A Harvest of Haunting Books (FAMILY magazine reviews)

During the Halloween season, when our culture symbolically steers us through both legitimate and imagined fears, we and our children prize stories that can help us laugh at our bugaboos and give us courage to face them.  This small collection of titles builds up bravery, and strengthens nerves, giving us the grit and guts to face a dread that makes us flinch in dismay.  Take two (or more) and stride forward in the morning!   

The Boo! Book by Nathaniel Lachenmeyer

illustrated by Nicoletta Ceccoli 

Atheneum, $17.99, Ages 4-8

            Although not many people know this, begins the story, “there are almost as many book ghosts as there are house ghosts.”  Book ghosts meddle with stories, turn them upside down, and scramble words. 

            What follows are descriptions of how to know if a book is haunted, what to do if you discover you’re reading a haunted book, when NOT to read a book that’s haunted, and what to do if you’re trapped in a haunted book.  Cast in blues -- to stage the more fanciful moments -- and greens for more realistic bedroom scenes, this story features many delight-filled imaginings.

            To accompany author Lachenmeyer’s sometimes spooky, and often reassuring text, artist Ceccoli creates appealing light blue, round-faced ghosts who ‘swim’ through a book’s pages. She uses a mix of techniques -- plasticine, digital photography, acrylics on paper and Photoshop – to take young readers through a collection of dream-like sequences: like a snowy night sky sprinkled with stardust, or a bubbling underwater world containing strange undersea creatures.             

            Lachenmeyer’s occasionally cryptic language is cheerfully hair-raising; the fantasy is buoyant and gleeful.   Also, the concluding caution; that a ghost becomes bored when a haunted book is left “unread for too long,” is a ready reminder that from time to time we all enjoy a haunting.

 

Boo to You! by Lois Ehlert  

Simon & Schuster, $7.99, Ages 3-7

            The mice and their friends are in a frenzy of preparation for a harvest party.  And while they don’t mind an occasional squirrel or raccoon, they have a plan for getting rid of “the creep” they “didn’t invite.”   As they create and decorate, night falls.  They put on masks, arranging to scare the cat who’s coming to crash their bash.

            Award winning author/illustrator Ehlert delights the youngest set and their adults with her hallmark collage illustrations to partner her energetic, rhythmic, rhyming text.  A variety of papers in earthy autumn colors, combine with photos of edible ingredients, plus twine and string to bewitch young readers.

            Gather fall materials and supplies to accompany this brief but peppy picture book, as young listeners will likely be eager to craft their own montage.   

 

Hands Around the Library: Protecting Egypt’s Treasured Books 

by Susan L. Roth and Karen Leggett Abouraya

illustrated by Susan L. Roth

Dial, $16.99, Ages 6-9

            Although within the walls of the beautiful and famous Bibliotheca Alexandrina there has always been safety to read, think and whisper about freedom, people “were not free to speak or vote as they wished” outside in their daily lives. When Egypt’s young people began marching for freedom in January 2011, first in Cairo, and later of Alexandria, demanding the resignation of Hosni Mubarak, who had been Egypt’s president for thirty years, there were fears that protesters might be angry enough to hurt each other or their library.

            Separated from the shore of the Mediterranean Sea by only a wide highway, the spectacularly beautiful Alexandria Library symbolically represents the sun of knowledge shining on the world.  It was during eighteen days of protest, when marchers joined hands with Dr. Ismail Serageldin, the library director, to protect the glass building from harm, that the Egyptian people demonstrated not only their determination to create a better world by helping spread democratic ideals, they also safeguarded the space where stories are held and books are valued, participating in a ring of protection that brought people together.

            Using her “international palette of papers,” illustrator Roth’s distinctive collage style emphasizes the crowds, the clasped hands, the circles of power, the emblematic Egyptian flag, and even the granite blocks carved with letters or signs from five hundred different alphabets.  The vitality of the “will of the people” to prevent vandals from destroying and ransacking the house of treasures the library represents, is evidenced not only in the seamlessly combined spirited text and vigorous illustrations, but also confirmed by back matter which includes photos from actual events, pages of information about both the ancient and modern library, several paragraphs about the revolution itself, a few words in flowing Arabic script from protest signs (with pronunciations, and English translations), and drawn together with an important concluding author’s note.  

RAGS (Monday Poem)

by Judith Thurman



The night wind
rips a cloud sheet
into rags,

then rubs, rubs
the October moon
until it shines
like a brass doorknob.



from The Sky is Full of Song selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins, illustrated by Dirk Zimmer, 1983, Harper & Row

LITTLE MISS TUCKET (Monday Poem)

Little Miss Tucket
Sat on a bucket
Eating some peaches and cream.
There came a grasshopper,
Who tried hard to stop her,
But she said, "Go away or I'll scream."



from The McElderry Book of Mother Goose: Revered and Rare Rhymes compiled and illustrated by Petra Mathers, 2012, Simon & Schuster

MY GUITAR (Monday Poem)

by Shel Silverstein


Oh, wouldn't it be a most wondrous thing
To have a guitar that could play and could sing
By itself -- what an absolute joy it would be
To have a guitar . . .  that didn't need me.


from A Light in the Attic poems and drawings by Shel Silverstein, 1981, Harper & Row

Pets Are Perfect (FAMILY magazine reviews)

Back to school is the perfect time for sharing stories not only about vacation and travel, but funny stories about family experiences and pets.  The books below offer a sampling of animal adventures and pet pals.  Try them!

  

Wanted! A Guinea Pig Called Henry 

by Wendy Orr 

illustrated by Patricia Castelao  

Henry Holt, $15.99, Ages 7-10

            Although the book is, as the title says, about guinea pig Henry, the story actually begins with a stumpy-tailed little brown dog named Nelly, who has the ability to calm frightened animals, even a terrified white cat and a shy kindergarten boy.  However, before we learn about Henry, we meet Sam who surprises herself and her parents by saying she would rather have a pet than a party for her birthday.

            Author Orr, who lives in Australia, has written several books in a series, called the Rainbow Street Shelter, in which the animal shelter plays an important part in the lives of the people and animals, who meet on its premises.  Henry is the third in this series.  And the story takes Sam and her family to the shelter for a visit where she meets, holds, pets and feeds several small animals, as she considers what pet she might choose to bring home with her the following week on her birthday.

            As Sam thinks about, dreams of, decides on, prepares for, chooses and plays with her pet, she and her kindergarten age brother, Liam, are also getting ready for school to begin.  Although Sam has always struggled with speaking and her arms and legs seem to refuse to do what she wants, her brain works just fine and she loves school.  But Liam is shy and doesn’t want to read with so many kids around, despite the fact that he’ll talk to, and read a book to Nelly every time their family goes to the shelter.

            Watching Liam and Nelly, gives Sam an idea – and her planning for and talking with the several adults to bring her idea to reality, draws the book to its satisfying close.  Illustrator Castelao’s black and white drawings arch the Rainbow Street Shelter icon over each chapter heading, giving the story shape and continuity.  The interspersed full-page and partial page images move the story, heightening its impact, and adding to its emotional authenticity.

Princess Posey and the Next Door Dog

by Stephanie Green

illustrated by Stephanie Roth Sisson

Putnam, $12.99, Ages 5-8

            Posey uses her pink tutu, her necklace with the pink beads, her magic veil with the stars, her belt with purple flowers, and her princess wand to give her Princess Posey bravery – to “go anywhere and do anything.  All by herself.”  She decides to meet the dog with a huge WOOF! who has moved in next door, because she is supposed to write about “your pet” or “the pet you hope to own” for an assignment in first grade. 

            Secretly, Posey is afraid of dogs, ever since one knocked her over to lick her ice cream when she was little.  By making the decision to take this important action, she confronts her fears, while Gramp’s wise words echo in her memory.

            Author Green has written this third in the Princess Posey series with her own ear tuned to early readers and uses the princess theme with a charming twist of courage that can make even the most ardent anti-princess cult member give this book a second look.  Short sentences and readable word choices are expressive without being choppy and, accompanied at pivotal intervals by Sisson’s black and white illustrations; together create appealing representative detail for new readers.

            Despite being afraid, Posey notices the dog is whimpering like a baby -- its paw is caught under the fence where it’s been digging.  After Posey frees his paw, the new neighbor, Mrs. Romero, thanks her for being “Hero’s hero,” introduces them and with the dog on the leash, comes to meet Posey’s mom and her brother Danny.  Not only does Posey show Hero to Tyler and Nick, the neighbor boys who have teased her about not being a “big kid,” but she has a story to read at school the next day.

Hiss-s-s-s! 

by Eric Kimmel  

Holiday, $16.95, Ages 8-12

            Omar wants a snake.  He has passionately done his research online, not only about the kind of snake he wants, but how to care for and feed it, and where and how to keep it at home.  He’s even negotiated to purchase necessary equipment from a kid whose snake died, and has located a trustworthy place to purchase the corn snake of his dreams. 

            From a multi-racial and –ethnic family, Omar hears snake stories from his father’s village experiences growing up, and abstractedly feels the important contribution snakes made historically, by killing rodents who ate the community’s store of grain.  But he doesn’t fully understand the depth of his mother’s fear and loathing of snakes – in spite of her grudging acceptance of the snake in the home as long as she doesn’t have to see it or the frozen mice that are its diet – until it disappears.              With a curious younger sister, and a helpful school friend adding to the mix of complications, award winner Kimmel steps outside his familiar folktale mode of storytelling, and using his characteristic vivid writing style, captures for readers of this realistic middle grade novel, Omar’s sense of confusion when the snake makes a surprising reappearance in the most unfortunate of circumstances.

OVERDUES (Monday Poem)

by Shel Silverstein


What do I do?
What do I do?
This library book is 42
Years overdue.
I admit that it's mine
But I can't pay the fine---
Should I turn it in
Or hide it again?
What do I do?
What do I do?




from A Light in the Attic poems and drawings by Shel Silverstein, 1981, Harper & Row

SEPTEMBER (Monday Poem)

by Lucille Clifton

I already know where Africa is
and I already know how to
count to ten and
I went to school every day last year,
why do I have to go again?


from The Sky is Full of Song Poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins, 1983, Harper & Row