Fairy Wings by Lauren MIlls

Fairy Wings is a story about a fairy named Fia who was born without wings, and because she isn’t flying around with the other fairies and instead plays with frogs and rats and crows, she is ridiculed and outcast. One day while she’s playing along the river, a boy fairy finds her and asks her to play. He tore one of his wings and is grounded for the time being. Fia tells him that she can fix his wing and they play together for a while. when Fia returns home that evening her family tells her that the royal family has come and is throwing a ball. Her sisters don’t want Fia to come because of her winglessness but her father says that she could attend. The night of the ball her friends frog and rat bring her a chair floating on a lily pad with wings on it and pull her to the centre of the ball. as it turns out the her friend who happens to be the prince sent over the chair to her (and her friends added the wings). He lifts her out of the chair and dances with her, but when he lifted her everyone sees that she doesn’t have wings, especially the king and queen and they are outraged and they send her away. Right after this happens however, a troll comes by and captures all of the fairies at the ball in a net and walks off. Fia scrambles around to find help and comes across some woodkins. Normally woodkins don’t like fairies because fairies are mean to them, but they like Fia because she doesn’t bully them. They do not go with her because they feel that it’s bad luck to help a fairy, but one of them tells her a riddle about trolls that will help her. And the riddle goes like this, the old troll’s home is a rat like place. his greed is a frog like thing. but when crow wakes, troll hides his face, or gather moss not wing. Fia then goes to save the fairies with only her friends rat, frog, and crow and solves the riddle, turning the troll into stone. Then all the fairies fawn over her and the royal family want her to marry their son.

This story is somewhat predictable and almost feels a bit overplayed because of the every popular Cinderella story line, but I do like this story because unlike many stories these days, Fia doesn’t gain wings at the end of the story. The fairies just accept her as she is, she doesn’t have to change her form to become acceptable, which is where the story deviates from the Cinderella idea. The prince takes time to notice her and like her when she is playing in the mud and being herself, and the rest of the fairies only accept her after she saves them even thought they’ve treated her so poorly, but no ugly duckling transformation takes place. This is really rare in children’s books, and adult books too, and is really discouraging to people with disabilities or differences. There are very few stories saying that you don’t need to change your physical state of being to be accepted. She still ends the story getting married, not so great, but it’s still really refreshing that she remains wingless.

King Bidgood’s In The Bathtub by Audrey Wood

This is a fun book about a king who likes taking a bath. The story is short and fun to read, but it's the illustrations that make this book noteworthy. They are lush and expressive and whimsical and the attention paid to detail is wonderful. The story is simple and if it was illustrated in another style would be like the endless board books simplistically introducing life skills to toddlers. However, this style makes this story an adventure. The pictures perfectly punctuate the prose in the most flattering way.

The story is about a page who asks the court to get the king out of the bathtub and several people try different things to get him out. A knight tells him there's a battle out side, the queen tells him it's time for lunch, a duke tells him they should go fishing, the entire court tells him to dance at a masquerade, but instead of leaving the tub he makes the person join him in the tub to do whatever they suggest to him! At the end when everyone is at wits end the page pulls the plug and the king finally gets out.

A fun book to read with illustrations that will get their imaginations working. The award on the cover is very much understandable.

Pirate and the Penguin by Patricia Storms

This story is (as you might have guessed) about a pirate and a penguin. The pirate lives a life on the seas plundering, pillaging, and the like, but as it turns out, this pirate is getting a bit sick of the whole 'pirate thing' and begins wishing for a quieter life. In the antarctic there's this penguin, and just by looking at him you can tell he's out of place. He's wearing a sweater because he's cold all the time, and instead of sliding around on the ice like the other penguins, he dreams of adventure and travel. So the penguin and the pirate each decide to leave their homes to find a place where they can fulfill their desires and end up where the other left.

This story is a 'you can be anything you want' kind of book, as one could assume from reading the first couple of pages. The penguin wants what the pirate has and vice versa, and the story comes to a close with them switching places and being happy. It sounds like it would be a rehashing of a cheesy, over-played plot that's been so watered down by politically correct sentiments that it's lost any value whatsoever as a decent story... but surprisingly this is not the case. The story telling is fresh and fun and the illustrations are colourful and animated. It's a fun read with a nice little moral.

Pearl Barley and Charlie Parsley by Aaron Blabey

This book is about two friends that are opposites. Pearl Barley is really up beat and energetic and Charlie Parsley is introverted and calm. After showing how different they are, the book asks how they could possibly be friends. Well as it turns out, Pearl's energetic nature cheers Charlie up when he's down, and Charlie's practical nature helps Pearl out. For example, at one point he puts mittens on her hands when she's cold.

It's a good book about how opposites can attract and how you don't have to be the same as someone to be their friend. The pictures are colourful and very expressive.

Sunday Chutney by Aaron Blabey

This is a fun book about a girl who's always the new girl. Her parents are always moving from place to place so she's been all over the world and has seen many things.. but as a result she doesn't have any friends and is always 'the new girl' in school. Despite this however, Sunday has a really bright outlook on life. Right after she says something depressing she bounces back with something funny or quirky. She has an amazing imagination and is not afraid to use it. For most of the book her imagination seems to make up for her lack of friends, but at the end she says that making friends is something she's good at and shows her with a group of girls.

This is a good book to give a kid who moves around a lot or one moving once to a new place. It voices the fears kids have in these situations, but is fun enough to almost side-step the unpleasant feelings associated with moving. She has a lot of interests and is really up beat. A fun book.

The Duchess Of Whimsy by Randall de Seve

This is a cute story about the Duchess of Whimsy and the Earl of Norm. As the name indicates, the Duchess of Whimsy is.. whimsical. She loves having fun, bright colours and is the life of the party. The earl of norm is 'normal' aka quiet/ introverted. The earl admires the duchess because of her spirit and tries to get her to notice him, but she thinks he's normal and doesn't like him. One day the duchess's chef gets a cold on the day she's having one of her parties and so all of the guests begin trying to help make dinner. All of her friends are like her so they want to make outlandish dishes but the earl just makes grilled cheese. The duchess is interested and takes a bite and loves it, and then she and the earl become friends. She sees how she's like him and he sees how he's like her. It's an opposites attract story. It's sweet even though it's been done before. the art is amazing. It's very colourful and fun.

Tell Me a Dragon by Jackie Morris

This book didn’t really have a plot, but was more of a celebration of imagination. The illustrations are very colourful and magical and I really enjoyed the overall concept of the book. Each page has an illustration of a person and his or her dragon. One person’s dragon is very large, another’s is very small, another’s breathes fire, another ice, etc.

The objective of the story was more to impress on a kid that it is OK to have an imagination and it’s also OK if that imagination is different from everyone else’s. Ursula Le Guin wrote an essay called 'Why Are Americans Afraid of Dragons’ and it talks about how people are afraid to admit he or she plays with their imagination or has moments of make believe or are too embarrassed to admit to liking fantasy or make believe. For a kid, or even an adult, I think this is a nice little book to say just the opposite. That you should embrace your ‘dragon’ because it’s as unique as you are.

Crow Call by Lois Lowry

I chanced upon this picture book in my local book store was was surprised to see that I was by Lois Lowry, who I know for writing thought provoking young adult novels, such as The Giver and Gathering Blue. This book was like neither of those, but was still a wonderful story.

This book is an auto-biography of Lowry's childhood with her father. Her father went to war when she was young, so when he came back she didn't really know him. This story is about her father taking her on a hunting trip of sorts so that they can get to know each other. The storytelling is wonderful, the prose is rich and descriptive. It is a book for children and it has great illustrations, but the way in which the author tells the story is almost poetic in the thorough descriptions of the surroundings and the main character's feelings throughout the story. The quality of writing is a rare find for a children's book.

The story itself is also pretty good. The girl wakes up early because her father is taking her on a hunting trip. She is wearing an over-sized, man's hunting shirt that her father bought her. Her father gives her the job of calling the crows so that he can shoot them. As they get closer to the spot, she grows more and more uneasy about being a 'hunter' and killing these birds. In the end she just ends up enjoying being able to communicate with the birds, and her father just sits back and lets her have fun and no birds are shot that day.

This is a good book for kids who are missing a parent because he or she is away, either to a war or even on away on business a lot. It's a really touching story, I recommend.

Violet ~ Tania Duprey Stehlik

 Violet is a girl who lives in a world where all of the people she knows are the colour of primary colours. One day her dad picks her up from school and a friend asks why her dad is blue and she is violet. Violet is a little upset by this and begins to question why she is different from all of the kids at school and even from her own parents. She goes home to ask her parents and her mom, who is red, while her dad is blue, sits her down and tells her that it's not a bad thing to be different from the kids at school. She puts blue and red paint on a piece of paper and mixes them together to demonstrate that violet is a combination of her mom and her dad, making her special because she is a little bit of both of them. Violet feels happy that she is a bit of both her parents and the next day at school tells the friend so with pride. 

This is a good book to introduce racial difference in a very non-confrontational way. The different colours could represent different things to different people, but it teaches that though you may be different from people on the outside, you should always be proud of who you are because you are a special person. Blue and red are pretty generic colours, so it isn't a book about certain races or orientations, but is abstract enough to let anyone insert themselves.

Old Turtle by Douglas Wood

This was a nice book on diversity. I think one of the things people get the most worked up over is spirituality. It's one of those things that can touch a person more deeply than anything else, and everyone's perspective will differ, even if only minutely.

This book starts off with animals and rocks and trees each telling each other what they think god is, and each being's god seems to resemble the speaker. Then the old turtle stops them and tells them that a new group of species is coming, humans, and these humans are meant to be a message from god. The people come and everything is going well, but after some time, they begin acting in a not so nice way and nature tells them to stop. At this point, all of the rocks and trees and other beings that had said god was like themselves at the beginning of the book, began saying that they were able to see god in others, in what was actually the opposite of what they previously said. I guess the moral would be to have an open mind about that which is different from yourself, because it really isn't so alien to what you believe.

Clever Katya: A Fairy Tale from Old Russia by Mary Hoffman

 This story is about a girl who uses her head to help out her father who gets himself in trouble over a donkey. A man gave Katya's father a horse and that horse had a baby with the father's mare, so the guy who first gave the horse wanted the foal, so he took the case to the tsar. The king gives out a riddle to the two men and says whoever answers the riddle gets the foal. The riddle is 'What is the fastest thing in the world, what is the fattest thing in the world, what is the softest thing in the world and what is the most precious?' The other guys asks a neighbour who owes him some money and the father asks Katya. I won't tell you the answer, but I'll say that Katya won. The tsar was interested in these answers and asked the father who told them to him, to which he replied his daughter. So the king asked the father to bring Katya to him, but he said that 'She must come neither on horseback nor on foot, neither naked nor dressed and neither bringing a present nor empty handed.' So she goes to him in the way he asked, and at the end of the book he marries her because she was the most clever person in the kingdom.
 
This was a nice story based on an old Russian folktale. The pictures are beautiful and colourful with nice traditional, colourful borders surrounding them. I first heard this story in grade 3 or 4 and it was one of those that I remembered to this day. It's one of those odd books you'll find where the girl gets the guy because of her brain, not her beauty. a beautiful story. I recommend.

Mollie Whuppie and the Giant by Robin Muller

 Mollie Whuppie is a strong and smart heroine that courageously goes about accomplishing tasks others fear. In this story she and her sisters are lost in a forest and make their way to a giant's house. This giant has caused a lot of trouble for travellers and people in the area because he's so vicious. The giant plans on killing them but mollie outwits the giant to get herself and her sisters to safety at a nearby castle. The king asks mollie to go back to the giant a couple of times to get some things the giant has stolen and each time she's successful one of her sisters marries someone in the king's court. At the end the giant dies and mollie gets engaged to the prince, but doesn't marry him as she goes off to have adventures.
 
This is a great story with a strong, proactive heroine. Mollie never hesitates, she's always confident and courageous and charges head forward to get things done. This book is great to read out loud as well as there are catchy rhymes that break up the prose, though that's pretty easy to read as well. The pictures were expressive too. A fun book.

Chester by Melanie Watt

 The book is an amusing way to pass the time. Basically it's a story about a mouse, but there is a cat who keeps interrupting with the story because he wants it to be about him. So he writes over the author's words and scribbles over the pictures until at the end he takes over the book.

The Persian Cinderella by Shirley Climo

 This was a great story! And according to the back of the book, is the story 'The Anklet' from the Arabian Nights. I thought it was very well told, I didn't really like the pictures though. They kind of look like figures posing instead of characters in the story, and there are noticeable outlines around the people so as to make you think they're cut outs, or are not a part of the scenery they're presented in. The over posing and the not fitting into the background kind of reminds me of cheesy picture books I read from the 80's. Now these pictures aren't as bad as those, but the way they are presented are reminiscent of that... style. I still like the book and think it's worth reading as the storytelling was well done.

Sophie’s Masterpiece: A Spider’s Tale by Eileen Spinelli

 Sophie the spider goes out into the world to do something great, to create a masterpiece. She settles herself in this boarding house and attempts to help out the people who live there, but none of them accept her gifts and scream at the sight of her. Sophie eventually finds a new mother who doesn't scream at the sight of her, but welcomes her. The mother is poor though and Sophie sees an old blanket covering the mother's baby. Sophie decides to make a new blanket for the baby, her masterpiece.

The pictures are beautiful and the story touching. A great addition to the bookshelf.

Ish by Peter H. Reynolds

 This was a cute book about a little boy who loves to draw, and he draws quite a bit. One day his brother looks at his drawings and says that it doesn't look like what he was trying to draw. The boy looks at it again and agrees with his brother and he gets mad. I forget if he keeps drawing or not, but at one point he crumples up his 'last drawing' in frustration and swears to never draw again. His sister grabs the drawing and runs to her room. He chases her and when he goes in her room he sees all of his drawings. He asks why she kept them as they don't look anything like what they're supposed to, a vase. She replies, 'Well it looks vase-ish'. He looks around and agrees that it does look vase- ish. and continues drawing. 

The guy's drawings don't have to be perfect. He draws because he loves it, not because he wants to make perfect pictures. It's sweet.

Imagine a Day by Sarah L. Thomson, Rob Gonsalves

 All I can say is... well read it. It's mostly pictures, so little to no effort on the reader, but it's worth it. There's a phrase on every page which enhances and ties together a collection of amazingly well done pictures. The pictures are somewhat surreal, like those pictures where there is a face and it can either be an old woman or a young woman, have we all been exposed to these? But optical illusions I guess. They are brightly coloured and imaginative and give the reader a lot to look at. The phrases don't exactly make a story out of the pictures, but there is a logical order to the presentation that can be almost thought provoking. It's a great book. To be flipped through by both young and old.

Something Beautiful by Sharon Dennis Wyeth

This story teaches kids that they have the power to create their own beauty and bring it to their lives. The girl in this book walk around her house and sees some not very nice things, including some not so nice graffiti on a door, and the reader gets a sense of her unease. Then she goes to school and her teacher teaches the class the word beautiful, which is described as something, when you have it, that makes your heart happy. So she goes around the neighbourhood asking people what is beautiful to them, and various responses are given. Finally the little girl goes back to the graffiti and erases it, making a bit of beauty come into her own world. after that it ends on a sweet note with her mother. 

I think this a good book to read to a child to teach them that they have the power to make a positive change in the world, and that for every cloudy day there is an optimistic sun hiding unseen that is capable of showing itself to those who look for it.

Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems

 This is a great book to read out loud! Very funny, it's kind of a subdued humour. It's great for kids, because they've all tried to get away with something that they're not allowed to do, so they know the dynamic, but they are able to see how silly it would be to let the pigeon drive the bus. The book is written so that the pigeon is talking directly to the reader, like the reader is the one with the authority to allow the pigeon to ride the bus. Comical, I recommend.

Harold & Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson

This is one of those books where not only do the children in my life enjoy this book, but I do as well. For a kid's book, it's pretty existential. A boy goes through this world where nothing exists and with his purple crayon, creates his world. What makes it more than just a kids book, what gives it the philosophical premise is that even though harold starts the story with this crayon, and has the power to draw anything, become anything, because all he need do is draw whatever he wants to be or where ever he wants to go, even though he has this power, he is unsatisfied and goes on a journey. He uses his crayon to create the world as he goes through it and ultimately finds some contentment, a resting place if you will :P, but the fact that he can create is irrelevant, its a means to an end. The implied 'end' gives us something to think about, and though the children who are meant to be reading this book will not go into such depth with the symbolism or the philosophy, they will pick up on some of the questions the author asks, like what is harold looking for? Why did he need to do all that stuff if he was just going to end up back at home? (Though actually he didn't start at home). Even if the kids don't burst their brains thinking about this, even if they don't come to any logical conclusion, even if they don't ask any questions to begin with, I think exposing our kids to this kind of story is important. Aside from being very amusing, it provides intellectual stimulation for those who look for it and for those who don't, well one day they may look back on this story as an example of some conclusion or another they have drawn. Even if they never understand the story philosophically, the fact that they are exposed to it will register somewhere in their heads and what they know of it will teach them something about life (as does everything, which always gets me critical of the constant stream of nothing we shove down our kids throats, like the bastardisations of stories presented by Disney and the like... and lets not even talk about pop culture).
 
Anyways, the kids I read this to love it. Its a great story, I recommend.