Children's Book Review: 'Dodsworth in Tokyo' by Tim Egan

Dodsworth in Tokyo by Tim Egan
Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2013


Dodsworth and the duck continue their world travel adventures in Dodsworth in Tokyo. Dodsworth teaches the duck to bow to greet people and how to say “thank you” in Japanese. They visit the Tokyo Tower and the Imperial Palace and see a girl playing with a kendama (wooden toy) in Yoyogi Park.

Duck manages to be well-behaved in the park (where he recovers the toy that the girl has left behind) and at a sushi restaurant (which he likes because he doesn't have to wear shoes). But he bumps into a rickshaw in Shibuya, falls into a pond in the East Gardens (which is a problem, because he can't swim) and knocks over a tray of wagashi (dessert) in their hotel room.

He attracts the most attention when he bumps into some people carrying a shrine during the Sanja Festival. Everything goes silent as the crowd eyes him disapprovingly, but peace is restored when the duck reveals that he was hurrying through the crowd to return the kendama to the little girl who lost it.

As with Tim Egan's other books, all of the characters are animals, dressed as people. The illustrations are brightly painted cartoons which help to elucidate the Japanese customs and venues described in the text.

Written in four chapters, this book is a little long for a read-aloud in one sitting, but would work just fine in segments for bedtime reading. The first-graders that I shared it with laughed at duck's clumsiness and enjoyed watching him eat sushi and playing the park, but did ask to take a break to read another book between chapter three and chapter four.

Overall, the Dodsworth books provide a fun general introduction to travel in foreign countries for young children and their families.
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Tim Egan is the author and illustrator of several offbeat and humorous tales for children. Born in New Jersey, Tim moved to California to attend the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. He still lives in southern California with his wife, Ann, and their two sons. To learn more about Tim Egan, visit his Web site at www.timegan.com.
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Renée Vaillancourt McGrath has worked at Montana Public Radio as a program host since 2002. Her background is in librarianship and she currently works as a freelance editor, blogger, and website developer. Check out more of her book reviews at reneesreads.com.

Children's Book Review: 'Have You Seen My New Blue Socks?' by Eve Bunting

Have You Seen My New Blue Socks?
by Eve Bunting
illustrated by Sergio Ruzzier
Clarion Books, 2013

In the tradition of Dr. Seuss comes Eve Bunting's latest book Have You Seen My New Blue Socks, illustrated by Sergio Ruzzier. It is a testament to Bunting's skill as a writer and Ruzzier's engaging illustrations that this book firmly stands on its own two feet (no pun intended) in spite of its read-alike echoes:

     Duck has lost his new blue socks.
     Did he put them in his box?
     He knows he put them somewhere near.
                                                                              How could they simply disappear?

He asks the fox, and the ox if they've seen his socks. He looks for them on the rocks, and then approaches the peacocks, who reveal that duck is wearing his new socks.

Ruzzier sets the story against a muted pastel landscape reminiscent of the southwest and uses the occasional contrast of a white background to draw attention to Duck's expressions as he journeys through the book on his quest to find his lost socks. The indoor scenes are casual and messy, which gives the book a comfortable, lived-in feel.

The first-grade students that I read this story to enjoyed the repetition of sounds, the search for the socks, and the humor in the fact that Duck was wearing them all along (and that they appear to be a little too big for him). Fans of Dr. Seuss (and who isn't?) will enjoy seeing some of the familiar rhythms and rhymes of Fox in Socks presented in a fresh new way.

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Eve Bunting is the author of many beloved picture books. She was born in Ireland and lives in Pasadena, California

Sergio Ruzzier has illustrated numerous picture books, some of which he also wrote. Italian by birth, he lives in New York City. He became a member of the Maurice Sendak Fellowship in 2011. 

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Renée Vaillancourt McGrath has worked at Montana Public Radio as a program host since 2002. Her background is in librarianship and she currently works as a freelance editor, blogger, and website developer. Check out more of her book reviews at reneesreads.com.

Children's Book Review: 'Cheer Up, Mouse!' by Jed Henry

Cheer Up, Mouse! by Jed Henry
Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2012

Mouse is having a bad day. His animal friends can tell by the way he hangs his head and wanders off on his own. One by one, each animal uses his own unique skills to try and cheer up their friend: Crow lifts him in the air; Frog pulls him into the water; Rabbit bounces him around; Mole takes him underground; Bluebirds carry him up into a tree; Badger gives him some food; and Hedgehog rolls him down the hill. But still, Mouse is standing alone and looking sad... until Chipmunk goes (literally) out on a limb to offer Mouse a hug. The other animals gather round in curiosity, and when they see Chipmunk and Mouse smile at each other, they all join in a group hug.

The language is sparse and playful and the story is primarily told through Jed Henry's wonderful illustrations. The animals, though portrayed realistically, have remarkably expressive faces that convey their concern for their friend who is feeling down and their inventive determination to cheer him up.

The first grade students that I read this story to were riveted by it, erupting into cheers of “Awesome!” and “Great!” when I came to the end. They commented on the color of the illustrations, the animals' movements, and the fact that there were no words on the pages in which Chipmunk gives Mouse a hug. (Because, of course, no words were needed.)

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Jed Henry has always had an affinity for animals. As a child, he preferred zoos to museums, and Shark Week was more fun than Christmas. Now that he's mostly grown up, Jed still loves animals. His favorite critters are his two little girls, who are about as wild as they come. Jed lives by the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Provo, Utah.

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Renée Vaillancourt McGrath has worked at Montana Public Radio as a program host since 2002. Her background is in librarianship and she currently works as a freelance editor, blogger, and website developer. Check out more of her book reviews at reneesreads.com.

Young Adult Book Review: 'Something to Hold' by Katherine Schlick Noe

Something to Hold by Katherine Schlick Noe

Clarion Books, 2011

Katherine Schlick Noe writes what she knows. Like Kitty, the protagonist of Something to Hold, Noe’s family lived at the Warm Springs Reservation in Central Oregon when she was a child, and she experienced many of the same things that Kitty does as a non-Indian student at a reservation school.

Kitty’s story rings true as she struggles to make friends with children whose culture is unfamiliar to her and is sometimes reviled by the outside community. Her family provides strong support, in spite of their frequent moves, due to her father’s job with the forest service.

Kitty provides a clear perspective on the racism and violence that occur both within the tribal school and in the larger community, and begins to question the injustices that she witnesses. This ingratiates her with some of the Indian students whose lives have been particularly difficult, but also puts her in danger from their abusers.

Noe does a good job of portraying the diversity within the Indian community at Warm Springs and paints a believable Northwestern landscape. The only flaw in the story is when two major crises occur on the same day and the children go from a police confrontation with a violent offender to being trapped in a Forest Service lookout during a major forest fire. This unlikely string of events leaves the reader wondering how the characters are able to emerge from the dual-trauma relatively unscathed.

Otherwise, Something to Hold presents a realistic picture of the complexities of life on an Indian Reservation in the Pacific Northwest, a perspective that is too often absent from most young adult literature.

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Katherine Schlick Noe moved across the country every four years as a child, living on Indian reservations in Washington and Oregon and near Washington, D.C. She teaches in the Master in Teaching program and directs the Literacy for Special Needs graduate program at Seattle University.

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Renée Vaillancourt McGrath has worked at Montana Public Radio as a program host since 2002. Her background is in librarianship and she currently works as a freelance editor, blogger, and website developer. Check out more of her book reviews at reneesreads.com.

Children's Book Review: 'The Christmas Quiet Book' by Deborah Underwood

The Christmas Quiet Book
by Deborah Underwood
Illustrated by Renata Liwska
Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2012

If you have children, chances are good that your house is not at all quiet this morning. The Christmas Quiet Book, by Deborah Underwood depicts a world that is gentle and calm, where animals go through the motions of preparing for the holidays without the hustle and bustle and stress that so many of us have come to associate with this time of year.

This tranquil picture of the season will likely appeal to many adults who  yearn  for the simplicity of a bundled-up snow-covered world during the holidays.  Renata Liwska's skilled illustrations of soft and cuddly animals and cozy winter scenes perfectly echo the idyllic theme.

But from the very first sentence ("Christmas is a quiet time..."), the first-graders that I read this story to were confused.  They asked why the short phrases on each page ended with the word quiet, since their experience of the holiday season didn't have this quality at all. After reading the last line, "Christmas morning quiet," (Was this supposed to be irony?!) I asked the children if Christmas morning was quiet at their house, and all of them vehemently shook their heads.

The editors at Houghton Mifflin Books for Children were doubtless hoping that The Christmas Quiet Book would ride on the coattails of the success of Underwood's previous publications, The Quiet Book and The Loud Book!, and perhaps it will. It is a nice book, but it reflects more on our dreams of Christmas than on reality. Parents nostalgic for a simpler time may be eager to share this pastoral version of the holidays with their children, but I think the kids will know better.
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Deborah Underwood is the author of The Quiet Book and The Loud Book!. Her other picture books include A Balloon for Isabel and Granny Gomez & Jigsaw. She is particularly fond of Christmas tree at midnight quiet and evening snowfall quiet. www.DeborahUnderwoodBooks.com

Renata Liwska's favorite Christmas quiet is with family and friends. In addition to illustrating The Loud Book! and The Quiet Book, Renata has written and illustrated Red Wagon and Little Panda. www.renataliwska.com
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Renée Vaillancourt McGrath has worked at Montana Public Radio as a program host since 2002. Her background is in librarianship and she currently works as a freelance editor, blogger, and website developer. Check out more of her book reviews at reneesreads.com.

Children's Book Review: 'Noah Webster & His Words' by Jeri Chase Ferris

Noah Webster & His Words by Jeri Chase Ferris
Illustrated by Vincent X. Kirsch
Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2012

I had high hopes for Noah Webster & His Words by Jeri Chase Ferris. The story of Webster's life is told in straightforward prose, accessible to older elementary school students. The book ends with a timeline of significant events in America during Webster's life, additional biographical information about Webster, and a bibliography.

The illustrations by Vincent X. Kirsch are charmingly reminiscent of the School House Rock cartoons that I loved as a child, and the characters' heads (particularly Noah Webster's) are oversized and balance precariously on delicate bodies, providing an absurdly humorous touch.

The font is a Times New Roman style which gives the story an old book printing-press feel, and throughout the text, longer words are CAP-I-TAL-IZED [verb: to write or print with an initial capital or in capitals] and followed by parts of speech and brief definitions.

I found all of this to be charmingly fitting for a story about the creator of the first American dictionary.

When I read this book aloud to a group of third grade students, however, I found that it didn't entirely work. It was hard to read the definitions aloud to convey the dictionary meanings. (In fact, when I asked what all of the words were that I kept describing, they were unable to identify them as dictionary entries.) And the first half of the book focuses on Webster's life before he even started work on his dictionary. While this information does provide background on how Noah Webster came to love words, I think it was too much detail to keep children engaged long enough to learn about his greatest contribution and legacy.

And unfortunately, even to people who love words, the story of Noah's growth from the son of a farmer, to a student at Yale, to a schoolteacher, to a writer of school books and spellers and a grammar, to a magazine and newspaper publisher is not particularly enthralling.

One interesting detail that is included is that Webster seemed to see himself as a sort of activist, lecturing across the country about the importance of uniting through the use of a common language. This is when the story gets interesting, and, is also when Webster begins work on his dictionary.

I think the book would have been more successful if Webster's background had been described briefly in the first few pages with the bulk of the story focusing on his creation of the dictionary and his reasons for doing so. That formula, combined with the winning font, text gimmicks and illustrations would have made for a book about the dictionary that would have better done justice to the second most popular book ever printed in English.

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Jeri Chase Ferris is the award-winning author of eleven biographies for children and young adults. She lives in Northern California with her horse, Pamyat, and her dog, Nasha. Visit her website at jerichaseferris.com.

Vincent X. Kirsh is a visual merchandiser, a graphic designer, a toymaker, and a puppeteer when he is not writing and illustrating children's books. Visit his website at vincentxkirsch.com

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Renée Vaillancourt McGrath has worked at Montana Public Radio as a program host since 2002. Her background is in librarianship and she currently works as a freelance editor, blogger, and website developer. Check out more of her book reviews at reneesreads.com.

Children's Book Review: 'My First Day: What Animals Do on Day One' by Steve Jenkins & Robin Page

My First Day: What Animals Do on Day One
by Steve Jenkins & Robin Page
Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2013

Most animals are independent from their mothers long before human children are. This delightful book for very young readers introduces children to many new animals and provides very basic information about how long their parents care for them.

The text is delightfully woven around the large, beautiful illustrations to echo meaning. For example, when describing how a baby giraffe falls from his mother at birth, the phrases "- and I landed/in a heap," are written diagonally, at sharp angles to each other, and  phrases related to water births follow gentle curves.

While the book includes many familiar animals such as tigers, ducks, penguins, and deer, it also features less common animals such as the kiwi, the blue wildebeest, the sifaka and the capybara. A page that contains an additional paragraph of information about each animal is included at the end of the book for readers who would like to know more.

The first graders I read this to enjoyed "the pictures of the animals" and "learning what they're like." Adults will appreciate the artistic skill of the illustrators and the efficiency of the authors' prose. Steve Jenkins & Robin Page are a husband-wife team who share a studio and collaborate on many children's books. I can't wait to see more from them!
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Steve Jenkins and Robin Page live in Boulder, Colorado, where, along with writing and illustrating children's books, they run a graphic design studio. They have collaborated on many works, including Movel, a 2006 New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year, and the 2004 Caldecott Honor Book, What Do You Do with a Tail Like This?
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Renée Vaillancourt McGrath has worked at Montana Public Radio as a program host since 2002. Her background is in librarianship and she currently works as a freelance editor and website designer and developer. Check out more of her book reviews at reneesreads.com.