Review #105: The Watcher

Gracie (age 11):  Oh wow, this book is amazing.
Isaac (age 12):  It is called "The Watcher."  It's about Jane Goodall.
Elijah (age 5):  Her job was to watch the chimpanzees.
Dad:  Did you know about Jane Goodall before we read this?
Isaac:  I knew that she liked monkeys.  But now I know a lot more.
Dad:  She's a pretty famous scientist.
Lily (age 8):  Then why didn't I know about her?
Dad:  Well, now you do.
Gracie:  She's amazing.  I can't believe that Jane Goodall went out there and studied the chimps and worked to save them.  She even got Fever and she wouldn't go home.  Jan Goodall is all good.
Lily:  When she was a kid, she sat in a hen house.
Gracie:  She sat in there for hours and hours watching chickens until they laid eggs.  She liked to watch and learn about animals.
Lily:  When she grew up, she saved her money to buy a ticket to go to Africa.  And she got a job watching monkeys.
Elijah:  At first... no chimpanzees for her.  They were hiding from her.  But she didn't give up, so then she got to see them.  One hundred chimps.
Lily:  And she named them.  One she named David Greybeard.
Isaac:  She learned that chimps use tools.  Nobody knew that before her.
Elijah:  It's not exactly like tools that we use.  It was a "stick" tool.
Dad:  They don't go buy tools at a store.
Elijah:  Noooooo.  Because they're just chimpanzees.
Dad:  What else did she learn?
Elijah:  She learned that chimps eat meat.  I thought they only eat bananas.  But now I know they also eat plants and meat.  She learned they hit each other.  And kiss.
Lily:  Now I don't want a pet chimpanzee anymore.
Dad:  Because you learned that they are endangered?
Lily:  But I would still kind of want David Greybeard.
Evangeline (age 3):  Lily, if you take a pet monkey, then you don't get a fishy.
Dad:  She can only pick one pet?
Lily:  Mommy hates monkeys, so it will have to be a fish.
Dad:  Now, how old was Jane at the beginning of the book?
Gracie:  Five.
Dad:  How old was she when the book ended?
Lily:  Old enough to have gray hair.  Like, "Grammy" old.
Dad:  So the author of this book, Jeanette Winter, had a challenge.  She had to pick and choose events from out of a whole lifetime and fit them into just 40 pages.  If someone else was writing this book, they could have chosen completely different details.
Gracie:  There was another person who wrote one.
Dad:  That's right, you remember.  We got "Me... Jane" from the library a few months ago.
Lily:  Yeah, it was about Jane as a kid.
Dad:  One author, Patrick McDonnell, chose to focus on Jane's childhood.  This author, Jeanette Winter, decided to pick stories from throughout her life.  That's the cool thing about writing.  A writer is a chooser.  Their stories are shaped by both what they say AND what they don't say.  It gives even more importance to what is included when we think about how many choices had to be made.
Lily:  If both authors picked the same things, they would practically have the same book.
Dad:  But can you see how that would be almost impossible?  Jeanette Winter is a completely unique person.  She's going to be drawn to specific things that interest her.
Isaac:  I think her art is awesome.  It's full of big patterns... the monkeys' fur... the trees on the hills.  I love this style.
Dad:  Would you guys like to go out and watch animals?
Elijah:  Not animals that are dangerous.  Hyenas?  No.  Lions?  No.  I would watch dogs.  And cats.
Dad:  Well, what did Jane start out with when she was 5 years old like you?
Elijah:  Chickens.
Dad:  Maybe you could start by watching a chicken.
Elijah:  I don't want to.  I'll start out with birds.  I mean bird birds.  Like robins.  Then I'll move to chimps.  And THEN chickens.  And then, even though they are dangerous, I'll do dinosaurs.  I'll build something that can go back then, and I can watch dinosaurs.
Dad:  Did this book inspire you in any ways?
Isaac:  It makes me want to be more patient when I go deer scouting.
Lily:  It made me excited to learn more about Jane Goodall.  It's kind of like when a commercial makes you want to watch a movie.  This book is like a commercial for Jane Goodall's life.

chimpanzees, by Lily


David Greybeard, by Elijah


Jane Goodall, by Gracie

Author/Illustrator: Jeanette Winter
Published 2011: Schwartz & Wade Books
Like it?  Here it is

Review #95: All the Way to America

Isaac (age 12):  We read "All the Way to America."
Lily (age 8):  It's about a little shovel that gets passed down from generation to generation.
Dad:  And who has the shovel now?
Lily:  Dan... Yuck...a...ran...no.
Dad:  Yaccarino?
Lily:  Yeah, Yaccarino.
Isaac:  It starts out with this Italian guy... Michele...
Dad:  The author's great-grandfather.
Gracie (age 10):  Michele sounds like a girl name.
Isaac:  He was a farmer in Italy, but then he moved to America.  And when he left home, his mom and dad gave him this shovel.
Lily:  He had kids, and the kids had kids, and then those kids had kids.
Isaac:  The family passes on this little shovel from generation to generation.
Dad:  And each generation uses the shovel for something different.  If you're a baker, how do you use a little scooper?
Gracie:  Measure out flour.
Dad:  And if you are a barber, how do you use a shovel?
Gracie:  Shovel rock salt onto the sidewalk in front of your store.
Lily:  I have a question.  What does HE do with the shovel?  The author?  He's an artist.  What does he do with the shovel?
Dad:  What do you think?  If you are a storyteller, how do you use a shovel?
Gracie:  You make a book about it!
Lily:  Oh.  Yeah!
Isaac:  I think the pictures are awesome looking.  They have very bold, solid colors -- not all blended together.  And they are very sharp pictures, not sketchy.
Gracie:  Everything that isn't important in the illustrations is just done in outlines.
Isaac:  Yeah, it's all outlines in the backgrounds.
Dad:  Which is a cool technique -- it helps you to focus on the main subjects.
Isaac:  And each person has one specific thing that they always wear.  One guy always has this green checkered hat.  One guy always wears a stripey orange and yellow shirt.
Lily:  One guy always wears green pants.
Gracie:  Because the people in the book grow up.  They get older.
Isaac:  The way they look is always changing.  But by having one thing about their clothes stay the same, you know who is who, and it will be easier to keep track of them.
Lily:  I think the family really likes food.
Gracie:  There is food on almost every single page!
Isaac:  This is a historical book, but it's not something like... President Abraham Lincoln.
Dad:  It's not about national history.
Isaac:  No, but it IS about his family history.  His family tree.
Gracie:  I think their family tree is a tomato tree!  Oh wait, there are no tomato trees, are there.
Dad:  Actually quite a few things get passed down from generation to generation...
Lily:  The little shovel.  And a tomato sauce recipe.
Gracie:  And advice: Work hard, try to enjoy life, and always love your family.
Dad:  And always use this shovel.
Lily:  Hahahah...
Gracie:  And always like food!
Dad:  And never change your clothes.
Gracie:  Ha ha ha!
Dad:  So at this point in a review, I would normally say something like, "We just read a book about Dan Yaccarino's family history... now let's bring it home.  Let me tell you a few things about our family history."
Gracie:  Our family has history.
Dad:  Yes, however... I don't really know that much about our family history.  Which is kind of sad.  I know some names.  I could tell you that Jacob had Elmer.  Elmer had Grandpa.  And Grandpa had me.
Gracie:  Grandpa didn't have you!  Grammy had you.  Grandpa... helped.
Dad:  But we are lucky today!  Who is right here with us today that can tell us about some family history?
Kids:  Granny!
Gracie:  She's our great-grandma!
Dad:  We happen to be recording this over Easter weekend.  And because of our big family get together, we have Grammy's mom Granny here!
Gracie:  Granny, can we interview you about our family history?
Granny (Bess Hankinson, age 85):  You can go right ahead and interview me.
Gracie:  My first question is...  Were we always in Michigan?  Or did we come from China or something.
Granny:  Well, I'll tell you.  My mother and dad were both from England.
Lily:  Cool!
Granny:  They both came over from England when they were children.  My mother grew up in Canada before she moved to the United States.  Her name was Mabel Kitley.  My dad's name was John Towlerton.  And as a child, he was raised in Mexico.
Dad:  Really!  Canada and Mexico?  And they met up in the middle.  I didn't know that.
Gracie:  So our family is partly from England, partly from Canada, and partly from Mexico?
Granny:  Yes.  John's parents were Mary and James Towlerton.  My great-granddad wrote them and said, "There is work down in Mexico - come on down."  So my grandparents took my dad and his brother, and they came right from England and went to Mexico.  They started working in the gold mines in Mexico.
Gracie:  Gasp!  That's so sweet!  That's awesome!  The gold mines?!
Lily:  Our family worked in a goldmine!  Did he get a lot of gold from the goldmine?
Granny:  Oh, my grandfather James became very wealthy.
Dad:  So, they were actually finding gold?
Granny:  Yes, he was a very rich man.  He ended up in charge of the mines.  He was the boss.  But my dad didn't want to work there any more, so he ran away.
Isaac:  Why did he run away?
Granny:  He didn't want to work down under the ground.
Lily:  It would be dangerous.
Granny:  He was growing up, and he didn't want to be underground the rest of his life.  His mother was very sad about that because she only had the two boys.
Dad:  And how old was your dad at that point?
Granny:  He was almost 25.  So he ran away and came all the way up to Michigan by hopping trains.
Dad:  Wow - train hopping...
Granny:  In those days people did that.  And he would stop along the way... find some work... get a little money... get some food... keep going.  He did that all the way up to Michigan to meet his little American Rose.  My mother.
Gracie:  That's sweet.
Granny:  Mom and Dad met at a party.  They went around together for a little while.  Then they got married.  At that time, it was the Great Depression.  So they lived with my mother's mom and dad for almost 8 years.  Because there wasn't any work.  So people would all live together -- one of them would try to get work, and then they could share the food and rent.
Isaac:  That is interesting....
Granny:  It was hard during those days.  We didn't have a car until I was quite old.  Never had a telephone.  Well, a year after I was born, they had my sister Mabel.
Dad:  Do you remember Auntie Mabel?
Gracie:  Oh yeah!  Sometimes when we are at Granny's cottage she comes by.
Granny:  Yes, Auntie Mabel.  Then 13 months later they had a little boy, my brother Art.  Then a while later they had another little boy named Jimmy.
Gracie:  Aw, Jimmy.
Granny:  Then my wealthy granddad sent money for all of us to go down to Mexico.  Guadalajara, Mexico is where my granddad lived.  We went on the train.  It took a long time to get there - it's not like the trains today.
Dad:  And how old were you on this trip?
Granny:  I was about 5 years old.  We went and we stayed in Mexico.  And my little brother Jimmy got sick.  They boiled the water... they did everything they were supposed to do.  But he died in Mexico.
Gracie:  Ohhhh...
Granny:  So he is buried in Mexico.  We felt so bad.  And so we came back on the bus to Michigan.
Gracie:  How long did that take?
Granny:  A long time.  And I got sick on the bus.  And they had to stop the bus, and wash the whole bus out.
Dad:  Oh no -- it was THAT kind of sick.
Granny:  Ha ha ha, yeah.  Mess.  A mess.
Gracie:  Oh yuck!  Ha ha...
Granny:  Then a little while later, my parents had another baby, and her name was Alice.
Gracie:  Baby Alice.
Granny:  And she was MY baby.  Because my mother was so weak after she had the baby.  She could hardly hold her.  So she gave her to me, and I rocked her in the chair.  I was 8 years old then.  And Alice has always been my baby.
Isaac:  You told us about your side of the family, but what about Papa?
Gracie:  Yeah, what about Papa's side of the family?
Granny:  Well, they came from England too.
Dad:  So both sides came from England.
Granny:  Yes, they did.  Papa's parents were Sarah and Joseph Hankinson.  His dad's name was Joseph, just like Papa's name.  They were very good people.  They always went to church.  And that's where I met Joe.  Papa.  We went to "Young Peoples" together.
Dad:  Like a church youth group.
Gracie:  That's nice.
Granny:  One day we were all riding on the bus, and my mother said, "Look -- isn't that a nice young man?"  Then Papa and I "went together" for 5 or 6 years.  We were just kids when we first started.  But for three of those years, he was in the the Navy air force.
Gracie:  I thought we had a relative in the Navy.
Granny:  Then he came home from the service.  One time we stopped at a light.  And he reached in his pocket to get his hanky, and he brought out a ring and asked if I would marry him.
Dad:  And what do you think Granny said?
Lily:  Yes!
Granny:  Yes, I did.  Then we got married in June of 1947.  Papa was a great man for building things.  You know the cottage up north at Higgins Lake... Papa built that.
Gracie:  He built it?  He built that big cottage?!
Dad:  You didn't know that, Gracie?
Gracie:  That Great. Big. House?  It's a beautiful house - he built that?  That's amazing.
Granny:  He built about 5 houses.  For friends.  He never had any lessons in building.  He had a book he would read every once in a while.
Gracie:  Wow.
Granny:  He loved to do it.  He loved to help people.  They knew who to come to if they wanted something done.  They came to Papa, and he'd go and help them.  That's Papa for you.  He was always helping everybody.
Dad:  So you guys have some good heritage behind you.
Granny:  If somebody needs something, they can come to you and say, "Now Gracie, can you help me..."
Gracie:  Sure!
Granny:  See, and then you can help them.
Gracie:  Actually, Isaac is the best builder out of us kids.  I mainly like to cook.
Dad:  You can feed people while Isaac is building them houses.
Lily:  I like to..... um.... I like to swim.
Gracie:  Thank-you, Granny!  This was awesome!  This was great.
Granny:  I never knew I had such an exciting life, ha ha...
Gracie:  It was great!!!
Lily:  And Gracie thought this was going to be boring!
Gracie:  It was all really interesting!  I can't believe we have such an awesome history!
Lily:  And we'll pass the story on to our grandchildren.
Gracie:  Do you have anything of sentimental value that has been passed down from generation to generation?
Granny:  Well, I have a lot of things at the cottage.  Tea cups from England.  Every time my mother and dad went away, they'd bring a cup and saucer back.
Lily:  Do you have anything, liiiiiiike..... a RUBY?
Granny:  Ha ha ha, No... I don't have anything like that.
Gracie:  Do you have any gold from your granddad's gold mine?  That would be cool!
Lily:  I think that's really cool that our great-great-great-grandfather worked at a gold mine.
Gracie:  Well, I think that I'm upset because I didn't get any gold.
Dad:  That would have been better than having a shovel get passed down from generation to generation, eh?  Gold nuggets for everybody!
Lily:  Yeah!
Gracie:  Gold nuggets all around!
Granny:  Well, I love to have all you kids around.  I have 4 children.  And 10 grandchildren.  And 20 great-grandchildren.  We had the family together for Easter today.  And someone said to me, "Look what you started!"  Ha ha ha...
Dad:  Yeah, these guys wouldn't be here -- so many people wouldn't be here -- if not for Granny...
Gracie:  You had kids, and they had kids, and they had kids...  Our family will grow and grow and grow -- and take over the world!
Dad:  And we'll put Granny's picture on all of our coins.

the Yaccarino family tree, by Isaac

great-great-great-grandpa James digging for gold (with Dan Yaccarino's shovel!) by Lily

Mexico John meets Canada Mabel, by Gracie

Thanks to Granny for the interview!  And thanks to Dan Yaccarino for making this wonderful book -- it kicked off a fun family conversation, and without it, some great family history would have been lost to us!

Author/Illustrator: Dan Yaccarino
Published, 2011: Knopf
Like it?  Here it is

Review #94: Animals Home Alone

Dad:  We've got a great book here by Loes Riphagen, originally published in the Netherlands.
Isaac (age 12):  "Animals Home Alone."
Lily (age 8):  It's a wordless picture book.
Dad:  And what's the premise?  A family leaves their house, and...
Gracie (age 10):  The animals are home alone.  It's about what the animals do when no one is looking.
Isaac:  I loved the idea of this book.  It's like someone took a photograph every minute in this one room.  The illustrations are drawings, not photographs.  But it's like every minute someone takes another picture, and then another one, and then another one.
Gracie:  The scenery is always the same -- the setting -- the background.  But all the characters in the book keep doing these different little crazy things.  It's pretty funny.
Lily:  See, the bird chases the moth all around the room.  So on one page they are in one place in the room, and on the next page he is in different place chasing the moth...
Isaac:  It's like one of those Search and Find books.  On every page, things are always different -- all the little things that happen.  All the animals in the house are doing funny stuff.
Lily:  The animals messed everything up inside the house.
Dad:  There's way more than one story going on at the same time.
Lily:  There's two stories... three stories... four stories... five stories.
Isaac:  More like a hundred.
Lily:  Lots of stories.
Isaac:  The little moths are getting into mischief.  And the cockroaches are evil.  I like the cockroaches.  They are always making the most trouble.  One time they go swimming in the toilet.  One time they crash a toy car into the steps.
Elijah (age 5):  And one of those little guys knocked the jelly down.
Isaac:  Jelly got everywhere.
Elijah:  They were naughty bugs.
Lily:  One time they drew a moustache on grandma!
Elijah:  My favorite guy was the yellow elephant.  He collected a whole bunch of yellow toys and stuff.  Maybe he didn't know which one he wanted.  And he fell in love with a bunny.
Gracie:  The elephant and the bunny fall in love.  Then they give each other smoochies.  And have baby bunny-phants.
Lily:  I like the fish.  Because he's awesome!
Gracie:  The fish is very funny.
Elijah:  On every page we have to try to find the little fish.
Dad:  He kept swimming in funny places.
Isaac:  And the pig pretty much ate everything.
Gracie:  The pig eats everything he can get his hands on.
Dad:  Would you have wanted any of those animals for a pet?
Elijah:  NO.  Only if they were not knocking stuff over.
Lily:  I'd want to have the cat that could talk on the phone.  He could do business calls for me.
Dad:  Did it feel like we were "reading" the book?
Lily:  It felt like "playing" the book.
Isaac:  It was really awesome.  I love this book.  It's just so funny.
Gracie:  I think it's special because on every page, every time you read it, you notice something different.
Dad:  So even though we just read it, you're not done with it...
Isaac:  I'd want to read it again.
Gracie:  I'd want to read it tons and tons of times, over and over again.  Just to see something else I didn't notice.  Every time you read it, it's a thousand new experiences.
Dad:  Now, some of the animals were pets - but not all of them.
Lily:  Some of them came out of strange places.  The fish was a real pet, but the bear came out of a picture frame.
Elijah:  And the pig came out a book.
Gracie:  And the elephant came out of a drawing.  That's why he is yellow.
Dad:  Do you think anything turns alive at our house while we're not looking?  Like, the pictures on your walls?
Gracie:  That explains it!  I clean my room, and every time I leave for a few seconds, I come back and it's trashed again.
Dad:  Those animals came from weird places, but they also left in some fun ways too...
Elijah:  The bear went onto the t.v. because he wanted the honey so bad.
Lily:  I might want to go into a movie.
Gracie:  I'd go into a dictionary so I'd know everything naturally.
Isaac:  The evil cockroaches got flushed down the toilet.  The cat flushed them.
Gracie:  Because they were splashing him with toilet water.
Elijah:  "Hey - hey - get us out of here! Agh!"
Dad:  What do you think the people will do when they come back home and see the mess?
Lily:  Freak out!  They will be shocked.
Gracie:  If you lived with THOSE animals, you probably shouldn't be shocked.
Dad:  So you think the owners have dealt with this before?
Gracie:  Well, it's not like that's the first time they ever left the house in their whole entire life.  So they are probably used to it.
Dad:  I don't think I'd ever leave the house if it always looked like that when I came back.

bunny, elephant, and baby bunny-phant; by Elijah

fish in the jam jar, by Lily

pig eats... everyone, by Gracie


And lastly, moth meets bird, by Isaac:

Author/Illustrator: Loes Riphagen
Published, 2011: Seven Footer Press
Like it?  Here it is

Review #87: A Pet for Petunia

Dad:  Tell us about "A Pet for Petunia."
Elijah (age 5):  Petunia wants a pet skunk.
Lily (age 8):  Petunia really likes skunks.  Actually, she really, really, really, really, really so-much-likes skunks that she LOVES skunks.
Isaac (age 12):  She loves skunks more than anything in the whole universe.  And so she wants a skunk.  You don't hear that every day.
Elijah:  I wouldn't want one.
Lily:  Petunia doesn't know the secret-secrets of skunks.  A smell.
Gracie (age 10):  I've never smelled one, and I don't want to.
Lily:  Petunia runs out to the forest.  She sees a skunk.  And she smells the smell of her life: Stink.
Elijah:  She loved the stink.
Lily:  She smelled the Stink of Stinks.  After that, she still loved skunks, but she stopped wanting a real one.
Gracie:  She decided her pet would be a stuffed animal skunk.
Isaac:  But then Petunia wants a porcupine.
Lily: (singing)  "Now I love porcupines just the way they are..."
Dad:  What did you think of that skunk in the book?
Elijah:  He's adorable!
Gracie:  He's so cute!
Lily:  I would want that skunk.  If we got gas masks I would.
Gracie:  Paul Schmid draws the cutest skunks in the world.
Lily:  The key is big foreheads.
Isaac:  Little eyeballs.  Little cute smile.
Gracie:  It's just so cute.
Isaac:  I love that skunk!
Gracie:  For these pictures Paul Schmid only uses black and white and purple.  And tiny bits and pieces of yellow.  But most of the book is just black, white, and purple.
Elijah:  It's like he used watercolor.
Isaac:  Little splotches.
Dad:  Just like Petunia loves her skunks, each of you guys has your own favorite animal, don't you.  Lily is our duck lover.
Lily:  I want a real duck.  Ducks are adorable.  Our neighbor Gina had a real duck from a farm.  Why can't I have a duck?
Gracie:  Gina used to have a turtle.  But she had to give it away.  And then she had a duck.  But that ran away.  And she used to have three bunnies.  But two of them died.
Dad:  Yikes.  I don't think I'd give Gina any more animals.  Now, we saw that skunks have drawbacks -- are there any problems with having a duck?
Lily:  They nibble you.
Elijah:  I want a turtle.  I love turtles.
Gracie:  I love, love, love pandas.  They are absolutely adorable.  Even more adorable than skunks.  But I can't have a panda because they are almost extinct, and they are protected by Chinese police.  But I want one so bad.  I at least want to see one in real life.
Elijah:  I want to see a real turtle in real life.
Dad:  I think your chances are better than Gracie's.
Gracie:  I could fly to China...  smuggle a panda bear onto the plane...
Dad:  Even little sister Evie has her "own" special animal.
Lily:  Owls!
Dad:  And you each have lots of stuffed versions of your favorite animal.
Elijah:  Yeah.
Isaac:  I don't.
Dad:  What is your animal Isaac?  Do you even have one?
Isaac:  A turkey.
Dad:  What?  You are making that up.  I've never heard you say that once ever.
Isaac:  No, no, no.  I decided that two weeks ago.  I decided I need to get a real turkey, so ever since I've wanted one.
Dad:  I thought dragons were your favorite.  You are Dragon-boy.
Isaac:  Dragons don't exist.
Gracie:  You don't have any stuffed turkeys do you?
Isaac:  Nope.
Dad:  On Thanksgiving we get stuffed with turkey.
Isaac:  Or we get turkey with stuffing.
Dad:  Alright.  So Isaac likes turkeys now.  Now you each have an animal.
Isaac:  I want a real turkey so it can guard the house.  I could train it to attack robbers.
Dad:  I think Elijah's animal is the most realistic.  We might be able to get an aquarium with a little turtle someday.
Gracie:  How much do you think they cost?
Elijah:  Ninety million.
Dad:  Wow.  Well, maybe we won't be getting one.

a porcupine for Petunia, by Gracie

a duck for Lily, by Lily

a turtle for Elijah, by Elijah

a turkey for Isaac, by Isaac

Author/Illustrator: Paul Schmid
Published, 2011: HarperCollins
Like it?  Here it is

Review #83: the Life-Size Zoo series

Dad:  Yea!  We finally tackle some non-fiction.  Today we are looking at 3 books in a series: "Life-Size Zoo," "More Life-Size Zoo," and "Life-Size Aquarium."
Gracie (age 10):  The books show life-size pictures of animals and they give you really neat facts.
Isaac (age 12):  It's like going to the zoo.  The books tell you what animals do during the day, and the animals are the exact size you would see them at the zoo.
Dad:  But even better, because you wouldn't get that close to an animal's face in real life.
Isaac:  It's like we have two zoos and an aquarium in our house right now.
Lily (age 7):  It's a Home Zoo.
Isaac:  It's a whole zoo in your hands.
Dad:  Tell me about the size of the books...
Isaac:  They are really big.  Since the animals are life-size, they need the books to be big so you can see as much of the animal as you can.  And some of the pages fold open, and there is a huge animal.  One page folds out a bunch of times, and it turns into a huge lion face -- it's so awesome.
Dad:  Can you imagine sitting right in front of that lion?
Isaac:  Eep!
Dad:  Why don't we take one book at a time, and you guys each highlight one animal inside.  First up, "Life-Size Zoo."  Go ahead, Gracie...
Gracie:  The giant panda is smaller than I expected.  But it still has a really big head.  His face is bigger than mine.  I already knew a lot about pandas -- there are a lot of interesting facts about them.  This panda's name is Kou Kou.  For each animal, the book tells you its name, its gender, its age, and its scientific name.
Isaac:  My animal is the ceratotherium simum.
Dad:  Which is a...?
Isaac:  Rhinoceros.  My cool fact is that their horns are made up of hair.  They are not bone.  They are bundles of hairs all smashed together.  I never knew that until I read this book.
Dad:  And you can actually see the hairs in this giant photo.
Isaac:  Yes.  And it is very gross.  You can see every little detail and every piece of mud.  This page folds out.  It is a huge, huge, huge picture of a rhinoceros.  But even though it folds out, the only things that can fit are his horn and his eyeball and his skin.  Because it's life-size.
Lily:  I have Carol the Zebra.  That's a big head.  She is 10 years old.  Her scientific name is equ....  blah.
Dad:  Equus quagga burchelli.
Lily:  Blech.  That's a bad name.  I like "Carol."  Carol has a lot of black and white stripes.  There are hairs around her mouth, and it helps her find food.
Gracie:  Dad, do you find food with the hair on your chin?
Lily:  There are three kinds of zebras.  A plains zebra, a grevy's zebra, and a mountain zebra.  Do mountain zebra's live on mountains?
Dad:  Maybe.  Those ones probably live on the mountains, and these ones live on the plains.  And these ones live in gravy.
Lily:  Awww!  I don't want to eat gravy now.
Dad:  You never know if a zebra's been wading in your gravy.
Lily:  Ew.
Dad:  Now, on to "More Life-Size Zoo."  Isaac, what animal are you going to tell us about?
Isaac:  Bats.  I learned that the ends of bat wings are actually hands.  They have a little claw thing at the top, but that's their thumb.  All their fingers are hooked into their wings so they can open and shut them.
Dad:  It's almost like animals that have webbed fingers.  But here, the webbing is their wings.
Lily:  I didn't know that!
Dad:  Do you remember when we saw a bat at our old house?
Gracie:  There were two bats.
Dad:  Did you ever look at them after I caught them?
Isaac:  No.  We were too freaked out.
Elijah (age 5):  I loved it!
Dad:  You don't remember that!
Isaac:  You were a baby.
Dad:  Your turn Lily.  Tell us about an animal...
Lily:  Wolves are white, gray, and brown.
Dad:  Not just one color?  Patchy?
Lily:  Yep.  And his tongue can go all the way up and touch his nose -- like you, Dad.
Dad:  Like me?
Lily:  Only his tongue can clean his whole nose.
Dad:  I couldn't clean my whole nose, could I.  And if I was going to clean my nose, I probably would not use my tongue.
Lily:  When he eats, he uses his teeth to go right into the skin by the bone and r-r-r-riiiip it out!  He has really sharp teeth.  And to show that they love each other, wolves bite each other.
Dad:  I love you, Lily.  I want to give you a nibble.
Lily:  Aagh!
Dad:  Why did you pick the wolf?
Lily:  Because I love him!  He's cute.  And I like his name.  Kinako... Kinako... my Kinako.  He's bad, but I love him.
Gracie:  I'm going to tell you about a vombatus ursinus.  A wombat.
Dad:  You guys really like looking at those scientific names, huh?
Gracie:  Yes.  I really do.  A wombat has a face like a koala, a body like a bear, and claws like a mole.  He's kind of cute.  Ish.  Except his nose.  His whole entire body fits on the page except for one tuffet of hair on his head.  When he's getting attacked, he just digs a hole and goes down in it.
Dad:  Why did you pick this one out?
Gracie:  Because he has a really big fancy scientific name.  And plus, I know nothing about wombats even though I often use the word "wombat" in everyday sentences.
Dad:  Give me an example.
Gracie:  "You are such a wombat, Lily!"
Dad:  You mean she's cute and cuddly?
Gracie:  I don't usually mean it like that.
Lily:  That's another insult!
Dad:  Elijah, you had an animal from this book that you wanted to share...
Elijah:  Okapi.
Dad:  What did you learn about the okapi?
Elijah:  Not just his legs look like a zebra, but his tail does too.
Dad:  He also has a fancy tongue.
Elijah:  He has a white tongue.  He can stick his whole tongue out to lick his eye.  (Holding up his hands) His tongue could be this big.
Dad:  Yes!  14 inches!
Elijah:  And he can use his tongue for getting leaves.
Dad:  What do you like about the picture?
Elijah:  He is white, brown, reddish brown, black, and red.
Dad:  Lots of colors on an okapi!  Thanks buddy!  Time for "Life-Size Aquarium..."  Lily?
Lily:  Dolphins talk with their foreheads!
Isaac:  Isn't it like sonar?
Dad:  They send out sound waves, right?
Lily:  Yeah.  And they listen with their chin part.  Under their mouth.  Their jaw.  Just the dolphin's head fits in the picture.  It's supposed to be life-size.
Gracie:  This is a japanese spider crab.  His scientific name is macrocheira kaempferi.
Lily:  I would be scared of him.
Gracie:  He's the largest crab in the world.  And he's got these little tentacles inside his mouth he uses to eat with, and they are always moving.  His eyes can bend too.
Dad:  I like all the textures and colors.
Gracie:  All red and pink and yellow.
Elijah:  He's really cool.  I would want to be him.  Only I wouldn't want to pinch anyone.  Unless they were very evil guys who will never be good guys again.
Dad:  Close us out, Isaac...
Isaac:  This is a clione.  Yes, I have never heard of them before.  It is a little fishy thing.  It's about an inch big.  And it is white and orange, and really see-through.  When it sees shellfishes, these six tentacles fly out of its mouth to catch them and eat them.
Dad:  So do the books only have giant life-size animals?
Isaac:  Nooo.  This one is very very very very small. But if I open the pages up, there is a big walrus behind it.  Putting them next to each other helps make the big animal seem bigger and the small one seem really teeny.  There are five cliones in the picture.  The book doesn't give them names.
Dad:  Why don't you name them...
Isaac:  This one is Augustas.  This one is Buddy.  These ones are Flippers, Mr. Giant, and W.
Dad:  So, who would like these books?
Lily:  Zoo lovers.  People that like monkeys.
Isaac:  Everyone would like them.  Unless they are scared of the zoo.
Gracie:  These books are good for people who heard their mothers say "We can go to the zoo tomorrow," and then the next day it rains.  They can check these books out of the library and it's just as good.
Isaac:  I guess if someone is scared of the zoo, they can get these books instead, and they will be completely safe.  So they are for everyone.

Batman the bat, by Isaac

Kou Kou the giant panda, by Gracie

Kinako the wolf, by Lily

Pippi the okapi, by Elijah

By: Teruyuki Komiya
Published, 2009-10: Seven Footer Press
Like them? Here they are

Review #80: Gabby and Gator

Dad:  "Gabby and Gator" by James Burks.
Gracie (age 10):  Gabs and Gades.
Dad:  How did you like it?
Gracie:  "Gabby and Gator" is great and good and glorious.
Lily (age 7):  The book is about a girl named Gabby who has no friends because she doesn't talk that much.
Gracie:  The bad bully boy said she was a freak.
Lily:  She was looking for a friend.  And she found a friend.  That would be the big, dog-eating, monster alligator.  But he didn't want to be a monster.  He wanted to be nice.
Elijah (age 5):  But he didn't know how to be nice.
Dad:  Why not?
Elijah:  He eats dogs!
Gracie:  Gator is a poodle-chomper.  He's hungry, and there's nothing else for him to eat.
Isaac (age 12):  Poor Fifi.
Gracie:  I think I know why he eats dogs.  When he was a little gator, he snipped that dog tail.  Remember?
Isaac:  And he's been addicted to dogs ever since.
Lily:  Gabby doesn't eat anything in this story except for that vegetable milkshake.  But Gator eats everything, even dogs.
Elijah:  They are opposites.
Gracie:  But it's not food that makes them a good match for each other...
Lily:  They both play instruments.  They recycle other people's trash together.  They played alligator-pulls-Gabby-around-on-skis.
Isaac:  They play together until the big bad bully comes and teases Gabby.  Gator throws him in the mud.  Then the bully tells the animal control.  It is actually the Inhumane Society, because the guy wants to kill all animals, even innocent teddy bears.
Gracie:  The animal control guy has a lumpy belly and a big nose.
Isaac:  He chases them, and Gator faces his worst fear.  Water.
Gracie:  His worst fear is a toilet.
Isaac:  No, water.
Gracie:  And a toilet.
Isaac:  Toilet water.
Gracie:  He's afraid of toilets because he got flushed down a toilet when he was a little baby gator.
Isaac:  But they live happily ever after.  Kind of.
Dad:  How would you describe the art in the book?
Gracie:  This is a graphic novel.
Lily:  The pictures are unrealistic.
Isaac:  My favorite thing about the book is how he doesn't try to draw the pictures realistically.  He likes to draw the characters with pointy noses and exaggerated sizes.
Lily: (speaking to Gator)  You're just a big cartoon!
Gracie:  I think it's funny how the bully boy is so wide and flat!
Lily:  He's like a skinny square.
Gracie: (holding up her hands)  He's only that thick.
Dad:  What about Gator's design?
Gracie:  He's pretty cool.  He's got checkers on him.
Lily:  His eyes aren't even on his head.
Dad:  And he's got floating eyebrows.
Gracie:  Everybody should have floating eyebrows.
Lily:  I like the three twins.
Dad:  I believe "three twins" is called triplets.
Lily:  Ha ha ha ha!
Gracie:  He did a good job making the triplets look like popular people.
Dad:  Would you guys be friends with Gabby?
Gracie:  I like her.  I'm friends with everybody.
Dad:  Would you be friends with an alligator?
Gracie:  Maybe.  If I got to know him well.
Lily:  I would make a model of a dog and give it to him first to see if he eats dogs.  I would make him a dog out of bacon.
Gracie:  I'd be afraid he'd eat our little sister Evie.  I'd bring Gator home, but I'd just lock Evie up in the bathroom.
Dad:  You'd rather lock up Evie than the alligator?
Gracie:  Oh yeah.  I'd lock up the alligator.  Sorry, Evie!
Dad:  But the gator is terrified of the bathroom.
Gracie:  Oh yeah.  Sorry, Gator.  I wouldn't lock him up.  I'd just wait until Evie was on vacation.
Dad:  Who is this book for?
Gracie:  Everybody.
Isaac:  The book is especially for people who don't fit in.
Gracie:  If you don't fit in, buy yourself an alligator.
Lily:  And hope it doesn't eat you.

Gabby and Gator, by Elijah

Gator and Fifi, by Isaac

a peek inside Gator, by Lily

off to the pool, by Gracie

Author/Illustrator: James Burks
Published, 2010: Yen Press
Like it?  Here it is