Children's Books discussion
The Picture-Book Club
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January 2012: Discuss Our "Children on Adventures/Exploring" Club Reads HERE
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I've found all of the books except for the alternate at the library.
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I have previously read two of these, both wonderful! I was able to order three from Amazon for about $10. But, the alternate is no where to be found around here and it's a pricey one, so I might not get to read that one...but I look forward to what others have to say about it :).Hard to believe the New Year is just days away...
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I'm leaving Tuesday to visit my mom in Costa Rica, so will put my review for The Flying Dragon Room out there before I leave. I love all of Audrey Wood's books and have most of them and now this one too!!! Lucky me. I thought this was a wonderful story and loved how the housepainter character encouraged the child to be creative. Oh, how I wish I could have been that child. Everything he does in his secret "basement/cellar" intriqued me as a reader and obviously his family was too. Of course, the ending is the surprise of the story and made me smile all day. Too bad there isn't another book to go with this one. This is why I love picture books - I didn't get enough of them when I was young, so I get to relive my childhood with the rest of you readers. I will definitely read this book to the children at my school and my grandson. I'll keep tabs on this site while I'm gone. I've alread read Loud Emily but will let others put out their two cents and not hog the conversation. Tootles.
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Thank you so much for posting, Tricia, and I hope you have a wonderful trip! I, too, loved The Flying Dragon Room and for reasons like those you mentioned. I ended up giving it five stars. I probably would have given it four stars, except I hear my childhood self saying, "I love it! I love it!" When the little boy builds his imaginary world, he creates so many of the "rooms" that children would love to visit--dinosaur rooms, friendly wild animal rooms, dessert rooms, bouncing rooms, bubble rooms, high seas adventure rooms... The best part is that he gets to bring his family and the lady who lent him the tool set (which he used to build the rooms!) along on a tour. What kid wouldn't absolutely love to show off such imagination and ingenuity to his parents--and see them bouncing around rooms and feeding carrots to a dinosaur!? ;-p
Sector 7: A boy is on a class field trip when he befriends a cloud and goes on an adventure. Amazing doesn't do this book justice. Wiesner's illustrations are detailed, engaging, and lively enough to tell the story seamlessly without text. Certainly an adventure I’d love to take.Where the Wild Things Are: Max is sent to bed early because he was being naughty and his room transforms into a forest. Max travels across an ocean and becomes king of where the wild things are. The text has a rhythmic flow and Max’s speech and emotions are true to that of a young child. At the end, Max is in his room and it is up to the reader to connect his adventure to a child’s dream. Maurice Sendack’s illustrations are bright, bold, detailed, textured, large, and the warm colors and rounded shapes are comforting to the reader. Sendak skillfully uses his lines to illustrate motion in his pictures, as well as to guide the reader to the next page. I love this book, it is fun and engages kids and encourages them to keep reading, which builds confidence in young readers. Children are attracted to the large round faces of the monsters and even create dances and songs to go along with pages illustrating the monsters’ chant. They also can relate to wanting to escape after a bad day (or getting in trouble), adults can too :-). If it’s not completely obvious, this is a favorite of mine. I began reading it to my son when he was in my belly kicking me like a little wild thing. His nickname has always been little monster partly for our love of this book and partly because Noah is all wild boy. I think everyone has a little Max inside of them too.
The Flying Dragon Room: I really enjoyed this one. Wood is a genius and I adore Teague’s illustrations. Mrs. Jenkins loans her magic tool set to Patrick, and he creates a magical world full of rooms in his backyard. Patrick shares his rooms with Mrs. Jenkins, his parents, and baby sister. Each room is an adventure. The bubble room and the Jolly Mermaid were my favorites. Mrs. Jenkins’ surprise at the end was bittersweet because it’s awesome but the readers do not get to see it. However, children can certainly keep the story going with their own imaginations.
Loud Emily: I absolutely loved the “Sailors’ Terms and Phrases” at the beginning of the book. My son loves pirates, so now we will have some new pirate lingo to use when we play pirates :).
Unfortunately, my enthusiasm for the book didn’t hold past that page. I’m not sure why but the story of Emily’s loud voice wasn’t for me. The illustrations on the other hand, were lovely. The author’s note at the end was interesting; perhaps a non-fiction book about the time period and whaling ships would have been much more intriguing.
When I Wore My Sailor Suit: Shulevitz captures the power of a child’s imagination with this story. With his sailor outfit, some rations, and a neighbor’s toy ship, this young boy is able to climb mountains, sail the high seas, explore a jungle, and escape a pirate. His adventure takes bravery and strength, but not even a storm can stop him. (I love how he calms the sea). However, something fearful attempts to squander the boy’s imagination…will he be able to conquer this fearful thing and get his imaginative world back?
The watercolor illustrations are remarkable and go beyond the text, extending the story/imagination further. Great book for a read aloud!
Tricia wrote: "I'm leaving Tuesday to visit my mom in Costa Rica, so will put my review for The Flying Dragon Room out there before I leave. I love all of Audrey Wood's books and have most of them ..."It would be nice to be Patrick, I can think of a few fun rooms to create ;).
I agree with you. I think I started reading chapter books too early. For some reason, I don't understand, picture books are associated with younger kids and that is just not the case. If all adults and older kiddos would read picture books, I bet we'd see more smiles :)
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I agree! For me, much of the fun was in the surprise of what the adventure was about and where the boy went (and with whom!) Just great!
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I did like playing 'spot the baby' though. And if I shared this with children I would absolutely love to hear what rooms they'd create!
Alas, I can only review the 2 books that I've already read. The others I'll mark to find and read later - darn.Sector 7 only confirms my enormous respect and wonder at David Wiesner's story telling. His imagination and 'what if' wonderment provides the rest of us lowly mortals with fireworks for the imagination and a re-kindling of the childishness in us all. I know, I'm grovelling in the presence of greatness but I can't spruke his books enough.
This book certainly goes to the heart of our theme this month - only a brave, adventurous and curious boy would take the chance on following a cloud to well, goodness knows where, and to fully believe the wonderment of what he discovers. Cloud watching on the trampoline with my kids will never be the same again!
Where the Wild Things Are is a classic - about a boy falling asleep in his room (apparently) and again going off bravely on an adventure on his own to another world. My favourite part of the book is the ease of creating a sense of mystical passing of time ("in and out of weeks ... and over a year"), though the strange, enormous illustrations are glorious.
Though both about boys, I could easily imagine a girl going to Sector 7 and making her own discoveries, but I can't picture a girl in the same scenario of the Wild Things. Monsters really do seem to be a bit of a rough 'n tumble boys thing. Not exclusively of course, but it does gel a bit better.
Enjoy the other books everyone - we're off on our own adventure to explore rock pools, bays and soldier crabs for 2 weeks. Happy Holidays and Adventuring!
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Love that, Linda :-D
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What happens when a boy misbehaves and gets mad at his mom? He fantasizes about running away and ruling the world. What child hasn’t experie..."
You know what is weird with my reaction to Where the Wild Things Are? I have only ever read it in German, and I read it for the first time in English this time. And although I know that the book was originally written in English, I have to admit that I kind of prefer the German translation (probably because the book was such and is such a special and nostalgic book for me and I am just more used to the German translation). But, ha, ha, ha, this sure must sound funny to some of you who know me, because I am usually adamant about translations having to be as much as possible like the original, but who can argue with personal taste, and especially, who can argue with childhood memories.
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Who indeed? I myself have strong childhood memories of reading this one (in English..."
I echo your feelings exactly, and I think I might want to reorder a copy of the book in German for me (my parents' copy has now been claimed by the grandchildren). And I agree, it is really hard to write a review of this book; I just love it so much.
Linda wrote: "Though both about boys, I could easily imagine a girl going to Sector 7 and making her own discoveries, but I can't picture a girl in the same scenario of the Wild Things. Monsters really do seem to be a bit of a rough 'n tumble boys thing. Not exclusively of course, but it does gel a bit better. "Good point. I can't picture a girl on Max's adventure with the wild things...interesting.
Gundula wrote: my parents' copy has now been claimed by the grandchildren"I love this! Good books go on adventures of their own as they travel from generation to generation :).
I had to chuckle when I showed up to work on Tuesday morning (after a lovely 2 weeks off!). Another teacher had kindly given me 3 books for my 3 children, and one of them was Where the Wild Things Are in Spanish! :) I haven't read it yet...and I'm in no way completely fluent in Spanish, so I doubt I will feel able to make a comparison, but I'm sure that my children will appreciate being able to read it in Spanish as well as English. It truly is a great book!
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Like Cheryl in CC NV I’m less than enthusiastic about this book. The concept is intriguing and I love the idea of ..."
Way too busy and too many illustrations for my taste, I just found the book distracting, although I can appreciate the concept.
I have read Where the Wild Things Arewhen I was a child and Sector 7 just recently and I enjoyed both of them!Where the Wild Things Are - I really loved this book as a child and I still love this book now! Maurice Sendak's illustrations were so beautiful and I really loved the scenes where Max is dancing around with the wild things (the scene where the wild things and Max were dancing around the moon was the best scene!) I really loved the ending because it was simple, yet memorable to me!
Sector 7 - I just loved this book to death! I always thought that the little boy in the book almost resembles little Pete from "The Adventures of Pete and Pete" and I loved seeing how the boy goes to the clouds and sees how clouds are being made. This was probably my favorite wordless picture book!
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Here is a link to my review, http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Gundula wrote: "I finally managed to write a review for Where the Wild Things Are. I find it hard to review a book that has always been a favourite. Like Ronyell, I loved this book as a child and I ..."I'm checking out your review Gundula! :D
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Here is a link to my review of When I Wore My Sailor Suit:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
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I hope to get to Wild Things and Loud Emily later this week. I loved "Lucia and the Light" when I read it a few years back and have it out from the library now to revisit.
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Beautifully said, Gundula!
And I, too, loved that final illustration :->
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http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
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The final illustration was just so cute and so poignant!!
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http://www.goodreads.com/revie..."
Great review! Thank you for posting it.
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Cheryl in CC NV wrote: "Huh. I'm not sure I was enamored of Sector 7. I guess my inner child just didn't want to come out and play for that one. I did like the very first illustration, before the title page, by which w..."I really hated to put anything negative about,
, but I just didn't seem to be able to follow or enjoy the ride! Thinking of my lower grade students, I dont think they would really, "get it". This would be a book I will show to the upper grade language arts teachers though. I really enjoyed Wiesner's other picture books much better. Sorry dont boot me out due to my about being only one not on board with this book. The illustrations were awesome just didnt mesh out a story for me.
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That is so true about the Anne of Green Gables analogy. Uri Shulewitz' book really made me remember being afraid of my grandfather's portrait and being forced to sleep in the same room with said portrait to "cure" me of my fears (not fun and not appreciated).
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I can't speak for anyone else, but although I really loved..."
I echo Abigail, Kelly. Please do not feel that you should keep your opinions to yourself if they don't seem to mesh with the majority. I have definitely had times where my opinion was different than others and sometimes even the majority. Case in point for this month, although many really enjoyed The Flying Dragon Room, I found it too busy and frenetic. One of the best things about the picture book club is discussing picture books and being exposed to many different opinions.
Gundula wrote: "Abigail wrote: "Kelly wrote: "I really hated to put anything negative about Sector 7, but I just didn't seem to be able to follow or enjoy the ride! ..."I can't speak for anyone else, but althoug..."
Agreed! It wouldn't be much of a discussion if we all thought the same thing.
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I can't speak for anyone e..."
It would be really, really boring :-)
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What a great review! You are so right that children's imaginations can be very powerful and should be respected. And imagination, though a wonderful thing, can also cause us to fear greatly sometimes. I appreciate the personal aspect of your review, as well. I, too, remember finding certain pictures, etc. frightening as a child, thanks to my very active imagination, and am so sorry you had such a challenging experience being made to sleep in the same room with the photo that caused you so much fear in the first place!
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Funny, LMM's work came to my mind, too, in terms of how imagination can be by turns a lovely and frightening thing!
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I read Lucia and the Light with my children last night. We really liked it. We all thought the illustrations were beautifully done. I loved how brave Lucia was...as a child I was terribly scared of the dark and even as an adult, I don't think that I would have been as brave as her to set off alone to find the sun. And while she didn't, by herself, rescue the sun, she certainly used ingenuity and participated in the sun's rescue. I think, in some ways, the fact that the cat helped her was even better than if she had done it alone. Sometimes we can't solve our problems completely independently...sometimes we need help from our friends or family. We need to do as much as we can (which she did) and then we rely on those who care about us to help us the rest of the way. That may be just as an important lesson (although not explicitly stated at all...this book was not at all didactic) as if she had saved the day herself and shown that girls are strong and capable, etc.
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Argh...just wrote a long comment only to accidentally hit something and erase it all. Anyway...Cheryl, I'm glad my comments could be useful. But if you don't love the book after rereading it, that's okay. We all have different tastes or even have different books strike us differently at different times.
The Flying Dragon Room just came via interlibrary loan. I just (after 15 years using my county's library system...before that I lived in a different state) figured out how to do interlibrary loan from outside our system. Hooray! Silly that it took that long, but on the other hand, my county system generally has most of what I want to read.
Tonight I read Loud Emily to my children. I didn't love it, but didn't dislike it either. The illustrations weren't my favorite, but then after reading the illustrator's note, I found a greater appreciation for them. One thing that I do see as a big positive is that it seems like an important lesson could be learned from this book. Emily's parents and tutor viewed Emily's loud voice as a negative (and as a parent and teacher I can certainly see why they would!) But then the cook recognizes that her voice can also be an asset, and it certainly is on the ship. :) It seems like this book might lead to a discussion on how many character traits could be both beneficial and harmful/annoying depending on how they are used.
I'm thinking specifically of my 6 yo daughter. She is highly sensitive and emotional. I've tried many things to try to help alleviate some of this sensitivity...mostly to no avail. But a few months ago, I read a parenting book that helped me reshape my view of this character trait. It talked about how individuals who are highly sensitive are usually very tuned into others...their emotions, their needs, their well-being. They are often very good at helping others, caring for those who are hurt or in need and can be very empathetic. These can be great qualities and by seeing this trait as a positive it has helped me be better able to cope with her emotions (although if I'm being honest it is still hard when she is having a meltdown.) So I'm trying to help her shape this trait into a positive characteristic. (And I should point out that she is naturally more aware of others. She always knows when I've had a bad day. S he's the kid at school that helps others when they've fallen on the playground or who feels bad when someone is teased and tries to make them feel better. Reminding myself of this in the midst of the bad moments, does help.) I think this book could lead to a great discussion/teaching point about using our personalities, our character traits, in positive, proactive ways.
I've just read When I Wore My Sailor Suit and I really enjoy it! I loved the adventures that the little boy went on when he was pretending to be a sailor and I liked the part where he was scared of a painting in his neighbor's apartment and then learned to conquer his fear of the painting when he realized that the painting can't move from its place, but the boy can.
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"Where the Wild Things Are" is one of the books I remember vividly from my childhood. While I'm not sure I would call it a "favorite" (it didn't completely resonate with me as some books did, nor was it a "cozy" sort of story that I loved reading over and over), there was something utterly fascinating about it... I found the Wild Things so intriguing, I at once admired and felt ashamed of Max's behavior, I felt bad that he had to leave the Wild Things but yet happy that he went home, that his mother forgave him, and that his dinner was "still hot".
I felt much the same reading this as an adult. But, I appreciated it in different ways, too. Some days, I think we all feel like a "Wild Thing"--some days, I wear my "wolf suit" and life seems to be havoc around me. I love that Max was able to channel his feelings in a positive way, using imagination to have a wild time with the Wild Things, yet also to calm them, and to realize that he would rather have safety and comfort and love.
The illustrations are amazing! The sparse words, paired with the illustrations, create a pitch-perfect story, compel you to turn the page, and to immerse yourself in Max's adventure. The bedroom transforms in such a wonderful way, The Wild Things are sooo memorable, Max's expressions are so telling... I just loved all of it!
Max's adventure, into his imagination and his feelings, fits our theme this month so well! The book is one that I think I will appreciate for many years to come and look forward to sharing with my future children, little "Wild Things" that they may be at times, someday.
Just curious if anyone saw the movie adaptation? It never really appealed to me, from the previews, and having reread the book I'm just not sure that I would like to see the adaptation. I love that there is so much room for extrapolation in the book, to instill ones own feelings into Max and why he is being a "wild thing" and it looks like the movie paints that in a more specific way (if I remember correctly, with the parents' divorce)?
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"Where the Wild Things Are" is one of the books I remember vividly fr..."
I have not seen the movie adaptation, nor do I really want to see it. And why cannot a child simply have a tantrum because he or she is having a tantrum (fixing Max's behaviour as a reaction to his parents' divorce, well that kind of ruins it for me, in the book Max is just being a wild thing one evening, no explanation of why was or is necessary).
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I read an article this year about New Year's resolutions, and the author said 'Find a way to reinforce your strengths, instead of overcome your weaknesses. For example, if you want to lose weight but hate to exercise, instead reward yourself by indulging in whatever activity you do like, whether it's swimming, or geocaching, or playing catch with your kids.
Or, another way to reframe: if you want to eat more healthfully, don't tell yourself no more donuts. Instead, reward yourself with the fanciest, prettiest, most exotic fresh fruits and vegetables.
Point being, we are all different, and that's good. Even the theme of the month, having adventures - not everybody can be as brave as Lucia, but if an exploration feels like an adventure to you, it counts.
Thanks for prompting these thoughts! And now I'm off to read Loud Emily. :)
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I thought so, too, Jenny. For me, the message is that certain aspects of ourselves that some might find "wrong" are not intrinsically wrong, but merely wrong for certain circumstances and could be a beneficial thing in others.
I liked many aspects of Loud Emily. Some of the sentences are just beautiful, and I liked the tall-tale element. The illustrations, done as a tribute to the folk art style popular in the day, are great fun and have interesting period details, and I loved the little gray cat in many of the scenes. The "sailor's terms and phrases" and the shanty lyrics on the fly pages are also fun and add to the ambiance of the story.
The author's note at the end seemed a bit incongruent with the rest of the story. I wasn't sure why she chose to include a history of whaling since the story doesn't mention it outright (unless I missed something? it could, of course, be implied in the historical setting but I don't think most parents are going to interrupt the story to tell their kids, "oh, by the way, those are all whaling ships"), and indeed the whales in the story are friends of Emily and help the ships, so that seemed very poignant if they were helping whaling ships! :-(
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Thank you for sharing this, Jenny. I think it's wonderful that you are looking your daughter's sensitivity in a new light. As a child who was very sensitive and emotional myself, it was often very difficult for me when adults would tell me to be less so. I didn't understand why it was "wrong" to be the way I was. As an adult, of course I can understand some of the reasons more (i.e., frustrating for them, especially amidst a "meltdown", as you say) and that sometimes it is better to approach things logically... but I am glad I retained some of that sensitivity even into adulthood and there are definitely positive aspects to it, as well. I am glad your daughter now has a champion in you :-) (Just out of curiosity, what is the book you read that helped you come to this new viewpoint?)
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Haha, ye-ah, I noticed that, too. Poor cat! But, yes, I took it as the tall-tale aspect and I think the cat was definitely her friend in other scenes.
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I liked that the mom wasn't absent or irresponsible (as so often parents in children's books are, a little plot device so that the children can get away on adventures!) but that she simply fell asleep and that his how Lucia slipped away. I also liked how it was the love for her baby brother and her mom that helped give Lucia strength. When she is trembling with fear in front of the trolls, for example, the blue color of the sparks from the match remind her of her brother's eyes and her mom's apron.
Children's Books
Books mentioned in this topic
Scaredy Squirrel (other topics)When I Wore My Sailor Suit (other topics)
Where the Wild Things Are (other topics)
Loud Emily (other topics)
Loud Emily (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Mélanie Watt (other topics)David Wiesner (other topics)
Where the Wild Things Are
The Flying Dragon Room
Loud Emily
When I Wore My Sailor Suit
Sector 7
Sixth/Alternate:
Lucia and the Light
I hope those of you interested in joining us can get all (or, at least, most) of these books and join our discussion in January.
PS Although our official discussions usually begin on the 1st of the month, I know I will be busy with New Years festivities so I probably won't be back on GoodReads until the 2nd or 3rd. This thread will be open for those who would like to go ahead and start posting at the beginning of the month (feel welcome!) and I will look forward to joining in the discussion when I get back online :-)