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When I was a child for some reason illustrators did not create wordless picture books. These days I encounter books of this type several times each year and some of them are truly amazing. Today's picture book is a wordless title and it was created by the illustrator who brought us Flora and the Flamingo, which was a Caldecott Honor title this year. Just like Flora and the Flamingo this story features a little girl and a very personable bird, and the way in which the story is told is quite magical.
Flora and the Penguin
Molly Idle
Picture Book
For ages 5 and up
Chronicle, 2014, 978-1-4521-2891-7
The ice is frozen and Flora is going skating. Bundled up in warm clothing, she sits on the ice to tie the laces of her skates. Not far away there is a hole in the ice and the tip of something orange is poking through the hole. When Flora goes to investigate she sees that a penguin is coming through the hole in the ice, and in no time she and the very elegant bird are greeting one another.
Soon the new friends are skating across the ice. Perfectly synchronized they glide and twirl, jump and spin. Their beautifully coordinated performance is joyous until something beneath the ice captures the penguin's attention and with a dive and small splash the bird is gone. Flora is left all alone until the penguin pops up through the hole in the ice again. It has a fish in its beak, which it offers to Flora as a gift. Not surprisingly the girl does not appreciate her present. In fact she throws it back into the hole in the ice, shocking the penguin who then makes it very clear that Flora is in the penguin equivalent of the dog house.
Sometimes we do things that hurt our friend's feelings and have to make amends as best we can to show them that we are sorry and that we appreciate them. In this wordless picture book Molly Idle tell a story that captures the ebb and flow of a new friendship. As the story unfolds we see how hurt feelings can be repaired if one is little creative. Readers will be delighted to explore the compelling art work and, on some pages, they will find flaps to lift. The story ends with a grand fold out page that carries us forward to a perfect ending.
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When I was a child for some reason illustrators did not create wordless picture books. These days I encounter books of this type several times each year and some of them are truly amazing. Today's picture book is a wordless title and it was created by the illustrator who brought us Flora and the Flamingo, which was a Caldecott Honor title this year. Just like Flora and the Flamingo this story features a little girl and a very personable bird, and the way in which the story is told is quite magical.
Blog: A Fuse #8 Production (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Best Books, Best Books of 2014, Reviews, Reviews 2014, 2015 Caldecott contender, 2015 Geisel contender, Deborah Underwood, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, picture book reviews, Add a tag
Bad Bye, Good Bye
By Deborah Underwood
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Ages 3-7
On shelves now
As a mother who recently spent the better part of twenty hours in a car with a three-year-old and a three-month-old baby, I feel a special kinship with parents who have also engaged in the ultimate endurance sport: travel with children. If you feel no particular sympathy for those engaged in this activity that is because you have not experienced it firsthand yourself. But even when my daughter was projectile vomiting regularly and even when the breast pump tipped to one side spilling milk all over my pants and EVEN WHEN I found myself wedged in the backseat between two car seats trying to change my son's diaper on my lap while parked, I could still feel grateful because at least it was just a vacation. It wasn't like we were moving to a new town or anything. Because if I'd had to deal with the abject misery of my three-year-old on top of the vomit/milk/diapers I don't know how my sanity would have remained intact. And yet, other parents do it all the time. Every day someone somewhere packs up all their worldly possessions, their pets, and their miserable offspring and heads for a whole new life. It's daunting. You can't help but admire their guts. And boy, you'd sure like to hand them a book that they could use to show their kids that as scary as a move like that can be, ultimately it's going to be okay. Enter a book so sparse and spare you'd never believe it capable of the depth of feeling within its pages. Deborah Underwood lends her prodigious talents to Bad Bye, Good Bye while artist Jonathan Bean fills in the gaps. The effect is a book where every syllable is imbued with meaning, yet is as much a beautiful object as it is a useful too.
"Bad day, Bad box" says the book. On the page, a boy wrestles with a moving man for possession of a cardboard box, doomed to be loaded into the nearby moving van. The boy, we see, is in no way happy about this move. He clearly likes his home and his best friend, who has come with her mother to bid him goodbye. On the road he and his little sister pitch seven different kinds of catfits before sinking into a kind of resigned malaise. Time heals all wounds, though, and with the help of a motel swimming pool, diners, and multiple naps, they arrive in their new town in the early evening. As the family and movers pile boxes and other things into the new house, the boy meets another kid who just happens to live next door. Together they collect lightning bugs and star gaze until that "bad bye" at the beginning of the book morphs into a far more comfortable "good bye" when the new friends bid each other goodnight.
This isn't Underwood's first time at the rodeo. The art of the restrained use of language is sort of her bread and butter. Anyone who has seen her work her magic in The Quiet Book is aware that she says loads with very little. I sincerely hope someone out there has been bugging her to write an easy book for kids. The talent of synthesizing a story down to its most essential parts is a rare one. In this book there is a total of 57 words (or so). These usually appear in two word pairs and by some extraordinary bit of planning they also rhyme. We begin with all "bads". It goes "Bad day, Bad box / Bad mop, Bad blocks / Bad truck, Bad guy, Bad wave, Bad bye." The book then slips into neutral terms as the initial misery wears off. Then, as we near the end the "goods" come out. "Good tree, Good sky / Good friend, Good bye." Such a nice transition. You could argue that it's pretty swift considering the depths of misery on display in the early pages, and that's not too far off, but kids are also pretty resilient. Besides, motel swimming pools do indeed go a long way towards modifying behavior.
Jonathan Bean's one to watch. Always has been. From the moment he was doing Wendy Orr's Mokie & Bik books to the nativity animalia title "One Starry Night" to all those other books in his roster, he proved himself a noteworthy artist. Watching his work come out you have the distinct sense that this is the calm before the storm. The last minute before he wins some big award and starts fielding offers from the biggest names in the biz. In this book I wouldn't necessarily have said the art was by Bean had I not seen his name spelled out on the cover. It's a slightly different style for him. Not just pencil and watercolors anymore. A style, in fact, that allows him to try and catch a bit of Americana in the story's pages. When Underwood writes something like "Big hair, White deer" it's Bean's prerogative to determine what that means exactly. His solution to that, as well as other sections, is layering. Time and landscapes are layered on top of one another. America, from diners and speed limit signs to windmills and weathervanes, display scenes familiar to traveling families. A great artist gives weight and meaning to the familiar. Jonathan Bean is a great artist.
Now the cover of this book is also well worth noting. I don't say that about a lot of picture books either. Generally speaking a picture book's cover advertises the book to the best of its ability but only occasionally warrants close examination. Jonathan Bean, however, isn't afraid to convey pertinent information through his cover. In fact, if you look at it closely you'll see that he's managed to encapsulate the entire story from one flap to another. Begin at the end of the book. Open it up. If you look at the inside back flap the very first thing you'll see underneath the information about the author and the illustrator is the image of the boy in the story straining against his seatbelt, his face a grimace of pure unadulterated rage. Now follow the jacket to the back cover of the book and you see the boy crying in one shot and then looking miserably back in another. The weather is alternating between a starry night sky and a windy rainy day. Move onto the front cover and the rain is still there but soon it turns to clear skies and the boy's attitude morphs into something distinctly more pleasant. In fact, by the time you open the book to the front flap he's lifting his hands in a happy cheer. The attitude adjustment could not be more stark and it was done entirely in the span of a single book jacket. Not the kind of thing everyone would notice, and remarkable for that fact alone.
People are always talking about "the great American novel", as if that's an attainable ideal. We don't ever hear anyone talk about "the great American picture book". I don't know that Bad Bye, Good Bye would necessarily fit the bill anyway. This is more the picture book equivalent of On the Road than To Kill a Mockingbird, after all. It's a road trip book, albeit a safe and familiar one. For children facing the frightening prospect of the unknown (and let's face it – adults hardly do much better) it's good to have a book that can offer a bit of comfort. A reassurance that no matter how things change, good can follow bad just as day follows night. They are not alone in this uprooting. Somewhere out there, in another car, with another family, there might be a kid just as miserable as they are and for the exact same reason. And like all humans this knowledge ends up being comforting and necessary. Therefore give all your love to Bad Bye, Good Bye. It has necessary comfort to spare.
On shelves now.
Like This? Then Try:
- A New Room for William by Sally Grindley
- Herman's Letter by Tom Percival
- The Good-Pie Party by Liz Garton Scanlon
- Alexander, Who Is Not (Do You Hear Me? I Mean It!) Going to Move by Judith Viorst
- Tim's Big Move by Anke Wagner
Misc: And I interviewed Ms. Underwood about the book here.
This is my Caldecott favorite. Then again, so was Building Our House.
I think this may have a better chance. Couldn't say why. Just a feeling.
I bought this book for myself because it eased my emotions during a move this summer, and my children are all grown. My husband and I were downsizing and moving for all the right reasons, but I hated leaving my neighborhood, even though we were only moving 15 minutes away. This book made it all ok. (Plus it did not hurt that J Bean was the illustrator as I showcase all of his books in my library.)
I'm a fan of all of Deborah Underwood's work, all the way back to Granny Gomez, but this might be my top favorite now. It's also one of my 2-year-old's favorites of the moment (although he would give the edge to Easter Cat in the Underwood canon).
My 6 year old son Sam LOVES this book!
[...] Underwood, Deborah. Bad Bye, Good Bye. A Fuse #8 Production [...]
Wow, "The art of the restrained use of language is sort of her bread and butter." That line really makes me want to read her work! While the book is suggested for children ages 3-7, I am thinking about how I could use it with my 5th graders. Working in a very urban setting where many of my students are below-grade readers, I think this type of book would prove to be accessible to all of my students. The "restrained" use of language may allow my students to connect with the story and themes first, rather than being overwhelmed by language. Then, we could expand on the author's work and make inferences/predictions/etc. to fill-in or add our own text. Students could work in groups, pairs, or independently.
I love the way you think and I think this book could be a brilliant pairing with this kind of program. By all means, yes!
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Not long ago one of my dogs had surgery and he had to wear a "cone of shame" for a while to make sure that he did not try to pull out his stitches. Poor Pippin hated the cone, and I had to work very hard not to laugh as he went around the house bumping into walls and furniture. It was funny, and it also was pitiful.
In today's picture book you will meet Mister Bud, who has to wear a cone and whose doggy housemate, Zorro, takes shameful advantage of his friend's situation.
Mister Bud wears the cone
Carter Goodrich
Picture Book
For ages 5 to 7
Simon and Schuster, 2014, 978-1-4424-8088-9
One night Mr. Bud's itchy hotspot starts itching like crazy. Poor Mister Bud chews and licks it, and in the morning his person sees that the hotspot is much worse. She puts some medicine on it which she hopes will make the hotspot go away. She is comforting and tells Mister Bud that she knows that "It's no fun," having such a nasty hotspot. Zorro resents the fact that Mister Bud is getting all the attention. Even worse the dogs' schedule is "all messed up" because of Mister Bud's hotspot.
Before she leaves the house for the day Mister Bud's person puts a cone on his head so that he won't lick or itch his hotspot. Not surprisingly, Mister Bud hates the cone. He cannot see properly when he wears it, he walks into furniture, he cannot eat or drink properly, and he cannot stop Zorro from stealing his favorite toy. Wearing the cone is the worst thing ever and when Mister Bud accidentally breaks a lamp, he is convinced that he is going to be in big trouble. Zorro is thrilled and he is eager to see what their person says when she sees what Mister Bud has done.
In this deliciously funny and sweet book we meet a dog who has to wear a cone and whose life is severely disrupted by the horrible thing. It does not help that his house mate, Zorro, takes shameful advantage of the situation. Readers of all ages are going to laugh out loud when they see what happens in this memorable picture book story.
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Today's picture book will delight readers who like birds, and they will enjoy finding out what chickadees do at night when we are all asleep in out beds.
Chickadees at Night
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The Mermaid and the Shoe
By K.G. Campbell
Kids Can Press
Ages 3-7
On shelves now
Why are magical creatures so hard to write? I'm a children's librarian. That means that a goodly portion of my day can consist of small starry-eyed children asking for an array of otherworldly cuties. "Do you have any unicorn books?" "Any fairies?" "Any mermaids?" Actually, more often than not it's their parents asking and you can read between the lines when they request such books. What they're really saying is, "Do you have any books about a fairy that isn't going to make me want to tear out my eyebrows when I end up reading it for the 4,000th time?" Over the years I've collected the names of picture books that fulfill those needs. Like fairies? The Dollhouse Fairy by Jane Ray is for you. Unicorns? You can't go wrong with Unicorn Thinks He's Pretty Great by Bob Shea. But mermaids . . . mermaids posed a problem. It isn't that they don't have books. They simply don't have that many. For whatever reason, writers don't like doing mermaid books. Easy to understand why. What is a mermaid known for aside from brushing their hair or luring young sailors to a watery grave? Add in the fact that most kids associate mermaids with a certain red-haired Disney vixen and you've got yourself a topic that's avoided like the plague. It takes a bit of originality, spark, and verve to overcome these obstacles. Having read his picture book Lester's Dreadful Sweaters I knew that K.G. Campbell was a bit of a witty wordsmith. What I didn't know was that he was capable of creating wholly new storylines that are as satisfying to adult readers as they will be to children. You want a mermaid book? The Mermaid and the Shoe is officially my latest recommendation.
Mermaids are talented creatures. Just ask King Neptune. The merman has fifty (count 'em) fifty daughters and every single one of them has a talent. Every single one . . . except perhaps Minnow. The youngest daughter, Minnow can't garden or train fish or sing particularly well. Instead, she asks questions. Questions that nobody seems to know the answers to. One day, a strange red object falls from above. No one, not even Minnow's stuck up sister Calypso, can say what it is or what it does. Inspired, Minnow goes up to the surface to discover its use. What she finds shocks her, but also gives her a true purpose. She's not just the youngest daughter in her family any more. No, Minnow is an explorer through and through.
My three-year-old daughter has a laser-like ability to hone in on any new picture book that appears in my bag when I come home from work. I hadn't necessarily meant to try out The Mermaid and the Shoe on her, but once she zeroed in on it there was no stopping her. At this point in time she doesn't have much of a magical creature frame of reference so it was interesting trying to explain the rudimentary basics of your everyday merman or mermaid in the context of Campbell's book. She had a bit of a hard time understanding why Minnow didn't know what a shoe was. I explained that mermaids don't have feet. "Why don't they have feet?" Not much of an answer to be given to that one. Happily she enjoyed the book thoroughly, but with its emphasis on cruel older siblings and the importance of making your own path, this is going to be best enjoyed by a slightly older readership.
As I may have mentioned before, Disney ruined us for mermaids. There will therefore be kids who read this book and then complain that it's not a cookie cutter Ariel mass media affair. Still, I like to think those kids will be few and far between. First off, the book does have some similarities to the Ariel storyline. King Neptune/Triton is still the buff and shirtless father of a bunch of mermaid sisters and he still has his customary crown, flowy white beard (beards just look so keen underwater, don't you think?), and triton. The story focuses yet again on his youngest daughter who longs to know more about the world up above. She's accompanied by an adorable underwater sea creature. But once you get past the peripheral similarities, Campbell strikes out into uncharted territory, so to speak.
With this book Campbell strikes a storytelling tone. It's a bit more classic than that found in some other contemporary picture books, but it fits the subject and the art. When you read that Calypso called her little sister "useless" the text says, "for sisters can be mean that way." There's an art to the storytelling. I loved that Minnow considers the shoe important because "This thing . . . was made with care. It has a purpose, and I will discover it!" As for the plot itself, I've never seen a book do this particular storyline before. Maybe it's because authors are afraid of incurring the litigious wrath of Disney, but shouldn't more mermaids be curious about our world? The fact that they'd be horrified by our feet just makes complete and utter sense. If you didn't know they weren't hands then of course you'd consider them knobby, gnarled and smelly (though how they know about that last bit is up for contention). Campbell knows how to follow a plotline to its logical conclusion.
I also love the core message of the book. Minnow's talent lies in not just her brain (which I would have settled for) but also in how she sets about getting answers to her questions. At the end of the tale her father proclaims that her talent is being an explorer but I'm not so sure. I think Minnow's a reporter. She not only asks the right questions but she sets out to find answers, no matter where they lead her. Then she comes back and shares information with her fellow mermaids, reporting her findings and sticking to the facts. You could also call her a storyteller, but to my mind Minnow is out there chasing down leads, satisfying her own curiosity over and over again. You might even say she comes close to the scientific method (though she never sets up a hypothesis so that would be a bit of a stretch).
There's been a lot of talk over the years as to whether or not the greatest picture books out there are always written and illustrated by the same person (just look at the most recent Caldecott winners if you doubt me). You could argue both ways, but there is little doubt in my mind that Campbell just happened to be the best possible artist for this book . . . which he also just happened to write. I hate the term "dreamlike" but doggone it, it's sort of the best possible term for this title. Notice how beautifully Campbell frames his images. In some pages he will surround a round image like a window with aspects of the scene (seaweed, fronds, or in the case of the world above, wildflowers). Consider too his use of color. The single red shoe is the only object of that particular bright hue in the otherwise grey and gloomy underwater lands. The mermaids themselves are all white-haired, a fact that makes a lot of sense when you consider that sunlight never touches them. They're like lovely little half-human cavefish. And then there's the man's scope. I was reminded of a similarly aquatic picture book, David Soman's Three Bears in a Boat in terms of the use of impressive two-page spreads. There's an image of Minnow confronting a whale that could well take your breath away if you let it. The man knows how to pull back sometimes and then go in for the close-up. I have heard some objections to the mermaids' teeny tiny seashells that seemingly float over their nonexistent breasts. And true, you notice it for about half a second. Then you get into the book itself and all is well.
With its can do mermaid who seeks answers in spite of her age and size, its beautiful watercolor and pencil crayon imagery, and writing that makes the reader feel like they're indulging in a contemporary classic, there is no question in my mind that The Mermaid and the Shoe is the best little mermaid related picture book of all time. Utterly charming and unique, I can only hope it inspires other artists and authors to attempt to write more quality works of picture book fiction about magical creatures for the kiddos. It's not an easy task, but when it works boy HOWDY does it work! Beguiling and bewitching, there's only one true word to describe this book. Beautiful.
On shelves now.
Source: Final copy sent from publisher for review.
Like This? Then Try:
- The Mermaid's Shoes by Sanne te Loo
- Mermaid Dreams by Mark Sperring
- The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires
Other Blog Reviews:
Professional Reviews:
- A star from Kirkus
- The New York Times
- Publishers Weekly
Other Reviews: Hooray for Books,
Videos: And here's a lovely little book trailer to round us all out.
Thank Goddess I wrote about a parade. This looks charming.
Sounds like you have found the dream book for my daughter (and I'm sure many others as well) Mermaids, yes, but a shoe. This will be a hit here I'm sure.
[...] Campbell, K. G. The Mermaid and the Shoe. A Fuse #8 Production [...]
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Brimsby's Hats
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Here comes the Easter Cat
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If I were a book
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It must have been exciting to live in Europe and North America in the early 1900's. So many things were happening and so much was changing. Electric lights, automobiles, and other inventions were changing the lives of millions of people. In today's picture book you will meet a family whose memebers decide to get their first car, and who end up having an unexpected adventure because of that car.
The Tweedles Go Electric
Monica Kulling
Illustrated by Marie Lafrance
Picture Book
For ages 5 to 7
Groundwood, 2014, 978-1-55498-167-0
It is 1903 and cars, which are powered by steam or gas, are all the rage. The Tweedles don't care that cars are the in thing. They are content to get around on their cycles or by using their horse and cart.
Then one day Papa announces that they are going to get a car. Mama is thrilled, as is car-crazy Frankie. Bookish Franny is not particularly excited about having a car. After all, cars at this time are noisy, smelly, and dangerous. Then Papa tells his wife and children that they are not going to have a car powered by steam or gas. They are going to have an electric car.
Mama is rather concerned that the car might not be safe. After all, electricity is such a new thing and people don't really understand how it works. In fact, they find it "more frightening than a basket of boas."
In spite of this fear, the Tweedles go to the car dealership and they buy a bright green electric car. Papa drives their new purchase home, which is when he discovers that driving requires that one has a fair bit of nerve. There are so many things that one has to watch out for, and when one is zooming along at ten miles an hour, one has to have lightning fast reflexes. He and his family members never imagine that their new purchase is going to lead to an adventure, new friends, and new prospects.
These days cars are considered a necessity by most people and it is hard to imagine what life would be like if we did not have our cars. It is therefore very interesting to see what it was like to live in America when cars were still a relatively new innovation. It is also amusing to see how the Tweedles cope with their new acquisition.
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Happy Punks 123: A Counting Story
By John Seven and Jana Christy
Manic D Press
Ages 3-6
On shelves now
Here is how, as of the date of this review, Wikipedia defines the term "punk culture". Ahem. ". . . largely characterized by anti-establishment views and the promotion of individual freedom." Now look at your toddler. Go on. Give that kiddo a long, lingering look. Consider, for a moment, what makes a small child a small child. Do they believe in individual freedoms? Anyone who has ever attempted to herd a group of them will immediately answer yes. Are they anti-establishment? Well, what would YOU call the kid who draws on the hallways walls in permanent marker? Ladies and gentlemen the only logical explanation to draw from any of this is that toddlers are, and have always been, punk rockers. They have crazy hair, they create one-of-a-kind outfits of their own making, and they certainly have no problem with loud volumes. The evidence is extraordinary. It seems only fitting to hand them a counting book that displays as many different kinds of punks as possible. Looking for the mildest of subversions with a consistently sweet undercurrent, kickin' art, and fun text? This punk's for you.
A single, solitary, mohawked punk of the wide cuffed, purple coated, army boot variety goes walking down the street. He runs into his blue haired pal Noriko, she of the bunny-eared car, and then there are two. They, in turn, meet up with green dredded Kevin and the start jamming. It isn't long before they're getting ready for a big show, putting up posters, and getting everyone in town involved. More and more punks join the fun until by the slam-bang finish you've a party of twelve plus all their madcap friends. At long last it's time to go home (even Noriko's car seems to have conked out) and twelve happy punks sleep the night away.
If you have a toddler you read a lot of counting books. It's part of the deal you sign when the hospital hands over your kid for the first time. "I solemnly swear to read my child an ungodly amount of counting books until the seas turn a boiling roiling red." Or words along those lines. And when you read a lot of counting books certain patterns start to emerge. You get the distinct feeling that all counting books rhyme in some manner. I don't know why this should be. It's not like every children's book author is actually GOOD at rhyming. They just usually feel obligated to give it a go. So many of them do this, in fact, that when one encounters a picture counting book that does NOT rhyme in any way, shape, or form, the adult reader is thrown. You want to make the cadences even, but the book fights you every step of the way. Such was my experience with "Happy Punks 123". The first lines are "One happy punk looks around for his friends." Even before you turn the page you're attempting to predict the next line. Will it be "Two happy punks now peer through a lens" or "Two happy punks will soon make amends"? Nope. It's "Are they at Slobotnik Square? Or Calvin Corner?" Turn the page. "Two happy punks sit on a stoop. They like to watch cars and talk to dogs. Hey, is that Kevin?" You see? Other books have set up these weird expectations and you expect John and Jana's latest to fit the mold. It's sort of perfect that Happy Punks 123 bucks that expectation by doing its own thing. That's real punk rock, man. Awesome.
The art in this book is certainly shouldering a great big bulk of the fun. Nothing against the text. Even without its rhymes it's a nice story of how one gathers friends throughout the day (without cell phones, which makes this downright utopian to some extent). But if the wrong illustrator had jumped on board this ship it would have meant the end of things. As it stands, the art has this laid back, friendly, colorful vibe. There are a lot of speech balloons and signs that mix script and print words. The very font of the book is of the typewriter variety and is snuggled seamlessly into the images. Design wise, the whole enterprise is a pleasure to the eye. It gets a little madcap near the end but with a premise of ever increasing punks you'd feel a bit cheated if it didn't.
I also loved the subtle little jokes hidden along the way. On the cover, for example, you can see Noriko sporting a shirt that reads "ABCD & EFGH: Home of the Alphabet". I'm no music guru. I won't embarrass myself here by confessing how long it took me before I truly knew who Joey Ramone was. However, even I can recognize when a book might be making a reference to CBGB, the original punk rock music club of NYC. I also loved that it was a zombie running the music store (that could be a joke right there) and that they get their treats from "Ornery Penguin's Gelato". That's not a reference to anything. It's just the illustrator's excuse to draw a testy penguin character. Who could blame them?
Since we're dealing with the folks who created A Rule Is To Break: A Child's Guide to Anarchy which earned its 15 minutes of fame when the Tea Party decided to make an example out of it, the inclination is to see whether or not John and Jana worked into a little subversion into the story. Did they? Well, I think it's all in what you want to see. Yes, the sole antagonist in this book is an elephant. But go a little farther into the book and you'll see he's not the only elephant on the scene (a nice pink one works as a coat check girl at the club) and even if he were he joins the party at the end and has a wonderful time with the punks. So basically, Happy Punks 1 2 3 is a Rorschach test. You see in it what you want to see.
Basically this is a John Waters film made kid-friendly and picture book accessible. I don't know that you'd necessarily call Waters "punk", but then I don't necessarily think you can slot Waters into any category all that easily. What this book really does is show a vast variety of different types of people, from hard-core rockers to straight edge hipsters. The punk aesthetic ideally celebrates all types of people, all the different ways they want to be (as long as they're inclusive, obviously). And what John and Jana have done here is show that array, from robots to ultilikilted men to even elephants, if that's what you're into. The counting aspect works, and as per all potential bedtime books it ends with everybody asleep. From Portland to Williamsburg you're bound to find folks loving the Happy Punks 1 2 3 vibe. It's relentlessly cheery and the kind of book that makes you feel good after you finish it. World of counting books? Prepare to meet the latest, greatest addition to your fold.
On shelves now.
Source: Final copy sent from publisher for review.
Like This? Then Try:
- Punk Farm by Jarrett Krosoczka
- Dan, the Taxi Man by Eric Ode
- Rat and Roach Rock On! by David Covell
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Misc: For the ebook version of this title complete with audio (no word on if there's music), go no further than here.
Videos: Proof positive that counting and punk rock go hand in hand together.
Blog: Charlotte's Library (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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I am very sad about the recent, and horribly untimely, death of Australian writer and illustrator Gregory Rogers. I've already featured one of his wordless time-travel picture books (The Hero of Little Street), a book I liked well enough, but today I'm posting about the book I think is his masterpiece, one that is truly a classic, and the one that makes me wish something fierce that Gregory Rogers was still here to give us more --The Boy, the Bear, the Baron, the Bard (Roaring Brook Press, 2004).
In this wordless picture book, a boy kicks his soccer ball into an empty theater, and goes in after it. It is strange, and dark, and abandoned...and utterly fascinating. The boy finds himself in the costume room, and dressed as an Elizabethan actor, he pulls the curtains aside to go out on the stage....and WHOM! He's back in time, Shakespeare himself is tripping over the soccer ball, and the play is ruined.
Now the boy must run through the streets of London, pursued by the furious playwright. He hides behind the cage of a dancing bear...who asks (wordlessly) to be set free...so boy and bear together set off to experience what the city has to offer them. But Shakespeare is nothing if not persistent. Fortunately the cell block off the Tower of London offers a refuge, and there they find another prisoner (the baron of the title) to be released!
Now Baron, Bear, and Boy are on the run together. But all is not lost! Their path takes them right to Queen Elizabeth, and she is charmed...
Shakespeare, however, still wants revenge. And he chases the boy back to where it all began--the empty stage, and so back home again.
It is sweet and lovely and funny and fascinating, and utterly wonderful. The story flows just beautifully, despite being wordless. The artwork is full of detail, full of enthusiasm, and captivating as all get out. It is a book that is a delight to share with children of just about any age. Critical and cynical though I am, I cannot think of anything negative at all to say about it.
Thank you, Gregory Rogers, for making me and my children laugh and learn.
I read this one after you wrote about his other book. A lot of fun and I enjoyed the romp through old London. Although...Shakespeare as the villain? I just don't know... Fun book though!
This was very beautiful and interesting.I loved it very much.Thanks for sharing it..
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I really enjoyed this book too!
Blog: Charlotte's Library (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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April is such a hard month--all I want to do is to be outside, getting everything weeded and planted and spruced up, but it's the busiest month at work, busy with the kids' homework, busy busy busy...and so no time to read the big long book that was supposed to be this week's Timeslip Tuesday offering.
Bonjour, Lonnie, is a picture book that uses rather vague magical bird-assisted time travel in order to show an orphaned boy, Lonnie, his family, and to give him loving guardians in his own time. The magical bird in question is a singing French one, known as Love Bird, and when it visits Lonnie, it takes him back to early 20th-century Paris...and then vanishes, leaving him to wander past famous monuments to look for it (basically three pages of Paris is great, that don't advance the plot, but are not uninteresting....).
Then Love Bird shows up again, and leads the little boy to a small house wherein are his grandparents--a black man and a white woman, which surprises Lonnie. His grandfather explains he came to France to fight in WW I. He was a great singer (and we have a rather nice introduction to the Harlem Renaissance, and black culture flourishing), but when he went back home, he was oppressed by the prejudice that he found there, and went back to Paris, married a beautiful French girl, and became a famous opera singer.
The scene then changes; Lonnie sees his parents and himself as a baby...he finds out his father was killed as young soldier in WW II, and his Jewish mother sent him to the US to safety with a young friend. She in turn fell ill, no-one could find the kin she had hoped to leave Lonnie with, and so he was there in the orphanage, waiting, all unknowing, for Love Bird to find him.
And because of the love bird, the missing kin are found (and Lonnie's mother reassures him that his new Aunt Connie "has dyed her own graying locks red like yours," which I find very odd) and all is well.
So it's rather strange (the love bird device in particular). The reader knows it's timeslipish, because of being told so, but basically it reads like a dream of shifting scenes and flashbacks. It's not a story, so much as an explanation of the family history with underlinings of African American and WW I and WW II history. It's not un-compelling, and it is rather interesting (especially in it's multicultural emphasis) but I find it hard to imagine curling up and reading it with a child...especially since it might provoke a child to ask questions that they might not be ready to fully grasp--like why Lonnie's Jewish mother felt she had to send him to safety. It's definitely one to read yourself before you read it to a child, so that you can expect what's going to happen next.
Ah gee. I know Faith Ringgold is a famous artist, but her people didn't appeal to me personally (speaking frankly, they looked like zombies, with stiff arms and staring eyes--vibrant, colorful zombies, but still). This, I'm quite prepared to admit, is just my own reaction.
(if you look it up on Amazon, be warned that the blurb given is for another book, so it won't be useful)
Hmm...certainly some oddities, but I'm very intrigued by the premise. And a picture book is an easy one to read on a whim. :)
This reminds me a little in theme of The Orphan of Ellis Island, another orphan who goes back in time, meets his ancestors and learns his family history.
Colorful zombies! I love this description! I think I would have the same reaction to the art. My two kids are adopted, and I'm not sure I would want them to read this. I feel like orphans are romanticized too much in books (my pet peeve).
It would certainly be one to read yourself, first....I'm not sure the orphan-ness is romantized, but it's certainly presented as something beyond the ordinary....
Blog: A Fuse #8 Production (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Reviews, Reviews 2013, 2013 picture books, 2013 reviews, Betsy Bird, Betsy Bird vids, Brandon Dorman, Giant Dance Party, Greenwillow, Harper Collins, my books, picture book reviews, Add a tag
Giant Dance Party
By Betsy Bird
Illustrated By Brandon Dorman
Greenwillow (an imprint of Harper Collins)
Ages 3-7
On shelves now.
I'm just messing with you. No, I'm not going to actually review my book here. I'm not going to wax rhapsodic over the hidden meanings lurking behind the mysterious cupcake on the cover. I'll refrain from delving deep into how Lexy's emotional journey with the giants is just a thinly disguised metaphor for U.S. / Russia relations between the years of 1995-2004 (it isn't, for the record). I won't even talk about the twist ending since spoilers make for interesting, if sometimes heartbreaking, reviews.
No, I'll just talk instead about how happy I am that publication day is here at all. And how pleasant it is to share that day with my buddy / pal / illustrious illustrator Brandon Dorman. I've had a couple chances to present the book so far (including one disaster that I'll get to in a moment) and here is what I have learned.
1. It is possible to read this book to 3-year-olds thanks in large part to the pictures.
This is true. The text is bouncy, which doesn't hurt matters any, but when one is dealing with very small fry it is also mighty helpful when you have eye-popping visuals on your side. And let me tell you, kids like the art of Brandon Dorman. More than that, they love it.
2. It is possible to read this book to 4-year-olds thanks in large part to the mentions of dances.
I have discovered by reading this at a couple daycares that if you teach kids jazz hands, interpretive dance, the twist, and the chicken dance in the course of reading this book, they don't get bored. As a children's librarian I was always the storytime reader whose peripheral visual would zero in on the single kid out of thirty that looked bored. This flaw in the programming has carried over to reading my own book. If one kid is bored I suddenly get this manic tinge to my voice and everything becomes a little more frantic. Be warned, easily bored children. I'm gunning for you.
3. Etsy is the creator of and solution to all of life's woes.
I learned this truth when I constructed a necklace out of Caldecott cover Shrinky Dinks. To make the necklace I wanted something that featured fuses (as a nod to the name of this blog). So what do you do when you get such an urge? You go to Etsy and search for such a thing. In the case of my book presentations I decided I wanted blue furry boots. So I type "blue furry boots" into Etsy and what do I get? Something even better. Blue furry rave legwarmers. Oh, they're the pip. Here's what I look like talking to the kids in 'em.
Dance for me, little children. Dance, I say!
They are also very easy to snuggle, if snuggling is what you want to do.
Special thanks to Melanie Hope Greenberg for the pics.
4. When you decide to go to a bookstore you've never visited before, give 'em your phone number. Beforehand.
Fun Fact: Did you know that there are TWO bookstores in Brooklyn called Powerhouse? As of Saturday, I did not. And thus begins my tale of woe.
I think there's a general understanding out there that authors have at least one bad author experience tale they can tell. But that experience, as important as it may be, is not usually their VERY FIRST BOOKSTORE APPEARANCE. Because, you see, on Sunday I knew I was speaking at Powerhouse. So I Googled it, got the address in Dumbo, and merrily traipsed over there. The poor staff was cleaning up from an event the previous night and had no clue what I was talking about. Still, they were very nice and helpful and though they didn't have any copies of my book I just figured folks might order it. Mind you, "folks" was a pretty optimistic term to be using in my head since nobody was there. I mean nobody. Little tumbleweeds would have been my audience had I spoke.
After giving it some time I packed up, the clerks apologized, and I went home. Mildly mortifying that no one in Brooklyn came to see me, but it was 11:30 on a Sunday morning. Not ideal.
And I would have proceeded in my merry little bubble for whole weeks at a time had I not gotten an email the next afternoon that made it very clear that I had gone to the wrong Powerhouse. That there are, in fact, TWO stores out there with the same name. Two. Not one. Two. And my lovely publicist at Harper Collins had even gone so far as to send me a link to the event with the address front and center. An address that was not in DUMBO at all but Park Slope.
So apparently (and this is where I sink into a puddle of 100% sheer uncut mortification) folks DID come to my event. Folks I like. Folks I would want to see. Folks who would want to see me and who failed to do so because this doofus author merrily went to the wrong friggin' store.
What have we learned here today, children? Even if a publicist sets everything up for you, give the store your cell phone. All this would have been solved if the store had had my info and had given me a ring. There are other lessons of course (actually READ what your publicist sends you might be right up there) but you can bet I'll be contacting all my future store appearances with my cell # right now. Yup yup yup.
Onward and upward my patient fellows.
On shelves April 23rd (happy birthday to me!)
Source: Wrote the darn book.
Like This? Then Try:
- Flora and the Flamingo by Molly Idle
- The Boy Who Cried Bigfoot by Scott Magoon
- Abiyoyo by Pete Seeger
Blog Reviews:
Professional Reviews:
- A star from Kirkus
- Publishers Weekly
- School Library Journal
- For the Harper Collins site I came up with a little explanation of How to Throw a Giant Dance Party. Electric blue Kool-Aid may or may not play a hand in it all.
I would be amiss in not including them.
Happy birthday, Betsy! My class is all about learning from mistakes. I may even share yours, which I am sure will win you a temporary visa, right beside all of us, on Planet Knucklehead. Your story is everyone's worst nightmare (so why did I laugh–must have a few evil bones in my body). But, back to that birthday message: Cheers!
Oh, no! Here's hoping your next bookstore appearance runs smoothly. HarperCollins sent me an ARC late last year–December, I think? It is a fun and charming story–I think our patrons will really enjoy it (it's in my May order cart).
If it wasn't funny Ed I wouldn't tell it. Planet Knucklehead is a lovely place. I DECLARE MYSELF ITS QUEEN!!
I thought the book was a fun read-a-loud and the kids really were into it. Betsy's read was dramatic and energetic. Cannot wait to hear it again! Thanks for posting the photos.
What exciting, fabulous news! The book looks adorable, and I can't wait to read it with my kids!
Also? Your leg warmers and videos are hilarious! I love your sense of humor.
Oh gads – I can relate to your mortification on the bookstore miss. But CONGRATULATIONS on the release date!!! I hope to have the pleasure of hosting you on my blog! SO happy for you!!! e
Our system has ordered your book (28 copies!) and I've reserved one. Can't wait to use it in a story time. Many congratulations!
BTW, there's a little girl off to your right (in the second photo) who is apparently dancing with or talking to a large furry creature. Wow–your story times must REALLY be magical!
Congrats on your first book, Betsy!
Our entire office went bat**** crazy over your book, which arrived yesterday. Congratulations!!
Blog: Charlotte's Library (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: non-fiction book reviews, picture book reviews, Add a tag
Happy Earth Day!
By Happy Chance I got three new picture book non-fiction books for little kids last week, all of which are great picks for Earth Day (or any day) reading.
"Explore our beautiful blue ocean while learning how to count. Visit colorful coral reefs, warm and sunny seas, sparkling ice packs, and other special spots where marine animals live and play. And on your way, discover new ocean friends on a worldwide counting adventure." For the numbers one through ten, there are double spread pictures, and short blurbs and supplemental "did you know" insets that offer interesting information. A very nice book!
The cute baby seal and its mama (for Two) are particularly kid-friendly, although I myself was especially taken by the four reef squid--a stunning picture in which the squids obligingly arranged themselves in a line by size (sweet squids!).
Flowers by Number, by David Shapiro, illustrated by Hayley Vair (Craigmore Creations, April 2013).
This is one for the child who appreciates beautiful illustrations--the flower paintings are lovely, in a calm, painterly way. They aren't your common or garden flowers either--instead, they are wildflowers from across the country, including new ones for East Coast me, like the six Pacific Starflowers. The text is minimal, but interest is added by occasional metaphorical language. For the nine lupines, for instance, the text says "Named after the wolf, they howl in purple when many flower at once."
The Latin names of the flowers are included, though a little note explaining what these foreign words are might have been useful.
This one is strong on aesthetics and floral interest, could for peaceful appreciation of the beauties of nature. I particularly liked that it started with Zero, which so often gets overlooked--it's a snowy landscape with no flowers at all.
The World is Waiting for You, by Barbara Kerley (National Geographic Children's Books, March 2013), is a photographic invitation (and a very compelling one) to get outside!!! From woods to water to fossil hunting in the desert, the imperative commands, like "Dig deeper" or "Take a peek. Go on--get a little nosy" reinforces the beautifully clear message of the pictures that there are wonderful things to do out there in the great big world of nature. And if that cave full of huge crystals really is real (I assume it is, but it boggles the mind!) I want to go there myself! It is a joyful celebration of the outdoors that manages to enthuse without any sense of didactic preaching.
This is a truly inspiring one that I wholeheartedly recommend.
So, have a happy Earth Day! And just to close, here is my own go-to saving the earth tip--keep a bucket in your shower, to catch the water while its warming up, and use that water to flush the toilet. If you have four shower-ers in your family, like me, and an old plumbing system that takes ages to warm the water, you'll save hundreds of gallons a year.
For more great non-fiction for kids, visit this Monday's Non-Fiction Roundup at A Mom's Spare Time
disclaimer: review copies received from publicist
Thanks for the reminder of Earth Day!! Wish I'd blogged about that now. :-( But I love that Ocean Counting book. That will make a lovely gift for a child.
I really like the trees and other greenage on the blog today!
I think the kids would like The World is Waiting for You!
(My niece came home from Pre-K today going "It's Earth Day! Did you know that? How did you know that?"
The flower book looks like such fun; not anything I need, but very pretty!
Reading is my hobby.i like to read fun books.
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Blog: Kid Lit Reviews (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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5 Stars When a Dragon Moves In Jodi Moore Howard McWilliam 23 Pages Ages: 4 to 8 ........ .......... Inside Jacket: If you build a perfect sandcastle, a dragon will move in—and that's exactly what happens to one very lucky boy on the beach. The boy and his dragon brave the waves, roast marshmallows, roam [...]Add a Comment
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…………………… Victricia Malicia: Book-Loving Buccaneer Carrie Clickard, author Mark Meyers, illustrator 4 Stars ………….. Inside Front Jacket: Victricia Malicia Barrett may have been born on a pirate ship and raised in all the best pirate ways, but she sure is a wreck on deck. Her knots slip, she falls from the rigging, and rats abandon [...]Add a Comment
Blog: A Fuse #8 Production (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Best Books, Best Books of 2012, Reviews, Reviews 2012, 2012 picture book readalouds, 2012 picture books, 2012 reviews, Chronicle, David LaRochelle, Jeremy Tankard, picture book readalouds, picture book reviews, Add a tag
It's a Tiger!
By David LaRochelle
Illustrated by Jeremy Tankard
Chronicle Books
Ages 4-8
On shelves now
There is an art to reading a picture book but I've not encountered many schools that actually teach that skill. Librarians will learn it in their graduate courses, of course, but what about parents and booksellers? Are they doomed to stumble through their readings without getting some of the insider tips and tricks? Yup, pretty much. The only thing you can really do is just recommend to them picture books that make reading aloud one-on-one or to large groups a painless experience. Books that have an inherent interior rhythm and logic that kids will naturally adhere to. So each and every year I sit and wait for those great picture book readalouds of the year. For 2012 I've seen a couple that lend themselves to groups. Up, Tall and High by Ethan Long is ideal for preschoolers. Creepy Carrots! by Aaron Reynolds is perfect for the 1st and 2nd graders. But the all-around best readaloud of the year, bar none as far as I can tell, has got to be It's a Tiger! A boon to librarians and booksellers looking for new storytime fare as well as parents and grandparents, David LaRochelle's latest is a hoot, a holler, and could even be called a hootenanny if you're so inclined to call it that.
So you're walking through the forest, minding your own business, checking out monkeys when you realize that the orange and black tail over there isn't a vine at all. It's a TIGER!! Like a shot you (which is to say, the boy in the book) take off lickety split. Still, it doesn't matter where you go. Whatever you do, that darned tiger seems to follow. Dark caves, ships at sea, desert islands, the tiger is everywhere! At the end you realize that the tiger doesn't really want to eat you. So to put it to sleep you decide to tell it a story. A story about a boy walking through the forest until he sees a green scaly vine. Wait a minute . . . that's not a vine . . . .
It took a couple readings before I realized something essential about this particular book. Turns out, this is one of the rare picture books written in the second person. You do this. You do that. The reader actually is the little boy who finds himself inexplicably running into the same orange and black foe over and over again. It's a narrative technique that I just know that I've seen in picture books before, but when I try to think of them I find myself stumped. They're not as common as you might think and I certainly can't come up with any that are also great read alouds for large groups. By making the audience the narrator they get all the requisite chills and thrills without actually feeling like they're in direct danger. It would be a good companion to Michael Rosen's We're Going On A Bear Hunt honestly. Same threat level. Same you-are-there aspects.
I think what I like best about the book is the fact that it goes from surprising to funny in fairly short order. The first three or four times you turn the page and encounter a tiger the kids are still uncertain about the order of occurrences. Once the pattern is firmly established, that's when they can kind of let go and enjoy. Then LaRochelle ratchets up the silly factor and the kids really begin to have fun. We don't always remember that children have a relatively refined sense of the absurd. They're literalists, every last one, and though they might point out the flaws in your logic as you read the book (how can you swing and land on the tiger when you just escaped the tiger?) there's a different kind of fun to be had in telling grown-ups they can't possibly be right about something. It's a Tiger! combines several different kinds of reading pleasures then. Interactive (kids can yell "It's a tiger!" along with the reader). Power plays (telling adults they must be mistaken). The element of surprise. The controlled fear factor. It's all there. And it's awesome.
It is difficult for me to be impartial about a book that features the art of Jeremy Tankard. A couple years ago he burst onto the picture book scene with three books that changed the way I do preschool storytimes (Grumpy Bird, Me Hungry!, and Boo Hoo Bird). Even when he's working on other people's books, as in the case here, he has a distinctive style that can't be beat. In this book he utilizes his usual ink and digital media style, but the colors are extraordinary. They just pop off the page with these magnificent blues, greens, oranges, yellows, and reds. It was interesting to note that the pages themselves have a sheen and gleam I've not noticed in a picture book before. Hold them up to the light and watch as the thick black lines and colors seem as though they should be transparent, if that makes any sense. That visual pop means that when you reach the every-other-page "surprise" of the tiger, Tankard can really make the animal's appearance seem surprising. He uses some anime-type lines around the tiger from time to time to direct the eye to the center of the page, which as of this review still has a new and contemporary feel to it. We've seen it in books by folks like Dan Santat for years, of course. My suspicion is that though it will certainly make the book feel like an early-21st creation, that doesn't mean it'll age poorly. It's simply a work of its time now.
Long story short, we haven't seen a boy/tiger relationship this complex since the days of Calvin and Hobbes. Tigers are such cute and cuddly carnivores, and honestly it's very difficult to be perfectly afraid of something as soft and fluffy as a tiger. That sort of makes them ideal picture book threats. LaRochelle has written innovative picture books for years now (The End, etc.). Pairing him with Tankard just guarantees a hit. Put this one on your Must Have list and stat.
On shelves now.
Source: Final copy sent from publisher for review.
Like This? Then Try:
- We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen, ill. Helen Oxenbury
- Snip, Snap! What's That? by Mara Bergman
- Fortunately by Remy Charlip
Other Blog Reviews:
Professional Reviews:
Other Reviews:
- Watch. Connect. Read. talks with David LaRochelle
- Watch. Connect. Read. talks with Jeremy Tankard
- A behind the scenes glimpse at the making of the book.
- And here's the activity kit.
- And here's a teacher's guide.
A handy dandy book trailer, here for the viewing.
The other second-person books that come to my mind are WHAT DO YOU SAY, DEAR? and WHAT DO YOU DO, DEAR? by Sesyle Joslin, illus. by Maurice Sendak. LaRochelle's book is a lot of fun compared to these–and a lot of fun, anyway!
Blog: Kid Lit Reviews (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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. Manner-Man by Sherrill S. Cannon Illustrated by Kalpart Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Co. 4 Stars From Website: This dynamic superhero helps children learn to cope with bullies and teaches them ways to be considerate of others. Manner-Man incorporates messages and characters found within some of Cannon's earlier books – and shows children how …Add a Comment
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Ol' Bloo's Boogie-Woogie Band and Blues Ensemble by Jan Huling Henri Sorensen, illustrator Peachtree Publishers 5 Stars . Inside Jacket: Ol' Bloo Donkey has always dreamed of retiring from the cotton field to become a honky-tonk singer. But when he overhears the type of retirement plan Farmer Brown has in mind for him—of the permanent …Add a Comment
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Finders Keepers? by Robert Arnett illustrated by Smita Turakhia Atman Press 6 Stars Press Release: A true story, Finder's Keepers? was inspired by the honesty of one young boy in India who found the author's lost wallet and could not understand why he should be rewarded for returning to Arnett what was his. The concept …Add a Comment
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Poopendous! by Artie Bennett illustrations by Mike Moran Blue Apple Books 4 Stars . Inside Jacket: . . . . . . . . . Ever wanted to ask about it, but felt a little shy? Inside these pages …Add a Comment
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Did you ever read The Boy, the Bear, the Baron, The Bard, by Gregory Rogers? It's a wonderful wordless picture book, involving time travel back to the age of Shakespeare, that I really must review as a Timeslip Tuesday book someday, because it is truly excellent. In any event, the titular Boy returns in The Hero of Little Street (Roaring Brook Press, March, 2012). This time around, the boy inadvertently provokes a gang of boys, and must flee. A handy art museum offers a refugee, and there magic again enters his life when the little dog from this famous painting --
-- comes out to play with him.
--back in 17th century Holland. More than a little mayhem ensues, as boy and dog hurtle through Delft, until at last the boy saves a pack of caged dogs from become sausage meat. He then heads home to the present, with the grateful dogs close at hand to save him from the bullies.
Told with no words whatsoever, it's a story to savour with a child at hand, enjoying the details, and laughing at the humor of the various situations in which the boy finds himself. And as well as being utterly engaging as a graphic story, it's a nice introduction to the world of 17th-century Holland!
I myself can't help but prefer The Boy, the Bear, the Baron, the Bard, because I do like the bear awfully much, but dog lovers and Vermeer lovers might like this one more!
*heads to the library website.
Wow! I never heard of either book. I'll look for both!
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The Dark
By Lemony Snicket
Illustrated by Jon Klassen
Little Brown & Co.
Ages 4-8
On shelves April 2nd
You do not know the temptation I am fighting right now to begin this review with some grandiose statement equating a fear of the dark with a fear of death itself. You have my full permission to slap me upside the head if I start off my children's books reviews with something that bigheaded. The whole reason I was going to do it at all is that after reading a book like Lemony Snicket's The Dark I find myself wondering about kids and their fears. Most childhood fears tap into the weird id (see, here I go) part of our brains where the unknown takes on greater and grander evils than could possibly occur in the real world. So we get fears of dogs, the color mauve, certain dead-eyed paintings, fruit, and water going down the drain (or so Mr. Rogers claimed, though I've never met a kid that went that route), etc. In the light of those others, a healthy fear of the dark makes perfect sense. The dark is where you cannot see and what you cannot see cannot possibly do you any good. That said, there are surprisingly few picture books out there that tackle this very specific fear. Picture books love to tackle a fear of monsters, but the idea of handling something as ephemeral as a fear of the dark is much much harder. It takes a certain kind of writer and a certain kind of illustrator to grasp this fear by the throat and throttle it good and sound. Behold the pairing of Lemony Snicket and Jon Klassen. You'll ne'er see the like again (unless they do another picture book together, in which case, scratch that).
"You might be afraid of the dark, but the dark is not afraid of you." Laszlo is afraid but there's not much he can do about it. Seems as though the dark is everywhere you look sometimes. Generally speaking it lives in the basement, and every morning Laszlo would open the door and say, "Hi . . . Hi, dark." He wouldn't get a reply. Then, one night, the dark does something unprecedented. It comes into Laszlo's room and though he has a flashlight, it seems to be everywhere. It says it wants to show him something. Something in the basement. Something in the bottom drawer of an old dresser. Something that helps Laszlo just when he needs it. The dark still visits Laszlo now. It just doesn't bother him.
There is nothing normal about Lemony Snicket. When he writes a picture book he doesn't go about it the usual route. Past efforts have included The Composer Is Dead which effectively replaced ye olde stand-by Peter and the Wolf in terms of instrument instruction in many a fine school district. Then there was 13 Words which played out like a bit of experimental theater for the picture book set. I say that, but 16 copies of the book are currently checked out of my own library system. Besides, how can you not love a book that contains the following tags on its record: "cake, depression, friendship, haberdashery, happiness"? Take all that under consideration and The Dark is without a doubt the most normal picture book the man has attempted yet. It has, on paper anyway, a purpose: address children's fear of the dark. In practice, it's more complicated than that. More complicated and better.
Snicket does not address a fear of the absence of light by offering up the usual platitudes. He doesn't delve into the monsters or other beasties that may lurk in its corners. The dark, in Snicket's universe, acts almost as an attentive guardian. When we look up at the night sky, it is looking back at us. In Laszlo's own experience, the dark only seeks to help. We don't quite understand its motivations. The takeaway, rather, is that it is a benign force. Remove the threat and what you're left with is something that exists alongside you. Interestingly it almost works on a religious level. I would not be the least bit surprised if Sunday school classes started using it as a religious parable for death. Not its original purpose but on the horizon just the same.
It is also a pleasure to read this book aloud. Mr. Snicket's words require a bit of rereading to fully appreciate them, but appreciate you will. First off, there's the fact that our hero's name is Laszlo. A cursory search of children's books yields many a Laszlo author or illustrator but nary a Laszloian subject. So that's nice. Then there's the repetition you don't necessarily notice at the time (terms like "creaky roof" "smooth, cold windows") but that sink in with repeated readings. The voice of the dark is particularly interesting. Snicket writes it in such a way as to allow the reader the choice of purring the words, whispering them, putting a bit of creak into the vocal chords, or hissing them. The parent is granted the choice of making the dark threatening in its initial lures or comforting. Long story short, adults would do well to attempt a couple solo readings on their own before attempting with a kiddo. At least figure out what take you're going for. It demands no less.
The most Snicketish verbal choice, unfortunately, turns out to be the book's Achilles heel. You're reading along, merry as you please, when you come to a page that creates a kind of verbal record scratch to the whole proceeding. Laszlo has approached the dark at last. He is nearing something that may turn out to be very scary. And then, just as he grows near, the next page FILLS . . . . with text. Text that is very nice and very well written and perhaps places childhood fears in context better than anything I've seen before. All that. By the same token it stops the reading cold. I imagine there must have been a couple editorial consultations about this page. Someone somewhere along the process of publication would have questioned its necessity. Perhaps there was a sterling defense of it that swayed all parties involved and in it remained. Or maybe everyone at Little, Brown loved it the first time they read it. Not quite sure. What I do know is that if you are reading this book to a large group, you will skip this page. And if you are reading one-on-one to your own sprog? Depends on the sprog, of course. Thoughtful sprogs will be able to take it. They may be few and far between, however. The last thing you want when you are watching a horror film and the hero is reaching for the doorknob of the basement is to have the moment interrupted by a five-minute talk on the roots of fear. It might contain a brilliant thesis. You just don't want to hear it at this particular moment in time.
Canadians have a special relationship to the dark that Americans can't quite appreciate. I was first alerted to this fact when I read Caroline Woodward's Singing Away the Dark. That book was about a little girl's mile long trek through the dark to the stop for her school bus. The book was illustrated by Julie Morstad, whose work reminds me, not a little, of Klassen's. They share a similar deadpan serenity. If Morstad was an American citizen you can bet she'd get as much attention as Mr. Klassen has acquired in the last few years. In this particular outing, Mr. Klassen works almost in the negative. Much of this book has to be black. Pure black. The kind that has a palpable weight to it. Laszlo and his house fill in the spaces where the dark has yet to penetrate. It was with great pleasure that I watched what the man did with light as well. The colors of a home when lit by a flashlight are different from the colors seen in the slow setting of the evening sun. A toy car that Laszlo abandons in his efforts to escape the dark appears as a dark umber at first, then later pure black in the flashlight's glow. We only see the early morning light once, and in that case Klassen makes it a lovely cool blue. These are subtle details, but they're enough to convince the reader that they're viewing accurate portrayals of each time of day.
The dark is not visually anthropomorphized. It is verbally, of course, with references to it hiding, sitting, or even gazing. One has to sit and shudder for a while when you imagine what this book might have been like with an author that turned the dark into a black blob with facial expressions. It's not exaggerating to say that such a move would defeat the very purpose of the book itself. The whole reason the book works on a visual level is because Klassen adheres strictly and entirely to the real world. An enterprising soul could take this book, replicate it scene by scene in a live action YouTube video, and not have to dip into the film budget for a single solitary special effect. This is enormously important to children who may actually be afraid of the dark. This book gives a face to a fear that is both nameable and not nameable without giving a literal face to a specific fear. It's accessible because it is realistic.
When dealing with picture books that seek to exorcise fears, one has to be very careful that you don't instill a fear where there wasn't one before. So a child that might never have considered the fact that nighttime can be a scary time might enter into a whole new kind of knowledge with the simple application of this book. That said, those sorts of things are very much on a case-by-case basis. Certainly The Dark will be a boon to some and simply a well-wrought story for others. Pairing Klassen with Snicket feels good when you say it aloud. No surprise then that the result of such a pairing isn't just good. It's great. A powerhouse of a comfort book.
On shelves April 2nd.
Source: F&G sent from publisher for review.
Like This? Then Try:
- Creepy Carrots by Aaron A. Reynolds, illustrated by Peter Brown
- Singing Away the Dark by Caroline Woodward, illustrated by Julie Morstad
- Bob & Co by Delphine Durand
- Go Away, Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley
Professional Reviews:
- A star from Publishers Weekly
- Kirkus
- Daniel Handler (a.k.a. Snicket) speaks to Terry Gross at NPR about, amongst other things, this book.
- Read an excerpt here.
- And yes, the rumors are true. Neil Gaiman is reading the audiobook.
I have been waiting for this for MONTHS, and am glad the wait is nearly over. Says Kelly, who thought that THIS IS NOT MY HAT had a Snicketesque quality to it.
How does this compare to The Storm in the Barn? Your review reminded me of that book. Can't wait to read it.
Huh! Now that's an interesting comparison. There's a similar deadpan quality to the art of both Phelan and Klassen, that's true. The tone is different, though. It's hard to pin down what makes a Klassen a Klassen. If Matt Phelan is Buster Keaton then Klassen is . . . Wes Anderson. That's as close as I can come to showing how different the two are. So while Storm in the Barn tempers its storytelling with ups and downs, Klassen keeps at an even keel. Makes sense by not making sense?
This sounds like an awesome read! I love how thorough your review is, it's very helpful. I look forward to more reviews from you, thank you!
[...] The School Library Journal review of The Dark by Lemony Snicket Share this:Like this:Like Loading… This entry was posted in Children's Literature and tagged books, monsters, scary. Bookmark the permalink. ← Boys Can Do Anything. Regret → [...]
[...] Don't take my word for it: Review from Fuse 8 Production. [...]
It IS that one page that I'd love to get rid of. The minute I saw it and tried to get through it and couldn't I told my coworker: "This book is great except that Handler couldn't help himself and had to insert a rambling page as usual."
[...] (otherwise known as Evan Handler) and Jon Klassen at a book launch party for their new picture book The Dark (Little, Brown, 2013) at the Powerhouse Arena in Brooklyn on April 2. Photo by SLJ [...]
Blog: Through the Looking Glass Book Review (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Cheering up someone who is down in the dumps can be very difficult sometimes. After all, we don't always know why the person is sad, and we often don't have any idea what will make them feel happy again. Would they like some flowers? Perhaps a dinner out will help. Maybe chocolate is the answer. In today's book you will see how some charming animals who try to cheer up their friend Mouse.
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No Fits, Nilson!
By Zachariah Ohora
Dial (an imprint of Penguin)
Ages 3-7
On shelves June 13th
The small child is a frightening beast. A truly terrifying creature that can level the most powerful adult with the mere pitch of their fury laden screams. As a children's librarian I used to tell my husband that mine was one of the few jobs I knew where an average day was punctuated by human sobs and screams of terror, misery, and fury. What then is the reasoning behind the idea that you should read a child a book about a fellow kiddo having a meltdown? Well, kids can get a lot out of that kind of identification. They can put themselves into the role of the parent, to a certain extent. Or maybe it's just good old schadenfreude. Better her than me, eh? Whatever the reasoning, meltdowns make for good picture book fodder. Add in a giant blue gorilla with a penchant for wristwear and you've got yourself a picture book as fine as fish hair. A treat to eye and ear alike, Ohora is truly coming into his own with a book that truly has universal appeal. And a gorilla. But I repeat myself.
Amelia and Nilson are inseparable. They play together, eat together, and with some exceptions (Nilson is afraid of water so no baths) they're never out of one another's sight. The fact that Amelia is a little girl and Nilson a gigantic blue gorilla? Not an issue. What is an issue is the fact that Nilson has a terribly short fuse. Good thing Amelia knows exactly what to do to calm him down. Don't want to go with mom to do chores? Amelia calls them adventures instead. Nilson's getting testy waiting in line at the post office? Amelia hands him her froggy purse. It's the moment that Nilson gets the the last banana ice cream that Amelia's composure finally breaks down. Now she's the one who's upset. Fortunately, Nilson knows the perfect way to make everything right again.
When we think of the great tantrum picture books out there, the mind immediately leaps to the be all and end all of fits, When Sophie Gets Angry Really Really Angry by Molly Bang. That book sort of set the standards for meltdown lit. It's simple, it gets to the point, it teaches colors (though that's more a nice bonus rather than anything else). After Sophie authors tried to come up with different unique takes on a common occurrence. Rosemary Wells came up with Miracle Melts Down, Robie Harris dared to discuss the unmentionable in The Day Leo Said "I Hate You ". And who could forget David Elliott's truly terrifying Finn Throws a Fit? In the end, this book is almost an older version of Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems (it involves preschooler fits rather than toddler fits, which as any parent will tell you are a different beast entirely). But part of what I like most about No Fits, Nilson! is that it sort of harkens back to the early days of Sophie. Ohora makes a metaphor out of the familiar and in doing so makes it even more understandable than it would be if his gorilla was nowhere in sight.
Ohora's previous picture book, Stop Snoring, Bernard! was a lovely book to look upon. As an artist, the man has cultivated a kind of acrylic mastery that really does a wonderful job of bringing out the personalities of his characters within a limited color palette. However, while the art in Bernard was at times beyond stunning, his storytelling wasn't quite there yet. It was all show without the benefit of substance. So it was a great deal of relief that I discovered that No Fits, Nilson! had remedied this little problem. Story wise, Ohora is within his element. He knows that there is no better way of describing a kid's tantrums than a 400-pound (or so) gorilla. Most important of all, the metaphor works. Nilson is a marvelous stand-in for Amelia, until that moment of spot-on role reversal.
As I mentioned before, the acrylics threaten to become the stars of the show more than once in this book. Limiting himself to blue, red, pink, yellow/beige and green, Ohora's is a very specific color scheme. Neo-21st century hipster. Indeed the book appears to be set in Brooklyn (though a map on one of the subways manages to crop out most of the Bronx, Queens, Staten Island and half of Brooklyn, so maybe I'm reading too much into the setting). As I also mentioned before, painting beautifully is one thing, but coming up with delightful, memorable characters is what separates the RISD grads from the true picture book masters. Nilson is the one that's going to get the kids the most excited to read this book so it was important for Ohora to make him a unique blue gorilla. Not the kind of guy you'd run into on the street. To do this, Ohora chooses to accessorize. Note the three watches Nilson wears on his left arm and the three on his right. Note his snappy black beret with the yellow trim, and yellow and black sneakers. Next, the artist has to make Nilson a gorilla prone to the grumps but that is essentially lovable in spite of them. For this, Amelia is a very good counterpoint. Her sweetness counteracts Nilson's barely contained rage. Finally, Ohora throws in some tiny details to make the reading experience enjoyable for adults as well. The typography at work when the tiny words "banana ice cream" move from Amelia's mouth and eyes to Nilson's mouth and eyes is a sight to behold. Ditto the funny in-jokes on the subway (New Yorkers may be the only folks who get Ohora's "Dr. Fuzzmore" ads, and the one for the zoo is a clear cut reference to Stop Snoring, Bernard!).
Yeah, I'm a fan. Kids may be the intended audience for books like this one, but it's parents that are shelling out the cash to buy. That means you have to appeal to grown-up sensibilities as well as children's. What Ohora does so well is that he knows how to tap into an appreciation for his material on both a child and adult level. This is no mean feat. Clearly the man knows where to find the picture book sweet spot. A visual feast as well as a treat to the ear, this is a book that's going to find an audience no matter where it goes. At least it better. Otherwise I might have to sick my own 400-pound gorilla on someone, and believe me . . . you do NOT want to get him angry.
On shelves June 13th
Source: Review from f&g sent from publisher.
Like This? Then Try:
- Finn Throw a Fit by David Elliott, illustrated by Timothy Basil Ering
- When Sophie Gets Angry – Really Really Angry by Molly Bang
- Nina in That Makes Me Mad by Steven Kroll, illustrated by Hilary Knight
- The Day Leo Said, "I Hate You" by Robie H. Harris, illustrated by Molly Bang
Professional Reviews:
- A star from Kirkus
- Publishers Weekly
- Whence the inspiration for the book? This comparison chart should clear everything up (WARNING: CONTAINS SOME SWEET KICKS).
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Book Description:
Winnie-the-Pooh introduces young children to the basics of telling time in a new interactive concept book. The die-cut opening on each page of this substantial board book reveals a colorful clock face with hands that move and gears that turn. As they follow Pooh and company throughout their Very Busy Day?from waking up and on to lunch, smackerels, other forest activities, and finally bedtime?readers can turn the hands of the clock to show the correct time. Each spread presents a different hour of the day and is illustrated with scenes from the original Milne and Shepard classics. Morning, noon, or night, it?s always time for Winnie-the-Pooh.
Tags: Childrens-Books, Early-Learning, Basic-Concepts, Time,

subset: commoncrawl


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Matt Kenseth Wins STP 400 At Kansas
After a thorough battle with Kasey Kahne, who has been insanely strong this year with Hendrick Motorsports, Matt Kenseth earned yet another victory this year and another for Joe Gibbs Racing.
After a thorough battle with Kasey Kahne, who has been insanely strong this year with Hendrick Motorsports, Matt Kenseth earned yet another victory this year and another for Joe Gibbs Racing.
We all see viral videos everyday, heck, I talk about them at least once a week. The cool thing about those kinds of videos is not only are they entertaining for us to watch, but in some cases the people featured in them have careers come from simply putting a video online.
The trip to Fort Worth this weekend was well worth it for many local Texans, as the race in Denton County was a shootout between Martin Truex, Jr. and Kyle Busch all race long.
After leading 347 laps throughout the race at the "Paperclip" also known as Martinsville, Jimmie Johnson took the checkered flag over Clint Bowyer and Jeff Gordon.
We all know that football season is over but not for the Outlaws. They have plenty of games for everyone to still come out and support them. These guys will show you what football is all about and so much more.
Okay, I know a lot of Dallas Cowboy fans who might not like this, but I also know a lot of Cowboy fans who are definitely scratching their heads at this deal.
Kasey Kahne won his first Sprint Cup race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday after 500 laps of action.
Big names come off the free agency board early, yet some sleepers are going to make some serious noise this season. Find out who's gone where here.
On his 41st birthday, Matt Kenseth held off a very stout and fast Kasey Kahne to win his 25th Cup race and his first for Joe Gibbs Racing.
You've heard the old saying from the headline and it only takes a last second shot, touchdown, home run, or last lap pass to remind you. That's exactly the case during the New York Section I Class AA championship high school game between New Rochelle and Mt. Vernon.
In a day full of gas conservation and blown tires, Carl Edwards had to outlast Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski, and Denny Hamlin in "overtime".
The 55th running ended with Jimmie "Five Time" Johnson winning his 400th start with Dale Earnhardt, Jr. taking second, and Mark Martin finishing in third.


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This is a discussion on Man shoots bounty hunter within the In the News: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly forums, part of the The Back Porch category; Originally Posted by SYKO When he opened the door, Hinojosa said one of the men stuck a gun inside. Thats when Hinojosa says he fired ...
BE PREPARED - Noah didn't build the Ark when it was raining!
Si vis pacem, para bellum
NRA Life Member
I can see how this thing could have played out to make everyone happy.
Bounty hunter knocks on door. Man answers. Bounty hunters say something like "This is such and such bonds, can we ask you a few questions? We're looking for whoever."
Homeowner would then open the door to speak to the bounty hunters, at which point they point a gun inside expecting to force their way in. Stupid bounty hunter gets himself shot, man is protected by castle doctrine.
These clowns (bounty hunters) are true wanna be's. For whatever reason they ARE NOT the police. Next best thing is to be a bounty hunter and can pretend I am a cop.
Come on what would any of us do in this situation? Even if they identifed themselves "It's Joe's Bailbonds and we have a warrant", at 3:30 in the AM! I would just as soon think a BG could use that line to invade your home. I too would have done the same, but probably only after they kicked in the door. They really need to reassess their career choice and be careful about entering private property at that time of day.
Ed Brown Kobra 45
Kimber Ultra Crimson Carry II
Glock 33
It's weird how many people in this thread _here_ are not getting this nor even thought as much right off the bat.
Talk of Castle Law and he had a gun pointed at me and what not when right off the bat the very first and foremost _action_ as made by the victim is he opened his door to _strangers_ acting and speaking strangely at Three Thirty AM (!).
Hello McFly....?!
There would be no gun pointed at said person to see muchless be in fear of as related to Castle Law whatever....IF the person being in right mind would not and did not open his door to start so as to see the strange persons acting strangely he was communicating with, at 3:30AM.
Everybody knows, or should know, that normal acting people do not come knocking at your door at such an hour unless you live in Japan or Australia where the time zone is completely different and it would be day time at our 3:30AM.
Opening the door was right off the bat a terrible idea.
And the argument of ehh well they could kick it down/open or shoot through it is weak.
Maybe they could and maybe they would not. Maybe they couldn't, wouldn't, and wont do anything but stand outside and bang & yell until the po-po arrives as you dial 911...and remain inside your home armed behind concealment if not cover with your family corralled.
And if they do enter then you have a real and tactical advantage as they are ducks to be shot entering a tunnel with no where to go but forward or backward.
One has to think this stuff out and be sensible.
For those who argue well I'm not good at thinking in such a way in general or at *.time when awakened or tired then well that is something one might want to think on and review in regard to their own individual mentality and also should then wonder about their having access to firearms as they might could be a ral danger to themself if not others. Keeping and handling of firearms of any sort anywhere does require ability to think rationally and be sensible, and to know the difference between that and acting/being fool hardy. Especially so for those who make the personal choice to carry handguns on their person on the streets. This is a requisite.
Once more, do not open your door to strange persons who are uninvited and unconfirmed as to their presence and intent toward being there.
Your door is the last physical barrier between you and the outside even as your home might not be Fort Knox or the White House. This should be a no brainer and street survival sense item, especially for persons amongst us who think ourselves to be survivors by mindset.
Neither Ayoob nor Clint Smith as two notable civilian home protection & survival instructors would advise anyone to simply open or crack their door to speak with unknown persons eye to eye muchless at this hour. Fedex and UPS do not deliver at those times of the morning. In doing so you are breaching your own layer of security which is a major disservice and direct disadvantage to yourself, and be they on site or not your family & friends too. This is a no brainer and doubly so considering how often and numerous these kinds of criminal events do occur to specifically persons who go answering strange unexpected knocks and other actions at very much unusual hours of the morning or night.
Same as those oddly thinking people who hold childrens birthday partys and baby showers between the hours of 11P and 5A.
Do not do this.
- Janq
"Killers who are not deterred by laws against murder are not going to be deterred by laws against guns. " - Robert A. Levy
"A license to carry a concealed weapon does not make you a free-lance policeman." - Florida Div. of Licensing
If you point a gun in someones face as you try to force your way in you deserve to be shot. Simple enough.
If it is someone that wants to kill you,.. Looking through the peep hole gives him a sight to shoot at,.. I wouldn't be looking out the peep hole,.
I agree that asking who it is before you open it is smart, but I've opened my door in the middle of the night many times, with my 9mm in my right hand behind my leg,. AND ------ my dog's ready for attack allong side of me.,. That would be for low threat,.. High threat's and the 12 ga would be in my hand,.. I have to say his actions was justified,.


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Is Pop superstar Rihanna gearing up for a major Christmas Day release?
Yes would be the answer to that question if 'Play.com' is anything to go by, now that they have launched a pre-order page for her eighth studio album!
Full story below…
Is Pop superstar Rihanna gearing up for a major Christmas Day release?
Yes would be the answer to that question if 'Play.com' is anything to go by, now that they have launched a pre-order page for her eighth studio album!
Full story below…
UK solo stardom may have evaded her, but former Girls Aloud lead singer Nadine Coyle has revealed that she wouldn't rule out pursuing chart success with the group more.
Speaking after the demise of her friendship with ex-bandmate Cheryl Cole, Coyle told 'The Daily Mail' when asked if she'd ever return to the group:
Why not! Ten years down the line. I would never rule reuniting out.
Since their arrival in 2002, the Pop band has sold over 4 million albums in the UK alone, regrouping after a three year hiatus in 2012 and announcing that they were to split in the March of 2013.
Say hello to TGJ Replay!
Designed much like our 'Retro Rewind' and 'From the Vault' features, 'Replay' is That Grape Juice's newest retrospective segment – a written quest, if you will, to re-spin the gems and jams of yesterday.
Unlike its 'Rewind' and 'Vault' predecessors, 'Replay' looks to dust off and showcase entire albums (and eras) from a library of pop and Urban pop music hits. Our latest reflective piece will ode birthday boy Trey Songz!
Today, as he hits the big 3-0, learn more about the album that made the Virginia-born beau a household name. Are you ready?….
Making his way back to "the scene" today is 'Channel Orange' singer Frank Ocean, surprising his fans with a brand new song 'Memrise.'
Will it be enough to reignite interest in his hotly anticipated sophomore album?
Press play and weigh in below…
Hip Hop trio Salt'N'Pepa keep their brand alive and well once again this year after inking a major deal with 'GEICO', the second largest auto insurer in the US.
For, 27 years after its release, their iconic song 'Push It' was handpicked by the company to support their latest commercial, which- as the snap above reveals- stars the ladies.
Peep the hilarious spot below…
With the future of 'R&B Divas' in limbo, cast-mate LaTavia Roberson is taking her destiny into her own hands.
The singer, who served as a founding member of Destiny's Child, is gearing up to launch a new webisode series aptly titled 'The Real LaTavia', with a view of getting the masses to know the true her.
Peep a preview below…
Sales of her new project 'Reclassified' may have been less than stellar, but it seem it'll take more than a commercially unsuccessful EP to kill Iggy Azalea's chart vibe.
For, those who laughed at her supposed struggle to sell albums should think twice before doing so at her success on a singles front, especially now that her latest effort 'Beg For It' has risen 14 spots on the 'Billboard Hot 100' in the last week!
When he isn't hard at work on his forthcoming album, Usher can be found blazing stages across the US on 'The UR Experience Tour.'
So, as to give fans who haven't attended the show good reason to support it, the 'Confessions' crooner teamed up with 'VEVO' to deliver 'The UR Experience (Vevo Tour Exposed).'
What it's all about?
Hit that play button to find out after the jump!
December 15th 2014 will mark the release of Nicki Minaj's third studio album 'The Pinkprint', touching down via 'Universal' with the help of the smash hit single 'Anaconda.'
Fortunately, the success of the Platinum jam may be the reason programmers at 'Rhythmic' radio have thrown their support behind its follow-up 'Bed of Lies', which now stands as the "Most Added" jam on the format!
Will it be enough to secure major success for 'Pink'?
Guess which aspiring Pop star was snapped distributing turkeys to the needy in Los Angeles hours ago?
Hint: Recent years have seen her tied/linked to Pop superstar Rita Ora, 'Mercy' performer Kanye West and Selena Gomez, who has oft cited her manager as a close friend and mentor.
Not sure who it is?
Find out below!