My Name is Not Isabella

Sourcebooks

Jennifer Fosberry; Illustrations by Mike Litwin

A fairy princess. A ballerina. Those are the answers I most often hear when little girls are asked what they want to be when they grow up.  Umm ... not too many openings for princesses in the real world, unless you want to work for Walt Disney.  Leave it to a physics major and retired engineer turned author to give us some much better options.

When this little girl wakes up one morning, she insists her mother is not to call her Isabella.  She is Sally Ride, the first woman astronaut in the United States to travel in outer space. After that, Isabella wants to try out becoming all sorts of different and yet equally amazing women.  She eats breakfast as brave Annie Oakley, rides the bus as the great activist Rosa Parks, and completes her homework as the brilliant scientist Marie Curie. This girl has a fine imagination, doesn't she?      

Isabella's mother doesn't bat an eye at the appearance of all these famous women, but just rolls with the punches.  She serves cookies to Marie Curie and asks Elizabeth Blackwell to help her set the table.  I would guess she is used to Isabella's grand imagination and likes to encourage her daughter to dream big.  It must be making a big impression on her daughter, because the last person Isabella takes on at the end of a long day is "Mommy, the greatest, sweetest mother who ever was."


What a wonderful book to showcase some important ladies of history.  Jennifer Fosberry was moved to create this story when she thought about the kinds of women she believed her daughter could be.  The last two pages provide more information about each woman, so readers can learn about their achievements. I love that this book is a departure from the typical pink and princess girl books.  Isabella sports a purple hair and wears wild-patterned eclectic ensembles.  More importantly, she also dreams big and believes in herself!

This is a cool trailer because instead of a page by page view of the book, this shows the progression of just one page of illustrations for the book: concept sketch, tweaking, addition of color, scan into photoshop, more additions and adjustments, etc.  Really neat!   



Review copy provided by Sourcebooks. 

Animal House

Walker Books for Young Readers

Candace Ryan; Illustrated by Nathan Hale

Jeremy lives in this animal house.  Not a house full of animals, as you might think, but his house is actually made of animals. The walls are wallrus, the the lamp is a lamprey and the hamper is a hampster.  Nearly everything in Jeremy's house is comprised of animals which makes for a pretty cool, and yet slightly treacherous house.

Jeremy is accustomed to his house, but his stories sound pretty far-fetched to his teacher.  After being presented with several unusual tales (Really, the vulchair ate your homework? Okaaay.) Mrs. Nuddles  announces she will come over and have a look at that house with her own eyes.  Her trip turns out to be very enlightening, but not in the way that she thought!

As soon as Mrs. Nuddles crosses the welcome bat, she seems a bit taken aback by Jeremy's house. The entryway is paved with floormingos, his parents are grooming the walls with giant brushes and combs and the staircase (haircase) is row upon row of  bunnies.  Jeremy has to keep his teacher from being attacked by a few of the more exuberant animals - it isn't just homework the vulchair likes to eat.     

Candace Ryan does a great job at crossing animals with household objects to come up with some really clever combinations.  I particularly like the armapillows, cowch and refrigergator. The puns are not all blatantly obvious, so you may have to puzzle a bit to figure a few of them.  If you get stuck, just refer to the illustrations on the inside cover where all the animals are properly tagged.

It seems like it would have been a pretty fun assignment for illustrator Nathan Hale to bring these newfangled beasts to life.  And what a job he has done! Just like Jeremy's teacher had to see the house in person, you really have to see these illustrations for yourself. Very clever and entertaining, this a great book for anyone who loves a good pun. 

Review copy provided by Bloomsbury Publishing.  

Storyworld

 

Templar Books

John and Caitlin Matthews

When I first saw this card set in the Candlewick catalog, I thought it seemed like a pretty nifty idea. Using illustrated cards to make up stories seems like it would be a great way to help kids who are a bit lacking in the imagination department.  When the set actually arrived, it wasn't at all what I had thought. It was much, much more!

These are not just simple story cards jammed in a box. Every last detail has been carefully planned so this feels like something special from the first moment you lay your hands on the set. It may appear to be a book, but the front covers opens up like a door to reveal a second, smaller windowed door.  Lift the black ribbon tab to access the stack of forty storytelling cards and the instruction booklet nestled inside.

Phenomenal illustrations grace these cards, each one a work of art. Templar Publishing brought together some of Britain’s finest contemporary illustrators to produce this exquisite original artwork. The cards come from four worlds, with ten cards from each of the following: The World of Everyday, The World of Magic, The Realm of the Court, The Land of Faery. Each card suggests a person, character, place or special object.

On the back of each card are several questions, which direct you to think a bit more about where to go with the story.  "Who lives in the little house?  What lies beyond the mountains? What is the eagle looking for?" You don't have to use these, but they provide a bit of direction if you feel stuck as to which direction you want your story to take. 

The instruction booklet is very clear about one thing: there are no rules with these cards. The only limit to what you can do with these cards is your own imagination. They do give some great suggestions of ways to use the cards, which is helpful. Select a few cards to give to a parent as a base for a bedtime story, pack the cards for a long car trip, or take turns drawing from a pile when telling a story with a large group. These are very versatile and can be used with any number of people.    
 

Select a handful of cards, use the pictures as a jumping off point, the leading questions as pathways and become a storyteller. These cards are so unique and beautiful - unlike any other children's card set that I have seen.  I love that they are designed to unlock the doors of the child's imagination - a true gift.  

Review copy provided by Templar Books. 

Our Best Bites - Kids' Week!

To celebrate the return of the kidlets, this week is Back to School Week at Our Best Bites. They are posting some really great kid-friendly recipes and crafts that you won't want to miss. My favorite is the Homemade Slime. - a quick trip to the store to grab Borax and we will be elbows deep in slime this weekend. 

This morning they posted how to make Glow in the Dark Food, Magic Milk Colors and Giant Bubbles.  If crafts aren't your thing, check out their awesome tips and recipes for packing Super School Lunches and great On-the-Go Breakfasts. Or just ignore all the handy kid stuff and make yourself a big bowl of Garlic Artichoke Dip and the Pretzel Turtles to celebrate the fact that your kids are back in school. 

Astro the Steller Sea Lion

Sylvan Dell Publishing

Jeanne Harvey; Illustrations by Shennen Bersani

Steller Sea Lions are a threatened species that live in the northern Pacific.  Stellar means outstanding, immense or a star performer. Astro fits both of these definitions, so he's actually a stellar Steller sea lion! This is a very real story about a sea lion rescue that has been beautifully illustrated and adapted into a picture book.   

A scientist found young Astro, separated from his mother, on an island off the coast of California. He was much too young (he still had part of his umbilical cord attached) to survive alone, so he became a pampered guest at The Marine Mammal Center. There he was nursed back to health, literally, fed from a baby bottle filled with a herring/salmon oil/whipped cream smoothie.  I know, blech, but not for a sea lion.

When Astro reached ten months of age, he was returned to the ocean. Unfortunately, nobody asked Astro's thoughts about this plan. After each release, of which there were several, he doggedly managed to find his way back to the Center. His friends there were terribly sad when they realized he had been rescued too young and had grown attached to humans. Because Astro would be unable to adapt to the wild, a permanent home was found for him at the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut.   

The illustrations in this book are so very realistic that I had to study them quite closely before I was sure they really were drawings and not photographs. I know that seems dim-witted, but they really are that good.  This is a wonderful story of how humans go the distance to help animals and ensure they are (or in this case, are not) able to survive on their own after human intervention.  The last four pages of the book comprise an educational section with great technical information on Steller Sea Lions, including maps and a life cycle.  I like that this an interesting story that is wrapped up with some useful methods of teaching children more about this species - very useful!    

Watch a short video to see the real Astro in action at his permanent home.  He looks pretty content, doesn't he?  



Review copy provided by Sylvan Dell Publishing. 

Announcing the Roald Dahl Dahlathon

September is Roald Dahl Month!

You have to be really special to get your own month, and Roald Dahl definitely was.  His books are far too numerous to list here (check his website for full list) but my favorites include The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, The Twits, and Matilda. To borrow a word, Roald Dahl was absolutely splendiferous and produced some of the books I am most excited to share with my children. 

To kick off the month long celebration, sign up to participate in the Roald Dahl Reading Challenge.  It works like this: Read any three of Dahl's stories between now and December. Download a Dahlathon Official Reading Journal here.  Then mail in your entry form! The first 1,000 participants will receive an Official Reading Dahlathon Medal and the first 5,000 will receive a Reading Dahlathon Certificate. Whatever your participant number, the real treat is reading more Roald Dahl!    

My Best Friend is as Sharp as a Pencil

 

Random House

Hanoch Piven

It seems like children have already headed back to school this week in many states, though not here in Michigan.  We start back after Labor Day so we can snatch those last few tourism dollars. Even still, we are still being hit with back to school fever, hitting the school supply sales for fifteen cents notebooks and quarter glue sticks. Hanoch Piven puts those school supplies to use in a whole new fashion, making up all sorts of funny classroom portraits.    

The main character of this book, a little girl, grows a bit weary of her grandma's incessant questions about school.  Instead of giving the same old boring answers, she decides to spice it up a bit with some unique homemade illustrations.  She gathers up all sorts of supplies from around the house that exemplify the people in her life. 

On each page, she answers one of her grandma's questions by describing who she will be illustrating by naming their characteristics and laying out the supplies she will be using. With a flip of a page, we see the assembled creation!  We loved looking at the finished projects and noting where she used each piece.  Magnifying glasses become eyeglasses, a handful of colored pencils are transformed into a wild hairstyle, and walnuts form a turtle shell. 

This is the sort of book that strikes me as being incredibly clever. Kids can learn how to apply descriptive adjectives - happy as a balloon, graceful as a ballet slipper, etc, to the people in their own lives.  Plus, there is a great use of color, so the outcome is a really happy, imaginative type of book.  We loved it! 

But when the author's previous book was "My Dog is as Smelly as Socks" - we knew to expect good things. Hanoch Piven has received countless portraits from classrooms all over the world that have been inspired by his collage portraits.  His artwork has appeared in the New York times, Entertainment Weekly, and Rolling Stone.

Review copy provided by Random House.