Arrrrr!

 

Like many, I grew up on Little Golden Books. Heck, even my mother, who is REALLY old, has fond memories of The Poky Little Puppy. These books have been around since 1942, and while they still have the recognizable gold edging, the topics have changed a bit. Mixed in with classic fairy tales like The Twelve Dancing Princesses, you'll find Barbie and Spiderman titles.

 

I should probably wait until September to review this one, but that's a long time for it to sit on my desk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

978-044-981-3096

 

Author Sue Fliess is already a favorite here (and at home), and this title has the same easy rhyme and rhythm. Maybe I'm still in party mode from last week, but I can easily see this being the centerpiece of a pirate-themed birthday party. Read it at the start, then plan your decorations and activities around it. Make your own parrot, eat with pirate manners, have a battle with marshmallow catapults, and then search for buried treasure. At less than $4 each, you can even give each partygoer his or her own copy to take home! (Hmm...I'm getting into this now...whose birthday is coming up next?)

 

My only quibble with Little Golden Books, shared by many librarians, is that they just aren't built to last on a library shelf. They make great prizes, though, so into the summer reading cabinet with this one! Check your local book store to get your own copy, or order directly from Random House Children's Books. 

Review: A Dress for Me by Sue Fliess

Somehow, I have ended up with a girlie-girl. Oh, she will happily play in the mud and climb trees, and looks like a grubby little street-urchin by the end of the day. In the morning, however, we take great pains to pick out our clothing:

 

 

By "we", I mean S. Sparkly red shoes, mis-matched (but equally cool) socks, pink capris, and sophisticated black shirt, accessorized by braided belt, blue watch bracelet, pink movie star shades, and matching cell phone. Not an outfit I would put together myself, but she can sure make it work! (It's all in the attitude).

 

Don't even get me started on dresses. Hers is not a lifestyle that requires much dressing up, yet she has more pretty dresses than I do. We have a couple that are reserved for occasions when she actually does need to look nice, and the rest she can play outside in. That does not mean they are interchangeable, though! Oh, no, ma'am! Choosing the right dress to roll down the mountain in is treated with the same seriousness as the mothers of the brides on Say Yes to the Dress.

 

So, I knew this book was sure to be a big hit at home:

 

978-076-146-1487

 

I reviewed Shoes for Me a while back, and this follows our same little hippo on a similar search for just the right dress. All the things my girlie-girl would love - sparkles and sashes and beads and bows - fill the bright and cheery illustrations by Mike Laughead. The text follows a bouncy rhyme that would be just right for reading aloud, whether during a story time or one-on-one lap time. It could even serve as preventative maintenance before a shopping trip - or help sooth ruffled feathers after an unproductive one! Most obvious, of course, this could be given as a gift with a brand new, just-right dress!



Tons of Trucks - Review

Every once in a while, a patron will ask me, "where are your pop-up books"? My general answer is, "in the trash." Library usage is not kind to pop-up books, and we usually don't even bother adding them to the system.

That doesn't mean we don't LIKE pop-up books, though! One of S's favorites is a pop-up, interactive version of Going on a Bear Hunt that her Great-Grandma sent her. That one is kept out of reach of L., for very obvious reasons. This one is a bit sturdier, though, and since we won't be adding it at the library, I think I will keep it and let him enjoy it. (Hear that, IRS? I am keeping a $13.99 review copy. Knock yourself out taxing me on that.)

We reviewed Shoes for Me, an earlier Sue Fliess book, a year ago, and have since purchased "A Dress for Me" for the library. This has the same fun, simple spirit and easy rhyme that make it a read-over-and-over choice. The pages, as I mentioned, are nice and sturdy, and offer a variety of motions for little fingers to practice (pull the tab out, spin the wheel, etc.) There's even a 'sticky' page where the tar truck has dumped its load (it's sticky right now, at any rate - I make no promises after it is introduced to my cat-and-dog-hair household).

If you have a boy...or a girl...of any age below 40...this one is well worth the purchase! It would make a great birthday gift, especially paired up with any type of toy cars and trucks. "Scuse me, now, while I go spin the cement mixer some more.

Mini Book Reviews

My TBR pile has been collecting dust. Of course, here in NM, dust is not necessarily indicative of time passing, but in this case I have had some of these books an embarrassingly long time without writing a review of them. Not fair to the authors or publishers who so kindly sent them to me for review, so I am going to highlight a few fiction titles together today in an attempt to catch up. Please don't take my procrastination as reflecting in any way on the quality of the books, and stay tuned for some nonfiction reviews tomorrow.

by Sue Fliess
Marshall Cavendish
978-0-7614-5825-8
Review copy from publisher

This is one of those books you instantly want to schedule for a story time. The short, snappy rhymes and attractive illustrations make it a natural read-aloud, whether for a child on your lap or a group sitting in front of you. Children will enjoy bits such as

"Fuzzy, furry -
shoes that quack?
I'm no duck.
Please put those back."

while parents will smile as they recognize the upturned nose and crossed arms greeting Mom's attempts to get a decision made. Looking forward to sharing this with S., who doesn't mind being butt-naked as long as she has shoes on - preferably someone else's!

by Jamie Lee Curtis
HarperCollins
978-0-06-029016-0
Review copy from publisher

Books by celebrities. Book stores like them because they sell, sometimes based solely on name recognition. Reviewers and librarians hate them for the same reason. Some celebrities turn out to be good authors after all - Julie Andrews Edwards comes to mind. Will and Jada Pinkett Smith. But most of them...yeah. Madonna? Please stop now.

USUALLY, Curtis's books fall into the latter category. They are the type of overly-sentimental, preachy books that many parents eat with a spoon, and kids couldn't care less about. (Can we say that we hated "Is There Really a Human Race?" without getting bashed?) This one, however...is cute. Without being cutesy. It is over-the-top in the things the child says his/her Mommy can do, but in an appealing way. The language doesn't seem as forced as in some of her previous books. This is one I will read with C. and S. (because, of course, I can do all those things, too), and may have to add to my Mother's Day story time at the library. Here's hoping this is indicative of Curtis working on improving her writing, rather than coasting as some well-published authors seem to do.

Okay, that was an odd review. Basically: If you like Curtis's other books, you will love this one. If you didn't like Curtis's other books, ignore the author's name and pick this one up anyway.

by Peter Hannan
HarperCollins
978-0-06-128466-3
Review copy from publisher

Freddy's just a normal kid . . . with an out-of-this-world life!
Freddy, his sister, Babette, and their parents have been abducted by aliens! Next stop, the planet Flurb, where things couldn't be more different from their ordinary life on Earth. On Flurb, they snack on yootleturds, the buildings are alive, and the aliens make Freddy King!
But his reign won't last long if the evil Wizbad has anything to say about it . . . or Babette! Her brother as king? No way!

Okay, after reading that Hannan is also the creator of the CatDog series, I get it. No, I don't get CatDog, or SpongeBob, or any of the similarly stupid cartoons out there, but I get what group this series is written for. This is a tricky thing for reviewers: we don't have to personally like a book to give it a good review. We can recognize quality writing or interesting character development even if we aren't in the intended audience.

Unfortunately, this has...erm...well, neither of those. It kind of reminds me of writing assignments I got from my elementary school students, with the spelling and grammar cleaned up. Jumpy plot, stereotyped characters, 'funny' lines that aren't even worth a groan. BUT...I just described half the TV shows kids seem to enjoy these days, so if you are looking for a way to lure them from TV to books, these may be perfect. The second in the series is already out, and pretrty cheap to pick up in paperback - or even cheaper at your local library:)

(I don't know what happened with the indents there, and have given up trying to fix it.)