Educating Risa

We finished Stuart Little this week, and have started on what was my favourite E.B. White book when I was a child: The Trumpet of the Swan. It’s an interesting process to go back through your childhood favourites as an adult and have a better sense why they resonated with you as a child. Sam, the main character in the book (well, save for the swan) is a bit different than other kids, loves being in nature, needs time alone, loves birds, and journals each night, leaving off by asking himself a question to ponder. Yeah, this nature-loving, bird-watching, philosophically-trained introvert had a wee light bulb moment there.

Here’s the best of the picture books we enjoyed this week; as always, hover your mouse over the book image for title and author details.

Leonardo the Terrible Monster was without a doubt the funniest book this week; both the boys and I howled with laughter. It’s about a monster who simply isn’t scary—i.e., he’s terrible at being a monster—so he devises a plan to try to scare the most “scaredy-cat” kid in the world, Sam. Sam cries, but his explanation of why he cried is surprising and hilarious. When I Feel Scared is one in the “The way I Feel Books” series. It talks in very simple language about feeling scared: when it happens, how it feels, why it happens (sometimes for good reasons, sometimes not) and strategies for coping. A superb book for my 5-year-old who is still firmly entrenched in the ‘scared of the dark’ phase of childhood, or any child on the autistic spectrum who has difficulty understanding and appropriately expressing emotions. We also read When I Feel Good About Myself from the same series. The Dinosaur Alphabet Book is one of many detailed alphabet books on different themes by Jerry Pallotta. There’s lots of info on each page, making these a great choice for families reading to children of different ages. 

Anatole was one of our favourite reads this week, about a Paris mouse who is shocked to discover that humans do not like mice. He feels bad about raiding human homes and buildings for food for his family each night, wishing there were something he could do for humans in return. He talks the matter over with his wife, and comes up with the plan of sampling cheese in a factory, and leaving notes: “excellent”, “too sharp", “needs more salt” etc. In time, this cheese company becomes the most popular in France by following Anatole’s suggestions. The president of the company wants to meet Anatole and properly reward him, but Anatole prefers to remain anonymous, so the president writes him a note of thanks saying he is to help himself to all the cheese he wants each night. A wonderful book about the value of doing honest work, originally published in 1956 (so there are some male/female stereotypes common in the time, which we use as conversation points here). Highly recommended.  Look Whooo’s Counting is a fun first numbers book, following an owl’s journey one night, with hidden pictures. She sees 1 prairie dog (standing up like the number 1), 2 mice (whose tails are bent to make 2’s,…6 big-horned sheep with their horns curling around like 6’s, etc.). Baby Danced the Polka is silly book about a baby who just won’t sleep when his Mom and Dad need to get some chores done. Great rhyming, bouncing text that begs to be sung to your kids with enthusiasm! 

Birthday Blizzard is about making the best of things when plans go awry, and looking on it as “an adventure.”  When a blizzard arrives the night before Jamie’s birthday party, the worst storm in 20 years, plans are changed. Jamie and her family spend the day checking on elderly country neighbours (and bringing them home when they have no heat), rescuing stranded motorists, and in the end, rescuing a puppy who was ‘dumped’ by someone a few days earlier—a makeshift party, a makeshift present. A bit sentimental, but Gareth, my January baby, particularly enjoyed it. And Daegan and I talked about what ‘dumping’ an animal in the country meant. Z Goes Home is a clever alphabet book with a red Z on every page (on his way home) and easy-to-find hidden letters in the pictures: the hurdles being jumped look like H’s, the seashore swoops around in a large S, etc. Alphabet Soup is another better-than-average alphabet book, in which animals bring ingredients for a soup that Otter is making for his pot luck housewarming party. A few animals bring items to go with the soup too. So cricket brought crackers, hedgehog brought herbs, unicorn brought the utensils, etc. The pictures are superb; reminds me very much of Graeme Base’s Animalia.  

A Tree for Emmy is a sweet story about a girl who wants a mimosa tree for her birthday, just like the one growing at grandma’s house. But her parents can’t find a source, and at the tree nursery they are informed that no one sells mimosa trees, as they grow wild everywhere. In the end they find a sapling at grandma’s, and dig it up and bring it home so Emmy can have a tree that’s “stubborn and strong and a little bit wild. Just like her”. The Birthday Presents is an absolutely delight, about two friends, Rabbit and Hedgehog, who decide to celebrate their birthdays tomorrow by giving each other gifts—in reality, neither knows when their birthday is. Each thinks about what the other would want from their own perspective, and gives somewhat inappropriate gifts, but both characters catch themselves when responding to the gift, and show their appreciation for the thought instead so as not to hurt the other’s feelings. When they take the items home, they find new uses for them that prove to be very handy to both—they were excellent gifts, after all. Tico and the Golden Wings is a story that reminds me in some ways of The Rainbow Fish. Tico is a bird hatched without wings, but one day he gets his wish come true—wings made of gold! But his flashy golden wings intimidate his friends, who shun him. Tico ends up giving the feathers of his golden wings away to people who need money, and finds them replaced with ordinary black feathers. His friends accept him, saying “ Now you are just like us”  but Tico knows this isn’t true, even though it may look that way on the surface: “Now my wings are black, yet I am not like my friends. We are ALL different. Each for his own memories, and each his own invisible golden dreams.” There were aspects to this story I did not care for (as is the case with Rainbow Fish), but I was pleased as punch when my 7-year-old loudly exclaimed after Tico’s friends shunned him: “Hey! it’s OK to be different!”

Shape By Shape is a book with cut outs on each page that build to solve a riddle: who am I? I lived long ago, and had….: two circles for eyes, sharp triangle teeth, a crescent mouth, etc. While the idea is great, the execution drove my dinosaur-loving boys crazy. The book builds a brachiosaurus, and the boys were quick to point out that this herbivorous dinosaur would not have had sharp, pointy teeth like a meat-eater. The book also claims, on its last clue, that it “was the biggest dinosaur ever”. Again, not true, said my boys, saying that both Seismosaurus and Argentinosaurus were larger. A child with lesser dino-knowledge would no doubt enjoy this book, but this kind of factual inaccuracy in a book published in 2009, even if it is for kids, drives me nuts too! Red Ted and the Lost Things is a touching story, quasi-comic book style,  about a red teddy bear who is left behind on a train and goes to the place of Lost Things.He befriends a lost crocodile stuffie, and they find a way out. They encounter a cheese-loving cat and the three of them find their way back to Red Ted’s loving child owner. A Snake is Totally Tail is a playful look at various animals, using alliteration: a kangaroo is partially pocket, a centipede is largely legs, an owl is heaps of hoots, etc. until “this book is finally finished.”

Happy reading!