scrounge: /skrounj/ informal verb: to actively seek [books] from any available source
Beautiful Oops! is a board book with bright colors, flaps to open, and other fun features, which communicates the idea that when being creative it's okay to mess up. Rather than coming right out and saying "It's okay to mess up" though, the book gives examples of how seeming mistakes or imperfections can be used as a starting point to create something wonderful.
Whether it's a stain from a coffee mug, a tear in paper, a smudge of paint, of even a wadded up piece of paper, everything has potential if you choose to see it that way. This book's mixed media images and interactive features work well together to help children view their art in a more positive way (in the tradition of Peter Reynolds' Creatrilogy), as something with potential rather than simply a rote task with only one possible outcome. A fun book for young kids, and possibly older ones as well! (Some of the elements in the book might not work out well with toddlers who don't yet know how to treat books "gently," so parents may want to play it by ear.)
Scrounged From: Amazon (a Christmas present for our five-year-old)
Format: Board book
Author/Illustrator: Barney Saltzberg
Pages: 28
Content Advisory: None
Dream Snow is a Christmas book for young children that features Eric Carle's trademark bold and colorful illustrations, as well as some partially transparent pages that allow children to guess which of a farmer's animals is hidden behind each blanket of "dream snow."
At the end, the farmer dresses up as Santa Claus to go decorate his tree. The inside of the back cover includes a button to push which makes a cheery chiming sound. While there isn't much of a narrative here, it's still a fun book for kids that has some wonderfully magical Christmas images -- especially the white snow against the dark blue night.
Scrounged From: Our local library
Format: Hardcover
Author/Illustrator: Eric Carle
Pages: 32
Content Advisory: None
Our family has very much enjoyed the first Story Orchestra book: Four Seasons in One Day, which features music from Vivaldi's The Four Seasons (see my review here).
So I was pretty excited when I saw that there would be another entry in this series: The Nutcracker! I was not disappointed. Like the first book, it features a sturdy cover with bright, textured illustrations, and a back cover that plays quality snippets of music when you press the musical note that corresponds to the correct portion of the cover. In the beginning this can be a bit difficult since you are pressing through all the pages, but it gets easier as it goes. Like the first book, I plan to keep this one up high so my young kids can learn how to treat it properly before they play with it unsupervised.
The story provides busy, colorful illustrations and a narrative that follows the Nutcracker ballet -- from Clara eagerly anticipating her Uncle Drosselmeyer's arrival, to her throwing her slipper at the mouse king to vanquish him (I was glad that part was included!) and being whisked away to the Land of Sweets. Of course, a book can't fully do the ballet justice, but by including small parts of the music, it is able to add to the summary of the text to make it a bit more magical.
The last page includes a brief bio of Peter Tchaikovsky (whose illustrated form looks suspiciously like Uncle Drosselmeyer -- or vice versa), as well as some additional information about each of the ten segments of music that are featured. This is definitely a holiday treasure, and can help young children appreciate the ballet even before they're old enough to sit through the whole thing.
Scrounged From: Amazon
Format: Hardcover
Author/illustrator: Jessica Courtney-Tickle
Pages: 24
Content Advisory: None
The Story Orchestra: Four Seasons in One Day was published in October 2016 by Frances Lincoln Children's Books. It is both a visual and auditory trip through all four of the seasons, accompanied by musical snippets from Antonio Vivaldi's The Four Seasons.
The first thing I noticed about this book is how vibrant the illustrations are. The color pallete changes from warm to cool to correspond with the general feel of each season. The story follows a girl named Isabelle, her small apple tree, and her dog Pickle as they journey and experience changes through all four seasons in one day. The illustrations depict spring showers and new babies, summer flowers and a thunderstorm, autumn harvest and migration, and winter's chill and snow.
In addition to the visual feast, each page has a "button" to push to hear a small snippet from the corresponding "season" of Vivaldi's music. The button is printed on the page, but when you press it (with the page lying flat), the back cover plays the music. Even though I'm not an orchestral music buff, I still recognized some of these memorable tunes. The thunderstorm one was especially fitting. And the sound quality is very good -- much better than a typical preschooler "sound book."
On the last page, there is a short biography of Vivaldi, and we get to see all the buttons together, this time with descriptions of each snippet of music that can help us to speculate on why each season's music was written the way it was. We're invited to "hear" the shivering in the cold during the winter piece, and to listen for the slower pacing in the summer piece.
Overall, this book is not only beautifully illustrated and informative, but it is a great way to introduce children to a wonderful piece of music, and the famous composer who wrote it.
Scrounged From: A Christmas present
Format: Hardcover
Author/Illustrator: Jessica Courtney-Tickle
Pages: 24
Content Advisory: None
Book Scrounger's note: This is a guest review by Doug, a.k.a. Professor Puzzler:
The Eleventh Hour: A Curious Mystery is a clever mystery story about Horace the Elephant having a party -- only someone among them eats all the food. The question is, can you figure out who the culprit is? Not only do you have to pay attention to the rhyming storyline, but you also must watch for cleverly disguised and hidden visual clues within the beautiful drawings.
Even after you solve the mystery (or break open the seal in the back and read the solution), you'll still want to come back and read it again and again. The artwork is impressive, with many details to look out for.
Format: Hardcover
Author/Illustrator: Graeme Base
Pages: 40
Content Advisory: None
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