Mark Teague

I'm always looking for that one perfect funny book to show the kids at school visits. It's tricky, because I have to keep finding new ones. I have found this year's choice and, believe it or not, it's a wordless book!

The end pages are decorated with a fuzzy gray robin fledgling considered all the angles around her nest. Then the story begins with mom feeding the baby, who quickly grows over the first spread from a pin-feathered pink baby to a plump gray baby bird with a charming tuft of show more feathers on her head.

And that's when all the trouble begins. Mom Robin thinks the baby could at least try hopping out of the nest a little to get her worm. Baby Robin sees no reason why Mom shouldn't keep bringing the food right to her! After a very impressive tantrum, Baby winds up... on the ground! How will she ever get back to the nest? Mom and Baby both have ideas, but they're both very different! Fine, Baby will just stay on the ground. She doesn't need to fly. What about migration? She'll ride a bike! Her suggestions get sillier and sillier until Mom brings her back to earth with a pointed reminder about the dangers on the ground and safety in the air and Baby finally makes her first flight. The endpages show the fledgling in full, happy flight, zooming all over the place.

The story is told without words, but in comic speech bubbles, Mom and Baby using pictures to communicate. Of course, the funniest part is the mix of Baby's expressions and the wacky ideas she is obviously suggesting to Mom. Fly? Not her! Mom can carry her back to the nest, no problem. And feed her that worm while she's at it!

Verdict: If you've never done wordless storytime, now's the time to start with this hilarious, clever book.

ISBN: 9781534451285; Published September 2019 by Beach Lane Books; Review copy provided by publisher; Purchased for the library show less

After getting bounced out of her parent's horse-drawn wagon on the way to town, Toby finds herself lost in the forest and having to bargain with its wild animals in order to keep them from injuring or eating her.

This reimagining of The Story of Little Black Sambo side-steps (or maybe multiplies) the racist issues of the originally work by recasting the lead as a little white girl named Toby living in rural New England. But it still has the same nonsensical ending, and even tops it by adding show more some dubious information about the speed of production of maple syrup.

Regardless, my daughter enjoyed the story when she was six.

FOR REFERENCE:

Rated "Indifferent" in our old book database by Rod; rated "Good" by Adelia. show less

The artwork is good but I personally just wasn't a big fan of the story. The dog misbehaves so is sent to obedience school. His letters home paint the picture of a severe prison for dogs. The artwork shows the actual luxury and pampering he gets from the boarding school juxtaposed to the dark fantasy he conjures up to write in his letters home. To me it was just jarring because dogs are so sincere, his lying bothered me. Also the focus was on him getting out of there for his own sake without show more the extreme desire dogs normally have to be with us, no matter what circumstances we are in, they are happy as long as they are with us.

So maybe it is just me overthinking a kids book, but I don't think the book sets a good example and just didn't care for it. show less

LaRue Across America: Postcards From the Vacation by Mark Teague is one of a series of books featuring Ike LaRue, a dog, his owner Gertrude LaRue, and the (horrid) cats who live next door. In this book, the cat's owner, Mrs. Hibbins, needs to be hospitalized due to a heat wave. Mrs. LaRue offers to care for her cats. She cancels their planned vacation, an ocean cruise with Ike, and replaces it with a cross country trip by car with the cats. Ike immediately starts sending postcards to Mrs. show more Hibbins in an attempt to get rid of the cats.

This book is hilarious and the illustrations are wonderful. Teague has Ike picturing the way he remembers the event in black and white (since dogs are colorblind) while the real scenes are in color. It's a nice juxtaposition. The endpapers include a map of the United States with their route marked. Ike's self-delusion while he thinks he is covering his true motives should be obvious to children in the target age range, 4-8. (The Lexile score is AD900L, so it's based on adult directed reading.)

I do have one nagging question running through my mind, however. Do people still write postcards? It occurred to me that having Ike send email pleas might be more current than postcards. Certainly most children would now understand email messages.

I am passing this gem of a book along to my niece show less