Children's Book Reviews: Week of 6/8/2009

With unadorned, heartfelt prose and idyllic images, Braun (I Love My Mommy) conveys just how wonderful it feels to spend a day alone with Daddy. The narrator is a bear cub, and both the cadence and reportorial tone of his words easily could have been transcribed from a preschool show-and-tell. “On our way home, Daddy raced me. And I won!” Braun's acrylic pictures strike a lovely balance, as he places his genial, naïf-styled characters within majestically scaled landscapes (in one spread, father and son are dwarfed by a broad, cloudy sky, as the sun peeks from behind distant pine trees). Daddy, by turns strong, goofy (he lets the cub perch on his stomach and feed him berries), reassuring and firm (there's no waffling when it's time to go home), makes the whole world seem endlessly expansive and utterly cozy at the same time. Ages 2–5. (June)

Burningham (Harvey Slumfenburger's Christmas Present) treats readers to a whimsical nighttime romp. Marie Elaine wonders where her cat goes when he slips outside at night—and one evening she finds out. When she discovers him wearing a stylish crimson jacket and a brimmed hat and plume, the cat admits he's going to a party, “but I can't say where because it's a secret.” Promising to keep his secret, the child begs to go along and he agrees. Obediently, she dons party clothes and shrinks to his size when instructed to “get small.” Neighbor Norman spies them sneaking out from his window (“Let me come... or I'll tell”) and the three navigate their way past threatening dogs (one wearing a pink hooded sweatshirt) to reach the urban rooftop party. A mix of pastel-infused sketches and bold images in robust hues, the buoyant mixed-media art reveals the gala in full swing. Costumed cats dance and dine before a brilliant scarlet sky signals the breaking dawn and the revelers head home. The plainspoken, childlike narration makes this dreamlike tale all the more approachable. Ages 3–6. (June)

Dodd (What Pet to Get?) tours the world of canine temperaments and concludes that sweetest is best. A petite girl with a pert haircut and a flowered dress imagines herself the owner of various dogs, rejecting each in turn with cleverly turned verse: “I don't want a posh dog./ A blow-dry-when-washed dog,” she says, wielding a hair dryer at a haughty poodle with a rhinestone collar. As she's pulled off her feet by a racing greyhound, she says, “I don't want a speedy dog,” while on the next spread, a rotund dachshund goes to work on a hamburger and fries, as two others clamor for attention (“A greedy, pleady, needy dog”). The exaggerated characteristics and expressions of Dodd's dogs are giggle-inducing, while jaunty type and digitally manipulated areas of texture amp up the text's inherent energy and the dogs' personalities. When a wire-haired gray dog with floppy ears appears, joyfully circling around the girl, she reveals that she wants “a none-too-proud or loud dog,” cuddling the newcomer as the others roar past, “a know-me-in-the-crowd dog.” Plenty of fun for dog lovers. Ages 3–6. (June)

Collaborators Lasky (One Beetle Too Many) and Eitan (Scuba Bunnies) offer a quietly stirring tribute to the artist Georgia O'Keeffe. The illustrations, which cast the desert landscapes and O'Keeffe's adobe residence in boldly colored block-print-style paintings, don't so much resemble O'Keeffe's own work as they imaginatively capture the unfolding creative process. Waking before dawn, O'Keeffe steps through the desert as the sky slowly lightens and she discovers a possible image for a painting: “A bone gleaming white sits as pretty as angel wings just ahead.... The shapes are so simple—the wings of this bone reach up for the moon.” As the sky turns lavender, she paints the bone. Later, she climbs to the roof of her orange house to “watch the sky,” finding solace in the moment: “She has forgotten about the crick in her back and her sore feet. She is painting the whiteness of the bone.” At night, she goes to sleep in an indigo-blue room where “she will dream of green skies and white bones and the raven's wings.” Endnotes provide contextual information on O'Keeffe's life and art. Ages 3–up. (June)

Before her death in 2006, Alexander (the Blackboard Bear series) left her manuscript and sketches in the hands of James Rumford (Beowulf: A Hero's Tale Retold). The tender result honors both Alexander and the children for whom she wrote for 40 years. Asked by his teacher, Miss Tilley, to color in a picture for Mother's Day, the scowling, carrot-topped protagonist refuses: “Max didn't want to color the dumb flower picture.” Despite the teacher's repeated insistence, Max knows his mother “would rather have his very own drawing.” After some stomping, sulking and hiding in the bushes, Max reveals the beautiful flower picture he has drawn on his own––which inspires his classmates to do the same. Alexander is spot-on with her understanding of the pressures children feel to conform (“You'll be the only one without a nice picture for your mother,” says Miss Tilley) and her respect for their individualism, which to the uninformed, may appear like acting-out. Framed by white space, the soft sketches are color washed digitally and by hand, and with Rumford's collaboration, still bear Alexander's simple, expressive style. Ages 4–7. (July)

Originally created by the late Lobel as a handmade book for a fellow author, these poems and pencil sketches (skillfully given washes of color by his daughter, Adrianne) are the progenitors of Lobel's classic Frog and Toad series. But even kids who haven't spent much time with those amphibious friends will find plenty to enjoy. As befits something made for a friend, the drawings of genteelly domesticated amphibians large and small bring to mind the spontaneity, intimacy and exuberance of the sketchpad; even the very young should sense that Lobel was a man who was delighted to see his imagination take shape on paper. He versifies expertly and with gentleness: a green frog's virtuosity on the violin doesn't keep him from yearning, “And yet.../ I'd rather play/ The clarinet.” Polliwogs, their bodies composed almost entirely of broad, mischievous grins, revel in a school where “all we do is wiggle./ We do not read.../ We do not write.../ We only squirm and giggle.” A lovely addition to anyone's Lobel bookshelf. Ages 4–7. (June)

The author of Someday pens another declaration of love—this time in frankly comic mode. A girl in overalls sits on the front porch of her little wooden house. “I am the keeper of the castle,” her diminutive spotted pooch tells her, one paw on his chest, the other held dramatically out to the side. “And I will keep the castle safe.” In successive spreads, Lemaître (Doctor Ted) shows the dog in roguish scenes of derring-do: fighting a duel with a furry enemy atop the peak of the roof (“I will tame the squirrels”) and barking at a gang of mouse pirates whose ship's sail is a sock (“I will chase away evil”). The dog's statements grow ever more grandiose: “I will divert meteors,” he says, standing on a chimney armed with a baseball bat. “Why, you ask?” the canine Cyrano asks in closing, as the girl scoops him up and cradles him in her hands. “Because you live here.” Succinct, funny and, in its way, action-packed, this is written in the universal language of affection—only the stonyhearted could withstand its charms. Ages 4–8. (June)

As part of their Jewish New Year observance, Izzy's congregation, like many others, holds a Tashlich ceremony, in which sins are symbolically cast away by throwing pieces of bread into a body of water. But first, Izzy must make an “I'm sorry” list and seek forgiveness from those he's wronged. It isn't an easy or comfortable process: the list is longer than he anticipated, involves some property damage and requires him to apologize to his best friend for blabbing about a thumb-sucking habit. But because Tashlich is a collective expression of remorse (Mom asks forgiveness for “always being on the phone”) and one that celebrates possibility rather than blame (“a new year, a clean heart,” says the rabbi), Izzy leaves the pier feeling buoyed in both his faith and his sense of self. Wayland (Girl Coming in for a Landing) and Jorisch (Granddad's Fishing Buddy) are perfectly paired: the empathetic, low-key prose makes important points about personal responsibility without pummeling readers, while the stylish, keenly observed watercolors convey both Izzy's sheepish chagrin and the joys of communal tradition. Ages 5–8. (June)

The life of Liberty “Libby” Aimes is straight out of one of the fairy tales she holds dear. To begin with, her extremely overweight mother, Sal, and rail-thin, scheming father, Mal, keep her locked in their decrepit house like Cinderella, “waiting on her parents hand and foot, dodging their insults like a beleaguered catcher.” Libby dreams of freedom and attending Sullivan (a competitive boarding school). While freeing animals from her father's basement laboratory, she manages to escape by air with a “lifting soda” and see the world on her own. Liberty is a mature 10-year-old and interested in the complete picture of life as a result of her love of reading. Her ability to communicate with everything from pigeons to circus lions (thanks to her father's “comprehension cream”) makes for a full adventure. While Liberty's trust in people and openness often brings trouble, her belief that “destiny wasn't something you accomplished by yourself” carries her through. The plot meanders and the narration is occasionally precious, but Liberty's quirks and warm heart are consistently charming. Playful illustrations top off Easton's (White Magic) gently humorous, highly imaginative tale. Ages 8–12. (June)

Clements (Frindle) successfully bridges two cultures in this timely and insightful dual-perspective story. When Abby learns that her teachers want her to repeat sixth grade, the Illinois girl pledges to improve her grades and complete an extra-credit pen pal project. Since her favorite pastime is scaling a climbing wall, she's fascinated by Afghanistan's mountainous terrain and sends a letter to a one-room school there requesting a pen pal. So it will reflect well on his village, the teacher decides that his best student, Sadeed, should reply, but with a letter supposedly written by his sister, since it's deemed improper for a boy to correspond with a girl. In chapters devoted to Sadeed and in his missives to Abby (which he eventually admits he's composing), the sensitive boy shares illuminating information about Afghan beliefs and traditions, as well as his own aspirations. Abby responds with similar candor and the two gain much from their correspondence—as will readers. Clements effectively broadens his canvas in this worthy addition to his oeuvre of school-themed novels. Ages 8–12. (June)

A young beggar recalls the momentous night he happened to be in the right place when a stranger galloped into town, promising a gold coin if the boy would watch his horse until he returned. The unnamed narrator has his loyalty tested repeatedly as passersby can't help being intrigued by the incongruous pair—barefoot urchin and glorious steed (“I had never in my life been offered so much money by so many people, and yet I still hadn't seen a penny of it”). Finally, the king's men arrive, announcing that the horse, Black Bess, belongs to the infamous highwayman Dick Turpin. Now what? Staying with the horse will surely lead to Turpin's arrest. Thompson (The New Policeman) frames the story as a sale—after Turpin is arrested elsewhere, the boy tries to sell the horse—and in doing so, she introduces a host of ambiguities. Was the boy as true to Turpin as he said? Is the horse really Black Bess? It's a suspenseful and tautly written story as is, and Thompson's sly twist makes it all the richer. Ages 10–up. (June)

In a beautifully written coming-of-age story, first-time author Frazer shows how an overweight teen gets her groove back. At age seven, Dara Cohen tap-danced and sang her way to stardom, winning the title of Little Miss Maine. Now, at 17, Dara carries a lot of baggage, both around her hips and in her heart (“Here's what happened after the pageant: I got fat”). When her autobiographical English presentation about society's obsession with thinness is horribly misunderstood, Dara decides to seek out her estranged older sister, now living on a Massachusetts goat farm. Although spending a few months with her sister isn't quite what Dara imagines, it is a time of self-discovery. Readers will quickly become intrigued with the unraveling of family secrets and the cast of memorable characters Dara meets on the commune: Owen, a gay high school senior; Owen's sensitive younger brother, Milo; silent Belinda, the matriarch of the farm; and Dara's sister, Rachel, the only person who can answer questions about the girls' troubling family history. Dara emerges as a likable, complex heroine, whose growing self-confidence is touching and inspiring. Ages 12–up. (July)

With doses of humor, Hoffmann (The Good Girl) lightens this story of heartbreak and obsession, which follows the first 31 days of teenage Zoë's breakup with Henry, her musician boyfriend of six months. On day one, Zoë suspects she is about to be dumped, and on day two, her inkling is confirmed. But Zoë vows to “fight to get him back.” From sneaking into Henry's house with the excuse of retrieving some fungus cream to upstaging a singing performance by a girl she thinks Henry likes, Zoë's attempts to win back what she's lost are as (mortifyingly) funny as they are futile. Hoffmann has created a well-developed supporting cast: Zoë's mother, who shares some of her daughter's obsessive tendencies; nerdy Sam, who has nursed a crush on Zoë; and Zoë's loyal but concerned buddies, Julia and Shannon, who believe she has “crossed over into psycho” and who help her realize that she, like her ex, needs to move on. Despite offering moments of levity, Hoffmann gives plenty of weight and attention to Zoë's darker feelings—her broad spectrum of emotions and gradual recovery ring true. Ages 12–up. (June)

Dru has always known about the poltergeists, vampires and werwulfen that inhabit the Real World since her father has traveled the country battling them, often with Dru's help. But when he is killed after they move to the Dakotas—and sent back as a zombie to kill her—Dru digs deeper into her history, trying to find out who murdered her mother and who is after her. Graves, an orphan, joins up with her and is soon turned into a loup-garou by a wolf bite, and Dru is able to get some answers from Christophe, a djamphir (part human, part vampire). In her YA debut, St. Crow (who writes adult novels as Lilith Saintcrow) creates with masterful prose a vivid and dark world that will mesmerize readers. Dru's mix of strength and vulnerability peppered with teenage observations (as when she compares mean teachers to sharks, “machines made for eating, with a finely tuned sense for blood in the water”) make her a fully relatable character, and teens will dig the Buffy-like blend of supernatural action and wit. Ages 12–up. (June)

Prose offers a nuanced meditation on how stories of abuse can confuse and obscure the truth. When Maisie returns to her father and stepmother's home after a year living with her mother, she reunites with three childhood friends, Shakes, Chris and Kevin. But things are different. It is the summer before high school, one of them has a girlfriend and they all notice Maisie's newly developed breasts. It is Shakes, who has a mild palsy, whose devotion not only remains but grows into a relationship that is tenderly described (“It sometimes felt we were—like two halves of the same creature,” Maisie thinks). But this friendship is shattered when the boys take physical advantage of Maisie. The incident spirals out of control through rumors, bullying and a complaint filed by Maisie's overzealous stepmother. A therapist helps Maisie unravel the many versions of the story and come to terms with the truth, that the “period of grace” with her best friend is over, that his courage has limits. Prose's (Bullyville) adept narration and shunning of easy answers will hold readers' interest. Ages 14–up. (June)

Avid surfer Logan goes into a sudden tailspin when his recently estranged friend, Fin, dies in a freak surfing accident. Fin, Logan learns, had been a drug mule for Broza, a local marijuana dealer. Needing a replacement mule, Broza uses Logan's best friend, Z-boy—a goodhearted but impulsive high school dropout who wants to get rich fast so he can surf and get high—to lure Logan into taking the job. Hair shorn and “dressed like Republicans in suits and ties,” the two boys drive a marijuana-stocked car cross-country, through increasingly dangerous and ultimately tragic events. The short, high drama chapters may appeal particularly to older struggling readers, but Logan's agonized wrestling with morally ambiguous choices and his flawed yet appealing family and friends should find a wide audience. While a romantic subplot with surfer friend Emmie offers hopeful glimmers, the tortured but loving friendship between Logan and Z-boy proves poignant and heartbreaking. Ages 14–up. (June)

Sweet, insecure Spencer Davis turns 16 and Mom treats her to a rather unusual birthday present—a first visit to the gynecologist and a prescription for the Pill. This, even though Spencer has little interest in boys, never mind first-time sex (and despite best friend Alyssa's determination to lose her virginity ASAP). Then Spencer meets “the One” (or so she thinks), and feels romantic fireworks and physical desire for the first time. Both conventional assumptions about sex (“Everyone says their first time is terrible”) and gender stereotypes (guys advising each other to “be a dick once in a while. Chicks like that”) abound, as does nonstop talk of sex—sometimes with vulgar, infantile language and imagery, at other times conveyed with respect, tenderness, romance and yearning. In the end, Spencer doesn't “give up the V,” but she does encounter love and a good first sexual experience—with the person she least expects—amid realistic complications. At times the narrative is uneven, but this novel stands out for its thorough, no-holds-barred discussion of sex in its many forms—from the ugly to the beautiful. Ages 14–up. (June)

These books fit the bill as gifts for graduation, birthdays and other events.

This gentle prayer book has an artful vibe. Mixed media illustrations of stars, animals and children—which have the comforting feel of children's collaged artwork—are paired with more than 40 poems from various sources, includingseveral of Piper's original offerings (“The storm may roar,/ the wind may blow—/ but Love will never/ let me go”). Many are from the Bible, but traditional/anonymous verses, poems and even a Navajo night chant are also featured, giving the small-format book a broader spiritual vision (and audience). Ages 3–5. (May)

This small, square picture book from Ravishankar (Elephants Never Forget) features the tribal and folk artwork of Indian artists. The distinctive cat images range from ornately detailed to sparse, each paired with a line of verse (“Grinning cats/ Cats with scowls/ Chinless cats/ Cats with jowls”). Four stylized “Hurried cats”—that more closely resemble rodents or lizards—spread their claws and hover as though in mid-flight. Simple but clever verse and striking imagery give the book a refined aesthetic. Ages 4–7. (July)

The lessons about life and friendship that the quirky, cartoon animals learn in this diminutive book are both practical and fun. A blue creature peeks out above a white fence as the text reads, “Stand up straight...” Opening the gate reveals a snake—and the rest of the sentence: “unless you have no legs to stand on.” On another spread, one elephant stands apart from the noisy herd: “When everyone else is talking... learn to listen” (the elephant is then shown with a mouse in his trunk and its ears perked up). The information—and the humorous touches in the art—lend it both kid and adult appeal. Wishes for You is also available. Ages 4–8. (May)

Fans of the Dangerous Book for Boys should appreciate this detailed manual, complete with vintage-style illustrations on how to successfully pull off pranks. While adamant about safety—“If you have to ask a question about someone getting hurt, then you shouldn't be doing it”—the book offers ideas for making mischief that are frisky enough to get a rise out of their targets. Pranks include making a “Screaming Cabinet” (using the device from musical greeting cards), creating the “World's Largest Butt Photo” and faking an alien landing. What's most appealing, however, is the emphasis on being clever, creative and funny while making mischief. Ages 8–12. (June)