One of my pet peeves about children's literature is that so much of it is so very earnest. Half the time a book is clubbing you over the head with a message about good behavior or it's so sweet that it borders on creepy. It bothers me that a lot of authors seem to think that kids can't or won't pick up on humor in their stories, and I'm not talking about obvious humor like Captain Underpants, I'm just talking about a lighthearted, funny tone. Mo Willems does not have this problem. We are big fans of Mr. Willems around here. The Pigeon books and Knuffle Bunny have places of honor on the girls' bookshelves. My husband and I even have a special voice for reading the Pigeon, because we are huge dorks very committed to the reading experience.
That's why I had great expectations for Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs. Unfortunately, for me this book fell short. I am all for writing with humor and even throwing a wink or two in there for the grownups who have to read the same book out loud every night for a month. Here though, the author just takes that whole thing a bit too far. The book is a sarcastic send-up of the traditional tale and it is pretty funny, but almost all of it went right over the kids' heads. Of course I didn't expect the Nugget to get any of the jokes but I thought the Buddy would think it was funny at least. Not so much. I found myself reading it loudly so that my husband would hear it while he was making dinner in the kitchen--this way at least somebody else would get it. The kids just seemed bewildered.
In general I think Mo Willems is a great author and I love what he has done for kids' books. I just think he got a little carried away with this one. It's possible that he is trying to reach out to kids who are older than his usual audience. Fourth and fifth graders would probably think this book was hilarious. If you have never checked out a Mo Willems book I strongly encourage you to do so. Just maybe not this one for young kids.
We are just about finished with Misty of Chincoteague now and I'm happy to report that the Buddy has really been enjoying it. Usually when we start a new chapter book, particularly if it's a bit of a slow starter, I will be the one suggesting that we read another chapter every night. When she starts to pick it out herself or if she asks for "just one more chapter please" then I know she's gotten into the story. Today we read Chapter 17--only one more until the end. When we were done, she closed the book and said, "I will be sad to leave this book." Cool--to me that means she really loves it.
I read Misty as a kid but didn't remember the exact story. It's very good...slightly improbable, but still really good. The writing does sound a bit old-fashioned but there are beautiful passages that are timeless. The age of the book does show itself at certain points, with a few references to how only men can do this or that, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that this isn't much of an issue by the end of the book. Maureen is just as much a part of the acquisition and training of Phantom and Misty as her brother Paul, and it's only luck that ensures that Paul rides the Phantom in the big race. The Buddy was absolutely enthralled by certain parts of the story, particularly when Paul is in the trailer with Misty and Phantom during a big storm and tries to get them to eat from his hand, and of course Phantom's race at the end. When she figured out that Phantom won, she shouted "YAY!"
I'm really glad we stuck with this one. Even if it did make the Buddy decide that she wants to get her own pony!
Oh, how we love Ladybug Girl. She is brave, but not fearless, and she's girly, but she's no princess. My Buddy could relate to her from the moment she saw the cover of the book.
Lulu, the heroine of the book, is bored. Her parents have some work to do around the house, her brother is off playing baseball with his friends, and Lulu has to entertain herself with only her dog, Bingo, for company. The book tells the story of how she goes from "nothing to do" to having a spectacular adventure in her own backyard.
I like pretty much everything about this book. The illustrations are great, especially the sense of movement and scale. The font is cool. The relationship between the brother and sister is realistic. I even like that at the end, Lulu squints her eyes and "squeezes" her brother and his friends between her thumb and forefinger. "'I'm not little,' she says. 'You're little.'" Awesome.
This probably isn't news to anyone, but strong, independent female characters in books are not as easy to find as they should be, even in kids' books. There is an awesome web site that has some great book and movie suggestions for girls of all ages and we've found a lot of new inspiration there, but still I'm always pleased to see a cool book about a little girl who doesn't need to be a pink frilly princess. I'm talking to you, Pinkalicious. When we went to a superhero birthday party for a friend of ours and my Buddy wanted to go as Ladybug Girl, I knew we had a winner on our hands. I'm all about a book that makes a little girl feel like a superhero.
It's almost Halloween! We've had a number of Halloween books at our house but these are two of our favorites.
Pumpkin Soup is fun for all ages. It's not specifically a Halloween story but of course it has the pumpkin theme, and there is just the right toddler-appropriate touch of scariness toward the end. The story starts out with the duck, the cat, and the squirrel, who live together and make pumpkin soup the same way every time, each doing their own specific job. When the duck decides one day that he'd rather stir than put in the salt, the other two are scandalized. Duck leaves in a huff, and then the other two figure out that having their friend around is probably more important than how they fix the soup. I love the way this book is written. There are lots of great descriptive words which makes it fun to read out loud. And I'm a fan of the subtle-but-there messages about friendship and trying new things.
The Widow's Broom was a new one for us this year and was definitely more appropriate for the Buddy, who is five. I tried reading it to the Nugget once but she didn't make it past the third page and was clearly not following the story. Of course Chris Van Allsburg's illustrations are amazing. The detail in the black and white pictures is absolutely incredible. This was a great semi-scary choice for my sensitive Buddy. It has just enough creepy factor to be fun, without giving her nightmares. The story begins with a witch's broom that is starting to lose its power, and drops its witch off without warning in a lonely widow's garden. The widow is clearly freaked out, but she invites the witch inside to heal up, and the witch rewards her by leaving behind her broom. The broom can sweep by itself, but then the widow figures out that she can teach it to do other things and pretty soon it's a big help around the house. All is fine until her narrow-minded neighbors get involved, and then the widow has to outsmart them to keep her broom. It's a great story with a little twist at the end. The Buddy loved it! Younger kids might need a little help understanding what is happening in the story, but five-year-olds and up will probably enjoy it.
Happy Halloween!
When the Buddy was about 4 years old, we started reading some simple chapter books. I figured at this point she was old enough to follow the story, even if it took us several days to finish the book. We started with the Magic Treehouse Series (more about that in a future post) and have branched out from there. This is one of my favorite things to do with her--I get to introduce her to some non-picture books, including some of the books I loved best as a kid, but I'm still there to explain anything she might not understand. I'm going to attempt to blog our progress through chapter books in sections, so I can give an idea of our thoughts as we go.
I never really went through the "horse phase" as a little girl. My Buddy, however, has had an off-and-on relationship with the horse phase. Currently it's on, in a big way. She's particularly interested in Chincoteague ponies, since we visited Assateague Island last year and got to see the ponies in their natural environment. When her grandparents visited Chincoteague, they gave the Buddy an amazing close-up photo of a pony that now has a place of honor on her bedroom wall. So I figured Misty of Chincoteague would be right up her alley. So far we've read the first three chapters and her reaction has been mixed. It is by far the highest-level chapter book we've tackled, meaning that there are a lot of words that seem to be way beyond the Buddy's vocabulary. Heck, there were one or two words that were a bit beyond my vocabulary. But she seems to be following the gist of the story at least. I'm already seeing some themes that betray the age of the book and I think that's going to come out more as we go along. Girls aren't allowed to go on the pony roundup, etc. etc. This is something the Buddy and I are going to have to talk about as we move through the book.
It seems like maybe this book is a bit ambitious as a read-aloud to a 5-year-old, but we're going to keep going and see how we do. Right now I think the Buddy likes the idea of reading about a Chincoteague pony, but maybe isn't that into this book specifically. We'll keep you posted!
