How to use this Page

1. There is a new picture book out called “A Birthday Cake for George Washington” which tells the fictionalized story of one of Washington’s slaves, named Hercules, a highly talented chef for the first president and how he baked a cake for Washington’s birthday.

2. To know more about the book and why there is controversy about it, see Edi Campbell’s review.

3. Kirkus was not impressed with the depiction of happy slaves in the book.

4. There are some facts to consider when looking at this book. Most notably, slavery is wrong. It was wrong in 1600. It was wrong in 1784. It was wrong in 1860. It is wrong today. George Washington owned slaves. Hundreds of slaves.

5. Slavery is also, by definition, cruel. Whether or not Washington was physically abusive to his slaves is a significant part of his biography but it does not change the truth that slavery in and of itself is cruel. Slavery robs a person of the freedom to live the life they choose to live, where they choose to live, pursuing the dreams they choose to pursue and loving the people they choose to love. It robs them of every level of individual freedom that a person has. It places them in a submissive role as the very fact of their existence is predicated upon the kindness of others. A slave is thus afforded only the smallest levels of happiness in his or her life—happiness that life is not worse in the hands of a crueler master. This is about the saddest kind of “happy” I can imagine.

6. Having said all that, George Washington was a great first president. But we need to separate the man from the myth which means no stories about the cherry tree, no stories about asking Betsy Ross to make a flag and no stories about his super “happy” slaves.

7. When I was teaching my students were soldiers in the US Army. This meant that my classes were always incredibly diverse which is important. When we talked about Washington, I would bring up the subject and ask my students what they knew. I always got stories about the cherry tree and Betsy Ross, how he led the army, how he was the first president, etc. And without fail, one of my African American students would always point out that Washington owned slaves. Never a Caucasian student. I am sure this was because most of them did not know while ALL of my African American students did. (This is why diversity in the classroom matters—biases become clear.)

8. I think Washington’s slave ownership (along with other slave-owning founding fathers) is important to understanding who he was. Just as I did not discount his brilliance on the battlefield (and I think he was a great military commander), nor did I ever have anything negative to say about his key decisions as president (starting with his decision not to be king and to only serve two terms), I also made sure we talked about the notion that men who prized their freedom enough to risk their very lives fighting for it should not see any problem robbing others of their freedom (this included discussion of Native Americans and women).

9. We have enough myth-making in fiction; we don’t need to use it in history.

10. Look, I wish Washington had not owned slaves. (I also wish Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings were able to marry, that Andrew Hamilton didn’t have such a hot-head and that instead of the Betsy Ross and Molly Pitcher stories we had actual real women of the Revolution to celebrate.) (I could go on and on here.)

11. But George Washington owned slaves. And he was not the only one. And understanding who these men were, how they could be so brave and so smart and yet also so blind when it came to the evils of slavery, is key to understanding what America meant then and how much we have evolved into what America means today. This is a complicated, discussion that means we can admire a man’s character traits on one hand and be appalled by them on the other.

12. A six-year old can not understand this kind of argument and frankly, shouldn’t have to.

13. You must tell a six-year old about George Washington as president and you must tell him or her that he owned slaves and then you say that slavery was wrong and you explain how the founding fathers are men to admire on one hand and be disappointed in on another. (And please, let’s talk about Native Americans and women in this discussion also.) But giving them a book that depicts a slave as happy while owned—that actually depicts every slave as smiling and happy—is hella wrong.

14. Seriously, 100%, hella wrong.

15. I do think that the story of Hercules, the field hand who became Washington’s chef, should be told. I think however that it belongs in a nonfiction book for MG or YA readers and I think it should include what became of him after he ran away (with the fact that he ran away as a way bigger part of the story then an author’s note at the end as it is in “A Birthday Cake for George Washington”). Oh—and how about mentioning that he left behind that cute little daughter who clearly loves her daddy so much in the book? Really—we’re going to unpack the whole complicated history of broken families during slavery and it’s long term sociological ramifications with first graders? (Or, how about we don’t and instead share this story with kids old enough to discuss it.)

16. (Side note—anyone who thinks that an author’s note in a picture book is going to be read by 90% of the readers is dreaming.)

17. But more than anything, I think the very notion of the “happy slave” needs to die. It was never true and to continue to peddle it, especially to children, is beyond the pale. (Yes, like anyone some slaves had some happiness in their lives but if you think they were overall “happy” with their living situation then you really need to read some history. A LOT OF HISTORY.)

18. This is a book that should not have been written, should not have been edited and should not have been published. It serves no purpose; it contributes nothing significant to honest discussions of our nation’s history in general or Washington in particular. It does however perpetuate a lie that will only confuse its young readers.

19. The time for myth-making about George Washington is long past. We are strong enough for the truth and we are way past time for learning it.

[Updated: the author of “A Birthday Cake for George Washington” on why the book depicts smiling slaves.]

Add a Comment

Paging through Neil Waldman’s Al and Teddy is an immersive experience; the deep rich images are quite impressive:



Waldman’s story is about two brothers, one of whom creates an imaginary world that he shares with his sibling. It’s simple and straightforward, with a sweet ending but the images really take it up a notch. It’s pretty hard to tear yourself away from something like this:

Al and Teddy was published by Dream Yard Press. Proceeds from sales of the book go to the purchase of art supplies (and pizza!) for children of the Bronx who participate in the Dream Yard Project.

Add a Comment

I am consistently impressed with the picture books published by Enchanted Lion Books. Most recently I received copies of Beastly Verse by Joohee Yoon and The World in a Second by Isabel Martin with illustrations by Bernard Carvalho.

The Yoon book is the more traditional—a poetry collection that includes works from Lewis Carroll, William Blake and Laura E. Richards. Here’s a bit of “The Yake” from Hilaire Belloc:

As a friend to the children commend me the Yak,
You will find it exactly the thing;
It will carry and fetch, you can ride on its back,
Or lead it about with a string.

As you can see, Yoon’s illustrations are dynamic and colorful, making the book a joy to page through. The poems all fit well (some better than others), and combined it’s a good way to introduce pre-readers to poems.

The World in a Second is based on the question of what is going on around the world at the same moment. Martin provides the simple story, taking readers through a variety of single sentence scenarios: “…An elevator gets stuck between two floors in a New York City skyscraper”; “…A boy balances himself on his bicycle for the first time”; “…The dogs (and only the dogs) feel a tiny tremor in a Venezuelan city” and “…A wave reaches the shore.”

Carvalho’s illustrations, (also big and bold and in his city scenes appropriately busy), are diverse in color, ethnicity and location. In some cases Martin specifies the place, like Venezuela, Morocco and Portugal, but often it is Carvalho’s pictures which give the reader geographic clues. (On the final page is a world map with the page numbers pinned to specific cities with the time when each spread occurred.)

World gives readers a clear way to understand the concept of time and time zones which is all very good and by showing people enjoying similar moments (driving, biking, playing ball or resting on a bench), it also makes the world that much smaller, a message I strongly support.

Two beautiful books with dynamic designs and structures; this is Enchanted Lion, hitting it out of the park yet again.

Add a Comment

There are few things in life as delightful as a perfect picture book. Enormous Smallness: A Story of E.E. Cummings is especially delightful, a perfect combination of subject and illustration that includes a design that works with the playful nature of the poet’s words.

There is a lot going on here, (with plenty of shout outs to interesting people and places), as author Matthew Burgess covers his subject’s life. He focuses a lot on Cummings’ childhood, education and lifelong love of words while illustrator Kris Di Giacomo presents those words as leaping off the page along with subtle washed backgrounds that keep E.E. (Edward Estlin) and his words as the center of the action.

All in all it’s a lovely thing to see and quite inviting. Take a peek at this inside spread:

There are a couple of particularly interesting points from Cummings’s life presented here such as the fact that his most influential teacher was also the first African-American principal in New England and he was mistaken for a spy while working as an ambulance driver during WW1. (He later wrote about this in The Enormous Room.)

But mostly the author focuses on how much Cummings loved words from the earliest age (dictating his first poem at age 3) and how he liked to play with words on the page so their appearance could make them sound (or read) differently. As Burgess explains this, Di Giacomo shows it, bringing the poet’s method home to even young readers.

Enormous Smallness is a truly lovely book and one that I think is going to find its way onto several award lists. It’s due out next month; be sure to get it on your radars.

Add a Comment

Where My Wellies Take Me... by Clare & Michael Murpurgo is one of those books that is so pretty and smart that I hesitate to do much of any kind of review because it's too hard not to lump the superlatives and make it sound impossible. I want to tell you it functions remarkably well as a poetry anthology, that Pippa's story of gentle outdoor adventure will appeal to kids and parents who enjoy a good jaunt and that Olivia Lomenech Gill's scrapbook style design and artwork is classic in all the best ways.

Oh heck. I love this book and I'm not afraid to just say tell you so.

The basic story is simple: Pippa sets off from her kind Aunt Peggy's on a trek through the countryside (hence the need to wear her wellies). She visits a local farmer, takes a ride on his horse, has a lunch, considers some birds, pigs and dandelions, plays Pooh sticks, spies a fisherman (and dwells on the end of life for a fish) and makes it back to the village in time to be crowned the unexpected victor of a race.

What elevates the book is the accompaniment of so many impressive poems from the likes of Ted Hughes, Rudyard Kipling, Yeats, Rossetti and more. The poems are often short, easy to understand and directly applicable to the text. The combination, with the great scrapbook pages and Pippa's story, makes this a lovely read and also a book to pore over for hours while studying the art.

Some books are treasures and Where My Wellies Take Me... certainly fits that standard. The very young will like Pippa a lot but I think it actually might reach best for the 6 & up crowd - 8 -10 year olds could be the best age of all. Really, though, it depends on the child. You'll know when you look at it if it fits for the explorer in your life. I hope it does.

Here are a couple of spreads from the Olivia Lomenech Gill's website:

Add a Comment

Clotilde Perrin uses a smart idea to show how similarly people live around the world in this stunning (stunning!!!) picture book. Starting at 6AM in Dakar, Senegal, she takes young readers into the lives of children on six continents as they eat, drink, go to school, play and sleep all at the same hour of the day. So, while a child is waking up in Senegal, another is sound asleep in Brazil. This helps get the notion of time zones into the heads of early readers (and Perrin's informational notes at the end help as well.)

Mostly though, while At the Same Moment Around the World is an educational book it is also a beautiful one and a chance to learn some geography (includes a map at the end) and see how much alike children and families are around the world.

Perrin takes readers from Keita in Senegal to Benedict in Paris then Mitko in Sofia, Bulgaria, Yasmine in Baghdad, Nadia in Dubai, Ravshan and Yuliya in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Lilu near Mount Everest, Khanh in Hanoi, Vietnam, Chen in Shanghai, Keiko in Tokyo, Kate traveling between Ayers Rock and Sidney, Matea and Joany in New Caledonia, Ivan in Anadyr Russia, Abby in Samoa, Allen and Kiana in Honolulu, William in Anchorage, AK, Sharon and Peter in San Francisco, Samantha in Phoenix, Pablo in Mexico City, Diego (just born!) in Lima, Peru, Ana in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, Lexi in Nuuk, Greenland, Antonio on the island of Fernando de Noronha and finally to Chloe onboard a ship in the middle of the Atlantic.

They are all living different lives and yet doing similar things. They are different colors, in different clothes in different landscapes (and different beds) but still, they are all the same and they are all living in the same moment. Perrin thus gives her readers not only something to learn from and think about but also a great lesson in the diverse face of humanity.

I call this a win on every possible level and a book that will be appreciated by adults and children alike.

For another look, Jules reviewed At the Same Moment Around the World for Kirkus in her column there and then followed up at her blog with some more interior spreads from the book.

Add a Comment

I have a deep appreciation for a well crafted picture book and feel compelled to tell the world just how lovely a recent arrival at my doorstep is. Julia's House for Lost Creatures by Ben Hatke (author/illustrator of the Zita the Spacegirl graphic novels) has everything young readers/pre-readers could want: a great back story, admirable protagonist and creatures great and small that fill the pages (but not in a scary way). The setting is also about as good as it gets combining multiple levels of wish-fulfillment for adult and child alike. Frankly, I think Hatke has hit this one about as far out of the ballpark as you can go.

Julia arrives at her new location a bit magically: "Julia's house came to town and settled by the sea." (This is where I saw shades of Howl's Moving Castle.) With her pink high tops and saucy kerchief, she quickly gets down to the business of filling her quiet and fabulous looking home (fireplace! globe! grandfather clock! books! gramophone! ships in bottles!) with friends. Julia finds these friends by posting a sign outside: "Julia's House for Lost Creatures". All sorts of creatures show up: Patched Up Kitty, a very sad troll, a dragon, a mermaid, goblins, folletti & more. Shades of Dr. Doolittle, yes?

Julia is overwhelmed by all the sudden roommate chaos but finds a way to sort it all out, (the mermaid of course will do the dishes, the ghost is in charge of dusting, etc.), gets everyone to chip in and they all live happily ever after having grand adventures, I'm sure. (Pippi Pippi Pippi!)

Hatke accomplishes the holy grail of picture book writing I think: gentle lesson, glorious illustrations, easy text and sure-fire read aloud pleasure. That he does this with a dash of magic and spunk is nothing less than I would expect from him (see those Zita books for more). This is an author who makes it look easy, which might be the biggest achievement of all when it comes to this tricky medium.

Highly Recommended!

Add a Comment

I have a deep appreciation for family food traditions. From my mother's side (Irish American) we don't have many. (The most enduring is easting Entenmann's Coffee Cake which I don't think really counts but we love it.) On my father's side (French Canadian) there are many because he was a great cook and my memere was as well (especially baking). But in terms of ethnic food, I don't know that anyone really sees something and yells "Oh, look! French Canadian food!" (If you can name any French Canadian food other than syrup right now, you deserve an award.)

About now you probably understand that I spent a large part of my childhood wishing I was Chinese, Mexican or Italian solely for the food.

All of this explains why when I received a copy of the picture book Pizza in Pienza by Susan Fillion, I was delighted by each and every page. It's a very simple story about a girl in Pienza, Italy, who takes readers through her day and across her town. Along the way she shares her love of pizza, ("Even while I'm eating spaghetti, I'm dreaming about the next pizza pie."), and her research into the history of pizza which, as we know it, comes from Naples, Italy. The story comes around to America, where the first pizzeria opened in NYC in 1905 and the final spreads show people enjoying pizza both in the U.S. and Italy which is all kinds of wonderful.

Everyone would like to be a member of the ethnic group that invented pizza, don't you think?

Fillion both wrote and illustrated Pizza in Pienza and the illustrations are large and colorful, with a folk art feel. The story reads as a picture book travel essay and the dual text, with a single line on each page in both English and Italian, fits well in this narrative design. In the final pages the author includes a pronunciation page, a history of pizza and a recipe for Pizza Margherita (including the dough).

This is a decidedly quiet book but it provides a nice lesson about a well known topic while introducing a foreign country in a very accessible way. (That's the part that will appeal to folks looking for educational reads.) For me, it was quite reminiscent of all those delightful Italian memoirs for adults (paging Frances Mayes). It's one of the better ways to bring Italy home to kids and it will likely also spur them to appreciate their pizza even more which is always a good thing. Call this one a nice delightful and tasty trip for younger readers. :)

Add a Comment

I hardly ever receive board books anymore because my son is, well, ten and I'm not in the market for anymore children. (Oh dear heavens, no.) But Tundra Books sent me a set of six titles from their Hockey Canada imprint and they are so fabulous that I was sorely tempted to keep them forever for my own personal enjoyment.

I am a hockey fan folks, born and bred on the Montreal Canadiens.

These are learning books - "Hockey Opposites", "Hockey Shapes", "Hockey ABC", "Hockey 123", "Hockey Colors" and "Hockey Animals" and they are everything a board book should be - sturdy, bright colors, simple text, straightforward illustrations and also full of hockey goodness. Opposites includes "Out" (The puck is out of the net) and "In" (The puck is in the net) and "Shapes" shows us that a hexagon is also the shape of the Frank J. Selke Trophy (for most valuable defense forward as we learn in the text). "Animals" is for team lovers - on one side you see a Buffalo Sabre, the other side an actual buffalo. You also learn when the team was formed and where and why they have the animal logo and a bit about the animal itself (the buffalo or bison nearly went extinct).

"Colors" is about jerseys and that NHL hockey is "played on white ice" and "ABC" is about fun things like "H is for Helmet" and "G is for Gretzky, the GREAT One". Finally, "123" is the best with 5 pairs of skates and 9 zambonis and THE ORIGINAL SIX teams. (That includes the Montreal Canadiens in case you were wondering.)

There is so much to love about these books that even though I will be passing them along to relatives with actual small children (I must, I must), I had to share them here first. We don't see many hockey titles in the US for kids (which is a crime) and if you are a fan you will want to know about these. Tundra also sent the first two books in the Puckster series about a polar bear who plays hockey with a bunch of other animal pals (early reader titles) and I can see a lot of happiness for them as well. My favorite hockey book for kids is by Roch Carrier, The Hockey Sweater, which is the perfect story of what it means to be a fan; it reminds me so much of my father's stories of Guy LaFleur and Maurice Richard when I was growing up. (If you are a Canadiens fan this is just perfection.)

For adults I recommend checking out the short story collection Hockey Sur Glace which I bought for my father years and years ago (I now have his copy). He said it was particularly true of the French Canadians in New England and as he would know, I thought that was high praise. On my wish list I have Salvage King, Yal which is about bars, fighting, loving and hockey. Sounds like Slap Shot which was one of the best movies ever made (if you like hockey insanity and Paul Newman) so I must read it. (Slap Shot and Mystery, Alaska are two movies I recommend buying for any hockey fan.)

Hmm. This post ended up being about a lot more than books for toddlers. I love it when that happens!

[Good review of four of the board books can be found here.]

Add a Comment

Everything I learned about Sindbad the Sailor was from Sunday morning Ray Harryhausen movies. (Yet again this is due to my brother's influence - he who controls the channels truly shapes their younger sibling's pop culture references!) I know all the major stories, that Richard Burton wrote a very popular translation (among many other things) and that Scheherazade really got a raw deal. (Tell a story every night or die? Seriously?!). I also know that Sindbad is just generally a very cool literary character. The reason I'm blogging about this (other than an excuse to embed a Harryhausen clip) is because Tundra books sent me a trio of Sindbad picture books that made my son fall crazy hard for Sindbad and I wanted to share their wonderfulness with the world. Also, times are hard and good Sindbad books are a tonic for what ails us.

Retold and illustrated by Ludmilla Zeman, Sindbad

, Sindbad in the Land of the Giants and Sindbad's Secret all tell the stories in the traditional manner. A brief introduction in the first book sets the scene for Scheherazade and then we meet older and wiser Sindbad who relates the crazy tales of his youth. All the shipwrecks and monsters are here and in each book Sindbad gets lucky, shows his wiles, finds treasure and then keeps going back for more crazy adventures. So if you're just looking for faithful adaptions then these books can't be beat but what really sold me on them (and got my son's immediate attention) were the amazing full color full page illustrations that wrap from corner to corner. You can't look away and really, why would you want to?

Essentially, Zeman portrays the stories as tapestries, even down to the borders around each page. The monsters are big and scary, the people expressive, the landscapes stunning. The fact that everyone, including Sindbad, looks like they actually do live in the Middle East is just icing on the cake. Mostly I just wanted to wallow in all the pretty artwork and the fact that Sinbad is as wicked cool as always.

I do still have a soft spot for Ray Harryhausen however. If you grew up on those movies, you would too.

[The Pictorial Arts blog has several more pages from the third Sindbad book up to take a peek at.]

Add a Comment

I was standing in my local bookstore the other day (buying a CARL book for a two-year old's birthday gift) when I saw DAYDREAMS OF A SOLITARY HAMSTER on the shelf and realized I had not mentioned this one yet and really, that is a total crime. HAMSTER is from Enchanted Lion Press who is one of my favorite picture book pubs. They do the most interesting books - really nothing else like their catalog out there - and cemented my lifelong affection when they released the BIG WOLF & LITTLE WOLF titles. (I wrote about the most recent one here. Really -as sweet and wry and flat out funny as it gets. And it's about two wolf buddies!!!)

DAYDREAMS OF A SOLITARY HAMSTER, by Astrid Desbordes with illustrations by Pauline Martin is conventional [oversized] picture book size but drawn as a series of comic strips. Most of the little stories are only a page long although a few stretch into a double spread. The boxes are large, some fill the whole page, some are half size, most are quarter so there's no worry that it's difficult for little kids to see/read. But while I think that littlest kids will enjoy the adventures of hamster and his buddies (mole, squirrel, hedgehog, snail and rabbit) I had a whole different reader in mind when I was going through this one. Hamster is pretty full of himself, snail is overwhelmed with worries that he will miss everything because he moves too slow, mole is a frustrated novelist and they are all more than a bit snarky in the best sort of British humor style (if you can picture that in animals who aren't the slightest bit portrayed as British).

I kept thinking this is what Wednesday Adams would be reading and she would be so unimpressed with all the rest of us who dissed her for loving a picture book. Wednesday would flash that long black hair, give her best disdainful eye roll and walk away with DAYDREAMS in hand and the enormity of humanity's stupidity weighing down upon her cooler-than-possible shoulders. She'd so totally get this book, she'd flat out adore it.

I don't want to suggest that DAYDREAMS is too sure of itself; that's it's sporting an "I knew about Nirvana before anyone else did" kind of arrogance because that's not true. Some of the stories are really quite sweet but the sweetness is not cloying because other stories are just so funny and a wee bit obnoxious. How Martin manages to convey annoyance in the face of her animals is true genius because she does so little to get the feeling across. Just a smidge of a twist in the eyebrows or mouth and you've got the whole message. You are let in on a joke but it's so subtle that you don't take it for granted and you appreciate it all the more.

So, DAYDREAMS OF A SOLITARY HAMSTER is about a bunch of woodland friends who have many conversations on many different things while the over-lying arc is all about Hamster's birthday. There is snark and humor and no small amount of tiny animal wit. It's funny and smart and somehow - amazingly - also quite heartwarming. It works for kids who are five or ten or even, with the required willingness to indulge in an honest laugh, fifteen. It makes me smile each and every time I read it and really - SERIOUSLY - what more could you want from a book than that?

Liz liked it too!

[Enchanted Lion sent me this one or which I am quite grateful!]

Add a Comment

I must admit that when I first saw Gertrude is Gertrude is Gertrude is Gertrude in the S&S catalog last fall I thought someone had quite simply lost their marbles. A picture book on Gertrude Stein seemed to be so utterly and completely an adult's idea of what a child should be reading - and thus a pretty much dumb idea - that I partly wanted to read and review it just so I could say how wrong it was. (I'm sure I'm not the only one whose jaw drops over occasional catalog offerings.) But then I noticed that the author was Jonah Winter whose Steel Town impressed the heck out of me last fall and the illustrator was the charming and playful Calef Brown and I thought well, maybe.

Maybe this might work.

So last night I read it to my son and he loved it. He can tell you that Gertrude Stein lived in Paris with Alice and she wrote at night and Alice typed her work during the day. And they had parties all the time with people like Pablo Picasso and Ernest Hemingway and they had a dog and went for long walks and Gertrude wrote crazy things like "Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose". He has no idea what all of this collectively means in the grand scheme of things but he has an image of Gertrude now that makes sense to him and that he finds quite appealing. As I had never heard of Stein until I read a Hemingway biography as an adult, I was quite impressed to see that he had a slight grasp on her life. In other words the book works wonderfully - so much for deriding the appropriateness of certain subjects for kids.

I think the best thing that Winter does here is not try to explain too much. He uses Gertrude's style to tell the story (something he does explain in a brief note at the end) and he runs with the nonsensical nature of some of her writing. She sits and stares from a chair. Picasso is angry, sometimes Hemingway shaves and Gertrude writes. "You can write whatever you want to too, if you want to. If you don't, fine. Suit yourself. Don't blame me. And don't blame Gertrude."

As i was reading this I realized that I know nothing about Gertrude Stein. Hemingway was fascinated by her and she and Alice Toklas pretty much had the definitive 20th century salon in Paris. She appreciated art and people; she appreciated Alice. But I don't know why she wrote the way she did or what she hoped to achieve with it. She is mostly a mystery to me; a minor character in the lives of others which is certainly not anywhere near the truth of her life. Oddly enough, it is Jonah Winter who has made me most curious to learn more about Gertrude and Alice - something Hemingway never accomplished. (He did however lead me to a lifetime love for Martha Gellhorn.) So now my son and I both thing Gertrude Stein is a very interesting lady. Chalk one up for Winter & Brown and choosing unorthodox subjects for picture books.

Now excuse me while I go find some adult reading on this very worthy subject.

[Post pic of Gertrude and Alice.]

Add a Comment

I don't usually write about Christmas books but I read three of them recently to my son which were fun in different ways and most importantly he thought they were pretty awesome. They are an eclectic bunch but good choices if you want a Christmasy read in the next few days.

One Hundred Shining Candles by Janet Lunn (illus by Lindsay Grater) is a sort of Canadian version of the Little House on the Prairie with a wee bit of Gift of the Magi thrown in (if you remove the whole wife/husband gift exchange element). It's 1800 on the Canadian prairie, no one has anything, father is away working, mother is ill and Lucy and Dan want some Christmas magic. After hearing the story from their schoolmaster about city celebrations which include, among other things, "one hundred candles lighted to celebrate the birth of our Lord", Lucy is inspired to make a similar grand display for her parents. Candle making proves to be much more difficult than planned however and much of the story is about the kids hanging in there and trying to get their big present together. There is a heart warming happy ending (of course!) and I thought it was a bit too treacly but my son (he of loving dinosaurs and Star Wars) refers to this as the "candle book" and thought it was wonderful. that reminded me that when I was his age I thought Laura Ingalls was pretty darn wonderful. So if you were a Laura fan and think your kids would be too, then this is a book for you. (And the religious aspect is light - very much like the Prairie books.)

Switching gears in a major way, What Does Mrs. Clause Do? by Kate Wharton (Illus by Christian Slade) is a boisterous, very nearly over-the-top, laughing look at just what Mrs. Claus does while Santa is out making Christmas Eve deliveries. The story starts with a look at the demure lady of the house (with bun on her head and apron from neck to ankles) reading stories by the fire to the little reindeer. Things rapidly change however as readers are treated to other possibilities - like the hosting of the Jingle Bell Ball, or running Claus Enterprises, or shadowing Santa in ninja attire as she "catches the toys that fall from the sleigh" and "keeps all the dogs and children away". There are dozens of things Mrs. Claus might do - like be a whale rider, gingerbread architect, toy archaeologist, polar geographer and on and on and on. The pictures are expressive and cool and the whole book celebrates the fun of the Clauses. It's some awesome rhyming and quirky as heck. Hard to resist this one.

Finally, if you thought Edward Tulane strayed a little bit into the area of bunny abuse porn, (stuffed bunny abuse of course) (which somehow makes that porn assertion even worse), then The Little Toy Shop by Frances Wolfe is exactly what you have been waiting for. The setting is Mr. Kringle's toy store where plush animals Bunny and Teddy spend their days hanging out on the shelves waiting for the right child to notice them. Toys come and go, everyone is pretty happy and jolly and Mr. Kringle is determined to make all children happy (of course). Then one day, one little girl comes in and sees Bunny and knows that he is the toy for her. She promises to return the next day with all of her money and purchase him and Mr. Kringle promises to keep him safe for her. But oh no! Mean rich guy comes in and Bunny gets bought by accident and off he goes to mean rich girl's house and she casts Bunny aside and he ends up out in the wild and there is a dog and a creek and he is LOST!

But rather than dragging on for chapter after chapter after chapter (as that poor Eddie Tulane did), Bunny gets found in a few pages and there is a happy ending - with a very nice twist. And yes, the secret life of Mr. Kringle is revealed! Huzzah!!

I defy you not to find Bunny the most heart warming little guy around and you will certainly pine for Mr. Kringle's store when this one is done. Mostly though you will thank the gods that he didn't end up being washed down a storm drain and out to sea. Yes sometimes toys get damaged and lost, but it's not always all the really big drama. Sometimes it's just nice and that's what The Little Toy Shop is. It's a really nice book and one I heartily recommend.

Add a Comment