Making a Splash! Cannonball by Sacha Cotter

I'm always dreaming of pulling off that perfect cannonball. A booming one! A slapping one. A splashing, dripping, soaring one! Do an amazing cannonball around here and you will be something, all right. SomeONE!

The competition is considerable! The Kneelock! The Coffin Drop! The Manu! They're all a hard act to follow. His Nana tries to build up his confidence, but then one attempt from the sky-high platform leaves him clinging to the board, providing a good laugh for all the big guys below.

Sometimes I think I'm just not cut out for cannonballs!

Everybody thinks they know the secret. Weigh more. Get taller. Get bigger swim trunks! OR JUST...

"JUMP ALREADY!"

But Nana has the best advice.

"Do it your way!"

So with the breeze in his hair, he dances through the air, and.... ... with a colossal, spectacular, super SPLASH, he lands a memorable cannonball that soaks everyone thoroughly. YAY! It's mission accomplished in Sacha Cotter's how-to story, Cannonball (Sourcebooks/Jabberwocky, 2020). Sacha Cotter's story of making the scene with a big splash is set in New Zealand, giving a bit of South Pacific color and feel to a story of achieving the milestone of that big jump that is a universal childhood experience. Populated with plenty of voluble advisors and nay-saying critics, Cotter's upbeat narration is punctuated with jolly rhymes and enlightened by a supportive grandmother to add to this joyful rite of passage. Pair this one with Gaia Cornwall's delightful Jabari Jumps (read review here), another story of making that leap of faith into the rest of your life.

Unthinking It: Don't Think About Purple Elephants by Susan Whelan

Sometimes Sophie worried.

She didn't worry on weekdays when she went to school and played with her friends.

Sophie is a part-time worrier. The problem is--she worries about things at night when she (and everyone else) are supposed to be sleeping.

At bedtime when everything was quiet and still and there were no games to play and lessons to learn, Sophie started to worry.

It's a common human problem, not limited to anxious little girls. Thoughts that go bump in the night or things that might happen tend to take over all of our brains in the still of the night.

Sophie anguishes over all the little what ifs of her life--what if she forgets her lunchbox or Mum makes Brussels sprouts for dinner and actually insists she eat them?

Her family tried to help.

Her brother Oliver loans her a thrilling book to read in bed, but the cover illustration gives her the worrisome willies. Dad offers hot milk with honey at bedtime, but soon Sophie is fretting about wetting the bed!

Finally Mum comes up with an intriguing suggestion.

Close you eyes and... don't think about purple elephants.

Sophie tries not to think about cute little purple elephants, clever purple elephants doing circus tricks, plushy little purple elephant toys.... but when it comes right down to it....

It's really hard NOT to think about purple elephants.

But, funny thing... Sophie finds that when she thinks about nothing but purple elephants, she slips right off to sleep, in Susan Whelan's Don't Think About Purple Elephants (EK Books, 2017 Am. ed.), in a charming little bedtime story craftily crafted for the child insomniac. Artist Gwynneth Jones adds to the fun with a passel of watercolored purple pachyderms that cavort through Sophie's dreams. Pair this one with Lemony Snicket's clever tale of the dark at the foot of the stairs, The Dark (Bccb Blue Ribbon Picture Book Awards (Awards)) (read review here.)

Arachnophobes Anonymous: I'm Trying to Love Spiders by Bethany Barton

I KEEP TELLING MYSELF

"SPIDERS ARE COOL!"

I WANT TO LOVE SPIDERS.

I THINK IT'S WORKING...

AHHHHHHH!!
IT'S MOVING!!

SQUISH IT!!

SPLAT! Well, that's that.

THAT DIDN'T WORK OUT.

Our little arachnophobe is trying to appreciate the coolness of spiders--eight eyes, eight legs, spinning spider silk webs as strong as steel--funnel webs, spiral orb webs, sheet webs--and tiny hairs on eight legs that stick things so they can walk up walls and (OMG!) across ceilings. . . .

SMASH IT! RIGHT NOW! 

Their whole family is a gross-out group. Spiders, scorpions, mites, and ticks. Ick! Some of themcan make us sick! Seriously. Most of them a a trifle venomous, and not a few can cause diseases and other gross stuff.

Mind you, there are 40,000 species of spiders. Only a few (e.g., the black widow and brown recluse) can ruin your day. And many are part of that honorable group called BENEFICIAL spiders.

A SINGLE SPIDER CAN EAT OVER 75 POUNDS OF BUGS IN A YEAR!

That's all fine for me--if not for the critters that make up their dinners. And some spiders can weave a web with a heart in the center. Is that sweet or what?

Wait! What's that?

AHHHHH!

COCKROACH!

Where's that big spider when you need one?

When it comes to creepy crawly critters, it's always something, in Bethany Barton's I'm Trying to Love Spiders (Viking Press, 2015). With a nod to the inevitable arachnophiles out there, Barton's discourse on the downside of spiders is more than a little tongue-in-cheek. Her little spiders tend to be cute and comic, although the squished splats on several pages are appropriately yucky!

Along the way, though, curious kids can cull quite a few facts about the hard-to-love creatures shown in this light-hearted look at arachnids. Her watercolored drawings, hand-painted red and black text, and skillful page design add comic drama to the pages, and her similarly illustrated endpapers present more than several varieties of curious arachnids--the diving bell spider, happy face spider, peacock spider, spiny-backed orb-weaver, bird-dung crab spider, and the (Oh, my gosh!) giant golden bird-eating spider.

THINK OF THEM LIKE BUG NINJAS!

The careful curating of animal science and creepy critter pyschology make this one a natural for a readaloud for arachnid nature units and cross-the-curriculum literature and biology study for primary students. "The skillful juggling of scientific fact and emotional truth make this a winner," says Publishers Weekly starred review.

Oh, What a Tangled Web: Just Grace and the Super Sleepover by Charlise Mericle Harper

Today when Mimi came over, all she wanted to talk about was the sleepover. I tried to change the subject, but every time I did, she just changed it back. And then it was too late to tell her the truth.

Mimi's favorite thing about the party was the number one thing I didn't like. It was weird to have us feeling so different about it. I wanted to make myself be like her, and be excited, but I couldn't. Just thinking about being in the dark, with creatures all around, made my ears hot and my hands sweaty. Plus now I was worried about beetles, too.

I was a good actress, though, because Mimi didn't seem to notice.

Just Grace and Mimi have always felt the same about almost everything. But when their classmate Grace F. decides that her birthday party will be a campout in her backyard, Mimi can't wait. Grace, on the other hand, can't bear to think about it--creepy spiders and crawly bugs and nighttime animals all around. And what if Grace F.'s backyard is next to a graveyard?

Just Grace just can't tell the gung-ho Mimi that she's afraid, so she just nods when Mimi keeps talking. Grace knows it's wrong to lie, but figures that a small nod is a only a small lie. But then Mimi suggests that they both make super-special birthday cards for Grace F. after school. Just Grace worries so much about the sleepover that she forgets about the card until Mimi appears at her door the next morning.

The first thing she asked me was, "Did you make your card for Grace F.?"

The answer was no, I had totally forgotten about it, but that's not what I said. Without even thinking, my mouth said, "Yes."

Now, not only is Just Grace living a fib, pretending to be excited about the sleepover, but she has told her best friend an outright lie. As the two walk to school, Just Grace pretends to listen to Mimi's happy talk about the party, but her mind is already at school, figuring out how she can make a card before Mimi finds out. She asks for a pass to the library but Mimi decides to come along. Grace says she's changed her mind about getting a new book and pretends to be interested in some flyers from the desk, but when she drops them on the way back to class, she hastily tosses them into the recycling container by the library. Back in class, she pretends that she can't find the birthday card in her backpack.

Just Grace tries to make the card under her desk, but Miss Lois crossly tells her to pay attention. She gets a pass to the girls' bathroom but can't find anything to make a card from but paper towels. Then Miss Lois assigns Mimi to work with Grace on their geography project, and Grace has no chance to get away from her to make the card. On the way to lunch, Mimi tries to help her friend find her card.

"I know where it is! Don't you remember? This morning, you threw away some papers. I bet the card was in with those papers!" I nodded like I agreed with her.

Now Just Grace has to go back during lunch and pretend to look in the bin for a non-existent card. And when she comes back to the lunch table empty-handed, she finds herself telling the biggest lie yet.

"I was looking for the card I made for Grace F., but then something happened. The recycling container made a noise. I think there's a ghost in there."

Amazingly, all her friends swallow Just Grace's whopper, and one by one her classmates find an excuse to check out the recycling container beside the library. And strangely enough, a lot of them hear a ghostly sound, too! Just Grace can't believe what she has done.

"Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive," is the theme of Charlise Mericle Harper's eleventh book in her series, Just Grace and the Super Sleepover (The Just Grace Series) (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014). Growing up with Grace means sharing third-grade experiences with Harper's likable character whose well-meaning white lie spirals into a tangled web that ends in a sort of third-grade mass hysteria, from which there is only one way out--to 'fess up to Mimi that she's afraid to sleep outside at the party. Can Just Grace find a way to end the spook-in-the-can craze and keep her best friend? She can, and in an imaginative but cleverly foreshadowed way that will please her readers. Cross my heart!!

Harper's skill lies in her use of Just Grace's self-revelatory internal narrative, illustrated by her own drawings, a method which has worked so well for Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid books.  Young readers venturing into chapter books where there is the opportunity to develop a serious theme will find Harper's Just Grace just right in this funny but fraught story of primary-grade life.

At the Foot of the Stairs: The Dark by Lemony Snicket

The Dark lived in the same house as Laszlo.

But mostly it spent its time in the basement. All day long the Dark would wait in a distant corner.

Laszlo's heart sinks with the sun.  That certain slant of light over the windowsill tells him the sun is going down.  He knows what comes next.  THE DARK.

He's met the dark in small doses, in the closet and behind the shower curtain. And Laszlo has his own resources, a big flashlight to sleep with and  a small nightlight near his bed which keeps the dark away.  He even visits from the safety of the top of the cellar stairs, softly saying, "Hi. Dark."

But then one night the slender lad in blue jammies wakes up to--nothing but dark.  Quickly he pulls out his flashlight and shines it at the door of his room.  It is dark beyond that opening and he seems to hear a  hoarse voice:

The voice was as creaky as the roof of the house, and as smooth and cold as the windows and sounded very far away.

"I want to show you something," said the Dark.

"Downstairs."

Calm but clutching his flashlight in front of him, Laszlo follows all the way down the long stairs to the basement, where the voice seems to be coming from a dusty chest in the corner. He realizes he's going to have to open that long-closed drawer.

But the Dark turns out to be a bit of a pedant as he holds forth on the need for creaky roofs  and shower curtains and dim closets, all the while spinning out the suspense until the contents of that drawer are revealed, in Lemony Snicket's and Jon Klaasen's new The Dark (Little, Brown, 2013). Two promising partners for the picture book set, Snicket does a fine job of building a sense of apprehension about the dark at the foot of the stairs, and Klaasen's  classic, cool, and controlled illustrations are a perfect foil for the author's wryly lyrical text.  Luckily, there's the light at the end of the tunnel for brave little Laszlo, as he finds a mysterious cache of lighted bulbs, one of which is just the right size to restore his bedroom night light, and Laszlo lies down with a new view of the Dark as he drops off to sleep.

Anyone who is, (or has ever been) afraid of the dark will find this fanciful confrontation of that old fear downright... enlightening.

Ocean-o-phobia! Scaredy Squirrel at the Beach by Melanie Watt

Scaredy Squirrel never goes to the beach. He'd rather vacation at home alone where it's safe from the wrong crowd.

Everyone's favorite phobic flying squirrel is back, just in time for the first day of summer!

Scaredy, who almost never leaves the security of his nut tree, certainly has no plans to go to the beach, where there are huge hazards--germs, lobsters and crabs, falling coconuts, predatory seagulls and jellyfish, not to mention sea monsters!

Scaredy opts for a safe stay-cation, his own surrogate beach constructed right at the foot of his tree in case of emergency evacuations. Kitty litter subs for sand, a sanitized plastic pool, plastic palm tree, and plastic flamingo add to the ocean ambience, a flashlight stands in for sunshine, and just in case a few rays of sunlight make their way through his fur, there's super-SPF sunscreen. Perfect! He stretches out on his beach towel to enjoy, uh, nature.

It looks like a beach and feels like a beach, but it doesn't SOUND like one!

What he needs, Scaredy decides, is a seashell, a big seashell, one of those that he can put to his ear and hear the roar of the ocean. A shell that has certain qualities: 1) germ-free; 2) shiny; 3) crystal-clear ocean sound. 4) NOT occupied. But that means--he must go venture forth to the real beach!

RED ALERT!

Obsessive as always, Scaredy equips himself for the dangers of the seaside. Haz-mat suit, check! French fry supply to distract scary seagulls, check! Self-addressed, self-sealing box in case Scaredy has to take refuge from attacking pirates and coconuts, check! But his plans fail to include that one unforeseen hazard--little kids equipped with pails and shovels! Scaredy falls back on the last resort of the flying squirrel!

PLAY DEAD!

The anxiously awaited next installment in Melanie Watt's sagas of Scaredy Squirrel is here, just in time for the seaside season. As in the earlier books, in Scaredy Squirrel at the Beach (Kids Can Press, 2012), our orignal nervous-nellie, Scaredy Squirrel, requires a bit of immersion therapy as he finds happiness, companionship, and fear-free fun at the beach at last. Kids who harbor a few reservations about the oceanside can't help but giggle at Scaredy's outsized anxieties and perhaps get a little insight into their own.

Twilight Intruder: Darkness Slipped In by Ella Burfoot

Fear of the dark is an almost universal anxiety for young children at one time or another. Probably a carry-over survival impulse from early human history, children often struggle to find a way to control the uneasy feeling that loss of light brings.

Ella Burfoot's appealing picture book Darkness Slipped In shows a spunky little girl who deftly puts herself in control of the quirky figure of Darkness which slips into her bedroom as the sun begins to set.

Daisy was thinking of a game to play
When Darkness slipped in at the end of the day.
He came in through the window
And spread out on the floor,
While Daisy danced and laughed and played,
Then danced and laughed some more.

Daisy pretends not to notice Darkness as he begins to fill the room, until suddenly she grabs his wrist and forces him to "dance a funky twist"--the beginning of a companionable evening in which they share cake and lemonade and seem ready to dance the night away. Always in control of the relationship, though, Daisy knows when it's time to bring the merriment to an end.

But when they're tired and sleepy,
Daisy switches off the light.
And Daisy knows that Darkness knows
It's time to say good night.

Burfoot's very creative use of color contrast--shiny black with round white eyes for Darkness, blond Daisy and her toy rabbit accented with bright splashes of hot pink and yellow--provide a comforting balance of power between the light and dark. With Daisy securely in control of the action AND the light switch, youngsters who at first may find Darkness a bit off putting will be reassured that fears of the dark are totally manageable. A eye-catching take on an old subject, Ellen Burfoot's book provides a new way to personify and demystify the nighttime.