David Shannon’s fabulous artwork illustrates this modern tale alluding to the folktale of King Midas. In Shannon’s version, young Maximilian Midas’s first word is gold, and his obsession leads him into unscrupulous ways in his efforts to acquire the shiny substance, from cheating on all his tests in school to accumulate gold stars to sabotaging the efforts of the lemonade stand competition. He spends all his earnings on gold until he has a mountain of it, topped with a castle with a gold fountain. When he takes to the idea of sprinkling gold dust on his breakfast cereal, he finds himself transformed into a gold statue, alone in his castle, forced to watched the joyful life going along outside his window without him. When he’s moved enough to shed the last tear he has within himself, it melts his statue self as well as his mountain, allowing him to return to his family and neighborhood a changed boy, ready to share his millions to make the world a better place because he’s learned that gold can’t make you feel as good as being nice. The rich humor of Shannon’s artwork and the silly rhyming text he uses to tell his story allows the message to be delivered without seeming overly pedantic.
Author Archives: Courtney Morgan
Marcel’s Mouse Museum
It’s a good tool for introducing young artists to some of the most famous artists of the last 100 years. Using the device of touring a mouse museum (each of whom appear to have been the companions/apprentices of the famous human artists of the last century), it exposes young readers to some big art concepts, vocabulary, and biographies, without being intimidating or high-brow. Each two-page spread is dedicated to a different artist or movement, with the left side offering a bit of an explanation of their work, and the right side offering ideas for young artists to attempt their own exploration of that artistic style. In the back there a couple pages dedicated to offering more formal information about the human artists the mice emulate, as well as a glossary of vocabulary.
P Is for Purr!
Following a classic alphabet book format, the rhyming text introduces 26 words and how they refer to cats, each accompanied by a related fun fact in standard prose. The illustrations will be what really draws the cat-lovers in: they absolutely adorable, sometimes silly, sometimes endearing, always the kind of cute that make you say, “Awwww…!” The simple text manages to pack in a lot of information, in small enough doses not to intimidate beginning readers.
Hippos Go Berserk!
It’s a redrawn, forty-fifth anniversary edition of Sandra Boynton’s first book, originally published in 1977. I don’t have the original drawings to compare, but this one certainly captures the classic Boynton style, with simple, colorful illustrations, full of personality. It’s a rhyming, counting book, first counting forward and then back, as one hippo calls two, and then further (ever growing) groups arrive for a party, then depart the next day. It invites the reader into math, wondering just how many hippos did party together, and the final line of the book provides the answer.
The Dark Was Done
It’s a beautiful book which speaks to a common childhood fear. When the dark gets tired of everyone pushing it away, being the cause of so much fear, it leaves altogether, leaving a world bathed in unending light. At first everyone is delighted, even if they can’t tell the difference between night and day. But eventually a small boy starts missing the sounds of crickets and the twinkling of stars. His parents explain that these are gifts of the dark, and that when it went away, so did they. The young boy decides to set off in search of the dark to convince it to return. Along the way he comes across a burglar who misses the shadows to hide in, a poet who misses the mystery of the dark, and a gardener who misses the smell of night jasmine, among others. As their band grows, the dark hears their cries and is persuaded to return and is welcomed. The illustrations are dreamy and fanciful.
A Backyard Pet
As early readers go, this one’s got a nice story to it, sweet, with a bit of pattern, and a simplicity about find that which we can each appreciate in our own backyards. It puts a different than normal twist on the idea of pets, but one that may be comforting to a child who longs for one, but is denied the typical variety. When Sugar wakes up late and goes looking for a playmate, she finds all her siblings engrossed in playing with their own “pets,” in which Sugar is less interested, even arguing whether they qualify as pets: one has made a pet of the pretty flowers that blow in the breeze, another has adopted the busy worms she loves to watch, and the third is busy chasing her pet butterfly. By the time they come to see if she’s ready to play, she’s too busy playing with her own pet clouds, which are beautiful and busy blowing in the breeze, inviting them all to chase them. The illustrations are fun and cartoon-like, adding a bit of silliness to the simple story.
Even Robots Can Be Thankful!
It’s a very early version of a graphic novel, for the youngest of readers. It includes three short stories about two best friends, Red Robot and Blue Robot: the first about something going bump in the night, and Blue Robot declaring he’s not afraid of anything, though it’s obvious to reader and friend alike that he is; the second about Red Robot sticking up for his friend when a third robot makes fun of his favorite hobby; and the third about Blue Robot’s worries about being sad and lonely when he discovers a train ticket that Red Robot has purchased, only to discover that there are two tickets and the friends get to go on an adventure together. Though the simple plot lines might seem a bit preachy, they’re leavened with just enough humor to keep them from being overly pedantic.
This Field Trip Stinks!
As the only human child in a class full of wild animals, our young narrator is dismayed to learn that the upcoming class field trip won’t be to a nice civilized location like the planetarium or natural history museum, but a trek into the wild to study plants and animals. His dairy entries capturing the adventure continue the theme of misery (poison ivy, bugs, lack of toilet facilities, etc.), but in the end, when the group gets lost, he’s the one who knows the way back to the bus, and he’s able to enjoy the butterflies and scenery and time with his friends. In the end he decides to have a campout of his own, but only in the backyard. The illustrations that accompany the story really add to the telling, full of fun and personality.
Time to Fly
I love the idea behind the book, and I really love the illustrations. They are warm and sweet and really capture the sentiment of the story. I just wish the text flowed better. The story is a rhyming dialogue between a baby bird and his mother as she urges him to leave the nest. The baby bird is reluctant to try and thinks of lots of excuses to stay within the comfort of his nest, but mom keeps urging, and eventually he decides if his brother and sister could do it, he can too. My one criticism is that at times the rhyme seems forced, becoming stilted, losing any sense of rhythm. Still, it is rather beautiful over all.
King Kong’s Cousin
Don’t we all have someone we compare ourselves to, and come away feeling like we don’t measure up? The story is a series of parallel descriptors comparing the famous King Kong to his not famous cousin, Junior. There’s no value statements given, but the reader can just feel Junior’s sense of inadequacy. When his mother assures him that he’s just as special as his cousin, Junior doesn’t believe her. But in the end, when his beloved cat needs rescuing, it’s Junior who came to the rescue, and he’s left feeling warm and happy and maybe just a bit bigger. The illustrations are fabulous! Though they’re all in shades of gray, they are full of warmth and personality and feeling.