Shoe-la-la! by Karen Beaumont

Shoe-la-la! by Karen Beaumont, illustrated by LeUyen Pham

Rating: 3.5 stars

I officially want to dislike this book.  Its cover is a sparkly image of four young girls dressed up far too maturely for their own good.  Let them be kids!  Keep them from wanting to wear high heels and pearls!

Sigh.

I'm sure there is a huge fan base for this book and others like it--books about dressing up and wearing the fanciest shoes in town with your closest girlfriends.  I guess the problem I have with that is that's what I would like to do on some weekends!  I don't want my five year old daughter doing that for, um, three decades!  Okay, maybe two.

These show off my pretty feet. / These look good enough to eat.
Fuzzy boots for when it snows. / Ballerina on my toes!

BUT I am a huge fan of Karen Beaumont and I'm glad I gave the book a chance.  Like all her books, there is a great rhyme that makes the book fun to read.  The very tomboyish girls decide to go find new party shoes, and head to the nearest shop to try on every pair imaginable.  They try on about three dozen each but still can't find a pair they like, so they head back home, empty-handed.

And then, as Ben would say, they used "their own imaginations" and grabbed their old shoes and made them fancy.  Okay, I can deal with an ending like that.  I can easily supply Lorelei with some glue and every art supply I've got in the house and let her go to town decorating those shoes until she is satisfied with the results.  And yup, I'd let her wear them in public.  And yup, if Ben wanted to do it, I'd let him decorate and wear his shoes "of his own imagination" in public, too.  Because why should girls get to have all the fun?

Doggone Dogs by Karen Beaumont, illustrated by David Catrow

Doggone Dogs by Karen Beaumont, illustrated by David Catrow

Rating: 3.5 stars

Ben and I just read this book.  I think we said "dogs" one too many times, because my doggone dog Guidry came over and joined us.  Guidry is just as much a character as the full-of-life dogs on the pages of these books.  Leave it to David Catrow to give us ten different dogs, each one hilariously unique in their own way.  He is so talented!

But it's a winning combination, really, because Karen Beaumont is an author who is good to have in your pocket if you go to the library without a clue (an overwhelming thing, definitely).  Her books are always great, silly rhymes--Baby Danced the Polka is my favorite but there are a bunch of good ones.  And Catrow has a zany way about him that makes characters--human or animal--jump off the page and into your imagination.

Doggone Guidry.  He's either hyper or asleep.

When considering a book to review, I usually choose one that offers a good message or ties into what we are doing in our lives.  But sometimes there's a reason to read and review a book that is just entertaining.  That's it, and that's all.  (Right now my husband and I are in debate: are more violent superhero books okay for Ben?  I think that they're not, and he thinks that ANY book is okay.  The jury is still out on this one...actually, wouldn't a jury be helpful in a marriage?  There'd be no person who was right or wrong...oh I am totally getting off track here...)

Anyway, this book IS highly entertaining, with it's slobbering canines romping like crazy through the park, hardly able to see where they are going with fur in their faces, eyes shut with glee, or inability to focus on anything but flowers to pee on.  The word "delightful" is surely overused in the kidlit review world, but that is what this book is: doggone delightful.

Woof!

Baby Danced the Polka by Karen Beaumont

Baby Danced the Polka by Karen Beaumont, illustrated by Jennifer Plecas

Rating: 5 polka-dancing stars!

This is an old favorite of ours, one that beloved Grammy found some years ago.  It's the only book that we have that gives a nod to our Polish ancestry, something that lingers in my sister and I though our last names no longer have a confusing jumble of consonants that somehow sound like "check" or end in "ski."  But, to be honest, it's only a tiny nod, just a good excuse to get this book for anyone and everyone who has a little bit of polka-dancing in their past.

Karen Beaumont is at her best with this swinging poem about a baby who just won't go to bed.  His Ma and Pa keep on putting him to bed and get right to work on some chores around the house like fixing the chow, washing wigs (?!  hey, it rhymes with pig), starching long johns, hauling water and other stuff we don't do anymore but is fun to think about doing.  Except the wig thing.  Ok, and maybe the long johns, too.  But then the baby comes barreling out of his bedroom doing a different dance with a different animal, obviously not sleeping!  First, he polkas with the polka-dotted pig.  Then he boogie-woogies with the frisky little goat, then he cha-chas with the chocolate-colored cow.  You get the idea.

One of our favorite parts when we're reading aloud is opening the flap that shows the polka-ing or cha-cha-ing or boogie-woogie-ing baby and animal, with the last word (the animal) written under the flap.  Lorelei yells it out in her biggest outside voice.  And Ben says "EH!" his favorite word for most everything.  It makes me laugh, and it makes them laugh, and that makes this a great, great book. 

Lorelei ripped the last two pages of the book when she was a baby, and the words are missing.  So when the kids get Daddy to read it, he has to yell from the other room: "What's the last verse?"  And I shout out the words because they are etched in my memory.  For months we'd recite this walking to the mailbox and back, even though we left the book at home.  I am willing to bet that I'll be able to recite it in twenty years, too!

I Like Myself! by Karen Beaumont

I Like Myself! by Karen Beaumont, illustrated by David Catrow

Rating: 4.5 stars

I am conducting an experiment.  If I read this book to Lorelei so frequently, until the message becomes embedded in her soft, pale skin, until the words roll of out of her smiley mouth, and until she can triumphantly leap as wildly as she does now in front of any group of people, will she resist the frightening abyss of middle school girlhood?

Sigh.  Lorelei's not much past 3 and I'm already concerned.  I dodged those years because I was wonderfully entrenched in horses.  I couldn't get enough of them, any my parents (wise them!) encouraged me wildly.  It was as if I put my head down to concentrate on my Dressage tests and, next thing I knew, I was in high school.

Over the weekend I read a fantastic article in the New York Times about an all girls camp that aims to readjust, if only a little, the self-esteem and pride that many girls lose during their middle school years.  What an understatement to say it's worth a read--click here to access it.  (The gal in charge is so inspirational!  I am asking for her two books on girlhood for Christmas.  That's right--barely August and I'm working on my Christmas list.)  Hopefully our little family and the larger ones in which we sit, plus our friends and neighbors and our soon-to-be chosen preschool will help Lorelei in these early formative years so that self-esteem is rarely an issue.  I think I'd be really crazy if I typed "never," though that is my wish.

This book is, as the inside flap says, "at once serious and silly" as it describes a little girl's ode to herself.  She declares her love for herself: "I like me wild. / I like me tame. / I like me different / and the same" while David Catrow's wacky illustrations impress and amuse everyone in the room.  This is a great book.  I'll be reading now, and tomorrow, and the day after that, and for every week next month, and then next year at breakfast for three months straight, and...

I Ain't Gonna Paint No More! by Karen Beaumont

I Ain't Gonna Paint No More! by Karen Beaumont, illustrated by David Catrow

Rating: 3 stars

Well, this one isn't for my twin neices, who once disappeared in my sister's basement for a few minutes, saying things like "You're my partner in crime." My sister--crazily--didn't suspect anything. They emerged, one relatively unscathed but the other's three year-old limbs were completely colored on. Completely. Her entire face, hands, and feet--anything that was not covered up with clothes--was drawn on. And her sister had done a great job filling in between the ears, I mean lines.

So this book, with the super-fun illustrations by Catrow, might not be for those kids who might think that painting themselves from head to toe is a good idea. I'm being serious here! This is your official warning for the book. If you do have kids in your life who will listen to the simple rule "Wait till your Dad is home and I'm out with my friends to paint yourselves completely." then get them this book. It is really funny, and Lorelei and Ben both think that painting your arm with ants is downright hilarious. If they get a tatoo like this in the future, I'll know which book to blame. This book is an example of fine text but incredibly illustrations. When the little painter's mother takes the paint away and hides in the closet, the entire picture is just black and white, devoid of all color because the baby picasso has been robbed of her tools. But then she creates a ladder for herself to rescue the paints and resume the mess and the bold colors and craziness continue.

Super cute. Fun to add to a gift of art supplies, which is how it landed on our very full shelves.