Senor Parrot's Perch

Jack and the Night Visitors by Pat Schories is single-handed proof that a picture is worth 1,ooo words. This wordless book for young children, preschool through early grades, tells the story of Jack and his boy and their visitation by alien robots late one night. The drawings are amazingly expressive and full of fun and humor. It’s wordless, so there’s nothing to read, but there are endless details to the story to point to and talk about. Older kids will be fascinated by how small changes in the details of the drawings of the robots alter their expressions from joy to fear. Expect lots of cute robot pictures after reading this one with your child.

Wakened by a light from outside, Jack and his boy rush to the window to find a small spaceship landing on the roof. Out spill dozens of tiny robots eager to explore the boy’s room. It’s a frolicking party until the boy decides to keep one of the robots for himself.

It’s wordless, so there’s nothing to read, but there are endless details to the story to point to and talk about. Older kids will be fascinated by how small changes in the details of the drawings of the robots alter their expressions from joy to fear. It’s safe to say you should expect lots of cute robots in your kid’s pictures after they’ve read this book.

Pat Schories is the illustrator to the children’s favorite Bisquit series, which is authored by Alyssa Capucilli. Other Jack books by Schories include Breakfast for Jack, Jack and the Missing Piece, and Jack Wants a Snack.

Jack and the Night Visitors illustrations from Pat Schories’ Website.

Birds

by Kevin Henkes
illustrated by Laura Dronzek

Published by Greenwillow Books, 2009
ISBN: 978-0061363047

Birds is an excellent new picture book by well known and loved children’s and YA author Kevin Henkes, and illustrated by Laura Droznek, his wife. Henkes and Droznek previously collaborated 10 years ago on their book Oh!

Henkes‘ text and Droznek‘s illustrations mesh perfectly in this beautiful book which is told from the perspective of a young girl. The text is simple, straightforward, and witty. The illustrations remarkably express and expand everything that is written. When I was reading this book to my youngest daughter tonight as I was putting her to bed, I wondered how someone other than Henkes himself could express through the illustrations the book so well. Learning just this evening that Henkes and Droznek are married explains a lot.

I quickly searched the internet looking for more pictures from the book so I could show just how beautiful it is, but I couldn’t find any other than the cover and these two. When you’re in the bookstore, look for Birds and turn inside to the pages where the text reads:

If clouds were birds,
the sky would look like this.
Or this.

The illustrations for these two pages are exquisite; I want them for my wall.

Droznek has also illustrated several books by George Shannon.

Mother Osprey: Nursery Rhymes for Buoys and Gulls

By Lucy Nolan

Illustrated by Connie McLennan

ISBN: 978-1-934359-96-9
Published by Sylvan-Dell Publishing, emphasizing Science and Math through Literature

Twinkle, twinkle, starfish dear,
hiding in the shallows here.
Just beneath the waves you lie,
like a star tossed from the sky
Twinkle, twinkle, starfish dear,
hiding in the shallows here.

Mother Osprey: Nursery Rhymes for Buoys and Gulls, written by Lucy Nolan and illustrated by Connie McLennan, is a collection of� fun and entertaining parodies of many favorite Mother Goose nursery rhymes. But the rhymes inside Mother Osprey are parodies with purpose. Math and counting skills, science and history are all lessons taught in these poems.� Don’t think “Boring” when you see that this book teaches hard subjects like math or science. The rhymes and illustrations are pure enjoyment in themselves.

Most of Lucy Nolan’s rhymes are pure silly fun that kids will enjoy listening to over and over and even memorizing; the rest vividly illustrate a point in time from history. An appendix in the back adds more facts and explanations that the parent or teacher can use to draw young listeners further into a teaching moment. A map shows where each of the habitats is located.

Twinkle,� Twinkle starfish dear, quoted above, places the starfish in its natural habitat and opens up rich opportunities for discussing the shallows and beaches along a rocky coast. What other animals life nearby? What do they eat? What eats them?

But Lobster Pies is just plain silly:

Old Mrs. Wise
made lobster pies all on a winter’s day;
her greedy son
grabbed every one
and took them clean away.

What a surprise
for Junior Wise
lay inside that croaker sack.
When he sat on a bench
to eat a pinch,
the lobster pies pinched back!

Nursery rhymes satisfy at many levels: they’re great fun to listen to, with their rhymes and the rhythm of their meter. They’re pleasing for the strength of their imagery. They easily capture a child’s imagination, slipping into their memories and never losing their ability to bring enjoyment. Children seem to never tire of repeating them over and over and the verses are a natural invitation to singing. Nursery rhymes teach children language skills and the repetition packs information into their young, developing brains and they help develop their ears for word use and phrasing.

Mother Osprey is a perfect gift for your child or your child’s classroom teacher, whether in preschool, kindergarten, or the early grades. The rhymes are a perfect starter to get children to focus on some part of the environment, or a place. They introduce elements of nature in an interesting way, which leads naturally to a discussion of what is in the rhyme.

The Book Smugglers reviewed Rapunzel’s Revenge today, and as is usual with them, their review was thorough and excellent, and they loved it. (Here’s the link to my review of Rapunzel’s Revenge). Reading their review, they let it be known that Team Hale (Shannon Hale, her husband Dean Hale, and not-at-all related Nathan Hale) have competed their sequel, Calamity Jack.

Oooohh, I thought, as my oldest daughter wandered into the kitchen for breakfast while I was reading The Book Smugglers’ review, she’ll will be excited to know about this! So I tell her, with an excited tone, and show her the cover image The Book Smugglers had posted. “Oh yeah, I knew”, she says. “How did you hear?”, says I. “I heard it a long time ago. I’ve known about that for a long time.”

Well, it didn’t really burn my toast, but I do hate being the last to know. (So, do I tell her that the newest graphic novel in the Kat & Mouse series, �Kat & Mouse Volume 4 (Kat and Mouse (Graphic Novels)),� is out in September? She’s been waiting for over a year and given up hope.)

Anyway, if you haven’t read Shannon Hale’s (and team Hale’s, to keep it short) graphic novel, Rapunzel’s Revenge, go out and get it today. It’s really aimed mostly at girls, but boys might get a few kicks out of it, too.

And here is a bit of the lowdown from the publisher on Calamity Jack, this snagged from The Book Smugglers review:

Jack thinks of himself as a criminal mastermind with an unfortunate amount of bad luck. A schemer, a trickster �maybe even a thief? But, of course, he�s not out for himself he�s trying to take the burden off his hardworking mum�s shoulders. She�d understand, right? He hopes she might even be proud. Then, one day, Jack chooses a target a little more ��giant� than the usual, and as one little bean turns into a great big building-destroying beanstalk, his troubles really begin. But with help from Rapunzel and other eccentric friends, Jack just might out-swindle the evil giants and put his beloved city back in the hands of the people who live there �whilst catapulting them and the reader into another fantastical adventure.

The Midwest Bookseller Association is made up of 240 or so independent, local booksellers. Annually they vote for their favorites in several categories. Today they’ve announced their award winners. Always, these are excellent picks.

At the awards dinner, to be held late this September, there are usually autographed copies available to the member booksellers. If you want to get your hands on one of these, go to your local bookseller, not Barnes and Noble, Borders, or other national chains, and find out if they’re members of the Midwest Booksellers Association and if they are going to attend the fall trade show in St. Paul, Minnesota this year. Ask, beg, or whine if they can get an autographed copy for you-you’ll need to pay, of course. They may even take your own copy to get it signed. Local booksellers are the best. In Madison, I like Booked For Murder.

These are their choices for this year:

2009 AWARD WINNERS

Fiction

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

David Wroblewski
(Ecco/HarperCollins)

Nonfiction

Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs and Parenting

Michael Perry
(HarperCollins)

Poetry

Swimming With A Hundred Year Old Snapping Turtle

Freya Manfred
(Red Dragonfly Press)

Children’s Picture Book

Louise, The Adventures of a Chicken

Kate DiCamillo, Illustrated by Harry Bliss
(Joanna Cotler Books/HarperCollins)

Children’s Literature

The Graveyard Book

Neil Gaiman, Illustrated by Dave McKean
(HarperCollins Children’s Books)

2009 HONOR BOOKS

Fiction

A Reliable Wife

Robert Goolrick
(Algonquin Books/Workman Publishing)

Nonfiction

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

Vicki Myron with Bret Witter
(Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Group USA)

Poetry

Yellowrocket

Todd Boss
(W.W. Norton & Company)

Children’s Picture Book

Snow

Cynthia Rylant, Illustrated by Lauren Stringer
(Harcourt Children’s Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Children’s Literature

Savvy

Ingrid Law
(Dial Books for Young Readers/Walden Media/
Penguin Group (USA)

Pelican’s Catch (Smithsonian Oceanic Collection)

By Janet Halfmann,

Illustrated by Bob Dacey and Debra Bandelin

Pelican’s Catch (Smithsonian Oceanic Collection) traces a single day in the life of a young brown pelican. Having just learned to fly, the 11-week old pelican awakens and joins a group of pelicans that are flying overhead on their way to catch their breakfast. Brown Pelican still has a lot to learn, diving over and over into the clear blue ocean that surrounds the mangrove tree island where it lives before it gains its first catch.

Along the way, Halfmann depicts the life of a brown pelican very well. She has written this nonfiction book in a story format which allows her to show the bird’s habitat, social life, physical characteristics and behavior withinin the interesting narrative arc of a single day. The facts about the bird aren’t presented as scientific data, but rather as the features and elements of this bird and its environment.

The illustrations by Bob Dacey and Debra Bandelin are superb. The birds soar and dive with so much life and drama. And the final page is enough to make you quit your job and move to Puerto Rico. Say- I do have a friend from Puerto Rico. I’ve met some of his family that live there. Maybe, just maybe, I could do a bit of couch surfing until I can find a job on a boat down there.

I first learned about this book through a review on someone’s blog. I really don’t recall whose it was, but it may have been this review over at The Well Read Child. It does look familiar. I checked out some of the other spots that review science and nonfiction regularly and found this excellent interview with author Janet Halfmann over at Lori Calabrese’s blog Lori Calabrese Writes! I was unfamiliar with Janet Halfmann before reading this book. But now, after reading Lori’s interview with her, I’m looking for more of Janet Halfmann’s books.

The Warlord’s Puzzle

The Warlord’s Beads

The Warlord’s Fish

The Warlord’s Messengers (Warlords)

The Warlord’s Alarm, A Mathematical Adventure

Children’s Books by Virginia Walton Pilegard
Illustrated by Nicolas Debon

Also in the series, The Warlord’s Puppeteers and The Warlord’s Kites, which I haven’t read.

Powerful, rich and proud, the Warlord always seems to find himself in a bind. Young Chuan somehow always gets him out with one sort of invention or another, and always with good, old fashioned clever thinking. Always using his brain, Chuan, and sometimes with the help of his friend Jing Jing, solves every problem using mathematical or scientific principals learned illustrated in another context.

These books are very fun to read. Despite the “Warlord” in every book, there is no violence, except in one, where the young boy, Chuan, and the artist to whom he is apprenticed are kidnapped. Each book emphasizes problem solving, which makes them ideal for stimulating younger students eager to learn. They would also make a great supplement for learning about ancient Chinese culture since they are set in feudal China. At the end of each book, author Virginia Walton Pilegard shows how the Chinese really did use solutions similar to Chuan’s and she includes a fun craft or other activity for kids that applies the same science. The publisher also has study guides available at their website.

Study Guides:
The Warlord’s Beads
The Warlord’s Fish
The Warlord’s Kites
The Warlord’s Puppeteers
The Warlord’s Puzzle

I had some hum-drum work to do so I fired up iTunes to listen to some podcasts while I hum-drummed along. From Just One More Book podcasts about kids books, I saw that they too had just reviewed You Never Heard of Sandy Koufax?!
These guys sound Canadian, ay!

They really liked it, too. Even more than me, by the enthusiastic sounds in their voices. And they really loved artist Andre Carrilho’s illustrations.

My review from this morning is over here.

You Never Heard of Sandy Koufax?!

Author: Jonah Winter

Illustrated by Andre Carrilho

When I was a kid, Sandy Koufax was greatest pitcher in the game. He threw harder, faster and better than anyone else playing at the time, or since, or before. It was still the good old days of sports, when we talked about great athletes instead of doping scandals. So I was excited to find You Never Heard of Sandy Koufax?!, a great children’s book about that great baseball player.

This book provides a glimpse into Sandy Koufax’s life during his brief athletic career. A natural athlete, Koufax started attracting attention for his pitching when �he was still a teen. His amazing pitching speed won him a birth with the Brooklyn Dodgers, later the Los Angeles Dodgers, after they moved.

Koufax was not an immediate success. His pitched erratically and he lacked the control to consistently pitch in the strike zone. It was some time before he displayed the greatness that he would later achieve. What happened? How did Koufax develop into one of the greatest pitchers who ever played the game of baseball? No one knows for sure, but one day, after walking four batters in a row to fill the bases, he transformed in an instant, and struck out all the remaining batters and from that minute on he became perhaps the greates pitcher of all time.

Koufax is also famous for his integrity and character. A Jew, he refused to play a game in the world series because it fell on a Jewish holy day. This honorable act showed he truly held the convictions of his faith, putting it before everything else. Nowadays, that level of commitment to one’s beliefs is so rare and almost strange to see. Personally, I find it extremely noteworthy and admirable and it reminds me of�Eric Henry Liddell, the amazing athlete from Scotland who ran for England in the 1924 Olympics, who also put his faith and convictions before personal ambitions (see the great movie Chariots of Fire for a glimpse of Eric Liddel).

This book is also noteworthy for some great illustration. It’s really a picture book as much as a biography. Some of the illustrations remind me of renaissance religious paintings. The illustrations frequently emphasize oversized stylized heads, but also offer some great perspectives and convey the strength, motion and grace of baseball. You Never Heard of Sandy Koufax?! is a must read for your young baseball fans. Adults will enjoy it as well. And if they are around my age or older, they can enjoy recalling the glory days of the sport when character still counted for more than winning, and athletes won without drugs.

Here’s another bio of Koufax. I haven’t read this one yet, but I recall that it was very well received. Sandy Koufax, by Jane Leavy is aimed at the Young Adult and older crowd.

“Before Anyone had heard of Black Beard, Long John Silver, or Calico Jack, there was a pirate named ROGER.”

So begins Roger, the Jolly Pirate, a children’s book written and illustrated by Brett Helquist. Roger was not your scariest pirate, not by a long shot. Instead of a parrot screeching “pieces of eight!”, a chicken perched on his shoulder. He was too happy, too. Never a cause for alarm, his shipmates disparagingly named him “Jolly Roger”.

But one day, as his shipmates battle for their lives, Roger is confined below decks. To win the crews approval he bakes a cake using anything and everything he could find. His plan works, though the way he had planned.

Helquist does a good job here. His story is as silly as his illustrations. This is a good book to read aloud to your young pirates or for your older crew in the early grades to read to themselve – but only if they like to laugh aloud.