Review of Exclamation Mark, by Amy Krouse Rosenthal & Tom Lichtenfeld

Delightfully Silly, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Exclamation Mark

!

by Amy Krouse Rosenthal & Tom Lichtenheld

Scholastic Press, New York, 2013. 52 pages.
Starred Review

It’s impossible for me not to love this book. It’s not even for my main audience — the preschool story time crowd. It is for kids in early elementary school who are learning about punctuation. And it’s simply perfect. Those kids are not the only ones who will love this book.

The expression of this story is completely visual. It plays out on the background of school writing paper. We’ve got a row of periods with little faces — and one exclamation mark.

He stood out from the very beginning.

It’s easy for the reader to see that the exclamation mark doesn’t fit in. He is different. He tries to be like his friends. But he becomes confused, flummoxed, and deflated, with appropriate illustrations of his top part in a twist.

Then one day, he meets a question mark.

The question mark asks one question after another. (Hilarious questions, I might add.)

When the exclamation mark shouts for him to stop, it is indeed an exclamation.

He didn’t know he had it in him.

He then explores his newly discovered power. I love the way the question mark eggs him on, always with questions (“How’d you do that? Can you do it again?”)

His exclamations get more and more excited, colorful, and all over the page. “It was like he broke free from a life sentence.”

Question mark: “Isn’t he something?”
Periods: “There was never any question in our minds.”

Okay, as I write this, it occurs to me that maybe I love this book so much because I love puns. In a sense, this whole book is a pun, done perfectly. And it’s a happy story about being an individual and making your mark. And it teaches about punctuation in a way no kid will ever forget. Hmm. Is that why they call it pun-ctuation? (Sorry.)

Way too much fun!

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs 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 Chloe and the Lion, by Mac Barnett and Adam Rex

Delightfully Silly, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Chloe and the Lion
by Mac Barnett
Pictures by Adam Rex

Disney Hyperion Books, New York, 2012. 48 pages.
Starred Review

Meta-fiction does not always work, but Chloe and the Lion is joining the ranks of great meta-fiction picture books, along with David Wiesner’s The Three Pigs, Mo Willems’ We Are in a Book!, and even The Monster at the End of This Book, by Jon Stone.

The art is ever-so-interesting, mostly a three-dimensional scene made from paper cut-outs, but it includes plasticine figures of the author and illustrator. They introduce themselves and tell us about Chloe, who saves nickels and dimes to ride on the merry-go-round on the weekend.

The story is on the bizarre side…

But one week, Chloe found a lot of change.
So she was able to buy a lot of tickets.
And she rode around and around and around.
Which was why she got very dizzy.
And that’s how Chloe ended up lost in the forest.

We read that a huge lion leapt out at Chloe from behind an oak tree, but in the picture we see a dragon, with smoke coming from its nostrils.

The author and illustrator have it out. Adam, the illustrator, thinks that a dragon is much cooler than a lion. In the end, Mac has no choice but to fire Adam and find someone else to illustrate the book. Once the illustrator has been changed, “The first thing the lion did was walk up to Adam and swallow him whole.”

Unfortunately, the new artist, Hank Blowfeather, just isn’t as good as Adam. And when Mac tries to draw instead? Disaster!

So, Chloe and Mac need to figure out a way to get Adam out of the belly of the lion and save the book. And a thank-you at the end would be nice, too.

This is another book where description simply doesn’t do it justice. There are visual jokes throughout, a wide variety of styles, and a lot of thought about how a story works. This is a book worth reading again and again.

Oh, and I’ll have to add it to my Pinterest board: Picture Books Where Someone Gets Eaten! (Even if it’s not permanent, getting swallowed whole counts. Maybe I should put it on the Eating Thwarted page, too.)

Meta-fiction at its finest!

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs 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 Pip’s Trip, by Janet Morgan Stoeke

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

Pip’s Trip

by Janet Morgan Stoeke

Dial Books for Young Readers, 2012. 32 pages.
Starred Review

Janet Morgan Stoeke is coming to our library! (That’s the City of Fairfax Regional Library on Monday, May 13, 2013 at 3:30!) I’m excited because I remember discovering her books when I first worked in a library back at Sembach Air Force Base. Her Minerva Louise books are perfect for preschoolers who enjoy someone sillier than they are.

Her recent book, Pip’s Trip, features more silly chickens, the three hens from The Loopy Coop Hens, Midge, Dot, and Pip.

Pip’s Trip is written as an easy reader, with simple vocabulary and short sentences. There are even seven very short chapters to give a child a sense of accomplishment. The format is still the large one of a picture book, which is all the better for storytime.

Midge, Dot, and Pip see the farm truck, and Pip notices there’s plenty of room in the back for them. Pip talks them into going for a ride, but after she gets in, Dot and Midge decide they should ask Rooster Sam first. So Pip is alone in the back of the truck.

We can see from the pictures that the driver has the hood of the truck up and is working on the engine. Pip, in the back of the truck, is very alarmed:

”Oh, no! It is getting loud.
This is bad.
I don’t want to see the wide world!
Oh, no! Oh, no! Oh, no!”
Pip shuts her eyes.

When Pip peeks out, “the wide world looks just like Loopy Coop Farm!”

Pip’s friends set her straight when Pip talks about the ride she went on. But they all agree that she was very brave.

This is another fun story where preschoolers can enjoy someone who is far less wise in the ways of the world than they are. And with repetition, simple structure, and lots of one-syllable words, they’ll be reading it themselves before you know it.

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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.

The Boy Who Cried Ninja, by Alex Latimer

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

The Boy Who Cried Ninja

by Alex Latimer

Peachtree Publishers, 2011. 32 pages.
Starred Review

This book simply makes me laugh. You’ve all heard the story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf? Well, what would happen if a boy saw all kinds of bizarre creatures doing bad things, but no one believed him?

That’s what happens to Tim.

When his mom asked him what happened to the last slice of cake, he told her the truth.

“It was a ninja,” cried Tim.

First the ninja crept into the house

. . . then he kicked it into the air
and ate it in one bite.

Next, an astronaut steals his dad’s hammer and a giant squid eats his whole book bag.

But Tim is not believed! (Oh the outrage!) In fact, he’s told to go rake up leaves in the yard and think about what he’s done. He decides to change his ways.

So when a pirate, a sunburned crocodile, and a time-traveling monkey come to Tim’s house and do bad things, Tim says it was him.

He still gets in trouble!

What’s a boy to do?

Tim comes up with an ingenious solution. This solution shows his parents the truth, teaches the strangers to behave, and gets them all the best party ever.

The pictures are just right for this tall tale of a story. This book is delightfully silly, wonderfully imaginative, and provides plenty to discuss. And it doesn’t hurt to have a totally fun reason to talk about telling the truth.

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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 Maya Makes a Mess, by Rutu Modan

Delightfully Silly, Easy Readers, Graphic Novel, Picture Book Review 0

Maya Makes a Mess

by Rutu Modan

A Toon Book (Candlewick Press), 2012. 32 pages.

This book simply makes me laugh. It’s a Toon Book — a graphic novel for beginning readers. In fact, it’s specifically a Level Two Easy-to-Read Comic for Emerging Readers in grades 1-2. The series contains some excellent tips at the back for reading comics with kids.

But the story is why I enjoy it. Maya is a messy eater. And the reason that makes me laugh? Well, she eats spaghetti exactly like my son did — with bare hands. I completely understand the parents’ frustration in saying to Maya — “What if you were eating dinner with the Queen?”

So then the Queen invites Maya to dinner.

Maya is very polite. She remembers to say Please when she asks for pasta with ketchup. But when she doesn’t know which fork to use and is told to eat it the way she does at home — well, the entire dining room notices.

But this is a happy and silly story — so eventually all the dressed-up grown-ups decide to eat like Maya does. Hilarity ensues.

This book will get a kid’s focus off the laborious details of decoding words and have them enjoying the outrageously delightful story.

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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 Three Ninja Pigs, by Corey Rosen Schwartz

Animal Characters, Delightfully Silly, Picture Book Review 0

The Three Ninja Pigs

by Corey Rosen Schwartz
illustrated by Dan Santat

Putnam, 2012. 40 pages.

There’s a whole subgenre out there of Three Little Pigs variants, and I’ve definitely got a soft spot for them. This one doesn’t attain the heights of The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig, or David Wiesner’s The Three Pigs, but it’s definitely fun.

I don’t think I even need to tell you what happens. We’ve got three ninja pigs. The one who trains the hardest (the girl! yay!) is the one who defeats the wolf. Along the way, Corey Rosen Schwartz gives us rhymes that make us laugh instead of cringe. (Well, if you don’t love puns, you may cringe, but the rhymes are excellent. And personally, I love the puns.) Dan Santat’s square-jawed pigs are the perfect tough porkers to take on the bullying wolf.

Here’s the sister pig training:

She balanced and blocked like an expert,
and practiced her lessons nonstop.
By the time she was through,
she could break boards in two
by performing a perfect pork chop!

Okay, there’s nothing profound here, and Sister Pig manages to scare away the wolf with her ninja moves. But it’s definitely a fun addition to the subgenre. And, hey, it’s got ninjas!

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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 Z is for Moose, by Kelly Bingham

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

Z Is For Moose

by Kelly Bingham
pictures by Paul O. Zelinsky

Greenwillow Books, 2012. 32 pages.
Starred Review

Alphabet Books are necessary preparation for a child learning to read, but they definitely have the potential to be snoozers. Here’s the most innovative alphabet book since Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.

Just before the title page we get a glimpse of all the animals and objects lined up in order, ready to go, with Zebra in charge. But Moose is excited and exuberant, and not really paying attention to Zebra’s directions. He’s the one lifting the curtain that gives us our first glimpse of the performers. After the title page, with the characters still in line, he’s poking the Lollipop with the Needle.

Things start innocently and calmly, looking like a perfectly ordinary alphabet book. Then we see “D is for Moose,” with Moose standing proudly, and a frantic Duck behind, obviously kicked off the page. Zebra tells Moose, “Moose does not start with D. You are on the wrong page.”

Moose pops in on H is for Hat, getting right in front of the camera, asking “Is it my turn yet?” The H is blocked, but the savvy child will cleverly figure out exactly what it said.

Moose continues to lurk behind or in the pictures, getting more and more excited as M draws near. Then…

“M is for Mouse”

This definitely gets a reaction. Moose throws a fit; he tries to get in the remaining pictures, and Zebra has to block him. Finally, he’s in despair — until Zebra comes up with a lovely solution. On the back endpapers, Moose asks Zebra, “Can we do that again?”

“Yes, Moose. We can do that again.”

I have no doubt at all that most preschoolers will take that as permission to start the book over again immediately.

The book has many, many details that will reward further reading. Spotting the alphabetical objects in order even when Moose gets in the way will keep children busy through many readings.

Delightful fun.

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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 Last Dragonslayer, by Jasper Fforde

Delightfully Silly, Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Last Dragonslayer

by Jasper Fforde

Harcourt, Boston, 2012. 287 pages.
Starred Review

Hooray! Jasper Fforde has taken his silliness, his clever quirkiness, and written a fantasy novel for young adults. The world seems fairly similar to ours — only with magic and dragons. And strange, quirky details, like marzipan mines and the poor and downtrodden marzipan addicts.

The front page of the book — right before Chapter One — tells exactly what happens:

Once, I was famous. My face was seen on T-shirts, badges, commemorative mugs, and posters. I made front-page news, appeared on TV, and was even a special guest on The Yogi Baird Daytime TV Show. The Daily Clam called me “the year’s most influential teenager,” and I was the Mollusc on Sunday‘s Woman of the Year. Two people tried to kill me, I was threatened with jail, had fifty-eight offers of marriage, and was outlawed by King Snodd IV. All that and more besides, and in less than a week.

My name is Jennifer Strange.

Jennifer Strange starts out the book managing a house full of magicians. She’s almost sixteen, a foundling, and an indentured servant, and she doesn’t have any magic herself, but their founder has disappeared, and she’s far more practical than any magic-user, so the post has fallen to her.

When a premonition comes up that the Last Dragon is about to die, the whole country (and others besides) is in uproar. Because when a dragon dies, his lands can be divided up, on a first-come, first-served basis. When it turns out to have been foreseen that Jennifer is the Last Dragonslayer, she finds herself in the very center of earth-shaking events.

This paragraph about those who work for Kazam Mystical Arts Management will give you an idea of the style:

Of the forty-five sorcerers, movers, soothsayers, shifters, weather-mongers, carpeteers, and other assorted mystical artisans at Kazam, most were fully retired due to infirmity, insanity, or damage to the vital index fingers, either through accident or rheumatoid arthritis. Of these forty-five, thirteen were potentially capable of working, but only nine had current licenses — two carpeteers, a pair of pre-cogs, and most important, five sorcerers legally empowered to carry out Acts of Enchantment. Lady Mawgon was certainly the crabbiest and probably the most skilled. As with everyone else at Kazam, her powers had faded dramatically over the past three decades or so, but unlike everyone else, she’d not really come to terms with it. In her defense, she’d had farther to fall than the rest of them, but this wasn’t really an excuse. The Sisters Karamazov could also claim once-royal patronage, and they were nice as apricot pie. Mad as a knapsack of onions, but pleasant nonetheless.

When I finished this book, I actually laughed happily. It is highly possible that you have to have a similar sense of humor to truly enjoy Jasper Fforde’s work, but I certainly do. This book definitely stands alone just fine, and the story is complete in itself. All the same, I’m very happy to see “The Chronicles of Kazam, Book One” on the title page, because it will definitely be fun to visit this world again.

I suspect that fans of Jasper Fforde’s books for adults will enjoy this one as well. The quirkiness and esoteric references are toned down a tiny bit, the book is shorter and the protagonist younger, but the flavor is the same. And I do hope that it will capture some fans for him much younger than before. Who says high fantasy has to be deadly serious? This is a book that will make nerdy teens laugh, and I say that with utmost respect.

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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 The Three Little Aliens and the Big Bad Robot, by Margaret McNamara and Mark Fearing

Delightfully Silly, Picture Book Review, Readalouds 0

The Three Little Aliens and the Big Bad Robot

by Margaret McNamara
illustrated by Mark Fearing

Schwartz & Wade Books, New York, 2011. 36 pages.

There’s a nice tradition of three little pigs take-offs in picture books. My favorite is still The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig, by Eugene Trivizias and Helen Oxenbury, but another fabulous choice is The Three Pigs, by David Wiesner, which won the Caldecott Medal. At our library, a recent summer reading favorite was The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark, by Ken Geist and Julia Gorton, and this book is in that vein.

The Three Little Aliens and the Big Bad Robot is simply fun. From the beginning, it makes me want to read it aloud:

Once there was a mama alien who had three little aliens. They were called Bork, Gork, and Nklxwcyz.

Mama sends them off into the universe to find a planet of their own (but urges them to call every once in awhile), but she warns them to beware of the Big Bad Robot.

Where this book will especially please young outer space buffs is when the little aliens go looking for a home. They pass all the planets in our solar system. The artist uses coloration from NASA photographs, and though the Author’s Note at the end does make no claims that this is a science book, they did try to portray the planets as accurately as possible.

Now, never mind that they are going at the speed of light, yet the Big Bad Robot keeps gaining on them. Never mind that the sizes of the aliens and planets are all out of proportion. This is a fun story with cute aliens, and a nice message: Always stick together.

And it’s fun to read aloud! Here’s the part where the little aliens are together, being confronted by the Big Bad Robot:

No sooner had Bork and Gork slammed Nklxwcyz’s solid space-rock door than they heard the Robot rumbling.

“Little alien! Little alien!” he queeked. “LET ME COME IN!”

“Not by the slime on my chinny chin chin!” cried Nklxwcyz.

“Then I will smack and crack and whack your house down!” zeeped the Robot.

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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 Another Brother, by Matthew Cordell

Animal Characters, Delightfully Silly, Picture Book Review 0

Another Brother

by Matthew Cordell

Feiwel and Friends, New York, 2012. 36 pages.

At last! A picture book that features a family with 13 children! Okay, they’re sheep, but still, it’s a gap that needed filling.

If a human child thinks he has it bad when he loses his parents’ focus, he can imagine what it’s like for Davy. “For four glorious years, Davy had Mom and Dad all to himself.” But then Davy gets a brother, then another and another, until finally he has twelve little brothers.

Now, I do have a big peeve with this book. The brothers are specifically mentioned as coming one at a time — but they are all pictured as the same age, and going through the same stages at the same time. Um, that’s NOT how big families work.

But that’s not really the point. The point is Davy’s got twelve little brothers, all mimicking him and getting in his way and being annoying.

“It’s only a phase, Davy,” Mom said. “Because you’re the oldest, your brothers look up to you.”

“When they get old enough,” said Dad, “your brothers will have their own interests. Then they won’t copy you.”

The book isn’t meant to be realistic. It takes a sibling problem and makes it hilarious by taking it to the extreme and illustrating it with completely silly pictures.

So if a child thinks he’s got it bad with an annoying little brother or sister, he can just imagine what it’s like for Davy. I guarantee that if you do find a kid who has twelve younger brothers like Davy, he will be far too old for this book, so Davy’s problems will definitely look extreme. Nothing like a bit of perspective!

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