Review #36: Flip, Flap, Fly!

Gracie (age 8):  "Flip, Flap, Fly!"  Ha ha!  I said the title first!
Dad:  It's written by Phyllis Root and illustrated by David Walker.
Gracie:  It has such cute little characters!
Dad:  David Walker is one of my new favorite illustrators.  I look for every book of his that comes out.
Gracie:  David Walker, you have the cutest drawing skills ever!
Dad:  And Phyllis Root... we own a few books by Phyllis Root.  She always manages to land awesome illustrators.
Isaac (age 10):  This is a good book.
Dad:  Lily, why did you pick this one today?  We have lots of library books to choose from.
Lily (age 6):  It has the cutest duck in the world.
Gracie:  The duck is adorable!
Dad:  What do people need to know about Lily and ducks?
Lily:  They are my favorite animal.  I have a whole bunch of ducks in my room, like a collection.
Dad:  How many do you think there are?
Lily:  Uhhhh, 23.
Dad:  23?  That sounds like a very specific number.  Did you count them?
Lily:  No, ho, ho...
Dad:  I bet you have way more than 23.
Lily:  Yah.
Dad:  But we've seen lots of books with ducks.  Why this one?
Lily:  This one has the adorable-est duck in the world!  My favorite duck!
Gracie:  He has such a round head.
Lily:  He's cute.
Isaac:  Yup.
Gracie:  He looks so fluffy.
Dad:  So, there are cute pictures.  Tell me about the story.
Gracie:  It rhymes.
Dad:  But each verse leaves off the last word of the rhyme and instead ends with "dot dot dot..."
Gracie:  So you know that it's going to continue on the next page.
Dad:  Right, and the reader can guess which animal completes the rhyme.
Gracie:  And it also shows the animal's tail on the page before.
Dad:  So between the clues of seeing the tail and anticipating the rhyming word, a little kid can guess the animal that comes next.
Gracie:  The story also lists colors.
Dad:  "Green, green lake."
Gracie:  "Pink, pink roses."
Dad:  Lots of elements go into the cycle.  Every verse has...
Gracie:  A baby animal.
Lily:  A mother animal.
Gracie:  A color.
Dad:  A hanging rhyme-word.
Gracie:  Every one shows a tail.
Isaac:  Except for the kid.
Dad:  Right.  The kid doesn't have a tail.  What about: "Flip," "Flap," "Fly."  Do you remember what that's called?  We talked about it before...
Gracie:  When we reviewed "Jazzmatazz."
Dad:  You're right -- you remember the book.  But what is it called?  "Splish," "Splash," "Swim."  They're not rhyming words.  Do the ends of the words sound the same?
Gracie:  Nope.
Dad:  "Ziggle," "Zaggle."  What's the same?
Gracie:  The beginnings.
Dad:  And that's called?
Gracie:  Wonga-snozzer...
Dad:  Not wongasnozzer.
Lily:  Wichitak?
Isaac:  It's... that one thingie.
Dad:  It's called "allit...."
Gracie:  Alliteration!
Dad:  You remembered!
Gracie:  ALLITERATION!!!  Yeah!!!
Dad:  2 points for Gracie.
Gracie:  Alliteration!  Alliteration!
Dad:  Can you guys make up some new alliteration?  Actually, let's make up our own verse.  "In the..."  wait, where should we be?
Isaac:  In the jungle.
Dad:  And what color should the jungle be?
Lily:  Green.
Dad:  "In the green, green jungle where the bushes grow..."
Lily:  High.
Dad:  "...high, 'Look,' says the..."
Gracie:  Monkey.
Dad:  "...'Look,' says the baby monkey, I see a..."
Lily:  "Fly!"
Gracie:  Hee hee hee hee!
Dad:  I see a tsetse fly that's going to bite me and give me diseases!
Kids:  Ha ha ha...
Dad:  "...'Bite,' says the tsetse fly..."
Gracie:  "Bite, bite, bite!"
Dad:  "...so the mama helps the tsetse fly..."  now we've got to come up with some alliteration.
Gracie:  "Bitty buggy bite."
Dad:  There you go.
Gracie:  Yea!
Dad:  So, do you think that's the sequel?  We'll have David Walker draw a book that has monkeys and tsetse flies?
Isaac:  That give monkeys diseases!
Gracie:  "In the green, green jungle where the bushes grow high, 'Look!' says the baby monkey, 'I see a fly!'  'Bite!' says the tsetse fly, 'Bite, bite, bite!'  So the mama helps the baby take a bitty buggy bite."
Dad:  Ahh, lovely.
Isaac:  And then they give him diseases.
Gracie:  And the monkey gets diseases and dies!  Hah hah ha!
Dad:  Oh, wonderful.  Silliness from all.  Now, Isaac, who is "Flip, Flap, Fly" for?  Is it for 10 year olds?
Isaac:  Naw.
Dad:  Do you like it anyway?  Now, that's a good question...  Why do a 10 year old and an 8 year old have a blog reviewing books like "Flip, Flap, Fly"?  Is it weird, or is it good, that you guys still like picture books?
Isaac:  I like picture books.
Dad:  Why?
Isaac:  Because the paintings are cool.  I like learning different ways to paint -- how people paint and draw... and techniques.
Dad:  So you're learning techniques as an artist?
Isaac:  Yeah.  And because picture books are just cool, and I like them.
Gracie:  I'm learning how to make things look cute.  These animals are adorable!
Dad:  So what did you learn?  What does David Walker do to make them cute?
Gracie:  He makes things round.
Dad:  Right!  Good observation!  And how about the eyes?
Lily:  They are all little dots.
Dad:  And where does he put the eyes?
Gracie:  He puts them right by the mouth.
Dad:  He puts them down low so the animal has a big...
Isaac:  Forehead.
Dad:  Right.  Big foreheads make things look cute.  Some people might freak out about mice in real life.  So artists have to know tricks and secrets to make them cute.  And what did you guys just discover the trick is?
Gracie:  Big foreheads, tiny dots, and round heads.
Lily:  Little ball-heads.
Dad:  So even big kids can learn things by taking time to look at picture books, huh?
Gracie:  The people who made this book did a really good job.  This is an adorable book of animal cuteness.

snake, mouse, and duck, by Gracie


fish, otter, and snake, by Isaac


duck and boy, by Lily

Author: Phyllis Root
Illustrator: David Walker
Published, 2009: Candlewick Press
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Review #35: Black and White

Lily (age 6):  I want to tell them what the book is.  This is "Black and White" by David Macaulay.
Dad:  Now, this is one of the weirdest books you'll ever see.
Isaac (age 10):  And one of the coolest.
Dad:  And out of all the books in our house, out of all the books I've ever read -- kid books, chapter books, grown-up books, fiction, non-fiction -- this is my very favorite book in the entire world.
Gracie (age 8):  What.
Isaac:  I knew that.  It's one of my favorites too.  That's why I picked it.
Dad:  Of course, that's after the Bible -- obviously the Bible is in a category all its own.  But after that, this is my favorite book.
Lily:  I love this stor-yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!
Dad:  Here's the reason it's my favorite.  I find some new detail, some new connection, every single time I read it.  And that's not an exaggeration.  EVERY time.  And I've read this countless times.
Isaac:  It's an awesome book.  It's just crazy though.  Sometimes it's really hard to understand it.
Dad:  This book even has a warning on the jacket flap.
Isaac:  And on the first page too.  There's a lot of warnings.
Dad:  So, is anyone brave enough to try to describe this book?
Isaac:  At the beginning, it seems like there are four different stories.
Gracie:  It tells all four stories at the exact same time.
Dad:  Each page spread is divided into four sections.
Lily:  But it's still just one story.
Dad:  This is a hard book to describe, isn't it?
Gracie:  It's a book with four parts.  Each part tells a story.  It's kind of fun, because you can imagine it as one story because the parts kind of hook up when it gets toward the end of the book.  But sometimes it's a little confusing.  You could imagine it as four different stories or as one big, very unusual story.
Dad:  Tell me about the individual stories.
Gracie:  One story called "Udder Chaos" is about cows and a robber.  One called "Waiting Game" is about waiting for a train.  One called "Problem Parents" is about parents dressed in newspaper-clothes.  And one called "Seeing Things" is about a little kid sitting in a train riding back to his parents because he went on a big trip all by himself.
Dad:  I like how there are four different styles of art for the four stories, even though there is one artist who made the book.
Gracie:  I like the way he drew "Problem Parents" because everything is brown, except for the dog and the newspaper and the son's shirt which are black and white.
Lily:  I like 'Udder Chaos" because you can find stuff hidden in the cow shapes.
Dad:  Tell me some of the elements that show up in more than one of the stories.
Isaac:  Traintracks.  That robber.
Lily:  Newspaper.  Singing.
Dad:  How about hats?
Gracie:  And cows.  Clouds.
Dad:  Yeah, see - that's something that I never noticed until this reading...  How clouds work their way into more than one story.
Isaac:  That dog looks like the masked bandit.
Dad:  You said all the stories "hook up."  How do they come together?
Isaac:  I think the mom and the dad from "Problem Parents" are at the train station waiting for the train.  And the train got blocked off...
Gracie: ...by the cows!
Isaac:  Yeah, the cows from "Udder Chaos."
Gracie:  And the train that the boy rides in "Seeing Things" is the same train the people are waiting for in "Waiting Game."  Everybody has to wait and wait and wait, so they start making clothes out of their newspapers.  And then the "Problem Parents" mom and dad come home in newspaper clothes, and they make the kids sing and jump around in the clothes.
Isaac:  I think this is ONE story.  Not four.  See, look in this picture...  The boy is playing with the train station, so that's why at the very end a giant hand picks it up -- because it's a model!  A train model.  It's a train model.
Dad:  So you think the story "Waiting Game" is happening inside "Problem Parents"?
Isaac:  Yeah!  Everything is happening at the same time.  Right now.
Dad:  But earlier you said the parents were at the train station in "Waiting Game," and then came home in their newspaper outfits in "Problem Parents."
(long pause)
Isaac:  That's one of the things that I don't get.  It confuses everything up.
Lily:  That is crazy.
Dad:  You can ALMOST try to figure out how all the stories fit together, but not quite.  As soon as you think you know how it works...
Isaac: ...something goes wrong.
Dad:  You see some other little detail, and you go, "Aww, but that can't be how they fit."
Isaac:  It's a weirdo book.  It's a really crazy-noodle book.
Dad:  This book feels like a riddle, but it doesn't necessarily have any answers.
Isaac:  It's just really confusing.
Gracie:  And I like being confused!
Dad:  Are there any other books you can think of that are ANYTHING like this?
Isaac:  No.
Gracie:  No.
Dad:  That's why I like this book so much.  There's nothing else in the entire world like it.  Maybe the movie "The Fountain," but you guys have never seen that.
Isaac:  I was thinking, it would have taken the guy who made this years and years and years of planning to get everything just right in this book.  All those details.
Dad:  It would be fun to talk to him and see what he thinks about this book.
Gracie:  He must like cows.
Isaac:  What if he had a master plan of how you can figure it out.
Dad:  The four individual stories probably make more sense each on their own.  I think it's only when you try to hook them together that it gets confusing.  But that's part of the fun game  ...for me, at least.
Isaac:  Hey, I know -- the robber goes through all the stories.  So that's why it's "One."  He shows up in all the stories.
Dad:  Okay, so that's your second theory now.  Or do you think one of these stories is the "Real" story going on?
Isaac:  "Problem Parents."  And these other stories are just going on in the son's mind.
Dad:  So they're all in his imagination?  That's our third theory.
Gracie:  I figured it out!  The CHOIR!  The robber is in the choir, the train-boy hears singing, the waiting people are singing, the parents are singing!
Dad: ...fourth theory.
Isaac:  Maybe the mom and dad are aliens, and they can shrink and grow...
Dad:  HA ha ha ha ha HA Hah!!!  So now, we've got aliens in the story?!
Isaac:  Why is this book called "Black and White" anyway?
Dad:  Well, let's see if you can answer your own question.  Let's name all the things that were black and white.
Isaac:  Cows.  The robber.
Gracie:  Newspaper.  Dog.  Striped shirt.
Isaac:  Newspaper shreds.
Dad:  There's a well-known expression.  When an issue is "black and white," it means there's no confusion.  It's obvious.  There's black, and there's white.  No gray areas.  Is this book very obvious about what's going on?
Gracie:  No-ho ho ho!
Dad:  It blurs what's real and not real, so the title itself is sort of a funny joke.
Isaac:  Is this a famous book?
Dad:  Well, it's got a big, gold sticker on the front.
Isaac:  Ahhh, so it won that one Thingamajigger.  A Caldecott.
Dad:  However, even though it got a Caldecott, I'm guessing the author/illustrator is far more well-known for his other books.  And not only is there no other book in the world like this, but the author has made lots of other books and they're nothing like this book either.
Isaac:  What are they?
Dad:  I should show you.
(Dad runs into the other room and back)
Dad:  So here are three other David Macaulay books we have.
Isaac:  Woah.  Out of all the books in the whole world, I did not expect those would be the three.
Dad:  We have "Castle," "Rome Antics," and "The Way Things Work."  They are cool, hyper-detailed, non-fiction books.
Isaac:  I bet the people who read this review are going to have no clue what we've been talking about.
Dad:  Yeah, that's my fear.  I worry that since the book is so unique, the review will be confusing, and no one reading this will want to go find this book.  SO...  tell me one reason why they should go find this book.
Isaac:  Because it's my dad's favorite book, and it's one of my very favorites.
Dad:  But give them a reason.
Gracie:  If you really like cows and reading the newspaper, go read this book.
Isaac:  Ha ha ha ha ha!
Dad:  So... that's a lot of people.
Kids:  Ha ha ha ha ha!
Lily:  And if you like to make paper hats!
Dad:  Okay, all those people that make paper hats and love cows are just going to storm the bookstores!  Demanding this book!
All:  Ha ha ha!  Hee hee ha!
Isaac:  Read the book.  It's a great book.  And then read the book again.

cows riding a train, by Lily


cow reading a newspaper, by Isaac


cow wearing a newspaper outfit, by Gracie

Author/Illustrator: David Macaulay
Published, 1990: Houghton Mifflin
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Review #34: The Amazing Trail of Seymour Snail

Dad:  The mailman brought us this wonderful book.  We sure have a nice mailman.
Gracie (age 8):  Mail Lady.
Isaac (age 10):  It's a girl.
Dad:  She keeps bringing us nice things.  This is "The Amazing Trail of Seymour Snail."
Isaac:  It's cool.
Lily (age 6):  I like it.
Dad:  Do you guys know anything about snails?
Lily:  They leave a track.  A slimy track.  And they are slow.
Dad:  We don't really have snails around where we live, do we?
Isaac:  We only have slugs.
Lily:  Is a snail like a slug with a shell on it?
Dad:  This is a good book for beginning readers.  It's a chapter book...
Lily: ...but every chapter is just a few pages.
Dad:  And there are pictures - big pictures - on every page.
Isaac:  It looks look like a Chapter Picture Book.  It's a picture book and a chapter book mixed together.
Lily:  It's about a snail and his track.  Seymour Snail.
Dad:  And Seymour was a...
Lily:  Snail.
Dad:  Ha.  He was a snail.  "Seymour Snail, he was a snail."
Gracie:  Ha ha ha!
Dad:  And he was a...
Lily:  Snail.
Gracie:  Artist!
Isaac:  He likes to paint, but he's shy about letting his friends see it.  Then this big gust of wind blows all the art out of its hiding places.  Then his friends see it and think it's really good.
Dad:  Do you guys ever get shy about your art?
Gracie:  Nope.
Lily:  Sometimes.
Isaac:  I don't like letting people see me drawing fish, because I'm bad at fish.
Gracie:  Oh, I think you are good at fish.
Lily:  When I try to make a 'possum, it looks horrible, that's why I never show anybody.
Gracie:  I like letting people see my art.  I even show them my bad pictures.
Dad:  Why do you think Seymour is shy about his art?
Gracie:  Because he's a snail.
Lily:  After his friends see his paintings, Seymour wanted to get a job as an artist.
Gracie:  So he gets the phone and starts calling people for an art job.  The first guy he called said, "You can have a job cooking escargot.  You can cook the snails."  But Seymour was a snail so he goes "Ahhhhhghhhh!"  And then he almost got a job painting dead bugs for the pest control.  But Seymour was a snail so he goes "Ahhhhhghhhh!" again.
Lily:  Finally he got a job at the Speedy Art Gallery.
Gracie:  Yeah, even though he was a snail.
Isaac:  There is this mean old stink bug there.  He makes him do all this stuff.
Gracie:  Seymour had to seal shut envelopes and go up a million hundred stairs to deliver a painting.
Lily:  The stink bug is grouchy and mean!
Gracie:  He's stinky.  He stinks literally, and he stinks in attitude.  Both ways.  Literally -- he's smelly.  And he stinks in attitude -- he's very mean.
Dad:  But would that be fun -- to get a job at an art gallery?
Gracie:  Yes.  I like making art and being around other people's art.
Dad:  This is a good book for you guys, because Seymour is an artist...
Lily:  And we are artists!  And he has great art.
Gracie:  Seymour could make a slimy trail that was glittery.
Lily:  So he finally got a job as an artist, making pretty snail goo trails.
Gracie:  Everyone saw the slimy trail he made.  They thought it was pretty and shiny, and then Seymour became a famous artist.
Dad:  Would you like it if you left behind a big slimy, glittery trail everywhere you walked?
Isaac:  No way.  Then in hide-and-go-seek we would always be found first.
Dad:  Is there anything else that we as humans might think is disgusting, but animals themselves might think is beautiful?  Remember when we were watching "Planet Earth" the other day?  What did those birds make their nests out of?
Gracie:  Saliva.  And that's the main ingredient of bird nest soup.  Bird saliva.  Which is spit.  Dad, put this in the review as a warning so no one eats it.
Dad:  You eat honey.  Bees make slimy goo, and you love it.
Isaac:  Hey Dad, there's one thing I don't understand.  In the book, why did the bugs have such big stairs?  Why don't they make them bug sized?  Since bugs were the only ones that were going up and down them?
Dad:  That's a good question...  I don't know.  Well, the book mixes and matches.  Some of this takes place in a "bug world."  Like the cockroach's/gallery owner's door.
Gracie:  And the art they make.  And the bug's briefcase.
Dad:  Right.  But part of the story is also in the "people world."  Like the chef and the pest control lady.  Even the envelopes Seymour licks aren't bug sized envelopes.  They are people sized envelopes.
Isaac:  And the telephone.
Dad:  Right, the telephone is a "people telephone."  How do you think Seymour took that giant telephone off the receiver?
Isaac:  HA ha ha!  I don't know!
Gracie:  Hee hee hee!  And how does he push the buttons on a gi-normous phone anyway?
Dad:  See, some of those things are funny.  Is this supposed to be a serious book?
Gracie:  No, ho ho ho ho!
Dad:  Some stuff is just funny.  So it's a mishmash.  Some of it is bugs living in a "people world," and some of it is bugs living in a "bug world."  They use whatever makes the most sense for each particular scene in the story.
Isaac:  Maybe bugs took over half the world.
Gracie:  It's really funny the way the guy made the pictures.
Dad:  Doug Cushman made them.
Gracie:  They are cooooool.
Dad:  And Lynn E. Hazen wrote it.  Did you read her other book too?
Lily:  Yeah!  Cinder Rabbit!
Dad:  Is there anything you can think of that is similar between the two books?
Gracie:  Yes.  They are both Chapter-Picture Books.
Dad:  And they are both about creative pursuits.  Cinder Rabbit is about acting and dancing...
Gracie: ...and Seymour is about painting with slime goo.
Lily:  And both characters think they can't do something.  Cinder Rabbit thinks she can't hop, and Seymour thinks he can't get a job as an artist.  But they learn that they can!
Dad:  Why do you think she wrote these books that have similar messages?
Gracie:  To encourage kids!
Dad:  Why do kids need to be encouraged?
Gracie:  Sometimes people think they can't do something.  Like, I once thought that I couldn't do a headstand, but then I practiced it, and I learned how to do a headstand.
Dad:  Are you encouraged to try anything after reading these books?  Squeezing goo out?
Gracie:  No!  Ha ha ha ha!
Lily:  I'm encouraged to try to get a job.
Dad:  Get a job?!
Gracie:  HA HA ha ha ha ha!
Dad:  Alright, go get the phone...
Gracie:  Cook escargot!
Lily:  No... I want to be an artist.
Dad:  Ohhhhhhh...
Lily:  What's the phone number?
Isaac:  That's not going to happen.
Dad:  Well, Lynn Hazen says You can do it!
Gracie:  You can do it, baby!

Seymour Snail paints, by Gracie

a very demanding Stink Bug, by Isaac

snail trail, by Lily

Author: Lynn E. Hazen
Illustrator: Doug Cushman
Published, 2009: Henry Holt
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