Some of what we’ve been reading and re-reading the last couple of weeks.
Kipper’s Book of Opposites by Mick Inkpen, 1994. Red Wagon Books (Harcourt Brace & Company).
This book has one word per page, paired with an illustration of a cute brown-and-white puppy doing something related to that word. Some of the words are fun to read out loud. I always read the Slow/Fast pages as “SlooooooooooooooowFast!”, which usually gets a chuckle. Continue reading
The Seasons Collection by Ann Blades contains, as one might expect, four books with names like Summer and Winter. Orig. published 1989. Lothrop, Lee and Shepard Books.
We checked out Winter from our local library because it seemed seasonally appropriate, and soon afterwards discovered that the Offspring was already aware of and interested in series. (As demonstrated by a great desire to read series books one after another, before moving on to the standalone titles.) So then we went back for more. Spring is either checked out or missing from the library’s collection, but I’ve seen the other three.
They’re wordless books. Bunch of images of two white kids in an idyllic, old-timey countryside. (Though fortunately not quite idyllic enough to make me wonder if the author had ever seen countryside.) Vaguely New Englandish. Our kiddo is currently enjoys books with few words, because we have mad pageturning skillz to practice around here and those pesky words can really slow things down. So these books are hot stuff right now (along with a bunch of other low-to-no word books from the library). Continue reading
My First Soccer Book, by Sterling Children’s Books, 2015.
No author listed, though the fine print on the back of this book says the design is by Phil Buchanan, whatever that might mean. Anyway, this is a collection of stock photos, mainly of kids playing soccer, each matched with a soccer-related word or phrase. It’s a nice, sturdy board book.
It’s been an easy read-aloud, starting with boring pages like “Cleats”, working up to more dynamic stuff like “Referee” and various ways to kick the ball, and finally concluding with a triumphant “Goal!” So there’s a sort of natural arc of gradually increasing volume and enthusiasm, even for the sports-illiterate like me. (Whether it will pass muster with anyone who actually knows anything about soccer, I cannot tell you.) Continue reading
Here are a few of the library books we’ve been reading this week. Looks like at least some of them are out of print, but what the heck, I’ve already written my reviews.
What Can You Do in the Rain? by Anna Grossnickle Hines, pictures by Thea Kliros. 1999 Greenwillow Books (division of William Morrow) http://www.aghines.com/anna_html_pages/Book_htmls/weather.htm
Offspring picked this out, and I didn’t expect it to be topical because it’s definitely supposed to be snowing here. But it would appear that the Offspring can predict global climate change better than I can.
Pretty much what it says on the tin. It’s basically a series of answers to the question posed by the title. The watercolors of chubby-cheeked children playing outside in the wet and mud are matched with descriptions like “Mix a mud pie” or “Taste a raindrop”.
Cover illustration shows a little girl of Asian descent with an umbrella. Will those who are trying to build a diverse library feel like that represents what’s inside? Continue reading
This review was originally written about a month ago. Since then, our copy of Freight Train has joined the reliable standbys. The Offspring also likes to “read” it alone in their carseat.
Wikipedia tells me that Crews’ father was, among other jobs, a railway man. Which (if true) may explain some of the deep knowledge and love that fills this apparently-simple book.
The short version of this review is: This book is awesome, I think everyone should buy it and shelve it next to The Very Hungry Caterpillar. It’s a good foundation for colors, train car names, and American poetry. Oh, and it presents the color black in a positive light, as the color of the steam engine. And is a classic by a Black author.
The long version is going to have a lot of personal tangents and basically boil down to the same thing, with added grumpiness about not knowing about it until recently even though it was published in 1979 and is now an indisputable classic. (We have the 1996 Greenwillow edition.) If you want a more on-topic review, there’s a good one over on the School Library Journal site: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2012/05/29/top-100-picture-books-42-freight-train-by-donald-crews/ (Oh, and for the record, to the question posed in Elizabeth Bird’s review, no. This young parent did not assume the art was computer-generated and am completely unsurprised to hear it’s done with stencils.)
Continue reading
My reviews are going to be out of chronological order for at least a bit, by the way. Maybe indefinitely. My tot got hold of my notebook a few weeks ago while I was doing business on the phone, and I made the executive decision that tearing out all the pages was a sufficiently not-life-endangering activity to let it slide until I wasn’t trying to hear a soft-spoken bureaucrat who had left me on hold long enough already. So now I am typing stuff up as I find it.
I am oddly fond of this book’s illustrations. They are chunky and simplistic and not my usual thing at all, and somehow they trigger the “epicness of ancient Rome” switch in my brain. Not sure why – maybe the arches on the tunnels on the third spread? Maybe some deep-seated random belief that I am living in a world that may see the decline and fall of the Truck Era?
All in all, I was pretty happy with the books I finally selected, though I’ve had some second thoughts. I’m particularly interested that all of the books I finally chose were titled for male superheroes with women in sidekick roles. Now, I had a lot of legit reasons for that, like the recommended age-range of the titles in question. But I also wonder how much was subconsciously influenced by an internalized bias towards “boy books”. Continue reading
Part One here.
Not far into my quest for superhero easy-readers with women, I looked at my burgeoning longlist and admited that I’d been lying to myself about my criteria. I didn’t want books where the women would be window-dressing while the guys went ahead with all the hero-ing. And I wanted superwomen who did actual stuff within an actual story, rather than standing around flexing their grrrrrrrrl power muscles. Aaaaand in the most randomly subjective consideration, I also didn’t want to completely hate the art. Continue reading
Last Christmas, I had a six-year-old girl on my extended-family shopping list who I don’t know very well. But I did know that she loves superheroes.
Great! I thought. Superhero easy-readers! That’s an easy choice – I know I’ve seen those around. And as one of the representative geeky relatives, I will be supporting her interest in geeky things! (I have never been a superhero geek myself, mind you, but I think the concept of the shared world with shared characters and different continuities and stuff is awesome. In a different continuity, some version of my character is probably a superhero geek.)
But then I had to make it hard for myself by deciding I wanted to give her books with girls in them. Continue reading
I did not, for the record, acquire this book on purpose. It snuck into our house via a bag of books my mother had picked up at the library booksale, and now we’re stuck with it.
One of my baby’s favorite books is Bunny and Me, by Adele Aron Greenspun and Joanie Schwarz. Cartwheel Books (imprint of Scholastic). First pub. 2000. Continue reading
Grumpy Bookshelf Reviews 