A World of Food by Carl Warner

This is a fantastic book.  "If all the world were yellow..."

Carl Warner goes through the colors and makes landscapes with different food for each color.  Each page has wonderful detail and descriptions.

"If all the world were brown..."

"If all the world were purple..."

"If all the world were red..."

Not a big fan of red however.  Mostly made of raw meat.  Yuck.  The rest of the book is beautiful.  It is defiantly food for the imagination.  Lula loved it so much we read it AT LEAST three times a day.  She is going through a phase that she isn't very interested in books so anything that gets her attention I'm a sucker for.   We renewed from the library twice and even then I had to pry it out of her grubby little hands to avoid library fines.  If you have kids that are foodies or like to cook, this is a fantastic choice.  It makes ME want to play with my food!  

Crooked

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter
By Tom Franklin











I can't tell you much about this book without giving things away!  It takes place in Mississippi-m-i-crooked letter-crooked letter-i-crooked letter-crooked letter-i-humpback-humpback-i.  It follows the lives of two very different people with more in common than they know and a crime that changes a community.    I have mixed feelings about this book. It is definitely a worthwhile read. I am left with feelings of what this book COULD have been. The characters are splendid. Both boys made mistakes and did hurtful things to each other as teenagers. One boy lost one friend but was otherwise successful and the other lost all friends and was debilitated because of it. One was given every opportunity to succeed and became a man of average intelligence. The other had everything taken away from him and became a highly intelligent man (although his grammar is atrocious). Both changed from choices made years ago. I loved this about the book. I enjoyed feeling connected and appreciative of the underdog and feeling disenchanted with the hero. I did not really like the plot. It was very predictable. As soon as the tangent was introduced, I knew his fate. If Tom Franklin could have put those characters into a new and interesting story line, this could have been a classic.

Peculiar

Mrs Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
By Ransom Riggs

This is a difficult book to review.   I wanted to love it.  It has interesting vintage photographs and a compelling story line.   The book is a mess, quite frankly.  As I read it, it felt like I was reading an early draft of a novel or someone's brainstorm of book they would like to write.   It needs some work.   I gave it three stars because it is a good idea. Yes, it does vaguely resemble a school taught by Charles Xavier but it has enough of its own original ideas that it works. BUT THERE IS SOMETHING MISSING. The characters are not fully developed. Even now, I find myself trying to remember the protagonist's name. That shouldn't happen. I enjoy reading a book that the main character is so firmly implanted in my mind that I feel as though we could be friends. What's-his-name falls short. Emma's character development isn't bad but Miss Peregrine's is very disappointing  An older, pipe smoking school marm should be a very complex character; I thought she was boring. Hopefully, Ransom Riggs can pull it together for the second book and bring a stronger creation to the table.

Dragons!

My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett

Elmer Elevator is on a mission to save a baby dragon from the Wild Island.  This quick thinking little boy is equipped with a backpack full of supplies that he uses to solve various problems with surly animals he meets along the way.  Following a tip from an old alley cat, he becomes a stow-away on a ship and lands on the island of Tangerina. From there he figures out to cross the land bridge begins making his treacherous trek around the Wild Island to save the dragon (we later find out his name is Borris.  I wish I had a dragon named Borris).  He runs into an assortment of different animals that are less than pleased he is visiting.  He manages to distract them with his bag of tricks (who knew, if you give tigers chewing gum, they will not eat you) and saves the dragon.  We absolutely love this book.  And by love, I mean I have to confiscate it from under Doodle's pillow almost every night. We tracked Elmer's progress with the detailed map at the front of the book after every chapter.  Ruth Gannett wrote two other books after this, Elmer and the Dragon and The Dragons of Blueland.  We read both of those and they were a bit disappointing.  They were not quite as exciting as the first book. Every little adventurer should read this book or have it read to them.  It was our first venture into chapter books and was the perfect choice!  

Silly Pigs

Moo, Baa, La La La! By Sandra Boynton
We love all of Sandra's books.  All of us.  If I pull one out to read to Buggy, Doodle will typically come running to peak over my shoulder.  She writes about silly farm animals (and occasionally dinosaurs and monsters).  Something about pigs makes Buggy laugh, so we pull this one out often.  Who doesn't love pigs that say La La La instead of boring old oink?!  I recommend this and the rest of Sandra's books to kids of all ages but especially for those under 2.

Moral Compass (or lack there of)

Tikki Tikki Tembo retold by Arlene Mosel is about two little boys in China that both fall in a well on two separate occasions.  Their rescue and recovery vary because of the length of their names.  The second son, Cheng, is rescued quickly because it doesn't take very long for his brother to say, "Hello people, Cheng is in the well."   When Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo falls in the well, it is a different story.  It takes little Cheng some time to communicate with his mother and then the old man with the ladder that action must be taken because he first needs to say his brother's unreasonably long name.   I have read MANY reviews of this book online.  Most are outraged at the historically inaccuracies, some are insulted that there is very little to be learned from it, and few just plain liked the book.  I fall into the few category.  My kids are interested in other cultures (not Buggy, she's 1 and oblivious) and were excited to read about people that say "ni hao."  I sat down with them one night and read the book through one time.  Doodle promptly asked to read it again while Lula got down to play with her toys.  Later that night as I was getting them ready for bed, we were talking about the book and Lula promptly starts reciting "Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo."  My heart sang!  My point is that STUCK.  Even while she was messing around and not giving the story her whole attention, it interested her enough that she remembered the name.  That's all I ask.  Books that hook them in.  It is OK with me that the book didn't teach the kids not to play in the well or that mothers shouldn't have a most favored son.  Not every book, story, and folk tale need to teach kids how to have a working moral compass.  Some just need to teach them to love reading.  Mission accomplished.