TD Book Week: Day Three

It’s hard to believe I am already at the half way mark of my book week tour! Today I stayed put in Prince Albert, stopping by Arthur Pechey School and the John M Cuelenaere Public Library, which has one of the nicest puppet theatres I have ever seen.

In addition to being home to The Diefenbaker House and some very keen readers and writers, I shall remember Prince Albert with great fondness as the place where I found Barbie: Holiday Helpers. I love book sales of all kinds, and library book sales are full of forgotten treasures. Check out this gem, from the Little Golden Book “Reporter Series” starring everyone’s favourite literary character, Barbie!

In this installment, intrepid TV reporter Barbie is on a ski vacation when her hat blows away. Barbie follows her hat to a cabin in the woods where she meets a nice carpenter named Peter Flanders who makes wooden toys for the ‘underprivileged kids’ in town. But alas, Peter’s old car won’t start and the children will go toyless this Christmas, until Barbie agrees to ski back to her car and drive Peter into town. Savvy Barbie knows a good story when she sees one, and decides to do a story on good ole Peter. Holiday cheer ensues.

Check out the plaid shirt on this production assistant (Midge?), prepping Peter for his TV debut:

But most importantly, what is with that goatee on “Peter” (played by a barely disguised Ken)? Does this doll exist? Did Mattel make a Woodsy Ken? Or maybe it’s Lumberjack Ken? Or even better, did someone actually glue on that goatee and make that teeny tiny sweater for the sake of the book? Whatever the reason, bravo Golden Books! This is a souvenir to be treasured.

Most unexpected yet enjoyable singalong song: I’m Too Sexy by Right Said Fred (Hello Dance Mix 92!)

Number of bookmarks handed out: 186

Most philosophical question: If you could be any other person who would you be?

Favourite student interaction:

Me: If you think about it, every day ends in Y…birthday, holiday, Tuesday…

Young Einstein: I can think of a day that doesn’t end in Y.

Me: What day is that?

YE: Tomorrow.

Foiled! Well done, Young Einstein! Tomorrow I bid Prince Albert adieu and head out to Nipawin and Tisdale, then back to Saskatoon. Tonight it’s leftover pizza, The Avengers, and to bed!

Porcupines are the New Penguins: Picture Book Trend

A few years ago it seemed like every other picture book featured penguins, and why not? Penguins can be cute, funny, resourceful, family-oriented, quirky, survivors, or figures of environmental tragedy. Think of Tacky the Penguin, Oliver Jeffer’s Lost and Found, Karma Wilson’s Don’t Be Afraid, Little Pip and many other books featuring penguin protagonists. Thanks to movies like Happy Feet and March of the Penguins, you couldn’t help but see them everywhere.

Lately I feel like I’ve been seeing less penguins and more porcupines. I get it- porcupines, at least when rendered in children’s book illustration- are adorable. I mean look at that image of Pearl! So cute, so joyous! So perfect for picture books!  There is much fun to be had with the prickly/difficult to love aspect of the porcupine, and not being able to give or receive hugs is especially tragic to the under 6 set.

From Paul Schmid we have the adorable Hugs from Pearl, the protagonist featured above, soon to be followed by Percy’s Big Idea:

A sketch from the up-coming Percy's Big Idea

New Canadian Christmas classic A Porcupine in a Pine Tree by Helaine Becker replaces the stuffy old partridge of 12 Days of Christmas Lore with an almost cuddly looking porcupine, as rendered by Werner Zimmerman:

Mr. Prickles: A Quill-Fated Love Story (Kara LeReau and Scott Magoon) is the story of two porcupines who find love despite trials and tribulations (in the form of some mean-spirited woodland creatures) along the way:

All of these recent books owe much to the 1989 classic A Porcupine Named Fluffy, interestingly enough brought to you by Helen Lester and Lynn Munsinger, the same team who created the Tacky the Penguin books. Clearly this duo has a magical ability to create picture book trends:

Fluffy is rocking some rad hair in this cover

And just in case you were concerned that the cute factor of porcupines was being misrepresented, here is a video of a young porcupine with the hiccups that will put your fears to rest. Why are animals infinitely more adorable when they have the hiccups?

At the Top of my Christmas Book List: Zoe’s Christmas List Review

Christmas book lovers are a divided bunch. On one side, you have the people who actively seek out a new Christmas picture book for their collection every year. This is a particularly lovely tradition and one that I partake in with my 28 year old roommate (you’re never too old for picture books). Then you have those staunch traditionalists who prefer the tried and true classics and think new Christmas books are just a savvy marketing ploy to get people to buy more books (is this really such a bad thing? Can you have TOO many books?) To both groups I present Zoe’s Christmas List, a lovely book sure to please both camps.

You may know Zoe and Beans from the delightful series of the same name by Mick and Chloe Inkpen (yes, THAT Mick Inkpen of Kipper and Wibbly Pig fame. Chloe is his uber-talented daughter) Zoe is an imaginative toddler with Oliver-Jeffers-esque stick legs and Beans is her scruffy dog. In Zoe’s Christmas List, the pair head off to the North Pole to ensure that Father Christmas (British for Santa) gets her Christmas list which has only one entry: a Kylie Kurlz doll. Along the way they run into perhaps the cutest polar bear in children’s illustration. Because he seems lost, Zoe invites him along on the journey. They make it to the North Pole, but a storm blows up and the intrepid trio has a near disaster on the way home.

As with all of the Zoe and Beans books, Zoe’s Christmas List is about friendship. Kylie Kurlz, the doll of Zoe’s dreams and the only thing on her list, is forgotten when Little Bear is in danger. Finding a new friend is the best gift of all, though Father Christmas comes through in the end with a surprise for Zoe.  The design of this book is exquisite, starting off fairly sparse and then becoming busier and busier as the snow storm gets worse. I especially love the pages on which Zoe, Beans and Little Bear are reflected in the water. There is a delightful three page fold-out featuring Little Bear’s marathon swim

How can you not love Zoe and Beans?

The Inkpens do some fun things with language while keeping the story simple and straight forward. The narrator imparts important lessons without seeming condescending, such as “Did you know that when sticky tape gets wet it loses all it’s stick?” This is the kind of practical lesson a young child appreciates. I also enjoyed the moment of internal rhyme when Zoe offers Little Bear a sandwich: “Ham? Or jam?” You can read this to a very young child (2 or 3), but older children (5 or 6) will find the story just as comforting and charming. Zoe’s Christmas List is a  much welcome addition to my Christmas collection, and it will be to yours, too.

Looking for other great contemporary Christmas books? Try one of these, from my 2010 Twelve Books of Christmas Round-up:

The Christmas Giant

Wombat Divine

Elijah’s Angel

Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree

The Christmas Magic

HOME is a Four Letter Word: Book Signing at Merrifield’s Bookshop in Woodstock, ON

In two weeks I am hitting the road to visit my hometown of Woodstock, Ontario for a signing event at Merrifield’s Bookshop. I had such a lovely reception last year for Words That Start With B that I thought I would do it all over again!

I will be signing from 1:00-2:30pm on Saturday, November 12th. If you’ve never been to Merrifield’s, then you’re in for a treat. It’s a lovely little independent store located at 471 Dundas Street that has been keeping Woodstonians in good books as long as I can remember- and probably much longer.

Spread the word! Signed books make great gifts and I’m happy to personalize books until the cows come home…yes, that was a bad Dairy Capital of Canada joke. Commence groaning now. You can take the girl out of Woodstock, but you can’t take Woodstock out of the girl.

See you on November 12th!

The Twelve Books of Christmas: The Christmas Magic

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love read to me, this beautiful work of art!

This book is the perfect end to my list: lovely, quiet, and magical. Reading this story is akin to watching the snow fall on a clear winter’s evening. In it, Santa is presented as a fragile but capable man who takes his responsibilities, both magical and mundane, very seriously. This book focuses on the feelings of wonder and awe that accompany the season. Although it features Santa Claus going about his daily business before taking off on Christmas Eve, this book is not about presents or toys, but that Christmas feeling that is oh-so-difficult to capture in book form. Where others have tried and failed, Thompson and Muth suceed with flying colours.

I am an enormous Jon J. Muth fan. His illustrations are both breathtaking and subtle. I own all of his Zen books (Zen Shorts, Zen Ties, Zen Ghosts) and I cry everytime I read his most recent collaboration with the formidable Mo Willems, City Dog, Country Frog. His illustrations perfectly capture the wonder and magic of Lauren Thompson’s simple but evocative text.

And so ends my twelve books of Christmas. Once I started compiling the list, I realized there are so many more titles I wish I could have included, so here are some honourable mentions: How The Grinch Stole Christmas (Dr. Seuss), Silver Packages (Cynthia Rylant, ill. Chris K. Soentpiet ), The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey (Susan Wojciechowski, ill. P.J.Lynch) and Pippin the Christmas Pig (Jean Little, ill. Werner Zimmerman).

Merry Christmas to all; I hope you find a book to share under your tree or in your stocking this Christmas. As always, happy reading!

The Twelve Books of Christmas: Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree

On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love read to me, this rhyming charmer!

There is nothing like a good rhyming text. When verse is well done, it’s hard not to get caught up in the rhythm of the story. A rhyming text should be fun to read aloud, and listeners are just as delighted by the word play as they are with the the story. This is definitely the case in Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree.

The story begins when Mr. Willowby discovers that his Christmas tree is much too big for his house. So he cuts off the top and passes it off to his maid, who takes it home to her family only to discover that it’s too big for her house, so she cuts off  the top and so begins a domino effect in which the Christmas tree makes its way through a number of families, human and animal alike. Robert Barry’s whimsical illustrations perfectly suit his boisterous text and clever concept.

For more fun, check out the 1995 TV film based on the book starring such bright lights as Robert Downey Jr, the late Leslie Nielsen, and Stockard Channing. Yes, that’s right- Robert Downey Jr, in a children’s Christmas movie. Now you’ve heard everything.

The Twelve Books of Christmas: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love read to me this crowd-pleasing read-aloud!

I heart the Herdmans. Described by the young narrator of this book as “absolutely the worst kids in the history of the world,” they certainly know how to add laughs to a Christmas story. The annual Christmas pageant is a big deal, something the narrator looks forward to every year. But when the Herdmans decide to take part on the grounds that there will be free food involved, the success of this year’s pageant seems unlikely.

What follows is a laugh-outloud, non-stop romp of hijinx and near misses resulting in, as the title suggests, the best Christmas pageant ever. Everyone loves a show biz story, and community theatre is always a gold mine for conflict, humour, and triumph. Barbara Robinson plays for every single laugh and yet also manages to convey the true meaning of Christmas without an inch of schmaltz. After all, the Herdmans won’t stand for schmaltz. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is a fantastic family or classroom read aloud that is sure to fill both kids and adults with lots of Christmas cheer. 

Side note: In 1983, this book was turned into a fairly successful TV movie with the young Fairuza Balk, who also appeared as Dorothy in the wonderfully creepy Return to Oz.

The Twelve Books of Christmas: The Polar Express

On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love read to me this magical masterpiece!

In some ways, it feels ridiculous adding this book to the list. The Polar Express is pretty much the first title that comes to mind when people talk about Christmas picture books. But I am of the staunch belief that just because something is popular and possibly canonical, doesn’t mean it should be ignored.*

For those who haven’t already been touched by this magical masterpiece, the story is quite simple: a train rolls up outside a young boy’s window on Christmas Eve and takes him, along with a number of other children, on a special ride to the North Pole**. There, the boy meets Santa and is allowed to choose one gift. Being the sensitive type, the boy asks for a bell from Santa’s sleigh. When it’s time to board the train home, the boy is devastated to discover that he has lost the bell. But this is a Christmas book, and when he awakes on Christmas morning, the boy finds that Santa has left the bell under the tree.

In a stroke a genius, the boy and his sister can hear the bell, but his parents hear nothing. The boy, also the narrator, mentions that as his friends grow up, they stop hearing the bell, but it still rings true for him, “as it does for all who truly believe.” What a perfect, metaphor for the complexities of faith, magic, belief, and growing up.

If I could be reincarnated as an author/illustrator, I would want to come back as Chris Van Allsburg. His books exist in that magical space between awake and dreaming where anything is possible, the strange is made believable, and the familiar is made strange. Much like Santa’s bell, his books resonate with children in a way that adults can’t really understand or hope to experience. The Polar Express perfectly captures, in text and illustration, what it means to believe in magic.

Needless to say, The Polar Express is a staple of not only my Christmas book collection, but my picture book collection. I recently bought the 25th anniversary edition, which comes with a beautifully produced audio version, fully orchestrated, and narrated by none other than Liam Neeson***.  Take it from me, reading along with Liam while sipping something Christmasy is a recipe for the perfect December evening.   

*This debate happens all the time with the Harry Potter books. Do you include them on Best Of lists, or do they exist on a completely separate plane that is beyond Best Of lists? There is a spot for Harry on my list, in any case.

**Shades of Starlight Express, a musical I loved as a child. Starlight Express came out in 1984 , The Polar Express in 1985. Coincidence, or conspiracy? Or rather, what was it about the early 80s and magical midnight train travel?

***Talk about kids lit mash-ups. Aslan reading The Polar Express? Too perfect for words.

The Twelve Books of Christmas: Melrose and Croc Together at Christmas

On the eighth day of Christmas my true love read to me, this friendship story!

There are many stories about Melrose (a little yellow dog) and Croc (a little green crocodile), but this one is my favourite. Both Melrose and Croc are excited about Christmas, but wish they had someone to share the holidays with. A string of disappointments leads them both to a skating rink, where they crash into each other and a new friendship is formed.

 In general, Christmas books fall under three categories: religious/spiritual, the importance of friendship/community, and miracle stories. Like The Christmas Giant, this is a story about friendship. This story works well for children as young as 3 because the plot is straightforward, the language is very clear, and the emotion resonates with the anxieties of very young children. For example, when Croc arrives at the department store only to discover that Father Christmas is no longer there, Clark comments that, “Croc felt like crying, but he didn’t want people to see.” The simplicity and authenticity of that line gets me everytime.*

This is a very British story, in which Santa Claus is Father Christmas and everyone wishes each other ‘Happy Christmas.’ There is something about British storytelling that works very well with a snowy Christmas tale.  It helps that I have a weakness for animal characters that speak perfect Queen’s English

*Don’t worry. This terrible, horrible, no good very bad day has a lovely ending. It IS  a Christmas story, after all.

The Twelve Books of Christmas: The Christmas Tapestry

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love read to me, this poignant Polacco!

Patricia Polacco’s books are an entire course of children’s literature unto themselves. They are a teacher’s dream- stories about communities coming together, triumph after hardship, and extraordinary acts committed by ordinary people. Her books are well-written, beautifully illustrated, and tug at the heartstrings. These strengths are perfectly suited for the tall task of Christmas book creation.

In The Christmas Tapestry, Jonathan’s father has taken over a ministry in Detriot and the whole family is preparing for their first Christmas when a  snowstorm ruins the wall behind the altar. Things start to look up when Jonathan and his father find a tapestry to cover the wall, bringing about a reunion between two Holocaust survivors who had used the hand-stitched cloth as their wedding canopy.

The Christmas Tapestry takes the idea of the Christmas miracle to a whole new level. Much like Elijah’s Angel, the overall message in The Christmas Tapestry, as it is in all of Polacco’s books, is of peace and tolerace. The kicker is in the author’s note, which references a number of real-life sources for the story, which is sure to warm the heart of even the most sceptical Scrooge.