four stars | Lost in a Good Book

We’ll Paint the Octopus Red by Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen

24 Feb 2017 Leave a comment

by Amy in 4 Stars, The Picture Book Corner Tags: children's picture book, disability, down syndrome, four stars, stephanie stuve-bodeen

Published: 1st January 1998
Publisher: Woodbine House
Illustrator: Pam Devito
Pages: 28
Format: Hardcover Picture Book
★ ★ ★ ★ – 4 Stars

As six-year-old Emma anticipates the birth of her new baby brother or sister, she imagines all of the things they can do together. They’ll go to Grandpa’s farm to feed the calves, ride in the back of the mini-van making faces at the cars that go by, fly on airplanes, and someday, they’ll even go to Africa on a safari.

I will admit I got a little teary at the end of this book because the message is so wonderful. Stube-Bodeen’s story is about a little girl named Emma who has big plans for her new baby brother. Emma tells her dad that when the baby grows up she will play with him, read to him, and take him on plane rides and to the art festival. These plans, however, are suddenly in doubt when she discovers he was born with Down syndrome.

Emma’s dad explains to her what Down syndrome is and what it means for her new baby brother, Isaac. Emma listens and slowly understands, and she asks her dad if she will still be able to do all her big plans with Isaac like she wanted to.

I loved how this introduces Down syndrome to kids. It normalises it, makes it ok, but also makes it clear that there will be some challenges along the way both for Isaac and his family. I think this book would be great at teaching kids about the disability and helps them understand exactly what it means and how it relates to activities that they understand.

There is also an excellent information page at the end of the story that provides all sorts of information on Down syndrome and normalises it for kids and helps them understand. It’s a fantastic little book and one that can help kids understand if they know someone with this condition.

You can purchase We’ll Paint the Octopus Red via the following

Amazon | Book Depository

Booktopia | Wordery

Dymocks

Parsley Rabbit’s Book about Books by Frances Watts

24 Feb 2017 Leave a comment

by Amy in 4 Stars, The Picture Book Corner Tags: children's picture book, four stars, frances watts

Published: 2007
Publisher: ABC Books
Illustrator: David Legge
Pages: 16
Format: Hardcover Picture Book
★ ★ ★ ★ – 4 Stars

Celebrate the joy of reading and begin a lifelong love of books with the delightful Parsley Rabbit and his pesky little brother, Basil. Lively and entertaining, it features a remarkably clever and handsome rabbit and is full of fun, flaps to flip and questions to share.

This is a fun, quirky book that is exactly what the title suggests: a book about books. From the very first page of the book Parsley Rabbit explains with little notes what each part of the book is called and how you read it; including end page to title page and the publisher’s details. When you get to the main story the theme continues and the story is Parsley talking about books. He talks about what makes up the format of a book like page numbers and how the words are read from left to right and the different shapes and sizes books can come in. Each page is different, some talking about how books can be funny or sad, or have information in them, or even how some books have flaps that open that can hide things behind them.

It’s definitely interactive with the reader, Parsley addresses you and instructs you to do certain things as well so it engages with kids and shows them how to interact with the book and how it often connects with reading the story. This isn’t a book for toddlers teaching them to read, it’s a book teaching kids all the different parts of a book and how reading works. It’s quite clever, and Parsley Rabbit makes it fun and interesting even before the story has started to let you know this book isn’t like other books.

What also makes this book great is that Legge has used Watts’ words and made great illustrations to match. They are simplistic and often don’t feature anyone other than Parsley. But Legge’s drawings, Watts’ words, and the layout of the book all work together wonderfully to not need anything other than Parsley Rabbit to illustrate the story.

This book was the winner of the 2012 Prime Minister’s Award for Children’s Fiction, and the 2008 Children’s Book Council of Australia and while the story isn’t really a story, it is very clever and interesting and a great way to learn how books and reading works.

You can purchase Parsley Rabbit’s Book about Book via the following

Publisher | Dymocks

Booktopia | Amazon

Book Depository | Wordery

12 Days of Dash and Lily by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

20 Feb 2017 Leave a comment

by Amy in 4 Stars, Young Adult Tags: dash and lily, david levithan, four stars, rachel cohn, young adult

Published: 6th October 2016
Publisher: Electric Monkey
Pages: 240
Format: Paperback
Genre: Young Adult
★ ★ ★ ★ – 4 Stars

Dash and Lily have had a tough year since they first fell in love among the shelves of their favourite bookstore. Lily’s beloved grandfather suffered a heart attack, and his difficult road to recovery has taken a major toll on her typically sunny disposition.

With only twelve days left until Christmas—Lily’s favourite time of the year—Dash, Lily’s brother Langston, and their closest friends must take Manhattan by storm to help Lily recapture the unique holiday magic of a glittering, snow-covered New York City in December.

I’m pretty sure I loved this book as much as I did the first one. This time we know the characters but we get to go on so many more journeys with them. The red notebook returns, Lily and Dash are as adorable as ever, there are emotions and feelings and humour and all the things that made the first Dash and Lily book so wonderful.

The influences of each other are evident in the sequel. Dash is softening his edges and becoming more relaxed about his life and things around him. Lily grows up a little and struggles as her idealistic world view gets shaken but Dash is at her side to help her recover. All the quirky family and friends are there to support them and be their own kind of wonderful as well.

I’m not doing very well in the way of actual reviewing because I just adored this so much it’s all just happiness and synonyms right now, but I will say that Cohn and Levithan really did a great job with this sequel. It has a purpose, it is set one year after the events of book one and that is important. It is also a great chance to see how the pair have grown up in that year, how life has affected them and they’ve affected the world.

I loved this book so much because one of my new favourite quotes came out of it and I did something wild and actually made a picture out of it (see below). Dash and Lily’s love of books is aspiring and Dash has such a way with words it’s lovely without being pretentious, it’s passionate. I’ve always loved Dash’s Dashness from the first time I read his voice in Book of Dares, but he is even better in this one because we get to know so much more about him and what makes him who he is. The same goes for Lily, and in a way this is a book for Lily, or at least with a focus on Lily, but this is also so much about Dash as well.

quote-fb Lily gets a lot of my sympathy because she has a rough year that really shakes her idealistic view of the world. But her courage and commitment is commendable and seeing her persevere is wonderful.

There is more of a Christmas focus in this book, but it all still comes down to Dash and Lily and their relationship and lives. It’s gorgeous and heart warming and heartbreaking and so sweet! I really do think you need to read Book of Dares before this otherwise it is all lost on you. Well, maybe not, but you really should read book one first because it’s an experience on its own and is the groundwork for this book that needs to be laid.

You can purchase 12 Days of Dash and Lily via the following

Booktopia | Bookworld

QBD | Dymocks

Amazon | Wordery

Fishpond | Book Depository

Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

16 Feb 2017 Leave a comment

by Amy in 4 Stars Tags: david levithan, four stars, rachel cohn, young adult

Published: 11th October 2011
Publisher: Random House Children’s Books
Pages: 260
Format: Paperback
Genre: Young Adult
★ ★ ★ ★ – 4 Stars

“I’ve left some clues for you.
If you want them, turn the page.
If you don’t, put the book back on the shelf, please.”

16-year-old Lily has left a red notebook full of challenges on her favourite bookstore shelf, waiting for just the right guy to come along and accept its dares. Dash, in a bad mood during the holidays, happens to be the first guy to pick up the notebook and rise to its challenges.

What follows is a whirlwind romance as Dash and Lily trade dares, dreams, and desires in the notebook they pass back and forth at locations all across New York City. But can their in-person selves possibly connect as well as their notebook versions, or will their scavenger hunt end in a comic mismatch of disastrous proportions?

I picked this up after hearing a synopsis of the plot, but when I realised it was a David Levithan collaboration I wondered why I hadn’t heard of it sooner.

I loved this story. I loved the premise and the treasure hunt, hidden journal, and mystery authors. I loved that it was innocent and fun and that it worked because of so many reasons. In the age of Google and phones it was a good old fashioned hunt with clues and cryptic messages that needed to be understood to be played properly. Respect for the quest and curiosity as the main propulsion.

Each journal entry offers more insight into either Lily or Dash and it’s clear how the two connect with one another. We follow Dash’s perspective and see his intentions and reasons, the same for Lily’s chapters, but we get a little more when we read what they tell one another and challenge one another to do.

I had a fleeting moment, very, very fleeting, where I compared Dash to Holden Caulfield but then I immediately changed my mind and reprimanded myself for thinking such a thing. Dash is Dash for many reasons. No one lets him get away with being a snarly sullen teen who *almost* judges the world and others as lesser people. But Boomer is his best defender, and others see right through him. As you get to know Dash you fall in love with him and see his side of things and love him more for it.

Lily has the same issues in a way. She’s 16 but has the innocence of an 8-year-old at times. She needs to be protected by the family for an odd reason I’ll admit, but her wide-eyed charm of loving life, Christmas, and her family is very sweet.

All the characters in this are charming and wonderful in their own way. Cohen and Levithan have done a wonderful job in this collaboration and you can see how they’ve created these amazing characters that are charming but not entirely faultless or too perfect either. The story is set at Christmas but isn’t necessarily a Christmas story. It is about two teenagers finding each other in a city of millions and connecting on a deeper level and finding something special in one another. Cohn and Levithan explore Lily and Dash’s lives through each other and it tells a wonderful story filled with adventures and surprises and a little bit of luck and the desire to take chances.

You can purchase Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares via the following

Booktopia | Bookworld

QBD | Dymocks

Amazon | Wordery

Fishpond | Book Depository

Eve and Elly by Mike Dumbleton

10 Feb 2017 Leave a comment

by Amy in 4 Stars, The Picture Book Corner Tags: children's picture book, four stars, mike dumbleton

Published: 16th May 2016
Publisher: Random House Australia
Illustrator: Laura Wood
Pages: 32
Format: Paperback Picture Book
★ ★ ★ ★ – 4 Stars

Elly is Eve’s toy elephant, but he’s also her best friend. When Elly goes missing, Eve is the one who is lost.

What drew me to this book were the illustrations. I loved the cover by Laura Wood, and as I kept turning pages I loved them and the story even more. Elly the elephant comes alive in Eve’s mind, he has expressions, he mimics Eve’s movements, and Wood makes the whole thing incredibly adorable. The pictures are relatively basic but reflect the words on the page, and depending what they’re depicting have varying degrees of detail.

The blurb tells us that when Elly goes missing, it is Eve who is lost. I loved that when Elly is gone Eve’s dad doesn’t try to make her feel better per se, he understands but offers up another one of her toys as “someone who [also] needs her” and tries to make her love her other toys for the time being until Elly comes back.

It’s a sweet story about how to cope when a child loses a favourite toy. Dad has a good solution and it is one that could be easily adopted if need be because lost toys are not always recovered. Dumbleton has been creative and clever in his writing, it suits what a parent might do and say to their child who is upset over the loss of a toy but it does also come with its own troubles as mum and dad discover.

There are moments for the parents to enjoy as they read and the kids will love seeing Eve’s love for her toy and get to think about what they would do if they lost one of their favourite toys.

You can purchase Eve and Elly via the following

Book Depository | Dymocks

Booktopia | Kobo

QBD | Bookworld