Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend, by Matthew Dicks

 
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Okay, full disclosure. This is NOT a children's book. But if you have kids, or you work with kids, or you used to be a kid, I highly recommend this book. Maybe not everyone will love it as much as I did, but whatever. I'll just read it again for you.

Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend is, in a word, brilliant. It's one of my favourite books of the year and that's saying something because I have read a truly insane number of books this year. I'm sure there are lots of you out there who have read far more than I have, but I've gone from an average of 1-2 books a week in 2011 to about 3-4 a week so far in 2012, so for me that's a lot. And this one stands out as phenomenal. 

The premise is simple but powerful. The novel is told entirely from the first person perspective of Budo, the imaginary friend of an Autistic boy named Max. Well, he's not labelled as Autistic, but the author makes it clear. In Budo's world, imaginary friends are very real and can interact with each other, even if the only humans who can see them are the children who first imagined them. And once that child stops believing in his or her imaginary friend, the friend disappears. Since Max spends so much time inside his own head, his imaginary friend has survived longer than most. Budo is nearly six years old and in that time he has learned a lot about the world and the dangers it presents, both for Max and for him. Budo is worried about disappearing, worried about what will happen if Max stops believing in him. But more than that, he's worried about Max. Max sometimes forgets to look for cars before crossing the street. Max is being bullied by a mean kid at school. And, most worrisome of all, Max has been befriended by a teacher whom Budo does not trust. At all.

Codly and the Sea Cave Adventure, by Lisl Fair and Michaela Grace (illustrated by

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The following review originally appeared on my other blog, Cozy Little Book Journal, on June 8, 2012. Since that time the author has let me know that she will be re-editing the book before publishing it in wide release. So the following review may be out of date:

This book is beautifully illustrated and, if the text were to be rewritten a little, it might make a lovely picture book. When I read that the author is a Speech and Language Therapist who is interested in writing children's books that are educational, I assumed that the character in the book who has a stammer (Pokie the pufferfish) would have some resolution. Maybe the book is about stuttering, I assumed. I was wrong. Pokie's stammer just seems to be a way to distinguish when he is the one speaking (though just adding words like "Pokie said" would have been much more effective for young readers). And, like Lisl Fair's other book (Lexi Fairheart and the Forbidden Door), it might be easier for her to get it published in print if she makes it the standard 32 pages instead of the hard-to-print 23 pages of the e-book edition. Still, my two-year-old really liked the beautiful pictures and I think the book has potential.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for writing a review, though the review did not necessarily need to be favourable, just honest. I frequently read and review books for this reason, but I am always very truthful (and, I hope, fair) in my reviews. Therefore any opinions expressed are strictly my own.

I look forward to the re-release of this book. I think with a little editing, it could be marvellous! 

Hit the jump for Magda's take:

Grammar Girl's 101 Troublesome Words You'll Master in No Time, by Mignon Fogarty

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I've read a lot of style guides over the years (mostly for fun--I'm that kind of nerd) and I consider myself to have fairly good grammar. The problem is, I imagine everyone thinks they have good grammar and we can't all be right. 

In the first season of the fantastic show, American Horror Story, Marcy the realtor tells the unfortunate couple who wants to sell their haunted house and thinks they've at least decorated it with style, "Everyone thinks they have good taste and everyone thinks they're funny. Most people are wrong." 

That's how I feel about grammar. I assume I know all the rules, but then I find myself breaking the rules here and there (call it poetic license or internet casualness) until eventually it becomes a habit and I forget what the rules are in the first place. I'm sure there are several mistakes in the paragraph above, for example. 

So perhaps I'll check a style guide, just to be sure. I may dust off a copy of Strunk & White or even flip through Eats, Shoots & Leaves to find out if it's all right to say alright (sometimes my spell check just doesn't know). The problem is, sometimes these experts disagree. How do I, a mere grammar civilian, know who to believe?

Enter Grammar Girl. What sets this style guide apart from others is the format. Each "troublesome word" is first presented as a query. Why is this word confusing? What's the debate? Using the example of "alright," Grammar Girl tells us that although most style guides...

Hit the jump for more Grammar Girl stuff!

How To Raise a Good Kid, by Starbuck O'Dwyer

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Starbuck O'Dwyer's childhood memoir, How to Raise a Good Kid, is so good that I would believe that he is secretly a celebrity memoir ghost writer (Hello? Mindy Kaling? Do you know anything about this?). It would fit nicely with his already impressive list of jobs, including lawyer, radio host, novelist (I've heard great things about Red Meat Cures Cancer) and graduate from every Ivy League school ever. Of course, if his memoir is to be believed, having multiple jobs may be genetic since his father was apparently a military advisor, a deacon, a business owner and a university alumni representative who interviewed screened prospective students. That seems like a lot of things. Through it all, though, his dad's main job was as awesome super dad who, along with his mom, taught young Starbuck invaluable life lessons that still resound today.

Hit the jump for Magda's take and more!

Old MacDonald Had Her Farm, by JonArno Lawson (illustrated by Tina Holdcroft)

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I love this book for quite a few reasons. One, Old MacDonald is a female farmer. It's a little thing, I know, but I like it. Second, the illustrations are hilarious and practically cry out for multiple perusals. And third, the concept of the book is fantastic. Instead of animals, the set up is "Old MacDonald had her farm A-E-I-O-U. And when she came across an A, this is what she'd do:" and then lists a whole bunch of action words that feature the letter "A" (repeat for E, I, etc., and then "sometimes Y"). It's the sort of book that I think two-year-olds would like (my own personal focus group of one, Magda, calls it "pretty wondaful") because it's cute and funny. But I also think that elementary school kids who are learning about vowel sounds would enjoy it because the pictures are so hilarious, even if it looks like a preschool book. 


One word of caution to educators and parents who are planning to read this book aloud to children. It's not that easy to read! It starts off with a similar rhythm and cadence as "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" so the natural instinct is to try to make the rest of the book into a sing-songy rhyme, but be warned! It's hard to say these phrases fast, let alone in a sing-songy way. If you're not a professional performance poet, you may want to read it through a couple of times before you read it aloud to your class. Still, watching you get tongue tied will probably be half the fun for your little ones!


Hit the jump for Magda's take and more!

The Fire Station, by Robert Munsch (illustrated by Michael Martchenko)

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I love Robert Munsch! I saw this title on NetGalley.com so I guess it's been re-released, but originally it was published twenty years ago. Like all Robert Munsch books, it holds up beautifully. It's also one of my daughter's favourite types of Robert Munsch stories, namely the little-kid-with-a-fast-vehicle (her other favourites are Angela's Airplane and Zoom!). Of course, one of the best thing about Robert Munsch books is Robert Munsch himself, his storytelling is beyond compare. If you ever have a chance to take your child to see him in person, it's definitely worth it. In the meantime, check out his website. You can download audio files of him reading almost all of his books. (It's fantastic for long car rides for those of us who don't have video games and DVD players in our cars.)


Hit the jump for Magda's assessment and more!

Welcome to The Bookish Elf!

Welcome to The Bookish Elf, a partner blog to CozyLittleBookJournal.com, where we'll be posting all of our children's book reviews, plus interviews with Magda (our two-year-old chapter book critic), children's book contests, author interviews and more!


The site is brand new so keep checking back for reviews and updates!