Girl Detective

Move over, Curious George. There’s a new monkey in town. His name is Chico Bon Bon, he is a Monkey with a Tool Belt, and he is AWESOME.

Here is Chico Bon Bon. He is a monkey. Chico is a monkey with a tool belt. He is quite handy with tools. He builds and fixes all sorts of things.

The list and illustration of Chico’s belt is impressively detailed and hilarious. There are rhymes and riffs, with real and imaginary tools. We get to know Chico a little, then something happens:

One day, Chico noticed a banana split on a tiny table across the road from his house.

“That’s peculiar”

He went over to investigate.

What transpires is a simply written and cleverly drawn adventure story. Chico is a smart protagonist; kids and parents alike will cheer for him. In the sequel, Monkey with a Tool Belt and the Noisy Problem, Chico is bothered by mysterious sounds in his house, and frustrated:

But Chico couldn’t use his tool to FIX the noisy problem, because he couldn’t FIND the noisy problem.

The reveal is priceless. My 3 and 6yo boys and I burst out laughing. Monroe’s simple text, funny stories, and distinctive line drawings in bright color have made these new family favorites.

6yo Drake picked up Meno: Wet Friend! by Tony and Angela Deterlizzi from our public library. It stood out on the shelf; it’s small, bright and visually striking. As it notes on the cover, it’s “presented in vibrant Meno-Color!” What was inside, though, was initially disarming, and eventually charming. We quickly borrowed book one, Big Fun! Short, simple sentences sound like Japanese translated to English:

It is sunshine time in the house of Meno.

The art shows the influence of Japanese manga and has a 50’s retro, Astro Boy style. Meno is a cartoony kid with big eyes and a bigger head; he wears a school uniform and beanie, and is an elf from outer space. His best friend is Yamagoo, a floating, bespectacled sea creature. In Book One: Big Fun! Meno searches for Yamagoo, finds him, talks about breakfast:

We enjoy moo juice and dough with hole.

then announces it is time for big fun. I won’t spoil the joke, but Meno’s idea of fun was very funny to my 3 and 6yo boys.

In Wet Friend! Yamagoo wants a sea-faring companion, and several are offered, including one that’s clearly a shout-out joke to parents, as is the fractured English.

My 3 and 6yo boys laughed a great deal at the pictures, the silly language, and the jokes. These books are so simple they don’t even have a story, but they nonetheless got picked again and again at bedtime by my boys. We found them bizarre, but entertaining. Public reaction varies widely in the customer reviews at amazon.com, though the editorial reviews are full of praise. Many criticize their lack of story, poor English grammar and toddler humor. Others, as we did, find them weird but funny.

You can check out the artwork and style at PlanetMeno.com. Tony DiTerlizzi is the author and illustrator of the Spiderwick Chronicles, but this is for a much younger audience, and was inspired by the couples 2yo daughter.

At The Believer, Chris Batchelder writes:

the vivid surprises of child-rearing seem so similar to the vivid surprises of good literature.

(Link from The Morning News.)

and offers examples. Recently, I was reading The Very Busy Spider to 3yo Guppy, for what may have been the gazillionth time. As happened to Batchelder, though, my kid surprised me when I least expected I could be surprised.

In the book, a spider spins a web and a series of farm animals ask if she wants to do something else with them, e.g. Want to roll in the mud, said the pig? After I read one of those questions, Guppy said, “But spiders don’t do that.” It took me a moment to put together that not only was the spider ignoring the questions as she spun her web, but Guppy had just crystallized that what they were asking her to do weren’t things a spider could or would do, until the very end when the rooster asks if she wants to catch a pesky fly. I’d read this book hundreds of times, and Guppy’s statement revealed a whole new facet of the book to me.

This year, with both boys off from school and G. Grod taking off most of the week after Christmas, and since we only set up our tree on Christmas Eve, I decided to embrace the entire 12 days of Christmas as the celebration.

I already wrote about the first day.

On the second day of Christmas, we ventured out in the snow to our grocery coop for necessary basics like yogurt and heavy cream. The streets were still bad from the Christmas storm, so we walked and took the sled, 3yo Guppy hitching a ride for most of a mile downhill. G shouldered the food on the way back up the hill, and both boys wanted to ride in the sled. I lasted about 2 blocks, then, sucking wind with thundering heart, told them to GET OUT! and WALK ALREADY! (The walk home is particularly steep, and challenging in the best of weathers.) I was in need of a nap when we got home.

After that, I had to convince the boys (what?) to watch Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town. But the penguin, I insisted! Burgermeister Meisterburger! “Put one foot in front of the other…” Grudgingly, they allowed me to play my DVD, and not so grudgingly, they enjoyed it.

For bed, we read more of our Christmas library: Cranberry Christmas by Wende and Harry Devlin, The Mole Family’s Christmas by Russell Hoban, and The Night Before Christmas ill. by Jessie Willcox Smith (one of three different copies we have.) G and I very much enjoyed Bridget Jones’ Diary on dvd (which opens and closes at the holidays!) later that night.

On the third day of Christmas I went to yoga class while G. made biscuits and sausage gravy, then we met friends at the park for sledding. G and I geeked out and watched Part 1 of the David Tennant Dr. Who finale. Disappointing, but we were glad not to see any Daleks.

On the fourth day of Christmas the boys played with snap circuits and G. and I watched Death at a Funeral that night. It tried to be funny, but was instead mostly unpleasant. Alan Tudyk on hallucinogens saved it from being a total loss, I thought.

On the fifth day of Christmas we met at a friend’s house for a huge gathering of families. Great company, good coffee and snacks, but twenty two kids make rather a lot of noise. I finally got back to writing holiday cards. The boys watched Schoolhouse Rock, a gift from my aunt. That night, G and I watched It’s a Wonderful Life for the first time. I’d seen the Marlo Thomas remake several times as a child, (Orson Welles as Mr. Potter, Trapper John as her husband, Chloris Leachman as the angel and Christopher Guest as her brother!) yet somehow never the original. It’s good, but long and repetitively tragic before its happy ending. I prefer American Madness (which has some of the same banking/money details) or It Happened One Night as Capra films, and The Shop around the Corner as a Jimmy Stewart holiday film.

And on the sixth day of Christmas, I made oatmeal from Damn Good Food, a gift from my aunt. Then we read Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas by Russell Hoban, after which we took a family walk as the snow fell, fiercely and briefly, yet again.

More Christmas doings to come, I hope.

G. Grod and I accompanied 6yo Drake and 3yo Guppy downstairs, where they stared, wide-eyed and silent, at the tree in the living room that had not been there the day before. (Shh. G put it up Christmas Eve while I wrapped presents and helped.)

In past years, G and my parents have sent so many stocking stuffers that we haven’t needed to help. This year was a scaled-back celebration for lots of v. good reasons, so I was on stocking duty for the first time. Friends helped with lots of suggestions, and in the end I put in: a chocolate, a peppermint, a small box of Altoids, a pack of Glee gum, a candy cane, a temporary tattoo (free from a store sometime last summer), mechanical toys they got at a birthday party and forgot about, a roll of quarters (for video games and gumball machines), a tiny satsuma mandarin orange, a finger puppet and a pack of Annie’s bunny fruit snacks. The boys decided on their own that Santa had filled the stockings.

The boys’ Auntie Sydney managed to score a Zhou Zhou pets Giant Hamster City Playset, which was the hit of the morning, though Lego Secret Agents and Snap Circuits also got a lot of attention. We watched The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, then I made snow Totoros

which the boys had no interest in while G shoveled the heavy, wet snow. Good for building, bad for shoveling. Since the roads were bad we didn’t go out for Chinese, but instead made pepperoni pan pizza. G discovered that vodka makes the cooking process a lot easier. We had pumpkin whoopie pies for dessert, then watched Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

At bed, the boys and I read several of our favorite Christmas books, the new Christmas Magic, beautifully illustrated by Jon Muth (Zen Shorts and Zen Ties), Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree, Olivia Helps with Christmas, Harvey Slumfenburger’s Christmas Present, and James Marshall’s The Night Before Christmas. Then we sang all the carols we know from Tomie DePaola’s Book of Christmas Carols, which we borrowed from the library for the fourth year in a row.

Then G and I snuggled down on the couch to watch The Shop Around the Corner, which charms me anew every time I watch it. Is it perfect? I think it might be.

I consumed a lot of books and food over Thanksgiving; Neil Gaiman’s Odd and the Frost Giants was the beginning of my book binge. It’s a sweet fable set in Norway of a crippled boy named Odd, who helps out a few Norse gods in distress. It’s a short tale, told briskly. Odd is a good foil for the strong-willed gods, and an easy hero to cheer for.

There was a boy called Odd, and there was nothing strange or unusual about that, not in that time or place. ‘Odd meant the tip of a blade, and it was a lucky name.

He was odd, though. At least the other villagers thought so. But if there was one thing that he wasn’t, it was lucky.

While $14.99 seems a steep pricetag for this slim volume, it is beautifully bound in blue cloth, and contains lovely pencil illustrations by Brett Helquist. Overall, this runs a big lighter than much of Gaiman’s work, and would be a great readaloud for children who can manage to listen when there aren’t pictures on every page, and for young readers to read on their own. Gaiman wrote it for World Book Day in the UK, an event that seeks to inspire children to read.

And for Sandman fans, I think the cover illo is an homage to one of Shawn McManus’ from “A Game of You” of Barbie riding atop Martin Tenbones. But I can’t find an online image to back that up.

Picking picture books for kids can be hit or miss–the art’s good, but the story’s not, or vice versa. The text is too simple, or too long for my 3- and 5yo boys. I like it; they don’t. Or worse, they demand it and I groan. Inwardly, usually. But we’ve had some good successes recently, which makes happy readers, and listeners of us all.

Harry Hungry by Steven Salerno is about a baby whose appetite grows, literally, out of control. Salerno’s retro illustrations, and the fanciful images of baby Harry eating ever-larger items, are delightful visuals to accompany a pleasantly simple text:

Harry headed outside. He ate the flower bed. He ate the garden hose. He munched the mailbox!

Salerno’s bio says he’s a graduate of Parsons School of Design. His design background is clear in this cool, funny, attractive book.

David Lucas’ Robot and the Bluebird is more lovely than cool. A broken robot and a homeless bluebird become friends, and give each other things the other needs. It’s a timeless story, made fresh with Lucas’ sweet but not saccharine story and pictures.

Leslie Patricelli is a longtime favorite in our house. I’ve read her board books, like Quiet Loud, countless times, yet didn’t tire of them. Her new picture book, Higher! Higher!, is very like the board books. A girl goes to the park with her dad and asks him to push her on the swing. She goes higher and higher, and the illustrations show this fantasy taken to its nth degree. Loyal readers will recognize other Patricelli characters, like the baby and the dog. The book has only a handful of words beyond those of the title, but there’s much to see, and charm, in the acrylic-painted pages.

Emily Gravett’s art, in The Odd Egg, is a fetching combination of pencil and watercolor.

All the birds had laid an egg.

All except for Duck.

Duck’s lack of egg isn’t hard for a grownup reader to figure out; Duck’s a he, not a she. So he finds an egg–a big, beautiful speckled one.

The other birds’ eggs hatch one by one in sequentially wider pages. Duck’s, though, does not. Until…

I won’t give away the ending. It’s a clever one, and funny. Duck’s not the one with the last laugh; it’s us, the readers.

All the books above received multiple readings this week. I wonder if part of their appeal, both to the boys and to me, is that they’re by author/illustrators. In music I tend to favor singer/songwriters, and I suspect the same bias in many of the books we like.

Sticky Burr: Adventures in Burrwood Forest by John Lechner, published by Candlewick Press, is another gem of a graphic novel-ish book for kids. I discovered it in the increasingly well-stocked shelves in the kids section at my comic store.

Sticky is an iconoclast in the burr community. He doesn’t like to prickle, he prefers music and problem-solving, to the annoyance of his nemesis, Scurvy Burr. Scurvy tries to get Sticky kicked out of the village and wacky adventures ensue. Danger! Romance! Music! Heroics! Plus really cute art and laugh-out-loud moments. The art, humor and style reminded me pleasantly of the Doreen Cronin and Harry Bliss “Diary of” picture books: Worm, Spider and Fly. This was a joy to read, and was requested repeatedly by my sons 5yo Drake and 3yo Guppy.

Good news! There are more Sticky Burr adventures online. Sticky has his own website, as does the author, John Lechner. Also, a sequel is due this September!

Otto’s Orange Day is another outstanding selection from Toon Books, a new line of graphic novel-ish books for kids. The line has solid artistic cred. It’s part of Little Lit, a division of RAW Junior, founded by Art Spiegelman, the creator of Maus.

Otto’s Orange Day, with three chapters and forty pages, is about a kitten who learns the hard way to be careful what to wish for after his favorite aunt sends him a dusty lamp. The particulars, and their depictions, are funny and silly, even as there’s a hint of deeper, darker things that older kids might pick up on. And Otto bears more than a passing resemblance, both in looks and behavior, to another beloved comic character, Calvin.

The book is available in both hard and soft cover. Both editions have thick paper, sturdy bindings, and attractive covers. My sons, 5yo Drake and 3yo Guppy, both loved this book and asked for it repeatedly, as they have with other Toon Books like Luke on the Loose and Stinky, which I wrote about previously. As a comic-book loving mom, I’m thrilled at the expanded selection of comics for kids, like the Toon Books.

From Nicholas Taleb’s Black Swan, about Umberto Eco’s home library:

Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. The library should contain as much of what you do not know as your financial means, mortgage rates, and the currently tight read-estate market allows you to put there. You will accumulate more knowledge and more books as you grow older, and the growing number of unread books on the shelves will look at you menacingly. Indeed, the more you know, the larger the rows of unread books. Let us call this collection of unread books an antilibrary.*

My friend Jack, who blogs at Knowledge Volt, sent me the link, from Matthew Cornell, in response to my guilt over book-buying binges. In keeping with the antilibrary, my trips last week to Half Price Books and Barnes and Noble in St. Louis Park:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (Oxford World Classics mini HC edition)

Terminator 2 dvd

Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin (spiffy vintage-look Penguin cover)

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Laura by Vera Caspary

China Mountain Zhang (gave our copy away years ago)

Curly Girl by Lorraine Massey (my own copy, since the one I have is from the library)

For the kids:

Starting School by Janet and Allan Ahlberg

Three Scooby Doo easy readers

The Firefighters Busy Day by Richard Scarry

Noisy Nora by Rosemary Wells

Sammy the Seal by Syd Hoff

It’s My Birthday by Helen Oxenbury

Anatole and the Cat by Eve Titus

I put the books on top of our built-in buffet, near the ceiling. My 5yo son Drake was so eager to get his hands on them that I barely got that photo taken before he started climbing, and dismantled the display:

Here’s 3yo Guppy, who can’t yet read, asleep on Sammy the Seal. Perhaps any book they can’t yet read themselves is part of the boys’ antilibrary.

Spoon, written by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and illustrated by Scott Magoon, is a good example of an age-old story made fresh again with new details and engaging art. Little spoon has always been a happy utensil, until he feels like friends fork and knife get to have all the fun.

And Fork, Fork is so lucky! She gets to go practically EVERYWHERE. I bet she never goes stir-crazy like I do.

His friends respond, though, with what spoon can do that they can’t. The art expands on the text and makes it even funnier, and the ending is utterly charming.

I’m sure we’ve read several books with a similar theme, but the one that comes to mind is Lucky Little Duck, which I could hardly stand to read to my kids. The art was kitschy, and the story saccharine and unsubtle. That was a dud; Spoon is a winner.

A picture book for young readers, Matthew McElligott’s Bean Thirteen is that wonderful book that kids can enjoy on one level, and adults on another. Insect friends Ralph and Flora are picking beans for dinner when Ralph tells Flora not to pick a thirteenth bean. She does, and trouble ensues because they can’t find a way to divide the beans up evenly.

“Oh look,” said Flora, “there’s one left over. You take it, Ralph.”

“Bean thirteen?” gasped Ralph. “Never! It’s bad luck.”

“Ralph,” said Flora, “please don’t make such a fuss.”

“I’m not eating it,” said Ralph, “and you can’t make me.”

They begin inviting friends over, and Ralph continues to disparage the thirteenth bean. Eventually the beans get eaten, and the story works on multiple levels–it can be about division, prime numbers, sharing, and friendship. It also has lots of good kid dialogue that may cause parents to smile wryly in recognition. McElligott’s illustrations are colorful and inviting, and the beans look like edamame, which might be a good introduction to that snack for kids who haven’t yet tried it. My husband, my 5yo and 3yo sons, and I all really liked this one.

In a standalone picture book for young readers, Newbery Award winner Kate DiCamillo teams with artist Harry Bliss (Diary of a Spider, Worm and Fly, respectively) for Louise, the Adventures of a Chicken. Three times Louise leaves her farm looking for adventure. Three times she finds it only to end up in grave danger of being eaten. I won’t spoil the ending(s), though I will say they’re satisfying.

Bliss’s watercolor illustrations beautifully capture Louise, and the complicated, sometimes dangerous, situations she encounters. But always there is the security of home and the farm, if she can only get back.

The youngest readers might be scared by a few elements, such as a shipwreck or a chicken-napping. But Louise is a stalwart bird I think kids and their parents will both enjoy.