The Hole Story: Outstanding in the Rain: A Whole Story with Holes by Frank Viva

"ICE CREAM!" I SAY, MY BIRTHDAY SURPRISE.

A boy and his mother get off the subway at Coney Island, set for a birthday treat at the amusement park.

A celebratory ice cream cone is in order right away, but no sooner has the lad claimed his treat than the big scoop falls off the cone.

"OH, NO! I SCREAM!"

"The medium is the message," is the premise of Frank Viva's latest book, Outstanding in the Rain (Little, Brown and Company, 2015) a die-cut "toy and movable book" which utilizes holes placed strategically into the illustrations and text of the pages. The opening cut-out of the rows of subway cars opens to become the boy's screaming mouth, while the "ICE CREAM" on the vendor's cart becomes the second-page caption, "I SCREAM!"

What follows is retro day at the amusement park set in mid-twentieth-century Coney Island. The boy and his mother take a crazy, splashy slide ride and enjoy a picnic on the sand, where a beach umbrella's handle opens to a candle on his birthday cake.

And at the day's end, mother and son wait in the light summer rain to take the subway back home.

OUT STANDING IN THE RAIN

which, with a page turn, yields to

A NIGHT TRAIN

...and the birthday outing ends well, as AN ICE MAN opens to become A NICE MAN, who provides the birthday boy with a replacement ice cream cone with a smile.

As in his earlier noted works, Along a Long Road and A Long Way Away Viva's art, done in unusual eggplant, mango, and aqua tones, is both retro-styled and avant-garde, while his die-cut-revealed wordplay in the use of "oronyms," words and word parts which change meaning with context and shape-shifting detail is clever and creative. Some kids will be charmed and drawn into the well-executed illustrative details and wordsmithery on each page, while more literal-minded readers may wonder where the story went in this quiet progression through a birthday outing.

Pas de Deux: Flora and Penguin by Mary Idle

Flora is far from her former dance partner, Flamingo, as she laces up her ice skates and ventures onto the blue-white Antarctic ice. Right away she notices a penguin who seems interested in her swooping strokes.

Soon the two begin to glide over the ice together, a skating session that quickly turns into a lovely ballet, as the impromptu partners mirror each other's moves in synchronized dance. Wing-in-hand, they twirl, leap, and spring in perfect rapport, blending almost into one.

But suddenly Penguin breaks away and dives into a breathing hole in the ice. Flora feels rejected and hurt, turning her back on her partner, just as Penguin slips up onto the ice and offers Flora a fish she has caught as a gift. Confused, Flora hurries to set the fish free in the ice hole, and now it is Penguin who feels miffed and rejected.

But the joy of their dance draws them together, in a grand finale of a four-page gatefold, as Flora and Penguin understand each other, their differences and their common love for ballet, as they end their dance with quite a lot of flare, in Molly Idle's sequel to her 2013 Caldecott Honor Book, Flora and the Flamingo (See my 2013 review here.)

In her second book, Flora and the Penguin (Chronicle Books, 2014), Idle takes a different tack: instead of playing up the contrast between the Flora's chubby, short-legged shape and Flamingo's long, elegant lines, the illustrator points up the similar body forms of Flora and Penguin as they dance, contrasted against their different views toward what to do with a fish. It's a funny but short-lived tiff, as the two return gladly to their improvised girl-and-penguin pas de deux. Idle chooses a cool blue palette, accented only with touches of yellow, beautifully suited to the polar setting. Again, Molly Idle's artistic skills turn a tour jete' into a tour de force,, with the added fun of flaps which extend the story, showing what is happening under the ice as well as above and with her multi-page grand finale, with the fish below the ice serving as corps de ballet.

Idle's latest has earned starred reviews from School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and Common Sense Media. As Booklist says, "Rings with the real emotion of friendship found, lost, and found again... a charmer."

A "Movable" Christmas Feast: T'was the Night Before Christmas and The First Christmas

Clement Clark Moore's classic poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" has schooled (and made Christmas Eve insomniacs of) generations of American kids in what goes on during that long winter's night while they are supposed to be nestled all snug in their beds. The story has been reworked in august and celebrated versions such as Tomie de Paola's early American The Night Before Christmas, Jan Brett's fanciful The Night Before Christmas (Tenth Anniversary Edition),Tasha Tudor's Victorian The Night Before Christmas, James Marshall's comic Night Before Christmas (Blue Ribbon Book) and diverse others, all text-true and worthy of a family read before that propitious bedtime.

But the search for a different way to tell that story goes on, in takeoffs such as Cajun Night After Christmas (The Night Before Christmas Series) and Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. and a world of other spoofs, parodies, and innovatively illustrated variations.

Jon Goodell's 'Twas the Night Before Christmas (Ani-Motion), (Accord Press), first issued in 2009 just before the similar "Scanimation" sensation of Seder's Gallop!: A Scanimation Picture Book and sequels, is back for a well-deserved look this season, complete with a 1950s-style Rockwellian but elfin Santa and a sweeping vision of his sleigh silhouetted before a full moon. The designers of the "Ani-Motion" windows, Jeffrey Charles Cole and Heather Bewr, provide a creative placement of their moving "windows" on almost each page, beginning with a soaring comet across the winter sky which bodes the coming of Christmastide, a chubby little saint who rubs his expansive belly at the appropriate time, and closing with a toy train which chugs cheerily around the Christmas tree as Santa surveys the results of his gift-giving and prepares to ascend the chimney. The conventional art is quite charming, and the Ani-Motion windows add a bit of interest for kids who may be just a little jaded with the familiar poem.

Another familiar story of Christmas is of course, the Biblical account of the first Christmas, one which also has been told in many versions and formats over the centuries. English illustrator Sophy Williams' new The First Christmas: A Changing-Picture Book (Templar/Candlewick Press, 2010) tells the story of the nativity in a straightforward text which smoothly combines accounts from several Gospel texts.

But the chief appeal of this version is in its well-integrated use of what Candlewick calls "Changing-Picture" design. This design technique is familiar to elementary art teachers and features two different illustrations, cut into strips, which reassemble themselves into two complete pictures when pulled across the other. The cover features a die-cut circular opening which when closed shows the manger scene with Mary and lambs; when opened the illustration transforms to a golden-lit illustration of the Three Kings on their camels, guided by the star. Inside the book the illustrations can be changed by lifting a die-cut, shaped flap on right-hand pages, such as the street scene in Bethlehem which transforms to the scene of the Annunciation. Another shows the shepherds in the fields with their flocks, which then transforms to the door of the stable, with one little shepherd worshipfully offering his lamb to the Child. All illustrations are done in jewel-like colors, illuminated by golden heavenly light.

Both of these innovatively-designed books offer youngsters a chance to interact with the stories on their own, making them not just suitable for a Christmas Eve readalong but inspiring youngsters to read or look at the pictures as they manipulate the illustrations for themselves. Both provide a creative way to introduce these memorable and beloved texts in a novel medium suitable for a wide range of ages.

Try to See It My Way! Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Optical illusions are captivating to children, and Amy Krouse Rosenthal's just published picture book Duck! Rabbit! (Chronicle, 2009) relies on one basic black-line drawing--a doppelganger of a creature which is seen differently by two kids--as a long-eared rabbit or a long-billed duck.

"Hey, look! A duck!"

"That's not a duck! That's a rabbit."

"Are you kidding me? It's totally a duck."

"It's for sure a rabbit!"

The kids are sure they hear a quack-quack duck sound or a sniff-sniff rabbit sound. Then the first kid sees the duck go for a stroll through tall swamp reeds, while the second one is sure he's seeing a rabbit, hiding in the grass. When the first kid sees some movement, he's sure the duck is flying, but the second kid sees the rabbit's ears jiggling as he hops away. Even binoculars don't resolve the conflict!

But just as each kid begins to see the animal from the other's viewpoint, the mystery animal disappears from view.

"Now what do want to do?" one asks.

"I don't know. What do you want to do?"

"Hey, look! An anteater!!"

"That's no anteater! That's a brachiosaurus!"

Illustrator Tom Lichtenfeld makes the most of his simple line drawings and page design to build a bit of playful suspense with his two-faced beasts. (In a cute bit of trompe l'oeil art, Lichtenfeld even turns the back cover barcodes into a stripey zebra.) This is a book which needs to be seen to be appreciated, and, SURPRISE! The publisher has thoughtfully provided us with a short trailer which does just that, to be seen here.