Sonderling Sunday – Chapter 9 – Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge at Last!

Delightfully Silly, Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge, Sonderling Sunday 0

It’s time again for Sonderling Sunday! That time when I play with language by looking at James Kennedy‘s choice turns of phrase in The Order of Odd-Fish and how they are translated into German in Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge. We look at all the things you’d really like to be able to say in German!

Today I’m part way into Chapter 9, when Jo finally meets The Order of Odd-Fish. I’m on page 82 in English, and Seite 105 auf Deutsch.

We start off with a handy-dandy phrase that’s actually shorter in German, for once!
“dressed in tails” = im Frack

“unkempt” = ungebärdigen

“alarmingly tiny teeth” = beunruhigend winzige Zähne (unrestfully tiny teeth)

Here’s a good one, and candidate for longest word, at 18 letters:
“blare of trumpets” = Fanfarengeschmetter

And I love this one we’ve already seen:
“great shout” = Jubelschrei

“a bejeweled bib” sounds less silly in German: einer juwelenbesetzten Krawatte

Another one that gains a little dignity in translation:
“a trailing cape that looked like a doily gone berserk for seven feet” = ein Häkeldeckchen grö?enwahnsinnig geworden und hätte sich auf zwei Meter ausgedehnt (“a crocheted blanket gone hugely insane and extending behind them for two meters”)

I always like alliteration:
“clinking and jangling” = klingelten und klapperten

More about the trumpets, including an even longer word:
“The trumpets died down” = Die Trompetengeschmetter verstummte

“a multitiered mountain of buttons and bows and collars and jewelry and bustles” = einem vielschichtigen Werk aus Knöpfen, Schleifen, Kragen, Schmuck, Tournüren

“a billowing, flapping, teetering mass of crepe and silk and velvet” = einem wogenden, wehenden, schwankenden Berg aus Krepp, Seide und Samt

“imprisoned in a gigantic, nightmarish wedding cake” = in einen gigantischen, albtraumhaften Hochzeitskuchen eingesperrt

(Come on, doesn’t that just make you want to read the book?)

“firmly” = unerschütterlich

“Jo was starving” = Jo hatte einen Mordshunger (“Jo had a death-hunger.” I like that! Means the same thing, but a fresh take on it, nicht?)

“with a mild pork-plum flavor” = Sie schmeckte ein bisschen nach Schwein und Pflaumen (Well, usually German takes a few more words, I must admit.)

“wrinkles” = einige Falten aus ihrem Gesicht (“some folds on her face”)

“It is a pleasantly futile task.” = Es ist eine höchst erfreulich vergebliche Aufgabe.

“accuracy” = Genauigkeit

“to dither about” = herumzutändeln (I’m so glad I know how to translate that!)

“charter” = Gründungsurkunde (“founding certificate”)

Oh, and here’s a good sentence to say:
“The bit about dithering is the most important.” = Der Teil mit dem Tändeln ist der wichtigste.

“a society of ditherers” = eine Gesellschaft von Tändlern

Oh, and the response is worth quoting the full paragraph:

“You know — fiddling about, puttering, loafing. The Order of Odd-Fish has a long and distinguished history of dithering. Sir Oliver is the world’s foremost authority.”

Auf Deutsch:

»Ihr wisst schon, herumtrödeln, faulenzen, Zeit verbummeln. Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge hat eine lange und würdevolle Geschichte des Tändelns. Sir Oliver ist tändeltechnisch die führende Autorität weltweit.«

Now, you have to wonder if the word tändeltechnisch has ever been used before. It’s basically saying that on the technicalities of dithering, Sir Oliver is the foremost authority worldwide.

Breaking down the other key phrases, we have, of course:
“fiddling about” = herumtrödeln
“puttering” = faulenzen
“loafing” = Zeit verbummeln (“time idling away”)

Oh, and the title of Sir Oliver’s book provides us yet more:
“Puttering, Muddling, and Mucking About: An Inquiry into Idleness” becomes Tändeln, Bummeln und Herumtrödeln: eine Untersuchung über den Mü?iggang

Now, they’re clearly using some of the same German words for different English ones. Perhaps they don’t have as many different words for dithering as English does? Knowing the German character of industry, I wouldn’t be surprised. But you definitely get the idea!

Speaking of Zeit verbummeln, my timer informs me I’ve already been at this an hour. There is much much delightful frippery left in the chapter, but I must stop for today.

Summing up, I hope this installment has given you insight into tändeltechnisch.

Longest word: Trompetengeschmetter
Shorter in German: im Frack
Most useful: einen Mordshunger

And of course summing up today’s entire discussion: Der Teil mit dem Tändeln ist der wichtigste.

May your herumzutändeln cause you a great Jubelschrei!

Bis zum nächsten Mal!

Review of Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons, by Eric Litwin and James Dean

Animal Characters, Delightfully Silly, Picture Book Review, Readalouds, Starred Review 0

Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons

story by Eric Litwin
created and illustrated by James Dean

Harper, 2012. 36 pages.
Starred Review

I’m afraid I resisted Pete the Cat a little bit. Even after our brilliant Early Literacy Coordinator demonstrated reading the book at a Youth Services meeting. It clearly will make a good read aloud, but I found out about it right before I was laid off from the library, and I haven’t done a storytime since. The second Pete the Cat book was Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes, and it was good, too, but I still wasn’t won over.

I was convinced enough that I had to check out Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons, and this time, yes, I’m completely a fan.

It’s got the same ingredients as the others: Teaching simple concepts and a song that repeats to which kids are absolutely sure to sing along. This time, the concept is math! Huzzah!

Here’s how the beginning goes:

Pete the Cat put on his favorite shirt with four big, colorful, round, groovy buttons.
He loved his buttons so much, he sang this song:

“My buttons, my buttons,
my four groovy buttons.
My buttons, my buttons,
my four groovy buttons.”

POP!

OH NO!

One of the buttons popped off and rolled away.
How many buttons are left?

THREE
3
4 – 1 = 3

Did Pete cry?
Goodness, no!
Buttons come and buttons go.

He kept on singing his song:
“My buttons, my buttons,
my three groovy buttons….”

You get the idea! It’s catchy, it’s got math, and it even teaches a lovely lesson in being content.

Best of all, silly me, I was surprised at what Pete found after every single button had popped off! A simply perfect touch, and I should have seen it coming. It’s definitely all good!

And the lesson at the end is one we will all do well to take to heart:

I guess it simply goes to show that stuff will come and stuff will go.
But do we cry?
Goodness, NO!
We keep on singing.

What better reminder than this catchy picture book?

Keep on singing!

petethecat.com
ericlitwin.com
harpercollinschildrens.com/petethecat

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/four_groovy_buttons.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of What Animals Really Like, by Fiona Robinson

Animal Characters, Delightfully Silly, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

What Animals Really Like

by Fiona Robinson

Abrams Books for Young Readers, New York, 2011.
Starred Review

If you like silly picture books; if you like reading books that make kids giggle, this is just the book.

When a child is big enough to know basic animal facts, know how books use rhyme to give you hints, he’s going to appreciate the surprises here.

Mr. Herbert Timberteeth, a beaver, is preparing for a big event. There’s an elaborate fold-out of many animals assembled on stage, dressed in their finest. Mr. Timberteeth is the conductor.

The song begins, with the groups of animals singing:

“We are lions, and we like to prowl.
We are wolves, and we like to howl.
We are pigeons, and we like to coo.
We are cows, and we like to . . . *turn page*

“. . . dig.”

Mr. Timberteeth tries to ignore it and move on. The next page:

“We are monkeys, and we like to play.
We are horses, and we like fresh hay.
We are worms, and we like to wiggle.
We are warthogs, and we like to . . .

“. . . blow enormous bubbles.”

Eventually, the animals decide they aren’t going to sing about what Mr. Timberteeth thinks they like, but about what they really like. Thus, a truly silly song begins. It doesn’t rhyme, but the pictured antics are hilarious. In fact the silly details in the pictures will reward reading this book again and again.

Only for silly readers.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/what_animals_really_like.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of Stuck, by Oliver Jeffers

Delightfully Silly, Picture Book Review, Readalouds, Stand-outs, Starred Review 0

Stuck

by Oliver Jeffers

Philomel Books, New York, 2011. 36 pages.
Starred Review
2011 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #2 Picture Books

Reading this picture book made me laugh out loud, and then, of course, try to get everyone around me to read it.

“It all began when Floyd’s kite became stuck in a tree. He tried pulling and swinging, but it wouldn’t come unstuck.

“The trouble

    REALLY

began when he threw his FAVORITE SHOE to knock the kite loose. . .

“. . . and THAT got stuck too!”

Floyd throws more and more things up in the tree. The pictures help make the predicament hilarious. And there are some surprising reflections: “Cats get stuck in trees all the time, but this was getting ridiculous.”

There are a couple of times we think he’s doing something constructive, like fetching a ladder.

“. . . and up he threw it.

“I’m sure you can guess what happened.”

Floyd throws more and more things into the tree, getting bigger and more ridiculous things all along the way. My favorite one is “A curious whale in THE WRONG PLACE at THE WRONG TIME to knock down the lighthouse…”

The pictures remind me very much of the video game where you collect things by rolling over them as progressively bigger things get stuck.

Well, this is another book I don’t want to say too much and ruin it for you. Me telling you the story isn’t nearly as funny as the words and pictures of this book discovered together. Anybody who’s old enough to ever have gotten something stuck in a tree will enjoy this book.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/stuck.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of 13 Words, by Lemony Snicket

Delightfully Silly, Picture Book Review 0

13 Words

by Lemony Snicket
illustrated by Maira Kalman

Harper, 2010. 36 pages.

This book is hilariously quirky, like so many of Lemony Snicket’s books. A Series of Unfortunate Events is too depressing for me, but this book is only a little melancholy, and bizarre enough to counterbalance that.

13 Words presents 13 words and tells a story about them. What makes the book so silly is the unusual choice of words, including such gems as haberdashery, panache, and mezzo-soprano.

The story is simple, and beautiful in its own bizarre way, about cheering up despondent friends and eating lots of cake. The pictures go right along with the words, portraying unusual details for the interested observer.

This is one of those books that you really must read for yourself, discovering the delightful details. Consider yourself advised about this silly book!

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/13_words.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of Mitchell’s License, by Hallie Durand and Tony Fucile

Bedtime stories, Contemporary, Delightfully Silly, Good for the Very Young, Picture Book Review, Readalouds 0

Mitchell’s License

by Hallie Durand
illustrated by Tony Fucile

Candlewick Press, 2011. 40 pages.
Starred Review

Here is an absolutely perfect choice for Father’s Day for fathers of small children. How I wish the creators had written it about 15 years earlier when my son was small and nuts about anything related to cars. Now I will have to settle for reading it in storytime, but what this book really needs is a father ready to act it out. Big thanks to Twenty By Jenny for bringing this book to my attention.

The book begins telling us about a typical three-year-old, but then a twist is added that creates all the fun:

“Mitchell never ever EVER wanted to go to bed. Until his dad finally said he could drive there.

“Mitchell was three years, nine months, and five days old when he got his license.”

The picture there shows Mitchell proudly holding his “Remote-Control Dad Driver’s License.”

Mitchell drives Dad as so many children do — sitting on his shoulders and steering with the ears. They have a whole lot of fun with it, with Mitchell inspecting the tires, checking the engine, and cleaning the windshield first. There’s a delightful surprise when Mitchell starts out by driving his car right into a wall!

“The next night, Mitchell remembered to stop and look both ways.
He also learned how to beep the horn.
He liked the way it sounded . . . a lot!”

You can probably guess what the picture to go with beeping the horn looks like, but wait until you see the vigor with which Mitchell pounds on his Dad’s nose!

We get to see a few different bedtimes, with Mitchell becoming a skilled driver and adding fun riffs on the theme, like braking to avoid a collision with Mom and adding oil.

But when Mitchell comes up with a scheme to drive the car to the Gas Station (Cookie Jar), his car malfunctions, and drives him to bed.

Part of what makes this book so absolutely brilliant are the illustrations. Tony Fucile is an animator, with credits such as The Lion King and Finding Nemo, and it shows. You almost feel like you’re watching a movie as you flip through the pages, with plenty of emotion showing on the characters’ faces and plenty of motion in the characters’ actions. When I saw the picture of Mitchell’s Dad’s face after he bonked into the wall, I could almost hear a theater full of kids burst out laughing.

This book is perfect in so many ways. The artwork is not gorgeous, elaborate paintings, but it is absolutely perfect for this story. I hope it will get some Caldecott attention. I notice clever details as I read it again — like Mitchell’s pajamas each night having a car theme, and his room decorated with cars. Mom’s walking by with a laptop, and there’s a cordless phone in a docking station. This is a modern home but fully in the wonderful tradition of books-as-games along with the classic Pete’s a Pizza. Makes me wish I had a toddler to share it with, but meanwhile it brings back wonderful memories of my husband playing with our boys.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/mitchells_license.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of Monsters Eat Whiny Children

Delightfully Silly, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Monsters Eat Whiny Children

by Bruce Eric Kaplan

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2010. 36 pages.
Starred Review

This book makes me laugh. I admit, I would not want to use it in a library storytime, for fear of scaring a child too young to understand that it’s a joke. However, parents will know at what age this will make a fun cautionary tale.

“Once there were two perfectly delightful children who were going through a TERRIBLE phase, which is to say they whined ALL day and night….

“Their kindly father warned them that monsters eat whiny children. They didn’t believe him. So they whined and whined until finally one day…

“a monster came and stole them away.”

The monster begins by making a whiny-child salad and pours dressing on the children. But his wife hates cilantro, so they have to start over. A neighbor comes over and suggests whiny-child burgers. Something goes wrong with each suggestion. Sharp-eared children will notice that the monsters are awfully whiny themselves.

Meanwhile, while the monsters are whining as each of their plans doesn’t work, the children get distracted and stop whining. Finally, the monsters hit upon the perfect treat: whiny-child cucumber sandwiches. But when they look for the children, they have escaped. They have to eat plain cucumber sandwiches (recipe included).

It’s so easy to imagine a “kindly father” reading this book to his children and maybe, just maybe, getting them to think about what whining sounds like and stop. The author never comes out and says that the monsters are whining, but it’s quite clear that nothing pleases them, and their constant objections are what allow the children to escape.

Children will enjoy the thrill of danger in this story but delight in the escape. And maybe, just maybe, they will be a little quicker to stop the next time their kindly parents point out that they are whining.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/monsters_eat_whiny_children.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Tweetle Beetles for Read Across America Day

Delightfully Silly, Easy Readers, Events 0

I remember when I was 3 or 4 years old, my mother read me a new book, Fox in Socks, by Dr. Seuss. What really impressed me about it was the warning at the front: “Take it slowly. This book is DANGEROUS!”

Perhaps that was why, over the years, I was inordinately proud of being able to read it quickly. I am the third of thirteen children, so I got plenty of practice reading aloud to my younger brothers and sisters. Then I started reading aloud to my own sons. I think it was as an adult that I finally got where I could read all of Fox in Socks quickly and without a mistake. And that was an accomplishment that took years to achieve! (Though I don’t prove it here. I think the camera flustered me!) Now that my sons are grown, I’ve become a librarian, so I can continue to read aloud to children.

About a month ago on YouTube, I saw a video of a teenager reading Fox in Socks extremely quickly. Much, much faster than I can do, no contest.

However, watching that video gave me the bug. I can go pretty fast, and I think listeners can actually understand what I’m saying. At any rate, I wanted to make my own video, because what a lovely excuse to read Fox in Socks as fast as I can! And what better day to pick than Read Across America Day, Dr. Seuss’s Birthday?

So I made an announcement in the library and rounded up the kids in the children’s area so I had an audience, and went at it. Lots of fun! I will have to try to do it faster (and with less flubs) next year.

After tweeting about reading Fox in Socks, I came up with the following about School Library Journal’s Battle of the Books:

When a reader tweets on twitter about which novel is the sweeter, it’s a
Tweeting Reader Sweeter Novel Twitter Chatter Battle.

Happy Read Across America Day, everyone!

Review of The Boy Who Climbed Into the Moon, by David Almond

Beginning Chapter Books, Children's Fiction Review, Delightfully Silly, Fantasy 0

The Boy Who Climbed Into the Moon

by David Almond
illustrated by Polly Dunbar

Candlewick Press, 2010. 117 pages.

Here’s a whimsical look at a boy with big ideas and the amazing things he finds when he’s willing to act on them.

Paul lives underground in a basement flat at the bottom of a great apartment block. One day, he decides to go and touch the sky.

On his way up the apartment building’s steps, he meets a variety of quirky characters, one of whom shows him the elevator. On the very top floor lives Mabel, the most interesting character of them all. Or is she Molly, Mabel’s identical twin sister, looking after Mabel’s apartment while Mabel is on holiday in Barbados?

Paul’s parents find Paul on the top floor, and Molly shows all of them a new way to look at the world. Paul admits that he is a person who has strange ideas, and all of them celebrate his ideas. They go on a strange adventure to visit Molly’s very shy brother, and eventually all the people in the apartment building help Paul to fulfill his wish of climbing to the moon.

This is a book of delightful nonsense, where logical things are stood on their heads. It celebrates strange ideas and self-belief and adventure and family and dreams coming true and poodles who fly. The illustrations are plentiful and full of fun. I have a feeling that children will “get” this book even better than imaginative adults.

This book is a quick read, perfect for a child who’s beginning to read chapter books, hopefully read when they are still young enough to freely and happily suspend disbelief. Anything is possible!

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/boy_who_climbed_into_the_moon.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of Oh, Daddy! by Bob Shea

Delightfully Silly, Picture Book Review, Readalouds, Starred Review 0

Oh, Daddy!

by Bob Shea

Balzer & Bray (HarperCollinsPublishers), 2010. 32 pages.
Starred Review

Just in time for Father’s Day comes this book about a boy (hippo?) and his dad that I would love to read to toddlers any time of year. Alas! I am losing my job, so will not be doing any toddler storytimes any time soon, so I have to settle for urging others to try it. Of course, the very best pair for this book would be a father and child, acting it out as they read, especially the hug at the end.

The book opens up with the boy telling us, “I may be little, but I’m as smart as two eight-year-olds! I’m so smart, I even show my dad how to do things — and he’s a grown-up!”

Then he gives examples. When he’s getting dressed, Daddy asks him “Is this how you get dressed?” with underwear on his head, oven mitts on his hands, and a pail and a boot on his feet. The smart boy then shows him how it should be done.

Silly Daddy can’t seem to get anything right! Any toddler will enjoy Daddy’s completely silly attempts.

But there’s another level to the book for the adult reader, and probably for the child as he gets older and wiser. In each successive episode, the boy isn’t exactly on task. But when Daddy asks his silly questions, like asking if you should get in the car by climbing through the window, the boy quickly focuses to show Daddy how it’s done.

The progression is delightful and playful, including an example where the boy teases Daddy back. And it all ends up with Daddy’s multiple gyrations in the attempt to give himself a big hug — where he definitely needs his son’s help.

This book reminds me of William Steig’s Pete’s a Pizza, because like that book, it begs to be acted out by a loving parent-child pair. However, I do think it would work well in a toddler storytime, where you could encourage the toddlers to shout “No!” at Daddy’s silly attempts. I would like to try this on a child to see at what age they catch on to Daddy’s cleverness in motivating his son.

Great fun and delightfully silly!

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/oh_daddy.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.