30 Days of Picture Books - Blackout by John Rocco

It's Day 20 in our series of 30 Days of Picture Books. With the holiday season upon us, there's so much to do that it's easy to get caught up in our busy-ness. Life is crazy anyway, with work and school and all our other responsibilities - add a bunch of holiday festivities on top of things and some parts of life get pushed to the side. Unfortunately in my own life, that sometimes means my family takes a backseat, which means I need to stop, reevaluate my priorities, and make time for what's really important, which is spending time with the people I love.

That's the message behind today's pick, which, although it takes place in the dead of summer, is perfect for this busy, hectic season. With Blackout, John Rocco explores what happens when our regular routine is interrupted and we have to think creatively. The action starts on a hot summer night when the whole family is engaged in activity - solitary activity - and the youngest member can't get anyone's attention. (Sound familiar? Our Day 11 pick, Journey, starts under similar circumstances.) Bored, he resorts to a video game, somewhat half-heartedly. But then the lights suddenly go out, not just in the family's apartment but all across the city. What's a family to do? Crouch inside in the hot dark house? No way - they head up to the roof for exploring or down to the street to see what everyone else is up to!

Rocco is an incredible artist, and it almost goes without saying that Blackout is a visual splendor (it won a Caldecott Honor). The way he translates the night sky, with its glowing stars and welcoming dark, lends a feeling of endless possibility to the world. The use of light here is fantastic too; the play of shadow and darkness against the bursts of illumination make for a stunning effect. Above all, Rocco gives us a great contrast, between the harsh light of early evening, when everyone is focused on their own pursuits, and the friendly sense of community that comes out when the electricity's cut.

All good things must come to an end, though, and so the power comes back on. But our hero isn't satisfied with that - he was having too much fun! - and he comes up with a solution that the whole family can get behind.

Blackout is a great choice for preschoolers, who'll appreciate not only the spare text (allowing them to insert their own interpretation of certain events) but also the absorbing illustrations. Be forewarned though - reading this title may lead you to your own spontaneous family fun - which sounds like just the ticket for a holiday weekend!

Blackout by John Rocco, published by Hyperion Books

30 Days of Picture Books - Creepy Carrots! by Aaron Reynolds

It's Day 5 of our 30 Days of Picture Books. We hope you've been enjoying the titles we've shared so far, and that you're as excited to see more as we are thrilled to be sharing them!

Today's pick could arguably be considered a Halloween book, and certainly is good for the times when you want to add a little thrill to storytime. I'm very glad we happened upon this title, because honestly it's not one that I probably would have picked out for us to read. Sprout tends to be a little hesitant with anything spooky or scary, so I would likely have passed this by. But when Aaron Reynolds' Creepy Carrots arrived in a box of other bookish goodies, Sprout seized on it. I read it to him, not really sure what to expect, and he ADORED it, right from the get-go. Lesson learned: offer more varied reading selections, you never know what the kiddo will like.

The story of Creepy Carrots touches on themes that run throughout kidlit, like being the only one to see a phenomenon and having to take things into your own hands to solve a problem. Jasper Rabbit is a carrot-loving guy, as you might expect from a bunny. His favorite carrots are the ones growing wild in Crackenhopper Field, and Jasper just can't get enough, hitting the place up for treats morning, noon and night. But then one day Jasper experiences something unusual: he thinks he sees a trio of creepy carrots following him. Try as he might, Jasper can't catch the carrots in the act, and no one believes him of course. Finally at the end of his rope, Jasper takes some extreme measures. But who's really taking care of who?

Oh my word, this book is fantastic. The sly humor Reynolds employs grows on you the more you read it, the the pictures are knock-down amazing. (It won a Caldecott Honor for Peter Brown's illustrations.) My husband especially loves the way the spreads are a nod to cinema classics, with a Vertigo feel to one picture that is just terrific. The way Brown chooses to have his carrots stand out as the lone bursts of color against the black-and-white landscape is genius. Kids may not be able to put their fingers on what this makes this such a tasty visual tidbit, but adults will appreciate every bit. And the humor's a winner with all ages -- just don't be surprised if you start looking behind yourself to catch some creepy carrots!

Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds, published by Simon and Schuster

30 Days of Picture Books - Grandpa Green by Lane Smith

It's Day 4 of our 30 Days of Picture Books series. Today's pick is a title that I haven't read with Sprout - yet. I know, that's a little unusual for me. But this book honestly gets me so emotional that I'm barely able to read it on my own without crying, so I'm not sure how I'd ever get through reading it aloud. My husband bought it for me last Christmas, and it's a treasured part of my own collection that will, someday, be shared with Sprout.

But I wanted to share Lane Smith's Grandpa Green with you, dear reader, because it's the perfect book for Veteran's Day. The story is poignant and lyrical, laced with the hints of memories shared and stories long past. Narrated by his great-grandson, the book tells of the story of a young boy who grew up on a farm, having adventures and living an everyday life (complete with chicken pox). The boy became a man who wanted to study horticulture, but a war got in his way; instead he went to France, fell in love, got married, had a family. The man grew old, and started to forget things - luckily he found a way to blend his memories into his landscape, and keep the past alive.

My description cannot in any way do this book justice, because the text and Smith's winsome illustrations blend together to create the entire experience of the story. (It won a Caldecott Honor - need I say more about the absolutely breathtaking nature of this pictures?) We watch Grandpa Green's grandson as he wends his way through the garden, narrating the events of his great-grandpa's life in the manner of one who has heard the stories all his life. The intensity of familial feeling permeates the story, and we feel what the boy feels - by the end, you'll love Grandpa Green just as much as our hero does.

Smith leaves the door open for all sorts of discussions at the end of this: talking about aging, family history, relationships, and the fragile nature of memory. Kids will draw their own conclusions about the story's themes, as will adults, but one thing is clear: this is an homage to remembrance, to honoring the lives and sacrifices of those who came before. And that makes it the perfect choice for today: Veteran's Day, when we stop to remember our freedom, and the price at which it comes.

Grandpa Green by Lane Smith, published by Roaring Brook Press

Bonus: Publisher's Weekly interviews Lane Smith about Grandpa Green

30 Days of Picture Books - The Paperboy by Dav Pilkey

It's Day 18 of Picture Book Month. Tonight I let Sprout pick the book I would write about for today, and honestly his pick kind of surprised me. Not that it's not a great book -- it unquestionably is -- but of the choices I pulled off the shelf it certainly was the more mellow choice, which he doesn't always go in for. (He tends to be a humor or action sort of fellow.)

And I think that's one of the things that picture books give to us, is the ability to suit our mood absolutely. Of course all books do, but picture books, with their interdependence on both pictures and words to tell a story, give us mood right from the cover. Look at a Richard Scarry title, for instance, and you don't even have to know that his world is called Busytown - you've got hustle and bustle from the get go. Flip through a Jerry Pinkney book and you're in for nostalgia, classic timelessness. Slide a volume of Ian Falconer's off the shelf and you can be sure there's going to be humor, and not the cutesy kind, either, thank you very much.

With tonight's pick, Dav Pilkey's The Paperboy, readers definitely have a sense of the spirit of this book just from the cover image. The story follows a young African American boy on his newspaper route, starting out as the papers are dropped off at his house in the wee hours and continuing as the boy rises in the pre-dawn dark. He and his Corgi get dressed, head downstairs, and eat breakfast without waking the rest of the family, then fold the papers and set out to deliver them. "All the world is asleep except for the paperboy and his dog." Pilkey tells us. "And this is the time when they are the happiest."

The Paperboy is as richly developed in story as it is in its stirring, Caldecott-Honor illustrations. Pilkey uses a palette that's perfectly suited for the instrospective tone of the work, all purples and blues and emeralds until the brilliant sunburst of the dawn breaks the sky. The first time we read this together, when we closed the book Sprout sighed and said, "I like that one." And that's the kind of story this is -- one that makes you, dear reader, feel that all is as it should be, a rhythm of rightness that follows the paperboy's route.

What picture books suit your various moods?  Are there some you return to at certain times, or when you just need something that's going to match your emotional state? For us there definitely are, and The Paperboy is without question one that's evocative, pitch-perfect at day's end.

The Paperboy by Dav Pilkey, published by Scholastic

Cinderella Around the World - Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe

I'm thrilled to be participating in the "Cinderella Around the World" project dreamed up by Becky of Kid World Citizen. A ton of very talented bloggers, and yours truly, are posting their reviews of Cinderella tales from many different cultures. Once all the posts are up, I'll link to a complete list of all the reviews. Until then, here's my take on one such tale!

If there's one thing that unites us as people, all around the globe, it's story. Stories tell us not only where we've been, but where we're going and what we hold dear. When you study the storytelling traditions of a particular culture, you learn something about the unique perspective of its people, not to mention its history. For centuries stories were passed down in the oral tradition, and as that happened the tales themselves deepened and changed, becoming particular creations of the teller and inspiring others to put their individual spin on the tale. As cultural values changed, so stories changed with them, blossoming into what we today consider folklore.

Or, as the author Rafe Martin put it:

Folklore maps the territory, shows us the roads before us, and sets us free to walk the roads we choose-after allowing us to experience each road for ourselves. For, in stories, folk stories, all the characters are so universal as to be not individual characters as in fiction, but more generally recognizable aspects of our own psyches; characters common to all.

  

And with only a quick study of folklore, it becomes readily apparent how universal those characters and themes truly are. From fables to myths, from tall tales to epics, the same themes continue to emerge, across cultures and countries. Sure, the setting may be different from one place to the next, and the values may change, but it's remarkable how much of the essence of the story stays the same.

 

 

Take Cinderella, for instance. Most of us grew up with the cotton-candy Disney version, all taffeta and glass slippers. [Disney based their take on the Charles Perrault version, finding it a lot more palatable than the Grimm brothers tale, in which the stepsisters maim themselves in order to fit into the slipper (shudder).] And the moral of the Disney version, naturally, is that Cinderella is rewarded for her goodness by marriage and "happily ever after". Fine, of course, but hardly the end of the story.

 

What's interesting is that Cinderella stories are not solely a Western European construct, but rather pop up all around the globe, from China to Ireland, Indonesia to Appalachia. Name a culture and you can probably find a Cinderella version for it. And why is this theme so popular? Most likely because we all want to see good rewarded and evil punished. We all want to think that the honest, hardworking person will eventually get her due, and those who made her life miserable will get theirs in the end, too. It may seem simplistic in this modern age, but look at the way folktales are pervading our culture and you can see that there's still plenty of appeal in this familiar theme.

 

 

So, on to the title at hand: Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters, a gorgeously wrought Cinderella story by John Steptoe. This version is based on a Cinderella story from Zimbabwe and Steptoe populated his illustrations with scenes representative of the country. The pictures are lush and detailed, capturing perfectly the African nature of this story; ball gowns and pumpkin coaches are replaced with fine linen and festive drummers. In the book, the two sisters Manyara and Nyasha are as different as can be. Though both girls are beautiful, Manyara is concerned with power and position, while Nyasha is kind to all. When the Great King announces that he is seeking a wife, both girls prepare to travel to the city. On the way each encounters a number of individuals, and their responses couldn't be more different; while virtuous Nyasha shares her food with a beggar and gives gifts to an old woman, haughty Manyara rushes on. Once each girl reaches the city, they are surprised to find that the King does not appear in his human form - to Manyara, he is a vicious monster, while Nyasha finds only a small garden snake that she has already befriended, and which soon turns into the King himself.

 

Of course, the moral here is consistent with that of all Cinderella tales and justice is served: Nyasha, the good sister, triumphs, while Manyara is forced to become a servant in Nyasha's household. But the story stays true to its African roots, keeping the focus on community and the necessity of helping others. Because Manyara is selfish, she does not get the spotlight; instead her sister, who gives freely to others, is rewarded. Rather than the emphasis being on material comforts, Steptoe suggests that a life of worth is one that is lived in service to others. Food for thought, for those of us who grew up with castles and princes and glass slippers, after all.

 

Sprout's still a little young for Mufaro, though he did enjoy flipping through the pages and browsing the arresting pictures that complement Steptoe's words. I'm looking forward to exploring more folklore with him, including other Cinderella tales, in the years to come - there's so much to learn from these stories, lessons that truly span the globe.

 

Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe, published by HarperCollins

Ages 5-9

Source: Library

Sample: "Mufaro knew nothing of how Manyara treated Nyasha. Nyasha was too considerate of her father's feelings to complain, and Manyara was always careful to behave herself when Mufaro was around."

Recommended

 

Bonus: Reader's guide and activities for Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters from Learning to Give

Picture Book Review - All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon

We're gearing up for a crazy fall around our house. School has begun for me, so I'm back juggling classes along with work and family responsibilities. As it's my second-to-last semester, I'm also taking comps for my degree, so that will knock out my free time for an approximately three-week period. And my husband recently started a business, so he's busy getting that up and running along with all the rest of his other tasks. Plus then there's Sprout, always busy but even more so now that he's got a social life of his own -- there's always a playdate, birthday party or swim lesson at least one of our weekend days.

With all that's going on, it seemed like we might just need a bit of a breather to gear ourselves up for things. So we scheduled a little getaway to the San Juan Islands, a few days to play on the beach, read, explore, sleep in and make s'mores. (Actually Sprout's one-and-only request for this vacation is that he wants to eat ice cream. Done and done, little man.)

And since we've been talking about this getaway for a while, it seemed like the perfect time to crack out one of my favorite recent picture books to share with Sprout. All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon is a heady dream of a book that celebrates life and interconnectedness of people and place. It came to mind for me because I've always felt sure that Scanlon and illustrator Marla Frazee set the book on an island - it has that meandering pace that reminds me of vacation and leisurely time with family and friends.

The book starts out with a narrow focus - two curly-headed kiddos digging and building on the shore -- and gradually expands outward, encompassing multiple groups, couples and singles and families, who all encounter the glorious day together and yet separately. Each spread gives us a different perspective on the day, from the older gentleman feeding the birds to the family in a rowboat to the lady walking her dog, all of whom are converged on the same scene but from different angles. Nature is a character here too, as through Frazee's jaw-droppingly gorgeous illustrations we can feel the wind sweeping the sky, blowing up a sudden summer downpour. And then, as night falls on this idyllic day, we feel the closeness of the characters coming together in one terrific gathering, playing music, talking and laughing. Really, you just want to pull up a chair in this scene and join the gaiety.

What makes All the World so unique, and to my mind so incredibly lovely, is the way Scanlon's text and Frazee's illustrations are paired. A strict reading of the text provides the spirit of what happens, in terms of a simple, moving poemic jewel. And Frazee's drawings on their own are terrific fun to look at (Sprout likes to pick out familiar elements in every scene, looking for the daddy who has cocoa skin, like him, and the mama whose skin is pink, like mine). But it is in the intersection of these elements that the book really comes alive, and becomes something that transcends the genre. It is an affirmation, a nod to the elemental truth that all parts of our world, however small, are intertwined in myriad ways. All the World is an amazing book for pre-readers to look at in particular, because so much of the story is carried in visual form. And, too, this is a book for everyone, a thoughtful consideration of the way we are connected to one another and to the world we all share.

All the World was a Caldecott Honor title in 2010, and it's not much of a stretch to see why. It seems to me that this is the kind of book that will endure for a long time to come, not just because of its award status, but also because it speaks to universal themes. And even more than that, it's a true joy to read and to share with a child, the finishing touch to a day's activities that will leave little ones with plenty of fodder for joyous dreaming.

All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon, published by Simon & Schuster
All ages
Source: Library
Sample: "Rock, stone, pebble, sand / Boy, shoulder, arm, hand / A moat to dig, a shell to keep / All the world is wide and deep"
Highly recommended

Bonus: Kirkus Reviews interviews author Liz Garton Scanlon and illustrator Marla Frazee

Hello World

Never underestimate the power of a simple hello! Lately we've read a number of books about greetings, both those that cross cultures and those based on a common language. As Sprout gets older, he's beginning to understand how important friendships can be - and the way friendships start, after all, is when at least one person says hello.

To start things off, there's Rachel Isadora's Say Hello! This multicultural tale follows Carmelita, her mama and her puppy Manny as they make their way through the neighborhood, greeting friends and merchants as they go. With each person, Carmelita shares a hello in their native language - from "Bonjour!" at the French bakery to Konichiwa at the Japanese restaurant. Isadora's vibrant, lively collage style works exceptionally well here, and the details that populate each setting are truly delightful. A glossary at the end identifies all the languages spoken, making this a great introduction to cultural commonalities for young children.

So Close by Natalia Colombo demonstrates how important it is to reach out to others in order for friendships to form. Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Duck live parallel lives, but yet they don't know one another at all. No matter how many times they cross paths and regardless of the circumstances, neither attempts a greeting. But finally, one tentative hello is exchanged - and everything is immediately so, so different! Colombo's color palette matches the mood of the story perfectly, bursting into a deep red in the final spread, when the friendship begins to blossom. A sensitive and thoughtful look at the power of words to make relationships come together.

Award-winning illustrator Chris Raschka brings his talents to the topic in Yo! Yes?, a Caldecott Honor tale of two boys getting to know one another. The dialogue is spare but impactful - Raschka demonstrates effectively that you don't need a lot of words to tell a story. As one boy reaches out, he discovers that the other is lonely and wants a friend. "Me!" he suggests, and "You?" the other asks, then, "Well. Yes!" And so, with only a few words, new friends are made. Emerging readers will be thrilled to read this entire story on their own, and it's a good one to spark discussions about friendships as well.

Every relationship starts somewhere, with one person reaching out to another. Each of these titles examines a different aspect of that process, and emphasizes how important it is for someone to bridge the gap. Just say hello!

Audio Review - One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

If you're looking for quality reading choices for yourself or your kiddo, checking out awards lists is a great place to start. Last semester I took a children's lit class and one of the assignments was reading one title from each of ten different awards lists. For those of you who think it begins and ends with Caldecott and Newbery, guess again. There are a TON of fantastic awards programs in kidlit, recognizing everything from novels to nonfiction to picture books and lots more in between. (A great comprehensive source for kidlit awards is the list maintained by the Cooperative Children's Book Center, found here.)

As part of that assignment I chose to listen to the audio version of One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia. Williams-Garcia is herself the recipient of numerous awards, including the PEN/Norma Klein Award, and One Crazy Summer has been honored multiple times: Newbery Honor book, Coretta Scott King Winner, Scott O'Dell Award Winner, ALA Notable Recording for 2010. But as we all know, award-winning books can be critically acclaimed and still fall curiously flat in the real world.

Luckily, that's not the case for One Crazy Summer. This is a novel that delivers.

Premise: It's the summer of 1968. Delphine and her sisters Vonetta and Fern are on their way to Oakland, California to spend the summer with their mother Cecile, who ran out on the girls when Fern was just a baby. At eleven, Delphine remembers enough of their mother to be afraid about what they are in for. And when they first head home with Cecile, nothing is as she thought it would be. Now transformed as the poet Nzila, Cecile seems more interested in social change and protests than in reacquanting herself with her girls. And the Black Panther Day Camp where she parks her daughters is not at all what Delphine had in mind. Revolution? No thanks. As Vonetta puts it, "We didn't come for the revolution. We came for breakfast."

And that in a nutshell embodies all there is to love about Summer. Williams-Garcia manages to paint a story about very personal relationships on the grand stage of civil rights, social protest and upheaval that characterized Oakland in the 1960's. Even as we watch Delphine, Vonetta and little Fern try to navigate this strange new world, and their stranger mother, we see the shifting racial climate and the tensions that were produced. The girls come from a world where assimilation is the goal, and their grandmother cautions against making themselves a "grand Negro spectacle". Oakland, though, is all about standing up and speaking out, fighting for your rights and being proud of yourself. And the struggle being played out on the larger scale is personified in the girls' own struggle to reconcile the two ideologies within themselves.

So, big social themes, and lots of great historical detail. But none of that would be worth a bit without the characters. Oh, what great characters Williams-Garcia brings us! From distant and often frightening Cecile, to worrier Delphine, to look-at-me showoff Vonetta, and obstinate little Fern, these are characters you just can't forget. While Delphine slowly awakens to the prejudice and injustice that surrounds her, so too will readers. More importantly, kids will recognize bits of themselves and their friends in these children, who are just about as real as kids can get. As they see the girls living in the balance, making new friends and considering new ideas, readers will be moved to learn more about this tumultuous time -- and isn't that the mark of a great historical novel?

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the fantastic narration of the audio by Sisi Aisha Johnson. Listen, this woman is a masterful reader, and she will hook you from the first line. Johnson becomes each of the girls in turn, bringing out layers of their personalities that I might otherwise have missed. Even the most minor characters, like Crazy Kelvin and Mean Lady Ming, have their own distinct turn of phrase, and Johnson doesn't miss a trick. Kids who might be on the fence about reading a historical could easily be persuaded to give this a try on audio, and I wouldn't be surprised if they are as sad to see it end as I was.

Bottom line: An excellent historical novel with characters as fresh as if they lived today. And an audio worth a second (or third!) listen to boot.

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia, published by HarperCollins (audio read by Sisi Aisha Johnson)

Coretta Scott King Winner, 2010

Ages 9 up

Source: Library

Sample quote: "It wasn't at all the way the television showed militants -- that's what they called the Black Panthers. Militants, who from the newspapers were angry fist wavers with their mouths wide-open and their rifles ready for shooting. They never showed anyone like Sister Mukumbu or Sister Pat, passing out toast and teaching in classrooms."

Highly recommended

Poetry Review - A Child's Calendar by John Updike

Somehow the Fourth of July has come and gone again. We were fortunate to have beautiful sunny weather here all weekend, somewhat of a rarity in Northwest Washington, so we were able to get some yard work done and then enjoy the fruits of our labor. We had planned to take Sprout to his first-ever fireworks display yesterday but a day of playing in his wading pool, chasing the dog, blowing bubbles and throwing the ball in the back yard had him completely worn out even before his regular bedtime. But there's always next year!

Having a little one around the house makes it even more fun to mark holidays and the passing of seasons. A great title for doing this is A Child's Calendar, a collection of poems written by John Updike (yes, that John Updike) and illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman. Each month is celebrated in its own poem, with the highs and lows of the seasons and holidays captured in simple, readable verse. Updike's knack for imagery takes a playful turn; of March, he says "The sun is nervous / as a kite / that can't quite keep / its own string tight." How well that sums up the fleeting glimpses of spring that March offers, teasing us with its promise of brighter days ahead! I also love his take on October (my personal favorite month): "Frost bites the lawn. / The stars are slits / in a black cat's eye / before she spits."

And these effortless yet succulent bits of poetry are made even more fun by the charming illustrations. I know, charming -- overused as a descriptor, but so perfect for these artistic snapshots. If you have any familiarity with Schart Hyman's work then you'll recognize her vividly color palette and wry humor at once. But what makes this title special for our family is that the illustrations depict a multiracial family, with hair and skin of all colors. The family here enjoys making Valentines, watering plants and picking flowers, taking a long walk on a November day. I love the underlying subtext: here is a family just like any other, complete with that one kid who strips down to nothing while playing in the ocean. I remember reading once that Schart Hyman was one of the first illustrators to depict multiracial families -- another reason to enjoy her work, besides her gorgeous scenery and the raw emotion she paints into every character.

This is the kind of book I wish we'd see more of, one where there's no heavy-handed message about racism or acceptance, just a gentle glimpse of a family enjoying the year in one another's company. A great addition to any family's bookshelf.

A Child's Calendar by John Updike, published by Holiday House
All ages
Caldecott Honor title
Sample quote: "November: The stripped and shapely / maple grieves / the loss of her / departed leaves."
Recommended