THE ORANGE HORSE: A Picture Book Review and Giveaway

 Although The Orange Horse written and illustrated by Hsu-Kung Liu (Reycraft: 2019) was published four years ago, the theme and message of the book are timeless. Written and illustrated with simple language and child-friendly illustrations, this book is playful yet simultaneously touching and serious.

REVIEW

I love the believability of how the story opens:

Every child knows that horses aren't orange, they don't walk on two legs, and they don't carry suitcases through the city. But none of that matters. The child reader suspends disbelief and is immersed in the story world.

Unfortunately, the only clue he had to find his brother was half of a photograph of an orange horse just like him.  

So, he did whatever any normal orange horse looking for his brother might do. He placed an ad in the newspaper. 

He received an answer!

But, it was from a HOUSE. Not a HORSE.

He decided to make his ad more specific:

Notice how each part of orange horse's thought process would make sense to a child. 

After a race car shows up, orange horse decides his third ad needs to be even more specific and he rewrites the ad. "My brother should have a black mane and a black tail." (Notice the classic pattern of three obstacles!)

His third try flops and the orange horse feels ready to give up. He goes to an art gallery, meets a brown horse, and begins to enjoy his company. They chat, run, and eat together. 

Notice the wrong conclusion that the orange horse comes to because of the way he is thinking. What a wonderful discussion point in preschool and K-first-grade classrooms!

After the brown horse mentions that he also had a long-lost brother and half an old photograph, they tried to match their photographs up. "But no, their half-photographs were not a match."

Both horses were upset. The orange horse wished the half-photos didn't exist so they could still hope they were brothers. Angry and upset, the brown horse trimmed the two half-photographs. 

Then he stuck the two halves together. "Don't cry," he told the orange horse. "See? From now on, we are brothers."

The beautiful conclusion is shown on the last page:

I think it is easy for writers to want to moralize and teach a lesson in their story. The Orange Horse is a great mentor text to show us all how NOT to do that. After all, there is more than one way to be a friend. Right?

GIVEAWAY

Thank you to Reycraft Books for generously supplying the illustrations and the giveaway. It will make a wonderful holiday present for a young child on your gift list or for your child's teacher. Just leave me a comment if you wish to enter (with your email address if you are new to my blog) or send me an email. U.S. addresses only. The giveaway ends November 30. If you sign up for my blog, share this on social media, or are a teacher or librarian, you will get additional chances to win this book. 

YOUTUBE TIME!

In this video, Wiley Blevins, editor at Reycraft, reads The Orange Horse. 

Congratulations to Barbara Cantor who won THE LUCKY DIAMOND. 

BUGS DON'T HUG: Six Legged Parents and Their Kids- A NonFiction Picture Book Review and Author Interview

After I took a webinar with Heather Montgomery on the "Dynamics of Science and Nature Writing," I knew I wanted to share her book, BUGS DON'T HUG (Charlesbridge, 2018) with you. 

Not only is each page filled with interesting and unusual facts, but showing bugs as babies with their mommies and daddies, makes the information completely accessible to even very young readers. 

Check out this opening spread creatively illustrated by Stephen Stone.

From a bug lifted from his crib to four bugs gathered around the breakfast table, young readers will relate to baby bugs. Each laughable concept (a mother bug making scrambled eggs and toast) to it's real counterpart, (a mother cricket who lays special eggs for her babies),  Montgomery and Stone have brought entomology into the pre-school through second grade classroom.

Normal parts of a parent's day are compared with what bugs do. So, "Daddy bugs don't clean up dirty diapers" but,

"At lunchtime bugs don't plea with picky eaters..." But, 

In the same way, the author and illustrator show fantastical versions of bugs not rocking their babies, serving birthday cakes, or tucking their babies in--juxtaposed (with a page turn) of illustrations depicting real bugs doing, well...just about that!

In the end the reader is asked...

Which is answered on the next page:

The back matter includes three pages with information about the nine featured bugs, a short recommended reading list, and an introduction to scientific language. The note to parents emphasizes that our reaction to insects will shape how children will feel about them.

*****

I was super-impressed with the rhythm which Heather created for the reader.  Naturally, I had to ask about her creative process.

CAROL: I love how you set the book up with statements and refutations from the bug world--the pacing and page turns are so cool. Did you envision it like this? Did you request that the book be set up in this manner? 

HEATHER: It took me a long time to figure this book out, but yes, the manuscript I submitted included the vision to use page turns to (1) allow kids a chance to predict (2) help separate the fantastical and realistic depictions. I did not, however, include specific page turn instructions in the manuscript. Later, after the book was acquired and the editor asked for it, I shared a book map to convey this vision (which she loved!). 

I think that in nonfiction books we often put all the information about one animal/topic on one spread and miss the opportunity to use the page turn for drama and as a pause to encourage thinking. As an author, I wanted to take advantage of that aspect of the picture book format; as an educator, I wanted to give kids an easy in to (and adults an excuse to discuss) thinking about the two different presentations of each animal. I'm all about encouraging critical thinking and thought that exagerating the playful/realistic depictions would help kids "get" the need to read words and visuals carefully.

CAROL: And of course the inevitable question...how did you come up with the idea? I guess that's sort of like a chicken and egg type question. Did you know certain bugs took care of their young in these specific ways, or did you imagine the book first? 

I'm a bug nut and am always looking for ways to invite others to love bugs. I had read this fascinating book, The Other Insect Societies by Dr. James Costa, about the subsocial insects. We all know about social insects like ants and bees which live in colonies and about insects who drop their eggs and leave, but Dr Costa's book opened my mind to this world of insects that give some form of parental care. I used up about a thousand sticky notes to flag phenomenal facts in that book and had been trying to figure out a way to incorporate them into a book for kids. One day as I was taking a walk with a friend and her young kids, I found my way into this book. Her son and I found an earwig and, uncomfortable with the creep factor, my friend stepped away.  But when said, "Hey, it's a bug mommy!" she showed a bit of interest. Then I told her son that this mom had to shop in the forest for her kids favorite foods, and my friend stepped closer. By the time I said that the bug mom has to give her eggs a bath every day to keep dangerous fungus away, my friend was leaning over my shoulder to see more. Right then it clicked. 

The book needed to be for adults as well as the kids. For all those grown-ups who feel squeamish when their little one brings them a six-legged treasure . . . For that moment when they want to squash the bug but their child loves it .. .  If I could just give adults new insight, I might be able to turn conflicted moments into moments of shared wonder. 

And then, with a "big idea" firmly in mind, I could finally pick out the useful pieces from my junk heap of research and make progress towards a publishable book.

CAROL: As an adult who feels squeamish about bugs, I love how you "found your way" into this book.  Thanks for introducing adults and children into these many dimension of bug life!

                                                *****        

Congratulations to Danielle Hammelef who won Isabel and Her Colores Go To School, and to Janet Sheets who won The Color Collector. No giveaway this week. My grandchildren are adding BUGS DON'T HUG to their library!

Will You Be Friends With Me? A Board Book Review and Giveaway

Kathleen Long Bostrom's newest book, Will You Be Friends With Me? (Hachette Book Group) has come out just in time for International Friendship Day. This simple board book with inviting illustrations has a powerful message: children will look different and have different preferences--but they can still be friends. 

REVIEW

From the opening of the book: 

I wake early, you sleep late.
My hair's curly, yours is straight.
I say, "Now!"
You say, "Wait?"
Will you be friends with me?


The book shows children in a variety of play, school, and sports settings. Throughout the text, children point out differences between themselves with the narrator asking the recurring question, "Will you be friends with me?"

In the middle of the book, the narrator observes that working together is better than being alone:

Let's play leapfrog.
Jump up high!
Maybe we will touch the sky.
We can do it if we try!

The theme, "It's okay to be different from one another" is clearly shown:

I like morning.
You like night.
We're just different
That's all right.

The concluding spread celebrates diversity and friendship.

The illustrations by Jo de Ruiter are cheery and friendly. Young readers will see themselves in the activities depicted. 

Will You Be Friends With Me? will be a useful resource in the Pre-K classroom as well as a fun book for families to read together. 

GIVEAWAY

If you are interested in winning this book, leave me a comment by 6 PM on July 10. If you are new to my blog, make sure you leave your email address also. 

Mine. Yours. A Nearly Wordless Picture Book Review, Challenge, and Giveaway

Congratulations to Mary Jane Coward who won Daddy, Can You See the Moon? from last week's blog.

***********

Marsha Diane Arnold is back with another new picture book. This one is practically wordless! But yet an important story is told through three words and Qin Leng's exquisite, detailed illustrations. 

Mine. Yours. (Kids Can Press, 2019)  follows Little Panda in his exploration of what belongs to him and what belongs to others.  Important lessons about boundaries and possessions are told as he is "sternly" instructed by Big Panda and the other animals in the forest. When his beloved kite becomes a source of conflict among the animals, Big Panda teaches them all a sweet lesson about "Ours". This book will be useful in the Pre-K through first grade classrooms as a great conversation-starter about ownership and sharing. 

Join me in this interview with Marsha as she shares insights into writing this almost wordless picture book.

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

Carol: It’s my understanding that publishers don’t want illustrator notes from the author, they just want the text. So, how did you “get away” with breaking the rules?

MARSHA: It’s true that many editors prefer manuscripts without art notes. It’s also true that most of the writers in my writer’s group use art notes as needed. I think one reason I see more art notes on mine and other writers’ manuscripts is because picture book texts are much shorter than they were when I began writing. My first picture books had no art notes at all, but they were also 1200 to 1500 words long. Today, most of my manuscripts are less than 500 words so visual cues are sometimes helpful.

There are always exceptions to the “norm.” Of course, for a minimal text manuscript like Mine. Yours. art notes are necessary. There are only 3 different words, 25 words in all. As in any story, the writer determines the setting, the characters, and the plot. The art notes were written and revised and revised, just as any manuscript would be.

Here’s an example from my manuscript:

[Two Yellow-throated Martens make orchid flower crowns/necklaces on top of a rock.

Kite dips down entangling several strings of flowers in its tail, trailing them into the sky.]

Mine! 

Mine!

[A Golden Snub-nosed Monkey plays Chinese Jianzi with a shuttlecock (feathercock) in the

branches of a tree. Kite whips up, the tail snatching the shuttlecocks.]

Mine! 

[As the wind whips and dips more wildly, Little Panda tries to untangle the items in kite’s

tail.  Suddenly, he too is lifted off the ground. He grips the string as he and kite fly off the

page, exiting right.]

CAROL: Was your agent involved or did you negotiate it yourself?

MARSHA: My wonderful agent, Karen Grencik of Red Fox Literary, negotiates everything for me. I’m so grateful to have her.

However, I was lucky to meet someone from Kids Can Press at ALA a few years ago. She was the one who opened the door for me to send my manuscripts. Kids Can Press is a Canadian publisher and most often works with Canadian writers and illustrators.

CAROL: What was your inspiration for Mine. Yours.?  

Mine. Yours. came about in a very different way from most of my books. It was meant to be a follow-up to my picture book Lost. Found., but that didn’t work out. I rewrote the story with different animals. It took awhile to decide on the setting in China and Asian animals, but I’m so happy that’s where the story landed, just as I am happy the book landed with Kids Can Press.

Check out more of Marsha's picture books on her blog. Parents and educators, click on this link for a downloadable pdf of two activities you can do with your children. (Make sure you click on "View File" in the blue box on the top left. It takes a few minutes to load.)

NOTE AND CHALLENGE: I recently watched a television ad for an investment company. It used about 25 words to tell the story of a man's life--from birth to caring for his invalid mother. The viewer got the message! Lots of ads tell stories. Can you create an almost wordless story? What images would you use to tell it?

GIVEAWAY 

Leave a comment and your email address (if you are new to my blog) to enter this giveaway. A winner will be chosen on April 18. Continental US only.