Review #30: A Curious Collection of Cats

Isaac (age 10):  "A Curious Collection of Cats"
Gracie (age 8):  This book is fun!
Isaac:  It has lots of cats and lots of colors.
Lily (age 6):  A whole universe of cats.
Dad:  The cover says "Concrete Poems by Betsy Franco."  Do you know what a concrete poem is?
Gracie:  No.
Dad:  Let's think about "concrete."
Isaac:  It's cement.
Gracie:  You make things with it.
Isaac:  You put it on the ground to make sidewalks and roads.
Dad:  And buildings and sculptures... all different shapes.  Concrete is the material that makes them up.
Isaac:  So for a concrete poem, you make the poem into different shapes.  Or build the words into parts of things.
Dad:  Are the words in these pages laid out in a normal succession from top to bottom?
Gracie:  No.
Lily:  There are pictures with words inside them.  And sometimes the words hook onto part of the picture.
Dad:  In a concrete poem, what the words say is important, obviously.  But the way the words are arranged on the page is equally important.  They can twist, follow paths, form shapes.  Concrete poems acknowledge the "physical material" - the words - that make them up.  Where the words fall is just as significant as what they say.  That's a concrete poem.
Isaac:  Like, one of the lines says "Falling upside down" and it is written upside down.
Dad:  Good one!  What are some other examples?
Isaac:  In "Rascal's Tongue" the words are about a tongue, and the words ARE a tongue.  And they are pink.
Dad:  Same with "Tabitha's Tail."  The words are about the tail...
Gracie:  But the words also make the tail.
Isaac:  They are all twisted around.
Lily:  Another poem has a cat spitting out a hairball-thingie.
Dad:  And the words made the path of the hairball.
Gracie:  Yeck!
Dad:  The illustrations are by Michael Wertz.  So his job in crafting these poems was just as important as Betsy Franco's job, huh?  He's not just making supplemental pictures off to the side.  He's 'sculpting' the actual poem.  Giving it form.
Gracie:  It's poetry stacked on colorful cats!
Isaac:  Oh no.
Dad:  What?
Isaac:  I just realized...  We're all going to have to make a concrete poem about a cat for our review...
Dad:  Ha ha ha ha...  Yep.
Isaac:  This is going to be difficult.
Dad:  I bet you'll have fun.
Isaac:  I'm doomed.
Dad:  You're not doomed.  Come on, dude.  If it's too hard, you don't have to make a picture.  But at least have fun trying.
Gracie:  Yah-hoo!
Isaac:  I'm horrible at poems.
Dad:  We've never tried this!  Concrete poems may be your favorite thing ever, after we try!
Lily:  Daddy, I have a favorite poem.  I looooove "Shadow's Dream."  It's so cool!
Dad:  That one is beautiful.  There were some gross poems in here too.
Kids:  Yes!!!
Gracie:  Hairballs...  drinking from the toilet...  peeing on people's hats...
Lily:  Eating a fish cake.
Dad:  Those poems will probably be kids' favorites...
Gracie:  Yeah... hee hee hee!
Lily:  We like gross things.  Oo-hooey.
Dad:  Let me ask you about one more specific poem.  Who does Wide Veronica remind you of?
Lily:  Fat Cat!
Gracie:  She's our Nana's cat.
Isaac:  It also reminds me of Pumpkin, Sam's cat.
Dad:  Sam's cat is fat now too?
Gracie:  Very fat.
Dad:  Fatter than Fat Cat?
Gracie:  No way!  There's no cat that's fatter than Fat Cat.
Lily:  She could beat a bulldog in a fight.
Isaac:  Pumpkin is probably second place.  He has tons of fat that wobbles when he walks.  It jiggles around.
Dad:  We don't get to see Fat Cat wobble around too much, do we?
Gracie:  She mostly hides and growls.  We love her anyway.
Dad:  She used to be tiny once upon a time, before you all were born.  Mom and I babysat her when she was a kitten, and she jumped into our Christmas tree and hid.  Imagine what would happen to a Christmas tree if she jumped into it now!
Isaac:  HA HAH HA HA HA!!!
Dad:  Did Michael Wertz use realistic colors in this book?
Gracie:  No.  And that's okay.
Lily:  Some of the cats are pink cats.
Isaac:  It almost looks like layered tissue paper.
Gracie:  The colors are cool.
Dad:  Now, people who have cats would like this book...
Isaac:  I recommend Nana reading this book.
Dad: ...but what about us?  We didn't know that much about cats beforehand, but what did we learn from reading this?
Gracie:  Some cats can have six toes!
Lily:  And they eat spiders.  Mommy would freak out about that.
Isaac:  They have different personalities.
Lily:  Yeah, some of them like to kiss.
Isaac:  Some of them sleep and hide.
Gracie:  Some are shy.
Dad:  Some are brave.
Gracie:  And some of them pee on people's hats.
Dad:  Does this book make you want to get a cat or not?
Gracie:  I want to get a kitten that doesn't drink from toilet bowls.
Dad:  Kittens don't stay kittens.  They grow up to be...
Gracie:  Plump!

My cat May plays with Jerry
in the month of February
-- by Gracie

My kitten has a mitten that got bitten
-- by Lily


When people visited me
my cat jumped up the tree
And when she got FAT
the tree went splat
-- by Isaac

Good poems guys! (You too Isaac!)

Author: Betsy Franco
Illustrator: Michael Wertz
Published, 2009: Tricycle Press
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Review #29: Kidogo

Dad:  "Kidogo" by Anik McGrory...  I'm in love with it.  What do you guys think?
Gracie (age 8):  This book has really good descriptions: "Endless fields of rippling gold," and "Nights that were deeper than his dreams."
Lily (age 6):  This book has a little elephant.  Kidogo is the littlest elephant in the world.
Gracie:  He’s so cute!  The teeniest, tiniest elephant in the universe.
Lily:  Kidogo has no horns yet.
Dad:  I don't think any elephants have horns.
Lily:  Yuh-huh.
Gracie:  Tusks, Lily.  Horns are things monsters have on top of their heads.
Lily:  Kidogo is a little elephant that doesn't like being little.  Elephants are supposed to be humungo'.
Isaac (age 10):  So Kidogo goes off to find someone smaller than him.  When he was hunting for animals, he came across a hippopotamus, a lion, and a giraffe.  Each time, he thinks he has found a little animal.
Gracie:  Like with the lion -- at first he just saw the lion's tail, so it looked like a little guy.  But when the lion stood up, Kidogo freaked out and ran away.
Isaac:  He finds those big animals.  But there's always little animals behind him that he doesn't see because he never looks backwards.  He always looks forward for some reason.
Lily:  But finally he does find something even littler than him - ants!  And ants think Kidogo is a giant.  And Kidogo learns that he is just the right size.
Gracie:  What if the ants feel bad now?
Isaac:  If a baby ant thought he was the teeniest thing in the world, he really would have a problem finding something smaller than himself.
Gracie:  But what if there is another little guy, smaller than an ant, and he's just too small for us to see?
Dad:  Well, there are creatures we can't see.
Isaac:  There are?
Dad:  If we got a microscope, and took a little drip from the pond across the street, you would be amazed at the gazillions of itty bitty creatures in the soupy-zoo, swimming around in that one drop of water.
Isaac:  Let's do it!
Dad:  There's even tiny little creatures that live in your eyelashes.  They live there your whole life, and you never even know it.
Gracie:  Actually, I don't think those were ants in the book, Dad.  I think those are termites.  Because they are going up into that big termite hill.
Dad:  I agree.
Isaac:  Lookit - there's another little animal behind Kidogo in this picture.
Dad:  I didn't even notice it.  Kidogo doesn't see him either, does he?
Lily:  And I also didn't notice those little guys.
Dad:  Oh wow - me either!  Not until you just pointed them out.  This picture is full of little guys.  So this is kind of like a "look-and-find" book too.
Lily:  A frog!  And a bird!
Gracie:  And there's an animal!
Lily:  There's one!
Dad:  I don't know how many times I've read this, and I've never seen any of these little guys...
Isaac:  Look there's some animals right here.
Gracie:  Kidogo's not looking behind him.
Isaac:  They're always behind him.
Lily:  He doesn't see the little guys.
Isaac:  Kidogo, you've got to look behind you!
Dad:  So guys, tell me about the art...
Isaac:  The paintings are so cool!  It looks like she just splashed the different colors onto the drawings.
Lily:  It looks like little globs of goo.
Isaac:  It looks so beautiful.  I want to learn to do that.
Dad:  Now, sometimes a picture fills a whole page.  But do you know what a little picture like this is called?
Lily:  White space!
Dad:  Well, there is white space around it.  When there's white space around it, the picture is called "spot art."
Isaac: (singing)  Spotty art, spotty art, spotty-spotty-spotty art!
Dad:  Anything else you want to say about the drawings?
Gracie:  Just by the shape of his face, you can tell how Kidogo is feeling.
Isaac:  I'll show you: I won't read the words, but I can tell he's a little worried right here.  And here, he's -- okay I have no idea what that one is.  And in this one right here, he looks like he is stubborn... or something.
Lily:  He looks like he is drowsy.
Dad:  Drowsy!  That's a good word, Lily.
Gracie:  Mom taught her that word...  because Lily was being drowsy.
Isaac:  Kidogo is surprised right here.  And not so happy.
Dad:  The story doesn't even have to tell you his emotion.  You just look at his ears and you can totally tell how he's feeling.
Gracie:  Kidogo has emotional ears.  Very dramatic ears.
Isaac:  I don't think he talks at all in the whole story.
Dad:  No, he's an elephant.  Elephants don't talk.
Isaac:  Yeah, they go: Vvvvrooooooooooo-rooooooo.
Dad:  But there's no English-speaking animals.  So then, is this a realistic kind of story?  Or not realistic?
Isaac:  Realistic...  or... realistic-ish...  or... not-ish.
Dad:  No, it is.  It's set realistically.  I mean... it's not like the animals are wearing pants.
Gracie:  Dad, I think Kidogo must be a girl.  She has eyelashes.
Dad:  I have eyelashes.
Isaac:  I have eyelashes.
Gracie:  Yeah but in books, only girls have eyelashes.

Kidogo meets a rhinoceros, by Gracie


with a butterfly and bird at the termite mound, by Lily


Kidogo chasing a kingfisher, by Isaac

(Note: you can always click a picture for a closer view...)


Author/Illustrator: Anik McGrory
Published, 2005: Bloomsbury
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Review #28: Belinda Begins Ballet

Lily (age 6):  This is "Belinda Begins Ballet."
Dad:  The Belinda the Ballerina books are by Amy Young.  Do you guys remember Amy Young?
Isaac (age 10):  Yeah!
Gracie (age 8):  She signed a book for us at that library thing!
Dad:  What is special about Belinda?
Gracie:  Her feet are big, and she dances.
Isaac:  Belinda has huge feet.
Lily:  If there were mean guys, she could kick them easily!
Dad:  And if they ran away, her feet could still reach them, couldn't they?
Lily:  But with feet that big, you would trip a lot.  And stumble.  You would knock everybody down.
Dad:  How is "Belinda Begins Ballet" different from the other three Belinda books?
Lily:  She's bigger in the other books.  This is the only one where she is small.  She is a little girl.
Dad:  It's the newest book, but it's a prequel to the others.
Lily:  It's cool.  It shows Belinda when she was a baby.  And it shows her shoes from when she was one and two and three and when she was four.
Isaac:  When Belinda was one year old, she was wearing grownup shoes.  And when she got older, she needed triple-triple-extra-large shoes.  Belinda sneaks cookies out of the cookie jar on tiptoe because she has such big feet.  And she can go skiing right on her feet without skis.
Lily:  Then Belinda begins to dance.
Dad:  How did she get started?
Isaac:  There is a talent show.  I don't know if she was planning on entering or not.  But she became a clown because the teacher Mrs. Rhino told her she had to become a clown.  Mrs. Rhino has a big nose, and she only cares about what she wants.
Gracie:  I've got to find out what grade Belinda is in so I can skip that grade.
Dad:  Well, you're lucky you homeschool, so you don't have to run into Mrs. Rhino.
Gracie:  Oh yeah....
Isaac:  Belinda wants to get out of the clown routine.
Lily:  Then she runs into a ballet person.
Isaac:  She sees a girl named Camille practicing ballet.  And she really liked it.  So Belinda practiced and practiced and practiced on her own.
Gracie:  She read ballet books, watched Camille, and practiced.
Lily:  Her room gets full of ballerina stuff.
Gracie:  At first Belinda's room was just walls, a bed, and a koala bear sitting on the shelf.  But after she likes dancing, she has dancing everything!  Dancing posters, dancing jewelry box, dancing toys.  She has books on the floor that say "Ballerina," "The Legend of Dancing," and "How to Dance."  She even put dancing clothes on her koala.
Lily:  And her room is pink like a tutu.
Gracie:  I LOVE her room.
Lily:  Me too.
Gracie:  What if all of a sudden the cat walked in and even he was wearing a tutu?
Dad:  So what happens at the talent show?
Lily:  She starts out as a clown.
Isaac:  But she changes her mind half way through.
Gracie:  Then she does a ballerina dance.
Dad:  You used to take ballet lessons when you were little, Gracie.  Do you remember that at all?  You were only three or four...
Gracie:  Yes.  I had a really nice and pretty teacher.  When we went to the big show we were dancing to a song about sunshine.  And we wore poofy purple outfits with feathers.
Dad:  What do you think - will there be a fifth Belinda book?  Do you guys have any new story ideas for Belinda's feet?
Lily:  "Belinda and the Puppies."
Dad:  What would that have to do with feet?
Gracie:  Maybe she could keep stepping on the puppies.
Isaac:  Maybe there could be a book where she meets someone with feet as big as hers.
Dad:  Didn't you write a story once, Gracie?  "Belinda Falls in Love"?
Gracie:  Yeah! Belinda met a guy with big feet and fell in love, and then this other girl was also in love with him too...
Dad:  You were going to give that to Mrs. Amy, but we never did.
Gracie: ...then I got too carried away from how normal Belinda stories go, and I made the other girl snatch Belinda up in a cage and almost feed her to a dragon.
Dad:  Ha ha ha!
Gracie:  So the guy dumps the other girl when he sees that.
Dad:  Alright, before we go, I have a true story for everyone.  I have to tell you my Belinda story!  When Gracie was little...
Gracie:  No.  No.
Dad:  Ha ha hey!  I am going to tell the story!
Gracie:  Nooo.
Dad:  When Gracie was maybe two years old...
Gracie:  Nooooo.
Dad: ...we saw Mrs. Amy and she gave us a Belinda doll... with bendy arms and legs...
Gracie:  Nooooooo!
Dad: ...bendy like Gumby.  We still have it.
Gracie:  I know.
Dad:  But what part is missing from that Belinda doll?
Gracie:  I chewed her hair off...
Dad: ...the little bun on top of the head.  You bit it off, which was bad enough.  But then what did you do with it?
Lily:  You ate it?!
Isaac:  No - she stuck it up her nose!
Gracie:  Hee hee ha ha ha hee hee....
Dad:  She stuck the little bun up her nose!  And it got stuck in there.  We couldn't get it out!
Lily:  Is it still there?
Dad:  We eventually did get it out.  We thought it was a really funny story, so we told Mrs. Amy.  But she looked mortified!  Before she was a children's book writer she had been a lawyer.  She knew we weren't upset, but I imagine the lawyer side of her mind must have been spinning, horrified.
Gracie:  I am embarrassed.
Isaac:  Hey, do we have all the Belinda books?
Dad:  No... we don't have "Belinda and the Glass Slipper" yet.
Isaac:  Isn't it the one with that mean girl.
Gracie:  Yeah - in that book they are doing a Cinderella show, and Belinda gets picked instead of another dancer who is mean and very young.  So she locks Belinda in the closet!
Dad:  I got to read that story when it was still just a draft... before it became a book.
Gracie:  That's my favorite one.
Lily:  That's my favorite one.
Dad:  Me too!  And it's the only one we don't have!  We'll have to go out and buy it and have Mrs. Amy sign it.
Gracie:  You know that bookstore we go to sometimes?  The Bookman?  I read it every time we go in there.
Dad:  We could either buy it and own it, or just keep visiting The Bookman over and over again.
Gracie:  Just buy it.
Dad:  That would probably make The Bookman happier, eh?
Gracie:  Besides, someone else might buy it before us if we just keep looking at it over and over.

Camille and Belinda, by Gracie

Belinda leaping over Lily, by Lily

Belinda meets Bigfoot, by Isaac

Author/Illustrator: Amy Young
Published, 2008: Viking
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