Sophie's Squash

Sophie's Squash

by Pat Zietlow Miller
illustrated by Anne Wilsdorf


Every once in a while, the younger child throws a curve ball by adoring a picture book that I wasn't sure would be a hit in the first place.

Of course, I bring all sorts of picture books home still, even though both kids have moved on to chapter books that appeal to their unique interests.

Why am I clinging on to picture books? Because I simply adore picture books - there is something magical about them; the kids think so too, and I hope they don't outgrow it anytime soon.

Intellectually, I deconstructed the text of this book, read and re-read it for my own education, but wasn't sure how the kids will receive it.

Right after the first read, the 6 year old said, "This is so silly. And funny! Can we read it again? Now?" The nine year old read it a couple of times and did her unique snort-giggle at the quirky funny parts.

Little Sophie picks out a squash at the farmer's market. Her mom was planning to cook it for supper. But Sophie has other ideas. Thus starts this cleverly crafted book with a simple story of a friendship between a girl and a nondescript winter squash. Yes, that's right, a winter squash! If that doesn't automatically conjure up chuckle-worthy situations in one's mind, it's a pity.

Her parents try their best to point out the obvious, but Sophie would not hear a word against Bernice, her squash. Wherever Sophie went, Bernice went with her.

Every night, Sophie gave Bernice a bottle, a hug, and a kiss.
“Well, we did hope she’d love her vegetables,” Sophie’s mother told her father.
“Shhhhhh,” Sophie said. “Bernice is sleeping.”

With clever dialogues to lighten the mood and convey the predicament of the parents, the book takes this friendship through its natural progression. And, before it gets too tedious, leaving the reader wondering how much longer to endure this nonsense, Sophie notices that Bernice is getting softer and is lacking her usual verve. Resourceful and determined as she is, Sophie learns from her next visit to the farmer's market that "fresh air; good, clean dirt; and a little love" is all that is needed to keep squashes healthy.

At home, Sophie cleared the leaves from Bernice’s favorite spot. She made a bed of soft soil, tucked Bernice in, and kissed her good night.
"Get better soon," she whispered.

And that is not the end of that. In fact, it is a new beginning. That night snow falls, and keeps falling all winter, burying Bernice. And, when Spring comes along there is a small green sprout in the spot where Bernice was resting all winter.

Of course, by now, readers would recognize where this goes. Sophie tends to the now-sprouting Bernice all spring.

One bright summer morning, Sophie somersaulted across her yard, landed by the garden, and stared in disbelief.
Bernice had grown two tiny squash. “Wow!” Sophie told them. “You look just like your mom!”

It comes as no surprise when the book closes with Sophie cuddling Bonnie and Baxter, Bernice's kids.

The illustrations capture and complement the tone and the humor of the story well.

On the one hand, the adult mind might say, "Poor Sophie. How come she doesn't have any real friends? How pathetic! Why can't her parents do something constructive about it?" But, on the other hand, from the perspective of writing an off-the-wall picture book for children, this is so riotously inventive.

Noticing that the 6 yo sees the silliness as well as the sweetness and the quirkiness in this whole situation, and reads it several times just for the fun of it, I'd say this book is definitely cherished.

And soon, Sophie's Seeds, a sequel to Sophie's Squash is coming out.

[image source: amazon.com]

Plant a Pocket of Prairie

Plant a Pocket of Prairie

by Phyllis Root
illustrated by Betsy Bowen


I was chuckling heartily along with my daughter when I read the first book I came across that was written by Phyllis Root, "Looking for a Moose", when my daughter was just about two-ish.

And now, Plant a Pocket of Prairie gave me another way to connect with my now nine year old daughter and inspire her to preserve what's left of our natural environment.

What is a prairie? Most of us know it as the open grasslands of the Mississippi river valley where flora and fauna of all sorts thrive and form a tight eco-system that has been sustaining itself for years. Not many of us know that it has been dwindling steadily over the past several years.

Once prairie stretched thousands of miles... starts the book, describing the lush meadows that was home to prairie chickens and five-lined skinks among other animals and plants; and then, moves on to state that it is Almost gone now to farm and town and city, even before we knew all the things a prairie could do.

As I read the first two or three pages of the book to my kids, I noticed their squirms and wriggles of initial resistance for the subject matter. By the fourth page, they sat up and exclaimed, "I get it! We are adding on more plants and more animals are coming too!"

The book has a gentle message about bringing the prairie to life even in urban and suburban areas via careful planting and tending. Start planting "in your backyard / or boulevard / or boxes on a balcony" the book suggests in a practical way, because even small pockets of native plants can replicate the wider, larger habitat.

Plant foxglove beardtongue
A ruby-throated hummingbird
 might hover and sip and thrum.

While exotic names like foxglove beardtongue, Joe Pye weed,  and hairy mountain mint certainly kept us smiling, this is not a gardening book per se. It is rather a fanciful flight into what might be if we took a small step towards restoring the environment for the creatures whose territories we have usurped over time. From the small critters, all the way to bison will be back if they have a place to come back to.

The woodblock illustrations are beautiful, giving a back-to-nature sort of unspoiled feel as if we were in a meadow.

Back of the book has a map showing the extent of native prairie from 1847-1908, as well as the tiny blotches of its much-diminished spread as of 1987-2011. How to Plant a Pocket of Prairie section suggests various ways to explore and understand the prairie. Sometimes called "upside down forests" due to the deep roots of many prairie plants, there is more biomass underground than above ground in prairies. There is also a section devoted to the animals and plants of the prairie with brief notes about each.

While it is heartening to read the verses suggesting that planting purple coneflowers will bring Dakota skippers and swallowtails, it doesn't happen overnight. We have a few white butterflies gracing our garden (thankfully we don't have any cabbage family plants in the garden this year) and the kids know first-hand the joy it brings to them.

And, when the kids stop at our purple coneflowers in our small yard hoping to catch a glimpse of a butterfly or a bee, I am glad this book has in some small way inspired them to carry the message forward.

[Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book. But the opinions expressed here and the decision to share it here are my own.]

[image source: University of Minnesota Press]

Vanamala and the Cephalopod

Vanamala and the Cephalopod
By Shalini Srinivasan
Illustrated by Sebin Simon
Duckbill Books
Ages 10+

I’m not going to attempt summarizing the plot of Vanamala and the Cephalopod in a paragraph, but this is how it all begins. Vanamala puts up a notice in Thambi’s shop advertising the sale of her sister, Pingu, age eight. Now, Kanti Stores is no ordinary provision shop. A mysterious trough in the back room gifts Thambi with pretty baubles on a regular basis. Whatever-it-is-in-the-trough takes Vanamala’s notice seriously and Pingu goes missing. Guilt-ridden, Vanamala sets off in search of her sister. This leads to underwater escapades of the strangest kind. En route, all sorts of fantastical creatures make an appearance - the Tower Bird, the Lettuce Grower, the Boss …  My favourite is Basavan the bull (okay, zebu).

As I read, I felt I had stepped into Alice’s Wonderland or Roald Dahl’s magical world. Nothing like it has been attempted in Indian children’s fiction in a long time. The author, Shalini Srinivasan, is clearly a nature-lover and wildlife enthusiast. The writing is powerful and smattered with witty philosophical thoughts.

The voice of the grumpy pre-teen is pitch-perfect and the story is set firmly in the district of Mandya near Mysore. From the names and references, my guess is Vanamala lives close to (or in!) my ancestral village. Who would have thunk?

For someone like me who is particular about the aesthetics, there is plenty between the pages to drool over – fonts, borders and gorgeous illustrations. No amount of gimmickry can salvage a badly written story, but great design and production values can elevate the reading experience of a well-written one, and that is exactly what happens here.

There is, however, the usual problem – a sagging middle. I found my attention wavering, although I discovered that it all ties together neatly in the end. The parts featuring the Cephalopod were a bit of a letdown, considering I had very high expectations. I had also been hoping to see more of Thambi, so I was thrilled to find these stories online.

The book picks up again and ends with what can only be construed as the promise of a sequel. Beautifully done.

[Image source: http://www.duckbill.in]

I was sent a copy of the book in return for an honest review.

The Dog Who Wanted More: A Rulebreakers' Club Adventure

The Dog Who Wanted More: A Rulebreakers' Club Adventure
Written by Sowmya Rajendran
Illustrated by Arun Kumar Kaushik
Published by Karadi Tales
Ages: 10+

With a title like that, I was intrigued. A childrens' club? A dog? Reminded me of Enid Blyton's Five Find-Outer and Dog series. The five in this book, Jagannathan, Keerti, Monica, Tejas, and Rishi, are certainly five who form the club, but they are minus that all-important Dog. They try everything to convince their parents of the need for one, but they would have none of it. In fact, the parents would have none of many things. So, the logical thing to do was to form a Rulebreakers' Club, and the first thing to do as a club was to steal a dog. Why, a reader would ask, not just adopt one, with so many strays wandering around? Because it is so much more fun to just steal one.

And that is when the fun really starts. For starters, Spike, the dog they zero in on and steal, isn't the epitome of friendliness that they thought he was. He wants more, of everything - mainly attention and food. There was also the question of where to keep him so that he remains hidden. Which is when Rishi, the self-confessed nerd comes up with a brilliant solution - keep him at his Granny's place. Granny, who is partially deaf, and who stubbornly remains in her own house so that she can put on the music of MS Subbalakshmi full blast at any time she wants, and who wouldn't suspect a thing. It turns out to be the perfect solution even for the large amounts of food (7 packets of biscuits at a go??) that they need to feed Spike, with the turn in events that leads to unwitting but complete cooperation from Granny. Between Granny and Spike, though, the children vote on returning the dog to the owners as a better option, and proceed to do so, with unexpected consequences.

How does this come about? What is all that about the reincarnation of Grandpa? What about the people from whom they had ingeniously stolen Spike? Who are they really? What is all that fishy business about the box given to the policeman? And who is the policeman anyway, as he had been caught suspiciously trailing the children and Granny? Why does he come to their school? What happens next?

Sowmya Rajendran has come out with another hilarious book after the popular Mayil books, made even more so by the illustrations by Arun Kumar Kaushik. This one is the first in a series, and all of them seem to have interesting titles, listed at the beginning of this book, published by Karadi. The book is certainly funny, with the language one now associates with Sowmya Rajendran's work. She has also broken many stereotypes. Old, deaf Granny turns out to be a very cool person, even if a bit stubborn in the end. Keerthi wants to be a wrestler, instead of the usual pursuits girls are shown to indulge in, and Rishi the nerd knows how to put his foot down when he needs to even if he insists on excel sheets for any operation, and Spike the dog turns out to be not so friendly even though he looks 'oh so cute and adorable'.

It would have been a great book, but for a particular turn in the story that takes you the way of movie potboilers, and leads to some confusion that a reader needs to read again to unravel, and might become a bit of a drag. Maybe a spot of tight editing would have done the trick, something that would hopefully be addressed in the subsequent books in the series.

Image source: karaditales.com.

I was sent a copy of the book in return for an honest review.