Prepare to be charmed. Prepare to rise off the couch.
Lisa Brown's How to Be will have your young reader, and perhaps an adult or two, up and about. In rich, vibrant watercolor, How to Be's expressive, and often hilarious illustrations feature two children at home, imitating animal behavior and attitudes.
. . . How to be a Bear, a Monkey, a Turtle, a Snake, a Spider a Dog.
But do not be fooled by the book¹s simple language and classic illustrations. How to Be is a wise book that explores how in imitation of the admirable characteristics we share with each animal, we can define and bring out the best aspects of human nature, the traits that make up who we are.:
. . . .Be Brave, Be Curious, Be Patient, Be Charming, Be Creative, Be Friendly, Be a person----Be yourself.
This book's potential for home, library or school story time is exciting. The subject, a perceptive observation of animals and a distilled sense of their noble qualities that as humans we should emulate--is of intense natural interest to many young children. But the repetitive prompts make How to Be also a wonderful resource for classroom use in reading class and as a model for prompted writing activities.
Reviewed by Vivian
Monday, July 7, 2008
The Raft
by Jim LaMarche
This is an unforgettable, spellbinding book. Young Nicky is sent to spend the summer on the river with his artist grandmother, "who does not even have a TV." He discovers a raft decorated with beautiful drawings of the wild animals that live in the riverscape. All summer he drifts amongst them living adventures on his raft. He discovers in his grandmother's world the exhilarating moments to be found in nature, the beauty of art, and a lifelong antidote to boredom.
Reviewed by Vivian
This is an unforgettable, spellbinding book. Young Nicky is sent to spend the summer on the river with his artist grandmother, "who does not even have a TV." He discovers a raft decorated with beautiful drawings of the wild animals that live in the riverscape. All summer he drifts amongst them living adventures on his raft. He discovers in his grandmother's world the exhilarating moments to be found in nature, the beauty of art, and a lifelong antidote to boredom.
Reviewed by Vivian
Oh Brother!
by Nikki Grimes.
This is a special book. It is our picture book darling of the season.Each page spread is a poem, and together, the poems tell the story of a bi-racial, blended family overcoming the trials and tribulations of learning to live and love together.Xavier's Mom has just married Chris's Dad. To Xavier, the house feels too small, the love seems not enough for two, and just about everything Chris does, Xavier sees as ill-intentioned or competitive. But that makes the book sound heavy when indeed these are witty, moving poems that skip, sink, soar and take unexpected twists along with the little boy's emotions. They read with the ease that excellent children's poetry has. It comes in lightly and then insinuates itself into the mind over time. When the brothers work things out and find joy in each other, my 5-year-old daughter in my lap was full of happiness and bounce. The pictures burst with energy, expression and color, and more than match the text--they give it life and whimsy. The eyes are beautiful.Oh Book, what lovely light touch, with a heavy subject. We read so manybooks here that seldom can we say with confidence, "just one read-throughthis one" and it will stay with you. It really will.
Reviewed by Vivian
This is a special book. It is our picture book darling of the season.Each page spread is a poem, and together, the poems tell the story of a bi-racial, blended family overcoming the trials and tribulations of learning to live and love together.Xavier's Mom has just married Chris's Dad. To Xavier, the house feels too small, the love seems not enough for two, and just about everything Chris does, Xavier sees as ill-intentioned or competitive. But that makes the book sound heavy when indeed these are witty, moving poems that skip, sink, soar and take unexpected twists along with the little boy's emotions. They read with the ease that excellent children's poetry has. It comes in lightly and then insinuates itself into the mind over time. When the brothers work things out and find joy in each other, my 5-year-old daughter in my lap was full of happiness and bounce. The pictures burst with energy, expression and color, and more than match the text--they give it life and whimsy. The eyes are beautiful.Oh Book, what lovely light touch, with a heavy subject. We read so manybooks here that seldom can we say with confidence, "just one read-throughthis one" and it will stay with you. It really will.
Reviewed by Vivian
An Egg is Quiet and A Seed is Sleepy
By Diana Hutts Aston , Illustrated by Syliva Long
An Egg is Quiet is a masterpiece! This book feels like a nature walk through alluring water-colored fields. Yet despite the sublime illustrations and rich information presented on every page, An Egg is Quiet is not like any science book you or your child have read before. The fascinating verbal and visual narratives are charged with a contagious passion about the wonders, qualities and possibilities of the beautiful, heroic EGG. Indeed, “An Egg is Colorful; it is Clever, it is Quiet and Suddenly . . . well, I’ll not spoil it for you except to say you’ll catch your breath at the explosive hatching of color.
A Seed is Sleepy
After the phenomenal success of Egg, Hutts Aston and Long have created an equally stunning Companion Book about Seeds. Seed dazzles with its gorgeous illustrations of so many kinds/sizes of seeds and plants, intrigues with its revelation of what awaits inside a seed, and pulses with the energy of the natural forces, (gravity, heat, photosynthesis) that call to the seed to fulfill its promise. Share it with a child and watch their understanding and excitement grow. This book is not just for children and naturalists, but for anyone who has ever put their hands into the earth or hopes someday to plant a seed.
Reviewed By Vivian
An Egg is Quiet is a masterpiece! This book feels like a nature walk through alluring water-colored fields. Yet despite the sublime illustrations and rich information presented on every page, An Egg is Quiet is not like any science book you or your child have read before. The fascinating verbal and visual narratives are charged with a contagious passion about the wonders, qualities and possibilities of the beautiful, heroic EGG. Indeed, “An Egg is Colorful; it is Clever, it is Quiet and Suddenly . . . well, I’ll not spoil it for you except to say you’ll catch your breath at the explosive hatching of color.
A Seed is Sleepy
After the phenomenal success of Egg, Hutts Aston and Long have created an equally stunning Companion Book about Seeds. Seed dazzles with its gorgeous illustrations of so many kinds/sizes of seeds and plants, intrigues with its revelation of what awaits inside a seed, and pulses with the energy of the natural forces, (gravity, heat, photosynthesis) that call to the seed to fulfill its promise. Share it with a child and watch their understanding and excitement grow. This book is not just for children and naturalists, but for anyone who has ever put their hands into the earth or hopes someday to plant a seed.
Reviewed By Vivian
Weslandia
by Paul Fleishman, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes
What are YOU planning for your Summer vacation? Young Wesley, a nonconformist, inventor, decides to form his own civilization. He prepares a plot of soil and just waits to see what grows. Often mocked and bullied in the real world, clever Wes decides to make his own rather than submit to peer pressure and be like everyone else. What does grow in his rich soil is a tall plant not previously known to man with gorgeous, large red flowers with 8 petals. This plant becomes “Weslandia’s” staple crop. Wes prepares its tubers for food, weaves its stalks for clothes, and even crushes its seeds for sunblock and mosquito repellent which he then sells to his earlier tormentors. He creates a numeric system based on the number 8, and an alphabet, paper and ink and even a fabulous game, kind of like lacrosse on stilts, or quidditch on the ground. Absolutely everything in this backyard world comes from Wesley’s lovely plant and charming creativity.
Wesley is having such a grand time with his alternate world summer project that his self-contained pleasure, like the music from his homemade flute, beguiles, all the kids who peek over the fence. They want to join in the games, the productive work, the fun. What they see is someone utterly and confidently being himself. And, of course, everybody wants to be friends with a kid like that.
Reviewed by Vivian
What are YOU planning for your Summer vacation? Young Wesley, a nonconformist, inventor, decides to form his own civilization. He prepares a plot of soil and just waits to see what grows. Often mocked and bullied in the real world, clever Wes decides to make his own rather than submit to peer pressure and be like everyone else. What does grow in his rich soil is a tall plant not previously known to man with gorgeous, large red flowers with 8 petals. This plant becomes “Weslandia’s” staple crop. Wes prepares its tubers for food, weaves its stalks for clothes, and even crushes its seeds for sunblock and mosquito repellent which he then sells to his earlier tormentors. He creates a numeric system based on the number 8, and an alphabet, paper and ink and even a fabulous game, kind of like lacrosse on stilts, or quidditch on the ground. Absolutely everything in this backyard world comes from Wesley’s lovely plant and charming creativity.
Wesley is having such a grand time with his alternate world summer project that his self-contained pleasure, like the music from his homemade flute, beguiles, all the kids who peek over the fence. They want to join in the games, the productive work, the fun. What they see is someone utterly and confidently being himself. And, of course, everybody wants to be friends with a kid like that.
Reviewed by Vivian
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Come On, Rain!
by Karen Hesse
This book is an emotional thrill. It opens in the stagnant, summer heat. You can breathe the slumbering silence that the words and pictures evoke. The tomato plants are drooping; people are sluggish. All is still.
Not so young Tess. She is busy running around cajoling her mother to let her wear a swim suit, conspiring with her best friend, Jackie Joyce to gather their friends. She is determined to will the rain to come down out of the sky. Tess whispers her incantation “come on, Rain; come on Rain.”
As the dark clouds approach the text and gorgeous water colors gather speed and life. What happens next is movingly magical:
“We grab the hands of our mamas
We twirl and sway them,
Tromping through puddles,
Romping and reeling in the moisty green air.
We swing our wet and wild-haired mammas ‘til we’re all laughing under trinkets of silver rain.”
If you have ever experienced such a moment with a child, you know that children can indeed cast joyful spells on simple pleasures that will forever loom large in your memory and theirs.
When my third daughter was born, I named her Tess.
Reviewed by Vivian
This book is an emotional thrill. It opens in the stagnant, summer heat. You can breathe the slumbering silence that the words and pictures evoke. The tomato plants are drooping; people are sluggish. All is still.
Not so young Tess. She is busy running around cajoling her mother to let her wear a swim suit, conspiring with her best friend, Jackie Joyce to gather their friends. She is determined to will the rain to come down out of the sky. Tess whispers her incantation “come on, Rain; come on Rain.”
As the dark clouds approach the text and gorgeous water colors gather speed and life. What happens next is movingly magical:
“We grab the hands of our mamas
We twirl and sway them,
Tromping through puddles,
Romping and reeling in the moisty green air.
We swing our wet and wild-haired mammas ‘til we’re all laughing under trinkets of silver rain.”
If you have ever experienced such a moment with a child, you know that children can indeed cast joyful spells on simple pleasures that will forever loom large in your memory and theirs.
When my third daughter was born, I named her Tess.
Reviewed by Vivian
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