Review: The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend

The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend by Dan Santat

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Eh. Santat had a good time making a raft of imaginary friends, all of whom were creatures instead of people. The little marshmallowy, pokemonny main character can't wait around for someone to imagine him. This is a fun concept, but the story itself has little to it other than that concept. An uneventful and fairly boring search ends just right. Eh.

Santat's sensibility for how to compose a double-page spread is very good--it was especially interesting to see some of what he did with contrast in the backgrounds in the middle spreads. The figure illustrations are in a normalized style, very much a tv animation style. I thought it was okay, but not terribly interesting to look at over and over again. (Which reminds me: Cartoon Network's "Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends" does a much better job at playing around with the imaginary friend concept.)

Overall, this book doesn't really match up to some of the other Caldecott contendors this year ([b:Draw!|20759593|Draw!|Raúl Colón|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1394422502s/20759593.jpg|24510862], [b:The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus|20696727|The Right Word Roget and His Thesaurus|Jennifer Fisher Bryant|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1424201895s/20696727.jpg|40016232])...and yet it won the medal. Eh.



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Review: Everywhere Babies

Everywhere Babies by Susan Meyers

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I liked this, because Frazee paid so much attention to making each of the babies stand out as unique--which is the story line. But it was missing the powerful backgrounds I loved in [b:Boot & Shoe|13547235|Boot & Shoe|Marla Frazee|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1407162471s/13547235.jpg|19112375] and [b:A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever|2769831|A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever|Marla Frazee|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1420785202s/2769831.jpg|2795555]. It looks like her work is coming out in a boxed set where she will be paired with Helen Oxenbury--that's good company for babies!



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Review: Mrs. Biddlebox

Mrs. Biddlebox by Linda Smith

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



The idea for this story was tired, and the cute name for the main character either too kitschy or too schmaltzy. But man, did Frazee bring energy to this project! I think the page where Mrs. B hooks a ray of sun and yanks on it with a broomstick is among my favorite picturebook pages ever, and the next one where she rolls up the sky is right behind it. I could look at this book over and over again. The words, not so much. I can still give it a four, because I'd definitely re-read it and would certainly consider it as a read-aloud.



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Review: Roller Coaster

Roller Coaster by Marla Frazee

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This is right up there with the best visual work I've seen from [a:Marla Frazee|122662|Marla Frazee|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]. She isn't at her strongest when she's in charge of both words and pictures, but her best visual strengths are clear for me in this book. A cinematic, almost IMAX picturebook! In her first two pages she gave me no less than sixty-nine unique figure drawings. On the next page turn, she pulled out all the stops and gave me the expanse of a full coaster filling the spread. The back and forth between the figures and the dynamic guiding lines is amazing. She either used the whole spread to contain something expansive, or else suggested the expanse by framing things to bleed off the edge of the page. A lot of fun to look at repeatedly.



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Review: The Farmer and the Clown

The Farmer and the Clown by Marla Frazee

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Ehh. I really like Marla Frazee. She has a charm reminiscent of greats like [a:Virginia Lee Burton|15450|Virginia Lee Burton|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1301112042p2/15450.jpg] or [a:Wanda Gág|5051196|Wanda Gág|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1324138406p2/5051196.jpg], and the draftsmanship of [a:Robert McCloskey|14635|Robert McCloskey|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1201020229p2/14635.jpg]. She usually uses sweeping curved lines that draw my eyes through the expanse of the double-page spread. Her pages are usually packed (but uncluttered) with unique figure drawings that belie so much work and study. So I have to say I was disappointed she gave these visual traditions up in Farmer & Clown in favor of a plain horizon line and mostly two repeated figures. Sure, there're plenty of dynamic visual elements, and a train full of clowns. But...

I respect her for trying something different, but now that this book is a strong contender for Caldecott (this coming monday), I have to say I'll be disappointed if she wins gold for this when she and Scanlon only got the silver for [b:All the World|6562659|All the World|Liz Garton Scanlon|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1261156591s/6562659.jpg|6755510]. Well okay, that's too harsh. I should be happy for her overall for an awesome professional life. But I didn't like this as much of her past body of work, and I happened to read it right before the awards get announced.



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Review: Christopher Mouse: The Tale of a Small Traveler

Christopher Mouse: The Tale of a Small Traveler by William Wise

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This charming read-aloud was required for Pearl's Battle of the Books list, and we read it aloud in the car on the way to and from skiing this weekend. It was a nice car book, and maybe we should have tried audio!
Wise played with Dickensian themes of loss and abandonment (as in so many other animal fantasy novels), but he didn't do the usual fixup at the end, instead leaving it to our imaginations! I liked that restraint, similar to what Lowry did at the end of [b:The Giver|3636|The Giver (The Giver, #1)|Lois Lowry|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1342493368s/3636.jpg|2543234].



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Review: The Corps of the Bare-Boned Plane

The Corps of the Bare-Boned Plane by Polly Horvath

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I'm kind of glad I didn't read this Horvath first, because it's not as well done as a lot of her other novels. I am an uber fan, so I gave it four stars--at this point because I am enjoying figuring out her writerly 'moves'. The problem was that she seemed to be writing this (and the cover illustration didn't help) to be a plot-driven story. But then it seemed like bait and switch into a character-driven story. The loose ends of the plot threads were all tied up in exposition in the last 35-page chapter. Boo.

It was her inimitable style that still kept me charmed all the way through--and her fearless handling of dark human themes. I love her voice, and that she doesn't shy away from it when she thinks the best direction for the story is not pretty. She has a knack for making me want to follow unlikable characters! This is deeply difficult to pull off, and I know she can do it. Yet [b:The Vacation|978795|The Vacation|Polly Horvath|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1316727369s/978795.jpg|963683] was a much better example of her drawing me into identifying with difficult people.

Over time, I've grown to think [a:Polly Horvath|11187|Polly Horvath|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1241013597p2/11187.jpg]does character development in ways that remind me of [a:Donna Tartt|8719|Donna Tartt|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1409871301p2/8719.jpg] or [a:Michael Chabon|2715|Michael Chabon|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1345835784p2/2715.jpg]. But she is unique in the children's & YA market!



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