Picture Book: Is This a House for Hermit Crab? by Megan McDonald, & S.D. Schindler

Is This a House for Hermit Crab?
Megan McDonald, illustrated by S. D. Schindler
ISBN: 0531084558 (library bound)
Lovely colored-pencil naturalist drawings of hermit crab in beautiful environments.

Hermit crab has outgrown his current house - he can't tuck himself all the way inside any more, and the fishes and the seabirds are going to get him if he doesn't move into a roomier shell soon.  This story gently follows along as the dauntless crab searches for just the right place to move into, rejecting smooth stones, driftwood, cab pits, and nets before finding just the right shell to scramble into.

This one would go well with The Hermit Crab from our summer reading program.

New Arrivals: Picture Book: Three Bears in a Boat, David Soman

Three Bears in a Boat

David Soman (Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy)

ISBN: 9780803739932

Nautical and expressive bear cubs in soft-wash environments, navigating tricky emotions.

Our bear protagonists are siblings, and so you know from the start that there are certain kinds of trouble that it takes good friends or blood-relatives to get into.  After an accident, the trio heads out to repair the damage (and to prevent them from having to fess up).  The sailing isn't always smooth, and the relationship is strained by blame for the accident, but shared peril and misery are always great to put things in perspective.  Our intrepid wanderers come back, somewhat the worse for wear, and find what they were looking for was always right at home (which, in picture book land, is about as good of a moral as you can get).  Special props for the anxious and clingy mother bear at the end, who adults will realize has been much more exercised over the missing cubs than over the broken trinket.

Unsurprisingly from the deft creator of Ladybug Girl, these siblings have good hearts and good intentions, but we see in this story that emotions and circumstances can bring out the worst in even the best of us.  Showing how they rely on each other, forgive each other, and take responsibility (shared) for the inciting problem is a great visual (and so very visual - check out those postures and faces and emotional colorings) to give to little kids who are still figuring out all this complicated emotional and relationship stuff, with brains that aren't even done growing yet.  Sometimes I think that picture books like these that show empathy and emotional connections might even do a lot of grown-ups good.

  

New Arrivals! Nonfiction Picture Book: Plastic Ahoy! Investigating the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

This was a new arrival to my library today, and it's an excellent nonfiction science-inspired book, very like The Dolphins of Shark Bay, only this time focused more on much smaller life-forms.

Plastic Ahoy! Investigating the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Patricia Newman, photographs by Annie Crawley
ISBN: 9781467712835
Read November 6, 2014

We follow a trio of (women) graduate students on their scientific mission to the Pacific Garbage Patch, each with their own specific purpose, experiments, and scientific focus, and after being introduced to the mechanics of the ship and the scientific method, and to the Garbage Patch itself, we follow along with each student as she explains how she got interested in oceanography, how she became interested in the Garbage Patch, what her experiments are meant to show, and how she's collecting and storing evidence to further her research.  In a really excellent dedication to academic reality, the text doesn't shy away from one girl who does her research, then upon return home, takes her work in a different direction, and doesn't follow up on her Garbage Patch findings at all.

The illustrations are magnificent, and the photos are all scrupulously identified and placed in context.  The overall book focuses on the science being done, with the environmental-clean-up message relegated to the end.  There are extensive Source Notes, a lovely Glossary, and Index, and a page full of varied Further Reading suggestions.

Excellent and interesting nonfiction read that really goes into surprising depth and detail on a specific mission and trio of experimental research.

Tuesday Storytime: Going to the Beach

Back to picking my own topics for storytimes again!

August is pretty much the height of summer here in SC, so I'm celebrating my free choice of topics by spending some time focusing on boats, beaches, and swimming.

Today, the beach!

A Beach Tail
Karen Lynn Williams, illustrated by Floyd Cooper
ISBN: 9781590787120
An expressive black boy explores a beachfront, tethered to his dad by the long tail of a "sandy-lion" he's drawing in the sand.

Gorgeous illustrations, and a great story, and always so very nice to see POC in picture books without that being made a part or a focus of the story.  Gregory and his dad (just the two of them) are at the beach, and while dad rests in the shade of an umbrella, Greg draws a lion in the sand.  Dad warns him not to leave "Sandy" behind, and Greg complies by drawing the lion a long tail as he wanders along the beach.  Eventually the boy realizes he's gone too far from home base, but his "tail" is right there to guide him back, where his dad gently chides that "Sandy has a long tail" before they both head out for a swim.  This is my first read of this lovely book, but it certainly won't be the last.


All You Need for A Beach  
Alice Schertle, illustrated by Barbara Lavallee
ISBN: 0152167552
Roly-poly people with odd profile outlines populate a slowly-developing beach along with rollicking rhymes.

This is a fun one because of the language.  The rhymes and rhythm are so much fun to play with, and the conceit of only needing one simple thing for a beach - a grain of sand - AND a few trillion more AND some trees AND birds AND ocean... really makes the pages fly.  I've done this one a few times before, and it's always been a hit.


One White Wishing Stone
Doris H Gayzagian, illustrated by Kristina Swarner
ISBN: 0792251105
A National Geographic book, with a doll-like girl playing on a soft-edged, muted, calming beach.

This one is a very beautiful, and very soothing book.  A girl plays on the beach, collecting items starting with One white wishing stone, then Two periwinkle shells, and so on, until she has enough collected to build and decorate a sandcastle.  Once the waves reclaim her treasures, she keeps the periwinkles and the wishing stone and uses them as talismans that night to recall a beautiful day and anticipate others like it.  I love that it ends with the people home and remembering a happy time, and that it shows her leaving most of her collected treasures at the beach where they belong.

Storytime Potentials: Following Papa's Song, Gianna Marino

Following Papa's Song
Gianna Marino
ISBN: 9780670013159
textured mulberry paper with gouache and gum arabic - vibrant color gradients

A young whale learns from her father to follow the whale-song on their great migration, and when she is distracted by a shiny flash from the deep dark below places of the ocean (beautifully visualized by color gradients) she listens for his song to find her way back up to the light of the surface and continue their journey.

It's a bit long and lyrical for storytime - perhaps a bedtime storytime would work better, but it is lovely, and the illustrations just beg for you to fall into them and think peaceful thoughts about the oceans and the beautiful humpbacked whales within.  The rich greens especially just make me want to curl up in a happy comfortable ball and meditate.

Text is minimal and prose, with very few words per spread, switching from black to white over the course of the story to maintain contrast with the background colors.
 

Mister Seahorse, Eric Carle

Mister Seahorse, Eric Carle
ISBN: 0399242694Read November 20, 2013

Picture Book: nonfiction-esque meet-and-greet following Mr Seahorse as he encounters other daddy sea creatures while he parents his own offspring.


I really like this book.  Not as much as his classics like The Grouchy Ladybug, but this one is really nice.  Why?  It focuses on FATHERS.  Do you know how hard it is to find a good fatherhood book that isn't maudlin or sappy or trite or tired or actually an "issues" book in disguise (meaning "this book is about fatherhood BUT REALLY it's about divorce and adjusting to a single parent household" or "this book is about fatherhood BUT REALLY it's about the importance of fathers even if they are currently in jail" type books).

This one is just what it purports to be: a seahorse father, and a whole passel of other sea creature fathers, all keeping their children (mostly in egg form) in various odd ways.

One niggle: one of the fishies refers to watching over his own children as "babysitting" which is really a hot button phrase these days, so if that bugs you, either avoid or expect to rephrase.  

For themed use (read: Storytimes) I'm going to pair this one up with Teri Sloat's I'm a Duck! which avoids being trite or maudlin through beautiful expressive use of language, and sweet but not too cutesy rough-edged illustrations that follow the life-cycle of a mallard from hatching to parenthood.

The Neptune Project, Polly Holyoke

The Neptune Project, Polly Holyoke.  ISBN: 9781423157564

Read August 14, 2013

YA: far-future undersea mutation utopia/dystopia

 

Nice debut, and a decent amount of plot despite an obvious set-up as the lead in a series.  I don't mind series titles, I just mind when the first book is unrelentingly and irritatingly set-up for the "real story" in later books.  If I want teasers, I'll watch movie trailers, thanks.

 

First off - the small niggling irritations: 

 

Terminology: "dollarns"?  "discns"?  "Birthing Days"?  It's very obviously post-American, along the West Coast.  LA is still LA, and everything else is named in modern terms.  I hate being forcibly ejected from a story because someone didn't do their linguistics and culture research and comes up with terms that just aren't plausible.  

 

Cliches: Then, there's the somewhat cliched "the child of the important scientists is the one who knows the least/knows nothing" set-up.  Ok fine, use it, but if so, demonstrate WHY you're using it!  Was Nere already under suspicion so you left her out because she was a weak link already?  Does Nere tend to blab about cool things or let important info slip in conversation without thinking?  Is she a worrier and it would make her psychologically upset to know for a long time?  Nope - just there because it was the plot idea.  I HATE that.

 

History:  Next, Nere is the name of the main character, and her mother is a secretive scientist studying dolphins and genetics, and the story revolves around Nere taking care of a group of younger/more vulnerable kids in the open ocean.  When I was younger, there was a fun show coming out of Australia called Ocean Girl, where the main character is Neri, and the mother figure is a scientist studying oceanography, and the storylines revolved around the kids on the habitat and their adventures with Neri.  Just thought that was a little funny - perhaps Ms Holyoke watched the same TV shows I did.

 

Love Triangles: I have to say I wasn't QUITE as unhappy with the love triangle (quadrangle?) in this one, because it was set up fairly well, and wasn't too intrusive.  I do wish it wasn't necessary, but at least if it's going to be there, I'm happier if it is less important to the plotline and action sequences.

 

Climax: A little unclear on the reasons for the climax, and that makes it ultimately seem a bit hollow.  If it were more clear-cut as to a sacrificial action or a failed escape attempt, I'd be a lot happier.  Not that it was bad the way it was, just wasn't as powerful as I think it could very easily have been with only minor alterations to the immediate action sequence. 

 

...and Reunions:  In addition, it was a bit of a cop-out to leave the whole reunion scene without any real emotional pay-off.  There should be some really complex emotions bubbling away there, and I don't quite like that we're leaving that relationship on an uncomplicated happy note.

Otherwise, I really liked this!

If the link above didn't provide enough of a clue, I love the ocean.  I love the idea of mutations allowing humans to live or work more easily undersea, and I like the concept of undersea habitats and colonies.  I have avoided all of the mermaidy books because they tend to be gushy romances, and YA romances make me want to stab my eyes out with a spork.  This was a welcome action-filled addition to the undersea adventure genre, up there with Kat Falls' Dark Life and Rip Tide. 

Nice opener, and I'm actually looking forward to this series continuing on.

Traction Man and the Beach Odyssey, Mini Grey

Traction Man and the Beach Odyssey

Mini Grey

July 15, 2013

ISBN: 978-0375869525 

Oh, My, God.... I love Traction Man!  How did I miss this for over two months!

This one is not as good as Traction Man is Here! (Mini Grey, ISBN: 9780307931115), but better than the second: Traction Man Meets Turbo Dog (ISBN: 9780375855832).  I swear I will re-read or use these for storytime and review them both.  Until then; taken as a collection, Traction Man is AMAZING!!

Now, off to the beach.  I'm easily swayed by beaches and oceans, and I also have to say that the "Brown and Sticky" joke (one of my husband's favorites) popsicle stick did me in.

I also must say that Traction Man(tm)'s creators are clever sorts to make his clothes disintegrate so quickly.  He looked quite the Robinson Crusoe by the time he was "rescued."

Facial expressions are just killer, as always.

Especially liked the ladies roughing it in the borrowed clothes, getting all up into the excavating.  Hell yes! 

Win all around.