Raven: A Trickster Tale from the Pacific Northwest by Gerald McDermott
I have arbitrarily decided that this week shall be Trickster Week. Or more accurately, Gerald McDermott Trickster Week. I reviewed one of his first trickster tales here; now I go to tackle the rest of the series. Enjoy!
While Raven was flying high in the sky, he noticed that everything was dark and that all of the people were sad in the darkness. So he flew around the world until he found a place where there might be some light. He changed himself into a child – the grandson of the Sky Chief – where he was given whatever he wanted. When he found the place where the light was hidden, he stole it, changed back into a raven, and hung it in the sky where everyone could have light now.
Trickster tales are fascinating to me. I know so little lore from this region of the world as well, so I liked learning about it. But as always, it’s McDermott’s illustrations that are the real star of the show. Inspired by native art, these colorful renderings earned him a Caldecott Honor. And I say “well-deserved.”
Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors by Joyce Sidman and Pamela Zagarenski (illus.)
Colors are everywhere. But are they different at different times of the year? What is the green of summer like compared to green in winter? What does white sound like in the spring? What does orange taste like in the fall? In short, poignant poems, Sidman explores the depth of color in the world around us and how it can change with the year.
This book is not going to get tons of laughs. It’s not going to connect kids with a particular character. But this book is going to make imaginations soar. Easily adaptable to lessons on seasons and colors, it encourages kids to think outside their sense of sight to use colors to describe others things in the world like sounds and smells. But this book didn’t win a poetry honor – it’s a Caldecott Honor Book, which means that the pictures are integral to the story presented. I say amen to that. Zagarenski’s collage pictures are at the same time both bright and soft. The book design of the text flows seamlessly into the pictures, and one does not distract the other. The illustrations have a homey feel to them that welcome you in to every page of the book.
It’s bedtime for the little red chicken, but she can’t go to sleep without a bedtime story! Papa says he will read her a story… only if she promises not to interrupt them! She promises… but she just can’t help herself! If Chicken hadn’t warn Hansel and Gretel that the old woman was a witch, she would have tried to eat them! Or if she hadn’t warned Red Riding Hood about the wolf, he would’ve eaten her and her grandma! And if she hadn’t warned Chicken Little about the acorn, people would’ve gotten upset over nothing! Of course now Chicken is wide awake, and not all ready for bed.
The fun part about this book is the pictures. Once Papa agrees to read a story, we get lovely classic sketches until BAM! In comes warm, colorful Interrupting Chicken scaring away all the main characters. It’s really quite adorable. Children will love the abbreviated and interrupted versions of famous fairy tales by an excited barn fowl. But be forewarned: you may notice your bedtime stories becoming more and more interrupted.
Hugo Cabret now lives alone in a train station in Paris. When his father died, his uncle took him in and taught him how to care for the clocks. Hugo took to the mechanisms right away. When his uncle disappears, Hugo keeps the clocks running. But he’s also got a special project that his father started: a mechanical man with a hidden message. In his quest to find out this hidden message from his father, Hugo gets caught up in the world of another young orphaned girl, her godfather with a secret past, and a world of real magic the Hugo had only dreamed of. Told in about 2,000 words and 158 original drawings (plus photographs), The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a book you will not soon forget.
I first read this book a little over a year ago. I wanted to blog about it as one of my initial posts, but never got around to it. It deserved a re-read anyway. This is one of the most captivating books I have ever read. You quickly flip through about 50 pages of AMAZING illustrations before you even come across any text. Selznick’s black and white drawings elicit sensations of watching an old classic movie, and they move so quickly that you expect your hands to have graphite smudged on them. This book could stand alone on its pictures. But Selznick has also crafted a magnificent story that keeps the reader deeply intrigued and wanting to learn more. One of the coolest things about this book is that I had actually seen the film central to the story’s plot, A Trip to the Moon. If you care to see it, it’s posted below since it’s out of copyright. I hope you are inspired and compelled to pick up this book. It may look ridiculously long at 540-ish pages, but it goes by like that. *snaps*
Image taken from http://www.amazon.com. Video taken from http://www.youtube.com.
A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead and Erin E. Stead
Amos McGee is the faithful zookeeper at the City Zoo. Every day he arrives early and takes care of his friends the elephant, the tortoise, the penguin, the rhinoceros and the owl. But one day Amos doesn’t feel so well and stays home. His friends all wonder where he is and worry about him. Later that day, they realize that it’s their turn to care for the friend who’s always been there for them.
Go and read this book. I don’t care if you have children or not. Buy it. Buy me a copy for Christmas This is one of the sweetest stories I have ever read. The illustrations are perfect, evoking at once the sense of believability and childishness (the good kind). The crafting of this story reminds me of those timeless classics, like Robert McCloskey’s Make Way for Ducklings. Please do yourself a favor and read this book.
Guzzled this morning: tall blended strawberry lemonade.
Seven blind mice are baffled by this new thing that has shown up in their pond (why mice have a pond, I’m not sure). Every day of the week, a different mouse goes out and inspects this thing, each of them coming back saying something different, and they all start fighting about what this thing is (remember, they are blind, so they can’t see it like the reader can). Finally on Sunday, the white mouse goes out to the thing and inspects it from top to bottom. It is this mouse who discovers what this mystery thing really is.
As far as picture books go, this one’s story is okay. For younger children, this book reinforces color naming and the days of the week. But I’m not a fan of books that come right out and say “the moral of this story is…” which this one does. Bad literary tactic. But this book’s visual qualities are outstanding, which is why it was a Caldecott Honor Book. Very few book illustrations are done on a black background, but it completely reinforces the darkness that these mice live in. The crushed paper effect of the animals also makes the illustrations not feel so cartoonish, but much more bookish, if that makes any sense. I though that the pictures in the book were incredible, even if the text wasn’t. You don’t even need to read the last page (where the moral lies), and you will be satisfied with this book.
Song and Dance Man by Karen Ackerman and Stephen Gammell
One day while visiting their grandparents, three children follow their grandfather up to the attic before dinner. Grandpa used to be in vaudeville – he sang, he danced, he told jokes and clowned around. In an old leather trunk, he keeps stuff from his old shows. He puts on a great show: tap dancing faster than two feet possibly could, singing songs from the old days, telling well-worn jokes and pulling silver dollars from people’s hair. Grandpa loves what he does and the kids love the show. But in the end, they just love being family, no matter how much fun other times might have been.
I picked this book up because of the adorable grandpa on the front. You just want to hug him! These award-winning sketchy pencil illustrations portray a lovable old man who loves to entertain and who does a very good job of it. The story itself, although it takes place in such a short time, awakens many senses. Though the words are simple, they make you hear the music and vibrancy of the old vaudeville days. This would also make a great read-aloud book because of all the audience participation possibilities. If I were reading this to a group of children, I’d have them try to tap as fast as they could, sing a little song, and maybe put their own show on after the reading. This a very involved picture book, and I think that it’s adorable.
Inside the cover of the book, Wiesner explains that “flotsam” refers to something that floats. The pictures tell the story of a boy at the beach, examining everything he finds very closely (such as a hermit crab). A camera washes up on shore. When the boy develops the film and looks more closely, he discovers an underwater world that he couldn’t have possibly imagined. He also discovers that this camera has a very deep and long history. The boy makes himself part of that history by taking a picture of himself, and then sends the camera back to the ocean where the creatures carry the story further along.
This picture book is absolutely beautiful. Wiesner has proven his skill as an artist and a story-teller and definitely deserves the Caldecotts he has earned. I loved the depth and intricacy of the story, even though it didn’t have any words. That being said, I don’t know if I could have appreciated it if I were a young child. Because there is so much beneath the surface, the general target age for the picture book genre would miss much of the story. This is a book I would give to older children who could appreciate the work here, or my friends who are kids at heart. I don’t think I’d ever put this in the hands of a 4 year old.
Raven: A Trickster Tale from the Pacific Northwest
This is one of the sweetest stories I have ever read. The illustrations are perfect, evoking at once the sense of believability and childishness (the good kind). The crafting of this story reminds me of those timeless classics, like Robert McCloskey’s Make Way for Ducklings. Please do yourself a favor and read this book.
