Review #103: Sidekicks

Lily (age 8):  This is a book called Sidekicks, and I'm gonna tell you about it.
Gracie (age 11):  It's a graphic novel.
Lily:  It's about Captain Amazing.
Gracie:  He is a superhero.
Lily:  He has a whole bunch of pets.  They love him.  And they always want to be with him, but he's always gone on his missions.
Isaac (age 12):  Captain Amazing thinks he's getting too old, and he wants to get a sidekick to help him.
Gracie:  So he's going to hold sidekick auditions.  All of his pets have superpowers.
Isaac:  They each want to become his sidekick so they can spend more time with him.  They fight crime.  And there are EXPLOSIONS!
Dad:  Is it ever like that with kids and their dads too?  Sometimes you want to be with me, but I have to work?
Gracie:  YES.  All the time.
Dad:  Maybe you guys can be my sidekicks.  You can sharpen my pencils for me.
Gracie: (sarcastically)  That sounds... exciting...
Dad:  Tell me about the four pets...
Gracie:  I'll tell you about Shifty.  Shifty is a chameleon.  He changes colors to match his surroundings so you can't see him.  His skin is his suit.
Isaac:  The hamster's name is Fluffy.  He thinks he doesn't have superpowers.  But he still wants to be the sidekick so he can be closer to his dude.
Lily:  The cat has electricity and can electrocute.  The dog can turn into metal.  His name is Metal Mutt.
Dad:  Did you have a favorite part?
Gracie:  Inside the penguin's igloo at the zoo there is a secret nightclub.
Lily:  I like that place.
Isaac:  Not that we go to nightclubs.
Dad:  What was eating all the food... a hippo?
Gracie:  Yeah.  He had big fat butt cheeks.
Dad:  We're not going to put "butt cheeks" in the review.
Gracie:  "Bottom... cushions..."
Dad:  If you could have a superpower what would you pick?
Lily:  I would have night vision.  I would go out at night and get all the bad guys while they are sleeping.
Dad:  You would hate night vision.  You already say that it's too bright for you to go to sleep at night.  It would be like having the lights on all the time.
Isaac:  I would have the power to go back in time.  So if a bad guy punched me in the nose, I would go back in time and dodge it.
Dad:  What would your snazzy superhero name be?
Isaac:  (pause)  Back-in-Time-Guy.
Dad:  Pbbbbb.
Gracie:  I would have shape shifting powers.  I would catch a bad guy, and shape shift my hand into a big club.  After I shoved him into a dumpster, I would shape shift into him, and then I would get the other guys.  Wow! Pow! Pow! Shickapoo!
Dad:  Do you know who made this book?
Gracie:  Dan Santat.
Lily:  This book is so cool that I am speechless.
Gracie:  I loved your book, Dan Santat.  It is definitely a good one.  It was very action filled and funny too.
Lily:  Everybody will like your book because it is, like, the awesomest book ever.
Isaac:  You could so make another one.  It's perfect for a sequel.  Or a t.v. show - that would be awesome!
Dad:  Any last words?  Do you have a blurb?
Gracie:  It is a fun fantasy about furry fighters of fury.
Dad:  Wow... FFFantastic!
Gracie:  It's Dan Santastic!

Metal Mutt stopping a rocket, by Isaac

the Chameleon and HIS sidekick?  by Gracie

sidekicks, by Lily

Author/Illustrator: Dan Santat
Published, 2011: Arthur A. Levine Books
Like it?  Here it is



The fun's not over yet!

I almost never buy new books.  Of the 3000+ children's books in our personal collection, I'm certain that less than 1% of them I purchased new.  As a "starving artist," I'm content to wait for birthday gifts, and I make dedicated rounds to used book sources... 10 cents here, 50 cents there.

But I was so excited about Sidekicks, that I bought it the week it came out.  My first new-release purchase in years.  Then... the VERY next day... we received a review copy in the mail from the publisher.  So we've got 2 copies!  And I decided that, rather than return one, we'd give this great book to one of our readers.

To be entered in the Giveaway, all you have to do is leave a comment below.  It's that easy!

And while it's not necessary, if you'd like to turn it into 2 entries, include within your comment a favorite Bookie Woogie memory.  The kids recently hit their 100th review (yea!) and it would be fun to celebrate that.  So if you've been with us for a while, share a favorite moment from a Bookie Woogie review or interview, and you'll get two entries in the Giveaway.

We'll announce a winner on August 1st.  Good luck!

Review #99: Ribbit Rabbit

Lily (age 8):  "Ribbit Rabbit."
Isaac (age 12):  By Candace Ryan.  Illustrated by Mike Lowery.
Gracie (age 10):  I love the way he did those pictures.
Lily:  They kind of look like kid drawings.
Gracie:  They do.
Lily:  But they look like awesome kid drawings.
Gracie:  It's not just a scribble.
Isaac:  I've tried drawing like that before.  It's not as easy as it looks.
Lily:  The characters are cuties.
Gracie:  They are SO cute!
Isaac:  It's about this frog and this rabbit.
Gracie:  And Pillowcase Man.  He's awesome.  I love that Pillowcase Man.  It only shows him in two pictures.  But he's awesome.  The frog and the rabbit were making monsters while they played.  Pillowcase Man is just a blue pillow that they scribbled eyes, a mouth, and teeth on.  But he's awesome.
Dad:  So... Frog or Bunny?  Did you have a favorite?  Ribbit or Rabbit?
Gracie:  Rabbit.
Lily:  Ribbit.
Isaac:  Ribbit.  Rabbit!
Gracie:  Rabbit.
Lily:  Ribbit.  Ribbit.
Gracie:  RABBIT!
Isaac:  RIBBIT!  RABBIT!  RIBBIT!
Lily:  RIBBIT!
Dad:  Alright, alright...  Zip it!
Gracie:  Zap it!
Lily:  Zip it!  Zap it!
Isaac:  ZAP IT!
Dad:  Shhhh....  This is going to be the dumbest review ever...
Gracie:  Ha hah haa...
Dad:  But is it fun to talk like that?
Kids:  YEAH!
Dad:  So, can you tell what is going on with the word choices in this book?  "Ribbit" and "Rabbit."  What is different between those two words?
Gracie:  One vowel sound.
Dad:  How about "Trip it" and "Trap it"?
Gracie:  The vowel.  The author changes one vowel sound in the words.
Dad:  Can you make your own?
Gracie:  Wop it.  Wap it.
Isaac:  Wap it.  Whoop it.
Gracie:  Coop it.  Keep it.  Slip it.  Slap it.  Lily.  Lolly.  Shilly.  Sholly.  Gilly.  Golly.
Dad:  Gracie's on a roll.  Can we do the whole review like this?
Gracie:  Sure.
Dad: (pointing at the book)  Lookit.
Gracie: (pointing at herself)  Like it!
Dad:  How about this one... (pointing at Candace Ryan's name)  Wrote it.
Gracie: (pointing at herself again)  Read it.
Dad:  How did you like the book, Lily?
Lily:  Loved it.  Laughed it.
Dad:  Good one!  So the word play in the book is fun.  The pictures are fun.
Gracie:  They are so cute!
Dad:  Is there a storyline to the book?
Isaac:  The frog and the rabbit are best friends and they do all kinds of stuff together.
Gracie:  They should have another adventure with Pillowcase Man.
Isaac:  Then this robot they are playing with accidentally breaks.  And the frog and the rabbit each grab one part.
Gracie:  They are being selfish.  Dad... you picked this book out for us on purpose.
Dad:  Ha ha!  I didn't even notice that plot when I picked it!  I was attracted to the art and the wordplay.  Honestly, I looked at this book three or four times before I even realized there was a lesson inside.  What is the lesson?
Gracie:  Share.
Isaac:  Don't be selfish.
Gracie:  I still think you picked this book out on purpose.  Now Dad's going to make us be good.
Dad:  Encouragement can never hurt.
Gracie:  We try to be good.  Trust me.  I try and try and try, and it never works.
Dad:  Hang in there.
Gracie:  I took a personality quiz, and these were the exact words.  It said, "You should be a little more patient. You usually think about yourself, and you like to be the center of attention most of the time."
Dad:  Ha ha...  Hmmmm, that doesn't sound like you at all.
Gracie:  Yeah it does!
Dad:  But what did Frog and Bunny learn?
Gracie:  Things work better when you work together.
Dad:  Just like the author and illustrator had to work together to make this book.
Isaac:  Candace Ryan, are you the bunny or the frog?

kick it, crack it  - by Isaac

rock it, racket  - by Gracie

wake it, whack it  - by Lily

Author: Candace Ryan
Illustrator: Mike Lowery
Published, 2011: Walker
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 #67: The Quiet Book

Gracie (age 9):  I can't see the book!  Your head is too big.
Isaac (age 11):  Shh!  It's "The Quiet Book."  You have to be quiet.
Dad:  Two people worked on "The Quiet Book"...
Lily (age 7):  Deborah Underwood and Renata Liwska.
Isaac:  People should know -- if you are reading this book to kids, it is not going to be a very quiet book.
Dad:  And why is that?
Isaac:  You are going to find yourself actually laughing.  Everyone here just kept laughing.
Dad:  So, what is the book about?
Lily:  "The Quiet Book" is about people being quiet.
Dad:  People?
Lily:  No.  Animals.
Gracie:  Cute animal characters.
Isaac:  Fluffy.
Gracie:  Cute.
Isaac:  And some have bad haircuts.
Dad:  Why was it so funny?
Isaac:  The pictures are really funny.  And sometimes the words help a picture to be funny.  If you just saw the picture by itself you would think, "Oh that's kind of sad."  But with the words it's really funny.
Dad:  The book lists many different kinds of quiet.  What were some examples?
Lily:  "Looking at your horrible new hairdo quiet."  And "underwater quiet."  And "I don't have a flashlight quiet."
Isaac:  And "trying not to hiccup quiet."  A bear is just holding this bunny up by his legs, dangling him down!
Lily:  There are tons of characters.  My favorite character is a porcupine.  Because he has an awesome hairdo.
Isaac:  Ha ha!  It's freaky.
Gracie:  It looks horrible.  He has the worst hairdo in the whole world!
Isaac:  I want that porcupine to come back.  He's funny!  He does not have very good luck.  Everything that has to do with that porcupine is hilarious.
Gracie:  Look at the kid in the background!  She's trying to get away from the barber!
Dad:  She doesn't want to end up like the porcupine...
Isaac:  Hi, little freaky hair dude!
Lily:  I like quiet.  I also like loud.  Crazy loud.
Dad:  What are some times that you guys are quiet?  Gracie, are you ever quiet?
Gracie:  Nope!
Isaac:  I like "trying to sleep quiet."  Or "getting out of bed quiet."
Gracie:  I like "first bite of cake quiet."
Dad:  Does the first bite of cake make you quiet?  Really?  Of course not long after, the sugar winds you up.
Lily:  I don't like "Daddy taking an hour on the phone quiet."
Dad:  Yeah, sometimes you guys have to settle down while I'm on the phone.
Lily:  I hate it.
Isaac:  One kind I don't like is "Being sent to my room quiet."  But nobody likes that.
Gracie:  Actually, if I was in trouble, I would like that.  Quiet means I wouldn't be getting yelled at.
Isaac:  (yawn)
Dad:  Talking about all this "quiet" made Isaac yawn.
Gracie:  (yawn)
Dad:  Now Gracie is yawning too!  We should save this book for before bed.
Isaac:  (yawn)  Agh - I keep yawning.
Lily:  (yawn)
Gracie:  That was a big yawn.
Dad:  Do you recognize the style of the drawings in this book?
Gracie:  "Little Panda."
Dad:  That's one of our favorite books by one of our favorite artists.
Gracie:  In "The Quiet Book" there is a clue that Renata Liwska also made "Little Panda."  In one of the pictures there is a "Little Panda" book on a shelf.
Isaac:  Her books have really good artwork.
Gracie:  She draws sketchy and cute.
Isaac:  Very sketchy.  Scribbly.  But amazingly cool.
Gracie:  The pictures have dull colors.  But that matches the book.
Dad:  Does that mean it's a dull book?
Gracie:  No!  It's hilarious.  But if the pages had bright purple or neon pink, that would wreck the book.  It's a quiet book, so it needs quiet colors.
Dad:  That's pretty clever of Mrs. Liwska, huh?
Lily:  She's one of our favorites.
Isaac:  She's going to get that medal thingie someday probably.
Gracie:  The Caldecott.
Isaac:  Yeah.  The Caldecott.  The drawing just looks so good.

picking a flower quiet, by Gracie

sneaking up on a duck quiet, by Lily

sailing through space quiet, by Isaac

Author: Deborah Underwood
Illustrator: Renata Liwska
Published, 2010: Houghton Mifflin
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Review #63: The Cinder-Eyed Cats

Lily (age 7):  "The Cinder-Eyed Cats."
Dad:  What is the first thing you think of when you look at this cover?  Does it give you any certain feelings?
Isaac (age 11):  The cats are looking at you strangely.  You can't take your eyes off them.
Gracie (age 9):  You get nervous.  Their eyes are disturbing.
Dad:  I love the eyes.
Lily:  Me too.
Isaac:  They have flaming yellow eyes.
Gracie:  They are looking at me!  The cats are waiting for me to blink so they can do something to me.
Lily:  The illustrator draws cool.
Gracie:  Very realistic.
Lily:  He draws the coolest of the cools.  It is so so so so so so so realistic.
Dad:  Do you know what other books Eric Rohmann made?  You will be shocked.
Gracie:  What?
Dad:  There's another one of my favorites.  He did "My Friend Rabbit."  You know the one where the rabbit throws the plane and it gets stuck in a tree?
Isaac:  Huh!!!  He did that?  That's a linocut one...
Dad:  Yep - wood cut.  So Eric Rohmann is good at more than one style.
Lily:  The pictures are just so awesome.
Gracie:  I love the pictures.
Dad:  Tell us what "The Cinder-Eyed Cats" is about...
Isaac:  There's a boy who gets into this flying boat, and he goes to an island.
Gracie:  The Wondrous Island of Cats.
Lily:  They are big, giant, puma cats.
Isaac:  I think they are mountain lions.  No - ligers!  They're ligers!  Don't they look like ligers?  They've got to be ligers.
Lily:  Gracie doesn't know what a liger is.
Isaac:  A liger is when a lion and a tiger get... married... and have ligers for kids.
Dad:  I don't think they get "married."  But we don't need to go into that now...
Gracie:  Yes we do.  We need to know this.
Dad:  What we need, is to keep this review rated "G."
Isaac:  Isn't there such a thing as a Zorse too?
Lily:  Yeah, there are zorses.
Dad:  A zebra-horse mix...
Gracie:  Everyone needs to know the story of ligers and zorses.  It's just like a Golden Doodle.  A golden retriever and a poodle mixed.
Dad:  Why "Doodle"?  It should be Golden... Roodle?
Gracie:  Nope.  Doodle.  Julia has one.
Dad:  Anyway -- back to our book...
Gracie:  It's about a boy, and he went to an island... the Magic Island of Liger-ness.
Isaac:  Then he builds this giant fish out of sand -- it looks like a huge salmon.  Then at night, the sand fish salmon opens his eyes and starts flying.
Lily:  The cats make the fish alive by their eyes.
Dad:  You think it was the cats that brought the sand fish to life?
Lily:  Yeah!  Their eyes.
Dad:  They do look like magic eyes.
Lily:  Yeah, they seem strange.
Gracie:  Their eyes just keep staring at you!  It freaks me out.  Here... (turns book) ...stare at Lily.
Isaac:  Then at night all these other fishes start flying!
Lily:  They do it at night because that's when the pumas are awake.
Gracie:  They are ligers.
Lily:  Whatever.
Gracie:  The fishes dance in the air on the Magic Island of Liger-ness.
Isaac:  There are dancing tunas and sardines.
Lily:  They circle around and around.
Gracie:  They all dance around the fire.
Lily:  Even big giant whales fly, which looks really cool.
Dad:  The boy in this book seems to be friends with the cats.
Gracie:  Well, why would he come to the island if he didn't know the cats already?
Dad:  So you think he's been to the island before?
Gracie:  Oh yeah.
Lily:  They are friendly cats.
Gracie:  They are not dangerous.
Lily:  This cat should be named "Lemon."
Gracie:  I think the boy goes to the island every night.
Isaac:  Every night he'll have different adventures.
Gracie:  Maybe the next time he could build a sand turtle, then all these turtles could come alive and fly.
Isaac:  I would build a sand dragon!
Dad:  Did you guys know this book changed my life?
Isaac:  It did?
Dad:  I saw this cover years ago, and it was at that moment I knew I wanted to be an illustrator.  I was in a library, reading a magazine -- I looked up and those cats were staring at me from across the room.  I looked down, then back up, and they were still staring at me.  I had to walk across the room and pick up this book.  I had to look at it.
Gracie:  Like they were saying "Open it, already!"
Dad:  And I was smitten by the children's book bug.  These cats were screaming at me with their eyes.  And everything changed.  That was the moment I knew -- this is what I want to do.
Isaac:  I love that front cover too.  I'd like to have that picture hanging up in my room.

cinder-eyed cat, by Isaac

cinder-eyed cat riding a flying fish, by Lily

Gracie visits the island and brings a sand panda to life,
by Gracie

Author/Illustrator: Eric Rohmann
Published, 1997: Knopf
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Review #58: Millie's Marvellous Hat

Gracie (age 9):  Millie's Marvellous Hat...
Isaac (age 11):  By Satoshi Kitamura.  This book is about a girl named Millie - and you've probably figured that out already because of the title.  She sees a hat in the store window.  But the hat is $599.99.
Gracie:  Not counting tax.
Isaac:  So the store manager gave her a special hat instead.
Lily (age 6):  A free one.
Gracie:  Millie doesn't have anything in her purse, so the store owner gives her an invisible hat that can be anything.
Isaac:  He's really nice - probably a different hat store owner wouldn't have done that.
Dad:  Which do you think was better?  The $599 one, or the free imaginary one?
Gracie:  The imaginary one.
Isaac:  I would never pay almost $600 for a hat.  If I had that much money, I would use it all on Legos.
Dad:  So what happens next...
Gracie:  Millie goes for a walk.  She sees a cake store, and her hat turns into a cake.  14 cakes on top of each other...  I just counted them.  Then she sees flowers and her hat becomes flowery.
Isaac:  Then when Millie was at the park, she noticed everyone had a hat of their own.  And at the end, her parents had hats too.  The dad had a giant penguin hat.
Elijah (age 4):  I like that penguin hat.
Dad:  Millie had a pretty good imagination.  Who else does?
Gracie:  Sa-tushy Ki-mostra has a good imagination.
Isaac:  It's actually... "Satoshi Kitamura."
Dad:  What do his pictures look like?
Isaac:  How do we explain the art in this book?  Abstract-ish?
Gracie:  He has never used a completely straight line in this whole book.
Isaac:  Well, they are straight.
Dad:  The lines are just all at odd angles to each other.
Isaac:  And they are splotchy.
Gracie:  Thick and thin lines.
Dad:  He varies the line width.
Gracie:  And Millie really pops out.  All the colors are dull except for Millie.  She's bright!
Dad:  What was your favorite hat in the book?  Mine was Millie's peacock hat.
Gracie:  It must have taken him an hour to draw that peacock hat.
Isaac:  I'm not drawing that.
Lily:  It had too much feathers.  That hat would have knocked everyone over.
Dad:  You think it would have actually knocked people down... even though it was imaginary?
Isaac:  I think the animals in the book could see the hats.  Well, the dog saw the cake hat - I know that much.
Gracie:  Its tongue was hanging out.
Dad:  How about you guys?  What was your favorite hat in the book?
Isaac:  My favorite hat was the vacuum cleaner one - that was cool.  That one and the Titanic hat were cool.
Gracie:  I have two favorite hats.  I like the peacock hat before it opens its feathers because it's the prettiest shade of blue in the whole world.  And I also like the Mommy's hat at the end.  It's really pretty.  It's flowers.
Dad:  How about you, Lily?
Gracie:  I know which one Lily would like!  This duck hat.
Lily:  That is a goose.
Dad:  Actually I think it's a swan.
Lily:  Well, I want the little baby swan hat.
Gracie:  Look - there's a safety cone hat.
Isaac:  Awesome!  I want the safety cone hat!
Gracie:  And look -- she's tall and skinny, so she's got a giraffe hat.  And he's short and chubby, so he has a rhinoceros hat.
Dad:  Wow... the hats match the people...  I never even noticed this!  I thought they were random.  But she's balancing packages so she has a hat with a seal balancing a ball.  Oh and look - she's pregnant so she has a kangaroo with a pouch...
Gracie:  And he's very distinguished and rich...
Isaac:  And he's fast like a race car driver...
Lily:  And they are fighting...
Dad:  I never would have noticed that - you guys are so smart!
Elijah:  Look - that's a cool hat!
Dad:  That would be a fun game, wouldn't it?  When we're all in the car waiting for mom to come out of the grocery store, we could imagine different hats on the people walking by based on their personalities.  Let's try it out...  What kind of hat do you think baby sister Evie would have?
Gracie:  A bullhorn!
Isaac:  No -- a hat with oranges!  She loves oranges.
Elijah:  I want a toothpaste marvelous hat!
Dad:  I could do that...  I'd be happy to put toothpaste on your head...
Isaac:  Elijah would have a toilet hat.
Dad:  Ha ha -- yes, we have trouble with Elijah's 4-year-old potty mouth, don't we.
Elijah:  YEAH!  A toilet hat!!!
Dad:  How about mom?
Gracie:  A vacuum cleaner.  Because she feels like she's the only one in the house who cleans up.
Lily:  No!  She would have a picture of her family.
Dad:  Yeah - she loves you guys.  That's one of her most distinguishing features.  How about me -- do you have a hat for me?
Gracie:  A pencil hat!
Dad:  Cool.  I would wear a pencil hat if there was one.
Isaac:  I wonder what the author's hat looks like.
Gracie:  Probably a Millie hat!
Dad:  So he would have a hat of a girl wearing a hat?
Gracie:  I think he should write another book about Millie.  Millie's Marvelous Shoes.  Or Millie's Marvelous Mustache!  Ha ha hahh hah...

Isaac's Marvelous Hat

Elijah's Marvelous Hat

Lily's Marvelous Hat

Gracie's Marvelous Hat

Author/Illustrator: Satoshi Kitamura
Published, 2009: Andersen Press
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Review #54: The Lion and the Mouse

Dad:  This book is called...
(Silence as everyone looks at the amazing cover)
Gracie (age 9):  It's called "A giant lion face."
Lily (age 6):  It's called "The Lion and the Mouse"!
Gracie:  There's no title!
Isaac (age 11):  Check the first page inside.
Dad:  Tell me about "The Lion and the Mouse."
Gracie:  It was simple.
Isaac:  It's not simple!  It has really good details.
Gracie:  Well, the story is simple.  The pictures are really, really detailed, but the story is simple.
Isaac:  Right.
Gracie:  The story is about a mousie and a lion.  The mousie said to the lion... well, actually it didn't say anything because mice don't talk.
Lily: (singing)  The Lion and the Mouse
  is about a mouse
    who got caught by a lion
      and the lion let him go
  And then....
    The mouse saved the lion
      from a trap
        by chewing the trap open
          La la la - doo doo!
Gracie:  That is so going in our Audio Snippets.
Dad:  Now, how is this version different than other versions of "The Lion and the Mouse"?
Lily:  It has no words.
Dad:  Do you like that or not?
Lily:  I like it.  Because then we get to make up the words.
Gracie:  There were no words in it except for a few.  I think the only words were "roar," "squeak," "whoo-whoo," and "scritch."
Dad:  So, I just read the story a minute ago... but if you had read it, would it have been completely different?  One person might read it in a funny way with lots of jokes.  Another person could make it really suspenseful and exciting.  Or someone could even do a musical version -- like Lily.
Lily:  Yeah!
Gracie:  Ha ha hahh HA ha!
Lily: (Singing)  "Whoooo, whooo... An owl's going to eat me..."  I'm singing it!
Dad:  Gracie, you tell me about the story.
Gracie:  Well a mousie disturbs a lion.  The lion decides to let him go and is like, "Rawr."
Dad:  Do you think the mouse knew what the lion was saying?
Gracie:  Hee hee...  No.
Dad:  What did the mouse say in return?
Gracie:  "Squeak."  Which means, "If you let me go, I'll do a favor for you."
  Then the lion says, "Roar."  Which means, "Okay, but what can a puny, little, squishy mousie do?"
  Then the mouse is like, "Squeak."  Which means, "Well, you never know..."
  Then the lion gets stuck in a trap, and the mouse is like, "Squeak."  Which means, "What happened?"
  Then the lion is like, "Rar."  Which means, "I got stuck in a trap!  Oh no, oh no!  Now I'm gonna die!  I can't get out!  Not even my sharp, sharp claws can cut through the rope!  Oh no!"
  Then the mouse is like, "Squeak."  Which means, "I'm on it!"
  Then the lion is like, "Rawr, rawr, rawr, rawr, rar, rawwwr, rawr, rawr, rawr!"  Which means, "Thanks."
  Then the mouse chews the rope though and says, "Squeak squeak."  Which means "No problem."  The end!
Dad:  Wow.  That was quite an epic telling.
Gracie:  Ha ha ha!
Dad:  I think we just proved that each person who reads this book will read it in a completely different way.
Gracie:  Yeah!
Dad:  This book is made by Jerry Pinkney.  Tell us what his pictures look like.
Lily:  The pictures are very detailed.  I can tell he was trying to make them really realistic.
Isaac:  Is it made with watercolor?  It looks like watercolor.
Dad:  Yep!
Gracie:  I can not paint like that.
Dad:  That would take a lot of practice, huh?
Lily:  Wait.  He did this with watercolor?  How did he do that?
Dad:  Ha ha!  It's amazing, isn't it!
Lily:  He is a good watercolor painter.
Dad:  He's been painting for many, many years.
Gracie:  He is definitely one of the greats.
Dad:  What did we notice about the few times that words do appear in the book?
Gracie:  They are not even typed!  He draws them!
Lily:  Actually he paints them.
Dad:  I love hand lettering in books.  And he even designed different fonts for each of the characters.
Gracie:  Big bold letters for a big bold lion.  And teeny cute letters for a teeny cute mousie.
Dad:  How does he make the lion itself look really big?
Lily:  He made the lion cover up the whole page.
Dad:  And how did he make the mouse look small?
Isaac:  He put him right next to the lion
Dad:  So by contrast... by comparing the two.  What about the times he draws the mouse up close?  How can we still tell he's actually small?
Gracie:  There's usually giant blades of grass.
Lily:  He makes the blades of grass go all the way off the page.
Gracie:  And there's a giant lion tail.
Dad:  So there's still a comparison of scale, even when the lion's not covering up the page.
Isaac:  He uses panels.  Mostly for the mouse.  When it's just the mouse on the page, he puts him in all these little panels.
Dad:  Is it always just for the mouse?  That's a good observation, Isaac.
Isaac:  He used it once for the lion -- when you could only see his feet.
Dad:  Maybe panels are another artistic device to make the mouse look small.
Gracie:  The mice are so cute!
Dad:  What does Mr. Pinkney bring to the story by giving families to the mouse and lion?
Gracie:  It makes you care for them more.  Don't eat him, Mr. Lion!  He's got a family to care for!
Dad:  Now we won't know for a couple weeks yet, but I'm guessing this book will win the big Caldecott medal this year.
Gracie:  It deserves it.
Isaac:  It's so detailed.  It's so cool.
Dad:  Wouldn't it be fun to pick a book for a "Bookie Woogie Award"?  Each year our family could pick our favorite book of the year.
Gracie:  But that might make people jealous, because I would give it to "The Hiccupotamus" 3 years in a row.
Dad:  No... I would definitely be disqualified from winning.
Gracie:  Gasp!  That's like cheating.
Dad:  It's not cheating to take yourself out of the running for your own award.
Gracie:  But dad, do you think libraries would let us put shiny stickers on the books?
Dad:  No no no... we wouldn't do that.  We could just say congratulations and maybe draw the winner a picture or something.
Gracie:  Could we put a shiny sticker on the drawing?
Dad:  Oh, sure.
Gracie:  Woo hoo!
Dad:  The allure of shiny things...
Gracie:  Wait.  Where would we get shiny stickers?
Dad:  This book would definitely be in the running for a 2009 Bookie Woogie Award.  Alright, as we wrap up, is there anything else you want to say?
Kids:  Read the book!  Read the book!
Dad:  How do you read it?
Gracie:  Uh...  I mean...  Look at the book!  Look at the book!

mouse and lion, by Lily

lion, by Gracie

mouse, by Isaac

Author/Illustrator: Jerry Pinkney
Published, 2009: Little, Brown & Co
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