Picture Book Monday with a review of The Typewriter

All of us have dreams that we wish would come true. Some are 'practical' dreams; technically speaking these dreams could come true under the right circumstances. Other dreams are delightfully fantastical and we know that the only place that these dreams can live in is in our imaginations. Today's picture book take us into the lives of three children who, thanks to a magical typewriter, are able to make their wishes come true.

The Typewriter

Bill Thomson

Wordless Picture Book

For ages 4 to 6

Two Lions, 2016, 978-1477849750

One day three children ride their bikes to the carousel, only to discover that is it closed. Most of the rides on the carousel are the traditional horses that you expect to see, but there is also a bumblebee ride, and on the seat of the bumblebee, right next to the pole that attaches it to the carousel, there is a box. The children lift the box down to the ground, open it, and find out that it contains a typewriter.

   The little girl puts some paper in the typewriter and then she types the word Beach. In a moment the children are transported from their snowy home to a beach, complete with sun, sand, and a blue sky. While his friends are playing in the surf, one of the boys types the word Ball on the paper, and just like that a large beach ball appears. The third child types the word Ice Cream and a huge plastic pail, full of ice cream, turns up. Then it is the girl’s turn again. She types the word Crab on the paper and sure enough a crab materializes on the sand. The problem is that this crab, like the ball and the pail of ice cream, is huge!

   This gorgeous wordless picture book serves as a tribute to the imagination, and it will take readers into that wonderful world of what if. What would they type on a typewriter that could make dreams come true? What would they do if they were confronted by a huge crab? Children will see, through the magic typewriter, that words have enormous power, and perhaps they will wonder if words in the real world are just as remarkable, though in a different way.

Poetry Friday with a review of What are you Glad about? What are you Mad About?

Feelings can be so confusing sometimes. We can feel two contradictory emotions at the same time, or we experience an emotion that we can't identify and don't understand. Today's poetry book explores the feelings people have in a creative and clever way. Touches of humor in some of the poems reminds us that there is always room for a smile or a laugh.

What are you glad about? What are you mad about?

Judith Viorst

Illustrated by Lee White

Poetry Book

For ages 7 to 9

Simon and Schuster, 2016, 978-1-4814-2355-7

Sometimes we know exactly how we are feeling. We are happy because our day is going well, or we are grumpy because nothing seems to be going right. Then there are those times when we cannot quite figure out what is going on inside. We think we are happy, but then feelings of sadness trickle in from somewhere. Or, we think we should be upset, but somehow the upset feelings don’t behave the way they are supposed to.

   No matter how you are feeling, you will find that this book contains poems that speak to you, that resonate with you because they seem to understand what is happening in your life at this particular moment. For example, if you are feeling cut off from the world and alone, the poem All Alone Inside My Very Own Skin will comfort you because you will see that you are not the only who is feeling all alone inside; you are not the only one who wishes “I could invite somebody in.”

   More often than not, what we feel on the inside is influenced by what is happening on the outside. Events at school, family ups and downs, and happenings with friends and enemies all play a part in our stories, and there are poems in this collection that bring such stories to life.

   My Papa is a poem that captures the love that one little child has for his grandfather, a man who makes wonderful grilled cheese sandwiches. This grandfather rides bikes, reminds his grandson of “My thank-yous and my pleases,” and when the little boy becomes the president he will “banish prunes and peases” and his grandfather will be named the “head of the / Department of Grilled Cheeses.”

   From an easy-going grandfather we go to Bossy Mom, a parent who controls her child’s every move and action in life. You don’t have to be a genius to see that the child is more than a little fed up with being told what to do, and how to do it, every minute of the day. “She is ruining my life!” and “she’s going to drive me completely insane,” the child says, in desperate tones.

   There are even poems in this collection about the seasons, which is only right and proper. After all, for children, the seasons are often full of things that summon up emotions. There are wonderful things like falling leaves in autumn that make such a “commotion” in their leave-taking so that we “won’t forget them when they go.” Then there are not so great things like those cold days in winter when we are so cold and shivery, so frozen to the bone, that we wish we could hibernate and tell people “don’t bother to call me till spring.”

   This is a delicious collection of poems that children will come back to again and again, because on the pages they will find verses that will make them smile, and nod, and shake their heads in commiseration. They will find situations and feelings that will be familiar, and that will make sense. They will feel that here is a poet who completely ‘gets’ where they are coming from. 

Books of Hope - A Child's Garden: A Story of Hope

When life is hard, or when we are living in a place and/or a time that is full of challenges, it is so easy to despair and give up hope. At such times we forget to notice the little gifts that life is giving us, the little things that brighten our world and make it a happier place. A friend's hug, the smile of a child, a a gorgeous sunrise. These things all give us hope when we experience them.

Today's Book of Hope takes us to a grim place where hope is scarce. Until something miraculous happens.

A Child's Garden: A Story of Hope
Michael Foreman
Picture Book
For ages 6 and up
Candlewick, 2009, 978-0763642716
One day, after a rain shower, a little boy who lives in a war ravaged world sees a little plant pushing its way through the soil. The little boy carefully tends the plant, and in time he recognizes that it is a grapevine. The vine grows up the barbed wire fence that prevents the little boy from going to the hills that he once visited with his father. The vine grows and prospers, and soon it provides the children in the war zone with a shady place to play.
   Then something terrible happens, soldiers from the other side of the fence pull up the vine and they throw it in a ditch. The little boy can't help feeling that his heart is going to break; but is doesn't break after all.
   In this powerful and very moving picture book, Michael Foreman celebrates the resilience and courage of the human spirit. He shows his readers how people, even in the most trying of times, can find something to live for. Against the stark grey landscape of ruined homes and lives, Michael Foreman gives us the warm glow of something green and living, and we can see how a simple plant can give people hope for a better future.

This title is out of print in the United States, but new and used copies are easy to find online. The book is still in print in the U.K.

Picture Book Monday with a review of The Friend Ship

Finding friends isn't always easy, and the search for people to connect with can be a lonely one. In today's picture book you are going to meet an incredibly sweet little hedgehog who learns that she needs to find friendship, and who goes on an incredible journey to find it.

The Friend Ship

Kat Yeh

Illustrated by Chuck Groenink

Picture Book

For ages 5 to 7

Disney Hyperion, 2016, 978-148470726-5

One day Hedgehog is lying curled up in a ball in “the lonely little nook of a lonely little tree” when she hears two animals taking about her. One animal tells the other that Hedgehog seems lonely, and then the other animal says that things will be better when Hedgehog finds friendship. All she has to do is to go and look for it.

   Hedgehog is inspired by this overheard conversation. The “Friend Ship” is out there waiting for her and now she has to find it. Hedgehog quickly gets to work and builds a boat. A beaver comes a long and asks her what she is doing. Hedgehog explains that she will soon be setting off to find The Friend Ship. The beaver, who wants a friend, asks if he can join Hedgehog in her quest, and she happily agrees.

   The two travelers don’t travel far in their boat when they come across four deer. Hedgehog asks the deer if they have seen The Friend Ship. The deer like the idea of being on such a vessel; they would like to have friends too, and so they ask if they can join Hedgehog and the beaver, who are happy to welcome the deer on board.

   Hedgehog and her companions sail north and south. The head east as well, and every time they ask someone if they have seen The Friend Ship the answer is no. Every time Hedgehog is asked if an animal can join her quest she (and everyone else) always says yes.

   After a few days of searching and asking, Hedgehog begins to lose hope, but the animals on the ship with her don’t let her give up. They support and comfort her, telling her that they will “stick with you till the end.”

   This wonderful picture book shows readers, in a sweet and gentle way, how sometimes the one thing that we want the most in life can sometimes be found right under our noses. In company with Hedgehog and her fellow travelers, we go on a wonderful voyage of discovery and hope.

Poetry Friday with a review of The Geography of Girlhood

Growing up can be tough, and for some the teenage years are a time full of confusion and trouble. This was certainly true for me and I therefore tend to stay away from books about teens who are in crisis. I don't particularly want to relive that time of my life, thank you very much! However, today's novel in verse caught my attention, and though it is a painful story at times, I am so glad that I read it. It is so beautifully written and so wonderfully honest.

The Geography of Girlhood

Kirsten Smith

Poetry

For ages 12 to 14

Little Brown, 2006, 978-0316017350

As far as Penny is concerned, being a fourteen-year-old is all about being stuck in a world where she stands on the sidelines waiting for things to get better. Penny enviously watches Tara, her beautiful older sister, sashay through life, with a boyfriend following in her wake. Penny wishes that she could be like Tara instead of being a girl who looks like her father, a man who is not “pretty” at all. Penny wishes she could wake up one day with “a new life / that doesn’t look anything / like this one.”

   When she was just six, Penny’s mother left, and since then her father has done his best to be a father and a mother to his daughters, which is not easy. Tara in particular likes to live life to the fullest, which can lead to problems. Sometimes Tara plays one teenage girl card too many. One night Penny comes home and finds out that Tara came home with hickeys all over her neck and their father is furious. So furious in fact that he tried to put a new lock on Tara’s bedroom door.

   After this piece of drama, more and more things start to happen in Penny’s life. She gets detention for the first time, a boy blows a kiss at her, and when the star of the school play gets bronchitis, Penny has to step out of her in-the-background understudy role and onto the stage to play the lead part. This could be the opportunity of a lifetime. It really could. Except Penny does not know her lines and the first night is a bust. A second understudy takes on the lead role for the remaining performances of the play.

   When she leaves the theater that night, walking in the rain, Randall Faber gives Penny a bunch of flowers. He does not seem to mind that she made a complete mess of the play and suddenly she isn’t just Penny Morrow, the “Screw-up In the School Play.” Now she is “The Girl Randall Faber Likes,” who then becomes the girl who fainted when Randal Faber kissed her. To say that Penny feels humiliated is an understatement.  The surprising thing is that Randall still wants to be her official boyfriend and so Penny finds herself holding hands with him, dancing with him, and trying to have conversations with him. She should be happy with her new status in life, but the truth of the matter is that she really does not like him that much. How did that happen?

   Penny is not the only one in a relationship either. Her dad starts seeing a biologist, and Penny cannot believe how changed he is. He tries new things, steps into the unknown, and stops hiding from the world. By the time summer is rich and ripe with sunny days, Penny’s dad has married Susan and Penny and Tara have a new stepmother and a stepbrother.

   Change happens so fast during the summer months and Penny is barely about to keep up. Her friend Denise really falls apart and has to take medication; Tara breaks every rule she can; and in September Penny gets sucked into the world of high school. The thing is that Penny has no idea what she is doing half the time and so on she stumbles, trying desperately to keep her head above water and survive.

   This sometimes gritty, poignant, and often painful novel in verse takes us into the world of a teenage girl who, like so many teenagers, has no clue how to navigate the world she finds herself in. As her sister and best friend slip into deeper and deeper waters of recklessness (Tara) and illness (Denise), Penny tries to figure out where she belongs and who she is. Change and loss make her last years in school complicated, and readers will find themselves wishing that they could hold this girl who misses her long-lost mother, longs for a life somewhere else, and struggles to understand her world.

Books of Hope - All the World

Many of us live in the past or the future. We look back on good times that are now gone, or look forward to what might be coming. We forget to appreciate the amazing and wonderful things that are happening to us right now, and those amazing and wonderful things can be simple everyday moments. Seeing that a favorite flower is blooming, or sharing a smile with a complete stranger are the kinds of in-the-now moments that we need to savor.

Today's book of hope is all about celebrating the present, those times that enrich our lives in so many ways.

All the world
Liz Garton Scanlon
Illustrator:  Marla Frazee
Picture Book
All ages
Simon and Schuster, 2009, 1416985808
Many of us spend our lives running from place to place, and from activity to activity. We rarely take the time to appreciate the now; to enjoy what we are doing right this minute. In this beautifully written and illustrated picture book, Liz Garton Scanlon and Marla Frazee have created a memorable text and lovely illustrations to tell the story of one day in the life of a family. As the day unfolds, we are reminded of the wonderful things that fill our lives, and the simple pleasures that make life so special.
   The book begins with two children playing on a beach. The build a sandcastle, dig a moat, and take “a shell to keep.” Then the family heads to a farmer’s market where they buy produce and flowers. There are moments that are trying, for example when a storm arrives and rain pours down, and there are moments when everything is right with the world.
   This book celebrates the connections between people, the wonders that fill our world, the high points that we share, and the low points that we also share. It is a title that readers of all ages will enjoy.

Books of Hope - Winnie the Pooh

When the world without gets dark and stormy, when illness strikes,  or when I am just worn down by life, I turn to a number of books for solace and comfort. One of the books I turn to is today's Book of Hope title. It may seem strange that I would consider Winnie the Pooh to be a book of hope, but I think it is just that. The Winnie the Pooh stories remind us of the simple joys, the little adventures, the funny situations, that make life rich and wonderful. Feeling rich in stories that are packed with humor and sweet affection most certainly gives the spirit a lift.

Winnie the Pooh
A. A. Milne
Illustrator:  Ernest H. Shepard
Fiction
For ages 5 and up
Penguin, 2005, 978-0142404676
Lets us hear a story. Christopher Robin has decided that the story he would like to hear should be one about his bear, "Winnie-ther-Pooh." Christopher thinks that Winnie would very much like to hear a story about himself, and so off we go, to the forest, where Winnie-the-Pooh lives.
   In the first story we are told, Pooh, who is very partial to food in general, and honey in particular, decides that he wants to climb a tree because there is a large bee hive at the top. Of course where there are bees there is honey, and where there is honey there are Poohs. At first Pooh tries climbing up the tree in the old fashioned way, but that turns out to be a painful exercise. So he heads off to find Christopher Robin, whom he hopes might have a solution to his problem. Sure enough, before long, Pooh is floating up next to the honey bee tree hanging from a large blue balloon. There still is a problem however, and the problem is that the bees, which are not unintelligent creatures, are beginning to get "suspicious."
   Poor Pooh. This is only the first of several rather uncomfortable adventures that he has. In the next tale we are told, the bear, who as I have said enjoys food, gets stuck in Rabbit's doorway. Pooh blames the size of the doorway, and Rabbit blames the size of Pooh. There is nothing to be done however, for Pooh is stuck tight. All Pooh can do is listen to a "Sustaining Book such as would help and comfort a Wedged Bear in Great Tightness" and wait to get thinner.
   A. A. Milne's deliciously funny stories about this lovable bear, with their wonderful use of language,  will never lose their charm. Pooh and his friends speak a language all children understand, and they make the kinds of mistakes that they understand too. At the same time, there can be no doubt that Pooh's tales delight adults as well. There is something about the bear's simple needs, his obvious devotion to his friends, and his delightful way of expressing himself that makes Pooh a panacea for a tired mind, an aching heart, or a weary spirit.
   Ernest Shepard's delightful illustrations perfectly capture the personalities of Pooh, Piglet, and their friends.

Poetry Friday with a review of Wet Cement: A mix of Concrete Poems

Concrete poems, or poems that are laid out on a page to create pictures, are such fun to explore; and to write. Poets who like to write such poems are wonderfully creative and they often inject their writings with a sense of fun as well. Today's title is full of these poems, and readers of all age will enjoy reading and looking at them.

Wet Cement: A mix of Concrete poems

Bob Raczka

Poetry Book

For ages 7 to 10

Roaring Brook Press, 2016, 978-1-62672-236-1

For Bob Raczka, poems are “word paintings” because the words on the page “paint pictures inside your head.” The wonderful thing about concrete poems, or shape poems, is that the words also “paint pictures on the page.” The words are arranged in such a way that they create an image of something that represents what the poem is about. For example, for a poem about a candle, the words might we arranged on the page to look like a flame.

   In this collection of poems Bob Raczka has decided to take the picture-making aspect of his creations to another level. The words of the poems create a picture, and in addition the letters in the titles of the poems also create a picture.

   For example, in the poem Crossword, the letters in the title of the poem are arranged in such a way to create a cross. Then the words of the poem are placed on the page in such a way that they create what looks like a crossword.

   In the Poem Dominoes, the title letters are tipped to one side, and the words of the poem look like a row of dominoes that have also been tipped over. The text in the poem is written from the point of view of the dominoes themselves. They talk about the need to “brace yourself,” “forward march” and “do your part,” as they fall over and lean against each other.

  The poem Icicles is beautifully picture rich. Both the letters in the title and the words in the poem hang down like icicles from the eves of a building. The title is upside down and the lines of the poem hang sideways so that we have to turn the page to read them. They tell us how icicles form and how you can “Break one off and take a lick” when the icicles are “long and clear and ripe.”

   Children are going to be delighted when they see how the poems in this book loop and hop, circle, crisscross, and hang on the pages to create pictures. They may even be inspired to try creating concrete poems of their own.

Books of Hope - Miss Rumphius

This is one of my favorite picture books. The story reminds me that even the simple act of planting flowers can make the world a better place. What Miss Rumphius does is to give everyone who sees her flowers a gift of beauty, and imagine what that does for them. Maybe it makes them happy and lifts them up. Maybe it reminds them that the world is a beautiful place. Maybe seeing the flowers allows them to move forward with hope in their hearts.

Miss Rumphius
Barbara Cooney
Picture Book
For ages 5 and up
Penguin, 1985, 978-0140505399
When Alice was a small girl she used to talk to her grandfather about how, when she grew up, she would "go to faraway places," and when she grew old she would "live beside the sea." Alice's grandfather told her that in addition to these two things, there was a third thing that she must do, and that was to do something that would "make the world more beautiful."
   When Alice grew up to become Miss Rumphius she did indeed travel to far off lands, and she had all sorts of adventures. Then, when she began to get tired, she found a little house by the sea to live in. The question she now had was what she should do to make the world a more beautiful place.
   One day when she was out walking she found some beautiful lupines growing on a hillside. The lupines were the offspring of the flowers that she had planted in her own little garden the previous spring. Now Miss Rumphius knew what she would have to do. Back at home she sent away for bags and bags of lupine seeds and then she got to work sowing the seeds all over the countryside, making the hills and valleys around her home beautiful.
   This delightful story about dreams and the need to give something back to the world is both powerful and thought provoking. What the elderly Miss Rumphius does is not earth shaking, and yet it does make the world a more beautiful place, and her labours give lots of people great pleasure as they look at the fields of lupines that she sowed. The reader cannot help wondering what he or she can do to make the world a more beautiful place. Whatever one chooses to do, whether it is planting trees or joining a group to clean up the countryside, each effort to make the world more beautiful makes a difference.

Books of Hope, 2017: Reviews of books that empower, uplift, and give the reader hope.

Dear bookish friends:

2016 was a very strange year. It was a year during which we were subjected to so much discord and anger in the media and in our communities, and so much bad news. The year left many people, including myself, feeling shaken and worried for the future. I was thinking about this a week or so ago and trying to figure out what I could do to make my world a little brighter and more hopeful. Naturally my thoughts turned to books.

I have decided that I will review at least one book each week that offers up a message that is warming, thoughtful, and hopeful. I will choose books that remind us that the world is not always a terrible place. Perhaps the book will explore compassion. Perhaps it will tell the story of a person who has found a way to make the world a better place. Perhaps readers will see how differences can be overcome, and how bridges between conflicting groups can be built.

Though all of the books I review were written for young readers, I want you to know that the Books of Hope that I am going to share with you during this year will suit readers of all ages. Adults can get a lot out of reading children's literature, so don't be afraid to read one of these titles for yourself. See what you discover and learn. You may be surprised!

My hope is that these books will give you hope, and that that hope will help you to make our world a kinder, gentler, more compassionate place.