Princess Cora and the Crocodile

Princess Cora and the Crocodile

Laura Amy Schlitz
Illustrated by Brian Floca
Candlewick Press

Princess Cora is overwhelmed.  Her parents love her so much and want her to be successful, so they fill her day with the things that are most important to being an excellent princess and queen - taking baths (a queen must be tidy), studying (a queen must be intelligent) and physical activity (a queen must be strong).  Cora often tries to suggest to them that they're over doing it, but they don't listen.  One day, Cora has had enough and she writes her fairy godmother a letter, asking for help in the form of a pet.  Cora wants a dog, but her fairy godmother has other plans.  She sends Cora a crocodile, and a naughty crocodile at that.  Hilarity ensues, and eventually (after a little gnawing from a crocodile dressed like a princess) the king, the queen and the nanny all realized that Cora does need a bit of a break.
This is a great book with a kind of sad twist to it.  At first, none of the adults even notice that it's not Cora but a crocodile - they are all to wrapped up in "worrying what might be wrong with her". And every minute of every day is planned around training for Cora by the time she is seven years old.  I enjoyed the story when I first read it for it's absurdity and silliness, but as I think about it more, I can't help but see some parallels in the way we currently raise and educate our children.
Are Schlitz and Floca trying to subtly tell us something?  I recently read an article about the life lessons found in Chinese children's literature vs. children's literature in the United States, and it got me thinking about how what we read shapes our beliefs and thoughts.  I can't help but wonder who will benefit more from reading this book - children who might learn that it's OK to play and to ask adults for what we need, or adults who might need to be reminded that kids need to be kids.
In any case, the book is absolutely worth the time for readers of any age.

Mirror Mirror by Marilyn Singer

Mirror Mirror

by Marilyn Singer

Illustrated by Josée Masse

Dutton Children's Books

New York

2010

Funny story behind me reading this book. See, since last fall I’ve fallen in love with the Cybils awards (mostly because I aspire to be a judge someday...), and I’ve  slooowly been working my way through the winners.  Many of the young adult books I’d read, so I kind of skipped those and headed for the elementary books – they’re the group of books I usually don’t get around to.  So where’s the funny part?  I accidentally bookmarked the 2010 winners in the elementary category.  So I’ve slooooly worked my way through LAST YEAR’S winners.  You’d think someone as “techno-saavy” as me wouldn’t make such a mistake.  But you’d be wrong.  Either that, or I’m not as “techno-saavy” as everyone thinks.  Anyway, I’m especially thankful that I made this mistake because I’ve found some really great early reading books!  One of those books is one that I haven’t been able to get out of my head for weeks.  It’s called Mirror Mirror.  The inside cover reads:

Ther are two sides to every story, from the princess and the frog, to the beauty and the beast, to Sleeping Beauty and that charming prince.

Now in a unique collection of reversible verse, classic fairy tales are turned on their heads.  Literally. Read these clever poems from top to bottom.  Then reverse the lines and read from bottom to top to give these well-loved stories a delicious new spin.

Isn’t that a fantastic idea?  The author calls these reversible verse poems reverso.  I wasn’t sure how it would work, but once I read one, it all made sense.  Here’s what one of the poems looks like:

It may be such

a fairy-tale secret,

this much

I know:

The road leads

wherever

you need to go.

When you reverse it, it looks like this:

You need to go

wherever

the road leads –

I know

this much.

A fairy-tale secret?

It may be such.

Isn’t that fantastic!?!?  The illustrations are also fantastic – each illustration is split in half and matches each side of the reverso.

Who would I recommend this book to?  Uh, just about anyone.  And I totally understand why it won…last year.  Now I’m off to find this year’s winner!

Zoom by Istvan Banyai

Zoom
Istvan Banyai
Penguin Books
1995

What a fun book to read...er...not read.  Zoom is a picture book that does just that - repeatedly zooms.  Each image turns into another image on the next page.  And amazingly the image on the last page is completely different from the image on the first page, but if you "read" the entire book, there is a storyline there, and it's great.
This book was recommended to me by one of the elementary para-librarians that works in our district.  I took it home this weekend intending to read it on my own time, but some precious, unexpected time with my 7-year-old niece came up on Saturday, so I decided to read it with her.  Not knowing what I was getting myself into, I decided to make reading Zoom a game.  Once I figured out how the book worked, we would look at the page and look for clues as to what the next image would be.  Sometimes we were right, other times we were way off.
What I found in exploring the book with my niece is that her ideas of what would come next were worlds away from mine.  While many of my ideas were right or pretty close, her's were fun.  She simply ignored the obvious hints and made up her own fun ideas.
How I wish I could be seven again...

If you're looking for a trippy webpage that gives a great preview of the book, visit Istvan Banyai's homepage (linked above).  Wow.

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
Kate DiCamillo

I know, I know, lots of postings about children's books.  I promise, by weeks end, there will be postings about adult books (I'm almost done with a great one...).  This book was recommended to me by my dear friend the Rybrarian (Ryan Whitenack.  He's a genius, and I'm not just saying that so he'll continue to help me out on my grad school work.  The man makes me belly laugh constantly).  Although we did not have the same reaction to the book, I did thoroughly enjoy the book.  For one, the illustrations are fantastic, and I plan to look for other books illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline.  Secondly, it is a great story about the trappings of vanity and the true meaning of love.

I will admit, I did not have a favorite doll growing up.  Yes, I had a few dolls that I really enjoyed, like Sally and my Ewok Wicket, but my heart always belonged to Woobie...my beloved baby blanket.  Truth be told, the original Woobie went to blankie heaven many many years ago.  And the day my mom told me we'd have to put Woobie down, I cried like I'd never cried before.  And in an act of unprecedented heroism, my older brother offered his Woobie in replacement.  I can honestly say that Woobie 2 has been my constant comfort for almost 30 years.  Yep, he still is the first thing I look for when I go to bed at night and the first thing I fold every morning when I wake up.

Reading the Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane makes me wonder what my Woobie thinks of me.  In the beginning of the book, Edward is far more concerned with himself than he is the undying love that Abeline gives him.  When he's lost at sea, his true adventures begin, and he learns that love is the most important thing.  Lucky for me, I've never lost Woobie at sea, but I have forgotten him in many a hotel room, and thus, he is now too old to travel.

I think one of the reasons I enjoyed this book is because, as an adult, we look at the things our children (or in my case, my nieces and nephews) cling to and wonder why on earth they get so attached.  But through this story, we realize that there is so much love in the world, and sometimes people, especially children, just don't have the outlets they need to give the love they have.  So they choose china rabbits, or even raggedy old blankets.  And it is through those seemingly inanimate objects that our children learn to love and care for something outside of themselves.

So I encourage all of you with children to read this book to them, because if nothing else, it will teach them that love is important, regardless of who you give it to.