Sunday Sweets: Tour De Force, Pt 3
43 minutes ago
"Everyone's afraid of something...Madeleine Masterson is deathly afraid of bugs, especially spiders. Theodore Bartholomew is petrified of dying. Lulu Punchalower is scared of confined spaces. Garrison Feldman is terrified of deep water.
The first, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, is illustrated by Oleg Lipchenko, a member of the Ukrainian Union of Artists, now based in Toronto. This particular Alice edition is large, the size of a picture book, but 112 pages long and is illustrated very darkly. The Disney version of Alice definitely took away some of the darkness that the story does indeed posses and Lipchenko brings that back through his dark gray and brown drawings.
Alice in Wonderland, illustrated by Rodney Matthews, an English illustrator that has done work on record sleeves, computer games, and lots of books, among other things. It's still Lewis Carroll's famous story, but with a hugely different artistic interpretation. It all starts with the cover/box/sleeve the book actually comes in, which is designed in a very cool and unique manner, giving light to the fun you are going to find inside.
"Sisters Octavia and Tali dread the road trip their parents are forcing them to take with their grandmother over the summer. After all, Mare isn't your typical grandmother. She drives a red sports car, wears stiletto heels, flippy wigs, and push-up bras, and insists that she's too young to be called Grandma. But somewhere on the road, Octavia and Tali discover there's more to Mare than what you see. She was once a willful teenager who escaped her less-than-perfect life in the Deep South and lied about her age to join the 6888th African American battalion of the Women's Army Corps during World War II.
Ann Fay is finally home from the hospital, where she sat for months, fighting to stay alive as polio ravaged her body. She's about to return to school, behind all of her friends, and is upset, not quite understanding why this has happened to her. She's not only behind in school, but she has to walk with loud, clunky braces, definitely making her stand out, rather than blend in with her classmates. At the same time, her precious father is also fighting some inner demons, having returned from the war an emotionally damaged man, mixing up Ann Fay's own emotions something fierce.
We have a beautiful blind princess yearning to see and an elderly man that promises her father, the Emperor, he can give her the gift of sight. No one believes the old man, but with the help of his Seeing Stick, young Hwei Min is able to see the world as she could never see it before.
Told in a very humorous tone, this story follows Princess Hyacinth as she learns how to deal with being the odd kid out. If not weighted down, the Princess will float off, making it very hard to play with any other children, especially the young boy who wants to be her friend. When she decides she is just going to float anyways, no matter the danger, the Princess and the boy end up hatching a plan so they can play together and Princess Hyacinth is safe.
The Jungle Grapevine, written and illustrated by Alex Beard is one of those "lesson" books that doesn't quite feel like a lesson book. Which means your kids won't resent you for trying to sneak teaching into a story :)
"After his mother dies in a car crash, twelve-year-old Josh is left with a father who is building a time machine in the basement and a little brother who talks to a toy Power Ranger as if it is his dead mother. With no faith to guide him, Josh makes death his summer research project. He collects facts, interviews, suspects, compares religious rituals and feels guilty when he enjoys playing soccer or winning computer games. Isolated by grief in a home where every day is pajama day, Josh waits for life to feel normal, for death to make sense, and for his father to start acting like a father."Though I complete many books throughout the year, I review each one that I finish. Honesty is very important in my personal reviews and though I strive to enjoy each book that I pick up, sometimes I will dislike certain aspects of a book and my review will reflect that.
I read many genres of children's books and I give the same evaluation to each. I will spend equal time contemplating a children's book as an adult book, making for a fair and accurate review process.
I am very interested in receiving current or advanced review copies from publishing companies. If you are willing to send a copy of a book for review, please email me for contact information at AmandaLSnow@yahoo.com.