Llama Llama Mad at Mama written and illustrated by Anna Dewdney is a story of conflict management between a youngster and his mother written in rhyme.  This is the second in a picture book series following the very popular Llama Llama Red Pajama picture book. 

Llama Llama Mad at Mama is set in a familiar place, a Shop-O-Rama on a Saturday afternoon.  The illustrations clearly show that Llama Llama is not at all happy about going to the store, standing in long lines and waiting for his mother to pick out the perfect loaf of bread and perfect box of cereal.  He is bored.  He is tired.  He does not want to be there and he wants to leave.  Consequently, little Llama Llama’s frustration grows and ends with a temper tantrum right in the middle of the junk food aisle.  Quoting from the book:  “CRASH the cart and SMASH the signs, No more waiting!  No more lines!  Out go socks and Cheezee Puffs. . .Llama Llama that’s enough!”

The illustrations show how Mama Llama speaks directly to the problem and suggests that this trip, although it is boring and although it is long, is an opportunity for them both to be together.  This small bit of attention by his mother changes his whole outlook and they decide to be a team.  We see him picking up the things he threw on the floor, helping his mom push the cart then finding the car and heading home.

The pictures are very inviting colored in bright orange, green and blue.  There are plenty of humorous details including the feet and knees that little Llama Llama has to look at when he is standing in all of the lines, his pout as he gets more unhappy and his mad face when he has had enough.  The pictures in the second half of the book after they decide to become a team have sweet glances, nudges on the cheek, hand holding and smiles.          

Llama Llama Mad at Mama written and illustrated by Anna Dewdney is ideal for children 3 to 6 (published by Viking Juvenile, September 6, 2007).

This is Sue Ann Martin for Children’s Books. . .The Dean’s List

Discussion questions for Llama Llama Mad at Mama

Joyful Noise:  Poems for Two Voices, by Paul Fleischman, is just that—an amazingly delightful collection of poems about the insect world intended to be read aloud, either by two individuals or groups, “meshing as a musical duet,” at times in simultaneous fashion and at times running counter to one another.  Supported by Eric Beddows’ wonderfully stylized illustrations, Fleischman celebrates insects—some very real and others with humorously human characteristics.

In a cacophony of words, he describes the world of Grasshoppers “hatching” and “stepping into spring . . . hopping high . . . jumping far.”  They are “Grass leapers Grass bounders Grass springers Grass soarers.”  Another poem, perhaps the most challenging to read, describes “Whirligig Beetles” “swimming in circles . . . spinning and swerving . . .  whirling and weaving and wheeling and swirling.” in the most “circular roundabout backtracking indirect serpentine tortuous twisty, best possible route.”

Flitting “Fireflies” use their lights as ink to write on the night as their “parchment.”  Trust me, you will never look at a firefly in quite the same way again.  House Crickets living under the stove tell the seasons by the kitchen aromas, and their life revolves around their “unchanging reliable steadfast and stable bright blue pilot light.”  A Moth serenades a hanging porch light in romantic fashion, although the reader knows she will eventually burn her wings and die as she calls out for a meeting and merging.

The humming of Cicadas is likened to a jubilant, mighty choir, breaking forth with their “booming boisterous joyful noise” after three years spent underground.  “Chrysalis Diary” traces the life cycle of a caterpillar as it internally knows to reshape itself and form a cocoon, dangling through the “cataclysm” of blowing snow and cold, feeling “immeasurably alone,” until with warmth outside, the cocoon feels “stormy inside,” its mouth reshaping . . . legs . . . dissolving, wings . . . growing.”  And finally the cocoon remembers “last night I dreamt of flying.”

In the most humorous poem, two Honeybees offer conflicting perspectives on their lives.  The Queen is daily “fed by royal attendants,” fulfilling her only role of laying “eggs by the hundred,” while the worker is up early to gather nectar and feed grubs.  The Queen, “loved and . . . lauded, . . . outranked by none,” views hers as “the best of all lives,” while the worker strives wearily in his “worst of all lives.”

These and other insect poems make Joyful Noise a book not to be missed.  Children aged six and above as well as adults will enjoy having it read to them or with them.  Fleishman has, indeed, created a masterpiece.

Paul Fleischman.  Illus. by Eric Beddows.  Joyful Noise:  Poems for Two Voices.  New York:  Harper & Row, 1988.

Discussion questions for Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices

The Nutcracker adapted from the ballet by Susan Jeffers and also illustrated by Susan Jeffers is a retelling of the 1892 Tchaikovsky classic.  This version focuses on the ballet rather than the full length retelling of the E.T.A. Hoffmann original Nutcracker tale.  Consequently, the brief text is easily understood by younger children --- one of Jeffers’ main goals as she states in her Author’s Note at the end of the book.

The story begins at a Christmas Eve ball with Marie and her brother Fritz in attendance.  Marie’s Godfather, Herr Drosselmeier, arrives with gifts --- toy soldiers for Fritz and three presents for Marie including the nutcracker.  Fritz complains that this is not fair, he does not have three gifts! Quoting from the book:"He grabbed the Nutcracker from Marie and tossed him in the air.  The Nutcracker crashed to the floor and broke his head.  “So what,” jeered Fritz.  “It was an ugly thing.”  Herr Drosselmeier bound the Nutcracker’s head with his handkerchief.  Tenderly Marie took the Nutcracker into her arms. She put him under the Christmas tree"

Defining Feature: Susan Jeffers’ illustrations, drawn in black ink with a water-based paint layered over the images, are enchanting.  They masterfully capture the beautiful dancing at the ball, Marie’s great affection for the Nutcracker and the energetic attack of the Mouse King with his brigade of army mice.  The double-paged illustration of Marie’s entrance into the battle to save the Nutcracker is full of physical movement and emotional action.  Her white gown floats in the air as she hurls her shoe with all her strength toward the Mouse King.  The picture of Marie’s visit to the Land of Sweets with her Prince and the dancing led by the Sugar Plum Fairy is rendered in airy light pastels and graceful lines.  The cover, a close up of Marie with the Nutcracker in her arms and sparkles in her hair, is striking.

Discussion questions for The Nutcracker

The Polar Express by author and illustrator Chris Van Allsburg is a genuine Christmas classic for children.  Having won the Caldecott Medal in 1986 and becoming a major motion picture in 2004, the story of a little boy’s trip to the North Pole in the mysterious Polar Express has become well known to children.  But, at holiday season it bares retelling with book-in-hand around the fireplace. 

The narrative begins with a young boy going to bed on Christmas Eve and laying awake listening for Santa’s sleigh.  To him, the bells on Santa’s sleigh would prove that there is a Santa Claus.  Quoting the book, “Late that night I did hear sounds, though not of ringing bells.  From outside came the sounds of hissing steam and squeaking metal.  I looked through my window and saw a train standing perfectly still in front of my house.”  The little boy, clad in pajamas and slippers, is invited on board the Polar Express for a trip to the North Pole.  As the story unfolds, the train arrives at the North Pole amidst great activity filled with Santa’s elves, Santa’s sleigh and Santa.  Chosen as the child to get the first Christmas gift, the young boy selects a silver bell from Santa’s sleigh.  What happens to that bell that night, Christmas Day and throughout the boy’s life holds the key to this marvelous story.

Defining Feature: Chris Van Allsburg’s illustrations are very special.  His use of light to focus each picture captures the visual imagination.  The massive train standing silently below the boy’s window is powerful and inviting.  The illustration of the wolf pack watching the Polar Express move through the dark forest brings forth a spiritual quality and comparison between nature (the wolf pack) and man (the train track).  The pictures of the North Pole are full of busy factories and houses.  As Van Allsburg said in his Caldecott Medal acceptance speech, “How could it look any other way, given the volume of toys produced every year?”  The Polar Express is ideal for ages 4 to 8 and for everyone who is a believer (published by Houghton Mifflin, October 28, 1985).

Discussion questions for The Polar Express

Mythology by author Lady Hestia Evans, Editor Dugald Steer, and illustrated by the team of Nick Harris, Nicki Palin, David Wyatt and Helen Ward is a treasure trove of engaging pieces of information regarding the adventures of the Greek Gods, Greek heroes and fantastical beasts. 

This book, said to be a facsimile of an early 19th Century book by Hestia Evans, is an inviting introduction to Greek mythology.  Summarized stories of all the major Greek myths are featured including the tale of the Trojan Horse, Theseus and the Minotaur, The Labours of Heracles, Pandora’s Box and Perseus Fighting Medusa, to name just a few.  The text also describes the powerful monsters that populate the stories such as the Gorgon with wings of gold and snake infested hair, the half man and half horse Centaurus and the Sphinx with its face of a woman, body of a lion and wings of a bird.

Defining Feature: The 32 pages, including both inside covers, are filled with visual delights.  There are letters, newspaper clippings, flip up pockets, maps, envelopes, engravings, drawings, paintings, photos of sculpture, narrative friezes, diagrams, charts and five little books.  A fold out page features a map of ancient Greece that locates cities and temples, caves and oracles, and a table that traces the genealogy of the gods, monsters and heroes.

Older children will enjoy this book with all of its codes, secrets and novelties.  There is even a piece of the Golden Fleece.  They will also enjoy playing Tartarus, a card game played with thirteen cards, all of which are inside the book.  Also included is a chart that lists the Greek name and the Roman name of each God such as Zeus, the Greek name and Jupiter, the Roman name.

There are many opportunities for exploration in this source book that will lead to the discovery of the adventure, wisdom and culture stored in the Greek myths.

Mythology by Lady Hestia Evans is ideal for children 10 years of age and up (published by Candlewick Press, August 28, 2007).

Discussion Questions for Mythology

Tikki Tikki Tembo, Arlene Mosel’s retelling of an old Chinese folktale, is a humorous “why” story in the genre of “Why the Bear has a Stumpy Tale,” “Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears,” or “Why the Crab has No Head.” In Tikki Tikki Tembo we learn that “once upon a time . . . long, long . . . ago” fathers and mothers in China gave their much honored first sons “great long names” while second sons received hardly any name at all. Thus, the first and much favored son in this story receives a long tongue-twister of a name, “Tikki tikki timbo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo,” meaning “the most wonderful thing in the whole wide world,” while his younger brother is named only “Change” meaning “little or nothing.”

One day as their mother goes to do laundry in a nearby stream, the boys, ignoring her warning, play near the well, and Chang falls in. His brother runs to find help from the Old Man with the Ladder who runs slowly “step over step” and finally retrieves the waterlogged Chang. Time passes, and the well again proves too tempting, but this time it is the older brother who falls in. The younger Chang dutifully runs for help, first to his mother and then to the Old Man with the Ladder. But each time he is so out of breath and it is so hard to recite his older brother’s name, that the hapless Tikki tikki timbo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo almost drowns. Chagrined at her near loss, the mother sees the folly of such a long name. And so the moral or “why” of the story – from that day forward parents in China have given all of their children “little, short names.”

Tikki Tikki Tembo is a fun read aloud for children aged five to eight who will love the repetition and expressiveness of words, especially the challenge of trying the pronounce the older son’s complicated name. Award-winning illustrator Blair Lent has provided wonderful illustrations that perfectly match the folktale ambience of Tikki Tikki Tembo.

Discussion questions for Tikki Tikki Tembo

It Could Always be Worse:  A Yiddish Folk Tale, retold and illustrated by award-winning artist Margot Zemach, is a humorous story about a “poor unfortunate man” frustrated by the crowded conditions in his one-room hut shared with his mother, wife, and six children. The noise and arguing only increase during the cold winter days, so that the poor man finally goes to the Rabbi for help.  The Rabbi offers what seems to be quite amazing advice.  Asking the man if he owns a chicken or two, he advises him to take his few chickens, a rooster, and a goose into the hut to join the family.  As the man had expected, life becomes even worse with the “honking, crowing, and clucking” added to the already noisy household. Returning to the Rabbi, he is next advised to take his old goat into the hut and next a cow.  These two animals push, butt, run wild, and trample everything in their way.

The man returns to the Rabbi in desperation, claiming that there is “no room even to breathe” in the hut, and that his life is “worse than a nightmare!”  In response, the Rabbi tells the poor, unfortunate man to return home and let the animals out of the house.  Eagerly running home to follow this advice, he and his family are amazed to find that, for the first night in some time, they can sleep peacefully with “no crowing, no clucking, no honking” and “plenty of room to breathe.”  The next day the man returns to the Rabbi to thank him because he has made his life so sweet.  For with just the man and his family alone in the hut, life is “so quiet, so roomy, so peaceful.”  It is “a pleasure!”

Zemach’s humorous retelling of this folk tale with a moral—that sometimes our life must become extremely unpleasant before we recognize its sweetness—is something that we all need to remember.  It Could Always be Worse is a story that children aged four to nine will enjoy, and Zemach’s illustrations add to the sense of an eastern European setting.

Discussion Questions for It Could Always be Worse

Night Shift written and illustrated by Jessie Hartland is an interesting concept book about the people who works while we are asleep.  Unless there is a night shift worker in the family, most children have no concept of people working all night rather than all day.

Quoting from the book:
Late at night, when the owls are out and the raccoons are diving into trash cans, and you are finishing up the last bit of chocolate pudding and then brushing your teeth and wishing you didn’t have to go to bed just yet, there are people out there awake doing all sorts of interesting things. . .

A parade of night shift workers begins to pass across the night sky including a street sweeper, window dressers, a late night D.J., security guards, newspaper printers, bridge painters, a zoo keeper for nocturnal animals, a freighter captain, a truck driver, road workers, a donut baker, a fisherman, a tugboat captain and a waitress in an all-night café.  The text does connect the lives of each of these night shift workers in a loose but probably way through questions that require the child to turn the page to find the answer.  Who does the street sweeper stop and watch?  (Turn the page)  It is the window dresser.

The illustrations take the child inside an art museum, inside a recording studio, inside a bakery, on board a tugboat and into an all-night café among other places.  All fifteen double-page illustrations are full of detail and fun.  My favorite is the picture of the donut shop kitchen where all the warm donuts are stacked on cooling trays. Everything is there from plain jane, glazed and tutti frutti to candy cane, root beer and broccoli nut!  The final illustration, set in the inside of the all-night café, brings all of the shift workers together at 7:00 a.m. for something to eat as they end their day. 

Discussion Questions for Night Shift

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, written by Judith Viorst and illustrated by Ray Cruz, is a modern classic, celebrating its thirty-fifth year in print.  Adults and children alike can identify with Alexander and his day which grows consistently worse.  Beginning with the gum he finds stuck in his hair and breakfast where his brothers find wonderful toys in their cereal boxes while he finds nothing but cereal, his dissatisfaction escalates as on the way to school he can’t have a seat by the window.  At school, his drawing of an invisible castle is not a hit, and his singing is too loud.  And later he finds that, while his mother forgot to pack a dessert in his lunch, the dentist does find a cavity in his tooth. 

Interspersed in Alexander’s recounting of his “very bad day” are his wry comments and plans to move to Australia.  At counting time when he leaves out sixteen, he questions, “Who needs sixteen?”  When his Mom takes Alexander and his brothers to shop for sneakers, his brothers find fancy ones with bright stripes.  In Alexander’s size, only plain old white ones are available, to which he responds that they can make him buy these plain shoes but they can’t make him wear them.

That evening’s dinner features lima beans which he hates, the TV has kissing which he hates, his bath is too hot, and his pajamas are not ones he likes.  At bedtime his Mickey Mouse night light burns out, and the cat wants to sleep with his brother.  Bemoaning his “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day” once again, his mom consoles him with a reminder that “days are like that. Even in Australia.”

Ray Cruz’s whimsical line drawings depict Alexander’s torment-ridden day, capturing again and again the frustration and exaggerated agony he exhibits.  Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day is clearly a book that has not become dated with time and is a delight for children aged five to nine as well as for those of us who as adults also encounter such terrible, horrible days.

Discussion Questions for Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Toy Boat written by Randall de Sève and illustrated by Loren Long is a story about invention, courage and loyalty.  When the story begins, the boy has already been inventive by making a toy sail boat out of a can, a cork, a yellow pencil, a twig and a piece of white cloth.  This toy
is dear to the boy because it, indeed, was fashioned by his own hands.  Childhood is full of incidents of such creativity where the child builds a toy out of found objects.  In this story the can is used for the boat’s shell, the twig serves as the mast, the cloth becomes the sail,
the pencil is the rudder and the cork hold the mast in place. 

The boy takes the boat from the safe environment of his bathtub to the beach where he
plays endlessly with it in the water.  Not until a storm comes up and the small boat is carried off into deep water and raging waves does the drama start.

Loren Long’s vibrant blue and green acrylic paintings give richness to the story as we see how courageous the little boat tries to be when confronted with large boats that refuse to give it
any help.  The toy boat meets a tired black and green tugboat, then a giant ferry boat, a pushy speedboat, and a fleet of sailboats trying to outrun the storm.    All the boats have little regard for the small boat dismissing it with a stern, “Move along!  Move along!”  The illustration showing the little toy boat, water drenched and nearly capsized, is particularly empathetic.  Even the moon sheds a tear when it sees the small boat all alone on the rough sea.

All does turn out well the next morning, however, when a friendly fishing boat helps move the toy boat into position
to catch the breeze which, in turn, brings the boat back to shore where the little boy has been faithfully waiting for it.

Toy Boat written by Randall de Sève and illustrated by Loren Long is ideal for children ages 4 to 8 years old (published by Philomel, September 20, 2007).

Discussion Questions for Toy Boat

Peter Reynolds dedicated The Dot to his seventh grade math teacher who dared him to make his mark, and clearly he is making the same challenge to young children aged four to eight who will identify with Vashti and perhaps consider making their own marks.  The playful watercolor and ink illustrations match this simple story perfectly and use color effectively to portray Vashti’s feelings throughout the book as she becomes an artist.

Discussion Questions for The Dot

The Apple Pie that Papa Baked written by Lauren Thompson and illustrated by Jonathan Bean skips along to the rhythm of the old Mother Goose tale “The House That Jack Built.”

This cumulative story keeps adding a new image to the last images and repeating everything that has gone before it.  It provides a playful exercise in memory.  It begins with one delicious image (quoting from the text), “This is the pie, warm and sweet, that Papa baked.”  And then the author adds the apples, juicy and red, to the pie, warm and sweet, and on and on.  The text keeps moving outward from the pie to the apples, to the tree, to the roots, to the rain, to the clouds, to the sun and finally to the world.  It is a catchy and delightful story with a cozy, comfortable happy ending.

This constant rhythmic cycle is also captured in the illustrations by Jonathan Bean.  The yellow, black and red drawings on a cream background are full of circular movements and folk design reminiscent of Wanda Gag’s Millions of Cats.  The two-page spread of the tree, crooked and strong, is beautifully designed and the double page spread of the world, blooming with life, is hearty, concentric, balanced and thoroughly satisfying.  Bean includes an illustrator’s note on the inside of the front cover that explains that all the drawings are done in black ink and receive color when he scans them into a computer.

Each page is teeming with humorous details as the merry chase has everyone running after Papa and his apple pie including the little girl, the cat, the horse, the cow, the rooster, the pig and the fox.  In fact, as the pictures cleverly show, the cow and the horse become interested in that pie as soon as they see Papa start picking the apples.

The Apple Pie that Papa Baked written by Lauren Thompson and illustrated by Jonathan Bean is ideal for children ages 4 to 8 years old (published by Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, July 24, 2007).

Discussion Questions for The Apple Pie that Papa Baked