Jon Buller

This was our son's favorite bedtime story for what seemed like forever. But strangely, it was just short enough that we didn't mind reading it night after night. Even after our son moved on to other books, my husband would suggest "Pig At Work" from time to time! The pictures are funny and the rhyming makes it fun to read aloud.

This story is about a parent that is telling their child all the ways they love them before they go to sleep. The speaker uses analogies to express their multitude of feelings to their child such as "I love you like vines love trees", and other analogies that a young child is easily able to comprehend. The speaker relates their love to common items that they reader may know and love as well, such as strawberry milkshakes and blueberry pancakes and activities such as splashing in puddles, show more which can excite the reader as they have a similar interest to the speaker. The big idea of this book is to show comparisons of intangible things, such as love of another person, to tangible things, such as the moon and how plants grow, as well as recognizing patterns in poetry, as shown in the end word rhymes found within the book. show less

If you want a short read that will make you feel good, then you have come to the right book. Anne’s family makes green bagels. It’s because of the seaweed they contain. But this book is not about bagels, that is just how she gets her nickname. This story is about a girl who moves to a new town, makes friends, and tries to find her place in the world. Her dad is missing by choice, and the rest of her family is just a little weird. This was very heartwarming. I love how the author choose show more to show us Anne’s dreams in the form of graphic novel mini’s, and how the dreams play into the story.
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This review is also available on my blog, Read Till Dawn.

This is definitely an interesting book. Its format reminds me a lot of Brian Selznick’s books, except where his books are told in alternating prose and drawings Scarlett is told via prose and comic strips. I don’t read a ton of comic books so I can’t say much about the quality of the artwork or anything like that, but I can vouch that they definitely create an interesting effect and seem well-done to an amateur like myself. The show more comics were really good for showing things (like, for example, the beginning where Scarlett escapes from the lab), and then the prose passages worked well for the scenes that involved more thinking and less action. The story might have worked okay if told purely in prose (though it might have been a little dry), but I don’t think it would have been possible to tell the story entirely in comic strips - it’s too complicated. You don’t get that strong flavor of Scarlett’s personality and opinions the way you do when you’re reading prose in first-person narrative by her.

I enjoyed the story, which reminded me a lot of the movie Bolt in some parts (escaped animals from a movie set, anyone?), but wound up taking a very different course toward the end. It's a rather disturbing book if you actually sit back and really, truly think about the revelations made toward the end, but Scarlett herself decides not to think about the implications, and hopefully most younger readers won't either. Set aside the sci-fi at the surface (oh come on, you know there has to be some explanation for the talking animals), and this is actually a very heartwarming book about a talking cat and dog, their search for a place in this world.

I'm not absolutely in love with Scarlett - it's a little different from my usual reads, and I think I'm just a little older than the usual audience with this one - but I did enjoy it, and I'm sure kids will even more. The unique format is a definite plus, the talking cat an instant draw, and the exciting, humorous story a great source of entertainment for any kid looking for a book at their level that contains more than just the usual cliche characters and rote plots. So go ahead, check Scarlett out: I can't promise you'll fall in love with it, but I can promise it will be a little bit different from anything else you've ever read.

Disclaimer: I received a complementary copy of this book at KidLitCon, which in no way affected my review. show less