Review of The Adventures of Nanny Piggins, by R. A. Spratt

Animal Characters, Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Humorous, Starred Review 0

The Adventures of Nanny Piggins

by R. A. Spratt
illustrated by Dan Santat

Little, Brown and Company, New York, 2010. First published in Australia in 2009. 239 pages.
Starred Review

Move over Mary Poppins! Nanny Piggins is not a nanny who teaches her charges valuable lessons. In fact, the Disclaimer at the front warns you of things to come:

You are about to read a wonderful book. Nanny Piggins is the most amazing pig ever. It has been a privilege to write about her. But before you begin I must (because the publisher has forced me) give you one small warning. . .

Unless you are a pig, do not copy Nanny Piggins’s diet IN ANY WAY.

You see, pigs and humans have very different bodies. Pigs are a different shape (mainly because they eat so much). Plus, Nanny Piggins is an elite athlete so she has a freakishly fast metabolism that can burn a lot of calories.

So please, for the good of your own health, do not try to eat like Nanny Piggins. There is no doubt that chocolate, cake, cookies, tarts, chocolate milk, sticky cream buns, candy, ice cream, lollipops, sherbet lemons, and chocolate chip pancakes are all delicious, but that does not mean you should eat them seven or eight times a day.

Also, you really must eat vegetables, no matter what Nanny Piggins might say to the contrary, or you will get sick.

Yours sincerely,
R. A. Spratt, the author

P.S. The publisher also wants me to mention that you really should not try a lot of the things Nanny Piggins does either. For example, throwing heavy things off roofs. Firstly, because you might give yourself a hernia lugging it up there. But mainly, because if it landed on someone that would be terrible. So please do not copy Nanny Piggins’s behavior (unless you are under the close supervision of a responsible adult pig with advanced circus training).

Yes, Nanny Piggins is a pig. A pig who has left the circus, where she was a flying pig shot out of a cannon. Mr. Green hires her to watch his children because she only charges ten cents an hour. Yes, Nanny Piggins’s behavior is completely outrageous — and therefore tremendous fun to read about. Sensitive parents who aren’t sure their children would fully understand why they do not apply Nanny Piggins’s methods might find this book would make an excellent family read-aloud. (Then the parents can include wise instruction as to why such behavior is not advisable. They can also enjoy the fun along with their kids.)

Here’s an example that made me laugh, from when Mr. Green gives Nanny Piggins money to buy uniforms:

Happily, as it turned out, Nanny Piggins’s idea of a good investment was to buy four tickets to an amusement park. The children had the most wonderful day. They went on all sorts of terrifying rides. On some they were flung high into the air until they were convinced they were going to die. And on others they were spun around and around until they were utterly sick.

In fact, Michael was sick. Fortunately the ride was going at full speed at the time, and the vomit flew cleanly out of his mouth and into the face of the person behind him. So Nanny Piggins did not have to trouble herself with cleaning up his clothes.

“Well done, Michael,” Nanny Piggins complimented him. “With aim like that you could get a job at the circus.”

Here’s the way Chapter Four opens:

It was seven o’clock at night, and Nanny Piggins and the children were happily crouched on the floor of the cellar, holding a cockroach race, when they heard the distinctive harrumph sound of a throat being cleared behind them.

Now, one of the first things Nanny Piggins had taught the children was what to do if someone walks in on you when you are doing something bad. So the children did exactly as they had been trained — they stayed absolutely still and did not say a word, completely ignoring the four cockroaches as they scattered across the floor in front of them. Nanny Piggins made a mental note to recatch hers later because it was a big one with long legs and it would be a shame to let it run wild. Apart from making excellent racers, cockroaches can be tremendously handy for shocking hygenic people and clearing long lines at the deli.

As the author warns us repeatedly, Do not try this at home! But you can certainly enjoy reading about it at home. And if you won’t feed your kids junk food at every meal, where’s the harm in letting them fantasize about a nanny who does? This book is full of silly, over-the-top, good-hearted fun.

raspratt.com
dantat.com
lb-kids.com

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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.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Fat Is the New 30, by Jill Conner Browne

Humorous, Nonfiction Review, Stand-outs, Starred Review 0

Fat Is the New 30

The Sweet Potato Queens’ Guide to Coping with (the crappy parts of) Life

by Jill Conner Browne

Amazon Publishing, 2012. 254 pages.
Starred Review
2012 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #4 Other Nonfiction

I do so love The Sweet Potato Queens! This particular book adds some seriously good advice to the usual humor of Jill Conner Browne’s observations. Of course, keeping your sense of humor IS seriously good advice.

Jill Conner Browne sets the tone in the very first paragraph of the Acknowledgments:

The last few years have afforded me much experience in Coping with the Crappy Parts of Life referenced in the title of this book. However, it must be said that the Crap, plentiful as it has admittedly been, is overshadowed still by the Amazing, the Humbling, the Gratifying, and the Nifty. My prayer for us all is that we’re always able to pay more attention to those things in our lives and laugh our way around the Crap.

In the introduction, which is given the title “Fat Is the New 30!”, she says things like this:

Possibly the very best survival tool ever devised is the Concept of Complete Denial. My seester Judy and I have made this our Life’s Work. (Judy would like for it to be noted that she also has a minor in “Lolling.”) Someone once told me that if you study and practice something diligently for five years, you can become a bona fide expert at it. I shared this tidbit with Judy and we decided that we would commit ourselves to doing whatever it took to accomplish that in our chosen field, and I am happy to report that we were 100 percent successful, and also, it didn’t take us anywhere near five years. We are, as far as we can tell, the World’s Leading Authorities on Denial. No, we didn’t do much — OK, ANY — research into the possibility of the existence of other authorities and/or their potential superiority to us in this, our chosen field. We decided that we are the best, and if anybody says otherwise, well, we will just deny it. So, there. Done.

What I CAN offer you is some much-needed relief from the overwhelming stress we are all mired in (as a direct result of my not turning out to be the World-Saving Little Redheaded Singing Sensation), by making fun of all the messes and the people who made them — even if they are us, which, truth be told, they occasionally are. I will make you laugh even if you don’t want to — I can do that. It will feel good and you will feel better even though most everything will still suck. . . .

Daddy always said, “There are very few situations in life that we really and truly canNOT change, but when we do encounter one of those, then the task at hand is to figure out how to either make fun OUT of it — or to make fun OF it.” That advice has served me well in this life, so I offer it to you. But you don’t have my daddy to help you figure out how to actually DO it — and it does take practice. I got personal training from Daddy, plus I’ve had lots of experience at Spinning Crap Into Fun (also known as “Shit to Shinola” — similar in theory to the storied Spinning of Straw Into Gold — only, actually possible), so I think maybe I can help you with that.

We are fortunate to have many tools with which to fend off everything from boredom to disaster, but remember, no matter how bad it is, it’s much better to laugh than to cry — or to maim and kill, which will only make more trouble for yourself, so I discourage it, no matter how tempting it may be.

Here are some other random lovely bits of wisdom:

So, as you age, which I hope you will do sober — I truly cannot imagine trying to negotiate all these pitfalls drunk — and you find yourself starting a sentence but forgetting the targeted end before you even get to the middle, just keep talking, about anything, it doesn’t really matter what, just keep talking and nobody will notice that you’re lost. If you can REMEMBER to do this, it will serve you well.

How best to survive a spell in the spotlight that is not of our choosing? Laughing at ourownselfs, especially at our own extreme discomfort and/or embarrassment, is not the easiest thing in the world, but I reckon it’s a sight easier than spontaneous evaporation, which would, naturally, be our first choice.

“Money won’t solve all your problems.” That’s another one of those things that only ever gets said by people WITH money. It is true, of course, there are all manner of problems for which money is not the solution. However, it must also be said that if what you’ve got is a MONEY PROBLEM, well, then money is pretty much the only thing that will solve it. Yeppers, money is just the thing for fixing money problems.

And those erstwhile Wedding Vows? The ones where we promised to love, honor and cherish that Other Person (who, it should be noted, ALSO promised to do the same for US — and we see how well THAT worked out). What if we were to make and keep those vows — to OURSELVES?

Every coin has a flip side — well, except for those trick two-headed coins, but you have to pay extra and have those made special, so they don’t really count and are certainly not germane to this discussion. Suffice it to say that just about everything in this world that is making somebody wildly happy is, at the same time, prolly making somebody else equally miserable. it has become my job to identify those things and make fun of them, with the hope of relieving the suffering for even a moment and thereby furthering the cause of my Ultimate Mission in Life, which is, of course, World Peace.

Things happen that can’t be fixed. Relationships are ended by death, or maybe nobody’s dead, but the relationship might be ruined beyond repair. Sucks. Just make sure you don’t lose the LESSON, too — because there was one, every time.

Forgiveness — such a wonderful thing to give and to receive. We just have to remember to start that process in front of the mirror — you gotta give it to yourself and allow yourself to receive it before you can go any further with it.

If you keep one foot in yesterday and one foot in tomorrow, ALL you can DO is make a very unfortunate mess all over today. And today is all ANY-body has ever got. Let go of yesterday, quit worrying about tomorrow — grab hold of today and get your money’s worth out of it. See if you can make only NEW mistakes today and be grateful for the goodness of the moment.

And my personal favorite:

Life. It’s your birthday present. Open it up and play with it. Act like you like it. (The One who gave it to you is watching, after all. Don’t wanna hurt His feelings.) And if you don’t like your life, CHANGE IT. It is all yours.

That should give you the idea! If you like these tastes, be sure to check out the entire book. You will laugh, and you will be blessed.

sweetpotatoqueens.com

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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.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Review of The Mysterious Howling, by Maryrose Wood

Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Historical, Humorous, Starred Review 0

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place

The Mysterious Howling

by Maryrose Wood

Balzer + Bray (HarperCollins), 2010. 267 pages.
Starred Review

I’m so glad I finally read this book! In a way, it’s nice that I took so long, because the final three words are those dreaded ones, “To Be Continued . . .” I can go straight to rushing to read the next two volumes.

I found The Mysterious Howling completely delightful. The story is of Penelope Lumley, a Poor but Deserving young fifteen-year-old girl, penniless and sent away from her boarding school to try her luck at a grand house, Ashton Place, to be the governess.

Her interview with Lady Constance is unusual. Even Penelope, with no experience in such things, finds it surprising how quickly Lady Constance offers her the job and that she won’t speak of the children. She closes the interview like this:

And with that, they both affixed their signatures to the bottom of the letter of terms that Lord Ashton had prepared. Penelope hardly thought this necessary, but Lady Constance assured her that signed, binding contracts were the custom in these parts, a charming formality which she would not dream of omitting.

When Penelope does meet the children, she learns that they were, in fact, raised by wolves, and discovered by the mysterious Lord Ashton in Ashton Forest on one of his hunting parties. Penelope must revise her hopes and dreams of what she can teach the children, but her compassion, and her binding contract, compel her to stay.

The rest of the book concerns itself with Penelope teaching the children, trying to get them not to chase squirrels and teach them enough words to speak politely to people. In fact, when Lady Constance plans a big party on Christmas Day, Lord Ashton particularly wants the children to be there, so Penelope is under deep pressure to teach them proper things to say to the guests, and drill them on how to behave. It’s not her fault if things don’t go as she plans….

Meanwhile, there’s a mystery at Ashton Place. In a tribute to Jane Eyre, besides the mysterious howling from the children before Penelope met them, there’s a sound coming from a room in the attic.

I’m not sure who exactly the audience for this book is, except that I am firmly in it. Definitely those who have read and loved Jane Eyre will find themselves laughing over Penelope Lumley’s expectations of being a governess and the rich contrast with the children she actually teaches. There are obvious sections inserted to delight the adult reader, such as this one:

“My heavens!” Mrs. Clarke exclaimed. “I am sure I have never seen three such extraordinarily handsome and well-turned out children!”

As you may know complimentary remarks of this type are all too often made by well-meaning adults to children who are, to be frank, perfectly ordinary-looking. This practice of overstating the case is called hyperbole. Hyperbole is usually harmless, but in some cases it has been known to precipitate unneccessary wars as well as a painful gaseous condition called stock market bubbles. For safety’s sake, then, hyperbole should be used with restraint and only by those with the proper literary training.

However, the book is written at a child’s reading level, and I do think children will enjoy the story. There is silliness with the children learning how to speak and how to behave, despite a tendency toward howling, and a thread of a mysterious something bigger throughout the story.

Here’s a section shortly after Penelope has learned the nature of her charges. She goes, naturally enough, to the library:

It was chilly and dark, even on a sunny afternoon, with many more books than even the library at Swanburne had contained. The section on animal behavior was exceptionally well stocked. In short, Penelope was in library heaven, and she prepared to start taking notes. She quickly found a book on wolves, which provided many thought-provoking tidbits of information and even shed light on some of the children’s more intriguing habits — the way Alexander, for instance, would occasionally discipline his siblings by knocking them to the ground and rolling them onto their backs. Or the way Beowulf would rise from his bed during the night and gaze out the nursery window, mournfully ahwooing for hours on end. Or Cassiopeia’s tendency to scamper closely after Penelope and sit at her feet the instant she stopped moving.

Of course, I can’t help but think the most ideal audience would be a family read-aloud, or perhaps a classroom read-aloud. I am planning to listen to the second book on CD, so it will be fun to see if that reader does the story justice.

maryrosewood.com
harpercollinschildrens.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/mysterious_howling.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 my own copy, which I purchased at an ALA Conference and had signed by the author.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Cold Cereal, by Adam Rex

Adventure, Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Humorous, Starred Review 0

Cold Cereal

by Adam Rex

Balzer + Bray, 2012. 421 pages.
Starred Review

I’m going to give Cold Cereal to all the kids waiting for the next Rick Riordan book, at least, if we can keep it on the shelf. (I hope it will soon be as popular.)

Scott thinks he’s a normal kid who’s simply moved to Goodborough, New Jersey, because of his mom’s new job with Goodco Cereal Company. “There’s a Little Bit of Magic in Every Box.”

Biking to school, Scott sees some strange things in the park. A rabbit-man. A unicat. Scott’s sure it’s some kind of aura, a neurological event related to his migraines. The only people who are nice to Scott at his new school include some twins, Erno and Emily, and Emily is seriously strange (and super smart). Later, in a restroom, a little man that no one else can see tries to steal his backpack.

What emerges is that the Goodco Cereal Company is imprisoning magical beings and putting their magic in its cereal. As well as doing experiments on Emily, preparatory to putting dangerous ingredients in cereal to feed the children of the entire country.

Only Scott, Erno, and Emily can stop the evil cereal company, but it won’t be easy!

This book plays off Celtic mythology in a story where three kids need to save the world (and themselves). There’s lots and lots of humor, with Adam Rex poking fun at consumerism, at parents who will do anything to make their children smart, cereal slogans over the years, and so much more. This book is the first volume of a planned trilogy, but it does have a satisfying ending on its own.

I will definitely want to read the upcoming volumes.

adamrex.com
harpercollinschildrens.com

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Source: This review is based on an Advance Review Copy and checked against a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, by Christopher Healy

Children's Fiction Review, Fairy Tale Variant, Fantasy, Humorous, Starred Review 0

The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom

by Christopher Healy

Walden Pond Press, 2012. 438 pages.
Starred Review

Have you ever noticed how many fairy tales claim that the hero action was done by Prince Charming? The author of this book explains that there’s a reason for that.

Blame the lazy bards. You see, back in the day, bards and minstrels were the world’s only real source of news. It was they who bestowed fame on people. They were the ones who sculpted any hero’s (or villain’s) reputation. Whenever something big happened — a damsel was rescued, a dragon was slain, a curse was broken — the royal bards would write a song about it, and their wandering minstrels would perform that tune from land to land, spreading the story across multiple kingdoms. But the bards weren’t keen on details. They didn’t think it was important to include the names of the heroes who did all that damsel rescuing, dragon slaying, and curse breaking. They just called all those guys “Prince Charming.”

It didn’t even matter to the bards whether the person in question was a truly daring hero (like Prince Liam, who battled his way past a bone-crushing, fire-blasting magical monster in order to free a princess from an enchanted sleeping spell) or some guy who merely happened to be in the right place at the right time (like Prince Ducan, who also woke a princess from a sleeping spell, but only because some dwarfs told him to). No, those bards gave a man the same generic name whether he nearly died (like Prince Gustav, who was thrown from a ninety-foot tower when he tried to rescue Rapunzel) or simply impressed a girl with his dancing skill (like Prince Frederic, who wowed Cinderella at a royal ball).

If there was anything that Liam, Duncan, Gustav, and Frederic all had in common, it was that none of them were very happy about being a Prince Charming. Their mutual hatred of that name was a big part of what brought them together. Not that teaming up was necessarily the best idea for these guys.

That’s the narrator getting ahead of himself. The Princes Charming don’t start out teaming up. Things start when Cinderella decides Prince Frederic has too little sense of adventure. She wants to go find Rapunzel, who really seems to have adventures. She ends up getting involved with a witch, and Gustav and Frederic try to save her. Meanwhile, Prince Liam discovers that Briar Rose is not a nice person at all. He doesn’t want to marry her. But she has her little ways of getting revenge.

But all four princes encounter one another and end up having to fight the witch, who now has a big plot to massacre thousands, including the princes and destroy the kingdoms.

This book is very funny, and a great twist on all the old fairy tale themes. I think this would be excellent classroom reading that would keep an elementary class hooked day after day.

Now, I myself thought the first hundred pages or so were hilarious. After that, it started to drag for me. It wasn’t really less funny; it was just going on and on and on. I’d happily read a chapter a night, but not until the last hundred pages or so did I get absorbed enough to finish up, so the book took me more than a week to finish. I would have liked it a good bit shorter, but I doubt that kids will mind.

The author keeps his irreverent and humorous tone throughout the book. Here’s where Frederic meets Gustav:

Over the years, Frederic had met his fair share of other princes. None of them were anything like this prince of Sturmhagen. Gustav was so gruff. He had no patience, no manners, and ridiculously poor communication skills. Frederic could only presume the man’s flamenco dancing was just as awkward.

Lots of silliness; lots of surprises; lots of fun coincidences. My only complaint is that it runs long-winded, but the better to keep kids entertained, right? And judging by the “Book 1” on the side, there will be more to come in the future.

christopherhealy.com
harpercollinschildrens.com

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

Review of Bossypants, by Tina Fey

Audiobooks, Humorous, Nonfiction Review, True Stories 0

Bossypants

by Tina Fey
read by the author

Hachette Audio, 2011. 5.5 hours on 5 CDs.

I’d heard good things about this book, and then a co-worker told me she was listening to it. When she said that Tina Fey herself read it, I knew this was one book I’d want to enjoy in the audio form.

This was a perfect audiobook to get me laughing on my commute. The humor doesn’t get political very often, so I suspect some of my conservative friends may also enjoy it. Tina Fey tells about her life in performance, and what it’s like to be in charge.

I think my favorite part was when she explained what she learned from sketch comedy and how it’s like life. I wish I could quote sections to you, but that’s the disadvantage with the audio form — not easy to go back to get quotes. In sketch comedy, it’s absolutely vital to cooperate with your partner, and she gave hilarious examples.

The audiobook also included a recording of her sketch on Saturday Night Live where Tina Fey, as Sarah Palin, gave a public service announcement with “Hilary Clinton.” The pictures in the text were included in a PDF file on the final CD, and so was a complete recording of that show. Having the pictures was nice — I didn’t have to check out the print book to see them, though I admit I looked at them after the fact, not in the middle of the text, like they would have been in the original book. Tina Fey talks about her strange six weeks performing as Sarah Palin. Like so many people, I hadn’t realized that she wasn’t even working for Saturday Night Live at the time — until public demand suggested that she be the one to play Sarah Palin.

So, Tina Fey talks about performing, about parenting, about being a boss, and so much more. And she does it all with a lot of humor. This is a wonderful commuting book, because what’s better than a good laugh on the way to work?

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

Review of Darth Paper Strikes Back, by Tom Angleberger

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Humorous, Starred Review 0

Darth Paper Strikes Back

by Tom Angleberger

Amulet Books, New York, 2011. 159 pages.
Starred Review

Darth Paper Strikes Back is, naturally, the sequel to The Strange Case of Origami Yoda. Both books are fabulous middle school reading. I so wish I could ever find them on the shelves of the library, because there are many customers I would recommend them to — but so far, they are always checked out.

The first book covers Tommy’s sixth grade year, where he gets surprisingly wise advice from Origami Yoda, a finger puppet manipulated by a really weird kid called Dwight. The advice solves all kinds of problems and is far too wise for Dwight to have made up on his own. But all along, there was a skeptic, a kid named Harvey who scoffed at everyone else’s belief in Origami Yoda.

On the first day of seventh grade, Harvey shows up with an origami finger puppet of Darth Vader. And Harvey does Vader’s voice much better than Dwight has ever done Yoda’s voice. And then things get bad for Dwight.

Tommy explains the scenario at the beginning of his latest “case file”:

“The bad news is that this year Origami Yoda’s up against the destructive force of Darth Paper, and can’t seem to handle it.

“It has all gone wrong since that first day. Now it’s October and Darth Paper has pretty much destroyed all the good Origami Yoda did last year. Now the girls don’t like us. The teachers don’t like us. Some of us don’t even like each other….

“But it’s been worse for Dwight. He’s been suspended from school, and the school board is going to decide if he should get sent to CREF — the Correctional and Remedial Education Facility — the school where they send the really, really bad kids, which Dwight isn’t. Amy’s older brother said the toughest, meanest, nastiest guy in his class was sent there . . . and got beat up! It’s kind of like Jabba’s palace, except without the alien rock band.

“This would be the ultimate defeat for Origami Yoda! And we think that Darth Paper is behind it. I just find it hard to believe that even Darth Paper/Harvey could be so evil!”

Tommy’s case file consists of telling about the good influences Origami Yoda has already had this year, the good advice he’s given, the situations he’s saved. I love the way these are real middle school concerns — like a game to play when they take video games off the library computers, helping Lance to decide which class to take, a way to clean up on the school popcorn sale, and even telling Murky the secret origins of Yoda that are not revealed in the movies. And, yes, there’s a return of Mr. Good Clean Fun and Soapy the Monkey, but this time he’s encouraging participation in the popcorn sale, rather than teaching them to wash their hands. (You see, the background situation of the middle school has some wonderful humor, too.)

Now, I was halfway through the book, wistfully thinking of how in the first book, the kids learned through the adventures that Dwight was a pretty great person after all. But in this book, Harvey just seemed bad clear through. I also thought it pretty unrealistic that a school board would listen to a bunch of students about a disciplinary matter, so Tommy’s whole case file seemed awfully misguided and unrealistic.

Then I read the ending, and I will just say that Tom Angleberger nailed it! Best of all, we’ve got a picture of Yoda at the back, promising “The End… This is Not!”

Did I mention that, like the Wimpy Kid books, this book has cartoons throughout? Personally, I like these books better. They feel more good-hearted to me. Sure, Harvey’s mean, but there’s not much bullying going on, and these seem like genuine middle school kids with middle school concerns. So I really hope our library will get more copies before long, so I can direct those who like the Wimpy Kid books to turn to Origami Yoda next. Now, admittedly, people familiar with Star Wars will enjoy it a lot more. I could be wrong, but isn’t that pretty much all middle school kids?

origamiyoda.com
amuletbooks.com

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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 Cloaked in Red, by Vivian Vande Velde

Children's Fiction Review, Fairy Tale Variant, Fantasy, Humorous, Short Stories 0

Cloaked in Red

by Vivian Vande Velde

Marshall Cavendish, 2010. 127 pages.

I loved Vivian Vande Velde’s The Rumpelstiltskin Problem, so I made sure to snap up Cloaked in Red when I heard about it.

In both books, she takes a fairy tale you thought you knew, and casts it in a very different light. Okay, several different lights. She looks at the story from many different perspectives.

Her Author’s Note at the beginning makes some fun points:

“There are different versions, but they all start with a mother who sends her daughter into the woods, where there is not only a wolf, but a talking, cross-dressing wolf. We are never told Little Red Riding Hood’s age, but her actions clearly show that she is much too young, or too dimwitted, to be allowed out of the house alone.”

Or how about the heroine’s unusual name?

“And what happened later in life, when Little Red Riding Hood was no longer little? Did she shift to ‘Medium-Sized Blue-Beaded Sweater’? Did she eventually become ‘Size-Large and Yes-That-DOES-Make-Your-Butt-Look-Enormous Jeans’?”

I love the way she points out how unlikely it all is. Here’s Red in the cottage:

“I don’t like to criticize anyone’s family, but I’m guessing these people are not what you’d call close. Little Red doesn’t realize a wolf has substituted himself for her grandmother. I only met my grandmother three times in my entire life, but I like to think I would have noticed if someone claiming to be my grandmother had fur, fangs, and a tail.

“But Little Red, instead of becoming suspicious, becomes rude.

“‘My,’ she says — as far as she knows — to her grandmother, ‘what big arms you have.’

“Big she notices. Apparently hairy and clawed escape her.”

Vivian Vande Velde concludes her introduction with these words:

“However you look at it, ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ is a strange and disturbing story that should probably not be shared with children.

“That is why I’ve gone ahead and written eight new versions of it.”

The eight stories that follow are amazingly varied, even though you can see how they relate to the fairy tale. These ones seemed darker to me than the ones in The Rumpelstiltskin Problem, but then “Little Red Riding Hood” is a quite dark and violent tale.

We’ve got one from the perspective of pretty much every one in the story. I like the one where Jakob and Wilhelm, the dimwitted Grimm brothers, sons of a woodcutter, misunderstand when Grandma’s talking about making a wolf draft-stopper for her granddaughter. My favorite is probably the one about the nice wolf who is trying to be helpful after an annoying little girl steps on his tail, screams, and drops her basket.

“The wolf inhaled deeply the tantalizing smells of meat and baked goods, and was strongly tempted to gobble everything up. But his mother had raised him better than that.

“‘Little girl!’ he called after the fleeing child. He could no longer see her, though her shrieks trailed behind her like a rat’s tail. ‘You forgot your food!’

“Apparently the little girl could not understand wolf speech any more than the wolf could understand human speech, since she didn’t come back.

“If the wolf hadn’t had such a deeply held moral belief system, he could have convinced himself that by leaving the basket behind, the girl had forsaken her rights to it. But, instead, he picked up the basket in his teeth, then loped through the trees, following the trails of wailing, crushed forest vegetation and human scent.”

Reading this book makes me want to try my hand at rewriting fairy tales. Above all, all the variations are clever and inventive and a nice exercise in how point of view changes a story.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/cloaked_in_red.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 my own book, ordered from Amazon.com.

Review of Edgar Allan Poe’s Pie, by J. Patrick Lewis

Children's Nonfiction Review, Humorous, Mathematical, Poetry 0

Edgar Allan Poe’s Pie

Math Puzzlers in Classic Poems

by J. Patrick Lewis
illustrated by Michael Slack

Harcourt Children’s Books, 2012. 37 pages.

I feel a tiny bit sheepish by how much fun I find in this book. J. Patrick Lewis, Children’s Poet Laureate, has parodied 14 classic poems that children may well be familiar with and has inserted… a math problem.

These problems are not particularly tricky. Though I suppose that depends on the child’s age. (There is some multiplication and division, so this is more for upper elementary grades.) At times it’s not totally clear exactly what they want you to figure out (though that is given in the upside-down answers on the next page). But the parodies are definitely playful.

Could there possibly be a better way to get a kid to do word problems for fun and without fear?

The poems, after the title, list the poem they are inspired by.

Here’s the end of “Edgar Allan Poe’s Apple Pie,” the one inspired by “The Raven”:

I ignored the frightful stranger
Knocking, knocking . . . I, sleepwalking,
Pitter-pattered toward the pantry,
Took a knife from the kitchen drawer,
And screamed aloud, “How many cuts
Give me ten pieces?” through the door,
The stranger bellowed, “Never four!”

Another favorite for me is the one that plays off a poem I love, “Us Two,” by A. A. Milne. Here’s the beginning:

Wherever I am, there’s always Boo.
Boo in the flowers with me.
The size of our garden is eight by two.
“How much wire for the fence,” says Boo,
“If it wraps all around as it ought to do?
Let’s guess together,” says Boo to me.
“Let’s guess together,” says Boo.

With some, like “Robert Frost’s Boxer Shorts,” he goes for silly. “Langston Hughes’s Train Trip” uses some trickier math. “Edward Lear’s Elephant with Hot Dog” is just a limerick.

That should give you an idea of what’s going on here. Some quite silly fun. With math!

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Nonfiction/edgar_allan_poes_pie.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 Lulu and the Brontosaurus, by Judith Viorst

Beginning Chapter Books, Children's Fiction Review, Humorous, Readalouds, Starred Review 0

Lulu and the Brontosaurus

by Judith Viorst
illustrated by Lane Smith

Atheneum Books for Young Readers, New York, 2010. 113 pages.
Starred Review

Last September, at the National Book Festival, I got to hear Judith Viorst read from this book, and I was eager to get my hands on it from that moment on.

This is definitely a book that begs to be read aloud. The biggest catch is that it’s really too long for preschool story time. Still, I think any elementary school teacher or librarian could have an entire classroom eating out of the palm of their hand by reading this book.

I must say that Lane Smith was the absolutely perfect choice for illustrating this book. The pictures match the irreverent, over-the-top tone and make the story absolutely right. (I wonder what would have happened if Lane Smith had illustrated Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day? Anyway, that book’s so good, I wouldn’t change a thing — and this book is the same.)

This book is perfect for reading aloud because the author takes an irreverent, in-your-face, obtrusive tone. The very first page sets the tone. (Imagine typefaces to match.)

“OKAY! All right! You don’t have to tell me! I know!

“I know that people and dinosaurs have never lived on Earth at the same time. And I know that dinosaurs aren’t living now. I even also know that paleontologists (folks who study dinosaurs) decided that a dinosaur that was once called a brontosaurus (a very nice name) shouldn’t be called brontosaurus anymore, and changed it to apatosaurus (a kind of ugly name). But since I’m the person writing this story, I get to choose what I write, and I’m writing about a girl and a B R O N T O S A U R U S. So if you don’t want to read this book, you can close it up right now — you won’t hurt my feelings. And if you still want to read it, here goes:

“Chapter One

“There once was a girl named Lulu, and she was a pain. She wasn’t a pain in the elbow. She wasn’t a pain in the knee. She was a pain — a very big pain — in the b u t t.”

Okay, I went on past the first page. But since this is my review, and I’m the one writing it, I can do what I want. Oops. The style’s rubbing off on me.

Well, Lulu decides she wants a brontosaurus for a birthday present. Her parents, who are used to indulging her every whim, are stymied as to how to comply. They end up actually telling Lulu “No.” Lulu, predictably, throws a fit.

“Four days, eight days, ten days, twelve days passed. Lulu kept saying, ‘I WANT A BRONTOSAURUS.’ Her mom and her dad just kept on saying no. Lulu kept screeching and throwing herself on the floor and kicking her heels and waving her arms. Lulu’s mom and her dad kept saying no. Until finally, on the thirteenth day, the day before Lulu’s birthday, right after lunch, Lulu said to her mom and her dad, ‘Okay then, foo on you.’ (She had terrible manners.) ‘If you aren’t going to get me a brontosaurus, I’m going out and getting one for myself.'”

So Lulu sets off into the forest, singing:

“I’m gonna, I’m gonna, I’m gonna, gonna get
A bronto-bronto-bronto Brontosaurus for a pet.
I’m gonna, I’m gonna, I’m gonna, gonna get
A bronto-bronto-bronto Brontosaurus for a pet.”

She encounters various dangerous creatures, and gets the better of all of them with her pugnacious ingenuity — until at last she meets a brontosaurus.

And when she meets the brontosaurus, whom she calls Mr. B, there is a lovely reversal that teaches Lulu a nice lesson.

Just to keep things interesting (as if they weren’t already!), the author gives us a choice of three endings, so the reader can decide for themselves how happily to let things end. And did I mention the perfect illustrations on almost every set of pages?

As I look through this book again, I notice that besides being a phenomenal read-aloud, it’s also a true stand-out in the elusive category of chapter books for beginning readers. The chapters are extremely short — usually only a couple pages; there are lots of pictures; but the story is completely delightful and absorbing. Definitely a non-threatening and highly enjoyable reading experience.

Buy from Amazon.com

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