Just Behave, Pablo Picasso!

Just Behave Pablo Picasso! by Jonah Winter. Illus. by Kevin Hawkes. 2012.

Although this picture book about Picasso is not nearly as detailed as Electric Ben , it provides a great introduction to the artist and his work. As a young man, painting came to him naturally, and although he was poor, he was satisfied making different styles of pictures according to his feelings. After he found a style that pleased the public, he became rich and famous. There was a price for this though, because everyone wanted him to continue to create his art in the exact same way. This bored Picasso! He found inspiration in African masks and wanted to paint in a new way. He did, and everyone hated the results. They were judged terrible and ugly and his critics, art dealers, fellow artists and even his wife, wanted him to return to his former methods. But, Picasso would not. He expressed his creativity as it came to him and modern art was born.

Some elements of the plot are expressed playfully, such as when Picasso answers his detractors by growing to the height of 100 feet and shouting them down and when all of Paris at once replies that he should behave himself. The book's art matches this playfulness. Hawkes' acrylic paintings provide a bold and dynamic depiction of Picasso and his world. He shows the artist literally floating above the Parisian streets admiring the African masks. Picasso's critics have faces similar to the very works that they are protesting. Additionally, twenty one of Picasso's paintings are shown within the context of the story. A complete list of titles and details are included afterward.

Electric Ben by Robert Byrd

Electric Ben: The Amazing Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin by Robert Byrd, 2012.

This Sibert Honor winning over sized biography may be only 30+ pages, but it packs in information about the hardworking Ben Franklin. He was quite an amazing man: a philanthropist, scientist, inventor, politician and diplomat. He began America's first lending library and started what would become the University of Pennsylvania. He invented streetlights, the lightning rod and bifocals, among other things. Franklin founded America's first hospital and created our original fire-fighting force. Yet, he considered himself first a printer. He published a popular newspaper and became a bestselling author with Poor Richard's Almanac.  The list of his achievements goes on and on. Because of his extreme importance in government events before, during and following the Revolutionary war, readers also get a snapshot of the struggle for independence. Byrd sums up Franklin thusly: "Of all his accomplishments and gifts,Franklin's greatest may have been his untiring effort as a mediator and guiding spirit in the development of the law-making process that governs the United States."

 After Franklin's story, Byrd tells about the challenge of writing about him and Byrd's own aim to give kids a feel for life in the 18th century as they meet this amazing citizen. Byrd also discusses his illustrations and the efforts that he made to be historically accurate. A timeline and bibliography are included.

This is a wonderfully well designed book, from the exciting cover to its endpapers covered with Ben Franklin's quotes. Every page is decorated with colorful watercolor art, nearly always creatively portraying a moment of action in Franklin's fascinating life. Panels of brief, interesting information are accompanied by pictures, some arranged similar to a comic strip.

Unnecessary aside:

My favorite quote of Franklin's many quotes is: "Everything puts me in mind of a story."

Family Birthday Storytime #2

More great books for a Birthday Family Storytime:

• Happy Birthday Moon by Frank Asch
• Birthday Monsters by Sandra Boynton
• Oh! If Only... by Michael Foreman
• My Lucky Birthday by Keiko Kasza
• Anansi's Party Time by Eric A. Kimmel, Illus. by Janet Stevens
• Wodney Wat's Wobot by Helen Lester, Illus. by Lynn Munsinger
• Not Last night But the Night Before by Colin McNaughton, Illus. by Emma Chichester Clark
• It's My Birthday by Helen Oxenbury
• The Birthday Box by Leslie Patricelli
• Is Everyone Ready for Fun? By Jan Thomas (Not Birthday related, but, well, fun)
• How Do Dinosaurs Say Happy Birthday? by Jane Yolen & Mark Teague

Action Rhyme: “Birthday Months”

If your birthday is in January, turn around
If your birthday is in February, touch the ground
March, march along
 April, sing a song
May, wiggle your nose
June, shake your toes
 July, jump up high
 August, reach the sky
 September, tap your shoe
 October, call out “Boo!”
 November, tickle your ears
 December, give three cheers!

Credit: Addison Public Library

"Who Could That Be at This Hour?" by Lemony Snicket

"Who Could That Be at This Hour?" by Lemony Snicket, Art by Seth, 2012.


Although I am not especially a fan of Snicket's (pen name of Daniel Handler) other well known books, A Series of Unfortunate Events, I am not immune to them either, and I have to admit that this first book in his new series, All the Wrong Questions, made me laugh out loud. This story is about the mysterious earlier years of Snicket himself, who as a thirteen year old becomes an apprentice to one S. Theodora Markson, a chaperone ranked 52 out of 52 chaperones. Together they must solve the mystery of who stole the statue of the Bombinating Beast (a kind of shark like sea horse) and return it to its rightful owners. But is it even stolen?

Along the way, young Snicket meets many colorful characters, such as would be reporter Moxie Mallahan, Pip and Squeak, who together are able to drive a taxi for their family business, and Ellington Feint, who is trying to find her missing father. I especially enjoyed Dashiell Qwerty, the moth chasing, helpful sub-librarian. As Snicket passes secret messages via interlibrary loan request to someone waiting to meet him, Qwerty appears not to notice a thing, even when the request is for the book Be Very, Very Careful by the Belgian author Please.

Lemony Snicket continues to expand his readers vocabulary, by using a word and then explaining it, for example: "Your reticence is not appreciated,"Theodora said, breaking my sour silence. "'Reticence' is a word which here means not talking enough. Say something, Snicket." The story moves along with plenty of clever wordplay, silly encounters and amusing plot twists. My only complaint is that the story kind of disintegrates as it becomes clear that the mystery's answers lie in the next sequel (or the next?)

Seth's illustrations match the campy retro Noir feeling of the book, worked in shadowy black, blue and white. The author/illustrator photos are also fun, done in black and white with both men suited up and wearing fedoras. Snicket's face is turned away, as is only right for such a mysterious fellow.

It won't take much to sell Snicket's new series to a legion of admiring fans!

Little White Duck: a Childhood In China

Little White Duck: A Childhood In China by Na Liu and Andres Vera Martinez, 2012.

This autobiographical graphic novel is the story of  Na Liu's upbringing in China, beginning in 1976 when Chairman Mao dies. Liu tells stories that are unique to her experience in that place and time frame. Her younger sister is born just one year after her, and when their mother is pregnant with Xiao Qin, a new law is passed that each family can only have one child, or they must pay fines. Because the baby is already on the way, Liu's family does not have to pay. This gives the reader an idea of how involved the government was in a family's business.

 Liu tells how when she was in school, the children were encouraged to fight the "four pests": the rat, fly, mosquito and cockroach. She and her classmates were asked to bring in rat tails to show that they were doing their part. Liu now notes that sparrows were once one of the four pests, and they were hunted to the point where there were no birds to control crop eating insects. This in turn contributed to the great Chinese famine.

When the sisters leave food uneaten in their plates, their mother tells them about hungry times when their father ate tree leaves, her own family consumed potato stem soup and desperate people even ate mud and perished. The girls are horrified!

These are just a couple of the childhood memories that Liu shares in this enlightening book. Even though the circumstances are unfamiliar to us now, Liu's childhood behavior is universally recognizable, like when she and her sister enjoy their favorite holiday (New Year) with family,  when they come up with crazy schemes to reach a goal (catching rats!) and when they try to imitate the hero Lei Feng (with disastrous results).

 The book also includes a timeline of Chinese history, glossary of Mandarin Chinese words, a map of the Hubei Province and a brief  text biography of Na Liu. The illustrations are done by Liu's husband Andres Vera Martinez.

Goblin Secrets

Goblin Secrets by William Alexander, 2012.

I mightily enjoyed the National Book Award winning Goblin Secrets and I can't wait to hear William Alexander speak at this summer's Camp Read-a-Lot!  His imaginative fantasy adventure indeed  unfurls its secrets and draws the reader in. I'm a super fan of fairy tales, and so I enjoyed Alexander's nods to old tales such as the Russian Baba Yaga stories (see more on Baba Yaga here and here. ) I was swallowed by his world building. Dreamlike details like fish who swim in dust, heart-coal warming fire grates, and the mechanized chicken legs of  Graba the witch enrich the story.

Rownie, believed to be somewhere between 8 and 10 years old, is an orphan who lives with a tangle of other children in Graba's house. As long as he runs Graba's errands and watches himself around his overbearing older "siblings," Rownie survives. His true older brother, Rowan, has disappeared some months ago and Rownie spends his free time looking for signs of him. Then everything changes when Rownie decides to sneak some coins owed to Graba and see a forbidden goblin masked performance. In the city of Zombay, acting is not allowed, and pretending to be something that you are not is an arrestable offense. Rownie increases Graba's wrath by not just watching the show, but playing in it and wearing a mask. Afterward, he is on the run from Graba and her far-seeing pigeons, and he joins up with the goblin troupe. And all the time, the inhabitants of Zombay are waiting for the floods to come. Will the witch's "grubs" catch Rownie? Can he make a new place for himself with the goblins?  Can Rowan be found? Or will the rising waters destroy everything?


Fans can make masks at the Goblin Secrets website:here

I look forward to reading the companion book, Ghoulish Song, about Kaile, another child of Zombay.

A Rock Is Lively

A Rock is Lively by Dianna Hutts Aston & Sylvia Long, 2012.

This is an addition to a series by Dianna Hutts Aston and Sylvia Long, who have collaborated on An Egg is Quiet, A Seed is Sleepy and A Butterfly is Patient. It describes the many things that a rock can be: galactic, helpful, recycled, etc and shows the reader why. For example, a galactic rock can be a meteoroid, a comet or an asteroid. Long's magnificent watercolor illustrations grab the attention. The endpapers are the beautiful blue of a mineral painted rock. A turn of the page brings us to naturally decorative rocks of all sorts.These same rocks are shown again on the final endpapers, this time with each type labeled. Inside, dozens more rocks are drawn and identified, such as Azurite Geode, Lapis Lazuli, and Greenstone. Each is shown off to advantage, like the large Snowflake Obsidian, its bulk and solidity contrasted against vivid and delicate flowers growing against it. This title will develop or enhance the reader's appreciation of the beauty and variety of rocks and minerals.

Island: a Story of the Galapagos

Island: a Story of the Galapagos by Jason Chin, 2012.

This beautiful book shows the origin, evolution and demise of an imagined island in the Galapagos. It starts from a volcanic eruption and life arrives in the forms of a mangrove tree, seabirds and marine iguanas. As time passes, more wildlife journey to the island and gradually evolve until they are best suited to survive there. Finches develop larger beaks so that they can crack open big seeds and survive droughts. Tortoise's shells change shape to help them keep cool.  Eventually, after the island has existed for six million years, it begins to sink, loses its life and disappears under the ocean, but new islands continue to emerge. Additional material mentions Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution, further information about the Galapagos and the endemic (that exist nowhere else) species there. An example is the marine iguana:

From Flickr commons

Every time I read one of these outstanding natural history and science books for young people, I wonder why when I was a kid we had dry textbooks in class instead of fun books like these. They just amaze me now, because they get me so interested in their topics. Island  does this in part through its wonderful illustrations. Beginning with the endpapers, which show the species and a map of the Galapagos, Chin captures the reader's attention.The pages are jammed full of blue ocean, exploding volcanoes and unusual wildlife. In the epilogue, Chin has snuck in scenes of Charles Darwin and his Beagle coming to explore another island in 1835. Everyone will enjoy this educational and exciting title.

A Tale of Two Tengu

A Tale of Two Tengu retold by Karen Kawamoto McCoy, Illus. by Koen Fossey, 1993.

This story has been briefly described in my post about the book Japanese Children's Favorite Stories in a tale called "The Long-Nosed Goblins." Two tengu, Japanese goblins with impressive growing and shrinking noses, constantly fight together over whose schnoz is the best. Kenji, the blue goblin, smells something good and sends his nose out in search of it. Little princesses having a party mistake the nose for a pole and decorate it with kimonos. Kenji hauls in this treasure and makes his cohort Joji, the red goblin, very jealous. So, Joji sends out his nose to see what he can find. Unfortunately, he locates some young princes playing together, who think that his nose makes a great toy to hit, jump and swing on. All Joji gets is a sore smeller. Then the tengu decide to send their snouts out together the next day and see who gets the best prize. Sadly, their noses visit the same family who they bothered the day before. All does not go well, but it ends the rivalry over the noses and makes the tengu better friends!

Fossey's created a light-hearted world that goes well with the silly story. His tengu are cute little bearded men with long hair and pointy caps, who look not unlike our American idea of fairy tale dwarfs. They live in a cheerful land of blue sky, green grass and flowers. The pictures often contain whimsical little animals, such as birds eager to land on a nose pole, a Siamese cat watching cautiously as one pole lengthens, monkeys capering as a nose snakes by and more. Even the fierce looking guards that are sent in to punish the tengus' beaks end up tumbling like fools. Read this book to the kids in your life for fresh and frothy fun.

Chuck Close Face Book

Chuck Close Face Book by Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2012.


This book provides an excellent introduction to the artist Chuck Close and his work. If you are unfamiliar with him, as I pretty much was, you should first know that the subject of his art is always the face, usually his own, his friends' or other artist's that he admires. He uses many different processes to create his portraits, and they are typically extremely large, sometimes more than ten feet tall. Close has used methods such as silkscreen, woodcut printing, etching, and more, even using stamp pad ink and his fingerprints to produce his art!  Although many of his portraits appear "pixelated," he does all of his work by hand, and was using a grid method well before digital photography familiarized most of us with the concept of pixels.

 Readers will be interested to learn of the challenges Close has faced in his artistic journey. As a young person in the 1940s and 50s, he was "severely disabled." He had unrecognized dyslexia and was unable to learn math. He had "face blindness" and was literally unable to recognize others. And he had neuromuscular problems that made him nonathletic. However, he discovered he was better at art than other kids in his class, enough so that he put all his energy into it. Later, as an established and lauded artist, he had a vein in his spine collapse, paralyzing him from the chest down at age 48. Still, he was determined to keep on painting, even if he had to spit it on the canvas. This attitude, along with the effort of physical therapy, has allowed him to continue to paint.

 After a intriguing introduction, the book's text is questions from children and Mr. Close's answers. Some are: "Why do you only paint faces?", "Where did you get the idea to use a grid?", and "Why doesn't anyone in your art smile?". Fourteen self portraits provide a sampling of his art, in full color where appropriate. These are cut into thirds so that the reader can flip the pieces and mix and match the sections of Close's face. His portraits of other models are displayed throughout the book, including one of Bill Clinton, his first instantly recognizable face. A timeline of Close's life, a resource list and a glossary round out this well produced offering.