Back to School: Chu's First Day of School by Neil Gaiman

CHU WAS WORRIED.

HE HAD NEVER BEEN TO SCHOOL BEFORE.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN?

All first-timers are at least a little leery of leaving the home setting and moving into the world of SCHOOL! Chu voices his fears to his parents, who blithely assure him that his teachers and classmates are sure to like him.

But Chu is worried. You see...

THERE IS THIS THING THAT CHU COULD DO.

Youngsters fortunate enough to have read Neil Gaiman's first Chu story will know why Chu is worried. Those who haven't will get a clue from the book's title page and frontispiece. Chu is first shown sitting amid a field of daisies, looking warily across the street at the waiting Big School. A page turn shows the tall grass flattened where he was sitting and bits of daisies and grass floating down through the air as Chu hustles off, page right.

At school the teacher and students do seem nice. Teacher kicks the day off with a getting-to-know you exercise in which students are to introduce themselves and tell the others something special they can do.

Jengo the Giraffe says that she likes to get things down from high shelves. Pancho the Capuchin says he likes to climb trees if they aren't too tall, and Robin says she likes to sing.

When it is his turn, Chu takes a pass.

The others all take their turns, happy to tell about the cool things they do, as Teacher chalks their names carefully on the blackboard. At last everyone looks at Chu.

And as the  chalk dust tickles his nose,  they find out the special thing Chu could do:

"AHH... AAAAH... AAAAAH....

"AAAAAAHH-CHOOOOOOOOO!"

Papers fly from Teacher's desk, books fly, too, as bookcases, desks, and stools overturn. Everyone is dazed, surprised, and overwhelmed. Teacher picks herself up, but everyone else lies there, speechless.

"THAT'S WHAT I DO," SAID CHU.

Neil Gaiman's latest Chu story, Chu's First Day of School (HarperCollins, 2014), shows his sneezy protagonist as he blows the first-day blues away. Chu's impromptu ah-choo is certainly an icebreaker for his class, and by the time he gets home, he announces that he's not worried anymore.

Notable artist Adam Rex does the illustrative honors, with the most engaging little panda ever front and center, mixing full-bleed colored pages with bright white backgrounds where his adorable little Chu is highlighted in all his innocent charm. Of all the first-day-of-school stories out there, this one is truly unique.

Newbery author Gaiman's first Chu book is Chu's Day, and you can read my 2013 review here.

Parting the Waters: Chu's Day at the Beach by Neil Gaiman and Adam Rex

IT WAS A HOT DAY AND CHU AND HIS FAMILY WENT TO THE BEACH.

BUT WHEN CHU SNEEZES... BIG THINGS HAPPEN.

But, hey! No problem at the beach, right? No daisy pollen, no peppery chimichangas, no chalk dust or circus sawdust to give Chu a snoot full and set off the sneezes! Mom stretches out in the sun for a quiet beach read, and Dad wades in the almost waveless shallows. An octopus vendor hands Chu an ice cream cone. What could possibly disturb this idyllic scene?

CHU TOOK OFF HIS SUNGLASSES.

THE DAY WAS SUNNY AND BRIGHT.

CHU'S NOSE TICKLED. THE TICKLE GOT BIGGER AND BIGGER.

Ahh! AHHH! AHHHH! CHOOOOOOOOO!

Chu's sneeze creates a tsunami! The waters flow backward and then move back toward the beach, freezing into a giant wave hovering over the sand. The bedazzled beachcombers are agog. It's like looking through the aquarium glass at Sea World. The amazed fish wave at Chu and he waves back. A merpanda girl gives him a big smile, and a giant whale wails that he's stranded.

"I CAN'T GO HOME!"

The ocean is broken! There's only one thing to do. Chu HAS to sneeze again. Fast!

A seagull plucks a tail feather to tickle his nose.

AH... AHH... AHHH... Nope.

The vendor hands him a fizzy drink to fizzle his nose. Ah... Ahh...Ahhh. No way, Nose-ay.

Is the ocean really split forever?

Then a very little snail comes up with a quick idea.

"Sometimes I sneeze when I see the sun."

Chu removes his sunglasses again. Bingo!

"AAAAAH... CHOOOOOOOO!"

The sea flows back together, the sea animals rejoice at their reunion, and although there is some collateral damage to the shore (ice cream cones all around), the waters go back to where they are supposed to be as the little merpanda swims over to Chu to confess that sometimes she sneezes big time, too.

It's just a day at the beach in Neil Gaiman's latest Aw, Chu! fest, Chu's Day at the Beach (Harper-Collins, 2015). Artist Adam Rex adds his usual charmingly detailed illustrations, with a terminally cute Chu in his 1890s swimsuit and giraffe floatie, as totally befuddled as always by his superpower sneezes. Says School Library Journal, "Rex's menagerie of anthropomorphized animals, including merpandas, drawn in hyper-realistic human settings creates a humorous alternate reality that perfectly complements the plot. VERDICT A fun addition to most picture book collections."

A splashy read-aloud for the summer set, especially when paired with Chu's other sneezy-breezy adventures. (see reviews here.)

No Sneeze, PLEASE! Chu's Day by Neil Gaiman

WHEN CHU SNEEZED,

BAD THINGS HAPPENED.

So, with this suspenseful bit of foreshadowing, begins Neil Gaiman's and Adam Rex's just-out picture book, Chu's Day (HarperCollins, 2013).

Chu is an mild-mannered, adorable panda toddler, his striped tee riding up over his little round belly, pilot's helmet and goggles on his head, who sets off on his day's adventures. First on the list is a trip to the local library, a busy place crowded with a crew of library patrons--mice who use long ladders to access the empty drawers of an old-time wooden card catalog to search the collection with their miniscule laptops, a platypus scaling a rolling ladder at the shelves, politely held steady by a gorilla. But there is a danger lurking in that innocuous setting:

THERE WAS OLD BOOK DUST IN THE AIR.

"ARE YOU GOING TO SNEEZE?" SAID MOTHER.

After a crescendo of prefatory AAAHs!, Chu says not.

Then, it's off to the diner with Dad, where a collection of assorted animal characters as varied as the Chalmun's Cantina bar scene in Star Wars, are slurping, sipping, and snacking. Unfortunately there is also a scent of pepper in the air there.

"AAH...AAAH...AAAAH....!" GOES CHU.

"ARE YOU GOING TO SNEEZE?" ASKS HIS FATHER.

Nope. False alarm.

Then the day ends with a family outing at the circus, a lavish "tree-ring" affair in a gaily-colored tent. Everyone is intent upon trying to watch all the daring acts at once.

"GUESS WHAT?" SAID CHU.

BUT NOBODY LISTENED.

With all the tension of an impending sneeze, this one ends in the catastrophic aaaAAchoooOOOOOOOO! we've been anticipating all along, as little Chu blows it all away--library, diner, circus, in a gratifying release of explosive giggles from young readers. The pairing of Newbery author Gaiman, master of the neo-gothic fantastical novel, (see his The Graveyard Book) and Coraline) and illustrator Adam Rex, equally known for his somewhat surreal but totally comic style, (see his Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich) is a perfect pairing here, sophisticated, sly, and altogether satisfying. Gaiman's narration is wryly deadpan, letting Rex's masterfully rich oil-painting illustrations extend the storytelling to its logical conclusion. Awww, Chu!! (Editor's Note: Pass the tissues around the story circle before you read this one aloud!)

Watch the book's trailer narrated by the author and see a somewhat sinister-looking Neil Gaiman with the real baby panda who inspired this sweet story on his lap, here.

Past Perfect: Archer's Quest by Linda Sue Park

Newbery Award winner (A Single Shard, 2002) Linda Sue Park turns from her metier, the historical novel, to kid-pleasing time travel fantasy with a pleasant touch of Korean history, in her recent Archer's Quest.

Sixth-grader Kevin is a bit bored. Home alone because of a half-holiday from school, he's bouncing a superball around his room half-heartedly when suddenly an arrow pins his baseball cap to the wall without harming a hair on his head.

"Show me your hands, Strange One," a grim voice says.

"My arrow would end your life before you took a single step," he said. "Do not even think of fleeing."

Kevin's strange visitor is Asian, twenty-something, long haired, dressed in a white outfit vaguely like a karate instructor, with a bow and a quiver full of mean-looking arrows. He demands that Kevin answer his questions but ask none of his own.

"Little frog," he instructs, "...Ask the questions in your head, and then listen. The answers and more will come to you."

For Kevin, a third generation Korean-American, history is a bunch of dull, meaningless names and dates. He's pretty good at math, when he tries, but his parents are always nagging him to focus on things, to pay attention and learn everything he can. Now, he suddenly finds himself responsible for returning a warrior king, Koh Chu-Mong, back to the first century B.C. in Korea. Obliquely, without asking questions, Kevin learns that some strange confluence of magic, the Chinese Zodiac, and the cycle of elements--fire, earth, metal, water, and wood--has trapped Chu-Mong in Kevin's hometown of Dorcester, New York. There's only one day left in the Year of the Tiger, and Kevin fears that it's up to him to return the strange interloper to his own time before midnight.

There is plenty of humor along the way as Chu-Mong comes up with his own interpretation of the technology of Kevin's time--computers that contact magic spirits, cars that move with tiny fire dragons inside, and Chinese restaurants with stick-like eating tools. Kevin sneaks his visitor into the local museum to consult an authority on Korean history, learning that Chu-Mong was indeed known as the Great Archer, famed for his skill, and that he did unite his people into a progressive kingdom, even introducing chopsticks to Korea. The final pieces of the puzzle do not fall into place until Kevin does the math, using the twelve-year Chinese Zodiac and five-year cycle of the elements to deduce that he must bring Chu-Mong together with metal, a tiger, and earth to send him back to his own time. There's a bit of suspense as Kevin frets about getting his strange-looking guest through the city streets and campus of his local university, but at last the Great Archer mounts the bronze statue of a tiger which is the college's mascot and, with one last calendar re-calculation by Kevin, disappears safely back to his own time.

Park slips her bits of Korean history, folklore, and Asian self-discipline into the story skillfully, and there's enough suspense in Kevin's race against the Chinese calendar to keep readers turning the pages to the end of this well written fantasy. Kids who are familiar with the beginning chapters of the Time Warp Trio books by John Scieszka will feel right at home as they move up to this middle grader time travel tale by Linda Sue Park.

Hoisting High! Curious George's Crane by Carol Chu

ONE DAY GEORGE LOOKS OUT THE WINDOW AND SEES...
A BRIGHT SHINY CRANE

AS HIGH AS A TREE.

Of course, George is curious. "Well, who wouldn't be?" as creator H. A. Rey famously said.

And this day George is up for an uplifting experience! He zooms downstairs and soon is standing in front of an unusual, big yellow truck, with a friendly looking man in a hard hat at the controls. And there's a long lift arm which can hoist heavy loads way up high. Big logs are being lifted as if they were feathers and put in place to make... WHAT?

Curious George climbs into the cab and suddenly he realizes what the crane is constructing. Something he can't wait to slide down!

In Carol Chu's Curious George's Crane (mini movers shaped board books) (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014), not only does this "toy and movable book" show how playground equipment is assembled from the ground up, it also provides its lucky owner with a chance to try his or her hand at the project.

The lift arm folds out, complete with hook, and among the final pages of this inventive little shape book are press-out versions of the construction materials so that the book's owner can re-enact the whole process. Press-out stands for the completed job enable the young builder to prepare his or her own construction site piece by piece. Illustrations by Alessandro Prezini provide spot-on likenesses of H.A. Rey's ever-popular picture book hero, Curious George.

Other books in this series include Curious George's Train (mini movers shaped board books), Curious George's Dump Truck (mini movers shaped board books), and Curious George's Fire Truck (mini movers shaped board books).

Color Me Stylin': The Fashion Coloring Book by Carol + Lulu

"...the perfect melding of all my interests: high fashion/DIY/craternoons/self-expression/imagination/inspiration."

Most budding fashionistas might merely fantasize about apprenticing under Coco Chanel or Stella McCartney, Christian Louboutin or Versace, Jeremy Laing or Givenchy, or other icons of style.

Carol Chu and Lulu Chang's forthcoming The Fashion Coloring Book (Houghton Mifflin, 2012) gives young stylists an open-ended, freewheeling opportunity to wander in, pick up some pages from the sketchbooks of some of the most famed designers of our time and try their own imaginative hands at the finishing touches of these creators.

Carol + Lulu touch most of the bases in the work of the great designers, with items from socks to shoes, handbags to haute couture, denim to demure, Calvin Klein and cowboy to Christophe, Balmain to Burberry, and with attribution to each designer, allow the young artist to have free play with color on their inviting large-format pages with black-line drawings, to turn them into their own portfolio of fashion statements.

Fun for young fashionistas and aspiring artiste-designers, The Fashion Coloring Book takes a fresh look at fashion and a springboard to their own imaginative efforts for those who want to leave their own stamp upon fashion--their own or their world's.

... And the Winners Are... 2014 Newbery and Caldecott Medals Awarded

The American Library Association has released the winners of this year's young people's book awards. The Newbery Award, for books written for young readers, has gone to Kate DiCamillo for her novel Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures (Candlewick Press, 2013). (See my review here.) DiCamillo is a past winner of this award for her The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup and a Spool of Thread and the Newbery Honor Award for Because of Winn-Dixie.

Four Newbery Honor Books were also named: Holly Black's Doll Bones (Simon & Schuster, 2013), previous winner Kevin Henkes' The Year of Billy Miller (Greenwillow Books, 2013) (see my review here), Amy Timberlake's One Came Home (Alfred A. Knopf, 2013), and Vince Vawter's Paperboy (Delacorte Press, 2013).

Taking the Caldecott Award for the best-illustrated book for children is Brian Floca for his Locomotive (Atheneum, 2013). Caldecott Honors went to  Journey (Candlewick, 2013), written and illustrated by Aaron Becker, to Molly Idle's Flora and the Flamingo (Chronicle Books, 2013), and the multiple Caldecott-winning David Wiesner for Mr. Wuffles! (Houghton Mifflin Clarion, 2013 (see my review here.)

The Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for beginning reader books went to The Watermelon Seed (Hyperion, 2013), written and illustrated by Greg Pizzoli (read my review here), with Geisel Honor Awards going to Mary Sullivan's Ball (Houghton Mifflin, 2013), frequent award-winner Mo Willems for his A Big Guy Took My Ball! (An Elephant and Piggie Book) (Hyperion, 2013) (see review here), and Kevin Henkes' Penny and Her Marble (I Can Read Book 1) (Greenwillow, 2013).

Other ALA awards include the following:

Coretta Scott King (Author) Book Award recognizing an African American author and illustrator of outstanding books for children and young adults:
“P.S. Be Eleven,” written by Rita Williams-Garcia, is the King Author Book winner. The book is published by Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
Three King Author Honor Books were selected: “March: Book One,” written by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, illustrated by Nate Powell, and published by Top Shelf Productions; “Darius & Twig,” written by Walter Dean Myers and published by Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers; and “Words with Wings,” written by Nikki Grimes and published by WordSong, an imprint of Highlights.

Coretta Scott King (Illustrator) Book Award:
“Knock Knock: My Dad’s Dream for Me,” illustrated by Bryan Collier, is the King Illustrator Book winner. The book was written by Daniel Beaty and published by Little, Brown and Company, Hachette Book Group.
One King Illustrator Honor Book was selected: “Nelson Mandela,” illustrated and written by Kadir Nelson and published by Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award:
“When the Beat Was Born: DJ Kool Herc and the Creation of Hip Hop,” illustrated by Theodore Taylor III, is the Steptoe winner. The book is published by Roaring Brook Press, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing Holdings Limited Partnership.

Coretta Scott King – Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement:
Authors Patricia and Researcher Fredrick McKissack are the winners of the Coretta Scott King – Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement. The award is presented in even years to an African American author, illustrator or author/illustrator for a body of his or her published books for children and/or young adults, and who has made a significant and lasting literary contribution.
 Patricia McKissack and her late husband Fredrick McKissack, both natives of Tennessee, began their writing and research partnership in the 1980’s.Their subject matter from family-based folklore to nonfiction titles, are scholarly researched and written with accurate, authentic text, creating a cultural transmission of history. Their immense range of topics are informative, readable and enjoyable, covering accounts from slavery days to biographical studies of noted men and women in African American history past and present.

Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults:
“Midwinterblood,” written by Marcus Sedgwick, is the 2014 Printz Award winner. The book is published by Roaring Brook Press, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group.
Four Printz Honor Books also were named: “Eleanor & Park,” written by Rainbow Rowell and published by St. Martin’s Griffin (Macmillan); “Kingdom of Little Wounds,” written by Susann Cokal and published by Candlewick Press; “Maggot Moon,” written by Sally Gardner, illustrated by Julian Crouch and published by Candlewick Press; and “Navigating Early,” written by Clare Vanderpool and published by Delacorte Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House LLC, Penguin Random House Company.

Schneider Family Book Award for books that embody an artistic expression of the disability experience:
“A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin,” written by Jen Bryant, illustrated by Melissa Sweet and published by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc. wins the award for children ages 0 to 10.
“Handbook for Dragon Slayers,” written by Merrie Haskell and published by HarperCollins Children’s Books, a division of HarperCollins Publishers, is the winner of the middle-school (ages 11-13) award.
The teen (ages 13-18) award winner is “Rose under Fire,” written by Elizabeth Wein and published by Hyperion, an imprint of Disney Book Group.

Alex Awards for the 10 best adult books that appeal to teen audiences:

 “Brewster,” written by Mark Slouka and published by W. W. Norton & Company

“The Death of Bees,” written by Lisa O’Donnell and published by Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

“Golden Boy: A Novel,” written by Abigail Tarttelin and published by ATRIA Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

“Help for the Haunted,” written by John Searles and published by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

“Lexicon: A Novel,” written by Max Barry and published by The Penguin Group, Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

“Lives of Tao,” written by Wesley Chu and published by Angry Robot, a member of the Osprey Group

“Mother, Mother: A Novel,” written by Koren Zailckas and published by Crown Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.

“Relish,” written by Lucy Knisley and published by First Second, an imprint of Roaring Brook Press, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing Holdings Limited Partnership

“The Sea of Tranquility: A Novel,” written by Katja Millay and published by ATRIA Paperback, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

“The Universe Versus Alex Woods,” written by Gavin Extence and published by Redhook Books, an imprint of Orbit, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

Andrew Carnegie Medal for excellence in children's video:
Paul R. Gagne and Melissa Reilly Ellard of Weston Woods Studios, Inc., producers of “Bink &Gollie: Two for One,” are the Carnegie Medal winners. The video’s cast is anchored by Kate Micucci and Riki Lindhome, with music by David Mansfield. Tony Fucile’s artwork is brilliantly brought to life by Chuck Gammage Animation.