Bedtime Stories--Haven't I Read This Already?

Backbeard Pirate for Hire (McElligott, Matthew)
When Dinosaurs Came With Everything (Broach, Elise and David Small, illus.)
Play, Mozart, Play! (Sis, Peter)

And so 2008 starts very much like 2007 ended--still reading and looking for great books. Sis's "Mozart" put me in mind of M.T. Anderson's Handel who Knew What He Liked, mainly because it's a picture book biography of a great composer. And McElligott's Backbeard, with his outlandish clothes and pig (as opposed to a parrot) joins the rank of other misfit pirates Roger the Jolly Pirate and Jack Plank. In fact, Backbeard's search for employment is reminiscent of Jack Plank's attempts to find life after piracy. And as for "Dinosaurs", it gives a new twist to the "look-what-followed me-home" story. I guess that goes to show that good themes and ideas can never be exhausted.

On My Radar--The Case of the Bizarre Bouquets

I was ordering books this afternoon, and I saw this one. I love the Enola Holmes mysteries. I'm not always a fan of literary sequels/prequels/tie-ins, because often times I feel like the author is simply trying to piggyback their book onto a more famous title (or, as in the case of Wide Sargasso Sea, they have some sort of agenda against the original text.) But the Enola Holmes books work because author Nancy Springer manages to balance her own character with the more famous and revered Sir Arthur Conan Doyle creation. And they are darn good stories!

Bedtime Stories--Haven't I Read This Already?

Gingerbread baby (Brett, Jan)
My friend is sad (Willems, Mo)
Casey back at bat (Gutman, Dan)

My daughter has now read My friend is sad more than once. Now that she is familiar with the words and the story, she has started to pay attention to the punctuation and the way Willems uses font and the illustrations to express the characters' feelings. It was quite a spirited rendition this evening. It's fun to watch her develop as a reader.

As for Casey back at bat....I loved it, then I was disappointed. I love the newsprint illustrations, the effortless verse, and the fact that it could classify as a fractured fairytale (of sorts.) But once the ball left Casey's bat and then headed across time, space and history, I realized that I have read this book already, and it is called Hurray for Snail! Except that Snail succeeds where Casey flies out. And to be honest, the part about knocking off the Sphinx's nose and causing the dinosaurs to become extinct was just plain silly in a distracting, disjointed way. I would have preferred it if Joe Stoshack had managed to travel into literature to visit Casey. That would have been more convincing--and relevant--than the ball's excellent adventure.

Haven't I read this already?

I didn't anticipate this becoming a regular feature of the blog. However, while I was (again) preparing for story time (theme: hats) I stumbled upon Inga Moore's Fifty Red Night-Caps. The similarities between it and the classic Caps for Sale by Espher Slobodkina are breathtaking. I suppose "fifty" could be called a retelling of "caps", but there is no reference to the original source material. And to be honest, there is no comparison between the two: "caps" has a rhythm to it that is non-existent in "fifty". Stick with the original.

Haven't I read this already?

While preparing for this week's story time(theme: kiddie fun,)I was rereading the books I'll be using tomorrow. And as I read Nicola Smee's Clip-Clop, I couldn't help but notice a certain resemblance to John Burningham's classic Mr. Gumpy's Outing. Each book tells the story of a vessel in motion (in one case a horse, in the other a skiff on a river)and an increasing overloading of passengers. I certainly can't say if Ms. Smee had "Gumpy" in mind when she wrote her book. In any event, both are excellent for read-a-louds (how's that for an endorsement!)