Rave Review: The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney

My list for 2010 Caldecott nominations starts right here! Jerry Pinkney has illustrated some beautiful picture books over the course of his long, distinguished career, but with this retelling of the famous Aesop fable, he has really raised the bar and created a stunning piece of art. Even the physical book itself exudes craftsmanship as the slightly thicker paper used gives the book a feeling of quality and distinction. Pinkney's decision to tell the story wordlessly is a natural choice; the original required minimal text to tell how the one kind deed from a creature in power is his ultimate salvation. Pinkney also reveals a back story, in where family is the focus, that strengthens the poignancy and immediacy of the original fable. This is a book where the story literally runs from cover to cover--starting with the mighty, almost imposing image of the lion on the front, and ending with the less imposing yet equally magnificent portrait of the mouse of the back. Read it and be wowed by the beauty of the illustrations, the directness of the interpretation, and the wisdom of the composition.

You Read to Me, I'll Read to You

It's an even ten this week!

NMD read to me:
Humpty Dumpty Climbs Again by Dave Horowitz
No Bows! by Shirley Smith Duke, illus. by Jenny Matthson
Worst Best Friend by Alexis O'Neill, illus. by Laura Huliska-Beith

I read to NMD:
A Book by Mordeicai Gerstein
Busy Bea by Nancy Poyder
Library Mouse: a Friend's Tale by Daniel Kirk
Maybelle, Bunny of the North by Keith Patterson
Spoon by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, illus. by Scott Magoon
Thank You Bear by Greg Foley

We Read Together:
Crocodile Blues by Coleman Polhemus

This week's list has already received a fair amount of coverage, with Humpty Dumpty Climbs Again as my book of the week, and a number of other titles highlighted as books in which I see elements of my daughter. So what of what's left? This week's "read together titles" Crocodile Blues, is an odd, wordless picture book which tells the story of a man and his parrot (and he's not even a pirate!) who get an egg out of a vending machine, take it home, and are then faced with the dilemma of "what to do" once the egg hatches and reveals a crocodile. Illustrations are rendered completely in contrasting inky black and electric blue. So while the story leaves both the characters and the readers scratching their heads, it is a striking book too look at .

A Book is a piece of meta fiction which doesn't work as well, for me, as Who is Melvin Bubble by Nick Bruel or the high-energy Ivan the Terrier by Peter Catalanatto. This latest offering by Mordecei Gerstein tells of a character in search of a story (wait--I'm getting flashes of Pierendello!) The little girl leads readers through numerous storybook scenarios, many of which will be familiar to readers, before finally finding her true story. Perhaps if the interplay between the character and the reader had been more engaging I would have enjoyed this book as much as I expected to. Still, kudos to Gerstein for playing with the picture book format-I always appreciate that.

Probably the most traditional book we read was Library Mouse: a Friend's Tale, which continues the adventures of Sam, the shy mouse who lives in a library and has literary aspirations. When a boy from the Writer's and Illustrator's Club, which Sam himself inspired, discovers Sam's true identity, the question of "Is Sam's identity safe" is posed. Well, what do you think? Beautiful illustrations and tributes to numerous children's literary classics, old and new, surface in this one, which makes for a fun "I Spy" experience on top of the more traditional buddy tale.

Make sure to check out what others are reading at the Well-Read Child Meme which inspired this post in the first place!

Rave Review: Chicken and Cat Clean Up by Sara Varon

Sara Varon is an author who cannot write often enough for me. But at least, if she makes me wait, the end result is always worth it. Her most recent wordless picture book reacquaints us with the city/country combination of Chicken and Cat that we met in, well, Chicken and Cat, way back in 2006. Cat is now settled into city living with Chicken, which means that he has to earn his keep. The industrious, pragmatic Chicken runs a housekeeping service, for which day-dreaming Cat is sadly unsuited. Fortunately, Cat finds his true calling, and it is not incompatible with Chicken's business, which leads to a satisfying conclusion and the possibility of more adventures to come (eventually.) This fantastic book, in which not a single word is uttered, reads as clearly as if every detail was spelled out. I won't say "less is more", because that implies that this is a simple book. Varon has blocked the story so effectively; she keeps the action small when needed and then spreads it across the page--two pages at one point--when the storytelling demands it. While the illustrations have a cartoon quality to them, not a single frame or page is wasted on unnecessary narrative. Chicken and Cat Clean Up is funny, sweet, and a little bit sentimental. It's also my Book of the Week.

Book of the Week--We Were There

Christmas is here, and I present to you one of my favorite Christmas picture books. It's fairly recent, and I think it has probably flown under many radars. But that's okay, because that fits the message of the book. It's Eve Bunting's We Were There, and it tells the Nativity story from the point of view of the lowliest, ugliest, creatures of the dark--the scorpion, the snake, the bat, the toad, the spider, and (my personal favorite) the rat. While the beautiful sheep and cow and donkey stood by the glow of the Christ child, the forgotten creatures watch from the shadows. But they, too, followed the star, and they too worship. And of course, they are as precious to Him as the beautiful animals. The story is told in prose and is illustrated with outstanding paintings by Wendell Minor. This is a handsome, thoughtful reminder of why we celebrate Christmas in the first place.

Bedtime Stories

Museum Trip (Lehman, Barbara)
Rabbit's Morning (Tafuri, Nancy)

In order to facilitate the fact that I can't talk because I have no voice tonight (nasty head cold,) we read some wordless picture books. "Rabbit" isn't strictly wordless; there is a single sentence which is split between the first and last page of the book. But I didn't even need to read that much, because my daughter could handle it ably on her own. "Museum" reminded me a lot of Rainstorm, because in both books the opening of a door leads to unexpected adventure. This is hinted at on the cover itself, as the protagonist of the story peals back a plain white corner to reveal a maze beneath. Very clever.

I might be a new convert to the charms of Lehman's picture puzzles, but I am a long time fan of Nancy Tafuri. I love the clean, uncluttered lines of her drawings. She manages to make her characters (almost always animals in their natural habitat) look realistic and anthromorphized at the same time. I use her books a lot in my baby story times. Her books are generally over sized, which makes them easy to show to a group. And there is always just enough to look at, without having to take in too much.

Book of the Week--Rainstorm

Not since William Steig's Pete's a Pizza has a rainy day been so much fun. Barbara Lehman's Rainstorm tells the story of a little boy, alone in his tidy nursery in his big old house, and the adventure he discovers when he finds a key under a chair. This is yet another wordless picture book, a genre which is rapidly becoming my favorite in children's literature (and the third featured as a Book of the Week.) And cliche though this might sound, words here are unnecessary. The images work so well on their own, that even the title is one word too many. The combination of full page pictures and comic style blocks advance the story perfectly. 1000 words? These pictures speak volumes.

Bedtime Stories

Gargoyles: Monsters in Stone (Dussling, Jennifer)
Un-Brella (Franson, Scott E.)
Gimme Cracked Corn and I Will Share (O'Malley, Kevin)
Someday (Spinelli, Eileen)

Rather an eclectic selection tonight. We had a wordless picture book (Un-Brella,) a pun-fest ('Cracked Corn",) a prose picture book (Someday,) and a highly informative early reader. Did you know that "gargoyle" comes from a French word meaning "throat"? and have you noticed that it sounds very much like "gargle", which is technically what a Gargoyles do, since they are decorative water spouts? Bedtime reading that is not just for kids indeed!

Check out this trailer for Un-Brella. It doesn't really give an idea of what the book is about (a little girl and her magic umbrella that turns a snowy day to a sunny one, and vice-versa.) But it's sweet and gentle, and the book is certainly all that.

Alright!

Still going on about wordless picture books....

Sara Varon will follow-up the fantastic Chicken and Cat with (is this a working title?) Chicken and Cat 2. She will be in the Boston area in October (still tentative according to her website) for a book signing. Count me in!

Book of the Week--Bow Wow Bugs a Bug

I have not intentionally chosen another picture book as Book of the Week. Nor, to be more specific, have I chosen another wordless picture book to be Book of the Week. That was just a fluke. Peter Collington's The Tooth Fairy was selected last week to commemorate the loss of my daughter's first tooth. It just so happens that ever since we snatched Bow Wow Bugs a Bug (Newgarden, Mark and Megan Montague Cash) from our local library's stacks, my daughter has insisted on "reading" it every night. I have tried wordless picture books on her before, with little success. I don't know if she feels ripped off because there are no words or what, but for whatever reason, the illustrations were never enough to spark her imagination. Not so with Bow Wow--and she's not even a dog person! Each night we have taken turns making up the story to go along with the--truly daft--illustrations. The story is simple enough--a terrier is perturbed by a speck of a bug and follows him around town. My favorite bit is when the terrier comes face to face with an identical terrier sniffing down an identical speck of a bug. The two dogs take part in a mirroring montage straight out of Duck Soup. It's a sly bit of cultural knowledge slipped into a children's book: funny for the kids, a wonderful tip-of-the-hat for Marx Brothers buffs. See? Not just for kids!