Saint Stories: Jerome and the Lion

I've been working on a list of good children's books for a Catholic bookstore to carry, and I have to be honest with you: it's been difficult. There are some very good books out there, but the vast majority of religious children's books are trite, or cartoonish, or grossly miss the point.

On a day like today, the Feast of St. Jerome, I am struck by this incredible lack. Jerome isn't exactly the best saint to tell children about (though he is wonderful and I love him dearly!). Hot tempered, scholarly, and at one point a bit of a womanizer--these aren't things you want your children to model themselves after. Nor do you want to tell them the story about how he used to sit on the wall of his monastery and throw rocks (pebbles, I hope!) at children so they'd leave him alone. (Though perhaps you parents know the feeling...)

But even St. Jerome gives us a story which seems perfect for a children's book, as my friend Mr. N reminded me this morning. A lion came with a thorn in his paw to St. Jerome's monastery, and St. Jerome plucked it out. The Lion then found a home in the monastery. The telling of the story in the Golden Legend has lost of hilarious lines, like

"And then the lion began to run joyously throughout all the monastery, as he was wont to do, and kneeled down to every brother and fawned them with his tail, like as he had demanded pardon of the trespass that he had done."

This image of a lion prancing around a monastery is just so hilarious, and I really think it would make a wonderfully silly picture book. One of these days, I'll write one perhaps.

In the meantime: what are your favorite Saint and Religious Books?

Little Books now Board Book Set

TITLE: The Little Books Boxed Set
AUTHOR: Amy Krouse Rosenthal
ILLUSTRATOR: Jen Corace
PUBLISHED BY: Chronicle Books, 2009

Little Pea, Little Hoot, and Little Oink are now board books! So you can have all the cuteness in one sturdy chewable package. And all kids and parenting books are 30% off right now at Chronicle.

Click here for reviews of Little Pea and Little Hoot and Little Oink.

Initial Thoughts on Desperaux

The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup and a Spool of Threadby Kate DiCamillo won the Newbury Medal in 2004. Four years later it was made into a cartoon film. A year after that, I finally got around to reading it. I don't have a cohesive critique right now, but here are my first thoughts and considerations.

1) Part of the joy of a good children's story (or any fiction, for that matter) is that it communicates something true about life and humanity without spelling it out. The graceful writer will help us see what we couldn't see before through the narrative. J. M. Barrie, for example, has his heroine Wendy choose to grow up and have children, and yet still be joyful and happy--and thus shows us that we all must grow up someday, and we might as well do it with joy.

Ms. DiCamillo has none of this grace in her narrative. First of all, the narrator is incredibly intrusive and has, to my mind, a condescending tone. The narrator is constantly addressing the reader--which can be a charming way to make the story immediately present to the reader. In her hands it is at best clumsy and at worse demeaning.

Too often the presence of a narrator is a crutch for failure to develop characters and plot. Let us take, for example, the villain, Chiaroscuro. He is a rat who loves the light and thinks it is beautiful. When we first meet him, it is obvious that he is a much better rat than the other rats, and he loves the light (so that's good, right?). Well, he goes up into the castle one day, and then falls into a bowl of soup, and the queen dies of fright. As he slinks back to the dungeon, he looks back at the light and beautiful princess, who is giving him a look of utter hatred.

We already kind-of like Roscuro (as he is called sometimes), and when he scares the queen it seems more like an accident that anything else, so we're distraught for him. But is his innocence rewarded by our dear author? No--she needs him as a villain, so Roscuro decides he will get revenge on the princess.

Revenge for what? He (yes, accidentally) killed the queen, and he wants revenge on the Princess because she's mad at him. What? Well, our author explains, his heart was broken, and then it mended again, but it mended wrongly, so his mended heart sets him on his evil course of action. The entire plot, then, rides on an unclear explanation of character inserted in by the author to make her story fit.

2) I don't want to be nitpicky--I've laid a pretty heavy complaint at Ms. DiCamillo's door--but I also am bothered by her names. She calls Chiaroscuro that because he is, indeed, both of the dark and of the light, and that make sense. Does this mean the other rats must have Italian artistic names as well? The really evil rat is named Botticelli. Botticelli! I fully admit, I first learned of 4 famous renaissance artists from TMNT--but they were heroes, not villains!

3) The narrative is badly structured. There are four major characters, each of the first books is concerned with one of them. But the only one of these characters that is really appealing is Desperaux--it's true I do love him--and we have to wait 100+ pages to get back to his story.

All that being said, I don't think there is anything really harmful in the book. When the plot finally got going, it was a good one. The problems are primarily structural, and those problems would naturally be solved in the book-to-screen process. I expect to enjoy the film much more (I have yet to see it).

I Want a Marshmallow

Oh, The Temptation from Steve V on Vimeo.

Peek-A-Boo

TITLE: Peek-A-Boo!
AUTHOR + ILLUSTRATOR: Janet and Alan Ahlberg
PUBLISHED BY: Penguin (Puffin)
ISBN: 014050107

I was accused yesterday of reviewing too many out of print books. But I would like to refute that statement: this makes my 3rd out of print book, and, sadly, is the most difficult to find. But I only review out of print books in the vain hopes that someone will reprint them someday. Or that you'll stumble across them at a local library sale, and treasure them as much as I do.

Peek-A-Boo by Janet and Allan Ahlberg (oh, they're so wonderful) is another treasure. I honestly don't know what their entire cannon is out of print (except for Each Peach Pear Plum, which is also wonderful). There books are quite simply "filled." The everyday objects and activities of life are magnified and glorified in the most playful way.

Peek-A-Boo, for example, introduces us to a baby:

Here's a little baby
One, two, three
Sits in his high chair
What does he see?

On the facing page is a white page with a circle cut out, and the words PEEK-A-BOO! When we flip the page, we see the scene above:

He sees his mother pouring
Hot porridge in a bowl
And his father in the doorway
With a bucketful of coal.

We go through the day with Baby, playing Peek-A-Boo (which, quite honestly, is my favorite game ever). And as the day wears on, the family does more and more, and gets more and more tired--which provides ample amusement for the adult reader. A child could easily spend hours soaking up all the details of the pictures (I know I did as a child).

But what I love best about the Ahlberg's books and the world they create, is that it is filled with real and good things. Mending and washing, buckets of coal and bonfires, parks and sailboats, sleeping mothers, grandmothers doing the ironing, socks drying over the fire, rose bordered mirrors and golden teddy bears. If we shapes children's imaginations with the books we give them, then we also influence their dreams and hopes. These illustrations show me a good life, and I'm glad I loved them when I was a kid so I can recognize their wisdom now.

(And also, I mean come on: it's PEEK-A-BOO!!!)

UPDATE: I wanted to refine this thought a little. The world that the Ahlbergs portray is not without hardships, but it is real and therefore good. For example, there is the laundry, which shows up in nearly every scene--a long drawn out process of hard work. Still, chores are a part of life and even, when done in the proper spirit a good part of live. Also, this book is set (vaguely) in the war period. There is a bombed out building in the background one scene. But, despite bombs and work, poverty and exhaustion, children play, babies grow, and life goes on. This is the underlying lesson of the Ahlbergs books, and one I am glad to (however subtly) pass on to children.

Books My Mother Gave Me

Today is my Mom's birthday, and I'm 3000 miles away. I remember very clearly the books that my dad introduced to me as a child, but I don't remember many books specifically that mom introduced to me. I think, honestly, this is because most of the books I read as a child were introduced to me by my mom. here are a few of the titles that mattered most to me:

1) The Search for Deliciousby Natalie Babbit was, until I read Peter Pan as an adult, my very favorite children's book. It is a wonderful meditation on language, in the guise of a children's adventure story. In her easy poetic style, Babbit tells the story of Gaylen, the prime minister's paige, who is sent to ask every citizen what the definition of "delicious" is. When no one can agree an evil prince stirs up trouble among the masses, and Gaylen has to work to save the peace of the kingdom, as well as restore to a mermaid her beloved toy. Oh yeah, and there are dwarfs. A sort of reverse Tower of Babel story, there is something in this book for everyone too love. (Could be read aloud, or given to 8-10 year olds. I'd say introduce it as early as possible, as it gets better with every reading.)

2) Every mother introduces her daughter to either Anne of Green Gables or Little Womenby Louisa May Alcott. My mom was a Little Women mom, and that book formed me in ways I could never fully explain or even understand. As a girl, I wanted to be Jo. As a woman, it turns out I'm much more like Amy.

3) I always associate The Runaway Bunnyby Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Clement Hurd with my Mom. I don't know if it is because she loved it too, or if it is just because it was about a mother's love. But, it's a classic; and I love it.

4) Mom couldn't take me to the English lake country and let me adventure on a deserted island. But she could give me Swallows and Amazonsby Arthur Ransome--which is almost as good. If I could forever be in any book, it would be this one. Filled with sunlight, innocence, hard work, and adventure; plus there are ten more books in the series!

5) The Hundred Dressesby Eleanor Estes is a magical story. I don't know if mom waited to give it to me because she thought I'd enjoy it more when I was older, or if she herself forgot about it till I was old enough to really enjoy it--but I just loved it. It opened up an entire world of imagination to me, and still is one of my very favorite books.

Would They Love a Lion, by Kady MacDonald Denton

TITLE: Would They Love A Lion?
AUTHOR + ILLUSTRATOR: Katy MacDonald Denton
PUBLISHED BY: Kingfisher 1998
ISBN: 0753450186

Sometimes you love a book because its illustrations charm you; sometimes the story has you completely enthralled; sometimes you enter into its world and never want to leave. And sometimes it perfectly sums up an experience from your childhood, and you can't help but love it. Would They Love A Lion? is about my sister, Anna.

You see Anna spent the first 4 years of her life as anything but human. She was at times a cat, at times a dog, a whale, an ephalent (elephant)--any animal you could think of she pretended to be.

So too, the "Anna" of Would They Love a Lion? spends an day pretending to be different animals, and finding problems with each. She starts out as a bird, but realizes she wants something bigger. The bear (above) and elephant aren't big enough, so she finally decides to be a dinosaur. But, she says, "now I'm all alone. You can't cuddle a dinosaur." Eventually she decides to be a lion. They hide and roar and stalk and pounce. And they love to sleep.

MacDonald-Denton's simple prose is punctuated by vibrant imaginative illustrations. Anna carries with her a plaid blanket, and in each illustration the blanket takes the shape of the animal she is pretending to be. But MacDonald=Denton is subtle and realistic enough that I actually didn't notice this right away. The extra characters in the book (mom, brother, baby and dog) are quite fun, too. We see Mom's relief that she's chosen to be a sleepy lion (and wonder if Mom had anything to do with it...)

Notes: Sadly, this book is ought of print (bring it back!), but you can buy it online here.The prose is very simple, so it would be best read aloud. This could become a beloved tome for a child with an active imagination and a love for animals.

Fairy Tales by E. E. Cummings

TITLE: Fairy Tales
AUTHOR: e. e. cummings
ILLUSTRATOR: Meilo So
PUBLISHED BY: Liveright (part of Norton, 2004
ISBN: 0871406586

Who knew e.e.cummings (yes, that e.e.cummings) wrote a book of fairy tales? I could hardly believe it, so I had to pick it up from the library. He wrote them for his daughter Nancy (who, interestingly, didn't know he was her father till later in his life) and his grandson, and they are very personal, and very lovely.

Richard Wilbur said of them:

In E. E. Cummings' writings for grown-up readers, there was always an elfin, childlike quality. He forever celebrated love and springtime, he favored the small (or the large and gentle), and in all he wrote there was a spirit of play. These charming Fairy Tales are the work of the same distinctive imagination--the only imagination, I am sure, which could have conceived of "a house who fell in love with a bird.'

I don't have much to add to that. They are not incredibly profound, they won't blow your socks off. But they are simple, sweet, innocent and imaginative.

This edition has illustrations by the brilliant (award winning) Meilo So. The above illustration shows throngs of people who are coming to see the wise old man who live on a star and eat starlight and drinks silence for breakfast. They are complaining about the man who only says why. (Modern, and timeless!)

I really enjoyed these whimsical tales. They would be good to be read aloud, ages 3 and up. A beginning reader could handle this prose as well.

Eric Carle, Friday Round-up + New Shop Feature

Rooster by Eric Carle

Well, it was a short week aroud here, and that means I spent extra hours in the office and wished I was home in bed (the rain didn't help either). What got me through the week (besides the rice krispie treats I kept buying from starbucks)? Eric Carle. His collages are just so beautiful--filled with joy and light and innocence--that I smile every time I see them.

The exhibit I went to on monday was small but well edited and fascinating. There were a great many lithographs--large scale prints of his work--which are not as exciting, though I would love to own one someday. But there were also a large number of originals--and those were a real treat. Carle handpaints his papers, creates a story board, traces his figures onto tracing paper, and then cuts out the painted papers, pieces them, places them on the page, and then glues them. The images in the books are delightful, but they gain a dimension--and with that an added immediacy--when one is viewing the originals.

The exhibit also had a fascinating video showing Carle creating a collage, and discussing his work and inspiration. (View a 6 minute excerpt here.)

What is it about Carle that is so compelling? Of course, I love the beauty of his illustrations; they are filled with color, light, sunshine and incredible detail. They are also simple; each story is about one important thing. The Very Hungry Caterpillar is about hope; The Very Busy Spider is about work; and The Very Quiet Cricket is about love. But the thing I love most of all (and from watching several videos of Carle working and talking about his books, I see this is true) is his wondrous innocence. He is so child-like--it's no wonder his books are as well.

(I just love his blog, too. He calls his readers friends; he so obviously loves meeting the kids (and adults) who love his books; and is humbled and appreciative of all the art children send him. And he loves sharing with kids the different elements of his work. He just loves beauty, and finds so much joy in life--I adore him!)

Look at him, he's so jolly!

So, I have collected all my favorite Eric Carle titles into one section of the Little Lamb Books Bookshop. Check them out, and remember that 10% of all proceeds go to a children's literacy charity. Additionally, as I continue to review books my Eric Carle, you can find all those reviews here.

Here are the titles I reviewed this week:

And check out the Little Lamb Bookshop here.

Gallop! and Swing! by Rufus Butler Seeder

TITLE: Gallop!and Swing!
AUTHOR & ILLUSTRATOR: Rufus Butler Seder
PUBLISHED BY: Workman Publishing, 2007 and 2008


I am always on the look-out for interesting new board books. And Gallop, which has been on the New York Times Children's Bestseller List since it was first published in 2007, definitely qualifies. It's success has been so overwhelming that a collectible first editionis selling for $125.00, and, more to the point, Seder has written and published two more books, Swing! and the forthcoming Waddle.

Using a novel animation technique called "scanimation" (which he explains in this cool video), Seder creates the illusion that the figures in the book are moving. Gallop! features the movement of animals (a butterfly, a cat, a monkey swinging from a tree), and Swing! features the actions of kids playing sports (swinging a baseball bat, kicking a soccer ball, etc.)

It's pretty difficult to show the images from the page, so let me just direct you to this video which shows the book as it is being read. Better yet, hop on down to your local bookstore and pick up a copy. You'll love it, and your kids will too.

(Waddle!comes out in October.)

10 Little Rubber Ducks, by Eric Carle

TITLE: 10 Little Rubber Ducks
AUTHOR and ILLUSTRATOR: Eric Carle
PUBLISHED BY: Harper Collins, 2005
ISBN: 0060740752

I'm just going to bask in my love for Eric Carle for a little while. Maybe all week. Do you mind? I thought not.

Inspired by a true story of a box of bathtub toys that fell off a container ship (thus making rubber ducks appear on shores all over the world) Mr. Carle's 10 Little Rubber Ducks tells through his vibrant and witty collages the story of the ducks and their adventures at sea. He begins in the factory, where the ducks come off the assembly line one after another. But, when they fall off the boat and into the water, they all go different directions, meeting different animals of the sea. Whales, dolphins, a seal, a flamingo, etc. The 10th little rubber duck ends up with a duck family.

Instructive and fun, the text has a lovely repetitive rhythm, making it an excellent choice for reading aloud. And 10 Little Rubber Ducks is one of Mr. Carle's most recent books, and therefore, it is in print, and easily found at bookshops. (Many of his early books are no longer in print. This makes me sad.)

Birthdays and Caterpillars

Guess what? Today is my birthday. I'm turning 4 for the 23rd time. And, I am spending this happy day at the Stanford in Washington Gallery seeing an exhibit on the work of Eric Carle. And I am thrilled. (My friend Glyn tells me it has more lithographs than originals, but that they are also displaying a book that shows the step-by-step collage making!) I'll give you a full report next Friday, when I have had a chance to think about it.


By the way, the image above is from a collection of Random House Eric Carle desktop backgrounds and screen savers. (They make me happy!) It also has a beautiful interview of Carle, in which he talks about his childhood, his work, and what he thinks the book really means. (On that interview I found out: he pronounces his name "Carl".)

Death, Blood, Horror (Part 2)

Last week I posted a story about horror in Children's books, and asked for your reactions.

Lucy Jones, an editor and blogger for the Telegraph, wonders if:

I am no connoisseur of contemporary children’s fiction... but aren’t kids better off with books and films that set us up for life’s grim disappointments?

I’m not advocating that we sit our youngsters down to Seven or Bret Easton Ellis - but there is value in being introduced to pain, death and the sheer unpredictability of life at an age when the brain is so adaptable.

only "LibertyLover" commented, saying:

We definitely need to be concerned with protecting the innocence of our children, while at the same time not being too overprotective. We don't necessarily need to protect them from any pain -- at a young age they know enough to know that pain is a part of life -- but we do need to protect them from evil. Pain, while it hurts, is not necessarily evil. It's the difference between a heart wrenching accidental death (perhaps the death of a pet or loved one) and a murderous bloody rampage. We should not be wearing down our children's moral defenses against evil by allowing them to read (or see) it at young ages.

I wonder if the answer is somewhere in the middle, though. I really like the distinction between pain and evil. A child knows physical pain from a very early age, of course. And when a child falls down, we tell them to get back up again. Emotional pain is different, harder. But since pain is a natural part of life, children will be formed by it, and by our reactions to it, and by the stories they read that involve pain. We can’t protect them from pain, so we teach them from an early age to pick themselves up, to work through the pain, to remember that pain is fleeting but life is beautiful.

But should we then shield a child from evil too? Isn’t that as much a part of life as pain—and all the more dangerous and difficult? How will a child who’s mother is murdered (it happens; we can’t deny it) deal with the most painful thing in the world: meeting evil face to face?

I don’t know the answer to that question, but I have a few ideas. Literature does provide a way for the child to both experience pain, and face evil without something painful or evil directly happening to them. This is the great value of fairy tales. Everything in them is black and white: dragons are bad, princes are good, good is rewarded and evil punished. A child must first learn the black and white—this provides the moral framework on which they can build their imagination and their emotions. As they grow older, see and experience more, they’ll soon learn that not all dragons are evil and not all princes are good. But without that framework they’ll never be able to understand.

I also think there is great value in the Cross. A dear friend recently showed her daughter a film about the life of Christ. At the end of the film G was so sad and scared: “God is dead!” she cried. She understood what Christ’s death meant; she knew it was evil. But Christ’s death is not the end of the story either. In telling of the Resurrection, we teach them about hope! G saw Christ alive again in the story, and began to comprehend a truth deeper than “pick yourself up and start all over again.”

I don't raise children, as LibertyLover does, so I don't know how to begin to introduce the ideas of pain, death, and sadness to a child. But, tempting as it is, I don’t think we can shield children from the evil of the world. Literature (be it purely imaginative, or the greatest story ever told) can help a child to understand pain and evil by the gentle witness of our hero’s actions.

Some books are silly, some books are sad. Good books tell us how to life well. And I doubt it is ever to early to start.

Thursday Classics: The Happy Lion Roars

TITLE: The Happy Lion Roars
AUTHOR: Louise Fatio
ILLUSTRATOR: Roger Duvoisin
PUBLISHED BY: Knopf, 2006 (Originally published by McGraw Hill in 1957)
ISBN: 0375838872

I've spoke of Duvoisin before, briefly. The fact is, he was a master illustrator, and many of his books are coming back into print, to thrill and enchant a 3rd generation of readers. Duvoisin's best collaborator (in life and letters) was his wife, Louise Fatio. They wrote nine "Happy Lion" books (of which Roars is the second) and collaborated on many other projects.

Our hero, the Happy Lion, was inspired by a news clipping about a "friendly, well-fed lion" who escaped from the circus. In The Happy Lion Roars, we first meet a sad Lion (see the first page, above): "The Happy Lion was most unhappy, that was easy to see. No one knew why, but there he was, refusing his food, looking most of the time sadly up to the sky, sighing."

Poor Francois (the boy companion of our Happy Lion) doesn't know what to do or how to make The Happy Lion happy again. But soon we discover that The Happy Lion is unhappy because he is alone. "Even the tiny mouse comes to gather my crumbs in company with Mrs. Mouse. He is not alone. WHY AND I ALONE IN MY HOUSE?" the Happy Lion asks.

Then one day Francois takes the Happy Lion to the circus, and there the Happy Lion meets the Beautiful Lioness. Eventually he helps her to escape ("he slipped out of his house, for now he knew how to open doors..."), and the zookeepers bargain with the circus man to let the lioness stay.

As you can see, the story is carefree and lovely, characterized by that particular french charm which is so perfect for children's books. The illustrations are wonderful (limited palate, lots of activity, but very stylized). There are enough characters and enough emotion to make this a very fun book to read out loud (and act out the titular "ROAR"--how fun is that?). Only this and the first of the series The Happy Lion are currently in print.

This is me, right now at work:

(I'll post tomorrow...) (HT: Padgett Hoke)