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The Merchant of Venice (Graphic Shakespeare) by Gareth Hinds - review

The Merchant of Venice (Graphic Shakespeare) by Gareth Hinds
I'll admit, The Merchant of Venice has never been my favorite play - smug Portia, gloomy Antonio, is it racist or is it a comment on racism: whatever, Shakespeare - but this condensation by Gareth Hinds is skilfully done. He manages to reduce giant long scenes of greeting and farewell to fairly snappy exchanges, while incorporating the famous and beautiful speeches from the play (the quality of mercy; prick us and do we not bleed) in a reasonably organic way. And I personally like the scratchy, sketchy grisaille drawing style - I think it suits the setting - though I know that some people find it a bit drab.

The thing is, though, putting The Merchant of Venice in a modern setting is always problematic. The juxtaposition of real peril - Antonio's trial and potential death - with the lighthearted naughty teasing that takes place between Antonio's newlywed pals comes off as even more jarring. When Portia and her maid Nerissa dress up as men, travel to Venice, and save the day, the audience is clearly meant to be as impressed as their husbands are - but in a modern context, we more or less expect Portia - beautiful, rich, smart Portia - to pull a Nancy Drew. If not a Buffy, for Pete's sake. Shylock is lucky she wasn't carrying a stake.

Speaking of Shylock, his poor treatment at the hands of the otherwise noble Antonio and his friends just doesn't make it when they're wearing tailored suits instead of jerkins and pantaloons. A guy in a suit who says he's going to spit on a Jew is, nowadays, an irredeemable douche - and it takes a story much longer than this one to show him as otherwise. (I can't help it - I'm thinking of Tony Soprano here.)

There are just too many problems with this particular play for it to be anything but a hot mess except when presented exactly as written and in historical context. This is not to say that this book isn't immensely superior to graphic novel adaptations of Shakespeare by other authors. It is: they're terrible. It's just that other plays have aged better. I look forward eagerly to Gareth Hinds's treatment of almost any of them, as I am currently on the lookout for his King Lear.

Labels: cybils, graphic novels, YA

Chiggers by Hope Larson - review

Chiggers by Hope Larson
I read this sweet-but-not-too-sweet graphic novel at the same time, and for the same reason (it's a Cybils nominee), as Betsy, Ms. Fuse #8, did, and I pretty much have to say... what she said.

Is that a cop-out? Yeahhh... but no! She just happens to have written just exactly what I'd've written (except, hrm, more words, 'cause of the part about me being lazy and sometimes being content to just go like, "ME LIKE," and I guess you'd have to say this current review would be an example of that).

Except that, unlike Betsy, I do have some memorable summer camp experiences, both as a camper, at Girl Scout camp and orchestra camp (I played oboe) and, if I'm not mistaken, some G&T camp where we read Walden Two and discussed behavior modification... and as a counselor, at a beautiful hippy-dippy camp up in Maine where I taught candle-making and fencing to Manhattan preteens wearing Echo and the Bunnymen t-shirts (in 1984). And reading Chiggers took me right back to camp, especially to Maine, and I found myself trying to remember the names of the girls in my cabin: tall Allison, shy Betsy, bubbly Deenie, and a girl we called Titsy, whose personality traits you may intuit all on your own.

Chiggers is terrific that way - the art, the plot, the characters all ring true. Even the trees look just right. Why, I remember the morning I found a dead mouse in a trap, and since I didn't have my glasses on I had to bring it right up to my face to see what it was, and then... but I guess that's a story for another blog.

Labels: cybils, girl books, graphic novels, superstar books, YA

The Three Robbers by Tomi Ungerer - review

The Three Robbers by Tomi Ungerer
Here's an old book that is worth a fresh look. Originally published in 1962, the same year as Where the Wild Things Are , The Three Robbers is a weird little tale of three fierce little criminals in tall black caps and cloaks.

Armed with a blunderbuss, a pepper blower, and an alarmingly large axe, the three hold up carriages and steal the passengers' cash, jewels, watches, and bearer bonds, then take the loot back to their cave. One night, they hold up a carriage containing only a little orphan named Tiffany, who is en route to live with a "wicked aunt" and only too happy to have been intercepted. The robbers take her back to the cave and give her a place to sleep. In the morning, taking stock of her surroundings, she asks, "What is all this treasure for?" and the robbers are stumped, never having considered spending their booty.

Together, the robbers and Tiffany decide to round up all the lost and abandoned children they can find and buy a castle for them to live in. All the kids get red capes and tall red hats like the robbers' black ones, and when they grow up, they build houses near the castle, and a lovely little town is born.

Reading this to my kindergartner last night, I at first thought of monastery towns. The robbers in their capes reminded me of monks in their habits, and the ending kind of reeks of folktale (reeks in a nice way - reeking like potato soup with lots of garlic, say). The story has something of a Bremen Town Musicians vibe to it, and I was wondering if it was the kind of story a child would make up about a medieval orphanage run by monks.

My mind kept catching on the robbers' cluelessness about their loot. That is very kid. Arguably, that's specifically very boy. With them, the goal is the action (in this case, robbing) - the action is rarely the means to the goal. Whereas girls, in my observation, often have more complex goals in mind, and develop strategies - sometimes mind-boggling complex strategies - in order to attain them.

Ergo, you could read The Three Robbers as an allegory of play. Three boys are playing their pointless yet fun game; a girl comes along; they charitably include her in their play; she doesn't get it, but figures out an extension to their game that makes sense to her, and they end up building a doll hospital for her.

You could also just enjoy this book for the hats. I love the hats.

Labels: age: PreK - Grade3, picture books, superstar books

Not the End of the World by Geraldine McCaughrean - review

Not the End of the World by Geraldine McCaughrean.
Geraldine McCaughrean is one prolific and well-rounded person. She writes adaptations of classical literature for children (Gilgamesh. Odyssey. Cyrano. etc.). She won the contest to write the sequel to Peter Pan. She writes reg'lar old adventure novels. And she wrote Not the End of the World, a "realistic" retelling of the story of Noah and his family, complete with onboard predation, physical and psychological brutality, manure, and moldy grain.

Yeah man, it's a wild premise. Our main narrator is Noah's daughter Timna, who gradually begins to question her father's version of what's going on and why; but most of the other humans and some of the animals on the ark weigh in with their points of view as well. I think it could be an important book for a kid who is learning to discern alternate perspectives, who is beginning to, you know, question the dominant paradigm.

Certainly I've never spent much time parsing the story of the Flood - I'm a big wintry atheist and I think it's all B.S. So Ms. McCaughrean's thoughtful and thoroughly imagined book took me somewhere I've never been.

I would press this book into the hands of every potentially open-minded kid I came across - if I weren't worried about the parents. You can call me a coward but I would really run it by the parents first. I would hate it if a hypothetical Malka and Elisheva weren't allowed back at the the library because some pink-haired propagandist librarian (that's me!) suggested a book that gave their parents hives.

Labels: fiction, superstar books, YA

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - review

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
I do approve of science fiction for teenage girls - too much fiction aimed at young women is vapid and self-fulfilling. And I habitually enjoy post-apocalyptic worlds. Also, nothing wrong with a little ultra-violence of the type the kids in this book must engage in. Plus, it's Suzanne Collins, my go-to gal in the children's section - I have yet to meet a kid (boy OR girl) who didn't thank me for introducing them to Ms. Collins's friend Gregor.

So why am I not jumping up and down about The Hunger Games? Let me break it down.

1.
If I think young adult fiction has a mission, and sometimes I think it does, I think it should be to cause young people to question things that have been presented to them - truths (Not the End of the World by Geraldine McCaughrean), values (Uglies), government (Little Brother), commerce (So Yesterday), etc. Ok, yeah granted, books can be just fun too. That's fine. But speculative fiction particularly has this opportunity - because the context of the story is so different, the elements of the book's world that are the same as ours stand out in higher relief.

And to make a long sentence short, I don't think The Hunger Games takes that opportunity. There's no one element that is terribly similar to our world. Even the 'reality show' that is the titular Hunger Games is so dissimilar to our reality shows - watching it is mandatory - that it's hard to tell what, if any, comparison Ms. Collins is inviting.

2.
I found the insertion of a little romance to be tedious. It felt like it was jammed in there to make the book more palatable to the teen girls. I'd like to think that not all teenage girls NEED romance for a book to be relevant to their interests.

I thought when the romance became a major part of the Uglies series, that's where it bogged down. God knows if the next Hunger Games books are all about Katniss choosing between Baker Boy and Hunter Guy, I will be disappointed.

3.
I thought the very best parts of the book were the chapters that described Katniss's home town and the capital city. Suzanne Collins does wonderful detail, as we know from Gregor, and her alternate worlds are richly and roundly imagined and full of dirt and vistas and infrastructure.

I am hoping that Katniss takes a tour of all the districts of her world in the next two books, and leaves both those boys behind.

Labels: adventure, fiction, girl books, science fiction, YA

Manjiro: The boy who risked his life for two countries, by Emily Arnold McCully - review

Manjiro: The boy who risked his life for two countries, by Emily Arnold McCully
Beautifully illustrated. Packed with detail. A suspenseful story. I'm not too sure what else to say, except that it's a shame all of the preceding phrases have been completely leached of meaning by overuse, like a beautiful cotton kimono that has grown faded and fragile after six months on the back of a teenage Japanese fisherman stranded on a rocky island eating albatross eggs and drinking rainwater to stay alive.

Detail. Suspense. Beautiful illustrations. More information. I'm gonna find something to nominate it for. Wow.

Labels: age: Grade3 and up, biography, history, nonfiction, picture books

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.

Labels: age: adult children, age: Grade1 and up, animals, problem solving

Manfish: A story of Jacques Cousteau by Jennifer Berne, illustrated by Eric Puybaret - review

Manfish: A story of Jacques Cousteau by Jennifer Berne, illustrated by Eric Puybaret
I read this picture book biography of the original too-tan diver/explorer/conservationist/filmmaker, the man who made a watch cap look GOOD, out loud to my two boys yesterday and I have these things to say:

1. Who knew that Jacques Cousteau was such a genius? I didn't know he invented the aqualung! I didn't know the research vessel Calypso was a surplus French Navy ship! And I didn't know he was such a film guy!


2. My kids were captivated.


3. My kids kept begging me to quit with the Marseilles accent.

My friend Molly picked it up this afternoon and enjoyed it just as much as I did. But she said, "I was a little disappointed with the illustrations," and I concur.

I just adored the turn-the-book-90-degrees foldout spread... the reader descends through three pages of undersea illustration as the text describes the "strange and shimmering ocean land of swaying plants and ocean creatures" (and just try reading that out loud without the Sunday night Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau accent!); and I love the endpapers, illustrated with paintings of strips of film. But I would expect a biography of Jacques Cousteau, especially one that emphasizes the role of photography in his life, to be more... vividly illustrated. What we got as kids, watching National Geographic specials, besides a sense of the impact of white as a fashion statement and a strong visual reminder to always wear sunscreen, were images of fantastic creature after fantastic creature looming out of the undersea murk. The illustrations in Manfish are just a bit... tamer than that.

Reading Manfish by Jennifer Byrne

This book is nominated for a Cybils award, and rightly so.

Labels: age: Grade1 and up, biography, nonfiction, picture books

Tyrannosaurus Drip by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by David Roberts - review

Tyrannosaurus Drip by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by David Roberts
David Roberts does it again. The artist who brought us Pucci dresses and dirty diapers in Iggy Peck, Architect, and Kate Bush albums recycled as art in The Dumpster Diver proves that he is equally adept at portraying the natural world.

Tyrannosaurus Drip is the story of a duckbill dinosaur who hatches in a T. rex nest. Talk about your fish out of water. There's a whole bunch of back and forth about the Tyrannosaurs trying to eat the duckbills, and the baby veggie-saur not fitting in with his meat-eating parents, as you might expect, but the real joy here is the syncopated, funky rhythmic language.

And they shouted, "Up with hunting!" And they shouted, "Up with war!" And they shouted, "Up with bellyfuls of duckbill dinosaur!"

Julia Donaldson is responsible for a couple of my favorite books of the last couple of years: Charlie Cook's Favorite Book and The Spiffiest Giant in Town, not to mention The Gruffalo. And somehow David Roberts makes prehistoric trees and ferns and even hadrosaurs look like cool midcentury floor lamps. Cool midcentury floor lamps with personality. Would somebody hand this guy an award already?

Labels: age: PreK - Grade3, funny, picture books, superstar books

Magic Trixie by Jill Thompson - review

Magic Trixie by Jill Thompson
Oh, I love Halloween. It's got to be my favorite time of year. The weather is getting nippy but not too cold yet, and there's nothing more satisfying to me than kicking though the dry leaves on the sidewalk. Plus, the iconography is exciting and adaptable - black cats can be adorable or scary, witches can be gruesome or slinky, spiders can be big and hairy and icky... or tiny and delicate and fascinating. Let's not forget the color scheme. Does not orange and black beat red and green any day? Christmas takes one tone: heartwarming... while Halloween has endless variations. Your Halloween might be all naughty nurse-y; Martha Stewart's Halloween is classy; and my Halloween is... well, it's different every time.

Which might be why I loved Magic Trixie so much. Jill Thompson has drawn up a set of monsters, witches and ghosts that are hip and fabulous, from Trixie's grandma Mimi, with her green fishnets, peacock-feather broom, and wide purple snakeskin belt cinching her coy black minidress... to Trixie's goofy school friend Stitch, who looks just like any cool second-grade boy, with unruly black hair and long cargo shorts, except for the fact that he's stitched together from parts of corpses and can unzip his head and show off his brain when it's his turn for show and tell.

(Or it might be the pink hair.)

This first book in the Trixie series glories in introducing these characters. There's a nice little plot involving Trixie accepting her baby sister, but the real joy is in learning about spitfire Trixie and finding out what fresh visual fun is waiting on the next page. Jill Thompson, a multiple Eisner winner, knows her craft. Page layouts flow seamlessly, making this one of the smoothest graphic novel reads I've ever seen. Colors balance, with Trixie's wild orange / pink hair and acid green hatband contrasting beautifully with her black clothes and generally subdued backgrounds.

And every page holds a treat, whether it's a glimpse of Grandpa's dragon tattoo or Trixie's fly backpack.

I am delighted to find that Trixie has her own blog, full of extra pictures and Trixie's own observations.

Labels: age: Grade3 and up, funny, girl books, graphic novels, superstar books

Babymouse #9: Monster Mash by Jennifer Holm and Matthew Holm - review

Babymouse #9: Monster Mash by Jennifer Holm and Matthew Holm
Your neighborhood librarian: So, Nature Girl, you snatched up this book before I had a chance to read it. What is it that you like about Babymouse?
Nature Girl: She's funny! and she has wild imagination.
YNL: Does she remind you of anyone you know?
NG: No.
NG: Except Lucy. Lucy can be crazy.
YNL: What was your favorite page?
NG: The one where her eyeball falls out!
YNL: What's different about this Babymouse book?
NG: This one's about Halloween.
YNL: Anything else?
NG: They wrap a guy's house in toilet paper?
YNL: And... it's orange?
NG: Oh yeah, orange.
YNL: You say that Babymouse has a really good imagination. How can you tell when she's imagining things?
NG: Cause it's pink. But in this case, it's orange.
YNL: Who's your favorite character besides Babymouse?
NG: Probably the big cat.
YNL: Felicia?
NG: Yeah Felicia.
YNL: What do you like about Felicia? Isn't Felicia kind of mean to Babymouse?
NG: Wulll... in Babymouse's dreams, Felicia is always the villain, but in Babymouse camp, when she's imagining, a badger and Felicia were camping and they were like scratched up and stuff, and there starts to be a big thing of pink, and Babymouse comes out, and they're like, attaching to her legs, because in her imagination, Babymouse is the hero, so Felicia really likes her instead of bossing her around.
YNL: Would you like to see that?
NG: I would like to see that more often.
YNL: Would it be just as great if it didn't have pictures?
NG: No.
YNL: What's good about it having pictures?
NG: So you don't have to just read, so like little kids can just look at it.
YNL: Well how about you? You can read.
NG: I just like the pictures, because sometimes they're funny. You get to see her face, like here she's going AAAAAGHH!
YNL: Is this one better than the other Babymouses?
NG: Nnnn... I reallly like the puppy one the best.

Well Nature Girl, that's all I have to ask. I would like to thank you for taking part in this year's Cybils awards process.
Well, you're welcome. Are you going to give us Sharpie tattoos again today?
Why not!

Labels: age: Grade1 and up, cybils, funny, girl books, graphic novels, historical fiction

The Lindbergh Child (A Treasury of XXth Century Murder) by Rick Geary - review

The Lindbergh Child (A Treasury of XXth Century Murder) by Rick Geary

It's tough not to love Rick Geary. That fussy, old-fashioned style: all those millions of parallel contour lines, his little crenellated edge lines, the beautiful hand lettering... all of it making everything he illustrates look so elegant and classy and clean. Which is so great, because, by and large, lately, Rick Geary illustrates crime.

This contrast nets the most tee-hees in the truly grisly stories - I think I remember reading The Borden Tragedy when it came out, and I seem to recall he does a nice job with severed limbs - but even absent any gore, The Lindbergh Child is an engrossing read.

I am very pleased to have it as an addition to the True Crime nonfiction shelves, and even more pleased that the lack of nudity or profanity gives me carte blanche to recommend it to anyone who can hack the history. About grade 4 and up.

Labels: age: adult children, age: Grade5 and up, graphic novels, history, nonfiction, YA

Wonder Bear by Tao Nyeu - review

Wonder Bear by Tao Nyeu
I'm not usually sucked in by the wordless beautiful magical dream journey type of picture book. I'm one of the few people I know who wasn't entranced by The House in the Night. Imagine a Night leaves me worse than cold. And I seem to remember some kind of flying magic bed book that made me actually groan.

But man, I love Wonder Bear. I love the wordless narrative - so simple that even a five-year-old can follow and predict, yet so subtle that his older brother will find repetitions and clues to the dream logic at work.

I love the technique - Tao Nyeu does some neat things with layering colors in her silk screen prints; I love the colors, and I love the style. The bulbous shapes, repeating patterns, and swirly clouds make me think of Central Asian and Siberian embroidery: simple shapes that gain strength through repetition. I'm totally going to steal some of her tree shapes for my niece's baby blanket.

This book has been given the high-class treatment by Dial. Lush, toothy paper, large size, and a dust jacket that is not merely a repeat of the book's cover. You can tell that someone on Hudson Street thinks this book is something special. For once, I really have to agree.

Plus: MONKEYS!

Labels: gift books, picture books, superstar books, wordless

Cybils nominations open now!

I'm on the Graphic Novels panel for the Cybils this year, and I couldn't be more pleased! So far I have read some fantastic nominated books, and... a couple duds. Hey man, that's why it's called "judging".

If you have read a fantastic marvelous kids' book this year (and who hasn't, I ask?) get on over to the Cybils blog and nominate that book for an award.

Here are the details:

Nominations for the third annual Children's and Young Adult Bloggers'Literary Awards (the Cybils) are open now through Wednesday, October 15th. The goal of the Cybils team (some 100 bloggers) is to highlight books that are high in both literary quality and kid appeal.

This year, awards will be given in nine categories:

• Easy Readers


• Fantasy & Science Fiction


• Fiction Picture Books


• Graphic Novels


• Middle Grade Novels


• Non-Fiction Middle Grade/Young Adult Books


• Non-Fiction Picture Books


• Poetry


• Young Adult Fiction

Anyone can nominate books in these categories(one nomination per person per category). Nominated titles must be published between January 1st and October 15th of this year, and the books must be in English (or bilingual, where one of the languages is English). To nominate titles, visit the Cybils blog (http://www.cybils.com/) between now and 15th. A separate post is available for each category - simply nominate by commenting on those individual posts. If you are not sure which category to choose for a particular book, a questions thread will also be available.

Between October 16th and January 1st, Cybils panelists (children's and young adult bloggers) will winnow the nominations down to a 5-7 book short list for each category. A second set of panelists will then select the winning titles for the different categories. The winners will be announced on February 14th, 2009.

The Cybils lists, from long lists to short lists (http://dadtalk.typepad.com/cybils/finalists/index.html) to the lists of winners (http://dadtalk.typepad.com/cybils/2007/02/the_2006_cybils.html), offer a wonderful resource to anyone looking for high-quality, kid-friendly books. The Cybils team has worked hard to balance democracy (anyone can nominate titles) with quality control (two rounds of panel judging by people who focus on children's books every day). They do this work because they consider it vital to get great books into the hands of children and young adults.

If you are a Goodreads person and you want to keep up with my progress on the Graphic Novels, here's my (rather loose) list.

Labels: cybils, graphic novels

Who Made This Cake? text and English translation by Chihiro Nakagawa, illustrations by Junji Koyose - review

Who Made This Cake? text and English translation by Chihiro Nakagawa, illustrations by Junji Koyose
Wonderful! Hundreds of tiny little hard-hatted construction workers use their (comparatively) giant construction vehicles to make a birthday cake for a truck-loving little boy. One huge excavator holds an egg over the batter while another excavator uses its drill attachment to break the egg, and flatbed trucks transport the eggs to the site and the broken eggshells away. Little people in bright boots consult plans, keep the site clean, ride a cherry-picker high into the air to push the button on the oven, and communicate via walkie-talkie. We love a book with lots of little details.

When they bring the helicopter out to lower the "Happy Birthday" card onto the top of the (very tasty-looking) cake, you just want to cheer. What a terrific birthday present this is going to be for some lucky kid!

Endpaper bonus: the tiny folk at leisure - painting, singing, playing ball, reading, and just hanging out.

Pink Me reader bonus: Check out Kikki's Workshop, the Komatsu company's website for kids. Not associated with the book, but full of all the massive construction equipment that certain little people love.

Labels: boy books, diverse cultures, picture books, superstar books

South by Patrick McDonnell - review

South by Patrick McDonnell
The first two-page spread of this gorgeous little picture book made me catch my breath. On the left we see the top half of a tree, bare of leaves and full of little yellow birds, all looking in the same direction and each with a pair of eighth-notes hanging in the air overhead. On the right, it's the same view of the same tree, and all the birds are on the wing and flying out of sight. So minimal, but you can feel the chill in the air, hear their wings, see them fly.

The rest of the book is just as expressive, just as minimal, and displays, in a way that is probably difficult to discern in a tiny newspaper strip, just how good Patrick McDonnell, the creator of Mutts, is with a brush. Big hearts come in small packages sometimes.

Would make a lovely thank-you gift for a friend who has helped when you were in a jam, a talented teacher, or someone who has just pointed you on your way. I'll have to remember this one at the end of the school year.

Labels: age: adult children, gift books, picture books, superstar books, wordless

Fartiste by Kathleen Krull and Paul Brewer, illustrated by Boris Kulikov - review

Fartiste by Kathleen Krull and Paul Brewer, illustrated by Boris Kulikov

"One minute, by chance, he was flexing his gut.
The next, he had sounds coming out of his butt!"

Oh my god. If I did this for storytime, the screams of laughter would collapse the school. Nobody would even hear me after page two. It would be like that Duran Duran concert I went to by accident in 1983.

I think readings of Fartiste should be confined to small groups. Many, many, many small groups.
See, NOT ONLY is Joseph Pujol able to control the tone and tempo of his gas - so much so that apparently the guy could fart out songs and do realistic sound effects - which makes for a pretty funny story, but Boris Kulikov's illustrations are extremely funny. We see a seagull surprised by a fart, we see Joseph putting out the gaslights at the theater - with his butt! - we see his audiences by turns horrified and convulsed with laughter.

Best of all, Joseph Pujol was a real person, and the authors have included a brief account of his star-studded career, plus a list of sources, including Baz Luhrmann's musical Moulin Rouge!. I knew I loved that crazy movie for a reason!

Labels: biography, funny, picture books, superstar books

The Queen of Style by Caralyn Buehner and Mark Buehner - review

The Queen of Style by Caralyn Buehner and Mark Buehner
I haven't done this in a while - sat down with a stack of promising-looking picture books and reviewed them regardless of whether or not I particularly like them. I cheated a little today, I had many many to choose from and I really did pick only the most promising-looking.

The Queen of Style looks promising for the saucer-eyed, enthusiastic-looking Queen on the cover and her happily fancied-up subjects. Closer inspection reveals a fun, cute story with lots of color and terrific facial expressions, plus a nice little lesson about consideration and listening at the end.

Not just for girls, due in part to the reactions of Queen Sophie's farmers and sheep. They don't look all that thrilled to be getting manicures and perms!

Labels: age: Grade1 and up, funny, picture books, problem solving

xkcd sums it up

With notable exceptions (Susan Cooper), you could draw this same graph with "Number of ordinary words appearing with an initial capital" on the x axis.

The Realms. The People. The Curse. The Land. The Plumber. The Ennui!

Labels: fantasy, fiction