Book of the Day: The Red Balloon

The Red Balloon
by Albert Lamorisse
Doubleday (1956)

Recently, we went to a party and Mirette acquired a red balloon.  She carried it around with her everywhere for several days, finally tying it on her bed post until it shriveled up. 

This reminded me of the book The Red Balloon which I haven't read since I was a kid.   I took it out from the library and boy did it deliver.  The book is actually photos of stills from the movie and depicts a young boy's relationship with a red balloon.  The boy, Pascal, doesn't question the magical properties of this balloon as an adult would which, in and of itself, creates a delightful reading experience.   However, what I think makes this a stand out is the way that so many powerful emotions are conveyed throughout the book.

Somehow, without the author telling us, the boy appears to be lonely.  He makes friends with the red balloon and his face expresses loyalty, joy, playfulness, kindness, concern,and caring.   He is the target of bullies which makes him scared and worried.  When his balloon pops, he feels grief.  And when all the balloons of Paris lift him off into the sky, he feels elated.

The author Albert Lamorisse is actually a film maker.  The short film The Red Balloon won an Oscar for the Best Original Screenplay in 1956.   Of course, we had to track it down and watch it.  Here's the youtube link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS_io-ZB5ZU (though we watched it on Netflix).   I'm not sure I would recommend watching it with your two year old.  Mirette liked it a lot, but was also kind-of scared.   The bully scenes are pretty intense.  She also went through every emotion right along with Pascal and the balloon,  "Mommy, the balloon is all alone; Mommy, why are those boys mean? and finally when he lifts off into the sky, "Where is the boy going? Where is his mommy and daddy?"

From my point of view, the movie is an incredible film.   Even if you don't want your kid to watch it, it's a brilliant piece of film-making.  I can see why it won the Oscar.   So much emotion, that even as an adult, I kind-of could almost sort-of think the balloon is really magic (or at least wish it was).
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Several interesting tid-bits about Lamorisse.   Pascal, in the book, is his actual son and the girl he befriends is his daughter Sabine. He told his kids a story a day and sounds like a very creative soul and fun father.  Sadly,  Lamorisse died in a plane crash while filming a documentary.  And, this is the absolute weirdest fact EVER, he invented the board game RISK.   (my step-daughters and husband love that game and introduced it to me--it's very clever and fun!).  

If you are wondering what happened to Pascal, he re-released his father's film and is making a sequel:
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=17253102&m=17253067

Books of the Day: On the Farm

G is for Goat
by Patricia Polacco
Philomel Books (2003)

Duck on a Bike
by David Shannon
The Blue Sky Press (2002)

Okay folks, this is my LAST paired book review.  I'm exhausted and Valentines Day is over (it was sort-of my Valentines theme).  Phew!  These two winners are both from our most recent trip to the library

G is for Goat grew on me after reading it a few times.  First I thought it was nothing special (which truthfully happens to me a lot with both books and music), but after a few reads, I was charmed.  One reason I like it is because everyone in our family adores goats.   I remember my year traveling in Nepal, how important goats were and how much personality they had.  Mirette, Steve and I recently went to a goat farm in California and  they pulled at our clothes which Mirette thought was so funny.  I think it's clever the way Ms. Polacco ties the entire alphabet to goats.  The drawings of the girls with bright colorful dresses and head coverings are so charming.  They look both hard-working, playful and calm at the same time.   I want to be right there with them.  

Many moons ago, the entire third and forth grade at my school trekked over to the high school to hear Patricia Polacco speak.  I remember her strong anti-bullying message.  She was very honest with her story of being teased and the pain that it brought her.   Her message to the children was very stern and very impassioned, bullying is not okay don't do it.  As the School Counselor I was thrilled!

Patricia's website is chocked full of information and activities.   Some interesting things that stood out to me--Patricia does not answer e-mails, you have to write a snail mail letter to her.  She has a farm in Michigan and holds events at her farm.   (Oh man, I have to go!).   There is a meteor that landed fairly close to her farm.   Abe Lincoln walked through her house.   She has dyslexia and didn't write her first book until the age of 41.  She owns goats.  She comes from a family of storytellers (Ukraine, Russian, Irish, and from the Bayou), and finally she is really beautiful and interesting looking.   http://www.patriciapolacco.com/index.htm

Duck on a Bike was read at library story time and I kept thinking about it afterwards, so I went back to take it out.  It's a funny story with bright colorful pictures, about a duck riding a bike.  All the other animals have a reaction to it--everything from jealousy to what a waste of time to I want a turn.  At the end, all the animals ride bikes and the humans don't even know about the spectacular event.  

David Shannon is the same guy that wrote No David!  He doesn't seem to have a website, but here's a his bio and a video interview:  http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/shannon/.  He gravitates towards michevious characters like David and the crazy duck who insists on riding a bike.   He lives in LA with his wife and young daughter, so I'm sure he will be writing many more books in the years to come.

Books of the Day: Cumulative Books

The Napping House
Author:  Audrey Wood
Illustrator:  Don Wood
Harcourt (1984)

The Deep Blue Sea:  A Book of Colors
Author:  Audrey Wood
Illustrator:  Bruce Wood
The Blue Sky Press (2005)

Mirette and I are a great fans of cumulative songs and books (songs that keep adding items until you end up with a long list).  Or, um, maybe I'm the big fan and she just deals with me.   Regardless, building songs are great for long car rides and can be pretty hilarious.  Here are the two that we sing most often (but we make up our own verses):

Rattlin Bog:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTSO-edqI_0


When I First Came to This Land:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgCN1lZbiNE

Apparently, Audrey Wood shares our love of cumulative stories because both our selections are written by her.  (Admittedly, I didn't notice this until I sat down to write this piece). 

The Napping House, with soft flowing pictures by hubby Don Wood, features a grandma who is asleep on the bed with a pile up of various living beings on top of her--"a slumbering mouse on a snoozing cat on a dozing dog on a dreaming child on a snoring granny on a cozy bed in a napping house where everyone is sleeping".   It's sweet, joyous, funny and lots of fun to read aloud.

The Deep Blue Sea:  A Book of Colors is illustrated by her son  Bruce.  The illustrations are bright, sharp and colorful--as different from Don's soft pastels as can be.   In this cumulative book there's" a purple parrot on a brown nut on a green tree on a red rock in the middle of the deep blue sea."

Interestingly, both of these great reads end with a rainbow!

The Audrey Wood website: http://www.audreywood.com/ offers such a vast of information that it will be hard to sum up in this blog posting (they have a  blog http://www.audreywoodauthor.com/, activity pages, interviews, book reviews, bios, teacher pages etc.). 

The whole family is very interesting.  Audrey's dad, grandfather and great-grandfather were all artists.  (she broke the mold by being the first woman--yipee!).  Her dad worked at a circus re-painting murals and the family also lived in Mexico for a brief period.  Don grew up on a farm and his parents did not want him to persue art as a career.  They now live in Santa Barbara enjoying many outdoor activities.  Bruce was the model for many of his parents books like Quick as a Cricket which we have and love and King Bidgood's in the Bathtub which we take out from the library and love.   He studied drama, computer art, and loves to surf.

The Napping House was written because Bruce had a hard time napping (sounds familiar!), so Audrey would take him to grandma's house where he would promptly fall asleep. The house soon earned the nickname The Napping House.  Audrey's sister Jennifer wrote a song to go with the book and newer editions come with the cd.   This is the only recording I can find (not a very good one): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cRP02zqAvg

Here's a video of a woman doing The Napping House with yoga poses (I love that idea!):  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsvlR5qrCyE

Books of the Day: My Dog and My Cat

I Like Cats
Author:  Patricia Hubbell
Illustrator:  Pamela Paparone
Cheshire Studio (2003)

The Perfect Puppy for Me
Author: Jane O'Conner and Jessie Hartland
Illustrator:  Jessie Hartland
Viking (2003)

I have been so excited to write this entry because, really, I need to vent about my cat, Pololo,  and  my dog, Tama.  I love my pets, but they are both getting very old.  According to our vet,  Pololo is living on borrowed time.  Tama has become arthritic and loud.   She has this way of humming and snoring in her sleep that has always been endearing, but now is loud and annoying. 

 There is nothing worse than putting Mirette back to sleep after a nightmare, to be almost there, and then hear a rumbling at the door.  Tama lumbers in and breathes loudly, tossing and turning, or whimpering to go outside.   In those moments, I feel something close to hatred. 

Meanwhile, Pololo has started to cry in the middle of the night.  Our vet thinks it's because she is old and disorientated.  It's the most mournful and pitiful sound.

I need to remember why I love them and how they have been there for me through thick and through thin for many many years.  So I thought I would pick a cat book in honor of the great Pololo and a dog book in honor of the beautiful copper-colored Tama.

My cat book, I Like Cats is a recent find that is super adorable.   It's a simple rhyming book with big, colorful pictures of cats.  But what won me over is the Title page with a line-up of cats much like a montage of school photos.  Each cat has a name like Otto, Rusty, Whiskers and Pickle Jones.  We shared a lot of giggles over the funny names and it tapped into Mirette's recent interest in naming everything.

Patricia Hubbell is a poet and children's book author from Connecticut.  She loves horses and seems very accessible to kids.   http://www.kidspoet.com/aboutme.htm.  There is not much out there about Pamala Paparone.


The Perfect Puppy For Me is great fun and very busy.  It's about a boy who loves dogs and is trying to choose a breed.   He talks about all the different types of dogs he knows.  This is interspersed with facts about the breed of dog and facts about dogs in general.   The illustrations remind me a lot of Maira Kalman (and if you have been reading my blog, you know that she is a favorite of mine!).  

Mirette has only recently been distinguishing subsets within categories.   Only just recently she realized that dogs can be poodles or bulldogs.  Before,  they were all just dogs.   So this is a great book for expanding a preschoolers knowledge of dogs.

The book is written by Jane O'Connor who has a dog named Lucky and works in the children's literature field as an editor.   As I was researching this I found out that she also wrote the Fancy Nancy series.   What a powerhouse!! She has also written books with her husband and her son.   http://biography.jrank.org/pages/447/O-Connor-Jane-1947.html

Jessie Hartland illustrates books and also sells prints, ceramics, watches and other products.   Here's her link:  http://www.jessiehartland.com/

Books of the Day: To the Moon and Back Again

The Prince and the Seven Moons
Author:  Mike Thaler
Illustrator:  Ursula Arndt
Macmillan Company (1966)

Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me
Eric Carle
Little Simon (1986)

In our family we say,  "I love you to the moon and back again."  

I always notice the depiction of the moon in children's books.  It's amazing the multitude of ways that one can draw a moon.  In common, the moon is this twinkling, friendly object that keeps our children safe at night.  The moon is comforting, sweet and protecting.

The Prince and The Seven Moons is extra special because it was given to me by my Nana when I was a child.   Since both my grandmas died before I was twelve, any surviving thing from either of them  has an extra special place in my heart.

The story is about a prince who is looking out the window of his castle asking people passing by what they know about the moon.   The merchant thinks the moon is a golden dollar, the baker thinks it's a pie, the young kid thinks it's a balloon.  The illustrations are pen and ink drawings with the object--balloon, pie, golden dollar-- in bright yellow.  In the end, the princess teaches the prince about the moon as they picnic under it.  

The author Mike Thaler is known as The Riddle King.  See for yourself:  http://www.mikethaler.com/biography.htm.  I can't find too much information though on this book which was obviously one of his earliest.

There's not too much out there on Ursala Arndt either, only that she has illustrated many a children book.  

My other favorite and fun moon books is Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me.   This is a multi-dimensional book with pages that unfold to reveal ladders, mountains, and moons.  

I surely will profile Eric Carle in future posts, but suffice it to say for now that his books go outside the box in terms of form-- folding pages, moving pages, holes in pages, sliding boxes.   Here's some grade school ideas on the activities associated with the book that you may be able to tweak to be appropriate for preschoolers.   http://www.eric-carle.com/bb-papa.html

Books of the Day: Songs Turned into Books

Over in the Meadow
Illustrator:  Ezra Jack Keats
Puffin Books (1971)

Island in the Sun
Authors:  Harry Belafonte and Lord Burgess
Illustrator:  Alex Ayliffe
Dial Books for Young Readers (1999)

It's funny that I should write this blog post after embarrassing myself at last nights Karaoke (I sang Barry Manilow's Copacabana and it was off the charts horrible!).  Yep, for some reason, there are a bunch of women at Mirette's preschool that LOVE to sing and love to organize Karaoke nights..  What's more, they happen to be dang good singers.   As for me, I am as tone deaf as they come.   But still I LOVE singing (though usually not in public).

Some of my favorite children's books to share with Mirette are ones that turn songs into beautifully illustrated books.  We can download the songs on I-tunes and belt them out while we are turning the pages.   What a delight!

Over in the Meadow has stunning illustrations.  My favorite page, by far, is the lizard that tells her children to BASK.   "Bask!" said the mother. "We bask," said the eight.  So they basked in the sun by the old mossy gate."   I just love the fact that the mother commands her children to bask.   I wish someone would command me to bask!  Please!

The author of the song is disputed.

  Here's a link to Ezra Keat's website:  http://www.ezra-jack-keats.org/.   What he is most known for is writing a book where a black child is the hero.   Surprisingly, he was not an African-American man, but rather an impoverished Polish Jew.   After World War Two he changed his name from Katz to Keats to avoid anti-Semitism.  He was a gifted artist from the start.   His website is run by the Ezra Jack Keats foundation and they do a ton of amazing things to promote literacy including a book-making contest for kids, an award for a new author and illustrator of the year, mini-grants and many other great things.  

Here are some other interesting tid-bits.  He never married or had children; Prospect Park in Brooklyn has an Imagination Playground featuring his characters;

 An ice-skating rink is named after him in Japan; And he created the sets for a musical called Captain Louie (based on his book The Trip).  

Island in the Sun is a song written by Harry Belafonte and Lord Burgess (the one that wrote Jamaica Farewell) celebrating life in Jamaica.   I love the island feel of the song and the bright pictures by Alex Aliffe.  It's happy and reminds me of warm island energy (I want to go BASK there).   The pictures also have a lot of little things around the borders that are fun for Mirette to identify:  mango, pineapples, birds, palm trees.  Ahhhhh.   Mostly, I can really feel their love of a place shining through.  

Link to Harry's biography:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Belafonte

Alex Ayleffe lives in Hertfordshire, England and has illustrated a ton of books.  Here's some pictures of her body of work:  She must be a rather private person because there's not much information on her life out there.  

 By the way, I read somewhere or another that you are "supposed" to sing to your children even if your voice sucks.  So happy singing!