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An almost daily report of interesting, unusual and noteworthy books that passed under my scanner.
An almost daily report of interesting, unusual and noteworthy books that passed under my scanner.An almost daily report of interesting, unusual and noteworthy books that passed under my scanner.An almost daily report of interesting, unusual and noteworthy books that passed under my scanner.An almost daily report of interesting, unusual and noteworthy books that passed under my scanner.An almost daily report of interesting, unusual and noteworthy books that passed under my scanner.
It’s time once again for another Easy Picture Books roundup and I have three really cute one for you today. Tedd Arnold’s More Parts is one of a series of three books that are a pure D delight. In charming rhyme, Arnold explores the thoughts and actions of a small boy who takes common sayings literally. From "broke your heart" and "give him a hand" to "jumps out of his skin" and "lost your mind", Arnold’s beautifully illustrated tale is a sheer joy. This one comes Highly Recommended.
My very first Wordless Wednesday! I’ve long thought that the popular Wordless Wednesday observed by quite a number of quality blogs was a great idea, but since this site is tightly focused on book reviews I’ve never found a way to participate. But recently I stumbled upon a unique and wonderful children’s book that has NO words!
Happy Tuesday! Time for an Easy books round up. Remember you can click on any book cover to place a request for it with Your local library or click on any book title to purchase from Powell’s, an independent and ethical bookseller based in Portland Oregon.
A recent release in the Cat In A Hat line of Easy Readers The Belly Book is a delightfully illustrated look at all sorts of bellies from bear bellies to brass bellies, glass bellies and hula-dancing grass bellies. As always the Easy Reader uses a carefully chosen and limited vocabulary and is specifically designed for our newest readers. Recommended.
When I first started this blog I remember hanging out on Blog Catalog and it always seemed I was talking to people who were facing writers block or unable to think of topics to post about and generally struggling to regularly publish a blog. And I would look at the huge stack of books on my couch and think to myself, ‘at least I don’t have _that_ problem.
And let me say right off that my stack of books is as tall as ever, so I can’t really use that as an excuse for my recent lack of posts. Honestly I don’t know why I have been spending my time lately playing games and watching television and even reading books rather than posting and promoting my blog. Sometimes, I suspect, you just need a mental break. Having recharged my inner batteries I hope to on Monday resume my five posts per week and thought I would ease back into things by posting today about three great books I’ve read during my hiatus.
Ouch! I tripped and fell on the sidewalk taking some clothes to the laundry room today and scraped my hand up pretty bad. Tough to type with big bandages on my right hand fingers. So just a short post today to share a book with one of my favorite bloggers. This book isn’t new but it remains popular at the library and is still worth checking out.
For ender, who is always building amazing Lego models I picked up a copy of The Ultiamte Lego Book. The official authorized biography of the little building bricks that could. I was sorry that my Legos were something I had to leave behind the last time I moved and thoroughly enjoyed reading about and seeing pictures of the Lego manufacturing process and the building of the huge models for the three Legoland theme parks. For Lego fans this one is Recommended
While I posted an Easy Books roundup just yesterday I felt this Easy Non-Fiction title I stumbled upon last week rated a post of its own. The Librarian of Basra is a true story about Alia Muhammad Baker who is the librarian in Basra, Iraq. When war comes Alia fears that her library and its 30,000 books may be destroyed. She begins taking the books home and storing them safely and arranges for other library staff members to do the same. While the library does end up getting burned and destroyed Alia and her colleagues are able to save fully seventy percent of the library’s collection.
The children’s area of the library can be at times both the most frustrating and most rewarding area to work. There is nothing like setting off to make closing pick up rounds and finding that every toy and nearly every book has been strewn hither tither and yon and know you are Really going to have to hustle to set things to right in the short time available until closing to remind you of the real challenge of serving patrons who are still learning their ABC’s and can thus be forgiven for putting books back in the wrong order, though I sometimes wonder if the parents who quite fail to teach their toddlers to put things away when they are finished live in surroundings like this all of the time.
First, my thanks to Techfun for suggesting this one to me. It’s taken me an awful long time to read it but I have and I’m glad I did. In Friday’s post I pointed out that art can be much more effective than traditional in conveying complex realities. I believe that A Thousand Splendid Suns is an excellent example of a novel that conveys the complex and messy truths of the real life story through novels that, imho, do a better job than history books sometimes in educating a mind about a particular place and peoples. I previously posted about Gary Geddes’ Kingdom Of Ten Thousand Things which touches briefly on the plight of present day Afghanistan before rushing off to pursue a very different main theme.
Every evening at closing time I go around gathering up any and all stray books that have been left here there or wherever. (We scan them all in case any might be listed as lost or missing before putting them back into the rotation to be re-shelved.) And one Sunday afternoon awhile back I picked up Patrick’s Dinosaurs on the Internet by writer Carol Carrick and illustrator David Milgrim. The bright and comical illustrations appealed to me and I set it aside to be included in some Easy Picture Book roundup or another.
In reading the book and the cover blurbs I learned that Patrick’s Dinosaurs on the Internet was actually a sequel to two books written in the 1980’s by Carol Carrick and her late husband the illustrator Donald Carrick. I fetched the two earlier works the next time I shelved in Easy Picture Books and am thrilled to share all three of them with you today on The Thin Red Line.
Happy Monday! We are Way overdue for an Easy Picture Book roundup and I have four great ones today!
Using only five words, artist/illustrator Emily Gravett’s Orange Pear Apple Bear is a unique and charming book that will delight children and grown ups alike. The books varying ordering of the title’s four words and Gravett’s highly creative illustrations of each are truly remarkable. There. Highly Recommended.
Resuming my regular posts with a Wednesday Easy Picture Book Roundup: Library Mouse, a 2007 release from author and illustrator Daniel Kirk is a delight. Sam, a mouse who lives behind the reference shelves in the children’s section at the library is a voracious reader. Then one day he decides to write a book and leaves it out on the shelf with all the others and the children read and enjoy it.
After writing about a whole slew of children’s books in my 12 Books For Christmas feature, I was burned out for awhile on Easy Picture Books, but the latest batch I brought home from the library are so cute and funny that I decided it was time for a Monday Easy Picture Book Round up.
Laura Numeroff is a prolific children’s book author, best known for the series of books that began with If You Give A Mouse A Cookie. Numeroff has collaborated with illustrator Nate Evans to create her 10-Step Guide To Living With Your Monster. From selecting the right monster in the first place to teaching him to brush his teeth, Numeroff provides wonderfully tongue-in-cheek advice to children who seek to own a monster, and the very colorful and imaginative illustrations by Evans are a sheer delight. To anyone who has ever had difficulty living with a monster, this one is Highly Recommended.
I suppose it is hopelessly politically incorrect to recommend a book that portrays construction workers as exclusively male, but the fact is I Loved this clever little children’s book with pages that unfold up to answer a series of questions about Who Builds? From the beaver building a lodge to the technicians building the space shuttle, Michael Rex answers the questions delightfully. Highly Recommended.
Also, The Very Hairy Bear (no image, Worldat) by Alice Schertle with illustrations by Matt Phelan is a recently published book that follows a bear through four seasons. The soft, almost pastel illustrations are quite striking, although they do not translate well to the computer screen and the story is quite cute. Recommended.
The powers that be are conspiring to prevent me from posting today. I spent over an hour on a long post about Herb Boyd’s We Shall Overcome and Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar’s favorite words. My DSL failed at the moment I pressed publish and the post disppaered into the ether.
The DSL came back up after a bit and I wrote a new post about my problem with the disappearing post and how hard it is to write an article a second time when you have no access to your first draft. It wasn’t Really a book review but I did include all the links. Then I clicked publish, the connection failed and the computer ate my post. Again.
Clearly the powers that be do NOT want me to promote these two books today. Want to join me in thwarting them? Go over to Worldcat and order these books from your library, even though I have included NO links. Or type the titles in the Powell’s search box and buy the new Carle cuz it’s so cool and to show those powers that be that didn’t let me put a link for your to do so in this space.
The gods willing, The Thin Red Line will return to regular publication tomorrow.
I don’t usually post about books that are not in English but this Spanish language children’s book I came across today is so unusual and a lot of fun even if you do not comprehend Spanish at all. Animalario Universal is spiral bound at the top rather than on the side and except for a few introductory and concluding pages, each page is cut in two places, creating three ‘mini pages’ or frames which can each be flipped independently. The first image shown is an elephant. As you flip each of the three segments over one by one the elephant becomes a pig, then the pig becomes an armadillo and so on until finally after the last three flips a camel becomes a fish. The Spanish words for each animal are displayed beneath the pictures and as best I can tell the book is intended as a fun vocabulary/animal names lesson for the Easy books crowd. Though it will certainly also appeal to anyone who admires clever and artistic books. Even it they no hablo Espanol.
Today’s Christmas book is a bit unusual. It includes a history lesson. Christmas In The Trenches by John McCutcheon with illustrations by Henri Sorensen (who was also the illustrator for The Old Shepard’s Tale, another Christmas book I reviewed) relates the tale of a grandfather and his in England on Christmas Day. After the presents and the meal the little girl remarks to her grandfather that this has been her favorite Christmas ever. She asks if Grandpa has a favorite Christmas. He does and this is the story.
Last week I got called in to work a shift at Sumner Library. I had worked at that branch once before and they had been very nice to me so when they said they were really desperate for someone to come in from 5–9 pm I agreed. Since I’d only been there once before I was not as clear as I might have been on the driving directions, and was at the point of wondering if I had made a wrong turn when I realized the library was just ahead on the left. Since I was in the right lane, I eased over so that I would be able to turn into the driveway, quite failing to notice the big SUV already occupying the left hand lane.
Luckily it was quite minor as collisions go. The Jeep SUV’s rugged side panels showed no damage at all and the scuffs on my driver’s side doors will buff right out. I did knock the side view mirror off, but re-attaching it proved easy and inexpensive. The other driver was very nice and after re-assuring each other we were fine and that no damage needed to be reported to police or insurance, I wandered into the staff lounge at Summer, sat down at the table, broke into my emergency Pop-Tarts and picked up the first book at hand to distract myself so I could calm down and work my shift.
Good Night, Gorilla is a delightful picture book, written and illustrated by Peggy Rathman. The security guard at the zoo goes around telling each of the animals "Good Night", unaware that the gorilla has snatched his ring of keys from his back pocket and is following him around, open the cage of each animal after it has been wished good night. The animals all follow the zoo keeper home, startling his sleeping wife who leads them all back to the zoo. A very cute story with excellent illustrations.
Having enjoyed a very positive response to my previous post about Poop–A Natural History of the Unmentionable, I knew as soon as I came across it while checking in returns this afternoon that I would have to blog about The Gas We Pass– The Story of Farts.
No polite grown up language like “flatulence” in this Easy Non Fiction book. Shinta Cho writes frankly and tastefully about the how’s and why’s of passing gas in a very cutely illustrated volume that would surely have a classroom of kindergarteners giggling madly in no time at all. I’m certain the kids will love it and refrain from Highly Recommending it only because I don’t want their parents to blame me when the kids won’t stop making fart noises and jokes long after the cute value of it has passed for the adults in the room.
This week’s Easy Picture Books round up is for Nikon, who was very enthusiastic about last week’s selection If You Give A Mouse A Cookie and suggested one I wasn’t familiar with, A Bargain For Frances. This Easy Reader is the delightful story of two furry little girls of indeterminate species who both really enjoy having tea parties with their dolls and both long for a fancy china tea set. The story by Russell Hoban does a wonderful job of entertaining at a true Easy reading level while the delightful illustrations by Lillian Hoban add charm that cause adults to remember this book fondly decades later. Highly Recommended.
The latest Easy Picture Books to catch my eye are a mixed bag. Tana Hoban’s 26 letters and 99 cents is exactly what the title specifies and nothing more. Open it from the front and you will see the alphabet presented in both upper and lower case in a plastic toy-claymation style that is distinctive but not especially impressive and illustrated by a picture of something beginning with the letter–from an airplane to a zipper. A useful but not special book for pre-reading alphabet drills.
Older toddlers who’ve already learned the ABC’s can open the book from the back and see the numbers 1 through 99 displayed with pictures of pennies, nickels dimes and quarters making up the number specified, from a single penny to three quarters, two dimes and four pennies in the final frame, this could be useful in teaching to count money. Recommended only if you happen upon it at the library and don’t have to buy it.
I should no longer be surprised when I find yet another example of a celebrity or public figure who has penned a children’s book, I’ve certainly run across and written about them before. But this one, by former US President Jimmy Carter, illustrated by his daughter Amy Carter, sadly reinforces the impression I got from Pete Seeger’s The Deaf Musicians– that celebrities generally don’t know much about writing children’s books and use illustrations that are downright ugly. The story, which is sweet if a bit oversimple and bland, is told in far more words than a toddler would ever likely read for herself so the book seems intended for an adult to read to a child. But I doubt the poor quality illustrations would hold the child’s attention long enough for the adult to get through the wordy story. Not Recommended. If You Give A Mouse A Cookie is the best of this bunch. A very cute story about things the mouse will subsequently want and you’ll subsequently have to give him. The illustrations are cute and appealing. Felicia Bond, the illustrator, apparently didn’t get the memo about mandatory ugly drawings and author Laura Joffe Numeroff deftly tells the tale at a true Easy reading level. A very pleasant story book suitable for bed time or quiet time. Recommended.
It’s time once again for another Easy Picture Books roundup and I have three really cute one for you today. Tedd Arnold’s More Parts is one of a series of three books that are a pure D delight. In charming rhyme, Arnold explores the thoughts and actions of a small boy who takes common sayings literally. From "broke your heart" and "give him a hand" to "jumps out of his skin" and "lost your mind", Arnold’s beautifully illustrated tale is a sheer joy. This one comes Highly Recommended.
While I posted an Easy Books roundup just yesterday I felt this Easy Non-Fiction title I stumbled upon last week rated a post of its own. The Librarian of Basra is a true story about Alia Muhammad Baker who is the librarian in Basra, Iraq. When war comes Alia fears that her library and its 30,000 books may be destroyed. She begins taking the books home and storing them safely and arranges for other library staff members to do the same. While the library does end up getting burned and destroyed Alia and her colleagues are able to save fully seventy percent of the library’s collection.
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