I love Denise Fleming's exuberant style. Her colors are always rich and saturated. Her unique style of pulp painting gives so much texture to the illustrations that you can almost rub your hand across them. Many of the books she creates on her own are perfect preschool books - she tackles topics simply, but creates a lot of excitement, too. Some of my favorites are In a Small, Small Pond and The First Day of Winter. I've blogged about Denise Fleming in a guest post here because I love her books so much.
I have always loved her book The Everything Book. It is a compendium of lots of different information (the names of objects we use everyday, shapes, etc.), rhymes, poems and other fun things. It is a great book for moms to use with their very young children (maybe 12-18 months), as they begin to learn language and how it connects to them. There is even a board book version, but I prefer the larger format picture book because there's more space to pore over everything. Unfortunately for me, Frances and Gloria never connected with The Everything Book. Every once in a while, I will sneak it back into our book pile, but it often goes unread.
So when I saw Fleming's newest picture book, Shout! Shout it Out!, I wasn't sure what the reaction would be. It is similar to The Everything Book in that it is pages of concepts every preschooler should know - numbers, letters, colors among others. However, there is a dynamic framing device for these concepts that really drew my girls in.
On the first page, there is a teacher telling a group of preschoolers that if they know it, they should "shout it out"! So the teacher is encouraging not only the participation of the preschoolers in the book, but also the preschoolers who are reading and listening to the book. On each subsequent page, one of the group of children is clearly shouting out what is pictured on the page, their mouths agape. Except for the teacher's encouragement each time a new concept is introduced "Shout! Shout it out!", there is very little additional text. This makes the book very accessible to young children, as they don't need an adult reader to help them after the first time they go through the book. Frances enjoyed this book several times by herself (at the top of her lungs, much like the kids in the book).
There is one tiny mouse (a trademark of Fleming's) who appears on each page to make a comment. You can incorporate the mouse's remarks into your reading of the story, but young readers will more than likely skip over them. At the end of the recitation of facts and concepts, the mouse is asked what he knows, and he has been paying attention on the previous pages. He shouts out what he knows, again, with his mouth opened as wide as possible.
The concepts included in this book are basic, so all young children will be able to participate in this book. The energy you feel when reading is so contagious - all the letters and numbers are dancing on the pages, full of color and movement. It's really fun! It would work very well on the first day of preschool or kindergarten, to help draw out shy children with something they already know. It would help encourage them to connect with other students over their shared knowledge while showing teachers what students do and do not know. But there was just as much shouting in my living room, so don't hesitate to use it one on one, either.
One final note - I highly recommend Denise Fleming's website which has lots of color, energy, activities and fun. I also follow Denise on Facebook to get sneak peeks of art she's working on or which schools she's visiting. Go check her out! You won't be sorry you did!
Shout! Shout it Out! Denise Fleming. Henry Holt and Company, 2011.
borrowed from Lewis & Clark Library
Alicia is a princess who is doted on by the king and queen. But because she's given everything she's ever wanted, she is always BORED. Alicia goes from whim to whim, without really spending any time trying that activity. That's because as soon as she gets frustrated, or the activity isn't all she thought it would be, she's (say it with me) BORED. Until the day Alicia decides the one thing that will keep her from being bored is a prince. After all, she's never had a prince before. This prince has something new in his bag of tricks, and maybe Alicia's boredom is about to end.
Frances and Gloria picked this book out at our local library because it has a princess on the cover. I found the story didactic - after all, the solution to Alicia's boredom is creativity, which the prince introduces to her. The girls loved to whine along with Alicia "I'm BORED!", so they obviously engaged with the story more than I did.
What I loved about this book are Josee Masse's illustrations. They are whimsical without being too quirky. The illustrations have a fairy-tale quality with a modern twist. The colors are mostly ice cream pastels with pops of maroon and gold. Her style was reminiscent to me of Alison Jay, whose illustrations I also love. Does this give you any visual idea of her illustrative style? Let me see if I can describe it a little more thoroughly.
In one of the first double-page spreads, Alicia is having her own castle built by a famous architect. The castle spills over both pages, tilting askew. While it is shaped like the fairy-tale castles we all imagine, there are wide stairs leading to an oval entry instead of a drawbridge, moat and wall. The oval entry is lined with maroon and embellished with scrolls. The turrets have a roller coaster weaving through them, and there is a red swing for Princess Alicia in an archway. Alicia herself has a maroon umbrella, shaped like a mushroom, which draws a reader's attention to her crotchety face. All of this stands out against the blue sky and expanse of green lawns surrounding her own private castle (topped with an iron A, of course). There is a timeless quality to the royals gathered around the castle - they, too, could fit into any fairy tale.
As the story progresses, Masse is given plenty of room for her creativity to soar. She creates a maze full of exotic topiaries in mossy greens. Then a circular train track with animal-shaped cars surrounds text on another page. And there's a whole page of delicious, mouth-watering cakes and desserts. Everything looks so interesting and fun that it's hard to envision someone being as bored as Alicia is.
But when she begins to become creative, the illustrations are even quirkier - with castles that are made out of paper so Alicia and her prince Connor can snip and change them at will. Masse's illustrations really bring the theme of creativity to life. If Alicia had only appreciated the creativity around her from the very beginning...well, then there wouldn't be much of a story, would there? At least kids might focus on the exciting creativity presented in the illustrations and not connect so much with Alicia's annoying whine "I'm BORED!"
The Princess Who Had Almost Everything. Mireille Levert; illustrated by Josee Masse. Tundra Books, 2006.
borroowed from Lewis & Clark Library
First of all, I know it's been a few weeks since my last post. If you are wondering what I am reading in between posts, I am participating in two challenges this year. I am reading in the YA Reading Challenge and, on my other blog, Picture Book Reading Challenge (for which the girls and I are trying to read 200 picture books/board books/readers). I update those on a regular basis, even if I don't actively review them.
For some of you who know me and my reading tastes in real life, there will be no surprises when I tell you how much I loved Anna and the French Kiss. After all, it has many of my favorite teen book elements in it - romance, friendship, and most important of all, boarding school! In fact, when a librarian friend wrote to me about this book, she told me "This is a very Susan book!". And it is - but it is so much more!
Anna Oliphant has been sent off to Paris for her senior year of high school . Who wouldn't want to go to Paris? Well, Anna for one. She loves her life in Atlanta, with a potential new boyfriend, great friends, and a cool little brother. Not to mention that she took Spanish the other three years of high school. But her father, a Lurlene McDaniel-like author with a pen name, feels she must go there, and so she does. She spends her first night at the School of America in Paris homesick and worried.
The girl next door, Meredith, ends up taking Anna under her wing and introducing her to her friends. Her group of friends are diverse and cool, including Etienne St. Clair. One of the first things she learns about Etienne is that he has a girlfriend, so instead of falling in love with him (Anna tells herself) she'll just become his friend.
St. Clair (as the friends call him) and Anna have really strong chemistry. I believe one of Perkins' strengths as an author is that she creates a believable, strong friendship between Anna and Etienne. Because they have feelings for each other, they take time to get to know each other. They spend time visiting all the landmarks of Paris, sitting together in class and learning about each other and their families and friends. We learn about them, but also get to vicariously enjoy the sidelong glances, hands touching and all of the other signs that this friendship is headed towards romance.
Another thing that makes this novel work is its characters. While the story revolves around Anna and Etienne, there are many strong characters surrounding them. For instance, Anna's father is laughable - if he isn't your father. He specializes in sappy novels, much like Nicholas Sparks or James Patterson. Anna is embarassed by his novels, the movies made out of his novels and the way he talks to her. Her father sends her an email telling her he will give her younger brother "her best" when he sees him. He has arranged this year for the cachet it will give him as well. Just imagine the author blurb on the back of his next novel, stating that his daughter is "studying in Paris". Well...I've gotten a little off track here, but I really did love him in his awkwardness and awfulness.
While there is a romantic love story at the heart of this book, this is also a story of friendship. When Meredith brings Anna into her group of friends, Anna has no idea how much they will shape her year in Paris. With no French language skills, and coming into a senior class of 25, Anna could have spent the year very lost. Her friends support her and help her learn her way around the city. They translate breakfast menus, ticket orders - they help her without judging her or making her feel helpless. But Meredith has had a crush on Etienne for a long time, and when Anna falls in love with him too, she has to work to maintain her friendship with Meredith. The friends will all move in different directions as they (mostly) head off to college, but you don't get the sense that they will slip away from each other. I like that Anna (and Perkins) doesn't emphasize the romance over her friendships.
At the end of the novel, you get the feeling that Anna and Etienne might actually make it - that their romance will last beyond high school and even as they grow and change in college. To me, that is the mark of a great romance - you can believe in and envision these characters remaining in love as their lives develop. This is Perkins' first novel, but I am excited to hear that she already has two companion novels in the works - one coming out later this year. Who doesn't love a great love story?
Anna and the French Kiss. Stephanie Perkins. Dutton, 2010.
borrowed from Lewis & Clark Library
One of the things that I love about School Library Journal's Battle of the Books is that I've read things that I would not have read otherwise. When I heard about Trash, it did not seem like my kind of book - I am not always an enthusiastic reader of books with teenage boy protagonists. I rarely connect with teenage boy characters, so it has to take some special characters for me to get past that. But this book was different from the first page.
Raphael and Gardo are sorting trash, on the top of a large mountain of refuse in a landfill. Suddenly something slips out of a bag - a wallet with ID, a key and a substantial amount of cash. To Raphael and Gardo, who live in the landfill in a sort of scrabbling, hand-to-mouth existence, the cash is most important. But when the police come looking for that same wallet, Raphael and Gardo know they have unearthed something much more valuable than they first thought.
They enlist one other boy, a loner known as Rat, to keep their secret. These boys have already kept the wallet a secret from their neighbors because of the amount of cash. Raphael and Gardo know that cash makes them vulnerable in their dumpster society. They could be robbed or killed over it. In their neighborhood (called Behala), people never have any money at all - they mostly use recyclables or found trash to barter for food and supplies. This is a bleak, hopeless society. The adults in Behala are just barely surviving. Raphael, Gardo and Rat, however, are still young enough to have a slim glimmer of hope. And that is enough to allow them to set off on a quest to solve the mystery behind the wallet.
Mulligan has created an incredible story. These boys have nothing - no money, little family, even less education. And yet they are resilient, clever, street-smart. The three are able to get information because they have always lived by their wits, so they are observant and have perfected being invisible to the adults around them. Perhaps only this particular group of boys would have this combination of daring and smarts that allows them to solve this mystery. Most teen boys wouldn't be curious about the rest of the contents of the wallet, probably discarding them while keeping the cash. Or they might have bowed to authority and handed over the wallet to the police when they came looking for it.
This is an adventure story at heart, but it is combined with the mystery that unfolds in front of the boys. At times, the action is heart-stopping - will the boys be caught by the police before they uncover a mystery that hints at political corruption? Mulligan keeps the tension ratcheted up at an unendurable level, and you wonder how these poor, uneducated boys can possibly survive.
One other unique thing about Mulligan's novel is the voices - each of the boys have chapters told through their eyes, and they all have very different ways of looking at this situation. They all see each other's strengths and weaknesses, and work together as a seamless partnership. It is truly miraculous that these boys have the wherewithal to not only survive their bleak upbringings but to hold out hope for a better life.
Trash. Andy Mulligan. David Fickling Books: Random House, 2010.
personal copy
I chose this book at our local library because I knew it would interest Frances. Frances and her group of girl friends saw The Nutcracker in December, and are going to see a ballet production of Cinderella in May. And while Frances would usually prefer to select her own books on our library trips, she agreed to this one right away. It's easy to see why just from the cover - eight little ballerinas gesture gracefully at the framed title, all rendered in appealing shades of pink.
The plot and interior illustrations are equally appealing. This is the story of the eight young ballerinas who spend their days at Miss Lina's school - Christina, Edwina, Sabrina, Justina, Katrina, Bettina, Marina and Nina (whew!). They dance in four groups of two and spend the rest of their day in the same way. From the zoo to the beach to their local grocery store, the girls dance joyfully through their day. But then Miss Lina welcomes a new student (named of course, Regina) to their school, and the rest of the ballerinas are thrown off-kilter. How will they solve the problem and continue to dance in step with nine ballerinas?
Maccarone has combined two important themes for young girls in this story - friendship and ballet. Ballet language is used naturally within the text, and the girls are also shown executing the named steps. At the end of the story there is a short list of the ballet terms with pronunciations (for unsure parents) and a one-word definition. The natural combination of the terms within the text and the illustrations of those steps may spur interested readers to continue exploring ballet. The friendship theme is also crucial to the young child - the eight original ballerinas are thrown off by the change and are not welcoming to Regina. It takes a little guidance from Miss Lina to solve the problem and make the dance troupe successful. There is also a hint of math for astute readers as the girls struggle to divide themselves into even lines.
One of the things I like best about this book is that it is a natural, infectious read-aloud. The bouncy rhythm suits the characters perfectly. Even just saying all the ballerinas' names (Christina, Edwina, Sabrina, Justina, Katrina, Bettina, Marina and Nina) starts you dancing along. If I wasn't already reading it aloud, I would have grabbed my girls within the first few pages just so I could say the words aloud. The lilting prose has strong end-rhymes, something I find important for a successful read-aloud. It is hard to read a book aloud when the words either don't fit the rhyme scheme or the author has to use words that might not be the best choice because it rhymes. None of that happens in this story.
The color choices in the book are also superb. The pages' creamy color makes the ballerinas' pink tutus pop. The color palette is striking and rich. In one illustration, the dancers are shown at the zoo, and while the prevalent color is the green of the trees surrounding the elephant enclosure. However, the ballerinas use the railing as a barre in the foreground, and your eyes are drawn to their bubble-gum pink dresses as they dance. My only complaint is that the artist's medium isn't identified in the prefatory material, so I'm not exactly sure what she used to create these energetic illustrations.
One of the other things that I enjoyed about the picture book is its resemblance to Madeline. After all, there are the young girls, dressed identically, dancing in straight lines. There is the willowy dance teacher, guiding them much like Miss Clavel. And the easy to read rhymes sing along, just like when you read Madeline. It is a pleasant connection, subtle, but leaving a smile on your face.
We all loved this book in our family, and the girls' names have been a constant refrain in my head all week long. Well-done, fun and perfect for any little girl in your life.
Miss Lina's Ballerinas. Grace Maccarone; illustrated by Christine Davenier. Feiwel and Friends, 2010.
borrowed from Lewis & Clark Library
First of all, I have been reading in the last three weeks, just not writing. I've been up against a couple of deadlines - many library books that I couldn't renew for various reasons (and I would never give up a library book without reading it first!), and I've also been reading the books for School Library Journal's Battle of the Books. If you don't know about this fun contest, you should. Each year, they pit 16 books against each other and have children's authors read two books each and decide which book should move on, culminating in one final winner. In the children's literature world, these decisions are hotly contested, and the authors' decisions are always strongly written and entertaining. This year, I hadn't read many of the books chosen, so I have been reading like crazy, trying to get to the books before their fate is determined. The choices the Battle Commanders have made are really interesting - a strong mix of fiction, nonfiction and graphic novels. If you're interested in seeing which teen-level books I've been reading, check out my YA Challenge page. While I am only listing the books that I've read that are considered teen books, this gives you an idea of the volume of books that I am reading.
But I have also been reading all of the books that won Youth Media Awards from the American Library Association this year, and I want to talk about a book that won both a Caldecott Honor Award and a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for its illustrator - Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave.
The author, Laban Carrick Hill, begins with a connection to the young reader who is opening the book. He invites them to remember the feelings of dirt, mud and clay, how each of these feel trickling through the reader's fingers. This is a detail that brings readers right into the book and in turn invites them into Dave's world.
While a quick flip through Hill's brief, poetic text might make you believe that this is more of a picture book, it is definitely beyond a young child's capacity. Because of how Hill deposits readers into the middle of the story, readers have to have a certain amount of knowledge before beginning. For instance, there is no mention of time period at the beginning of the book. Readers have to recognize that it is slavery depicted on the first page to get at least an idea of when the book occurs.
From the very first page it is apparent that Dave is a slave, but that he isn't the same as the other slaves on the plantation. As Dave sifts through dirt in the foreground, there is a line of men behind him, toiling in that same dirt. As his talent for throwing pots is exposed to the reader, it is obvious that this talent has elevated Dave above the field slaves. There are often glimpses of slaves working in the hot sun behind Dave as he creates. So without even describing the conditions in which Dave lives, Hill and Collier have explained how his life is structured.
Although Hill's text is sparse, it is rich in imagery. Hill doesn't need a lot of extraneous words to describe Dave. In a particularly strong fold-out spread, Hill's words cascade down the first page and then stack in a corner of the double-page spread as Collier demonstrates Dave's pottery abilities. Hill evokes sensory images of Dave's work - something important to allow readers to envision the process and its difficulty.
All of this discussion does very little justice to the amazing illustration work that Collier has done. The technique that he used is a combination of watercolor and collage, and it truly makes the paintings pop off the page. There is a painting where Dave has finished the jar, making it so large that Hill notes if Dave would have gotten in the jar, "he would have been embraced." Dave is shown with his eyes closed, arms outstretched. Behind him is a tree with arms outstretched as well, but on the arms and trunk of the tree are the faces of other people, supporting and inspiring him. It is truly majestic.
And in the illustration where Dave is described kicking his potter's wheel, Collier does something unusual. Dave is shown with his back to the reader, hunched over the jar so that the reader cannot see either Dave's face or the jar. Instead, the reader's eye is drawn to the potter's wheel, peeking out between Dave's legs and feet. Collier has created a stream of sunlight that burns down through the haze of Dave's workshop onto the wheel, focusing the reader's attention.
While most of the colors Collier uses are the colors of the dirt - clay, mud, ruddy - the book is somehow luminous and vibrant. The light sources that Collier shows - from bright sunlight to the stream mentioned above - make Dave's work glow and brings the man to life.
Finally, as the story ends, Hill takes time to describe what little is known about Dave the Potter. He goes over why Dave's life story and pottery are so unique. And as in any work of nonfiction that I champion, there is a strong bibliography, a list of websites, and really illuminating author and illustrator's notes. Collier describes his own creative process and how these illustrations came to be made. It is truly amazing to me that so little is known about Dave, and yet Hill and Collier were able to create such a rich book about him.
I have to admit that I would have chosen this book as the Caldecott winner over A Sick Day for Amos McGee. These illustrations really spoke to me. I felt that they were so elegant and full of humanity. Of course, I was not on the selection committee, and I do recognize how hard their job is. But take some time to find and celebrate this book - it's worth it.
Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave. Laban Carrick Hill, illustrated by Bryan Collier. Little, Brown and Co., 2010.
borrowed from Helena School District
It's late and I'm trying to squeeze in a blog post before it gets too much later, but I wanted to write about this book before I have to return it. I once again have a bunch of overdue books or books coming due in the next week, so I've got to get reading!
Guardian of the Dead was on the William C. Morris YA Debut Award shortlist this year, so it went on my reading list. I had read a review of the book a few months ago, when I was still ordering books for the library, and it seemed intriguing. It begins in a boarding school, and I am a total sucker for boarding school books. The book also takes place on New Zealand, and the information about Maori culture and society brings a new life to supernatural fiction.
Ellie is at boarding school because her parents are on a year-long trip. She is asked by a friend to help out in a nearby production of "A Midsummer's Night Dream" because she has tae kwon do experience and can help with the fight scenes. It is through this play that she begins to become aware that some things around her are not adding up. There's a mysterious boy who keeps confusing her, a woman without pupils, and a serial killer who is stealing people's eyes.
Her connection with the mysterious boy, Mark, becomes deeper as more of her own latent power is awakened. This connects her as well to the world Mark represents - the world on the other side. The biggest threat to this world comes from the patupaiarehe - beings who live in the mists around the island and are yearning to become immortal. But if they gain immortality, it will threaten to bring destruction to all of New Zealand.
I felt like this book was unique in several ways. First of all, the introduction to Maori culture and mythology is something that American readers don't have exposure to. But Healey does a terrific job of giving the context to the unfamiliar language and cultural norms. There is also a brief glossary of Maori terms that are used throughout New Zealand so that readers can refer to it - even non-Maori speakers use these terms regularly. This book is strongly rooted in Maori mythology, but Healey draws parallels between Maori, Greek and Roman mythologies. Ellie is a Classics student, so she explains the parallels to readers in a natural way.
Above all, this book is a suspenseful adventure. It is complex, with many layers of story and characters. And most importantly for me, it is intelligent. I am not a big fan of supernatural fiction, so the addition of smart characters who are not afraid to be smart makes the supernatural more palatable. Ellie is not the sort of female main character who will dither and wring her hands. She's scared and unsure at times, but she is also exploring her power and trying to find her way through what is rapidly becoming a nightmare.
This is a really strong, smart book - I recommend it to you!
Guardian of the Dead. Karen Healey. Little, Brown and Co., 2010.
borrowed from Lewis & Clark library
