dragonbitebooks's reviews
1040 reviews

I love the wordplay in this book. I think it might go over the heads of the young children who will be reading it, but it certainly made this English major/grammar fiend giggle, and I think that it will please parents too.

The story itself is a good story to be telling children. It is a story of a punctuation mark who feels like an outsider in a world of periods. He tries to fit in, but he just can't, and that upsets him. Then he meets another outsider: the question mark. The question mark badgers exclamation mark, and exclamation mark tells him to STOP! Question mark likes exclamation marks emphasis and exclamation mark begins to experiment with what he can do. He becomes excited. He goes to show off himself to the periods, who love him as well for what he can do.

In short, this is a story of discovering your own, unique abilities, loving yourself for them, and being loved for them.

With bright colors and simple drawings, it will quickly capture the eye.

I'd also like to take this moment to say that while I appreciate this story, exclamation marks should be used sparingly, particularly outside of dialogue.

This is a picture storybook for older readers or to be read by adults to listening children. It does not balk for more complicated words, though does enjoy a subtle rhyme scheme that is masterfully done.

Charlie learns that fun can be had without electricity, can be had with others, like his sister.

The illustrations have a sort of graphic art/mixed media feel to them, though I believe they are all paint. They are chaotic and bright with some unlikely colors.

The text itself is sparse and is somewhat eclipsed. The mixed-media illustrations in this book are true stars, quickly capturing the attention with a thrilling adventure. Perhaps the merest bit too cluttered, they illustrate the protagonist as a sleek ninja all in black, who scales walls with grappling hooks and creeps into compounds. The story seems to pick up mid-adventure, an unusual and refreshing beginning to a picture book, where the concept of "once upon a time" seems to more firmly hold sway than than in the teen or middle-grade age groups. The illustrations become more cartoonish as the protagonist is revealed to be a child on a mission to obtain ice cream. It's a walk through the mind of a young child who tries to sneak through the darkness to claim a forbidden prize only to be caught by his mother. A fun tale with fun illustrations.

It's early yet to talk about the 2014 Caldecott, but I would not be surprised if this one is mentioned around the committee table.

I seem to prefer Mo Willems less popular picture books to those for which he is known. Knuffle Bunny fell a little flat to me after devouring The Elephant and Piggie and Pigeon series. The mixed media illustrations are a great deal of fun--particularly for someone who is passingly familiar with NYC. I imagine that for someone intimately familiar with NYC, they'd be even more fun as WIllems' character illustrations are pasted onto black and white photographs of the city. Willems includes passing characters as well as the protagonists, which add additional fun to the illustrations, as each character that the protagonists pass on the street, like those in NYC, are mystery stories. As for the tale itself, it is a common one: A young protagonist misplaces a beloved stuffy and the parents must do all in their power to recover it. Protagonist and stuffy are reunited by the end of the tale and swear never to be parted again. Willems' humor peeps out in the dialogue of the young protagonist, too young to do aught but babble nonsense and hope to be understood (which ultimately, she is not).

There was nothing particularly thrilling to me about this picture book. It was a typical story with typical picture book illustrations. Owls are cute though.

The prose of this picture book was not particularly memorable to me, but the bright, detailed illustrations shine like stars or the silver Caldecott that it now gets to wear on its cover. The message is a good one: A plugged-in family in New York is unplugged when the power goes out in New York City. But the New Yorkers and the family find a partying atmosphere as they remember to connect with one another in a more basic way, apart from their technologies. The power comes back, but the lesson remains, and the family that the story follows will occasionally shut off their lights to connect in the dark as they did during the blackout. I'd have to give this picture book at least 3 1/2 stars.

I wanted more of a twist ending for this book. I would have loved if the elephant were in some way remarkable (like by being purple), but it wasn't my book to write or edit, so that's out of my hands. A subtle unlikely friendship story between a mouse and an elephant. The mouse looks through the herd for his elephant, but each elephant is has some feature that is "too" something. Touch-and-feel books are always a nice surprise.

Easily a solid 3 1/2 stars. I keep thinking it's not quite a 4 star, but I did thoroughly enjoy reading it.

This is perhaps one of the most interactive picture books that I have ever encountered. It would be a fantastic read-along book for bedtime. The illustrations change according to what the text asks the reader to do to the illustration, for example pressing the dots of a certain color a certain number of times, or shaking the book to rearrange the dots on the following page.

It's a lot of fun.

The story is less of a narrative, not moralistic, and simply pleasurable.

Updated: I read this to a young one. She got a little bored towards the middle, but the ideas of right and left seemed ahead of her, and so as the instructions got a little more complicated, I think her attention waned. But she initially seemed to enjoy it. I found that the text itself was more like guidelines than actual rules. I'd help her out with the instructions, add extra encouragement, occasionally skip the encouragement written in the text to help speed the story along and also to keep the continuity of our conversation. Still going to keep this one at 4 star rating for its unique and fun format however. I also recognize now that it is an opportunity to learn about right and left, gently, hard, colors, etc.

A story of imagination and art, surprise is the key to this flapbook. Andrew likes to doodle. The illustrations show the process of his doodling from a line to a full illustration, and the text closes with a reminder that there is always time for more fun tomorrow, making me think that its intention is to be a bedtime story. Akin to Harold and the Purple Crayon, though Drew's illustrations are far more detailed and realistic if involving more subject and less landscape, there is something far more memorable about a purple crayon than a pencil.

This is another picture book where the illustrations and ingenuity of the design outshine the text.

For its unique style, this book will show up in Children's Literature classrooms. I can almost guarantee that. Viva has written a book that can, should, and almost must be read two ways. By the second time reading the text (down-up instead of up-down), it was beginning to make sense. A third reading (up-down a second time) and I understood what he was doing and became excited.

Spoiler

The plot is that of an alien either traveling a long way away from his home, through space, to earth, and to the bottom of the ocean, or of an alien traveling from a long way away from his home, up from the bottom of the ocean, out into space, and back to his planet and parents.

The journey fiction genre of this story lends itself well to two-directional reading.

The text of the story is... loose. I'm not sure it needs to be as loose as it is, but I understand that it must be at least somewhat loose to be able to be read as a story from two directions. The pictures paired with the text, the vocabulary and sentence structure of which is simple and short, are evocative, and the story truly exists in the emotions that it elicits:

Spoiler

either of the sadness of being ripped from one's home and parents' love or the joy of return to such delights

. The vocabulary, colors, and expressions of the characters are what draw those emotions from the reader--or from me.

It is an ageless story. It is one I would recommend to the very young, who will relate to the emotions expressed by the protagonist, and also as a gift from a parent to a child leaving for college or having otherwise flown the nest. I hope someone thinks to market it as the latter. I think it would do very well among books for graduates.

Reading this the first time, I think I all but squeed in the middle of the store and did share my effusive excitement with both a passing customer and our children's department lead.