Carrot, by Vanita Oelschlager (Illustrated by Kristin Blackwood)

This book was saved from a 1-star review (if I did star reviews on my blog) by Magda, who loved it. I did not. Here are our (separate) reviews:

Magda's review: 
I loved it! I loved the whole book. My favourite part was when the cat dreamed of getting married because weddings are fun.
[Mom's interjection: Sorry, how would a wedding be fun for a CAT?
Magda: It's just a dream, Mommy.]
5 stars

My review:
Oh, the writing is so bad it was difficult to read it aloud without wincing. It's the most insipid must-rhyme-at-all-costs bad poetry I've read in a long while. The whole book put me in a bad mood it was so vapid and banal.
1 star

Final review: 
3 stars (given grudgingly on my part)

BOOK DETAILS:
Carrot
by Vanita Oelschlager
Illustrated by Kristin Blackwood
Published by VanitaBooks
Publication Date: May 2, 2011
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 Source: NetGalley

A Tale of Two Daddies, by Vanita Oelschlager (illustrated by Kristin Blackwood and Mike Blanc)

A Tale of Two Daddies

Author: Vanita Oelschlager

Illustrators: Kristin Blackwood and Mike Blanc

Publisher: VanitaBooks

Publication Date: May 1, 2010

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This is a simple story about a little girl with two daddies: Daddy and Poppa. When a boy on the playground asks her what it's like having two dads, he wants to know things like "Who tucks you in at night? Which one helps with homework? Which one braids your hair?" The little girl happily explains which of her day-to-day activities are best performed by Daddy, Poppa or both (or, in the case of staying up late or helping her match her socks, neither). The little girl's life is happy, secure and, of course, completely normal. 

I particularly liked that the illustrations were very reminiscent of primers from the 1950's. Normally I'm not a fan of children's book illustrations that look too dated, but in this case I think it's good for the story. It references an idealistic vision of Americana with nuclear families and houses in the suburbs (both children look like they could have stepped right out of Family Circus or Dick and Jane) and subtly reinforces the message that families with same-sex parents fit in perfectly well with this ideal, thank-you very much. I also liked that it wasn't focusing on her not having a mommy, but on how great it was to have two parents who loved her and were each good at different things.

Big Blue, by Vanita Oelschlager (illustrated by Kristin Blackwood)

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I originally published a review of this book on my blog, Cozy Little Book Journal, and received a lot of angry comments about it because of how much I hated this book, but I stand by it, even if my original review was a lot more flippant than this one. (If you'd like to see the original review, scroll down after the jump.)

I really disliked this book. There are a lot of different ways to put a message into a book for kids, but I think any author who does that also needs to do two things: 1. Make sure the story still works and the book is actually good, and 2. Make sure that the message is actually one worth relaying. I think this book fails in both cases.

First of all, the story about the bird who eats so much that he's too fat to fly with the other birds for the winter is troubling. If that actually happened, the bird would die. But in this book he just learns to stop eating. That's the solution. THAT'S NOT A SOLUTION! It doesn't show him being more active, or eating better foods, it just says he stops eating. So when the other birds return he's skinny and happy.

Second, this is a terrible message. I get that the author is trying to tell kids that if they eat too much they'll be fat and therefore their lives will be awful but, again, that's a TERRIBLE message. The issue with this bird seems to be ONLY his size, not his actual health or skills or personality. The author perpetuates the myth that size alone is an indicator of health, which it absolutely is not. Some children, like adults, are going to be bigger than others based on genetics and body type, even more so for kids because they grow at different rates.

Driving home the point that eating a lot and being bigger than others is something you should be desperately ashamed of is not only irresponsible and inaccurate, I believe it's quite damaging to children. I don't mean that children shouldn't be taught about healthy choices, but size alone is NOT an indicator of health and fat shaming like this is just encouraging children to develop body image issues at a younger age.