Extra Yarn, written by Mac Barnett and illustrated by Jon Klassen

Mac Barnett is a favorite of mine (which means I can't write about him without mentioning all his work...) especially when he teams up with Adam Rex. Happily, the duo have a new book, Chloe and the Lion, coming out in April. But after reading Barnett's newest picture book Extra Yarn I think there is room in this world for more than one favorite pairing. After all, I love chocolate and peanut butter together but I also enjoy chocolate and mint. Makes perfect sense, though. Barnett's newest partner Jon Klassen is the author and illustrator of the brilliant (and slightly subversive) picture book I Want My Hat Back so of course these two would make a great team. Oh, I just remembered. I also like chocolate and chiles (Chuau Chocolatier makes the best) and can't forget the superb pairing of Barnett (click his name for all my reviews of all his work) and the super-awesome Dan Santat. The two joined forces for the fantastic OH NO! (Or How My Science Project Destroyed the World) and will be back this summer with OH NO NOT! AGAIN! (Or How I Built a Time Machine to Save History)(Or at Least My History Grade).

Now that I have almost exhausted my list of superlatives, I'll tell you about Extra Yarn. Barnett masterfully creates a story that has a fairy-tale-fable feel to it. Believe me, this is NOT easily (or satisfyingly) done by most picture book authors but Barnett does it. Extra Yarn begins, "One afternoon, in a cold little town, where everywhere you looked was either the white of snow or the black of soot from chimneys, Annabelle found a box filled with yarn of every color." Klassen's illustrations are as bleak and stark as Barnett's writing. That is, until Annabelle begins to knit with that yarn. First, a sweater for herself and her dog Mars, which bring the ridicule of neighbor Nate. With her extra yarn, Annabelle knits sweaters for Nate and his dog. When her sweater causes a disturbance in school, she uses up some more of her extra yarn to knit sweaters for the whole class. The texture and colors of the sweaters that Klassen illustrates are perfect and the gradual spread of color over the drab little town is a delight to see.

Since there is always extra yarn, Annabelle is able to knit sweaters for everyone in town and eventually begins knitting sweaters for things that might not necessarily need them, like mailboxes and pick-up trucks and buildings and at times you can see the yarn connecting everyone and everything, as in the picture below. As Travis Jonker aptly notes in his review of the book at 100 Scope Notes, "This sort of absurdity fits with Barnett and Klassen's previous work," and indeed this kind of silliness is welcome. 

 

Just as the town is transformed, happiness (and warmth) are threatened by a fanciful archduke who arrives from across the sea. When Annabelle refuses to sell him the box of extra yarn at any price, the archduke sends his minions to steal it in the dark of night. I think I will not give away the ending of the book but I can tell you that it is simple and sweet in a satisfying way and I guarantee that when you finish this book you (and the listeners you might be reading it to) will want you to go back to the beginning and read it all over again! As succinctly stated over at Pink Me (a fantastic resource for children's book reviews that is also run by a semi-raving Barnett and Rex fan) after making the scholarly note that yarn, as in story, and yarn, as in fiber, are both better when shared, "I think writing even these four sentences of analysis just sucked some of the happiness out of this book, so I'm going to stop." Me too. Extra Yarn is best enjoyed in it's original form and over and over. 

For a really cool viewing of Extra Yarn, check out this series of pictures (by scrolling right) that Jon Klassen posted on his website with the great name, Burst of Beaden.

Cold Cereal, written and illustrated by Adam Rex, 422 pp, RL 4

Adam Rex. I always get very excited whenever the Mr Rex has something new to share with the world of books and his latest novel is no exception. You may know Rex from his poetry picture books which are now Halloween staples, Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich and Frankenstein Takes the Cake. If you do not know his work, you MUST at the very least scroll through my review of The True Meaning of Smekday, Rex's middle grade novel about an alien takeover of the United States which he wrote long before post-apolcalyptic YA books were the rage. This review also includes images from Rex's superbly illustrated picture books, some of which he writes himself, some of which he teams up with the equally fabulous Mac Barnett. Rex also wrote the funny but bittersweet teen novel Fat Vampire. In a nutshell, Adam Rex is a multitalented author and illustrator with a diverse, if not unique (is anything truly unique? I hate to use that word lightly, but I will use it here) perspective.

So what does Rex bring to the table besides his superlative illustrations? Intelligent humor, uncommon characters and unpredictable plots. In Fat Vampire Doug Lee is a pudgy fifteen year old learning to deal with his newly static existence. In The True Meaning of Smekday Gratuity "Tip" Tucci tries to make her way to Florida (as directed by the alien race of Boovs that has taken over Earth and is relocating all Americans to Florida) but her journey becomes and odyssey when a Boovish alien on the run from his fellow Boovs (and who insists on being called "J.Lo") hijacks Tip's car. Oh yeah, and she is a kid who is planning to drive from Pennsylvania to Orlando. Both books offer subtly (and sometimes sharp) social commentary that makes for laugh out loud moments that will have you reading passages to the nearest warm body. Cold Cereal, Rex's newest book, is squarely a middle grade book and, while it is still very funny and full of interesting characters and excitement it is just a tidge lighter on satire than his other books and heavier on traditional fantasy, although with Rex's particular vision. With Cold Cereal, Rex has written a book like no other I can compare it to, which is something I really like to do. That said, while these are wildly different books, there was one moment at the very end that immediately called to mind to the final snowy scene of Philip Pullman's masterpiece, The Golden Compass. 

As fellow Rex fan noted in her fantastic review at Pink Me, this is a book that is hard to do justice to in a traditional review because there are so many intricacies in both characters and plot. The brief, positive review of Cold Cereal at Kirkus Reviews proves this. I am going to try to summarize the book and provide a sense of the tone of the story, but I may fall short. In the event that I do, just go out and buy all of Rex's books and read them for yourself or give them to someone special who will.

Cold Cereal begins with Scott and his seven-year-old sister Polly having cereal for breakfast. Their mom has just moved them to Goodborough, a company town in New Jersey inhabited mostly by the employees of the Goodco Cereal Company who's slogan is, "There's a little bit of magic in every box." This proves to be remarkably true, but it will take Scott and his new friends most of the book before they relize just how true. The first day of sixth grade at his new school also happens to be field trip day (to the Goodco Cereal Factory) and that is when Scott meets the twins Emily and Erno. Although Scott seems to be the main character in Cold Cereal, this duty is shared almost evenly between these three kids, which is uncommon for a sci/fi - fantasy novel. Usually there is one hero facing peril and the helpful friends. Scott, Emily and Erno all seem to be a threat to and threatened by the evil forces in this book.

Scott, who has an embarrassing name that is the result of his father's background as a superstitious stage actor, is actually named Scottish P. Doe. I'll let you try to figure out what the P stands for, but I can tell you that Scott's name is vital to the story in more than one way. His father, John Doe, has become a phenomenally famous actor who left his family shortly after Polly's birth, about seven years ago. He is now the knighted Sir Reginald Dwight and has gone into hiding after punching the Queen of England in the face. There is a reason that he punched the Queen that is revealed toward the end of the book and mocked mercilessly in a commercial that Dwight shoots for Goodco. This makes Dwight the perfect candidate to stay with Scott and Polly while Goodco sends their mother, a physicist, to the Arctic for two months to do research. Why does a cereal company need a physicist to do research in the Arctic? That question is left to other books in this proposed trilogy. Emily and Erno are also suffering a parental loss of sorts when their foster father and Goodco employee, Mr Wilson, disappears, leaving behind cryptic notes reminiscent of brain-building games he concocted for the twins. Somewhat parentless, as are the heroes of all good works of middle grade fantasy, the three try to figure out what is going on and what Goodco has to do with the strange things happening around them.

What are these strange things? Well, when Scott's class takes another field trip into New York City to see Oh Huck!, the musical of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a blinding migraine leads him into the men's room at the Port Authority where, after a ruckus, he finds a leprechaun, or clurichan, as Mick insists he be called. After taking him home in his backpack and agreeing to help him, Mick shares some information that helps Scott make sense of the odd things he has seen from time to time his whole life. Most recently, before Mick anyway, he spotted a unicat (Scott "glanced away and looked back, blinked a few times, gave the animal every opportunity to resume being an ordinary housecat; but it remained stubbornly fanciful") and a rabbit-man with a horrible lisp named, naturally, Harvey. These magical creatures are the victims of a megalomaniacal and far reaching plot by Goodco to enslave these beings and use their "glamour" to nefarious ends. I am sure that the word "glamour" has been connected to magic and magical creatures for a long time, but I had never heard it before reading Cold Cereal and I was tickled every time I read that word in context throughout the book because the characters using and benefiting from the "glamour" were anything but glamorous. Just another layer to this multilayered magical tale. Over the course of Cold Cereal, Mick shares stories of life in his world and helps Scott, Erno and Emily piece together a vague idea of just what the folks at Goodco and, more secretly the Goode and Harmless Freemen of America, a powerful group with 987 levels of membership that claims to be a direct continuation of the Round Table of King Arthur, resurrected in the late 1800s by Nathan Goode, son of Zachariah Terribull Goode, founder of Goodco, and Jack Harmilss, are up to.


So, there you are. A pretty basic outline that doesn't reveal too much of the plot but, alas, does not reveal everything that makes Rex such a standout author. For that, I'll use his own words. And, had I more of his images to share, you would see that, besides illustrations, there are a few pages in the book where panel illustrations depict Goodco commercials that have pivotal roles in the book. What follows are passages from the story that I marked, both for their fantastic use of language and descriptive brilliance. Sorry that they are out of context, but no one will read this review if I make it much longer. I'll start with the lisping Harvey. By the end of the novel I ended up bookmarking all of his dialogue because it cracked me up every time, but I'll start by sharing just this one snippet with you here then more great parts of the book:

"I don't know," said Harvey, his ears twitching about. His trousers were sooty and his tie torn. "It wath all very confuthing. Caoth."

Caoth. Ha!

The last time Scott had hear the word magical this much he'd changed the channel.


They never got to hear what he [a Goodco thug] thought was going to happen, though in all likelihood he would have gotten it wrong. "My partner and I are going to be run over by a rabbit driving a Citroën" just isn't the sort of thing that occurs to most people, no matter what kind of life they've led.

And, finally, one of my favorite standout passages in the book comes during a climactic scene when it seems that Scott and Mick are about to meet their maker, a magical gun (named Glamdring) pointed at them by Goodco's flip-flop clad bounty hunter, Haskoll. Also noted at Pink Me, this passage is cited as being a "mercifully short Denoument Exposition (and I will regress to grown-up critic for a moment to say that an author's ability to keep the Inevitable Face-off Monologue from turning into a bloated flashback novella has become one of the metrics by which I judge his or her skill)." I really couldn't have said that better. Despite the fact that I was a Literature major at a rigorous liberal arts college, I have lost my scholarly vocabulary and honestly could not have dredged that language out of my decaying brain to critically note one of Mr Rex's outstanding skills as a writer the way Pink Me does, so thanks to you.

"GAAH! Jeez!" Scott snarled suddenly. Even Mick jumped. "Could you possibly just go ahead and kill me?! You're not seriously so evil that you're actually going to make me listen to you talk first, are you?"
"Whoah! Hey, Scotty's grown a pair-"
"Shut up. Okay? My name is Scott. Or Scottish, or . . . " Scott took a breath. "Look, just because you've won doesn't mean you're clever, or funny. You're just a horrible jerk with a gun. And an idiot. And you dress like an idiot. If you have a magic gun, you call it Ex-Calibre, okay? It's obvious. you stole Glamdring from The Hobbit."
"Ex-Calibre," Haskoll repeated. "Huh."
"And seriously . . . friends are more important than air? Do you even listen to yourself? You talk like a birthday card. Some awful birthday card with flowers on the front."

As I read that passage I was cheering for Scott and for Adam Rex. Hope you will too.

This is Biggs, the Sasquatch-like nanny to Erno and Emily I failed to mention in my review. Biggs reminds me a bit of Andre the Giant as Fezzik in The Princess Bride. I guess that's true for Adam Rex, too.

MICK'S HEAD!

Rex is also a talented sculptor and makes character models when illustrating a book. In fact, his next picture book with Mac Barnett is a mixture of illustration and sculpture and looks fantastic!

Monsters Eat Whiny Children written and illustrated by Bruce Eric Kaplan

My husband, by way of his family, introduced me to the joys of The New Yorker magazine when we met some twenty-plus years ago. While I always felt good about myself for wanting to read those very long articles about interesting, intellectual, cultural things and those top-notch short stories that filled the pages, nine times out of ten I ended up poring over the magazine just to read the cartoons and maybe a movie review or two. While I always aspired to something more, I contented myself with the knowledge that plenty of cartoonists for  The New Yorker (William Steig, Bob Staake, Peter de Sève, Roz Chast to name a very few) were also children's book illustrator/authors. Add to this list Bruce Eric Kaplan and his excellent new book, Monsters Eat Whiny Children, published in 2010.

I love this book for so many reasons, from the spare but expressive artwork to the humor that might be lost on children and, best of all, the timeless trop of children-eating monsters. While I love everything about Monsters Eat Whiny Children, what I love most is Kaplan's writing, especially the straightforward, generous narrator who recognizes that life is tough and we all have our struggles, even if we are whiny-children eating monsters. Also, Kaplan does not talk down to children in an effort to include them in the jokes or buffer the potential nightmare-inducing concept of the story. Monsters Eat Whiny Children begins, "Once there were two perfectly delightful children who were going through a TERRIBLE phase, which is to say they whined ALL day and night." Their father warns them, but they do not listen. A monster steals them and takes them to his "lair on the bad side of town."

The monster plops Henry and Eve into a lovely wooden bowl and begins to make a salad. The children begin to whine about the wooden bowl and sitting on lettuce. At this point, while the monsters are increasingly scary and capable, they also begin to reveal very human natures. When the monster's wife walks into the kitchen and tastes the salad dressing she screams, "I hate cilantro!" She insists her husband start over and add paprika to the dressing. When he complains that he does not like paprika, she replies with menace, "You LIKE paprika." The monster has to take the children outside, hose the old dressing off them and start all over.

Before he is done with the new dressing, a neighbor drops and berates the monsters for wasting whiny children on a SALAD. Why, he has been dreaming of whiny-child burgers all week! The wife grumbles but agrees with the change of plans, knowing it will mean she will have to clean off the grill, which is disgusting. This goes on and on as the monsters are unable to get the fire started, causing the neighbor's cousin to kick a hole in the fence. Then they consider making a cake of them but the monster's wife thinks her bottom is too big and she should not eat cake, plus she hates baking.  A simple dish of rice and a nice "whiny-child vindaloo" gets them all thinking for a time but, as the narrator thoughtfully notes, "Sometimes it's hard to figure out if you are in the mood for Indian food."

Kaplan accomplishes the amazing feat of writing a story that is irresistible to children (monsters eating children) and infinitely entertaining to parents. I have read this book several times at story time in the last few weeks and had kids who thought they weren't interested slowly get closer and closer until they are sitting down and just as engrossed in the story as everyone else within hearing range. I have seen parents smile and remove the book from the place where I have prominently displayed it and read it to their kids. This is just a really great, funny subversive book that you won't get tired of reading. Kids love cautionary tales, they love seeing other kids in danger or getting punished in all the ways that they fear and they love to breath a sigh of relief at the end when everything turns out well, if not happily. 

Kaplan ends his book with the monster's aunt, "angry at the world as she always was," who walks in and tells the group exactly what they should do with the whiny children. Actually, she yells it at them and spits a little as she does because of her "saliva problem." They all agree that whiny-child cucumber sandwiches sound ideal, the narrator telling us that it's "such a relief for finally figure out what the right thing to eat is." As they assemble the ingredients (a recipe for cucumber sandwiches is included in the book) and search for "fluffy white bread" instead of the "healthy twelve-grain bread" that is the only thing the monster has eaten in years, the children, who have been playing quietly with balls and cars the monster's wife has been slipping to them, notice an open window and casually take their leave, hand in hand. Don't worry, the monsters have almost as happy an ending. Although they no longer have whiny children, they all seem content to tuck into plain cucumber sandwiches in their absence. 

Kaplan leaves us with the knowledge that Henry and Eve have learned a lesson and never whine again. Well, almost never.

I'd Really Like to Eat a Child by Sylvianne Donnio and illustrated by Dorothée de Monfried

Like Bruce Eric Kaplan's Monsters Eat Whiny Children, Sylvianne Donnio and Dorothée de Monfried's I'd Really Like to Eat a Child is fueled by that classic Grimm childhood fear of being eaten. And, while both authors work to alleviate (at least a little bit) the fear and tension surrounding the subject of their books, Donnio's book is actually a bit more gripping because kids KNOW there are really crocodiles that eat people... However, the title of the book really has a much more threatening bite than the story itself, which is really as cute as little Achilles the crocodile himself.

Achilles (great name, makes him seem a little less scary) is an adored little crocodile who makes his Mama proud every day by eating up all the bananas she brings him. She praises him lavishly, saying, "What a big boy you are getting to be, my son! And how handsome! And what beautiful teeth you have!" to which Achilles responds, "True." However, one day Achilles turns up his nose and says, "I'd really like to eat a child." His Mama is desperately worried by his stance, as any mother of a child who is refusing to eat would be. His father brings Achilles an enormous sausage which is met with rejection - unless it has been made out of child. To this his father scoffs, "Come now, Achilles. There's no such thing as a sausage made from children!" Next, his parents team up to make a delicious, gigantic chocolate cake which almost tempts Achilles until he realizes that what he really wants to eat is child. 

Feeling a little "strange and weak all over" since he has not eaten his breakfast, Achilles heads down to the river for a swim. As he approaches the bank he spies - a child! Happy day!  At this point, the visual joke of the story becomes obvious - Achilles is way too small to eat a child. But, he doesn't know that and he tries to sneak up on the little girl and bear his ridiculously small teeth and lets out a tiny "raah!" The little girl squeals - with glee - and grabs this cute little croc by the tail and tickles his tummy. When she's done with him, she throws him in the river. Undaunted by this seemingly humiliating experience, Achilles is instead exhilarated. He runs home shouting, "Daddy, Mommy! Quick, give me some bananas! I have to grow bigger . . . BIG enough to eat a child!" 

Both author and illustrator are French and  I'd Really Like to Eat a Child is translated by Leslie Martin. While I couldn't find very many images to share with your, de Monfried has a brisk, cartoon-like style that adds humor to the story but also keeps it focused on Achilles and his dilemma. Donnio's writing captures the sometimes helpless love parents feel for their children as well as the happy sense of accomplishment kids have when they figure things out on their own. 

ALA Awards for 2012 - Newbery and Caldecott Winners and More

Newbery Award Winner

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos

Newbery Honor Winners:

Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai

Breaking Stalin's Nose By Eugene Yelchin

Caldecott Award Winner

A Ball for Daisy 

Written and illustrated by Chris Raschka

Caldecott Honor Winners

Blackout written and illustrated by John Rocco

Grandpa Green written and illustrated by Lane Smith 

Me . . . Jane written and illustrated by Patrick McDonnell

Theodore Seuss Geisel Award 

This award is given to the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished American book for beginning readers.

Winner:

Tales for Very Picky Eaters by Josh Schneider

Honorees:

I Broke My Trunk by Mo Willems

I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen

See Me Run by Paul Meisel

Coretta Scott King Awards 

recognize outstanding books for young adults and children by African American authors and illustrators that reflect the African American experience.

Coretta Scott King Author Book Award Winner: 

Heart and Soul by Kadir Nelson

Author Honors: 

The Great Migration: Journey to the North by Eloise Greenfield 

Never Forgotten by Patricia C McKissak 

Coretta Scott King Illustrator Book Award Winner:

Underground: Finding the Light to Freedom 

by Shane Evans

Illustrator Honor:

Heart and Soul by Kadir Nelson

Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement 

Ashley Bryan 

In 1962 Bryan was first African American to write and illustrate a children's book.

Pura Belpré Award 

for a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms and celebrates the Latino cultural experience with an outstanding work of literature for children and youth.

Text: 

Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall

Illustration Winner: 

Diego Rivera: His World and Ours by Duncan Tonatiuh

Margaret A Edwards Award 

honors an author as well as a specific body or his/her work that has proven popular over a period of time.  It recognizes an author's work in helping adolescents become aware of themselves and addressing questions about their role and importance in relationships, society and the world.

2012 Winner: Susan Cooper

William C Morris Award

honors a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens and celebrating impressive new voices in young adult literature.

Winner

Where Things Come Back John Coery Whaley

Nominees:

Girl of Fire Thorns by Rae Carson

Paper Covers Rock by Jenny Hubbard

Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia Mccall

Between Shades of Gray by Rutya Sepetys

Michael L Printz Award 

is given to a book that exemplifies literary excellence in Young Adult Literature.

Where Things Come Back John Coery Whaley

Nominees:

Why We We Broke Up by Daniel Handler with illustrations by Maira Kalman

The Returning by Christine Hinwood

Jasper Jones by Craig SIlvey

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefavter

Robert F Siebert Medal

The Sibert Award honors the most distinguished informational book published in English in the preceding year for its significant contribution to children’s literature.

Winner:

Balloons Over Broadway written and illustrated by Melissa Sweet

Honors:
Black & White: The Confrontation between Revernd Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Eugene "Bull" Connor by Larry Dane Brimmer





Drawing from Memory written and illustrated by Alan Say










The Elephant Scientist written by Caitlin O'Connell and Donna M Jackson 





Witches! The Absolutey True Tale of Disaster in Salem 
written and illustrated by Rosalyn Schanzer

Mildred L Batchelder Awards 

recognizes originally published in a Language other than English.

Winner:

Soldier Bear 

written by Bibi Dumon Tak, illustrated by Philip Hopman, 

translated by Laura Watkinson

The Lily Pond by Annika Thor, translated by Linda Schneck

Stonewall Book Award

The Stonewall Book Award-Barbara Gittings Literature Award and theStonewall Book Award-Israel Fishman Non-Fiction Award are presented to English language books that have exceptional merit relating to the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered experience.

Putting Makeup on a Fat Boy by Bill Wright

Stonewall Honor Books:

a + e 4ever by Ilike Merey

Money Boy by Paul Yee

Pink by Lili Wilkinson

with or without you by Brian Farrey

Odyssey Award

This annual award will be given to the producer of the best audiobook produced for children and/or young adults, available in English in the United States.

Winner:

Rotters by Daniel Kraus

Narrated by Kirby Heyborn

Nominees:

Ghetto Cowboy by G Neri, narrated by JD Jackson

Okay for Now by Gary D Schmidt, narrated by Lincoln Hoppe

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefavter, 

narrated by Steve West and Fiona Hardingham

Young Fredle by Cynthia Voigt, narrated by Wendy Carter