Author: Loree Burns

WHO’S HIDING?
By Satoru Onishi
Kane/Miller, 2006

Category: Picture Book

Every year I find a picture book or two that are simply irresistible, and these become holiday gifts for all the munchkins on my shopping list. This year I will be giving lots (and lots and lots) of copies of WHO’S HIDING?

The premise is simple: twelve animals appear in the same arrangement on each double-page spread. But with each turn of the page someone changes: readers are challenged to find “Who’s crying?”, “Who’s angry?” and “Who’s hiding?” After pages and pages of this everyone knows which animal is where … a good thing because the pièce de résistance is the spread on which the lights go out: “Who’s who?”

This is a fun one to share with the younger set and even with beginning readers, like my daughter, who love to interact with their books. Check it out!

THE UGLY PUMPKIN
by Dave Horowitz
Putnam, 2005

Category: Picture book

I was sure I’d be the only one to blog about this book today, but I was wrong. Oh, well. I’ll settle for being the only one to post an ugly pumpkin picture:

My daughter’s kindergarten homework last week was to create a pumpkin with personality. Unfortunately, she couldn’t find a pumpkin in our garden small enough to carry to school herself (we grow ’em big around here). She did, however, find the cutest little butternut squash you ever did see. We remembered THE UGLY PUMPKIN and, Voila!, homework that stands out from a crowd.

If you are wondering about the plot of THE UGLY PUMPKIN, consider the title, the picture above, and the catchiest line in the book: “Oh my gosh, I’m a squash!”

Happy Halloween one and all!

MARIE CURIE
By Kathleen Krull
Illustrated by Boris Kulikov
Viking, 2007

Category: Middle grade biography

I like these “Giants of Science” books. I like them a lot. There are currently four titles in the series; I’ve read ISAAC NEWTON and have LEONARDO DAVINCI and SIGMUND FREUD on the bedside table. Krull’s writing is light and breezy, even when discussing the finer points of (in the case of MARIE CURIE) particle physics. And I appreciate the pains she takes to give readers a sense of the times in which her subject lived. Readers don’t just read about the great Madame Curie, they visit her.

I’m off to nominate this one for a CYBIL award. (Can I do that? My own book was nominated in the same category!) Have you nominated your favorite book for a CYBIL yet? Get to it, man!

THE GREAT GILLY HOPKINS
By THE GREAT Katherine Paterson
Trophy, 1978

Category: Middle grade fiction

Awards: Newbery Honor

The kids and I read this book to commemorate Banned Books Week 2007. I assume its place on the list of 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-1999 is because of Gilly’s language, and I will admit to changing a few “hells” to “hecks” as I read aloud. But this was because I had very young ears listening in, ears attached to a little girl who believes STUPID is a swear word. THE GREAT GILLY HOPKINS is a finely rendered look at the frustrations of being young, abandoned, and very, very angry; banning a book that has so much to offer readers for mild language seems, um, STUPID, to me.

From a writer’s perspective, I found it interesting that Gilly is so unlike-able for much of the story. This is hard to pull off, I think, and Paterson did it masterfully. (Hey Liza … are you listening? You know how I always rant about unlikeable protagonists being impossible? I stand corrected!)

THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET
By Brian Selznick
Scholastic Press, 2007

Category: Hmmm. This one is in a category all its own; Lisa Yee suggests we call it Selznickian

My mind prefers words to images. I am not sure why this is so; it just is. And so I was afraid I might not enjoy THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET the way the rest of the world has. And, truth be told, I was feeling less-than-attached (emotionally speaking) early in the story. But then I got to this moment:

“The black engine was zooming right toward Hugo and he was caught, unable to look away, as though he were watching a movie.”

and realized I was in the hands of a capable and talented writer. By the time I closed the covers I understood that this book was more than words and pictures. It was a three-dimensional experience served up in a gorgeous two-dimensional package. The accolades being heaped upon this book are well-deserved; give it a read, er, a look …