Book of the Day: Pete's a Pizza

Pete's a Pizza
William Steig
(1998)

This book is hilarious!   It's raining outside and Pete is bummed, so his dad turns him into a pizza.   The funniest part is when his dad tickles him.   Pete's dad says, "Pizza's are not supposed to laugh."  Pete replies,  "pizza-makers are not supposed to tickle their pizzas."    By the time the pizza game is done, the sun is out and Pete can go out and play.   Besides the fact, that in our neck of the woods a little rain doesn't stop a kid from playing outside, there is a little moral here--make lemonade out of lemons.   But the real reason we love this book is that Mirette makes me act out all the steps--just like in the book and we both laugh hard and long.   It brings a certain silly intimacy our way and for that I do adore this book.

William Steig (1907-2003) was quite a Don Juan.  He had four wives, one of whom was  the sister of Margaret Mead.    

Other facts:
He never completed college
Played water polo
Has a brother that's telepathic
Started writing kids books in his 60's
He was a cartoonist at The New Yorker
He published drawing books for adults (Can't wait to check them out!  One is entitled Our Miserable Life.)
Shrek means FEAR in Yiddish
He loved Pinnochio as a kid
Wilhelm Reich was his therapist.  He sat daily in a Orgone box to try and collect orgasmic energy--what???
His parents were Jewish socialists
Sylvyster and the Magic Pebble was banned in various places for depicting police as pigs.
Pete's a Pizza was conceived in one night!


This is a VERY long article with tons of interesting other factoids about the author:
http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/resources/longbox/60/

New York Times Obit:   http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/05/nyregion/william-steig-95-dies-tough-youths-and-jealous-satyrs-scowled-in-his-cartoons.html?src=pm

A funny article on the Orgone machine:  http://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/29/arts/wry-child-unconscious-william-steig-90-art-life-mysterious-orgone.html?src=pm

Books for Kids about Fall--my list of favorites.

I've been reading a lot of BEST OF book lists for the fall season, so I decided to create my own list of fall favorites:


Apple
Nikki McClure
Abrams Appleseed (2012)

Nikki McClure is a local favorite as she lives in Olympia, Washington (a hop, skip and a jump away), writes about simple things like rain and the farmers market and has a very distinctive style.  In Apple, the pictures are black and white, except for the red apple.  Each alternate page has a single word such as fall, share, plant.   It's a very special ode to the apple and we love it!

http://www.nikkimcclure.com/


Little Green
Keith Baker
Harcourt Books (2001)

You may not think this one belongs in the fall list, but our family has spent many wondrous moment watching the hummingbird hang around our fuchsia tree this season.   The colors in this book are amazing and happy.  
http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8749317886050281919#editor/target=post;postID=5570299668348101063


South
Patrick McDonnell
Little, Brown and Company (2008)

Told in comic strip style, this is a sweet book about fall, compassion, and friendship.  The best thing, no words--so your little one can read this on his/her own.

Lots of good looking books here:  http://muttscomics.com/default.aspx


Apples A to Z
Author:  Margaret McNamara
Illustrator:   Jake Parker
Scholastic Press (2012)

The title says it all!  A fox teaches us about apples.    In case you are wondering about the more unusual letters, x is the mark made in pies, y stands for yield (the amount of apples from a tree) and v is for varieties.   Gorgeous and interesting!

Margaret McNamara doesn't have a website yet, but she does have some great books on fairies coming out soon.  

Jake Parker is another well known cartoonist:  http://mrjakeparker.com/


Ghosts in the House!
Kazuno Kohara
Roaring Book Press (2008)

I love this book.  There is a sassy girl/witch who catches ghosts and put them in the washing machine.  The illustrations are black on red, with the ghosts looking like tissue paper.    It's super adorable.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/kazunokohara




Fall Mixed Up
Author:  Bob Raczka
Illustrator:  Chad Cameron
Carolrhoda Books (2011)

This is a funny one!  Get ready for laughter and lots of word play--"Hats cover hand.  Glove cover ears.  Bonfires cool off our fronts and our rears."  

http://www.bobraczka.com/about-me/index.html

http://www.chadcameron.com/ (noisy but cool!)

Book of the Day: Six Crows

Six Crows
Leo Lionni
Alfred A. Knopf  (1988)


We love Leo Lionni's interesting fables and collages.  Mirette loves Swimmy, Alexander and the Wind Up Mouse, and A Fish is a Fish, but Six Crows is a new one for us.   We love the fall theme, the picture of crows with ripped paper, and of course anything with a scarecrow wins Mirette's seal of approval.   I, of course, like the books that have morals because they usually remind me  of life's simple truths.   In this case, it's never too late to talk things over.


Here's a few interesting things about Leo Lionni (1910-1999):

  As many illustrators of his generation, he got started with a career in advertising.

He didn't start writing until he was around 60.  He was on a train without any art supplies and started tearing images out of magazines to tell a story to his grandchildren, thus inspiring him to use his collage method.  

He is the first children's author/illustrator to use collage as a medium.

He uses realistic color on a white background.

He is Dutch,  but lived in the United States and Italy.

He wrote 40 books.

He was an only child.

His mom was an opera singer.

As a kid, he collected all kinds of natural objects and many of his images stem from this time.

Being Jewish, his family got out of Italy and moved to the states right before the war.

He loved music.

He died of Parkinson's disease.

This website is full of information, profiles all of his books, a few videos and a touching piece written by his granddaughter:   http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/lionni/aboutlionni.php

Another site with some great information/lesson plans:  http://www.mermaidtheatre.ns.ca/onTour/leoLionni/Leo_Lionni_SG/index.htm


His obituary:  http://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/17/nyregion/leo-lionni-89-dies-versatile-creator-of-children-s-books.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

Parrot Tico Tango Revisited

A while ago I wrote this blog posting about the book:  Parrot Tico Tango:

http://miretteandmommy.blogspot.com/2012/03/book-of-day-parrot-tico-tango.html.

This book has been a continuous favorite of ours and is just a gorgeous book in every way.   One day
I was browsing in a small consignment shop on our island that a friend recently started.  On the table, there was a big pile of the Parrot Tico Tango books. 

"That's one of our favorite books," I commented.

"Did you know she lives on the island?"  Emma replied.

"WHAT!"

Today Mirette and I were lucky enough to listen to Anna White read her two stories and sing to a group of about 6 kids.  It was so sweet and she made it fun with her Spanish words and guitar playing.   I am thrilled that she lives here and seems such a warm and wonderful person!

We also got in a little chat about picture books.  She said that it's very difficult to publish rhyming books--publishers don't want them these days.  I think it's probably because so many rhyming books are god-awful and trite.    But how sad to pass up a book like this with rich, complex, intersting rhymes.      

Fun Fall Books

Here are some great ideas for books about FALL.

We've been checking some of them out from the library and there are lots of great new discoveries!

http://www.simpleasthatblog.com/2012/09/50-fabulous-childrens-books-for-fall.html

http://delightfulchildrensbooks.com/2011/09/18/autumn/

You can't go wrong with these two great sites!

Book of the Day: Rumpelstiltskin

Rumpelstiltskin
Paul O. Zelinsky
Houghton Mifflin Company (1989)

What a strange story--so chilling and horrific anyway you look at it.   I mean, the Queen ends up happily married to the King, but only because she could spin hay into gold--sounds like a great start to an intimate relationship.  

 But I do love these old Grimm tales translated and modernized.  I like reading something that was told years and years ago, but now with vivid pictures.     Plus, it's fun to do a funny voice for good ol' Rumple.  It makes Mirette laugh.

Paul O. Zelinsky http://www.paulozelinsky.com/paul.html lives in Brooklyn with his family.  He attended Yale and was inspired by a class he took taught by Maurice Sendak.   He also wrote Rapunzel and The Wheels of the Bus both of which are very acclaimed.  

By the way,  I'm back in business--or at least I think I am!

Short Chicago Takes: My Little Pink Princess Purse

My Little Pink Princess Purse
Stephen T. Johnson
Simon and Schuster (2010)

I'm not into promoting the princess thing and Mirette hasn't shown a huge leaning towards the phenomenon (yet!), but this princess book was completely captivating. 

It occupied Mirette for hours and I found it interesting myself.   It was the type of book I would have loved when I was a kid.    On Amazon, it is marketed as a gift novelty book (whatever that means).  Basically, it is the story of a purse of a young princess.  The reader can take out all kinds of things that are in the purse (a letter from her grandma with a key, a mirror that really works, a fan that unfolds, perfume that really smells).  It takes some dexterity to get the things in and out which is one of the reasons Mirette spent so much time with it--it was fun to take things out and put them in again.  And the moral of the story is:  Be yourself and be empowered!

I think an older child would also enjoy this book as you could make up more fantasy play while reading it.  

The author Stephen T. Johnson also wrote My Little Red Toolbox and a bunch of others in the same style.  He has other award winning books for children (A is for Art looks awesome!).  art in major museums, made a plan for the World Trade Center, art hanging in Paul Simon's house, an amazing piece on the NYC subway (worth going to the website just to see it).  He's known to be a very versatile artist who works in many mediums and his resume is kind-of off the charts amazing.  

He settled down in Kansas City with his family and probably wrote the books in part for his own kids.  

http://www.stephentjohnson.com/news/

If you want to see the book in action:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TScA7fwLCc&feature=relmfu