Tidying Up With Mama! Llama, Llama Mess Mess Mess by Anna Dewdney and Reed Duncan

Llama Llama is in his room.
Cars and trucks go HONK! and ZOOM!

Little Llama in his playtime zone, imagining a race between his toys on a track under the bed and the chairs.

Mama Llama calls upstairs.

"Time to pick up all your toys!"
Why is Mama making noise?

Llama Llama is in his race car zone, and Mama Llama is apparently entering her tidying-up-time zone,

Their zones are colliding!

It's a problem of priorities. Toddlers want to play and have fun, and moms want 1) to walk across their floors without danger and 2) to finish their chores with a pleasantly tidy house so that they can have fun. The final goal is the same--but how to get to that goal for both is the problem.

Mom tries the old "what if everybody did" line of debate. Little Llama won't pick up? She won't pick up. She actually lets things like dirty clothes and clean clothes drop to the floor together. She goes on strike for the morning, and by afternoon all the horizontal surfaces are quite crowded. Llama Llama's bed is still unmade and too rumply and bumpy with toys to sit on. Dirty plates, pots, and pans crowd the table and the kitchen counters. The sofa cushions remain a fort, with brooms and mops for cannons. The fort is fun, but when they're done, there's no comfy place to sit. In fact, there's no good place to play! Llama Llama looks around. What has happened to his house?

Clutter, chaos, and distress.
No more Llama mess! Mess! MESS!

Grown-up llamas clean, that's true.
But little ones can pick up, too!

It's time for a little llama to pitch in and tidy-up or suffer the consequences, in Reed Duncan's latest entry in the series, Llama Llama Mess Mess Mess (Viking, 2019), and luckily Little Llama gets the message. Author Duncan makes comic but telling use of the "too much of a good thing" theme that Lillian and Russell Hoban used with exquisite success in their classic tot tale, Bread and Jam for Frances (I Can Read Level 2), and the Hobans' book, with Frances' final admission, "What I am is full of JAM," would make a great go-along with this latest in the beloved Llama Llama series, well illustrated in the style of creator Anna Dewdney by artist JT Morrow.

Missing Meerkitty! Legs: The Tale of a Meerkat Lost and Found by Sarah J. Dodd

MIKI AND MAMA LIVED UNDER THE GROUND, WHERE IT WAS WARM, DARK, AND SAFE.

ONE DAY MIKI WOKE UP.

MAMA WAS NOWHERE TO BE SEEN.

Then he heard her voice.

"COME OUTSIDE AND SEE THE WORLD," CALLED MAMA.

At first Miki is afraid to leave the safety of their den, but Mama says she will be with him, and a kind man in red boots called a keeper is there to take care of them both.

Miki emerges into the world, where it is not at all dark. It is bright and exciting, and, also, a little scary. as the shadow of a hawk passes over them. But the den is nearby and Mama is right--the keeper is there with delicious earthworms and watchful eye on Miki. Little by little Miki ventures further and further and sees some amazing sights.

THE WORLD WAS FULL OF LEGS!

In the zoo are the long pink legs of a flamingo, the striped legs of a zebra, the wide, wrinkly legs of elephants, and the extra long legs of a giraffe. And Miki can't wait to see more of the world. He follows a butterfly and easily slips through the fence and finds himself indeed outside in the world.

OUTSIDE THERE WERE EVEN MORE LEGS OF ALL SHAPES AND SIZES.

Little Miki is surrounded by legs, legs in pants, legs in skirts, legs in sneakers, and legs in boots all hurrying every which-way! The tall buildings go up and up like giant legs into the sky.

"MAMA?" SAID MIKI.

Miki is lost in the big city! But then he spies one pair of legs in red boots he knows.

Miki goes home in the arms of the dutiful keeper, and all's well with this little meerkitty, in Sarah J.Dodd's Legs: The Tale of a Meerkat Lost and Found (Lion Children's Books, 2015). Meerkats are zoo critters currently popular with kids, and the familiar theme of the little runaway is told well in the text and in the utterly charming illustrations by Giusi Capizzi, who makes good use of the shifts in perspective from the little meerkat's level where he first sees only legs and at last the faces of the people and the animals that he learns to know. This is a sweet cautionary tale for preschoolers and their parents who have known the scary experience of being momentarily lost from each other in the big world.

Call Me! Telephone by Mac Barnett

"TELL PETER: FLY HOME FOR DINNER!"

Mama Bird is ready to put her home-cooked dinner, a delicious-looking worm pot pie, on the table. All she needs is to get Peter in to wash up and dinner will be served.

The Cardinal she chooses to be the message bearer has his baseball bat over his shoulder and obviously has his head in the game. He relays the message, just a bit scrambled, to a passing goggles-wearing goose.

"TELL PETER: HIT POP FLIES AND HOMERS."

Goose gives the message an aviatorial interpretation.

"TELL PETER: PROP PLANES ARE FOR FLIERS."

Unfortunately, the recipient of the communication is struggling with a late load of laundry to hang on the line, and she's clearly riding another plane of thought. She passes the word on with a wet-wash twist.

"TELL PETER: PUT YOUR WET SOCKS IN THE DRYER."

Will Peter get home before the worm pot pie is a leftover? Will he fly home before the owls come out and think that Peter is supposed to be THEIR dinner?

In Mac Barnett's newest, Telephone (Chronicle Books, 2014), it seems that just because a bunch of birds are sitting on the telephone lines, they are not necessarily the best of communicators. A master of the comic twist picture book, Barnett takes the trope of the traditional game of "Telephone" or "Gossip" and gives it his own quirky spin, giving kids a chance to predict how the message with change from the nature of the birds who relay the message. As usual with this game, the final message is a hilarious mishmash, ably illustrated by artist Jen Corace's comic communicators.

Other kid-pleasing books by Mac Barnett include Extra Yarn, Chloe and the Lion, Sam and Dave Dig a Hole and Oh No!: Or How My Science Project Destroyed the World.

He Comes by Night: Nighttime Ninja by Barbara DaCosta

THE CLOCK STRUCK MIDNIGHT.
HAND OVER HAND A NINJA CLIMBED AND CLIMBED.

In her first picture book, Nighttime Ninja (Little, Brown, 2012) Barbara Da Costa's prose narrative is as spare and lean as a quintessential ninja himself. Da Costa's text is limited to power verbs--"climbed," "leapt," "crept," "knelt." "flashed"--to tell the story of a nighttime ninja invasion of a sleeping house. The black-clad figure, only his eyes visible, tosses his grappling hook and ascends hand over hand to the window, and moves through the sleeping house down the hall toward his mission's end.

DaCosta is fortunate in telling her nighttime tale to have the prodigious skills of the Caldecott artist Ed Young, whose illustrations, collaged from cut paper, string, fabric, and colored pencil, suggest an oriental setting with deep green bamboo and textured backgrounds setting off the shadowy ninja figure, done in basic black and charcoal shades.

But, as suspense builds and the shadowy ninja figure kneels to spread out his tools, another reality breaks into the narrative:

SUDDENLY A LIGHT FLASHED ON.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

Young's perspective alters abruptly, and the reader is looking up from a little ninja's perspective to see an enormous female figure, arms akimbo in mock wrath. It's Mama, and the little ninja's mission to raid the refrigerator for ice cream has obviously been aborted. In fact, the mission is changed to a fast back-to-bed, stealth-free trip, with Mama's firm farewell, a no-frills, I-really-mean-it-this-time wish for non-caloric sweet dreams

A bedtime story powered by a fantasy foray ends, as all good bedtime tales must, with this little ninja tucked in for sleepy dreams. A tight text extended and illuminated by extraordinary illustrations! As Publishers Weekly puts it, "The depth of feeling Da Costa and Young give to the boy’s fantasy makes this a standout."

Llama Llama Holidays: Llama Llama Holiday Drama by Anna Dewdney

SPARKLY CANDLES, YUMMY BREAD.
DRESS-UP CLOTHES IN GREEN AND RED.

HOW LONG TILL THAT SPECIAL DATE?
LLAMA, LLAMA HAS TO WAIT.

For a lot of us grownups, the rituals of pre-holiday days--the goodies, the music, wrapping presents, parties with friends and family--are the best part. But for the little ones whose dazzled eyes are on the prize--those long-awaited gifts from Santa under the tree--the big day is way too long in coming. The earlier the jingle bells start up, the more the tension builds, and many a toddler meltdown has been the not-so-merry result.

Anna Dewdney's insightful new Llama Llama Holiday Drama (Viking, 2010) documents the fun and the fuss over the holiday season perfectly. All the fun and frustration of those hustle-bustle days are seen in little Llama's eyes and reflected humorously in the eyes of his little stuffed llama who goes everywhere with him. As in her wonderful earlier Llama, Llama books, Dewdney shrewdly catches, from a child's eye view, the frustrations of daily life, especially the ones that build excitement over that time between the day the Halloween treats are all gone and that Christmas morning release.

LLAMA, LLAMA HOLIDAYS.
ADS, SIGNS, AND STORE DISPLAYS.

Mama Llama trudges through it all with little Llama in tow--choosing gifts for his friends, making what seems like millions of cookies, struggling to untangle the lights for their tree--and for a little Llama, it is all overwhelming.

TOO MUCH MUSIC. TOO MUCH FLUFF.
TOO MUCH MAKING. TOO MUCH STUFF!

Mama knows all too well what is likely to come next--big time Llama Drama! Leaving the lights in a tangle around them, she quietly takes him on her lap and gives him a cuddle.

WISHING, WAITING, WANTING THINGS...
WE FORGET WHAT THIS TIME BRINGS.

GIFTS ARE NICE, BUT THERE'S ANOTHER--
THE TRUE GIFT IS WE HAVE EACH OTHER.

It's not a new message, but Dewdney makes it once more and makes it well in a way that little ones can understand. There can be too much excitement, too many wants, too many gifts, but there can never be too much family time together for little ones, and in her first holiday outing, Llama Llama Holiday Drama, Anna Dewdney sticks up for those homey holiday hopes that really bring a "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night."