Bird Talk and Alex the Parrot

I’m usually trying to pair unique books with each other, whether it’s for story times or simply to promote them together on a display. Two books published last year both have wonderful illustrations and complement each other with their subjects.

Title: Bird Talk: What Birds are Saying and Why
Author/Illustrator: Lita Judge
ISBN: 9781596436466
Pages: unpaged
Publisher/Date: Flash Point, an imprint of
Roaring Brook Press, c2012.

Title: Alex the Parrot: No Ordinary Bird
Author: Stephanie Spinner
Illustrator: Meilo So
ISBN: 9780375868467
Pages: unpaged
Publisher/Date: Alfred A. Knopf,
an imprint of Random House Children’s Books,
a division of Random House, c2012.

On a completely unrelated note… “Look Ma, COLUMNS!” So pretty. Ahem, regaining my train of thought…
While I knew about Koko the gorilla who was taught sign-language, I was not familiar with Alex, which stands for Avian Learning EXperiment. In Alex the Parrot Stephanie Spinner goes into detail about the raising and training of Alex, and African grey parrot that eventually would go on to learn hundreds of words and concepts taught to children in kindergarten. He would combine words to make sentences, answer questions, and compare items by their shape or color. No one expected these abilities from a bird with a brain the size of a walnut, but Alex proved them wrong. Spinner also talks about the lengths that trainer Irene Pepperberg took to avoid acusations that the bird was simply mimicing her or responding to unconscious cues.

As a comparison with what other birds do naturally, pair it with the book Bird Talk by Lita Judge. You might have to either explain or alter the language for younger audiences when she says “attract a mate”, “fledgling” or “species”, but she does include a glossary at the end to assist with that task. There are over two dozen of introductory exmples of birds around the world, varying from the common robin, blue jay and crows to the more exotic Scarlet Macaws, Blue Bird of Paradise, and yes even the African Grey Parrot. It does seem that the subtitle might be viewed as a misnomer, since the book doesn’t just cover vocalizations, but also explains how different types of birds behave when defending their flocks and about half the book is mating/courship behaviors. Overall though, the pictures are engaging and well-drawn and the listing in the back makes an easy reference of where you can find those species featured.

Maybe slightly more detailed than is ideal for classroom sharing, the books overall would both go over well for kids with birds on the brain, and I would hand them together to anyone who’s hearing the call of the wild outside their window.

This post is in honor of Nonfiction Mondays. For the entire round-up of all the bloggers who participated, you’ll have to head on over to Julie Azzam’s blog, Instantly Interruptible.

Me and Momma and Big John

Title: Me and Momma and Big John
Author: Mara Rockliff
Illustrator: William Low
ISBN: 9780763643591
Pages: unpaged
Publisher/Date: Candlewick Press, c2012.

This slight story features a mother and her three children. Told from the perspective of her oldest son named John, the book makes readers aware of his mother’s job carving stones for the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in New York City. Also called “Big John” and “Saint John the Unfinished”, a afterward more detailed than the actual story talks about how the building of this cathedral has taken over a century and still isn’t completed. Construction was halted for both World Wars and didn’t begin again until forty years later. After resuming construction in 1982 with a program to teach skills to the unemployed which lasted twenty-five years, construction today is again halted due to lack of funds. Even under a temporary roof that probably feels more permanent to the community that utilizes the unfinished structure, people still gather for services and shelter. The illustrations by William Low are appropriately grand in scale, showcasing the size through the use of aerial shots and sweeping landscapes, but I half-expected something more detailed, like David Macaulay’s work. The jacket cover description also makes mention of being “inspired by one of the first women in the United States to learn the traditional craft of stonecutting,” which is not even mentioned much less detailed within the pages. In fact, there are few details about the trade, the history of the building, or information about the family contained in the actual tale.

Overall, I wanted more.

2 The Point Tuesday Chu’s Day

Each month for my job, I write a maximum 150 word review of a new book that came into the library during the month. I’ll be adding my contribution to the blog in a new feature I’m calling To the Point Tuesdays. If you want to play along, just post a link in the comments and I’ll add them to the post.

Title: Chu’s Day
Author: Neil Gaiman
Illustrator: Adam Rex
ISBN: 9780062017819
Pages: unpaged
Publisher/Date: Harper, c2013.
Publication Date: January 8, 2013

Readers are warned that “When Chu sneezed, bad things happened.” The panda cub’s parents are quick to ask if he feels a sneeze coming on when entering the dusty library or the peppery diner. Each time, Chu responds with a threatening and escalating “aah- aaah- Aaaah-“, only to finish after the page turn with a “No.” But it’s at the circus, when everyone is preoccupied, that readers witness the danger in Chu’s sneeze. Adam Rex’s expressive illustrations bring Chu to life in this book by celebrated author Neil Gaiman, which is perfect for a read-aloud during a sick day from school.

2 the Point Tuesday — Follow Follow

For my new job, all the librarians write a maximum 150 word review of a new book that came into the library during the month. I’ll be adding my contribution to the blog in a new feature I’m calling To the Point Tuesdays. If you want to play along, just post a link in the comments and I’ll add them to the post.

Title: Follow Follow: A Book of Reverso Poems
Author: Marilyn Singer
Illustrator: Josee Masse
ISBN: 9780803737693
Pages: unpaged
Publisher/Date: Dial Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Penguin Group Inc., c2013.
Publication Date: Feb. 7, 2013

Marilyn Singer retells several fairy tales through two poems , one being the flipped version of the other one and only changing punctuation in order to convey different points of view. For instance: “Jinni of the Lamp/ I am just a poor/ young knave/ Give me all I crave” becomes “Give me all I crave,/ young knave./ I am just a poor/ Jinni of the Lamp.” Singer maintains the uniqueness of the format in this second volume of “reverso poems”. Josee Masse’s split drawings complement both poems and the pictures interact with each other while portraying the different perspectives. I especially like the picture for Little Mermaid’s poem, where a mermaid literally becomes intertwined with a girl with legs.

Oh I wish I got more words to talk about this book! I really admire and love what she does with words, and when I reviewed Mirror Mirror, I tried to copy it and now we see her tackling that same story in Follow Follow. Has anyone else tried or had success attempting reverso poems?

The Helpful Puppy

Title: The Helpful Puppy
Author: Kim Zarins
Illustrator: Emily Arnold McCully
ISBN: 9780823423187
Pages: Unpaged
Publisher/Date: Holiday House, c2012.

All the animals helped out at the farm—
all except the puppy.
“I want to help out too!”

With those few words, Kim Zarins begins a rollicking journey through the farm as puppy explores all the possible ways the other animals help. But he can’t lay eggs like the hens, he can’t pull the cart like the ox, and he can’t give milk like the cow. Even the sheepdog claims that he’ll be able to help someday, but not now. In text that has some rhyming meter but isn’t uniform in its scheme or rhythm, it provides interesting listening. At the very least, it keeps both readers and listeners on their toes, but it might have flowed better if she’d been more consistent. For instance:

“Then the puppy visited the cow.
The farmer squirted the milk into a pail.
“Can I make milk?” he asked.
The cow replied, “Of course not. You’re a male.”

Next the puppy saw some sheep and cheered.
Yippee! I can give fur, like you give wool!”
“Na-ah-ah-ah,” the sheep baaed.
“You’d look silly sheared.”

The real stand-out is the ending, where we learn that the puppy’s job is to give love, which he does unconditionally. Emily Arnold McCully’s watercolors are a thing of beauty and you can’t help but fall in love with this spirited little pup. The book itself makes me think of a more stylized remake of the Pokey Little Puppy, with the bright colors of the farm distinguishing feathers on the hens, whiskers on the cat, and tiny flies buzzing around the cow’s tail, although the boy inexplicably changes shirts for dinner. I love how the two page wordless spread shows a boy and his dog and the uncomplicated joy they provide for each other. Every little child who has a dog will agree that this book captures that spirit extremely well in the pictures, so long as they can look past the slightly awkward text and focus on the very obvious message.

Creatrilogy: Dot, Ish, and Sky Color

Author/Illustrator: Peter H. Reynolds     Publisher: Candlewick Press        Pages: unpaged

Title: The Dot                                    Title: Ish                                              Title: Sky Color
ISBN: 9780763619619                     ISBN: 978076362344                       ISBN: 9780763623456
Date: c2003.                                       Date: c2004.                                       Date: c2012.

Because it’s a series of picture books and they are all somewhat commulative, I thought I’d post these together. In the first, we see Vashti frustrated by her lack of talent until she is encouraged by her art teacher to “Just make a mark and see where it takes you.” It takes her on a journey of dots, and she uses that technique to encourage another little boy to draw. In the second, we see what I assume is that same little boy, Ramon, grown up just slightly and dealing with his brother’s teasing that his artwork isn’t good enough. With help from his little sister, he learns that there’s nothing wrong with his drawings not looking “right” but instead looking “ish”. In the third, just published book, Marisol (Ramon’s sister, which we know by the name and the hair-do) is part of a group painting a mural at school, and doesn’t have the blue she needs to do the job. Marisol learns the impact color can have on a piece of artwork, how to think outside the box and to observe the world around her. Through her interaction with a classmate, I feel like Reynolds leaves an open ending, so if he ever wanted to add to the series he could.

When you look at them together, you notice a gradual increase in color as you progress from the first to the third book. Besides Vashti’s drawings, the only color we have is a circle of color around the character that seems to reflect her mood, from pensive blue to angry red to more inspired colors of green, pink, and yellow. Ish features a more thoroughly colored background, although most are still limited to only one or two colors. Sky Color has the most color of all three, with one two page spread featuring the protagonist dreaming in a sea of color. This is also the first time we’ve seen the character colored, even if it is just on the cover and in that one dream sequence.

Not only do the books build on the amount of color, but they also build on the lessons they teach and the drawing styles they portray. I’m not a painter, so if I get these wrong please feel free to let me know and I’ll alter accordingly. With The Dot, there’s an obvious emphasis on abstraction, minimalism, and just plain trying something new. More literally, it makes me think of pointilism, where pictures are made of nothing but dots of color. Ish reminds me of abstract paintings, where subjects are painted in a very “ish” way, similar to the works of Picasso. The paintings don’t have to be perfect representations or copies in order to be called art. Finally, Sky Color has me thinking of impressionistic works like Monet, where they swirled colors together in the sky to add depth and fluidity and the passage of time. Marisol encourages kids to think outside the box, because a sky doesn’t have to be blue, and the grass doesn’t have to be green.

While the stories themselves are somewhat slight, the messages are very clear that art can take many shapes, forms, and colors. I think these would all be good starting points for very young children interested in the arts.

Surviving the Hindenburg

For my new job, all the librarians write a maximum 150 word review of a new book that came into the library during the month. I’ll be adding my contribution to the blog in a new feature I’m calling To the Point Tuesdays. If you want to play along, just post a link in the comments and I’ll add them to the post.

Title: Surviving the Hindenburg
Author: Larry Verstraete
Illustrator: David Geister
ISBN: 9781585367870
Pages: unpaged
Publisher/Date: Sleeping Bear Press, c2012.

In 1937, the Hindenburg was a massive zeppelin, a giant airship that looked very much like our blimps today being kept aloft by gas-filled fabric and propelled by engines. As tall as a 13-story building and almost as big as the Titanic, it suffered the same fate when it mysteriously burst into flames just before landing in New Jersey. Incredibly, two-thirds of the German passengers and crew survived, including 14-year-old cabin boy Werner Franz. The cover gives a hint of the vivid and colorful illustrations that bring to life the story of the last surviving member of the crew.

Want to contribute to 2 the Point Tuesdays? Just leave a comment and I’ll post your link.

Chess Rumble

Title: Chess Rumble
Author: G. Neri
Illustrator: Jesse Joshua Watson
ISBN: 9781584302797
Pages: 64 pages
Publisher/Date: Lee & Low Books Inc., c2007.

My Daddy
used to play chess
to calm his nerves
after workin’ all day
in a room
with no windows.
I wanted to play him,
but he always say
I wasn’t ready.
“This is a man’s game,” he say.
“You a man?” (4)

Marcus is leading a hard life that just got harder. After his sister suddenly died, his father left him, his mother, and his twin siblings to fend for themselves. Taunted by a bully at school, Marcus is frustrated and feels like the world is out to get him. That’s when he gets shoved into the school’s chess program by his principal, a woman who sees him going down the wrong road and wants to help him stay out of trouble. But while his dad used to play, Marcus is not about to become a chess chump just because some guy’s talking about endgame and strategy.

It’s hard to put into words what I like about this book. I’m a fan of chess, so maybe that adds to my appreciation. I like the idea of using chess to teach kids, and by the front jacket text, it sounds like people are actually doing that, since Neri was “inspired by inner-city school chess enrichment programs.” I loved the dialogue too. Marcus comes across as very realistic, dropping letters and not speaking entirely grammatically correct, throwing down challenges to anyone who will listen. It’s not just the speech patterns, but also the behavior shown, and readers are able to relate to Marcus even if they’ve never been there themselves. CM, the Chess Man, is also realistic in his approach, as he waits for Marcus to come to him. While he might lay the lessons on thick, he doesn’t force the issue and he still approaches the problem in a way that Marcus understands.

This short debut book packs a powerful punch, and between this, Yummy and Ghetto Cowboy, Neri is making a name for himself for relatable, readable, urban fiction for boys.

Bears

The Picture Book Month calendar included Bears as a theme on Nov. 7th. I do at least one bear themed storytime around this time every year. Sometimes, I do more than one, first pairing them with hibernation/sleeping themes, while other times it’s just bears. There are so many great books about bears out there, but the ones I’m featuring today are the ones I used just recently for an outreach visit to several classrooms of preschool and kindergarten kids.

Title: We’re Going on a Bear Hunt
Author: Michael Rosen
Illustrator: Helen Oxenbury

If you work with young children and you don’t know this book and/or song, SHAME ON YOU! Go out and pick up a copy and learn it right now. And then, check out Michael Rosen’s rendition of the song on Youtube. And then, if you still can, pick up a copy of the pop-up book. Yes, there is a pop-up book floating around out there. It’s absolutely beautiful, simply done but with very sturdy construction for multiple story times. The kids are fascinated by it and I always get questions and comments like “The dog’s going the wrong way” and “The baby’s on the dad’s shoulders” and “Where’s the mom?” and “What does that tab do?” Yes there is no skipping any of the pull-tabs on this one, because your eagle-eyed audience will notice and make you go back and demonstrate what each one does again and again. You need this book, but if you can still track it down, splurge and get the pop-up version, with the swirling snow and the tripping children. You’ll thank me later.

Title: A Visitor for Bear
Author: Bonny Becker
Illustrator: Kady MacDonald Denton

No wonder it got an E.B. White Read Aloud Award. This book begs to be enthusiastically read aloud, although I will warn you that it’s my longest book on this list and it takes a full fifteen minutes sometimes to get through. But the kids will be intrigued by how the mouse keeps getting into the house of this reclusive bear who just wants to eat his breakfast. There are a few repetitive lines that the older kids will pick up immediately and will help you fill in the blanks if you let them. This is another book where kids pipe up with their opinions chastising the bear for turning the mouse away in the beginning and remarking on the “hanging thing” from the bears mouth when he shouts to the mouse to “BEGONE!” And a great vocabulary lesson awaits for readers wondering what “impossible! Intolerable! Insufferable” mean.

Title: The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear
Author: Don and Audrey Wood
Illustrator: Don Wood

I quite often joke that the title is longer than the actual book, but the Woods pair up for what has become a classic, since my copy boasts a 1984 copyright date. It’s held up remarkably well over the years, and I’m sure scores of librarians and teachers have used this in their storytimes. It tells the story of a little mouse trying to keep his strawberry (that he JUST picked) away from the big hungry bear. We never see the big hungry bear, although in a stroke of design genius we do see the bear’s shadow on the back cover. Proving that you can still look at things in a different perspective, I had one little boy remark that it was the bear who was telling the story. I’m not sure if I agree with him, but he brought up an interesting idea to talk about point of view using this book, and see how many other readers shared his opinion. Great graphics lend themselves to laughter as the mouse tries again and again to hide, disguise, and guard his strawberry, and if you look closely you’ll see relics of each attempt scattered throughout the following pages.

Title: A Splendid Friend Indeed
Author/Illustrator: Suzanne Bloom

Suzanne Blooms series about a goose and a polar bear is different from the rest in several ways. First, it features a polar bear, while most bear stories feature the traditional brown or dark-colored bear. Second, he’s paired with a goose, and the two incompatible creatures end up becoming wonderful companions. Thirdly, the story is told entirely in dialogue, which I’m always impressed by when I stumble across it. Usually the books talk to the readers with third person or first person narration, but in this one Goose and Bear talk directly to each other, without a single “he said” or “she said”. It takes a mature group of children to decipher Bear’s frustrations and Goose’s attention seeking behavior solely by the pictures, but when they do catch on it’s like magic. Due to the simple sentence structure, I usually save it for younger audiences, because although as I said some of it might go over their head, the simplistic drawings are eye-catching to all.

Title: Bear Snores On
Author: Karma Wilson
Illustrator: Jane Chapman

Wilson’s rhymes are longer than most picture books, but it rarely falters as Bear snores on through the slowly building gathering taking place in his cave. It’s when a stray pepper flake gets up his nose and results in a humongous sneeze that the animals freeze and are scared of what Bear’s reaction will be. No worries, since it all ends happily, but Wilson knows how to build suspense with the Bear gnashing and growling at being woken up early. Surrounded by forest creatures, Bears friendship will continue, as this debut book for Karma Wilson turned into a gold mine as she continues the series with “Bear Says Thanks,” Bear Wants More” and several others.

So what about you? What bear books can you never “bare” to be far from?

Brothers at Bat

Today’s suggested theme for Picture Book Month is heroes. Well apparently last week’s post on the creator of Batman was one week too early (hehe). However, yesterday’s theme was friendship, and these guys featured in this true story definitely showcase the meaning of friendship, playing baseball together as friends and brothers for years.

Title: Brothers at Bat: The True Story of an Amazing All-Brother Baseball Team
Author: Audrey Vernick
Illustrator: Steven Salerno
ISBN: 9780547385570
Pages: unpaged
Publisher/Date: Clarion Books, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, c2012.

I have a hard time imagining what life would have been like for this unique family. The Acerra family had sixteen children, and all twelve boys played baseball. If they grew up in today’s world, they would be featured in a reality television show. Instead, they lived their life and played baseball as a family, and stayed together throughout it all. Eventually, the whole family/team was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame!

While we don’t get a lot of factual or enumerated statistics, what do we get is a nice story that emphasizes the family. It’s written in a tone that mimics the oral tradition quality, making readers feel as if they are sitting around a dinner table hearing the stories from someone who was there, either growing up with the family or watching from the sidelines. That feeling probably comes from the fact that the author sat down to dinner with two of the surviving brothers to talk about their past. There’s a real connection made, and I know I was relieved to find out that all six brothers who went of to fight in World War II made it home alive. Vernick brings that emotion home by saying “Mama Acerra cried each time a boy walked in that door.” The artwork lends itself to that old-time feel as well. You can get a really good glimpse inside Steven Salerno’s thought process by checking out his blog, where almost exactly a year ago he gave us a glimpse at this book pre-publication.

As the snow flurries start falling and families start gathering for the holidays, you might want to take this book home and spark discussion of what family life was like for previous generations. Or maybe just use it to remind yourself that winter only lasts so long, and eventually thoughts will turn again to spring and baseball.

This post is in honor of Nonfiction Mondays. For the entire round-up of all the bloggers who participated, check out Perogyo over at Perogies and Gyoza.