A Big Sleepover Makes a Bigger Mess

I’ve been a VeggieTales fan for nearly two decades now, and while I am most familiar with their videos, I have also enjoyed their books when I run across them. One such book is The Big Sleepover, a book in the Mess Detectives series that my friend Libbie gave me as a gift a while back. Written by Doug Peterson and illustrated by Ron Eddy and Robert Vann, it features narrator Larry the Cucumber and his partner in crime-squashing, Bob the Tomato, as Dragnet-style detectives.

The illustrations in this book veer closer to the style of the main video series than the flatter design found in many of the books. These pictures have vibrant color and depth of shading, and all of the characters look about the way I would expect. My only issue with the pictures is that Larry makes a couple of references to his pet badger’s overly long claws, but the badger in the pictures doesn’t appear to have claws at all. Then again, aside from his changing expressions, he appears to be a stuffed animal, so maybe kids are meant to see the badger as Larry’s favorite toy and attribute any of his actions that Larry describes as mere products of an overactive imagination.

The story is cute, if a bit silly. Madame Blueberry has been babysitting four youngsters who made a horrific mess during their sleepover at her house. One wonders why she didn’t call their parents instead of a detective agency, but then she always has been a bit of a drama queen. Aside from this initial overreaction, she appears surprisingly calm throughout the story. Her concern is not for her broken furniture but rather for the boys’ moral fortitude.

The point of the story is that when you have done something wrong, it’s best to fess up. From there, you can seek forgiveness and look for ways to make up for it. This is a good message, and I like the fact that mercy and forgiveness are so heavily emphasized. None of the adults berates the boys for their mistakes. They simply encourage and reward truthfulness, while suggesting ways to clean up their mess.

The Dragnet spoof aspect is fun, with the punchy wordplay and references to catchphrases from the show, though I wonder if most kids would get that humor. Without the context, I would imagine some of it would fall a bit flat. Of course, that’s always a danger when it comes to parodies. I imagine that the other books have the same sort of devices, so at least there would be consistency within the series.

While I’ve rarely found VeggieTales books to be as effective as the videos, given the lack of silly voices and catchy music and limited opportunity for visual humor, the book works well for the format, and kids who enjoy these characters should have fun seeing Larry and Bob crack a case and spread goodwill.

Open This Little Book and Find a Reading Rainbow

My friend Dan shares my love of great picture books, so when he finds one, he always makes a point of alerting me. This year for Christmas, he gave me Open This Little Book, a simple but clever book written by Jesse Klausmeier and illustrated by Suzy Lee.

The first thing I thought of when I read through this fun book was Cloud Atlas, as it has a similar recursive structure, albeit with much simpler contents. Indeed, there is very little text in the book except at its very heart. Nonetheless, there is enough there to give kids the gist of the idea and hopefully inspire not only further reading but further writing as well.

While Klausmeier is a first-time author, Korean artist Lee has received many accolades for her work, and it is the visual component of this book that is so striking. It begins after the title page, when we see a purple paperback book resting comfortably inside the larger hardcover. This interior book is slightly smaller, leaving a mostly-white border around it where the book returns to full-size at the end. Its cover is less complex but still incorporates most of the same elements as the cover proper.

The title is an instruction. Open the book, and you’ll find another, still smaller, book inside, this one entitled Little Red Book. Inside that is Little Green Book, which contains Little Orange Book, which houses Little Yellow Book, which conceals Little Blue Book and, finally, Little Rainbow Book. Each book introduces another character, and the two illustrations inside it show that character holding the next book in line. For instance, Rabbit, who first appears in the orange book, holds the yellow book in his paw.

The use of color in the book is wonderful. Each book has a solid color outline on the inside to which the next book reaches, so when you get to the middle you have very defined white, purple, red, green, orange, yellow and blue boxes. While the order is not quite that of the rainbow spectrum, the basic colors are there, and it’s very pleasing to the eye.

Additionally, the color subtly enforces the idea that every book we read expands our knowledge. The first illustration inside the purple book is black and white except for the red book. In the next illustration, however, red is used extensively, while the only other color is green, which is only used to show the book Ladybug is reading. This continues, with each book incorporating more colors.

When they double back on themselves, each of them closing his or her book in turn, the illustrations on the right-hand side of the books are drenched with color. Rabbit now has a yellow umbrella; Ladybug is surrounded by leafy greenery. Their worlds are brighter because of what they have gained by reading.

That message is more overtly stated at the very end of the book as well, since it explicitly instructs children to open another book after they have closed the last of the mini-books. The final illustration is a joyous celebration of the wonders of reading, with all of the book’s characters and many others happily sprawled around a beautiful bookcase fashioned out of a pair of entwined trees. That design emphasizes the sense of connection that runs through the book (or, rather, series of books). Stories are something we share with each other.

This book is a delight to peruse, and I can easily picture some children wanting to try creating a book like this themselves. I’m certain my artistic brother would have enjoyed such a task had he encountered such a book as a kid. Children might also have fun identifying all of the animals featured in the final picture and imagining what each of them could be reading.

As someone who grew up with both Star Trek: The Next Generation and Reading Rainbow, I was intrigued by Klausmeier’s decision to dedicate the book in part to LeVar Burton. She offers no explanation, but I suspect the latter show has something to do with it. After all, she, too, is telling reader to take a look in a book, and in this case, the contents are colorful indeed.

Santa Finds Some Unexpected Helpers in Oh, What a Christmas!

In Jerry Pallotta’s Who Will Guide My Sleigh Tonight? Santa runs through all sorts of trials with different animals before settling on the perfect creatures to pull his sleigh. In the more recent picture book Oh, What a Christmas!, Michael Garland posits a scenario in which Santa already knows which animals work best but must resort to using different species due to an accident.

Garland is a longtime illustrator, and it is his lavish artwork that drives this silly but sweet tale. The story is told with simple narration in a couple of paragraphs per page. Particularly noteworthy phrases like “BIG, FAT, JOLLY RED SKYROCKET” and onomatopoeia like “THUD! STOMP! THWACK!” jump out at the reader in extra-large print and capital letters. Santa speaks from time to time, usually peppering his dialogue with “ho”s, but the reindeer are silent, as are the animals that come into the story soon afterward.

The book consists mostly of full-page illustrations and two-page spreads filled with vibrant colors and intricate shading. The tale begins with Santa and his reindeer embarking on their Christmas Eve ride, only to have a straightforward night thwarted when the harness breaks, causing the deer to be separated from Santa and the sleigh to crash. Santa lands near a barn, and it is there that he finds his replacements: two sheep, two cows, a horse, a pig, a goat and a hound dog. The main fun of the story is seeing these ordinary animals in the extraordinary situation of guiding Santa’s sleigh.

The animals have a fairly realistic look to them while still being slightly cartoonish, particularly in their eyes, which are large and white with small black pupils, each with a pinprick of light in it. Santa, too, has such eyes, along with rosy cheeks and a bulbous nose. His beard and mustache are silky white, and his suit looks quite cozy. Santa is very jolly-looking, while the animals spend much of their time looking gently confused. Some of the facial expressions are quite comical.

As stories go, this one isn’t too complicated, but it is sweet, since it allows a ragtag team of farm animals to do something amazing and to help Santa out of a jam. There’s a general sense of goodwill about the tale and a warm glow in several of the illustrations that would feel at home in a Thomas Kinkade painting. For young children who enjoy animals, this book offers a fun twist on a Christmas tradition.

A Bad Kitty Christmas Is a Good Christmas Book

I imagine that most cat owners have entertained the thought that they have a bad kitty. After all, cats have an independent attitude and a knack for getting into mischief, and the holidays often bring out the worst in them since there are so many opportunities to cause trouble. That is certainly the case in Nick Bruel’s A Bad Kitty Christmas, one of several books featuring a scraggly black car with a tuft of white fur on her chest and a sometimes-surly disposition.

This charming story is told through rhyme. It begins and ends as a parody of A Visit From St. Nicholas, but it’s a much longer narrative than that classic poem, and Santa Claus isn’t involved at all. Instead, this is the story of a mischievous kitty who makes a colossal mess, gets soundly scolded and decides to run away en route to the big family dinner. Along the way, she comes to realize how nice it is to have a home, even if people can be frustrating sometimes.

One very neat thing about this book is that it is an alphabet book, but instead of going through the alphabet once, as most books of that type do, it does so several times, and it is integrated organically into the story. The first time around, we get an alphabetical list of all the damage Kitty has done to the house, with one noun and one passive past tense verb in each short sentence. Each time the sentence’s star letter is used at the beginning of a word, it is in red and extra-large.

The second time, the featured letter is blue, and instead of a sentence per letter, it’s only a word or phrase, so this alphabet only takes up two pages. It lists all of the animals the ravenous Kitty wants to eat, and some of them are quite unusual, so there is an educational element to this one beyond the alphabet as children can learn about such creatures as cormorants, ibises, narwhals and quetzals. The two-page spread also features six amusing illustrations grouping the animals, so kids can have an instant idea of what they look like.

Finally, the third alphabet is a listing of various people appearing in photographs hanging on the Christmas tree of an elderly woman who finds Kitty after she runs away. While the first alphabet is funny and the second is educational, this third is poignant as it shows all of the people important in the woman’s life and helps Kitty to understand how much these bonds matter. There are also interesting little tidbits in there, such as the fact that “vriend” is the Afrikaans word for “friend.”

Another fun element of this book is the fact that shortly after Kitty runs away, the pup who lives with her also hops out of the car in order to conduct a search. After that point, many of the pages have a black-and-white inset showing how he is progressing on his journey as he sniffs her trail out and makes inquiries of any creature he sees. The main illustrations, by contrast, are vibrantly colored and sometimes presented in several panels per page. This is a very busy book, filled with a bustle of activity and sometimes several things happening at once. It’s also ultimately a very sweet book with a heartwarming conclusion that is likely to elicit as many smiles among parents as children.

Little Critter Has Cat Trouble in What a Good Kitty

Over the summer, my brother Nathan was taking a walk in a cemetery when he stumbled upon a tiny kitten sitting on a gravestone. When he turned to head home, the kitten followed him, and he decided to bring the furry fellow home for the night. That night turned into several, and soon Chester – named after the man on whose grave he was situated – became one of the family. He’s an adorable gray tiger who purrs like a motorboat. He’s also a boatload of trouble, not unlike the feline at the heart of the Mercer Mayer I Can Read! book What a Good Kitty.

What a Good Kitty is a recent installment in the extensive Little Critter series. It is a My First reader, the lowest reading level of the five in the I Can Read! line of books for youngsters. Because of this, the book contains very short sentences featuring simple words and lots of repetition. Most pages have only one or two sentences, usually describing Kitty’s actions and the reactions of Mom, Dad and Little Sister, all of whom find this newcomer a bit of a nuisance.

As in most Little Critter books, the young scamp with the spiky hair and rumpled overalls narrates, and his thoughts are very little kiddish, making him easy for preschoolers, especially boys, to identify with. As his kitten gets reprimanded for making messes, the reader feels his frustration and empathy, since he, too, has a tendency to get into trouble just because of his high energy level.

Kitty herself is a soft gray cat with a white belly. She spends part of the book looking a bit exasperated, as though even she doesn’t have the energy to put up with Little Critter all day. At other times, though, she wears a sly smile indicating she can match him for mischief. This book shows some of the shenanigans families with kittens are likely to encounter: torn newspapers, unraveling yarn, traumatized fish and the like. And if the cat goes outside, getting stuck in a tree is always a real possibility.

This is a cute story about the trials and rewards of pet ownership. Those who want to make the book extra-fun should pay close attention to the spider and the mouse that appear throughout, often mimicking the behavior of Little Critter or Kitty. Mayer’s illustrations are so vibrant and full of details that there is enough to merit a second or third reading even though the story itself is very simple. No matter how intently they peruse the pages, for children eager to welcome a kitten into the home, this sweet tale with give them a good idea of what they are in for.

Trixie Seeks to Bring a Family Together in The Mystery of the Castaway Children

A baby turning up in a doghouse is an inherently peculiar situation. When that doghouse happens to belong to the family of teen sleuth Trixie Belden, it’s the beginning of another mystery. Was the baby kidnapped? Abandoned by his parents? Could there be some other explanation? In between taking turns caring for the infant that has charmed them all, spunky Trixie and her fellow Bob-Whites are determined to find some answers in The Mystery of the Castaway Children, the 21st book in the Trixie Belden mystery series.

This book, written by a ghostwriter under the name of Kathryn Kenny, is especially warm-hearted as Trixie and her friends and family rally around this infant, growing more attached all the time but also yearning to reunite this wayward child whom they have dubbed Moses with his parents. It’s a mystery in several steps, and Trixie is very methodical about gathering new clues as parts of it are unveiled. While she throws caution to the wind a couple times, her dedication to the case is admirable, and some of her deductions are quite clever.

As is generally the case, Trixie’s best friend Honey is right by her side to help her, and this time, they have an unusual ally in their efforts. Usually, Sergeant Molinson of the local police department warns Trixie off of her sleuthing, but this time, he actually requests that she and Honey work with him. This adds a neat twist to the story and makes Trixie feel like her dream of being a professional detective is more within reach than ever. It also allows readers to see this frequently antagonistic side character in a more encouraging and kind-hearted light.

All seven of the Bob-Whites – the others being Trixie’s older brothers Mart and Brian, Honey’s adopted brother Jim and their friends Diana and Dan – are involved in this story and eagerly share the responsibilities of caring for a baby. It’s fun to see them all turning to mush over this newcomer, even the normally snarky Mart. Of course, the title indicates more than one castaway, and when Trixie and her friends learn of a second missing child, it adds a whole new dimension to the mystery and allows for her little brother Bobby to have a key role to play in the proceedings.

Woven throughout the story is a lesson on the importance of financial responsibility, as well as several pointers on how to take care of a baby. Mostly, though, this is just a solid story of teamwork and ingenuity as a close-knit group of friends try to figure out how an infant ended up in their care and how to reunite his broken family.

Gruntly Is Too Greedy in All For Me and None For All

Pigs are widely considered to be rather, well, piggy, and that particularly comes across in children’s books. One recent picture book that utilizes this stereotype is All For Me and None For All, written by Helen Lester and illustrated by Lynn Munsinger. This duo has teamed up on many occasions to tell tales of critters behaving badly or having just a little trouble discovering their place in the world. In this case, the main character is a pig named Gruntly who has never learned how to share.

Gruntly’s greediness has given him a bad reputation among his peers, which include a sheep, a chicken, a small dog and two more well-mannered pigs. They know that his motto is the titular phrase; he wants to get as much as he can, and he doesn’t care who he has to deprive in order to satisfy himself. Gruntly certainly comes across as a bully, though it’s hard to say whether he is truly malicious or just completely clueless about how to behave. Either way, his pushy, self-serving demeanor does not make him very popular. Is there any way of reforming this hog?

Lester and Munsinger make a great team, with Lester’s simple but lively text accompanied by Munsinger’s fun pictures. In this book, Woolworth the sheep is the only named animal not to wear clothing of some kind. The pigs are fully garbed in shirts and pants, while the dog wears a shirt and the chicken wears a bandana. While the two other pigs, Hampshire and Berkshire, are difficult to tell apart since they are both gray, Gruntly is easily identifiable as the only pink pig in the bunch, aside from the park ranger who is dressed all in green.

Part of the fun of this story is that it involves a scavenger hunt. Each leg of the hunt features a rhymed clue. Gruntly comes to his own conclusions about the end of each verse in an effort to move things along more quickly, but he guesses the wrong word each time. This leaves kids open to try to guess the correct word themselves before it is revealed. It also furnishes a lesson about the importance of patience and of following directions accurately.

The primary lesson in the book, however, is to share with others and not take things that don’t belong to you. For a hoggy youngster like Gruntly, drilling that message into his head is no easy task, but the method is a good one for impressing upon children the value of courtesy and generosity.

Droofus the Dragon Has a Huge Heart

Dragons are powerful mythological creatures whose role in most tales is to antagonize and terrorize. Sometimes, however, they come across much more sympathetically. Famous fire-breathers of this type include Puff the Magic Dragon, Elliot from Pete’s Dragon and Kenneth Grahame’s Reluctant Dragon. I just ran across another fine addition to this list thanks to prolific author-illustrator and former Disney animator Bill Peet.

In How Droofus the Dragon Lost His Head, Droofus is just a youngster when he falls behind a group of migrating dragons. Unable to find them again, he goes in for a landing and makes a life for himself on the ground. Droofus has an unusually soft heart, and he is more interested in rescuing small creatures than eating them. In fact, he is so tender-hearted that he decides to restrict his feasting to grass. This vegetarian dragon is able to grow to a hearty adulthood, but how will he fare when he is discovered by humans? Will he have the opportunity to demonstrate his goodwill?

Peet has a delightful style of illustrating, and all of his characters brim with personality. Droofus is a vibrant blue and green, while his wings are pink. He seems to shimmer with iridescence. Instead of jagged teeth, he has a jagged mouth, which sometimes looks very happy and sometimes very downcast but never looks ferocious. Most of the other characters are small birds and woodland creatures, but the people who come into the story halfway through are most expressive, particularly the weathered farmer who isn’t sure what to make of this enormous winged reptile.

Peet seems to specialize in animals that are significantly different than others of their kind. In this case, it is Droofus’s eating habits and pleasant manner that distinguish him. However, this is not a story about him gaining acceptance from his fellow dragons. Rather, it’s about him learning to carve out his own path and find a way to prove to the skittish people he encounters that he is not a threat.

This is a fairly long story, with several paragraphs on each page, so it builds slowly, and it works well as a read-aloud. It could even be broken up into halves and read as a two-parter. There is suspense aplenty in this story as the dragon faces an unanticipated injury and a threat from a king who pursues him not out of fear but out of aesthetic appreciation. With such a provocative title to the book, can there be a happy ending for Droofus?

Through it all is the core of kindness in Droofus’s heart and the way that it impacts those with whom he interacts. For those who prefer their dragons friendly, How Droofus the Dragon Lost His Head is a thoroughly satisfying tale.

Cowardly Clyde Needs a Dose of Courage

With the exception of Sir Robin of Monty Python fame, knights always make me think of courage and valor. However, given all the country he must traverse, a knight is only as good as his horse. What happens if his noble steed starts shivering in his horseshoes? That is the premise behind Cowardly Clyde, a book by Bill Peet, former Disney animator and prolific author of picture books.

The title character is a gray and white horse in the wrong line of work for his nervous disposition. He’s got the right build to be a mighty warrior, and he’s good at puffing out his chest and looking impressive, but on the inside, he’s quaking like crazy. Will he be able to summon up the courage he needs when his knight faces his gravest challenge, or will he turn tail and run in his rider’s hour or need?

As a skittish sort myself, I found that this story had a lot of resonance for me. I can easily sympathize with Clyde; I certainly wouldn’t be too enthusiastic about the dire possibilities that come with carrying a knight, particularly meeting an enormous ogre who’s been terrorizing villagers. That beast is quite the alarming brute, reminding me of the monsters in Where the Wild Things Are but less friendly. His presence makes the book exciting as kids can ponder how such a beast will ever be defeated.

I love the name of the knight, Sir Galavant – an appropriate moniker for someone who spends so much time in the saddle meandering the countryside. His excess of bravado is a bit wearying, in a comical sort of way. He’s a bit of a lunkhead, from the start it seems likely that Clyde is going to have an opportunity to bail him out of hot water before the story is over. Will it be physical strength or mental acuity that wins the day? How will he summon his hidden stores of courage?

The illustrations are wonderful and expressive. This isn’t as colorful as some of his books, mostly greens and browns and grays, but it still feels vibrant. The expressions on the faces of Clyde and the ogre are particularly dynamic. Meanwhile, Peet carefully chooses some very colorful adjectives to give us a sense of Sir Galavant’s machismo and Clyde’s jitteriness. It all adds up to a thoroughly charming story for anyone who loves medieval adventures or who could use a little help overcoming his or her fears.

A Porcupine Named Fluffy Has An Identity Crisis

Several years ago, I discovered the picture books of Helen Lester, who often teams up with illustrator Lynn Munsinger for tales about quirky animals, particularly those involving a goofy penguin named Tacky. On a recent trip to the library, I realized that I had missed a few of their gems the first time around, so I decided to fill in some of those gaps. The cover illustration immediately drew me to A Porcupine Named Fluffy.

In truth, that cover is a bit of a spoiler, since it depicts a moment at the end of the book. Then again, it’s a short story with only a few sentences per page, and the bulk of the climactic revelation is verbal rather than visual anyway. Therefore, seeing Fluffy ride atop a rhino’s head as both wear wide smiles doesn’t tell us very much. We just know that these two critters with pointy body parts will eventually enjoy each other’s company. The fun of their meeting is still to be discovered.

Recent celebrity baby naming trends reveal an intense desire to make a child stand out from the rest by virtue of his or her moniker. Some of the choices are downright bizarre. This spirit of individualism seems to have taken hold of the peculiar pair of porcupines who decide to name their child Fluffy. Had they known the identity crisis this would later cause, would they still have done it? Then again, having such a surprising name does have its advantages too, as he will come to learn.

This is a very cute book. The illustrations are cheerful and silly, sure to spark smiles. Poor Fluffy wants so very much to live up to his name, but he is spiky, not fluffy. His valiant attempts show him to be creative and determined, but a leopard can’t change his spots, and a porcupine can’t undo his quills. Fluffy may have a cute and cuddly name, but he will always be a little prickly.

Some of his efforts to change are very funny, and industrious kids could probably figure out more ideas for him to try. A great tie-in activity for this book would be having children illustrate Fluffy’s pursuit of fluffiness, either using an example from the story or furnishing a new one. My favorite from the book involves him applying whipped cream to each of his quills, to the point that he looks like the Abominable Snowman.

The writing is geared toward young readers, so it is fairly simple, with plenty of repetition. However, this does not detract from the humor of the situation, and there is a drily comic tone to much of the story. I especially like the short but effective sentence, “Fluffy definitely wasn’t.” The best bit of verbal humor comes in toward the end of the story, though, and makes all of Fluffy’s pains worth it.

This is a sweet and funny story about being different and about the extent to which we are defined by the names we are given. Fluffy wants to be true to himself; does that mean standing by his name or his species? This question could spark an interesting discussion of name meanings wherein kids can learn the significance of their names and ponder whether they are a good fit. Whether or not it is a catalyst for further conversation, A Porcupine Named Fluffy is a very cute book that should tickle the funny bone of any youngster who loves animals and silly situations.

Buford the Little Bighorn Searches For His Place in the World

One of my very favorite Disney shorts is Lambert the Sheepish Lion, the tale of a timid lion raised as a sheep. It was not until fairly recently that I realized its creator, Bill Peet, has had an extensive career as a children’s book author and illustrator, with many of his stories exploring the idea of animals that feel somehow out of place in their environment. One such creature is the title character in Buford the Little Bighorn, a under-sized sheep with over-sized horns.

Buford’s horns do not grow as his peers’ do. Instead of curling back neatly on his head, they stretch far back, ultimately making it impossible for him to navigate the rocky mountainside where those of his kind reside. Despite their willingness to help him, Buford hates feeling like a burden and yearns to seek his identity elsewhere, finding a place where he can live comfortably in spite of his strange headgear. But is that too much to ask?

A quick glance at Buford might be enough to lead an imaginative child to guess a use he might find for his horns. Meanwhile, those who have already read Peet’s No Such Things are likely to catch on early, since that book features several beasts that resemble Buford, and all of them are engaged in an activity that Buford will ultimately discover. For other kids, however, the clever conclusion will come as a pleasant surprise as Buford finally finds a place where his uniqueness is appreciated.

The writing style is enjoyable, with lavish descriptions ruling the day but dialogue sprinkled in here and there. Some of the wording is particularly fun, like the teetering and tottering that Buford does as he tries to get around, and the gruff speech from the other animals helps us understand Buford’s difficult position, though his fellow rams are supportive. We also get a sense of his independent spirit from the few things he says.

Peet is a marvelous storyteller, and this is a tale that would work especially well out loud. Still, it’s the rich illustrations that are really memorable, from the gorgeous landscapes and colorful sunsets to the plucky little hero with the inconvenient horns. Buford is entirely adorable, and like many of Peet’s main characters, he is likely to resonate with anyone who has ever felt markedly different from his or her peers. A sweet story of self-discovery, Buford the Little Bighorn is a delight.

On Presidents' Day, Read About Lincoln's Handy Hat

Today is Presidents' Day, a holiday to honor America's presidents, particularly George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, whose birthdays are in February. I tend to think of Lincoln much more on his birthday, February 12, which is also my birthday, but I thought this would be a good day to review a Lincoln book I received for my birthday. While it was written specifically for beginning readers, Lincoln enthusiasts of any age can find enjoyment in Mr. Lincoln's Hat.

This 48-page book written by Martha Brenner and illustrated by Donald Cook focuses mostly on Lincoln's early adulthood. The hat, which is such an iconic element of Lincoln's image, is both a useful and comical prop. Brenner explains in simple, appealing language how useful Lincoln's hat was to him as a means of keeping track of all his papers. The portrait that emerges through the several sentences per page is that of a very smart but rather scatterbrained man who did not take himself too seriously. At the same time, he was deeply committed to certain causes, and his folksy manner was an asset to him as he championed them.

Brenner effectively uses repetition, both for the sake of clarity and humor, to weave her tale of the different ways in which Lincoln's hat came in handy and played some sort of role in famous incidents in his life. She cites several specific events, including a murder trial and another trial that served as an early indication of his loathing for slavery. She also includes several funny stories, such the time that some mischievous boys strung a rope up to knock his hat off his head and another time when a judge fined him for whispering a joke during a trial then rescinded the fine after finding the joke hilarious himself.

The illustrations have a soft quality to them and are rich in detail. Many of them, such as the cover illustration depicting him running down the street after his hat and scattered letters, have a humorous quality to them. This is a great book to use in order to introduce children to other aspects of Lincoln's life before his presidency, and its whimsical quality adds to the appeal.

I've seen many books about Lincoln for this age group. Several focus on his childhood or upon his presidency. Others follow him throughout his life, showing how his early love of reading or of animals helped shape the decisions he made later. This book has elements of both those approaches, as it zeroes in on a particular time in Lincoln's life but does so through the lens of a specific object of importance to him. This focus works very well, and as a lifelong Lincoln fan and a bit of a scatterbrain, I found myself both entertained and tempted to try his unique organizational system for myself.

The Boy Who Hated Valentine's Day Will Change His Mind

While I enjoy Valentine’s Day every year, it was always most fun for me when I was in elementary school.  Those were the days of decorating cardboard mailboxes, sitting down and carefully choosing – or, if you were really artistic, making – Valentines for each classmate and coming home the next day with a full box of your own.  I still have dozens of old-school Valentines sitting in a plastic tub with all the other cards I’ve received over the years.  The signatures of my long-ago classmates and the heavy dose of 80s pop culture in the small perforated cards that most kids preferred make me smile when nostalgia compels me to peruse them.

Reading The Boy Who Hated Valentine’s Day took me back to those days.  In this picture book written by Sally Wittman and illustrated by Chaya Burstein, Ben is the titular character.  The reason he hates the holiday is twofold.  First, he hates it because a bullying classmate convinces him that it’s for sissies, and he feels embarrassed about loving it.  Second, he hates it because he spends so much time berating Valentine’s Day that none of his classmates give him cards.  Thus, he begins to develop a different kind of dislike for the day.

The following year, Ben recalls his disappointment at the lack of cards around the same time he discovers his burgeoning artistic talent.  When his dad jokingly suggests he take up a career in counterfeiting, Ben comes up with a complex plan to avoid the humiliation of last year.  While it is clever in its way, wouldn’t it make more sense to simply renounce his renouncing of Valentine’s Day?  Surely he realizes that the only reason he didn’t get any cards last year is that everyone thought he didn’t want them.

Then again, when people are dealing with hurt feelings, they don’t always behave in the most logical fashion.  What matters is that Ben approaches his next Valentine’s Day with a spirit of resentfulness, but he channels that bitterness into creativity and then is compelled into a compassionate act that brings him a much happier holiday than he anticipated.  The story becomes a doorway to a wonderful approach to the world: if you feel have been slighted, instead of stewing in your own juices, try to reach out to someone else in a similar position.  Chances are that you will both be happier as a result.

This is a cute story with a good message and three well-defined characters.  The familiar situation of an elementary school card exchange makes it relatable for many kids, while Burstein’s illustrations have an appealingly old-fashioned look to them.  As people get older, many become disenfranchised with Valentine’s Day for a variety of reasons, but for an eight-year-old, the holiday ought to be innocent fun.  Perhaps, as Wittman proposes, it might even be the catalyst for a new friendship, and that truly is something to celebrate.

Pluto Cleans Up in Mickey Mouse and the Pet Show

I have had two dogs in my life, and neither of them has been at all fond of baths. It seems to be a common trait among dogs, and it's certainly the case for Pluto in the Golden Easy Reader Mickey Mouse and the Pet Show, written by Joan Phillips and illustrated by Darrell Baker.

In this silly story, Mickey Mouse sees a sign for a pet show and decides that Pluto should participate, but first he will need a bath. Rounding him up for this beautification will not be an easy task, however. With some help from Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Minnie Mouse and Goofy, will he be able to get the stubborn pooch to cooperate? And will it be worth all the effort afterward?

Most of the stories that I have read from this series are very much on the light-hearted side, even if they may have a lesson attached. If there's a main lesson here, I suppose it's that cleanliness is a good thing, even if achieving it means being inconvenienced. The book also celebrates the persistence of Mickey and his friends as they attempt to accomplish what they have set out to do. There's a further lesson tied in with the book's conclusion, but that's something readers will have to discover for themselves.

This book is designed for early readers, so it uses a lot of simple vocabulary and repetition. The word "bath," for instance, comes up nine times, and "sign" is in the book five times. Words that are especially important to the story resurface again and again, and if the young reader does not yet know how to spell those words, it's a great learning opportunity.

The characters in this book all look good, and Pluto makes some very funny expressions as he dreads the possibility of getting wet. None of the characters is wearing anything specifically associated with him or her. Donald and Goofy wear sweaters, while Mickey is in overalls and Minnie and Daisy are in dresses, having been interrupted in the middle of a tea party by their friends chasing Pluto down the street. They look a little silly later as everyone runs around the yard trying to corner Pluto, but I guess their willingness to wear inappropriate dog-bathing attire and probably get it all dirty just shows what good friends they are.

This story has a bit of a twist ending that makes all the shenanigans leading up to it even funnier. Kids who love the core gang of Disney characters or dogs in general should find Mickey Mouse and the Pet Show to be good clean fun.

Daisy's Secret Could Cause Some Problems

Secrets are tricky things. It can be very difficult to keep knowledge from people you care about, but sometimes there is value in staying quiet. In Daisy's Secret, part of Minnie 'n' Me: The Best Friends Collection, the secret is a surprise party, and the real surprise is that even most of the guests don't know what's going on. They just know that they've been given cryptic instructions to follow, and they're a little irritated that they're not in on the secret. Will the result be worth the hurt feelings, or will this big surprise be a big bust?

Surprise party stories abound in children's books, and usually it's the guest of honor who feels confused and neglected. In an effort to make that person feel special later, the friends usually first make him or her feel abandoned. Here, instead of one person being in the dark, it's several, except they know that something is going on and that eventually they will be in on it. It's an interesting twist on the formula.

This is not a series that I had encountered before. It has a very 90s look to it, particularly when it comes to the clothes that Daisy Duck and Minnie Mouse wear as they square off in basketball. More distinctive than the clothes, though, are the characters, who, instead of being adults, as they usually are, now look like kids.

Along with Daisy and Minnie, who are best friends, we have Clarabelle Cow, Lilly Lamb and Penny, who looks to be a dog of some type - Penny Pooch, maybe? Clarabelle, Lilly and Penny dress much more conservatively than Minnie and Daisy, wearing dresses that seem more suited to the first decade of the 20th century than the last, particularly at school. Minnie and Daisy do have comparable dresses, but they only wear them at the party.

The main idea in this story is that suspense increases enjoyment, so it's good to keep secrets on an occasion such as a surprise party, the whole purpose of which is to bring happiness to someone. One definitely gets the feeling that these five girls are good friends who value each other's feelings. I did notice that there isn't a single male character to be found in this book, and I'm curious whether that's true of all the books in this series.

Author Ruth Lerner Perle does seem to be trying a bit too hard to make this book as overtly feminine as possible; I certainly think boys and girls should be able to intermingle freely. Then again, if I were to venture a guess, it seems like these characters are in middle school, which is often a very awkward age when it comes to mixed-gender friendships. Still, I would hope that Mickey, Donald, Goofy and other male characters show up in other stories in this, which evidently was a mail-order series.

Speaking of mail, the book concludes with Minnie inviting the reader to write to her. It's like a proto-PostSecret: "Don't forget to send me the enclosed letter about a secret you had to keep." Of course, that letter is nowhere to be seen in the library copy I read, nor is Minnie's address printed anywhere. Then again, considering that this book is 20 years old, I highly doubt that letters would still be accepted at that address.

Daisy's Secret is a cute story about friendship, trust and patience. While it feels a bit dated and overly gender-specific, it's fun to see these classic Disney characters as kids with a strong network of friends.

A Spooky Adventure Isn't So Scary After All

The Pixar movie Monsters, Inc. is all about monsters who come into the bedrooms of little children at night, initially to scare them. In the level two Step Into Reading book A Spooky Adventure, fears of such monsters and other spookables have another group of Pixar characters all riled up.

Written by Apple Jordan and illustrated by Alan Batson and Lori Tyminski, A Spooky Adventure is set after Toy Story 3, so it includes not only cowboy Woody, space ranger Buzz and several other members of the classic Toy Story gang - namely, neurotic dino Rex, the Potatoheads, loyal Bullseye and Slinky Dog, vivacious Jessie and practical piggybank Hamm - it also features triceratops Trixie, unicorn Buttercup, hedgehog Mr. Pricklepants and clown Chuckles, their new friends from Bonnie's room.

These new friends are very important in this story because, having lived with sweet, energetic Bonnie much longer, they know how things work around her house. Bonnie's vivid imagination leads her to make up the game Haunted Bakery, where prop ghosts figure prominently, and this gives most of the new recruits a case of the willies. They begin to see sinister beings lurking everywhere, especially when they are left alone on a rainy night, and it's up to these longtime residents to reveal the man behind the curtain, whether it's a pair of bunny slippers they mistake for a monster or a mop that resembles a dragon.

This is a story that could help comfort a child feeling anxious about strange noises or shapes that surface at night. Jordan strikes a good balance here, showing that spookiness of the variety that Bonnie introduces can be fun but urging kids not to let their imaginations run wild at nighttime if the result is anxiety and sleeplessness. It's a Scooby Doo kind of ending, but without anyone being villainous. All we have here are simple misunderstandings.

The pictures are a lot of fun to peruse here. Retaining the computer-animated look of the movies, unlike some tie-in books that recreate the characters in a flat, retro style, it feels like it could be an animated short. Granted, it lacks the rapid-fire banter and sight gags of those shorts, but for the format, it's still a funny read, and the pictures are great fun, with the dark shading making it all feel just a bit scary. While that makes it an especially appropriate choice for October, this is really an any-time-of-year book.

The wording in the story is simple without being particularly repetitive, though it does follow a basic formula throughout most of the book. One member of Woody's gang identifies something scary, and one of Bonnie's toys reveals that it actually is something completely innocuous. There's always a picture that gives us the toys' perception first, so kids can have fun guessing what the object might actually be, which makes the book more interactive.

It seems likely that the Toy Story franchise won't include any more feature films, but I'm glad to see that there is a place for new mini-adventures with these wonderful characters, especially when they are done as well as this book is.

Chasing Off Chipmunks Takes Ingenuity in Donald Duck and the Garden

I've always been very fond of chipmunks, so I love the Disney cartoons dealing with a mischievous Chip and Dale squaring off against an increasingly aggravated Donald Duck. Donald Duck and the Garden, a Disney Easy Reader written by Joan Phillips and illustrated by Francese Mateu, tells one of those tales.

In this summery story, Donald is a gardener, and he looks the part in his red plaid shirt and blue vest. All he wants is to grow some fruit and veggies, but that's hard to accomplish with Chip and Dale thwarting him at every turn. It's an epic battle of the wills, and the rascally chipmunks remind me of free-spirited hobbits Merry and Pippin making off with Farmer Maggot's crops in the film version of Fellowship of the Ring. They do it because they are hungry but also because it's fun to cause a stir.

Like other books in this series, Donald Duck and the Garden uses very simple language and plenty of repetition. The book establishes early on that Donald and the chipmunks are old rivals, which makes the repetition feel more natural. This is a game they've played again and again, just not always in this arena. This time around, Donald keeps coming up with new strategies to scare the duo away, while they keep coming back to try again another day.

"Stop! Stop!" "Help! Help!" "Run! Run!" These exclamations appear several times, as do assertions by the characters that they know each other very well and can anticipate what move the other will make next. Despite their bravado, the chipmunks do react with alarm to Donald's devices, but that doesn't stop them for long. This is a book about creative problem-solving and persistence with a resolution that leaves all three characters more satisfied than I would have expected from the madcap tone.

The pictures are cheerful and fun, with the instantly recognizable main characters getting on each other's nerves amidst several distinctive props. I especially like the robotic chipmunk Donald concocts, though I wonder how in the world he managed to construct it. While Donald often comes across as incompetent in his tales, that isn't the case here. His expressions of exasperation are entertaining, but they stem from the determination of his adversaries, not his own shortcomings.

This is a fun story focusing on three beloved Disney characters and featuring cameos by five others. The basic sentence structure and appealing pictures make it a fine fit for young readers, and the zaniness of the backyard battle is good for a laugh any time of year.

The Dwarfs Show Their Love for Snow White in What a Surprise!

Disney's first animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, is a film that continues to delight audiences more than seven decades later. The sweetness of Snow White and the clumsy affability of the dwarfs who shelter her make for a winning combination. That combo is revisited in What a Surprise!, the fifth volume in the Disney Storytime Treasures Library.

Written by Lisa Ann Marsoli and illustrated by Adam Devaney and Diana Wakeman, this story takes place shortly after Snow White's arrival at the dwarfs' cottage. The seven short men want to show the princess how happy they are to have her as their guest, so they decide to surprise her by doing all the chores while she indulges in a nice long nap, dreaming the day away with visions of her Prince Charming.

This is one of the funnier installments in this particular series. Most of the stories have a heartwarming message about friendship and consideration for others, but humor is sometimes lacking. Here, all of the dwarfs, well-meaning as they are, manage to bungle their tasks in comically disastrous ways. The funniest illustrations involve Dopey attempting to bake muffins. There's also a rather alarming pair of pictures showing the chaos that ensues when the dwarfs accidentally bring a swarm of bees into the house with them.

The illustrations feature rustic coloring, with the rosy cheeks of Snow White and the dwarfs heavily accentuated. All of the characters seem to pretty much be themselves, and Doc's spoonerisms are particularly fun. While the woodland animals don't play a huge role in this story, we do see them quietly observing the outdoor tasks of the various dwarfs. The squirrels seem to be especially curious about what is happening.

While Snow White does mention Prince Charming, there is no reference to the queen in this book, so it has a very lighthearted feel to it. The only conflict comes through the dwarfs' clumsiness. How big a mess will they make of things before Snow White wakes up? How will she react to their attempts to keep house on their own? This book emphasizes Snow White's gentle nature, and her tact in the final pages makes me smile as she finds a way to express her gratitude for the dwarfs' consideration.

With seven speaking characters, this is a story with plenty of dialogue, but the narration is well-written as well, with the onomatopoeia on several pages adding a fun touch. In addition to the regular story, this tale, like the others in this series, has a brief poem at the end summing up the main idea of the book. Some of these are better-written than others, and I like this one a lot, as it discusses how touched Snow White is because "she saw how hard they tried / to show her in so many ways / the love they felt inside."

Indeed, there are many different ways to demonstrate love, as the dwarfs' sincere efforts here show. The idea that the end result is less important than the thought put into it is endearing and should encourage children to flex their own creative muscles and not be discouraged if their own expressions of love may be a bit clumsy.

Betsy-Tacy Connects Five Girls As They Yearn to Be Home for the Holidays

There’s no place like home for the holidays, which is why I’m in Erie, Pennsylvania on December 25th, celebrating Christmas with my parents and brother in the same house as always. In Heather Vogel Frederick’s Home for the Holidays, however, none of the five youngest members of the Mother-Daughter Book Club is spending Christmas at home. Instead, each one finds herself missing home while away on exotic vacations.

I discovered the Mother-Daughter Book Club series for intermediate readers last fall, and I devoured the first four books, the last of which gave every impression of being a series finale. I was surprised, then, to hear that 2011 would bring a new novel featuring these girls tied together by their immersion in classic literature. Home for the Holidays is different from the first four installments in several key ways, but it still is very much in the same vein as the others.

The first major difference that fans will note is the fact that Becca Chadwick, the prissy queen bee who is a primary antagonist to most of the girls in the first two books, gets to speak for herself this time around. Aside from her best friend Megan, she still doesn’t feel a particularly strong connection to the other book club girls, and this year, she has a troubling family secret hanging over her head and deepening her sense of distance.

Usually, the books are divided into four sections with four chapters each, but now that Becca is on board, there are five chapters in each section. However, there are only three sections, and the story takes place over the course of about five weeks instead of the typical almost-year. Hence, there are 15 chapters instead of 16, making this book of pretty typical length for the series, though the chapters in the last section are considerably shorter than those in the first two since everything in that section happens on the same day.

This time, the books under consideration are those in Maud Hart Lovelace’s Betsy-Tacy series. I was excited to see this because my friend Beth, who has also been enjoying the Mother-Daughter Book Club books, has loved Lovelace since she was little. At her recommendation, I read the first couple books a few years back but stopped when my library’s supply ran out. Reading this made me want to pick up those books again.

I do find that there’s an extra layer of fun to be found in these books when one is intimately familiar with the allusions being made, which is probably one of the reasons that my favorite books so far have been the ones focusing on Anne of Green Gables and Pride and Prejudice. Still, I’m familiar enough with Betsy-Tacy that I didn’t feel too out of the loop with the references.

With so many major events occurring and long-running storylines wrapping up in the fourth book, Home for the Holidays feels a bit like a P.S. on the series, though it could also be seen as a sort of transition book. These girls are only sophomores in high school, after all, so there is plenty of potential life in the series still, especially if they deal with smaller chunks of time like this one does.

Here, there are really only two characters facing major changes. Becca’s father is out of work, and tomboy Cassidy could wind up moving back to California if her stepfather accepts a job there. Theirs are the most compelling stories this time around, particularly when it comes to long-term consequences. Megan has a crisis in that her long-distance boyfriend has abruptly ditched her, but as he only entered the series a book ago and didn’t seem likely to be a permanent part of it, the break-up doesn’t have as big of an impact as Emma’s major relationship catastrophe in the fourth book. Speaking of Emma, while this bookworm is my favorite character, she doesn’t have a lot to do in this book. Mostly she just reacts to Jess, whose sledding injury prevents her from going to Switzerland for Christmas and who Emma suspects of getting involved with another boy even though she is dating Emma’s older brother Darcy.

The book introduces a few new characters, but the one who adds the most is Becca’s grandmother. I love the way that Vogel has turned the book club into a three-generation thing, and it seems especially sweet that Becca’s grandmother is the one who selects the Betsy-Tacy books for the girls’ next project. I also love the tea shop opened by Megan’s grandmother, especially all the literary quotes on the walls. It seems like a perfect hangout for the girls, a place as cheerful and welcoming as Pushing Daisies’ Pie Hole.

The book begins with Thanksgiving and ends with New Year’s Eve, but the heart of the story is Christmas, which finds each of the girls someplace rather exotic. Jess and Emma are at a New England lodge run by Jess’s relatives, Megan and Becca are on a cruise off the coast of Florida with their families and Cassidy is with her Mom, stepdad and sisters in California, trying to decide whether she would be okay with them moving back to the state she called home for a dozen years. More than before, it struck me how isolated Cassidy is. Despite having a group of friends, she really doesn’t have a “best friend,” and although she has always been part of a hockey team, in some ways, she is more of a loner than anyone else in the group.

It’s fun to be able to visit with her and the others this time around for such a festive outing. I love Christmas stories, and that’s mostly what this is. As before, I usually found it pretty easy to keep the girls’ voices straight, though I sometimes caught myself mixing up Megan and Becca and, to a lesser extent, Jess and Emma; usually I can tell Emma is speaking because, like me, she’s constantly making references to books (though with me, it’s also TV and movies). Still, I think the characters are definitely distinct from each other, and it will be interesting to see how Becca develops if the series continues, since this is the first time we’ve been able to get her side of the story. As always, it took me a few pages to get used to the present-tense narration, but once I did, I was fully immersed in the story and could barely put it down.

Because this is the fifth book in the series, you really would do best to start from the beginning before opening this one. However, I think it would work as a stand-alone holiday story; you would just be missing some of the significance of certain scenes and spoiling earlier plot developments if you read it before any of the others. While the target audience is girls in middle school and high school, I think anyone who understands the power of books to forge friendships and help us make sense of our lives could easily enjoy Home for the Holidays.

Chaos Ensues With Donald Duck at the Toy Store

There’s a wonderful scene in the Tom Hanks movie Big in which the main character, a 12-year-old kid in the body of a 30-year-old, goes to an expansive toy store and simply basks in the visceral delight of playing with just about everything in sight. The owner is so charmed by his enthusiasm that he not only joins him for an unconventional rendition of Heart and Soul on the giant stompable keyboard, he makes him a special consultant.

In the Golden Easy Reader Donald Duck at the Toy Store, the owner has a much less favorable reaction when Donald Duck decides to start trying out the merchandise. While it’s the same-old-toys malaise of his nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie that prompts the excursion, Donald is the one who goes nuts when they arrive at the store, and his idea of testing out the toys seems to involve breaking them and everything in the vicinity. What a calamity for the shopkeeper! What an embarrassment for the triplets! What can be done to make him stop?

This book, written by Joan Phillips and illustrated by Willy Ito, Claudia Mielnik and Roy Wilson, is similar in tone and format to other Golden Easy Readers starring Donald, particularly Donald Duck, TV Star. Basically, it involves Donald making a mess and the boys (or ducklings, I suppose) trying to clean it up. In this book, however, it all starts with him wanting to do something nice for his nephews, so it’s hard to fault him too much. But once he gets to that store, a sort of madness overtakes him. The pictures capture that crazed enthusiasm very well, particularly with the rings in his eyes.

Like other books in this series, it uses a lot of repetition, particularly in the middle section, which involves one of the nephews pointing something out as a good toy, then Donald offering to try it, injuring himself as a result and declaring it a bad toy. It reminds me of the Berenstain Bears book in which Papa Bear takes his son and his fellow scouts on a camp-out and insists on showing them how to do everything, which inevitably leads to disaster and to them using their own expertise to fix the damage he’s done. Donald, like Papa Bear, is a great big kid at heart. While that makes him more lovable, it also makes him more disaster-prone.

The simplicity of the writing makes this book a great one for readers just getting used to a few basic words like “toys” (which appears, in plural or singular form, 15 times) and “try” (which appears eight times). It’s also a bit of a fun challenge to keep the triplets straight; each one is singled out once, and after that, kids can go through the book and point out who’s who based on their clothes. The fact that all of them have both red and blue on them somewhere makes this even trickier.

This is a fun story that doesn’t discourage enthusiasm but does urge a bit of restraint. I think Donald would be a very fun uncle to have – as long as he doesn’t put everybody in traction.