The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

Booklist (July 2012 (Vol. 108, No. 21))


Grades 1-3. First it was an Academy Award–winning animated short. Then it was an intuitively interactive iPad story app. And now it’s a regular old book, which is fitting given that the story is all about the lasting power of books to transport and nourish the soul. Our hero is a bibliophile modeled after legendary children’s-literature advocate William Morris (in spirit) and Buster Keaton (in looks), whose gray-colored world is colorized when he sees a woman fly past, pulled by “a festive squadron of flying books.” One such book leads him to take custodianship of a house full of rambunctious stories. As the years pass, he writes one of his own, which in turn inspires a young girl after he is gone. The message-heavy narrative is lifted by Joyce’s superb artwork, presenting nostalgic, picket-fence scenes with a modeled, dimensional feel built on the animation but given a lustrous polish for the printed page. Perhaps most fascinating, the movie, app, and book taken together present an entirely kid-friendly opportunity to talk about the interplay between content and format. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The movie and app iterations of this work have attracted gobs of acclaim and attention for the book to capitalize on.

Lulu Walks the Dogs

Booklist (June 1, 2012 (Vol. 108, No. 19))


Grades 2-4. Last seen demanding a dinosaur for a pet (Lulu and the Brontosaurus, 2010), my-way-or-the-highway Lulu is determined to raise the money she needs for a certain unnamed purchase. After her parents reject her logical pleading (example: they can save money by skipping the dentist!), she concocts a plan to raise cash as a dog walker. Oh, but there are problems. Each of her canine clients—Brutus, Pookie, and Cordelia—have idiosynchrasies she can’t master. Enter the one person who can help: annoying brainiac goody-goody Fleischman. Will the tortures never end?! The highlights here are Viorst’s constant authorial intrusions as she skips entire topics and chapters (“I really don’t feel like discussing that right now”), offers “Time-out” Q&As for readers’ inevitable questions, and provides the occasional encouragement (“hang in there, please—this sentence is long!”). The sarcastic, biting, self-aware tone never goes too far, and Lane’s exaggerated pencil illustrations make readers feel every bit of Lulu’s frustrations—and joys. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Take Viorst (Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, 1972), add Lane (It’s a Book, 2010), and you’ve got a recipe for serious interest from anyone who knows their kid lit.

Dragons Love Tacos

Booklist (August 2012 (Online))


Grades K-2. Tacos are high on the list of dragon-friendly foods. Who knew? There is, however, a major qualification: the salsa must be mild (“even a speck of hot pepper makes a dragon snort sparks”). Rubin and Salmieri, the creators of Those Darn Squirrels! (2008), offer up a how-to guide to throwing one heck of a dragons’ taco party. First, you’ll need tacos—“pantloads of tacos”—and mild salsa, of course. Then, throw in a few decorations (taco-shaped balloons will work) and some music and—voilà. Unfortunately, in this tale, someone didn’t read the fine print on the Totally Mild Salsa jar, and the hosts are in for a toasty surprise. The slight story meanders a bit, but the humor is helped along by Salmieri’s cartoonish watercolor, gouache, and pencil illustrations, which extend the text through small details, from an “I Love Tacos” T-shirt to a No Spicy Salsa: A Guide to Dragon Cuisine cookbook. The whole thing is over-the-top ridiculousness, and kids will most likely warm to it for that very reason.

Fifty Cents and a Dream Young Booker T. Washington

Horn Book (January/February, 2013)


The emphasis of this brief biographical portrait of Booker T. Washington is on his quest for knowledge: as a young boy living in slavery, wanting to learn to read, and then as a young adult attending the Hampton Institute. In 1872, with only a few coins in his pocket, Washington made the five-hundred-mile journey on foot to get to the school, working along the way to earn money for food. Once he was admitted, he worked as a janitor to pay his room and board. Asim's poetic text underscores Washington's determination to get an education and then to see to it that others would have the same opportunity. A fascinating author's note discusses Washington's political views -- especially his willingness to compromise -- as controversial among African Americans in his own time; the author also tells why he chose to focus on the journey to Hampton as symbolic of Washington's legacy. Collier's watercolor and collage illustrations show the powerful determination on his subject's face, while in many of the pictures, light, abstract shapes rise into the air above Washington, representing his dreams. Everything about the bookmaking here -- from the carefully chosen typography to the look of parchment paper to the endpapers taken from Webster's American Spelling Book -- reverberates with the importance of books and learning. kathleen t. horning

Forget-Me-Nots Poems to Learn by Heart

Horn Book (May/June, 2012)


Former Children’s Poet Laureate Hoberman has selected more than 120 poems that are good choices for memorization. She divides the poems into eleven sections, beginning with "The Short of It" -- very short poems, such as limericks, perfect for building confidence. Other sections include "Happiness," "Weather and Seasons," and "The Long of It" -- very long poems such as Edward Lear’s "The Jumblies" and Hoberman’s own "The Llama Who Had No Pajama." Poets include some who wrote originally for adults (Frost, de la Mare, Tolkien) as well as many famous children’s poets both old (Milne, Stevenson) and new (Kuskin, Schertle, Grimes, and others). The collection altogether is a treasure trove of the familiar and the fresh, including Nancy Willard’s evocative "Magic Story for Falling Asleep": "When the last giant came out of his cave / and his bones turned into the mountain…" In a few cases Hoberman has excerpted from a longer poem for a more manageable length. Emberley’s watercolor, pastel, and pencil pictures both embellish and illustrate the poems, sometimes providing one picture for a poem and sometimes tying multiple poems together with a larger illustration. The collection concludes with an index of first lines and tips on memorizing a poem. A wonderful gift book for poetry lovers, but even children who have never considered learning a poem by heart will find much to love here. susan dove lempke

A Rock Is Lively

School Library Journal (October 1, 2012)


Gr 3-6-Another beauty from Aston and Long, creators of the equally eye-catching An Egg Is Quiet (2006), A Seed Is Sleepy (2007), and A Butterfly Is Patient (2011, all Chronicle). This time they take on the seemingly sedentary world of rocks and minerals, showing them to be anything but (when you know your geology). Boiling underground, freezing in space, colorful or drab, enormous or minuscule, health food (grits for gizzards), tools for prehistoric man and modern chimps, canvas for paleolithic art or construction material for the Taj Mahal-rocks get around. Aston's quiet text follows their morphings from magma to various incarnations and back again, while Long's meticulous, elegant watercolors record their astounding diversity. Rocks are "surprising" as geodes. They are "creative" when viewed as pigments for a prehistoric palette. Rocks are "lively." A handsome piece of bookmaking from the artistically rock-strewn cover to the glorious azurite endpapers, this is an elegant window into the hitherto static existence of rocks and minerals. Eye-catching and eye-opening.-Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Missing On Superstition Mountain

From the Publisher:


It's summer and the three Barker brothers—Simon, Henry, and Jack—just moved from Illinois to Arizona. Their parents have warned them repeatedly not to explore Superstition Mountain, which is near their home. But when their cat Josie goes missing, they see no other choice. There's something unusually creepy about the mountain and after the boys find three human skulls, they grow determined to uncover the mystery. Have people really gone missing over the years, and could there be someone or some thing lurking in the woods? Together with their new neighbor Delilah, the Barker boys are dead-set on cracking the case even if it means putting themselves in harm's way.

Here's the first book in an action-packed mystery series by aNew York Timesbestselling author.