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Remember I signed up for that picture book challenge?
I cannot resist the appeal of GIVEAWAYS! (No, really, I cannot.)
Rather than post a review a day to link to (thus irritating very nearly everybody, including myself) I'm going with option B - post a heck of a lot of reviews two to four times a month. Much simpler.
And to clarify, I'm doing this right, a new review even if it's an older book. But if I have an older review on it I'll link to that as well.
You can still sign up yourself if you like!
1. Jim
I grew up on this poem. My mother had it memorized, and we used to beg her to recite it for us. Accordingly, this book is her Little Christmas present. I've borrowed it back.
Now, there's always somebody who comments that little things like dead children are inappropriate for, well, children. If you're one of those people - don't buy this book, save the rest of us the angst. Jim DOES get eaten by a lion, there IS no happy ending, you HAVE been warned. If you're still unsure, the poem is in the public domain, so you can google it and pre-read before you buy.
With that said, since the poem IS available at Project Gutenberg and elsewhere, I'm not going to spend much effort reviewing the text. It's gory and over-the-top and the reaction of the parents when finding about their dead child ("Well, he'd never do as he were told!") is hilariously understated. It's the sort of thing impressionable young children beg their parents to recite over and over again on the train.
Let's talk about the art, though. This is a pop-up book, the pop-ups and flaps seem *reasonably* sturdy (but I'm not pulling at them THAT hard). There are plenty of funny details hidden in the art. For example, the line "They even took him to the zoo. But there it was a dreadful fate befell him, which I now relate" is written on a fold-out map (safely glued to the page, you won't be losing it) of the zoo, with the bylaws on the other side. The map is full of signs along the lines of "It's your own time you're wasting" and "Do not stroke the snakes", and the bylaws have a similarly long-winded list of rules, including "Strictly no ostentatious mating displays" and "No silly voices".
And of course, there's the scene where he gets eaten, which is where flaps really come in handy. First you have the little boy, and then you pull the flap and the boy is eaten but the words remain.
It's clever, it's funny, it's a classic poem - I may buy another for me. And it probably won't warp your kids for life. I, after all, am mostly sane :)
2. Mabela the Clever
A good story with an unusual moral - at least, I've never heard "Pay attention and THINK about what you're saying!" presented as a moral before, although God knows it ought to be.
No mousies are harmed in the reading of this story. My only real concern with it is that I have no idea how authentic it is.
3. The Balancing Girl
This is a sweet, simple story about a girl who is really (really!) good at balancing things, and makes a very long domino chain for her class fair.
The fact that she uses a wheelchair is barely mentioned, which I thought was a nice touch.
There's not much to *say* about this book, but it'd make a good addition to most people's libraries.
4. Snowflake Bentley
This is a fascinating book, well-illustrated, about the man who first captured snowflakes to save. My nieces were enraptured.
However, it is a little wordy, and it can be hard to figure out (if you're reading aloud) what to do with the sidebars of information. (I personally ignored them. They're interesting on their own, but trying to integrate them into the story would've been impossible.) This is definitely a picture book for the older crowd OR for young children who read well above their grade level.
5.Aster Aardvark's Alphabet Adventures
Okay, this book is a little bit exhausting to read. It's a series of alliterative vignettes, loosely connected by a skywriting aardvark. (Please, don't ask.) They're... long. Funny, hilarious, uproarious - but long.
As an example, let's take a look at X, which is pretty short because, y'know, X.
"Xerxes Ox excused Rex from the exercise exhibition by the six expert executives after he became exhausted from excessive exertion."
I know, you think 26 letters of that isn't too bad, right? P is twice as long, and M is longer still!
So this is clearly not the book to read right before bedtime, or when you have five minutes between now and recess. This is the one you pull out on the plane.
As long as we're clear on this, we're set. It's a bit wordy for smaller children (well, duh) and the vocabulary is definitely not suited for even erudite toddlers (now I'm doing it. Sorry.) Save it for the kids 4 or 5 and older.
Rather than post a review a day to link to (thus irritating very nearly everybody, including myself) I'm going with option B - post a heck of a lot of reviews two to four times a month. Much simpler.
And to clarify, I'm doing this right, a new review even if it's an older book. But if I have an older review on it I'll link to that as well.
You can still sign up yourself if you like!
1. Jim
I grew up on this poem. My mother had it memorized, and we used to beg her to recite it for us. Accordingly, this book is her Little Christmas present. I've borrowed it back.
Now, there's always somebody who comments that little things like dead children are inappropriate for, well, children. If you're one of those people - don't buy this book, save the rest of us the angst. Jim DOES get eaten by a lion, there IS no happy ending, you HAVE been warned. If you're still unsure, the poem is in the public domain, so you can google it and pre-read before you buy.
With that said, since the poem IS available at Project Gutenberg and elsewhere, I'm not going to spend much effort reviewing the text. It's gory and over-the-top and the reaction of the parents when finding about their dead child ("Well, he'd never do as he were told!") is hilariously understated. It's the sort of thing impressionable young children beg their parents to recite over and over again on the train.
Let's talk about the art, though. This is a pop-up book, the pop-ups and flaps seem *reasonably* sturdy (but I'm not pulling at them THAT hard). There are plenty of funny details hidden in the art. For example, the line "They even took him to the zoo. But there it was a dreadful fate befell him, which I now relate" is written on a fold-out map (safely glued to the page, you won't be losing it) of the zoo, with the bylaws on the other side. The map is full of signs along the lines of "It's your own time you're wasting" and "Do not stroke the snakes", and the bylaws have a similarly long-winded list of rules, including "Strictly no ostentatious mating displays" and "No silly voices".
And of course, there's the scene where he gets eaten, which is where flaps really come in handy. First you have the little boy, and then you pull the flap and the boy is eaten but the words remain.
It's clever, it's funny, it's a classic poem - I may buy another for me. And it probably won't warp your kids for life. I, after all, am mostly sane :)
2. Mabela the Clever
A good story with an unusual moral - at least, I've never heard "Pay attention and THINK about what you're saying!" presented as a moral before, although God knows it ought to be.
No mousies are harmed in the reading of this story. My only real concern with it is that I have no idea how authentic it is.
3. The Balancing Girl
This is a sweet, simple story about a girl who is really (really!) good at balancing things, and makes a very long domino chain for her class fair.
The fact that she uses a wheelchair is barely mentioned, which I thought was a nice touch.
There's not much to *say* about this book, but it'd make a good addition to most people's libraries.
4. Snowflake Bentley
This is a fascinating book, well-illustrated, about the man who first captured snowflakes to save. My nieces were enraptured.
However, it is a little wordy, and it can be hard to figure out (if you're reading aloud) what to do with the sidebars of information. (I personally ignored them. They're interesting on their own, but trying to integrate them into the story would've been impossible.) This is definitely a picture book for the older crowd OR for young children who read well above their grade level.
5.Aster Aardvark's Alphabet Adventures
Okay, this book is a little bit exhausting to read. It's a series of alliterative vignettes, loosely connected by a skywriting aardvark. (Please, don't ask.) They're... long. Funny, hilarious, uproarious - but long.
As an example, let's take a look at X, which is pretty short because, y'know, X.
"Xerxes Ox excused Rex from the exercise exhibition by the six expert executives after he became exhausted from excessive exertion."
I know, you think 26 letters of that isn't too bad, right? P is twice as long, and M is longer still!
So this is clearly not the book to read right before bedtime, or when you have five minutes between now and recess. This is the one you pull out on the plane.
As long as we're clear on this, we're set. It's a bit wordy for smaller children (well, duh) and the vocabulary is definitely not suited for even erudite toddlers (now I'm doing it. Sorry.) Save it for the kids 4 or 5 and older.