Read, Read, Read, said the Baby: Up Close by Gay Wegerif

[This review has been edited and republished]

This is a cute idea, but too abstract for a really successful board book.

The first page says "Up close I see your [shape, body part, such as "round snout"]. You are a..." The next page shows several shapes, as on the cover, to create an abstract of an animal. The final page of the triad says the animal's name. Kids would enjoy identifying the shapes and colors, but the images are far too abstract to really identify the animals, especially for the babies and toddlers who are the audience for board books.

It's not a bad book - it's a clever idea and little ones enjoy shapes and colors and a good reader could make this a fun interactive experience, but it's not really developmentally appropriate and one of my pet hobby horses for board books is that they're created for a much older and more sophisticated audience - if the concept is too difficult or abstract for the average toddler, it should be a picture book, not a board book.

Verdict: An additional purchase, if you need more board books.

ISBN: 9781419703911; Published 2013 by Harry N. Abrams; Borrowed from another library in my consortium

Nonfiction Monday: Park Scientists by Mary Kay Carson, photographs by Tom Uhlman

Park Scientists is another entry in the award-winning Scientists in the Field. This book visits three different national parks and examines two scientific studies of natural phenomena and wild animals in each park.

The book opens with a map of all the national parks in the United States (and now I want to go up north to the only one near Wisconsin - Isle Royale!) and a brief introduction to how scientists use national parks.

The first park is Yellowstone. We start with the facts - "How big? How old? How Busy?" as well as "Reasons to go" and websites to find out more about the park and its attractions. The chapter on Yellowstone examines two facets of the park - the famous geysers and the grizzly bears. The reader follows two geologists, who are also park rangers, as they keep a close eye on the geysers and the volcano that fuels them. Additional information about geysers is included in inset boxes and in a full spread. The second chapter on Yellowstone features grizzly bears and a wildlife biologist who does research in Yellowstone. This chapter includes information about the history of bears in Yellowstone and how contemporary scientists are studying them as well as the challenges they - and the bears - face.

The second park is Saguaro. After the initial facts, there is a chapter on Gila monsters, the largest indigenous reptile in the US. Herpetologists are studying the Gila monster not only to gather information on this elusive animal, but also to track their well-being in the park. The chapter includes information on citizen scientists, helping to track the Gila monster, which ties into the next chapter on the saguaro cactus, which is also being tracked by citizen scientists. This chapter includes a lot of historical information, as the study of a section of these cacti (Section 17) is "one of the longest-running annual monitoring programs for any species in the U.S. national parks.

The third park featured is the Great Smoky Mountains national park. We first meet a biologist studying salamanders, specifically red-cheeked salamanders, with attention to projections as to whether their population will survive the rapidly changing temperatures in their small habitat. The second chapter features fireflies and scientist Lynn Faust who first reported the unique phenomena of synchronized flashing, previously thought to exist only in Asian fireflies.

The book ends with a glossary of "words to know", a brief bibliography, and an index.

Verdict: I didn't feel as though I got to know the scientists as well in this volume, since there were so many different groups of them, but I definitely learned interesting things about the three national parks. This will not only appeal to kids interested in science and animals, but also to parents planning family trips to national parks. A great entry in the series that's a definite must for your library.

ISBN: 9780547792682; Published 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Purchased for the library

This week at the library; or, This is winter? Oh, there it is.

What's going on, in my head and at the library

• I finished my class on youth services management this week. It was really helpful - I learned a lot of useful things, both theoretical and practical, and I am going to be working on creating a general mission and goals as well as some concrete objectives for my department now.
• I really need to remember to just block out the end of October for outreach. I tried contacting all the teachers at the beginning of the school year, but I guess their schedules are too iffy and it seems like they all show up at the end of October at once!
• Our school district is working on an initiative called Project R.E.A.D. They had Dr. Navsaria this Tuesday as part of the program and I set up a table to promote the library as a resource. I had orange butterfly masks to decorate and lots of orange pumpkins and orange and black circles. I mostly reconnected with a lot of families I hadn't seen in a while, so that was good.
• We are lucky to have a staff work day and even luckier that it usually lands on October 31 or thereabouts so I don't have to decide whether or not to do anything for Halloween! Our big project this year was getting started on RFID. Well, it's better than the year we cleaned the basement...I was working on neighborhoods anyways. I conquered the Cs and several miscellaneous stacks! We work from 9-3, which gives us an early day. 
• Unless you're working Saturday, like me, in which case you work a 40+ hour week. I went in early after breakfast with my friend. She got breakfast, but then she had to help move tables and computers. I'm still trying for a good layout of the teen area. I also put out table tents trying to tactfully steer teens out of the children's area and adults out of the teen area.
• We also had a special...thingy...for donors on Sunday. I volunteered to give behind-the-scenes tours, as long as I wasn't expected to get dressed up and mingle with the fancy people or anything (this is why I'm not the head of a department in a larger library system. I have no social graces)
• BLOG NEWS: I've decided to simultaneously start a new feature but also cut back a little. Read, Read, Read said the Baby (my board book reviews) will now be posted on Wednesdays and alternate with Small Readers (my new easy reader series) which is a nod to some of my favorite childhood easy readers like Small Pig and Little Bear. So, my review schedule will look like this:
• Monday: Nonfiction (easy to middle grade)
• Wednesday: Read, Read, Read, Said the Baby (board books) OR Small Readers (easy readers)
• Friday: fiction (picture books, beginning chapter books, middle grade)
• Saturday: This week at the library
• Sunday: RA RA READ or other features (irregular)

Programs

• Playgroup with Pattie
• Tiny Tots
• Toddlers 'n' Books (2 sessions)
• We Explore Favorite Artist Eric Carle (2 sessions)
• October Outreach: Autumnal Animalia (1 session)
• Middle School Madness
• 1st grade school visit (2 sessions)
• Books 'n' Babies
• Messy Art Club: Monster Boxes

What the kids are reading

• Animal books for a kindergartener - yay neighborhoods!
• Uh....I know I was asked for other stuff but this week was a little exhausting, so I don't really remember...

Nest by Esther Ehrlich

When I saw the reviews mentioning things like "heartfelt" and "sings with heart and emotion" my first thought was "I bet her mom dies." However, I decided to read it anyways, because I loved the cover art.

SPOILER: Yep.

Naomi "Chirp" loves her family and their life on Cape Cod. She doesn't always get along with her older sister Rachel and her psychiatrist father doesn't understand her need for quiet and privacy with his insistence on everyone talking things out and sharing, but she is close to her mother, who loves to dance and she has her birds and the natural world that she loves to observe.

Then her mother gets sick. Everything changes and gets worse and worse. The small things that didn't matter before; being the only Jewish family in her school, her mom's more avant garde life compared to the more conservative, suburban moms, the boys next door she's supposed to stay away from, all become magnified. Her parents struggle to handle her mother's degenerative disease but her mother spirals into depression and is hospitalized. When she comes back, she doesn't seem like Mom anymore and everyone walks on eggshells, trying to preserve their fragile family. It's not enough and tragedy ultimately strikes. Chirp feels abandoned and separated from her remaining family and the friendship she thought she had with Joey next door. It takes some painful experiences before she is able to reconnect and begin the grieving process.

The historical setting of the book is referenced in mentions of the Vietnam war, occasional protests, and some pop culture, but I don't think most kids will really grasp any of those references except possibly the war. For me, the father's treatment of his wife, as he "analyzes" her issues in an extremely paternalistic fashion and eventually commits her to a mental hospital, where she undergoes electroshock therapy that radically changes her personality, was the most glaring historical note. How many kids will know about mental treatments of the 60s and 70s? Not many.

There's a secondary story line with Joey, the boy next door, who forms a friendship with Chirp and then attacks her when he feels betrayed. This story line wasn't really followed up; at the end, there's some indications that his brothers will protect him from his father's physical abuse, but nothing definite. This is not a book for kids who want a strong plot with all the ends neatly tied up; Chirp's story ends as she comes to a point where she's ready to begin grieving for her mother and coming to terms with her death and there are no easy answers to the family issues of anyone in the story.

Generally, I'm not much a fan of this type of historical fiction (or any historical fiction really) but I do try to buy a couple of these books a year for the girls who love, love, love this kind of book. This is definitely a two-kleenex box story and I have to admit that by the halfway mark I was wanting her mother to just DIE ALREADY so we could have one burst of cathartic grief. But that's just me - I feel uncomfortable with books (or any media) that I feel is trying to emotionally manipulate me.

This is a real tearjerker but also has some sharp insights into life and dealing with grief as Chirp struggles to come to terms with her mother's illness and sudden, shocking death. Her feeling of separation will definitely strike a chord with kids who are just starting to find their own identities and feel different (and what kid at that age doesn't?) from those around them.

Verdict: If, like me, you only buy a couple of this type of book every year (beautifully written historical fiction featuring girls whose mothers die and who are obsessed with the natural beauty of the world around them) this should definitely be one of them. I wouldn't be surprised to see it showing up on some award lists. 

ISBN: 9780383386074; Published 2014 by Wendy Lamb Books/Random House; Review copy provided by publisher; Donated to the library

Small Readers: Meet Monster by Ellen Blance and Ann Cook, illustrated by Quentin Blake

As you can see, I am beginning a new feature! Small Readers will be reviews of easy readers and they will alternate with Read, Read, Read, said the Baby (board books) on Wednesday. So, I will be back to three reviews a week. As I get started, I'm going to bring back some of my older easy reader reviews for another look. Enjoy!

[Originally published in 2011. No edits have been made.]

Sometimes when we meet an old book friend, we're disappointed. The book we remembered was so much more magical, so much better-written. We look back at it with an adult's eyes and...it just doesn't measure up.

Happily, that is not the case with the reprinting of Ellen Blance and Ann Cook's beloved Monster stories. Monster is every bit as purple and his adventures are every bit as delightfully logical, with the logic of a child's mind, just as I remember.

All six easy readers are collecting in one tidy volume with each book as a chapter. In the first book, we meet Monster. He's tall and purple and has a skinny head and he looks at everything in the city. Finally, he packs his things and comes to stay. So, naturally, in the second story he must find a house that is just right for him - not too small, not too messy, not too big. Now that he has moved in, it's time for him him to clean house! Everything looks fine and he's ready for book five; finding a friend. After lots of looking, he finds a small boy who is happy to be his friend and comes to live with him. In the final chapter, he and his new friend find a lady monster and a magic umbrella.

Quentin Blake's classic illustrations are the perfect background to the stories of Monster. They have a child's logic; if you find a friend, of course he comes to live with you. If you are a monster, you need a big tall house. You don't just clean things, you clean them for a reason - so the bedroom gets cleaned so you don't have to clean it while people are sleeping. The bathtub gets cleaned so when you pour the water in it's not dirty.

The abrupt changes in plot - one minute Monster is delightedly meeting a lady monster, the next minute they are playing soccer, and then suddenly it's raining and they have a giant magic umbrella - are all a perfect blend of a child's narrational train and the gentle hand of the authors creating a readable and simply expressed story.

Verdict: I am so happy they brought these stories back into print - they are classic easy readers and would make a great choice for a beginning reader book club or springboards for writing your own Monster stories!

ISBN: 978-07614-5648-3; Published April 2011 by Marshall Cavendish; Purchased for the library

Read Scary: Nonfiction Monday: When Lunch fights back: Wickedly Clever Animal Defenses by Rebecca L. Johnson

This is awesome. It's definitely going to be on my list of "freaky weird animal books" that I take to schools in the spring.

The introduction talks briefly about the life-or-death struggle to survive and references the basic common defenses, but there's so much more out there...

Each chapter begins with a tense narrative of attack and defense, with basic information on the animal and cool photographs. The next section explains the science behind the defense with plenty of quotes from scientists and even some discussion of how the creature's defenses may be used in science.

The animals discussed include a hagfish, African hairy frog, Spanish ribbed newt, termites, hoopoe chicks, fulmar chicks, mantis shrimp, horned lizard, two-spot fish and even black mustard plants. Defenses range from slime and spurting blood to spraying poop and clever chemical ruses.

Back matter includes an author's note, bibliography, print and web sources (including videos of animal defenses in action) an index and source notes.

What sets this book apart from the usual "gross and weird animals!" books that are so popular is the emphasis on the science behind the defenses and the larger context of how the animals and their defenses fit into their habitats and affect the creatures around them. Of course, there's plenty of creepy and gross pictures, which doesn't hurt either!

Verdict: This will certainly appeal to the kids who like the "weird animals" genre, but it's got even more information that will grab science-minded kids and even adults! Highly recommended.

ISBN: 9781467721097; Published 2014 by Milbrook/Lerner; Purchased for the library

Read Scary

Welcome to my private meme, collecting all the scary books I review in October. Join me! Just post your scary book review in the comments and I'll collect them here. You can add "Read Scary" to your title and labels as well. Check out the comments for more suggestions and other blogs running similar memes.

Petrifying Picture Books

• Literally Disturbed: Tales to keep you up at night by Ben Winters (Stacking Books)
• Ten orange pumpkins by Steven Savage and Not very scary by Carol Brendler (Great Kid Books

Eerie Easy Readers

• Bramble and Maggie: Spooky Season by Jessica Haas
• You Read to me I'll read to you: Very short scary stories to read together by Mary Ann Hoberman and Monster School by Dave Keane (Great Kid Books)

Baleful Beginning Chapters

• Waiting for something scary!

Monstrous Middle Grade

• The Cryptids: The Loch Ness Monster by Jean Flitcroft
• Secrets of the Ancient Gods: Hades Speaks! By Vicky Shecter

Terrifying Teens

• Zombies Calling by Faith Erin Hicks
• My Boyfriend is a Monster: I love him to pieces by Evonne Tsang

Eerie Oddities

• Where's Boo? by Salina Yoon
• Duck and Goose find a pumpkin by Tad Hills

This week at the library; or, Outreach it's ON

What's going on at the library and in my head

• Sometimes all you can do on Monday is resign yourself to your fate and hope you don't throw up on any small children. I passed the BLAs in the picture books to neighborhood projects. Now I'm on to the BUTs. I'm beginning to have a sneaking suspicion that this project will not be done by the end of the year...
• This week was crazy with outreach, staffing issues, and trying to think about big picture goals when all I really want to do is survive until November.
• Bright spots - someone found me a toilet seat so I didn't have to make one for the Wimpy Kid party and a parent told me how much they loved the Neighborhoods. Also, one of the parent chaperones on the second grade tour came back to donate stuff!
• Several new families came to the Welty center program and everyone had a great time, although it was a smaller group (although a good size for a no school day - 35)

Programs

• We Explore Favorite Artist Eric Carle (outreach)
• October Outreach: Autumnal Animalia (3 classes)
• Toddlers 'n' Books (2 sessions)
• Community Walk (2 sessions)
• Middle School Madness
• Books 'n' Babies
• Lego Club
• Welty Environmental Center
• Wimpy Kid party

What the kids are reading:

• Kid wanting nonfiction that he could read and chapter books. He was carrying some magic tree house and I threw out some subjects - history? adventure? sports? SPORTS. I have him Jake Maddox and showed him the Bearport sports bios that I have - very excited with Jake Maddox.
• Adult looking for books for an 8 year old who's gone through all the Wimpy Kid and is finishing Big Nate and wants him to "move on". She seemed receptive so I cautiously gave my tactful speech about how books are more than levels and he wouldn't want to miss out on the books kids his age are reading just because they're a little easier. She agreed and took Shredderman,
• Books about moving to a "big boy bed" - I have Eve Bunting's Your own big bed and also Ed Braun's Back to bed, Ed!
• Holiday books - Halloween and Thanksgiving.
• Kids on tour were VERY excited about the minecraft books I showed them. I told our cataloger to make sure the records were in so they could place holds.
• Wimpy Kid
• Cupcake Crusader - this turned out to be Horace Splattley, which I don't own
• I Spy books
• More suggestions for 900+ lexile reader I talked to a few weeks ago - he loved Nurk and the Komodo Dragons book and didn't really get into Ranger's Apprentice, so I gave him the Face to Face series for nonfiction, Doc Wilde and the Frogs of Doom, and How to train your dragon

Stranded by Jeff Probst and Chris Tebbetts

I had no idea who Jeff Probst was, I just saw this and thought "survival adventure!" and "it's short!" and grabbed it at an ALA conference. Um....several years ago. Yes, I am just now digging into my backlog of middle grade fiction.

Four kids are sailing in the middle of nowhere with their uncle and his friend. Vanessa is the oldest, her younger brother Buzz would rather be anywhere else (preferably somewhere with a tv and no seasickness) and they can't imagine ever being a family with their new siblings, arrogant, athletic Carter and his super-smart little sister Jane.

Then their boat wrecks, the adults are swept away on their only lifeboat, and the four kids are stranded on a tiny island. Will they learn to work together to survive, or will risky decisions, arguments, and the natural dangers that surround them take them down one by one?

This isn't great literature. The characters are one-dimensional, identified mostly by a single characteristic (Vanessa - bossy; Buzz - tv/games obsessed; Carter - athletic; Jane - child prodigy) and there are several info dumps and passages about mechanics of things (fixing a solar panel) that I found boring. The writing is rather bland.

It will check out like crazy. Is the writing as good as, say, Gordon Korman's adventure stories? No. But it's exciting, kids like the informational spots, and it's got enough family drama to keep those not interested in survival stories reading.

Verdict: Great literature? Nope. A fun, fast-paced story that will appeal to a wide range of readers? Yes. Bonus, it's less than 200 pages (you can purchase the first three volumes in one book, but I think that kind of defeats the purpose). If you have all Gordon Korman's adventure series and need more - and who doesn't? I recommend this series.

ISBN: 9780142424247; Published 2013 by Penguin; ARC provided by publisher at ALA; Added to the library's order list

The Farmer and the Clown by Marla Frazee

The accompanying publicist's letter says "and you thought you hated clowns" so just to test it I showed this to our staff member with a morbid fear of clowns. She did consent to flip through it and said it was cute...but she still hates clowns.

So, it's a wordless book with Frazee's trademark cheerfully round faces. A grim farmer in the blank gray prairie (I'm guessing this is Kansas) is completely taken aback when a small clown tumbles off a circus train. When the little clown loses his painted smile, the farmer tries to cheer him up and eventually both of them relax together in friendly smiles - just in time for the circus train to return and the little clown to give one last hug and leave behind something special.

This is a story with lots of hints of underlying thoughts about family, friendship, and laughter. It's also just plain fun! Frazee's art captures how out of place the little clown is in the gray, serious prairie and how things gradually brighten up with his presence.

It will work best for one-on-one sharing, as some of the panels are small and it will take close attention to pick up all the details of the book.

Verdict: There aren't a lot of circus books out there, and this one is both sweet and funny. However, I limit the number of wordless picture books I buy since they tend to have a more limited audience. I wouldn't say this is a must-have purchase, but if you have the budget and space it's certainly a recommended addition.

ISBN: 9781442497443; Published 2014 by Beach Lane Books/Simon and Schuster; Review copy provided by the publisher; Donated to the library