Flotsam

Photo courtesy Amazon.
Author/Illustrator: DAVID WIESNER
Recommended Age group: 2 and up. You are limited only by your imagination!
Caldecott Award: 2007

I have been reading children’s books for the past three years. The main things I consider while picking out a book are message and language development. For people like me, books like Flotsam are eye openers. This is a wordless picture book and I REALLY noticed the pictures, the effort the author has put in to the pictures in order to convey the message and was simply astounded. The medium Wiesner uses is watercolor. Every seashell is meticulously drawn. The use of lines and the play of light are so wonderful that one can almost feel its texture. The colors are pleasing to young children making the children focus on the story without overly stimulating them. The placement of pictures also plays a major role in story telling in this wordless storybook.

Wiesner’s message through his books - magical things are happening all around us, anything can happen anywhere, do not limit your imagination/dreams and never loose hope on your dreams becoming true(Digression: Check out Wiesner’s 1992 Caldecott Medal book TUESDAY. It talks about the dream of frogs coming true. Any one, even frogs can dream and you never know it might just come true! Keep dreaming, it keeps you alive!).

Flotsam is a story in which a boy finds an underwater camera in a beach, washed ashore by the waves. The boy is not able to find the owners of the camera and decides to develop the pictures from the film in the camera. When he looks at the developed pictures, a whole new world is thrown wide open to him. From now on it is a fantasy journey not only for the boy but also to the readers. The older readers who know about the functioning of a ‘real world’ stare open eyed at the mechanical fishes swimming along side the real ones, a family of octopus sitting on a couch reading a book, puffed up puffer fish acting like a hot air balloon, gigantic sea turtles with a whole city on their shell and star fishes of colossal size – that make grey whales look tiny, housing an entire island on them. That’s not where the surprise ends, one has to read the book to find out what the final surprise!

It was so surprising how different the adult mind works when compared to a child’s mind. I am trying to make some sense of the pictures, and this is exactly how my brain went:
A key wound mechanical fish?!
What do I say if the children ask me to explain this?
May be I can say that this is a marine experiment and the biologists are observing patterns about this school of fish.
Whaaaat? A family of octopus sitting on a couch and reading books?
Aahhha! I see a moving container capsized behind the octopus and the couch must have fallen out of the container. The octopus just happened to sit on it.
What now? Puffer fish flying??? Okay I give up. There is no way in hell I can explain this….

And guess what questions I had to answer? ‘What is the boy’s name?’, ‘Ammaaaa, hermit crab eyes popping out of his head? That’s so silly[they put their index fingers on their fore heads and start doing a hermit crab routine. They even came with a voice for the hermit crab]’, ‘The boy has two shovels, one blue and one red. Can I have two shovels?’, ‘Can we put fish on our couch?’. They just surrendered to the story line and digested everything! Gosh, why did I even worry about flying fish and floating aliens? Teh open mindedness, amazes me.

There was a lot of language involved. By the time we finished reading this book, the boy had a name, ‘Geeg’ (please don’t ask me why, I did not name him). When he looks through a ring, his eyes become bigger(Errr.. in the book the boy is looking at a crab through a magnifying glass and Wiesner has painted it from the perspective of some one observing the boy. So you can see normal right eye and part of left eye through the magnifying lens). He is playing on the beach and is not being responsible, always listen to your mommy and daddy Geeg (I thought I was looking at myself and listening to myself)…and so Flotsam from a 2 year old and a 3.5 year old’s perspective goes on…..

Ahaha, I am not revealing the final knot. Go get a copy of Flotsam and discover it yourself. Hey, you, you and you get off the couch and get the book. Next post surprise quiz on Flotsam.

Once Upon a Banana

Picture courtesy: Amazon

Author/Illustrator: Jennifer Armstrong, David Small Read Together: 2+ Genre: Humor

Once Upon a Banana is totally bananas!

It starts with a naughty little monkey, who runs away from his juggler caretaker, steals a banana and carelessly throws the peel on the sidewalk, right next to a sign that says "Don't litter".

From there on, chaos ensues. Someone parks his bike in a no parking zone, steps on the peel, crashes into a ladder, throwing a painter on to a shopping cart, which zooms into a busy traffic intersection....I could continue, but I would be spoiling the fun for you, so I won't!

But I will say this. Each page promises wild, hilarious theatrics and acrobatics that you would not expect to see on a busy city street. And the way each scene unfolds makes it seem as if something like that could, probably happen; it does not seem like a fantasy at all. (Except maybe for one scene of a baby flying through the air, which I found unrealistic and which also alarmed my two year old - for he was concerned for the safety of the baby!)

This is probably a good time to mention one important thing. Once Upon a Banana is a wordless book. All the story telling task is left to the illustrator - David Small - a Caldecott honor medal recipient, who paints pictures of the chaos and drama though cartoonish, light, water color illustrations. Not one text to clarify what is happening, not one line of spoken dialogue. Everything that needs to be said is in the facial expressions of the characters and the animated movement of objects being hurled around. There are appropriate road signs on each page, that serve to act like marks of irony and add to the humor rather than convey any special message.

In each of my half dozen or so readings so far, I notice a tiny detail that I didn't catch before, and it makes me wonder how much time the author, Jennifer Armstrong, invested in coming up with the precise detail of events. In her biography, Armstrong says she had wanted to write books that "capture a reader's imagination and make them forget everything else while they read." This book does exactly that -it transports you temporarily to a square block of that fictional city, making you turn each page, as you wonder what is going to happen next.

The comedy of errors builds up to a fitting climax and you can happily close the book, with a feel good smile on your face.

If you happen to get your hands on Once Upon a Banana, please post a comment on what you thought about it. I would love to hear your interpretation.

Oregon's Journey

Oregon's Journey
Author: Rascal
Pictures by : Louis Joos
Age Group : 5+, YA, Adults

I always keep reading about Road Trips, but never been on one. What is so important about a Road Trip? Probably nothing helps one to get a idea of any country without a road trip. There are multiple books and movies on road trips, but, I have never come across a road trip book or movie that moved me as Oregon's Journey.

Duke is a dwarf and works as a circus clown. He is always dressed like a clown with his red cherry on his nose. He is likes to watch a bear called Oregon and both of them end up being great friends. One day, the bear Oregon asks him if Duke can take him to a big forest. Duke does not no how to answer, but back in his trailer, he decides that he needs to help out his friend Oregon. So, both of them set out from Pittsburg, where the circus is currently running to Oregon state where Duke thinks are the beautiful forest of spruce trees.

So, one fine night after the final performance, the clown and the bear walk out with out any luggage to find the beautiful forest of spruce trees. They walk out of Pittsburg and leave its ash-coloured sky to find greener pastures. They hitch rides from one state to another; and get to meet various folks of different colour, temperament and lives. A black man, traveling salesman, a Navajo elder and many other give them lift as they pass one state after another. They spent the night wherever they find shelter and finally catch the train to Oregon. The rest of pages show the peace and solitude that the friends find after reaching Oregon and the great big forest.

The illustrations are extremely wonderful. I have no words to describe them. I especially like the last page illustration as the clown walks away from the forest into a snow filled white morning.

The words catch your heart and tug hard. There is a great dialogue between a black man and the clown, when the black man gives the bear and clown a lift --

"Why do you wear white makeup and a red nose when you're no longer in the circus?" the man asked me.
"Because they've become a part of me," I answered.
"It isn't easy being a dwarf".

"Nor is it easy to be a black man," he said.
We understood each other.

A touching and wonderful book that I would recommend to every one. One of my friends, Prashanth, bought this book for Sooraj. Ranjani, Sooraj and I have loved this book. Probably, Ranjani and I love this book more than Sooraj.

Tops And Bottoms

Tops And Bottoms

Adapted And Illustrated By Janet Stevens

All Ages

During our recent library trip, my younger child went berserk pulling out all the books she could lay her hands on and thrusting it in to my face to read it for her. One of the books she pulled out was ‘Tops And Bottoms’ by Janet Stevens. The Caldecott Honor sticker on the cover really caught my attention and I borrowed this book from the library.

The rich, lazy bear has plenty of land and money, but he spends all his time sleeping on his front porch. The bear’s neighbor, hare has a huge family to tend to and an empty pocket. So the hare decides to over come its adversity through wit and deception. He strikes a partnership with the bear. The terms of the partnership being:

-the hare gets to work on the bear’s land

-the hare would do all the work

-and at the end of the season the bear would get half of the produce.

The lazy bear immediately agrees and chooses that he wants the top half and goes back to his precious slumber. He sleeps the whole time only to wake up after the harvesting and discovers that the clever hare had planted tubers – carrots, radish, beet root and such. The hare rounds up the goodies and the bear is left with nothing.

The second time the bear chooses the bottom half and goes back to sleep. This time the clever hare plants broccoli, lettuce and celery. Again the hare ends up with the vegetables and the bear gets zilch.

The stubborn bear simply refuses to learn his lesson. He declares that he wants the tops AND bottoms this time around, lets the hare do the work and sleeps through the season. He wakes up to find that the clever hare has planted corn. So all the bear gets is the corn husk! Finally the bear realizes the only way to get the spoils is by getting his hands dirty and decides to take care of his land. The hare, having a huge stock of vegetable, opens his own vegetable stand and takes care of his family.

It is a simple folk tale, packed with messages like ‘You snooze you loose’, ‘One can overcome adversity through wit’, ‘Anything that seems too good to be true is obviously too good to be true’. Plus I thought that it would be a cool way to introduce a bit of botany. My three year old now faithfully repeats things like ‘carrots grow under the ground’, ‘celery grows over the ground’, ‘the bear gets kuppai(meaning: stuff that is not worth anything) because he didn’t work’. But I think it is mostly rote, because, how much ever I explain that carrots grow under the ground, she is finding very hard to visualize it.

For some reason both my three year old and my almost two year old love this book. The only reason I can come up with - the illustrations. The older one bursts in to a full-blown laughter whenever she sees the lazy bear sprawled over the patio chair. The younger one gets a kick out of identifying ‘cawee’(carrot) and ‘baathalee’(broccoli).

Another thing that needs to be mentioned is the orientation of the book. The spine has to be held horizontal and as you finish a page it has to be flipped up. There is a full page illustration of a garden. The spine is the ground and it shows tubers at the lower half of the book, growing under the ground, and vegetable like celery and lettuce at the top half of the book, growing above the ground.

This is definitely a book that I will reintroduce to my three-year-old in a few months time.

The Relatives Came

The Relatives Came By Cynthia Rylant and Stephen Gammell.
All Ages

In the past three years, my parents have visited us twice, staying with us for six months each time. My mother-in-law visited us twice, staying with us for six months during the first visit and for one month in the second visit. My aunt has visited us twice, staying with us for one month during each of her visits. All the visits were well-intended visits by grand parents and grand aunts to spend quality time with the children. During all these visits, the kids had a royal blast. They run to the my grand aunt whenever their evil mother is behind them with a glass of milk. They love bathing with my mother, go for long walks with my father and sit and recite songs with my mother-in-law. They love to curl with my parents or mother-in-law on lazy afternoons and sleep for an extra half-an-hour. They love it that they have a fresh, tasty, healthy snack waiting for them after their siesta. When you are in a situation in which you care for a child that you have not given birth to, you tend to be relaxed! This relaxed attitude is not spelt out in definite words but yet the children catch it and tune in to it.

But when it is time to say good bye, it is hard for both the relative and the child. The adult grieves that by the next visit the children would have grown up a little bit. They can’t bear to think of the things they will miss – the first step, the first word, the softness of their skin, the way they smell etc. They are unsure if the children will remember them and if they will bond again when they meet the next time.

Well…for the children….it is even more difficult. They experience the same uncertainties, insecurities, turmoil, but the worst part, they don’t have words to express their emotions. For the next month or so, the younger one is surprised that I am the only person who answers her cries. She tries crying a tad more and louder hoping against hope that may be grand mom/dad are sleeping and her cry will wake them. She is confused why she is not lifted and being fussed over for every single call for attention. The elder one, as soon as she is back from school, expects the door to open and a smiling face to pop out. Her face brightens the minute she sees idlis on her plate, she cries out in joy, ‘Idli!!! S patti where are you?’, thinking that my mom had come back and has started making her famous idlis. The anger comes cold, raw, powerful and real when the respective grand parents have reached India and we talk to them over the phone. My elder child refuses to talk to the ‘deserters’ and the younger one starts wailing when she hears their voice. All this despite of all the adults preparing the children and for the imminent good bye!

But life goes on…. teaching invaluable lessons of, ‘Each in their place’, ‘What happened, happened for the good and what is happening is also for the good’, ‘Out of sight is not out of mind’, …..oh, I could go on and on…

This is the crux of the Caldecott honor book, The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant. I wish I could quote every line in the book or scan every single picture and upload it…every word and every picture struck a chord in me. I am exercising immense self control and quoting a few lines as and when appropriate!

In this book, it is the time of summer vacation and the relatives come to visit from Virginia. They close down their house in Virginia, load their suitcases in their station wagon and leave in the wee hours of the morning. They drive all day long and all night long, thinking about both their closed down house in Virginia and the relatives they are going to meet at the end of the drive. When the relatives finally arrive there is much rejoicing, there are hugs and hugs and hugs.

‘The relatives just passed us all around their car, pulling us against their wrinkled Virginia clothes, crying sometimes.
….
….
You’d have to go through at least four different hugs to get from the kitchen to the front room. Those relatives!’.

Then comes the sleeping time. The illustration shows a huge bunch of people scattered all over, some on beds, some on the floor, some squeezed with hands and legs over the person next to them…..for some reason, the image it brought to my mind was my grand mother’s old village house-summer vacation time-whole family clustered in the hall-sleeping on make shift beds. And the author rightly puts it in to the words,

‘It was different, going to sleep with all that new breathing in the house.’

When the vacation is over, the relatives load their station wagon and drive back to Virginia. After waving bye to the relatives, the family crawls back in to their beds, which now feels too big and too quite and goes back to sleep.

Whenever I read the book, I take poetic license and read to suit our context. One of the characters is picked to be grand mom or grand dad. I tell them that they can only visit us, but eventually they have to go back to ‘THEIR HOME’, so on and so forth. Message is being well received and the book has now been successfully renamed as ‘Thatha Patti book’. :)

Ziba Came on a Boat

Author: Liz Lofthouse

Illustrator: Robert Ingpen

US Publisher: Kane/Miller

Age group: Elementary aged children to adults

Setting and story:

Ziba Came on a Boat is a stunning picture book with a story, illustrations and backdrop like no other - people escaping war and violence in search of a new land. And with it, they hope for freedom.

The setting in the story is a boat somewhere in the middle of an "endless" ocean. Ziba, a little girl, rides it with her mother and a group of other people. You can't help but notice the gray and blue colors on the pages, and the sorrow-filled expressions on the faces of the people riding the boat leading you to immediately realize they are not part of a fun-filled and entertaining journey, and you start to wonder if they are refugees of war. Where are they going and what is their story, particularly, the little girl's?

The story begins like this:

Ziba came on a boat. A soggy old fishing boat

That creaked and moaned as it rose and fell,

Rose and fell, across an endless sea…

As you turn the pages, the setting changes from the boat to a village in a hilly area. Ziba's memories flash back, and she recalls her life in the village with other family members and friends before escaping the war-torn land.

Thoughts of home washed over Ziba like the surge of the sea washing over the deck.

Ziba's initial thoughts revolve around happy times - when she played with her village friends, when mother cooked meals for the family, when father told her many tales... You are just starting to feel good with Ziba, when all of a sudden, her thoughts drift to the sad events - when she could no longer go to school and had to stay behind the mud walls. And then, finally when her village was torn apart with violence, the family had to escape the battle-torn land.

Gunfire echoed through the village. Angry voices surrounded her. Clutching her mother’s hand, Ziba ran on and on through the night, far away from the madness until there was only darkness and quiet.

With these horrid recollections, Ziba quickly collects herself in the boat, and cuddles close to her mother. Her mother whispers in her ears, Azadi - meaning freedom. She starts to feel better as she thinks about the future awaiting her, and the smiling faces of new friends she will be meeting in the new land when the journey comes to an end.

Story-telling and illustrations:

What an incredible attempt at story-telling, and that too based on real events! The text does not mention the native land that the refugees come from, but the book jacket describes the author's work and her volunteer role with Afghan refugees in Australia. The theme can very well apply to refugees from any country fleeing for a safer home. Indeed a brave attempt to offer such a heavy-handed story! And even more striking is her attempt to move the scenes from past to present and vice-versa - highly commendable, and certainly unique. Reading the book certainly gave me a feeling of watching a movie - incredibly dramatic, and nothing I have ever seen portrayed so well in a picture book.

The illustrator, Robert Ingpen is an award-winning artist. The illustrations depicting an Afghan home are quite a treat for the eye - the snow-capped mountains in the background of the village that is filled with mud homes. Not to mention, the expressions of people when they are in the village working, their expressions during war and finally, when they are in the boat - feelings of hope and fear so beautifully captured.

Final word:

The book certainly is a heavy one to read to young kids, but a great way to introduce and educate them on the negative realities of the world in a picture book format, particularly to elementary aged and middle school children. My kindergartener certainly enjoyed Ziba's happy memories - her father reading stories, her mother weaving the loom etc. etc.. The book gave us an opportunity to discuss so many things about children being raised in villages where even the most basic of needs are not met such as lack of running water etc. Ziba had to carry water for her family from a nearby well. She also got to learn that Tandoor is actually a clay oven, and some extra research pointed to the fact that the recipe for Indian bread Naan originally comes from Afghanistan. I can safely say that the international theme of the book is sure to appeal to parents like me, and particularly for readers on Saffron Tree.

I should admit I was not ready to offer my five year old topics of war and violence so early on. I skimmed a few words here and there - words such as gunfires. I am sure this book will be part of our "reading together experience" even long after she outgrows reading picture books (who really outgrows picture books? Not me for sure)/p>

This book will certainly come handy as my daughters get emotionally mature to learn about the unending evils of the world. Certainly,these days, there is an interest and questions from my kindergartener about more deeper topics that revolve around death in particular. As hard as they are for me to give answers to those questions, I don't think I can shelter my daughters on the realities of the world or life in general, for a very long time.

The story of Ziba came on a Boat will stay with us for a long time. It is a keepsake, and I am sure it will often come out of our bookshelf and we will be reading the book endlessly, in the years to come.

The Arrival

The Arrival - by Shuan Tan
12+ years, young adults and above

Have you heard of the term chars? - They are small islands on rivers which get inhabited by people in Bangladesh. The word is probably of Bangla origin. A few months back, The Hindu newspaper ran a small article about Swapan Nayak's photographs of migrants from Bangladesh living in 2000 such chars in Brahmaputra river since 1950s. Their number total to nearly 16 lakhs according to the article.

What makes these people leave their home and come and stay in such inhospitable and unhygienic environment. What uncertainty drove them from their country? - Political climate, war, unknown type of violence and other unimaginable causes. Probably the only reason people migrate is hope!. Hope that they would escape the violence and hardships in their own country. Hope that they would be able to live better in new environment. Every step is a big risk. They take them nonetheless with only hope in their mind.

Shaun Tan deals with this topic in his wordless picture book - The Arrival. A man bids adieu to his family from some eastern country (China, Malayasia, Taiwan - could be any eastern country) in search of better life in a prosperous country. He travels in a ship for a long time and arrives at a country where he cannot understand the language, the people, their customs and their life. He tries to make a decent living and meets many other migrants similar to him from various backgrounds and countries. All them try and struggle to live and make their ends meet. He gets help from the other migrants and finally his wife and kid also join him into this foreign country. The last page is full hope as his kid shows directions to another new migrant.

Shaun Tan mixes realism and surrealism to bring a dramatic picture book. Every picture needs to be pored into and looked into detail to understand the sentiments and meaning behind them. Sometimes, we might not understand the meaning of certain pictures; but, would eventually understand it as we go further down the pages. Go to Shaun Tan's website and click on The Arrival book to see some of pictures from his book. He mixes sepia tones with wrinkled pages look make a startling book on migrants and their hardships. His earlier books were for 11+ year olds, but this more specifically for adults.

It is very difficult to describe the book in words - If you get a chance to get hold of this book, do not miss it. The Arrival is one of the finalists in the Graphics Novel section in Cybils 2007. If you do not already know, Cybils is a public nominated, bloggers driven awards in children's literature. It is a great place to find out interesting books in various children's categories. Do not miss to browse through various categories and their nominations and finalists.

I am great fan of two illustrators - David Weisner and Shaun Tan. Both of them convey their stories with only pictures without any words. Both of them are at two extremes of the emotional spectrum. David Weisner makes us wonder, imagine and fantasize. Shaun touches our heart and gets us emotionally involved. David converts us into exuburent children; Shaun makes us into serious and responsible adults. Both of them are masters of this genre - wordless picture books.

If...

A few blogs entries below, Ranjani dealt with the fascinating subject of Why? - the ever questioning nature of children regarding happenings around them. I am going to deal with a book with similar theme - but, from a different perspective.

Wonder and amazement comes naturally to kids. It is a trait that needs to be nurtured and not suppressed. The book 'If...' by Sarah Perry re-kindles the interest and questioning nature of the kids. The book is strewn with various 'ifs..' followed by an illustration that depicts the what if scenario. Some of the interesting ifs... include --

What if there are fishes instead of leaves on the trees.
What if worms had wheels...
What if ants could count...

Each illustration is surrealistic and depicts the what if concept in a stylish and elegant manner. It is a very simple book with a powerful concept behind it.

Some of the ifs might make a few adults say 'yuck'!, but, children would love them. For example, one of the ifs is 'if mice were hair...' and it showed a very realistic painting of a small girl who had mice on her head instead of hair. Ranjani found it very yucky, but, Sooraj had a great laugh. Similarly, I felt a bit irritated when I saw the illustration of 'if toes were teeth'. But, children would love to see such wonderful and realistic portrayal of odd things.

If you had noticed, I had used the term surrealistic to describe the illustrations and later used the term realistic. But, the truth is that the illustrations are both surrealistic and realistic at the same time.

As kids grow up - the society, parents and friends mould them and slowly we make them a replica of ourselves by imposing our own ideas in a subtle manner. A book like this would act as a deterrent to the relentless moulding that the whole society works on without its own knowledge. It helps them to explore a world where things can be different and probably make them realise that there is nothing wrong in thinking/acting differently .

Mama Always Comes Home

Picture source: amazon.com

Sometimes the simplest images and simplest words can allay the biggest of fears for kids. Karma Wilson's Mama Always Comes Home does precisely that. Like Owl Babies, it is a soother, a perfect bedtime read to assure, comfort and calm little ones.

In Mamma Always Comes Home, page after page has Brooke Dyer's warm illustrations of various moms who have to leave their young one(s) behind and head to "work". It starts with a picture of a cozy nest with three little birdies and their mother. They are all snuggling happily. But it is time for mama to go fetch the worm. The birdies don't want her to go, and cry in protest. Mama gives them a tight hug and a promise that, no matter what, she will come back. She flies away from the nest searching for worms, but exactly as she promised, she comes right back home to her little ones. They are overjoyed to see her, eat up their meal and snuggle cozily to sleep under mama's protective wings.

The same story, with appropriate changes, is repeated with different animals - a Mama Dog, a Mama Cat, a Mama Horse, a Mama Dolphin, a Mama Polar Bear. They all have to leave their little babies for a bit during the day but they always come back to feed them, play with them, laugh with them, tickle, cuddle, hug, kiss them. The book wraps with a human mother leaving her baby in the arms of another caring adult (the father, perhaps) and driving off to work. But at the end of the day, this mother too comes back to her little one.

This theme hits home in so many ways. My son went through bouts of separation anxiety during his first year, but that was nothing compared to his clinginess shortly after he started daycare. He would cling to me for every minute in the evening and would refuse to acknowledge other family members. I wish I had found this book then. Just to give him some external security. He is out of that stage now, but the book still appealed to to him. Maybe he could relate to it in a way he couldn't communicate.

In an odd way, I found this book reassuring for myself. A working mother carries pangs of guilt in her all the time. No matter how well her child is taken care of, some degree of guilt persists. It was comforting for me to see that even the animals, who pursue, not material, but basic maternal instincs, do have to leave their babies for a bit, but what matters more is how well they bond with the young one when they are united again.

Footnote: When I read the book, I altered the lines just a bit. 'Mama' might imply maternal uncle, so I read it as Amma Always Comes Back and come to think of it, the same could be applied for Dad who "Always Comes home" too!!

The Grouchy Ladybug

This review is by Kodi's Mom.

Hello, Saffron Tree :) It has been a while since I posted a review here and the reasons for that were many. For one thing, my son went into a I-don't-want-anything- to-do-with-books phase for several months. Thankfully, he snapped out of it as suddenly as he went into it, so we're back to reading and visiting the library, and I am back to reviewing :)

Credit: PictureBookArt

It is hard to read an Eric Carle book and not rave about it! I was looking for The Mixed Up Chameleon that utbt just reviewed, and I found The Grouchy Ladybug. I have brought this book home before and it didn't create much of an impression with my then 1.5 yo. This time was different though. He has been fascinated with ladybugs for a few months now, and the picture of the ladybug on the front cover had him begging me to read. In the first reading, he discovered that you don't judge a book by its cover; that there might be a lot more surprises than you expected!

The basic premise in The Grouchy Ladybug is there are two ladybugs - a friendly one and a grouchy one. The friendly ladybug (FL) wants to share aphids on a leaf, while the grouchy ladybug (GL) wants to fight instead. But once FL agrees to fight, GL, like a typical bully, backs off. The excuse? "Oh, you're too small for me"!! The friendly (and smart!) one challenges him to go find someone his size.

And thus the day starts for GL. Every hour, he runs into insects, birds, animals, in increasing order of size. GL challenges each one to a fight, but when the other party agrees, GL flees with the usual excuse - "you're too small" - only to find someone larger. It gets particularly funny when GL encounters a blue whale - the largest known animal. Where GL is but a dot on the page, a third of the whale's body occupies the entire spread. Yet tiny GL declares to the humungous whale - "You're too small for me."

How the whale teaches GL a wordless lesson is the rest of the story. The morals, of course, are plenty, depending on the age of the kid. Learn to share! Don't be a bully! Be humble - there are things larger and stronger than you!

The neat thing about Eric Carle books is how these strong morals come packaged with several toddler-sized concepts. If the book is a hit, you'll most likely be reading it over and over and over. But that's okay (for the parent) because with each read there's something new to focus on!

Apart from vivid colors that are characteristic of Eric Carle illustrations, this book features an assortment of atypical insects, a bird and animals. You don't encounter a stag beetle and a boa constrictor too often! Each insect/animal responds to GL's challenge with its characteristic trait. The rhino lowers its horn, the elephant extends its trunk and shows off its strong tusks. As each animal is introduced, the size of the page increases in proportion to that of the animal. Presented this way, it is very easy to visually compare how much bigger an elephant is, to say, a bumblebee. As if all that weren't enough, there is even an analog clock on every page that shows the time of day. Older kids can track the time throughout the book.

With so many delightful elements to focus on, and with 7 reads in 4 hours, we have only just started exploring The Grouchy Ladybug!!

Orange Pear Apple Bear

Orange Pear Apple Bear
by Emily Gravett

Suggested age: 1-4 years

As I held this book in my hands at the bookstore, slowly turning the pages with slight skepticism, I tried to read it with my toddler's eyes and senses. By the time I read through to the end I was speechless, reverting to adult experience. I was blown away by the simplicity and the elegant art work.

It is a very simple book, with just 4 (+1) words, as found in the title, telling the whole story through combination of the four words and accompanying illustrations, with just an additional word to end the story.

Reading, some might suggest, initially at least, relies a lot on pattern-recognition - only, this time, it is patterns of letters that are being recognized to be strung together to form the associated sounds. In that sense, this book is both delightful and educational. By repeating the four words in various combination, it makes it easy to teach Ana to read the words along.

I agree with a friend's observation that it seems like this book appeals to ages 1-100, not just 1-4! This book can grow with the child from toddler hood to kindergarten, and as they grow, the book will hopefully offer more, and the subtle elegance will probably become apparent to the child.

It is not easy to know which books will readily appeal to our children. Until they learn to read and develop their taste for books and specific genre, the onus is on us parents to guide our children. In that sense, many books get chosen to be read to our children because we as parents think it has some value, something to offer our children, something that will kindle their passion for book as they grow up. Sometimes we make the right choices, sometimes we don't. I believe this is one of those refreshing books that comes along every once in a while whose beauty is understated, almost leaving us wondering what is so great about it!

On an aside, it was interesting to read about the life of the author Emily Gravett, and a short interview where she relates how Macmillan offered to publish her book. Her first book Wolves won the 2005 Kate Greenaway Medal, the most prestigious award for children’s illustration.

A small nitpicky note - if I must stay balanced - is that the illustration of the bear in this book looks very much like the bear in Charmin Toilet paper commercials :)

The Lorax

The Lorax,
by Dr.Seuss.

The author, Theodor Seuss Geisel, needs no introduction. A master of his craft, his unique style has entertained and educated many of us since childhood. Some books are silly and fun, some are just ridiculous rhymes, but every once in a while, when he does get serious, Dr.Seuss blows us away with his inimitable work, leaving a lasting and indelible impression on our souls with his powerful message.

The Lorax did that to me.

Published in 1971, when people's awareness of our planet's potential plight was just awakening, this book rings ominously and lamentably true in today's world of apathy and lack of accountability regarding the ecology of our Earth, our home.

What was the Lorax, why was it there?
Why was it lifted and taken somewhere...
wonders a little boy at the start of the book, when he is directed to the far end of town where the grickle-grass grows to ask the old Once-ler, as he knows.

A careless and simple Once-ler, many years ago, comes upon the gorgeous land with Truffula Trees, Humming-Fish, Swomee-Swans and Brown bar-ba-loots, all co-exiting and thriving gleefully.

Captivated by the softness of the Truffula Tree tufts, he chops down just one tree at first, to make a beautiful Thneed (It's a shirt. It's a sock. It's a glove. It's a hat. A Thneed is a fine something that everyone needs).

That's when the Once-ler is first confronted by The Lorax.

I am the Lorax, I speak for the Trees, I speak for the trees as the trees have no tongues, he says.

When the Lorax admonishes the Once-ler for chopping the tree to make the fool thneed that nobody needs, right then, a chap comes along and buys the said thneed.

Encouraged by this single sale, the Once-ler soon establishes a factory, inventing the super-axe-hacker to chop down four truffula trees in one smacker, and calling his brothers and uncles and aunts to come help mass produce the thneed.

Soon, the water is polluted by his factory, the air thick with toxins. The Swomee Swans and the Humming Fish are forced to leave to find a better habitat that will let them survive. The brown bar-ba-loots who ate the truffula fruits have nothing to eat and nowhere to rest...

The Lorax confronts the Once-ler, pleading on behalf of the brown Bar-ba-loots who have crummies in their tummies as they don't get to eat much. But, the Once-ler shoos the Lorax away saying business is business and business must grow, regardless of crummies in tummies you know...

Well, rather than tell it myself, as the master so perfectly blends the magic of rhyming verses and brilliant illustrations to prod the senses, I'll leave the details of the story and skip to the end.

The now remorseful Once-ler unfolds the tale of the destruction he wreaked. Just when the reader's heart is about to break, the book ends with the beacon of hope when the Once-ler drops a Truffula seed and says,

"Unless".

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot..."

This would be a perfect book for early introduction to environmental education and am sure my 7-year old niece would certainly appreciate the theme and the presentation, even if she cannot relate to the ever-popular corporate approach of profits at the cost of our ecosystem.

Ana (my 2¼ year old) loves this book, although I am sure she doesn't quite get the pithy subject of caring for your environment and doing the right thing that the book deals with.

To me, the brilliance of the book lies in the ending where Dr.Seuss leaves us with the message that our chances of survival now lie in the hands of a caring child - and that child could be you, my dear Ana!

And, that child could be each and every one of the little (and not-so-little) ones we read this book to...

How Are You Peeling? by Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers

Some books are hits because of their verse, some because of their illustrations, but some others are loved because of their outrageously unique concept.

Picture source: Scholastic

How Are You Peeling? is of the third kind. It takes you into a world where the produce section of a grocery store comes alive with moods. The book does little talking and more expressing. Photographs of bell peppers, apples, kiwis, oranges - all of which are sporting some emotion - predominate over the text which just labels the emotion. Happiness, pride, anger, fear, surprise - they are all in there. The blurb claims that the creators of the book hand picked "expressive" vegetables, did a bit of carving with sharp paring knives, and replaced their eye-slots with black-eyed peas to produce the desired effect.

There is one picture of a surprised apple. Its 'mouth' is rounded up in shock, its 'eyes' are perked up in an arch. This picture is Kodi's favorite - every time we pick up the book, the first thing he wants to see is "Aappil O."

How Are You Peeling? is fantastic way to talk to little ones about their feelings. It came to my rescue once, right in the middle of Kodi's tantrum. I pulled him to my lap, opened the book and turned to the page which showed a really angry bell pepper. I told Kodi, This is what you look like. One look at picture and the tantrum melted to giggles.

Last Word: A book for all ages to talk about emotions and amaze at how much vegetables can communicate with their facial features!

Rating: 5 bindis for concept and presentation

Others in this series:

Food for Thought - that teaches numbers, shapes, colors.

Play With Your Food - that tells you step-by-step, how to create animals and objects from fruits and veggies.

P.S.: Inspired by How Are You Peeling?, my son and I tried our hand at testing out the mood of a citrus at home. The result? One goofy, orangy bright smile....

Added: Goofy Orange also looks a tad drunk, don't you think? ;)

Mirette on the High Wire

Do you have fear of heights? I do. I am scared of peeping out from rooftops or balconies. More than the fear of heights; it is the fear of what would happen if I fall down that scares me a lot. I start imagining weird stuff. Even if I had to walk on the walls; I would think twice in my younger ages. So, it was with great wonder that I picked up the book - 'Mirette on the High Wire' by Emily Arnold McCully.

This is a nice picture book about a girl named Mirette. Her mother, widow Gateau, runs a boardinghouse in Paris - where all the actors, jugglers, acrobats and various other artists come from near and far to spend time with one another and eat the widows' wonderful food. Mirette helps her mother by doing various chores for her. One day, she notices one of the residents of the boarding house crossing the courtyard on air! She is highly enchanted by the stranger's skill of walking on high wire and decides to learn walking on the wire.

She pleads the stranger to teach her walking on the wire. The stranger turns out to be Bellini, the world famous exponent of high-wire walking. Bellini is so famous and good at walking on high wire that he had once crossed Niagara Falls on high wire and while crossing spent a few minutes to cook some boiled eggs on the wire; eat them; and then continue walking on the wire to the other side. A daredevil. Sadly now, he is retired and does not perform any more public stunts.

After much pleading, Mirette starts to learn high wire walking from the master himself. While learning and through other means, she finds out the reason why Bellini had stopped performing and retired. Bellini had suddenly developed fear of heights and is afraid! Even the greatest of stunts men and women are afraid and once it comes to their mind; it is very difficult to overcome it. Overcoming fear is probably more difficult than the task itself.

The rest of the story involves the details on how Mirette helps Bellini to overcome his fear.

Emily Arnold McCully has written and illustrated this wonderful picture book. The story is set in 19th Century and costumes, the dresses, the picturesque background buildings represent an old European city in vivid and bright colours. The various characters in the boarding house are depicted in interesting colours, hats and dresses - in order to illustrate the variety and differences among various artists. As one reviewer in Amazon pointed out; if you are looking for a picture book where the female character shows a lot spunk and is not depicted as being shy and cloy, do pick this book up.

Ben's Trumpet

When I was a child I used to love drums, mridangam and any type of percussion instrument. I used to play imaginary drums. I guess most of us in our young age would have played some imaginary instrument. It is probably imaginary now; but, while playing it - it would have been the world for us. We would have probably heard the slight nuances and variations in the sounds and rhythm. Ben's Trumpet is a story of a kid who loves the trumpet. He lives near a Jazz club called Zig Zag Club and listens to the music every night. He plays his imaginary trumpet along with the other musicians in the club. Many days he falls asleep listening and playing his trumpet.

Everyday morning, on his way to the school he peeps inside the club and watches the various musicians practice. He notices all the musicians, but considers the trumpeter as the cat's meow(I learnt that this phrase means 'something that is outstanding').

He plays his wonderful trumpet to his whole family and every where he goes. One day the trumpeter from Zig Zag club watches him and commends him on his wonderful music. A few days later on his way back from the school, a few children bully him and make fun of his imaginary trumpet. He is downcast and walks home dejected.

He continues to keep a vigil outside the club; but no longer plays his trumpet. The musicians come out for a break and the trumpeter of the club notices him downcast. He invites him inside the club, gives him a real trumpet and says - 'and we'll see what we can do'.

The book is written and illustrated by Rachel Isadore and initially published in 1979. Illustrations are in deco style using ink (and/or pencil drawings). The illustrations are impressive and indicate the mood of the story. The images are electric and the words are minimum in every page. The depictions of the various musicians, while playing their instruments, are very realistic and captures the intensity. The illustration of the drummer has a lot of movement and captures the speed and the rhythm of playing the drums. An illustration of the trumpeter from Zig Zig club walking by depicts the coolness and swagger of the person.

A very simple and heartwarming story with some impressive illustrations. Just One More Book has a wonderful podcast on Ben's Trumpet. Their discussion captures the essence of this book more than this blogpost entry.

Update: Made a few changes to the text. Did not notice that there were quite a few typos in my original post.

Free Fall

Hobbes (of Calvin and Hobbes) says - I think we dream so we don't have to be apart so long. If we're in each others dreams, we can be together all the time.

Calvin always lives in his dreams or his dreams and real life overlap so much that there is hardly any demarcation between them. Calvin lives in a surrealistic world. Who knows? May be most of our kids live in a surreal world where their real life and dream life merge and intermingle. May be, we were like that during our young days and slowly lost ourselves completely to the real world.

A young boy falls asleep reading a book and drifts slowly and silently into the book. The book draws him into a glorious world as it travels through wide and varied landscape. Each page of the book takes him through one adventure after another. As he glides through the wide fields, he meets some the members of his chess game. The bishop comes out to greet him; while the rook and the knight keep a safe distance watching him. The bishop leads him to a gigantic castle guarded by iron-clad knights. The castle is a maze of steps and circles that could lead to anywhere. He goes along to greet the knight only to realise that one of the knights have turned into beautiful sea-birds. The pillars of the castle turn into massive trees and walls of the castle turn into dragon's sharp back. and so on.. goes the dream!

Well, so goes on the wonderful picture book called Free Fall by David Weisner. Another great wordless book; as he demonstrates the amazing creativity and boundary less nature of dreams. David Weisner depicts the fluid nature of the dreams with one dream after another merging in his wonderful paintings. There is so much of activity going on in each page of the book that one needs to spend at least a few minutes going through the minute details. Every page is a potential for the kid to make up his own story. Every time we browse through the illustrations, I end up finding something interesting.

It is a great reminder for us about the tremendous power of creativity and dreams - something that we tend to forget during our mundane day to day work.

As Marcel Proust says - "If a little dreaming is dangerous, the cure for it is not to dream less but to dream more, to dream all the time."

Dream on! and let your kids free to dream their own dreams!

Why?

"Never has there been a good war or a bad peace. " - Benjamin Franklin

Is there any reason for a war/battle? As the war drags on, does any one remember why the whole battle started? At the end, only devastation remains. There would probably be victors, but what is the price? Or is there ever a victor? Is there any sense in a war?

All these are big questions. Something that one would not want our children to know about. Do we want our children to know about war and violence? At what age do we tell them about war and violence. Nikolai Popov thinks it is never too early to talk about violence and war with children. He talks about the senselessness of a war in simple and understandable format of a wordless book called Why?

In a very peaceful environment; a buttoned up frog is sitting peacefully on a rock and enjoying the pleasant evening(or morning) with beautiful flower in its hand. Very soon, a rodent digs out a nearby hole with an umbrella and for no reason attacks the frog. The frog is crestfallen, but, it has a few buddies around and they gang up and attack the rodent. The rodent flees leaving the yellow umbrella. The frogs use the yellow umbrella to pick up flower and enjoy among themselves. Soon, the rodent is back with its own friends and launches a fresh attack on the frogs. Soon, every one joins together and there is a big war in progress. For absolutely no reason, the frogs and rodents keep bashing each other up. The final page shows the first frog with the torn umbrella and the rodent with a completely smashed flower in hand. Both look crestfallen and seem to wonder why the whole incident happened?

All the illustrations are in green water colour initially to depict the greenery and peace and slowly the colours change as we scroll through the various pages. By the end, the whole page is brownish depicting the ravages and destruction of the war. There is no bloodshed, the illustrations emote the dreadfulness and senselessness of the violence very well.

It is an extremely loaded picture book. It is probably a good gift for all adults and kids of all ages. I am not sure if kids might be able understand the depth of the tale, but, it would probably stay in their mind. Sooraj and I went through this book once or twice. But, he did not seem to enjoy it that much - atleast there were no visible signs. I have a feeling he might enjoy it and appreciate more as he grows older.

"An eye for an eye makes the entire world blind" - M K Gandhi