CLEVER JACK TAKES THE CAKE (PICTURE BOOK)

PICTURE BOOK

CLEVER JACK TAKES THE CAKE by Candace Fleming, illustrated by G. Brian Karas (Schwartz & Wade, 2010)
Jack is bringing a gift to the princess for her birthday, and he has it all planned out. Even though he’s broke, he’s going to make the best with what he has.

And that same mornning, he traded his ax for two bags of sugar, and his quilt for a sack of flour. He gave the hen an extra handful of seed in exchange for two fresh eggs, and he kissed the cow on the nose for a pail of her sweetest milk. He gathered walnuts. He dipped candles. And in the strawberry patch he searched…and searched…and searched until he found the reddest, juiciest, most succulent strawberry in all the land. “Delicious!” said Jack as he plucked it from its stem.

Wah-lah, all the ingredients for a perfect cake, with “princess” spelled out in walnuts, and away sets Jack for the castle, only to be hindered by four-and-twenty blackbirds, an ogre with a sweet tooth, a dark forest, a hungry dancing bear and a castle guard who informs him that the princess is allergic to strawberries. Finding himself at the front of the royal receiving line, what does Jack have left to give? A story of course, and one that knocks the princess’ royal socks off.

Candace Fleming is crazy versatile in her gift for writing, penning ambitious and well-researched historical nonfiction for kids (check out BEN FRANKLIN’S ALMANAC, THE LINCOLNS or my personal favorite, A BIG CHEESE IN THE WHITE HOUSE:  THE TRUE TALE OF A TREMENDOUS CHEDDAR), picture books (like the clever and popular MUNCHA, MUNCHA, MUNCHA, done in collaboration with this same illustrator), a besides her special penchant for the historical, she has a flair for the folkloric (case in point: THE FABLED FOURTH GRADERS OF AESOP ELEMENTARY, which has a sequel, THE FABLED FIFTH GRADERS), proving she can juggle genres with the aplomb of the great Avi. But though all her books are consistently special, there is something especially flawless in this one, a chef d’oeuvre of sorts, even on an already heavy shelf of accomplishment. Her equally prolific illustrator, using his standard charming colored pencil and watercolor technique, has stepped up his game here, starting on the endpapers with a black cloud of foreboding forest and an almost romantic moonlit chat between the princess and Jack awaiting on the other side, with exciting variation of layout in between. Besides being a perfect marriage of text and art, this deceptively simple book is a pretty flawless read-aloud, inviting both attention and participation from the listener and should be a contender for the Geisel Award. It belongs on every child’s shelf, and is a must-have for starting fairy tale units and a sure-fire “read it again!” choice for the lap or the nap. Sweet and with just the right mix of storytime ingredients, just like a good cake, it rises to the occasion. (5 and up)

Also of interest:

Another fresh nursery-tale take!
3 LITTLE DASSIES by Jan Brett (Putnam, 2010)
Inspired by a visit to Namibia in Southern Africa, three little groundhog-meets-koala-like creatures build their houses of driftwood, grasses and rocks while an eagle with young to feed looks on hungrily in this Three Pigs take-off. Amazing textile patterns and signature borders and frames delicately decorated with native patterns and samples from nature are especially graceful and dynamic, even for Brett’s consistently detailed body of work. The debonair and gallant Agama Man (a lizard), happy to have new neighbors, adds a new dimension of drama as he rescues the two terrified dassie sisters while the third fights off their enemy. Packed with eyebrow-raising excitement, this beautiful book emanates and inspires respect and awe for the African landscape, and ends with a pourquoi-tale twist that brings the fanciful story back around to the real world, with a symbiotic relationship between dassies, agama and the black-feathered eagles. This book reads like a treasure-box collected from travel, and is well worth the trip. (5 and up)


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More Esmé stuff at www.planetesme.com.

DOTTY (PICTURE BOOK)

PICTURE BOOK

DOTTY by Erica S. Perl, illustrated by Julia Denos (Abrams)

“Where’s Keeko?” she asked.
“Ida!” scolded Katya. “That’s for babies.” She looked around, then whispered, “I still keep her in my pocket sometimes.”
With a laugh, Katya ran off. Ida chased after her.
Dotty tried to catch up, but the snow made it hard.

When Ida goes to school, she brings her imaginary friend Dotty with her, and it turns out that the classroom is populated with plenty of such companions. But as time passes, these partnerships dissipate, and Ida is stigmatized. All the same, she is not yet willing to say goodbye, Dotty being so very real to her in spite of what other people see. Only after a very poignant talk with her empathetic teacher is Ida able to loosen the leash on her pet, her own pedagogue proving that you don’t need to let go of the best parts of your imagination in order to carry on into the world of grown-ups. 

Sometimes there comes a book that undermines any hope I could have of descriptive prowess and just sends me reeling into a repeating chorus of PERFECT PERFECT PERFECT PERFECT PERFECT PERFECT PERFECT PERFECT PERFECT PERFECT PERFECT! Oh my shelves, this is why you were built, let me put this on you and take it off again and again to see if it STILL makes me cry with each new reading, why YES IT DOES!  Pardon my lack of decorum but my goodness, teachers certainly read a lot of books and it absolutely rattles the marrow to find one that “gets it” so 110%, one written with such a sense of surprise and real love, and one that so freshly suggests growing up is not necessarily about letting go, but about holding on with grace; a great message both for little people and the big people who share with them. Loose, lively, largely ink illustrations are very colorful and expressive, and manage the tricky realistic and the otherworldly dichotomy here. Do you still have what you imagine in your pocket, or on a long blue leash? Not since Margery Williams’ THE VELVETEEN RABBIT has a book said something been spoken so truly about the happy and sad of the nature of things being “real.” If there is a teacher or a child you like at all, please share this book with them, along with a very real hug. (6 and up)

Also of interest:

IN ENGLISH, OF COURSE by Josephine Nobisso, illustrated by Dasha Ziborova (Gingerbread House, 2003)

The members of Josephine's classroom all seem to come from somewhere else, and are called upon in turn to talk about where their families are from. But when it's Josephine's turn, she is not sure she has enough English under her belt to explain that her parents are architectural engineers from Napoli, Italy. Her limited language leads her into uncharted farm territory, where with the help of her teacher she is able to share an extravagant reminiscence about a cow, told with a lot of body language. This hilarious and honest book explores both the insides and the outsides of an extremely intelligent child who is just gathering the tools she needs to make herself understood. The splashy collage illustrations appropriately reflect the wild amounts of information that are being sorted through, along with the style and spirit of the story's heroine. ESL students and teachers will cheer here, but any child will empathize with Josephine's earnest attempt to share the best of herself with her class. "Sometimes native-speaking people underestimate the talents, dignity and wit of newcomers to a country," the author muses in her postscript. All of these attributes come through loud and clear in one of the more endearing characters and accurate classroom narratives to appear in children's literature (6 and up)

Links are provided for informational use. Don't forget to support your local bookseller.
More Esmé stuff at www.planetesme.com.