Children's Books

By Staff -- Publishers Weekly, 9/18/2006

Picture Books

In Farmer's (The House of the Scorpion) pleasing tale set in long-ago Cairo, Ali's father holds a crucial position as the Sultan's pigeon keeper. The pigeons carry messages across Egypt to and from the ruler. When Ali overfeeds one of the birds, chaos results, and the boy must come up with a plan to save his father from certain death in the Sultan's "deep, dark oubliette." The Sultan demands 600 cherries within three days (that "only come by swift ship from the snowy mountains of Syria"). Ali uses the pigeons in an ingenious plan to complete the task. Farmer bases her tale in part on an actual 12th-century ruler who craved fresh cherries from Syria and received them via 600 pigeons. The repetition of phrases recalls the oral tradition, though the book's lengthy narrative may deter read-alouds. Resembling a fable in some parts, historical fiction in others, the tale offers glimpses of this ancient culture (e.g., Ali's father has two wives; men and women live in separate quarters). De Marcken's (The Quiltmaker's Gift) watercolors take on the richness and palette of silks. She incorporates Arabic script in the borders and Islamic mosaics behind many of the text blocks. While the story contains several morals, the upbeat surprise ending ensures that they do not feel heavy-handed. All ages. (Oct.)

This cumulative story, told through staged photographs of an elaborate dollhouse set with characters created from clay, concerns a feral feline who is gradually coaxed into domestic life. "Come inside, kitty!" urges the genteel red-headed narrator when she spots a cat shivering on her snow-covered porch. This invitation, along with the response—"The cat ran away"—becomes the book's two-part refrain as the patient lady offers an ever-growing number of incentives to her visitor. As the list grows to "some warm milk, a plate of tuna, a catnip mouse, a soft rug, a ball of yarn, and a cozy armchair," the cat's defenses seem to melt (the yarn ball sends him into a Zen-like contentment). But he still insists on domesticity on his own terms; not until the narrator turns her porch into an open-air parlor does the cat settle in for good. Von Buhler's (They Called Her Molly Pitcher) 3-D settings and characters work considerable magic, but the photographs themselves unfortunately aren't up to the level of her modeling craftsmanship (amateurish blurring mars many of the pictures). Her feline hero possesses a wide repertoire of expressions, which makes him an effective comedic foil for the more conventional doll-like narrator, whose earnest, unflappable visage never changes. Readers with dollhouses and kitties of their own may well be entranced. Ages 2-5. (Sept.)

With an infectious assertion—"We've never, ever, ever, ever, ever seen a moose. And we really, really, really, really want to see a moose"—four children go in search of the elusive beast. As the quartet pokes in the woods, wades in swamps and peers in the bushes, Root (Big Momma Makes the World) takes ample opportunity for rhythmic wordplay: "We scrape through the bushes—scritch scratch! scritch scratch!—the brambly-ambly, bunchy-scrunchy, scrubby-shrubby bushes." The search finally takes them to a rocky hillside, where a whole passel of comically deadpan moose await ("We've never, ever, ever seen so many moose!"). The payoff isn't entirely satisfying, however, because author and illustrator do not seem entirely in sync. Cecil's (My Father the Dog) stubby-legged, potato-faced moose-seekers are cute and comically intent, but the expressionistic landscapes, with their subtly mottled textures and muted palette of greens and browns, put a visual damper on the silly proceedings. Still, children should enjoy seeing the diminutive cast confidently scrambling over hill and dale, and sharp-eyed readers will get a kick out of spotting various clues (e.g., skinny tree trunks with hooves) that the moose have actually been following the party all along. Age 3-5. (Sept.)

Readers will hop on board for this polar tale, which also serves as a subtle art history introduction. Artistic Augustine, an adorable, blue fuzz-covered penguin (named after Pierre-Auguste Renoir), must leave the South Pole when her father gets a new job at the North Pole. Her straightforward first-person account of the move reflects her mixed emotions. "I'm going to miss my room.... When it's time to say good-bye, I feel sad." In a format that invites lingering, the left side of each spread contains nine vignettes, separated into box-like panels, relating to the action on the facing page. The center of the grid always features one of Augustine's drawings, a penguin-esque take-off of a famous painting. For example, when Augustine gets "cold feet" about attending a new school, she draws a penguin mimicking Edvard Munch's The Scream. In another spread, portraits of her Arctic classmates frame one that Augustine sketched of her new teacher, a long-eared, coyly smiling rabbit (à la the Mona Lisa). Plays on words frequently punctuate the narrative. For instance, the heroine calls a lonely time on the playground, drawing with only her blue pencil, her "Blue Recess Period." Watt's (Scaredy Squirrel) pencil crayon and acrylic illustrations will likely win over young audiences, while her clever art references may well engage older readers (she lists all the masterpieces from which Augustine draws inspiration at the end). Ages 3-7. (Sept.)

Chen (Guji Guji) brings out an equally pleasingly ridiculous fable about differences. This time, the misfit character is a chicken with no feathers and a terrible allergy to pollen. Four fancy chickens, "the most beautiful" he's ever seen, scorn the bald fellow, then mistake him for an entirely new chicken after a strong wind leaves the hero plastered with leaves and trash. "I've never seen such a gorgeous chicken," says one of the in crowd, and they ask the trash-plastered chicken to go boating with them. When his allergies produce a powerful sneeze, the boat tips over, and the costumes of the other four fall off, revealing a secret they've been keeping, and their arrogance disappears with their finery into the depths of the lake. While the googly eyes and droopy wings of the chickens are classic cartoon fare, Chen creates outfits made of wildly imaginative flowers whose petals are butterfly wings, architectural flourishes and ordinary roman letters. The trash costume will produce the biggest guffaws: the featherless chicken finds himself adorned with a fork, a scrap of printed paper, a lovely ink curlicue, all topped off with a soup can hat. Chen never lets his moral lessons get in the way of a good time. Ages 4-up. (Sept.)

More than three decades after his death at age 32, Bruce Lee (1940–1973) remains a martial arts legend. Mochizuki and Lee, whose previous works of historical fiction (Baseball Saved Us; Heroes) offered riveting perspectives on the Asian and Asian-American experience here trace the past of this fascinating figure, who straddled the cultures of Hong Kong and America. The team's narrative and artwork remain as vivid as ever; Lee's sepia-toned, almost photographically detailed illustrations set an album-like mood that perfectly matches Mochizuki's careful chronological account of Lee's life from his childhood in Hong Kong to his emigration to America at age 18. A bright boy and a voracious reader, Bruce was restless at school and teased by his peers until martial arts provided him with discipline—and a spiritual epiphany. Puzzled by his teacher's remark, "There is even gentleness in the martial arts," young Bruce finally understands it while sitting alone in a boat ("Water, the softest substance on Earth, could never be hurt because it offered no resistance. But with enough force it could break through anything in the world"). Mochizuki and Lee are compelling storytellers, but the facts of Bruce Lee's early years still pale in comparison to what he accomplished as an action movie star (briefly covered in an afterword). Still, the overall message of what can be accomplished, even by the least eager student, with dedication and passion, may well be encouraging to readers. Ages 6-up. (Sept.)

The sometimes exciting, sometimes ponderous first volume in Haydon's the Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme series mixes narrative with "lost journal" entries to tell the story of Ven, the youngest of 13 children in a Nain family. The Nain are a race that lives four times longer than humans. Ven, whose family is renowned for its ship-building prowess, is giving one of their boats a pre-sale inspection when it comes under a vicious attack from the Fire Pirates. After a courageous and resourceful retaliation—one which nonetheless leaves Ven unconscious—he is rescued by a mermaid-like creature and ends up aboard a ship of friendly adventurers. From there it's a kitchen sink's worth of fantasy/adventure encounters, from a talking cat to mysterious puzzle boxes to the undead. Most interesting is the island of the title, "a ship of sorts" connected to the world's creation story, "a very old place, a magical place." Haydon spins a story both warm and thrilling. The book's alternating-narrative structure, however, is less successful. Ven's entries are infrequent enough that they feel like more of an interruption in the story's flow than part and parcel of it. But strong box office interest in pirates and all things nautical bodes well for this title. Final artwork not seen by PW. Ages 10-up. (Sept.)

Steele (the undisclosed pseudonym of two authors) adds a humorous twist to the horrors of taking College Board exams in this novel that will have readers alternately laughing and sympathizing with high-school senior Carly Biels. Not only does Carly want to go to Princeton, but her father, an alum, expects it.Her dreams of going to an Ivy League school are shattered, however, when she receives a composite 1710 score on her SATs. While wallowing in despair, Carly receives a mysterious text message from someone called "The Taker." The Taker then calls her and offers to retake the test for her and guarantees "a score within one hundred and fifty points of perfect." Of course there are conditions: Carly must pretend to study hard, so no one will become suspicious, and she will have to perform a favor to be named at a later date. Carly takes the bait, but regrets her decision after her best friend, Jen, a budding investigative reporter, gets wind of a cheating ring at their school, and Carly's nerdy neighbor Ronald Gross ("pronounced like floss, as his mother is quick to say") convinces her that she can raise her score the old-fashioned way, by studying. While the outcome and identity of the Taker will come as no surprise, the book's lively dialogue and witty scenarios will keep the pages turning. Ages 11-14. (Sept.)

Sonnenblick revisits several key themes from his debut novel, Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie, to even greater effect here. Narrator Alex Gregory starts off by describing his maiden drinking episode: getting drunk alone, hijacking his mother's car in order to drive to his father's house and give the man a piece of his mind (his parents are separated), and taking an unplanned detour into a neighbor's yard, destroying a lawn gnome. What begins as humor takes on darker implications as the book progresses. Not because Alex has a drinking problem (he never takes another sip in the course of the book), but because of a drunk driver's impact on Sol Lewis, the resident of a nursing home to whom Alex is assigned by Judge J. Trent as part of his community service for his crime. Like Steven's Annette in Drums, Alex's female best friend, Laurie, sticks by him throughout this challenging time. And Sol, who starts out crotchety, turns out to be much wiser below the surface, and far more complicated. He even suggests to Alex that there may be more to the teen's relationship with Laurie than friendship. The bond that guitar-playing forges between Alex and Sol serves not only to make them peers musically, but also personally, allowing Sol to reveal his own past. While readers may figure out the significance of Alex's judge to the broader story before the hero does, they will likely find the ending no less satisfying. Ages 12-up. (Oct.)

Johnson's (13 Little Blue Envelopes) offbeat book mixes humor and drama, with uneven results. When her best friend, Allison, trades her soul for beauty and confidence, brilliant, feisty Jane must confront the demon to get it back. Jane even puts her own soul on the line by making a bet. At first Jane, who narrates, thinks new transfer student Lanalee is just toying with her misfit friend, but after Jane makes her own contract with the teen demon (she has to get her ex-boyfriend to kiss her before midnight on Halloween) the heroine discovers what a real risk she's taken. She must call upon her friends, as well as the "demon hunter," Brother Frank, from her school's faculty and her own strength to beat Lanalee and save her soul. There are memorable moments throughout the book, such as Jane's "official contract with a representative of the Satanic High Command" appearing written in flames in her textbook, and Brother Frank telling her, "Many large corporations are actually modeled on hell... The policies and organization are almost identical." A strange cast of characters including the sugar-obsessed Lanalee and an earnest 14-year-old boy who died over 100 years ago will keep readers putting the pieces together until the Halloween night showdown. Unfortunately, this final conflict feels anti-climatic, failing to utilize Jane's cunning. The ending zaps much of the energy from an otherwise creative, engaging book. Ages 14-up. (Sept.)

Anderson (Whales on Stilts) once again shows the breadth of his talents with this stunningly well-researched novel (the first of two planned) centering on 16-year-old Octavian. The author does not reveal the boy's identity right away, so by the time readers learn that he is the son of an African princess, living a life of relative privilege and intense scrutiny among a group of rational philosophers in pre–Revolutionary War Boston, they can accept his achievements—extraordinary for any teen, but especially for an African-American living at that time. These men teach him the violin, Latin and Greek. Anderson also reveals their strange quirks: the men go by numbers rather than names, and they weigh the food Octavian ingests, as well as his excrement. "It is ever the lot of children to accept their circumstances as universal, and their particularities as general," Octavian states by way of explanation. One day, at age eight, when he ventures into an off-limits room, Octavian learns he is the subject of his teachers' "zoological" study of Africans. Shortly thereafter, the philosophers' key benefactor drops out and new sponsors, led by Mr. Sharpe, follow a different agenda: they want to use Octavian to prove the inferiority of the African race. Mr. Sharpe also instigates the "Pox Party" of the title, during which the guests are inoculated with the smallpox virus, with disastrous results. Here the story, which had been told largely through Octavian's first-person narrative, advances through the letters of a Patriot volunteer, sending news to his sister of battle preparations against the British and about the talented African musician who's joined their company. As in Feed, Anderson pays careful attention to language, but teens may not find this work, written in 18th-century prose, quite as accessible. The construction of Octavian's story is also complex, but the message is straightforward, as Anderson clearly delineates the hypocrisy of the Patriots, who chafe at their own subjugation by British overlords but overlook the enslavement of people like Octavian. Ages 14-up. (Oct.)

This lush tale of magical realism is rendered all the more charming by the lively and, at times, mesmerizing Yorkshire accent conjured by theater-trained narrator Morton. Even his breathing seems tinged with a cockney sound. Morton easily animates 14-year-old Graham Sinclair—a provincial kid with deformed hands and a secret, struggling to make sense of an increasingly hectic modern world. After saving a baby from a plane crash in London, Graham finds his life populated by various characters, some of them less than savory. Morton does an admirable job of impersonating them through Graham's offbeat perspective, though American ears may detect little difference between certain accents. Richardson's prose is soaring and Technicolor, peppered with youth slang, Briticisms and outlandish metaphor. But Morton doesn't let himself get carried away with the oft-wondrous language. Instead, he delivers a singular voice that's both grounded and free-floating, and may well resonate long after the tale has ended. Ages 13-up. (Aug.)

The accent in Simhan's sinuous, supple voice is difficult to place. Burnished with the dulcet tones of the Queen's English, Simhan also bears a faint trace of foreignness, of mysterious otherness. Her clipped, elegant reading of Fletcher's fantasy tale set in ancient Persia is enhanced by this undertone of other climes. A pair of siblings, royal by birth but impoverished, discover they have the gift of reading the dreams of others, and seek to return to their rightful place with this gift's help. Simhan's performance is invested with careful diction and an occasional touch of theatrical emoting. She does a solid job of keeping this lengthy audiobook flowing, thanks to a colorful palette of voices, inflections and meaningful pauses. While there are moments that drag, Simhan keeps them to a minimum. She gets into the spirit of this Arabian Nights-esque fantasy with aplomb. Ages 12-up. (Aug.)

Listeners looking for a revved-up storytelling session will find one here, as de las Casas infuses a selection of favorite folktales with "rhythm, rhyme and rap." From a rapping troll on "Rockin' Billy Goats Gruff" to the jazzy motifs in "The Three Little Pigs" (starring Evan, Devon and Kevin Bacon, "Ma's little Bacon bits"), the jokes are all part of the fractured fairytale fun. The copious sound effects and musical snippets largely succeed even though de las Casas's solo vocal performances are sometimes tonally flat. Despite this small shortcoming, audiences will surely be enthused by these entertaining retellings, which exploit de las Casas's pleasant style and incorporate many crowd-pleasing elements. Ages 5-up. (July)

No passport required for a globe-spanning musical trip with this vibrant Arkansas duo (taking its name from "Two Can Jam"). Variety reigns as Kelly Mulhollan and Donna Stjerna share original songs that feature an array of interesting sounding instruments (didgeridoo, ukulele, gourd mbira, pump organ, Middle Eastern oud, etc.) and story-song combinations such as the British-inspired "Snowy Fall's Cat" and an Ethiopian tale called "Abagas," which inspire audience participation (meows, screams, etc.). In between the world music selections, Toucan's folk/bluegrass style encompasses soft harmonies and Donna's accomplished fiddle playing. Throughout, the upbeat tracks offer an overarching message of tolerance and peace. Ages 5-12. (Aug.)

Classical music meets storytelling in the latest multi-layered entry in this educational series of recordings for kids. Paul Dukas's famous composition (only 12 minutes long) takes on a new life with conductor Simon, the talents of the London Philharmonic and a narration of the story of a wizard and his lazy assistant that will be familiar to fans of Disney's Fantasia. (In the music itself, older listeners may also hear some musical motifs suggestive of those in the John Williams soundtracks to the Harry Potter movies.) After the main performance (the orchestra and a dramatic, over-the-top reading by Yadu), the meat of the lesson begins with co-producer Bonnie Simon's "About the Story" segment. Stephen Simon follows with a breakdown of the musical composition—à la "Peter and the Wolves"—in the "About the Music" section. Finally, listeners are invited to join in with their own pots-and-pans/household items performance on "March of the Brooms Play Along." Ages 6-12. (Aug.)

Cincinnati children's librarian Caithamer jams out in rockabilly style with his guitar and deep, friendly singing voice on this collection of 10 original songs. As befits his day job, Caithamer introduces the general classification of the Dewey decimal system in the bouncy "Dewey." The opening track, "Big Bad Wolf" takes advantage of the vocalist's ability to reach the low notes, and "Pancakes All Around" is a celebration of family togetherness on a Sunday morning—with a steady beat, of course. Strong musicianship throughout (harmonica, drums) adds color and depth here. Ages 6-10. (July)

Stay-at-home-dad/"music-industry guy" Hurwitz saw firsthand how his sons gravitated to his jazz record collection and decided that kids deserved their own top-notch collection. The result of his efforts is a compilation album featuring the talents of such noted jazz performers as Sharon Jones, Babi Floyd, John Medeski and Steven Bernstein. The crew funks up "The Wheels on the Bus," "Old MacDonald," "ABC" and "If You're Happy and You Know It" with distinctly jazzy elements and occasionally some new lyrics ("If you're happy and you know it, blow the sax"; "Old MacDonald had a band..."). Kids introduce each track here, and despite all the child-friendly aspects, this fine recording is worthy of a listen by any jazz aficionado. Jones's powerful, versatile vocals and the excellent accompaniment on piano, bass, trumpet and saxophone are a treat. Looking ahead, the series will continue with Baby Loves Disco (fall 2006), Baby Loves Reggae and others. Taking the jazz introduction still further, Price, Stern Sloan is simultaneously releasing a series of four carry-along board book–and-CD titles in a Baby Loves Jazz tie-in series. Each book features a "band member" (Miles Crocodile, Duck Ellington, etc.) presenting concepts such as colors or numbers, incorporating jazz, and is packaged with a CD recording of original jazz tunes (not included on the Go Baby Go CD). Short animations of these book/band characters will also air on the Cartoon Network this fall. All ages. (Aug.)

Got an appetite for silly food songs? Then Yosi's latest should be a top choice from the musical menu. Spanning the healing power of "Chicken Noodle Soup" to the breezy sounding, calypso-flavored "Chilly Chili," young listeners get a taste of various foods and musical styles. Never forgetting his core audience, Yosi includes kid choruses on several tracks and seems to relish the tongue twister "Pass the Purple Pesto Pasta Please," the alien theme of "Schlurpknof" and the broad Wildlife Café menu on "Spaghetti Worms and Meatballs." Yosi's warm, inviting vocals and guitar and harmonica playing receive rousing support from a quality band of musicians lending piano, ukulele, saxophone, accordion, banjo and a host of other sounds to the mix. All ages. (Aug.)