Review - The Moon Is a Silver Pond

The Moon Is a Silver Pond
by Sara Cassidy
illustrated by Josée Bisaillon
Date: 2019
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 24
Format: e-book
Source: library

A young child skates, bakes and milks the cow while the moon wondrously transforms above. The moon is a silver pond when seen through the trees. When they tend the cow, the moon is the milk at the bottom of the pail.

With stunning illustrations by Josée Bisaillon, this simple board book shows children that the way they see the world--by heart, mind and imagination--is just right. Reveling in metaphor, The Moon Is a Silver Pond encourages that magical leap of imagination and asks the reader to look at everyday objects from a different perspective.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I read The Sun Is a Peach earlier this year. The Moon Is a Silver Pond suffers from the same problems as its sequel: the metaphors are a real stretch.

I'm sorry, but I don't think of the moon when I see a tooth, a snail, or a pillow. I'm not quite sure who would. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the comparisons. It's not always shape. It's not always colour. You might as well say the moon is a phone or a diaper.

I enjoyed some of the illustrations, which are done in a mixed-media style. But since they accompany some of the most stretched metaphors I've ever seen, that dampened my enjoyment somewhat.

Premise: 2/5
Meter: n/a
Writing: 2/5
Illustrations: 3/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall: 2.33 out of 5

Review - Come Back to Earth, Esther!

Come Back to Earth, Esther!
by Josée Bisaillon
Date: 2019
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 32
Format: e-book
Source: NetGalley

What Esther loves the most, what she dreams about every night, is space.

From the award-winning illustrator of Leap!, Bedtime 1, 2, 3, and The Snow Knows, Come Back to Earth, Esther! is a full-hearted celebration of a fun-loving, space-obsessed girl who wishes, more than anything, to build her own spaceship, liftoff into the sky, and explore the galaxy. Featuring lively, accessible text and an exceptional protagonist with a supportive, diverse family, this STEM-friendly book is a celebration of imagination and making your own dreams come true.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I'm sad to say that this book didn't work for me at all. I enjoy Josée Bisaillon's artwork, and thought this book sounded interesting. But it's a story I've seen before, and it wasn't done particularly well here.

Some of these issues may be down to the translation. (This appears to be a translation of the original French text.) Early in the book, it's stated that Esther wants to "visit" the Milky Way. Wouldn't a space-obsessed kid know that she's already in it? Perhaps a better word would've been "explore". The text is clunky in spots, too:

The spaceship takes off, high in the sky, leaving behind a dusty cloud as it reaches for the stars.

The way that's worded implies that the launchpad was in the sky. (Perhaps it should've read "high into the sky" instead to avoid confusion.)

I also don't buy that Esther is that obsessed with space. If she is, her obsession is more sci-fi than science. A kid who reads lots of books about space would not wonder if there were alien girls on Mars reading books about Earth; she would probably be able to educate you on the Mars rover programs instead. And someone who's read lots of books about space would not think that the Northern Lights are a band of green floating out in the middle of space with Earth in the distance; she'd know they're in the Earth's magnetosphere. (I hate to say it, but it almost seems like there wasn't enough research done before writing and illustrating this one. If you're going to write about a kid with an obsession with a particular topic, you need to be even more knowledgeable about the topic than they are!)

The illustrations are fun and fancy, done in Bisaillon's signature style that incorporates illustration with collage. The style of the pictures is lovely. I just wish they had been more accurate in certain places.

Thank you to NetGalley and Nimbus Publishing for providing a digital ARC.

Premise: 3/5
Meter: n/a
Writing: 2/5
Illustrations: 3/5
Originality: 2/5

Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall: 2.33 out of 5

Review - The Sun Is a Peach

The Sun Is a Peach
by Sara Cassidy
illustrated by Josée Bisaillon
Date: 2020
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 24
Format: e-book
Source: NetGalley

A young child walks along a country road into town where there's a parade on. The experiences of the day, and the child's eventual homecoming and bedtime, are chronicled and compared to the sun. The sun takes the form of the yolk of an egg, a spool of thread, the eye of a bird, an ice-cream cone and a dandelion. Each round, yellow item on the page hints at the big golden ball in the sky.

Stunning illustrations by Josée Bisaillon capture how imagination shapes the environment around us. This simple board book shows children that the way they see the world--by heart, mind and imagination--is just right. Revelling in metaphor, The Sun is a Peach encourages that magical leap of imagination and asks the reader to look at everyday objects from a different perspective.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I requested this board book from NetGalley because I enjoy the work of illustrator Josée Bisaillon. The Sun Is a Peach has a good premise. Unfortunately, the execution is quite lacking.

The book basically offers illustrated metaphors that compare various objects to the sun. The sun is a peach, an egg yolk, a blackbird's eye, a coin... Given that this is a board book, however, I expected that all of these objects would be easily comparable to the sun. This is supposed to be an introduction to metaphors, after all. But the sun is compared to a spool of yellow thread, a bee sting, a cheese pizza, time (what?), and an open book (what?!). I'm sure I could come up with ways that these things could all be compared to the sun, but I'm not three years old and I already know my way around a metaphor. Are little kids going to grasp these metaphors when the comparisons are so ambiguous?

From an aesthetic perspective, the illustrations are lovely. The colour palette is appealing and the pictures highlight the words. But in a book like this, the illustrations need to be a lot more clear so that they convey the concept. If the spool of yellow thread had been drawn looking at it from one end (so that it was a circle), it would have been easier to compare it with the sun. If the cheese pizza had had more than a few pieces of mozzarella on a bed of tomato sauce, the link with the sun might have been more clear.

While I appreciate what this book was trying to do, and I really have no problem with the overall concept, I thought that the execution was lacking. A book about metaphors for older children might be able to get away with comparing that big yellow ball in the sky with abstract concepts like time or an open book, but when it expects toddlers to "get it", it's kind of missed the mark.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orca Book Publishers for providing a digital ARC.

Premise: 3/5
Meter: n/a
Writing: 2/5
Illustrations: 2/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall: 2.33 out of 5

Review - Usha and the Stolen Sun

Usha and the Stolen Sun
by Bree Galbraith
illustrated by Josée Bisaillon
Date: 2020
Publisher: Owlkids Books
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 32
Format: e-book
Source: NetGalley

Usha lives in a town where the sun hasn’t shone for as long as anyone can remember. Only her grandfather remembers its brilliance and tells Usha stories about the time before other people took the sun away, building a wall to keep it all to themselves. So Usha decides to do something and sets off in search of the sun.

When at last Usha reaches the wall, she tries to kick it down, climb it, yell her way through it—but the bricks don’t budge. It’s only after remembering her grandfather’s words and hearing voices on the other side of the wall that Usha changes her plan. She sings, shares her grandfather’s stories, and piques the curiosity of the people on the other side until they are inspired to remove the bricks, one by one to better hear what Usha has to say. Together, they bring the wall down.

Inspired by the idea of civil discourse, this book offers a timely message of communication and compassion.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

This story about a girl who goes in search of the sun has a definite fairy-tale feel to it. It's not exactly plausible (if you have to walk for days to reach the wall, it's probably not going to be blocking the sun at your place). But I guess it's sort of a decent metaphor. The basic premise is that shouting and yelling don't do any good; calm words and wise discourse do.

I'm a little bit confused by the illustrations. Usha and her village look somewhat Pakistani. But when she finally gets the wall down, what does she find on the other side? A bunch of white kids (at least, most have fairer skin and are dressed in Western-looking clothes). Is this some sort of statement about the partition of India? Or is it a swipe at Trump's border wall, confusingly set in South Asia? I'm not sure.

Most kids will probably not pick up on those things, however, and will simply see it as a story of two sides realizing they have a lot to talk about and tearing down the one thing that prevents them from doing so. In that respect, the book works.

Thank you to NetGalley and Owlkids Books for providing a digital ARC.

Premise: 3/5
Meter: n/a
Writing: 3/5
Illustrations: 3/5
Originality: 4/5

Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall: 3.17 out of 5

Review - My Head in the Clouds

My Head in the Clouds
by Danielle Chaperon
illustrated by Josée Bisaillon
Date: 2019
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 32
Format: e-book
Source: NetGalley

Travel the world with an intrepid explorer who's adventurous, brave and just a little bit forgetful. She searches for ancient loot but loses her swimsuit! Goes to beautiful places and misplaces three suitcases! From Canada to Nepal to Egypt and beyond, our narrator circles the globe while abandoning her possessions. She even loses her mother, briefly, in the desert.

The cadence and rhyme, accented by quirky collage-style art, will propel readers along through this exciting excursion, ultimately landing on a fact page dedicated to the places you've just read about. Join us on our journey around the world.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I have to say, it's impressive when someone can translate a rhyming picture book and have it still rhyme with decent rhythm in another language!

However, I'm not sure this book really worked for me, and I can't really put my finger on why. The illustrations are wonderful: colourful, dreamy, imaginative, and fun. The idea of a girl travelling all over the world and losing things along the way is kind of interesting. But... it just didn't grab me for some reason. Not the way I expected it to, anyway.

I think my favourite part of the book is actually the page of notes at the end that go into a little more detail about some of the places the girl visits on her journey. There's also an invitation to go back and find each lost item on the page where it's mentioned. Well, I tried, but I couldn't find them all... for good reason. Courage, footing, and a mind are all kind of difficult things to draw!

This may simply be a case of personal taste. I wasn't crazy about this book... but there's no real reason why others wouldn't love it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orca Book Publishers for providing a digital ARC.

Premise: 3/5
Meter: 3/5
Writing: 3/5
Illustrations: 4/5
Originality: 4/5

Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall: 3.29 out of 5

Review - A Fish Named Glub

A Fish Named Glub
by Dan Bar-el
illustrated by Josée Bisaillon
Date: 2014
Publisher: Kids Can Press
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 32
Format: e-book
Source: library

In this lyrical story about friendship and the power of dreams, a small and ordinary fish named Glub asks himself the big questions in life as he observes life in the diner beyond his fishbowl. Who am I? Where do I belong? The lively characters around him provide unexpected answers, but soon it’s Glub who reveals answers to their questions — and their hearts’ true desires. The small and ordinary fish discovers that life can be extraordinary. You just have to ask...

(synopsis from Goodreads)

What the actual...?!

Okay, look, picture-book writers. Sometimes you might feel like getting all philosophical, or even turning that weird pepperoni-spurred dream into a picture book. Here's some advice: Don't. If you do, you might end up publishing something like A Fish Named Glub and people will start to question your sanity (and/or possible drug use).

The book uses too many unfamiliar words for something aimed at children. ("Dekes"? Really? My spellchecker doesn't even like that one as I'm typing it.) There are too many idioms and metaphors. And the whole plot point with the fish being able to generate visual representations of others' dreams with an electric current when they stick their fingers in the bowl? Um... what on Earth was the author smoking?

This is just too weird. The illustrations aren't all that appealing, either... but my opinion may have been coloured by the absolutely ridiculous story and pretentious writing.

If this had been published as an adult title, it might've worked. But I really can't see kids liking this one. It's just too weird.

Premise: 1/5
Meter: n/a
Writing: 1/5
Illustrations: 2/5
Originality: 2/5

Enjoyment: 1/5

Overall: 1.33 out of 5

Review - Bedtime 123

Bedtime 123
by Eric Walters
illustrated by Josée Bisaillon
Date: 2017
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 26
Format: e-book
Source: library

Lull your little one to sleep while counting the animals also nestling in for the night. Count the stars coming out, fox cubs snuggling, puppies piling and chicks cuddling as baby rocks gently to sleep in this gorgeously illustrated board book from bestselling author Eric Walters and award-winning illustrator Josée Bisaillon.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

This counting book actually has a little bit of a story to it. The beautiful illustrations show a variety of baby animals tucking themselves in for the night, whether it's in a nest or a den or even in a tree. I was pleasantly surprised by the pictures; they're so lovely to look at, with a relaxing vibe and plenty of details to look at. Kids can count the various creatures as they snuggle into their beds; there's even a baby human in their own bed, complete with a mobile overhead featuring some of the creatures that were counted in the book.

Some counting books are stronger than others. I think this one is near the top of the pack.

Quotable moment:

Premise: 4/5
Meter: n/a
Writing: 4/5
Illustrations: 4/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 5/5

Overall: 4.17 out of 5