Review - Stack the Cats

Stack the Cats
by Susie Ghahremani
Date: 2017
Publisher: Abrams Appleseed
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 32
Format: e-book
Source: library

One cat sleeps. Two cats play. Three cats stack!

Stack the Cats is a charming book about counting and organizing cats in various formations. But when the cats decide to go their own way—as cats often will—it’s time to count down until there’s only one sweet cat left. Counting forward and backward, understanding when there are more or fewer of something, and grouping and recognizing the number of items in a group are key early-math skills for toddlers, making Stack the Cats as developmentally sound as it is ridiculously adorable.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

This book delivers exactly what the synopsis promises. It's a counting book, but it also teaches basic addition and subtraction, all with cute, cartoonish cats that... well, act like cats.

I wasn't expecting to like this one as much as I did, but I can see it being a great book for little kids who are learning to count and add simple numbers. It's a fun way to explain the concepts of more and fewer, and it doesn't hurt that the cats themselves are pretty cute.

Quotable moment:

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

Enjoyment: 4/5

Overall: 4.17 out of 5

Review - The Cow Went Over the Mountain

The Cow Went Over the Mountain
by Jeanette Krinsley
illustrated by Feodor Rojankovsky
Date: 1963
Publisher: Golden Books
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 24
Format: e-book
Source: library

Little Cow thinks life will be better on the "other mountain," and convinces a few animals that the grass will be munchier, the bugs crunchier, the water sploshier, the mud sloshier . . . but when they get there, they find that the grass isn't really greener on the other side. This simple, witty tale, brought to life by Caldecott medalist Feodor Rojankovsky, was originally published in 1963 and is now back in print as a Little Golden Book Classic.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

This is a simple story about the grass not being greener on the other side of the fence (or mountain, as in this case). The illustrations didn't wow me, and they didn't make a whole lot of sense. Why didn't the bear try to eat everyone?

As Little Cow picks up more and more animals to join her in the quest for munchier grass, crunchier bugs, sploshier water, etc., it starts to seem almost like a cult, with the cow making promises and all the other animals falling in line behind her. They even sing, and manage to rope in a bear with the promise of gooier honey.

Then, when they realize that everything they were searching for was right back where they'd started (of course), they "laughed and laughed and laughed", looking rather unhinged.

Maybe this passed for excellent children's literature in 1963, but it's a bit weak by today's standards.

Oh, and check out the picture of Little Cow (a girl) on the first page. (Yes, girls can have penises... but this was written in 1963, so I don't think diversity and inclusion was the intent here! It was just a really bad angle and a questionable choice of illustration to introduce the character.)

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

Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall: 2.33 out of 5

Review - The Hug Book

The Hug Book
by Sue Fliess
illustrated by Anne Kennedy
Date: 2014
Publisher: Golden Books
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 24
Format: e-book
Source: library

Hugs are special. Hugs are free. Will you share a hug with me?

This sweet Little Golden Book features loving families and friends hugging for so many wonderful reasons! There are hello hugs, good-bye hugs, Mommy hugs, Daddy hugs, and welcome-home hugs—just to name a few!

(synopsis from Goodreads)

Oh... this is so disappointing. Most of this book--almost all of this book, in fact--is really cute. The bouncy rhythm of the text makes it a perfect book to read out loud, and the illustrations of all the animals hugging are so adorable.

So what's the problem? On the second page, we get this:

Mom hugs,
Dad hugs,
No-such-thing-as-bad hugs!

Okay, yes, it's in the context of hugs from parents, but are little kids going to understand that? I don't like the idea of teaching kids that there's no such thing as bad hugs. If it makes you feel icky, it's bad. It doesn't matter who's giving it. (Teaching consent is important, even at a young age.)

So, with that in mind, I was kind of distracted for the rest of the book, which is a shame, because it was fine after that.

Quotable moment:

Old hugs,
New hugs,
Nice-to-see-you-too hugs!

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

Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall: 3.14 out of 5

Review - You Think It's Easy Being the Tooth Fairy?

You Think It's Easy Being the Tooth Fairy?
by Sheri Bell-Rehwoldt
illustrated by David Slonim
Date: 2007
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 32
Format: e-book
Source: library

All over America, kids are losing their teeth. And who is there to gather them up, leaving coins in their places? The Tooth Fairy, of course! A self-described action kind of gal with plenty of attitude, she reveals her secrets at last. Learn about her amazing Tooth-o-Finder. Marvel at her ingenious flying machine. Watch her in action, dodging dogs and cats and gerbils. You Think It's Easy Being the Tooth Fairy? is the essential guide for every kid about to lose a tooth.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I did not enjoy this. If you're going to write a book about something like the Tooth Fairy, it might be good to make her look like most people's idea of her. This creature isn't even a fairy! She has no wings, or anything else that would indicate she's a fairy, other than her tiny size; she's just a miniature human in footie pajamas. Given that she doesn't have wings, she's forced to travel on a flying surfboard shaped like a tooth, with her firefly minions in tow. The pictures are cute, but they would've shattered a lot of my ideas about the Tooth Fairy when I was a kid, and I don't know if I would've appreciated that.

Another problem I had was that I didn't find the main character particularly likeable. She's trying so hard to show she's tough that she comes across as judgmental and arrogant. Listen, kids: it's okay if you want to wear skirts and feel pretty. I didn't like how this tiny little twit was pushing the idea that you can't be tough and pretty at the same time. They're not mutually exclusive.

And, finally, I found the whole thing to be rather Americocentric, and stereotypical at that. She's supposedly flying all over the world collecting teeth (scoping them out with her gadgets that struck me as a little creepy; it's just a bit stalkerish), and yet she only mentions three locations, all in the US, all of them stereotypes that border on the offensive. Apparently, people in Hawaii don't have houses so they have to sleep in hammocks outside, people in Alaska have houses with such crappy insulation that they have to sleep in their parkas, and people in Texas are so poor that their seven-year-old quintuplets have to share a bed. (Are we teaching ugly stereotypes to little kids now?) I'm in Canada, and we have the Tooth Fairy myth here, too. Keeping everything confined to the US excludes a lot of potential readers. (Although, I suspect the Canadian children would be living in igloos, so maybe it's for the best that that was left out.)

Overall, this was a disappointment. While the style of the illustrations and the illustrations themselves were cute, they were not the Tooth Fairy that most kids will be familiar with. I'm also not comfortable with introducing the idea that there are homing beacons in our teeth. Maybe this book needs to come with a tinfoil face mask for when the kiddies start to get paranoid.

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

Enjoyment: 1/5

Overall: 2 out of 5

Review - Stella Brings the Family

Stella Brings the Family
by Miriam B. Schiffer
illustrated by Holly Clifton-Brown
Date: 2015
Publisher: Chronicle Books LLC
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 36
Format: e-book
Source: library

Stella's class is having a Mother's Day celebration, but what's a girl with two daddies to do? It's not that she doesn't have someone who helps her with her homework, or tucks her in at night. Stella has her Papa and Daddy who take care of her, and a whole gaggle of other loved ones who make her feel special and supported every day. She just doesn't have a mom to invite to the party. Fortunately, Stella finds a unique solution to her party problem in this sweet story about love, acceptance, and the true meaning of family.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I actually found this book kind of sad. All the little kids in Stella's class have been so indoctrinated by the idea of what moms do and what dads do that their thinking has become very rigid along stereotypical gender lines. Apparently, dads can't make lunches or read bedtime stories or kiss boo-boos. It's great that Stella ends up showing her classmates that men can do all of the stereotypical "motherly" things, but she shouldn't have had to. That's not the book's fault, though; it's society's.

The illustrations are really cute, although the e-book edition I read was awful (the text for each picture was a page ahead, so until I figured that out, I was a bit lost; when are the people who convert these things going to start paying more attention?). The pictures tell the story as much as the text does. I especially liked how Howie (who has two moms) was already wondering what he was going to do for Father's Day!

This book isn't so much about acceptance as it is about coming up with a solution to a problem. If Stella doesn't have a mom to bring to the Mother's Day celebration, what will she do? She figures it out in the end, and shows her classmates that parents aren't the only people who can make a family unit.

Quotable moment:

But Stella had two dads.

Everyone else had a mother. Howie had two!

Stella would be the only one without a mother at the Mother's Day party.

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

Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall: 3.5 out of 5

Review - I Have to Go!

I Have to Go!
by Robert Munsch
illustrated by Michael Martchenko
Date: 1986
Publisher: Annick Press
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 24
Format: e-book
Source: library

Andrew's mother and father always ask very clearly if Andrew needs to go pee, and his answer is always, "No, no, no, no!" Unfortunately, that answer never seems to last long!

(synopsis from Goodreads)

This one was just okay for me. The premise of the exasperating kid who doesn't have to go until he really has to go is probably relatable for many parents. However, I wasn't quite sure what the resolution was supposed to be; it seemed abrupt and didn't make a lot of sense. If a kid is stubborn enough to pee in his own bed, it's going to take more than some inexplicable change of heart to give his parents some relief.

The pictures are cute, as they usually are with Martchenko's work. But the combination of the short length plus the lack of any real explanation for the ending made this one just so-so.

Quotable moment:

So they put on Andrew's snowsuit. It had five zippers, 10 buckles and 17 snaps. It took them half an hour to get the snowsuit on.

Andrew walked out into the back yard, threw one snowball and yelled, "I HAVE TO GO PEE."

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

Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall: 3 out of 5

Review - We Share Everything!

We Share Everything!
by Robert Munsch
illustrated by Michael Martchenko
Date: 1999
Publisher: Scholastic Canada, Ltd
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 32
Format: e-book
Source: library

On the first day of school, after their kindergarten teacher scolds them for not sharing, a boy and girl share their clothes and shoes, giving the class a hilarious surprise.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I'm a fan of Robert Munsch's books, but this one came way after my time. It's actually pretty funny, with the trademark repetition and silliness you'd expect from Munsch, but this one also blows away gender stereotypes as well.

I thought the teacher was pretty funny. She's almost a Disney princess, complete with doves flapping around her head. It isn't until later that we see the other side of her, when her frustration grows as the kids in the class turn her own words back at her.

This is a fairly strong Munsch story. While it's not quite one of my favourites, it's still really good.

Quotable moment:

The teacher came running over and said,
"Now, LOOK!
This is kindergarten.
In kindergarten we share.
We share everything."
"Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay," said Amanda and Jeremiah.

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

Enjoyment: 4/5

Overall: 4 out of 5