Good Books for Kids | YA and Kid Reviews Since 2006

So you know by now I tend to go through the library shelves regularly and I often have things fall in my lap. Two new discoveries tickled my fancy this past week: Waiting for Winter by Sebastian Meschenmoser and Henry’s Night by D.B. Johnson and Linda Michelin. In addition to that there is a favorite read aloud I thought I’d mention. Love and Roast Chicken retold by Barbara Knutson.

Why on earth am I talking about a book called Waiting for Winter at the onset of Spring? C’mon, we’re sick of winter, nobody’s excited about snow or cold anymore—least of all me! Well, I’m writing about it because I’m afraid if I don’t I’ll forget to in the upcoming year, and I really think it’s worth sharing with folks.

My two discoveries this month are more “artsy” picture books than anything else, but they’re worthwhile. This first book I almost overlooked because I was done with winter books for the season. Then I happened to glance at the cover and just had to open it up. Because the squirrel drawn in pencil on the cover illustration made me want to see what the artist had done in the book. The sketches are all messy sketch style with a realism that’s astonishing since at a quick glance it looks “messy”. The artist used only enough lines and color to convey the animal, without a need for neatness or smoothness to his work.
The result is beautiful once you stop to pay attention to it. It’s no surprise when I checked the author bio that Meschenmoser was a fine art student—it’s in every inch of this book. This probably isn’t a book for very young readers, since it does take some work to see the images that the artist is creating, but it’s a delightful book that tells the story of a squirrel waiting for winter, determined to see snow this year. It’s marvelous that the artist can convey so much in the animals he draw, allowing heart and humor into the mix without making his critters cartoonish or sugary. Squirrel's antics wake hedgehog and bear who decide to see it snow as well.

I had to laugh at the image of the sleepy bear gazing down at squirrel and hedgehog. Because it so perfectly reminded me of my husband when he wakes up in the morning (he’s a bit furry too). The story goes on with the animals trying to figure out what snow is. Hedgehog finds a toothbrush, squirrel finds a tin can and bear finds an old sock, each imagining it to be snow until the real snow arrives. The last page in the book shows a snowy woodland and a man gathering wood who spies what squirrel, bear, and hedgehog have left behind, much too his bemusement. It’s a beautiful, unexpected book with humor, heart, artistry and, yes, snow. While we’re all greeting the new spring flowers and April showers put this one on your list for next November!

Henry’s Night, on the other hand, is slightly more appropriate to the season in that it does not showcase winter, but rather a summer night. Henry’s Night features a bear character named Henry whose inspiration lies in the works of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden.

Our bear character takes a journey through a night in summer into the woods and wilderness on the track of the night bird’s song. There are several other books in this series featuring Henry, but this is the most stunning of them. The artwork is slightly abstract, with odd angles of perspective and fuzzy lines between shapes, but it never keeps the reader from seeing the light drenched images. For a book about night, this book glows with luminosity. From the fireflies in the fields, to the glow of the moon, to the streaks of rain, everything brings light into this landscape and makes it magical.

The text is in journal form and slightly poetic, inspired by Thoreau’s own writings. The beauty of this book may not be so apparent to the very young listeners, but older listeners can start to see experiences of their own in this story, especially if they’ve ever been in the country on a summer night. It’s a stunning little book that I love reading to myself, and remembering my own nights of catching fireflies.

Finally, a favorite. Love and Roast Chicken is a retelling of some of the trickster stories of Cuy, the guinea pig, a trickster character from South America.

This particular retelling is great for read aloud, with just enough dialog, South American flavor and humor to make it worthwhile for 3rd through 5th grade listeners. Cuy is very much cut along the lines of Brer Rabbit or Anansi: always hungry and getting into trouble because of it, but managing to trick his way out. Cuy manages to trick Tio Antonio, the fox, out of eating him on three separate occasions, all with the cleverness of his stories. Cuy is certainly an amoral little furball, but he’s funny enough to get away with it, and in this book nothing too terrible happens to those he tricks other than them looking ridiculous.

The pictures are simple, but support the text perfectly well—although this book could be the leaping point for storytelling these tales without the book. Anyone needing something to read that gives a look into South American culture or just for a treat; this is a great picture book to utilize. There are some Spanish phrases used in the dialog, so those reading the book aloud may want to familiarize themselves with the pronunciation before attempting a read aloud. When reading trickster tales, this is one of the good ones!

You can also check out McDermott’s Raven and Zomo the Rabbit.

Happy Reading! ^_^ Shanshad

Waiting for Winter

Accelerated Reading level : generic level "2"