The Joy of Children's Literature

-- Publishers Weekly , 2/8/2010 Picture Books Paris in the Spring with Picasso by Joan Yolleck, illus. by Marjorie Priceman. Random/S&W, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-375-83756-2 Debut author Yolleck introduces Gertrude Stein and her coterie—Picasso, Max Jacobs, Apollinaire (plus assorted girlfriends)—spicing her account with gossip and asides (“Pardonnez-moi, excuse me. I must interrupt for just a moment to tell you that these sketches are of Apollinaire and their friends Pablo and Fernande”). Apollinaire watches an acrobat and gets an idea for a poem, Max Jacob writes comic verse, Gertrude chats with Alice B. Toklas; the evening soirée that the narrative takes as its focus isn’t as important as the ordinary ways these extraordinary artists spend their days. The exuberant spreads by Priceman ( How to Make a Cherry Pie and See the U.S.A .), scratched and scrabbled in ink and splashed with scarlets, yellows, and blues, showcase the streets of Paris with thoroughly Gallic charm. In ...

From Read Roger : The following books will receive starred reviews in the March-April issue of the Horn Book Magazine : My Garden , by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow) Once by Morris Gleitzman (Holt) Shakespeare Makes the Playoffs by Ron Koertge (Candlewick) The Dreamer by Pam Muñoz Ryan; illus. by Peter Sís (Scholastic) Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick (Roaring Brook) The Last Summer of the Death Warriors by Francisco X. Stork (Levine/Scholastic) A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner (Greenwillow) One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia (Amistad/HarperCollins) Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse by Marilyn Singer; illus. by Josée Masse (Dutton)   Congratulations to these authors!

-- Publishers Weekly , 2/1/2010 Picture Books I Can Be Anything! by Jerry Spinelli, illus. by Jimmy Liao. Little, Brown, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-316-16226-5 Newbery Medalist Spinelli ( My Daddy and Me ) again demonstrates his versatility as a writer in this buoyant riff on a familiar theme. “When I grow up, what shall I be?” asks the young narrator, answering this question with blithe, whimsical options, pictured with playful exaggeration in Liao's ( The Sound of Colors ) energetic watercolor and acrylic art. Accompanied by frolicking bunnies, the boy envisions himself as a “puddle stomper/ apple chomper/mixing-bowl licker/ tin-can kicker,” among numerous other “professions.” Though often clad in overalls, in some scenarios he wears more fanciful attire, hovering in a butterfly costume as a “honeysuckle smeller” or performing in a clown suit for a sad lion as a “silly-joke teller.” Liao's artwork runs with the simple, evocative phrases, striking a balance between the cla...

-- Publishers Weekly , 1/25/2010 Picture Books My Garden by Kevin Henkes Greenwillow, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-06-171517-4 Spring colors of lilac, daffodil yellow, pale blue, and leafy green bloom in Caldecott Medalist Henkes’s fanciful account of the great outdoors. “My mother has a garden. I’m her helper,” explains a girl, who wears a petunia-pink dress and a golden straw hat. She dutifully waters and weeds, “but if I had a garden,” she says, things would be less predictable. Gazing up at sunflowers, she giggles to imagine them colored in dots and plaids. She picks a flower and, in her perfect garden, another pops right up. Seashells and jelly beans sprout, disliked vegetables are invisible, and pests are not a problem: “the rabbits would be chocolate and I would eat them.” At this, the girl nibbles a bunny, surrounded by cocoa rabbits wearing telltale ribbons. Henkes gives the young storyteller a matter-of-fact voice and a sly sense of humor, while dewy watercolors and ink pic...

-- Publishers Weekly , 1/18/2010 7:00:00 AM Picture Books Cat the Cat, Who Is That? by Mo Willems. HarperCollins/Balzer & Bray, $12.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-06-172840-2 In Cat the Cat's friendly world, names are an uncomplicated affair, most of the time. This early reader pictures Cat, an irrepressible kitty in a purple dress, skipping and cartwheeling to greet pals like Mouse the Mouse and Fish the Fish. All is well until Cat meets a chartreuse creature with eyestalks, a blue tongue, four arms, and three legs. She skids to a halt and her tail electrifies. The individual, unrecognizable but clearly amiable, stops stacking blocks to say, “Blarggie! Blarggie!” This time Cat's initial response to the repeated question, “Cat the Cat, who is that?” is “I have no idea,” but Cat finally decides this might be “a new friend!” and responds with a bouncy “Blarggie!” of her own. Willems provides just enough humor and surprise to entertain youngest audiences and subtly suggests some f...