★
REVIEW TEAM FAVORITE
Madeline's Rescue
By: Ludwig Bemelmans
Medal Winner
Reviewed by: Sandy Hall
Recommended age: Ages 4-8
Also read and recommended by: Jeannette Tulis, Sherry Early
Madeline's Rescue is a continuation of the Madeline stories, written and illustrated by Ludwig Bemelmans. The story is loosely written in rhyme and tells of twelve girls who live in a boarding house in Paris. They find and fall in love with a stray dog who rescues Madeline from a fall in the river, but their caretaker Miss Clavel puts her foot down. No dogs! However, the dog makes her way back and, in the end, gives them all a huge surprise!
Bemelman's art in the Madeline books lean on the side of Impressionism and present an idealistic view of post-World War II Paris. Many of the pages are black line drawings on a bright yellow background. And a few are done in muted colors, depicting the landmarks and activity of the city.
In my lending library, you will find a small Madeline doll on a small chair. She rests quietly, which is uncharacteristic of the real Madeline, just waiting for her young friends to come, pick her up, and play with her.
Green Eyes
By: Abe Birnbaum
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
GREEN EYES is distinguished by the art of his creator, rather than by the elegance of his breed. Here is no slick feline or thoroughbred Manx, Persian or Siamese. GREEN EYES is just, well, a Birnbaum cat.
GREEN EYES sniffs the spring flowers with the air of a connoisseur, plays at being a lion in the tall grass, chases an autumn leaf as if it were a mouse, and on a cold winter day curls up close to a warm radiator. Following GREEN EYES through the seasons with A. Birnbaum is a truly delightful journey.
Children will love GREEN EYES because he's their kind of cat. Grown-ups will want to adopt him as their own.
Confidentially, Mr. Birnbaum does not want to take full credit as author of this book. Of course, all the pictures are his, but the story was told to him on one of those cold nights in Croton, by none other than GREEN EYES.
From the dust jacket
★
REVIEW TEAM FAVORITE
Journey Cake, Ho
By: Ruth Sawyer
Illustrated by: Robert McCloskey
Honor
Reviewed by: Sandy Hall
Recommended age: Ages 4-8
Also read and recommended by: Christine Kallner, Lara Lleverino, Sherry Early
What an author/illustrator duo! It doesn't get any better than Ruth Sawyer and Robert McCloskey working together to bring Journey Cake, Ho! to life! This imaginative tale tells of Johnny, turned out by the old woman Merry and the old man Grumble because misfortune had fallen on their farm. Johnny leaves and suddenly the journey cake comes to life and leads him onward, eventually back to the farm with all the animals he had gathered along the way. And the journey cake is renamed to "Johnny Cake." Ahhh....so that's where that name came from!
Robert McCloskey's illustrations, drawn from his own childhood in the South during World War II, are done in soft-hued colors of aqua, a reddish-brown, and cream. Each two-page spread has text at the bottom and the illustration continuing across both pages.
I love the rhyming parts of the text inserted throughout.
"Journey Cake, hi!
The journey is long.
C-c-catch me and eat me—
As I roll along."
The Steadfast Tin Soldier
By: Marcia Brown
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
This is a favorite among Hans Andersen's stories. Children enjoy it first for its story of the adventures of a tin soldier, and his love for the little dancer. As they grow older the meaning of the story is deeper. Finally adults see in it things children do not.
Marcia Brown has illustrated the story with much feeling. The lovely blue-violet of the background gives it another-world, spiritual quality, yet it has also strength and vitality.
From the dust jacket
A Very Special House
By: Ruth Krauss
Illustrated by: Maurice Sendak
Honor
Reviewed by: Sandy Hall
Recommended age: Ages 4-8
A little boy with a very crazy, creative imagination visualizes in his mind a very unusual house. He skips across increasingly busy pages, full of all the things he imagines for his house: a turtle, a mouse, a skunkey, chickens, and giants. Ruth Krauss's text grows more and more elaborate as she describes all the inhabitants, and her repetition in three-word phrases brings a lilt and rhythm children will love. "oh, it's just a house for me, Me, ME" and "we're going going going going ooie ooie ooie."
Maurice Sendak, known for his imaginative illustrations in such books as Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night Kitchen, brings the zany visions of the little boy to life. Against a tan background, the boy is drawn in color, I think to demonstrate reality, but all the things in his silly house are black line drawings. Do these things really exist? Perhaps....at least in the boy's imagination.
When Will the World Be Mine?: The Story of a Snowshoe Rabbit
By: Miriam Schlein
Illustrated by: Jean Charlot
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
"Little Snowshoe Rabbit is born in the spring. His mother spends much of the year protecting and teaching him. She gently shows him how to adapt to the world around him, and in that way the world becomes his. The lithographs in browns and greens show stylized rabbits and their view of the world."
From The Newbery and Caldecott Awards: A Guide to the Medal and Honor Books (2009)
