PICTURE BOOK - When I Grow Up - Al Yankovic

Illustrated by Wes Hargis

2011 Harper Collins

24 pgs.

HC $17.99

Goodreads rating: 4.19

My rating: 5 - A terrific book, both text and illustrations

Endpapers: Kid-like drawings of kids in various occupations (front) Protagonist sitting on a kinosaur skeleton eating his sandwich (his job?) (back)

Title Page: Double-page spread, we are looking through the leaves of a large tree, watching the protagonist walk to school.  Great layout....

Illustrations:  VERY fun to look at.  His bio at the end of the book:  "Wes Hargis wanted to be a professional dirt miner when he grew up.  Unstable market prices for dirt led him to pursue his second love, and he has been an illustrator for more than fifteen years.  Mr. Hargis lives with his family (and his dirt) in Arizona."

1^st line/s:  "I waited so long for the hours to pass,

                 But soon it was noon there in Mrs. Krupp's class.

                 And Thursday at noon, as I'm sure you know well,

                 Is the time of the week when we do show-and-tell."

So here is just one example of the wonderful words and rhyming that are a part of this book:

          "My walls will be filled with awards that I've gotten

           For toast-on-a-stick and my Twinkies au gratin.

           My kitchen will be the most famous in France,

           So make reservations twelve years in advance!

           There's no doubt about it --- I'm certain, you see ---

           A world-renowned chef is what I'm gonna be."

My comments:  I love rhyme and rhythm when the words flow and are unforced, and Weird Al does this brilliantly!  I love the words in this great, creative story, and I love they way he uses them.  And the illustrations compliment them wonderfully.  Clever.  And great fun!  I will DEFINITELY be sharing this with my fourth graders, and what a great gift for picture-book-loving graduates.

Goodreads:   

'Cause maybe I'll be a gorilla masseuse Or an artist who sculpts out of chocolate mousse Or a rodeo clown or a movie director Or maybe professional pickle inspector...

          Billy's classmates may have never considered careers in snail training or sumo wrestling before, but by the time the exuberant eight-year-old is done cataloging his dream jobs, they just might share his belief in unlimited potential! 

          Virtuoso wordplay, irresistible rhythm, and laugh-out-loud humor abound in the first picture book by the one and only "Weird Al" Yankovic. This unbridled celebration of creativity and possibility invites readers of all ages to consider afresh what they want to be when they grow up.

PICTURE BOOK - Little Red Writing - Joan Holub

Illustrated by Melissa Sweet

2013, Chronicle Books

HC $16.99

28 very thick pages

Goodreads rating:  4.09

My rating: 4/Liked it a lot

Endpapers: All the pencils on the way to school - on a white background

Title Page:  Left:  Pencil School News (with credits

     Right:  Title on notebook paper, "Write often and carry a big notebook."

Illustrations:  All the characters are pencils.  Sweet used watercolors, pencil (17 HB pencils, to be exact!) and collage.  They're gorgeous.

1^st line/s:  "Once upon a time in Pencil school, a teacher named Ms. 2 told her class, "Today we're going to write a story."

My comments:   Now this is my kind of story!  I'm not sure how much kids will like it, but it sure is a great teacher book.  It's written sort of Ms. Frizzle-y with lots going on...meaning main storyline, thought bubbles, story within story, words sprinkled all over the page to read -- and lots and lots to think about.  It is visually gorgeous, too.

Goodreads:  Acclaimed writer Joan Holub and Caldecott Honoree Melissa Sweet team up in this hilarious and exuberant retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, in which a brave, little red pencil finds her way through the many perils of writing a story, faces a ravenous pencil sharpener (the Wolf 3000)... and saves the day.

The Bravest Woman in America – Marissa Moss

Illustrated by Andrea U’Ren

Tricycle Press, 2011

32 pages

Rating:  4

Endpapers:  azure

Title page:  Oval of Ida rowing

Illustrations:  cover the entire page – no white – they’re bright, detailed, wonderful.

Alliteration:  “Ida loved the sea.  She loved it when it was calm and coppery in the sunlight.”

Similes:  “She loved it when it was wild with froth like a herd of stampeding horses.”

Incredible description:  “She loved the crash of the waves, the screech of gulls wheeling overhead, the bite of salt in her nose as she breathed in the ocean air.”

Snazzy verbs:  perched, lurched, shinnied, churned

Metaphor:  “bubble of trimph

This picture book is based on the story of Ida Lewis (1842-1911), the Newport, Rhode Island lighthouse keeper who rescued over 18 people during her tenure.

Cloud Dance - Thomas Locker

Voyager Books, Harcourt, 2000
Paper $7.00
32 pages
Rating: 5
Oils on canvas

On one page a gorgeous oil painting of sky and foreground. On the facing page, one beautifully-written sentence of explanation

"Nighttime clouds/with silver edges/shimmer in the moonlight."
"High, wispy clouds/race/in the autumn wind."
Mmmmmmmm, mmmmm. Love it all.

The paintings and the writing are equally gorgeous. The book ends with an information page about clouds.

Check out Mountain Dance and Water Dance, too!

The Boy Who Loved Words - Roni Schotter

Illustrated by Giselle Potter
Schwartz & Wade Books, 2006
32 pages
Rating: 4.5
Front endpapers: cut-out words on light green
Back endpapers: Glossary of the many scrumptious words italicized throughout the book

Selig was a collector of words. He wrote all the great words he heard on a piece of paper and stuffed it in a pocket, in his sock, under his collar. But when he heard one of his peers call him an "oddball," he had a strange dream that sent him out into the world to find his purpose.

While doing so, he also found love. So upon his return home, still a young man, his parents were terribly happy for him.

Words are "cut" and dropped all over the pages. Lots of great words are italicized throughout the story.

I can think of oodles and oodles of activities to do with this including: class list of LUSCIOUS WORDS, laminate great words and tie by strings to trees around town, word mobiles, make a word potpouri - choose and use....

There's a Teacher's Guide at the Teachers at Random website.

The Spider Weaver - Margaret Musgrove

A Legend of Kente Cloth
Illustrated by Julia Cairns
Blue Sky Press, 2001
32 pages
Rating: 5
Endpapers: 9 patches - kente cloth in two patterns and the black and yellow spider

This gorgeous book, painted with greens, yellows, and blues of every hue, tells the legend of how seventeenth century Ghanan weavers discovered a spider's web so beautifully woven that they sought to recreate it.

So yes, the illustrations are lovely. And so is the writing. Musgrove tells the story simply, but uses word choices and literary elements that are wonderful models for writers. For example: dashes: "And everyone -- from the kings of the Ashanti people to the lowliest apprentice -- wore it." And similes: "The light from his lantern had fallen on an amazing sight, glowing like moonbeams agains the midnight sky" (and note the great verbs!).

WORD CHOICES:
detached
held fast
crumpled in my hands
doubtful
the beginnings of a new masterpiece
stood still in admiration
in the blink of an eye

PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES TO BEGIN SENTENCES:
Early the next morning
Past the tall silk cottons and papaya trees
On this night
In no time
In time

Also included are an interesting afterward and a prnunciation guide.