Winter is for Snow by Robert Neubecker

Winter is for Snow by Robert Neubecker

Rating: 4 stars

Since it might snow tonight here in the Northern Virginia area (!!), I thought I'd let you know about a cute book by Robert Neubecker about two siblings who have very different views on the wonderful-ness of snow.  I am a huge fan of Neubecker's huge, simple, great WOW! books, and I like this new one a lot.

Brother loves winter, Sister hates it.  They argue in color--no words are wasted on "he says" and "she says," which works well.  Together, the siblings' words form a rhyme:

Winter is for fat snowflakes,
swirling as they blow,
glittering like diamond dust!
Winter is for snow.

Winter! I say No.

The illustrations make me pause.  They are fitting, but I cringe at the thought of my kids choosing Sister's act rather than Brother's attitude.  In one picture she's on her i-something.  In another, she is glued to the television.

Kiefer is up too early (5:29 AM!) so he gets to blog with me.

But finally, Brother gets her outside--he is somehow resistant to her poopy pants behavior.  Then Brother really gets on his winter soapbox and starts waxing poetic about all the neat things about Winter in the Arctic, and Sister starts paying attention to the good and forgetting the bad.

And wouldn't you know it?

Winter is for all these things?
Is it really so?
Winter might not be so bad.
Winter is for SNOW!

It's a cute book, a nice reminder to get outside and enjoy Winter rather than complain about it (my husband can assure you that I need a cattle prod every now and then to do this as I was made for flip-flops more than snow boots).

BUT.  There's a small but to this book.

When I first read it, I had Neubecker's Wow! books in mind, where the two characters are a father and his daughter.  So I thought that the two characters in this book were the same: a father and daughter.  It made sense to me (though when I read through it again I realize it's a pretty short father!) because a big brother would probably NOT put up with all that pouting about winter.  Plus I really loved that the father was pulling his daughter out of the house and playing WITH her--I love any book that has that in it.  Maybe in Neubecker's next book...

What Little Boys are Made Of by Robert Neubecker

What Little Boys are Made Of by Robert Neubecker

Rating: 5 stars!

I just kissed Ben's boogers good-night.

I don't make a habit of kissing his boogers good-night, I'll have you know.  But when he insists that he's not tired and the door to his room keeps opening and closing a million and two times, I go in and tuck him in tight, and lie down next to him.  "Ben," I say.  "You were the cutest baby in the world.  Do you want to know how I used to say good-night to you?"  "Yes," he always says.  "I'd say good-night to your ears...." and I smooch his ears.  "I'd say good-night to your forehead..." and smooch his forehead.  "I'd say good-night to your bum..." and smooch his bum (giggle, giggle!).  "I'd say good-night to your boogers..." and smooch his nostrils (ha ha ha!).  You get the idea.

I love that boy.  He drives me crazy, but...I love him.

I must admit, though, that I'm not sure I'm ready for TWO boys of that age in the same house, at the same time.  It's a good thing I have a year or two to get ready for it.  But, wait.  Weren't they already wrestling today?

I'm doomed!

We are fans of Robert Neubecker and his books.  His series of Wow! books are big in every way--big pictures, big thoughts, and they induce big smiles in our house.  I was super excited to find out that he had a new book out.  And it is a book about boys, and what makes them boys.  I'm learning what makes them boys, and mostly loving it.  As a tomboy myself, it's great to teach Ben (and Lorelei, too!) about push up and pull ups, maps and mountains, creeks and splashing.  That's what kids are made of at our house.

Nuebecker stretches out the imagination of the little hero in the book, showing a sequence of pictures where, in the first picture, the little boy is creating a pretend scene, and playing enthusiastically in it.  As if rewarded for his creativity, the next page magically transports him into The Real Deal.  Here's an example of what I'm talking about:

First, the little boy gathers up his toys (and, we wonder, his pet rat and pet dog?) and pretends he is on safari.

And then he IS on safari!  Ben is somehow obsessed with going to Africa, so these are his favorite pages.

On his blog--it is so worth reading, click here to read all of what he says--he explains that his daughter was lifting weights, saying that boys like muscles and she likes boys, so she wants to build muscles...  He started thinking about the differences of boys and girls, so wanted to write two books: one for girls, one for boys.  He's just got this one out now, and I sure hope another one comes out for girls.  (Oh please oh please have something about running or sports--please NO PRINCESSES!)

Until then, it'll be boogers and this book for me.

Wow! School! by Robert Nuebecker

Wow! School! by Robert Nuebecker

Rating: 5 stars

Well, the count down to the start of preschool is on.  I'm not sure who is more excited--me or Lorelei.  Ben, if he realized what is about to happen, would definitely NOT be excited.  Even though Lorelei's favorite past time is to boss him around, he will miss her for every minute of the three and a half hours she'll be out of my hands.  Mostly, I'm curious: How will she react?  How will she behave?  What will she love? Will she make friends easily?  How long will it be till the school calls to tell me she's sick or has broken her arm on the playground?!  (I'm sure that phone call will come from Ben.)

This is one of the best starting school books out there.  It's simple--with minimal words, Nuebecker just produces these huge sheets of art, filled with all the little things that you'd find in a classroom.  Check out some of the pages:

I love the fact that Nuebecker sat in the back of his daughter's preschool class and sketched the pictures.  We are big fans of Nuebecker's--dorky me follows his blog and is impatiently awaiting his next WOW! book, which is Wow!  Ocean!  We'll probably have to trek up to the Baltimore Aquarium to fully appreciate that book.

For now, though, we'll just focus on the start of school.  Keep your fingers crossed for all of us!

Air Show! by Treat Williams

Air Show! by Treat Williams, illustrated by Robert Neubecker

Rating: 4 stars

I am sure that Mr. Williams is a genuine chap, but...I kinda wish that there were fewer words in this book.  Because the illustrations are where it's at!  They are amazing!  Seriously, if you've got a little kid in your life who enjoys airplanes just a bit, there is no way you can pass up this book.  It is FANTASTIC.  Even with all those words.  What did the author think, that a story was required to accompany these images?

The story, I'm obligated to tell you, tells the story of Ellie and her brother, Gill; they go to the air show with their dad.  He takes them there in his plane, upping his cool factor a few points.  They check out lots of planes and Ellie even finds a stunt plane, with a female pilot, onto which she climbs for the ride of her life.  Then they fly home.

In doing my normal google search about a book, I found Robert Neubecker's blog.  On it is the story of how this book came to be.  Basically, the author met Neubecker at a book party for Wow! City! and said, "Hey, I've got some cool planes I can take you up in if you draw pictures for a book idea I've got."  Ok, that's not exactly how it happened.  But close. I do love about it is that Neubecker himself admits that he got into the details of the planes maybe a little more than the author intended.  I'm super glad he did that.  Check out these illustrations:

I'm thinking about getting the book just for this image.  I want to laminate it and set it out in front of Ben.  Maybe I'll put it in a cardboard box with cardboard wings.  I know Ben would sit in front of it for 15 minutes straight or more, pressing all the buttons and moving the controls up and down and, of course, making the appropriate sound effects that correspond with those buttons. Maybe I'd take this laminated sheet on our next airplane ride.  I know I'd embarrass my husband but that never stopped me before!

I love this one.  Lorelei and I could spend 10 minutes on this page, talking about the different parts of the plane, the number of planes, which ones are flying, which one her favorite is, which one we've seen before, why there's a pin up girl on one of them...well, maybe I wouldn't point that out.

And, as an Army brat, I love this one, too.  I guess it's fair that the Air Force has the big one...I guess.  But how cool that they are all labeled (in case the little reader has officially become obsessed and is no longer content with calling them "the silver one" or "the red one")! 

Seriously, this book is just COOL.  I think it will be part of the small collection of book we get our nephew for his birthday.  I do wish that I could give separate ratings in this case, because the illustrator gets a high 5 and the author, well, maybe his editor should get a lower score.  I wish that there were just fewer words so the pictures remain the high point.  That said, who needs to read them anyway? 

Wow! City! by Robert Nuebecker

Wow! City! by Robert Nuebecker

Rating: 4.5 stars

Dorky library confession #253: When I saw that this book was finally en route to our library, and therefore to our library bag, and thus into our very own home for some weeks, I did a Home Alone Macauly Culkin-style  "YESSSSSSSSSS!"

I know, I know.  I'm a dork.  That's okay; I've embraced it.  But I was really excited, because we thoroughly enjoyed Wow! School! and Wow! America! (review for the latter here).  We loved looking through the huge pages, finding the red-haired Izzy and her dog. 

We liked this book because we don't live in the city--and while familiarity is definitely comforting, different is indeed intriguing.  (We went to visit my step-sister in Baltimore last month, and seeing the billboards and train tracks alongside the highway was super cool.) 

So we looked through this book a zillion times while it was in our appreciative possession, watching Izzy and her father travel by plane to New York, where they took a taxi, looked at the fire station, looked up to the tall skyscrapers, and other things.  In fact, pajama-clad Ben (see picture) looked at this book first thing most mornings for three weeks straight!

It's a great, great book, but Wow! America! is definitely the best in my opinion.  But maybe that's because we don't know how this book ends...the last page was ripped out.  Drat!  What, oh what, is the last WOW?  We'll never know... 

Wow! America! by Robert Neubecker

Wow! America! by Robert Neubecker

Rating: 5 patriotic stars

Confession: I'm an Army brat.  Because of that, and because I lived abroad for several years as an adult, I really love and appreciate America.  And I've been to 47 of the 50 states. (Rhode Island, Arkansas, and Alaska, in case you're wondering.)  And when I was little, my parents made the wise decision to really focus on discovering our own country.  When we moved to a new place, my parents would make a point to visit lots of touristy places as well as plenty of out-of-the-way spots.  That meant that when we lived in Hawaii Dad would drag us to Shark's Cove instead of just going to Barber's Point where all our friends would be.  And when we did go on a vacation that didn't involve visiting family back in Erie, Pennsylvania, we went somewhere amazing in this great country. 

And we drove to nearly all of our destinations (except in Hawaii, where inter-island flights called "hops" were the way to go).  Our first stop?  A bookstore.  Hmmm...I was a reader as a child and now my children are readers...

We came across Wow! School! last week at the library; a smart librarian had propped it up on top of the stacks and we picked it up and shoved it in our overflowing, very heavy library bag.  All three of us fell in love with it, especially because Lorelei will start --gasp!-- preschool in the fall.  I'll review that book later...  We ordered Wow! America! the next day and picked it up this morning (when the sitter didn't show up.  Grrr). 

I am in love, love, love with this book!  This is one we might have to buy.  Maybe I'll just suggest to the grandparents that this is a great book...hint, hint... Enter sheepish grin here.

Izzy, the star of all the books in this series (Wow! City! is next on our list), is in all the pages, with her yellow Labrador, too.  And in this book, her little sister Jo.  They scamper across the country.  For me, it was like a journey into my childhood--we moved around a whole lot, plus my husband's from Louisiana and lived in New York City for almost a decade.  So the New Orleans page and the New York page came with an extra story with them.  Then the Grand Canyon, which I've never seen.  It opens up to a third page!  And the cowboys page...well, I do love me a good cowboy book, and I'll take just one page if that's all I'm given.  And the Washington, DC, one is great because we live nearby and my husband works even nearer by. 

And, coincidentally, we leave for Missouri tomorrow, so the pages for the Mississippi River were appreciated and timely.  Finally, my husband and I are going on a leaving-the-kids-with-Grammy trip to the Rocky Mountains, so...wouldn't you know it?  There's a page for the Rocky Mountains!  I couldn't have asked for a better display of the U.S.  Bravo, Neubecker, and thank you for this great one.  I hope more people find it and appreciate it as much as we do.

I just took a bunch of pictures to let you see the great illustrations for yourself.  It is a really great book, with a lot going on, with minimal words so kids like Lorelei who are learning to read can focus on just a few at a time.  Go buy it!  Go check it out!  Trust me!