Review #79: The Little Drummer Boy

Lily (age 7):  Ezra Jack Keats...
Dad: ...who is a very famous illustrator...
Lily: ...made the pictures for The Little Drummer Boy.  Rum pa pum pum.
Isaac (age 12):  Isn't this a song too?
Dad:  It is a song.  And you know, I never really liked the song.  So I didn't expect to like this book when I first saw it.  But I LOVE it.
Isaac:  Why?
Dad:  Because the pictures are so awesome.  I love the book despite not being a fan of the song.
Lily:  Is the illustrator even alive still?
Dad:  I don't think so.
Lily:  That's sad.
Isaac: (flipping through the pages)  Good.  There are more than three wise men in this book.
Gracie (age 10):  One, two, three, four, five.  And a drummer boy.
Dad:  You guys are sticklers for that.  You mentioned that in a different Christmas review too.
Isaac:  The Bible doesn't say three wise men -- it doesn't tell how many.  It only says wise men came.
Gracie:  With three gifts.
Dad:  Tell me about the pictures...
Lily:  The art is beautiful.
Isaac:  My favorite part of the book is the collage-y art.
Gracie:  It looks like cut paper in one part, and then it looks like a stamp here, and then it looks like paint over there, and string there.
Isaac:  I see watercolor in there.  Acrylic.  Marbled paper.  All kinds of art smashed together.
Dad:  That's called "mixed media."
Isaac:  And his drawings aren't smooth.  They are kind of bumpy.
Dad:  A good word for that would be "painterly."
Isaac:  That's a word?
Dad:  It means the paint looks like paint.  Sometimes people use paint but they try to disguise it - they want it to look like a photograph.  Other people are happy to let their materials show through.
Isaac:  I paint painterly.  But it's not like I'm trying to paint realistic or painterly.  That's just how it comes out.
Gracie:  The art in this book is emotional.  The boy is all sad... "I am a poor boy too, I have no gift for you..."
Dad:  And the art is gray...
Gracie:  But then the next page got all happy when he said, "Shall I play my drum for you?"
Lily:  Yellow!  It's beginning to be yellow.
Isaac:  Bright yellow.  The pictures are very moody.  When the drummer boy is happy the colors are brighter.
Dad:  From one page to another.  Perfect use of cools and warms.
Gracie:  Sad... then... Yea!  Sad... then...Yea!
Lily:  The yellow brings happiness.
Dad:  And the colors stay warm for the whole rest of the book.
Gracie:  Pa rum pa pum pum.
Lily:  He also leaves lots of sky and space in the pictures.
Dad:  That's one of my favorite things about the book.  He fills the whole page with color, but he doesn't feel like he has to pack it full of characters.
Gracie:  They save Jesus until the end of the book as a surprise.
Lily:  You don't even get to see Mary's face until the end.
Isaac:  Why is baby Jesus is holding a stick?
Dad:  Now, was there a drummer boy in the Bible?
Gracie:  No.
Dad:  How do you feel about them making up a character?
Isaac:  I think it's fine.  People have made history-type-things like that before.
Dad:  Historical fiction?
Isaac:  Yeah.  Like, maybe a story about a war has a guy who wasn't really there, but he's in the story.
Gracie:  Why don't you like the song, Dad?
Dad:  The tune for one thing.  But it's also because of what we were just talking about.  There are plenty of awesome things in the Christmas story that actually did happen.  Why not sing about those?  Why make up pretend stuff?
Isaac:  But then you got the book.
Dad:  Yep.  The art attracted me.  And as a book, it actually makes me feel less weird.  Maybe because in a picture book you inherently have to make up so much anyway -- any illustrations have to be imagined.
Gracie:  Pa rum pa pum pum!
Dad:  How do you guys feel about the song?
Gracie:  I love it.
Isaac:  I don't think it's bad.
Dad:  It is respectful to the real story.
Isaac:  It's not making fun of it or anything.
Dad:  Granted, we'd never sing The Little Drummer Boy at church, but I don't think it's a song to be avoided.
Isaac:  Ha ha ha!  The whole choir singing "Ba rum pa pum pum!"
Dad:  Any last words?
Gracie:  Ezra Jack Keats, make more books!
Lily:  He's dead!
Dad:  That would be a little hard for him now.
Gracie:  Oh yeah.

drummer boy, by Isaac

drummer boy, by Lily

Gracie makes a funny: "The ox and lamb kept time"
(see their watches?)

Illustrator: Ezra Jack Keats
Published, 1968: Macmillan
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Review #53: This is the Stable

Lily (age 6):  This book is called "This is the Stable."  It's about Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus.  We are reading it because it's almost Christmas, so that is special.
Dad:  I love the pictures in this book.
Lily:  You do?
Dad:  That's why I wanted to do this one.
Lily:  It is?
Dad:  Yep.
Lily:  Or maybe you wanted to do it because it's Christmas.
Dad:  Well, both.  Out of all our Christmas books, this year I wanted to highlight this one.
Lily:  Okay.
Dad:  Cynthia Cotten wrote it.  And it is illustrated by Delana Bettoli.
Gracie (age 9):  I have a rhyme...  Delana Bettoli eats ravioli.
Lily:  Does she really eat ravioli?
Isaac (age 11):  Everyone eats ravioli.
Dad:  What did you think about the writing?
Lily:  It always rhymes things.
Isaac:  I bet this could be a song.  I really think this could be a song.  I bet it was a song.
Lily:  This is kind of like a Bible story.  But the author made up her own words.
Gracie:  It tells a good story and makes it fun to read.  Some people think reading the Bible is boring.
Dad:  Like who.
Gracie:  I don't know.  Katie just said she knows some people.  My friend Katie knows a lot of people.
Isaac:  Each part of the story starts out like, "This is the stable," "These are the shepherds," or "These are the wise men."  Then after every few pages it ends with "in the stable dusty and brown."
Lily:  They always say "...the stable dusty and brown," "...the stable dusty and brown."
Dad:  That's called "repetition."
Gracie:  The pictures are so pretty.
Dad:  For a book that keeps saying "dusty and brown" over and over again, did the pictures look dusty and brown?
Lily:  NO!  They are colorful and happy.
Gracie:  They are the opposite of dusty and brown.
Dad:  So there's some contrast going on.
Lily:  This is colorful.  This book is a rainbow.
Gracie:  Colorful and detailed.
Isaac:  It's really cool how the illustrator dabs color.  Like, the ground is a dark color, and then there are all these little splotches on top of it.  Every picture looks like it has layers.
Gracie:  In almost every single last picture there are angel wings.
Isaac:  Every page has hidden wings.
Gracie:  Where are the wings on this page?  Oh, I see the wings.
Lily:  There's the wings.  There's the wings again.
Gracie:  It also has cool borders on every page.  Such neat borders.
Isaac:  On this page, the border around the picture is all these twigs entwined together.  And then at the bottom there are flowers.
Gracie:  There are lots of details.  The illustrator must really like patterns.  Because there are so many patterns.  Every single thing has at least one type of pattern.
Dad:  The borders, the clothing... everything is very decorated.
Gracie:  My favorite picture has four angels, and they've all got such colorful clothes.  The dresses have such pretty patterns.  One has snowflakes and flowers, one has... actually all of them have flowers.
Dad:  Usually when you see pictures of angels they are just dressed in white.
Lily:  This is colorful!
Dad:  These are the most colorful angels I've ever seen.
Gracie:  This Christmas book is better than all the rest because it's prettier.
Dad:  Well, do you guys have any Christmas greetings for our readers?
Isaac:  Merry Christmas everybody!
Lily:  Have a good Christmas - ho ho ho.
Gracie:  Merry Christmas from Bookie Woogie!
Lily:  Ho ho ho!
Isaac:  We should ask what people's favorite Christmas story is.
Gracie:  If you tell us your favorite Christmas story, you could win...  um...
Dad:  Maybe they could win your drawings?
Isaac:  Yeah!  I'll give mine away.
Gracie:  I'll do it.  Contest!
Dad:  Really?  Do you want to?  I've given away books before...  Do you want to give away your pictures this week?
Gracie:  Yes!
Dad:  So what are the rules?
Gracie:  Leave us a comment and tell us your favorite Christmas book.  You can win our actual drawings.  Not just copies.  The actual drawings.
Dad:  So one person wins all three, or what?
Gracie:  First prize gets the best picture we drew, second place gets the second best...
Dad:  HA!  Well, who decides which one is best?
Gracie:  You!
Dad:  I can't do that.  How about this...  how about we give the winner their choice.
Gracie:  First place gets to pick first.  Second place gets to pick second.  And last place gets the left over.
Dad:  Hah - the "left over"?
Lily:  But Daddy!  What if they pick mine for last!?
Dad:  I'm sure all your pictures will be wonderful!  And maybe they'll pick yours first...
Lily:  But what if no one likes mine?
Dad:  Okay, we won't do that.  We always want this to be fun.  Maybe we'll assign the pictures randomly.  We don't want anyone to feel bad.
Lily:  Mm-hm.
Gracie:  Now let's go do our drawing party!  We can use the brightest colors we've got!
Dad:  Great!  And give us your rules one more time...
Gracie:  Leave a comment and tell us your favorite Christmas book.
Dad:  At the end of the week, we'll randomly pick three winners to receive orginal Z-kids art!  The pictures are below, and we'll match them to the winners randomly as well.  Good luck!  Spread the word!

wise man, by Isaac
baby Jesus, by Lily

angels, by Gracie

Author: Cynthia Cotten
Illustrator: Delana Bettoli
Published, 2006: Henry Holt
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Review #8: Through the Animals' Eyes

Gracie (age 8):  This is our special Christmas Bookie Woogie!
Lily (age 5):  Woohoo!
Gracie:  Deck the halls with boughs of holly, falalalala lala lala!
Lily:  Don't sing that song!  It's crazy.
Dad:  We've picked a book by Christopher Wormell called...
Lily: (reading) Through the Animals' Eyes.
Isaac (age 10):  Why do Christmas books always think there were three wisemen?  The Bible never tells how many.
Dad:  You're right.
Isaac:  It could have been six thousand wisemen.  Or it could have been just one.
Dad:  Well, we know it was more than one...
Isaac:  Yeah... wiseMEN.  But it could have been two.
Dad:  Why do you think people make the mistake of thinking there were three men?
Isaac:  Because there were three gifts...
Dad:  Yep.  Now, let's look at the book...  Who do you think the two people are in this picture?
Lily:  Mary and Joseph.
Dad:  How can you tell?
Gracie:  One lady is on a donkey and one lady is not.  Oops...  I mean...
All:  Hahahaha!
Dad:  I don't think that's a lady...
Gracie:  Well, they're both wearing dresses!
Dad:  That would be a robe...
Lily:  And Joseph always has a stick.
Dad:  Well, now I think you are pointing at a shepherd.
Lily:  Oh.
Dad:  Why did shepherds carry staffs back then?
Lily:  Because they could put the stick in the fire and then scare the wolves off and then get the fire off the stick so they could do it again.
Dad:  Those would be some Super Warrior Shepherds!  I think somebody still has "Rapunzel's Revenge" on the brain...
Isaac:  The pictures in this book were really cool.  Every picture compares two things together - animals and humans.  A different animal on each page.  In the first picture, there are storks following the humans.  Both the birds and the humans are going somewhere.
Dad:  They're both kind of migrating.
Isaac:  The next page has a griffin vulture...
Lily: ...that guy Joseph is covering that girl Mary.  And that bird is covering the egg.
Isaac:  So they are both getting ready to give birth.
Dad:  Those are called "Parallels."
Isaac:  Like a parallelogram?
Dad:  Yep - parallelograms have sides that follow in the same direction.  The animals in this book are parallel because their stories follow Mary and Joseph.  They run side by side...
Isaac:  It makes the pictures cooler.
Gracie:  The shepherds are watching over the flocks just like the dog is watching over the flocks.
Lily:  I didn't like the guy who was bad.  Herod.  They compared him to a bee stinging a hand.
Dad:  You guys are finding great parallels.
Gracie:  I found another parallelogram - there's a whole bunch of doves in the sky like angels.  That's my favorite picture.
Dad:  It would be a neat picture to hang up on a wall.
Lily:  It's cool how he made this side purple and this side orange and this side yellow...
Isaac:  How does he do... that... "shade"?
Dad:  When someone blends from one color to another... that's called a "Gradient."
Lily:  Ingredient?
Gracie:  Ha ha!  Gradient.
Lily:  Oh, gradient!
Isaac:  I think he must have used a computer for that.
Dad:  Nope, not a computer.  Okay, so here's the big question - what do you think he made these pictures with?
Lily:  There are big, big lines...
Isaac:  He used mostly black...
Gracie:  Pencil?  Pastel?  Paint?
Dad:  He did use paint - or maybe ink.  But he didn't use a brush.
Isaac:  Dipping a quill in the paint?
Dad:  Nope.
Lily:  Fruit.
Dad:  Fruit?  Wha...?
Lily:  Dip it in the paint and then draw something!
Dad:  Actually - you could be getting close.  I'll tell you.  It's called "Lino-cut."  You start with a piece of linoleum... a big block.  Do you know where this is going?
Isaac:  It's blocks of wood, er... linoleum.  You take a knife and you cut away on it and you stamp it on the paper with paint.
Dad:  So now - if you look at the pictures again - can you see that they were all made out of "stamps"?
Lily:  It's cool that he used stamps.  I could not do that.
Isaac:  I have a question...  If he cut this, how did he make these little lines in this other color?  Did he keep making a new one, put it away, make a new one, put it away, make a new one... and you have to keep doing it over and over and over again?
Dad:  Yep - he had to do a new linocut for each color in the picture.
Isaac:  That would take FOREVER!
Gracie:  He has to be a really good lino-cut artist because -- All those shapes!
Dad:  And here's the other thing that is tricky about it...  When we draw, we're marking down the black outlines.  But with lino-cut, you are taking away everything except the black lines.  So he's actually drawing/scooping everything around the black as he cuts.  Does that make sense?
Isaac:  That would be hard for the bricks in that picture!
Dad:  That would be really hard on lots of stuff!  He's not drawing the shapes of horns and legs and tails....  He's thinking about the shapes between the horns and legs and tails...  So when he's done, it leaves the black outlines behind.  Here's another art word for you...  He's got to think about the "Negative Space" - it's almost like drawing what isn't in the picture...
Isaac:  That's kind of like scratchboard.
Dad:  Exactly the same principle.
Gracie:  I like lino-cut.  It's a lot of hard work to do lino-cut.  He must be a really smart professional about lino-cut.
Dad:  I think you like saying the word "lino-cut."
Gracie:  Hee hee...
Dad:  Now that's how he made the pictures.  What about the way they looked.
Lily:  Colorful!  I love it.
Gracie:  Not very realistic looking.  But it's not cartoony either.
Dad:  Kind of "Stylized."  Boy, you guys are learning all sorts of art words today.
Gracie:  I like how the people in this book "motion."
Dad:  What do you mean?
Gracie:  The ways they are standing.  I think that part is cool.  In some pictures people are so surprised and in other pictures they are gentle and kind.  And in other pictures people look very mad.  You could tell by their "motions."
Dad:  Poses?
Gracie:  By their poses.
Dad:  So how does this story compare to the actual Christmas story?
Gracie:  It's basically the same Christmas story, only it's through the animals' point of view.
Isaac:  The pictures went along with the story, but he also kind of imagined how it might have been.  Like, on one page there was a leopard lying on the branch of a tree above Mary and Joseph.  So, he was imagining that there might have been a tree with a leopard there.  But it doesn't change the Christmas story.
Dad:  How does he keep it intact?
Isaac:  Because the words of the story keep it true.  The animals are only in the pictures.  He doesn't ever say, "Then they saw a leopard on a tree."  The words keep the story true, but in the pictures he imagines what else could have been happening with the animals.
Lily:  Everyone should read this book AND read the story from the Bible.  You can compare them!
Dad:  Good idea!
Lily:  I want to read it again.

Lamb of God, by Gracie

shepherd and a leopard, by Lily

flying dove, by Isaac

Author/Illustrator: Christopher Wormell
Published, 2006: Running Press
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