Animals All the Time

Sorry for the missed week! Last week I was on my own with the girls, and was just trying to keep my head above water and the house in some state of repair.


We got a variety last week:

Olivia Goes to Venice by Ian Falconer
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
It's the Bear by Jez Alborough
Where's My Teddy by Jez Alborough
Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin. Pictures by Harry Bliss.
Duck on a Bike by David Shannon

"Diary of a Worm" was a cute book, but was very much a diary, with humor that went a little over EJ's head. She's 2--many things sail over her head. She liked the pictures, but the diary style was hard for her to follow, I think.

The "Bear" books were cute, and Erica thinks they're great. I was a little bored by them, because they are setting up a story that I already know because our first one was " My Friend, Bear," in which we have already met all the characters described in the books. Alborough does a nice job with the poetic narrative. Honestly, my one critique is for the publisher, not the author: in many kids' books,

the line breaks in the poems occur, not when they should naturally to set up the rhythm and rhyme scheme, but randomly to fit the text into the light areas of the illustration. WRONG! It's a book, and the text is of primary importance, supported by the art. Place the words first, then work the art around that.

The clear winner this week was "Duck on a Bike," for Erica and me both. The illustrations were great, the characters were able to be funny without being too adult in their humor and when the animals, who all dismiss Duck's antics, spot their own chance to ride, their faces are hysterical.

Of note: If you pick up "In the Night Kitchen," know that it is an anatomically correct book. When kiddo gets nekked and falls into the night kitchen, there are a couple of full frontals of his boy bits. THEY ARE NOT RUDE, or anything, but we're so used to neuter illustrations that I may or may have giggled like a preteen. It's a decent book, but just be aware so you can stifle your giggles while explaining to your daughter why Mike's bits don't look like hers.

Lost in Translation

We wandered around the different sections of the library this week, and came home with what I would call a less than stellar haul. It included several other books that, honestly, I didn't read--J read them to the girls while I stuck with familiar tales that my tired brain could do on autopilot. The two I did read, though, just struck nerves. I don't think the books are poorly written, but the plots didn't cut it for us.

Backyard Bear, by Jim Murphy. Illustrated by Jeffrey Greene.

The motivation behind this book was a good one: inform suburbanites of the wrong way to deal with bear incursions that, at publication in 1993, were becoming more frequent in densely populated areas on the East Coast. However, that motivation is explained as a postscript called "The Bear Facts." The message is lost in the drama of the story itself.

A bear wanders into a neighborhood after being chased from the woods by a larger bear. He wanders around, and is eventually cornered by a dog, mother, father, and kid with a camera with a flash. The police arrive, shining more lights directly at the trapped bear, leading to an unsuccessful pursuit of the bear through the neighborhood until morning, when the bear is able to get back to the forest.

All these things are certainly possible: the idiot parent going "I wonder what's prowling in my back yard. I should bring the dog and my kid to Instagram what could be a prowler, drug dealer, or wild animal," the police not bothering to call animal control or Fish and Game to tranquilize a bear that is clearly not acclimated to humans, and a guns-drawn chase through neighborhoods. What the book needed, though, was an explanation within the story that this was the wrong approach, and that caution was the better move.

As a parent living in urban bear country, this book gets a thumbs down, despite the wonderful drawings and compelling writing, because of what is missing in its content.


Uglypuss, by Caroline Gregoire (tr. from the French by George Wen)

Boy wants dog. Boy gets dog, but dog is ugly. Boy is horrid to dog, makes him cry by saying mean things, and instead of thumping boy for being mean to his new pet who clearly adores him, Mom assures boy that his friends will eventually like dog because dog has a great personality. Because what we need is one more thing to reinforce that living beings get their dignity from their attractiveness and the opinions of others. Boy goes to camp and dog follows. Boy throws a hissyfit, is mean to dog again, ends up falling into a pool and almost drowning until Uglypuss saves him, at which point boy loves loves loves dog.

Moral: Ugly things are only worth loving based on what they can do for us.

I'll give it the benefit of the doubt that, in the French sensibility, that's not what the author meant. However, since that does not translate into the English version, we won't be getting this book again.


Talking Points
When we read both these books, I talked on a very basic level about what was not ok about them. What do you do when you come across something in a story that either contradicts what you're teaching your kids or that is simply in error? How do you handle it?

Helen Lester and Mem Fox

Our family has a soft spot for Helen Lester because we have a really soft spot for Tacky the Penguin. He's loud like we are, dramatic like we are, and more than a little interesting--just like we are. In Ms. Lester's own words, "Tacky [is] an odd bird, but a nice bird to have around."

So last week we gorged on Helen Lester books, all illustrated by Lynn Munsinger:

Tacky and the Emperor
Tacky Goes to Camp
Tacky and the Winter Games
Score One for Sloths
Hooway for Wodney Wat

The recurring theme in the Lester/Munsinger books that we've read so far is the value of individuality. In each, the protagonist--Tacky, Sparky Sloth, and Wodney Wat (Rodney Rat)--is the odd man out. Tacky isn't orderly like the rest of the penguins, Sparky isn't slothful, and Wodney is cowed and shy because of the teasing he receives for his speech impediment. Then the "normal" kids get themselves in a sticky situation, the odd man out saves the day, and reminds the others that differences can be valuable.

For me, "Sloths" was a little slow--appropriate, perhaps, but it didn't engage EJ the way the Tacky books and Wodney did. It's Lester's nod to the mess of standardized testing (the sloth school is on the administration's radar because the sloths are great at being sloths, but bad at waking up for math and reading), and a cute take, but that makes it more engaging for the adult than for the kid.

We loved Wodney, and I think it would be great for older readers, too, to help understand that teasing can be hurtful. The danger in reading it to a younger kiddo--younger than Lester's intended audience--is that a kid who does just fine with "r" sounds but is still in the mimic phase of language learning may temporarily pick up a speech impediment. Code: EJ started w-ing her r sounds for a bit after reading Wodney. Nothing horrid, just something to be aware of.

We also read "Yoo-hoo! Ladybug!" by Mem Fox. This one is actually more for EJ's age group: one to two sentences per page, engaging collage-style illustrations by Laura Ljungkvist, and a hide/find game built in. I was a little bored by it after the first read, but EJ paraded around the house declaring "Yoo-hoo! Ladybug! Where aaaaaaaaaaaare you?" So I would say it was a hit for her.


That's it for this week. Next week I'll take some pictures of the books so we're not all words all the time. Until then, what was your hit of the week with your kiddo?

Allow me to introduce myself.

I'm Katie, wife of J, mother of EJ (2) and Hannah (5mos). I have absolutely no qualifications to be writing kids book reviews, aside from my love of reading kid lit.

Now, there are many people who, by virtue of becoming parents, fall into a love of children's literature. That's not where I started. My disease started at my mother's knee. She's a first grade teacher, and has been sharing her finds with me my whole life. Her love of picture books and youth lit was so infectious that my first purchase when I left home for college was "The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales."  Every year since I was a junior in high school, my mom has given me a new kid's book for Christmas, and every year it's the gift I anticipate the most.

My goal for this blog is just to share my take on the books we bring home from the library: to crawl, inch by inch, through the stacks as my kids get older. I'm not sponsored by anyone, or driven by any desire other than to a) write (I was an English major and a poetry masters student, but haven't written much since I got married) and b) share any of my new finds with you.

Let's see how it goes!