Mouse House Tales, by Susan Pearson (illustrated by Amanda Shepherd)

Mouse House Tales
Author: Susan Pearson
Illustrator: Amanda Shepherd
Publisher: Blue Apple Books
Publication Date:
Source: Edelweiss
View on Amazon:



Mouse House Tales is divided into two "tales"--the first, a classic "animals helping animals" story when various forest animals come together to help Mouse build a new house, and the second a "mystery."

In the first part, Mouse needs a new house so Wren, Spider, Goat and others come together to help her build one. Spider spins curtains. A bird offers an eggshell for a chair. Goat offers cheese...insistently.

Although I think the story would have been better if the animals had real names (why are so many characters in children's books named 'Dog' and 'Cat' and 'Horse'?) it was otherwise very good.

The second half of the book is a little strange. Mouse is settle into her new house when she is awoken by mysterious sounds. Thinking she has a ghost, she sets out to trap it--again with help from her friends--but it turns out she actually has another mouse in her house (this was the "mystery"). A wandering mouse named Malachi Gimcrack, or Mack for short (why does HE get a name?), has been breaking into her house to sneak food. But Miss Mouse tells him he can stay and the book abruptly ends. (Was there supposed to be a third story? I feel like there was.)

This book is charming and had my three-year-old and I talking about it even the next day. Here's what Magda had to say:

Magda's Take

"I liked that Mouse House mystery book. It was a good book. It was really great how all the animals helped each other and no one tried to eat each other, like the mouse and the bird didn't even try to eat the spider. It's good that there was no cat in the story or he would have caught them all!

The goat was a little mean or a little rude because he kept saying, "Let's eat some cheese! Let's eat some cheese!" when they were doing stuff. He kept trying to wander them off [she means distract them] from building the house.


I like the part where the bird gave an eggshell for the mouse to live in. That was really sweet. 

I think at the end when the mouse who was a girl kept hearing that "creeeak creeeak" it was just the other mouse who was a boy who was making all that noise. Then if Mouse's house got broken again the boy mouse could help her fix it this time."

Bear in Underwear: Goodnight Underwear, by Harriet Ziefert (illustrated by Todd H. Ziefert)

Bear in Underwear: Goodnight Underwear
Author: Harriet Ziefert
Illustrator: Todd H. Doodler
Publisher: Blue Apple Books
Publication Date: April 9, 2013
Source: Edelweiss
View on Amazon

There have been so many books and products inspired by Margaret Wise Brown's classic Goodnight Moon but this one is one of my new favourites. It's true to the inspiration but it's silly enough to give your little ones the giggles. Plus it's like the bedtime story version of "shaking your sillies out," giving kids a chance to laugh and point out all the problems the poor camping animals must face in order to get comfortable enough for sleeping but then it brings it back around to them all settling in to bed. It's a great bedtime story, especially for kids who are familiar with Goodnight Moon, or who enjoy camping, or who giggle at the word "underwear."

Scroll down to see lots of illustrations from the book!

Magda's favourite part: When they finally got comfortable inside the cabin and went to sleep.

My favourite part: The same!

How the Meteorite Got to the Museum, by Jessie Hartland

View on Amazon

Source: Edelweiss



How the Meteorite Got to the Museum
Author: Jessie Hartland
Publisher: Blue Apple Books
Publication Date: October 8, 2013

Huzzah!! When I read Jessie Hartland's previous book, How the Dinosaur Got to the Museum (Blue Apple Books, October 2011), I was so excited about it that I said I wished she would write a dozen more like it, explaining how other things got to where they were. I believe I suggested, "How the Hamburger Got to Your Plate" or "How the Book Got to the Library" but I figured she'd be able to come up with much better ideas than that. And she did! Yay!

Like her previous book, this is a cumulative rhyme similar to "The House That Jack Built" that explains first what a meteor is and then all of the people along the way involved in getting it from the spot where it fell to the American Museum of Natural History. "This is the dog who barked at the meteorite," "This is the teenager whose car was hit by the flaming rock," "This is the geologist who validated the find," "This is the exhibits team who prepared the display," etc.

At the end of the book there is also more information about the real life geologist (and real life teenager's car) depicted in the book, with photos. That was my daughter Magda's favourite part since she was very concerned about the poor teenager's car being ruined when a meteorite fell on it. But Jessie Hartland assures us that the teenager (who would be in her late 30's by now) was able to get more than enough money from the sale of the meteorite and the car to buy herself a new set of wheels.

If you'd like to learn more about Jessie Hartland and her books, I highly recommend checking out this interview on Pen and Oink in which she takes us inside her studio to look at her projects, her inspiration and her projects. Hopefully one of those projects is the next "How the ___ Got to the Museum" book!

Jessie Hartland in her studio, via penandoink.com

The Night the Moon Ate My Room!, by Jesse Wilson

The Night the Room Ate My Room!
Author: Jesse Wilson
Publisher: Tate Publishing
Publication Date: September 4, 2012
Source: Goodreads
View on Amazon
 




Oh dear. I can tell that author Jesse Wilson loves this book dearly. Not only did he promote it on Goodreads (which is where I first heard about it, and how I won a free giveaway copy--thanks again) but when he sent me a copy I saw that he had also sprung for the matching bookmark. This book is his baby. Not only that, but his author bio lists his job as giving "educational performances of The Night the Moon Ate My Room for schools." Eek! This book is his life. So I'd hat to tell him I didn't love it.

In fact, if your name is Jesse Wilson and you're reading this you may want to just stop right now. Go get some tea, take a walk, then come back and look at a different website altogether. Okay?

Okay.

The truth is I hated this book. There's so much I hated about it I don't even know where to start because it makes me feel a little mean. But here are the main criticisms:

First, the book is such a clumsy allegory that even the author of the "Footprints in the Sand" poem would be like, "Whoa! Pull back a little!" It's like if you took a Mitch Albom book (say, Five People You Meet in Heaven) but stripped away all the sentimentality and relatability and all the things that make you care about hte character, and all you were left with was "The Lesson." Or if you took a Roald Dahl book (like James and the Giant Peach, for example) and surgcally removed all whimsy and clever writing until all that remained was...well, still better than this book, quite frankly.

Don't believe me? Well how about this. Even though the book is over 120 pages long he never bothers to give the main character a name. It's not all told in the first person either. Most of it is a third person narrative in which he refers to the hero of the story as simply "the boy."

Few things irritate me more than authors who are so intent on "teaching a lesson" that they forego good writing, good editing or good storytelling in order to focus solely on "the message." I find it insulting to the target audience and to the target buyers, teachers and parents. Because do you know who doesn't have to sacrifice good storytelling in order to impart a lesson? Good storytellers. And Jesse Wilson is not one.

Whew! I'm glad I asked him to leave the room before he read that.

Black and Bittern Was Night, by Robert Heidbreder (illustrated by John Martz)

Black and Bittern Was Night
Author: Robert Heidbreder
Illustrator: John Martz
Publisher: Kids Can Press
Publication Date: August 1, 2013
Source: NetGalley and Edelweiss
View on Amazon



What an unusual book! It reminds me a little bit of the Dr. Seuss meets The Nightmare Before Christmas, with all the adorable spooky skeletons trying to take over the holidays. In this case it's "skel-a-mug-mugs" who are trying to scare everyone in town so that Halloween is cancelled. It almost works when the "tall-bigs" lock up their "doorholds" and "drapefolds" and won't let their "tyke tots" out to trick-or-treat. Luckily the kids know better and sneak out to out "splook" the skel-a-mug intruders. The nonsense rhyme with made up words and silly tongue twisters is hard to read but surprisingly easy to understand.

It would also make a good exercise for elementary school aged children to try to figure out the silly poem's meaning. Poetry can be a bit daunting and inscrutable for some, and what better way to take on the task of deciphering poetry than to practice on a silly rhyme about skeletons at Halloween?

My daughter Magda had fun picking out all of the children's Halloween costumes ("Look! A wolf! I wonder why he doesn't have any candy?") as well as the silly skeleton features (some were wearing glasses, others suspenders). She was so amused by the silly rhymes and charming pictures that she forgot to be scared by the spooky "splooks."

Magda's favourite part: When they were trying to go in the houses but they couldn't get in. The pictures were so funny.

My favourite part: Don't laugh, but I really liked it because it reminded me of Plants vs. Zombies.

NOTE: I borrowed the "Magda's favourite part/My favourite part" idea from a great children's book blog called Read It Daddy. It's written by a dad from the UK with his daughter Charlotte and features "Charlotte's best bit" and "Daddy's best bit" in each review. You should definitely check it out. It's all kinds of awesome.

Loula is Leaving for Africa, by Anne Villeneuve

Loula Is Leaving for Africa
Author: Anne Villeneuve
Publisher: Kids Can Press
Publication Date: September 1, 2013
Source: NetGalley and Edelweiss
View on Amazon




Loula has had enough! Her triplet brothers are loud, stinky and driving her crazy! She's decided she's going to Africa. She doesn't know where that is, but she knows that it's very, very far away. So she packs her bags (her bunny, her tea service and her best drawing), tells her opera singer mother and her moustache-crafting father (is that a job?) that she's leaving. Then she's off. Luckily her chauffeur is actually paying attention and he spends the day with Loula, taking her on a "ship" (the town car) to "Africa" (the park), using their imaginations to have a day long adventure.

Magda ADORED this book. I'm sure we've already read it twenty times. When I asked her what her favourite part was she told me about ten different things. Here are the highlights:

Magda's favourite part: "I really like the name 'Loula.' But I liked how the driver called her 'mademoiselle' because that's like a fancy thing to say. And I like how they go to the park and have a picnic and stay out really late even after it starts to get dark. But why were Loula's brothers stinky? Were they really stinky? Did they just need a bath?"

My favourite part: Oh the eccentricities! The hipster haberdasher father, the opera diva mother, the little girl with her own chauffeur, the absurdity of the whole premise. I love it! It reminded me of those Eloise books about the little girl who lives at the Plaza Hotel. It's like stepping into a whole different world by reading about this little girl's life, which is sort of the point of the story anyway. So good!

I don't know much about author/illustrator Anne Villeneuve except that she wrote/drew a wordless book called The Red Scarf, but I hope she considers giving Loula her own series. I think my daughter would happily read 30 more books about this little girl!

Cozy Light, Cozy Night, by Elisa Kleven

Cozy Light, Cozy Night
Author: Elisa Kleven
Publisher: Creston
Publication Date: October 15, 2013
Source: NetGalley
View on Amazon




This is sort of a book of seasons with each page finding "cozy" things about each time of year. It's a great book to snuggle up--nice and cozy--with a little one and read before bed.

It's also a book you could read again and again because each page is filled with such detailed pictures. There are children playing, dogs running, butterflies fluttering, snow falling, stars twinkling, cats pouncing, and more.

It's also nice to see the same word used in so many different contexts. It really deepens the understanding of the word, which is lovely.

Magda's favourite part: "I like how they keep saying cozy everything. It reminds me of Cozy Little Book Journal!"

My favourite part: I have to agree with Magda. I'm a sucker for a book that has "cozy" in the title. But I also love the rich illustrations with lots of details to explore.