love that book

So, a few people have approached me about this whole Love That Dog thing...I can only assume as a result of my admission in class last week to being a huge dork and reading ahead. I really just couldn't help myself. Many people confessed that they kind of put off opening this book but were pleasantly surprised and loved loved loved it. Sadly...I must disagree. I definitely did not 'hate that book', but I didn't love it like...a farmer loves...farms...or something. The further I got into the book, the more I felt this nagging feeling that something didn't fit quite right. But when I got to the end I was so overwhelmed with appreciation for Sharon Creech's brevity that I completely forgot about that uneasy feeling. Until today. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I don't think the book's format always fit the storyline or Jack as a character. Don't get me wrong, his poetry is ridiculously endearing, and most of the time you just want to pick up that little figment of Creech's imagination and give him a good hugging, but there were other times when I felt like the cute poeticism was a little over the top and, thus, unbelievable. But putting that qualm aside, please allow me to now completely contradict myself: I loved loved loved this book! For personal reasons really. Call me crazy but I find it really hard to be inspired to write unless I've read or seen something that's inspired me. I really don't think teachers do a good enough job of showing kids that it's okay to feed off of someone else's creative juices (read: 'internalize & synthesize', not 'plagiarize') and I really think that's when our minds are most open. And that there is incredible beauty in the honest and 'accidental' writing to which most children are prone. So I really must thank Ms. Creech for that...and for stopping talking once she had gotten her point across, which is rare for adults.

LC

A lot of people are familiar with Mercer Mayer. He's written and illustrated a lot of books. And I mean a lot. I think his most famous are the Little Critter books. He writes them at a few different ability levels and they basically tell the story of Little Critter as he experiences different things or explains his life. Well imagine how excited I was to see a Little Critter graphic novel! And then imagine how quickly that excitement died away when I saw that not only is the story not actually written by Mayer (but Erica Farber) and that they had taken Little Critter's character and turned him into a tye-dye t-shirt-wearing, shaggy-haired, would-be teenager who goes by the simple acronym "LC". And then, while the book itself had a point, the story didn't. I say this because the book's goal is to teach the reader a few things about the solar system and universe by introducing them to a few facts, some included in the story, some inserted as asides. That's very clear. The story of The Alien from Outer Space though, is Little Cri--LC telling his friends some bogus story about a UFO landing while they're camped out waiting to see a comet in his backyard. In the end it appears he and his sister are in cahoots to play a small prank on his friends...what? Where did that even come from? I don't know and sadly, I don't really care.

herb, you ridiculous excuse for a dragon

Herb, the Vegetarian Dragon...hmm, what can I say about Herb...he was definitely an original character. And he definitely had a lot to teach us. Unfortunately, I'm just not totally sure what it was he meant to teach. The further I read, the more complicated Herb's story got until in the end I was left wondering whether I was supposed to learn that diet is a personal choice, about the democratic process (and that doing mean things could potentially be ok as long as they are voted on fairly), that you aren't what you eat (haha), or that we should always take the peaceful route. However, the story's definitely cute (and sometimes clever...Herb, get it?) and the illustrations (by Debbie Harter) are quite whimsical. The complexity of the story might just cause it to be a versatile tool in the classroom. I kinda liked the story line and found myself really involved at the climax (Herb faces beheading for crimes he didn't commit!) which I suppose is the hallmark of good story telling. I just really didn't care for the way it was summarized so simply in the end.

The book is a part of a series published by Barefoot Books which specializes in works from authors of other cultures. Oddly enough, the author is Jules Bass of Rankin and Bass who are the production company responsible for classics like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frost the Snowman, and The Little Drummer Boy.

time out!

I was a little disappointed in Kevin O'Malley's My Lucky Hat. I guess I had gotten so used to his humor and wit that I was expecting it to permeate all of his works--even those for younger readers. My Lucky Hat is definitely a departure from the age group with which I associate O'Malley and the storyline shows it. It's pretty much about a kid, Frank, who wins a contest to go to a baseball game involving his favorite team. When his team starts losing, the boy and his father go for hotdogs at which point Frank gets separated and wanders into his team's dugout where he saves the day with his lucky hat. The story itself is pretty fluff and makes me wonder why O'Malley even wrote the book. There are a few funny parts in but you wouldn't notice most of them from listening to the story because they occur in the pictures which are still kinda cool I guess and reflect a lot of attention to detail on O'Malley's part. There is a moment where Frank yells "time out!" and runs onto the field that is so absurd (why would he be able to call a valid time out and run on the field? not to mention, why would he even be allowed to stay in the dugout?) that I can only hope this was some offhanded infusion of humor. But the whole thing really left me wondering: why?

hide under your covers and never come out

When I first saw the title of Nancy Carlson's book, I immediately likened it to a "don't kill yourself" book for kids. I realize that's incredibly morbid and I'm not even sure why I did it. I guess it was adult perspective imposing. The book turned out to be pretty standard. Carlson lists a number of things a kid could be afraid of (with visual accompaniments) and then explains why they shouldn't be afraid (characters from original visuals shown in a less scary light). I had a HUGE problem with some of the things she listed which completely turned me off from the book until I got to the very last page before the end papers. In her list of scary things Carlson includes thunderstorms, dogs, roller coasters, the news, public speaking, spiders and insects, clowns, shadows, and PEOPLE WHO LOOK DIFFERENT FROM YOU. I guess it just doesn't often occur to me that there are still children out there with so little exposure (such brainwashing) that something like that would be a real fear. So of course I spent the remainder of the book highly offended until I came to that last page which read: This book was written on September 12, 2001. And then it all made sense. Perhaps I'm just being emotional, and maybe this subject is no longer so immediately relevant to little kids today, but that page forced me to put myself in the head of a child after such a traumatic experience and made me see Carlson's statements in another light.

figure something out

Ok, I have to start by saying that the only reason I even really liked this book was because of the artwork. The concept is pretty neat too but I think the book itself is rather complex for a wordless book. While I found it cool, I think it could potentially cause some frustration. Here we have a little pig whose parents make him turn the light off at 8 o'clock he's afraid to go to sleep without the light on. So his parents tell him that if he can "figure something out" to go right ahead. And of course he does. He creates something of a Rube Goldberg machine that, after he pulls the cord, will keep his lights on long enough for him to fall sleep before the last mechanism flips the switch. The illustrations are a series of hatches, crosshatches, and regular lines and shapes, filled with what appears to be many of the same colors over and over again. What I found confusing about the book was how Arthur Geisert would show the same thing from different perspectives which would throw of the flow of the machine. But it's still really fascinating to watch...I mean read.

rock star

I first heard about the Babymouse series from a 2nd grader I used to tutor. He was really excited about them because he was able to read them and I think he felt an accomplishment because of their length. I kind of dug it too. It definitely is not the most educational or even the most quality children's literature out there but it told a story that was I was able to relate to and that made it a fun read. In this, the fourth book of the series, Babymouse has dreams of becoming a rock star but can't seem to get past even being able to play the flute well enough to perform in the spring concert. Her dreams are further squashed by the school bully, a cat named Felicia. In the end, Babymouse gets help from a fellow, though insanely more advanced, flute player and classmate and is able to make her rock star dreams a reality...ok, well really she just doesn't get last chair in her section at the concert again.
The things I liked about the book is that it's definitely a breezy read. Most words are repeated and the story is not too complicated so I wasn't overwhelmed with word boxes. Another thing I liked was the humor. Jennifer and Matthew Holm draw on a number of stories (The Wizard of Oz, The Pied Piper) and realistic experiences (riding the disgusting, death trap of a school bus) to tell Babymouses tail which often jumps back and forth between the real present and her daydreams. The third thing I kind of liked was the art work. The illustrations are in black and white with pink accents. The one drawback I found was that even though the plot wasn't super complicated, there always seemed to be a lot going on and sometimes I found myself having to reread sections to remember which universe we were in.

beast

I really like this book. For one thing Blanche Sims' illustrations are entertaining, but I also think the Patricia Reilly Giff goes out of her way to write a book for kids written from a child's perspective. She doesn't over-analyze or wrap anything up in a perfect box. She even goes into thought processes that seem like they could be an accurate account of a third-grader's thought process while still being totally logical. Giff does a really good job of telling the story of a third grader who is a third grader for the second time without making this the singular trait we focus on. Really Richard 'Beast' Best is a third grader facing the same problems as other third graders (admittedly with a few special worries because of his predicament). His story has a wider appeal because of this. I think students who've been left back a grade and even those who haven't would enjoy it. The ultimate message is about fitting in and finding the redeeming qualities in yourself which is pretty universal advice.

quarrels

I picked this book up after seeing it on the shelf because I was pretty sure I wasn't going to like it. I could tell that just from the spine! The list of Linda Girard's other works did not help any (Adoption is for Always, My Body is Private, Who is That Stranger and What Should I Do?, You Were Born on Your Very First Birthday, to name a few). And as it turns out...I was very right. This books was actually a little nauseating: the illustrations by Judith Friedman made me cringe ('lifelike' watercolors) and I felt like the writing was all over the place. The book tells a very relevant story that tries to console a very real void in many children's lives, what with the climbing divorce rate and all, but the voice she uses is so deliberately fragile and poetic that reading Katie's story becomes painful for the wrong reasons. Girard writes with the sentence structure and vocabulary of an adult but with the fluency of a small child which, to me, makes the whole thing condescending.
I will say, though, that the one thing Girard did really well was to create scenes that an adult could dissect with a child that allows them to explore their own emotions or try to understand Katie's.

8:58 a.m. arrive on moon. 9:00 a.m. start work.

Man on the Moon: a Day in the Life of Bob (Simon Bartram) is a book that once again proves anything named Bob is automatically funny. Actually, this book is pretty entertaining. It tells the story of Bob the astronaut who works maintenance and PR for the moon. Yes, the entire moon. He's kind of in charge of the place. He has friends Billy and Sam (the man on Mars and the man on Saturn respectively) and does NOT believe in aliens. This book is cool because it uses humor that adults understand on a different level than kids who can understand it as well. It also has neat illustrations that complement the absurdity of the story to boot.
I hate to read too deeply into anything because I feel like it ruins a lot of perfectly good things but Bob's decided ignorance to alien existence seems to mimic some of our own ignorance to what really goes on outside of ourselves. Whether or not it's voluntary Bob is totally wrapped up in his own importance to the moon and, as a result, can't see the aliens even when evidence of their existence stares him in the face.

i'll probably get stung by bees

I really liked Lucky Leaf for two reasons: the illustrations and the humor. The style doesn't hurt either. The book comes off like an under-done comic book which kind of adds to the slacker humor. Kevin O'Malley takes a pretty mundane story where, honestly, nothing really happens and makes it appealing somehow...to me at least. In this day it's pretty normal for kids to spend all their time inside on machines but O'Malley turns the simple parental command of "go outside" into a totally understated but over-dramatic conflict between man and nature as the boys wait for the "lucky leaf" to fall from the tree. During their quest (which is really just a lot of waiting) the boys rediscover nature and might perhaps consider going back outside again someday...after they beat all their video games of course.