{"id":457,"date":"2008-02-28T23:52:14","date_gmt":"2008-02-28T23:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2008\/02\/long-overdue-kidlit-post.html"},"modified":"2008-02-28T23:52:14","modified_gmt":"2008-02-28T23:52:14","slug":"long-overdue-kidlit-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/02\/long-overdue-kidlit-post.html","title":{"rendered":"Long overdue kidlit post"},"content":{"rendered":"

I like to offer occasional reviews of children’s books – mostly picture, right now – partly because we just read a lot of them, so I might as well share, and also because I know many of my readers are always on the lookout for good ones.
\nRemember my biases, clearly stated.\u00a0 A la Seinfeld,\u00a0 “<\/em>no lessons, no hugs” is a pretty solid rule. (“Lessons” being defined here as heavy-handed moralism. You can always tell books you want to stay away from, in my opinion, if the subtitle begins “A story about….” <\/em>Fill in the blank: acceptance\/being different\/changing\/growing\/being scared\/tolerance. Eating your peas.)
\nHumor, text that is\u00a0concise and yet complex, \u00a0and interesting but not weighty. Rhymes are good. Makes reading easier. My children’s section-grazing usually takes me (depending on how cooperative everyone is – whether they stay in one place or are overly tempted by the alluring yet forbidden Reading Tower (on left) – you have to be 7 to enter\u00a0 its sacred environs. Six more weeks!)\u00a0 –
\nOh, as I was saying, my grazing takes me through the New Arrivals, through mythology, folktales and poetry, then to the sections dealing with machines – things that dig, fly or generally go fast – and finally to the general Early Readers and picture books.
\nAs I said, how many of those areas I make it to depends totally on the cooperation of Other Parties.
\nSome recent good choices:
\nYellow and Pink<\/a> <\/em>is a rather surprising, almost provocative book by William Steig. Two wooden men wake up, lying on a newspaper. One is yellow and one is pink.\u00a0Pink is fairly sure someone must have put them there.\u00a0Yellow can’t agree, and comes up with elaborate scenarios in which they could have accidentally, by pure chance, unguided by anything else, ended up exactly the way they are. They can’t agree. And then, a large man comes along,\u00a0 tests them for dryness, and walks away carrying Yellow and Pink, satisfied.
\nThe book is actually a bit controversial, as you can probably tell. It’s been adopted by creationists and Intelligent Design adherents as a favorite and predictably vilified by their opposites.\u00a0 The Amazon reader reviews give you a clue.\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0 Does it violate the “no lessons” rule? Hmmm….maybe.
\nSpeaking of science, these books by Robin Page are really great\u00a0 – textually simple, visually rich looks at various aspects of animal life – their body parts, flight, movement. They involve a bit of guessing (which is always good) Move! <\/em><\/a>is a good one to start with.
\nI love discover new authors – well, authors new to us – because, well, after 25 years of this, I value novelty and variety.\u00a0 I can’t tell you how many children’s books I have essentially memorized. I could very easily dominate a kids’ book slam with Ferdinand, Madeleine, Peter Rabbit <\/em>and Johnny Crow’s Garden <\/em>(for starters) springing out of my head without any prompting at all.
\nSo anyway, I ran across one John Prater<\/a> the other day.\u00a0 He is wonderful.\u00a0 <\/em>Simple books, good stories, affectionate illustrations, no tongue twisters (on my mind because tomorrow Joseph’s school is celebrating Dr. Seuss Day, and I confess Dr. Seuss is not <\/em>one of my favorites basically because he’s a pain the neck to read aloud. Oh. Add Green Eggs and Ham <\/em>to my Slam list) Some of his books are still in print in the US, others not, but most of them should be in your library. Unless your library has been taken over by Hannah Montana novellas and Nintendo DS games, in which case you’re out of luck.\u00a0 The first one we read was Once Upon a Time,<\/a> <\/em>a simple tale in which a boy is at home, bored, while fairy tales are running amok all around him, unnoticed. We love books that really use the power of illustration to broaden the text – or in other words,\u00a0 we love books that have pictures with jokes in them. Once Upon a Picnic<\/a> <\/em>is the exciting sequel to Once Upon a Time. <\/em>If you have a little brother or sister in your life, you’ll really enjoy Along Came Tom –<\/a> <\/em>again, not for sale in the US anymore, but we found a copy at our library. Joseph and Michael loved it, with Michael shaking his head in despair at how much little Tom wrecks everything for his older siblings, with Joseph then looking at Michael in stunned disbelief at his failure to grasp reality.
\nAnother clever book featuring illustrations to be searched for clues and jokes is Where is the Cake\u00a0<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/em>which has no text, only a story told in pictures of a cake stolen by some dastardly possums – but there’s a lot more going on as the various creatures throughout the landscape have their own problems ranging from a lost piglet to a lost hat and so on.
\nA really interesting series I’ve just discovered are Virginia Pilegard’s Warlord <\/em><\/a>books in which two Chinese children essentially invent everything from a water clock to the abacus. Seriously, it’s a sharp concept – each book takes some ancient technology or mathematical concept\u00a0used in Chinese culture and constructs a story around a child (or sometimes two) who invent these means of solving problems.\u00a0
\nA genre (loosely speaking) of children’s picture books that I like are those that trace how something changes over time. Debbie Atwell has a few – Barn <\/em>and River – <\/em><\/a>which are nice but rather staid. A few weeks ago, we read a small book about the changing residents of one particular apartment over time, but for the life of me I can’t remember the name of it.\u00a0\u00a0But with this batch, we found a winner – Ignacio’s Chair<\/em><\/a>. <\/em>Yes, it’s the story of a chair – one lovingly carved by a monk in the late Middle Ages, which then journeys across time and the world until we see where it ends up in the present day. In each stage on the journey, the spirit Brother Ignacio stands by, observing the fate of his handiwork, until the end, when he can finally say goodbye to it. It’s really wonderful. Kind of moving.
\nSap.
\nAnd stop right there. No hugs – <\/em>remember?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I like to offer occasional reviews of children’s books – mostly picture, right now – partly because we just read a lot of them, so I might as well share, and also because I know many of my readers are always on the lookout for good ones. Remember my biases, clearly stated.\u00a0 A la Seinfeld,\u00a0…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nLong overdue kidlit post - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/02\/long-overdue-kidlit-post.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Long overdue kidlit post - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I like to offer occasional reviews of children’s books – mostly picture, right now – partly because we just read a lot of them, so I might as well share, and also because I know many of my readers are always on the lookout for good ones. Remember my biases, clearly stated.\u00a0 A la Seinfeld,\u00a0…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/02\/long-overdue-kidlit-post.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-02-28T23:52:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/bp3.blogger.com\/_XxXdwsEKUMw\/R3lYwmkqb1I\/AAAAAAAAAP0\/2dnxdZXVra0\/s320\/Reading+Tower.JPG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"awelborn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Long overdue kidlit post - Via Media","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/02\/long-overdue-kidlit-post.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Long overdue kidlit post - Via Media","og_description":"I like to offer occasional reviews of children’s books – mostly picture, right now – partly because we just read a lot of them, so I might as well share, and also because I know many of my readers are always on the lookout for good ones. Remember my biases, clearly stated.\u00a0 A la Seinfeld,\u00a0…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/02\/long-overdue-kidlit-post.html","og_site_name":"Via Media","article_published_time":"2008-02-28T23:52:14+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/bp3.blogger.com\/_XxXdwsEKUMw\/R3lYwmkqb1I\/AAAAAAAAAP0\/2dnxdZXVra0\/s320\/Reading+Tower.JPG"}],"author":"awelborn","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/02\/long-overdue-kidlit-post.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/02\/long-overdue-kidlit-post.html","name":"Long overdue kidlit post - Via Media","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/02\/long-overdue-kidlit-post.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/02\/long-overdue-kidlit-post.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/bp3.blogger.com\/_XxXdwsEKUMw\/R3lYwmkqb1I\/AAAAAAAAAP0\/2dnxdZXVra0\/s320\/Reading+Tower.JPG","datePublished":"2008-02-28T23:52:14+00:00","dateModified":"2008-02-28T23:52:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/aea2dcda1635c9c2d6030d9c7595725a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/02\/long-overdue-kidlit-post.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/02\/long-overdue-kidlit-post.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/02\/long-overdue-kidlit-post.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/bp3.blogger.com\/_XxXdwsEKUMw\/R3lYwmkqb1I\/AAAAAAAAAP0\/2dnxdZXVra0\/s320\/Reading+Tower.JPG","contentUrl":"http:\/\/bp3.blogger.com\/_XxXdwsEKUMw\/R3lYwmkqb1I\/AAAAAAAAAP0\/2dnxdZXVra0\/s320\/Reading+Tower.JPG"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/02\/long-overdue-kidlit-post.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Long overdue kidlit post"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/","name":"Via Media","description":"Amy Welborn","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/aea2dcda1635c9c2d6030d9c7595725a","name":"awelborn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/9f2\/9f2100183464289fedc5b8a621c15110x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/9f2\/9f2100183464289fedc5b8a621c15110x96.jpg","caption":"awelborn"},"description":"Amy Welborn was born in 1960, the only child of a now-retired professor of political science, a teacher-librarian-artist mother,deceased since 2001, was a teacher, librarian and artist. The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}