Pitch-perfect Fairy Tales
15 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Folk and Fairy Tales, Picture Books Tags: Brothers Grimm, John Nickle, Kate Coombs, Ruth Sanderson
Once a hedgehog always a hedgehog? Surely such a thought is unfit for a fairy tale. In her new picture book Hans My Hedgehog, Kate Coombs has taken a bloody old tale of a n
eglected half-boy and tuned it up to enchant more children than the overlooked version tucked away in unabridged collections of Grimms’ folktales.
The illustrator John Nickle presents pitch-perfect acrylic images of a bright-eyed hero with a hedgehog’s prickly head and torso and a human’s spindly legs sporting grass-green tights. From the book’s large cover, our quirky protagonist stands to pique a reader’s interest, with his rumpled sky-blue shirt, pointy-toed red shoes and pink paws holding a tomato-red fiddle with a heart-shaped hole in its middle. Like the author, the illustrator pays respect to fairy-tale conventions, with his use of rich colors, fine details, and intelligent black silhouettes. And in highlighting the characters’ often impish expressions and their energy (soaring roosters! dancing pigs!) he amplifies this adaptation’s humorous, cheerful approach.
Both the new and old story begin with a lonely couple with such an irrational longing for a child that the father foolishly says he’d want a son even if he were half a hedgehog. Of course the preposterous becomes real, and the wife gives birth to a prickly baby who’s a boy only from the waist down. In Ms. Coombs’ tale, the loving parents nurture the little one they name Hans My Hedgehog, in contrast to the dark old tale that describes the cold-hearted couple leaving him alone in a corner.
As the son grows older, he asks his father for a musical instrument. His father brings him a shiny little fiddle (changed from bagpipes in the original), which he plays so well in time he provides the music at the village fairs. As no local girl deigns to pay him any mind, though, the young half-man despairs and decides to leave home.
Into the mysterious forest the protagonist ventures to meet his destiny. Fiddle in paw, Hans My Hedgehog arrives there astraddle a hefty rooster, with his plump pigs trailing them. Three times, people enter the wood, lose their way, and ask Hans to help them leave. Our plucky hero tells the two kings he will assist them on one condition: “If you give me the first thing that meets you when you reach your palace.”
Fairy tale aficionados will foresee the consequences of the king’s rash acceptance of such a demand. In each case, it is the king’s own daughter that first greets her father. The two princesses differ in their response, with the first rejecting such a suitor and assisting her father in trying to cheat Hans from his reward. The second princess agrees to marry the odd creature who has helped her father.
While fairy tales typically provide us with the satisfaction of a clear-cut sense of justice, the stark consequences of people’s deeds sometimes veer into gratuitous violence. In the Grimms’ version, the hedgehog arrives to claim the first princess and leaves with her, punishing her deceit by pricking her so much she bleeds, before he abandons her. Ms. Coombs, however, eschews such gore and simply shows Hans rejecting the undeserving bride.
Ms. Coombs also delivers a welcome upbeat conclusion, as Hans My Hedgehog plays so magically at his own wedding reception that the spell is broken, and his fair bride is rewarded with a handsome young man with red, spiky hair and a loving smile. No doubt the couple will find it much easier to waltz (or twist) the night away.
While some purists might object to the many liberties Ms. Coombs takes in her retelling, most readers will rejoice at this lilting transformation of a too-grim tale. Recommended for ages 6 to 9.
Reprinted with permission of New York Journal of Books.
Also note …
Here’s another reason to kick up your heels: Ruth Sanderson‘s splendid Twelve Dancing Princesses has just been republished, with a radiant new cover. Of the many versions released over the last couple of decades, this one stands out, with Sanderson’s polished storytelling and her glorious Old World paintings. Every girl deserves to have and hold books this beautiful.
And don’t miss my previous post on Taschen’s fabulous new collection The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm.
I’m wondering which retellings of Grimm’s fairy tales you think children most need to hear.
Mom Power X 3
07 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Animals, Hero stories, Picture Books Tags: Audrey Wood, Cristina Kessler, George Ella Lyon, Mother's Day
Have you noticed how often bookstore displays cater to titles that are both commercial and conventional — and therefore, utterly predictable? With Mother’s Day approaching, I’d like to suggest a trio of stellar books that will likely not be featured in shops or on those top-10 lists that keep spreading like ivy throughout our culture.
Heckedy Peg: Audrey Wood’s picture book is a modern classic, with a thrilling plot featuring a strong and loving mother 
who risks her life to prevent her seven kidnapped children from being devoured by the witch Heckedy Peg.
Like the bad guy in “The Wolf and the Seven Kids,” the witch tricks the children into disobeying their mother after she leaves for the market. The young ones let Heckedy Peg, who’s lost a leg, into their home, and she quickly transforms them into various foods. Don Wood’s expressive, detailed paintings are a marvel, depicting both the varying emotions of the children and the frightening aspects of their captor. In doing so, they beautifully evoke the Old World tone of this simple but enchanting picture book.
Tellingly, the mother is able to break the spell and save her children because she recognizes each one. And, dear readers, isn’t that true of love? Is it any wonder this story stirs deep feelings in both children and adults?
Despite the scariness of the witch and her evil spell, children have reason to feel reassured when the mother triumphs. Ms. Wood employs other well-honed narrative techniques as well, such as spicing the story with plenty of humor. Each child, for instance, is named for a day of the week. Those who read this aloud can make a game of asking the listener to guess, along with the mother, the identity of each child, in the attempt to rescue them.
Love, in fact, has saved many of us, has it not?
Mother to Tigers: George Ella Lyon’s lyrical picture-book biography tells the story of Helen Martini, the first female zookeeper at the Bronx zoo. Set in the ’40s, we learn that Helen first cared for a lion cub and three tiger cubs in her small apartment.
Ms. Lyon beautifully engages readers by asking them to imagine how they would feel if they were a lion cub placed in a box in the back of a car. From there, she launches into the intriguing story of this admirable woman.
Peter Catalonato’s appealing watercolors will win over cat lovers of all stripes.
Jubela by Cristina Kessler: 
“Baby rhino played.
He tossed and turned,
squiggled and squirmed
in the cooling mud.
His mother,
huge head hung low,
grazed nearby
to protect her baby.”
But a poacher’s shot forces baby rhino Jubela to set off on his own. In the course of roaming the African savanna, he meets a kind and nurturing female rhino who adopts him.
Based on a true story from Swaziland, Kessler causes readers to care for the little rhino without being cutesy or preachy. Jubela illustrates that families come in a variety of configurations, but their common element is love.
Which books featuring moms do you recommend?
For older children, I would turn to the retold Greek myth Persephone, Little Women (of course) by Louisa May Alcott, and perhaps Sarah Kay’s “If I should have a daughter …” .
And you?
Circles of Hope for Earth Day
20 Apr 2012 1 Comment
in Ecology, Nonfiction, Picture Books, Spring stories Tags: Earth Day, Emily Arnold McCully, John Muir, Julie Dunlap, Karen Lynn Williams
Make Earth Day a hopeful one with rousing outdoor and indoor activities, complemented by a colorful mix of fiction and nonfiction. One of my favorite picture books for ages 6 to 8 is Karen Lynn Williams’s Circles of Hope, set in Haiti.
Williams, the author of many acclaimed multicultural picture books (Four Feet, Two Sandals, 2007; and Beatrice’s Dream, 2011), situates her simple tale of a boy’s struggle to keep a tree alive within the larger context of his homeland’s economic struggles. Facile decides to plant a mango tree for baby sister Lucia, but it turns out to be a difficult task. Goats eat the first sapling he plants … rain washes away the second … and a fire destroys the third. Then the observant boy realizes he can use stones to protect the tree, and hope blossoms. The illustrator, Saport, adeptly uses pastels of orange and yellow to depict Haiti’s sunny, dry hillsides and creates charming fat circles for the green trees, the rounded hills, and the stones surrounding more and more trees on the island. Williams closes her gentle story with “One year at a time, little circles of hope began to grow on the mountainsides of Haiti, and inside each circle grew a tree.” She supplies a fine teacher’s guide, as well, for her sensitive, positive story. Pair this with the nonfiction book This Tree Counts! to instill in children a greater appreciation for the importance of trees.
Older children (ages 8 to 10) adore the exciting and true story John Muir and Stickeen: An Icy Adventure with a No-Good Dog. John Muir initially feels a dog has no business on a treacherous expedition in Alaska. He changes his mind, though, when he and Stickeen become lost on a glacier during a storm, and the dog behaves courageously. Farnsworth’s splendid, realistic oil paintings heighten the reader’s awareness of the perilous, frozen landscape. This adventure tale provides children with a fabulous introduction to the remarkable American conservationist and founder of the Sierra Club. 
For another aspect of John Muir, try Emily Arnold McCully’s Squirrel and John Muir, featuring the possible relationship between the real-life rebellious Floy Hutchings, nicknamed Squirrel, and John Muir, who inspired her love of nature.
Looking for middle-school novels relating to respect for the Earth? See my post on One Day and One Amazing Morning on Orange Street, as well as novels by Carl Hiassen, such as Hoot.
Related articles
- Muir Woods National Monument (sheryllrea.wordpress.com)
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Kali’s Song of Peace
15 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
in Peace stories, Picture Books Tags: Jeanette Winter
Ferdinand the bull has found a worthy companion . . . not beneath the cork trees of Spain, but in the egalitarian spirit of pacifism. Jeanette Winter, the author/illustrator of numerous thought-provoking children’s books, has crafted a gentle picture book that celebrates a cave boy who would rather make music than hunt animals.
Readers enter Kali’s world by gazing at the walls of his family’s cave, where Mother paints frolicking, earth-toned horses. Even though both of Kali’s parents expect him to grow up to pursue and kill such creatures, we have reason to suspect it will turn out otherwise.
As Kali practices shooting arrows, the sensitive boy appears more concerned about the various animals nearby than about his accuracy. His course of action becomes clearer as he discovers he can create enchanting notes with his bow: “Kali forgot about shooting arrows/ and plucked his bowstring into the night. / The stars came close to listen.”
Ms. Winter’s appealing soft-colored collages showcase textured handmade paper that evokes the boy’s sense of harmony with the world. The mottled grays in the rocks, the ragged light from the family’s fire, and the fields’ multiple hues of green all bring the reader closer to Kali’s long-ago life. Using the paper’s rough edges to provide frames for her simple images, Ms. Winter seemingly invites readers to touch the pages, thus demonstrating a meaningful sensory experience that paper can offer that ebooks do not. A particularly pleasing double-page illustration features the peaceful profile of Kali plucking his bow, while birds and brown mammals “listened and were still.”
The youth’s moment of reckoning comes the day of the big hunt, when he encounters “mammoths that were bigger and more beautiful than any Kali had ever seen.” Suddenly, he forgets about shooting arrows and instead begins playing his bow. The musician’s spell embraces not only the magnificent herd but also the hunters who lay down their arrows and listen.
From that point, Kali continues to heed his own heart and eventually becomes known for his wisdom and his power to heal. How reassuring to see the community embracing the talents of its members and in the process, becoming stronger and healthier. That’s a heady message for people of all ages and eras.
Bravo to Jeanette Winter for this magical little book humming with hope.
Reprinted with permission from New York Journal of Books.
And see …
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A Little Bird That Soars
06 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
in Picture Books, Spring stories
Take the sunflower-gold path on a clear day and you, too, might discover some tiny treasure that will reveal the world in a new light. 
In Germano Zullo’s fresh, surprisingly powerful picture book Little Bird, readers trace one man’s unusual day, as he drives his tomato-red truck down a golden path and then parks it beside a cliff. We do not know why he drives to that cliff or how he comes to be transporting his odd cargo. Without speaking, the pear-shaped fellow in blue overalls opens the truck’s backdoor to free an iridescent flock of birds.
After watching the last of the birds soar through the azure sky, the man discovers one blackbird remains in the truck’s dark interior. The day that appeared to mark the birds’ liberty seems to contain something more:
“just a small thing.
Tiny.
Most of the time we don’t notice these things.
Because little things are not made to be noticed.
They are there to be discovered.”
A bright full-page painting shows the man and a blackbird sharing a sandwich. Then a humorous double-spread illustration shows the man trying to persuade the bird to fly by imitating a bird in flight. That effort, of course, lands him flat on the ground. Soon the bird takes to the sky, and it seems the man has fulfilled his goal.
Again the unexpected arrives. Not only the blackbird, but also the whole flock returns. Higher and higher, they lift the man who freed them so he, too, can taste the wild blue heavens.
Albertine’s illustrations, which won the 2011 Prix Sorcieres (the French Caldecott), shimmer with pure, saturated colors. Featuring simple images and a sure sense of movement, the bright paintings lift this story to delightful heights. Little Bird is a children’s book that can be experienced on numerous levels by readers of all ages, especially as the visual acrobatics reveal as much as the minimal text. The inspired synergy of author and illustrator evokes a lovely excerpt from e.e. cummings’s poem 53: “may my heart always be open to little/birds who are the secrets of living.”
Children will relate to this dazzling little book in their own ways, while adults will marvel that the author and illustrator have expressed so much joy with so few words.
Reprinted with permission from New York Journal of Books
Other possibilities …
Four Cheers for Spring
21 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
in Picture Books, Spring stories Tags: Erin E. Stead, Julie Fogliano
A quiet little beauty is a highlight of the season’s picture books. In her debut book, Julie Fogliano gives us a fresh and lyrical approach to the long-awaited spring. 
A small boy with a red cap and scarf surveys his brown world and when it is time, plucks seeds from the bag in his red wagon. Soon the rain comes, “and it is still brown,/but a hopeful, very possible sort of brown” that gradually makes way for seedlings. The boy senses
“a greenish hum
that you can only hear
if you put your ear to the ground
and close your eyes”
Erin Stead’s tender, humorous illustrations, created with woodblock prints and pencils, show not only the boy, but his dog, a turtle, and a bunny with their ears to the ground, listening for that special hum of life. And beneath the dirt, mice and squirrels, worms and ants join them in listening. I can’t imagine illustrations that might more perfectly enhance the hopeful, patient spirit of Fogliano’s poetic words. One wonders if Ms. Stead will land another Caldecott so soon after her 2011 award for A Sick Day for Amos McGee.
And now, in the spirit of that nature-loving child, let’s find a tire swing and enjoy the sweet spring day. We’ve waited long enough.
More Spring Books
One Sparkling Lullaby
14 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
in Music, Picture Books Tags: Holly Meade, lullaby, Susan Campbell Bartoletti
“As rain falls over the ark at night,
As water swirls in the dark of night,
As thunder crashes the seams of night,
As Noah tosses in dreams of night,
As restless animals prowl at night,
As they pace and roar and growl at night,
Naamah sings all through the night.”
Naamah and the Ark at Night is a lullaby that aims for starry perfection. Susan Campbell Bartolletti, acclaimed for her nonfiction (Hitler Youth won the 2006 Newbery Honor), has reached back in time to imagine the significant role Noah’s wife might have played. Employing the Arabic poetic structure of a ghazal, requiring couplets to end in the same word, she has created a simple but powerful bedtime poem.
Bartoletti’s lyrical work comes to life with the bright collages of cut paper and watercolors by Holly Meade (winner of a Caldecott Honor). Meade’s sense of movement echoes the gently rocking, repetitive nature of the author’s text. She infuses the book’s large pages with interesting perspectives, humorous details, and a sense of life’s harmony. Two by two, the owls nestle, the monkey curl their tails symmetrically, the zebras rest their heads on each other’s backs.
The author notes how, as a child, she would play with a wooden Noah’s ark whenever she visited her grandmother. As beloved as that Bible story is, the role of Noah’s wife has been overlooked. Rabbinical legends, though, tell that his wife was called Naamah (pronounced with three syllables as “Na-ah-mah” or “Nay-ah-mah”), a variation of Naomi, which means “sweet” or “pleasant.” Some legends describe another Naamah, whose name meant “great singer.” Those interpretations, Bartoletti notes, led her to imagine how the woman could have inspired and comforted those on the ark.
Winner of the Sydney Taylor Honor Award and the Charlotte Zolotow Honor, Naamah and the Ark at Night is a remarkable little beauty.
Also see …
Wilma Rudolph Beat the Odds
02 Mar 2012 4 Comments
in Biographies/Autobiographies, Nonfiction, Picture Books, Sports Tags: Kathleen Krull, Wilma Rudolph, Women's History Month
Who says true stories can’t be more thrilling than fiction? Whip out Kathleen Krull’s acclaimed picture-book biography Wilma Unlimited for a rousing read-aloud experience for all. 
Many children don’t know Wilma Rudolph made history by winning three gold medals for running in the 1960 Olympics in Rome. That won’t stop them from cheering for the athlete who contracted polio at the age of 5 and was told she would likely never walk again.
Born in 1940, in Clarksville, TN, Wilma was the youngest of 19 brothers and sisters. She defied others’ low expectations of her by relying on her own strong will. Not only did she manage to shed her leg braces and walk, she went on to play high-school basketball. That’s how a track and field coach discovered her talent and offered her a college scholarship, thereby enabling her to become the first in her family to attend college.
Neither physical hardships, poverty, nor racism could hold back Wilma Rudolph. Enhanced by striking illustrations by David Diaz, this story can’t help but inspire others and show how perseverance can lead to triumph. Why not get this Women’s History Month off to a running start with this winner?
Author Kathleen Krull Provides Tips on Using Biographies in the Classroom.
Check out the 2nd annual KidsLit CelebratesWomen’s History Month.
and see …
The World in Grandpa’s Hands
24 Feb 2012 4 Comments
in Civil Rights, Historical fiction, Picture Books Tags: African-American history, Floyd Cooper, Labor movement, Margaret Mason
Margaret Mason’s gentle picture book These Hands features a loving grandfather who has much to teach his grandson. He uses his old and capable hands to show young Joseph how to tie his shoes, how to play the piano, to shuffle cards, and how to hit a line drive.
He also reveals a slice of history neither the boy nor many of us readers realized. “Look at these hands, Joseph. Did you know these hands were not allowed to mix the bread dough in the Wonder Bread factory?”
The tender sepia-toned oil-wash artwork by the renowned Floyd Cooper sheds a warm glow on the earth-toned images of the boy and his grandfather. The illustrations contribute to the reassuring tone and message of this simple, yet powerful picture book.
Grandpa tells Joseph how “these hands joined with other hands. And we wrote our petitions, and we carried our signs, and we raised our voices together. Now any hands can touch the bread dough, no matter their color. Yes, they can.”
The author’s note explains how, in the ’50s and early ’60s, African-American workers at the Wonder Bread, Awrey, and Tastee bakery factories were allowed to sweep and load trucks, but were not permitted to work as bread dough mixers. The author relates how she learned the history from Joe Barnett, a leader of the bakery labor union.
Don’t miss this fine inter-generational story, as it provides so many wonderful opportunities to discuss the role of families and the need to work together to battle injustice in its many forms.
And see …
Love’s Arduous Path
13 Feb 2012 4 Comments
in Historical fiction, Picture Books Tags: African-American history, Colin Bootman, Frederick Douglass, Glenda Armand
How can an author squeeze sweetness from such bitter facts: A mother must give up her son 
upon his birth. Forced to work in the cornfields 12 miles away, she gets to see her boy only a few times before she dies.
That motherless child would become the famous writer and activist Frederick Douglass, who wrote in his groundbreaking autobiography, “I do not recollect of ever seeing my mother by the light of day. She was with me in the night. She would lie down with me, and get me to sleep, but long before I waked she was gone. Very little communication ever took place between us. Death soon ended what little we could have while she lived, and with it her hardships and suffering. She died when I was about seven years old, on one of my master’s farms, near Lee’s Mill. I was not allowed to be present during her illness, at her death, or burial.”
In her moving debut, Love Twelve Miles Long, Glenda Armand takes us back to 1820s Talbot County, Maryland, to imagine how precious those few visits could have been for the two. Wrapped in her shawl, Mama arrives late at night, bringing Frederick her full heart and a slice of ginger cake. Mr. Bootman strews soft candlelight in his lush watercolor painting of the reunited mother and son sharing smiles no one can buy or sell.
Of course, the boy longs to spend more time with his mother, but she tells him it’s too far for him to walk. How, then, does she do it?
“The way I walk makes the journey shorter,” she says.
“Tell me how you walk, Mama. Tell me how you make it shorter.”
What follows is a beautiful evocation of the mother’s loving ritual, as she makes each mile special. The first is for forgetting: “I forget how tired I am. I forget that my back hurts and my hands and feet ache. I forget that I’ve worked all day and have to be in the fields again at sunup. And when the forgetting is done, I start remembering. That’s what the second mile is for.”
Other miles are spent observing the stars, praying, singing, remembering happy times, giving thanks, hoping, loving, and dreaming of a good life: “We’ll have our own land, and we’ll work for ourselves. There will be no slaves or masters. . . . You are going to do big and important things one day. But right now it’s time for you to go to bed.”
In a story brimming with hope and love, the real-life horrors of slavery lie elsewhere, where an older audience can grapple with them. The author’s note gives additional information about Frederick Douglass, who changed his surname in order to obscure his identity from the master he escaped. Douglass wrote that his mother, Harriet Bailey, taught him a powerful lesson: that he was not “only a child but somebody’s child.” How remarkable that she accomplished this under such despicable constraints.
But let us leave the mother with her miles to go before she sleeps. We can all use a comforting story of love, even—or especially—if it is ripped from a brutal past.
Reprinted with permission from New York Journal of Books
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Children’s Books: Bookshelf: Black History (nytimes.com)
