Review #38: Abigail Spells

Dad:  Time for another Bookie Woogie review.  And today Elijah is chiming in with us.  Alright, so tell us... what is this book called?
Gracie (age 9):  "Abigail Spells."
Dad:  By...
Lily (age 6):  Anne...  A Letter.
Dad:  A letter?
Lily:  Anne Letter.
Dad:  Try "Anna Alter."
Lily:  This book was about...  um...  how do you spell "Spells"?
Dad:  It's right there on the cover.
Lily:  This book was about S-P-E-L-L-S.
Dad:  About magic?
Isaac (age 10):  No, not that kind of "spells."
Lily:  Aaaaand it was about A-B-I-G-A-I-L.  Abigail.
Dad:  But tell me what happened in the story.
Lily:  S...  H...  um...
Dad:  You don't have to spell the whole review.  Just say it.
Lily:  Um...  S-H stopped spelling.
Dad:  S-H stopped spelling?  You mean "She"?
Lily:  Yes.
Isaac:  S-H-E.
Dad:  Why did she stop spelling?
Lily:  She was...  S...  A...  D.
Dad:  Why was she S-A-D?
Lily:  Because she didn't get to go on to the spelling bee.
Dad:  Who were the characters in this book?
Lily:  S-A-M.
Dad:  Sam?  There was nobody named Sam.  His name was George.
Lily:  G...
Dad:  Although, S-A-M would be a lot easier to spell than "George."
Isaac:  Yeah.
Dad:  Just tell us about the story.  You don't have to keep spelling.
Lily:  George and A...  B...  I...
Dad:  Oh for the love.
Lily:  Abigail.  They are best friends.  They do everything together.
Elijah (age 3):  It is about a bird and spelling.
Gracie:  Abigail loooooves to spell.
Lily:  Spelling is her bestest thing to do.
Isaac:  Favorite thing.
Dad:  We should also point out here, before we go much farther, that Abigail is a bird and George is a bear.
Gracie:  Animals don't talk in real life.  But Abigail can spell.  So that's really weird.
Isaac:  Abigail and - what's the other one?  George?  They did everything together.  George would play the maracas and Abigail would dance.  And she would spell.  They liked to paint portraits.  And Abigail would spell.  Abigail liked to tell George stories.  Stories with spelling in them.  Then one day there's this spelling bee.
Lily:  A spelling bee is a thing where you spell, and if you get the words right, then you win.
Isaac:  When it was Abigail's turn, she got hot in the face and really worried.
Gracie:  Stage fright!
Isaac:  And she spelled "Elephant" wrong.
Gracie:  How DO you spell "Elephant"?
Isaac:  Yeah, and that's not fair.  Someone else got the word "Ship."  "Elephant" is harder than "Ship."  Way harder.  "Ship" is easy.
Lily:  Abigail felt S-A-D.
Isaac:  She got really sad, and she never wanted to do anything.
Elijah:  She didn't spell any more.
Gracie:  Then George tried to cheer her up.  But it didn't work.  And I have a message for George.  George, there is not a "Q" in "Peanut."
Dad:  Do you think George knew that?  Why did he say that in the book?
Isaac:  To cheer her up.
Gracie:  Because he wanted Abigail to spell again.
Dad:  What happened next?
Elijah:  He told her a story.
Lily:  Yeah, so George told Abigail a story, which he has never done before.
Gracie:  A story about a bird and a bear.  And the bird loved to spell.  And the bear loved to see the bird do stuff.  But then the bird stopped spelling and that made the bear sad.
Elijah:  It was that bird and that bear!
Dad:  Right, Buddy!
Lily:  It was a story about them.  And then S-H-E was happy.
Gracie:  You can tell she feels better because she's spelling again.  And then she spelled SO MANY THINGS!
Dad:  What do you think it was about George's story that made Abigail feel better?
Gracie:  It showed her that he looooved her.
Dad:  That he cared about her?
Gracie:  No.  They're in LOVE!
Dad:  I don't think they are in love.
Gracie:  Yeah, they are!
Isaac:  If they got married they would have "Beaird" children.
Dad:  What was your favorite thing about the book?
Elijah:  Pictures.
Gracie:  My favorite thing was the fashion!  All those cool outfits Abigail has.
Dad:  Such as...
Gracie:  Really, really funky socks.
Dad:  What do you call those things she wears on her head?  Do you know?
Isaac:  Bonnet.
Dad:  Kerchief?
Isaac:  Oh, kerchief.
Dad:  No -- I'm asking.  I don't know what they're called.
Gracie: (whispering)  I don't know either.
Dad:  They're not headbands.  Handkerchief?  Kerchief?
Gracie:  Headchief.
Dad:  Then "headchief" it is.
Gracie:  They're bandannas!  It showed a picture of Anna Alter in the back of the book, and she's wearing the same headdress as Abigail, so she and Abigail must dress the same.  Actually everybody in the book has good fashion.
Dad:  Have you ever been nervous before, like Abigail?
Isaac:  Once.  I don't usually get nervous that easily.  But once I was playing in the Awana Games, and I got really nervous.  I was getting worried about if I would do bad in this really long race.
Gracie:  I've never been nervous in my whole life.
Dad:  Are you guys great spellers like Abigail?
Kids:  NOOOO!
Gracie:  I cannot S-P-E-L-L too much.
Dad:  Sorry.  You guys get that from me.  Hey, have your little Spelling Notebooks helped you at all?  Do you know where I got the idea for those notebooks?  I got it from the website Anna Alter set up for "Abigail Spells."
Gracie:  What?
Isaac:  My notebook helps me.
Dad:  Tell everyone about those notebooks.
Isaac:  You take little notebooks...  and you write down words in it...  ones that you might spell wrong...
Gracie:  Oh, what the hoo-ha.  Just go to "Abigail's" site.
Dad:  If there are words you need to write often -- instead of flipping through a whole, big, giant dictionary to check the spelling -- you just put into your notebook the words that you yourself are more likely to need.
Isaac:  Like, my notebook has "Species," "Human," "Circus," "Muscles..."
Gracie:  Hee hee hee hee...
Isaac:  I don't know why I had "Muscles" in here.  "Oceans," "Jail," "Poisonous..."
Gracie:  Here are the words I have in mine:  "People," There," "Their," "Because," "Powerpuff," "Cookie," "Chicken..."
Dad:  Powerpuff?
Isaac:  Chicken?
Gracie:  "Queen," "Butterfly," "Butter," "Fly," "Phone," "Fairy..."
Dad:  Ha ha ha.  So are the words in your two lists similar?
Kids:  Nooo!
Dad:  We can learn a lot about you!  We get to peek inside your brains by looking at the words you've collected in your Spelling Notebooks!  Alright, is there anything else you guys want to say about this book before we sign off?
Gracie:  It is a book of spelling wonderness.
Lily:  And the animals are cute.
Gracie:  Read the B-O-O-K about A-B-I-G-A-I-L   S-P-E-L-L-S.
Elijah:  No!  More!  Spelling!

Abigail and George, by Gracie

cool outfits: what to W-E-A-R?  by Lily

"E-L-E...  psst... what comes next?"  by Isaac

Author/Illustrator: Anna Alter
Published, 2009: Knopf
Like it?  Find it

Review #37: The Arrival

Isaac (age 10):  "The Arrival."
Dad:  A wonderful wordless book.
Lily (age 6):  It is written by Shaun Tan.
Gracie (age 9):  This book is about a boy...  a person, not a boy...  well, it is a boy - he's an adult though.
Dad:  A man?
Gracie:  A man!
Dad:  That is what an adult boy is called.
Gracie:  HA ha hahha ha ha!  A man going to a new country.
Isaac:  The man had to leave his family because it was too dangerous where they were.  Later on he would bring his family with him to the new country.
Lily:  There were dragons where the guy lived.  Dragon tails.
Isaac:  Shadows of dragon tails.
Gracie:  A thousand black dragon tails all over the city.
Isaac:  The man had to go days and days on a ship, crossing the sea.  Finally he got to the new country.
Gracie:  This new world is strange.
Lily:  It was weird.  It had different animals and things.
Isaac:  Everything was new.  Including lampposts in the water, which I've never heard of.  And there were floating boats.
Lily:  The new country has animals that are strange and cute.  And some of them were freaky.  And the plants and trees were even different.
Isaac:  When the man first got to the new country, he had to get all checked out, and he had to get a million stickers all over his coat.  Then he got a passport-thing.  And then he went up in this air-balloon-elevator which took him to his new apartment.
Gracie:  His house has weird stuff in it.
Isaac:  I wonder what you use that pot-thing for.
Gracie:  I wonder what you use that giant fire-thing for.
Dad:  The man in the story is probably asking the same questions.
Isaac:  The fire could be for roasting marshmallows.  But they don't have "marshmallows" in this country, so it's for roasting "Garshkallobs."
Gracie:  He feels strange.
Lily:  He feels sad without his family.
Gracie:  Why did he leave?
Dad:  Well, that happened a lot in the olden days.  Even nowadays.  People leave their families to go to a new country, and they try to make enough money so they can send for their families to come join them there.
Lily:  The man was lonely.
Gracie:  "I'm lonely, oh no, what do I do?"
Lily:  But then he got a pet!
Gracie:  His buddy!
Isaac:  He finds a weird little monster.
Dad:  Everyone in that new country ends up with a pet.
Gracie:  All the pets there are really, really cute.  And when the man got his pet he was like, "Now I have a friend.  My friend helps me.  I'm not sad."
Dad:  The man had a lot of helpers in this book.
Gracie:  That makes us want to help people too.
Dad:  After reading this, we have a better idea what someone in a new place feels like.
Gracie:  Next, the man has to find food and a job.
Isaac:  But he was all confused, and he met some people who helped him.  They were trying to be nice.
Lily:  He had to get a lady to help him.  And his pet found a new friend.
Gracie:  What is that lady's pet?  An owl-bunny?
Isaac:  An animal that you've never heard of before.
Dad:  If you moved to a new place, you couldn't let yourself feel embarrassed about asking people for help.
Isaac:  We can all say we've been embarrassed at least once.
Dad:  But you don't have to be embarrassed about not knowing something, right?  It's always good to ask questions.
Lily:  Can I sit on your lap, Dad?
Dad:  See, that is a good question.
Isaac:  When the man went food shopping, more people helped him.
Dad:  These people are helping him even though they will probably never see him again.
Lily:  But they can still be friends for that short time.
Isaac:  He found the weirdest plants in the world.  Including those weird-strawberry-fruits.  Crazy new food.
Dad:  How did things go when he looked for a job?
Isaac:  Not so well.  He tried two jobs, and they did not go well because he couldn't read their language.
Dad:  It was cool writing that Shaun Tan invented.
Isaac:  You know what it looks like?  It looks like Cambodian writing.  Finally the man finds another job, working at a factory that makes baby-bottle-container-things, and he stands all day picking out the bad ones.
Dad:  Not fun, but it gave him the money he needed.
Isaac:  Yep.  And he met a friend at work.  They went out and played a game, and the man did really good on the game even thought he didn't know what in the world he was doing.
Dad:  The man ends up meeting lots of people that moved to this new country for different reasons.
Lily:  There was a guy who ran away from monsters in his country too.
Gracie:  His old country had gi-normous dudes with bazooka-vacuum-cleaner-things sucking people into their air tanks and using them for who knows what.
Dad:  Like a nightmare.
Gracie:  Why were they doing that?
Dad:  Don't know.
Lily:  Because they are naughty.
Gracie:  Because they are monsters.
Lily:  They were worse than the dragon tails.  They suck up everything and they are dangerous!  And the dragon tails are just spiky.
Isaac:  We don't really know what the dragon tails do.
Dad:  So, time passes...  the man has his job...  he saves some money...
Isaac:  And after a while, he was finally able to bring over his family.
Gracie:  They all got happy.
Isaac:  And hugged and kissed and became a family again.
Gracie:  Awesome!
Isaac:  It all ends in happiness.
Dad:  This book is cool because it's almost like we are going to the new country.  We don't understand all the strange new things either.  It's like we're experiencing it all right along with the man.  Instead of just telling us what it's like to be an immigrant, the book shows us.  It makes us feel it.
Gracie:  It's a country of weirdness.
Lily:  It's the country of stickers-on-your-coat.
Dad:  I know what Gracie would think is the worst part about going to a different country.  You wouldn't eat any of the strange new food.
Gracie:  Nope.
Dad:  Even if it was the most delicious food ever -- you'd never even try it to find out, would you?
Lily:  I wouldn't do it either.
Dad:  You wouldn't try new food?  Eventually you'd guys would have to, or you'd starve.
Lily:  I would bring food from my own country.
Dad:  That wouldn't last forever.
Lily:  I'd go back to my own country then.
Dad:  Remember, the man rode a big boat for days and days to get there.  He can't just go back and forth.
Lily:  Then I wouldn't go away from my country.
Dad:  What if there were big dudes with sucker-vacuums?
Lily:  Then I would go into the basement.
Dad:  Forever?
Lily:  Yes.
Dad:  You would rather live in a basement forever, in a country with big sucker-dudes outside, than go to a new country and try new food?
Lily:  Yes.
Isaac:  Lily?!
Dad:  Alright, who wants to tell me about the pictures in this book...
Lily:  The pictures are cool and awesome, and I love them.
Gracie:  The pictures are all black and white.  Sometimes brown and yellow.
Isaac:  But it's not boring.
Gracie:  Because they have lots of detail.
Isaac:  This book must have taken a year to finish.  Or two.  One or two years.
Dad:  In the back of the book it says that it took "four years of research, development, and drawing."  So he was working on this book for longer than Elijah has been alive.
Gracie:  That's a lot of years.
Isaac:  That would drive me nutso.  That would drive me crazy.  Would it drive you crazy?
Lily:  Oh yeah.  It would drive me really, really crazy.
Dad:  But are we glad Shaun Tan did it?
Lily:  If he didn't make this book, I'd be crying my head off.
Gracie:  I want to hang this picture on my wall!
Dad:  Tell everyone about it.
Gracie:  It's a picture of these paper-plate-bird-things flying in some leaf-grass-plants with a huge beautiful sun, and it's really, really pretty.
Isaac:  Shaun Tan has a good imagination.
Lily:  And I really like the cutie animal guys.
Gracie:  Yeah, my favorite part of the book is seeing all the cute little animal-pet-thingies.
Isaac:  I like that one guy's pet in the basket.  It's cool.
Gracie:  I like the vegetable man's pet.
Isaac:  What are those things?  Bunnies?
Gracie:  I think they're bunny-mice.
Dad:  Would you like to go to a new country like the one in this book?
Gracie:  I would like to live in a city like that.  It's cool.  And I could climb on the statue of the giant candycane-bird-thing holding an egg.
Isaac:  It would be cool to go there if you knew the language.
Dad:  What if you didn't know the language?
Isaac:  It would be maddening.
Dad:  It would be scary, wouldn't it?  To set out into a world you didn't know anything about?  Imagine if I just plopped you down in a big city in Germany and said, "Alright, fend for yourselves."  Would you know where to go?  Would you know what to do?  Would you know how to get around?
Gracie:  I would go to a German orphanage.
Dad:  How would you find a German orphanage?
Gracie:  I would find a big German map of the world.
Dad:  But how would you know where the orphanages were?  You wouldn't be able to read the map.
Isaac:  How could the man get a job if he didn't know the language?
Dad:  Are there people that come to our country that don't know the language?  And they have to find jobs.  How do you think they do it?
Isaac:  They learn the language.
Dad:  Over time.  But they would still need a job in the meantime.  Think how hard that would be.  This book is a pretend story, but things like this really do go on aaaaall the time.
Isaac:  They could do painting.  That doesn't require talking.
Dad:  Sure.  And they have to find nice people who are willing to give them a chance... people to be gracious to them.
Gracie:  So far the man in the book has been in luck.  So far he's found nice people to help him.
Lily:  Maybe the idea for this book came from real life.  Maybe the author went to a different country and he explored it.
Gracie:  I know a girl who moved here from China.  She's in my drama camp.
Dad:  Any last thoughts on the book?
Gracie:  This book is a cool adventure.
Lily:  It is a nicely, strangely, weirdish story.
Isaac:  It's a magical new world.
Dad:  Did this book teach you anything?
Lily:  It taught me not to whine when I move to a different country and to try new foods that look disgusting.

the man discovering crazy new food, by Isaac

boat floating over an island, by Lily

the man's daughter finding a new pet, by Gracie

Author/Illustrator: Shaun Tan
Published, 2007: Arthur A. Levine Books
Like it? Find it

Audio Snippets

We have a special Bookie Woogie post this week...

Our review process has a few stages.  Isaac, Grace, Lily, and I take turns picking the next books for review.  Then we read the stories, we record the conversation that follows, and later I type it all up by my lonesome.  We started out using an old cassette player, and it wasn't too long before it bit the dust.  The transcribing process was brutal on it.  Too much Play > Pause > Play > Rewind > Stop > Play > Pause.  Assuming we'd keep up with Bookie Woogie for a while, I sprung for a nice little digital recorder.

We've been asked a few times now about sharing some audio.  So, since a digital recorder makes it easy enough, I thought I'd collect and post a few favorite audio snippets.  After revisiting the recordings, I quickly realized two things.  First, I say the word "Alright" an awful lot.  And second, Gracie commonly speaks three times louder than a normal human being.

Hearing your own voice on tape is excruciating (a widespread sentiment, I know), but hopefully you won't mind my voice as much as I do.  Now, on to the clips.  I've included a link with each one in case you are inspired to re-visit the original review...

Update: In case anyone's computer gets bogged down from so much audio all loading in one post, I've added an alternate version of this post: Here


The first clip is my favorite one.  Every so often the kids say something, and the written word will never do it justice.  Like in the Inkheart review.  Here's what Lily said: "The Shadow is a shadow who has bright red stars for eyes."  But here's how she said it:


Here, we are remembering our long lost friend Mr. Sandford:


Every once in a while, someone sends us a book.  Sometimes for fun, sometimes for review.  This is always cause for much excitement.  How cool is it to get a book from Mordicai Gerstein himself!


A little background on this next one, because as you'll hear, Gracie rats me out.  This whole Bookie Woogie endeavor is lots of fun.  We get silly.  As we become familiar with the work of authors and illustrators, we play around.  Sometimes we make silly little songs with authors' names.  For instance, not knowing how to pronounce Vivianne Schwarz' last name, we often sing "Viviane "SchwaRTZ" do you wear shorts?  Vivianne "SchwaRS" do you start wars?"  (Many apologies Ms. Schwarz)  I also started referring to her as "Viv," which the kids found hilarious.  (Many, many apologies Ms. Schwarz).  Anyway, all this fun eventually backfired...


Gracie: "Read the B-O-O-K..."


"Jazzmatazz" was one of my favorite books to read with the kids.  Here, they start making their own sounds:


Gracie catches onto the wonderful parallels in "Adam Raccoon."


A spontaneous group reading of "Beware the Tickle Monster."


Lily tells us about hippos:


The coolest kid ever...


Poor Lily.  If we didn't make purposeful efforts to get feedback from her, she'd be content to sit and listen to Isaac and Gracie review away.


This one is a bit embarrassing.  But I thought I ought to include a clip of what it sounds like when we read.  This is from "Babymouse the Musical"


Gracie: "Babymouse had to be the under..."


Gracie: "Paro..."


Dad: "You are so weird..."


Wondering if Babymouse had stopped by...


Gracie describing life on a 2-dimensional planet:


Lily has something to tell Mom:


Dad's "Belinda the Ballerina" story:


Isaac sings a little "spot art" song:


Why Lily thinks you should read "Scribble."


Dad imagines the "How Are You Peeling" creators grocery shopping:


Tomatoes???


Dad voices a piece of fruit:


Lily describes Seymour Snail:


Seymour Snail inspires Lily:


Lily loves "Black and White."


Admittedly, "Black and White" is a hard book to review.  Here, Gracie tells us why you should read it:


We talk about poetry and write the next verse to "Flip, Flap, Fly."


Why does Isaac like picture books?



I want to say thanks to all the folks who visit Bookie Woogie!  Thanks too for the many nice comments you've left for the kids over the months.  I hope we've introduced you to some new favorite stories.  And I hope you enjoyed these audio clips -- I think we'll have to do this again after another 25 posts or so...