Review of The Dictionary Story, by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston

The Dictionary Story

by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston

Candlewick Press, 2024.
Review written October 18, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

This is probably the first picture book I’m recommending for the sake of the parents, not so much the kids.

Sure, the story for the kids is fun – we’ve got a dictionary that’s jealous of all the other books that have stories inside. So she decides to bring some words to life, and an alligator gets loose and starts going after a donut, which doesn’t want to be eaten, so they start racing through the pages and causing chaos. It’s got Oliver Jeffers’ zany illustrations and silly straight-faced sense of humor.

The illustrations show the characters frolicking through a standard dictionary’s pages – or so I thought until I paused to read the fine print. And that’s when the true brilliance of the book hit me.

I started with the “How to Use This Dictionary” page pictured toward the beginning, was enjoying its quirkiness and noticed that the editors are “Woliver Effers & Jam Spinston.” Then I had to read every single visible entry. (The endpapers are filled with definitions, and there’s also a column of them running along the bottom of most pages.) This meant that it took me much longer to read this book than an ordinary picture book, but I also gained lots of laughter.

I’ll list some of the quirkier definitions:

ajar – A word to describe something as slightly open. Not to be confused with a jar (which works best when mostly closed).

author – The writer of a book, poem or news. They move tiny black marks around (see letters) to discover what interesting shapes they can make in people’s heads (see stories). Sometimes this results in writers being paid. (See good times, donuts and coffee.)

dream – A word for things people see while asleep. Dreams are the brain’s way of showing you that you’re a lot more imaginative than you think. In the day, we fill our heads with sensible things, but dreams prefer to create strange images, such as glow-in-the-dark marmalade and inflatable chicken’s teeth. Some dreams happen when we are awake: Martin Luther King Jr. had a great one. We’ve been studying dreams for ages, and we still don’t really know what they are.

hippopotamus – A very large mammal with short legs that lives near water in Africa. Hippopotamuses are vegetarian. Their idea of a good time is not wearing clothes, floating in water and wallowing in mud. (See spa.)

minnow – A very small freshwater fish that lives in rivers, streams and sometimes lakes. They feed on insects, among other things, and often dream about a time when they will rule all known galaxies.

tall – Above the average height. Which can get quite complicated because a tall turkey is tiny in comparison to a tiny tiger, and a tall tiger is tiny compared to Thailand.

zeroZero is a word that means nothing. Nothing is a word that means nothing. Even though zero is a different word for nothing, both mean nothing. This definition has just told you nothing.

And here are some excerpts that are especially delightful and completely won my heart:

words – Even though they are small, they are great at making the inside of your head big.

library – Libraries are a bit like forests; they are enchanted places to get lost in.

story – Books carry stories around until someone like you finds them a home in their imagination.

May you find a home for this story in your imagination.

oliverjeffers.com
samwinston.com

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Review of We Are Definitely Human, by X. Fang

We Are Definitely Human

by X. Fang

Tundra Books, 2024. 48 pages.
Review written August 29, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

This book is every bit as good as you would suspect by seeing the front cover. A book I had to share with my co-workers, it’s so much fun.

When Mr. Li wakes up in the night because of a loud crash, he goes outside with his dog and a flashlight and sees three creatures who greet him with the words, “Hello. We are DEFINITELY human.”

After some stares in both directions, we get this exchange:

“Okay, if you say so,” Mr. Li finally replied. “But what are y’all doing here?”
“Our . . . car . . . broke down, and we need materials to fix it,” said the tall one.
“It’s past midnight! There are no stores open now,” Mr. Li replied.
Disappointed, the three strangers turned to walk back into the dark night.

As they slink off toward the next page, a page turn gives us a reversal:

But Mr. Li was a kind human,
and he did what kind humans do.
He offered to help.

They spend the night at his house (to the surprise of Mrs. Li in the morning), have breakfast (doing bizarre things with food), tell about themselves (in suspect ways), and then go with Mr. Li to the store, as promised.

The people in the store thought there was something unique about the three visitors.
“Hello. We are DEFINITELY human,” announced the short one.
“They’re from Europe,” Mr. Li added.

The people in the store were all kind humans,
and they did what kind humans do.
They offered to help the visitors fix their car.

Of course, the words in this story are fun, but the pictures of the strangers doing strange things make the book just perfect.

But I especially love the ending. Not to give it away, but my favorite line in the whole book is this one:

But wherever they went,
they would remember kind humans
and do what kind humans do —
offer help to those in need.

I can’t think of a better message to be found in such a delightfully silly picture book.

xfang.studio
penguinrandomhouse.ca

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Review of The Sneaking, Hiding, Vibrating Creature, by Nathan W. Pyle

Strange Planet

The Sneaking, Hiding, Vibrating Creature

by Nathan W. Pyle

Harper, 2021. 40 pages.
Review written July 28, 2021, from a library book
Starred Review

Nathan Pyle has written a picture book for young earth beings!

To be honest, I’m not sure if very young earth beings will understand the humor, but I’m sure that their lifegivers will.

The idea behind Strange Planet is that alien beings do things that humans do, but describe them in practical, literal terms. So I’m not sure if very young beings will appreciate that this is not the way earthlings normally talk, and they may not understand some of the words used, since they’re often a little more complex. There is a simple picture glossary in the back to help.

In this book, a young being wakes on his rest slab, and they and their lifegiver decide to spend the day observing the creature prowling around their home. It is covered in thousands of soft fibers and its mouthstones are sharp. They will record their observations and see if it is possible to do the behaviors themselves.

Here’s an example spread:

Then the creature starts to climb the group-soft-seat with its deathblades!

Scritch, scratch! We hear the blades.

We try to do that, but we do not have deathblades!

There are fun little surprises, such as when they realize that they can imitate the creature when it spends its time observing another creature (a bird).

Of course, you won’t want your own offspring to imitate the creature when it knocks a hydration cylinder off a table for no reason. But it will be fun to watch your offspring try to lick all of their limbs, as the creature does.

But good picture books end with someone sleeping, and that’s an activity that all creatures can do!

It might take kids a few times through, but I completely enjoyed this book right from the start. This isn’t really a storytime book, but it is a great book for creating in-jokes with your own child. (I’m laughing at the thought of if this had existed when my kids were small. They already used big words from lots of reading.)

harpercollinschildrens.com

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Review of Hippos Remain Calm, by Sandra Boynton

Hippos Remain Calm

by Sandra Boynton

Boynton Bookworks (Simon & Schuster), 2023. 36 pages.
Review written January 3, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

I am so happy this book exists! Hippos Remain Calm is a sequel to Hippos Go Berserk, which was published in 1977, the very first book Sandra Boynton ever published!

I did not have a copy of Hippos Go Berserk, but a set of Sandra Boynton books were the first books I got for my first baby, born in 1988. To this day, I swear that her first word was “Ffffff!”, spoken when the Sandra Boynton book Doggies was pulled out. (A dog says “WOOF!” on every page.) Thus, my baby could read before she could even talk.

Anyway, Sandra Boynton’s concise genius is what makes her boardbooks great. Hippos Go Berserk is a counting book, featuring one hippo who invites two hippo friends over. More hippos join, and things get progressively more and more wild.

Hippos Remain Calm shows us the day of the peaceful hippo couple first invited to the party. A lot of eventful things happen in that day, but these hippos remain calm.

Here’s how the book begins:

Two fine hippos,
cozy at home,

take turns reciting
a morning-time poem.

“O, flare thy wild nostrils,
and welcome the day!”

“Onward! And upward!
Come what will, come what may.”

Then they wander outside
in the cool April weather.
“Hippo Morning to All!”
they call out together.

Things happen to the hippos – a sudden surprise snowstorm, persistently quacking ducks, and a ringing phone. The hippos remain calm. They practice slow breathing.

After they accept the invitation of their friend who doesn’t want to be alone, they have a lovely time together.

But wait. Is that a doorbell ring?
Are other hippos coming, too?

Uh-oh.

The Uh-oh spread has the scene of partying hippos — which I recently had the joy of completing in jigsaw puzzle form. This time, we can find our friends, the calm hippos who started the party.

We see them happily head home and then snooze all morning long.

Okay, this book doesn’t have quite the punch of the original. It’s not a counting book, so it won’t ever make the Mathical Book Prize Hall of Fame like the original.

But if you hear about wild hippos, why not read about calm ones? Families who have the first book will be delighted to find more to the story and look for the way the books are tied together. (There’s a helicopter flying off in the distance seen through the window on the final page, for example.)

Okay, and I enjoyed all that, and was already completely delighted with this book — and I just read the front flap and simply must repeat it here:

Hippos have somewhat of a reputation for wild parties that go on till dawn. People have even gone so far as to say that partying hippos “go berserk.” Nobody knows how these rumors got started.

But even if it’s true (it is), it’s not the whole story. Given the deep appreciation that hippos have for water, it’s no wonder that your average hippopotamus seeks, finds, and offers a state of flow, no matter the situation.

We have much to learn from their example. Accordingly, this helpful book follows two typical hippos as they calmly and mindfully go about their ordinary hippo day.

There you have it! Learn how to remain calm even when folks go berserk around you.

sandraboynton.com

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Review of This Is Not That Kind of Book, by Christopher Healy, illustrated by Ben Mantle

This Is Not That Kind of Book

written by Christopher Healy
illustrated by Ben Mantle

Random House, 2019. 36 pages.
Review written September 3, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review

Here’s a fun picture book that plays with a meta-narrative and gets kids thinking about genre and storytelling.

The book starts with “A is for apple.” But Little Red Riding Hood, who’s portrayed with dark skin, interrupts. She says, “Hey! This is not an alphabet book! Sorry, this is a fairy tale. Come see.” And she leads us to the next page.

All through the book, the Apple-with-a-face only says one thing: “I’m an apple!” On Red Riding Hood’s page, she invites it into her basket.

They see a shape in the shadows. Little Red Riding Hood tells the Letter A, “It’s going to be a wolf. I’m very familiar with this type of story.”

However, when we turn the page – it’s a giant robot!

And new characters show up with every page turn, with their own opinions about what kind of book this is – and isn’t. My favorite is probably the banana named Captain Knock-Knock from a joke book.

Finally, Little Red Riding Hood explores outside the book and learns from the back cover:

This is a book about a group of characters who have nothing in common, but who work together to figure out what kind of book they’re in.

And the odd assortment of characters end up making friends. And it’s all very silly and delightful and gets kids thinking about they types of books they read.

Because of the meta-narrative, this edges toward early elementary kids more than preschoolers. But it will get any child thinking about stories and about how books work, which builds their early literacy skills.

christopherhealy.com

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Review of I Do Not Eat Children, by Marcus Cutler

I Do Not Eat Children

by Marcus Cutler

Little, Brown and Company, 2024. 36 pages.
Review written March 4, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

The second I saw the cover of this book, I knew our library needed many copies. I’m afraid I do like picture books about things (or, yes people) getting eaten. So much so, I made a Pinterest board “Someone Gets Eaten,” with a companion board, “Eating Thwarted.”

Okay, stop right now if you don’t like spoilers for picture books.

Because for the sake of parents, I need to tell you exactly what’s in this book. First, it does fit the first of those boards.

And this book might have gone just a tiny bit too far, even for me. I think it’s the sweet little chubby baby that might be a step too extreme. But I still think it’s fun and still showed it to co-workers.

And it’s not only a book about a monster! It’s also a counting-down book. The counting isn’t done for you, but on the first spread, you’ve got a monster in the middle of ten children (including the aforementioned baby), all with some kind of prop. The monster says, “I do not eat children.”

On the next page, there’s a child missing. Their prop is in the place where they stood, but you might want to count to be sure there are fewer. Now the monster is saying, “I would never eat a child.” The kids are carrying on with what they were doing, some interacting with each other, but everybody ignoring the monster.

And each spread has one fewer child. More protestations from the monster.

And just when you’re thinking that surely there’s some different explanation, surely the monster is telling the truth and isn’t actually eating the children (and who will save the BABY???!!!), with four children left, the monster gives an enormous BURP that takes up two spreads — and the big green speech bubble includes additional clothes and items we saw from the missing children.

However, after they all disappear one by one and the very last child is left, the only one whose eyes pointed anywhere near the monster — she tells us that she eats liars.

And on the last page, the Monster is missing with his striped pants in his place.

So — Parents, I want you to be aware that this book will be scary for some little ones. Some children do get eaten. Completely off the page. But still.

Now, mind you, that monster gets eaten, too! He totally gets what he deserves! You can also tell your kid that the girl let out all the other children before she ate the monster. (Or you can try.)

So a lot of kids, especially older ones — and most adults — will find this book funny. It’s even a great excuse to practice counting! But you need to judge where your child will fall on that spectrum. I personally wouldn’t try this book in storytime because of that doubt. Which is sort of a shame, because if you can get in the right mindset, it’s a really fun book with lots to notice. And you can teach about unreliable narrators and seeing from someone else’s perspective!

This book reminds me of Lucy Cummins’ A Hungry Lion or: A Dwindling Assortment of Animals, which I wholeheartedly love, and at least that one doesn’t have a baby being eaten. But this one is a whole lot of fun, too — and I still say that cover is unbeatable!

marcuscutler.com
LBYR.com

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Review of 100 Mighty Dragons All Named Broccoli, by David LaRochelle, illustrated by Lian Cho

100 Mighty Dragons All Named Broccoli

written by David LaRochelle
illustrated by Lian Cho

Dial Books for Young Readers, 2023. 36 pages.
Review written January 29, 2024, from a library book
Starred Review
2024 Mathical Book Prize Honor Book, Grades K-2

This book has grown on me as I read it multiple times for the Mathical Book Prize. First, I didn’t like that you don’t see all 100 dragons on the first page. But then I noted they’re spread out over the title spread and the first page, and the 100 different dragons are each given a distinctive appearance, so you can follow each dragon for however long they last with the group through the rest of the book.

It’s not really a counting book… but come to think of it, early elementary kids don’t really need a counting book. They’re ready for slightly more sophisticated operations and number sense, and this book delivers, in a delightfully silly package.

Here’s how the book begins:

High on a mountain near a deep dark cave lived 100 mighty dragons.
They were all named Broccoli.

One blustery autumn day a tremendous wind blew half the dragons away.

This left. . .

50 mighty dragons, all named Broccoli.

10 dragons sailed away on a cruise ship and became professional surfers in Hawaii.

This left. . .

40 mighty dragons, all named Broccoli.

The oldest dragon and the youngest dragon took a train to New York City and started their own heavy metal band.

This left. . .

So, yes, it’s a counting down book, but it doesn’t change by the same number each time. You have to think a little bit if you want to follow along. Sometimes you have to observe. (“All the dragons wearing sunglasses flew to France.”) And just when kids think they have the pattern down — some dragons come back.

So this is a book that reinforces some basic math, but it’s not about math, it’s about these silly dragons and what they’ll do next.

And at the end, there are 100 new baby dragons — and they are not all named Broccoli. In fact, each baby dragon is pictured, with its name. It reminds me very much of Dr. Seuss’s silly story “Too Many Daves,” but there were just 23 Daves.

And although we’re giving this book a Mathical Book Prize Honor for Kindergarten through 2nd grade, preschoolers will enjoy it, too. They might not be able to do all the math yet, but being exposed to math never hurt anybody, and kids who love detailed illustrations will get hours of fun out of looking at the pictures of these mighty dragons. A whole lot of silly fun!

davidlarochelle.com
liancho.com
penguin.com/kids

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Review of Kitty & Cat: Bent Out of Shape, by Mirka Hokkanen

Kitty & Cat

Bent Out of Shape

by Mirka Hokkanen

Candlewick Press, 2023. 36 pages.
Review written December 6, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review

Okay, there’s a place for simple books about shapes. They teach little ones something they need to know. Good.

And then we have books about shapes on an entirely different level — books that parent and child will thoroughly enjoy and laugh over — while learning about shapes at the same time.

This book would become a go-to pick for me for Toddler Storytime if I still worked in a library branch. The idea is simple: A cat hiding because he doesn’t want to take a bath.

On the first page we see Cat curled up in a Circle-shaped basket with a speech bubble coming from off the page: “Cat! Time for a bath!”

The next page shows the basket empty, and a small child’s feet nearby, with the speech bubble, “Cat?”

From there on out, we’ve got a repeating pattern: A spread in some room of the house with Kitty and Puppy cavorting about, along with the speech bubble pointing off-page: “Where’s Cat?”

The next spread says “There’s Cat!”

The “There’s Cat!” reveal is where the hilarity comes in. On the frontpapers at the start of the book, we’d seen nine simple shapes named. It turns out, Cat is very good at putting his whole body into these shapes. On each reveal spread, we see that Kitty or Puppy has knocked down an object with a simple shape — and now we see Cat, who’d been hiding behind it, exactly matching the shape.

First, he hides behind a rectangular cereal box in the kitchen, and then my favorite (because it’s just silly) — a triangular vase in the dining room.

And so it goes. The words are as simple as “Where’s Cat? There’s Cat!” but the pictures show Cat frantically trying to stay concealed while Kitty and Puppy romp about the whole house, making mayhem.

Cat’s expression after his bath is priceles, too. And the final shape is a heart with all three animals — but a new threat for Kitty and Puppy.

There’s another page of those same nine shapes at the back of the book — but this time all of the shapes have a picture of Cat inside of them.

Just absolutely silly fun — and Shapes!

candlewick.com

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Review of Some of These Are Snails, by Carter Higgins

Some of These Are Snails

by Carter Higgins

Chronicle Books, 2023. 52 pages.
Review written June 12, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review

Some of These Are Snails is a bright and colorful book of graphic design on a white background introducing the early math concepts of classification and quantity.

The pictures are made up of simple shapes – mostly circles, squares, and triangles. They’re distinct colors. They’re in different sizes. Some have enough detail added to turn them into animals. And many have spots or stripes.

Starting simple with “turtle is a circle,” several things are introduced, and it quickly builds in complexity. I particularly like this page:

purple circles
small circles
circles in a square [Above those words, nine small circles are arranged in a square formation.]

And then the book starts asking questions:

can you sort by color?
can you sort by size?
can you sort by shape or find the animals with eyes?

As it progresses from there, you see many things on a page, and the book begins using vocabulary like “all,” “some,” “each,” “a lot.”

And then some more questions:

what is one?
what is some?
where is all and
where is none?

who’s stripiest?
who’s spottiest?
who’s wiggly wigglier wiggliest?

The book finishes with more images and more rhymes about them (wonderful rhymes that you want to read aloud), still looking at the pictures by color, shape, size, and animal.

As with most picture books, you really do need to check this out and hold it in your hands, preferably with a child in your lap. This book is playful and beautiful and best of all, encourages small children to talk about what they know about the simplest kinds of math.

carterhiggins.com
chroniclekids.com

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Review of How to Count to ONE, written by Caspar Salmon, illustrated by Matt Hunt

How to Count to ONE

(And Don’t Even THINK about Bigger Numbers!)

written by Caspar Salmon
illustrated by Matt Hunt

Nosy Crow, 2023. First published in the United Kingdom in 2022. 32 pages.
Review written July 11, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review

How to Count to ONE is one of those interactive picture books that speaks directly to the child reader, and this one is all about subverting expectations of counting books.

It starts with a picture of an apple, and asks the reader to count it.

Then it says, “Now for something bigger . . .” and gives them an elephant to count!

Next you think, “Ah, here’s more to count!” because the spread is filled with two giant whales. But instead, the narrator asks:

How many SAUSAGES do you see?

[There’s one, floating on top of the spout of a whale.]

And that’s how things go, with pictures of more and more things — but at least one object in the picture there’s only one of — and that’s what the reader is asked to count.

It’s amazing how difficult it is to only count the one thing. And the narration plays off that. Here’s one example spread:

So, here we have . . . some rhinos,
a few baboons, a number of snakes,
several ants and butterflies,
and ONE giraffe.

Using your counting skills, please count the giraffe.

I hope you didn’t count the other animals.
Remember, this book is about counting to ONE!

Finally, the narrator accidentally asks the reader to count the goldfish, instead of the goldfish that is wearing glasses — leading the reader to say “Two.” See, even the narrator makes mistakes!

But it all ends with the narrator thinking maybe you’re better at counting than they thought, so the reader is presented with one prize to count.

And if they’re just dying to count higher by this time, the endpapers show one hundred things to count.

I love about this book that some children won’t be able to resist counting things and other children will start looking to spot what there is one of. And it’s all in a playful package for plenty of laughter — while counting.

nosycrow.com

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