Coming Soon
Sunday, December 25, 2022
Sunday, December 18, 2022
Sunday, December 11, 2022
Sunday, December 4, 2022
Sunday, November 27, 2022
Sunday, November 20, 2022
Sunday, November 13, 2022
Sunday, November 6, 2022
Sunday, October 30, 2022
Pond - A Review
A gorgeously illustrated picture book, Pond is an endearing story of curiosity, imagination and wonder.
When Matt discovers a trickle of water from "the Pit", his curiosity gets the better of him and he along with his sister and best friend, join forces to miraculously uncover a buried pond.
The children toil laboriously through the seasons clearing debris to make way for the water to meander.
With nature to keep the children company, the trio have a fabulous time in each other's orbit.
Not only do the "birds and bugs" keep them busy, but so do the storms.
The children have a marvelous time while reading a book, or drinking cocoa, or camping under the shelter of nature.
The illustrations by Jim LaMarche are fascinating. I felt like deep diving inside the picture book and taking a trip with the three children and reliving their stories.
At a time when digital gadgets revolve around us, Pond is a delightful story of the hidden gems that nature abounds in.
Image source: www.amazon.com | Publisher: Simon & Schuster Book for Young Readers
Sunday, October 23, 2022
Lena's Slippers - A Review
Lena's Slippers is a tale of keep on keeping on despite all adversities.
Based on Ioana Hobai's life, this story is about a little girl who has to go enormous extents to please her dance teacher.
Image source: www.amazon.com | Publisher: Page Street Kids
Sunday, October 16, 2022
The Journey Home - A Review
A poignant story about the perils of our avarice. Winner of the Maurice Sandak Fellowship award, Frann Preston-Gannon takes us on a voyage with five animals whose habitats are threatened due to our greed and destructive habits.
Through the eyes of a polar bear, a panda, an elephant, an orangutan and a dodo, Frann explores the plight of animals as mankind threatens their very existence.
Polar Bears: "polar bears and many other ice-dependent creatures are at risk."
Pandas: "Severe threats from humans have left just over 1,800 pandas in the wild."
Elephants: "elephant populations have experienced significant declines over the last century."
Orangutas: "The destruction and degradation of the tropical rain forest, particularly lowland forest, in Borneo and Sumatra is the main reason orangutans are threatened with extinction".
Dodos: "The dodo's natural habitat was almost completely destroyed after people started settling on Mauritius."
Beautifully illustrated and written from the core of the heart.
Image source: www.amazon.com | Pavillion Children's Books
Sunday, October 9, 2022
The First Drawing - A Review
The earliest recollection I have of a cave painting stems from a history book. I was a middle-schooler, growing up in India, in the 80s . I was fascinated by the painting, but I let it lie dormant as we are talking about India pre-economic boom, pre-internet (pretty pre-historic itself!).
There was limited, if not hardly, any means to research and explore cave paintings.
So a few weeks ago, when I walked into my beloved local library, the first book that was on the table display and that caught my eye was 'The First Drawing'.
Immediately I knew this was going into my book-review basket.
It took multiple reads to grasp the subtle messages in this book.
There are several aspects to this book.
Celebrated writer, illustrator and Caldecott Medalist, Mordicai Gerstein, teleports us into an inconceivable period in the pre-historic world...thirty-thousand years ago...
Mind-boggling isn't it...as to how many centuries and centuries and centuries ago it was!
Seen through the eyes of a modern-day-eight-year old protagonist,
Mordecai makes us descend into the land of cave-dwellers, where humans co-existed with animals (and readers...these are not the domestic-kid-friendly variety).
This was an era of elks and wooly mammoths and rhinoceroses, to name a few!
Chidren are naturally curious and come to this world cloaked with wonder and imagination.
Our pre-historic protagonist is no different. He is gifted with a vivid imagination.
He loves to watch animals as they gather around the river to have a drink of water.
He sees a world of animal shapes - in the white billowing clouds, in the stones that would soon be molded into "spears and knives", in the "firelight" that would cast animal shadows on the bumpy cave walls.
Unencumbered by his family's rebuttal, he continues to dream about them and one day he has a live encounter with a wooly mammoth!
Undeterred, our protagonist looks him in the eye and our fabulous wooly mammoth slips away in the distance.
His admission of the chance encounter with our majestic ice-age friend, leaves his father exasperated.
Not to give up easily, our little pre-historic protagonist, projects his mind-eye onto the walls and ends up making etchings of an elephant!
Transport back to present day and here we have our young modern-day protagonist drawing an elephant on his canvas!
As I mentioned earlier there are myriad aspects to this story.
Children are born with boundless wonder and imagination. However, we adults (caught in the daily trappings of existence), prevent nurturing those skills in children.
Children, in order to please the parents, smother nurturing those special skills and talents that they have been naturally endowed with, leading to often times life-long frustration and unhappiness.
Again, often times, we adults caught in the vicissitudes of life are unable to see, let alone appreciate the talents of our children.
Mordecai captures the behavioral aspects of pre-historic children and adults quite accurately.
Yet he leaves room (as seen through our pre-historic protagonist) to the view point that if one can unshackle ourselves from societal influence one can end up truly creating "magic".
In the author's note, Mordecai mentions that the story is an "imagined version of how and why drawing was invented".
"It's a way to explore and share the vast, invisible world of our imaginations. And to me that is magic".
To me Mordecai's note sums it up all.
The illustrations are stunning and evocative.
For someone who often wonders how life must have been like in the pre-historic era, without our luxurious modern amenities, this book is a fragmental glimpse of what life must have been like.
The book is food for thought as to how humans co-existed with animals. How did they brave the weather? What tools did they use to hunt?
When my 12 year old was reading the book, the first thing she mentioned was the story of a social misfit.
I agreed, little children notice things way beyond our adult perception.
The author makes a note that "whoever invented drawing must have been a child".
Nostalgia and magic rolled into one.
A must-read for children and adults :)
Image source: www.amazon.com | Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Sunday, October 2, 2022
Too Much Stuff - A Review
Emily Gravett (Author & Illustrator)
Oh my gosh! What a delightful book!
As I was leafing through the interior of the book, the first set of illustrations that caught my eye was inside the front cover, and I said to myself, "Wow!", this is very impressive. Later, after I finished reading through the book, I realized that Emily Gravett had designed the inside of the front cover as the inside page of a magazine!
Double wow!
Too Much Stuff! is an adorable picture book set to rhyme.
From cuckoo clocks, socks, plastic pegs to a bike, a stroller and a car?
Wait a minute!
No amount of stuff is too much, when it comes to building a warm, cozy, and sturdy nest for Meg and Ash's four soon-to-be born baby birds! The magpies go on a finder's binge to build their snugly, warm nest.
When the magpies go a "step too far" to pile a car as the last "stuff" to create their beautiful nest, they realize that their last find might not be the most suitable "stuff" to build a nest!
The gorgeously built nest comes crumbling down under the immense pressure.
Their animal friends go on a rampage to build their own cozy homes from the pieces of "stuff" from the broken nest.
However, "All's Well That End's Well", when Meg and Ash discover that under the "heap of shells and sticks..." are their "four PERFECT chicks".
The illustrations are a treat to the eyes. Absolutely gorgeous! Emily Gravett goes all the way out to provide a zoomed in and a zoomed out version of the illustrations. The renditions of the animals are intricately detailed, not to mention the shiny, red "rubbishy" bin.
There are two separate stylistic illustrations - the illustrations of the magazine and illustrations of the story. The former is set in the '60's vintage-y style and the latter is vibrant and realistic.
Children and adults will love reading this book.
Image source: www.amazon.com | Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Sunday, September 25, 2022
Abigail Fig - A Review
This book is an absolute hoot!
Megan Hess takes us into the world of Abigail Fig: The Secret Agent Pig, where snobbery and ostentatiousness coexist.
A housekeeper to two "posh pigs", Abigail bends over backward to keep her "bosses" happy.
Reminiscent of the scullery maid - Cindrella's abuse at the hands of her two step-sisters, Abigail's life too is swaddled by taunts and insults.
Saddened by her bosses sassiness, Abigail sums up courage to leave the two pigs and find a new home. However, a van parked in front of the "posh pigs" apartment catches her eye. The same van that had "screeched to a halt outside" their window.
Abigail decides to investigate.
On hot pursuit, Abigail follows the "clues" and only to realize that the butchers who had parked the van were thieves in disguise and had come to the "posh pigs" apartment to steal her "boss's rare brooch."
She launches on a full-blown search and ends up finding her bosses all trussed up!
Abigail displays her remarkable acrobatic skills when she recovers the jewelry, rescues her bosses and girds up the thieves!
Phew!
Set in rhyme - amidst gorgeous illustration, Megan Hess has created a picture book that will make us rock with laughter, cringe with pain, or giggle with delight at the exploits of Abigail Fig as she unknowingly masterminds a plan to rescue her bosses.
Whether it is overlooking the Eiffel Tower through the French windows, or displaying the lavish lifestyle of Abigail's bosses or the opulent architecture of the "posh pigs" apartment, Megan Hess has fashioned a picture book that is quintessential of Hausmannian architecture and resplendent of Parisienne nobility.
This book is pure joy and an absolute must-read for children and adults.
Image source: www.amazon.com | Publisher: Hardie Grant Children's Publishing
Sunday, September 18, 2022
The Pirates Of Scurvy Sands - A Review
When I read this book, I wanted to roar out of the house and roll with Matilda as she frolicked her way to the land of the Scurvy Sands:)
This book had me dancing and foot-stomping and wanting to sail with Matilda and her pirate-y friends!
When town-bred Matilda decides to go honor her pirate pen pal, Jim Lad's invitation to join him and his pirate tribe on a swashbuckling adventure to the land of Scurvy Sands to find...Ahoy matey! You guessed it, to find treasure, she is met with ridicule.
Well, she is not a pirate...She is prim and proper with her Dull-on-the-sea manners.
When Cap'n Day says "it's all about perception", Matilda is put to the test by the pirate crew.
Using Mad Jack's map and her town-bred plans, she ends up finding Mad Jack's treasure. Jim Lad ends up following her.
The book had me so excited that I could really end up throwing a pirate party for my child's birthday all over again :)
Written in rhyme and comic book style, with brilliant illustrations, Jonny Duddle does a remarkable work of capturing the emotions of pirate land. It's a must-own and a must-book to read.
Image source: www.amazon.com | Publisher: Templar books
Sunday, September 11, 2022
In You I See - A Review
A whimsy, lyrical picture book, In You I See, is a story of our internal power. We are so trapped in the happenings of our external world, constantly seeking attention and comparing ourselves to the haves, that we forget to look inside us and emerge succesful, by tapping into our internal power, the power within us, that we are all endowed with.
Written in whimsy, lyrical style. Rachel Emily, does such a marvelous rendition of the different values that we are born with and Jodie Howard does a brilliant rendition in capturing the beauty of nature.
Image source: www.amazon.com | Penguin Random House
Sunday, September 4, 2022
The Notebook Keeper - A Review
Written by Stephen Briseno and illustrated by Magdalena Mora, the story explores the desperate plight of the immigrants from South America, seeking asylum; in the United States.
Inspirited by true events, the story depicts the desperate attempt of a mother and daughter as they undertake a mammoth journey to seek entry into the United States.
Once upon a time "sunshine drenched the yard" and "neighbors' laughter danced in the streets", but now, their homeland is bereft of people and hope.
With just a string of faith, Noemi and her mother, leave their beloved homeland, trekking on an arduous journey to cross the border...
The border...the grim and uninviting border...that separates their precious land...from the much prized... much sought after...United States.
Attired with bare-bone essentials, and, along with a group of desperate asylum seekers, Noemi and her mother eventually reach the forbidden border.
A mob of people throng the border...
The hope gives way to despair, when Noemi and her mother, learn that they need to register themselves.
The kind notebook keeper assigns them a number and Noemi and her mother become another counting mark, amidst the multitude of counting marks.
Days give way to weeks and to months...
Noemi and her mother settled down into a new routine, a new life, a new "home".
The bleakness and the pain of the situation pervades little Noemi.
Noemi, is touched by the kindness of the notebook keeper and gives her (the notebook keeper), her most treasured possession. Her muneca.
One fine day, the notebook keeper leaves the border as it is now her turn to cross the border.
Noemi and her mother become now the chosen notebook keeper to "encourage, remind, and comfort" the beleaguered people...
The sparse text and the intense illustrations really evoke gut-wrenching emotions.
When I read this book, I was astonished, literally beyond words at the plight asylum seekers face. Leaving one's country in defeating circumstances is not anguishing enough, couple it with the vicissitudes of the situation, I am beyond words to express the pain and the misery of such people.
And...history is replete with such examples, of people tolerating and many a times... triumphing such adversities.
And now for the illustrations.
In one word - powerful.
Magdalena Mora has captured the sweeping and vibrant Mexican landscape with her soul-stirring, lush and vibrant brush strokes.
Rendered in "colored pencil, pastel, gouache and Photoshop collage", they capture the severity of the situation.
The blue and the pink stained sky, the orange and yellow draped desert evoke acute emotions of sorrow.
I was eager to move on to the next page to see where the illustrations would lead me to...
The unwelcoming border guards, the few-and-far between palm trees, the agonizing wait, are captured with arresting depth and clarity.
The blue, orange and pink swept evening sky, plunging the tents in darkness, yet lighting up Noemi and her mother's profiles indicating that they are the protagonists...indicate that Magdalena Mora is an artist to be reckoned with.
The small, circular illustrations depicting the daily life, of Noemi and her mother (along with the other refugees) are arresting and evoke a sort-of-vignette-style imagery.
The hope, struggle and desperation of the immigrants is captured with a wistful intensity that evokes sadness and wonder.
I felt like I could go on and on and on, singing praises of the amazing story and illustrations:)
However, for brevity of time, I would like to end by saying that this is a must read.
Image source: www.amazon.com | Publisher: Random House Publishing
PS: My apologies for my inability to add the diacritic marks, as Blogger does not let me add the diacritics. If I can figure out a way to add them, I will do so. Thank you...Mousumi
Sunday, August 28, 2022
The Paper Crane - A Review
Molly Bang (author, illus.)
What a delightful book! The story is truly enchanting. An absolute page-turner!
Written and illustrated by the esteemed Molly Bang, the story, although written in a simplistic style, evokes a sense of intense emotion, wonder and mystery.
A restaurateur finds out that due to a new highway, his client traffic has been diverted.
Once prosperous, his business is now on the verge of ruins.
Amidst such desperate circumstances, an unassuming and gentle stranger makes his way to the restaurant. The restaurant owner treats him like royalty and serves the stranger the most delicious meal he can ever imagine himself serving.
For this unusual hospitality, the stranger rewards the owner with a paper crane. Yes...it does conjure the imagination of Alladin and his magical lamp:) The paper crane is indeed magical. Unfortunately, the similarity ends here.
While the genie rewards Alladin by saying "your wish is my command" whenever Alladin rubs his lamp and comes up with different experiences, the paper crane comes alive whenever the restaurateur claps his hands and the bird performs the most amazing dancing feats.
The news of the magical dancing crane reaches far and wide, and people from distant places flock the restaurant to see the dancing crane.
Here comes the cliff-hangar!
The gentle stranger returns! However, this time, he rewards the owner by just playing his flute. To everyone's surprise, the paper crane comes alive and the stranger embarks on the dancing bird and flies away never to be seen.
Adapted from a Japanese folk tale, the story is singularly remarkable and I just wanted more of it.
The story was very moving and captured my interest about life in ways than I could ever imagine. The plethora of what-ifs. The endless possibilities. The unceasing expectations.
The story has a moral...one should never take things for granted and yet, one should never lose hope and wonder and be open to endless magical possibilities that life offers.
The illustrations are uniquely beautiful. The book won numerous awards - The ALA Notable Book award, the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award for Illustration and the Reading Rainbow Feature Selection.
A must read for children and adults.
Image Source: www.amazon.com | Publisher: Green Willow Books
Sunday, August 21, 2022
The Grey Lady and the Strawberry Snatcher - A Review
There are reasons why some books end up winning multiple awards. The Grey Lady and the Strawberry Snatcher is one of them.
"The book won a 1981 Caldecott Honor Book award, a 1980 Boston Globe-Horn Book honor book award for Illustration, A Children's Reviewer's Choice 1980 award, ALA Booklist award, a 1980 AIGA Children's Book Show Selection award."
A wordless picture book (candidly, I had no idea that there was such a thing as wordless picture book, but apparently there is!), Molly Bang tells a fascinating story of the relentless stalking of the grey lady by the strawberry snatcher.
The illustrations are mesmerizing and the story despite being wordless has a tension to it. It has this pulsating motion that kept me wanting to find out more of what would be the next scene and the next and the next...
The Strawberry Snatcher pursues the Grey Lady like a shadow. He creeps in upon her when she is in the wilderness, in the swamps, when she is about to catch a bus, and kept me on the edge.
It's spooky with a surprise ending to it.
Image source: www.amazon.com | Publisher: Four Winds Press
Sunday, August 14, 2022
Magic Like That - A Review
Samara Cole Doyon | Geneva Bowers (illus.)
Gorgeously illustrated with lyrical text, Magic Like That is a beautiful story about a little girl and how she finds empowerment through her hairstyle.
Award winner author Samara Cole Doyon and award winning illustrator Geneva Bowers through imaginative text and vivid illustrations tries to showcase that we can find beauty within us if we can look within ourselves.
Through hair that is "tall and strong", or hair that is "turning and coiling", or hair that is "brushed and teased", Samara Cole Doyon expressive words encapsulates the boundless potential within us.
We are always comparing ourselves to others, seeking external validation, but if we only look within ourselves, we will find this power.
We need to trust ourselves, believe in ourselves, only then will we be able to see our potential.
Magic Like That is all about empowering ourselves with self-belief, self-esteem and self-confidence.
Image source: www.amazon.com | Publisher: Lee & Low Books Inc.
Sunday, August 7, 2022
The Extraordinary Mark Twain - A Review
It's a tall order to read about Mark Twain, let alone write a review about him...?
But whose order was it to write about him...?
None other than my instinctive order...that instinct, that instinct which we often times call the gut...
So, when The Extraordinary Mark Twain (according to Susy) caught my eye at my work place, I reached out instinctively to read about one of the world's foremost writers of all times.
The read was nothing short of captivating.
Written by Barbara Kerley and illustrated by Edwin Forthingham, the book fascinatingly explores the life of Mark Twain as observed by his daughter Susy Clemens who takes us on an incredible voyage to capture the life of her 'extraordinary' father.
Barbara Kerley provides deep insights and shares thoughts from Susy Clemens writings, which made her father human.
Susy Clemens writes "They think of Mark Twain as a humorist, joking at everything." But she mentions "I never saw a man with so much variety of feeling as Papa has."
She goes on to describe his mannerisms, peculiarities, his temper. She mentions his writing habits, how, during summer he would write all day and and read his stories to his family. He would rely on his wife to edit his stories.
She recounts with depth and clarity their daily life. She mentions his 'extraordinary' and 'not-so-extraordinary' habits as well.
The books is a fascinating account of "the greatest humorist that the United States has produced."
This is a huge inspiration.
If one wants to be a success in life, one can take a leaf out of this biography and work steadfastly at one's passion, doors of opportunity will open up.
Image source: www.amazon.com | Scholastic Press
Sunday, July 31, 2022
The Cloud Spinner - A Review
Allison Jay (illus.)
A warm snuggly book, that you can read over a cup of hot chocolate and curled up in a blanket
One day, when the King of this magical kingdom is on a tour of his kingdom, his attention is drawn towards a scarf a little boy is wearing. The scarf is made of "gold and white and crimson".
The King demands (after all he is the King), that the little boy weave him a "longer one, much longer" scarf.
The little boys has no choice and sets about his task as he captures the "gold", the "white" and the "crimson" clouds floating above him and weaves them into threads of "gold", "white" and "crimson" and then spins and spins and spins...till he has made a "longer" scarf for the King.
The scarf is as "soft as a mouse's touch and warm as roasted chestnuts".
Not to be dismissed as a selfish husband and father, the greedy King then demands that the boy make him a "cloak" and "dresses" for his wife and daughter.
The poor boy, dispirited...sets about his task and captures all the clouds of "gold", "white" and "crimson" leaving not a single one in the sky.
The "cloak" and the "dresses" are presented to the royalty. While the King and the Queen are ecstatic at their new-found treasure, the little princess is silent.
When the villagers bewail the lack of rain and its effects on their lives, the little princess requests the little boy to unweave their clothes and return the threads to the sky and thus return the clouds back to wear they belong.
Soon, mother earth is awash with rain and the villagers are happy.
Written by Michael Catchpool and illustrated by Alison Jay this book captures, in a nut-shell, the consequences of our avarice. It's a perfect rendition of the effects our greed has on our planet.
The illustrations are warm and snuggly, the clouds have shapes in the form of animals, the hills are dotted with plump animals that give the hills faces, the hills are dome-shaped:) Lovely.
I read this book several years ago, when my daughter was a toddler. The book never left my mind and I always wanted to read the book. So I was pleasantly surprised when I found this book at my work place.
I bought this book home and read it cover-to-cover. And as you guessed it, I started the review process.
I hope you enjoyed the review.
Image Source: www.amazon.com | Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Sunday, July 24, 2022
The 1619 Project: Born on the Water - A Review
Nikkolas Smith (illus)
This review will take a while, I will come back and revise it as it is too deep to be written in one sitting.
The 1619 Project: Born on the Water is a striking story of uprootment, slavery and hope.
It's a story of pain, brutality and survival.
It's a story of the truth. It's a story of finding meaning in life...
Written by award winning journalist Nicole Hannah-Jones and Newberry honor awardee Renee Watson, and brilliantly illustrated by author-Hollywood film-illustrator Nikkolas Smith, The 1619 Project: Born on the Water sketches the uprootment of African-Americans and weaves together a tapestry of truth, of hope and of survival.
Poetically written with luminous illustrations that touch the core of one's heart, The 1619 Project: Born on the Water is poignant and haunting.
The story is seen through the eyes of a child, when a class assignment leads her grandma to recount the story of her ancestors, 400 years ago, when they set sail on the White Lion, enslaved by the Europeans.
Image source: www.amazon.com | Publisher: Kokila (an imprint of Penguin Random House L.L.C, NY)