By Nina Schuyler, The Children’s Book Review
Published: December 29, 2011

The Woods

By Paul Hoppe

Reading level: Ages 4-8

Hardcover: 44 pages

Publisher: Chronicle Books (May 4, 2011)

Source: Publisher

What to expect: Bedtime, Boys, Animals, Fear, Emotions

A good story finds some way to surprise. In Paul Hoppe’s The Woods, the narrator, a small boy, has lost his bunny and can’t go to sleep without it. In the first pleasing surprise, the boy doesn’t look in the obvious places. No, he must gather his supplies and look for his bunny in the woods.

There, he immediately encounters “a BIG, SCARY, BROWN BEAR!” Of course there are echoes here of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, but this is tamer, gentler, milder. The bear turns out not to be scary at all.  The bear is “just afraid of the dark.” So the boy shares his night-light with him. (You’ve got this nice sharing element threading through the story line). The logic is set—stereotypes will be turned on their heads. The bear and the boy next encounter two scary giants, who turn out to be bored. So the boy shares his bedtime story with them. And so the journey goes.

Illustration copyright © 2011 by Paul Hoppe

In the same way the story turns on itself, so do the pictures. On one page, a picture of a big scary bear with huge teeth and claws; on the next, the bear is small, subdued, sitting on a log, looking frightened. The fire-breathing triple-headed dragon takes up more than half the page when you first encounter it. But on the next page, when we learn the dragon just suffers from a stomachache, it is drawn small, with droopy necks. The picture of the big, hairy, scary monster at the end is quite beautiful, done in watercolor blues with huge white teeth and big eyes and claws. By the end, the bunny is found, the monsters subdued and transformed (one more great surprise here!) and the boy can finally go to sleep.

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Nina Schuyler‘s first novel, The Painting, (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill/2004), was a finalist for the Northern California Book Awards. It was also selected by the San Francisco Chronicle as one of the Best Books for 2004 and a “Great Debut from 2004″ by the Rocky Mountain News. She currently teaches creative writing at the University of San Francisco and is working on a third novel.

©2012 The Childrens Book Review. All Rights Reserved.

Add this book to your collection: Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman

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©2012 The Childrens Book Review. All Rights Reserved.

By Nicki Richesin, The Children’s Book Review
Published: September 20, 2011

David Teague

David Teague lives in Wilmington, Delaware, with his wife, the novelist Marisa de los Santos, and their two children, Charles and Annabel.  David teaches literature at the University of Delaware.  “Franklin’s Big Dreams,” is his first picture book, based on dreams he had when he was little but didn’t quite figure out until he wrote “Franklin.”  Next up for David is “Billy Hightower,” a picture book about a boy who lives on top of the highest building in the world, so high that when it rains on everybody else it doesn’t rain on him.

Nicki Richesin: What first drew you to writing books for children?

David Teague: I used to write books for adults.  Probably ten of them, all unpublished, and rightfully so.  Big, weighty, serious, books about what I thought were big, weighty, serious subjects, like good versus evil and the meaning of life, man’s inhumanity toward man, and all that.  And boy were they boring.  But when I began to tell stories to my children, back when they were younger, I noticed that my storytelling was a LOT more fun—for me and for my audience.  So I learned to let my imagination loose, to think more like a child, and my stories turned out much better after that.

In your book, FRANKLIN’S BIG DREAMS, every night a construction crew bursts through Franklin’s bedroom wall and builds train tracks, a canal and a runway. Did you have a similar experience as a child, a recurring dream that you could direct the way you wanted?

When I was little, I DID dream about railroad tracks running past my bed (I still do sometimes–also about highways and runways and ship channels).

I think maybe the dreams started because, when I was little, as I was trying to fall asleep, which I often had trouble doing, I could hear trains rumbling out of a tunnel in the distance, and hear them blowing their horns as they passed through the town not far from where I lived.  It was a nice feeling to lie in bed and think about people out there moving through the night, all going to their separate places.

And I think what I had in my mind as I was falling asleep managed to sneak into my dreams.

Illustration by Boris Kulikov

So a railroad got into my dreams, and in my dreams, after the trains thundered past, I always noticed the tracks curving around from behind my headboard and leading beside my bed and thence out again through the back wall of my bedroom.  They were seriously not more than 2 feet from me.

After that, they led across the backyard, and after that into the great beyond.  I was never sure why the tracks were there, or where they eventually took people.  Sometimes in my dreams, after the train full of lucky passengers had thundered past in their brightly lit cars, I’d get out of bed and follow the rails on foot to see where they went, but since I was walking, I never got very far.  When the woods behind my house got too dark, I always turned around and went back to my bedroom (in the dream—I never really left my bed of course).

Next, I usually woke up from the dream and checked beside my bed for railroad tracks and felt a little sad to find none.

So I always wondered where those tracks led.  That’s where Franklin comes in, I guess.  Even though I couldn’t solve the mystery, I thought if I made up someone a little bit smarter than I am, he could do it for me.  Seriously.  So I just imagined what would happen if a guy like Franklin were actually awake when the builder of those tracks showed up in his bedroom, because I thought he’d be able ask a few questions and figure things out.  Which he did.

Illustration by Boris Kulikov

What advice would you give to an aspiring writer?

I would advise:  write about something you love, because if you’re like me, you could be working on it a LONG time.  Years.  Ten years.  Twenty.  Write about something close to your heart, tell a story you believe in, because sometimes, even if it’s hard to sit down to work, even if there are days you don’t believe in yourself, you always have to believe in your story.  And if you do, you’ll pick up your pen and write, which makes you a writer.

I know you have a musical and balletic (graceful) family and you play the violin. Have your musical talents influenced your writing at all?

I love music—Vivaldi, Bartok, Thelonious Monk and Lynyrd Skynyrd come to mind.  Our whole family does love to dance, sing, and play instruments, although I have to bow out when the singing starts.  I love poetry and the music of language, too.  As a matter of fact, this subject came up last week as I was revising my newest picture book, “Billy Hightower,” with my editor Kevin Lewis.  We wanted to get as much information across with as few words as possible, which is often the goal in a picture book, and as a matter of fact, we ended up working very hard on the rhythms of the story—both in individual lines and in the events of the story itself—to communicate meaning, tone, and emphasis without actually adding words.  The wonderful poem “anyone lived in a pretty how town,” by e.e. cummings came up because it has at least two rhythmic cycles that contribute structure and sense to the story he’s telling.  One involves the seasons, and the other, my favorite and most haunting, is a litany of celestial bodies and weather:  “sun, moon, stars, rain.”

In your breathtakingly tender essay, “Miles to Go Before You Sleep” in WHAT I WOULD TELL HER, you write about your sleep-deprived walks in Philadelphia with your infant daughter Annabel. Did Annabel’s continued insomnia lead you to writing about Franklin’s nocturnal adventures?

Yes—there is a magic to things that happen at night—and though some of what occurs in that essay is the opposite of magic, the feeling Annabel and I often shared–what suffuses Franklin–is the lift your spirit feels at the wonderful dark colors, bright lights, enigmatic sounds, and mysterious activities of nighttime.  Even in Boris’s illustrations (especially in Boris’s illustrations).

I think this shared experience of the night made its way into Franklin’s story.

As a professor of literature at the University of Delaware, who are your heroes in children’s literature?

William Steig.  That guy can dive into a plot and take off running full speed and bring you right along with him, especially if you happen to be five.  And his plots run like express trains, and break your heart.  “Amos and Boris,” for example.

Crockett Johnson.  “Harold and the Purple Crayon” is the Hope Diamond of stories.  One of the most perfect plots I’ve ever read.  It’s a classic of American literature, if you ask me, right up there with “The Great Gatsby,” and “Invisible Man,” only with a happy ending.

Kevin Henkes.  I feel four to six years old every time I pick up one of his books.  In the best possible way.  If his story happens to be about a girl, as in “Lily’s Purple Plastic Purse,” then I feel like a four-to-six-year-old girl.  In the best possible way.

Going older—Madeleine L’Engle, Susan Cooper, J.K. Rowling.  They shaped (and are shaping) generations.

What are you reading with your children Annabel and Charles these days?

Annabel and I are actually reading “Over Sea, Under Stone,” by Susan Cooper.  She’s nine, and it’s a good read-to book.  Charles and I just finished “M.C. Higgins the Great,” by Virginia Hamilton, together.  He’s twelve, and we read separately and discussed.  I loved that book when I was twelve and was very gratified that he loved it too.

Could you tell us about any upcoming books you have in the works?

The manuscript of “Billy Hightower,” just went to Antoinette Portis for illustrations.  Billy lives on top of the tallest skyscraper in the world, so high that when it rains on other people, it doesn’t rain on him.  One day, a bunch of guys in hardhats build another building as high as his, and a girl wearing a hat comes to live on it.  Billy tries to tell her his name, but the wind snatches his words away—he tries to fly a note over, but the wind snatches that, too, and the same thing happens when he tries to dangle a kite with a message on it.  So—his challenge is to reach this new girl—

Antoinette, whose art is very simple, elegant, and powerful, has done some sketches, a couple of which literally brought tears to my eyes—so I can’t wait to see the whole book.  Sometime early in 2013 . . .

Nicki Richesin is the editor of four anthologies,What I Would Tell Her: 28 Devoted Dads on Bringing Up, Holding On To, and Letting Go of Their Daughters; Because I Love Her: 34 Women Writers Reflect on the Mother-Daughter Bond; Crush: 26 Real-Life Tales of First Love; and The May Queen: Women on Life, Work, and Pulling it all Together in your Thirties. Her anthologies have been excerpted and praised in The New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle,The Boston Globe, Redbook, Parenting, Cosmopolitan, Bust,Salon, Daily Candy, and Babble.

©2012 The Childrens Book Review. All Rights Reserved.

Add this book to your collection: Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site

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©2012 The Childrens Book Review. All Rights Reserved.

By Bethanie Deeney Murguia, for The Children’s Book Review
Published: May 18, 2011

When I was seven, I moved into a home that was over 150 years old. It was filled with trap doors, secret spaces and stairs that led nowhere. I had visions of days gone by—horse carriages, ball gowns and hidden treasure. For years, I tried to persuade my parents to pry up the wood floor where it had an obvious and suspicious hatch. (No luck.) Behind the house were woods that stretched across acres to an apple orchard. We had playhouses and treehouses and mountains of snow in the winter. I don’t know if the house and landscape created my imagination or just fueled it, but I vividly remember the joy of being lost in daydreams and creating imaginary worlds and stories at that age.

I still love to get lost in my imagination. I keep a “seed” notebook of things that strike my fancy: situations, words, phrases, quirky behaviors and so forth. Sometimes I do quick sketches. These days, most of my inspiration comes from adventures with my daughters and my dog. A few years ago, I wrote the phrase “messy sleeper” in my notebook after observing the very different sleeping habits in our house.

Some time later, I was struck by the contrast between my newborn who slept so peacefully and my 3-year-old who thrashed from one end of her bed to the other. I remembered the “messy sleeping” note. I decided that my 3-year-old must be having big dreams. I thought about dreams and the visual possibilities—what fun it would be to have the character’s sleeping position mimic the action in the dream. I could also use the dreams to give insight into the character’s personality.

I started to think about the protagonist. I had the image of a swaddled newborn in mind, but a human character felt too literal. The story required a certain amount of whimsy. My own little newborn—wrapped in a blanket and topped off with a hat—looked like a bug. I sketched some bugs and soon, the Buglette character came to life.

After many months of revising, sketching, painting and waiting (so much waiting!), my idea is finally a book. I have always been drawn to stories that celebrate unusual characters and imaginative inner worlds. I hope BUGLETTE fits that bill.

Add this book to your collection: Buglette, the Messy Sleeper by Bethanie Murguia

About the author: BETHANIE DEENEY MURGUIA graduated summa cum laude from the University of Rochester, where she studied psychology and fine art. She received an MFA in Illustration from the School of Visual Arts in New York. While in New York, she was an art director for Hearst Magazines. Bethanie lives in Sausalito, California, with her husband and two little buglettes of her own.

©2012 The Childrens Book Review. All Rights Reserved.

Add this book to your collection: Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney

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©2012 The Childrens Book Review. All Rights Reserved.

By Bianca Schulze, The Children’s Book Review
Published: December 30, 2010

Sofia’s Dream

By Land Wilson (Author), Sue Cornelison (Illustrator)

Reading level: Ages 4-7

Hardcover: 19 pages

Publisher: Little Pickle Press LLC; 1st edition (November 24, 2010)

Awards: Gold Mom’s Choice Award (2011)

Source: Author

Sofia’s Dream was written for the sole purpose of inspiring children to take care of the earth. As a published author, Land Wilson’s life long dream of being an environmental educator to kids is now coming true.

While seeking inspiration for Sofia’s Dream, Wilson was granted the opportunity to interview three Apollo astronauts: Captain Walker M. Schirra, Jr. (Commander of Apollo 7); Frank Borman (Commander of Apollo 8); and Eugene Cernan (Pilot aboard Apollo 10, and Commander of Apollo 17).  Wilson said: “These interviews inspired me to use the theme of seeing Earth from space to write a bedtime book for children … .”

“In Space you see how beautiful Earth is with it’s blues[,] white clouds, [and] brownish, pinkish continents. It’s alone in the vastness of space. You see that it’s fragile, and you want its people to be responsible citizens because this is the only world we have.”

~ Frank Borman

“When you can blot out your link to reality with your thumb, it’s overwhelming to be that far away from home. This place represents everything you understand. It represents your family and what you feel.”

~ Eugene Cernan

“From space, you can see pollution on Earth in the form of discolored waters created by people in populated areas. It funnels out into the oceans. And then you see that our ozone layer is no more than an eggshell around Earth you realize that humans had better learn to be more careful with it.”

~ Walter M. Schirra, Jr.

Beginning with the cover image of an angelic young girl soaring high in the sky, her eyes full of hope and untarnished optimism, a magical tone is set for the story. One night, Sofia awakens to the sound of the moon singing out, “Hello down there;” and so begins their beautiful friendship. Gently and adeptly, Wilson uses rhyme to tell of Sofia’s adventures with her new and wise friend. Described in the opening line as “a thoughtful girl,” Sofia had always marveled at the moon.  When Moon encourages Sofia to take a giant leap in her sleep and leave Earth behind her while she dreams, a new perspective of Earth is offered and a deep sense of responsibility is cultivated. Wilson’s appreciation for nature and environmental protection shine through in this powerfully uncomplicated picture book.

“The things you do and what you say,

Will make a difference every day.

Aim high with everything you do,

Then you’ll inspire others, too.”

Sue Cornelison’s dreamy illustrations provide a pitch-perfect backdrop for this otherworldly journey. Dark hues are used to depict a polluted environment and represent sadness. Sofia is always illustrated with lighter colors and a brighter intensity—she radiates possibility and promise. Stardust swirls softly across pages, offering a platform from which Sofia may explore outer-space. When Wilson’s text implores Sofia to inspire others to take care of Earth, Cornelison matches the text with a double-page spread showing a multi-cultural group of children doing their part to be responsible citizens—every little face capturing the innocence, enthusiasm and inner-beauty of all children.

Endpapers Illustration by Sue Cornelison

It should also be noted that this book is printed using recycled paper and soy inks—kudos to Little Pickle Press—and even the endpapers are adorable.

Whether you are looking for a well illustrated and charming bedtime book or a gentle lesson (but strong message) in caring for our environment, Sofia’s Dream is an absolute delight for children and parents, alike.

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Visit: http://www.landwilson.com/

©2012 The Childrens Book Review. All Rights Reserved.

By Bianca Schulze, The Children’s Book Review
Published: July 1, 2010

Sleepy Kittens (Despicable Me)

by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio (Authors), Eric Guillon (Illustrator)

Reading level: Ages 4-8

Board book: 10 pages

Publisher: LB Kids; Brdbk edition (May 19, 2010)

Source: Publisher

What to expect: Kittens, Rhyme, Lullaby

Sleepy Kittens is a board book based on a book featured in the 3-D animated film Despicable Me. The story is about three little kittens who cannot fall asleep. Mama Cat appeases their restlessness with a calmness and ease that lulls the kittens off to sleep. It’s short and utterly sweet. It has a wonderful rhythm and rhymes effortlessly. The illustrations are playful but not over stimulating; and the three attached kitten finger puppets compliment both the pictures and story and add their own tactile appeal. This book is not to be confused with the average novelty book produced to tie in with a hit movie. What can I say? This book is lovely!

Add this book to your collection: Sleepy Kittens (Despicable Me)

Enter to win: Despicable Me Prize Pack

©2012 The Childrens Book Review. All Rights Reserved.

By Bianca Schulze, The Children’s Book Review
Published: March 23, 2010

The Squirrel’s Birthday and Other Parties

by Toon Tellegen (Author), Jessica Ahlberg (Illustrator)

Reading level: Ages 5-8

Hardcover: 156 pages

Publisher: Boxer Books (November 3, 2009)

Source of book: Publisher

What to expect: Birthdays, Animals, Friendship

This is a unique collection of 9 stories that I consider to be sweetly abstract—after reading this book, you would not be surprised to discover that the author, Toon Tellegen, is from Amsterdam (if you catch my drift). Each story reads like a delirious-but-interconnected dream—the kind that you would happily remember upon waking. It’s Squirrel’s birthday and he’s inviting all of the animals to his party—even a whale. Squirrels party, and the other subsequent animal parties and meetings, give an introspective offering of life and friendship. The illustrations, which are by Jessica Ahlberg, are delicate, interesting, and a charming expression of the text. I don’t expect that this is a book everyone will “get,” however, those who enjoy being lost in thought (and those who enjoy eating cake) will undoubtedly take pleasure in this absurdly, thoughtful book.

An excerpt from The Whale and the Seagull—the 6th story in the collection:

They straightened their backs and the whale rested a fin on the seagull’s shoulder, while the seagull draped a wing around the whale’s middle.

Then they danced, silently and seriously, on the moon-drenched beach, to the sound of the slow surf. Everyone held their breath and thought: “No one has ever danced like this before.”

Add this book to your collection: The Squirrel’s Birthday and Other Parties

You may also like: The Complete Tales and Poems of Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne

©2012 The Childrens Book Review. All Rights Reserved.

By Bianca Schulze, The Children’s Book Review
Published: September 24, 2009

In anticipation of the release of Return to the Hundred Acre Wood by David Benedictus, which goes on sale October 5th, I want to share this video of Jim Dale reading the exposition from Return to the Hundred Acre Wood during the recording of the audio book. Return to the Hundred Acre Wood is the first authorized sequel to A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard’s classic books, Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner to be written in over eighty years!

Courtesy of the Penguin Young Readers Group, here are some fun facts about Winnie-the-Pooh:

• Winnie the Pooh was brought to life on Christmas Eve in 1925 when the first Pooh story, written by AA Milne, was published in the London Evening News. The piece was based on a bedtime story read by AA Milne to his son, Christopher Robin.

• The characters in AA Milne’s stories are based on toys once owned by his son. The original stuffed toys are now kept in New York Public Library.

• The inspiration for Hundred Acre Wood comes from Ashdown Forest in Sussex, which was near AA Milne’s country home Cotchford Farm.

• Winnie the Pooh is also called Pooh, or Pooh Bear, but never, ever, just Winnie.

©2012 The Childrens Book Review. All Rights Reserved.