She Still Loves Books: Miss Brooks' Story Nook by Barbara Bottner

MISS BROOKS HAS STORY NOOK FIRST THING BEFORE SCHOOL, AND I DON'T LIKE TO MISS IT.

BUT WHENEVER I TAKE A SHORTCUT PAST BILLY TOOMEY'S HOUSE, HE GRABS MY HAT AND YELLS, "I'M GOING TO GET YOU, MISSY!"

IT'S VEXING.

But this morning it's raining and Missy makes it to Story Nook just in time. But before Miss Brooks. decked out in pirate hat and eyepatch, can start reading her seadog tale to the early birds, with a clap of thunder the lights go out!

Being a crackerjack librarian, Miss Brooks improvises instantly.

"IT'S TOO DARK TO READ. SO LET'S HUDDLE IN CLOSE AND MAKE UP OUR OWN TALES," SAID MISS BROOKS. "EVERYONE HAS A TALE TO TELL."

"I GOT NOTHING!" MISSY SAID.

With complaints from Plum, who prefers a kitty story, Violet, who wants ghost stories, and Wilbur, who demands there be aliens, Miss Brooks points out that all stories begin with an interesting character and a problem that requires action. Missy knows that kitties, ghosts, and even aliens can't solve her Billy Toomey problem, so she goes for broke.

"AN OGRE LIVES DOWN THE STREET FROM ME. SHE HAS A BUNCH OF WILD ANIMALS!"

Miss Brook draws out more details, and before she knows it, Missy is clearly skewering Billy Toomey. Her ogre is named Graciela, and she has scary pets in her basement--hyenas, lions, alligators, and a giant snake that escapes from its cage. Plum quails at this development and whispers that kittens would be nicer.

Miss Brooks points out that Missy needs to keep developing her plot. Glad to comply, Missy cheerfully has the giant snake slither into Billy's house and constrict him so tightly his eyes pop.

"WHY CAN'T THERE BE KITTENS?" WHIMPERED PLUM.

Missy ignores the interruptions, and goes on to have her lion dispatch Graciela the Ogre. The End, she thinks.

But there're no shortage of literary critics in that story circle.

"WHY WOULD YOU GET RID OF GRACIELA? SHE WASN'T BOTHERING ANYBODY!" SAID PLUM.

"SHE GETS ON HER SPACESHIP AND RETURNS TO HER PLANET..." OFFERED WILBUR. "THE GHOST PLANET...." ADDS VIOLET.

"I'D LIKE TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS TO THAT SNAKE," SAID MISS BROOKS.

Miss Brooks suggests that there are some loose ends dangling in Missy's plot. That snake is still loose, and presumably Billy Toomy survives to snatch her hat the next time she takes a shortcut to school. What Missy's story needs, she points out, is a satisfying ending, a resolution.

Barbara Bottner's newest tale, Miss Brooks' Story Nook (where tales are told and ogres are welcome) (Random House, 2014), is a satisfying sequel to her best-selling Miss Brooks Loves Books (And I Don't) (see review here) continuing the account of Missy, the former book hater, who is now also a storyteller whose hat is strangely safe from Billy Toomey, thanks to her inspired conclusion just for Billy. Michael Emberley again does the artistic honors in clever and comic portrayals of the Bottner's "interesting" characters and plenty of snicker-provoking details that illustrate the twists and turns of Missy's story for kids to peruse.

"Characters come alive with distinct voices and appearances, and the twin plots flow smoothly, if purposively, to the requisite "happy ending," reports Kirkus Reviews.

And for special celebrations of reading and libraries, pair this one with Bonnie Becker's just published A Library Book for Bear (Bear and Mouse). for a whang-dang-doodle duo.

A Bibliophile Is Born! Miss Brooks Loves Books (and I don't) by Barbara Bottner

Miss Brooks is our librarian. She loves books.

I ask her Miss Brooks why she dresses up for reading circle.

"I want you to get as excited about books as I am," she says.

I think Miss Brooks gets a little TOO excited.

And I bet her costumes itch.

Miss Brooks is indeed your over-the-top librarian. With many be-bowed braids and gynormous boots at the end of her skinny, striped-stocking legs, she absolutely pulsates with passion for print. She has no compunctions about dressing as Babar, the Very Hungry Caterpillar, a Wild Thing, or a Runaway Bunny. She predictably plugs her product in every way she can. The kids love it!

All except Missy. Sensibly overall-clad, with a knit toboggan jammed down over her eyebrows, Missy is that kid in the reading circle who makes it all too clear that text is not her cup of tea. Missy doodles on a drawing pad through Miss Brooks' dramatics and yawns to herself as the others are roused to a reading frenzy by their librarian's promotions. Train books? "Too clickety." Cowboy stories? "Too yippity." Animal tales? "Too furry." Nature books? "Too flowery."

And then comes THE ASSIGNMENT. Miss Brooks announces that for Book Week everyone must present their favorite book, costumed as the main character. "Really show us why you LOVE IT," she beams. Now Mrs. Brooks is not just kooky. She's just plain vexing!

Missy appeals to her long-suffering mom. Mom suggests more books. "Too kissy. Too silly. TOO PINK!" Missy hates them all. Mom is exasperated.

"You're as stubborn as a wart!" she exclaims.

"WARTS? I want to read a story about WARTS"!

IS there a storybook character with warts?

WHY, YES. THERE IS.

Soon Mom and Missy are reading Shrek! and designing her ogre costume. Missy even comes up with a product promotion worthy of Miss Brooks--stick-on warts for everyone in the class. And a bibliophile is born!

Veteran author Barbara Bottner teams up with noted illustrator Michael Emberley in a real winner of a Book Week cliffhanger in her new Miss Brooks Loves Books (And I Don't) (Alfred A. Knopf, 2010). With a memorable first-person narrator, rib-tickling illustrations, and a theme that there's a book out there for everyone, warts and all, this one definitely deserves a prominent place for reluctant readers on the Book Week shelf.

Hot off the Press! How to Bake a Book by Ellen Burfoot

I'M GOING TO BAKE A BOOK!
I'LL BREAK SOME IDEAS INTO A CUP.
I'LL BEAT THEM, WHISK THEM, MIX THEM UP.

I'LL WEIGH OUT MY WORDS. JUST ENOUGH.
CHOOSING THE RIGHT ONES CAN BE TOUGH.

In her new How to Bake a Book (Sourcebooks/Jabberwocky, 2014) Ellen Burfoot stirs up a light and fluffy description of the process of writing a story book, a sweet concoction to introduce the idea of authorship, the combination of elements that make a story that rises to expectations.

Other things are needed--putting ideas together in the best language, adding rising action into the plot, excitement, and appealing characters, providing sounds and words that offer their own sound effects (gurgle, squelch, splash), all with the right punctuation, spelling, and capital letters make it go down smoothly and leave a good taste behind for the reader.

Burfoot's analogy of writing to baking suggests that a lot of elements go into a work of fiction, and offers young readers or students setting out on an introduction to a unit on the elements of fiction with bouncy rhymes and light-handed mixed media illustrations that will be sweet to the taste of primary readers. Says Kirkus Reviews, "As the trend of picture books praising the codex continues, few will match the light tone, originality and quirkiness of this one."

Read this one with Barbara Bottner's equally delicious story about stories, Miss Brooks' Story Nook (where tales are told and ogres are welcome) for a slightly more sophisticated but delightful lesson on what it takes to tell a good story (See my review here.)

Don't Book Me! I Hate to Read! by Rita Marshall

VICTOR DICKENS WAS A GOOD KID.

HE TOOK A HELMET WITH HIM WHEN HE SKATEBOARDED. HE COMBED HIS HAIR FOR SCHOOL PICTURES. HE ALWAYS SHARED WITH HIS DOG.

YES, VICTOR DICKENS WAS A GOOD KID. BUT VICTOR HATED TO READ.

HE GOT As IN MATH, BUT HE GOT Fs IN THE ABCs.

For a guy who shares the surname of a famous novelist, Victor Dickens is a maverick bibliophobic!

The best he can muster is to pretend to read long enough to qualify for TV time. But then, sitting there in front of an open book, something strange happens.

A CROCODILE IN A WHITE COAT CLIMBED OUT OF THE BOOK.

"JUMP INTO MY POCKET IF YOU LIKE TO READ. IT'S STORY TIME."

"I HATE TO READ!" SAID VICTOR.

But then a little mouse gnaws his way out of the book, followed by a parrot with a treasure map. A rabbit in big black boots appears and they all invite Victor to come along on an adventurous voyage to the Spice Islands. A frog brandishing a sword urges Victor to read the page so the frog can turn back into a prince.

"I HATE ADVENTURES," SAID VICTOR.

But can Victor resist finding out what happens next? After all, anything can happen in a fiction book, and Victor is in for some surprises in Rita Marshall's new edition of her I Hate To Read! (Creative Editions, 2013). Swiss artist Etienne Delessert's elaborate and fanciful illustrations take this fanciful story over the finish line. As Publishers Weekly puts it, "Delessert's inventive art... wreaks playful havoc with perspective and scale, and features striking, earth-tone pastels punctuated with splashes of vibrant color."

Pair this one with Marshall's sequel, I Still Hate to Read! or Barbara Bottner's hilarious reading avoidance tale, Miss Brooks Loves Books (And I Don't) (see my review here.

Page Shunner: I Will Not Read This Book by Cece Meng

WAIT!

BEFORE I READ THIS BOOK...

I HAVE TO FLOSS MY TEETH...

AND CLEAN UNDER MY BED.

Kids in the middle of the bedtime routine are masters of stalling, and this little PJ-ed boy is right up there in the Stallers Hall of Fame.

But when the fish are fed and his itchy nose is scratched, it's crunch time. For that, there's always the preschooler's famous, feared fall-back position.

YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!

I WILL NOT READ THIS BOOK EVEN IF YOU HANG ME UPSIDE DOWN BY MY TOES....

The boy pictures the whole scene for his patiently waiting mother. She's hanging him upside down by his big toe from a cliff and his sock monkey is tickling his feet, over a sea filled with sharks, in dragon-filled sky in a lightning storm, with a speeding train bearing down on an improbable ocean-spanning track....

No way. After all, as the little lad admits, reading is hard and there might be strange words, and it will take forever...and...and...

But what if the rope breaks and he falls down, down, down toward an imagined doom?

But, then, what if Mom is there to catch him?

That's different.

THEN I WILL READ THE BOOK WITH YOU.

Cece Meng's newest I Will Not Read This Book (Clarion, 2011), to be published September 6, takes our reading-phobic little hero to the heights of hyperbole before he cracks and agrees to crack that bedtime book with Mom. Artist Joy Ang gives this cliff-hanger the appropriate hilarious hyper-preposterous treatment as well, setting her comic protagonist against a bright white background as he dangles over the dangers he imagines, clutching the offending book despite it all. Even reluctant readers will have to giggle at the super silly perils he summons up, and all kids will be tickled by the cover which shows the boy holding up the book in question, aptly titled I Will Not Read This Book.

Pair this one with Barbara Bottner's Miss Brooks Loves Books (And I Don't) for an empathetic book fest for the bookophobic.

Canus Bibliophilus: Dog Loves Books by Louise Yates

DOG LOVES BOOKS.

HE LOVES THE SMELL OF THEM.

AND HE LOVES THE FEEL OF THEM.

HE LOVES EVERYTHING ABOUT THEM . . .

HE LOVES THEM SO MUCH THAT HE DECIDES TO OPEN HIS OWN BOOKSTORE.

It's the dream of many a bibliophile--your own little bookshop with your favorite kind of volumes in a charming setting, filled with other book lovers who can't wait to buy!

Dog fills the downstairs of his little house with shelves, orders the books to stock them, lovingly sets them out, adorns the door with bright balloons and his OPEN sign, and sits down to wait for the flood of patrons.

But nobody comes in.

Dog decides to pass the time with some tea, and just as he comes back with a tea tray with a small pot and his cup, a lady comes in. A customer at last!

The lady ignores the books, but eyes his fragrant tea tray.

"I'LL HAVE A TEA WITH MILK AND TWO SUGARS," SHE SAID.

To Dog's dismay, she leaves in a huff when he has to tell her he sells books, not tea. Then his hopes rise as a well-dressed gentleman hurries in. But he is anything but a book buyer; all he wants are directions to his destination.

Dog is downhearted and alone, so he does what he always does when he's sad or lonely. He begins to read. And as he reads, he is no longer alone, but friended by Jurassic raptors from his book of Dinosaurs, Mama Kanga and Joey Roo from his Marvelous Marsupials, and futuristic extraterrestrials from his copy of Time Travels.

And when customers begin to trickle through his door, Dog already knows which book will fit their needs--beginning with a Book of Ballet for a young would-be dancer. Dog loves books and he loves finding just the right one for others who need them.

In Dog Loves Books (Alfred A. Knopf, 2010), author Louise Yates' charmingly simple pencil and watercolor illustrations, set against creamy paper stock, tells this story in modest, unassuming language, letting the elegant little drawings create the mood of this witty and engaging little story which illustrates the joy of reading.

Pair this one with Barbara Bottner's Miss Brooks Loves Books (And I Don't) (see my recent review here) for a great back-to-school read-aloud duo.

Proving Up: Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson

Most of us think that the homesteading era ended back in the "Little House on the Prairie" days, but I was attracted to this story because my own uncle's family were homesteaders in Alaska in the 1950's, and like Hattie Inez Brooks, the Hattie Big Sky of this Newbery Honor book, built a home and made a crop to prove up their claim down the road from North Pole, near Fairbanks, Alaska. Their wonderful letters were funny and sometimes scary and full of their adventurous spirit for those of us "back East."

Kirby Larson's story, inspired by her great-grandmother (the real Hattie Brooks), is the story of an orphaned girl, shuffled from willing to unwilling relatives, until she felt she was "Hattie Here-and-There", belonging nowhere. In 1917, when a long-lost uncle dies and leaves his claim in Montana to her, sixteen-year-old Hattie leaves Arlington, Iowa, and with her small inheritance from her parents stakes her life on being able to put up 480 rods of fence and plant 40 acres in crops to prove her claim on Uncle Chester's 320 acres.

Accompanied only by Mr. Whiskers, the cat that Uncle Chester's letter warned her to bring, Hattie finds little to cheer her when she arrives. A drafty shack heated by buffalo chips and well stocked with mice for Mr. Whiskers, a good horse and a cranky cow, fencing supplies (unpaid for, as Hattie soon learns) and a good, deep well are all the inheritance that awaits her. But Hattie is also welcomed by wonderful neighbors, Perilee and her German-born husband Karl and their children, who meet her at the train and are always ready to help, Rooster Jim, who teaches her chess and gives her hens and a rooster, and Leafie, the local midwife and horse trainer who teaches her much about getting along in life.

In letters back home to her Uncle Holt and to her school chum Charlie, now serving in wartime France, Hattie describes surviving the below-zero, snowed-in winter, the gumbo mud spring, and the oven-hot summers, building the fencing, clearing stones and weeding the fields, praying for rain, and finally seeing her harvested wheat and flax crops destroyed in a monster hail storm. In the midst of all this wearing work and worry, Hattie also watches hatred against the Kaiser drive away her German-born neighbors and feels the anger of the local patriotic vigilantes turn on her for her loyalty to her friends. All of these defeats pale before the 1918 influenza epidemic which kills many in the small community.

At last Hattie is forced to sell out and take a job in a nearby town to pay off her debt, but with the resiliency of the young pioneer that she is, she finds her time under the Big Sky well spent:

"I was beginning to see that there were bigger things in life than proving up on a claim. I was proving up on my life.

Leafie had been amazed at all that I packed up to take with me. 'Do you need all them books?' she'd asked. But there was one thing I'd left behind: Hattie Here-and-There. I wasn't going to miss her. Not one bit.

I settled myself in and faced west."

Hattie Big Sky is as big and wide open as the Montana sky. It's impossible to read it and not feel your own heart opening wide too. It's Kirby Larson's family story, but it is our own story as well.