There's something magical about books from faraway places. Perspectives on life are just a bit different and lend a whimsical touch to familiar subjects -- and to unusual ones. Here are seven gems that travelled this year across the pond from England and France and into U.S. bookstores.
From England:
Dick Bruna's I Can Count, Round, Square, Triangle and My Vest is White ,
by Dick Bruna, Tate Publishing (Abrams), $7.95 each, ages 2 and up, 28 pages, 2012. Bold, crisp colors and clean, simple lines make learning to count, and identifying basic colors and shapes a snap -- in this compact trio by a renowned Dutch author.
Bruna's graphics are warm and welcoming, and unclutter the mind to learn. Bruna's work, by way of an earlier series, has a tender spot in my heart. When I was 2, my grandmother gave me Dick Bruna's
The Sailor (A Toy Box Tale) about a sailor boy who sailed his toy ship to a land of ice and snow. To this day, when I think of books that made me feel cozy and secure as a small child, Bruna's pops into memory.
Best part: The clarity of the message, owed to Bruna's smart use of primary colors and thick, black lines.
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| The Sailor from childhood; a Dick Bruna garland on Etsy. |
The Goldilocks Variations: A Pop-Up Book, by Allan Ahlberg, illustrations by Jessica Ahlberg, Walker, $17.99, ages 5 and up, 40 pages, 2012. A witty retelling in which Goldilocks dines on Choco Pops instead of porridge, and meets 33 bears, an odd-talking Blim and the three little pigs on her search for porridge. Whimsical plot twists, quaint pictures, and clever pull tabs and flaps by an award-winning storyteller and his daughter.
Best part: All the little interactive features inside, from a tiny picture dictionary that defines silly words to a diminutive book that presents a stage play of Goldilocks at the village playhouse -- "Marvel at the naughtiness! Gasp at the Scariness! Eat the buns!" a playbill announces.
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| A pop-up of the Bears' cottage within the stage play. |
Jonathon & Martha,
by Petr Horacek, Phaidon, $14.95, ages 3 and up, 40 pages, 2012. Two lonely worms living on opposite sides of a tree find love when they meet at the middle of a big, juicy pear, in this UK Picture Book of the Year. Neither worm realizes the other worm is nibbling into the pear from the opposite side, and at first they want to fight over whose pear it really is. But in the process of tussling, they become knotted together, and are forced to work together and share. Then one day a crow swoops down and munches off their tails, which doesn't hurt for long but separates them from the tangle. Only now they don't ever want to be apart and wiggle off happily ever after.
Best part: Horacek's charming use of two little holes punched into the pages for the worms to wiggle through. This is especially effective when the worms try to get away from the crow by diving into their holes.
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| Entangled and content. |
The Table That Ran Away to the Woods,
by Stefan Themerson, illustrated by Franciszka Themerson, Tate Publishing (Abrams), $10.95, 20 pages, 2012. A writing desk runs away to the woods to grow back into a tree, in this joyful 1963 poem, translated for the first time from Polish to English. One day, a writing desk "grabbed two pairs of shoes / ran downstairs, and took flight" out of the author's house with him and his wife in pursuit. As it raced through the countryside, the desk slowly reclaimed its original existence, growing leaves and rooting into the ground. The story, first published in 1940 in a Polish newspaper then recreated in this collage version in 1963, is a celebration of renewal and the natural world. (The Themersons were Polish avant-garde artists and filmmakers who fled to London in the 1940s.)
Best part: Every bit of it, but especially an image of the desk bounding toward the forest like an excited puppy with its legs splayed out.
From France:
Pomelo Explores Color,
by Ramona Badescu, illustrated by Benjamin Chaud, Enchanted Lion, $15.95, ages 3 and up, 120 pages, 2012. When everything in the world goes black and white, a pink elephant discovers all of the ways that color
colours his life. In this charming followup to the acclaimed
Pomelo Begins to Grow, Pomelo the garden elephant explores 12 colors that affect his mood and make his life adventurous. He finds comfort in white while curling up under a fluffy ball of dandelion seeds. He rejoices in orange as a shower of shredded carrots pile up around him. He sees the romance of pink when two slugs kiss: their cheeks grow rosy, pink stars explode around them and their dangly eyes twirl around each other's. A quirky exploration of color with signature French humor: as Pomelo works his way through yellow, he marvels at all the yellows of "wee-wee."
Best part: When Pomelo sticks his trunk into a black hole and peers in at "The shadowy blue of the Unknown."
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| Pomelo discovers blue and white. |
HO, Ho, HO! Here we go!
This holiday my stocking runneth over. There are so many incredible books to share and so little time to write.
So, to try to get in as many books as I can, I've divided up the guide among four days.
Today, the first day, I've posted my 12 favorite holiday stories with full reviews. (Each title appears at the end of this post as a live link. Click the link to go directly to a review or scroll down the page.)
On Dec. 14, I'll spotlight books that look and feel as good as toys. This list will include pop-up books, crafts books, drawing books and books about, well, toys!
Then Dec. 19, I'll share some of the most enchanting books of the year, including some of the best surprises.
Among them Bumble-Ardy, the first book written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak in 30 years.
I'll wrap up on Dec. 23, with my lists of the best books of the year, from the best illustrated picture books to the most fun read-alouds. To get as many in as I can, reviews will be Twitter-style, short and quick.
I hope you enjoy this year's guide and it leads you to just the book you're looking for!
Happy holidays everyone!!!
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By: Jenny Miller,
on 12/8/2011
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Illustrated by Jim LaMarche
A wish made on a paper star one chilly Christmas Eve long ago leads to magical sequence of events, in this beautifully illustrated picture book.
Recalling back to childhood, an aging carpenter tells of how an act of kindness in 1931 inspired him late life to pay that generosity forward.
That year, the carpenter, then a boy named Henry, and his parents were at their lowest. His father had lost his job, and their house had deteriorated into a drafty shack.
It was the Depression and like many families, jobs were sparse and people had to eke out a living however they could.
So the night before Christmas, Henry and his father cut down trees in the woods, then drove an hour to New York City to try to sell them.
Pulling off a city street, they saw a construction crew and asked if they could share their lot to sell the trees.
The crew could see from their worn faces and clothes that Henry and his father were down on their luck, and welcomed them in.
Soon, the workers were also hurrying over to help unload trees, unaware that the next thing they would unload would change Henry's life forever.
At the end of the day, with a good trickle of sales behind them, Henry's father showed his gratitude in the best way he could. He offered the workers their tallest tree to set out on the lot.
Together, Henry and his father, and the crew, cobbled together things to decorate it with, cranberries, empty tin cans and newspaper star that Henry folded.
Before hanging up the star, Henry closed his eyes and made a wish that his family would one day have a warm house to live in.
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By: Jenny Miller,
on 12/8/2011
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Written by Michael J. Rosen
Paper engineering by Robert Sabuda
$34.99, 5 years and up, 16 pages
Quiet, reflective scenes of Chanukah rise off the page, coaxing readers to linger and reflect, in this spectacular pop-up about the eight-day Jewish festival.
Celebrated author Michael Rosen leads readers around the world to imagine different times and places where the Festival of Lights was celebrated as each night's menorah is lit.
Then acclaimed paper engineer Robert Sabuda echoes Rosen's lyrical words with intricate pop-ups that rise off the page like silent exclamations.
As in many other works, Sabuda displays scenes almost entirely in white, except for blackened windows lit with the flames of the Menorah and backdrops, darkened for contrast.
In one scene, readers see the blended shades of a sunset sky and in another, a lush green landscape deepening in fading light as a menorah lit at a window casts a golden glow on the ground.
Rosen conveys the Jewish experience so beautifully that, Jewish or not, readers will feel connected to it on a very human level. His words speak of things everyone values: freedom's promise, hope rekindled, unflagging faith.
With each verse comes a new scene and another candle lit, and a glimpse at what this holiday means to Jewish people.
On the fifth night of Chanukah, six lights flicker in a little house in a shtetl, a small Jewish village, "where families huddle, the gleam of a future -- free and safe -- reflected in one another's eyes."
Looking at the scene evokes the kind of reverent feeling that occurs when walking into a church, irregardless of whether it's associated with your denomination.
The book begins 2,000 years ago, with Herod's temple where Jewish freedom first was fought, and ends with a modern c
Written & illustrated by Jane Ray
$16.99, ages 3-6, $16.99
In this beguiling edition of The Twelve Days of Christmas, a suitor woos his love next door with a series of gifts that reflect his deepening affection.
The suitor, an elegant man with twinkling eyes, watches his gifts arrive from his window until the last one is delivered, and he feels brave enough to a walk over and declare his love.
As the first of 12 gifts come, tiny puffs of snow float down outside a row of color-washed houses by a canal. A postman knocks at flat #4 and the woman, her hair swept back with a ribbon, answers the door and gasps with delight.
There on the step is a potted pear tree, each branch perfectly positioned as if espaliered, and a partridge with mottled feathers perched on a limb. A tag dangles from another branch addressed, "To My True Love X."
Every day greater numbers of things arrive on her stoop, each more whimsical and grand than the last.
On the fifth day, five children in hats and mittens run by the woman's door, rolling golden hoola-hoops at their sides, and on the tenth day, ten lords-a-leaping, dressed in pinstriped pants and top hats, shuffle about on the roof swinging their arms.
Jane Ray's pictures are sumptuous, delicately ornate and folkloric, with gilted stars, sleek birds that glide into scenes and perch, and charming details, subtly adorning the page.
When the nine ladies dancing arrive on a boat in the canal, shimmying in fur-lined coats, a banner curves between masts that's as playful as the man's glances. Hung among triangles of fabric are socks and pantaloons.
Every spread captures the magic of young, new love. Houses have a rosy luminous glow that ties in with the blushing cheeks of the woman, and the air sparkles with possibility.
Ray even flirts a little with readers. On the first spread, s
How the Holiday Classic Came to BeWritten by John Harris
Illustrated by Adam Gustavson
Peachtree, 2011
$16.95, ages 6-10, 32 pages
A minister lifts the spirits of a downtrodden congregation with the sound of sleigh bells and a flurry of snow-white feathers, in this charming twist on history.
John Harris, the co-writer of A Giraffe Goes to Paris, weaves a tender tale of how John Lord Pierpont came to write the holiday song Jingle Bells in the sticky heat of Georgia in 1857.
Though little is known about what spurred Pierpont to write the beloved carol, Harris gathered what facts he could, then pieced them together with his imagination to create this heart-warming story.
Many historians believe Pierpont wrote the song in Medford, Massachusetts, but others like Harris believe he was more apt to have written it in Savanna while serving as a church music director.
Since Pierpoint was a Unitarian and grew up in the North, Harris believes he was a strong abolitionist and warmly welcomed former slaves into his congregation.
But doing so probably would have come at price. For in 1857, the Civil War had yet to begin.
Perhaps one day confederates threw a rock through a window of his church and while he was cleaning up the glass, Pierpont felt a sticky breeze blow in.
Nostalgic for the cool north and wanting to distract a little girl from the hate that rock represented, he might have sat down at his piano and tapped out the jingle.
"Plink-plink-plink," went a key of the pipe organ, just like sleigh bells. "Then he did it again," Harris writes, and note after note, the tune came to him.
Now that Pierpont had the perfect song to transport his congregation into horse-drawn sleighs, he needed something light and fluffy to float down to the pews.
They could toss white blossoms in the air, he thought, but where could they find them?
Then one day as his chorus practiced Jingle Bells for a Thanksgiving concert, a feather in a lady's hat caught his eye. Bags of feathers, that's what they need.
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What an honor to have such a radiant review. Thank you for sharing your light on this book. All good wishes to you and your readers for the coming holidays. All of them...Michael J. Rosen