Reviews #126-130: early Favorites of 2014

We’re trying a new approach today!  We’ve read tons of 2014 titles already this year.  (Of course there are many more yet to see.)  Out of those that have crossed our paths so far in the first half of the year, here are some favorites, all in one post!  The kids are each going to pick one of the books to highlight... 

Dad:  Evie, why don’t you get us started.  What is your favorite book of the year so far?
Evangeline (age 6):  I like the pictures in this book.  I like how it’s 3D!

Dad:  This is “Jim Curious” by Matthias Picard.

Elijah (age 8):  Oh my gosh.  This book is so cool.

Isaac (age 15):  Dude.  It’s amazing.

Gracie (age 13):  Anything we say is not going to do it justice. 

Evangeline:  I need the goggles. (Puts on the 3D glasses)  Woah, it’s so cool!!!

Dad:  So tell everyone what it’s like to read a 3D book…

Evangeline:  The glasses make it look like this fish is swimming towards you.  It comes closer to you. The fish is coming out at my face!  Oh my word, can I touch this?  I want to stick my hand right under the fish… but it’s not working.

Lily (age 11):  Woah!  Woah!  I keep trying to reach out to grab it.

Dad:  What is the story about?

Evangeline:  It is about “under the sea.”  This guy is swimming.  

Lily:  The pages have a lot of action.  It’s like a movie.

Isaac:  It’s a visual spectacle. The art would still be cool even if it wasn’t 3D.

Evangeline:  It looks like you can try to stick your head into the pictures.  Like I can go under this water and swim with this person and look at this cool stuff.  For real. 
Gracie:  It feels like you shouldn’t be able to turn the pages – because it looks more like staring into a shadow box than a book. 

Evangeline:  But when you take the glasses off, it looks plain.

Dad:  Then when you put the glasses back on...

Evangeline:  KAPOW! 

Dad:  Ka-pow!  Kapoof!

Evangeline:  Not kapoof.  Only kapow.  Kapoof sounds weird.

Dad:  How would you feel if we ever lost the glasses?

Evangeline:  I’d be, like, (voice trembling) "I want to stick my hand under the fish, but now I can't!"

Gracie:  I would cry.

Evangeline:  Only the first half of this book is my favorite book.   At the end there is an underwater tornado.  And it makes me feel like, "Oh cwap.  This tornado is going to make me go into it."

Dad:  Cwap?  Can we say ‘cwap’ on Bookie Woogie?

Evangeline:  Yeah.

Dad:  I’ve never heard you say ‘cwap’ before.

Evangeline:  "Cwap."

Dad:  Now I’ve heard you say it twice.  Let’s wash your mouth out with some of this 3D water.

Evangeline:  It’s actually not wet.

Dad:  Okay Elijah, your turn.  What book do you want to share?

Elijah (age 8):  This book is about dinosaurs. 

Dad:  "The Greatest Dinosaur Ever" by Brenda Guiberson and Gennady Spirin.

Elijah:  One of the dinosaurs said it was the fastest.  One of them said it was the biggest.  One of them said ‘I’ve got armored plates.’  They all thought they were the best.  But I don’t know who was right.

Dad:  How did you do with reading all these dinosaur names?

Elijah:  Heheheheheh…  That’s the tricky part.

Dad:  Why don’t scientists just name dinos things like Bob… and Ed… and Poofer.

Elijah:  Poofer?

Dad:  I don’t know.  It’s better than… Leaellynasura.

Elijah:  All dinosaurs are named weird things.  Like, Spinosaurus.  Actually that’s the easiest name of all of them.

Gracie:  I saw that guy on Jurassic Park… that was freaky.

Lily:  (reading names beneath the pictures)  "Oviraptor..." Gasp!  It’s a chicken-lion-dragon!  You know those chicken-lion-dragon things?  Cockatrice!  Maybe that’s where they got the cockatrice myth from.  Gasp!  That makes so much sense. 

Evangeline:  I don’t like dinosaurs.  Every night I think about dinosaurs.

Dad:  Every night?  I didn’t know that.

Evangeline:  Yeah.  At night I think their heads are going to open and eat me.  But I do think it would be fun to ride a baby dinosaur.

Dad:  Elijah, would you like to have a dinosaur for a pet?

Elijah:  That probably would not be a good idea.

Gracie:  I don’t want him to have one.

Elijah:  I’d accidentally kill everyone with it.

Gracie:  Elijah walks around with a stuffed alligator, beaning people in the head.  Imagine what he would do with a real live predator at his disposal.  That would be horrific.

Isaac:  This book has very detailed art.  The illustrator has a very cool style - you can still see the pencil beneath the paint.

Dad:  This illustrator is one of my favorites.  As soon as I saw that he’d been tapped to do a book about dinosaurs, I thought, That is BRILLIANT!  Why has that never happened before?   Gennady Spirin.  Dinosaurs.  Of course someone needs to put them together.  It’s awesome.

Elijah: (singing to the tune of a Frozen song)  Gennady and dinos… they’re both so intense… put them together… it just makes sense!  Rat da dat, da da dada da doo... 

Dad:  Okay, Lily, pick a book!

Lily (age 11):  “Oliver’s Tree.”

Dad:  By Kit Chase.

Gracie:  This one is really cute.

Lily:  Oliver is an elephant, and he was playing with his friends, a bunny and an owl.  Oliver saw his friend in a tree, but he was too big to climb up with her.  So they try to find a tree that Oliver can climb.  One had bigger branches, but it was too high.  One was too small.  They found a perfect tree, but when he got in it, the branch broke. 

Dad:  Poor guy.

Lily:  It’s so sad -- he just fell on his face.  So Oliver sat on a tree stump and went to sleep.  Then his friends built a tree house around him, and when he woke up -- POOF!  A tree house. 

Kids: (singing to the tune of a Frozen song) Do you wanna build a tree house…

Lily:  I would totally live in a tree house if I could.  Yeah.  If it was big enough.  And if it had electricity.  Except for bugs… I wouldn’t like termites.

Dad:  Do you like climbing trees too?

Lily:  Oh my gosh.  I LOVE climbing trees.  

Elijah:  I do.  I’m just not good at it unless there’s a low branch to start with.  I’m not very tall.

Lily:  I miss that climbing tree at our old house.  I remember when our neighbor Gina came over, we would climb it.  And we would pretend we were cheetahs.  Okay that part was weird.

Dad:  How about the illustrations in this book?

Gracie:  Everything about this book is adorable.  Really cute.

Isaac:  I have nothing against cute things.  People who do are kind of sad.  I like “cute” -- I’m a happy person.

Evangeline:  I like the owl best.  Owls are my favorite animal.  If I ever meet the person who made this book, I would like her very much.  I would want her to draw me 100 owls.  I would want her to make me a tattoo of an owl.

Dad:  Gracie!  What’s your favorite book?

Gracie (age 13):  “Sparky” by Jenny Offill and Chris Appelhans.  I really do like the storyline a lot, but the pictures – the pictures are so, so cool.  

Elijah:  Everybody likes this book.

Gracie:  Sparky is a sloth.  This girl wants a pet, but her mom says she has to get one that doesn’t need to be walked or fed or given a bath.  So she was like, “I’ll get a sloth.”  And she seems to love him... even though he can’t do anything. 

Elijah:  I’d rather have a pet fox. 

Gracie:  She tries to play games with him, but he doesn’t move.  The sloth is... a dud.

Isaac:  He’s a very cool looking sloth though.

Gracie:  Kudos, Chris Appelhans. 

Isaac:  Thumbs up.

Evangeline:  He’s kind of weird.  He looks weird.  He looks like a weird koala bear.

Dad:  Would you want a pet like that?

Evangeline:  No. I feel like he would eat me.

Elijah:  It’s not a very cool pet.

Dad:  Poor Sparky!

Lily:  I like this book because it has “me” in it.

Dad:  You?  I never thought about it…  I guess that does look like you.

Lily:  She looks like me a LOT.

Dad:  Yeah… 'cause you have a flat head, and a big dark nose, and you lay around…

Lily:  NOOOOO… the GIRL.  Ha haha ha…

Dad:  Ha ha... oh, the girl, you say?

Gracie:  The girl is adorable.  You can totally see she’s fun and spunky.  But the sloth just… fails.  Fails.  He doesn’t do anything.  And the book has no resolution to it at all.  The end scene is the girl, just sitting, sad in a tree, trying to play tag with a sloth.

Dad:  You think she’s sad?  Her face is turned away from us.

Gracie:  I don’t know.

Dad:  Or is she happy to accept him as he is?  The sloth looks happy there.

Gracie:  He just ate a cookie, Dad.

Dad:  Ha haa ha hah…

Gracie:  I don’t know, maybe she’s not sad.

Dad:  Maybe *she* just needs a cookie.

Gracie:  I guess it’s not really a sad ending.  That’s a bad word to describe it.

Dad:  So what’s a better way?

Gracie:  It’s kind of like... Life.

Dad:  Oh?

Gracie:  It is!  You can try to really impress people, but it doesn’t always work out, and sometimes you just have to accept that.  And that’s exactly what happened with the sloth. 

Dad:  Alright, Isaac.  Give us another one.

Isaac (age 15):  “Rules of Summer.”

Gracie:  Oh, we love Shaun Tan.

Isaac:  I like Shaun Tan’s work a lot.  Everything he does is cool.  He could do realistic work, but he chooses to make it crazy, just for fun.  And I like that.  I’m attracted to the randomness.

Dad:  What’s the book about?

Isaac:  It’s about these two brothers.  The little boy is probably the main character, but they are both very important.  It takes place in this crazy world where anything happens. 

Elijah:  I was like, “What is happening?  What.  What.  What.  I don’t know what is going on.”

Lily:  Like, where the heck did they get a steamboat-rocketship-car-thing?  And a giant red rabbit?

Evangeline:  That is a humungous bunny. 

Isaac:  There are random rules set to the awesome pictures.

Lily:  So, don’t leave a red sock on a clothesline… or a giant red rabbit will magically appear?

Dad:  See, it’s a good thing you read it here first.  You don’t want to learn that rule the hard way.

Gracie:  I want to go to that park with the magic glowing trees.

Isaac:  My favorite picture is the kids standing on these water tower things with really long nets, and they are trying to catch the stars in a meteor shower. 

Evangeline:  They look like sky jellyfish! 

Isaac:  The pictures seem random, but by the end they tell a story. 

Dad:  And what do you think the story is?

Isaac:  The little boy is making lots of mistakes... 

Evangeline:  He drops all the stuff.  I don’t like how he disobeys all the rules in this book!

Isaac:  He feels sad about it, the brothers get in a fight, the little boy get's trapped and goes away, his brother comes along with bolt cutters and saves him.  Then they are happy and it all resolves.

Dad:  Did you notice the crows?  I read this book a ton of times before I noticed the crow on each page.

Isaac:  I did notice actually.  I didn’t realize it was on every page.  But I noticed it.  At first I thought they were representing “anger.”  Now I’m not sure.  It’s more “sad.”  Like an angry… sad... remorse-ish feeling.  A down-low feeling.

Dad:  Here’s my thought.  I think they represent memories.   The kid screws up and a crow is watching.  The kid screws up and a crow is watching.  Over and over. 

Isaac:  But why are there lots of crow at the end then?

Dad:  Because each time it’s a different crow.  And all the memories are building.  The crows are keeping track, keeping record of all the mistakes, like "strikes," building up, and there’s this big weight of guilt growing.  And eventually it destroys their relationship -- it separates them.  He’s swarmed by all the negatives he’s done.  Then the brother comes along and forgives him.  Forgiveness sets him free.  And after that, there’s no more crows.

Gracie:  Guys… pick up your feet.  It’s getting deep in here.

Lily:  Gracie, I’m never fighting with you again!

Dad:  So think of someone in the family you might have problems with… What if you keep score and let disapproval build and build?

Gracie:  Then you’re just going to have a house full of crows.

Lily:  All that guilt.

Dad:  And what fixes it?

Gracie:  Bolt cutters.

Dad:  Which represented…

Gracie:  Bolt cutters.

Dad:  Or…

Lily:  Forgiveness!!!  I get angry at people, but it only lasts like 5 seconds.

Dad:  So you are very quick to pull out the bolt cutters.

Lily:  Yes.

Dad:  Forgiveness is wonderful.

Isaac:  You need to let it go.

Gracie and Lily: (singing to the tune of the Frozen song)  Let it go… let it go… Getting rid of all my crows!  Let it go…  Let it go… Let forgiveness grow…

Isaac:  Now everyone is going to have that tune stuck in their head.

Dad:  Good golly.  This whole post has turned into a Frozen sing-along.

Jim Curious under the sea, by Evangeline

spinosaurus, by Elijah

Oliver finds a new friend, by Lily

come, Sparky, by Gracie 

catching meteors, by Isaac

And bonus!  Here are five more favorite 2014 titles:


The Adventures of Beekle
by Dan Santat


Some Bugs
by Angela DiTerlizzi and Brendan Wenzel


Lindberg: the Tale of a Flying Mouse
by Torben Kuhlmann


Big Bad Bubble
by Adam Rubin and Daniel Salmieri


The Glorkian Warrior Delivers a Pizza
by James Kochalka

Jim Curious
Author/Illustrator: Matthias Picard
Published, 2014: Abrams Books
Like it?  Here it is!


The Greatest Dinosaur Ever
Author: Brenda Z. Guiberson 
Illustrator: Gennady Spirin
Published, 2014 (oops! 2013): Henry Holt
Like it?  Here it is!

Oliver's Tree
Author/Illustrator: Kit Chase
Published, 2014: Putnam
Like it?  Here it is!


Sparky
Author: JennyOffill
Illustrator: Chris Appelhans
Published, 2014: Schwartz & Wade
Like it?  Here it is!

Rules of Summer
Author/Illustrator: Shuan Tan
Published, 2014: Arthur Levine Books
Like it?  Here it is!

Review #82: Dotty

Dad:  What did you think of "Dotty"?
Isaac (age 12):  Is Dotty a cow?
Lily (age 7):  She's a bull.
Isaac:  She looks like a cow-lion.  Or a rhino-cow.
Gracie (age 10):  Dotty looks like a giant cow with purple horns and a lion's mane.  And she has dots all over.
Lily:  Dotty is an imaginary friend.  An imaginary pet.
Isaac:  The book is about a girl named Ida with a pet named Dotty that looks like a water buffalo.  I've decided that's the closest thing.
Lily:  Ida takes Dotty to school.  All the other kids in school have imaginary pets too.
Isaac:  Then they have a Christmas break, and most of the kids give up their pets.  A couple of kids still had them.  But then they have another break, and when Ida comes back, nobody even remembers their pets.  They think it's funny that Ida still has hers.
Lily:  Ida feels like a baby because she still has her imaginary friend.  Then Ida's imaginary pet bumped one of the girls that was making fun of Ida.
Dad:  Who do you think really pushed the girl?  Dotty or Ida?
Lily:  Ida did it and blamed it on her imaginary pet.
Isaac:  No.  I think Dotty really did it.
Gracie:  I think it's Ida, not the pet.  The book says the imaginary pets all have problems, but the kids are really the ones having the problems.  I'll show you...  See, that boy won't share.  It's not his pets - it's him that won't share.  And that girl right there is talking out of turn - not her pet.
Isaac:  I know that it's supposed to be the kids doing it...  But I like the idea better that the pets are doing it.  I think it's cool.
Dad:  So you choose to be like Ida...  to believe in the pets.
Isaac:  I LIKE the pets.
Dad:  Good!  Me too.
Lily:  Ida gets in trouble and has to go to the teacher's office.
Isaac:  The teacher asks Ida, "Do you want your blue leash back?"  But she accidentally gives her a red leash.  And the teacher says, "Oopsie. That's my leash."  And then she says, "Come on Gert," and the teacher had a leash that was tied to Gert.  Who is a giraffe... thing.  Like, a girraffe-pony-deer with stripes.
Lily: Then Ida feels okay because she knows someone else has an imaginary pet - someone that is way older than her.
Dad:  So, who is the author of this book?
Gracie:  Erica S. Perl.
Dad:  And what did you think of her story?
Gracie:  It's a good storyline.  It is imaginative and fun.  It's rocking.
Isaac:  It was a cool idea - it's like a whole other world, but still close enough to the real world that you don't notice.
Dad:  And who is the illustrator.
Gracie:  Julia Denos.
Dad:  And what did you think of her illustrations?
Gracie:  She has good fashion sense.
Lily:  The art is loose and sketchy.  It's awesome.  It looks like crayon, pencils, and paint.  It's a collage!
Dad:  Yep, that's called mixed-media.
Isaac:  I think she has a really good imagination in order to think of all these cool imaginary animals.  Most of the imaginary animals are kind of little, but the illustrator made Dotty bigger, so Dotty sticks out more than all the others.
Dad:  Wow - good point, Isaac!  And that ties into the story too.  Ida wants to forget about Dotty, but she can't.  Dotty is not a little fluffball that she can just shove into her pocket and ignore.
Gracie:  I like how the kids' clothes match their animals.  These two both have dots.  These guys both have stripes.  These guys have hats.  There's lots of good fashion in this book, so I like it.  Fashion is always important to me.
Dad:  A person wouldn't know that by looking at you today.
Gracie:  Yes they would.
Dad:  Maybe you and Julia Denos need to hang out and she can give you some pointers.
Gracie:  Dude!  My outfit is totally cute!
Isaac:  Uhhhh...
Dad:  I don't think mom would let you walk outside today like that.
Gracie:  I have wild fashion sense.
Dad:  Often you do quite well.  Today it looks like a buffalo-lion picked out your outfit.
Elijah (age 5):  I have a whole bunch of imaginary friends.
Dad:  Oh yeah!  Your imaginary kitty cat.
Elijah:  Oliana.
Gracie:  Elijah told me Oliana moved far, far away and can't visit anymore.
Elijah:  No.  She's here right now!  She did move away, but she can still visit a couple times.
Dad:  What does she look like?
Elijah:  She's an orange cat with stripes.  I have a whole bunch of imaginary friends.  Oliana.  And Hanker... he kind of looks like a hamster with horns.  Because he does have horns.  My biggest one is Manker.  He is an imaginary friend with wheels.  He's the biggest imaginary friend I have.
Isaac:  I never really had an imaginary friend.  I tried to.  But I could never really get into it.
Dad:  Who is your imaginary friend Lily?
Lily:  Liliana.
Dad:  That's the name of your second cousin.
Lily:  Yeah, but it's also the name of a girl who lives in Lilyland.  That's where my imaginary friends stay.
Dad:  Quite often we say, "Lily, you aren't here right now are you...  You are off in Lilyland."  You sort of zone out on a regular basis.
Lily:  Yeah.  When that happens, I'm usually playing with my imaginary friends.
Dad:  You guys are weirder than I thought.
Isaac:  Dad, you can take a photograph of my friend Mr. Fred.  Because he's not imaginary.
Gracie:  He doesn't move much.  He just stands in Isaac's room.
Dad:  And he freaks me out quite a bit.
Gracie:  He's a stuffed man Isaac built and hung on his coat rack.
Dad:  He just stares at me from behind his glasses and fuzzy beard.
Isaac:  He doesn't have glasses.  He has an eye patch.
Gracie:  Just a second.  Ensenta is talking to me.  (silent pause)  Are you done?  Okay.
Dad:  Ah, is Ensenta still around?
Gracie:  She's right here, only you can't see her.  She's pink with purple wings, giant eyes and a fuzzy mouth.
Dad:  What?  She used to be a kid.
Gracie:  She used to be a girl from Mexico.
Dad:  She changed?
Isaac:  Now she's a little poofball.
Dad:  I didn't know that.  She used to be a girl from Mexico who liked to drink milk.
Gracie:  Oh yeah!  She would drink my milk for me!
Dad:  That's the only time she showed up.  When Gracie didn't want to drink her milk.  So Ensenta would drink it.  This little imaginary Mexican girl.
Gracie:  Hee hee hee HAaaaaaaah!
Dad:  That's about all she did.  She never showed up unless milk was around.
Isaac:  Then Gracie got smarter when she got older.
Gracie:  Now Ensenta is allergic to milk.
Dad:  As a kid I didn't have an imaginary friend.  But I did have an invisible friend.  There's a big difference.
(confused silence from the kids)
Dad:  His name was Jonamacon.  And he would play Monopoly with me when no one else would.
(Gracie begins patting Dad on the back)
Dad:  Now that I think about it, that's kind of sad actually.
Kids:  (laughter)

Dotty, by Isaac

Elijah with Hanker and Manker, by Elijah

some inhabitants of Lilyland, by Lily

Gracie and Ensenta, by Gracie


Mr. Fred, by Isaac
(I often forget Mr. Fred is in the boys' room, and I've been startled a great number of times when passing by...)

Author: Erica S. Perl
Illustrator: Julia Denos
Published, 2010: Abrams
Like it? Here it is

Review #11: Hush Little Dragon

Dad:  Today we're reviewing "Hush Little Dragon" by Boni Ashburn and illustrated by Kelly Murphy.
Lily (age 5):  Okay - let's do it!
Gracie (age 8):  Is she related to Katie?
Isaac (age 10):  Katie Murphy - Gracie's friend...
Dad:  I don't think so.  Okay, let's read it first.  Should I sing it or read it?
Gracie:  Read it.
Dad:  "Hush, little dragon, don't make a sound...."
Gracie:  No, no!  Sing it!
Dad: (singing) "Hush, little dragon, don't make a sound.  Mama's gonna bring you a princess she found."
Gracie:  With a very pointy hat.

Singing continues... and the book eventually concludes with...

Dad:  "She'll whisper in your ear, 'Sweet dreams, good night.'"
Lily:  Where's his ear?
Gracie:  There was a lot of running away in that book.
Lily:  That was a cute baby dragon!
Isaac:  Why does the mother dragon have a brown beard?  It's a girl!
Lily:  It's the cutest baby dragon in the world.
Gracie:  People would not want to read this book to their baby if she's scared of the dark.
Dad:  Then to whom would you read it?
Isaac:  To a dragon!
Dad:  Alright, tell us about the book.
Isaac:  It was good.  It's about a dragon...
Gracie:  Who has to "hush."
Isaac:  He has to go to bed.
Gracie:  But he wants a snack.
Isaac:  So he eats people.
Gracie:  And a horse.
Dad:  Was that kind of surprising to have a kids' book where creatures eat the people?  Did that strike anyone as weird?
Gracie:  It's a funny, cute, little, horrifying book...
Isaac:  It's a strange book, but it's good.
Gracie:  It's strange because it's horrifying and cute at the same time.
Isaac:  I like it, but it's just kind of strange.  Not in a bad way though.
Gracie:  It's funny because the baby has a gynormous belly.
Isaac:  That's only in the end...
Gracie:  I know - it's funny.
Lily:  It's fat!
Gracie:  It ate everything.
Dad:  Every thing?
Gracie:  EveryONE.  Plus a horse.
Dad:  Some of them got away I think, didn't they?
Gracie:  Yeah, the king.
Isaac:  And the magician.
Gracie:  No wait - he disappeared, but I think he disappeared into his belly.
Dad:  Which of those people do you think was the most delicious?
Isaac:  The mean old queen.
Gracie:  Yeah.
Dad:  Really?  I wouldn't want to eat someone so sour looking.
Gracie:  But it says "You're in luck - it's good cuisine."  The one I wouldn't want to eat is the knight with fire on his buns - I don't want to eat fire!
Lily:  I would eat the wizard so I can get magic and make things disappear.
Dad:  You think you're able to do magic if you eat a wizard?  What happens if you eat a knight?
Lily:  I would become brave!  And strong!  And fight bad guys!
Gracie:  You would get fiery buns.
Lily: (now off in la la land...) "Don't eat me up!  I'm the beautifulest princess of all!"
Gracie:  All the princesses are just watching the king get grabbed by the dragon and they are not doing anything about it.  No one cares that the dragons are taking the king.  The king with his underpants.  "Aaaghh! You can see my underpants!"
Isaac:  I don't think those are underpants.
Dad:  What are some ways that they keep this book from being scary?
Gracie:  Because she draws the baby dragon cute.  And the mommy dragon has giant eyelashes and a beard.  And the king is wearing his underpants in public.
Isaac:  It's not underpants!
Gracie:  And besides... the dragons only eat kings and musketeers and horses and things like that.  Children are safe.
Isaac:  The people don't look real.  They look like little blocks... like they are built out of squares and triangles.
Gracie:  She made the three musketeers have tiny little beards and gynormous mustaches.  The knights have no noses.  And the princess has pink bunny ears.
Lily:  The buildings look like building blocks.  No - actually, a rubber castle.  A rubber town.
Gracie:  Like one of those giant bouncy castle things.
Isaac:  If you think of the dragons as felt and cloth, they would really look like Muppets.
Gracie:  Look at the little dancing dragon!  He's dancing!  He's dancing!
Dad:  How can you tell the mommy dragon and the baby dragon love each other?
Gracie:  The mommy is serving the baby his food.  And she's protecting him.  And she lets him wear the queen's crown.  And she snuggles with him at the end.
Isaac:  When does the baby wear a crown?
Gracie:  Hee hee!  When the mom finds the mean old queen... see!  Ha ha ha!
Dad:  Is your mommy like this mommy?
Gracie:  They both love their children.  But our mom doesn't go around eating people.

little dancing dragon, by Isaac

dinnertime, by Lily

Boni Ashburn and Kelly Murphy meet their dragons,
by Gracie

Author: Boni Ashburn
Illustrator: Kelly Murphy
Published, 2008: Abrams Books
Like it? Find it

Review #1: The Dog Who Belonged to No One

Dad:  We just read "The Dog Who Belonged to No One."  It's written by Amy Hest, and the pictures are by Amy Bates...
Gracie (age 8):  Amy...  Amy...  hello Amy and other Amy!
Dad:  So tell me about this book.
Lily (age 5):  I think it's great!
Isaac (age 10):  It's about a dog and a girl...
Gracie:  A "wisp" of a girl!
Isaac: ...who were both lonely and wished they had someone to be their friend...
Gracie:  (dramatically) that makes me cry.
Isaac: ...then they met each other, so their wishes were fulfilled.  The dog's story and the girl's story were kind of the exact same.
Dad:  In what ways?
Isaac:  They both needed a friend.
Gracie:  And she lived in a crooked house - a VERY crooked house - and he had crooked ears!
Isaac:  Also, they both tried to outrun the storm.  They were both soaked to the bone.  They both went to the same house.  They both had the exact same dream.
Gracie:  They both "tucked themselves inside themselves."
Isaac:  Yeah, I think there are nice words in this book.  They are different than other words.  Like, "a wisp of a girl" and "they tucked themselves inside themselves."
Dad:  Yes, very creative descriptions.
Isaac:  I just realized something about this book - I don't know if it's a coincidence or not.  But in the story the dog and the girl are alike in a lot of ways, and look at this: (flipping to the cover) Amy Hest and Amy Bates.  They have the exact same name!
Dad:  That is cool...  And what about the pictures?  This illustrator is one of my new favorite-favorites.  She's the same lady that did the pictures for --
Gracie:  Babymouse?
Dad:  No - not Babymouse.  She did the pictures for that thanksgiving book we have, "Give Thanks to the Lord."  Do you remember that one?  We just got it.
Gracie:  No.  But I remember Babymouse.
Dad:  Do you have a favorite picture from this book?
Lily:  The picture on the back.
Gracie:  Yes, that's my favorite too.
Dad:  Tell me about it...
Lily:  There's a girl and a dog with cooked ears...
Gracie:  The girl doesn't have crooked ears.
Dad:  Why is this one your favorite?
Lily:  Because he's happy, and he's cute, and he has his tongue sticking out, and his tongue is dark red, and I like dark red.
Gracie:  And I love her hat!  It looks like something from France.
Lily:  (Opening up the book)  That's a sad picture, isn't it.
Isaac:  Isn't there a thing you can do with colors - to make you feel happy or sad...
Dad:  Yep...  What do you notice about the colors when the dog is sad?
Isaac:  Purple, dark blue...
Dad:  What about this happy page?
Isaac:  Yellows and whites and bright colors.  The only blue here is like... aqua.
Dad:  Do you remember what that's called?
Gracie:  Warm colors and Dark colors.
Dad:  Not dark... what's the opposite of warm?
Gracie:  Cold.
Dad:  Almost.  "Cool" colors.  So when things are happy...
Gracie:  They are yellow and red.
Dad:  And when things are sad...
Gracie:  They are blue and purple.
Dad:  You know what Dad thought was fun about this book?  They could have put a picture on this page and just plain words on the other side.  But look what they did.  There are all these neat borders around the words.
Isaac:  Oh yeah!  And they made the border into a... wagon?
Dad:  I think it's her bicycle wheels.  And what's on the pages with the dog...
Gracie:  Aww!  Dog prints!
Dad:  It's how they both move - paw prints because he walks...
Gracie:  And bicycle wheels because she rides!
Dad:  That dog in the book never got a name did he?  What do you think his name will be now that they belong to each other?  If you saw a little cutie-dog like that, what would you name him?
Lily:  I have an idea, but I don't know if it's going to be a good name...
Dad:  What?
Lily:  "Sweetie Pie" ...hee hee
Dad:  Sweetie Pie!  I think that is a good name!
Gracie:  He's an adorable dog.

Lia and the dog, by Gracie

the dog who belonged to no one, by Isaac

"Sweetie Pie," by Lily

Author: Amy Hest
Illustrator: Amy Bates
Published, 2008: Abrams Books for Young Readers
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