Children's Book Reviews

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

More Winners from Sylvan Dell!

I so much enjoy my correspondence with the folks at Sylvan Dell as they are friendly and cheerful. That's why their books are so up-beat and heart-warming. Their latest publications are just as gladdening. And, now I'm able to watch the progress of their authors and illustrators as I am reviewing some second and third books of authors and illustrators.
When I was a child I lived in a valley in-land from the coast of northern California, but we often went to the Coast as we called it. I didn't know t
hen about keeping a journal of sketches, writings, and photos, but we did collect shells, build sand castles, check the tide pools for starfish, abalone, and crabs, and play jump rope with seaweed. My favorites were all the shards of pottery and glass. I imagined that they were washed up from sunken treasure ships as I was into reading Treasure Island in those days and my best friend's great-grandparents had exotically moved to California via ship around Cape Horn, instead of across land like the pioneers.
I taught my children to observe and collect at the seashores of California, Britain, and Costa Rica, though never to harm life or take anything if it were a nature preserve. Next time I'm at a seashore I shall journal too, and encourage any child I'm with to do the same! Besides journaling is more environmentally friendly!
I know you'll enjoy these latest books from Sylvan Dell:

In Arctic Waters

What an enjoyable way to learn about Arctic sea and land animals in this rhyming tale! The book, created by author Laura Crawford, has the cadence and cumulative story of the rhyme “The House That Jack Built.” It is wonderful that the charm and humor in the book is such that a young child can easily identify with each animal.

Ben Hodson’s paintings wed the rhyming text perfectly. Children will delight in the expressions of each animal, expressions that tell the tale as much as the text. At the end of the book there is a mini encyclopedia where the inquisitive child can learn more about each animal. It can also be the basis of a classroom unit. Highly recommended for ages three to seven.

The Rainforest Grew All Around

Yum, a rainforest cookie recipe, informative sidebars, and luscious illustrations, make this lovely book a keeper! The text by author Susan K. Mitchell is a cumulative rhyme that takes the reader through life in the rainforest from giant trees to tiny insects and frogs. It highlights both plants and animals.

Connie McLennan’s illustrations are both rich and informative. Children will enjoy the variations of subject and texture in the paintings, perhaps discovering small plants and insects not mentioned in the text. The book is a marvelous blend of text and illustration. Besides the recipe there are two matching games at the back. The only missing element is the musical score, for the verse, which is adapted from the old English cumulative folk song, “The Tree In The Wood.” Children ages 3 to 7 will delight in this book, which will be enjoyed for years to come in both home and classroom libraries.

Turtle Summer, a Journal for my Daughter

This book presents a charming idea for a parent and child: to keep a nature scrapbook. Mary Alice Monroe has written this enchanting journal of a mother and daughter’s summer surveillance for loggerhead sea turtles on their beach. While watching the turtle nests, they observe and sketch nature’s other offerings at the seashore. Like a family photo album, it is an intimate book.

Photographer Barbara J. Bergwerf teamed with Mary Alice Monroe to add exceptional and informative photos, including one of Carolina from the previous Sylvan Dell book, Carolina’s Story: Sea Turtle’s Get Sick Too! This is a splendid mixture of photos, drawing, and text. Children, ages 4 – 9 will relate to this book and its activities, hopefully clamoring to create a similar journal with their siblings and parents.

ABC Safari

Author Karen Lee has come through again in ABC Safari! Like her previous books, One Odd Day and My Even Day, she offers a fun way to learn. This time it is the alphabet on a safari journey to meet animals around the world. A boy and his parrot, like the young reader, unobtrusively observe each animal in its habitat. Can you spot the boy in each picture?

Ms. Lee paints each animal accurately and to scale in its environment. This is an important feature for the young reader to learn size and scale. The rhyming text flows to an easy beat so that a teacher could use each animal’s verse for movement or dramatization. The animal flash cards at the end of the book are a brilliant addition. Pre-readers will enjoy identifying each animal. Quite highly recommended for ages 2 to 7.




Friday, May 04, 2007

Let's not smoke....

I intensely dislike anyone preaching or lecturing me, so I try not to do it to others. However, when it comes to smoking I will get on a tiny soapbox. Why? Because both my parents died of smoking related diseases. It was awful to see that unnecessary suffering, especially in a family with considerable longevity. Each year I'm astonished to still see so many young people out in public smoking. That makes me so sad for them, their health, and for those who suffer the second hand smoke. I hope that Cliff Beaman's book, aimed for the ten year and up age group, those most susceptible to think that smoking is cool, will be used to help people understand that it isn't cool, just dangerous.
I'm not a scientist, but I was wondering the other day, that if all smoking stopped on the planet how much would that reduce global warming? It certainly would help to some degree!


The Boy Who Grew Too Small
Author: Cliff Beaman
High-Pitched Hum Publishing, Jacksonville, FL
ISBN: 09777290-4-4, $12.95, 51 pages, ppbk, 2006
www.highpitchedhum.net

The Boy Who Grew Too Small: is it a tale in five minutes or three days? Jeremy thinks smoking is cool when he notices the big high school boys puffing away. Lance, a new teen in town, gives him a pack of cigarettes. Should he try them? Follow Jeremy’s escapades and discover what he
finds out as he shrinks more everyday.
Cliff Beaman has written an un-apologetic tale about the hazards of smoking for young kids. It is peppered with his colorful, lively drawings that add fun and drama to the story. On his website Mr. Beaman describes the assemblies he does for elementary students where he draws to the delight of the audience while showing the children how smoking is harmful, and not cool. For a chance to watch him draw go to http://www.americanartassemblies.com . This book would be an important addition to health or social studies classes as well as a tool parents can use when talking to their children about not smoking. Recommended for ages 10 and older.


Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Interview With Eric Maisel!

I'm so excited about this interview! I trust you are too. The answers Eric has given to my questions are so thoughtful - better than hoped for. Read and enjoy!


JN: How can we maintain daily creativity and a positive outlook in the face of the long process, rejections, the inevitable doubts, and the plethora of conflicting attitudes from society and the publishing world?

EM: This is THE question, isn’t it? First, we have to say, “I love you, work,” even on days when we hate the work, hate the process, and hate our life. That is, we have to get a grip on our own mind and demand that we enter into a loving relationship with our work, because if we don’t, if there is no love there, we will not have the motivational juice to
continue in the face of all of the obstacles you accurately named.

Second, I think that we have to keep visualizing success—visualizing a shelf full of our books, so to speak—to keep reminding ourselves that we have a long writing life available to us and that many successes (along with all the inevitable defeats and disappointments) may be in our future. Remaining in love and visualizing success are two of the many strategies we need to employ to keep ourselves going.

JN: Are Ten Zen Seconds techniques appropriate for children, or should adults only employ them in working with children?

EM: They are absolutely appropriate for children and especially useful for teenagers, as “getting a grip on your own mind” can’t happen too early. Rather than doing things impulsively, one of the hallmarks of childhood, a child can learn to grow still, center, and make decisions—about not doing drugs, about not hanging with this person or that person, about not “needing” to be popular, and so on—from a much stronger place.
As a rule, we fail to teach our children what they actually need to know, including anything at all about “meaning making” and existential matters, and the TZS technique supports exactly that sort of learning.

JN: How can Ten Zen Seconds enhance a child's creativity and learning, say
as opposed to an adult?

EM: The stresses on a child are different from, but no less real and powerful than, the stresses on an adult. One of the ways that childhood stresses play themselves out are in obsessions and compulsions—some psychologists call childhood “the long obsessive-compulsive disorder,” to capture the flavor of the way that children get compulsively attached to their video games or obsessively think about the pimple on their nose.

A child who uses the TZS technique can learn to release the grip of his obsessive thoughts and interrupt his compulsive behaviors, which begins to allow a place for creativity and new learning. If you are obsessing about the pimple on your nose you aren’t also writing your first short story: first you get a grip on your mind, then the creativity flows.