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By:
Jen Robinson,
on 4/10/2014
Blog:
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Book: Princess Pink and the Land of Fake-Believe: Book 1: Moldylocks and the Three Beards
Author: Noah Z. Jones
Pages: 80 (illustrated early reader)
Age Range: 5-7
Moldylocks and the Three Beards (yes, Beards) is the first book in a new heavily illustrated early chapter book series by Noah Z. Jones called Princess Pink and the Land of Fake-Believe. Princess Pink has seven older brothers, and her parents were so happy to have a girl that they named her "Princess." Their last name is "Pink." She is the exact opposite of her name:
"Princess Pink does not like fairies. She does not like princesses. And she REALLY does not like the color pink.
Princess Pink does like dirty sneakers, giant bugs, mud puddles, monster trucks, and cheesy pizza."
When her refrigerator turns into a portal to another world one late night, Princess finds herself in the Land of Fake-Believe. Her hair turns pink, but her new friend Moldylocks thinks that it looks cool. Hungry, she sets out with Moldylocks to visit the home of three Beards she knows, in the hope of sneaking some chili. A mix of expected and unexpected events follow, culminating in a daring rescue. And at the end, when Princess is back in her own bed, there's a suggestion that it just might have all been true.
This series is designed to appeal to first and second grades, with a grade 2 reading level. But I have to say that my just-turned four-year-old adores Moldylocks and the Three Beards as a read-aloud. When she realized that it was a satire on Goldilocks and the Three Bears, she didn't quite get it, but she pealed with laughter anyway. She liked trying to predict what would happen next.
But really, I do think this this is going to be a very nice series for new first and second grade readers. It's funny, and just a little gross. (Eating chili that a spider has been bathing in? Yuck! Green, moldy hair? Yuck!) It riffs on standard fairy tale tropes (there's a Mother Moose, for example, with a Tunacorn), and has entertaining illustrations. It's a nice introduction for kids to the concept of fractured fairy tales, and the way that they confound expectations.
Princess is about as non-stereotypical as she she could be, with medium brown skin, ragged shorts, and multi-colored socks. And I have to say, she looks pretty cool with the pink hair. She runs away from the Beards at first, but goes back bravely when her new friend needs her. In short, she's a delightful heroine for the modern primary schooler. And really, despite being about a girl named Princess Pink, the story is certainly boy-friendly, too.
Moldylocks and the Three Bears is something of an early reader/graphic novel hybrid. Much of the story is told through colorful, comic-like pictures and text call-outs. But there's traditional narrative on every page, too. Princess's words are shown in pink, while Moldylocks' are green. The girls are wide-eyed with expressive features. The Beards are a little odd, but funny. The spiders are surprisingly cute. And Moldylocks' green-tinged apron, well, that's a bit gross, but funny, too. The vocabulary is quite straightforward, and should be accessible to second graders. There are plenty of clues in the pictures as to what is going on anyway.
In short, I think that The Land of Fake-Believe series is going to be a nice addition to the ranks of early chapter books. I've even checked online already to see when the next book will be out (not until August, alas). School and public libraries will definitely want to give Moldylocks and the Three Beards a look. Recommended!
Publisher: Scholastic (@Scholastic)
Publication Date: April 29, 2014
Source of Book: Review copy from the publisher
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© 2014 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook.
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By: Jenny Miller,
on 12/8/2012
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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. |
Me and Youby Anthony Browne
Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2010 (originally published in 2009 in Great Britain)
review copy provided by the publisher
Did you ever wonder about Goldilocks' side of the story? In Anthony Browne's version, we get one possible answer to who she is and how she winds up in the three bears' house.
Goldilocks' story is told wordlessly, in sepia-colored panels on the left side of each double page spread. Her story looks modern -- a girl who goes out shopping with her mother, follows a balloon to try to catch it, and becomes lost. Little Bear tells the story of his family going for a walk while they wait for their soup to cool. The Three Bears' story takes up the entire right-hand page of the spread, is in color, is drawn in a storybook style, and includes the text. When Goldilocks runs away from the Bears' house, she runs back through the modern, sepia-colored city scenes and is reunited with her mother. Little Bear is left at his window, wondering what becomes of the girl who had been asleep in his bed.
If you know Anthony Browne's work, you know this version isn't as simple as presenting us with two parallel stories. The cover holds a clue that the world of the Three Bears and Goldilocks' modern world might just be a little closer to one another than we might imagine. Go back to the illustrations of the bears taking their walk and think about what you see there.
Are we a part of the fairy tale story, or is the fairy tale a part of ours? As always, Anthony Browne makes us think and wonder.
I hope you've enjoyed this week of revisiting old favorites! I've certainly enjoyed sharing them with you!
Rubia and the Three Ososby Susan Middleton Elya
illustrated by Melissa Sweet
Disney*Hyperion Books, 2010
review copy provided by the publisher
This rhyming version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears is sure to be a hit with children who speak Spanish, children who are learning Spanish, readers who love new versions of old stories, and fans of Melissa Sweet's illustrations. Well, I guess that means that this book will be a hit with EVERYONE!
First, a bit about the rhymes. Who can't love a poet who rhymes "prepared" with "derriere'd"?
There once were three osos
who lived by themselves.
They stored their three platos
for soup on the shelves.
But one night at supper
--la sopa prepared,
the soup platos ladled,
the chairs derriere'd --
Sometimes the Spanish words rhyme with Spanish words, sometimes Spanish and English rhyme, and sometimes English rhymes with English. Sometimes the Spanish words are explained in the context of the poem, and sometimes by clues in the picture, and every now and then the reader might need to go to the glossary of Spanish words in the back of the book to make sure of the meaning of a word. But all in all, the Spanish and English go together like the soup, the bowls, the chairs and the beds.
You can tell by the cover that there's something a little different about the way this story turns out. What's new in this version is that Rubia regrets the damage she did at the Osos' house. She makes up a pot of soup and takes it, and some glue, to the Osos', where she says, "Lo siento."
Three cheers for Rubia and the Three Osos!!!
Tomorrow, another new version of Goldilocks...
I was at the Northwoods Children's Book Conference in northern Wisconsin last week and had a wonderful time! I hope more people attend next year. It's a terrific opportunity for writers, librarians, and educators to connect.
I went a day early and worked on That Freaking Goldilocks Chapter Book, which was good. But then I realized just before I headed home that I had totally missed a huge element in the world-making of this book. So now--lots more plot/setting changes before I can progress to looking at the actual words and sentences I used.
The whole day I worked on the book, I also stared out my window at this lovely view from my balcony:
I'm on my way to Wisconsin this afternoon, where I'll be presenting Friday at the Northwoods Children's Book Conference. I'm going to have tonight and much of the day tomorrow to write quietly in my room, working on revising That Freaking Goldilocks Chapter Book. I finished draft two, but it stinks pretty much as bad as draft one :>(
So, I'm hoping for bad weather tonight and tomorrow--or if not bad, at least uninviting. You know, the kind of weather that makes you happy to be inside, writing in your cozy room, watching the clouds and wind and storms outside. The kind of day that doesn't whisper invitingly, "Come outside and enjoy the breeze, the sunshine, the fall leaves..." Then it can clear up and be beautiful on Friday, the day of the conference! I know. I'm a little demanding when it comes to weather!
Fairytale land has a rule, and that is that things happen in threes. Cinderella goes to the ball twice before the prince gets wise and smears pitch on the steps on the third night. Jack goes up the beanstalk three times. There were three little pigs. Rumplestiltskin gave the queen three guesses as to his name, and I believe Goldilocks ran into a trio of bears.
Of course there are counter examples: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Twelve Dancing Princesses, but three is the rule. Remember that in Snow White, the Queen tries to kill Snow White three times and the Twelve Dancing Princesses leave their chamber for three nights.
Why is this? Is there something magical or particularly fairy-like about the number three? I have a few theories…
Easy as 1, 2, 3: As these stories were first told orally and without written reference, three event stories were easiest to remember and retell: First, Next, Last. Copper, Silver, Gold. Straw, Wood, Brick. Hot, Cold, Just Right. This way, the teller doesn’t have to worry about the form, but can focus on improvising the juicy details and building dramatic tension (slowly, slowly, she turned the doorknob… creeeeeeaaaaak).
Two’s company, Three’s a pattern: Three establishes a rhythm and predictability to the story. Children can be assured that the two evil princes will fail when they try to pull the sword from the stone, but that the lowly orphan will succeed. The giant can be fooled twice, but the third time, he’ll catch on. The familiarity of a scenario being replayed is soothing to the child because it is easy to follow and predict.
Filler and Fluff: When your child calls out, “Tell me a story!” and you haven’t got anything on hand, who is ready to keep track of a Harry Potteresque alternate universe with a huge cast of characters and relationships? No one. So you start with a Princess and wing it. You throw in a few details that will titter (“and the Princess had a dog named Fuzzball” hey, that’s your dog’s name, too!). And you try to think of a way to make it last longer than 30 seconds. Um… Um… Traveling to the Sea was good, but now what? RULE OF THREE to the rescue! Do it over! Variations on a theme. Travel to the Mountains. Travel to the Woods. Put everything together (the Water, the Stone, the Wood) and presto: bestest, most magical castle EVAR!
Last week was pretty busy with the mini-vacation and the house guests (friends who had to move out of their old house a week before they could close on their new house, so where essentially homeless and staying with us) and of course helping those friends move, not once but twice. I finally got a chance to work on my Goldilocks illo last night and scratched the main part out.
Here it is in all it's rough and unrefined glory (click to see it larger):
First of all, I actually rendered this at smaller than actual size, which is highly atypical. My finished size is going to be 12" x 9" (at 300 ppi), and most of the time, it's fairly standard practice for an illustrator to create the original 1.5 to 2 times larger than the finished, printed size. Something about the process of shrinking it tends to reduce all the minor imperfections and smooth everything out nicely. If I were working in any other medium, I would do the same.
But because I really like the rough and ragged look of scratchboard, I tend to do the originals at 100%, or even less in the case of bigger, full page projects like this, and enlarge it. Working small forces me to be very basic and broad with my "strokes" (so to speak). If I worked larger, I would scratch more, and probably try and get too detailed and clean. Like I said, I like a big, rough stroke in this medium, so I keep it small.
Which means, of course, I have to scan it at a higher resolution than what I need. The original was about 9.5" x 12" so I scanned it at 600 ppi. When I resample the resolution to 300 ppi, the size jumps to 19.5" x 14". That is, naturally, bigger than I need it, which is good. Because now that it's scanned in, I like to work bigger than the final size.
See, I essentially bitmap the image to solid black and white pixels to make coloring it in Photoshop easier. But that would make the lines a little jagged and pixelated at actual size, so I do this bigger and when I reduce it, the lines smooth out.
Anyway, as you can see, I don't scratch the entire border. I'm lazy, so I do one corner, and then I'll build the rest in Photoshop by duplicating that piece. The little thingy in the bottom left corner was meant to be a background pattern that I would also tile in Photoshop (see aforementioned laziness issue), but now that I look at it, it kinda resembles a swastika, doesn't it? Now, I did get it from a traditional Chinese pattern, so obviously the shape is part of the global collective unconscious, but nowadays, it does bare with it an unfortunate connotation, so I think I'll chose something else!
The large "X" in the upper left is a note to myself. Basically, when there's a large area of black ink that I don't want to sit and scratch out (remember lazy?) I simple mark that area with an X and delete it with the click of a mouse in Photoshop. (What would I do without computers?)
Tonight, hopefully, I'll scratch out the border of the opposing page, the one which will have the text of the story, and a new background tile.
Here's a progression of Goldilocks.
My son was writing a science fairy tale yesterday. He based it on Goldilocks. This got me thinking (finally, it's been awhile). I filled several pages of my sketchbook with Goldilocks sketches. Here you see a progression of the Baby Bear character. He starts out too tall, and too old. Next he has more babiness to him. Finally, we see him in action. It's good to be back. I've had a real dry spell on ideas this summer. Drawing has been a struggle. Hope this streak lasts.
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Have you seen the book "Somebody and the Three Blairs" by Marilyn Tolhurst? I find that version, where the part of "Goldilocks" is played by a bear, amusing.
I love that it is set in the city, I am going to have to look for this book.