Lullaby & Kisses Sweet (2015)

Board Book: Lullaby and Kisses Sweet: Poems To Love With Your Baby. Selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins. Illustrated by Alyssa Nassner. 2015. Harry N. Abrams. 44 pages.

I really, really LOVE some of the poems included in this board book collection. The poems are arranged in five different sections: FAMILY, FOOD, FIRSTS, PLAY, and BEDTIME. I probably loved a poem or two (or three) from each section.

In FAMILY, I really loved "Grandma" by Prince Redcloud and "Car Seat" by Jude Mandell. Here's "Grandma":

When she takes my hand
and begins to sing
I love her more
than
anything.

In FOOD, I really loved "Spaghetti" by Laura Purdie Salas.

In FIRSTS, I really loved "First Word" by Joan Bransfield Graham

In PLAY, I really loved "Blocks" by Ann Whitford Paul and "Sandbox" by Stephanie Salkin.

Sand on my fingers, on my toes,
Sand on my chin, my ears, my nose,
Sand on my elbows, neck, and knees.
Take me out of this sandbox--
Please?

In BEDTIME, I really loved "Read to Me" by  Lee Bennett Hopkins.

There were so many good poems in this collection. I would find it very easy to recommend this one.

The illustrations complement the poems very well! They are very sweet--though I wouldn't say they are "precious." The illustrations are all of animal families. (There are lots of cat families which make me smile!)

Emil & Karl (1940)

Emil and Karl. Yankev Glatshteyn. Translated from the Yiddish by Jeffrey Shandler. 1940/2006. Roaring Book Press. 208 pages.

I love the idea of loving Emil and Karl by Yankev Glatshteyn. Emil and Karl was written in 1940 in Yiddish. It is set in Austria. It is the first--or at least among the very first--book written for children about the persecution Jews were experiencing from the Nazis.

Emil and Karl have always, always been best friends. Emil's Jewish. Karl's the son of socialists. Both are "orphans" in a way because of the Nazis. The book opens with intensity: readers first glimpse of Karl is haunting. Karl's mother has been taken away by the Nazis. He's witnessed this: not only the arrest, but the beating too. He's alone in the apartment, feeling very alone, very frightened, very worried. For they told him they'd be back to take him too. He doesn't know what to do next, where to go, who to trust. He decides to run to Emil's house. Emil's world has also been devastated within the past day or two. His father was taken and killed. His mother is grieving and shattered.

Karl and Emil are very much on their own it seems. The two stick together no matter what. They'll face danger and be put into difficult situations time and time again. There are many scenes that stay with you.

But while I find the premise of this one fascinating, it isn't the absolute best book about the holocaust. It may be among the first, but, that doesn't make it among the best of the best. Worth reading? I think so if you already have an interest in the subject. But if you only read one book on the subject, I'd have to recommend you go with another book.

How To Catch A Bogle (2013)

How To Catch A Bogle. Catherine Jinks. Illustrated by Sarah Watts. 2013. HMH.

  I enjoyed reading How To Catch A Bogle a Victorian fantasy novel by Catherine Jinks. Birdie, the heroine, is an apprentice to Alfred the Bogler. She's bogle bait. Bogles are monsters who consume children. The action begins quickly in this one. Readers soon see Alfred and Birdie hard at work at this one. Birdie sings beautifully, baiting the trap if you will. Alfred carefully waits until just the right moment... Dangerous work it is. Is it too dangerous? One of Birdie's new acquaintances says it is. Miss Eames is something. She is very curious about bogles, about boglers. She wonders about the different types and classes of bogles--monsters or creatures. Where they live, how they live, what they eat, likes and dislikes, etc. She has a different approach than Alfred. Alfred is practical and skilled, but, not curious or scientific. Miss Eames is more interested in his work than he is in her work. She comes to really care for Birdie.

Miss Eames is not the only person interested in bogles. And there is one person whose interest is unethical....

Plenty of action and a bit of mystery!!! I enjoyed this one very much.

Call the Midwife (2002)

Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times. Jennifer Worth. 2002/2009. Penguin. 340 pages.

I have now read all three of Jennifer Worth's memoirs. Yes, I read the first book in the series last because that's how the library fated it. This actually worked out okay because I was familiar enough with the television adaptation. First, I want to mention that I loved, loved, loved, LOVED the tv show. Did I enjoy the books as much, did I enjoy them equally well? Probably not. I loved the show more, I did. I'll be honest about that from the start.

But did I enjoy the books? Yes. I definitely did. But was the first book my favorite? I can't say that it was. There were things I liked/loved about all three books. And. There were things I didn't quite like about all three books.

What didn't I enjoy? Well. In this first book, for example, there are several chapters where the focus is on prostitution, the focus shifts in the narrative because Jenny Lee has met a pregnant prostitute, Mary, who's trying to escape her pimp and find somewhere (relatively) safe to keep her baby. As you might expect, it's a dark, ugly, nightmarish world she's describing. I don't fault her for being realistic and matter of fact. But the amount of detail involved in the telling is a bit much at times. I think it could have been retold with a little less detail and still conveyed the same impact.

What did I enjoy? Well, there was plenty to enjoy! Most of the chapters were enjoyable enough. Many of these chapters have been adapted as episodes for the show--though not all, I believe. And in some cases, the book presents a much fuller picture.

As far as the trilogy goes, there is in some ways a lot less focus on romance when compared to the adaptation. (Jane's romance being an exception in the second book.) But the trilogy is worth reading, maybe not for ALL fans, but for many fans. (I will say that the book is more graphic in description than the tv show.)

The 100 Dresses (1944)

The 100 Dresses. Eleanor Estes. Illustrated by Louis Slobodkin. 1944/2004. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 96 pages.

Two girls learn a little bit about empathy in Eleanor Estes' classic story The 100 Dresses. Wanda Petronski wears the same dress day after day. For the record, it is always clean. But still the other kids in her class--particularly the girls--can't help teasing or bullying her. She has a "weird" last name; she always wears the same clothes; she talks about having a 100 dresses at home. Peggy and her good friend, Maddie, the heroine, started the "game" of teasing her. But Maddie and Peggy both realize the error of their way, Maddie especially. But will their change of heart come too late? Will they be able to tell Wanda how very sorry they are for how they've treated her? Will she forgive them?

I liked this one very much. I'd definitely recommend it. I enjoyed both the text and the illustrations.

Have you read The Hundred Dresses? What did you think?

By The Shores of Silver Lake

By the Shores of Silver Lake. Laura Ingalls Wilder. 1939. HarperCollins. 291 pages.

As a child, By The Shores of Silver Lake wasn't my favorite of the series. I blame Jack's death for that. But as an adult, I've come to appreciate By The Shores of Silver Lake more, seeing it as more than just a transition between On the Banks of Plum Creek and The Long Winter.

In By the Shores of Silver Lake:

• Mary goes blind, Laura is "asked" to be her eyes
• Pa is offered a new job, a job with the railroad, which he takes
• He goes by wagon, Jack dies BEFORE Pa's departure
• The rest of the family travels most of the way by train
• They continue the rest of their journey (a day or two or three) by wagon
• They settle in for a while, Pa talks about the claim he hopes to claim later that year or whenever his job is finished and he's able to go out seeking a claim of his own
• Pa's job isn't always safe; he's the paymaster for the railroad, and he has to calm down an angry mob in this one.
• They meet the Boast family
• They spend the winter in the 'biggest' house Laura has ever lived in
• Winter may be lonely (no neighbors, no town) but the spring will see plenty of people come and go. EVERYONE stops at their house on their way west
• The family learns that there is a school for the blind, they all decide Mary should go there.
• The family decides to claim land near De Smet, South Dakota
• Laura catches the tiniest glimpse of Almanzo Wilder's horses

I definitely am enjoying rereading these books. By The Shores of Silver Lake may not be my favorite of the series, but, I'm glad I reread it.

Les Miserables (2015)

Les Miserables The Epic Masterpiece by Victor Hugo, Retold and Illustrated by Marcia Williams. 2015. Candlewick. 64 pages.

POLICE NOTICE
It has come to my attention that you citizens known as "Les Miserables" believe that your wretched state of poverty and hunger is an excuse to flout the laws of France. You are mistaken. Every citizen must obey the law, and those who fail to do so will be punished.
Not a loaf of bread nor an apple from a tree will go missing without my learning of it. I will hunt down every criminal--rich or poor. The law shows no discrimination and no compassion.
I also warn all members of the revolutionary republican group "Les Amis de l'ABC" that your days are numbered. Should you seek to lead the miserable underdogs of our society to repeat the Revolution of 1789, you will fail!
The true citizens of France will not support you, and France will never again be a republic. King Louis XVIII is our monarch. He and the laws of France must be obeyed.
Inspector Javert

Les Miserables is one of my favorite classics. I love, love, love it. So I was quite excited to receive a review copy of this adaptation of Victor Hugo's classic. What did I think of it? Well, I liked it very much. At the very least, it does as good a job as any movie adaptation I've seen in capturing the story and the characters. So if you're looking to enjoy the story in its most basic form, this picture book adaptation wouldn't be a bad choice. Or, if you're looking to share this one with young readers, perhaps before seeing one of the movies, this one would be a fine choice.

I love the story. I love the characters. And Marcia Williams does a good job at remaining faithful to the story and the characters, of capturing why the story matters. The story is told through narration and dialogue (speech bubbles).

That being said, while it is a much shorter read--I read it in one sitting--it is not as wonderful as the original. One could argue it is more straightforward and focused and that it doesn't ramble. It doesn't have thousands of asides that take readers away from "main" story. But there is something beautiful in the original, even in the rambling. One of the things that I love most about original novel is the richness of it--the beauty of the language, the richness of the writing, the great attention to humanity. That is lost in this adaptation for the most part.