Hey, Al

Title: Hey Al
Story by: Arthur Yorinks
Pictures by: Richard Egielski

Summary: Hey, Al is about a custodian named Al and his dog named Eddie. While Al seemed to enjoy their simple life, Eddie demanded much more. One day while Al was in the bathroom, a large bird flew by and began to speak to Al. He offered Al and Eddie to come to a place of true beauty. While Al was reluctant, Eddie was persistent till they both agreed to visit the island. Everything was great for the two until Al realized they were both turning to birds. The two fled the island to return to their simple life. 


My opinion: Another caldecott winner, Hey Al's illustrations are phenomenal. (Eddie the dog is really cute!). The story takes readers on a fantastic journey to a magical place. The reader is able to physically witness the transformation of the two friends in near disturbing fashion. The book leaves the readers some nice messages such as, the grass is always greener on the other side, and paradise lost is sometimes heaven found. I absolutely loved this book. When i began to read it I swore it was new to me but once the Al and Eddie began to change, I had a flashback to reading the story as a young child. I would recommend this book to all ages, as the lesson is a valuable one that we often forget.

Where The Wild Things Are

Title: Where The Wild Things Are
Written and Illustrated by Maurice Sendak
Ages: 5-9

Summary: A troubled boy named Max begins to stir up mischief in his home. When Max's mischief begins to go to far, he get sent to bed without supper. Max begins to imagine a wonderful world where wild things rule. After some clever trickery, Max is determined to be the king of all the wild things. Max and the Wild Things have loads of fun playing together. Until Max begins to miss home and he determines that he should return home. When he comes back his dinner is waiting for him.

My opinion: A great book with some seriously dark connotations, Sendak does a fantastic job of capturing a young child's imagination. As you read, you feel the wide depth of emotions that Max experiences. A Caldecott winner, the illustrations are marvelous. This was one of my favorite books as a kid and rightfully so. I would recommend this story to people of all ages. It is a fantastic adventure and really empowers one to use their imagination to escape in times of frustration.

It was also made into a movie...

Where the wild things are Trailer

Gary Paulsen

Gary Paulsen is known as one of the most prolific adolescent novelist in the past 50 years. Paulsen, born May 17, 1939, ran away from his Northern Minnesota home when he was only 14 years old. Paulsen is heralded for his work output (has written over 175 books and 200 articles) and his ability to captivate reluctant readers. Paulsen was involved in a series of interesting jobs including, carnival worker, ranch hand, construction worker, farmer, engineer, truck driver and sailor. Paulsen also completed the world's largest dog sled race, the Iditarod, not once but twice. Paulsen draws on his previous experience to produce a more realistic feel to his novels.
 Personally, I feel Paulsen's biggest strength as an author is his ability to combine elementary language with riveting plot lines. The story is captivating enough to have them gain interest but the language is simple enough so it doesn't discourage them from quitting. It is unbelievable to me how successful he is at attacking adult issues. In Paulsen's Hatchet, the protagonist faces witnessing a death of a person, brutal animal attacks, and even attempts suicide. Yet it is all done in an extremely tasteful manner. Paulsen is also impressive in getting kids to relate to his stories, even though kids have never experienced such extraordinary circumstances and most have never even experienced a similar setting. It is also hard not to be impressed by the man's workload. With over 375 publications under his belt, Paulsen has 3 more books due before winter. Keep on trucking Gary! Keep on trucking...

Together

ARF! ARF!

Title: Together
Author & Illustrator: Jane Simmons
Ages 4-7

Summary: This story depicts the story of two dogs that are best friends Mousse and Nut. Mousse and Nut have a great time together until their two different sizes begins to cause problems when they are playing together. The story reaches a sad moment when Mousse and Nut decided it would be best if they stopped being friends. Both Mousse and Nut realize that living without a friend isn't all that it is cracked out to be. The two apologizes and return to being friends and learn a touching lesson about friendship.

Opinion: First off, I must confess... I have a soft spot for dogs. I wouldn't even say it is a soft "spot" as it consumes my whole body. With that being said, Jane Simmons does a wonderful job in her story Together Mousse and Nut have a very relatable relationship that is sure to touch the hearts of all children (and adults) that have the pleasure of reading this table. The Illustrations are truly remarkable. The blending of colors in the background creates breathtaking landscapes and the emotion of the dogs matches the story perfectly. The text is extremely readable for early readers and still is able to convey a great message to young children, everyone should be embraced for their differences. I would recommend this story to all young children that have big hearts and are ready to learn a warm lesson. (Being a dog lover doesn't hurt too! :-)

Winnie The Witch

Title: Winnie The Witch
Written by: Valerie Thomas
Illustrated by: Korky Paul
Ages: 4-8

Summary: Winnie The Witch lives with her black cat Wilbur in an all black house. The two seemingly coexist well, until Wilbur closes his bright green eyes, resulting in her being completely camouflaged. Winnie repeatedly runs into Wilbur until she gets the idea to make Wilbur bright green. This works well until Wilbur runs out into the lawn and once again his camouflage causes an accident. As a result, Winnie changes Wilbur into the colors of the rainbow. Wilbur however becomes embarrassed by the new look and Winnie soon feels a great deal of guilt. Winnie finally realizes a compromise when she waves her magic want and colors the inside of her house to normal colors and returns Wilbur back to his original black state.

Opinion: This rerelease of 1987 classic is both imaginative and humorous as it takes the reader on a wild ride. Korky Paul's use of color is a terrific display on how to use illustrations to match the text. The use of water colors and ink pens present a terrific contrast of the worlds of black and white and color.  The vocabulary is readable enough yet still challenging to have early readers to push themselves and enhance their vocabulary. I personally thought the book was hilarious and fun This is the first book of a long series and it is clear why this became an instant classic. I would maybe try and bring this into the curriculum in either a unit about colors or possibly a science unit dealt with camouflage. I would recommend this book to all youthful children and am extremely eager to continue reading other books in this series.

Cake Girl

Title: Cake Girl
Author & Illustrator: David Lucas
Ages: 1st to 3rd Grade

Summary: This fun loving tale is about a lonely witch that creates a girl made entirely out of cake for her upcoming birthday party. Cake girl is forced to work around the house and as a result becomes really depressed. The sympathetic witch, who desires a good friend more than anything else,  discovers that making someone your servant is not the best way to find a friend. The witch apologizes for her wrong doings by creating cake girl into a real girl and entertaining her with her magic. The two end up becoming great friends and seem to have many fond moments ahead of them.

Opinion: David Lucas did a terrific job using his imagery to spike the imagination of the readers. The book, drawn with oil pastels, has a really "neat" messiness to it and uses borders throughout the story to create a picture-in-picture effect. The writing of the book has a fairly basic vocabulary making it very readable, yet possesses some length to the story giving young readers much practice. I especially enjoy the story's message it delivers about friendship and caring. I would use this story in a classroom when presenting ideas about community or perhaps to deliver a message about bullying. A truly great read.

Tulip At The Bat

Title: Tulip At The Bat
Written by J. Patrick Lewis
Illustrated by Amiko Hirao
Grades: 2-4

Summary: This quick rhyming tale takes the reader to an imaginative ball park where The Boston Beasts are facing the hometown New York Pets. The players and fans are members of the animal kingdom possessing wacky skill-sets that suit their physical characteristics. The game, which the home crowd expects to be a high scoring affair, ends up being a classic pitchers duel. The hometown are victorious in the end with Tulip, the tutu wearing Hippo, batting in two runs with a game winning bunt.

Oppinion: While Amiko Hirao shines brillaintly throughout the story with her vivid immagination and beautiful illustrations, her efforts seemed diminished by Lewis' writing. The story was written in broken prose and seemed to dig too far into the baseball reference encyclopedia (I seriously doubt many children know that a baseball is also nicknamed a "pill"). The story also seemed to lack a sense of excitement throughout (it was after all a 0-0 game until the last inning)  until the last few pages. The rhyming at time seemed to be a stretch, i.e. knee and gallery, and the story seems to lack a general message.
I feel that this book would appeal to a very select audience of children. But as a sports buff myself, I cannot do anything but admire at the beautiful illustrations. I just wish that Lewis had delivered with some more quality writing.

The Big Elephant In The Room

Title: The Big Elephant In The Room
Written & Illustrated by Lane Smith
Ages 6-11

Summary: As the title suggests, there is clearly an issue that needs to be addressed between friends. Hilarity ensues when the characters delve into a series of embarrassing incidents that may or may not be "The Big Elephant In The Room". Incidents range from breaking a computer to burping in the cafeteria. The big reveal at the end of the story results when readers discover that The Big Elephant In The Room is literally that, a big elephant named stanley, who happens to be present in the room.

Opinion: Teamed up with Disney Publishing, Lane Smith delivers a hilarious tale that had me (a fully grown man with maybe the sense of humor of a child) rolling on the floor with laughter. The illustrations show a terrific use of watercolor giving the book a truly zany feel. Smith uses a great variation of both font type and size that not only keeps kids captivated with the story, but also helps the reader put emphasis into their voice when reading out-loud. I feel I would use this story, even in the higher grade levels, to help teach this idea of emphasis or possibly dialogue. I would recommend this story to anyone as it is one of the best children's books I have seen in ages.

Hatchet Continued...

When writing my first post, I found a certain giddy just from memories that Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen, that apparently were seared into my brain from reading as a child. I figured it would probably be a good idea to reread the novel, and compare my old feelings with how I feel about the book currently.

Summary: 13 year old Brian Robeson, is flying over the Canadian north woods on his way to see his father for the first time after his parents divorce when all of a sudden, the pilot has a heart attack. Brian is forced to grab the controls and crash land the plane into a lake. Brian, surviving the crash with minor injuries, is left alone, stranded and futile.  Brian soon understands that the chance for a rescue party finding him is close to non-existent, and he will have to become one with the wilderness in order to survive.

My Opinion: WOW! When I first started reading, I had planned to just read for an hour and then plan to look at it later but before i knew it, I was on the last page dealing with a lot of mixed emotions. But before I delve into the greatness of the story in depth, I have a few tiny critiques of the story. First, There was a point about two thirds into the book where time jumped about two months. Paulsen does a sub-par job of describing what happened during this time and really only mentions two events that occurred over the time span. While I understand the need for the jump, it seems somewhat misplaced to have a seemingly effortless transition of two months, in a novel that breaks down the struggle of survival to a minute by minute basis. The second issue that popped into my head was the lack of Brian's inner dialogue. Almost all of emotion of the book was displayed when Brian was thinking (or speaking aloud) to himself. While Paulsen did do a good job when he used the inner dialogue, they seemed few and far between. The last critique of the book I have is the tense of the book. Hatchet is written in third-person. This created a sense that you the reader were with Brian the whole time during his endeavor. I feel if it was written in first-person, a deeper feeling of isolation would exist.

With my knit-picking out of the way, my reread of this book reaffirmed the reason why this was my favorite story as a child. Paulsen leads the reader on a path of discovery and adventure, while keeping the reader in the same setting for the entire novel. To confront feelings of starvation, danger, and loss, the reader taps into a side of the brain that is to little addressed. The character path of Brian is truly beautiful as you watch him grow from a boy to a man in little time at all. Not to mention the lessons of bravery, responsibility, and trust in oneself, are values that I still hold high today. The novel confronted large issues of divorce and suicide, putting them into perspective when compared to the grand scheme of the world. 

I cannot tell you how much of a thrill it was to read this story. From beginning to end I was flying at the seat of my pants even though I already knew the outcome. I urge all of you that haven't read it to please give it a whirl. It is unfair to say that it is a great children's novel, when it is just a great novel. Plain and simple.