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Title: TAD and DAD Author & Illustrator: David Ezra Stein Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books, 2015 Themes: Father/son relationships, frogs & tadpoles, sleeping Ages: 3-7 Opening: My dad has big, buggy eyes,                                       … Continue reading →

Tad and Dad

Words and pictures by David Ezra Stein

Tadpoles grow into frogs and kids grow into bigger ones, in case it’s escaped your attention.

And just in case it has, David Ezra Stein, receiver of a Caldecott Honor for “Interrupting Chicken” and the Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award for “Leaves” is here to gently remind you with an antic pair of father/son amphibians named Tad and Dad.

This duo are greatly and charmingly greenly joined at the hip for adventures. The small frog gazes adoringly and approvingly at each and every loud burp that “echoes across the pond.”

Tad’s dream is to swim as fast as Dad as they tuck in at night on the shared lily pad.

And suddenly…he can! He’s grown; legs that is, that hop and reach new heights every day.

Then the singing starts as Tad lung power rivals his Dad’s. Mr. Stein has a wonderful way of showing both fatherly frog pride in accomplishments and exasperation as growth spurts in his young one causes sleep deprivation.

Yet each step of Tad’s growth is punctuated with approval by his Dad, with phrases like “Great shot, son! ( bug tackling) and Great hopping, son!” (leaping lily pads).

That is till the wiggling, poking, kicking and croaking of young Tad keeps Dad up nights. Growing frogs need room!

And tad is quick to tell Dad he snores!

What’s a frog family to do? Separate?

Well, maybe for a bit. But guess what? Green blood is thicker than water. Seems neither can sleep without the other’s company, even if it involves kicking, croaking, snoring and what all!

Kids er frogs! Can’t live with’em; can’t live without’em! But ya gotta love’em! Ribbit!

  Ladybug Girl and Her Mama by Jacky Davis & illustrated by David Soman Ladybug Girl loves her mama, and can’t wait to spend the day with her. They plant flowers in the garden, share a special lunch, and enjoy a favorite movie. Together-time has never been so sweet. Just right for Mother’s Day! My …

Almost the moment Mo Willems' keynote speech ended, people started lining up to get their books signed and we kid you not, the line ran the length of a football field (that's 100 yards, for those of you unfamiliar with the sport, or 91.44 meters if you're Canadian).

It's no wonder people are so excited to have their books inscribed, when you share the room with the likes of Julie Andrews, Mo Willems, Shaun Tan, Jane Yolen, Tomie dePaolo ...

We could and should go on, but we'll let the pictures speak for themselves. 

Mo Willems

Shaun Tan fans standing in a queue (do they say that in Australia?)

Shaun Tan

Mark Teague and Floyd Cooper

Meg Rosoff and David Ezra Stein

Lin Oliver and Theo Baker

Tomie DePaola and Jane Yolen

Margaret Peterson Haddix and Matthew Kirby

Arthur Levine is a full-service editor. Here, he's opening the book to the right page for an inscription.

You’ve got your big-time fancy pants New York publishers on the one hand, and then you have your big-time fancy pants Boston publishers on the other.  A perusal of Minders of Make-Believe by Leonard Marcus provides a pretty good explanation for why Boston is, in its way, a small children’s book enclave of its own.  Within its borders you have publishers like Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Candlewick holding court.  The only time I have ever been to Boston was when ALA last had a convention there.  It was nice, though cold and there are duckling statues.

So it was that the good people of Candlewick came to New York to show off some of their finest Fall 2012 wares.  Now the last time they came here they were hosted by SLJ.  This time they secured space in the Bank Street College of Education.  Better location, less good food (no cookies, but then I have the nutritional demands of a five-year-old child).  We were given little signs on which to write our names.  I took an extra long time on mine for what I can only assume was an attempt to “win” the write-your-name part of the day.  After that, we were off!

First up, it’s our old friend and Caldecott Honor winner (I bet that never gets old for him) David Ezra Stein.  The fellow’s been toiling away with his paints n’ such for years, so it’s little wonder he wanted to ratchet up his style a notch with something different.  And “something different” is a pretty good explanation of what you’ll find with Because Amelia Smiled.  This is sort of a take on the old nursery rhyme that talks about “For Want of a Nail”, except with a happy pay-it-forward kind of spin.  Because a little girl smiles a woman remembers to send a care package.  Because the care package is received someone else does something good.  You get the picture.  Stein actually wrote this book as a Senior in art school but has only gotten to writing it officially now.  It’s sort of the literary opposite of Russell Hoban’s A Sorely Trying Day or Barbara Bottner’s An Annoying ABC.  As for the art itself, the author/illustrator has created a whole new form which he’s named Stein-lining.  To create it you must apply crayons to wax paper and then turn it over.  I don’t quite get the logistics but I’ll be interested in seeing the results.  Finally, the book continues the massive trend of naming girls in works of children’s fiction “Amelia”.  Between Amelia Bedelia, Amelia’s Notebook, and Amelia Rules I think the children’s literary populace is well-stocked in Amelias ah-plenty.

Next up, a title that may well earn the moniker of Most Anticipated Picture Book of the Fall 2012 Season.  This Is Not My Hat isn’t a sequel to 4 Comments on Librarian Preview: Candlewick Press (Fall 2012), last added: 4/25/2012