Picture Book of the Week
The last week of September’s picks for Picture Book of the Week comes from a mixed bag of books. I’m going through all the picture books that I own. And I think I’m down to the last shelf of them. I still have some good books to come, and at least one I bought recently that was published this year.
The stars aligned this week to have some really old books, some not so old books, and a sequel to a best seller.
This weeks books were: The Night Before Christmas (2007) pictures by Gyo Fujika, Gershon’s Monster (2000) retold by Eric A. Kimmel illustrated by Jon J. Muth, Martina the Beautiful Cockroach (2007) Retold by Carmen Agra Deedy illustrated by Michael Austin, Eloise in Moscow (1959) by Kay Thompson, Drawings by Hilary Knight, and If You Take a Mouse to School (2002) by Laura Numeroff illustrated by Felicia Bond
The Night Before Christmas was just the original poem set to standard pictures. Nothing award winning here, but still solid illustrations. My big take away from this book was the size of the spot illustrations. I’ve been wondering if there are standard sizes for Spot Illustrations. Recently, I’ve seen a couple of spot illustrations where the main character was so small, that it wasn’t working for me. As I was reading the Night Before Christmas, I came across some spot illustrations that worked for me. The faces in the spot illustrations were about as big as my thumb. So I decided to use that as a benchmark for my own spot illustrations.
Gershon’s Monster is a classic for me. I love Jewish stories. And this one deals with repentance and saying you’re sorry in a new way. It’s kind of a Spiritual metaphor for life. It will always stay in my library because it means alot to me.
The Beautiful Cockroach was fun. I love to listen to Carmen Deedy tell stories and I had to read this one outloud. As I read, I could hear Carmen Deedy’s accent and voice reading it right along with me. A fun read with a great refrain.
Eloise in Moscow is a really old book. So old that this version had two copyright notices in it. The original copyright was in 1959. I bought it in a used bookshop about 7 years ago thinking it was a classic. I’ve never read Eloise books, but I thought I could learn something from this book. It is a LONG book. I give myself 15 minutes each day to read a picture book and take notes on it. The day I read this picture book, I had to reset my timer for another 15 minutes because I wasn’t even halfway done with the book. The illustrations are amazing. I might want to use some of the techniques I saw in the this book to develop a master copy. It was very wordy and was definitely written during the Cold War. I saw future female characters that were developed from Eloise. Olivia, Clementine, and Lily from Lily’s Purple purse come to mind. It’s the only Eloise book I’ve read. If the rest of the Eloise books are just as long, children’s attention spans have really shortened in the past almost 70 years.
If You Take a Mouse to School is a sequel to the best selling If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. It follows the same pattern as that blockbuster. Some of the pages feel a bit forced, but the pictures have a great side story that you don’t get from the words alone. The linking of words and pictures in this way is a mark of a good book.
I wasn’t sure which book would come on top this week, but I’ve decided it has to be
The Beautiful Cockroach by Carmen Deedy.
If you haven’t read this book yet, go find yourself a copy and enjoy the beautiful refrain and delightful use of puns.