Bruno and Titch: A Tale of a Boy and His Guinea Pig by Sheena Dempsy

-

Sheena Dempsy's new book, Bruno & Titch: A Tale of a Boy and His Guinea Pig, is a wonderful story about bringing home a first pet (and the interesting ideas kids sometimes have about how to best care for that pet) and also a fantastic book featuring the (somewhat) underrepresented guinea pig! Be sure not to miss a short list of other picture and chapter books featuring this furry pet at the end of the review!


Dempsy's illustrations drew me to Bruno & Titch: A Tale of a Boy and His Guinea Pig instantly. Her style reminds me of a cross between Janet Ahlberg, of Jolly Postman fame and Felicia Bond, best known for her illustrations in the Mouse Cookie Books. Dempsy's illustrations are packed with tiny details, from a Lego brick to handmade mobiles hanging in Bruno's window to the curling measuring tape that appears on a handful of pages. Her faded pastel palette takes the edge off some of the tension in the story as well.


Titch and Bruno are clearly made for each other. As we see in the illustrations that precede the title page, Bruno has been busy making guinea pigs out of graph paper and tape and Titch has been making people out of the hay un his cage. The two seem made for each other! And, while Bruno is clearly a thinker and a planner and even an experimenter who loves his new pet, he also treats Titch like, well, a guinea pig. For his contraptions and experiments.



Three guinea pig months (or 24 human hours) later, Titch is doing his best to adapt to his new life with Bruno, which includes eating pancakes and taking baths, just like Bruno. But, Titch finds he doesn't always like what Bruno likes. He doesn't like the "Bouncing-Very-High-Game" or the "Very-Scary-Balloon-Game" and especially not the "Going-Very-Fast-Game." Dempsy's illustrations of these pages are superb, Titch's eyes bulging a bit more with each game. Just when Titch is sure that Bruno has tired of him, he gets the best surprise of all - Bruno has built him a "guinea-pig palace," taking the best parts of all the scary games and making the perfect home for Titch.

Sheena Dempsy is also the author and illustrator of Bye-Bye Baby Brother, which I have to get my hands on!


Other great Guinea Pig Picture Books:

I Love Guinea Pigs by Dick King-Smith is both story and guide to the care of guinea pigs with charming illustrations by Anita Jeram.

Cynthia Rylant's books about Little Whistle, a guinea pig who lives in a toy store where the toys come to life at night, are magical and endearing.






Guinea Pig Chapter Books:

Don't miss Pee Wee's Tale and the sequel, Pee Wee & Plush, both by Johanna Hurwitz, about the adventures of a pet guinea pig who finds himself homeless in Central Park., both by Johanna Hurwitz, about the adventures of a pet guinea pig who finds himself homeless in Central Park.


And, of course, there is Stink and the Great Guinea Pig Express by Megan McDonald, illustrated by Peter Reynolds.


Patrick Jennings, author of a favorite picture book of mine, Bat and Rat, illustrated by the wonderful Matthew Cordell, is also the author of the Guinea Dog books!



And don't miss the Guinea Pigs Online series by Jennifer Gray and Amanda Swift.



Source: Review Copy

Popular posts from this blog

Fox + Chick: The Sleepover and Other Stories by Sergio Ruzzier

-
Image
Fox + Chick : The Sleepover and Other Stories  by Sergio Ruzzier Review Copy from Chronicle Books Friends. Opposites. Inhabitants of a pastel-hued, water color world that is vaguely surreal, Fox and Chick are back for a third installment of their inviting, if curious, easy-to-read stories. In "The Sleepover," "The Hammer," and "The Surprise," Chick's odd logic is once again upending Fox's life. Happily, Fox responds with patience and even wisdom at times. To these unforgettable characters and luminous illustrations, Ruzzier brings a sublime simplicity that makes this series perfect for emerging readers, adding books with character and intelligence to the often dull world of beginning reader books. If you aren't familiar with this delightful duo, definitely check out my reviews of the first two books (links below) where I put the greatness of Ruzzier's work into historical ( Frog & Toad ) context. Then check out ALL of Ruzzier's p
Read more

Be a Tree! by Maria Gianferrari illustrated by Felicita Sala

-
Image
Be a Tree! by Maria Gianferrari illustrated by Felicita Sala Review Copy from Abrams Kids I picture-walked Be a Tree! three times before I actually read the words. Felicita Sala's illustrations for Maria Gianferrari's poetic text are mesmerizingly immersive and richly colorful within a palette of earth tones. Throughout the text, Gianferrari, who shares her inspiration for this book in the author's note ( Peter Wohleben's The Hidden Life of Trees ), gently maintains the human connection to trees and the connections (and communications) trees share with each other.  Be a Tree!  begins exuberantly, inviting the reader to "Be a tree! Stand tall. Stretch your branches to the sun. Let your roots curl, coil in the soil to ground you." From your spine/trunk to your skin/bark and your heart/pith, the words carry you inward and then zoom outward and up to the canopy and ultimately, the forest. "You are one of many trees," and our roots "twine with fung
Read more

Reading Levels: A Quick Guide to Determining if a Book Is Right for Your Reader

-
Image
While I wrote an article titled Reading Levels: How I Assign Reading Levels to Books, How the Publishers Do It and How You Can Help Your Reader Find the Right Book at the Right Time that discusses how reading levels are determined by professionals and amateurs like myself, there is more on this subject to discuss. Determining the reading level of a book from the children's section is never easy, mostly because there are several different standardized methods of determining reading levels. Add to this the fact that knowing their children's reading level is most often the only tool a parent is armed with when exploring the bookstore, library, website, etc, and the job becomes even more difficult. While I think that knowing a child's reading level is a very valuable tool if your child is reading below grade level, I think that it is a secondary consideration when finding books for children reading above, especially well above, grade level because, in most cases, content app
Read more