This week, we asked the kids to share their thoughts on the latest Bobbledy book Even Ninjas Eat Asparagus, which has been landing in mailboxes everywhere over the past few days. I read it to the kids for the first time last night, because, even though we have a small army of focus group participants, we never seem to remember to seek their opinion early enough for it to still make a difference.
Ninjas is a series of vignettes that aim to help kids see that they are not alone in facing all of the awful things they have to do in their young lives: going to the doctor, cleaning up when they make a mess, making their beds, etc. Each vignette features a different adult figure doing the very think the kids don’t want to do.
For example, even doctors…
…have to go to the doctor.
And, even ninjas…
…eat asparagus.
At the end of the book, kids are informed of two things, one good, and one bad. First the bad: you’re going to have to do chores and other unpleasant things forever. But the good: you get to choose what you’re going to BE while you do these things (doctor, ninja, etc). Which leads us into the commentary of our tiny critics.
Kato: I’m going to be a “mewdishun” when I grow up!
Matthew: A musician?
Kato: No, a MewsDISHun! I want to do tricks!
Robbi: A magician?
Kato: That’s what I said.
Robbi: Let’s look at the book – what’s your favorite one from the book?
Kato: That one?
Robbi: The ninjas?
Kato: Yeah!
Alden: I like THAT one the best, because it has a butt in it!
Kato: I love the butt!
Kato: My silliest one is that one!
Robbi: The cat litter one? Why?
Alden: Because the cat is laughing him. And because he’s cleaning up the poop.
Kato: I like that one also. It’s my second silliest.
Alden: Because the president’s in his underwear.
Alden: I like this one too, because this guy’s like, “That’s mine!” and the beaver is like, “No, that’s mine.”
Kato: And I like this one.
Robbi: Why do you like it?
Kato: Because he’s like “Arrgh! I’m the monster of Chestertown.”
At the end of the book, there is a tutorial on how to be a better ninja:
Kato was quiet as we read through all the options. Clearly, he was taking mental notes.
When we finished, he said:
Kato: I’m not going to do that one.
(pointing to #2: “put away the silverware without making a single sound”).
Matthew: Why?
Kato: Too hard!
Matthew: I think you could do it.
Kato: Nope.
Matthew: What about the rest?
Kato: I can’t do that one, either.
(pointing to #1: “keep your ninja outfit clean”.)
Matthew: Why not?
Kato: Impossible!
And I start to protest before realizing that he’s probably right.
And then we got to the bios page, which features this photo:
Kato: Papa, why are you trying to…uh…kill mama?
Matthew: I’m not! I’m just throwing asparagus at her.
Kato:Whew!
Alden: I didn’t know you were ninjas.
Matthew: Well, we are.
Kato: Wow!
Alden (taking a closer look): Wait…no you’re not…you tooked a picture of your heads and drawed the ninja parts.
Matthew: I’m a ninja, I swear.
Alden: Not! Not! Not!
Robbi: Why don’t you show her?
And so I did.
Kato: I’m a ninja, too!
Alden: Me, too!
Apparently, it’s a family affair.
After much kicking, we settled back in on the couch.
Robbi: So…what DON’T you like about this book?
Alden: I like this book all. There’s nothing I don’t like.
Kato: I don’t like this one. Because he’s crying.
Alden: I like everything about this book. Because you and Papa wrote it! And because of the pictures.
Robbi: What about the doctor who has to get a shot?
Alden: I like it!
Kato: I don’t like that part or this part.
Robbi: Do you give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down?
Alden: I give it a thumbs up!
Kato: I give it one thumbs up and one thumbs down.
Robbi: Why?
Kato: Because I don’t like it and I do like it.
It’s hard to deny that logic.
Alden and I shared a respectful ninja bow, and we called it a night.
If you aren’t a Bobbledy Books club member but would like to have this book (or to send it to a ninja-in-training you might know) you can order it HERE. Enjoy! According to Kato, it’s only half bad!
It’s time for another round of hard-hitting literary analysis in which our little critics unleash their unvarnished opinions upon an unsuspecting picture book.
This week’s book is My Sister’s Rusty Bike by Jim Ayelsworth and illustrated by Richard Hull.
The basic premise is this. A boy rides his sister’s bike all over the country. And, yes, the bike is rusty. The fun comes in the description of the adventures and the creatures and people he meets along the way.
Last night, Robbi rounded up the kids for a read and review session.
To which, Kato replied: “I don’t want to do a book review!”
And yet, his mother, being most persuasive, prevailed, which brought us to the couch, where Kato’s ruffled brow tells you all you need to know about his state of mind.
As Robbi started reading the book, Alden was delighted. By the bike. By its rustiness. By the overall adventure.
Our protagonist pedaled from West Virginia to Indiana to Colorado. What’s not to like?
Kato protested by reading a different book entirely, a classic critic move that can only be fully appreciated in the context of an illustrated review.
At one point in the reading, we stopped to admire and comment on some Easter eggs, which pleased Alden.
The story was interesting. The rhymes were fun and compelling. As hard as he was trying not to pay attention, Kato eventually put down the other book and started pacing atop the couch, so that he could listen without seeming like he wanted to.
But then, when a guy named “Buddy Biggs” showed up in the story, Kato could not help but get involved.
“Why does he have ‘butt’ in his name?” Kato asked.
Robbi explained the subtle, yet critical, difference between “Buddy” and “Butty.”
Once Kato determined that his name was “Buddy” and not “Butty,” he decided to pace some more.
At one point in the reading, we stopped to admire and comment on various pigs.
When our hero rode into the town of “Toonerville,” Kato perked up again.
“TOOTerville?!” said Kato. “That’s ridiculous!”
Robbi explained the subtle, yet important difference between “toot” and “toon,” but this time Kato stayed with us.
And so he was on hand when we came to a part of the book in which a horse turns on a TV with his nose. This was delightful to the children, who demanded the opportunity to try it themselves.
First Alden took a crack at it.
And was successful!
Next it was Kato’s turn, and Kato, ever aware of his own limits (this time, vertical limits), brought over a chair to help him gain sufficient height to attempt the task.
First, Kato attempted the “straight on” technique that had been so successful for his sister.
Alas, his nose was quite not long enough. I will not show a photo of his disappointed face.
His father did a bit of exploratory nose pushing of his own and discovered that a sideways approach was more effective.
Kato tried it again.
And…success!
And how does one celebrate in such a moment?
By leaping directly across the book review environment, of course.
Literary critics do this sort of thing all the time.
But, of course, since no one is there to take their photo, their awesome moves go undocumented.
It’s a pity, really.
Kato’s great leap coincided with the end of the book. At which point, Robbi asked, “So, what do you think?”
Alden: TWO THUMBS UP!
Robbi: What did you like the best?
Alden: I like when the horse turned on the TV with his nose.
Robbi: What about you, Kato?
Kato: I dunno.
Robbi: What part did you like?
Kato: None.
R: What part did you not like?
Kato: None.
Frequent readers of Kidskel and Ebert will recognize a pattern on the part of this particular critic, who tends to withhold praise at this point of the review process even if obvious delight has resulted in the course of the actual reading.
R: Really, what part did you like?
Kato:
K: Ok, ok, ok. The pig dancing is my favorite.
Ultimately, true enjoyment cannot be suppressed, and the smile that accompanies it cannot be denied.
So while Kato’s official vote is one thumb up and one thumb down, I’m guessing that had there been less pacing, leaping, and reading of other books during the review of this one, the assessment might have been slightly more favorable.
But who am I to interpret the opinions of the critics?
Ultimately, it’s my job to put you in the best position to form your own.
If you’re interested in picking up your own copy of this book, here’s the link.
Hello, everyone! Yes, it is time for another book review by our panel of diminutive critics.
The book of the week is… Journey, by Aaron Becker.
First, a bit of stage setting: Journey has pictures but no words, which might make you think that it’s not my kind of book. But you’d be WRONG! I love this book because the pictures are so carefully thought out (and beautifully drawn) that they tell the story without needing words to help at all.
But it’s not my opinion you’re looking for. Let’s see what the kids had to say.
Journey starts with a little girl who is all alone and is looking for company.
Alden: This picture looks like she’s really sad because nobody wants to play with her.
Kato: She’s like “Oh, I’m sad because no one wants to play with me.”
Alden: She’s like, “Mom, can you play with me? Dad, can you play with me? Sister, can you play with me?”
Kato: And they’re all like, “No, no, no!”
Alden: And then, she’s like “What’s that,” and she finds a magic crayon and she’s like, “Maybe I should draw something on the wall.” And then, “Maybe I’ll draw a magic door.” And then she steps through the magic door and sees the lanterns and pretty trees.
Kato: And then she saw some water and drawed a boat and then she rowed in it.
Alden: There was a big castle, and she went in.
Kato: And then she was waiting for all the other people who were waiting for her.
Alden: But then she rode a hot air balloon and her boat falled and she rode the hot air ballon.
Kato: It was super, super awesome!
Alden: And there was the bird.
Kato: The purple bird.
Alden: And then she was like, “That bird must be in trouble. “ And then she was like “I’ve got to save that bird.”
Kato: And then she was like flying to something in the sky. And she ran and she ran and she ran and she climbed up the ladder and she got the bird and then she let the bird free and then she got captured and then one of the guards threw her crayon down and now she was trapped.
Alden: And then she was like, “Aw! Now I can’t draw anything!”
Kato: And then the bird got her crayon and she said “Thank you very much.”
Alden: And then she drew a flying carpet and then she rode on it and then she finally got to the door.
Alden: And she flew and she flew and the bird showed her a door and she went in it and she saw a boy and the boy is like running to her.
Kato: The girl said, “Uhm, do you want to play with me.”
Alden: And the boy said, “Yes.”
Kato: And the girl drew a circle.
Alden: And the boy made a circle.
Alden: And they made a bike together.
Kato: And they rode off to play.
It sounds to me like Alden and Kato liked the book, and we’ll get to that in a second, but can we take a moment to ask one important question: if this book had no words, then where did all those WORDS that Alden and Kato were saying COME from? There were no words to read, and yet they were able to tell me the story of the book with no problem. Think about that for a minute. It’s pretty cool, I think.
Also: Did you notice that incredible castle? This is castle week, after all.
As for our critics’ opinions.
Robbi: What did you think of that book?
Alden: LOVE IT!
Kato: Castles.
Robbi: What else do you have to say?
Alden: Her crayon to make things. It was cool. It was awesome.
Kato: I don’t like it. Because the guards took the little girl. That was so mean.
Robbi: Was there anything else you didn’t like?
Kato: Nope.
Robbi: But that one thing makes you not like it?
Kato: Yep?
Robbi: What was your favorite picture?
Kato: None.
Robbi: How about you, Alden?
Alden: The picture with the bike. Because they are best friends. Like me and Mary Jane.
Kato: I like the whole thing, actually?
Robbi: Do you give it a thumb’s up?
Kato: Yep.
Robbi: What made you change your mind?
Kato: Me!
And there you have it.
I was just about to end this post when another critic (on the rookie circuit) decided to weigh in (you might recognize him from the photobomb above).
He read carefully.
He seemed to be enjoying himself.
This particular critic loves balloons. As far as he’s concerned any book with a balloon is Pulitzer material.
The verdict: Thumbs up. I would like to show you a photo of his thumbs in the air, but before I could take one, the critic fell asleep.
Kato would like to send you off with another shot of the amazing castle from Journey.
I know I don’t get to vote, but I think Journey is an amazing book, a wonderful book, a fantastic book. A must-have for any family’s picture book collection. If I had three thumbs, Journey would get all three.
It’s time for another edition of Kidskel & Weebert. Our small panel of small people has assembled to review this week’s selection, which is the descriptively named Wind-Up Plane Book [With Toy Airplane] by Usborne.
As the name implies, and as you can see in the lower right-hand corner, there is a tiny, wind-up airplane included in the packaging.
Call it a bribe or call it an inventive add-on, the plane endeared itself to our reviewers instantly.
So much so that it’s hard to know whether to call this a “book review” or a “book-with-added-toy-inducement review,” but we’ll proceed and see how this thing shakes out.
Onward to the commentary
Our young critics took a moment to gaze pensively at the pages.
At which point, they launched into statements of opinion.
Alden: I like it, because all the plane drawings look really cool. The windows look pretty awesome and they look kind of like water drops. And I like how the conveyor belt is made. It looks kind of cool, and the suitcases look really creative. But my favorite part? Where is it? Where is it?
Alden ruminates silently.
Kato turns the page.
Kato: I like this one…because I like that the plane moves around all over the place on the track. I like that part. It’s cool .
[In case you cannot tell, the book’s pages are grooved, allowing the wind-up plane to follow a track in great loops across the spread.]
[This is delightful to small people. This is delightful to their father, who is trying to remain impartial, as his opinions are irrelevant here.]
Kato traces the track with his finger.
Alden: And the food looks good on the plane.
Kato: I love this page more!
Alden: And this is my favorite page because it shows all the land on this side of the Earth.
This week we asked our duo of young critics to review a book that Robbi and I both had when we were kids and both remember with great fondness. The book in question is a collection of Richard Scarry stories, delightful little vignettes, some of which are narrative stories, some of which are single-page cartoons, and some of which are just collections of illustrations of things in a particular topic, whether airplanes or vegetables. Scarry is an amazing illustrator. He might be best known for his cartoonish “Busytown” style, but he’s an extremely skilled painter, as some of the stories in the book reveal.
As you can see from the title, this book makes big claims. The question was whether the kids would agree.
And so we sat down to read.
By all appearances, the kids seemed to be having a great time. As I listened to Robbi read, I heard various chuckles of amusement and contented sighs of appreciation. I was certain that we were moving in the direction of two thumbs up
But when we got down to analysis, things we a bit more murky.
Alden’s take:
“I like that it has a bunch of different stories in it. I don’t like all of the pictures, but I like some of them. I don’t like the picture when the girl crashed her car into the fountain. It looked like she got hurt. Also, the person draws cakes well. It has a good mouse story in it. The one that has a Papa Bear in it that couldn’t find his baby bear. Where the Papa cut the cake up. It has quite a few pages. Does that mean a lot? It’s too long to read all the stories. It’s sort of a tiring thing. I sort of don’t like that it’s too long, but I like the stories, just reading one at a time, but not reading the whole book in order. The end.”
Verdict: Thumbs up
I like Alden’s assessment: after all, what good is a book without expertly rendered drawings of cake and a good mouse story? I’m not sure why she was so glum at the prospect of reading the entire book at once. It is rather long and would take quite a few minutes to read in its entirety, but we have never subjected the kids to such extreme reading sessions, usually choosing 2-3 stories before bedtime. As for the girl who crashes her car into the fountain, I want to assure you that she emerges from the incident unscathed. As for the papa bear who couldn’t find the baby bear? You’ll be glad to know (SPOILER ALERT) that he was “hiding” on his papa’s shoulders the entire time.
Kato’s take:
“I don’t like it and it’s too long. All of the stories are nice. I like it because all these beautiful colors are in it. I like the page with the planes. That’s a jet plane. I like when the pig lands his plane in someone’s underwear. That’s so silly (that’s page 181 for those of you who are curious).”
Verdict: Thumbs down
Kato’s assessment was even more puzzling. Although he doesn’t, apparently, like it, he cited only positive attributes. I question the validity of the thumbs down verdict when he freely admits that “all the stories are nice,” that it’s full of beautiful colors, and that it features his favorite thing in the world—airplanes. His feelings ALSO seem to have been colored by a fear that we would make him read it all at once. Perhaps when I’m not looking, Robbi makes them read it all at once? Actually, given her enthusiasm for the book, this would not surprise me.
Regarding that pig who lands in someone’s underwear? Here he is.
That page is always the occasion for much giggling. Because, you know, underwear is hilarious.
After voting, Kato the detractor continued his seemingly positive critique.
Kato: I like the jet fighter planes. I like the spitfire.
Kato: I like this picture because he’s giving an apple to her.
Kato: I don’t like this picture because he’s not giving flowers to anyone.
Kato: I like that I can balance it on my head.
Kato: I do NOT like it when it falls on my toe. Ow! Ow!
And there you have it, our definitive analysis. This book is fun and colorful and full of wonderful things to look at, but it is also long, occasionally controversial (cars crashing into fountains, etc), and bound by the laws of gravity.
If you are inspired by the positives, the book is pretty easy to find.
Because this week’s theme is GARBAGE, I decided it was MY turn to choose the book to review (for fear that Alden and Kato would again pick one of our books, thus permanently linking our life’s work to trash). And what better book to review than “Here Comes the Garbage Barge” by Jonah Winter and illustrated by my very favorite Red Nose Studio.
The story in the book is based on a true story: back in 1987, a town in New York tried to ship its garbage south to North Carolina by barge. Unfortunately, when the barge got to North Carolina, North Carolina said, “No way!” and the barge ended up traveling to a bunch of different places trying to unload its garbage, with no luck.
Alden decided to review the book one page at a time. Please be patient:
p. 1: I don’t really like this picture because it has stinky garbage.
p. 2: That sounds like it doesn’t really make the farmers happy.
p. 3: I like the picture because things are being a lot better because the garbage is going away to North Carolina.
p. 4: I like this picture because it looks very pretty. The house and the sisters’ dresses look pretty.
p. 5: I don’t like this picture because they’re fighting.
p. 6: I like this picture because it looks like he looks happy.
p. 7: I like this picture because he looks pretty because of the crown and necklaces.
p. 8: [no comment]
p. 9: I don’t like this part because I think the garbage barge man is going to get hurt.
p. 10: I don’t like it because now it looks really really really stinky. It looks so stinky I might want to hold my nose.
p. 11: I think those old people are going to get bitten by alligators. I like the horse.
p. 12: I don’t like this picture because he looks sad and the garbage looks really really really old now.
p. 13: I like this page because I think the garbage barge man is happy because someone is finaly going to take their garbage.
p. 14: I don’t like the picture because it looks like he looks sad.
The only page that had her assessing anything other than people’s facial expressions or clothes was the second to last page, which shows the garbage being offloaded and then processed in an incinerator in Brooklyn.
She said:
I think I like this one because it’s kind of cool and interesting. That it can make garbage into little pieces of smoke.
I agree. Making garbage into little pieces of smoke is kind of amazing. Though it’s probably just as bad for the planet.
And her final assesment:
Thumbs up. Two thumbs up. I really liked it. My favorite part was when Captain Duffy found somebody who wanted the garbage. I didn’t like when the guys that were swimming didn’t take the garbage. Cuz they looked really mad.
Kato also gave the book a thumbs up. He enjoyed looking for identifiable objects in the trash – kind of like an I Spy book. He also was under the (mistaken) impression that the captain of the garbage barge (Cap’m Duffy) was wily and crafty. He seemed to think the quest to get rid of he garbage was actually a quest to keep the garbage.
I liked it when the bad guys came. The ones that had the guns that wanted the garbage. They almost shooted fire at the captain but he got away because he’s so fast.
I tried to correct him, but I think he thinks the stuff on the barge is so cool that he’s not sure why someone would want to get rid of it (“I found a birdcage and a statue and a football and a cart and a bottle!”).
And, strangely enough, this picture got the best reviews:
Both Alden and Kato think the ladies’ dresses are BEAUTIFUL.
In summary: Alden gives “Here Comes the Garbage Barge” two thumbs up, and Kato gives it one thumb up.
Actually, Alden wanted to give the thumbs down in the picture, and so was very disappointed when I reminded her that she had actually given the book a thumbs up (nay, TWO thumbs up) in her book review. She switched, but only grudgingly.
I found a great little video on how the illustrations for this book were made. They aren’t drawings at all – they are actually photographs of little dioramas the artist made out of all kinds of interesting things (including garbage!). Check it out:
And if you feel like learning a little more about the real-life garbage barge, parents, the NYTimes has a fun little retro-report about it HERE.
Hope you enjoyed the book review! If you’d actually like to purchase the book, it can be found at your local bookstore, or if you must, on Amazon HERE.
