i just heard that Diana Wynne Jones has died and I am so sad. I only just found out about her a few years ago and it’s been such a pleasure to go through her bibliography. She’s written a LOT of books, which, with very few exceptions, are really compelling, funny, imaginative and infinitely readable. I just read one she published last year, and I was looking forward to future stories with the same characters- it was definitely set up at the end for lots of follow-up. The Power of Three is my most recent read by her- and it’s a gem. I’m not a fan of sci-fi AT ALL so i had avoided this one- to my anti sci-fi self it looked pretty cheesy, and the names of the characters are a little too olde tyme celtic for my taste. HOWever once i got beyond that – wow what a book. It’s got a great twist in it that really took me by surprise- it’s a total page-turner. It’s definitely for older kids (8? 10? and up) – there’s a brutal murder in the first chapter. It’s a really great read though. As are really almost all her other books which are all happily quite available in libraries and bookstores everywhere- they are all still in print hooray! Hopefully they will be for many years to come. Such a sad loss for children’s literature today.

just a quick note here- anyone who wants to check out the marvellous Daniel Pinkwater can read his latest book here. it’s being serialized online, which is brilliant. And so far I love it. I think i have laughed out loud at least once per chapter. The characters are so instantly engaging I dont know how he does it. The blog entry format is fun to read- the comments are also quite entertaining. I have also listened to some of his spots on NPR’s weekend edition and they’re really funny and thoughtful. Yay Daniel Pinkwater!

I have to just pause here in my reviews to extoll the virtues of the thrift shop as children’s book source. Today I stopped into the Goodwill at Sherbourne and Bloor and was really blown away by their book section. It’s huge, and pretty tidy, and I found lots of goodies, without too much fine-tooth combing. I found an Edward Ardizzone we dont have (Ginger, Ships Cook), a couple of Arnold Lobels (one a book of fables, which we are into quite a bit these days), a Roald Dahl i dont know (The Giraffe, and the Pelly and Me), Mr Popper’s Penguins (never read it, heard of it though, bought it for 49c), Make Way for Ducklings (been meaning to read it), The Importance of Crocus by Roger Duvoisin (he wrote Petunia)- the cover is fabulous- i love his illustrations, i got a couple of board books i couldnt pass up- one is from the 60′s with photos of baby animals in fields of buttercups, soft focus… very nice, the other is a Telling Time book from the pre-digital age. Nice illustrations. I also got a big hardback collection called “Every Child’s Story Book, A Horn of Plenty of the Best Reading for Boys and Girls”, published in 1959 with fantastic illustrations by Gioia Fiammenghi. It looks like it could be a treasure trove. I also could not resist a couple of vintage Golden Books- they’re called “Golden Shape Books” and the illustrations are raw 70s schlock, which i happen to love. A mother goose, and a big eyed Bambi. Very nice, although the Bambi story is brutal- i think it’s one of these “book from movie” deals- hell on earth in other words. Oh and I got another horn of plenty book called Best In Children’s Books- it’s got different illustrators including Ezra Jack Keats (a fave), and the Poppy Seed Cake (which i have a copy of somewhere- hmm i think my mum may be hoarding it come to think of it!- fabulous russian folk illustrations and tales)- plus more. Looks good.

I have also found Value Village to be a good source on occasion- depending where of course. I’m guessing the VV to end all VV’s, Barrie VV, will have an awesome selection. And the Halifax one- the one on Strawberry Hill Road is probably a gold mine too. The VV’s in Toronto are just so-so, although the one in the east end- on Queen at Carlaw has been a consistently fabulous toy source- wow, that place is incredible.

Just reread this one after a long time- it’s great. The illustrations are pure Ahlberg genius, packed with interesting details, beautifully painted. The story is simple: Burglar Bill is burgling one night and ends up inadvertantly taking home a baby. Then a few nights later, he wakes up to hear his own place being burgled and when he goes downstairs to confront the burglar, he meets Burglar Betty. She’s heard of him and is very apologetic for burgling him, they have a cup of tea and she asks him why all the nappies hanging in the kitchen, he tells her about the baby- it turns out to be her baby. They fall in love, decide to live an honest life, return all the stuff they’ve stolen and get married. He becomes Baker Bill. It’s a classic, what can i say.

I am obsessed with Daniel Pinkwater. And Daniel Pinkwater is obsessed with kids books, apparently. He has a regular gig on NPR talking about kids books, and possibly a podcast- I clearly have to look into this a bit more thoroughly. And i will. The guy is prolific- he has been writing since the late 60s and has not stopped as far as i can tell. There’s definitely a range in quality, but i would say so far I have loved (or at least liked) everything I’ve read by him . There are some that have totally knocked my socks off like the Ygyssey and the Neddiad- which left me feeling elated for days after i finished them. There’s something about his characters that goes straight to my heart- i LOVE their names, their attitudes, their adventures. He is a really funny writer. The names alone he comes up with are sheer pleasure in and of themselves. I am now on a mission to own all his books- been doing some internet trolling and find lots of second hand deals- sadly i think a lot of his older books are out of print, or at least very hard to find (though many are in the toronto public library system- how i love you TPL). they are worth the effort though let me say. There’s one really old one- a picture book- i think it’s called Ducks- about a kid who buys a duck from a corner store and the duck turns out to be a very bossy, surly angel. It’s really wacky and funny- without being self-conscious (or religious in any way, no fear). Too many kids books being published right now are so self-consciously “kooky” or “offbeat” or whatever- irksomely so. Daniel Pinkwater is the real deal. I read The education of Robert Nifkin a couple of days ago- it seems to be for an older crowd (there’s swearing and making out).It’s very funny, though not soul-achingly BEAUTIFUL like the Neddiad. It’s an essay for a college application by this kid in Chicago in the 50′s. He describes his high school experience- his dismay at his first high school where his teachers are idiots who are obsessed with finding communists, and then his confused happiness at the high school he finds later on- an experimental, beatnik school where everyone just does their own thing. It’s totally readable, but not his absolute best. I would not recommend this one as a first DP, but totally as a third or fourth once you’ve fallen in love and you feel he can do no wrong. It feels a little like there might be a lot more book somewhere- like an editor went too far in the second half. I dont want to sell it short though, it’s a great read, totally worth it. Once Upon a Blue Moose is a solid first choice, for DP chapter books- or Borgel- that’s another classic. And of course the Neddiad. Or the Hoboken Chicken Emergency- that’s another ace- and the other two in that series, Looking for Bocowitz and The Artsy Smartsy Club are fantastic, really really great books. I think I better stop and just blog some more about other books by him another day…

This is another library find by Errol le Cain (and H.W.Longfellow). It’s a poem, and an old one, so the language is quite flowery and lovely to read aloud. The pictures are really beautiful- full of detail and pattern as per usual E.LeC. It’s a gentle poem, another great one for winding down – lots of repetition too, again good for inducing sleep. It’s the story of a young Hiawatha- a baby with owl eyes in his grandmother, Nokomis’ arms, and then a little boy full of questions for her, about the world around him. It’s part of a bigger poem, the Song of Hiawatha. I was a bit skeptical at first because it’s clearly not told from a First Nations perspective- it’s a white, romantic poet telling the story. It is a little bit “noble savage” in some ways, although it is better than a lot of white people’s (re)tellings of indigenous peoples’ stories. The language is so gentle and not so over the top- i just have a slight discomfort with it as it’s part of a really bad tradition. I am kind of undecided about it to be honest, although we enjoyed reading it and the pictures are stunning.

I just returned about 30 books to the library after having had them for weeks- and read them all multiple times- among them this one- Torchy. This is by Bernard Waber who wrote the Lyle the Crocodile books among others. We also borrowed Arthur the Anteater by him which is really sweet and has great pix. Torchy is about a firefly who lights up really really bright- so much so that he reveals everything and everyone in the forest at night time, and is thus a bit unpopular with the creatures trying to hunt undercover of darkness, ditto those trying to escape being hunted. he’s miserable, wants to be the same as the other flickery fireflies and then eventually goes to the city and finds his light is not too bright in comparison to the neon and traffic lights- and is finally happy with himself. it’s a simple story, and a familiar one- self-acceptance, celebrate your uniqueness etc- which i’m all for of course. the pictures are quite cool- totally different from his other books, much more painterly and loose. i like them- they are also quite different from other illustrators, and also somehow very accessible to the very young. lots of paint splatters which i think could be inspiring to anyone who wants to throw some colour around and make some art, who might also not have the motor skills to hold a paintbrush reliably just yet!

This is quite a charming story with nice black and white illustrations by the guy who’s famous for Make Way for Ducklings (which i dont know but will check out), Robert McCloskey. I think i’ve always had a slight bias against the look of his books- I was not into that 40′s lily white Americana thing BUT this is a sweet quirky tale of a boy who wants to make music but cant sing or play any instrument in school, so he eventually gets himself a harmonica and learns to play. Then the town bigwig comes back and there’s a big welcome with a brass band and banners but the town grump is mad that the bigwig is getting all the attention so he sits on top of station and sucks on a lemon loudly as the train pulls in- so all the band members pucker their lips and cant play their instruments! It’s good stuff. Then of course the kid, named Lentil (which is why I picked it up in the first place- my favourite legume, what a great name!), saves the day with some good ole harmonica playing. It’s told well and the pictures are very animated. The whole family enjoys this one- and i can see it appealing for a while too.

Got a great fairytale book out of the library this weekend- thorn rose by erroll le cain. the illustrations are stupendous- they really blow my mind. they are dense and patterned and so moody- they make me want to grab a paintbrush and paint pictures on our walls I’m so inspired. the story is nicely told – it’s sleeping beauty by another name- and briefly told too.

We have a new book of fairytales we just got on the weekend doing some xmas shopping at Type books on queen- a great little local bookshop. It’s by Jan Pienkowski, another 70′s superstar, who also wrote the Meg and Mog books more on these later. The Pienkowski fairytale collection is really beautifully illustrated and well told- there are 4 classics: Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel and Cinderella. I found on first reading that Hansel and Gretel and Snow White are quite bloodthirsty- lots of talk of killing and death which I did edit a bit for the 3 yr old. But Cinderella is one of the better versions we’ve read, and Sleeping Beauty is solid too. Not that the others arent great for that matter- it’s just they might be a bit on the harsh side- which is their appeal for the slightly older kid i think- they’re deliciously dark and gory. Jan Pienkowski’s illustrations are really great- they’re very animated and stylized in a good way. Meg and Mog is a classic british series that’s having a second roundo of popularity at the moment but as far as i can tell only in the UK! I havent really seen them here so much but you can get them online anyway. They’re simple stories- no great literature by any means, bordering on the inane in some cases- but beautifully illustrated with gorgeously flat swaths of colour- I think they were screen printed originally and you can tell. Or at least printed in spot colour instead of CMYK separations- they’re really rich, and unique. As a non-book aside, there is an animated version of these books and they’re well worth a look- Alan Bennett voiced the owl- and they’re again very beautifully rendered- great colours and stylized drawings. We had some friends from the UK visit a couple of yrs ago with their 3 yr old and they brought a Meg and Mog video. At the time I thought it was Super Irritating and now i think it was because they played the same one episode over and over. We now own the DVD and they’re actually not that bad, and quite a nice gentle way to introduce a child to animated video watching- a nice antidote to Thomas or the ubiquitous Dora, who I’ve actually never seen- just cant stand all the related branded crap out there. I like that about meg and mog- there are no Meg and Mog shoes/shirts/plastic toys etc out there to annex your kids’ imaginations and turn them into little mindless consumers…