Explorink

‘Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving-Dav Pilkey October 23, 2007

First of all, we need to give kids some credit. They truly do realize that ‘Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving is just a fun take-off on the Christmas “‘Twas…”. The book (As one person seems to purport.) is not a “Let’s all become vegans!” platform nor is it a recommendation for children to steal. Farmer Mack Nugget (Gotta love the name.) does zone a bit into the dark side with his ax-planation, but it hasn’t proven to be too scary for any students to whom I’ve read the book.

Eight children board a school bus for a field trip to a turkey farm. Once there, they romp. They play. They gobble up all the fun they can. One little naive child then notices Farmer Mack Nugget’s (Still loving it.) ax. “What is it for?” His graphic explanation has reality rearing its ugly, wattled head. The clever children concoct a scheme to save the day by tricking the unfortunately unobservant adults and wattling, I mean, waddling back on the bus. If we exclude the fiendish farmer, the tail, er, tale ends satisfactorally. That is, it all ends satisfactorally unless you’re of the faction that feels there are children out there just waiting for their next visit to Farmer Mack Nugget’s (Ah, you know.) farm to exercise some perversive dalliance in delinquency. The students love this rhyming book and after all these years of reading it to them, I have yet to hear that Tommy or Gertrude has been picked up on charges of turkey “stuffing.”

“Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving
Written and Illustrated by Dav Pilkey
Accelerated Reader RL 4.0

• ‘Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving at Amazon
  
• Dav Pilkey Extra-Crunchy Website of Fun

Heckedy Peg-Audrey Wood September 16, 2007

Why is it that kids are so fascinated with scary stuff? Actually, I don’t think they’re fascinated with “real” scary things, but books and movies and campfire tales and peek-a-boo delight them to no end. And one of those “delightful” scary things? Why no other than Heckedy Peg, a book by Audrey Wood. The mother in our story is off on an errand to town. Each of her seven children (for being so good) is to be brought back one requested item. Before she leaves, the mother admonishes Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday not to play with fire and not to let a stranger in. Exit Mom. Enter children playing with fire and letting in the tricky and oh-so-nasty Heckedy Peg. Heckedy Peg changes the children into “dinner”, loads them into her cart and takes the “food” to her hut. It’s up to the returning mother to discover her children (Thank goodness for nosy blackbirds,) and heroically save the day. Let’s see: We have fire; transmutation (hey); kidnapping; strangers; faux dismemberment; drowning and egg pudding. What more could a child desire in a book? Okay, maybe not the egg pudding. The pictures by Don Wood are impeccably done-could we expect less? Oh, back to that Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday thing-interestingly, that’s how most of the students visiting the library ask for the book: “Where’s that Tuesday Sunday book?” You gotta love it.

Heckedy Peg
Written by Audrey Wood
Illustrated by Don Wood
Accelerated Reader RL 3.2

• Heckedy Peg at Amazon
• Audrey’s Home Page

The Teddy Bear-David McPhail

Unfortunately, I just read a pretty negative review about David McPhail’s, The Teddy Bear. The person was concerned with the depiction of a homeless person as a character in the story. A small boy loses his constant companion-a teddy bear-at a restaurant and the teddy bear is discovered in the trash by a homeless man after it was accidentally thrown out. The man, then, makes the bear his constant companion. Through time, the boy finds other toys to take the place of the beloved bear, but one day in the park the boy finds his old teddy bear on a park bench. The homeless man returns to his bench and cries when he finds his new friend gone. As the boy and his parents are leaving the park, the boy notices the anguish of the homeless man as the man cries, “My bear! My bear! Where is my bear?” The boy then turns from the exit and unselfishly gives his teddy bear back to the man. The unhappy reviewer thought the book gave some permission for kids to befriend homeless people and that this could be a dangerous folly. I thought the book showed us a boy who had the sensitivity to know what true unselfishness is. Perhaps, if the boy had been alone… As it was I can almost hear the boy’s parents saying, “That was the nicest thing I’ve ever seen anyone do. I’m proud of you, son.” After reading this books to students, we do discuss the boy and the homeless person. The response from the children is pretty much about how nice the boy is. (Exactly.)

The Teddy Bear
Written and Illustrated by David McPhail
Accelerated Reader RL 3.4

• The Teddy Bear at Amazon
• David McPhail Official Homepage

Piggie Pie!-Margie Palatini September 2, 2007

(Warning: When reading this book to children beware of an abundance of alliterative “p” words. Hand out tissues.) Gritch awakes one morning with a tremendous craving for Piggie Pie! Lacking the most important ingredients-8 plump piggies-she jumps on her broom and flies off to Old MacDonald’s to rectify the situation. Noticing her arrival overhead at the farm, the piggies read the writing on the wall, er, in the sky and decide subterfuge to be the best protection against Gritch’s hungry needs. Disguised as various farm animals, the piggies undergo some rather intense witchy interrogations. Even a conspicuouly lumpy looking “Old MacDonald” is no help. “No piggies.” (Thankfully, Gritch isn’t the most observant witch in the covey.) “Now what was she going to eat?” Enter a huffing and puffing wolf. “Wolf’s the name.” Both the wolf and the witch leave the farm with, respectively, visions of a Gritch hamburger and a Wolf sandwich dancing in their heads. And in the heads of the piggies? …a neener neener here. And a neener neener there. Here a neener…

Piggie Pie!
Written by Margie Palatini
Illustrated by Howard Fine
Accelerated Reader RL 2.5

• Piggie Pie! at Amazon
• About Margie Palatini

The Ghost-Eye Tree-Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault

All of us are very lucky that Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault first created The Ghost-Eye Tree as a reader’s theater piece. This makes it the perfect read-aloud for our Halloween or our “Why do kids love scary books so much?” needs. A mother, who, by the way, desperately needs to work on her think-ahead skills, sends her son and daughter to town to get a bucket of milk. (We must not be in Kansas anymore. Bucket of milk?) Halfway to Mr. Cowlander’s is the very frightening “ghost-eye tree…feared by all…the great and the small…” The by-play between the older sister and her brother is, well, very brother and sister-y: “Come on fraidy cat! Don’t hang back!” “I’m not hangin’ back, I’m getting my hat.” “Your dumb hat…” There are barely heard mutterings from the brother expressing his true fears just begging to be read softly and with trepidation. The illustrations by Ted Rand complete this atmospheric gift to us. “There’s nothing here, nothing to fear…” (Boo!)

The Ghost-Eye Tree
Written by Bill Martin,Jr./John Archambault
Illustrated by Ted Rand
Grades K-3

• The Ghost-Eye Tree at Amazon
• Bill Martin, Jr.

King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub-Audrey Wood September 1, 2007

King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub, and he won’t get out!” exclaims a harried page to the king’s nose-in-the-air court. Several attempts follow to extract the king from his watery repose and, my, how the mighty slip-up. (I could have said “fail”, but sometimes a little bathroom humor has an uncontrollable urge to leak out.) Unfortuately, these courtly efforts only succeed in tormenting everyone but the King who is enjoying it all immensely. And so, “Who knows what to do? Who knows what to do?” Thanks to the clever page who out-logics them all, we have lift-off, or lift-out, well, success. “Glub. Glub. Glub.” Don Wood, illustrator extraordinaire, has painted some wonderfully detailed and humorous pictures-so good, in fact, I could almost hear the Queen lamenting, “And to think I could have married Richard.” during the, um, two in a tub luncheon.

King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub
Written by Audrey Wood
Illustrated by Don Wood
Accelerated Reader RL 1.7

• King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub at Amazon
• Audrey’s Home Page
• Don Wood Biography

Voices in the Park-Anthony Browne August 24, 2007

Anthony Browne writes good books. He writes good books for children and for any adults lucky enough to read them. Mr. Brown, also, has a thing about gorillas-but that’s between him and any anthropoid apes he may encounter. Now having said this, I openly admit the gorillas in his books are sometimes more human than, well, humans. One of my favorites, Voices in the Park, is not one of those razzle-dazzle-wham-bam books; it’s a story with voice and point of view and, well, subtlety. There are four characters in this story relating in first person narration about their day in the park. Each character has a distinct outlook and this outlook creates the unique atmosphere for the story. We’ve all noticed that unmistakable atmospheric change when some people walk into a room. There’s Gloomy Gus. There’s Sparkling Sal. (Always a little borderline annoying is Sal.) There’s Heartbreak Harold. In Voices in the Park, the atmosphere, too, changes with each personality. Anthony Browne even helps us along these paths of change with some unique “seasoning” in his illustrations. Can you imagine the excellent lessons and talks and the I don’t really get its this book may inspire? Ah, I’ve become effusive-move over Sal.

Voices in the Park
Written and Illustrated by Anthony Browne
Accelerated Reader RL 2.8

• Voices in the Park at Amazon
• Anthony Browne Interview

The Giving Tree-Shel Silverstein August 20, 2007

“Once there was a tree and she loved a little boy.” And so it begins. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein is a children’s classic that takes us on a trip through life and as life itself, it isn’t always bright and cheerful. After I’ve read the book to students (usually around Mother’s Day), I ask their opinions about the story. “Did you like the boy?” “Did you like the tree?” “Do you know anyone who gives without getting anything back like the tree in the story?” (My favorite answer, by the way, to this question was “Yeah, my dog.” Well, you can’t win them all.) And interestingly, the student’s seem to really like the boy in The Giving Tree. With kids, it sometimes is “all about me.” I, also, ask if the pictures would have been better in color. The younger students pretty much agree they would be better in color, but the older students feel the black and white illustrations are necessary for the atmosphere of the book. Again, a book for all. “Sit down, Boy, sit down and rest. And the boy did.” And so it ends.

The Giving Tree
Written and Illustrated by Shel Silverstein
Accelerated Reader RL 2.6

• The Giving Tree at Amazon
• Shel Silverstein Official Site

The Gingerbread Boy-Richard Egielski August 19, 2007

In Richard Egielski’s The Gingerbread Boy, the title character is running loose in New York City. In this modern version of the gingerbread story, the Gingerbread Boy taunts a rat, some construction workers, a few street musicians and, well, the rest of us with “Run, run, run as fast as you can. You can’t catch me. I’m the Gingerbread Man!” Then he meets a fox (Why is it in these stories I’m always rooting for the fox?) and the fox, again, outsmarts the annoying escapee. The students really get into this version and are chanting right along with the Gingerbread Boy. The illustrations are bright and detailed and the kids love them, especially one of the clothesline items. The ending? Well, all expectations (Or fears, if you’re a softy) are met. “…and the Gingerbread Boy was all gone.” (Hee. Hee.)

The Gingerbread Boy
Written and Illustrated by Richard Egielski
Accelerated Read RL 2.5

• The Gingerbread Boy at Amazon
• About Richard Egielski

The Last Puppy-Frank Asch

Frank Asch is probably best known in elementary libraries for his Moonbear series and the students at my school seem to gravitate towards them more than his other titles. But I don’t read Moonbear to students. I read The Last Puppy. It’s the rare child who doesn’t feel the sadness of “…the last of Momma’s nine puppies”, “…the last to open my eyes.”, “…the last puppy.” This, until a little boy saves us all by saying: “You know what? You’re my first puppy.” Yea! Happy ending! It had to be! Now, we all know children relate to little helpless creatures. (I sometimes think if I read another children’s book about mice, I’ll start squeaking.) Frank Asch brings us this helplessness and then leads on to a very clever conclusion.

The Last Puppy
Written and Illustrated by Frank Asch
Accelerated Reader RL 2.1

• Frank Asch Books