Crow

Clavis

Leo Timmers

If it wouldn't completely destroy it, I would just tear this book apart in seconds. Not because I don't care for it, but because I would absolutely love to have some of these illustrations framed and hung on my walls. Leo Timmers is such a genius with his illustrations.  Gimme, gimme. Ah, well, I couldn't destroy a book with such a cute story behind these wonderful illustrations, so we'll move onto that.

Crow is a friendly, fun bird. In spite of his personality, he is also one of the loneliest birds around.  Sure, he's as friendly as they come, but the other birds won't get close enough to discover that for themselves. Crow sports jet black feathers, with a very large, curved black beak, black legs and a tuft of black feathers at the tip of his noggin. The other birds are positive that a creature as dark as this must have a black heart to match, and so they flee from him with pounding hearts.   

Crow feels sad and depressed about his appearance, so he hatches a plan and quickly gathers the necessary supplies. He paints his feathers blue and yellow so that he looks just like a finch! When that fails, Crow breaks out the pail of green and becomes a parakeet. And finally, he uses gray and pink to make himself look like a chickadee. With each new bird "costume" the other birds still flee.  Poor Crow cries so hard that all the paint washes clear away.

Now that he has returned to his usual black visage, the other birds flock to him ... to say thanks. They are grateful that his grim appearance chased away "that hideous chickadee, that scary parakeet and that creepy finch."  Crow's plan did work, in a roundabout way.

So, yes, in addition to the loveliness of the art, there are several good messages wrapped up in here. The big weeping bird is a great way to get across that you can't always judge a person (bird) by their appearance. A second point is that there's no point in trying to make yourself be someone you're not.  Morals, lessons, awesome illustrated birds, what else could you ask for?


Review copy provided by Clavis. 

A Garden for Pig

Kane Miller 

Kathryn K. Thurman;Illustrated by Lindsay Ward

Pig lives on a very lush and picturesque apple farm. The farmer, Mrs. Pippens, loves her apple orchard and subsequently, Pig is the recipient of all sorts of apple dishes. She happily serves up applesauce, apple pie, baked apples, and apple flambe. I love that Mrs. Pippens is the farmer and not cast in the traditional role of farmer's wife.

When we first see him, Pig looks happy enough, standing ankle deep in his mud pit with a small smile on his face and a curl in his tail.  On the very next page, Mrs. Pippins is hard at work in her kitchen surrounded by bushels of apples, and that pig's tune sure has changed.  He has his arms (front legs?) crossed, his eyebrows are furrowed and he looks downright cross. Apparently Pig has had it up to here with the apple dishes. Poor Pig longs for ... vegetables.

Since the farmer will not change the feed, the pig alone must take charge of his own diet.  He breaks into the vegetable garden and eats like, well, a pig, until he is discovered.  Mrs. Pippens returns him to the pigpen and resumes serving apple dishes.  Pig cannot escape the confines of his pen and suddenly realizes that he has the ability to grow his own veggies. The way Pig manages to get seeds into his garden (in a very natural way) made the kids listening to the story practically roll on the ground with laughter.

I just plain love the illustrations. The apple trees are all printed with bits of apple recipes and some of the text has a background that looks like linen. There are lots of colors and patterns, with an overall very welcoming effect.At the very back of the book, there is a small section titled "Pig's Tips for Growing Your Own Organic Garden."  What a nifty idea!



Review copy provided by Kane Miller. 

Just One Bite

 

Chronicle Books

Lola Schaefer; Illustrated by Geoff Waring

I love that this book stands out right off the bat, due to the extreme size. I know we have some large books, but this one seems enormous at 12" x 12" - larger than any other children's books currently on our bookshelves. For some reason, it's just plain fun to read a really large book.     

And just why is this book so large? It has to be big to cover the life size bites of eleven animals!  It isn't just small animals that put in an appearance - the big guys like the Komodo dragon and black bear show up and really take over the pages. Before we get to them, we start off tiny, with how much dirt a worm can eat with just one scoop.  It builds up from there, to how much nectar one butterfly can sip, to how many beetles a frog can flick.  We work our way through medium and large animals, all the way to the sperm whale.  And that life size bite is so large that the page has to open up to accommodate the giant meal.

I have always loved oversized books, just for the pure novelty.  This one is especially enjoyable because all that page room is put to good use demonstrating the actual size of foodstuff in nature. I think sometimes it is hard for kids (and adults alike) to imagine the size of things they read about. This book is wonderful, as they can hold up their own hands for comparison to really get a handle on the sizes.  The giraffe's head only partially fit on the page, but we were able to compare his big eye to ours.  The elephant's lunch was about the size of a child's whole head!  This book gives a great perspective into the lives of eleven amazing animals!


Review copy provided by Chronicle Books. 

More Bears!

Sourcebooks

Kenn Nesbitt; Illustrations by Troy Cummings

When More Bears! showed up in our mailbox, I was a titch reluctant to open it because of how highly I rate Kenn Nesbitt's poetry books. What if his first crack at a picture book didn't measure up? Yeah, that was a complete waste of a good worry. Kenn is brilliant about knowing what children will like and being able to insert just the right amount of wackiness. It follows that his picture book is hilarious.

This is actually a story about an author who is in the process of writing a story. It's a lovely story and very specific about the fact that it does not contain a single bear; there are no bears and there will not be any bears. The author is working away on his bearless story, when he hears "More bears!!" called out several times. He is compelled to add one bear just so he can continue working, but that one bear will not stop the demands. More and more bears are added until the story is so full that bears are falling off the pages.   
 
So yes, the concept is funny.  Obviously the title of the book is also the catchphrase - repeated page after page. It's perfect, as kids catch on quickly and really get into it.  I can only imagine how popular this would be read aloud to a large group. But it is the bears themselves that had us laughing. Bears named Captain Picklehead, Bobcat Sam, and Excellent Steve. We cracked up every time a new bear entered the scene. Our personal favorite was the bear named Elbow, who wore his underpants on the outside of his pants.

Not to give away the ending, but my six year old asked "Will there be a sequel, called More Chickens!!?" I would love nothing more than to see Kenn and Troy collaborate again and give us more hilarious picture books!

Review copy provided by Sourcebooks.