Picture Book of the Day: Viva Frida

Viva Frida, written and illustrated by Yuyi Morales, photography by Tim O' Meara.  This is a truly unique celebration of the artistic vision of brilliant artist Frida Kahlo.  Using spare bilingual (Spanish/English) text, Morales presents a playful and sensitive Kahlo who embraces life, love, and her imagination.  Beautifully composed photographs capture a Frida figurine in motion, interacting with animals such as a monkey and a dog.  Then Morales inserts a haunting dream sequence done with masterfully composed paintings as Kahlo flies and comes to the aid of a wounded deer.  This lovely creature joins the Frida figure in the real world, inspiring one of her pieces of art.  Diego Rivera makes a special appearance, too!  The final triumphant spread with the words "Vivo!  I live!" gives me goosebumps every time I look at it.  A stirring, wondrous creation with excellent back matter.

Three Fun Romps with Great Endings

Construction, written by Sally Sutton, illustrated by Brian Lovelock.  This follow-up to Roadwork and Demolition invites audience participation as construction workers and machines noisily team up to create something very cool.  It's fun to periodically ask the children "what are they making?" and hear the answers they offer.  This follows the same formula as the first two books:  each spread shows a machine at work (Lovelock's vibrant illustrations fill the page) and a staccato rhyme captures the sound of the process:  "Hoist the wood.  Hoist the wood.  Chain and hook and strap.  Swing it round, then lower it down.  THONK! CLONK! CLAP!"  The rhymes invite clapping and movement, and kids love shouting the sound effects with you.  I won't spoil the ending's surprise:  but it's one that brings big smiles from all.

Duck in the Fridge, written and illustrated by Jeff Mack.  Mack continues his winning streak with this delightful and silly bedtime story.  A son asks his father why he always reads Mother Goose to him at bedtime, and the bespectacled pa responds "it all started when I found a duck in the fridge."  Say what?  What follows is an outlandishly goofy account of an incident from the father's childhood, perfectly captured in Mack's charming cartoon illustrations.  Ducks overtake the house, and calls to 1-800-DUCK-B-GONE prove fruitless:  they keep sending more animals who end up partying with rather than scaring the pun-spewing fowl, causing more chaos to ensue.  The resourceful lad comes up with the perfect solution to calm down these mischievous critters, and thus the son learns how Mother Goose comes to the bedtime rescue.  A blast!

Hug Machine, written and illustrated by Scott Campbell.  This instantly lovable romp introduces a boy who has declared himself the Hug Machine!  Campbell's delightful deadpan drawings serve as a comical contrast to the first person text.  As the wondrous hugger brags about how no one can resist his hugging and hugs everyone in sight, the rather perplexed expressions of some of the huggees tell a different story:  they look mildly confused by the hug and aren't really hugging back.  I love the absurdity of this book:  the hero hugs everything he sees, and that includes fire hydrants, trees, porcupines (hey you don't know what you're missing when you don't hug porcupines), and even whales.  Pizza fuels this perpetual hugger, but even hug machines tire out.  Does he have energy for one last hug?  A real delight.

2 Fun Friendship Stories

Little Elliot, Big City, written and illustrated by Mike Curato.  This gentle friendship story stars a diminutive polka-dotted elephant who finds that living in the crowded, bustling city can be truly difficult.  Curato skillfully shows the struggles for this pint-sized pachyderm, so tiny he can take a bath in his sink!  An instantly lovable creature who enjoys collecting little things, Elliot captures the reader's sympathy right away, especially when he wants to buy a cupcake but cannot because the busy bakery workers do not see him.  One haunting spread shows a little girl watching Elliot with concern (he does not notice her), and just when you think the story will become about the two of them becoming friends, Curato's tale takes another sweet turn.  Elliot meets a creature, a little mouse, who is far smaller than he, needing help.  A gorgeous spread showing Elliot feeling great about himself after he helps Mouse follows.  Will this pair team up so Elliot can finally purchase his desired pastry product?  Curato's charming and skillfully rendered illustrations are a delight to behold.  Here's hoping there will be more stories starring Elliot and his new pal!

Thank You, Octopus, written and illustrated by Darren Farrell.  What a glorious nonsensical joy this book is.  A young boy lives on a boat with his buddy, an octopus who tries to be ever so helpful but, uh, kind of fails.  Octopus announces at the story's start that it's bedtime and says "I made you a nice warm bath" (Thank you Octopus!) "of egg salad!!!!" (No Thank You Octopus!!!)  The octopus then apologizes and offers to dry the boy off...WITH A TUBA!  And so it goes.  Each page turn offers an unpredictable surprise.  What will octopus do next?  And will the boy get the octopus back for all this bizarre behavior?  Farrell's whimsical humor and hilarious illustrations make this a rollicking addition to story times.

Three That Embrace the Wild Side

Flashlight, illustrated by Lizi Boyd.  The talented Boyd follows her exquisite Inside, Outside up with another wordless wonder about a child who dares to take a nocturnal journey.  Beautifully designed and sporting clever die cuts, the book shows our brave young wanderer camping out in a tent under a full moon.  The child decides to take a walk and discovers all the creatures (bats, skunks, a fox) also enjoying this beautiful night thanks to a trusty flashlight.  Boyd's inventive illustrations give us a nighttime world of blacks and grays, and this makes seeing what the flashlight reveals all the more dramatic and effective.  Some playful slapstick enters the picture when the child falls asleep and wakes to see that some creatures have borrowed the flashlight, resulting in a lovely final image that brings all the creatures together.  A masterful charmer.

I Am a Witch's Cat, written and illustrated by Harriet Muncaster.  Wow, all the Halloween books are rolling in; this year has been soaring!  So far, this is my favorite new book for the holiday.  Using a cool-looking 3D-like collage effect, the story tells of a girl dressed as a cat telling how she loves being her witch mom's familiar.  However, the funny joke is the wannabe feline describes witchy things, but in reality, the mother is just doing mundane chores.  So a trip to the grocery store shows mom buying olives and pickles, but in the girl's imagination she purchases "jars of eyeballs and green fingers" instead.  Chores like gardening become magical, and when mother's friends visit (they all look very tame and classy) for a book discussion group, the girl claims "they sit in a circle and cackle."  And in the girl's dreams, her mother takes flight, flying on a broom under a full moon.

Wild, written and illustrated by Emily Hughes.  My vote for most subversive recent picture book has to be this idiosyncratic, witty, and surprisingly haunting tale of a young feral child who loves living in the wild and rebels when taken into so-called civilized society.  Bursting with vibrant illustrations as crazy as the girl's out-of-control hair, Hughes' story shows the girl learning how to speak from Bird, hunt from Bear, and play from Fox.  Suddenly a bunch of new creatures, humans, discover her and take her away from this ideal paradise.  I love how she resists their attempts to civilize her because, after all, humans Ate Wrong, Spoke Wrong, and Played Wrong.  It all climaxes in a major act of rebellion that may raise some eyebrows, but feels right.  Pair this with Peter Brown's Mr. Tiger Goes Wild and Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are.

Cats and Dogs: 2 Fun Furry Picture Books

Cats Are Cats, written and illustrated by Valeri Gorbachev.  This silly delight introduces Miss Bell, a cat lover first seen purchasing a brand new orange and black striped kitten from Pet Land.  She names this "little" and impossibly cute feline Tiger.  They enjoy playing games together and watching TV.  With one surprising turn of the page, suddenly the tiny kitty has become, well, an enormous tiger.  Gorbachev's hilarious timing with that moment even startles Miss Bell, who responds to Tiger's growth spurt and ginormous Tiger roar by hiding in the closet.   Her fear subsides and her love becomes unconditional even as he makes horrible messes.  The story offers a lovely twist (and a bit of suspense) when our bespectacled heroine picks up some fish at the pet store for the delighted-looking tiger (I love the concerned looks on the onlookers' faces).  Are these fish playmates or tonight's meal?  And what's up with that funny-looking gray and white fish that looks different from the other goldfish in the bags?  Bound to become a storytime favorite.

I'm My Own Dog, written and illustrated by David Ezra Stein.  I had the pleasure of getting a first-hand look at Stein's latest at a conference.  I couldn't stop laughing in a hysterical way that reminded me how hard I laughed when I first read Stein's Caldecott Honor book Interrupting Chicken.  In this sly book, the average dog/owner relationship is wittily switched:  our very confident canine hero tells how it meets a rather hapless human adult male.  The guy begs the dog for companionship and our titular character acquiesces, letting the mustached dude hang out with him.  However, the dog has to put up with a  lot of problems:  the guy makes horrible messes and craves constant attention.  Stein's distinct humorous drawings playfully capture a memorable and topsy turvy pet relationship.  I love how the dog is drawn--when it says "I'm my own dog" you believe it.  But the furry fellow also has a gruff warmth and charm that wins you over as well.  Hey, I would ask this pooch to adapt me too!

A Trio of Idiosyncratic Winners

The Hueys in None the Number, written and illustrated by Oliver Jeffers.  Jeffers, he of the human characters with round bodies and stick figure arms and legs, turns the typical counting book on its head with this whimsical celebration of the concept of "none."  With not a moment to spare, the blue-clad Huey begins by pointing at an empty space and asking his white-clad co-star "How many lumps of cheese do you see just there?" to which the perplexed pal answers "Um...I don't see any."  A counting lesson (from 1 to 10) ensues which each spread asking readers such things as three chairs, four temper tantrums, nine seagulls, and so on.  On the climactic spread, objects appearing or mentioned during the counting lesson all appear but disappear with a flip of the page, leaving, you got it...NONE!  A fun charmer of a book, sly, another Jeffers gem.

Rules of Summer, written and illustrated by Shaun Tan.  Lush, surrealistic, nightmarish, and witty, Tan's latest, about two brothers playing in a bizarre landscape filled with robots and strange creatures, is an instructional and etiquette book like no other.  A rule appears on the left page, while a brilliantly rendered painting illustrating the consequences of breaking the rule fills the right.  Some of the rules make perfect sense.  "Never leave the back door open overnight," for example--yes, who would want to let in the giant lizards and overflowing plants that can take over the house?  But others tickle the brain and eye--"never step on a snail" more than implies that if you do so, a raging tornado will come your way.  Some of the very best books for children have their own internal dream logic that children are wise enough to understand, and this is one of them. 

Two Parrots, written and illustrated by Rashin, inspired by a tale from Rumi.  Once upon a time in Persia lived in a wealthy globe-trotting merchant who received, as a gift, a beautiful parrot who, despite living in a shiny golden cage, cannot stop being sad.  As the merchant tries to figure out a way to make his parrot happy, Iranian-born author/illustrator Rashin delights with her colorful and comical artwork that jumps off the page, and her darkly funny storytelling that tickles the funny bone.  There's a twist halfway through that might startle young listeners (I know I gasped), but all ends well...if not for the merchant, then for his feathery prized possession.  I cannot wait to see more from this gifted illustrator!

Picture Book of the Day: a new version of Lion and the Mouse

The Lion and the Mouse, by Jenny Broom and illustrated by Nahta Nój.  This bright, bold, and glorious book employs innovative paper craft to retell this Aesop fable about a mouse who repays a lion's kindness with a kindness of its own.  Cool die-cuts play with perspective as a mouse finds itself craving the berries right above a sleeping lion's head. The creeping mouse of course wakes the lion up but the beast responds with empathy instead of anger, but then laughs at the little critter when it says that someday it will help the lion.  After an effective die-cut involving hunters' footsteps, Nój leaves his most breathtaking flap for towards the end when we see the lion trapped in a net, with the mouse coming to his rescue.  Pair this charmer with Jerry Pinkney's lovely near-wordless Caldecott winner for maximum impact.