Book reviews (of doom)
Jan. 18th, 2011 09:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conuly1. One Was Johnny
There's not much you can really *do* with counting books. You count up to ten, you count down from ten, and you hope you can make it interesting to the kids reading along at home.
Sendak managed to make it interesting, although a bit weirdly, what with the mail-delivering monkeys and random burglars. The book is short and simple and my younger niece (in kindergarten) liked it a lot, and I suppose that's why it's a classic :)
You can watch the video here.
2. The Hating Book
There are three negative reviews to this book, which largely all rehash the argument "OMG! HATE IS BAD! THIS BOOK IS BAD! NOOOO!"
As near as I can figure, these people looked at the title and stopped looking.
To sum up... this book isn't about "teaching kids to hate". And it's not about hating either. It's about children being angry and making up at the end with the mother's sage advice "You should really just talk to her". (What an idea! When you're angry at somebody, talk to them, get their side of the story!) It's about resolving conflicts peacefully with your words, and about not being too scared to make amends.
Even if your family doesn't use the word "hate", that doesn't mean your children don't have those same feelings. They do - you've just robbed them of a way to express themselves.
I did find the artwork is a little dull, though.
3. The Rabbit Problem
I haven't read this book with the nieces.
This isn't a storybook. Instead, it's a calendar with flaps and pop-out options that has pithy comments on it related to Fibbonacci's rabbit problem. And, indeed, his rabbit problem is illustrated with, well, the illustrations. Every month we see more and more rabbits. The math is going to sail over the head of most preschoolers (other than "rabbits have a lot of babies"), and there's no clear idea of how to follow the text.
That doesn't mean this is a bad book. Actually, it's hilarious, something you don't always get to say about mathy books. It's just not a STORY book. It's good, though, for older kids who can read it on their own... especially if they're discussing this sort of problem in their math class. Also? Fun for adults. VERY.
4. The Boys
Wordless picture books are often a surprise to people more used to the other type. They don't know what to *do* with a wordless book, if the reviews are any indication. Or they think a wordless book will somehow keep their child from reading. Maybe they think it's too much *work*.
A wordless book is a great bridge into reading, though. It gives your kid a chance to practice working out the story from context and following a storyline, without having pesky text to trip things up. And it allows THEM to read the story to YOU, instead of it always having to be the other way around. Plus, there's just some fun in the grown-up not having to be the center of everything.
This story is one of a shy new kid. He makes it to the park, but he's too scared to talk to the other children and play ball with them. Instead, he sits with the old folks on the bench.
The next day he brings bread to feed the pigeons.
The day after he dresses like the grown-ups. At this point, they're concerned, and they set things up so he can loosen up, act his age, and start playing with the other kids. That's the rough outline, but of course you can tell it differently every time :)
Is there a moral to this story? Heck, I don't know. I know I like the artwork, I think there's a lot more detail in the grown-ups than you can tell at first read, and that the plot (such as it is) hangs together nicely... if you can take a minute to open your mind and try the book out first.
5. Chicken Butt!
Evangeline really liked this book. I read the boy's questions, she read the dad's replies, and then we both read (slowly) the punchlines.
I doubt this book would be very popular with us more than once, it really is the same joke over and over and over and over again, but I bet it's more useful in a classroom or library.
6. Chicken Cheeks
We take this book out from the library every few months, and it's always a favorite.
Now, I *will* say that it's a short book, not much story. Sure, you spend time examining the pictures (I think the guinea pig buns is hysterical) and following the progress of the little ants... but it's a short book. It's the sort of book you pull out when you have five minutes between washing dishes and leaving for school, or when you're late for bedtime as it is. NOT the sort of book you bring with you to the doctor's office where you're going to wait and wait and wait.
And yes, the book gets pretty much all of its humor from all the butts. Kids think butts are funny. Don't ask me why!
But the artwork is well done, and while I wouldn't expect it to be in too frequent rotation it's fun once in a while. If you have a big enough home library this will make a fun addition.
Now, I do have something else to say. Quite a few people are annoyed that this book has "no educational value". I think it's a little absurd to worry about "educational value" from a book. Just *reading* has educational value... but worrying about that is silly. Read what you like, that's all.
However, because people *will* worry about silly things like this, I feel compelled to make a short list of easy educational topics that relate to this book. You can make a learning experience (if you *must*) from most nearly ANY book, but this one is well suited to talking about:
1. Synonyms
2. Alliteration
3. Dialect and linguistic register (gluteus maximus isn't in the same register as patootie, which itself isn't in the same register as butt)
4. Punning
5. Poetic meter (duck-billed playtpus gluteus maximus is a great example of an anapest, which you don't come by very often)
Plus, of course, your child is likely to learn a few new vocabulary words. If they must talk about butts (and they're young. They must) they might as well sound erudite while doing so, right?
7. The Twelve Dancing Princesses
I like this book, and Ms. Isadora's other fairy tale books, in principle. I am beyond the moon at the idea of having these fairy tales set in Africa, with non-white characters. The illustrations are great, and the concept is wonderful. (Believe me, we've had too too many conversations with the older niece about how no, she doesn't need long straight blond hair to be a princess, and her hair is beautiful just the way it is.)
However, I have the same problem with this book that I did with her version of The Princess and the Pea, and that's the text. This version is so incredibly bare bones that it feels like half the story is missing. The soldier who wins does so by getting advice from an old woman - but why does she tell him how to save the day? Does he help her? Does she like him? Is he just nice? Who knows? The story doesn't give her any reason to help him at all.
Most fairy tales I read are written with some pretense that the people have motivations and feelings and thoughts. This one is just... character archetypes and standard plot. There's nothing wrong with that, but I really wish that this version of The Twelve Dancing Princesses was more fleshed out, with the text to match the artwork.
8. Good Dog, Carl
This is a (mostly) wordless picture book.
I gotta say that the story is a little weird. A woman leaves her baby in the care of her dog for long enough for said baby to eat and take a bath as well as having any number of scary adventures (down the laundry chute? INTO THE FISH TANK?) in the house?
And the dog... cleans it all up after? How smart IS this dog, anyway?
But my five year old niece thought the story was wildly funny, and was happy to be able to read it easily on her own (because, of course, there are no words).
9. LMNO Peas
Now that my younger niece is 5 and learning to read (and how!) I'm not buying ANY MORE alphabet books unless they're super awesome.
This book is NOT "super awesome". (That's restricted to Superhero ABC and to A is for Salad, thanks.) But it IS a cute and solid alphabet book that's a little different from A is for Apple, B is for Ball. (And if you want A is for Apple and all that, go with Alison Jay's ABCs, because her illustrations are charmingly amazing. Or perhaps amazingly charming. Whatever, they rock.)
The group of peas runs through the alphabet telling you all the things they do - "We're climbers, campers, and he's a circus clown. We're dancers ("Can you dig it?") and drivers around town!" - in front of various letters. There's definitely a bigger vocabulary here than in most abecedarians (alphabet books, but doesn't abecedarian sound better?), and when you get bored you can amuse yourself by looking for the ladybug on each spread.
My favorite page has to be K, where we're told "some of us are kings", with a king in a castle... and a little pea-Elvis!
10. The Lion and the Mouse
Somebody on Amazon took umbrage to the fact that I went around and replied to people downrating this book for no other reason than that it's wordless. "Do you make people in art galleries look at the pictures YOU like?" No, but if they only like Rembrandt I do insist they refrain from criticizing Monet for not being more like him. Or, as I put it there, criticizing a wordless book for not having words is like criticizing a chapter book for not having pictures. Different genres, dude. (I have my nasty suspicions about the personalities of *some* reviewers who have a problem with wordless books, but I'm not going to state them here.)
With that said, Evangeline (now that she no longer spurns the wordless genre for that very reason) enjoyed this one. She found the story easy to follow... but, hilariously, SHE thought saving the lion's life was secondary to the mouse's real goal in chewing up the net - to bring home a ball for its babies!
11. Museum Trip
This is a wordless book about a boy who gets lost in a museum... but finds his way through several mazes in a book. The real question to ask is "Did this really happen?" I, as the grown-up who sees the medal the boy won for solving the mazes (and the one worn by the museum curator) say yes, weirdly, it did. My five year old niece, who can be very literal sometimes ("People don't really go in books, Connie!") says no... but I think she'll figure it out eventually.
She was fascinated by the mazes, btw, although I thought that sequence went on for a while.
12. Free Fall
I've decided that this year I'll read more wordless picture books with my nieces. And I've started this very week!
Free Fall is not my favorite of the genre. Because it takes place in a boy's dream it's all a little weird, with farms turning into chess boards and leaves turning into birds. There's not much of a story because - hello, dream!
However, it's not all about me. My niece (5) thought it was fascinating, although I'm doubtful that she really understood what's going on. Still, it's good for kids to not get what's going on. Forces them to stretch their minds a little.
13. Rainstorm
Wordless picture books can be harder, in a way, than the other kind because you have to *think*.
Still, they're not impossible, and they're good practice for reading, you know.
This one features a lonely boy who finds in his own home a tunnel to some friends. It's simply told, and easy to follow, although a little strange. My nieces enjoyed it quite a bit, and had fun pointing out the similarity between him visiting his friends and vice versa.
14. Spells
This is another one of Emily Gravett's stunning but kinda weird books.
Frog finds a book. A spellbook, so he decides to turn himself into a prince. Alas, he foolishly ripped it up, so now you have several pages where you can mix and match the spells to get weird mix and match critters. I strongly suggest you do NOT attempt to read these all aloud. Either let the kids have the book on their own or randomly turn the pages a few times.
He does eventually turn into a prince... only to turn back when kissed. Bit of a pointless story, but the artwork is wonderful and you can amuse most kids for a time with flipping pages and making random critters.
15. Snow Moon
1. The illustrations and font (hey, I like fonts!) in this book are absolutely magical.
2. The story is sweet, if a bit simple - a boy follows an owl and sees how the owls make snow by brushing their wings against the moon.
3. The story is pure poetry.
I would absolutely recommend this book for nearly anybody's library. You won't regret it.
This is a second set of reviews.
1. Radio Rescue
I haven't read this with the nieces
This was a somewhat wordy book about a ten year old boy who is obsessed with ham radios... back in the 1920s. Of course, as you could guess, he saves some lives in the end of the book, but mostly it's about the details of learning this skill back 100 years ago.
It's more interesting than I'm making it sound.
2. Yo! Yes?
This is a very simple book for an early reader, with no page having more than two words (all dialog) on it.
The story is really told in the illustrations. You can see so much from how the boys stand, how small or big their words are. Very sweet story... and at a level a five year old can easily read.
3.
There's not much you can really *do* with counting books. You count up to ten, you count down from ten, and you hope you can make it interesting to the kids reading along at home.
Sendak managed to make it interesting, although a bit weirdly, what with the mail-delivering monkeys and random burglars. The book is short and simple and my younger niece (in kindergarten) liked it a lot, and I suppose that's why it's a classic :)
You can watch the video here.
2. The Hating Book
There are three negative reviews to this book, which largely all rehash the argument "OMG! HATE IS BAD! THIS BOOK IS BAD! NOOOO!"
As near as I can figure, these people looked at the title and stopped looking.
To sum up... this book isn't about "teaching kids to hate". And it's not about hating either. It's about children being angry and making up at the end with the mother's sage advice "You should really just talk to her". (What an idea! When you're angry at somebody, talk to them, get their side of the story!) It's about resolving conflicts peacefully with your words, and about not being too scared to make amends.
Even if your family doesn't use the word "hate", that doesn't mean your children don't have those same feelings. They do - you've just robbed them of a way to express themselves.
I did find the artwork is a little dull, though.
3. The Rabbit Problem
I haven't read this book with the nieces.
This isn't a storybook. Instead, it's a calendar with flaps and pop-out options that has pithy comments on it related to Fibbonacci's rabbit problem. And, indeed, his rabbit problem is illustrated with, well, the illustrations. Every month we see more and more rabbits. The math is going to sail over the head of most preschoolers (other than "rabbits have a lot of babies"), and there's no clear idea of how to follow the text.
That doesn't mean this is a bad book. Actually, it's hilarious, something you don't always get to say about mathy books. It's just not a STORY book. It's good, though, for older kids who can read it on their own... especially if they're discussing this sort of problem in their math class. Also? Fun for adults. VERY.
4. The Boys
Wordless picture books are often a surprise to people more used to the other type. They don't know what to *do* with a wordless book, if the reviews are any indication. Or they think a wordless book will somehow keep their child from reading. Maybe they think it's too much *work*.
A wordless book is a great bridge into reading, though. It gives your kid a chance to practice working out the story from context and following a storyline, without having pesky text to trip things up. And it allows THEM to read the story to YOU, instead of it always having to be the other way around. Plus, there's just some fun in the grown-up not having to be the center of everything.
This story is one of a shy new kid. He makes it to the park, but he's too scared to talk to the other children and play ball with them. Instead, he sits with the old folks on the bench.
The next day he brings bread to feed the pigeons.
The day after he dresses like the grown-ups. At this point, they're concerned, and they set things up so he can loosen up, act his age, and start playing with the other kids. That's the rough outline, but of course you can tell it differently every time :)
Is there a moral to this story? Heck, I don't know. I know I like the artwork, I think there's a lot more detail in the grown-ups than you can tell at first read, and that the plot (such as it is) hangs together nicely... if you can take a minute to open your mind and try the book out first.
5. Chicken Butt!
Evangeline really liked this book. I read the boy's questions, she read the dad's replies, and then we both read (slowly) the punchlines.
I doubt this book would be very popular with us more than once, it really is the same joke over and over and over and over again, but I bet it's more useful in a classroom or library.
6. Chicken Cheeks
We take this book out from the library every few months, and it's always a favorite.
Now, I *will* say that it's a short book, not much story. Sure, you spend time examining the pictures (I think the guinea pig buns is hysterical) and following the progress of the little ants... but it's a short book. It's the sort of book you pull out when you have five minutes between washing dishes and leaving for school, or when you're late for bedtime as it is. NOT the sort of book you bring with you to the doctor's office where you're going to wait and wait and wait.
And yes, the book gets pretty much all of its humor from all the butts. Kids think butts are funny. Don't ask me why!
But the artwork is well done, and while I wouldn't expect it to be in too frequent rotation it's fun once in a while. If you have a big enough home library this will make a fun addition.
Now, I do have something else to say. Quite a few people are annoyed that this book has "no educational value". I think it's a little absurd to worry about "educational value" from a book. Just *reading* has educational value... but worrying about that is silly. Read what you like, that's all.
However, because people *will* worry about silly things like this, I feel compelled to make a short list of easy educational topics that relate to this book. You can make a learning experience (if you *must*) from most nearly ANY book, but this one is well suited to talking about:
1. Synonyms
2. Alliteration
3. Dialect and linguistic register (gluteus maximus isn't in the same register as patootie, which itself isn't in the same register as butt)
4. Punning
5. Poetic meter (duck-billed playtpus gluteus maximus is a great example of an anapest, which you don't come by very often)
Plus, of course, your child is likely to learn a few new vocabulary words. If they must talk about butts (and they're young. They must) they might as well sound erudite while doing so, right?
7. The Twelve Dancing Princesses
I like this book, and Ms. Isadora's other fairy tale books, in principle. I am beyond the moon at the idea of having these fairy tales set in Africa, with non-white characters. The illustrations are great, and the concept is wonderful. (Believe me, we've had too too many conversations with the older niece about how no, she doesn't need long straight blond hair to be a princess, and her hair is beautiful just the way it is.)
However, I have the same problem with this book that I did with her version of The Princess and the Pea, and that's the text. This version is so incredibly bare bones that it feels like half the story is missing. The soldier who wins does so by getting advice from an old woman - but why does she tell him how to save the day? Does he help her? Does she like him? Is he just nice? Who knows? The story doesn't give her any reason to help him at all.
Most fairy tales I read are written with some pretense that the people have motivations and feelings and thoughts. This one is just... character archetypes and standard plot. There's nothing wrong with that, but I really wish that this version of The Twelve Dancing Princesses was more fleshed out, with the text to match the artwork.
8. Good Dog, Carl
This is a (mostly) wordless picture book.
I gotta say that the story is a little weird. A woman leaves her baby in the care of her dog for long enough for said baby to eat and take a bath as well as having any number of scary adventures (down the laundry chute? INTO THE FISH TANK?) in the house?
And the dog... cleans it all up after? How smart IS this dog, anyway?
But my five year old niece thought the story was wildly funny, and was happy to be able to read it easily on her own (because, of course, there are no words).
9. LMNO Peas
Now that my younger niece is 5 and learning to read (and how!) I'm not buying ANY MORE alphabet books unless they're super awesome.
This book is NOT "super awesome". (That's restricted to Superhero ABC and to A is for Salad, thanks.) But it IS a cute and solid alphabet book that's a little different from A is for Apple, B is for Ball. (And if you want A is for Apple and all that, go with Alison Jay's ABCs, because her illustrations are charmingly amazing. Or perhaps amazingly charming. Whatever, they rock.)
The group of peas runs through the alphabet telling you all the things they do - "We're climbers, campers, and he's a circus clown. We're dancers ("Can you dig it?") and drivers around town!" - in front of various letters. There's definitely a bigger vocabulary here than in most abecedarians (alphabet books, but doesn't abecedarian sound better?), and when you get bored you can amuse yourself by looking for the ladybug on each spread.
My favorite page has to be K, where we're told "some of us are kings", with a king in a castle... and a little pea-Elvis!
10. The Lion and the Mouse
Somebody on Amazon took umbrage to the fact that I went around and replied to people downrating this book for no other reason than that it's wordless. "Do you make people in art galleries look at the pictures YOU like?" No, but if they only like Rembrandt I do insist they refrain from criticizing Monet for not being more like him. Or, as I put it there, criticizing a wordless book for not having words is like criticizing a chapter book for not having pictures. Different genres, dude. (I have my nasty suspicions about the personalities of *some* reviewers who have a problem with wordless books, but I'm not going to state them here.)
With that said, Evangeline (now that she no longer spurns the wordless genre for that very reason) enjoyed this one. She found the story easy to follow... but, hilariously, SHE thought saving the lion's life was secondary to the mouse's real goal in chewing up the net - to bring home a ball for its babies!
11. Museum Trip
This is a wordless book about a boy who gets lost in a museum... but finds his way through several mazes in a book. The real question to ask is "Did this really happen?" I, as the grown-up who sees the medal the boy won for solving the mazes (and the one worn by the museum curator) say yes, weirdly, it did. My five year old niece, who can be very literal sometimes ("People don't really go in books, Connie!") says no... but I think she'll figure it out eventually.
She was fascinated by the mazes, btw, although I thought that sequence went on for a while.
12. Free Fall
I've decided that this year I'll read more wordless picture books with my nieces. And I've started this very week!
Free Fall is not my favorite of the genre. Because it takes place in a boy's dream it's all a little weird, with farms turning into chess boards and leaves turning into birds. There's not much of a story because - hello, dream!
However, it's not all about me. My niece (5) thought it was fascinating, although I'm doubtful that she really understood what's going on. Still, it's good for kids to not get what's going on. Forces them to stretch their minds a little.
13. Rainstorm
Wordless picture books can be harder, in a way, than the other kind because you have to *think*.
Still, they're not impossible, and they're good practice for reading, you know.
This one features a lonely boy who finds in his own home a tunnel to some friends. It's simply told, and easy to follow, although a little strange. My nieces enjoyed it quite a bit, and had fun pointing out the similarity between him visiting his friends and vice versa.
14. Spells
This is another one of Emily Gravett's stunning but kinda weird books.
Frog finds a book. A spellbook, so he decides to turn himself into a prince. Alas, he foolishly ripped it up, so now you have several pages where you can mix and match the spells to get weird mix and match critters. I strongly suggest you do NOT attempt to read these all aloud. Either let the kids have the book on their own or randomly turn the pages a few times.
He does eventually turn into a prince... only to turn back when kissed. Bit of a pointless story, but the artwork is wonderful and you can amuse most kids for a time with flipping pages and making random critters.
15. Snow Moon
1. The illustrations and font (hey, I like fonts!) in this book are absolutely magical.
2. The story is sweet, if a bit simple - a boy follows an owl and sees how the owls make snow by brushing their wings against the moon.
3. The story is pure poetry.
I would absolutely recommend this book for nearly anybody's library. You won't regret it.
This is a second set of reviews.
1. Radio Rescue
I haven't read this with the nieces
This was a somewhat wordy book about a ten year old boy who is obsessed with ham radios... back in the 1920s. Of course, as you could guess, he saves some lives in the end of the book, but mostly it's about the details of learning this skill back 100 years ago.
It's more interesting than I'm making it sound.
2. Yo! Yes?
This is a very simple book for an early reader, with no page having more than two words (all dialog) on it.
The story is really told in the illustrations. You can see so much from how the boys stand, how small or big their words are. Very sweet story... and at a level a five year old can easily read.
3.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-17 10:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-18 04:22 pm (UTC)Radio Rescue
Date: 2011-01-19 06:20 am (UTC)Re: Radio Rescue
Date: 2011-01-20 05:24 am (UTC)I'm glad it was useful to you!