Chick 'n' Pug

 




Bloomsbury

Jennifer Sattler

To be honest, I fell for this book based on the cover art alone. We have our own (aging) pug, so I'm definitely biased. Anyone who has owned pugs will probably tell you they are lazy little fiends, but incredibly loving and sweet. And as much as I love a pug, I can still admit that it's really Chick who is stealing the cover with his confident expression and rakishly titled beret.

Chick lives for reading The Adventures of Wonder Pug - each page in his copy has been flipped exactly 127 times. With the henhouse full of boring, snoring hens, energetic Chick sets off to find some real life excitement. Imagine how delighted he is to come across a real, live Wonder Pug right in his own backyard! Chick is spellbound just watching him sleep. And sleep. And sleep some more. Okay, maybe this Wonder Pug needs a little prodding to be wonderful.  

Once awakened, Pug continues to do amazing things ... if you considering rolling around on the ground and ear scratching to be amazing. He then resumes napping while Chick flutters nervously about.  He's just sure this pug is going to spring into action at any moment! Will he attack the knitted rope or show that Frisbee who's boss?

Chick is so enamored of his new discovery that he is quite sure something exciting could happen at any time.  I think Chick has some high hopes that far exceed the real life actions of most pugs.  But still, you gotta love a little chick that continues to hold his hero in such high esteem, with no proof that his admiration is deserved.

Eventually the pug's owner comes over and there is a bit of a scuffle over an undignified outfit. After that, Chick takes matters into his own hands (wings?) and helps scare away an evil-looking, fluffy cat lurking nearby. To Chick, the pug he found may be a teensy bit lazy, but he is every bit as cool as his hero in The Adventures of Wonder Pug. This one just requires a little yellow sidekick!


Review copy provided by Bloomsbury.

Spork

 


Kids Can Press

Kyo Maclear; Illustrations by Isabelle Arsenault

The only place I have seen sporks is in fast food restaurants.  I wondered if children would know what they are, but apparently they are common in school cafeterias, because my six year old identified it with one glance. 

Spork is a cross between a spoon and a fork. He has the rounded lower head of spoon, but on top of that poke three short tines of a fork. His mother is a beautiful spoon and his father is a sharp looking fork. Unfortunately for Spork, cutlery mixing is not common place and he sticks out like a sort thumb in the cutlery drawer. In Spork's kitchen, knives marry knives and spoons stick to their own kind.  Poor Spork.

As you might think, Spork feels quite out of place. To fit in, he tries to appear to more spoonish by wearing a bowler hat. This fools no one. He makes himself a paper crown to appear more forkish, but this too falls flat. At dinner time, Spork watches wistfully from the sidelines while others grace the dinner table.  His feet remain dry while they enjoy a post-dinner bubble filled soak in the sink. 

Until one day ... a very messy thing arrives in the kitchen.  This thing has no table manners and slops food from one side of the kitchen to the other. The forks and spoons are in a tizzy because not one of them can keep up with the demands. The thing needs something that was neither spoon nor fork, but a bit of both. Enter Spork, who is just a bit round and just a bit pointy - absolutely perfect (for this thing called a baby)! And so Spork arrives at the dinner table and remains there for many, many meals to come. 

Aw, I think this is such a cute book filled with beautiful illustrations. I would never have imagined a really great children's book would be written about something as mundane as a spork, but there you have it.  All the utensils are drawn so sweetly, with unique expressions and clothing.  And I love how the story is set up so that the cutlery drawer is a whole way of life.  Smart writing and the wonderful illustrations make this a winner! And if you really need another reason, there's the little lesson of not discriminating against a utensil (or person) based on appearance. 

Review copy provided by Kids Can Press.

Brontorina

Candlewick

James Howe; Illustrated by Randy Cecil

This book is aimed at anyone who thought they were too small or too large to participate in an activity. Let the big, orange, ballet-loving dinosaur show you that when there's a will, there's a way.

Brontorina's dream has always been to dance. One day, she turns up at Madame Lucille's Dance Academy for Girls and Boys and announces her intention to follow that dream. Madame Lucille is torn. She is not in the habit of turning students away, but she has never had an Apatosaurus turn up at her door either. With a warning to be careful "not to squash the other dancers," the largest and longest student is welcomed into the studio.

As they dance, Brontorina's face lights up with a smile ... until her head crashes into the ceiling. Smile, crash. Smile, crash. Her tail swoops wildly, causing concern for the other dancers and the piano. While Brontorina is indeed very graceful, she is simply too large for the studio.  Not does it help that two sour little ballerinas continually mention her lack of proper ballet shoes.  

With a sudden realization, Madame Lucille announces that the problem is not that Brontoria is too large for the studio, but rather the studio is too small for all the dancers. After a prolonged search, the troupe settles on a more appropriate venue, complete with a new sign that reads "Madame Lucille's Outdoor Dance Academy for Girls and Boy and Dinosaurs and Cows."  This studio welcomes anyone who has a notion to dance!

Review copy provided by Candlewick.

Guido's Great Coloring and Drawing Book

Clavis

Guido van Genechten

Guido's right on the money. This book really is great! What an awesome treasure chest full of unique projects to draw and color. If you have ever hunkered down with a child and a box of art supplies, thinking it would be an easy way to carve out some quiet time ... you may have been hit with "What should I draw? Now what can I draw? Now what? Mom? Mom?" You will want to meet Guido, grab his great ideas and find your quiet time.

I really love that he doles out the assignments and the child supplies the creativity. And I especially like that it isn't several pages of the same thing over and over. These babies are varied!  One page has four bottles/jars in different sizes and shapes, with the directive "Make labels for jars full of delicious food."  Another page provides the beginning of a story with plenty of room to continue the exciting tale. Go on to decorate an ice cream cone with your favorite toppings, invent some new traffic signs, or design your own unique mailbox.

Draw, color, count, and above all, put those imaginations to good use. One of my favorite favorite pages has a handful of small ink blobs and says "Add about 827 more dots." Why can't I come up with things like that? While all the pages are black and white, some are more plain than others. Another of my favorites simply states "Draw a slice of sausage."  The real charm of this book is that he comes up with very simple, but completely off the wall ideas.  

This is one of the best creative books I have seen, and I truly hope this author puts out another book in a similar style. What a wonderful tool to jump start little minds, plus it's just plain FUN.   


Review copy provided by Clavis.  

The Cat's Pajamas

 

Kids Can Press

Wallace Edwards

An excellent definition for idiom from the first page of the book: "a group of words whose meaning cannot be understood from the meaning of the individual words; an expression, peculiar to a specific language, that cannot be translated literally. As adults, we take these phrases for granted, never realizing how strange they may seem to kids or someone learning our language.  We are so used to hearing these expressions that we don't usually give much thought to what they would mean literally. And that's exactly what makes this book so fun - we see our casually used expressions in a whole new light!

Each page has a large, very detailed illustration depicting a literal translation of an idiom.  Each expression is also used in a sentence that acurately describes the illustration.  Yes, it's a clever concept, but I'm taken aback at how excellently it is executed. "As Judge of the Tiny Tot Talent Contest, Leon had to face the music." And sure enough, there sits poor Leon, with his majestic mane completely blown back by the force of the music from the tiny chipmunk.      

In case you need a bit of assistance, the very last page provides the idiom and a brief explanation of what the saying means. To go along with the cover image and title, the author has included one more tiny detail to keep us on our toes: at least one cat is hidden on every single page. Some stand out and some are a bit of a challenge, but the hunt is part of the fun. The last idiom is Princess in her pj's from the cover, but with a slight change. Instead of a playing card, the kitty grips a small note under her paw that says "Did you find a hidden cat on each page?" 

I love that this book is dual purpose by teaching us about idioms in a very clever and humorous way. My only regret is that he did not include "ears are ringing" AND "ears are burning" as I know many adults who don't understand the difference. This is actually the second book of illustrated idioms by Wallace Edwards.  His first, Monkey Business, was released in 2004, which I have no doubt was equally brilliant. 

Review copy provided by Kids Can Press.

Too Little Boys from Toolittle Toys

Bloomsbury 

Vincent X. Kirsch

I couldn't put my finger on why this book looked so darn familiar. In fact, I would have sworn we had read this a couple years ago because I distinctly remembered the illustration style and that the boys were from a family that owned a large store. Then I realized Vincent X. Kirsch previously wrote Natalie and Naughtily, which is about a pair of sisters whose family lives atop Nopps, the world's greatest department store. Their store must be nearby, as I spotted the sisters window shopping on the second page.

Rudy and Ridley Toolittle are the secret behind the Toolittle Toy Company. This fantastic family company is responsible for making the most amazing toys in the world. It produces what no other group in the toy business has managed: make toys that love to play with children! They are responsible for such gems as the Attachable Floating Fishtail, the Bubble Gum Gun and the Popcorn Popper Rocket. No matter the function, each and every toy clamors to be played with by children. 

Rudy and Ridley Toolittle are employed at the family toy laboratories every Saturday, working hard to make sure each toy is playing exactly as it should. One Saturday, Rudy decides he is too big to be playing with toys. Instead, he busies himself with organizing, measuring and sorting.  He reads instruction manuals and takes the toys apart to become familiar with their inner workings.  Meanwhile, the toys and young Ridley wait patiently, silently thinking "Play with ME!" 

When it comes time to put the toys back together, Rudy is stumped.  He sits amid a large pile of toy parts,  refusing the help of his eager younger brother. He is saved by the Toolittle Zigzagging Giggle-Wiggler, a strange yellow fellow who seems to know exactly how the parts work. Once the toys have been reconstructed, Rudy finds Ridley and the boys return to their regular duties - making sure the toys are playing perfectly!  

We particularly loved the back cover, where eighteen toys are pictured with a short description.  Each toy is pictured somewhere in the book, the readers only have to find them. I laughed at some of the clever toy inventions, like the "thinking cap" that changes color as your thoughts change.   

Click here for a very interesting (and funny) Q & A with the author. Kirsch has a new book coming out in January, 2011, titled Forsythia and Me.

Review copy provided by Bloomsbury.