105 Ways to Give a Book

Cybils: More Random Picture Books

You wouldn’t believe the holiday drama of the extended family if I told you, so for now, I’m just going to throw out another batch of random Cybil-nominated picture books. Hold it, you say, didn’t we already decide the winners? Oh yes we did, and I’m very excited about them. But that will wait until tomorrow. For today, I give you Books That I Just Happened To Have Some Notes About:

Fancy Nancy and the Posh PuppyI’m not a big Fancy Nancy fan. Generally, I find the whole “I’ll dress however I want” thing to be a little annoying. Call it the conformist in me. In Jane O’Connor’s Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy, though, the focus is on the kind of dog that Nancy will get. She wants a posh little pet — kind of a Paris Hilton puppy in training. When she takes care of her neighbor’s dog, she finds that maybe this is not the right kind of dog for her and her family after all. It’s great that the story shows how having a dog is real work and how the family compromises at the end, with a bigger dog — but a pretty breed. Oh, and the glitter seems to be confined to the cover (and in my copy, under a plastic wrap), so it’s not breaking policy to read it.

The Police CloudIn The Police Cloud, by Christoph Niemann, there’s a cloud who has dreamed of being a police officer. He asks a police helicopter for help, and together they go to the police station to plead his case. He’s given a chance to try, but his cloud-like nature makes the job impossible. As he cries over the loss of his dream, he puts out a burning building — and is welcomed into the fire department. Interesting and a little surreal.

Hungry Monster ABCI rarely say this, not being a font geek, but I think Hungry Monster ABC, by Susan Heyboer O’Keefe, would have looked better with another type style. The pictures by Lynn Munsinger are good, of the ten hungry monsters at school. They’re funny and personable. Somehow though, the type gives it a self-published look. Silly light text about going to school. The book comes with paper flashcards for extra ABC practice.

The EndThe End, by David Rochelle and Richard Egielski, is a story told entirely backward, with an interesting cast of characters to explain. I thought it was fascinating to read the story backward, and then turn the book backward and read the story forward — if you follow me here. The book starts with, “And they all lived happily ever after. [page turn] They lived happily ever after because... the soggy knight fell in love with the clever princess.” Makes you need to find out how it all began. Cleverly written and nicely illustrated.

It’s possible I’ll be back with some sort of wrap-up for the year, or some view into my life this past week, but in case that doesn’t happen, Happy New Year!

3 comments:

Erin said...

THE END is so much fun! I read that aloud to my young cousins during their visit this year.

Anonymous said...

The Police Cloud sounds really, really odd.

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