Blizzard by John Rocco

Blizzard by John Rocco

Rating: 5 stars

Today is the second day back at school after my kids' winter break. Winter break for us stay-at-home moms is...different: the house is full, not empty. The house is loud, not quiet. The house is messy from all that playing-inside time, not neat from all that being-in-school time. It's fun and good and full...but I like when they go back to school.

But now, on the second day back, it's supposed to snow. Just a little. But STILL. Did it snow one flake over winter break? Nope. But today. It's supposed to snow. Go figure! I just have to laugh.

Luckily, it's not supposed to snow as much as it does in John Rocco's brilliant new Blizzard. (He won the Caldecott a few years ago with the heart-warming story with amazing illustrations Blackout.) The story is based on his experience of living through a 53-inch blizzard in Rhode Island in 1978, and is told with fewer words than illustrations, but the illustrations are larger-than-life; they tell the story by themselves...you'll be snow-blown away by it, just as I was when I first read it to my kids at the Boulder Bookstore around Thanksgiving.

Here's the story (and here's what my kids WISH they were waking up to):

"I wondered if we would ever see grass again."

A boy wakes up. He goes to school. The first snowflake falls down while school is in session, and his excitement goes up. As the day goes on and he walks home, the snow piles up and up around and on him, and the reader understands instantly that this is No Ordinary Snow. This is a whole lotta snow. The first day of the blizzard is wonderful and harmonious and fun, and the second and third days of being trapped inside and drinking hot chocolate (with milk, of course, which is better than water...I love this nod to the good-old-days, the made-from-scratch days) go by pretty well.

After a few days of being trapped inside by the snow, the family starts to go a little batty. I can relate--the house is way too full, way too loud, and messier than normal as they and their neighbors are completely snowed in. The boy watches as his family and others around him run out of the basic necessities. He decides to do something about it. He creatively puts together an outfit and equipment--including using tennis rackets for snow shoes--and rigs together a sled-grocery-cart thingamajig and pulls it from his house, through the neighborhood, to the town store.

The boy practices walking with his makeshift snowshoes...

(Rocco shows his path in a way most delightful to Kiefer these days: with a pull-out, triple-page illustration of the boy's tracks as he goes through the neighborhood. Kiefer likes to trace the path with his finger, and it's a long one that includes more than a few snowdrifts...)

The boy piles his sled high with groceries and, as he retraces his steps through the neighborhood back to his house, he gives his neighbors what they ordered. He arrives back to his own house, completely exhausted. His family celebrates his homecoming, praises his effort, and make him another mug of hot cocoa. With milk.

Even with all that snow, this is a heart-warming book, and a wonderful example of the good that can be done with resourcefulness, courage, a willing heart, and a pair of tennis rackets. This is THE BOOK you should give to kids this winter--for their birthdays or whatever reason you need to buy one extraordinary book.

Oh, and by the way, it's snowing outside of my cozy yellow house. My kids are going to be thrilled! Me? Well, I'll have an extra cup of coffee to keep up with their excitement...

How to Train a Train by Jason Carter Eaton

How to Train a Train by Jason Carter Eaton, illustrated by John Rocco

Rating: 5 stars

"So you want a pet train?" asks the young boy-narrator.  "Well, of course you do!  Trains make awesome pets--they're fun, playful, and extremely useful.  Luckily for you, this handy guidebook contains everything you need to know to choose, track, and train your very own pet train.  Ready?  Then let's head out and find some trains!"

How can you resist an invitation like that?  I love how, right from the first page, this boy assumes you a) have realized that trains can be pets--and cool ones at that; b) are up for the adventure to find a train for yourself.  By the end of the first page, you're in.  Ready to go find your train.  You've long since forgotten that you once thought that having a train as a pet was a ludicrous notion.

Spend as much time as you can getting to know your train.
Does it like to play fetch?

And so begins a really fun imagination-filled tale of capturing your own train (with careful observation, then sweet luring it over to you, then winning it over with treats and pets in case you're curious).

What do you do with said train once you have it?  Well...lots of things!  You name it, of course, after getting to know it.  (Eaton names two of them after his own sons; I can only imagine their excitement of being in a children's book--my kids would go crazy in a sugar-before-bedtime sort of way.)  You can teach it tricks.  You can take it fishing with you, or take it swimming.

The story is neat and takes your kids on an unexpected, imaginative ride that makes them look around their normal lives and wonder: what else could I make into a pet?  And if a book makes your child wonder a little bit or a whole lot...well, then that's a great book in my book.

Here are some common train names...

But the illustrations!  John Rocco is so fantastic.  He brings to life these huge, heavy locomotives and makes them playful and funny and...just neat.  His trains-as-pets are brought to life, given sweet and kind and caring and even scared expressions on their steel engines in the most creative ways.  It's hard to read this book and not stop and examine the pictures in amazement and appreciation.  He's done our kids such a service here with his own imagination and talent.  (Thanks, John Rocco!)

This is definitely a great book--especially if you're little reader is into trains in just the slightest bit.  And maybe this is the way to persuade your child that they don't really want a puppy...they want a train instead?!

Super Hair-O and the Barber of Doom by John Rocco

Super Hair-O and the Barber of Doom by John Rocco

Rating: 4 stars

There are tons of books available to kids that have solid messages, important tales, and illuminating lessons.  I think we should find these books and read them with our kids so they learn and grow while sitting in the safest and most comfortable spot of all time: our laps.

And yet!

We've got to make sure there's plenty of laughter in our lives.  That might be more important for us too-serious muggles who have forgotten the delight that comes with blowing bubbles of milk with our straws, spinning around and around until we're dizzy, and eating with our fingers instead of forks.

Luckily, there are books like Super Hair-O and the Barber of Doom to keep us chuckling!

The super talented John Rocco creates truly incredible illustrations of a young boy, Rocco, with a fantastic ball of hair atop his little kid head.  Rocco and his pals believe they are super heroes--and that their super powers stem from their long, cool, unruly hair.  The pack of them--and their unique cool, unruly hair--is pretty funny.  The longer their hair, they think, the more powerful they are.

I was captured...and dragged away to the villain's lair.

Then one day, Rocco was captured and taken to the barber. (Dum, dum, DUUUUMMMM!)

He returns to his hideout with --gasp!-- short hair.

His super friends, coincidentally, all got hair cuts on the same day, and they are all dismayed to have lost their super power.  Now, sniff, they are just...normal.  They sit around in dejected stances wondering how to frame their play until a little girl screams.  Her stuffed bunny is hanging by a leg fro the monkey bar!

The super friends jump into action, rescue the bunny, and realize that they are still powerful with neat and tidy hair.  Whew!

One cute and funny book, served up so very, very well by one John Rocco.  Loved it!