August 28, 2020
Mango, Abuela and Me By Meg Medina Illustrated by Angela Dominguez
Mango, Abuela and Me
By Meg Medina
Illustrated by Angela Dominguez
Candlewick Press
A Hundred Billion Trillion Stars By Seth Fishman Illustrated by Isabel Greenberg
A Hundred Billion Trillion Stars
By Seth Fishman
Illustrated by Isabel Greenberg
Greenwillow
August 24, 2020
Vamos! Let’s Go to the Market written and illustrated by Raul the Third
Vamos! Let’s Go to the Market
written and illustrated by Raul the Third
Versify
I decided to try something a little different this time around. Instead of a written review, I’ve created a video review for the bilingual picture book, Vamos! Let’s Go to the Market.
Let me know what you think!
August 18, 2020
Gator, Gator, Gator! by Daniel Bernstrom, illustrated by Frann Preston-Gannon
Gator, Gator, Gator!
by Daniel Bernstrom
illustrated by Frann Preston-Gannon
Harper
Ready for some excitement? Let’s head out on the bayou and look for that great big gator.
Admittedly, I grew up on grandad’s stories about accidental gator encounters in swamps near his Biloxi home, so I was ready for this Gator, Gator, Gator. Well, not really. Like the narrator, I’d be keyed up and certain that every movement I saw was a gator in the water.
Readers go along on a boat ride into the bayou. They are instructed to keep their hands in the boat, not put their foot over the side, and never jump on a log. All are bad ways to find this gator.
Time and time again the narrator points out shadowy movements that she is sure are Mr. Gator. But time and time again, another animal is the source including a fox, a snake and ducks. But then something rocks the boat. Was it you? Did you do that?
Daniel Bernstrom’s text is fast moving, read-aloud fun. It pairs well with Frann Preston-Gannon’s mixed media and digitally enhanced illustrations to create a story that is just scary enough without being too much for more timid readers. Although readers see a shadowy gator, the toothy reptile never makes an appearance proving that what is anticipated is much scarier than what is seen.
Preston-Gannon’s illustrations are cartoony in style which helps ease the fear that might come from super-realistic art. I also loved how she works in bayou wildlife, including a possum and a woodpecker, that aren’t mentioned in the text itself. I suspect that if I knew plants as well as I know animals, I would recognize flora beyond cat tails and what may or may not have been Spanish moss.
This fun read aloud would be much better for story hour than for bed time but count on things getting a little loud as preschoolers call at warnings when they think that gator is drawing near.
–SueBE
August 5, 2020
Drawn Together by Minh Lê and Dan Santat
Drawn Together
written by Minh Lê
illustrated by Dan Santat
Disney/Hyperion
A young boy is less than thrilled to spend the day with his grandfather. It doesn’t help that the boy speaks English while his grandfather speaks Thai. They eat different foods for dinner and watch different things on TV.
But when the boy, bored wth the television, gets out his markers and a pad of paper, Grandfather takes notice. He brings out his own paper, ink and a brush and soon the two are creating a special world of adventure together, even going so far as to try out each other’s supplies.
I’m not going to say much more about the story itself because it is so brief and I don’t want to simply write it out. Suffice it to say that they find something that they have in common, something that is bigger than words and bolder than anything that each has alone.
The story is by author Minh Lê. I have not counted the number of words but I’d be surprised if the story is 300 words long. That said, Dan Santat’s illustrations are a perfect complement to the text, expanding on the story and the world that the boy and his grandfather create together. Santat’s illustrations are created in mixed media then scanned and enhanced on the computer – which is perfect for a story about a modern boy and his traditional grandfather.
When you check out this book, you are going to discover that Santat has added speech bubbles on several pages. The words are always grandfather’s so it is Thai in Thai script. A translation of these lines can be found on the title page but not within the illustrations themselves. The reader, unless they are literate in Thai, is just as clueless as the narrator.
Although I check this out of the library, this is one I plan to add to my collection.
–SueBE
Bookshelf: What We're Reading 