Tag Archives: Children’s book reviews
Bedtime Stories: Unlikely Friendships
Post by Mark T. Locker.
Unlikely Friendships by Jennifer S. Holland.
What do a Rhodesian ridgeback and a pot-bellied pig have in common? More than just alliterative names, apparently. It seems they can become best buddies. Perhaps you have heard of Owen and Mzee, the grumpy tortoise and his little hippo buddy. And of course there is Coco the gorilla and his cat friend. But there are apparently all kinds of unusual animal friend match-ups out there! A lion, tiger and bear? Oh my! A baby oryx and a lion? Who would have thought?
This book tells the brief stories of 47 different unusual animal pairings. They are all sweet, some downright bizarre. Each story is short enough that you can read one or two, alone or out loud, as a lovely little icing on storytime.
Bedtime Stories: Chicken Soup With Rice
Post by Mark T. Locker.
I had a little blast from the past this morning when my son was given a little box set of Maurice Sendak books, including “Chicken Soup With Rice” and “Alligators All Around”. I had the same box set as a child as well at the Really Rosie record, in which Carole King sang versions of the books. Thanks to the magic of Spotify, I can revisit the musical versions of these songs. For me I cannot disassociate “Chicken Soup With Rice” from Carole King’s musical interpretation. But my demanding son was very disapproving of me every time I drifted into singing the words.
“Pierre” is fun to read; it’s a cautionary tale about a boy who only says “I don’t care”. So, he gets eaten by a lion. It’s also fun because every other line (practically) is “I don’t care” so I just have my son say that line over and over and over. I just hope it doesn’t carry over into real life as well.
Bedtime Stories: Conquering Your Fears
Post by Mark T. Locker.
Being a kid is both awesome and awesomely horrific. From an adult perspective, we recognize the wonderful liberation children have from work, bills, stress. But on the flip side, being a kid is rough. For one thing, relatively minor, if not downright harmless things can be terrifying; darkness, spooky stories, chestnuts. So here are two books about confronting childhood fears and overcoming them.
Willoughby and the Moon by Greg Foley.
Young Willoughby relies on the moon to illuminate his bedroom at night. Inexplicably, the moon seems to be getting smaller by the day. Suddenly, the moon disappears completely. When Willoughby opens his closet door, he discovers he is on the moon and in the company of a giant silvery snail looking for his ball. Willoughby is scared of the dark, the snail is scared of everything else. Somehow between the two they learn that none of that stuff is really worth getting worked up over.
The Scariest Thing of All by Deb Gliori.
This little rabbit is scared of everything, from reasonable things like these trolls which, in this book, are totally real, to chestnut pods which are also real but an unreasonable thing to fear. Through a dubious leap of logic, the rabbit realized that he is the scariest thing in the world and all these monsters are afraid of him. I don’t like this book; it’s too cutesy and moronic. My kid makes me read it nearly every day. Maybe you will have the same fortune.
Bedtime Stories: Pete’s a Pizza
Post by Mark T. Locker.
Pete’s a Pizza by William Steig.
It’s rainy. Kids want to go outside and play with their friends but they can’t. They get grumpy. They are too bored to do anything. They just want to sit around and scowl and mope. Pete is scowling and moping because it’s raining. Pete’s dad isn’t bored. He is hungry. So he decides to make Pete into a pizza. For most of the story, we are watching Pete’s parents as they make him into a pizza, from sprinkling him with flour (it’s really talcum powder) to covering him with tomatoes (they’re really just checkers) and placing him in the oven (just the sofa). Despite himself, he can’t help laughing as he gets tossed and stretched like a ball of dough.
It’s a funny story that little kids are sure to get a kick out of. It also offers a glimpse into all the ridiculous things you can do with a crabby bored child to get him/her out of his/her crabby mood. Who knows? you might just feel better yourself!
Bedtime Stories: Mr. and Mrs. Bunny—Detectives Extraordinaire!
Post by Mark T. Locker.
Mr. and Mrs. Bunny—Detectives Extraordinaire! by Polly Horvath.
This is one of the silliest books I have read in a while. It was very refreshing. And it’s not just silly in the random insert-something-arbitrary-and-silly-here kind of book; it was actually, literally laugh out loud funny. Just ask my wife! Polly Horvath is enormously talented at writing subtle humor that children and adults alike will laugh at.
Madeleine is a smart girl with some utterly useless, kinda dumb parents. So when they go missing, she knows she must find them, because they are pretty much helpless without her. Her only clues are a letter signed “The Enemy” and a coded card with reference to rabbits and rabbit by-products. Spoiler alert: it’s foxes.
Luckily, Madeleine meets Mr. and Mrs. Bunny just when they had decided to buy fedoras so they could be detectives. Mr. and Mrs. Bunny have never detected before. Madeleine worries that she may be putting too much faith in them, not because they are new in the game but because they are bunnies. What Madeleine quickly learns is that the Bunnys are the closest she will come to being cared for and loved. And that marmots are very stupid and very fond of the Olde Spaghetti Factory. (These two points are not related. Probably.) Mr. and Mrs. Bunny are charming and adorable. I would love to be adopted by them.
Poignant, funny, action-packed, this book can be read by even as slow a reader as me in just a couple days. It’s well worth it!
