Children's Book Reviews: Week of 2/11/2008

A child's adoration of a parent, a parent's unshakeable affection for his or her child: these timeless themes are the subjects of Dodd's (the Amazing Baby board books) made-for-snuggling, square-format series. The text is mediocre, as in this passage from No Matter What: “Sometimes you're happy./ Sometimes you're sad./ Sometimes you're good./ Sometimes you're bad.../ But no matter what you say or do, it makes no difference.../ I love you!” Instead, young children (and parents) will find pleasure in the large-scale art. Most of the fun and the cozy feelings these books promote come from watching the animal characters frolic or cuddle in occasionally forbidding habitats—Just Like You stars a bear and cub in a northern wilderness, while No Matter What visits an elephant and baby in the sun-baked savanna. The animals (and they are not gender-specific) have an endearing streamlined chunkiness that brings to mind tub toys, and Dodd deftly conjures up the disparate landscapes with minimal detailing and evocative texturing. She's especially good at conveying the beauty and expanse of African grasslands—a scene of rain falling in thin gray stripes looks almost like a Japanese textile; in another spread, the sky looms so near that the sun practically touches the horizon. These are worth a close look. Ages 1-up. (Mar.)

Talk about interactive: first-time author/artist Cocovini has designed this oversize guide so that “if the mommy holds the book up to her belly, you will see what the baby looks like (actual size) inside her every month!” (For Weeks 37 to 40, a womb-shaped gatefold enables readers to visualize how the now upside-down baby “is getting ready for its birthday.”) Undoubtedly anticipating kids' misgivings about a new sibling, this book is warm and nonthreatening to the max, its crayoned and watercolor spot illustrations and hand-drawn timeline lending it a homey, scrapbook/journal feel. The five or so factoids on each page are shaped around easy-to-grasp, domestic concepts, e.g., comparing the baby's size at Month 8 with that of a pumpkin. And without getting pushy, Cocovini also suggests cool ways for readers to shed their bystander status: in Month 6, for example, they can shine a flashlight on the pregnant tummy and, perhaps, watch the baby turn toward the light. This book may not entirely defuse nascent sibling rivalry, but its inviting, demystifying approach gives it all the earmarks of a Mommy's-expecting must-have. Ages 2-8. (Apr.)

Young Jack wants a pet and proposes a host of possibilities, from an elephant (“I could ride it to school”) to a T. rex (I could take it for walks”). Mom, unseen, gently but firmly squelches each candidate; she effectively counters Jack's suggestion of a polar bear by conjuring up an image of it having a hot flash in the living room (“I don't suppose it would like the central heating,” she says mildly). The premise is shopworn, as is the wrap-up (Jack ends up with a “lovely little puppy” so huge that it occupies a horizontal gatefold), but both get a big boost from the computer-assisted cartooning on these exuberantly oversize pages. Filling in her thick black outlines with a mixture of digitally manipulated textures and densely saturated colors, Dodd (Just Like You; No Matter What, reviewed above) creates a daffy, winning cast of googly-eyed creatures whose ids run rampant. The T. rex's hide seems to be made of netting and camouflage, while an ungainly rhino appears to be upholstered in gray Naugahyde. Lots of fun. Ages 3-5. (Mar.)

This labored story centers on a small, furry, web-footed creature with a “scoopy duck bill” who appears on the Australian outback after heavy rains without knowing how he got there. He is a novelty to the other animals, one of whom, a blue-tongued skink, snidely comments, “You're the craziest looking thing I've ever seen.... What are you supposed to be?” While attempting to discover where he belongs—in a tree, in the air, on the ground—the lost animal repeatedly falls (“kersplat!”). An old bandicoot finally identifies him as a platypus and the skink derisively dubs him “Kersplatypus.” Eventually Platypus feels drawn to the river's edge and, “before you could say 'Waltzing Matilda,' ” jumps into the water and “flipped and flopped and felt right at home.” The bullying skink gets his comeuppance, falling on a slippery rock with a “kersplash!” Rogers's mixed-media art offers detailed renderings of Australian species, but also anthropomorphizes them: the bandicoot walks with a cane, a possum wears a flower behind her ear, etc. Back matter introduces a schoolroom flavor, with some educational activities and discussion starters (“Has anyone ever made fun of you? Did you like it? What did you do?”). Ages 3-7. (Feb.)

A heavy-handed message about how individuality and teamwork aren't mutually exclusive threatens to sink this promising girl-power story by the author of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and her co-author on Sherman Crunchley. But Munsinger's (What Mommies Do Best) anthropomorphized cast keeps it bravely treading water. Emily (a terrier) is a passionate dancer, but her first studio class starts out dismally: all of her classmates (a bunny, a cat and pig) would rather be doing something else (“I like to play soccer,” declares one. “My mom made me take this class”). How will the group ever get their act together for their recital performance of “Oh, Little Bug!”? Emily finds inspiration in candy: “Jellybeans are all different flavors,” she tells them in a pint-size version of a locker-room pep talk, “but they still go well together. Maybe we could, too.” Every girl knows that sisterhood isn't always powerful—in fact, it can be downright snotty—but this book simply steamrolls over its opportunity to model why acceptance and camaraderie are good things. Munsinger's facility with expressions and body language is as impressive as ever: she can do heartbreak, ecstasy, confidence and peevishness without ever compromising the essential species-ness of her characters. Ages 4-8. (Mar.)

Australian artist Chapman's world is populated with mysterious hybrids. Is the heroine Kaito, with her folded paper nose, doll or human? Is the portly blue Lord of Flight, to whom Kaito brings her dying butterflies, bird or insect? The palace of the Lord of Flight, perched on the craggy Mountain of Dreams, overlooks a Chinese willow-pattern landscape with a field of cabbages below. Despite this tumult of invention, story and pictures coalesce. Kaito climbs the Mountain to ask the Lord of Flight to revive her beloved butterflies. Millard, also Australian, employs Arabian Nights–style language with practiced skill: “Ah, Kaito, weep no more,” says the Lord of Flight, “for though their days were fleeting, your butterflies have danced upon the breath of heaven.” Although he can't restore them, he tells Kaito that the essence of the butterfly cannot die: “We must learn to look for it in other places.” Kaito returns to her home in the valley with an idea: sewing cloth with “ten thousand tiny stitches,” she fashions a kite; pictures imply that Kaito, too, takes flight. The dreamy text and otherworldly setting create a mildly hypnotic effect, yielding a bedtime story for anyone who's longed for wings. Ages 5-up. (Mar.)

Gloriously painted cityscapes of Venice and the Piazza San Marco steal the show in the Shefelmans' (A Peddler's Dream) biography of composer Antonio Vivaldi. The husband-and-wife team takes readers from the musician's birth (on the day of an earthquake) to his ordination as a priest (“People began calling me the Red Priest for the color of my hair. Red Violinist would be better”) and his later work as a conductor at a girls' orphanage. The first-person narration offers an accessible and personable view of Vivaldi's intense passion for music. The author improvises where facts are scarce, e.g., her account has Vivaldi's mother promising her newborn son to the priesthood when he survives a dangerous breathing problem. Stunning ink-and-watercolor scenes evoke the ornate, shadowy church interiors and gilded ornamentation of 17th-century Venice. One breathtaking exterior panorama of the Church of San Marco, featuring its myriad of columns and statues, offers a particularly good example of the artist's detailed yet softly edged style, and compensates for the sometimes odd proportions of the characters. A noteworthy picture book biography. Ages 7-11. (Feb.)

Dray, a Pulitzer finalist for At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America, brings his expertise to a younger audience with this eloquent biography of anti-lynching crusader and journalist Ida B. Wells. A narrative peppered with anecdotes guides readers through defining moments of Wells's life, from her 1884 lawsuit against a railroad company whose Jim Crow policies prevented her, a black woman, from riding in the first-class compartment, to her growing career as a newspaper columnist, to the 1892 lynching of her close friend. Alcorn's (Let it Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters) striking, symbol-infused hand-colored prints on creamy vellum get star billing. A large trim size accommodates the stylized illustrations, soaring vignettes in muted hues that portray a statuesque and self-assured Wells. Fluid lines swirl or jut across spreads, establishing a brisk visual pace. In one scene, a hand extended from a fancy sleeve labeled “Whites Only” pushes down an African-American man wearing overalls. In another, Wells the writer drifts from an ink bottle like a genie from a lamp, the spectral-shaped black ink forming her dress. Author notes, a timeline and more enhance this age-appropriate introduction to difficult issues and the woman who educated the world about them. Ages 8-12. (Feb.)

Bernetta loves being her father's assistant during his magic act and performing a few tricks of her own, but she never imagines that her sleight-of-hand skills will turn her into a 12-year-old con artist. But after her so-called best friend frames her as the mastermind behind a cheating ring and Bernetta loses her private-school scholarship, Bernetta lets cute boy Gabe talk her into going into the “confidence business” with him over the summer—how else can she amass the small fortune she needs to pay her tuition? The sneaky scams the two pull off will enthrall readers (in direct proportion to their ability to disturb parents, especially as the stunts require at least as much thievery as cleverness). The author describes a few of Bernetta's father's magic tricks and explains some of Gabe's people-reading techniques, adding to the book's fun quotient. The story builds well as the likable and increasingly desperate Bernetta gets drawn into a wild scheme, looking for a big payout and revenge. Graff (The Thing About Georgie) asks readers to take some leaps of faith with the plotting, but she rewards them with a strong voice. Bernetta's eventual realization—“There were a million alternate Bernettas she could become, and she wasn't going to get roped into becoming one she didn't like”—reads as hard-won and insightful. Ages 8-12. (Feb.)

Even though her breasts are “the size of cherry pits” and her widowed mother—the governor of Florida and a frontrunner in the Democratic presidential primaries—is rarely around, wonderful things are happening for seventh-grader Vanessa Rothrock. She wins the school spelling bee, and love notes from a secret admirer appear in her locker. Vanessa is proud of her mother's political success, but she grows weary of receiving motherly advice via telephone, e-mail and hastily scribbled notes. First-novelist Gephart adds a good degree of tension as Vanessa accidentally finds hate mail addressed to her mother; Vanessa is sure her mother is in imminent danger, but her mother—who happens to be meeting with Governor Schwarzenegger—explains that she receives dozens a day (“You should have seen the ones I got during the budget crunch,” says Gephart's Schwarzenegger. “Half the state wanted to pummel me to death with oranges”). Soon afterward, Vanessa begins receiving threatening letters at school from someone who wants her to pressure her mother into dropping out of the race. Gephart maintains the humor even as the stakes rise; she also successfully captures life in the public eye. She delivers a diverting story that also gives readers an intelligent look at primaries, caucuses and nominating conventions. Ages 8-12. (Feb.)

A distinguished British pair brings on the violins for this sentimental story built atop the Holocaust. A young journalist is to interview world-famous but idiosyncratic violinist Paolo Levi, and all she knows is not to ask “the Mozart question”—but not what, exactly, that question is. When she artlessly mentions this to him, the book turns into a sequence of flashbacks involving a Venice boyhood of stealing outside in the moonlight to hear a street musician, who later secretly teaches Paolo to play the violin. Eventually the musician meets Paolo's parents, only to discover that the three already know one another from their incarceration in a WWII camp, where all three were made to play in a camp orchestra and where Paolo's parents were known as “the lovebirds.” Scarred, Paolo's father has since forsworn music and asks Paolo never to perform the Germans' favorite composer, Mozart, in public. Foreman obliges this text with nostalgic scenes of canals, quaintly dressed gondoliers, women and children carrying baguettes; his appropriately subdued watercolors of the death camp depict structures like those at Auschwitz. The story's foundation, unfortunately, is flawed: men and women prisoners did not mix in concentration camps, and orchestras were not exceptions. Why ask readers to honor history (much less a history that undergoes very public challenges) if the author reinvents the record? Ages 8-12. (Feb.)

Returning to material she uncovered while researching Hitler Youth, Bartoletti offers a fictionalized biography of Helmuth Hübener, a Hamburg teenager who, in February 1942, was arrested for writing and distributing leaflets that denounced Hitler. Almost nine months later, on October 27, at the age of 17, Hübener was executed for treason. Opening her story on Hübener's last day, Bartoletti frames the work as third-person flashbacks, casting over the narrative a terrible sense of doom even as she escalates the tension. She does an excellent job of conveying the political climate surrounding Hitler's ascent to power, seamlessly integrating a complex range of socioeconomic conditions into her absorbing drama of Helmuth and his fatherless family. The author also convincingly shows how Helmuth originally embraces Hitler. His disillusionment seems to come a little too easily; American readers may wonder why Helmuth's reactions were not more common. But that question resolves itself as the author exposes the chilling gap between her own admiration for her subject and reflections, discussed in an afterword, from those who knew Helmuth, as in this comment from his older brother: “He should have known better than that.... A sixteen-year-old boy cannot change the government.” Ages 11-up. (Feb.)

As atmospheric and suspenseful as its predecessors, Shabanu and Haveli, this evocative novel transports readers to an intriguing corner of the universe to provide an insightful look at modern Middle Eastern culture. Fortunately, readers need no previous familiarity with the saga of Shabanu, fourth wife of a Pakistani tribal leader's son; they will readily enter Staples's world. As the story opens, Shabanu's husband, Rahim, has been killed by his brother during a land dispute, and Shabanu has gone into hiding, allowing her parents to believe she is dead. Meanwhile, her teenage daughter, Mumtaz, is being raised by an abusive aunt in the family compound. Mumtaz, often treated like a servant, finds a trustworthy friend and confidant in cousin Jameel, who now lives in America but returns with his parents to Pakistan each summer. As Staples investigates the perspectivesof the three main characters, Shabanu, Mumtaz and Jameel, she shows how each feels disjointed from the family but remains bound by ancient traditions. Western and Islamic ways clash, yet the author so thoroughly immerses readers in the setting that few will want to judge. Like most of Staples's fiction, this work significantly enlarges the reader's understanding of a complex society. Ages 12-up. (Apr.)

The old saying “Money can't buy happiness” proves true for high school senior Indigo Skye after she receives a $2.5 million tip from a handsome stranger at the suburban Seattle restaurant where she is a part-time waitress. Before long, the pressure is on from friends and family to spend (or not spend) her money a certain way. Although the lesson of this rags-to-riches tale is evident from the beginning, Caletti (Honey, Baby, Sweetheart) builds characters with so much depth that readers will be invested in her story. Indigo's ability to recognize and appreciate what makes other people tick makes her an unusually compelling narrator, even when her values get blown off course. The rest of the cast, all of whom harbor conflicts and aspirations of their own, radiate personality, especially the crew of customers who regularly patronize Indigo's restaurant (they include a man accused of murdering his wife, a heavily tattooed factory worker and a Native American poet with a chemical imbalance). Working from a premise that strains credibility, Caletti spins a network of relationships that feels real and enriching. Ages 12-up. (Apr.)

Two things dear to teen girls—quality extracurriculars that'll look good on college applications and budding romance—collide in Cirrone's (Dancing in Red Shoes Will Kill You) lighthearted look at figuring out what's important. Emily Bennet, high school junior, covets the editor-in-chief spot on her school newspaper. She's also ogling Brian, a star basketball player and in-crowd hottie, who also happens to be the boy next door, having recently moved into a McMansion in her Fort Lauderdale neighborhood. Brian shows an interest in Emily just as she and Daniel, a rival for the editor's job, are assigned to write about the upcoming junior prom. A consciousness-raising episode, in which Daniel and Emily witness the near-destruction of a rival school's property but do not act, lead them to spearhead a low-cost alternative prom with a public service component. Then Brian asks her to the “real” prom. Emily is a companionable narrator, witty and self-aware: “I was a reporter on a story. A girl on a mission.... Ahh. Who was I kidding? I was a girl following the crush next door.” Although the author travels well-trod territory, Emily's navigation is fresh and will keep readers going. Ages 12-up. (Feb.)

Teeth-clenchingly suspenseful at times and deliciously creepy at others, Fahy (Night Visions) delivers a classic horror story with his YA debut, about a religious cult destroyed by a fire and the six teens who escape. He pulls out all the necessary stops as he constructs the terrifying story of what comes to pass five years later as the surviving teens are being murdered one by one, according to the cult leader's prophecy. The author gives readers gory visual descriptions of the crime scenes, tension-building cliffhangers and the type of unexpected surprises that if translated to film would make moviegoers scream, and he nails each device beautifully. An element of genre-specific camp attaches to some of the scenes; for example, the main character, Allison, has epileptic seizures during which she envisions each murder before it happens; and in a pivotal sequence, Allison assumes the killer is dead, but readers know otherwise. Executed with panache, these familiar elements only add to the overall thrill. A page-turner that just might keep readers up at night—especially given the loosely resolved ending. Ages 12-up. (Feb.)

McDaniel (Don't Die, My Love) forsakes her typical weeper for a cautionary tale about a high school freshman seduced by his history teacher. On the first day of class, Ryan “locks eyes” with the stiletto-wearing, cleavage-baring Ms. Settles (“I feel heat”) and watches her bend over a desk drawer (“The sweaterdress hugs her backside, and I want to do the same”). Describing the same encounter, the teacher says, “I stare at him and the room seems to recede. A halo of light encircles him and suddenly, I know... he'll be the One.” The two become sexually involved and mutually obsessed, arousing the suspicions (and jealousy) of Ryan's longtime friend Honey, who wishes she were his girlfriend. McDaniel furnishes the souped-up drama her fans crave, and even the denouement has its soapy excess (Ryan, about to be reunited with the now-vilified and convicted Ms. Settles, asks, “Which of us is the predator and which the prey?”). Readers interested in a more sophisticated, psychologically astute treatment of the same subject should see last fall's Boy Toy by Barry Lyga (Reviews, Sept. 3, 2007). Ages 12-up. (Feb.)