Muscles Make Us Move

Bill Kirk sent me a PDF of his newest book in The Sum of Our Parts series, Muscles Make Us Move. I have a feeling lots of kids who read this book will become doctors or scientists when they grow up because, like the other books in the series, it makes scientific information about how human bodies work fascinating.

It's a picture book and the rhymes are amusing and simple enough for young children to understand, but the factoids tell things older kids and even adults will find fascinating. (Confession: I'm a grown up and I discovered a lot of information in this book I hadn't known before.)

I can see parents and teachers reading the rhymes out loud to children, middle graders reading it themselves, and older kids - maybe even some in High School - using the book for research to use in term papers.

Eugene Ruble's illustrations are educational, too.

Sofia's Dream

An internet friend sent me a PDF copy of a delightful picture book called Sofia's Dream. It's about a little girl who makes friends with the moon and gets carried away to visit him in a dream. There she learns about Mother Earth's suffering because of pollution and other environmental damage and wakes up determined to do something about that important problem.

In spite of the important message, the book isn't teachy-preachy. It is told in rhyme, which works well without being forced, and the beautiful illustrations by Sue Cornelison capture the dreamlike mood of the book perfectly.

Sofia's Dream would make a wonderful bedtime story that children will probably want to hear over and over again. Perhaps some of them, like Sofia, will visit the moon in their dreams.

I assume the author, Land Wilson, chose the main character's name because Sofia means 'wise one' or 'wisdom' and hearing her story will inspire children to care about our planet.

Prejudice and Bigotry

Members of a Yahoo group for writers I belong to have been discussing the influence of prejudice in our society and how that shows and can be discouraged in children's books. Although we've come a long way since before the Civil Rights movement, prejudice still exists in our society. There's also sometimes a problem with minority people being prejudiced against those in the majority.

The vast majority of humans in most books for kids are white and sometimes the characters are portrayed as animals in order to avoid having them be members of one race or another.

Some people feel that only members of minority groups can write about them accurately, while others think research can solve that problem. And some stories, especially in picture books, are universally true and the illustrations could show children of any race or national background.

I believe the more characters of varied ethnicity children read about and see in illustrations the less likely they are to become prejudiced adults.

Klutzy Kantor

I interviewed Jessica Kennedy on my other blog about special needs, http://janetanncollins.blogspot.com and she kindly sent me a copy of her picture book, Klutzy Kantor.

No, the book isn’t about a cantor who sings in a synagogue even though “klutz” was originally a Yiddish term for a clumsy person. Kantor is the name of a pegasus, or winged horse. (I wonder if Kennedy thought of the name because horses canter?)

Klutzy Kantor is a cute book and the main character’s awkwardness causes some incidents that will make little kids laugh. But Kantor is also smart and, with the help of his friends and a little magic, determines to find a way to put an end to his clumsiness.

Although the book is fun, it’s also educational. The author uses some advanced vocabulary, but the meaning is obvious from the context so children will learn new words. There’s also a challenging riddle that will make youngsters think.

The illustrations by Jack Foster are charming and do an excellent job of capturing the feeling of the story. I think lots of children will enjoy Klutzy Kantor.

Jessica Kennedy is holding a contest and I’ll include the information about that here:

I’m running a contest/drawing to celebrate my fifth essay’s inclusion in a Chicken Soup for the Soul book. I will give one Chicken Soup for the Soul: Thanks Dad book to a lucky winner and, if fifteen or more people leave a comment, I will give two away. Be sure to leave your email address.

You can gain double the entries by announcing the contest at this blog and http://jadaykennedy.blogspot.com.

Here are the rules.

• Leave a comment at the two blogs for additional entries for each.

• Blog about the contest for two entries. (leave link)

• Tweet about the contest (leave link)

• Announce it on Facebook for two entries (leave link)

• For an additional entry announce the contest on Live Journal, Jacket Flap, Book Marketing Network, LinkedIn or another social network (leave link)

• The contest will end at midnight Monday May 3, 2010.

Picture Books Kids Love

In my years as  preschool and Kindergarten teacher, parent, and grandparent I've read over a thousand books to hundreds of kids. The one book most of them have loved is Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are." Except for two little girls who were frightened by the monsters, all the other children have wanted to hear it over and over again. 

But what makes this book so popular? I guess it's partly because all kids can identify with misbehaving and getting in trouble but having their parents love them anyway, and with using their imaginations. Another factor is the great illustrations. 

In my experience, the majority of the picture books kids love are either written and illustrated by the same person or by an author/illustrator team that often works together. Of course there are exceptions, but this is the case at least half the time.