Ben & Zip: Two Short Friends by Joanne Linden

Ben & Zip: Two Short Friends by Joanne Linden, illustrated by Tom Goldsmith
Flashlight Press

Rating: 5 stars

I love surprise endings. As a grown up reading kids' books, I'm not surprised very often by the ending. But the author and illustrator worked together and got me on this one. I'm beginning to see a trend--I didn't see the end coming in The Bear Ate Your Sandwich, which I reviewed last week. Am I becoming a little less gullible? I sure hope so. I like the idea of being so in-the-moment (or on the current page) that my mind doesn't think too much about what's coming next (or on the final page). I'll get there when I get there.

Anyway!

This is a super new book with laugh-out-loud pages and wonder-what'll-happen pages and one big oh-my-gosh-OF-COURSE! page at the end. Linden writes in a format you don't see very often: some parts rhyme, some parts don't. It works, and how nice for something a little different. And the book wouldn't be as super without the sweet and funny illustrations by Goldsmith.

Here's the story:

Two friends, Ben and Zip, are walking along the boardwalk on a hot, summer day. Suddenly, a storm overshadows the beach and Zip gets a little nervous and runs off. Ben can't find him; he spends the next dozen pages searching for his buddy.

First he searches low, from his own short perspective. And all he sees are:

Right knees, left knees, knees with sandy patches.
Fat knees, bony knees, knees with bumps and scratches.

Next he gets a little higher, and scouts from the top of a bench. All he sees are (and how great is this illustration?!):

Round bellies, flat bellies, bellies white and brown.

Hairy bellies, jelly bellies, bellies hanging down.

You see the pattern, I'm sure. As the clouds open up and rain starts coming down, Ben searches high among the heads and then climbs up to the tallest lifeguard stand he can find to look at the now empty beach. No Zip. Where could he be?

Right at this point, my kids started to get worried. They were all in to this story and cared very much for Ben and even more for Zip, even though they didn't know what he looked like. It was Zip, of course, who was lost and they know how scary that can feel. (You know an author's done something right when three kids of three different ages are still, quiet, and impatiently waiting to find out what's next.)

And then Ben hears something. And they two friends are reunited. And my three kids could finally lean back in their chairs and breathe a sigh of relief. And this truly happened: they sat back in their chairs, laughed a little, and then came forward in their chairs, demanding I read it again so that they could look for clues that they should/could have seen to figure out who Zip is earlier.

I can't tell the ending. You've got to find out for yourself! If you're in Fairfax County, this book will be in circulation soon--at least one, lone copy of it. Flashlight Press sent me a copy to review and I'll be donating it to the library so more than my three kids can enjoy it.



Disclaimer: Too Much Glue was provided to me by the publisher. However, my opinions are written free of obligation, compensation or agreement from the publisher.

The Friend by Sarah Stewart

The Friend by Sarah Stewart, illustrated by David Small

Rating: 5 tear-jerker stars

Annabelle Bernadette Clementine Dodd is a little girl who seems too small for everything in her house.  Her home, a spectacular mansion, seems to swallow her up.  Next to her fancy-schmancy parents, whom we only see once as she kisses them good-bye minutes after she wakes, she seems unnoticeable.  And the big,wide ocean next to which and into which the story takes place engulfs her.

Since her parents are much too busy for her, they entrust her to Beatrice Smith, also known as Bea, the housekeeper/nanny...  These titles just don't begin to describe the relationship between tiny white girl and sturdy, strong, kind African American woman.  Each day has its own rhythm, with these two ladies dancing their part in a sweet relationship.

First day of the week, they'd wash all the clothes--
Hanging them out in the sun's fullest glow.
Belle would assemble large clothespin bouquets,
While Bea would respond in her singular way:
"Glory be, Lord knows you try, my child!
Now let those clothes just flap for a while." 

Then they'd walk to the beach for a swimming spree--
Belle and Bea, hand in hand, to the sea.

Turn the page to a wordless wonder of an illustration by the uber-talented David Small showing Belle and Bea holding hands in the surf, walking down the dozens of steps from the old mansion into the sparkling water.

Each day of the week is full of chores turned into games, from which they deviate to spend time by the sea.  Near the end, after we know that Belle and Bea are completely inseparable, Belle separates from her.  She decides to go to the beach alone.  With her big red ball.  That floats off in the water.  Belle first feels brave and confident when she paddles in after it, but...then a wave hits.

Back at home Bea realizes in a flash that her little shadow is missing and immediately runs to the sea.  And then into the sea, rescuing the drowning girl.  Bea pulls her out of the water and into her strong, loving embrace.  Grateful, frightened Belle clings to her.  Bea weeps with relief; she would have lost her world had something happened to her.

The book is written in tribute to the author's childhood nanny, and it is a beautiful, beautiful book--both prose and pictures, lessons and reflections.

Homer by Elisha Cooper

Homer by Elisha Cooper

Rating: 4 sweet stars


WARNING: DO NOT READ THIS BOOK IF YOU HAVE JUST LOST A PET!  I don't want to make you cry...I already teared up at the end of the book, and our dogs are still young and frisky.


Okay, I'll continue now.


This is a simple book of big, gorgeous pictures and few words.  An old dog lays on a porch, his family inviting him to go with him down to the beach.  He politely declines and just watches, observing, taking it all in.  


Before he heads in, one of his People asks: "Do you need anything?"


Looking out at the beachy sunset, clearly thinking to himself of all his kids who came to play with him while he sat, immobile, and smiling like labs and Goldens do, he thinks:

"Nope, I have everything I want.  I have you."

And then, at the end of the day, he gets up and stretches his stiff body and makes his way inside.  He painfully travels from the porch to an old, comfy chair, and then falls asleep, as his People work around him.

Our two weimaraners are still crazy, despite the fact that they are almost ten years old.  Their favorite moments of the day are clearly those right after bedtime, when I come down the stairs empty-handed and breathing out for the first time all day, looking forward to the transition from mother to wife as my husband drives home from work.  It's usually just me and them walking around the woods together for a few minutes, them romping happily, and me enjoying the quiet.  They would be happy if I was a stay-at-home-dog-mom, tending to them all day long.  Maybe then they'd get a bath more than once a month!

Dogs are so great.  A big pat to your dog if you've got one, too.

Beth's Post: Bats at the Beach by Brian Lies

Bats at the Beach by Brian Lies

Rating: 4 stars

Have you ever wondered where bats go on vacation? They go to the beach, of course, just like you and I! Only when they go it is dark, so they need “moon-tan lotion” and raid the snack bar for insect snacks. It sounds much cuter when you read it with rhyming couplets.


They still participate in all of the regular beach activities, like surfing and digging in the sand, and it is a really creative and fun to read book. The pictures are fun but a little dark and younger readers might have trouble paying attention to the darkly portrayed bat fun.

We received this book as a grandparent present, after visiting the “beaches” of Tacoma, Washington with them at their home. They quickly learned from our Florida- and Hawaii-spoiled children that the cloudy, cold, clam filled murky shore was “NOT A BEACH” in no uncertain terms. They had fun finding and sending us Bats at the Beach, which portrayed the beach a little differently but with just as much fun. It only took a few minutes to convince the kids to roll up their jeans, put back on a hat, and wade out into the water to crab little crabs and spitting clams like all the other kids.

Beach Ball by Peter Sis

Beach Ball by Peter Sis

Rating: 4.5 stars

We went to the library last week to get some books for our fall beach trip and happened upon this one.  Since we liked Fire Truck by Peter Sis, I went to see if there were any other books by him that we might like.  How perfect to find this one!  What wasn't perfect was not realizing how great a car book it really was...until we got down to the beach.  Lorelei could have easily studied this book for an hour in the car, which would have given me only four other hours to fill with something else.

The book is a look-and-find, but not of the usual variety.  The story line which hardly exists at all is just that a little girl's beach ball gets swept up by the wind and she chases it across the beach, through all of the pages of the book.  On each page is a different theme of things you need to find.  On one page are shapes, so you can see how many triangles you can find or just how many different shapes exist.  On another page are numbers, and you count all the different things--that was Lorelei's favorite page.  On another is a too-easy maze and on the trickiest page is the alphabet.  The reader is challenged to find something that starts with each letter of the alphabet.  It's tricky and fun.  It definitely kept my interest for awhile!

This is an old-ish book, printed in 1990, and it definitely could be more than what it is--the book could be bigger and hold more, the illustrations could be more charming and/or funnier, the setting could be different in each book.  I can hardly imagine the awesome result if another illustrator got his or her hands on the idea and ran with it!  I really wish Robert Nuebecker or Rotraut Susanne Berner would do something like this...

Big Al by Andrew Clements Yoshi

Big Al by Andrew Clements, illustrated by Yoshi

Rating: 5 fishy stars

An old friend recommended this book to me--she said that she used to read this book to her kindergarten class on the first day of school every year.  I was intrigued...it must teach a good lesson and be pretty captivating, right?

Yes and yes!

Big Al is the friendliest fish in the whole wide ocean, but he was pretty scary--he has googly eyes, big, sharp teeth, and is brown and monster-like.  He attempts to make friends (he hasn't a single one) by covering himself with seaweed, wiggling himself into the sand to look small, changing his color to match other fish, but nothing works.  So he "cries big salty tears into the big salty sea."  Poor guy!  To say that Yoshi makes him looks forlorn is an understatement.  But, after another failed attempt to make a single friend, a net catches a huge school of fish.  Big Al chomps the net and saves them, making him a friend to all.  I LOVE the picture of happy Big Al!  How can you not love a big galoot of a fish with a heart of gold?

I think the only drawback to this book is that, as I stated before, Big Al is pretty scary.  While we had it from the library Ben and Lorelei rarely chose it on their own to read.  But I would choose it and put it among the books designated for meal time or bed time or nap time, and they always enjoyed it.  For this reason, I think it is best used like my friend used, in school and to teach the oh-so important lesson of befriending even the odd-looking and odd-acting fish in the sea. 

Please, please, please let just half of the kids on Earth learn this!  What a better place schools would be.


P.S.  The illustrator, Yoshi, has a fantastic website at which you can purchase the print of happy Big Al and four other images from the book.

Ladybug Girl at the Beach

Ladybug Girl at the Beach by David Soman and Jacky Davis

Rating: 4 stars

We've fallen into the Ladybug Girl and Fancy Nancy series.  Help!

They are both wildly popular; I think each is okay.  I like Ladybug Girl a little more--she's more adventurous and independent and tough than Fancy Nancy seems to be.  We have read most of the Ladybug Girl series, but we've only read a few of the zillions of Fancy Nancy books.  When our first grade neighbor, someone Lorelei wholeheartedly adores, came off the school bus last week with a few Fancy Nancy books in her hands, Lorelei set her sight on reading all of them.  Oh my.

So, Ladybug Girl.

Ladybug Girl is a headstrong little girl with an older brother who usually doesn't pay much attention to her.  (He is not very kind to her; this is one my least favorite things about the series.)  Her best buddy is her basset hound, Bingo.  While she is brave and tough, her chutzpah sometimes borders on brattiness. 

But this book is one of my favorites, mostly because, as my sister put it, "It explains all the sensations of the beach."  Ladybug Girl is totally excited to be at the beach and she just knows that she's going to love it, but...she didn't realize how big and scary the ocean would be once you got up close to it.  So she does everything except go into the ocean--dig sand castles, fly a kite, run around. 

She carefully tries to go in, but the ocean almost pushes her over, and then nearly drags her in after planting her ankles into the soft sand.  If you've ever stood in front of the ocean as a wave washes in, and then out, you know exactly what she's talking about.  Which is kind of fun, especially for Lorelei who is also afraid of the ocean.  (On her first trip she wouldn't even step onto the sand.  We could have walked a mile away from her and Ben, and when we returned they both would have been sitting directly on the towel, feet as far away from the edge as possible!)  By the end, Ladybug Girl, who seems about 4 years old, wades into the water all by herself.  Hooray!

I plan on taking this book with us (along with a few dozen others, of course) when we head to the beach this fall.

10 Little Rubber Ducks by Eric Carle

10 Little Rubber Ducks by Eric Carle

Rating: 5 stars

This is a great book, but it was made even greater because it was given to Lorelei and Ben from their beloved Grammy. And, what's even greatest of all, was that it came in the mail. A package! In the mailbox! For them! Hurrah for the old-fashioned postal system! This book appeared in our mailbox last year, just a few days before we drove down to the beach, and we read it at least five times a day--in the house, on the deck, on the beach, and of course many times in the car during the looooong car drive. (Who takes pictures of themselves while reading? Yup, we do.)

As with other Eric Carle books, this one does so much! It's a great story--just a simple tale, and based on a true story! Ten little rubber ducks get thrown overboard and they drift ten different ways, meeting ten different animals. The book has its own little rhythm to it that makes the words easy to remember; Lorelei memorized the book within a few days. It is definitely a "counting book" but also introduces or reinforces--depending on where your child is--sequential counting (first, second, third, etc). And the animals are all sea creatures--dolphins leaping out of the water, huge sea turtles, giant whales, and flying pelicans. It is a GREAT book, perfect for anytime or for a trip to the beach.