further endorsement: immediately after reading A Penguin Story, the men in my family (aged 5, 7, and 44; none of whom have been to Antarctica - yet) grabbed the sidewalk chalk and drew portraits of Edna on our front walk. See if you can guess which man drew which picture:

Sheep Blast Off! by Nancy Shaw, illustrated by Margot Apple - review

Sheep Blast Off! by Nancy Shaw, illustrated by Margot Apple
Sheep in a Jeep was one of the first little-kid books we had after our first child was born - a worn book-fair paperback that I took little notice of... until I started reading aloud to said kid. "Sheep in a jeep on a hill that's steep," man, there is very little more pleasurable than reading fun, rhythmic rhymes like that.

Nancy Shaw followed up the success of that charming book by sending her sheep into a Shop, onto a Ship, Out to Eat, on a Hike, and now, into SPAAACE. And we may not review every entry in a series like this, but sometimes it's nice to revisit, see how things are doing, check if things have gotten stale.

Aaand, ok, well, they haven't. Margot Apple's colored pencil illustrations, are, if anything, more vibrant and expressive than ever before, with that luxurious depth of color and toothy quality you only get from colored pencil, and Nancy Shaw is still writing bouncy, metered lines that awfully fun to read aloud. "Around the world the rocket zips. Weightless sheep do jumps and flips." And you have got to love four-armed, green, suspiciously sheepy aliens.

Oink, Oink Benny by Barbo Lindgren and Olof Landström - review

Oink, Oink Benny by Barbo Lindgren and Olof Landström
Benny and his brother go outside. They play. They get muddy. They see their friends. They do some other stuff. They come home.

Oh yeah? Not jazzy enough for you? How about: "Max gets mad, is sent to his room, later eats dinner" for a plotline? Uh-huh that's what I thought. All Time Classik.

So tromp not on this simple simple funny funny might-have-been-actually-written-by-a-six-year-old book. Look for it. The illustrations are expressive and skillfully done, and cartoony and kind of Steig-y. Interesting dusty colors too.

Plus, this is translated from the Swedish, which is how I now know that pigs say "nöff nöff" in Swedish, which is not only a more accurate piece of onomatopoeia than "oink" but also easier to say without stripping your uvula.

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!

Wolfsnail by Sarah C. Campbell - review

Wolfsnail by Sarah C. Campbell
This should totally be the new series by Erin Hunter.

Grayshell and Slimie have finally found TrembleFoot's old territory under the composter, but Grayshell fears that all of his/her Broodmates have been killed or captured by Beakfaces. Slimie insists that they keep looking, and an old friend helps point the two snails on the path that the Broods followed many moons ago. S-l-o-w-l-y they continue their quest.

Right? I mean, anybody but me sick of those cats? No? Huh. I'm going to get a lot of hate mail, aren't I. Oh well.

Ok so Wolfsnail is not fiction. There will not be multiple sequelae. Wolfsnail: the Sliming, Part 4: The Robins Return: Red-breasted Death from Above is not in the offing. But I adore this book. It looks like your standard 32-page species monograph, and it is, really. Your first- or second-grader will get a short but pithy glimpse into the habits of the predatory wolfsnail, which eats other snails and slugs. Two sentences and one big photograph per page. But the prose! It's the music from Jaws:

"It climbs up.
Does the wolfsnail bite into a crisp hosta leaf?
No. Most land snails, such as this one, eat plants.
The wolfsnail eats meat."

Dun-DUN!

"The wolfsnail turns to follow the trail.
It moves faster than other snails."

Dun-dun dun-dun!

And it's not like the author is being facetious. From the Acknowledgments we learn that Sarah C. Campbell is a wolfsnail True Believer - she keeps the little buggers, and she and her husband took all the (very beautiful) pictures. She has clearly spent many, many hours observing them, in the process becoming fascinated as only an invertebrate can fascinate.

Why is that? People will watch an ant farm for ages. Beekeepers are maniacs. Really. Maniacs. No exceptions. And have you ever known a marine biologist who could look at any other animal once he or she had spent some time with an octopus? I know I haven't.

So let's hear it for the wolfsnail, freaky little hermaphroditic carnivore. He/she has already claimed one children's book author and her husband, and now one reviewer and her husband - read this book and join us.

Join us.

Big Kicks by Bob Kolar - review

Big Kicks by Bob Kolar
Biggie the Bear (seriously, we have a picture book character named Biggie now. I am relieved to note that the only attribute he appears to share with the Notorious B.I.G. is his size, and possibly an interest in midcentury modern decor) is kind of a solitary guy. He likes his stamp collection, and jazz, and peanut-butter-and-banana sandwiches, and so, when the soccer team knocks on his door because they are down a player, he is a little hesitant.

Rightfully so. Poor Biggie - the first time he tries to kick the ball, he falls flat on his butt.

You know, there are never enough books about kids being nervous about sports. There are REALLY never enough books about kids sucking at sports. Roasted Peanuts by Tim Egan is the only one I can come up with off the top of my head. I mean... sports! It's so fraught! Failure at sports resonates well into adult life - I just asked around the workroom, and both Dances With Chickens and The Admiral's Daughter remembered specific childhood incidents involving softball, field hockey, and in my case, the 400-meter hurdles - that had kind of scarred them for life.

So I like to see books like this, in which the kid doesn't succeed on the playing field, and the sky doesn't fall as a result. He doesn't become a better player through dedication and practice. A patient mentor doesn't materialize to drill him until he can return to the playing field triumphant. He doesn't all of a sudden discover a special skill that makes him a star (although in fact Biggie's clumsiness does win the game). No. Biggie has no skills, but he gives it a shot, and the other kids don't ridicule him, and he ends up joining the team - as a fan.

If only the late, great Biggie Smalls could have learned to sit on the sidelines too.


Oh, wait: also it's funny! When the team comes a-knockin', this is how it goes:

"I can't ask him," said Chicken Rabbit. "I'm too afraid."
"I can't ask him," said Twirly Squirrel. "I'm too little."
"I can't ask him," said Smelly Smell Skunk. "I'm too stinky."
"I forgot what to ask him," said Fluff the Duck.

Chicken Rabbit! that's funny!

Splash by Maria Van Lieshout - review

Splash! by Maria Van Lieshout
Is it the antidepressant Cymbalta that has those animated commercials with a depressed blob desultorily bobbing along, dribbling out a few tears, its flabby jiggle evoking the post-baby belly you'll never be able to lose? Oh no, excuse me, that's Zoloft. And, er, my problem.

Well, Splash! A little book about bouncing back is an awful lot like a Zoloft ad in book form. Splash is a little blue seal who is so depressed that the sight of him actually causes the SUN to lose interest in rising. Wracked by guilt, he tries to heave the Sun back into the sky with his head, bouncing it higher and higher until he realizes that he's having fun.

So: if you are bummed out, find someone else who is bummed out and hit them with your head until you crack yourself up. Hm. Is it wrong that that seems kind of reasonable to me? Got to be at least as effective as taking antidepressants until your sex drive dries up and your colon turns to rock.

But do I recommend it for little kids? Yeah. Huh. Splash! to me looks like the kind of book that therapists might keep in the waiting room - it's cute in a kind of rueful way. For actual kids, I'd recommend Taking a Bath with the Dog and Other Things that Make Me Happy over this one, because that book offers multiple practical options for cheering yourself up.