Kevin Henkes

Ten-year-old Spoon Gilmore is consumed with one worry--that he will forget his beloved, recently deceased grandmother. The solution, he decides, is to somehow find a memento, something that he can touch and hold close so that her memory will live forever. The trouble begins when Spoon steals the memento (his grandmother's special solitaire deck of cards) from his grandfather's house. At first the cards give him the reassurance he longed for. But soon after, Spoon's grandfather confides that show more he too was finding comfort in the deck of cards and is now suffering from insomnia, fretting over what could have happened to them. Kevin Henkes drives this story with unusual characters, such as Spoon's eccentric younger sister who carries suitcases full of twigs, and Spoon himself, a complicated boy grappling with guilt and loss. With the finesse of a polished novelist, Henkes also introduces an abundance of delicious metaphors--his parents' vegetable garden (their nurturing and grounded ways); his grandmother's sun collection (a constant life force); a deck of solitaire cards (the solo journey of grief), and on it goes. But most impressive is Henkes's compassion for the painful mistakes that children often make while trying to sort out the inevitably disturbing emotions and events of childhood. show less

I'm sure I was already in high school before I heard of a classmate's death. Of course, I didn't spend many years in any one school and perhaps that made a difference. Reading the papers now in the small town where I live, it seems that having a schoolmate die must be a fairly common occurrence. So it's not surprising that this event would be a catalyst for more than one children's book.
Olive's Ocean starts with the death of a child in a bicycle accident, but it is not a typical "problem show more novel" that would appear in a list under "Books to Give Kids Who've Lost a Classmate to Death." The death of Olive Barstow, a classmate that protagonist Martha Boyle scarcely knew, is a catalyst for her 13-year-old voyage of self-discovery.

When Olive's mother comes to Martha's door a month or so after the accident, she brings one of Olive's journal entries. Olive wrote that she had three wishes: to be a writer, to live by the ocean, and to make friends with Martha. "the nicest girl in my whole entire class." Martha is stunned and a bit spooked by this, for she herself has formed an ambition to be a writer and her family is just about to leave Madison, Wisconsin for their yearly vacation at her grandmother's place on Cape Cod. She feels that all this is meant somehow, and throughout the book keeps returning to thoughts of Olive.

Yet, Martha also has fun, gets to know her grandmother better, gets through an embarrassing situation with a slightly older boy, cares for her little sister, and bickers with her older brother. Some of the chapters are short and reflective, others are longer and filled with incident. The dialogue rings true whether the speaker is 82-year-old grandmother "Godbee" or 2-year-old Lucy. The book's ending is, in a way, more like the ending of a short story than that of a novel. I wish I could have a chance to discuss this with a twelve-year-old girl or two to see how they liked it and what their thoughts would be. I thought this was an excellent book and well deserving its honor. show less

I read this a LONG time ago as a kid so i will admit there's not much I remember about it, but one thing I remember clear as day after all these years is how creepy as god damn fuck the little kid on the cover looked, like he was some sort of soul-sucking demon who would murder you if you got within his reach. Seriously, that is one creepy-ass kid and the kid in question is just 5 years old, I think.

The story focuses on Conan (nicknamed Wedge) a 10-year old boy who is being raised by a show more single mom, his dad abandoned them before or right after Wedge was born. So in the course of the book Mom meets and marries a dude who owns a mini golf course, so Wedge gains a stepdad and a stepbro (the aforementioned creepy-looking kid) and naturally blending a family is going to come with some issues and Wedge could be bratty sometimes but I think given the circumstances the author did a decent job of realistically portraying how Wedge would feel in these circumstances. I don't remember how the book ended but I do remember enjoying this book. show less

A young girl describes her own ideal garden in this paean to childhood imagination, envisioning a fantastic space with no weeds, chocolate bunnies that the girl can eat (rather than flesh-and-blood bunnies who eat the plants), flowers that automatically grow again, when picked, and soil in which anything that is planted - sea shells, jelly beans - will yield a crop. The colorful ink and watercolor illustrations have a simple, folksy feeling that accentuates the "simple" pleasures of a show more garden, while also capturing the magical elements of the tale, from the sunflowers that change color, to the heavily-laden jelly bean tree.

Like so many of Kevin Henkes other "non-mouse" picture-books that I have read - most recently, Old Bear - I found that I enjoyed My Garden, but did not think it outstanding. I certainly liked the idea of it (not to mention getting a kick out of the jelly-bean tree, as that's something I might have wished for myself, as a young girl), but somehow the end result was not as enchanting as one might expect, given the immense talents of this author/artist. I'm not one to say that artists shouldn't try new styles, and I certainly haven't disliked any of his recent work (which includes the Caldecott Medal-winning Kitten's First Full Moon), but I think in my heart of hearts I will always prefer Henkes' earlier "mouse" stories, both from an artistic and storytelling perspective. show less