Vamplets

Vamplets Book One: The Nightmare Nursery by Gayle Middleton and Dave Dwonch and illustrated by Amanda Coronado with Bill Blankenship is a graphic novel for more savvy kids given that the main plot trigger is vampires and other paranormals promiscuously producing babies which they are too busy to parent – especially since adolescence is 777…

It’s Quacking Time!

It’s Quacking Time! by Martin Waddell (such an appropriate last name) and illustrated by Jill Barton is an adequate though not very engaging picture book addressing the topic of having a baby – but without the touchy subjects of reproduction and childbirth.  This is accomplished by telling the story of Duckling and his family: at…

Margaret Wise Brown

Margaret Wise Brown is the author of several classic children’s picture books including Goodnight Moon, The Runaway Bunny, and The Color Kittens.  The lilting, steady prose makes for a good bedtime read-aloud – though everyone will want to stay awake for the illustrations (the first two illustrated by Clement Hurd and the third by Alice…

Kung Fu Panda 2

Kung Fu Panda 2 (and the first and third editions) works mainly because Jack Black does such a good job of bringing the title character to life.  The three movies are pretty similar so unless you’re a really big fan of animated Kung Fu movies with anthropomorphized characters and/or of DreamWorks films, you only need…

Kubo and the Two Strings

Kubo and the Two Strings is an animated movie from studio LAIKA about a Japanese boy going on a quest to find his dead samurai father’s magical armor.  George Takei ably voices the grandfather but I found Matthew McConaughey’s Toy Storyish samurai beetle jarring – too American; Charlize Theron’s voicing of the mother was okay…

William Heads to Hollywood

William Heads to Hollywood by Helen Hancocks was a benign but somewhat unsatisfying picture book with tuxedo cat William, “international cat of mystery”, solving a case in Tinseltown for Audrey Mieowski.  My main objection was that William and Audrey are ostensibly cats but they don’t exhibit feline traits and the other characters are all visibly…

Bill Willingham

Bill Willingham has spawned several great graphic novel series which takes various characters from fairy tales, myths, and folklore and puts them into New York and other Earth scenes.  With adult situations, these tales are best suited for adults and perhaps well-read mature teens. Fables Collected editions 1 – 22 (issues 1 – 150). Fairest…

Doreen Cronin

Doreen Cronin specializes in picture books with euphonious prose not afraid to include challenging vocabulary.  Dooby Dooby Moo is one of my favorite read-aloud books – featuring singing “Born to be Wild” in quack. Large format hardbacks, glossy pages, large serif font, one or two sentences per page. Duck Series Betsy Lewin is the illustrator…

Lindsey Leavitt

Going Vintage A modern Southern California teen (a junior in high school) goes retro (including no cell phone) in the wake of discovering that her boyfriend (her first steady) has been carrying on a (low-key, tame, but nevertheless emotionally invested) virtual affair.  She’s kind of OCD – she’s an inveterate list-maker – but is endearing. …

Mo Willems

Mo Willems is a writer (and illustrator) of picture books including the popular Pigeon series and a TV writer and animator including an early career stint for Sesame Street.  I picked up The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog! on the recommendation of Daliyah Marie Arana.  (At the age of four, Daliyah had already read 1,000…