Review #121: The Prairie Thief

Dad:  We just finished a big family reading of "The Prairie Thief" by Melissa Wiley.
Gracie (age 12):  I've got such a good blurb for this book. 
Dad:  Oh yeah?
Gracie:  It's better than any blurb Isaac will think of.  I'm going to whoop Isaac at the blurbage.  
Dad:  Okay, tell us your blurb.
Gracie:  I don't want to right now!
Dad:  You want to save it for the end?
Gracie:  Yes, because it still needs a little tweaking here and there.
Dad:  Alright... we're on pins and needles.  So let's talk about "The Prairie Thief."  Let's start with each of the words in the title.
Isaac (age 14):  I'll tell you about the word "The."
Dad:  How about "Prairie"?
Lily (age 9):  The characters live on a prairie.  A prairie is a nice field of long flow-y grass that blows in the wind.
Isaac:  This book takes place in the same timeframe as Little House on the Prairie days.
Gracie:  Yeah, when I think of prairies, I think of Laura.
Lily:  Little girls with braids in their hair, running through the fields.  It's the Old Days.
Elijah (age 7):  They're probably all dead by now.
Dad:  Tell me about the "Thief" part of the title...
Lily:  The girl's dad was accused of theft-ing.
Gracie:  You're not even saying it right.  It's "thievering."
Dad:  Uh, thievering?
Gracie:  Louisa is the main character.  A whole bunch of stolen property is found on their land, and her father is falsely accused.  He has to go to jail, and Louisa has to clear her father's name before they hang him, because her Pa is like an awesome honorable man.
Lily:  Louisa has to go stay with the people who accused her Pa because they are the only ones who live nearby.
Gracie:  It's miserable!  They are called The Smirches.  Which sounds like a totally evil name.
Lily: (growling)  Smmmirchhhhhh....
Gracie:  Doesn't that name just sound like an evil name?
Lily:  Smirch.
Gracie:  Like, listen to this.  Which one sounds like the evil character:  Mrs. Brody...  Mrs. Mack...  or Mrs. Smirch.
Lily:  Smirch.
Dad:  We talked a bit about how this book has a historical setting.
Gracie:  But it was also magical.
Dad:  The author did a good job describing what life on the prairie was like.
Gracie:  Yeah.  And then she did a good job describing what life was like with a Leprechaun for a neighbor.
Elijah:  It's a Brownie!  Louisa finds a Brownie.
Dad:  Brownies!  That sounds delicious!
Elijah:  No.  A Brownie is a little short man with a beard!
Dad:  Like you?
Kids: Ha ha ha hah!
Dad:  Elijah is a little short man.
Gracie:  But he doesn't have a beard.  You do.  It's a mix between you and Elijah.
Lily:  There are two kinds of Brownies.  The "little man" brownie and the "eating" brownie.  And you can't get them mixed up.  That would be pretty bad.
Dad:  Back to the story...
Gracie:  The author shows how difficult life really was back then on the Prairie Days.  She expresses that really well throughout the book.  But then she mixes in magical creatures.
Isaac:  It's a good mix... showing life a long time ago, but also with some fantasy.  It doesn't overdo it either way.  It's a good mix.
Lily:  Louisa crawls into a little hole that she thinks is a badger hole.
Elijah:  But she found a Brownie!
Gracie:  He's got a pointy little hat.
Lily:  And he can talk to animals.
Gracie:  She meets lots of fun little friends along her journey.  Like a pronghorn.  And wolves.
Elijah:  And a Brownie!
Dad:  Isaac, I have a question for you...
Isaac: (hesitantly)  Yeeeees?
Dad:  I've read a bit of debate online recently.  Some people claim that boys don't like books with girls as main characters.  What's your opinion?
Isaac:  Uhhh...  It depends on the book.
Dad:  They say that girls will read books with boys as main characters, but boys won't read books with girls as main characters.
Isaac:  That's not true.  It just has to be the right book.  I mean, boys aren't going to want "Barbie Princess."  It just depends on what the story is.
Dad:  Any examples of books you like that have girls as main characters?
Isaac: (Isaac starts rattling off books, no hesitation...)  The "Amulet" books have a girl in it -- those are graphic novels though.  "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon" would be another good book.  "A Series of Unfortunate Events" has two girls and one boy.  "A Wrinkle in Time" is not really a boy book or a girl book.  It's just a really good book I would suggest for people to read...
Dad:  So what about "The Prairie Thief"?  Is it a book that boys would read?
Isaac:  I don't know about all boys.  But in my opinion I thought it was good.  *I* liked "The Prairie Thief."
Lily:  Sleeping overnight with wolves. Riding on pronghorns. Climbing into mysterious holes.  That all sounds like stuff boys would like.
Elijah:  Yeah, it has to do with wolves and coyotes!  And Brownies!
Isaac:  It's a really good story.
Dad:  Great - thanks guys!  So, are you ready for your blurb now, Gracie?
Gracie:  Okay, I think I've got it.
Dad:  Let's have it.
Gracie:  "'The Prairie Thief' is a mystical mystery not to be missed."
Dad:  Hey, good blurb!
Gracie:  I'm the blurb master now.

Louisa crawls into the hole, by Lily

 

Louisa meets a wolf, by Isaac 

Louisa rides a pronghorn, by Gracie

Brownie riding a wolf, by Elijah

Author: Melissa Wiley
Illustrator: Erwin Madrid
Published, 2012: Margaret K. McElderry Books
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Review #120: The Three Ninja Pigs

 

Dad:  It's "The Three Ninja Pigs."
Kids: (karate noises)  YAGH!  WHAH!  SWOOSH-WOOSH!
Dad:  Written by Corey Rosen Schwartz.  And illustrated by --
Lily (age 9):  Dan Santat.
Gracie (age 12):  He's an illustrator and a ninja.
Dad:  The 6 kids and I just read the book.  And now the 3 oldest kids are here reviewing it, while the 3 littlest ones are...
Gracie:  Doing karate stuff. 
Dad:  They've turned into little ninjas, spinning all over the room.
Gracie:  They're all like WAH!  HAWAH!
Dad:  It's funny to see the baby running around doing ninja moves.  Hey, you three need to be quieter while we do the review...
Gracie:  This book is about these three pigs that live in China.  There's this wolf in their village that they have to get rid of because he's blowing things down.  He's a big bully and he rules the world or something.
Dad:  So, there are Three Pigs... a Big Bad Wolf... this sounds like...
Gracie:  The Three Little Pigs.  It's pretty much the same only they changed the word 'little' to 'ninja.'
Isaac (age 14):  It definitely makes it different.
Lily:  They are taking the original and they are re-storying it.
Gracie:  They are strange-ing it up.
Lily:  Twisting it.
Isaac:  It's cool - I like how it's twisted with ninjas and karate. 
Gracie:  Twisted Ninjas!
Lily: (singing)  I'm a twisted ninjaaaaaaa!  A twisted ninjaa-aa-aa!
Dad:  So what happens in this ninja version?
Gracie:  The pigs don't like the wolf being a bully, so they go train at different Ninja Schools.  The first pig drops out because he's lazy.
Lily:  I think he's not very smart.  All the other animals in the dojo are flipping each other like, WAH!  SHOOP!  WHAP!   But Pig One is just snoring.
Dad:  And the second pig?
Lily:  Pig Two stopped halfway through too.  He thought, "I don't need any more learning.  I'm good enough to defeat the evil wolf now.  Ha- ha-ha-ha."
Isaac:  But he got kicked.
Dad:  Third pig?
Isaac:  Pig Three studies karate, she goes through all the lessons, and she masters it.  She defeats the wolf.
Gracie:  She scares him.
Lily:  By splitting bricks on top of each other. 
Gracie:  That third pig is a millionaire!  Did you see how big her house is???
Lily:  WAH!  WEW!  WHEW!  Pork Chop!
Gracie:  The author and illustrator probably based Pig Three off of Miss Piggie. 
Isaac:  They are probably Muppet fans.
Gracie:  Are you guys Muppet fans?
Lily:  When Miss Piggie gets offended her eyes get really big!
Gracie:  And she goes HI-YAH! with her perfectly manicured hooves.
Dad:  So that sums up the story.  What did you think about the art?
Lily:  I like the end pages.  Those are pretty nice.  They are pretty scenes.
Isaac:  I really like how the author told the story with all the rhyming and the twist to it.  I also really like the artwork.  I like the... the... whatchacallit... the um, perspective of the characters.
Dad:  You mean Foreshortening?
Gracie:  New word!
Dad:  When a character has an arm or a leg coming out toward you, the artist needs to know how to use 'foreshortening' -- they make the leg look bigger and overlapped to show that it's closer.
Isaac:  Yeah.  I'm bad at that!
Dad:  You see foreshortening a lot in superhero comics.  It's really tricky.
Isaac:  Yeah it is. 
Dad:  Done right, it looks like the foot is coming toward you.  Done wrong it looks like, "Man, that dude has a really short leg and a huge foot."  It's definitely a skill you have to learn.
Isaac:  Dan Santat is good.
(One by one the older kids have been slinking away to join the younger kids in jumping around the room karate style)
Lily:  Bacon action!
Gracie:  WAHHH!
Lily:  WHEW!  WEW!  WEW!
Dad:  Are you guys done with this review then?
Gracie:  WAP!  WAP!  WAP!
Isaac:  NINJITSU!   Ow!  I just pulled something in my leg!
Dad:  Are you guys going to go make your review-fan-art now... or practice ninja skills on each other?
Isaac:  Ouch.  I'm going to go get a heating pad...

Pig Three versus A Duck, by Lily

Pig Three versus Miss Piggie, by Gracie

Pig Three versus A Punching Bag, by Isaac

Author: Corey Rosen Schwartz
Illustrator: Dan Santat
Published, 2012: Putnam
Like it?  Here it is...

Review #118: Mal and Chad

Dad:  What book are we reviewing today?

Evangeline (age 4):  Mal and Chad.

Lily (age 9):  It's by Stephen McCranie.  He sure can draw.  He's good.

Dad:  What kind of book is this?

Lily:  It's a comic book.  A graphic novel.  And there is a sequel.

Elijah (age 6):  I like these kind of longer books best.  The longer they get, the better they are.  There is more exciting stuff.

Lily:  This is an adventure story.  It's interesting - very interesting and fun.

Dad:  Who is the star of the story?

Lily:  There's this kid named Mal.  His real name is Malison.

Dad:  Malison?

Lily:  Malcoe.

Dad:  Malcoe??

Lily:  I don't know!

Dad:  Malcolm.

Lily:  Yeah!  Malcolm!  And he has a dog named Chad.

Evangeline:  Chad talks - which most dogs can't do. 

Elijah:  Having a talking dog would be awesome!  Then I would be able to know what dogs are actually saying.

Evangeline:  The dog eats person-food because he doesn't like dog food.  It's yucky.  If I ate dog food, I would try to throw it up in a bucket.

Elijah:  If Evie ate dog food, she would have to get her belly pumped.

Dad:  Tell me more about Mal.  Was he a normal boy?

Lily:  No.  He's a genius.  But he doesn't want anyone to know that he's a genius who could go to college -- he wants to stay in his class with Megan, the prettiest girl in the world.

Evangeline:  The girl in the book is my favorite.  That one.  And I like those two girls too.

Dad:  What kinds of things could Mal do?

Lily:  Build a whole bunch of inventions.

Dad:  Big brother Isaac is the inventor in our house.

Lily:  Yeah but Isaac is not as smart as Mal.  Isaac builds little models of robots that don't work.

Evangeline:  But Mal made a backpack that could fly.  And he made a rocket ship.  I would love to ride in it.

Lily:  And he made a Yum-Sauce.  Which I want!  It makes any yucky food taste like your favorite food.  Actually, before I even read this book, I always wished I had a superpower where I could think of food tasting like something else and it would taste like that thing.  That would be awesome.

Dad:  So Mal invented the superpower you always wanted.

Lily:  Yeah.  He also has this rubber ducky -- a modified rubber ducky.  He squeezes it, and it turns into a giant duck boat.

Evangeline:  And Mal made this thing that sucked him up, and he shrinked. 

Lily:  They shrank themselves with an old vacuum cleaner that Mal modified.  They wanted to try out scuba diving, so they shrank and went into the sink. 

Evangeline:  There's a straw they slide down like a waterslide into the sink.

Lily:  They licked some suckers that are very special -- suckers that he modified.

Dad:  I think "Modified" is the word of the day.

Lily:  They lick the modified suckers, and then they can hold their breath underwater for a whole entire hour.

Dad:  When I was a kid, I used to imagine that I could shrink down little and run around the house.  I would take my Star Wars figures and crouch down so I could see things from their size and pretend I was climbing up bookshelves and chairs and swinging around on curtains.  Do you guys ever imagine things like that?

Lily:  Yeah, I always pretend that I can turn Polly Pocket sized, and then I can wear all their clothes and run around in their clothes.

Elijah:  But Pollys don't have underwear!  You wouldn't have underwear on!

Dad:  What would you do if you could shrink, Elijah?

Elijah:  I would take my stuffed animals and pretend there is a giant animal that is going to eat me.  Then I would take another animal and kill that animal.  And then another animal to kill that animal.  I would keep going until there was only one left, then I would eat that animal.

Dad:  Lovely.

Elijah:  Ha ha hah!

Dad:  What's one other major thing that Mal invented?

Evangeline:  He made an elevator that could hop away.

Dad:  Did the elevator go up and down?

Evangeline:  No, it did something weird.  It hops around in different places.  Not like the elevator at our library - that one goes up and down.  Mal's elevator went to places.  It went way far away.  To dinosaurs!

Lily:  It's an elevator time machine.  A MODIFIED elevator.  So they go back in time to dinosaur times.  When they get there they see weird lumpies in the water, but it's just the noses of longneck dinosaurs underwater.

Evangeline:  Then there was a dinosaur egg that was cracking.  But just a little one came out. 

Elijah:  He was a cute little squeaky one!

Lily:  They named him Charlie.

Evangeline:  Then there was a dinosaur behind them.  A big one.  And it chased them away!  Then it crashed all of them. 

Elijah:  A killer dinosaur adventure!

Dad:  If you had genius inventing powers, what would you make?

Elijah:  I would invent a robotic bed.  It could turn into a house.  And it can turn into a robot pizza that spies on people when it shrinks.  It could throw off pepperonis at people to kill bad guys.

Dad:  Lovely.  What if you could have any of Mal's inventions, which one of those would you pick?

Lily:  I want the duck boat.

Elijah:  Yeah - that duck boat was awesome!  But I would want the time machine.  I would go to Viking days.  Actually, first I would get a dinosaur.  Then I would take him to the Viking place so he could eat all the Vikings.

Dad:  Lovely.  So if Elijah was a genius, apparently he would be an evil genius.

Elijah:  Hee hee hee ha hah!

Dad:  His plans would involve attacking different things throughout history.

Elijah:  Mal only used his powers to keep people safe.

Mal, Chad, and Megan, by Evangeline

 

running from a pterodactyl toward the time machine, 
by Elijah

 

Mal, Charlie, and Chad riding their duckie past a longneck, 
by Lily

 

Author/Illustrator:  Stephen McCranie

Published, 2011: Philomel

Like it?  Here it is

Review #113: Bad Island

Gracie (age 11):  "Bad Island" is a good book about a bad island.  And it's a book about a good family with bad kids.
Dad:  Hmmm... any resemblance to our family?
Gracie:  NOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Lily (age 8):  We kids aren't totally bad.
Dad:  What was the family like at the beginning of the book?
Lily:  They didn't spend much time together.  They didn't like to be with each other.  They were whining and they were yelling things like, "Don't touch my petunias!" and "I want Pickles!"
Gracie:  Oh yeah - Pickles!  The little girl in the book is obsessed with animals, and she carries around this dead snake named Pickles.
Dad:  Would you carry around a dead snake?
Gracie:  I wouldn't carry around a dead snake OR a live snake.
Isaac (age 13):  I'd carry around a snake so I could make Gracie kiss it.
Gracie:  And I'd bite your eyeball!
Dad:  You'd bite Isaac's eyeball?
Gracie:  No actually, I wouldn't bite his eyeball.  That's just the first words that came out of my mouth.
Dad:  So tell us what happens to this family...
Isaac:  They go on a boat trip, and they get stuck in a really bad storm.  Their boat smashes on this island, so they are trapped.
Lily:  In the middle of the sea.
Gracie:  It's a bad island that is really creepy.  They have to survive.
Isaac:  The island has lots of aliens and creatures on it.
Gracie:  There are a whole bunch of creepy monsters... which is like, really cool.
Lily:  "Creepy" plus "Islands" equals "Cool."
Isaac:  Something starts tracking the family...
Gracie:  It's a triangle-headed lizard guy.
Elijah (age 6):  He's Gumby.
Gracie:  He looks just like Gumby -- he's green, he's naked, and he has no buns.  Only he's darker green than Gumby, and he's scaly and ugly.
Dad:  Evil Gumby.
Gracie:  The book switches back and forth between telling you about the time of the bad island and the time of the creepy-alien-space-guys.
Elijah:  These big whisker-monster-creatures were fighting these flying-crab-octopuses.
Dad:  Elijah, you love monsters.  I bet your favorite part of the book was all the creatures.
Elijah:  I didn't want you to stop reading, ever.  My favorite creatures were probably those guys with the spear-staffs.  They say "Mo."  Or "Mo-Mo."  Or "Mo-Mo-Mo."
Lily:  The Mo-Mo's are evil.
Elijah:  They look like pancake-pillow-people with horns.
Gracie:  They are creepy little Poptart Men.
Isaac:  Poptart Men?
Gracie:  They remind me of chocolate poptarts with evil brains and spears.  Someday I'm going to draw a Mo-Mo eating a poptart.
Dad:  How about you, Isaac?  Did you have a favorite monster?
Isaac:  The Tree Monster is so cool...  Its mouth is not on the front of the bark -- it rips out from inside the tree... the tree itself rips open in half to make its mouth.  So cool.
Gracie:  Creepsters.  But the creatures aren't all bad.  Not the baby rock creature.
Lily:  The baby rock creature was the adorable of the adorables!
Gracie:  I would want one for a pet.  Then I would have a protector that had grown to love me.  The rock monster can't help it if he looks scary when he grows up.
Dad:  So you said the family had problems at the start of the book.  How about after they went through all the adventures together on the island?
Lily:  Then they felt happy with each other and loving toward each other.
Dad:  So was it a good thing that they went to the bad island?
Gracie:  It was a bad thing, but it happened for a good reason.
Dad:  Isaac, you and I have read lots of other graphic novels by this author as well.  Is there anything you can think of that is similar from book to book?
Isaac:  They're all awesome.
Dad:  Yeah, but are there any elements that you would say define Doug TenNapel's books?
Gracie:  Tentacles???  His last name is Tentacles!?!
Isaac:  "TenNapel."
Dad:  Although "Tentacles" would be pretty appropriate for the kinds of books he makes.
Gracie:  Because he's an octopus?
Dad:  No - because he makes awesome creatures.
Isaac:  That's one of the things I like most about his books.  They all have really cool creatures and robots and aliens.
Dad:  Well, any last words?  Anything you want to say to Mr. TenNapel about his new book?
Gracie:  Sorry I called you an octopus.

Janie, Pickles, and a Mo-Mo, by Lily

creatures, by Elijah

tree monster, by Isaac

the Bad Island bunch, by Gracie

Author/Illustrator: Doug TenNapel
Published, 2011: Scholastic
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Review #111: Blue Chicken

Dad:  Today we're taking a look at "Blue Chicken" by Deborah Freedman.
Lily (age 8):  I wonder if she lives on a farm?
Dad:  So, tell us about this book.
Lily:  Blue Chicken is about a chicken who wanted to help paint the barn.
Gracie (age 11):  Never let a chicken help you paint.  Never.
Isaac (age 13):  They'll just mess it up.
Gracie:  There is a drawing of a farm, and the little animals in the picture come to life.
Lily:  The artist wasn't done with her painting yet.  The barn hadn't been colored in.  Then the chicken comes out of the picture and goes over to the blue paint.  Then it splashed, and she got everything blue.  Everybody in the painting got blue, all the cows, all the chickens, all the ducks.
Dad:  Oh dear.
Lily:  So the chicken runs over to a glass of water.  She throws a duck, and he plops in the bucket, and the water splashes all over the place, and everybody got washed off, and I love this page.  It's awesome.
Gracie:  The picture looks so watery.
Isaac:  Deborah Freedman is very good at watercolors.  There's one page where it looks like actual water ripples.  How would you do that?
Gracie:  I like that page.
Isaac: (continuing to flip through the pages)  And that's a really amazing picture too.  See how she can make the water look like it's tipping over and starting to spill out...
Dad:  There are so many different handlings of water in this book.  She can make water look still, and she can make it look splashy.
Isaac:  There's big splashes. And there's also little tiny drips seeping out.
Gracie:  Dribbles.
Isaac:  And puddles.
Dad:  Characters wading in water.  Characters swimming in the water.
Lily:  And rain water.
Dad:  Water is seen inside the full glass.  And it looks different than the water seen behind, through the empty glass.
Isaac:  Shadows in the water.  And reflections in the water.  She's really good at this.
Dad:  What did you guys like besides all the paintings of water?
Lily:  That duckling.
Dad:  Ducks are your favorite.
Lily:  I'm pretty sure the duck and the chicken are best friends.  The duck follows her around.  And the duck wasn't angry at the chicken.  And he let the chicken throw him into the jar.
Dad:  What if you left one of your pictures, and when you came back, more of it was finished?
Gracie:  I did that once.  One time I drew a picture of a boy running.  And I came back later...
Isaac:  Ohhhh ho ho...
Gracie:  And there was a little monster shooting bullets everywhere, climbing on his shoulder!
Isaac:  Ha ha ha hee hee ha ha hah!
Dad:  Hmm - why is Isaac laughing so hard I wonder?
Lily:  Oh yeah, that was Isaac.
Dad:  Are you saying Isaac is a "Blue Chicken"?
Lily:  Yes.
Isaac:  I was trying to finish the picture.
Dad:  Maybe that can be our new code word.  Anytime something bad happens to one of our drawings... "You... Blue Chicken!"
Gracie:  "Darn you, Blue Chicken, you!"
Dad:  Would you like your pictures to come to life?
Lily:  If I were going to draw a picture to come alive, I would draw a duck.  A trained duck.  A duck that is trained to eat warmed-up broccoli.  Then we could eat it together.
Dad:  You guys know who Deborah Freedman is, right?
Lily:  She did "Scribble"!
Gracie:  This book is so similar to "Scribble."  They each have themes of color.  They each have pictures of animals that come to life.
Lily:  She takes a similar idea and twists it.
Gracie:  She's creative.  Who else would have thought of a Blue Chicken?
Lily:  I love this book like the dickens.  The dickens and the chickens.

blue chicken, by Isaac

chicken splashes duckling, by Lily

splash-off between blue duckling & orange chicken, by Gracie

Author/Illustrator: Deborah Freedman
Published, 2011: Viking
Like it? Here it is

Review #104: The Complete Peanuts

From time to time we'll break from our regular group review format and check in with the kiddos One-on-One to see what they've been reading on their own.  Today we hear from Gracie!

Dad:  Hello Gracie.
Gracie (age 11):  Hi Daddy.
Dad:  What have you been reading?
Gracie:  Peanuts!  The Complete Peanuts collection.  With good ol' Charlie Brown.
Dad:  The complete collection!  Do you know how long that comic strip ran?
Gracie:  Forever.  Ha ha ha!
Dad:  Where are we finding these books?
Gracie:  You are getting them for me from the library.
Dad:  We are so lucky that our library has been collecting these.  They're really expensive books, and we'd probably never see them otherwise.  How many volumes have you read?
Gracie:  All 15 books that they have so far.
Dad:  The publisher is working their way through the series, and so far they've released all the comics from 1950 through 1980.  That's 31 years worth!  That's over 11,000 individual episodes!
Gracie:  Ho ho ho hah!  My goal is to read all of the Peanuts comics ever made.  That's my dream.
Dad:  So, would you consider yourself a Charlie Brown expert with 11,000 episodes under your belt?
Gracie:  Oh yeah.  You could ask me anything.
Dad:  Tell us how the strip was different at the beginning than it turned out later on.
Gracie:  Well, a few characters were deleted, and a ton of new ones were added.  Violet, Patty, and Shermy went away.  Also, at the beginning Snoopy just ate and slept and didn't think at all.  It was two or three books before he started having thought bubbles.  Now he likes to play tennis and go to Woodstock's New Year's parties.
Dad:  Lots of new characters get introduced as babies, don't they?
Gracie:  Lucy was a little baby.  Schroeder was a baby.  Linus was a baby.  Sally was a baby.  When Sally was born, Charlie Brown ran out of the house... "Guys! I'm a father!  No wait - my dad is a father!  Again!"
Dad:  Do you have a favorite character?
Gracie:  Lucy.  Because Baby Lucy was just like Baby Me.  But now she's the bossy person who has to have her way all the time.
Dad:  A great role model...
Gracie:  Then there's Linus who has a blanket and sucks his thumb.  He's babyish, but he's really, really smart.  And he always quotes from the Bible.
Dad:  Who else?
Gracie:  Charlie Brown!  He's the one who thinks, "Life is going bad... I'm an awful person... Nothing good ever happens to me..."
Dad:  Would you be friends with him?
Gracie:  I would.  I love him.  My love for him goes to the ceiling of a skyscraper.  But nothing good ever happens to him ever.  Once he won a race -- that's probably the only thing he's ever won.  And the prize was 5 free haircuts...
Dad:  Ha!
Gracie:  He's only got a twist of hair in front.  And he's like, "Five free haircuts?  I don't have much hair to cut!  And even if I did... my dad is a barber!"
Dad:  Poor Charlie Brown.
Gracie:  Yeah, nothing good ever happens to him.  He's always getting teased for his perfectly round head.
Dad:  Tell me about Snoopy.
Gracie:  Snoopy!  He's the dog, and he doesn't know Charlie Brown's name.  He's always like, "Who? You mean that round headed kid that feeds me..."
Dad:  Ha ha -- I read the one when Charlie Brown comes back from the hospital...
Gracie:  Yeah!  And he's like, "Snoopy!  I'm finally here!  I missed you so bad that whole time!  I'm so glad to see you again!"  Then after he leaves, Snoopy thinks, "Now I remember... He's that round headed kid that used to feed me."
Dad:  Poor, poor Charlie Brown.
Gracie:  Snoopy has a lot of identities: Joe Cool, Joe Sporty, Joe Astronaut, World War I Flying Ace...  He's got thousands of disguises.
Dad:  Out of all 11,000 comics you've read, do you have a favorite?  Or is it too hard to pick one?
Gracie:  Well, I have a favorite book.
Dad:  Oh?  Which one?
Gracie:  Actually, it's one where all these bad things happen.  Charlie Brown gets hit by a car.  And he almost got fired from being a crossing guard.  Then Linus and Lucy move away.  And Woodstock has to fly South so Snoopy might not see him again ever.
Dad:  Goodness, why so many sad things?
Gracie:  Apparently a lot of bad things were going on in the author's life.  Schulz. 
Something Schulz.
Dad:  Charles.
Gracie:  Yeah.  A lot of bad things were going on in his life, so he expressed them in his drawings.
Dad:  Why did you like that book so much if so many awful things happened?
Gracie:  I don't know.  Because every time the terrible things ended, he'd have one of the funniest comics in history.
Dad:  Now... "Charles."  Charles Schulz...  Charlie Brown...  Do you think it's significant that they have the same name?
Gracie:  Maybe things didn't go well in his life.  Or maybe he was bald.  Or maybe Charles Schulz had a round head.
Dad:  These were made a long time ago -- some of them 60 years ago.  Why do you think you dig something so old?  Does it say something about you?  Or does it say something about the timelessness of these comics?
Gracie:  I live for the classics.
Dad:  Do you think other kids would like them too, or do you think you're an oddball?
Gracie:  Out of my friends, half of them don't even know who Charlie Brown is.  They know Snoopy and Woodstock.  But I had to explain Charlie Brown.
Dad:  Poor Charlie Brown.
Gracie:  But my friends would love them too if they could read the books.
Dad:  Is this your favorite comic?  Do you know any other comic strips?
Gracie:  This is the order of my favorite comic strips: I like the "Peanuts" comics, "Little Nemo in Slumberland," and "Calvin and Hobbes."
Dad:  I think you have good taste.  Now, are you going to try to draw a new Peanuts episode for your Fan Art this week?
Gracie:  No, I'm afraid I might come up with an idea, and not realize it is actually one that I've already read.  And plus, Charles Schulz doesn't want anyone else making his comic.
Dad:  Tell everybody about your birthday party last week...
Gracie:  The theme was Charlie Brown!  We decorated things like Charlie Brown.  I drew faces on balloons.  Isaac decorated with streamers that were zigzags like on Charlie Brown's shirt.  And we had Charlie Brown games that I made up, like "Pin the Frown on Charlie Brown."  And you made a Snoopy cake.
Dad:  Do you want to say anything to the people compiling these books?  Because that's a BIG undertaking for the publisher... committing to every Peanuts comic ever made, coming out with another volume every few months.
Gracie:  I don't know how many people read these books... but one girl LOVES them.  Thank you for making these!
Dad:  Real quick... What are you reading in the meantime while you wait for them to release the next volume?
Gracie:  I'm reading the books you got me for my birthday.  "Year of the Dog" and "Year of the Rat" by Grace Lin.  They're good.
Dad:  Thanks for the one-on-one chat, Gracie!  I love you!
Gracie:  And I love Charlie Brown!
Dad:  What?  Thanks a lot...
Gracie:  Ha ha ha!
Dad:  You make me feel like poor ol' Charlie Brown.
Gracie:  Hee hee hee!
Dad:  I'm certainly never going to kick a football that you're holding.
Gracie:  Ha ha!  I love Charlie Brown AND you!

the Peanuts gang, by Gracie

Author/Illustrator: Charles Schulz
Comics Published: 1950-2000
Books Published, 2004-present: Fantagraphics Books
Like them?  Here they are

Review #102: The Goose Girl

Last month we took recommendations for books that our readers wanted the Z-Kids to review.  In the weeks that followed, we read as many as we could; then the kids ranked their favorites.  After tallying up the votes, we decided to share the books that placed in the top three spots.  Thanks to "Renee" for recommending today's book: The Goose Girl!

Gracie (age 10):  "The Goose Girl" is about a princess who can talk to animals.  And everybody thinks that's weird.  So her mom sends her away to get married to a prince in another country.
Isaac (age 12):  The princess' name is Anidori-Kiladra.  If she doesn't marry the prince, the other country may invade theirs.  So they are going to make a peace treaty between the two kingdoms.
Gracie:  But on the way, Anidori-Kiladra's lady-in-waiting Selia tries to kill her.
Dad:  I think we're safe giving that away.  I wasn't really surprised....
Isaac:  I figured it out.
Gracie:  You could tell she was going to turn bad, because they kept saying, "You're such a good friend... You're such a good friend..."
Lily (age 8):  The lady-in-waiting Selia looks exactly like the princess, so she took her place.  She wanted to be the princess so she could marry the prince and be over the palace.
Isaac:  And... what's that guys name?  Ungolad?  He's the evil henchman of Selia.  I'm going to draw him because he's cool.  Well... he's not cool.  He's evil.  But how I imagined him looking is cool.
Gracie:  And the book tells you the adventure of Anidori-Kiladra escaping and running through the woods.  And when she gets to the city, she has to hide from Selia and all the guards, so she goes into disguise.
Lily:  And she changes her name.
Isaac:  She has to hide and get a job.
Lily:  She took care of geese.  That's called a Goose Girl.
Isaac:  We mentioned that she can talk to animals.  That's kind of an important part.
Lily:  But there's this other Goose Boy.
Gracie:  He hates her because he's used to being the only Goose Person.  Then when Anidori-Kiladra comes in there and starts talking to the geese, he feels jealous.
Isaac:  She has to prove to the king that she's the real princess.  And at the end they had a big battle.
Gracie:  She also finds out that she can talk to the wind too.  She didn't know that before.  So she talks to the wind.
Isaac:  The end half of the book was really exciting.
Gracie:  This isn't a main part of the book, but I have to say it because it freaks me out.  Selia says, "The penalty for treason is to be put into a barrel of nails and drawn by four white horses through the city!"  Which is FREAKY!  So I had to say that.
Dad:  Do you guys know who wrote this?
Gracie:  No.  Let me guess.  "Princess Academy."
Dad:  Yep, Shannon Hale.  You could tell.  Why, what's similar between "Princess Academy" and "Rapunzel's Revenge" and "Goose Girl"?
Gracie:  They are all about girls in hiding, away from home...
Dad:  Why did you guys like this book so much?
Gracie:  It is exciting.  And romantic.  And people die in it.  And Anidori-Kiladra makes a lot of good friends.  And she has a lot of secrets.
Lily:  This book had the power of love.
Gracie:  It's one of those stories that... you don't know why you like it, but it's one of your favorite books you ever heard.  One of those books that you want to listen to over and over again.
Dad:  Did Anidori-Kiladra grow and change over the course of the book?
Isaac:  Character Arc!
Gracie:  At the beginning, she was trying to be perfect just like her mother.
Lily:  But she was bad at it.
Gracie:  She was trying to prepare for her future.  But nothing prepared her as much as Celia's evil rebellion.
Lily:  At the beginning she was a scaredy cat.  She was puny and picky.  But she grew into a brave person.
Gracie:  At the beginning she was expecting to be waited on and served.  But by the end she just expected to sleep on the floor.
Dad:  What would you guys do if you could talk to the wind?
Gracie:  I could make Cameron's hat blow away.  That would annoy him so much!
Dad:  Why do you want to annoy Cameron?  Hmmmmmmm...
Isaac:  Oooooo...
Gracie:  Giggle giggle giggle
Dad:  I think you just want to look at his flowing locks.
Isaac:  His luscious hair...
Gracie:  giggle
Dad:  How about animals?  Would you guys like to be able to talk to animals?
Gracie:  Oh yeah.
Dad:  What would you say to them?
Gracie:  I would tell them not to poop in our yard.
Dad:  Great.
Lily:  I would say...  "Hi!  How are you doing?"
All:  HA ha hahh ha!
Gracie:  We're all really lame!
Dad:  It's a good thing super animal-powers weren't wasted on you guys.
Isaac:  I would ask them weird question about what animals do and why.
Gracie:  Yeah, questions about the mysteries of science.
Mom:  I would always check to see if they have rabies.
Isaac:  Ha ha ha...  "Hello, little baby raccoon...  Do you have rabies?"
Mom:  Like that possum we saw...  I would love to have asked him why he was walking around out in the middle of the day!
Isaac:  "Ohhhhh...  I've got rabies."
All:  HAH ha ha ha ha!

goose girl, by Lily

Ungolad, by Isaac

showdown in front of the king, by Gracie

Author: Shannon Hale
Published, 2003: Bloomsbury
Like it?  Here it is

Review #96: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

We have a special review for you today!  The kids and I started working on this post 3 months ago.  Yes, three months!  After lots of fun planning and hard work, we are proud to present our first video review!  Below you'll find our retelling of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon...  with shadow puppets...  in 92 seconds!






Author/Illustrator: Grace Lin
Published, 2009: Little Brown
Like it?  Here it is
90-Second Newbery: brainchild of James Kennedy
Original Music: composed by Victor Lams
Want to know what went into making this video??? Visit: Fuzzy Pizza