Charley's First Night by Amy Hest
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This was like a prequel to Hest's other boy and his dog book, The Reader. I liked this one more, because it's about disobedience in the face of a Catch-22. It was a better narrative because of that conflict than The Reader. I appreciate the 'boy and his dog' from The Reader more now since reading Lu's review, and might have liked to see these books as a chapter book or even a series, something to allow another conflict-based narrative to bookend with Charley around the more benign story of The Reader? [Hey, Lu, you changed your rating to a 2--did I bully you? I thought you were right on.]
Oxenbury does what she always does, pulling no punches on the darlingness. It's very quaint, familiar, and comfy. I like this style, and the subtle palette for this book made it even more palatable.
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DISCLAIMER: No bullying occurred during the rating of this book. ;-) Seriously, I re-read what I had written about Hest’s The Reader and realized in my delight over the illustrations I had violated a cardinal rule of the importance of text and illustrations complementing each other and being in harmony. That plus realizing even the very easily pleased reviewers on Amazon found the text got in the way ...in combination with your comments (of course!) made me ultimately reconsider. I do like Hest’s Baby Duck stories—just not her language here. Interestingly, the usual review sources seemed to allude to but ultimately gloss over the disconnect.
ReplyDeleteIn response to a request, I gave feedback to a friend yesterday on a picture book she is writing and having a relative illustrate. I always find that so hard! Such a personal effort! And, I don’t consider myself an expert. But that doesn’t prevent me from severely critiquing anything that I know someone wants to share with kids. I surprised myself with how insistent I was that the there be that harmony between text and illustrations.
So, bully away! I do love to argue!