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Guess what today is? Come on, betcha can't. Not in hundred years, you can't. Nope, not in a thou...what's that? You mean it's EREC REX 4 Day? How did you guess--oh, the title of this post. Well, you see that today's a day worth getting excited about! It 's the release day for Erec Rex: The Three Furies by the amazing Kaza Kingsley. The Erec Rex books are some of my absolute favorites and you shouldn't miss them!! It would take too long to tell you all the great things I could about them, so go over to the "Labels" section on the left-hand side of the page, click on "Erec Rex," and see for yourself. We won't get The Three Furies at the library today because it takes longer for us to receive and process books than the bookstores--but this also means it can't be too long before I see my very own copy!! CAN'T WAIT!!!

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Hey, fellow readers in blogville, it's Carl as well, terribly excited about hearing from two people this morning! The first is Spartacus Kilroy, founder of the great Port-O-Door website. It's an Erec Rex fansite run by teens--reader guys (and girls) just like you! Spartacus says:

Hey, Spartacus Kilroy here, the founder of Port-O-Door, and I'd just like to say thanks for linking to us! I love your site! Also, Search for Truth was flabbergastingly amazing! I managed to win a signed advance reviewer's copy from the Erec Rex forum, erecrex.com/forum, so after I read it I had to wait a month or two until I could finally expand upon it's awesomeness, but now I realize it's just too awesome for words.

Thanks, Spartacus! Take a look at their site everyone. It's terrific! I'm in chapter 3 of The Search for Truth and enjoying it. Boy, Erec gets in trouble right away! Kaza Kingsley wastes no time getting the action started!

We also have a review from Jana Warnell, a school librarian, a mom of boys, and faithful follower of this blog:

I have a book review for you! Have you read any of the Young Bond series by Charlie Higson? Great books with the concept of James Bond as a teen--but set in the 1930's. The first two were okay, readable and full of action, but the third, Double or Die, was great! Could hardly put it down. After I was finished I had to run and watch Casino Royale and make a James Bond ringtone for my phone--it was that good!

And thanks to you too, Jana! I've heard the first two Young Bond books were Ok and it's good to hear this one is really good. This was a good review and we appreciate it. Have we made you an Honorary Guy yet? You guys might want to check with your parents before you get any James Bond movies, though, because they always have a lot of--well, I hate to say it--kissing involved. Yes, there are car chases and shooting and things blowing up but there's always kissing. It's only my duty to warn you.

There's one more bit of news for all of you, especially if you were at the Star Wars Camps at the Matthews or Imaginon libraries. We're having our Star Wars Camp Grand Finale on Thursday, July 30 here at Imaginon at 2 pm. We'll have a speaker talk about Luke Skywalker as the Epic Hero, snacks, and show the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated movie. Registration starts at 9:00 tomorrow morning. Call 704-416-4630 to register. Hope to see you there!

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Wow! Kaza Kinglsey, the Erec Rex author, has written to us about Tuesday's post:

Yay - I'm so excited about the Book Three release!!! I have to let people know about an amazing fan site made just by kids and teens only - just Erec Rex fans. I just saw it today and it's AMAZING. Portodoor.com - check it out. Kaza Kingsley

Thanks, Kaza! She's right about the Port-o-door.com site--it is amazing!! Go check it out. I've put a link to it on the Links section on the left-hand side of the page. And if you want to see reviews and other posts about Erec Rex and Kaza Kingsley, click on the tabs under this post.

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Hello, fellow reader guys, 'tis Carl. Our friend, the valiant dragonslayer 1191812, hath sent us a review of the first Erec Rex book:

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Greetings, reader guys, it's Carl once again. Our faithful friend and reviewer cyber kid 303 has told us about another good read:

I just finished reading Orphan Train Rider by Andrea Warren. It is a biography about a boy named Lee Nailing and his family. It is 1926 and America is in a recession, a lot like today. One family in particular is having a hard time. They are the Nailings and their mom has just died. They had 7 kids and their dad alone could not feed and take care of them all. The three oldest, Fred, Ross, and Evelyn had to live on the streets. The baby went to live with family friends. Their dad kept the toddler. But the two other kids named Lee and Leo went to an orphanage. Since their dad was not dead, he would sometimes come and visit them in the orphanage. Lee had always wanted to be a train engineer. When he was told he would ride a train through the country all the way to Texas, he was excited. When they were boarding the train, he and his brother found out that their little brother, Gerald, going with them because their dad did not have enough money to take care of him after all.


The train was full of orphans traveling from town to town. Whenever they stopped at a town, the orphans would have to line up so people could look at them and decide if they wanted to adopt any of the children. Lee, Leo and Gerald get separated and go to live with different families. Read this amazing true story. Do they ever see each other again? Do they live happily ever after? Read and find out.


Cyber Kid 303 out!!!!!!

Thanks, cyber kid! I'm really glad you told us about a biography because they are some of the best books out there--and the amazing thing is that the stories are true!!



We also have a picture of cyber kid with his prizes from the March Madness Author Shoot-out:





He's wearing his Deadwood Jones T-shirt (generously donated by Helen Hemphill) and holding his bag of Deadwood Jones salt water taffy and the signed copy of Erec Rex:The Dragon's Eye. Well done, cyber kid!

PS--let us know how you like Erec Rex!

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Heigh-ho, bold readers, the valiant dragonslayer 1191812 came to Imaginon to claim his prizes for winning the March Madness Authoer Shoot-out contest by sending the most reviews. Here he is, proudly displaying his trophies:
He hath chosen a signed T-shirt from Kaza Kingsley, as well as two signed copies of her Erec Rex books. Well done, dragonslayer!! Let us hear how you like those books. In fact, feel to write to us anytime!!

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Hey, everyone, it's Carl, shaking the snow out of my brain. Hope everyone enjoyed the day off yesterday. I spent the day wrestling polar bears and skiing down Mount McKinley. A typical snow day for the CARLMAN.

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Hey, guys, this is Carl wishing you a Happy New Year! Hope the new year will be good for you. 2008 was good for me, especially for reading. I found some some awesome books this year. There were the biggies--The Battle of the Labyrinth, The 39 Clues--but I'd like to tell you about some books that didn't get as much attention but were terrific reads. Some were published this year and some were older, but I read them in 2008 and that's what counts. (I've put the dates of the original reviews in parentheses after each one)

Funniest Book of the Year--The Boys Start the War by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. This the first in the Girls Against the Boys series. This one is so funny that I laughed out loud. I laughed so hard, in fact, that people in my office wondered what was so funny!! (reviewed 9-23-08)

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Happy Saturday from snowy, snowy Boston. Hope where you are is a lot warmer!

I woke up (late this morning -- loves my sleeping in time on Saturday!) and decided I needed to do a little dusting. I worked my way over to my secretary that I inherited from my grandparents. Here, I keep all of my "old" and "valuable" books - like a 1964 printing of GONE WITH THE WIND and some of my books from my childhood.



Today, I was particularly drawn to a couple of books on the end: CURIOUS GEORGE GOES TO THE HOSPITAL and CURIOUS GEORGE LEARNS THE ALPHABET. These came out the year I was born and I remember reading them so much that the covers came loose.



I turned to the front of the book to see who the publisher was (like any curious author) and irony of irony....it hit me...George's publisher is also my publisher... Houghton Mifflin Company here in Boston. Coincidence? I think not! Amazing that books...and a character who meant so much in my childhood are produced, even today, by the very publisher who bought my GHOST HUNTRESS series.

Isn't he just the cutest?



Do you have a favorite childhood book that has stayed with you? What is it?

Hugs,
Marley = )

SORORITY 101: Zeta or Omega? (May 2008, Puffin Books)
SORORITY 101: The New Sisters (May 2008, Puffin Books)
GHOST HUNTRESS Series (Begins May 2009, Houghton Mifflin)

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by Tim Egan Houghton Mifflin 2007 I don't remember the last time I reviewed a beginning reader, if at all. I know I passed on Mo Williams' recent Pig and Elephant series because (prepare to throw rocks and tomatoes) I just wasn't bowled over by them. They weren't bad, they just didn't go anywhere for me. But the other day I noticed this title and, I don't know, something about it caught me.

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(A Not-So-Scary Story) written and illustrated by Alison Paul Houghton Mifflin 2007 I am of two distinct minds about this picture book. 1. Interesting idea, flawed execution. 2. Not every recent illustration graduate from art school deserves to have their final project published. No, I don't have evidence of this last statement being true in this case, or in the many others I have seen

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Recent Publishing News mostly from PW...

• Walter Lorraine is retiring from Houghton Mifflin after working in children’s publishing for 55 years. Cool Walter Lorraine fact from PW: in 1992 Lorraine edited both the Caldecott and the Newbery winners (Lois Lowry’s The Giver and Allen Say’s Grandfather’s Journey).
• Disney Publishing is moving from New York City to White Plains (where I just was for a wedding), but Hyperion is remaining in NYC.
• The Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards were given out last week. See their website for the list winners which includes an honor award for Sara Pennypacker and Marla Frazee's Clementine. (They also offer the whole awards ceremony on video.)
• In December, former Dial senior editor Nancy Mercado will become executive editor of Roaring Brook Press (a position most recently held by Deborah Brodie).

Below are the full CWIM listings for Roaring Brook (which now includes Nancy's name) and Hyperion. They both prefer agented material.


HYPERION BOOKS FOR CHILDREN
114 Fifth Ave., New York NY 10011-5690. (212)633-4400. Fax: (212)633-4833. Web site: www.hyperionbooksforchildren.com. Manuscript Acquisitions: Editorial Director. Art Director: Anne Diebel. 10% of books by first-time authors. Publishes various categories.

• Hyperion title Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale, written and illustrated by Mo Willems, won a 2005 Caldecott Honor Award. Their title Who Am I Without Him?: Short Stories About Girls and the Boys in Their Lives, by Sharon G. Flake, won a 2005 Coretta Scott King Author Honor Award.

Fiction Picture books, young readers, middle readers, young adults: adventure, animal, anthology (short stories), contemporary, fantasy, folktales, history, humor, multicultural, poetry, science fiction, sports, suspense/mystery. Middle readers, young adults: commercial fiction. Recently published Emily's First 100 Days of School, by Rosemary Wells (ages 3-6, New York Times bestseller); Artemis Fowl, by Eoin Colfer (YA novel, New York Times bestseller); Dumpy The Dump Truck, series by Julie Andrews Edwards and Emma Walton Hamilton (ages 3-7).
Nonfiction All trade subjects for all levels.
How to Contact/Writers Only interested in agented material.
Illustration Works with 100 illustrators/year. "Picture books are fully illustrated throughout. All others depend on individual project." Reviews ms/illustration packages from artists. Submit complete package. Illustrations only: Submit résumé, business card, promotional literature or tearsheets to be kept on file. Responds only if interested. Original artwork returned at job's completion.
Photography Works on assignment only. Publishes photo essays and photo concept books. Provide résumé, business card, promotional literature or tearsheets to be kept on file.
Terms Pays authors royalty based on retail price. Offers advances. Pays illustrators and photographers royalty based on retail price or a flat fee. Sends galleys to authors; dummies to illustrators. Book catalog available for 9×12 SAE and 3 first-class stamps.


ROARING BROOK PRESS
143 West St., Suite W, New Milford CT 06776. (860)350-4434. Manuscript/Art Acquisitions: Simon Boughton, publisher. Executive Editor: Nancy Mercado. Publishes approximately 40 titles/year. 1% of books by first-time authors. This publisher's goal is "to publish distinctive high-quality children's literature for all ages. To be a great place for authors to be published. To provide personal attention and a focused and thoughtful publishing effort for every book and every author on the list."

• Roaring Brook Press is an imprint of Holtzbrinck Publishers, a group of companies that includes Henry Holt and Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Roaring Brook is not accepting unsolicited manuscripts.

Fiction Picture books, young readers, middle readers, young adults: adventure, animal, contemporary, fantasy, history, humor, multicultural, nature/environment, poetry, religion, science fiction, sports, suspense/mystery. Recently published Get Real, by Betty Hicks.
How to Contact/Writers Primarily interested in agented material. Not accepting unsolicited mss or queries. Will consider simultaneous agented submissions.
Illustration Primarily interested in agented material. Works with 25 illustrators/year. Illustrations only: Query with samples. Do not send original art; copies only through the mail. Samples returned with SASE.
Photography Works on assignment only.
Terms Pays authors royalty based on retail price. Pays illustrators royalty or flat fee depending on project. Sends galleys to authors; dummies to illustrators, if requested.
Tips "You should find a reputable agent and have him/her submit your work."

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DJ and her family are back in the sequel to one of my favourite books, Dairy Queen.

DJ is starting off her school year as the only girl on the boy's football team. She is getting some grudging respect from the guys, and school doesn't seem as hard this year as it was last year. Of course, Brian Nelson is helping DJ's view on things.

DJ and Brian are dating. Kind of. Brian is still coming out to the Schwenk farm to help out, and he and DJ are getting in some serious make-out time during day trips to the Mall of America, or during farm chores.

DJ's family is even communicating a little more. They sit down together every weekend to watch Win's and Bill's college football games on TV. During one of Win's games, the unthinkable happens. Win is grabbed by the face mask, hits the ground, and doesn't get up. Things are going to change for the Schwenks.

DJ is forced to be the family point person to fly out to Washington, and try to be there for Win. But Win doesn't want anyone there. Can DJ help Win fight his demons, and manage to slay a couple of her own as well?

Another great story from Catherine Gilbert Murdock. We watch DJ grow, and come into her own. She is learning that it's not always in her best interests just to be comfortable and stay silent.

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This has been sitting around on my "to read" pile forever, and boy do I wish I had gotten to it earlier. I was reminded once I glimpsed Mindy's review that I had to get on this! But then Harry Potter and Kiki Strike and Smekday happend. But here we are.

Grace is just as lovable as she was in the first installment. Her best friend Mimi is getting a new neighbour, and frankly, Grace is a little bit worried. What if Mimi likes this new kid Max even better than she likes Grace? And to top it all off, Grace has to take a vacation from school to help her grandma move out of her house and into a Seniors apartment. Normally getting a vacation from school when other students do not would be great, but Grace has a bunch of worries now.

Once Grace gets back, she has even more to face. Their student teacher, Mr. Frank, has assigned a group project. Since Grace was away, all of the groups have been selected. Grace gets stuck with two other Graces, one of whom is "the big meanie". Can Grace work with the bossy Grace? Can she stand that Mimi is spending all of her time with Max and Sammy?

Once again, Charise Mericle Harper has written a winning story about family, friendship, and change. Grace has her assumptions challenged, and she is forced to use her empathy powers quite a bit. I love that Grace is still drawing comics and making lists. Her voice is authentic, and I find myself smiling as I read these titles!

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by Gregory Maguire Clarion 1983, Reissued by Houghton Mifflin 2002 A demon called the Blood Wolf will kill all in a small Russian town in order to gain access to a magic doll with powers to defeat the animal. Two small children see a vision of the Firebird and hunt down the Baba Yaga in order to learn the meaning of the omen. An old tale of a beautiul woman, a motherless girl and the

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Houghton Mifflin Buys Harcourt Ed Division...

It's been all over the publishing newsfeeds, but in case you have haven't read about the Harcourt Education business being purchased by Houghton Mifflin, here's a link.

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I'm taking the plunge and joining the Poetry Friday melee. And when I say melee I'm using the more archaic meaning of "a group of diamonds, each weighing less than 0.25 carat" both in reference to fellow poetry bloggers and with a particularly oblique reference to the subject of my inaugural post. The poem is from a collection called Song of Men which, when I first came across it, brought a

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Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos by R.L. LaFevers. Illustrations by Yoko Tanaka. Houghton Mifflin Company. $16.00.

It took me a little while to review this one, but better late than never.

Things That Are Difficult To Do:

1. Eating broken glass
2. Changing a baby’s diaper for the first time.
3. Digesting aforementioned broken glass.
4. Selling a boy on a great adventuresome novel with a female heroine.

It’s a bit of a stereotype but one with at least a grain of truth to it. Certain boys of a particular literary persuasion will offer an unpleasant amount of resistance to reading a book when its protagonist is of the feminine variety. This is understood. Few quibble the point. As a result, nine times out of ten a hero who discovers a fantastical world in a fantasy novel will sport a name like Harry or Percy or Sebastian (no one said they had to be manly names). This can make it difficult for girls heroes. Either they have to share the spotlight with a boy (and is pictured on the cover with him if the publisher has their way) or their heroine already exists in a world of her own when the action begins. The latter is the case with one Theodosia Throckmorton. If you called her “spunky” to her face she’d probably grind your foot beneath her boot heel. Theodosia isn’t cute or plucky or wide-eyed. She’s sly and clever with just half a sandwich more intelligence than her fellow man. "Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos" is not a perfect creation, but it has enough originality and sheer verve to make up for those imperfections a reader might find.

When you’re living in Edwardian England as the child of easily distracted museum curators, you have to do a lot of growing up on your own. Theodosia Throckmorton, for her part, has done her fair share. While her mother has been scouring Egypt for artifacts to send to the family’s Museum of Legends and Antiquities, Theodosia lives in London at the museum in question with her father and cat. What’s more, she has a purpose in life. Unlike anyone else she knows, Theodosia can physically sense the horrid curses and black magic seeping from the artifacts on display. Her job? Remove the magic and keep away from her father’s meddling curator Clive Fagenbush. And everything would have been perfectly fine had her mother not brought home that wretched Heart of Egypt. Legend says that should this amulet ever leave its native soil it will curse the country that takes it in and topple the kingdom itself. Now WWI is looming, evil forces are conspiring to steal the amulet for their own means, and it’s up to Theodosia to foil the bad guys, find herself some allies, and return the Heart of Egypt to its rightful home.

The book lends itself to love. First off, there’s the fact that LaFevers has such a flair for names. It’s just a pleasure to read someone who can create her own unique characters without sounding like a slightly sickened Dickens novel. So it was that I found myself chortling over monikers like Sticky Will, Dolge, Sweeny, and Wigmere. The very voice of the book was also a pleasure. I’m rather taken with any heroine who mentally labels her brother a “cad” when he threatens her with imminent education. And I liked the shout-outs to other works of children’s fiction. E. Nesbit’s, “The Treasure Seekers” gets a mention, which pleased me to no end. A pity the author is never named.

Best of all, “Theodosia” works on more than one level. It is my personal belief that LaFevers is making a rather slick anti-colonialism statement couched in an otherwise innocuous fantasy. Theodosia’s parents are stealing a country’s treasures without so much as a drop of guilt. Heck, her mother even alludes to a possible bribery of “local officials” so as to remove the artifacts from the country. And while you’d never accuse Theodosia of being anything other than a patriot (she even goes so far as to say that she would never “betray” her country) that doesn’t mean she can’t be at odds with what the nation, as well as her very own parents, does.Less effective perhaps is the tie made between pre-war Germany and this “curse” upon England. Says Theodosia, “ Germany was using the power of Ancient Egyptian magic to topple its adversaries. Just like Thutmose III and Amenemhab had.” Anti-colonialism I’m willing to buy. The Kaiser using magic? I guess it works in the same way that the Nazis in the Indiana Jones films work. It just seems a little clunky for an otherwise nice book.

There are problems here and there. There are no surprises regarding the true villain of the book. You probably won’t mind, but LaFevers makes it fairly evident. Another complaint I’ve heard lodged against this title is that it doesn’t effectively take you into Edwardian England. The smells and tastes and sensations aren’t there. You can appreciate the plot and pacing, but it’s not an evocative novel. I agree with this to some extent. Obviously that wasn’t what LaFevers was going for. For the kind of book that it is, you can enjoy the story without feeling you have to have traveled back in time with the author. For all that the author doesn’t try to conjure up distinct sensations, she’s thought through numerous tricky details. I loved the idea of long-term exposure to curses seeping into a person’s soul like radiation into cells. Plus the illustrations by Yoko Tanaka are used sparingly enough to give the book just enough oomph without detracting.

I’m trying to gauge the level of innate kid-appeal in this book, and I’m having a difficult time coming up with anything. What it really feels like is a child-version of Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody novels like “Crocodile On the Sandbank”. Same level-headed heroine. Same magic and vibe. Same exciting Egypt-based fight/flight sequences. You can hardly recommend a book to a kid on the basis of the adult novel it reminded you of. In the end, I’m just going to wait for the child who comes up to me and wants a good adventure story with a bit of fantasy for flair. It won’t be a book for every kid out there, true. But when paired with titles like the “Enola Holmes” books by Nancy Springer, “Theodosia” should prove popular with any kid attracting to the intelligent and the arcane.

On shelves now.

Notes on the Cover: Houghton Mifflin is apparently unafraid to make it clear to the world that this book is a historical fantasy. I know that amongst some there is a belief that if kids see anything even faintly antiquated on a book cover that they avoid it like the plague. It's nice to see a book reveling in an original look. The colors are one-of-a-kind, the image of Theodosia more than a photographed and dismembered head or torso, and the font pleasant. Altogether, this is a cover that makes children and adults want to pick it up. Well played.

First Line: "I don’t trust Clive Fagenbush."

Other Blog Reviews: Jen Robinson's Book Page, bookshelves of doom, lindajsingleton, nichtszusagen, Dee and dee Dish, Menageriemom's Musings, corrinalaw,

Futher Info: The Theodosia Throckmorton Homepage and Theodosia's Journal (blog)

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"Created by Basher"
Written by Adrian Dingle
Kingfisher/ Houghton Mifflin 2007
Toucan Books U.K.

Can the periodic table of elements be fun? And hip?

I found this book strangely compelling. I don't get to say that enough about books these days. Inside this compact little book are over 50 of the elements from the periodic table, that nifty little chart you probably haven't thought much about since high school unless you work in the sciences. Each of the elements gets it's own page and a little first-person bio about its characteristics.

That's right, the elements get their own say and they're quite an interesting collection of characters. And it comes with it's own poster of the elements attached to the inside cover!

The book opens with a brief explanation on the history and organization of the periodic table then jumps in and introduces the reader to the elements by their groupings (carbon elements, noble gasses, &c.). Then each element gets their say in little social networking style "about me" statements accompanied by stats like their symbol, color, atomic number, weight, density, melting and boiling points, and date of discovery. Here's the opening for a fellow you might think you know well:

Some think of me as the devil in disguise because I'm often mistaken for copper. My name is taken from the German word kupfernickel, meaning 'devil's copper'.

Did you recognize Nickel from his introduction?

What could easily fall apart under the weight of being either too cute or too clever the characteristics for each of the elements is well handled by Adrian Dingle, a chemistry teacher who came to the project after the art was created. I think that's part of what makes this book feel quirky; It began as a project by Simon Basher, a British designer who re-imagined the periodic table as a chart of monsters and creatures and ghoulies with individual characteristics that feel like a mashup of grafitti culture, hip-hop, manga, and digital pets. Then Dingle was brought in to make the link between art and science with an eye toward a young readership.

This isn't the kind of book one purchases to just have around the house, it really is more of a reference book best used in schools, but the fun of it almost justifies shelf space in the home. If this had been available to me when I was in middle school I might have done better in the sciences. In fact, I think all of our science and math texts in this country could do with this kind of an overhaul. We've been hearing for almost ten years that the US trails in Math and Science but we aren't likely to change that until kids get more interested.

I'm hoping more books like this help.

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by Barbara Lehman
Houghton Mifflin 2007

What a disappointment.

A bored, lonely boy attempts to amuse himself one rainy day when he discovers a key under the furniture. Trying all the locked places he can think of he eventually finds its mate is a trunk that contains a ladder that leads underground. Following the underground tunnel he emerges on an island containing a lighthouse and a group of children and sunshine. They play together, eat together, and let the boy take a turn lighting the beacon. At the end of the day he takes his leave and returns to his dull home life.

At night he can't shake the image of the day's events and the next morning he ventures back into the tunnel only to be met by the children from the island who dared to venture to visit him. They return to his home and in the end happily play in his room.

There is a very weird class thing going on here that makes me uncomfortable. The boy is shown eating alone at one point in front of a formally set table, servants at the ready, dressed in a tie and a little boy suit. He may be the classic boy trapped in the tower of luxury but in the end he doesn't escape, he merely invites he new (and always shoeless) playmates into his home. That the boy is white and the playmates are represented by minorities doesn't help.

The question is, if the tunnel has always been there, if these children have always had a way to escape the island, why didn't they find the boy first? Could these be the children of the servants? When you get a wordless picture book you get to make the story up yourself, but you must use the clues available to you. So what is it Lehman wants us to read into all this?

Where Lehman previously gave us the parallel universe of The Red Book it all it's wordless glory, and the Museum Trip gave is a magical daydream, Rainstorm gives us a rather dull tale of privileged boredom and no mystery or fantasy whatsoever.

I'm not just hard on the book in comparison to Lehman's other books; it's difficult to not set this up alongside recent wordless picture books that are more clever (Adventures of Polo) or more detailed in their fantasy (most David Weisner books, especially Flotsom). Fantasy and escape don't need concrete explanations, but the questions they raise should invite equally fanciful interpretation. There isn't a lot to hang onto here, much less interpret, beyond the little dot of a moon in the night sky that actually belongs to the beacon and is as easily missed as it can be ignored.

It also isn't a question of the fantasy, the pacing of the book feels labored and pointless. Easily a third of the pictures could be removed and the story would retain its integrity. But a book with one third fewer illustrations would be very thin, and the story's shortcomings would be readily apparent.

The exercise feels as distant, closed off and cold, sheltered and empty

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