Saturday, May 29, 2010

Down on the Farm by Merrily Kutner

Down on the Farm by Merrily Kutner, illustrated by Will Hillenbrand

Rating: 3 repetitive stars

We came across this book because it is illustrated by Will Hillenbrand, whose pictures we fell in love with in Whopper Cake.  This book was a little disappointing for us. While it did provide the kids with a fun book to hear, the super repetitive "down on the farm, down on the farm" nearly did me in.  I am a fairly patient person and I love me a good children's book, but...good things don't happen when you have those two lines stuck in your head for hours:

"Down on the farm, down on the farm" as you clean up after dinner, "down on the farm, down on the farm" as you tidy up the playroom, "down on the farm, down on the farm" as you shampoo kid #1's hair, "down on the farm, down on the farm" as you shampoo kid #2's hair, "down on the farm, down on the farm" as you finally achieve some time with your husband, and "down on the farm, down on the farm" as you drift off to sleep.

You get the idea.  If Lorelei and Ben see this book at the library, I might distract them with a "Look at that pony out the window!" and stash it under the nearest bean bag chair.

Now I do have to say that there are lots of animal noises in the book, and of course Ben loved that.  We are pretty sure that he will opt not to speak for several more years, choosing to grunt, oink, growl, bark, and bray through elementary school.  To his future teachers, I apologize in advance.

Bee-bim Bop by Linda Sue Park

Bee-bim Bop by Linda Sue Park, illustrated by Ho Baek Lee

Rating: 5 mix-it-up stars

Bottom line up front: This is a fine book, probably a solid 4 star book. But because we got so much more than a nice little rhyme, it is definitely 5 stars for our family.  This book exemplifies what great children's books are: an inspiration to Something Else...maybe the book leads to a discussion, a new passion (even if it only lasts for a few days or a week), an outdoor search, a lesson, or, in this case, a great culinary adventure. For us, this book was a real turning point for our family diet. I realized that my kids are ready for something MORE than I give them on a day-to-day basis--they jumped at the chance to cook (not just bake) more than I ever had let them, and they were excited to eat something new.

Now, the details: My college friend (and fellow mom and library-lover) Beth recommended this book to us (thanks, Beth!); she said that they just checked it out for the thousandth time the other day.  So, of course, I got it from our local library.  To my delight, it is a book about how to make a Korean dish that my husband and I used to lap up when we went out before the kids came around: Dorsu bee-bim bop.

The book is a catchy rhyme about a little girl who shops for, helps make, mixes up, and then eats bee-bim bop.  We love a good poem, and Lorelei was walking around reciting parts of it after just a few readings: "Hurry, Mama, hurry / gotta shop, shop, shop / Hungry, hungry, hungry / for some bee-bim bop!"  At the end of the book is the recipe (complete with a guide to what kids do, and what adults do while preparing the dish); I was overjoyed when Lorelei insisted again and again that we make bee-bim bop.  My husband had been pestering me to try it at home anyway, so...what the heck?  If the culinary adventure failed with my kids, then Jonathan and I would have that much more to eat ourselves later. 

The first step to this adventure was already completed: Get them hooked on the book and the idea that this stuff was good.


Step two: Make a little list for the kids (there's Ben, holding it upside down...we're working on it, we're working on it) and shop, in our nifty space shuttle shopping cart, for all the ingredients on the list. 

 Step Three: Make rice. We poured the water into the rice cooker--Lorelei was delighted when she spilled some, because that's exactly what the little girl does in the book! I couldn't have planned it more perfectly. Not only did she get to recite "Let me pour the water in / yes, I know I can" she also got to say, after she spilled it "Sorry, Mama, sorry / gotta mop, mop, mop / hungry in a hurry for some bee-bim bop!" Lucky Ben got to push the button down on the rice cooker--his big sister was distracted with the excitement of mopping.


Step Four: Get to cooking. After donning our favorite aprons (Having fallen in love with Ladybug Girl she wore her ladybug apron; I was pleased with myself that we found an apron for Ben, but he insisted on wearing my flowery one instead of his blue fish one.  Oh well!), the kids scrambled eggs and I chopped all the other stuff.  Lorelei helped me marinate the beef during Ben's nap.

Step Five: Assemble!So here's the end product: bee-bim bop!  I was pretty proud of myself that it looked pretty,too.  That's egg, carrots, dee-lish-ous meat, and spinach (yup, you read right: spinach).  It was now the moment of truth.  I have to say here and now that while my kids are excellent eaters, they are not very adventurous.  Especially Lorelei.  And when Ben sees his sister push something away, he often pushes his away, to make it a doubly frustrating experience.  I think my husband was holding his breath at work; he knew what was going on at home...and knew that I was completely invested in a bee-bim bop dinner and had no back-up anything simmering on the stove.  It was all or nothing.  It was time.  The kids sat down, mixed, mixed, mixed and...

Step Six:  EAT!  They ate it!  Lorelei needed a little coaxing, and after taking her spinach out (I didn't want to ruin it with a little spinach), she dug right in.  Then--are you sitting down?--she asked for spinach.  Then asked for more meat.  Of course!  I happily dug into her parents' portion of the marinated beef and cooked up some more for her, and she ate it.  All of it.  They ate the rice.  Ben ate almost all of the eggs, and loved the carrots. 

Certainly, I won Mom of the Day award today!  Maybe not yesterday, maybe not tomorrow.  But today I was Triumphant.  And now I got bragging rights for a few months because both of kids ate spinach.  I know, it's not all about that, but...well, humility is something for which I strive.  The ending might be more of a riot: my slightly picky happily husband ate dinner made from a recipe from a children's book.  I think he might have licked the plate while I wasn't looking.
 Ernie got dirty!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Not a book review; just a question!

Quick, tax-related question:

Can I claim all the scotch tape I'm using to repair all these library books?  Just wondering.  We take our Fix The Book's Boo Boo quite seriously in this house.

Monday, May 24, 2010

All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon

All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon, illustrated by Marla Frazee

Rating: 4 gorgeous stars

Confession: When I first saw this book in the bookstore, I nearly leaped into it, trying to imagine myself one of the beautiful characters in the gorgeous settings among the pages.  I resisted the temptation to buy it, barely.  If I bought every picture book I loved, we'd have even books to bend our shelves, which need reinforcement as it is.  I called my mother on the way home from the bookstore, telling her that I'd found It.  The Perfect Children's Book.  It was my new Favorite Book.  I was in love!

So I ordered the lone copy in Fairfax County and told my husband that I felt angst about ordering it.  I already knew about the book; shouldn't I leave it on the shelf for others to find and enjoy?  And would my time in heaven be delayed if I renewed it again and again and again, as many times as possible?  He gave me The Look, like I was thinking too much or something like that.  I get that look hourly sometimes.  Well, we all have things to work on, I guess.

So I got the book from the library.  The first time I read it through, I was, shocker of all shockers, multi-tasking.  Lorelei and Ben were both playing with the train set at the bookstore, and I was flipping through and falling in love with All The World.  I didn't really read it through.  The pictures are perfect (check out this one on the right)--Frazee does an incredible job and the illustrations still make me want to jump right into the pages and stay.  Awhile.  Maybe till Ben is out of diapers, or at least has mastered more than three words.  The words are also gorgeous and prayer-like; my mother will probably tear when she reads this book.  On certain days, I might, too.

But there's no way that I could ever rate it a top-notch book for preschoolers.  I was at first dismayed that Lorelei didn't request this book again and again.  I could read it five times a day.  But there's no story to follow, no characters to giggle at or feel sorry for.  We spend many minutes poring over each picture, especially the one with several stalls at an outdoor market.  While it is a great gift book for adult lovers of children's picture books, I have to say that it's not for us.  I will not be buying it (sniff, sniff), but I will be checking it out from the library every few months, hoping that one more line from the wonderful message in the book gets embedded in their little hearts.

Bonjour, Mr. Satie by Tomie DePaola

Bonjour, Mr. Satie by Tomie DePaola


Rating: 4 stars

I'm not a huge fan of teaching my kids about specific artists or works of art or wonders of the world. C'mon, they are 3 and 1 1/2--they have years to memorize stuff like that. Right now, all I care about is that they think it is fun and cool to do art projects like drawing or painting or gluing or stuff like that. (Right now, as I type, Lorelei is coloring in a new coloring book with a bold red marker, making everything on the page she's on and the page that's behind that one look completed soaked in blood. Ew.)  I know that some parents tote their toddlers to art museums (a la Olivia) and I expect to do that in a few years, especially because we live so close to some good ones in D.C., but...not yet.  This book is a good first step, I think, and would be appreciated by a 4- or 5-year old before a trip to an art museum (whether that trip is next week or a few months away).

So I wouldn't have searched this book out at all, but it was on a large stack of Tomie DePaola books at our great local library. Lorelei chose it and we brought it home without reading it.  I'll teach her the whole don't-judge-a-book-by-its-cover thing later. 

So, here's what happens in the book:  Mr. Satie is a world-traveling cat who speaks of his adventures in Paris to his feline niece and nephew. He explains how how his "friends" Pablo (Picasso) and Henri (Matisse) get into an argument about whose paintings are better. So they have a painting contest, and the wise and fair Mr. Satie is the lone judge. After careful study (that page is my favorite--no words, just him examining DePaola's renditions of Picasso and Matisse's works) he declares that the works are like apples and oranges; both are delicious, but totally different. It's a draw! Hooray!

There are so many things to learn from this book, aside from learning the basic fact that there are these two famous painter dudes named Pablo and Henri (their last names are never mentioned, making them more approachable to little Lorelei and other pint-sized bookworms):

  • Art is a serious undertaking, a job worth pursuing
  • Passionate and heated debates are (usually) healthy
  • Things can be similar, but different
  • There doesn't have to be only one winner
  • Cats have relationships with famous artists
Ok, so that last one is a stretch. And it's the main reason why I'm left with a furrowed brow as I write about this book. Why doesn't Tomie DePaola let all the characters be human? Why does he need to bring to life one of Picasso's paintings and let a cat have the main story? Ok, I guess that it helps draw little readers in and make it less realistic and therefore just a little more fun and imaginative, which is what art is often about.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Little Gorilla by Ruth Bornstein

Little GorillaLittle Gorilla by Ruth Bornstein

Rating: 4.5 stars

Ben liked this book so much he ate it. We still have our little board book that Grammy gave Ben for his first birthday, complete with half of the binding eaten away. Man, must have been a rough few days of teething... When I realized what was going on, I obviously kept the book-turned-snack from his crib, but I wasn't fast enough. Extra fiber, I guess!

This is a cute little book, and an absolutely perfect first birthday gift, which is how it ended up in Ben's chubby little fingers (thanks again, Grammy!). It is a simple little tale of a baby gorilla who is loved by all, including his mother and father and grandparents and red monkey and Old Hippo. But then, "Little Gorilla starts to grow...and grow...and GROW...until suddenly Little Gorilla is BIG! But everybody came and everybody sang Happy Birthday, Little Gorilla!"

What a perfect birthday book! In fact, we have a new copy of it sitting on our desk waiting to be wrapped for a party on Saturday. You're right--Ben is not allowed anywhere near it, especially before snack time.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox

 Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox, illustrated by Julia Vivas

Rating: 5 quirky stars


During the first few years of my parents' divorce, I didn't think there would be much good to come of it, for me. But, as it always does, time proves one wrong. I realized how much I had to gain from certain new people in my life that appeared because something else disappeared. Carmen is one of those people. Carmen is my stepfather's mother, and she is the best character in my real life that I have. She is one of the strongest women I have ever met, which means to say that she is stubborn beyond belief, hard-headed to a fault, and so strong-willed that it's hard to leave a conversation with her without feeling frustrated. But man is she cool. I don't wonder what she was like as a younger version of herself in Germany before she married a soldier and became a more ordinary American than she really would have preferred because I can't imagine a diluted version of Carmen.


How does Carmen fit in with Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge? Good question. I come from a long line of tangent-talkers, so I'll cut to the chase: First, this book is about memory, and about memory loss. Young Wilfred Gordon lives next to an old folks' home, and befriends all of its characters. His favorite, Miss Nancy, is losing her memory--he finds this out because his parents are talking about her. Being so young, he's oblivious to such big concepts as "memory" so he goes to his friends, those wise wrinkled ones at the old folks' home, to find out. They each tell him something different: "Something warm" or "something funny" or "something sad" and he goes to find something of his own that represents that something in order to help Miss Nancy regain her memory. It is a quirky book for the children's section, and the few times I've explained what this book is about to other mothers, their eyes widen.


Obviously, Miss Nancy has Alzheimer's, as does our beloved Carmen. The woman whose intellect and personality was once so fierce, strong, spot-on, and quick is now murky, confused, unsure, and lost. It is hard to watch, and I have the comfortable spot of watching from several hundred miles away. But can you imagine watching someone who was once such a force shrink? It breaks my heart.


And, at the same time as Carmen is losing her memory, Lorelei is gaining hers. It is just mind-boggling to watch a little girl and old woman be in a very similar spot at this very moment, but each with a very different future. These days, I am so aware that Lorelei is now so aware, and will be able to remember some of these days for decades to come. In the first few years of her life I realized that memory was more of a feeling, just knowing that she was beloved and admired and cherished created an aura of a memory that, hopefully, will be a good foundation for the rest of her memories both in this house and beyond. And here is Carmen, who is currently at the twilight of her journey, who might be able to remember random things--hopefully incredibly wonderful highlights of her incredible and often wonderful life--but not always specifics. Hopefully her memory at this point is like an infants--a warm, secure feeling, rather than specific anything. For me, it is just a crazy thing to even attempt to wrap my head around.


But Mem Fox, through this book, somehow does it. Mem Fox says "I decided to write a book that might bring children and the elderly together in the hope that teachers would initiate the inter-generational contact." (Check out the story of how she wrote it and who the characters represent.) I am in awe that she was able to bring such grace and wisdom to Miss Alice, and such sweet naivety and gentleness to Wilfred Gordon in such few words, with beautiful, somehow floating illustrations by Julia Vivas. Bravo. I can only hope that some spirit or magic is passed between my little Lorelei and the grand Carmen somehow, someway.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Whopper Cake by Karma Wilson


Whopper Cake by Karma Wilson, illustrated by Will Hillenbran

Rating: 5 messy stars!

We've checked this out before. Maybe twice before. Lorelei, Ben, and I all get a kick out of it, but maybe it's because the grandpa is called "Granddad," just like our Granddad (my dad), and the Grandma's birthday is in mid-July, just like our Grandma's (my stepmother), and their personalities are also pretty similar to the quirky, wacky characters in the book. This book is so much fun!

Without Hillenbran's fun illustrations, the poem alone would probably have Lorelei and Ben rooting for more. I mean, I do like to pat myself on the back whenever possible, but when there's a southern accent to jump into and lines like "Grandad was itchin' to traumatize the kitchen" who WOULDN'T jump into character and start hollarin' and yellin' as if I were wearin' overalls and bakin' ten foot high cakes myself! I love almost all of Karma Wilson's books, but THIS one just takes the cake! It is my all-time favorite!

So let's just talk about Hillenbran's illustrations: They are just sloppy enough so that they, too, give the feelin' that you and your kids are in this messy kitchen where, from time to time, you have to duck so that a stick or two of butter or a dozen or three dozen eggs don't come flyin' your way and knock you upside the head. There are splatter marks all over the pages of the book, just like the oil stains and chocolate drippings on your favorite recipes in that old recipe box you've had for too long. They are fun and bright and messy--this man was born to illustrate children's books!

So what do you do when you're done reading a book like this? If you live in my house, you get right up, put your favorite apron on (and, if you're Ben, put your sister's second favorite apron on) and head right over to the play kitchen to fix yourself up some whopper cake. Because there's a recipe on the last page to help you along! Now, don't get too excited, because you actually don't have an excuse to use the truck bed as a mixin' bowl like Granddad does because the recipe actually doesn't call for 10 dozen eggs and 5 boxes of cocoa and 10 bags of flour. We've not made it yet, but since this book seems to be about the birthday of OUR Grandma, we've already got a plan to buy her this book (who says children's books can't be for 64 year old kids?) and make her The Whopper Cake! Anyway, today we went to the kids' new kitchen (thanks, Grammy!) and Lorelei propped up the book, with the recipe page open, just like I prop up my recipes in my grown-up kitchen. Ben and Lorelei mixed away and tucked the "cake" in their little oven. They were good about setting a timer--buttons are the best part of life right now--but they forgot about the whopper cake in the oven because we all went outside to play.

Maybe tomorrow we'll pick up where we left off: We'll read it again and then go get the whopper cake in their oven, where it probably perfectly and magically baked all night long, and then put the icing on it with shovels and oars, just like Granddad does!

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Strega Nona by Tomie DePaola

Strega Nona by Tomie DePaola

Rating: 4.5 stars

We love the Strega Nona series, and I really thought I knew them well. But I had a have-I-lost-all-my-senses moment last week when I finally realized that the Strega Nona book we own is not THE Strega Nona book. We have Strega Nona, Her Story. And we've read all the others, except, I thought, one. All of the stories reference Big Anthony's grand mistake of sneaking into Strega Nona's little cottage on the hill and using her magic pasta pot after he watches her cook with it. I must find this book for Lorelei! I kept thinking. So I'd go on amazon and the library website and just plain Google and type in "Strega Nona Big Anthony pasta pot." And I got the book Strega Nona every time. No, no, no! I'd think, I HAVE that one. What's the one where Big Anthony makes all that pasta that spills into town?! Finally I went to DePaola's website and went down his list of published books slowly and carefully and then realized: we'd not read Strega Nona, THE Strega Nona! Luckily our local library owns a copy; we needn't even order it up for the following week's trip.

What a great book! So the story is pretty obvious: Strega Nona, or "Grandma Witch," has this magic pasta pot that all of us moms--working at home or somewhere else--wish we had. Big Anthony remembers the magic words to start it up, and he remembers the words that make it stop, but he neglects to blow three kisses, so the pot neglects to stop making pasta. The pasta spills into Calabria and everyone is afraid they'll drown in carbs until Strega Nona strolls in and saves the day by making it stop. The townspeople want to "string up" Big Anthony (he doesn't get 5 stars for this book because of that line...I had to explain to Lorelei what "string him up" meant...well, I sorta explained to her what it meant) but wise Strega Nona says: "No, wait. The punishment must fit the crime" and hands Big Anthony a fork.

I love it! What a great message tucked away in a wonderful story.

So, the other story from our house is this: Lorelei refuses to eat pasta. I seriously wonder if she's really my child. I mean, I LOVE pasta. I could eat it every night. But she flat refuses. So tonight I told her we were going to Calabria, Italy, for dinner and we got out our magic pasta pot (the big ole one we don't use very often) and we all said the magic words together. ben wanted to, but he just looked around, excited and confused, wondering why his family was chanting at a pot. Lorelei was SO excited! Then, five minutes later, the buzzer beeped and I drained the pasta without her looking. We said the magic words to get the pasta to stop, then blew three kisses. I peeked in the pot. Empty! It worked! She peeked in the pot! Empty! Wow! Magic! When we all sat down to eat, she insisted we all say "Mangia!" together before we ate. And then the eating began!

Or it didn't. She didn't touch the pasta. I begrudgingly gave her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich so her picky little bum wouldn't be hungry when she fell asleep. Points to Ben, who managed to twirl his pasta with his clumsy 17 month-old hands AND eat my homemade meatballs. I love anyone who loves my food! And, I guess, some who don't, even when I add magic to it.