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First picture book roundup of 2015 - I'm going on a dragon hunt!

Here I am back at work after a little Holiday holiday. I can see my tan hands on the keyboard and still don't actually believe that they were paddling through salt water a little more than a week ago. SIGH.

 

SIGH!

Before we get down to this big ol' stack of picture books I've devoured since returning (FROM THE CARIBBEAN HOLY CRAP), may I politely mention a series of posts on Pink Me's red-headed step-sister blog, Your Neighborhood Librarian. Children's literature devotees of legal drinking age may enjoy these posts featuring authors and characters from teen and young adult fiction. There's more swearing over there, but you're a grownup.

Speaking of swearing, let's have a look at the picture books that have caught my eye this chilly first week in January:

Captain Cat by Inga Moore - review

Captain Cat is a crazy-eyed, cat-lovin', Santa-bearded old sailing man. After a lifetime as a sort of less-than mediocre trader (he tends to swap valuable goods for worthless felines), Captain Cat decides it's finally time to see the places on his bucket list. Blown way off course by a really nicely drawn storm, he and his crowd of cats fetch up at a sweet, wealthy, rat-infested remote island presided over by a skinny-legged wild-haired Queen. With her unhinged grin and mens' shoes, the Queen is kind of like a tropical Pippi.

MAN this is a great story. I'm not kidding.

The Goldilocks Variations, words by Allan Ahlberg, pictures by Jessica Ahlberg - review

A new MAD Magazine anthology has been published, celebrating - errr, "celebrating" - 60 years of, as they call it, "humor, satire, stupidity and stupidity." Good old MAD. It's where we went for dumb grunting laughs before God invented Homer Simpson.

And although sometimes it's easy to forget the huge amount of satire in MAD, MAD is also kind of where we went for snarky, well-informed chuckles before God invented Jon Stewart.

AND it was our source of slightly baffled grins while we were still too young to be well-informed or snarky. In fact, MAD was making snide remarks long before "snark" was anything other than some kind of bandersnatch variant.

Benny's Brigade by Arthur Bradford, pictures by Lisa Hanawalt - review

I have been in a weird mood all day. I just finished reading a really cool and funny adult sci-fi novel (Year Zero by Rob Reid), plus I'm by myself in the house, my whole entire family being out of town, and I'm working the evening shift. So I feel a little unreal.

And then the first picture book I picked up at work today features a pocket-size walrus who emerges from an oversized walnut. Yeah. I should just start drinking right away, don't you think?

 

Nonfiction Monday - Ancient Egypt: Tales of Gods and Pharaohs by Marcia Williams - review

Do you love Marcia Williams? I love Marcia Williams. Marcia Williams is a British illustrator and author. She writes large-format, intensively-illustrated adaptations of classical literature for kids.

Let me tell you how great this is: lots of little kids get into tales of adventure, and then their parents think to themselves, "Oh, I'll bet he would love Robin Hood!" Or King Arthur, or the story of Troy, etc. And then they ask the librarian - "I want him to read King Arthur." Whereupon the librarian is like, "Errr... you know that adultery and patricide play a big part in that story, right? Is he ready for The Sword in the Stone?"

Nursery Rhyme Comics: 50 Timeless rhymes from 50 celebrated cartoonists - review

FIFTY ARTISTS FIFTY! It's like a Ziegfeld chorus line up in this fine large-format comic anthology, except hairier. And less able to walk and sing at the same time. Probably really bad at doing anything in unison.

 

From "Hush Little Baby" by Mo Oh. I love her line and her delicate colors.

Fifty of your favorite comics artists have taken on 50 old-fashioned nursery rhymes, resulting in an anthology that is funny, strange, sweet, and surprising. Some of the artists, like Nick Bruel (Bad Kitty) and Marc Rosenthal (Phooey!), are familiar names in children’s publishing; others, like the talented Mo Oh (Lily Renee, Escape Artist, which is not a good example of her sweet and funny style) and Jen Wang (Koko Be Good), are relative newcomers.

Fractured Fables from Silverline Books - review

Kids who like the Little Lit titles (It Was a Dark and Silly Night..., Folklore and Fairy Tale Funnies) will cackle over this collection of familiar tales given an irreverent twist. Rapunzel thinks the prince's request to 'let down her hair' is 'really random'. Gepetto injures his hand trying to spank his robot son after the Blue Fairy grants the wish that makes Pinocchio a real boy. Red Riding Hood's Grandma runs a martial arts academy. Cinderella rejects the lovely blue ballgown provided by her fairy godmother - she was thinking more "Anne Hathaway at the Oscars".

Electronic Thursday: The Three Pandas by Valerie Mih and See Here Studios - review

 The Three Pandas by Valerie Mih and See Here Studios

Little Mei Mei goes walking in the forest and smells something yummy. Why, it's the three bowls of bamboo porridge that Mama, Papa, and Baby Panda left on their table while they took a walk! Mmm, that baby panda's porridge is 只是权 (just right)!

Layered photo collage is the medium for the gorgeous but friendly illustrations. Not too flashy, with homey interiors featuring Chinese furnishings and decor, and lovely misty exteriors depicting a sunny clearing in the bamboo forest. Mei Mei is adorable, with a giant toothy smile, and the pandas are just the giant balls of fluffy fur that pandas always are. I like the unobtrusive music, all tinkly piano and clarinet notes, though I confess I might have wished for more Chinese instrumentation.

AND IT'S BILINGUAL. Why does not every single dang iPad app give the user multiple language options? (Note: IT'S EASY.) The Chinese narration is clear and expressive. My picture book app review buddy, four-year-old Baby A, got a big kick out of listening to the app in Chinese and telling me the story, as if she were translating.

 

J. Otto Seibold presents Other Goose! - review

Since we've been on a singing, storytiming kick lately, I thought I'd offer this Bizarro World Christmas carol my husband Bob made up once:

 

Christmas is going, the goose forgot his hat,
Please throw a penny at the old man's cat.
If he hasn't got a cat, then throw it at his head -
If you throw it at his head then he might be dead.

 

You got that? Have we set the tone, as it were, for this review?

The Big Big Big Book of Tashi by Anna and Barbara Fienberg, and Kim Gamble - review

Zhou, rising 2nd grader, seven years old: So what's up, Mom?

Your Neighborhood Librarian: Tell me about Tashi.

Z: Tashi is a book for boys and girls, and it's kind of a fairy tale. It has fairy-tale creatures and not-fairy-tale creatures in the same book. I love how there's the big actual story, which is this little elf man called Tashi comes to a new country after he's been sold to this really mean warlord by his parents for some reason, and then Tashi meets Jack, his new friend, and this Jack has his own garden and when he goes up the tree he tells stories, at lunch, and he tells Jack stories, and Jack tells stories to his mom and dad, and his dad is all worried about socks in one story. That's why dad is kind of funny.

YNL: So there are multiple stories in one book, and some of them are told by Tashi to Jack and some are told by Jack to his parents.

Z: Yup. It's very common to see parents telling a bedtime story but in this one it's the parents saying, "Tell me a story! Tell me another Tashi story!"

 

¿Quieres algúnos libros bilingüe?

I've got two, both courtesy the Rayo imprint of HarperCollins, and, honestly, they're both so great that I don't even have much to say about them.

Muu, Moo! Rimas de animales / Animal Nursery Rhymes, selected by Alma Flor Alma and F. Isabel Campoy, English versions by Rosalma Zubizarreta, illustrated by Viví Escrivá.

Once Upon a Time: Traditional Latin American Tales / Había una vez: Cuentos tradicionales latinoamericanos, by Rueben Martínez, illustrated by Raúl Colón.

There is no reason any school or public library should be without these two books. Yeah, I said it. The beautifully textured and colored illustrations are of the highest quality, made in paint and pencil by artists who invest their work with detail and thought. The selected folktales and nursery rhymes - some new, some traditional - are interesting and unusual and have a lyrical quality in both languages, good for reading aloud. My hat is off to Harper Collins for putting this kind of investment into bilingual picture books this year.

Cloud Tea Monkeys by Mal Peet and Elspeth Graham, illustrated by Juan Wijngaard - review

Stunningly atmospheric, this simple, dramatic tale reads a bit like Jorge Luis Borges for kids - realistic and immediate, but with a drop of magic and luck. Tashi lives with her mother, a tea picker in the foothills of the Himalayas. Their day is described in beautifully descriptive sensory terms, from the sweet scent of their morning tea to the "blurred red globe" of the sun on their walk home from work.

Every day, Tashi shares her lunch with the monkeys who frequent the tea fields. When her mother becomes too sick to work, Tashi tries to take over the picking, so that there will be money for a doctor, but she is too small to manage the heavy basket and reach the top of the tea bushes. Despondent, she takes refuge under a tree with the monkeys and cries until she falls asleep. She awakes to find that her kindness has been repaid - the monkeys have filled her basket with the rarest wild tea, the tea that the Royal Tea Taster will pay for in gold, enabling Tashi and her mother to live out their days in peace and health. It's magic realism, Himalayan style.

In an Author's Note, Mal and Elspeth say that they came up with this story after having read many tales involving tea from the Himalayas. They do not say that they've traveled to the region, but I've been to tea plantations in India, and I find it hard to believe that they could so sensitively describe the light, the mist, the way the day progresses without having been there. I could almost smell the tea growing.

The ink and gouache illustrations are likewise marvelous. Juan Wijngaard has a lovely light touch, and great dexterity in capturing the muted colors of early morning, the tea fields in the strong midday sun, and dappled shade alike. His fine-line ink drawings are breathtaking. I'm looking for more from him as we speak.

The Witch's Guide to Cooking with Children by Keith McGowan, with illustrations by Yoko Tanaka - review

Like a Hal Hartley movie for children, this book follows two siblings through a couple of days in an innocuous, unnamed suburban town that is new to them. There are perils - an old lady wants to eat them and the town librarian is untrustworthy. Notably, their own parents (who are not really their parents) want to get rid of them. Yes, it's Hansel & Gretel in the Twenty-first Century.

But Sol and Connie can handle it. Quirky in an understated way, resourceful and brave, the siblings face their fears, reconcile their emotions, and outwit the witch in a remarkably implacable way. I'm not kidding. Hal Hartley for kids. It's weird.

But weird funny, not weird weird, and not without suspense. The tone is calm, almost austere, throwing the more unusual bits of dialogue and plot into sharp relief. My kids, at least, really responded to the author's matter-of-fact presentation. No punches pulled, but no excess build-up either.

Yoko Tanaka is the perfect illustrator for this tale, by the way. Her big-eyed figures are just alien enough, and her landscapes are just normal enough, to underscore the dreamy sense of disconnect that runs through McGowan's prose.

I will say that the ending, which is rather abrupt and extremely inconclusive, outraged my boys. This reaction is confirmed by my friend Psychic Friend, who listened to the book on CD while baking cookies with her daughter. I'm expecting a sequel, but I kind of wish I weren't. Don't tell the kids, but I LIKED the ending!

The Duchess of Whimsy by Randall de Sève and Peter de Sève - review

The Duchess of Whimsy by Randall de Sève and Peter de Sève

Oh, I like this. I like the lavishly insouciant colored pencil and watercolor illustrations. I like the fun, fancy Duchess, with her penchant for "elaborate attire" and "uncommon conversation." I like the Earl of Norm, who, although he is an intrinsically rather quiet guy, really enjoys the Duchess's spirit, and tries to spice himself up with fancy clothes and a giraffe. And I like that, in the end, he wins her over with a grilled cheese sandwich, and they find that they have more in common than they knew. I love that Randall and Peter de Sève are married and live in Brooklyn with their two daughters. Sigh. Love!

Aaaand... now I'm hungry.

Cake Girl by David Lucas - review

Cake Girl by David Lucas
The witch is alone on her birthday, again. So she bakes a cake girl, a multilayered, bonbon-studded, iced and sugar-sparkled confection. And because she is a witch, her cake girl comes to life. Cake Girl sings and dances for the witch, she does the housework, but when she is told that afterwards she shall be eaten, she starts to think for herself.

The cake girl, who looks a lot like one of the painted wooden figurines in a German crib mobile that used to hang in my bedroom, becomes the witch's first friend, and, I am guessing, first therapist. The witch, who looks a lot like my grandma, except green, and wearing pink pointy high heels with a buckle (witches always have the best shoes), learns that fun is not a spectator sport.

It's lighthearted, it's a treat visually, and it has a lovely, satisfying happy ending that, despite Cake Girl's confectionery provenance, is healthy-sweet, not sugary-sweet.

David Lucas's pen and ink and watercolor art is decidedly old-school here - perfectly consonant with his tale of a straight-out-of-the-forest warty green witch. The witch is the sweetest, squattest magical lady since Strega Nona, and even the title on the front cover looks like James Marshall's Cinderella. His curves are round and strong, and his angles are open: every object and figure in this book feels balanced and solid, a nice counterpoint to the sparkles and stars and puffs of magic smoke that Lucas sprinkles in to his edges and backgrounds. The wealth of detail will reward the individual reader, but the art is not too eensy for a small storytime. Fun for Halloween, fun for birthdays, fun in general!

Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Lauren Child, photography by Polly Borland, set creation by Emily L. Jenkins - review

Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Lauren Child, photography by Polly Borland, set creation by Emily L. Jenkins

Goldilocks is a doll. A beautifully made wool felt doll with a head full of honey curls and a sultry, sultry gaze. The bears are dolls. Fuzzy, immaculately-dressed, bears with birdlike eyes.

AAAAAAAGHHH!!

Wait, maybe I am too quick to judge. The sets are very cute and dollhousey. The dedications page is interesting and beautiful. But somewhere, the ageless ghost of Dare Wright is working herself up into a delusional jealous frenzy. And dolls - they just freak me right out.

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.

Labels: age: PreK - Grade3, animals, folk/fairy, picture books, superstar books, wordless

Bone Soup by Cambria Evans - review

Bone Soup by Cambria Evans
I am a sucker for illustrations with little diagram arrows. They funny. And on the first page of this Halloweeny version of the old Stone Soup story, we get big arrows pointing to little Finnegan's special eating stool, his eating spoon, and his big, wide, friendly Eating Mouth.

Deep, spectral colors balance the cuteness of Cambria Evans's pen and ink zombies, monsters and other spookies.

A winner for Halloween and beyond.

Labels: age: PreK - Grade3, folk/fairy, holidays

Tops and Bottoms, adapted and illustrated by Janet Stevens - review

Tops and Bottoms, adapted and illustrated by Janet Stevens

Janet Stevens always draws the most... animated animal characters. They fully seem to wiggle on the page, to wink at you, to flop, flap or flee. And in Tops and Bottoms, Janet has found a story worthy of her fabulous animals.

A quick gardening fable about lazy vs. hard-working and clever, it could also be read as a pre-industrial economic fable: landowner vs. serf. But that would pretty much take all the fun out of it. Eat your veggies and read this book.

Labels: age: PreK - Grade3, animals, folk/fairy, picture books

Snoring Beauty by Bruce Hale, illustrated by Howard Fine - review

Snoring Beauty by Bruce Hale, illustrated by Howard Fine
This is not a bedtime book. This is not a book for the gentle reader. No, Snoring Beauty is a book for a person who can SNORE like a DRAGON. It's a book for the person who really enjoyed reading Ruby Sings the Blues, and Carolinda Clatter!, and The Worm Family.

In short, this is a book for the fee-fi-fo-fummer in your family.

And it's FUNNY. Oversize personalities, hearing impairment, nutty names (Umpudine! I'm going to name our next pet that!), and did I mention the snoring? The art is also funny (and beautiful, done in rich watercolors) - each face is full of life, with exaggerated features that made me think of Tenniel's Red Queen, or Gothic caricatures. Howard Fine was the best thing about All Aboard the Dinotrain and Ding Dong, Ding Dong, but in Bruce Hale, he has met his match! I hope they make fifty books together.

Like most folk / fairy tales, it's a bit long on text, so pick this up for kids maybe 4 and up.

Labels: age: Grade1 and up, folk/fairy, funny, superstar books

Kaito's cloth by Glenda Millard and Gaye Chapman - review

Kaito's cloth by Glenda Millard and Gaye Chapman
Here's something of a weird book. Kaito arrives at the top of the Mountain of Dreams with a basket full of dead butterflies, hoping the Lord of Flight will make them fly one more time before winter. He says no. She goes home and makes a kite.

Now, of course it's not fair to summarize the plot of a picture book like that. On the other hand, that IS how the book goes - from the start, it feels like you've come in late... Kaito is just arriving at the mountain after a three-day walk. You have no idea why she started walking or what she wants on the Mountain of Dreams. And at the end, when she has sewn her fine cloth with "ten thousand tiny stitches" and brought it to the Lord of Flight, you feel like it might just be possible that she's going to use it as wings to attempt flight herself. She'll die tragically and the Lord of Flight will turn her into a butterfly... but luckily, it's just a kite.

The illustrations are spectacular though, with nearly every surface embellished with butterflies and curlicues. Not super-well-known in the U.S., Australian artist Gaye Chapman's books are always worth finding.

Labels: age: Grade1 and up, diverse cultures, diversity, folk/fairy, picture books

Hansel & Gretel by the Brothers Grimm and Lisbeth Zwerger - review

Hansel & Gretel by the Brothers Grimm and Lisbeth Zwerger
I do love a faithful retelling. This Hansel & Gretel surely is that - there' s no sugar-coating in this book. The parents abandon the children in the forest, not once but twice. The witch tricks them into the house, then locks up Hansel to be fattened while she uses Gretel as a slave. And the witch gets shoved in the oven at the end.

Not for the faint of heart! The illustrations are marvelous. Pencil and watercolor, earth tones, fine lines, and soft washes. The language is tight and expressive, with an old-fashioned cadence and word choice that puts the scary story safely out of reach from everyday life.

Labels: age: Grade3 and up, fiction, folk/fairy, picture books

The apple-pip princess by Jane Ray - review

The apple-pip princess by Jane Ray
Here is a lovely folk tale for spring. Three princesses, each must try to demonstrate to her aging father why she would be the best successor to the throne. One sister is grandiose, one is vain, and the third, Serenity, is little and shy. Ok, sure, it's predictable. But it's lyrical and it has strong but delicate illustrations that incorporate collage, and it has an underlying message about leadership by example. Plus, the beautiful princesses have brown skin, and I'd be lying if I didn't say that will influence my purchase decision.

Labels: age: Grade1 and up, black kids, folk/fairy, girl books, picture books

The fox went out on a chilly night by Peter Spier - review

The fox went out on a chilly night, Peter Spier. Peter Spier is Dutch, and so he traveled to New England and made millions of sketches before inking the illustrations for this adaptation of a traditional song. Pay no attention to the bloodthirsty shenanigans of the fox and the townspeople who are after him with guns, and drink in the beautiful details of a moonlit night in colonial New England. Plus the song is fun to sing. Plus it won a Caldecott Honor. Plus Pete Seeger recorded the song: you can find it on Birds, Beasts, Bugs & Fishes Little & Big: Animal Folk Songs.

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