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 #15: Little Panda

Dad:  Today we are reviewing a book I love, love, love: "Little Panda."
Isaac (age 10):  The letters on the title go down because Chinese writing goes down instead of sideways...
Gracie (age 8):  And pandas are in China.
Dad:  The person who made this book has a great name - Renata Liwska.
Isaac:  Is she from China?  Hong Kong?
Dad:  The bio on the jacket said she's never been to China -- so she never met a real panda.  But she watched pandas on her computer to study them.  I wonder if we could find pandas on the computer.
Gracie:  Let's go!
Isaac:  Where is she from?
Dad:  I don't know - it doesn't tell.  I'm guessing from America, but I don't know for sure.
Isaac:  Maybe her grandparents are from China and they moved here.  Or maybe her mom...
Gracie:  Or maybe her favorite animal is just a panda bear.
Dad:  I really don't know...
Isaac:  Does she have any relatives in China?
Dad:  I have no idea...
Gracie:  She has a cool name.  Renata Liwska.  It sounds like a famous tapdacer.  A famous Mexican tapdancer.
Dad:  You guys have got her coming from all over the world...
Gracie:  Everyone should read this book!  It's about a little panda and a flying tiger.  There's a funny surprise!
Dad:  We don't want give away the ending or the funny parts...  So can you guys talk about this book without spoiling the surprise?
Gracie:  It was awesome!  It's hilarious and adorable all mixed up!
Isaac:  Little Panda, Bao Bao, is a cutie.
Gracie:  He's adorable!  He's a little ball of glory when he's sleeping.
Lily (age 5):  He looks like a chipmunk.
Isaac:  He looks like a ball that got stuck in a tree.
Gracie:  A ball of panda glory.
Dad:  What things was Little Panda good at?
Lily:  Falling!
Dad:  What things did his mother try to teach him?
Gracie:  Running.  Jumping.  Climbing.
Lily:  And hula-hooping.
Isaac:  But mostly he just fell.  He's good at falling like
what's-his-name.  That guy with the nickname Stoneface...
Gracie:  Buster Keaton!
Isaac:  Yeah, Buster Keaton.
Gracie:  Buster Keaton is FUN!
Dad:  Tell me about Little Panda's mother...
Gracie:  His mother was good at eating!  But she must not have been very good at teaching.  He didn't do any of that stuff.  And she flings him around in circles... by one of his legs and one of his arms so he does the splits.
Dad:  Do they love each other?
Gracie:  Yes, but she makes her son do the splits.
Dad:  What about the tiger?
Gracie:  It looks like a baby tiger.  He's the size of Little Panda.
Isaac:  What is that on Bao Bao?  A birthmark?
Gracie:  No - the tiger scratched his bum-bum.
Dad:  There's a very funny picture in here, isn't there...  You guys cracked up.  I don't think I've ever heard you guys laugh so hard at a story.
Gracie:  Yeah!  Hah ha hah ha ha ha haa!!!
Dad:  It's the picture of the tiger flying...  Tell me about it - don't tell me how he flies - we'll save the surprise.  But tell me what the picture looks like...
Gracie:  It's the tiger flying...  and the mama is looking backwards at it...  hee hee he...  and it's the baby's fault that the tiger is flying...  Ha haha haha ha ha!!
Isaac:  The words make it funny -- how it happens makes it funny -- you need to hear the story...
Dad:  Did you think that was going to be how the tiger would fly?
Gracie:  No - because at the beginning there was a little tiger with wings.
Dad:  Yeah - that picture kind of throws you off...  I think the illustrator did that to trick us.
Isaac:  The pictures are really cool.
Gracie:  She made the pictures with pencil and blended a lot.
Dad:  Then she added color on the computer.
Isaac:  I knew it.
Gracie:  My favorite picture is the one with the waterfall.
Lily:  That's a long waterfall...  They're up high....
Isaac:  I see a monkey.
Lily:  Of course you see a monkey.
Dad:  This picture back here is the one I love - I want to cut it out and hang it on the wall in a frame.
Isaac:  Me too.
Gracie:  But then you would wreck the book.
Dad:  Well, we'd have to get two copies, wouldn't we.
Gracie:  Then I could cut out my favorite too.
Lily:  I want the one with the tiger flying.
Gracie:  I want the one with the waterfall.
Isaac:  I want the one with all the leaves tumbling down.
Gracie:  But Daddy wants that one.
Isaac:  Nuts.
Dad:  So, can tigers really fly?
Isaac:  In imaginations they can.
Gracie:  Wait - I know a tiger that can fly!  (Gracie throws Elijah's stuffed Baby Jaguar across the room)  "Fly, Tiger!"
Isaac:  That was more of a "flop."
Dad:  And it was more of a jaguar.  "Flop, Baby Jaguar!"
All:  Hah ha ha ha...

Bao Bao, Lin Lin, and a tiger, by Lily

falling panda, by Gracie

panda out on a limb, by Isaac

Author/Illustrator: Renata Liwska who, as it turns out, is originally from Poland and now lives in Canada...
Published 2008, Houghton Mifflin
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