Wabi Sabi

It's Caldecott/Newbery time again. Here is my pick to win the Caldecott this year. Wabi Sabi, by Mark Reibstein and illustrated by Ed Young, is clever in both word and image (though for the award the committee must think only about image).

The book is verticle, which makes it difficult to hold open for a long time but is mighty clever. I suppose that is because Japanese is read verticly, isn't it? But the book does read left to right.

Wabi Sabi is the story of a cat with the titular name who goes on a journey to understand it's meaning. It's very complex, so this is definately a book for older readers.

The kicker for me, a fan of haiku, is that there are two poems on each page, one in English and one in Japanese. The translations for the later are in the back and do not adhere to the 5-7-5 format, which is an English adaptation. Both poems are actually part of the story. It's like a Sunday NYT crossword.

Ed Young uses a variety of media, mostly collage. But also photographs, drawings, etc.

All in all and absolutely beautiful book.

We are the Ship

I would be happy if We Are the Ship won, too. Kadir Nelson is quickly becoming a favorite artist. He got a nod last year, but theoretically that shouldn't matter.

More later.

He's Got the Whole World in His Hands

Okay, it's time for one of those gratuitous dad posts. Our little girl's world has been pretty small thus far, but it's getting bigger all of the time. She's meeting more kids and adults, and she's just beginning to learn how to get along without Mama or Daddy. The little milestones that occur each day make me very emotional. I want to absorb everything for her, but I can't. I'm thankful that I know she has someone bigger than me holding onto her.

I'm talking about this after taking another look at Kadir Nelson's He's Got the Whole World in His Hands. It's such a beautiful book. I'm going to be keeping my eye out for this illustrator.

Amazing scenes of a family interacting with their world accompany the familiar song. We start big with a view of the heavens, then the San Francisco skyline at daybreak, then right to a boy holding a picture he drew of his family. "He's got my brothers and my sisters in His hands." It just gets better from there.

I highly recommend this inspiring book to all families.

Here's our little one out in the great, big world. As my grandmother used to pray over me, "Be round about her, Lord." God be round about you, too.

10 Things I Can Do to Help My World

Unfortunately, when we lost our camera, we hadn't downloaded the photos and videos of Maya playing in and around our new composter (I call it Darth Vader). It's full of scraps now, so we're probably not going to reproduce those. You'll just have to imagine. But here are Maya and I stealing leaves for Lord Vader from Uncle Wade and Auntie Katie when they weren't home (their trees are leafier than ours).



It's hard to imagine that preschoolers could enjoy a book about green living, but Maya really likes 10 Things I Can Do to Help My World, by Melanie Walsh. Some pages are die-cut to entice page-turners like Maya.

The tips are simple, like turning off the water when brushing teeth or making a recycle bin. There are two levels of text. I'll confess we just read the big "I" sentences. But there are short explanations for older kids.

Leonardo the Terrible Monster

Maya's in that cute stage that I think most kids go through. She likes to be startled. On Wednesdays we go to have lunch with Mom at the hospital and are waiting for the elevator, and Maya jumps and squeals when the doors open and someone steps out. The unsuspecting stranger usually gets a big kick out of that.

Another huge one is opening and closing the garage door. We let Maya press the button. She can't quite bring herself to press it all the way in, but when we help her and the door starts to move, she jumps up and down in our arms and yells, "EEE, EEE, EEE, EEE." It's like she's scared and fascinated all at once. We're hoping this isn't a precursor to a fascination with horror flicks.

The monster in Leonardo the Terrible Monster, by "Your Pal" Mo Willems (gotta' like a guy who names himself that for kids), learns that really scaring people is not only hard, it's not as fun. Leonardo is just no good at scaring people. Frankly, they just think he's cute. He doesn't have "1,642 teeth, like Tony." And he isn't tall or weird.

Desperate, Leonardo decides he needs to "find the most scaredy-cat kid in the whole world and scare the tuna salad out of him." He does research until he finds Sam sitting alone. After he gives his best effort until Sam cries, Leonardo feels he has finally done it.

But Sam isn't scared. He's just upset over his mean big brother (which takes a gushing full page of writing to explain). Leonardo decides that "instead of being a terrible monster, he would become a wonderful friend." Of course part of being a good friend is scaring and chasing.

We once saw a video version of Leonardo with Mo Willems doing the narration. With Sesame Street on his resume, you know it's got to be good. Willems' reading style reminds me of Shel Silverstein. I highly recommend seeking it out. Knuffle Bunny was on there, too.

Big Kid Books I'm Reading

Speaking of monsters, there's a big scary librarian in The Legend of Spud Murphy, by Eion Colfer. I've been trying out some more light-hearted books for the Guys Read book club. This one takes just a couple of hours to read, even for me.

The mother of two mischievous boys decides to take them to the library twice a week for three hours. The librarian, Spud Murphy (so named for shooting kids with a spud gun), is notorious for hating children. She forces them to sit on a carpet in the children's section (one tiny bookcase).

When tested, Spud Murphy expertly throws a book stamp across the room and nails the older brother on the head. Scared into submission, the boys at first pretend to read books, then accidentally start to really read them. Turns out they love books. When they exhaust the children's collection, they go for an adult shelf (in Indiana Jones fashion).

Spud catches them, and at first she is livid. But when she realizes why they disobeyed, she realizes she has strayed from her calling, lets them take home the book (a romance novel-they were desperate), and vows to improve the children's collection.

I was at a training session for book club leaders, and the facilitator was describing some of the extra things he did to make the clubs more fun. I began daydreaming of having a contest to see who could accurately throw a book stamp across a room at a drawing of a boy on big paper. Just then the facilitator switched to talking about discipline. He said, "One hard, fast rule is absolutely no throwing things." Maybe I'm not the right guy for this job.

Dog Heaven

Today I took an online survey for another stay-at-home dad doing a graduate project. It concerned therapy for children. I was to imagine I have a 7 to 10-year-old child. For which issues would I consider having the child see a therapist. I answered no to the first few and worried that I would answer no to all of them (I also worried about how long the survey would be, because then I had to answer the 'why not' questions). I'm not inclined to consider professional therapy, I guess, because it's always seemed like a pretty severe solution to the things we go through in life. But a few of the situations got me thinking. There are some things I haven't encountered that Maya hopefully won't either, but should she, she may need some outside help. It was quite thought-provoking.

I like to think that books are good therapy, too. I've heard it's a good idea to read books to prepare children for difficult times in life well before they actually occur. They open the door for conversations about things like the family pet passing, or grandparents, or parents, or a friend. Then perhaps they may be prepared.

Dog Heaven, by Cynthia Rylant, and it's companion, Cat Heaven, are my favorite books about where pets go when they die. Heaven for dogs is just what the name implies-perfect. God knows what dogs need and enjoy, and he provides for them.

There are endless fields in which to run, ponds with geese to bark at, and children. There are dog biscuits shaped like cats and soft clouds to sleep on. Dogs without homes on earth are given special homes in heaven. Those that left family behind are given a chance to occasionally check in on them.

I like that God is a kindly old man dressed in farming clothes who enjoys looking after all of the dogs. Dog Heaven places a nice image in your child's imagination, so perhaps they won't miss their beloved so dearly until they meet up again.

Big Kid Books I'm Reading

This summer I'll be facilitating a Guys Read book club for school-aged boys. I've been perusing some great books. Our first is Jackie's Wild Seattle, by Will Hobbs. All the clubs in the system are doing one of his books because at the end of the summer he will be visiting the library.

I wasn't sure how Jackie's Wild Seattle would go over since the protagonist is a 12-year-old girl. We're supposed to look for books with a boy in the lead, but I think the person who chose this one may not have read it. But I think it will be ok. There are so many attention grabbers in here that I don't think the boys will mind.

A brother and sister spend the summer with their uncle in Seattle while their parents travel to Pakistan with Doctors Without Borders. Uncle Neal lost his job as an aeronautics engineer and is volunteering for an animal rescue outfit. But he isn't looking so good.

Shannon and Cody are from Jersey and were there on 9/11. Cody actually saw the second plane and is having trouble coping. When Neal is injured Shannon has to step up and do the rescuing. There is also a troubled boy there who needs a little rescuing too. Through all of this and discovering what is wrong with Uncle Neal, the kids do a lot of growing during that summer.

Jackie's Wild Seattle covers a lot of heavy issues, but I think reluctant readers will enjoy the scenes involving the rescue of wild animals. And the questions about what makes a good person or even a hero will get them thinking.

By the way, if you're in the Twin Cities area and you see a notice for a program by Dakota Wild Animals, I highly recommend that you go. They provide amazing demonstrations.

Smile a Lot!

It's unbelievable sometimes how even the smallest babies can have such adult-like looks on their faces. Maya can go from looking so serious and plaintive to wild-eyed in an instance. We're especially wary of this mischievous look she gets when getting out of the car. Wondering what that could turn into.

Nancy Carlson gives some great advice to kids in Smile a Lot! She presents a number of situations that could lend themselves to sour faces, but shows how smiling through it can turn that situation around for the better.

"When Mom makes oatmeal with prunes for breakfast...Smile a lot! And ask if you can help her make chocolate chip pancakes tomorrow." But this doesn't mean you can't be a little mischievous. "Then figure out what to do with your oatmeal." (Like feed it to the baby).

If bullies are hogging the swings, play on the monkey bars and smile. They'll likely want to switch, leaving the swings to you (Bullies are easily confused).

Follow Carlson's advice, and she guarantees a good day.

When Cats Go Wrong

Ever wonder why people keep cats as pets? I mean all cat-owners like to talk about is how poorly-behaved they are. We were no exception when last we owned a cat. Every book written about cats seems to focus on the trouble they cause. Perhaps it's because we find it so funny.

When Cats Go Wrong, by Norm Hacking and illustrated by Cynthia Nugent, is a musical book about a boy who cannot leave his naughty kitty home alone for a moment. Every time he returns to the house he finds evidence of mischeif.

Everything's in disarray,
It makes me grump and mutter.
There's cat hair on the tablecloth
And tongue marks on the butter.

The boy sings a sad song about all the stress in his life due to his frisky feline. He plays an accordian and bellows out the refrain.

Life with a naughty kitty
Isn't very pretty.
So I sing this mournful song
About when cats go wrong.

You can imagine how the music sounds. But you really don't have to imagine. There is an accompanying CD with the author playing and singing the song for you. The music is a tango, and the artwork is (Hacking tells you so) patterned after posters made by the French artist Lautrec. Pretty classy, but pretty funny.

Big kid books I'm reading

And speaking of funny, I just finished a children's novel called Alcatraz Vs. the Evil Librarians, by Brandon Sanderson. I've told you how librarians love to read books about themselves. Even if the librarians are the evil overlords ruling the world? Even better.

Maybe some of the jokes are funnier to a person working in a library, but I think all Hushlanders (that's you) will find this funny. Get it, HUSHlanders?

Boom Boom Beep Beep Roar!

We've discussed before how making different sounds can actually help infants eventually distinguish words. I can't imagine this is restricted to animal sounds. Babies hear all kinds of sounds throughout their day, and they are all important.

Boom Boom Beep Beep Roar!, by David Diehl, is a board book of pictures and sounds. There is real variety here. The hammer goes Bang Bang, the kitten says Purrr, and the motorcycle says Vroom Vroom. Finally all of this noise wakes the baby, who says Waah.

A good, simple book to share with your baby or toddler. Eventually they can make all of the sounds with you. Be sure when you see one of these things in real life, you point out the sounds they make.

Big kid books I'm reading

I've been reading some very good children's novels lately, and it occurred to me that some of you might be interested in some good books for older kids. I just finished Elijah of Buxton, by Christopher Paul Curtis. This is his third book to be honored by a Newbery committee. In the past The Watsons go to Birmingham also received an honor, and Bud Not Buddy won the medal. He's a wonderful writer with a great voice.

Elijah of Buxton places a fictional young man in a real place, a settlement of free-blacks in Canada near the Michigan border where runaway slaves could go for refuge. Elijah is the first free-born citizen in Buxton. He is sensitive, which troubles his parents, but he is also very resourceful.

Elijah becomes involved in a life-or-death situation attempting to help a friend free his family and has to steel up his courage to do something great. I highly recommend it, or any of Curtis' other books.

Museum Trip

Museum Trip, by Barbara Lehman, is a wordless book with a great deal of mystery and a surprise ending. No small feat, eh?

A school group is visiting the museum. While tying his shoe, one boy is separated from the group. Wondering through the museum's halls, he comes upon a closed door. Through the door he finds a small room with a display case containing six small mazes. After a look of surprise comes across his face, he finds he is in the display, standing at the edge of the first maze.

He finds the center of that maze, and the next, and the next, until he reaches a stout tower at the end of the last maze. Inside a medal is placed around his neck by a figure off the page. Returning to normal size, he once again finds his class. Leaving the museum, we see that the boy is perhaps not the only person to have made the discovery.

Remember, all of this is told without words. The characters are drawn in a Sunday comics style, so the facial features are done simply. But with that Lehman creates some subtly distinct expressions. She also uses white space very well. In fact, the cover of the book is mostly white.

Museum Trip would be a nice book for young grade-schoolers to explore and use their imaginations. Or for a parent and smaller child to explore together. Which brings up our...

Early Literacy Tip of the Day

Have your child point out pictures in a newspaper, book, or magazine and describe what is happening in the pictures. An old favorite book that I think is great for this type of exercise because it adds a few words to tantalize you is The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, by Chris Van Allsburg.

This is from the Minnesota Parent Center (www.pacer.org/mpc)

Zen Shorts

In Zen Shorts, Jon J. Muth distills two Zen Buddhist and one Taoist tale into short, gentle stories for small children.

Stillwater, a panda bear, moves into the neighborhood of Michael, Addy and Karl. Each one of the brothers and sister visit Stillwater on a different day, and each one hears a story. Addy hears the story of Uncle Ry, who surprises a robber by offering him a gift. Michael hears the story of a farmer who knows that good and bad luck may go together. And Karl hears the story of a monk who knows not to carry the burden of anger.

The stories cause you to contemplate, which I suppose is the point. They are gentle reminders that we can live outside of our natural tendencies. Zen Shorts leaves you with a sense of peace, which sounds a bit trite, but I say whatever helps me stop for a moment to think is a blessing. I'd be very curious though how older children receive these types of stories.

The artwork is a lovely combination of traditional and modern. Each tale is in black ink on a different colored backdrop, while the larger story is in beautiful watercolors. Muth received a Caldecott Honor for the art, and you'll understand why when you see it.

There is an information page at the back which lends a little more insight into the tale. You find that the panda's name, Stillwater, refers to looking at the reflection of the moon in still water. I think the title, Zen Shorts, could refer to the fact that there are short tales within the book, or to the fact that the panda bear is wearing shorts on the cover.

Someday

Here is another of those sweet, gentle books. Put Someday, by Alison Mcghee and illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds, on your list of gift books for new parents, especially new moms with a baby girl.

The book spans the life of a daughter, from birth to old age. The mother of a school-age girl first reminisces about her daughter as a baby and toddler, first snows and holding hands while crossing the street.

She goes on to contemplate the changes her daughter will likely experience in life, the first time she experiences sorrow and her world getting bigger as she goes off to university. She imagines one day her daughter may have a little girl of her own, and when the daughter's hair begins to gray, she will remember her mother.

Mcghee and Reynolds (an author also) know how to create touching, memorable books. This is a good example.

I'm going to add the label parent. I'll look back for others. This is also a great book to read with your daughter.

Santa's Eleven Months Off

Ever wonder what Santa Claus does the rest of the year? Mike Reiss tells us in Santa's Eleven Months Off, illustrated by Michael G. Montgomery.

Apparently Santa can get all his work done in one month, though he does burn a couple of his free months preparing, going to classes and resting. Other months he does sumo wrestling, watches the reindeer olympics, and even does a little super spying for the government. There is also a nice parody of Singing in the Rain.

Each month gets a short poem whose meter usually holds true. That makes a bit of a long book so this one is more for kindergarten and up. I should also mention there are two references to the jolly old elf's posterior, so be warned.

Library Lion

Like most library people, there's nothing that will get my attention more than a book about libraries or librarians. I'm not sure whether so many authors write books with 'library' or 'librarian' in the title because they probably like libraries (being book people after all) or because they figure every library in the country will order at least one copy. We're narcicists, even if the title isn't flattering like Here Lies the Librarian or Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians.

But it's not just librarians who love Library Lion, by Michelle Knudsen and illustrated by Kevin Hawkes. This book was given to Maya a few months back by her honorary sister Maria, who loves it dearly as well.

A lion wonders into a very traditional library and, what do you know, likes storytime. The very traditional librarians decide he can attend storytime as long as he obeys the rules, like no roaring. By and by he becomes very useful and very popular at the library. When an emergancy arises, even though his roar saves the day, he leaves because he knows he has broken the rules. Luckily the rules are amended.

This is such a touching story. The dreamy pictures of the mild lion interacting with children will warm your heart, if not your kids'. One librarian I work with has been reading Library Lion to visiting school groups, and says they are absolutely enthralled no matter the grade. Highly recommended for kids of all ages. Roar.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

And the winner is....

The Caldecott Awards have been announced. The winner is not really a picture book, but I like it immensely, so I'm going to bend the rules today. The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick, is really a novel, but most of the pages are illustrations, causing a great deal of discussion as to whether it qualifies for the Caldecott, the Newbery, both, or neither.

Hugo Cabret is an orphan who lives in the walls of a train station. He maintains the station's clocks, his uncle's job until he disappeared without anybody knowing. He has an automaton, a mechanical robot (not a computer) that, when turned on, draws an elaborate picture. He meets a sad old toy maker and a nice young girl, and after a series of misunderstandings and revelations, finds that all of their lives are connected. Silent film plays an important role in both the story and illustrations.

In between periodic bunches of text, there are pages and pages of gorgeous ink sketches that you mustn't rush over. A great portion of the story happens in the pictures, which are so unbelievably creative. It's a very thick book, but don't let that scare you. For those of you with school-age children, it won't take that long to read, depending upon how much time you spend pouring over the illustrations.

There were four honor books, two of which we've mentioned previously:

Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad, illustrated by Kadir Nelson, written by Ellen Levine
First the Egg by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtin by Peter Sís
Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity by Mo Willems

Go out and get them at your library while you can. Until tomorrow.

June 29, 1999

Aneesa says that June 29, 1999, by David Wiesner, will inspire Maya to be a gardener and a scientist. Hopefully Maya doesn't set her sights on growing mega-ton broccoli. Holly Evans plants seeds in starter pots and sets them aloft with balloons to see what effect "extraterestrial conditions" will have on them before they return to the ground several weeks later. Well, several weeks later giant vegetables descend upon the Earth. There is a twist after Holly, a good scientist who keeps accurate data, notices some of the giant vegetables weren't among her specimens.

Wiesner's imagination is weird and wonderful, and his watercolor art is beautiful. There are a lot of details on each page to be talked about. Check out the headlines Holly is pasting into her scrapbook.

Aneesa talked quite a bit in her post about the importance of reading to even the youngest children, even before they really understand. Libraries like mine also spend a lot of effort trying to get this message out and support parents. I guess I had taken for granted that pretty much everyone has heard this by now. However, at Christmas when we put books on Maya's Christmas list, we got a couple of surprised responses, family members wondering why we would want books for Maya. After all, she can't read.

So let's keep getting the message out there. Thanks, Aneesa.

Jabberwocky

I bet you're all wondering how well I predicted the outcomes of tonight's mock Caldecott discussion. I'll go from worst to most like Nostradamus:

1. I couldn't even predict my own voting. I voted in this order: Jabberwocky, Cowboy and Octopus, and At Gleason's Gym. First the Egg didn't even make it. But in fairness I hadn't seen At Gleason's Gym until tonight (same for At Night).

2. Peter Sis was only an Honor Book. Yo, Jo! won.

3. I totally called Cowboy and Octopus. Everyone raved about it in the discussion then didn't vote for it. I found out that Jon Scieszka has been nominated the first Ambassador for Young People's Literature by the Library of Congress. I'm not sure what that means but here's the press release:

http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2008/08-001.html

Keep in mind I'm merely talking about a mock committee in the Twin Cities. The real Caldecott Award will be announced this coming Monday morning, and there's no way to know what books they're even considering. I'll let you know if you don't catch the announcement on NPR.

All right, Jabberwocky, by Christopher Myers. This is a book for older kids, so I had sort of blocked it out the other night. Patty was actually more excited about it than I was, because I'm only vaguely familiar with the poem. Patty remembers it very well.

The others in the group added a lot of context for me, showing that Myers does a great job of picturing the classic poem with its made-up words as a game of schoolyard one-on-one. The art is beautiful and surreal, changing perspectives on nearly every page. On one page the basketball looks normal carried under the Jabberwocky's arm. On the cover he holds it like a small stone. On another page it's merely a dot on his massive palm.

Christopher Myers is the son of Walter Dean Myers, who has written more wonderful books for kids and teens than I can count. The son has done a lot of work with his father, but is making his own name lately.

So I may not read this one to Maya, but she's really still in the board book stage anyway. When we read picture books, half the fun is trying to keep her from destroying a library book. Her goal seems to be to tear the slip jacket from every hardcover in the house. Yesterday she took a book off her little bookcase and, before I could get to her, removed two pages. I didn't think she could do that.

How about next year we do a mock Caldecott online?