Review: Hello, My Name Is Ruby

Hello, My Name Is Ruby by Philip C. Stead

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Just okay. I'm expecting so much more from the Steads, both of them, since Amos McGee.

This was a simple parable, with a predictable lesson on trying to make friends who are like you and not like you. There are some fun moments along the way to break up the lesson, but I still felt like I was being preached to and not having an experience.

Nancy was telling me today about the use of the aesthetic term ekstasis from Greek philosophy to talk about a kind of transport or outside-oneself perspective that can be achieved in art. That's a lot of what I think I expect from the best picturebooks, and why I'm usually disappointed by didactic literature--it positions me very deliberately in a specific, pre-decided place.



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Review: Parrots Over Puerto Rico

Parrots Over Puerto Rico by Susan L. Roth

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I haven't seen a sideways book since [b:Tadpole's Promise|669839|Tadpole's Promise |Jeanne Willis|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1176956591s/669839.jpg|892370]. I'm surprised more people don't do this. I realize it makes for a different kind of read-aloud, but a picturebook is just as easy to hold the tall way as the wide way. And the tall page gives a different kind of expansiveness that is appropriate for a book about birds, trees, and sky.

I'm not a great fanof the paper cutting art anymore. But it works well for feathers and leaves, so again, good choices.

The narrow sans-serif "Francois One font was a little difficult to read, especially since it was placed on textured and colored background. Christy Hale made the words big enough and with just enough character spacing to be still legible, so it still feels like professional work even though I didn't like it.

The rescue story was remarkable, with a cautionary conservationist agenda, it gave the slice of life for science and scientists--a feel for the interesting possibilities of field work.



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Review: Inside Outside

Inside Outside by Lizi Boyd

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Utopian waldenesque fiction for the very young. It was great to see this kid and dog doing everything with no adults bossing them around. Each page turn showed me a microcosm all within the house and yard--there's enough to explore and do there. The kid's imagination gets to have free rein even though it's a mostly realistic (if idealistic) setting.

In this book, play = we make, we do, we take care of. The social world is a world of willing pets, semi-wild animals, and imagined friends.

The cutouts were well done, and it was nice that the book was wordless, because I got to focus on the cutouts as the second narrative. These paper play elements were so well executed, I couldn't see them half the time. Brilliant graphic design and illustration to achieve this kind of illusion without flaps or stickers. The illustrations gave me a lot to look at on each page, for making inferences and holding onto meaningful details.



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Review: The Mad Potter: George E. Ohr, Eccentric Genius

The Mad Potter: George E. Ohr, Eccentric Genius by Jan Greenberg

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Alternating between primary source photos and art photos of Ohr's pottery made this an engaging visual experience. The story of the crazy artist being ahead of his time is typical, but still fun to read. And this version put an American twist on it (not the Van Gogh-ish European story we're so used to).

If you ask me, Ohr's biggest marketing mistake was putting too much stuff on display--the display was the spectacle people came to see, and when they had seen it they felt no need to buy anything. He was shrewd enough to warehouse everything after he retired for his kids' sakes. But maybe if he had only shown 1-2 pieces at a time, he would have created an economy of scarcity (but maybe not).

In a lot of ways this was like reading an extended telling of an Antiques Roadshow backstory. Really fun and also sad to contemplate how greatly influential work comes from unrecognized artists, not appreciated in their time.



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Review: Building Our House

Building Our House by Jonathan Bean

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I would call this informational biography. The story is drawn from Bean's life, although his narrator is the unnamed little girl. Heavy nostalgia permeates the entire telling, making building your own home with no other place to live seem like the most idyllic thing any family could do. It draws on a tradition of this theme that reaches out to the Little House books, Walden, and others. The cartoon outlines give the book a graphic novel feel, or Virginia Lee Burton.

Bean controls the pacing by breaking up the spreads into 1, 2, 4, 6 sections. Just when things are really complicated in six sections, the next double is a wide expanse of one picture and one text block again, slowing things down for a long visual experience. Right in the center of the story is a great reproduction of a blueprint. There is a gentle complementary narrative running through the illustrations if you watch the kids, the pets, and the mom. So while the text is almost completely corresponding to the pictures, the pictures offer a little more.



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