Paper cuts, or why I'm swearing at Grace Lin

Grace Lin has some adorable Ling & Ting paper dolls up on her blog — the perfect activity to keep my daughters (ages 5 and 10) busy during these last few moments of school vacation week.

Grace recommends using cardstock, which we lacked, so our dolls were a little flimsy. I can’t blame that on Grace, but I did utter some quiet swears at her because Ling & Ting have really skinny arms and legs (feed those girls some more dump-Lings and dump-Tings, please). Parents, be careful when cutting out the dolls (and you will be doing the cutting, because your children are far too tired from all the coloring) — one wrong move (or sneeze) and you’ll lose an appendage, giving kids another way to tell Ling & Ting apart. (Ling: “And then the girls’ mommy cut your leg off by mistake.” Ting: “No, silly, that was your leg that got cut off!”)

Note to Grace: you are one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, but in the future, please remember that paper doll clothes should all be attached — hat, coat, boots, all in one piece, not four. Or in the case of twins, eight. Times my two children = sixteen. (I forgive you, sweet Grace, because my girls are now busy with your website’s coloring pages — no cutting, gotta love it!)

-- Jennifer M. Brabander

I thought you would be a children's book

I know we're not supposed to judge by covers and all, but I'm guessing that the publisher BOOM! Town has us mistaken for some other book review journal.

The outside of the box

A shipment of The Creative Company's review copies recently arrived -- creatively packaged in a box emblazoned with text from their fiction and biography frontlist titles. Any guesses as to which seasonally appropriate novel this is?

"As you go into the sitting-room in the Stahlbaums’ house, on your left-hand side you will see a tall glass cabinet set against the wall. All the children’s toys are put away there for safekeeping. Louise, the elder sister, was still quite little when her father had this cabinet built. A very skillful craftsman used fine panes of glass which he fit together so artfully that everything the children put inside looked more shining and lovely than they ever did in the children’s hands.

The elaborate works of art that Drosselmeier made were stowed on the upper shelves, which Frtiz and Marie could not reach. Immediately underneath, there was a shelf for the picture books. Fritz and Marie were allowed to do what they liked with the two bottom shelves. Marie claimed the lowest one of all for her dolls’ residence..."

Where the wild things bounce

Quick question: which would you rather read, a book that tells you reading is fun, or a book that is fun to read? Judy Sierra and Marc Brown's Wild About Books, first published in 2004, manages to be a little bit of both, as bookmobile librarian Molly McGrew turns a whole zoo onto the pleasures of the printed word: "She even found waterproof books for the otter / Who never went swimming without Harry Potter."

Reading-is-fun books tend, unsurprisingly, to come to foregone conclusions, but the messagey nature of this one is ameliorated to a great extent by Sierra's witty and expert rhymes and Brown's illustrations, packed with animals to find and count. And the book gets a huge boost in appeal in its new iPad iteration from Random House. Placing aside discussion of the irony of a digital celebration of print for another time, let's just look at some of the added value of this new edition. Younger kids who might miss some of the book's in-jokes (about reviewing, for example, harrumph), can still enjoy poking the scorpion to hear his stinging critiques ("Stinks."), and every screen offers similar opportunities to make the animals jump around, hoot, or, in the case of the hyenas reading a joke book, laugh like, er, hyenas. Balls can be tossed about, clouds can be moved around in the sky; the giraffe's neck makes a satisfying sproing when pulled down and released. What gives the book a real spring is its apparent three-dimensionality: the pictures are put together in layers which reveal themselves when the iPad is moved; tilting the device to the right or left causes new bits of the pictures to emerge and even small movements give the pictures an agreeably gently bounce. One caveat: do the reading aloud yourself, as the supplied optional narrator has that over-perky talking-to-children tone that we professionals had trained out of us in library school.

-- Roger Sutton

Merry Christmakwanzukkah!

I have to admit, my initial response to Mark Binder's CD A Holiday Present! Christmas, Kwanzaa, Chanukah, Ramadan, Diwali, Solstice, New Year's (Light Publications) was unenthusiastic. The carefully non-denominational cover illustration and the tagline "Warm, joyful, and fun adventures celebrating giving and family" had me bracing for some seriously touchy-feely PC crap. Includes "We Wish You a Merry Multicultural End of Year Holiday Season" hit single? Gimme a break.

I was relieved to discover that this collection of family-oriented holiday stories ranges from silly to thoughtful, with just a hint of subversion. Binder explains his inspiration for the song "We Wish You..." with the story "The Little Drummer Boy Medley," in which he and his Christmas-abstaining family suffer through a seemingly never-ending Xmas muzak medley -- on the day after Thanksgiving. "And they didn't even do the David Bowie and Bing Crosby version!" Some tales (like "The Gold Coins") have a traditional feel about them; others (e.g., "The Boy Who Hated Potato Latkes") are clearly Binder originals. Plenty of wacky voices and places to chime in will engage little listeners. Just as importantly, adults can listen with kids without being hit over the head by morals or contracting deadly Raffi-itis.

Binder says, "One of the things that we do around the holidays is -- in order to keep warm -- we tell stories, because stories fill our minds and spirits." Having grown up in a family whose Thanksgiving celebration always includes Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant", it feels like a good combination to me. But even if you don't normally make storytelling a part of your Festivus festivities, A Holiday Present! does make a nice break from "The Little Drummer Boy."

-- Katie Bircher

December Notes: all Fanfare, all the time

December's Notes from the Horn Book is full of Fanfare goodness, with glowing recommendations of 26 of the year's best-of-the-best books for children and young adults -- plus an interview with honoree Megan Whalen Turner.


The December Notes is available online at the Horn Book website, but make sure to subscribe so you don't miss out on upcoming issues.

Book or busy box?

Mike Austin's A Present for Milo is Ruckus Media's first app created expressly for the iPad and lacking a print predecessor. The story is simple: Milo, a kitten, chases a mouse through the house until they reach -- surprise! -- a birthday party. This is all perfectly acceptable board book material given added dimension here by a plethora of finger-poking opportunities: a framed painting of a sailboat reveals an octopus when touched, another mouse can be found playing in a ball of yarn, hit the light-chain and the room goes dark, each effect accompanied by crisp sound effects. Austin reads the printed text aloud (barring words like boing or bounce, which are represented by sounds and visuals instead) but it's easy to lose its thread what with all the hidden effects and noises to discover (the mouse in the flying saucer is my favorite) before swiping to the next scene. If not particularly characterful, the pictures are cleanly drawn and offer lots to point at--just mind your finger, as you never know just what is going to pop next. $1.99 at the iTunes store, recommended for 2-4 year-olds.

-- Roger Sutton