Flotsam

Flotsam
illustrated by David Wiesner
Clarion, 2006. 40 pgs.
Reading Level: ages 4-8
Hardcover: $17.00

Annotation: When a camera washes up on the beach, the mysteries of the ocean are revealed in a most surprising way.

Summary: At the beach, a young boy is examining the bugs, crabs and other sand creatures when a huge wave deposits an old camera on the shore. The yellow-haired boy tries to find the owner to this mysterious underwater camera, but to no avail and so he takes the film to be developed. When the pictures are finally ready he discovers a world he never knew existed. The photos reveal all the magic that happens underneath the ocean's surface. He sees pictures of mechanical fish, octupuses sitting in living rooms reading books, turtles with whole towns made of shells on their backs and even little green men riding fish and meeting seahorses. But then he makes the most amazing discovery of all. He finds a picture of an Asian girl holding a picture of another boy, holding a picture of a girl who is holding the picture of yet another child! As he uses his magnifying glass he discovers the pictures date back far back in the past. Children from all over the world have been using this camera to take pictures of themselves and then sending the camera back to the sea for another child to uncover and discover the wonders of the ocean. The yellow-haired boy holds up the picture of the girl, snaps a picture of himself and then throws the camera back into the ocean, where it is found by a stingray and carried by seahorses to be discovered by another lucky child in the future.

Evaluation: Told strictly through illustration, Flotsam takes the reader on a magical journey through the wonders and mysteries of oceanlife. Weisner's imagination is deliciously fantastical as he creates a world where merpeople have fish named Spot (due to their spots of course) and ride on stingrays through the lampost lit jungle of the ocean floor. There is a combination of the real and the imaginary that delights the senses and turns the sometimes scary ocean into a place of thrilling discovery. The story is ever so clever and the images are bright and playful. The illustrations mirror the book's theme, being set in black-rimmed squares and rectangles, just like a photograph. Weisner's mode of storytelling, wherein children discover the camera and photograph themselves holding photos of other children, is ingenious and the book is simply irresistable.  I am in complete and utter love with this book and proclaim it absolutely and undeniably worthy of being a Caldecott winner. Weisner is no newcomer to the Caldecott and he has several winners and honors to his name and his books have been translated in over a dozen languages. However, he excels in wordless storytelling, where translation is unnecessary and Flotsam is a book that any child, anywhere can appreciate.

Significance: This title introduces readers to the mystery and magic of what lies beneath the ocean's waves. The ocean can be a scary place when you're unable to see what's happening, but Weisner offers an explanation of underwater life that wipes away the fear and creates a safe, playful interpretation instead. Whether it's absolutely true or not is just part of what makes the ocean so fascinating. With a little imagination, anything can be true.

Personal Choice: I was utterly enchanted by the deep red background cover, schools of tiny fish swimming by and the ever so mysterious porthole eye right in the center. As always, you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but if it's a picture book, than you have to, right?

Awards: Caldecott Award Winner, 2007 / ABA - Book Sense Book of the Year: Illustration Honor, 2007

Kitten's First Full Moon

Kitten's First Full Moon
written and illustrated by Kenvin Henkes
Greenwillow Books, 2005. 40 pgs.
Reading Level: Baby - Preschool
Hardcover: $17.99

Annotation: Kitten desperately tries to reach the bowl of milk she sees in the sky, not realizing that she's chasing after the moon.

Summary: When Kitten spies the full moon in the sky she immediately thinks it must be a bowl of milk and so she tries to lick it, capturing a bug instead. And thus begins a rollicking adventure that takes her across fields and fences and even near a pond where the moon is reflected in the water, causing kitten to see another giant bowl of milk that she is again unable to sip. Finally she returns back home, hungry, tired and wet only to find an actual bowl of milk has been placed outside for her to drink.

Evaluation: The illustrations are all in black and white and the story is really darling. However, I must admit that I was a bit shocked to see that Henkes actually won the Caldecott for the illustrations. They don't communicate anything special and the only one that actually appeals to me is the cover illustration. I'd really like to have been on the Caldecott committee that year in order to hear the committee deliberations and to see what other options they had to work with. Final note, it's okay, but not stupendous and I'm still shaking my head over this award winner.

Significance: For the most part, children are fascinated with animals, especially baby ones and this story places a treasured creature at the heart of the plot. We also see kitten learning a lesson that everything is not always what it seems to be and that is something we all must learn sooner or later.

Personal Choice: I wanted to read this book because a friend and artist neighbor of mine is working with Kevin Henkes on a project and I thought it would be interesting to learn more about his style.

Awards: Caldecott Winnter, 2005 / ABA - Book Sense Book of the Year: Illustration Honor, 2005

The Graveyard Book

The Graveyard Book
by Neil Gaiman
Illustrated by Dave McKean
HarperCollins, 2008. 320 pgs
Reading Level: ages 9-12
Hardcover: $17.99

Annotation: When your parents are ghosts and you're raised in a graveyard, life is both a fascinating and frightening adventure.

Summary: Nobody Owens is the only living boy to make his home in an English village graveyard. After his parents and sister are killed by the man Jack, the littlest child toddles off to a nearby graveyard and at the insistence of his newly dead mother, a ghostly couple agree to adopt the child and raise him as their own. Christened Nobody, "Bod" is reared by his guardian, Silas, and the spirits whose bodies have been layed to rest in the graveyard. He makes friends amongst graveyard dead and leads a peaceful, fascinating life. The graveyard folk raise him as their own, with various spirits giving him lessons of sorts, not always useful to his current time-period, but superbly interesting nonetheless. The graveyard can be a dangerous place though, and after his encounter with a pack of hellhounds and night-gaunts, Bod barely escapes with his life. But one day a live girl enters the graveyard and the two become fast friends. However, it isn't until the girl finds herself back in Bod's life many years later that trouble begins and the man Jack manages to find Bod--setting out to finish the job he started on that long ago night.

Evaluation: Gaiman's work is an outstanding piece of literature and a pure delight of fanastical fiction with lovable characters. Macabre and humorous, the darkness of this ghost story is made light by the delicate touch Gaiman gives his ghostly souls. Humor abounds and the story is appealing to readers of all ages. Listening to the audio version only enhanced the experience, as Gaiman reads his story himself in a delicious English accent with all the right touches of ghostly delight and wry humor. An immenently bittersweet read and a real treasure to enjoy.

Significance: Gaiman tackles the complex world of the orphan and manages to create an enriching experience, teaching us the diffcult truth that sometimes friendships must end and that we must eventually make our own way in the world.

Personal Choice: I've been wanting to read this book ever since my friends and colleagues raved about it and I wasn't disappointed.

Awards: Newbery Winner, 2009 / ABA - Indies Choice - Best Indie YA Book Buzz, 2009

The Book Thief

The Book Thief
by Markus Zusak
Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2006. 560 pgs.
Young Adult Fiction
Hardcover: $17.99

Annotation: Death follows Leisel Meminger as she steals book after book during the horror and heartbreak of Nazi Germany.

Summary: Leisel steals her first book at her brother's gravesite before she even knows how to read, but The Gravedigger's Handbook becomes the satiric tome her foster father uses to teach her. Sent to the town of Molching, Germany during WWII to live with the Hubermanns, Leisel struggles with nightmares and her foster mother's caustic personality. But she finds a friend in Rudy, the German boy down the street who becomes her fast playmate and partner in crime. They steal apples from the neighbors and commit other petty acts, but it is Leisel who continues to steal book after book (including, hungering for the beauty of the words. Then Max appears, a Jewish boxer whose father Hans owes a favor. So they hide him in the basement, where he wastes away in fear and darkness, becoming friends with Leisel and ironically painting over the words of Mein Kampf to make her a comic book. Molching is caught between its citizens' desire to remain humane and the Nazi's increasingly constrictive tyranny; however, Leisel is somewhat protected by the sweetness of accordian-playing Hans. But even he cannot protect her when the Nazi's come to town and she will end up losing one of her most precious friends.

Evaluation: Juxtaposing horrific evil and resplendant beauty, Zusak writes one of the most moving novels to hit the literary world. The Book Thief is based on stories his mother used to tell of Nazi, Germany and although it began life as a 100 page novella, it blossomed into the 560 page volume we now know. The story is engrossing and the language is resplendant. Zusak's use of Death as the narrator is a brilliant, original choice and Death moves silently through the book, "haunted by humans" and his increasing death duties throughout the war, but providing an omniscient perspective and a grim wit. Leisel is a sympathetic character and the rest of the cast is well-wrought and increasingly more beloved. The book is haunting, lovely and superbly written. Line after beautiful line flows from Zusak's pen and it's difficult to choose a favorite phrase, but here are some of the choicest ones:

- "She was the book thief without the words. Trust me, though, the words were on their way, and when they arrived, Liesel would hold them in her hands like the clouds, and she would wring them out like rain."

- "I am haunted by humans." (Death)

- "Five hundred souls. I carried them in my fingers, like suitcases. Or I'd throw them over my shoulder. It was only the children I carried in my arms." (Death)

- "So much good, so much evil. Just add water." (Death)

- "It was a Monday and they walked on a tightrope to the sun."

- "I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race-that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant." (Death)

I listened to the audio version and was mesmerized by the narration of Allen Corduner, whose performance even brought Zusak's hard-bitten parents to tears.

Despite being set during the most apalling time period in history, the book celebrates hope. The New York Times writes that,  "hope is embodied in Liesel, who grows into a good and generous person despite the suffering all around her, and finally becomes a human even Death can love."
Significance: It's difficult to enumerate the power this book wields. Leisel teaches us that books have power. They have the power to hate and the power to heal. This is a title about Nazi Germany told from the somewhat rare perspective of the Germans who resisted the Nazi's pervasive influence.

Personal Choice: I have a fascination with books about the Holocaust and after reading several good reviews, this one caught my eye. I'm proud to say I began my literary love affair with Markus Zusak after reading this book.

Awards: Printz Honor Award, 2007 / ABA - Book Sense Book of the Year, 2007

The Lion and The Mouse

The Lion and the Mouse
Illustrated by Jerry Pinkney
Little Brown & Company, 2009. 40 pgs.
Reading Level: ages 4-8
Hardcover: $16.99

Annotation: Can the king of the jungle and the smallest of mice ever truly be friends?

Summary: As an owl hoots and screeches over a nighttime jungle scene, a tiny mouse scampers and scurries through the brush until he is caught by a mighty lion. As the fable goes, the mouse convinces the lion to let him go, promising the lion he will sometime return the favor. Not seeing how this could ever be possible, the lion lets him go and walks off, only to be caught in a hunter's lair later that day. As the lion hangs from the rope trap, manifesting his displeasure with long and mighty roars, the mouse hears the cries and rushes to repay the lion by saving his life. Chewing through each piece of rope the tiny mouse is eventually able to free the large beast and the two part as unlikely, but faithful friends.

Evaluation: Pinkey tells Aesop's story through his stunning watercolors, with nary a word to move the story along save the sounds the animals make. A mere screech from an owl, a squeak from the mouse and a roar from the lion are the only letters on the page, yet Pinkney's gift is to convey the plot beautifully through image alone. The expression in the lion's eyes, particulary on the cover illustration is exquisitely rendered and Pinkney does a beautiful job, making good use of white space (a technique he wasn't necessarily good at in the past) and creating a lovely addition to Aesop's library.

Significance: The Lion and the Mouse is a favorite for many, children and adults alike. While Pinkney had won numerous Caldecott Honor Awards, this is his favorite of Aesop's and perhaps it was what gave him the impetous to show his best work yet. As for the fable itself, the ability to find friends in unlikely places is a wonderful lesson and Pinkey does an admirable job making it come to life.

Personal Choice: I was fortunate to be part of a mock Caldecott committee at my local library and our committee chose this title before the winner was acutally announced. What geniuses we were. :)

Awards: Caldecott Award Winner, 2010 / ABA - Indies Choice for New Picture Book, 2010