It’s not bad, I guess, but I was a bit disappointed. It didn’t live up to what I expect from my Click Clack friends. Students will pick it up because they will recognize the characters. It does use lots of repetition, which is good for beginning readers. The pictures do support the text, to help students with more challenging words, and are silly enough to keep kids going. But I thought the repetition was stilted, and I would have forgiven it that if the story line led to something a bit more clever or fun, like I usually expect from this team. Basically it’s a rainy day, and no one on the farm likes the rain and mud except the cows, but the others keep bringing umbrellas and boots and sweaters to protect the cows, but then the wind blows those things away and in the end everyone is wet and suddenly everybody decides they love the rain after all. Maybe it’s my prejudice as someone who has lived most of my life in the Pacific Northwest, where we get a lot of rain, but I didn’t see anything in the story to change the minds of the folks who don’t like rain to suddenly loving it. It just felt like a convenient way to end it, rather than what the story was leading to.
Nothing Fits a Dinosaur
It manages to tick the boxes for early readers with rhythm and rhyme and short sentences and pictures to support the text, while still having a story to it, and one that young children can relate to. The main character is told to get ready for bed by a mom who pleads with him to avoid “dino-drama,” but the illustrations show the reader that after bath time, when he puts on his dinosaur bathrobe, his imagination takes over and he sees himself as a dinosaur who has a terrible time finding suitable pajamas. He joyfully decides he should be wild and free and naked until mom yells, “No more play time! That is it!” and he decides (now back to being a boy in a dino-robe instead of an actual dinosaur) that he better find some clothes that fit. Highly relatable for both parents and children.
Alice Nizzy Nazzy
It’s a reprint of a 1995 book. It’s a reinvention of a Russian folk tale set in a Santa Fe context. Maybe I would feel differently if I was more familiar with either the original tale or the current setting, but to me it felt a bit clunky. I’m not sure how much appeal it will have beyond the Southwest, or Russian communities. It describes a girl looking for lost sheep who encounters a local witch all the children have been warned about, who eventually escapes because the witch likes the taste of naughty children and she’s too sweet. But the resolution doesn’t seem especially connected to the other details of the story.
Impossible Moon
It begins with a girl’s description of her Grana as one who once told the best stories, but who is now too weak to tell stories, and Grana’s question that if we can touch the moon, what is impossible. At bedtime the girl ponders Grana’s question as she gazes at the moon and feels compelled to pursue the impossible. What follows is a fanciful adventure in which she launches herself from her bed into the night sky and pursues several adventures with the characters of the constellations on her way to try to touch the moon. She misses her mark, and finds herself falling sleepily back to earth, now with stories of her own to tell, along with the confidence to continue to pursue the impossible. The illustrations are beautiful and suit the imaginative nature of the tale.
Wondering Around
If one reads the title too quickly you might think it’s about wandering around, and in a way it is, but really it’s about seeking wonder in one’s wandering. It’s written in a rather poetical style, and has a beauty to it, both in text and illustrations. The illustrations are soft and rather muted, and almost seem to have a vintage look to them. It might appeal more to adults who appreciate the wonder of childhood than to the children it’s targeting.
Pages of Music
It’s a republication of a book from the 80s. The illustrations are classic dePaola, and the story is very much in line with other familiar dePaola books: it takes place in the Italian countryside and offers subtle ties to the Christian Christmas story. It tells of a boy who visits a poor island as a child and is so impressed with the generosity and joy of music that he experiences there, that when he grows up to become a famous composer, he returned to the island with a full orchestra to share a Christmas concert he’d composed just for them. It’s a nice story, but not sure it’s going to resonate with a wide audience of children.
Wellington’s Big Day Out
I really like this one. The illustrations are absolutely charming. The story addresses a theme so common among young kids — the wish to be bigger in a hurry. On Wellington’s fifth birthday he’s determined to be more grown up. He’s excited to get a coat like his dad’s as a present, but he’s disappointed that it’s too big for him. On the way to the tailor (where his dad gets his own clothes altered), he’s excited when the bus driver tells him he’s old enough now that he has to pay for his ride. When they tailor’s not in, he and his dad pass the time at the music store and the ice cream parlor, but Wellington is disappointed that he can’t quite keep up with his dad. By the time they stop to visit his granddad, he’s decided it’s not that his jacket is too big, but that he’s too small. When his granddad measures him against the wall, he is amazed to see he’s the exact same size his dad was at his age. Encouraged, he’s willing to wait until he grows into his new jacket.
This Book Is Not for You!
My one gripe with this book is that I find the character of the substitute librarian completely unbelievable, because I can’t imagine any librarian taking his attitude. Still, I know many other adults who do hold such ideas, and who often pass such attitudes to young readers, though perhaps more subtly than does the character in the book. The story tells of a boy visiting a book mobile only to be confronted by a librarian who tells him all the books he wants to read aren’t for him, trying to channel him into his own narrow idea of what is appropriate reading for him. The boy accepts what is offered him, but then subverts the efforts of the narrow-minded librarian by reading under a nearby tree where other patrons are reading (a girl, a robot, a cat, etc), and trading books with the girl who’s reading the book he wanted to read in the first place. When a dinosaur shows up and scares the librarian into giving him the book he wants, regardless of his own opinions, the young boy learns to find his own voice and insist on getting what he wants. The story takes things to the extreme to make the point about those more subtle attitudes.
The Little Butterfly that Could
The bright, cheerful, silly illustrations will draw readers in to read about the message of perseverance and believing in oneself to tackle a big job. It tells of a butterfly lost on in the ocean partway through his seasonal migration. Much of the book is a conversation between him and whale giving him a pep talk. When he finds out he’s got 200 miles to go things seem daunting, and he comes up with all sorts of excuses and protests, but the whale convinces him to believe in himself and keep trying, and eventually he finds his friends, just it time to learn about going dormant for the winter.
Puppy Bus
It’s cute. It’s about a boy who’s not excited about the first day of school, but then when he gets on the bus, he realizes he got on the wrong bus. All the other passengers are puppies, and he finds himself at puppy school. Though he doesn’t speak Bark, he goes along with things and finds himself having a rather good day, learning how to play fetch and dig and howl. The next day he’s all excited to return, but this time finds himself on a bus filled with kitties.