PICTURE BOOK - Ella Who? by Linda Ashman

Illustrated by Sarah Sanchez

2017 Sterling Children's Books

HC $14.95

24 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  3.94 - 117 ratings

My rating: 5

Endpapers:  white background with 12 different "ropes" of leaves traveling from bottom to top of page.  Lovely.

1^st line/s: "The movers left the doors wide open.  That's probably how she got in."

My comments:  Super clever, funny, and cute story about a little girl whose family members are so "into" what they're doing that they pay very little attention to her (wise up, parents!).  The simple illustrations accentuate the story really nicely...this is the second Linda Ashman book that I've enjoyed tremendously!

Goodreads:  Mom . . . there’s an elephant in the living room. 
It’s moving day—and look who slipped in the door: an elephant! But when a little girl tries to tell her family about their unusual guest, the distracted grown-ups just say, “Ella WHO?” Even as children giggle at the girl’s adventures with the smallishpachyderm, and at the fun, recurring refrain, they’ll relate to the poignant theme about making—and sometimes letting go of—new friends.

10. Small As an Elephant - Jennifer Richard Jacobson

2011, Candlewick Press
$15.99 TPPL
278 pgs.
Rating:   It was okay

Setting:  Contemporary Mount Desert Island, Maine - Seawall, Bar Harbor, then Trenton, Lamoine, Ellsworth, Bucksport, Searsport...
OSS:  And 11-year old is abandoned in Maine by his bipolar mother and has to figure out how to find her so that the DSS doesn't find out and separate them.
1st sentence/s:  "Elephants can sense danger.  They're able to detect an approaching tsunami or earthquake befofre it hits.  Unfortuantely, Jack did not have this talent.  The day his life was turned completely upside down, he was caught unaware."

What a delightful treat to know every single place that Jack visited - whether it was Ben & Bill's on Main Street in Bar Harbor, or the sight of Fort Knox in the distance, or even the long expanse of road between Ellsworth and Bucksport, the author gets every detail down perfectly. That's my home, my tromping ground for 30 years, and it was pretty cool to relive it all in a book that I know children will read and enjoy.

Jack has to figure out what to do.  He has to find his mother, he has to make sure she's okay.  In between the delightful experiences he's had with her throughout his life, he's also had to deal with her "spinning times," when she would spiral out of control and sometimes disappear.  But she has never disappeared like this before, he has always had his home in Jamaica Plain to wait for her.  And he knows that if he goes to the police, the DSS will become involved and he will be separated from her...and this time, she might even have to go to jail!

The entire book is paralleled with his intense interest in all things elephant.  He loves elephants, studies elephants, knows the differences between them and all sorts of stories, facts, fictions related to them.  All this is liberally shared in the book.  Each short chapter begins with a new and interesting fact or story about them.  A small elephant in his pocket helps calm him, and the thought of seeing a live one down the road keeps him going.  My problem....I could care less about elephants.  I didn't like all the extra elephant information.  I'm betting it added great interest for most kids, but.....I'll admit it....I either didn't read or skimmed these parts.

So all in all what did I think?  An 11-year old on the road all by himself for over a week?  As a kid I think I would have loved this premise.  What a great plotline.  Of course, a great setting.  But somehow, I couldn't wait for the book to be over.  I'm thinking it was the elephants.....

June and August - Vivian Walsh

Illustrated by Adam McCauley
Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2009
$16.95
32 pgs.
For: Young kids
Rating: 4
Endpapers: White stars on a lt. blue sky/background

Scratchboard, colored pencil, and gouache illustrations cover the entire page, the words in a cool white or black font cover the illustration. Completely in color - no white negative spaces at all. Very nice.

June and August meet one evening and admire the moon and stars together. They agree to meet the next day, but are unsure what each other looks like since it was dark at the time the first met. They discover that the other is nothing like they'd imagined - even though at night they appeared to be the same size and shape, that is not the case at all. Nevertheless, the two become fast friends. Lots of messages here, particularly that you can look totally different, have totally different lives and viewpoints and still be fast friends that enjoy doing things together.

Come Back Soon - Daniel Schallau

Houghton Mifflin, 2009
$17.00
48 pgs.
Rating: 4
Illustrations: colored pencils, pen & ink
Endpapers: Bright yellow

If you go through this story just reading the words it would seem disjointed and uneven. But if you examine each illustrations as you read, the story flows beautifully. I wonder if this is intentional, or happened because the writer and illustrator are the same person? I'd guess it wouldn't make a good readaloud to a group - much better alone or one to one.

Elephant the architect returns to Ice Island to be the special guest at the" PENGUIN DEDICATION". His friends, the penguins, meet him, wine him and dine him, and help him through several mishaps. The story is cute and the illustrations are marvelous - I wish the book were bigger so the pictures could be! There's SO much of the story in the pictures!

Give this as a gift to an inquisitve 4-year-old builder and include a scarf....