September 29, 2013

Whether it's a new author, an adult book, fiction or nonfiction, something outside my usual favored genres, or a children's book, when I run across a fantastic book and it totally delights, I treasure that feeling of serendipity. Sipping Spiders Through a Straw: Campfire Songs for Monsters is exactly that kind of book. If you interact with kids at all, this is great fun for the Halloween season in particular. My daughter and her family are singing these around the dinner table (which if you know some of the words to these parodies seems a bit off-putting!) and having a ball. Because the songs are pretty much all familiar to the kids, it's easy to get them into the swing of things: "If You're Crazy and You Know It," "If Your Guts Hang Low," "99 Bottles of Blood on the Wall." From a review of the book: Sung to the tune of "Oh My Darling, Clementine," "My Delicious Frankenstein" has lyrics like, "Oh, my crispy. Oh, my crunchy./Oh, my frosted Frankenstein./You're so yummy…in my tummy…/My delicious Frankenstein." The song is illustrated with a downtrodden-looking monster, complete with whipped cream and a cherry atop his head. He's portrayed against a red-and-white-check tablecloth and opposite a woman licking her lips and brandishing a carving knife and fork. Bon appetit!

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Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski was a recent NOOK Daily Find for Families—and it was a real find! Yes, I’d heard of the book before but hadn’t read it, but it was learning more about Lois Lenski and her books that caught my attention. This is one of her Regional books—a genre I was unaware that she had published. Now I’m curious to see if I can possibly find others available either for my NOOK or at the library. Her illustrations add much to her stories.

Another publication celebrating the 50^th anniversary of Little Golden books also features one of my all-time favorite illustrators, Joan Walsh Anglund. A Child’s Year is a simple, short book—as many of hers are—that is ideal for teaching little ones just a bit about the months in a year.

I watch about as many children’s movies as I read children’s books, and for the same reason. One of my favorite movies is Stuart Little, with Stuart voiced by Michael J. Fox. (Geena Davis as the mom is one of my all-time favorite cinema mothers.) So I especially wanted to pick up E.B. White’s novel and read it for the first time. For a book I think I prefer his Trumpet of the Swan, but it was nice to see how much of the Stuart Little book was made into the movie, including Margalo from the sequel. Books let your imagination fly but, oh my, can Jim Henson Studios and special effects do a lot too!

Yeah, yeah, I know I’ve said this before but I’m saying it again: I love Eric Carle but Abby LOVES Eric Carle. How I wish I could get inside her toddler mind to discover the essence of the appeal! Of course his artwork is bright and eye-catching. The text of Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother Too?  is simple and repetitive—a good thing in a children’s book. Abby could probably read this one by herself by now (that’s how many times we’ve read it so far).  It doesn’t bore me either. Kudos to Mr. Carle!

Serendipity! I’d forgotten about this gem from my childhood at the library but when I spotted The Story about Ping at our local library the other day, I was grinning from ear to ear. What an odd little book, about a foreign world—just as I remembered it. This was a perfect find to add to this list.

Found The Witches of Worm on my bookshelf; my son read this probably in 5^th or 6^th grade. It too is a Newbery Honor Book. Why? I just didn’t get this one. It seemed to be a beginning and an end with no substance any place. ... OK. It’s been about 24 hours since I finished the book and I’ve read some reviews of it—and I still don’t get it. I suppose the only child, single parent, alienated, friendless, overly imaginative main character is more a mid-70’s profile than the white picket fence, Mom/Dad/two kids family of my era. The only negative comments I’ve found so far are the expected anti-witchcraft ones. Still don’t think this would be on my “must read” list. Ever.

Pop Corn and Ma Goodness, as I just recently learned, was a Caldecott Honor Book and the illustrations are delightful. I wonder though if they’re studied that much by readers as they zip through the hilarious rhymes of this book.

I didn’t really want to re-read The Velveteen Rabbit but felt sort of obligated for this project. When I originally read this, as a young girl, it made me sad—and I think I was in a quandary about whether I wanted my toys to become real or not. (And as an only child, my toys were very often “real” to me!) I’m pretty sure I read it to my son and daughter though probably only once. The edition I read for this project is from 1997 and illustrated by Don Daily in a much more elegant, intricate style than the original by William Nicholson. It didn’t make me cry this time. Perhaps I’d steeled myself for it beforehand.