reviews BATTLE BUNNY
CHILDREN’S
Man your battle stations! REVIEW BY ANGELA LEEPER
Books about bunnies are sweet, right? Not one that’s created by the imaginative team of Jon Scieszka (The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales), Mac Barnett (Extra Yarn) and illustrator Matthew Myers (Clink). Their irreverent picture book, originally titled Birthday Bunny, starts out harmlessly enough with an inscription from Gran Gran to Alex, wishing her “little birthday bunny” a special day. But in this testament to daydreaming kids everywhere, Alex has another story to tell. The boy scratches through the printed type of grandma’s gift book and fills in his own words, turning Birthday Bunny into Battle Bunny! With his super birthday powers, Battle Bunny will put his Evil Plan into action. Where once an adorable cotton-tailed bunny was hopping through the forest, now an eye-patch-wearing bunny with a saw in hand—thanks to Alex’s improvised pencil sketches—makes his way, chopping through the trees. And instead of meeting his woodland friends, Badger, Squirrel, Bear and Turtle, he battles the president’s special forces: El Tejon, the By Jon Scieszka and Mac Barnett great wrestler, Sgt. Squirrel, Shaolin Bear and Ninja Turtle. Illustrated by Matthew Myers The animals are not the only characters fighting to determine the Simon & Schuster, $14.99, 32 pages world’s fate, however. Alex draws himself into the story, working alongISBN 9781442446748, eBook available side the president to help stop Battle Bunny. As Alex’s imagination goes Ages 5 to 9 into full force, his edits and drawings become bigger and bolder. When PICTURE BOOK the defeated woodland animals gather for Bunny’s birthday . . . err, world domination, Alex remembers that he has special birthday powers, too. Celebrating a birthday or saving the world—both give reasons to cheer. After cheering, readers will want to reread this clever retelling to savor the meticulous attention given to both text and illustration, from menacing eyebrows to megatron bombs. Parents, on the other hand, will rethink keeping any art supplies near beloved books. Illustration © 2013 by Matthew Myers. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster.
FRIENDS By Eric Carle
Philomel $17.99, 32 pages ISBN 9780399165337 Ages 3 to 5
R E A D M O R E AT B O O K PA G E . C O M
PICTURE BOOK
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Fans of Eric Carle won’t want to miss his latest offering, a tribute to friendship based on one of the author’s own childhood experiences. As the book opens, we see two friends playing together happily. By the next spread, however, the boy is sad. His friend has moved away. He takes a deep breath, counts to 10 and heads out to find her. He swims a wide, cold river under a starry sky. He scales a steep mountain. He makes his way through the tall, damp grasses of a meadow. On and on he journeys: Rain, fatigue and dark shadows won’t stop him. Even-
tually, he finds her, giving her the same bouquet of flowers featured on the book’s title page. “I knew you would come,” she says. The children are featured only on the first couple of spreads, as well as the last one. All the brightly colored pages in between feature Carle’s signature broad brush strokes, very texturized paper tissue collages and abstract renderings, pared down to their essentials. The meadow is merely a series of thick, green brush strokes. The river is composed of large, wavy lines in various shades of blues and greens, undulating across the page. There’s no boy in sight, as if to emphasize the enormity of the journey—or perhaps to put readers into the boy’s own shoes. On a closing spread, Carle shares a childhood photo of a friend, now lost to him, but on the dust jacket, we read that his wife, Bobbie, was inspiration for the book as well. Friends is a sweet story of devotion for the youngest of readers. —J u l i E d A n i E l S O n
YOU ARE THE PEA, AND I AM THE CARROT By J. Theron Elkins
Illustrated by Pascal Lemaitre Abrams $16.95, 32 pages ISBN 9781419708503 eBook available Ages 3 to 7
PICTURE BOOK
For parents who can’t get past the saccharine sentiments expressed in some picture books about love, You Are the Pea, and I Am the Carrot offers a refreshing, lighthearted antidote. As a young boy (with a head as round as a pea) and a girl (as slender as a carrot, with orange hair to boot) picnic in the grass, they croon a tune that features classic food pairings. Readers can almost hear the rhyming ode set to music as butter and bread waltz across the page, a biscuit and jam sip coffee at
a Parisian café, a marshmallow and graham cracker huddle by a campfire, and a funnel cake skis downs a powdered sugar mountain. The refrains return to the boy and girl, who sum up the adorable, digitally enhanced food pairings and their own friendship: “We belong together. / We’re such a tasty sweet. / We’re yummy, scrumptious morsels. / We’re the perfect little treat.” This celebration of love makes a soothing bedtime story or a touching gift for children and adults alike. Educators and creative youngsters will see more possibilities as they ponder other famous pairings, edible or not. Simply delicious! —AngElA lEEPER
GOD GOT A DOG By Cynthia Rylant Illustrated by Marla Frazee Beach Lane $17.99, 48 pages ISBN 9781442465183 eBook available Ages 10 and up
MIDDLE GRADE
Many people believe God is everywhere, and He/She certainly is in this captivating book of verse. In a series of 16 poems, Cynthia Rylant imagines God wondering what it’s like to be human. To find out, God pursues a variety of very human endeavors, such as becoming a beautician, making spaghetti on a lonely night, going to the doctor and watching cable TV. Of course, an irreverent book like this won’t be for everyone, and may offend some. That said, I found it a lovely and thought-provoking look at what it means to be human, and what it means to be godlike. There are many wonderful moments of humor, such as when God goes to the doctor: “And the doctor said, ‘You don’t need me, you’re God.’ And God said, ‘Well, you’re pretty good at playing me, I figured you’d know what the problem was.’” Such interplay between reverence and comedy forms the heart and soul of this unique little volume. When God gets a desk job, She resorts to eating Snickers bars (37!) to get through the day: “She thought that if She had to pick up that phone one more time, She’d just start the whole Armageddon thing people keep talking about.”