2012 Picture Book Reading Challenge AND Liebster Blog Award

I've been waiting far too long to take my blog to the next level, so I figured this month would be different.  

First I tried to do a prize giveaway.  It went OK.  Probably need to rethink how I am going to advertise it next time without turning KBR into one of those annoying prize giveaway clearinghouse sites that I stare at for about 5 seconds before my eyes feel like they are gonna explode...  

Today I'm doubling down.  

Step one:  I am going to finally break down and do one of the many challenges out there created to further strengthen the bond between like-minded individuals.  The one I found to be most in line with what I am trying to do here is the 2012 Picture Book Reading Challenge.  Let's see how it goes.    

Step two:  With that in the works, I can turn my attention to passing on the wonderful award given to me by my buddy Ali B. over at Literary Lunchbox.  It's called the Liebster and according to Ali "The idea behind the Liebster is for honorees to "pay it forward" by acknowledging the award, the blogger who gave it to you, and passing the award on to five blogs you deem worthy of of receiving distinction.  Only blogs with less than 200 followers are eligible for this award in hopes of generating more traffic to their site."  Sounds reasonable enough.  Mainly I am doing this to thank her for being my favorite commenter in the galaxy.  [Of course, this distinction is always up for grabs, but she has got a commanding lead!]  She also happens to be a great blogger worth a serious bookmark.  And it doesn't hurt that we must share some mental connection since I just noticed that she is participating in the same challenge I described in Step #1!

Here are five other blogs you might want to take a peek at...

1. http://www.mimishumblepie.com/
2. http://www.ifeelsounnecessary.com/
3. http://www.theawesomemom.com/
4. http://www.adventuresofthestayathomemom.com/
5. http://tmsteach.blogspot.com/

Finally, this award requires me to tell you five things about myself.  Yikes!  Here goes:

1. We are 95% finished with a construction project that, when it's done, will have taken 14 months.  All that time for 150 square feet.  At least I went with the lowest bidder!     
2. I care about my cats more than almost any guy in the world.  [Ali - they would like you!]
3. I am a sadomasochistic professional sports fan.  You try liking the following teams: Lions, Warriors, Nationals, Capitals/Sharks.
4. I love my son enough not to force these championship-free organizations on him. Well, except for the Nationals.  
5. I have been a mascot for one of the above teams for five years.  Wanna fathom a guess?!

Happy Thursday everyone!!!!!!!!!!!

A Giant Crush

A Giant Crush will not be getting a valentine from me anytime soon. 

THREE PROS

*Melissa Sweet and Gennifer Choldenko, if nothing else, fill a niche in the picture book market by choosing a topic that is, frankly, difficult to tackle  

*The little girls' reactions to their classmates' bunny love was spot-on
*I did like the anticipation Choldenko built by delaying the reveal of where the flower went

THREE CONS 

*Keeping track of the bunnies names was a real chore, especially since three of the four main characters' names started with the letter 'C' (technically, there were four 'C' names since one bunny was named Carter Corey... by the way, I could sit here for an hour and wouldn't be able to think up a more awful name) 
*Not a fan of Choldenko's decision to have Cooper tell the story from his perspective (she probably did it to limit the quote attributions) -- maybe AGC could have been better if she figured out a way to tell it using fewer quotes in the first place 

*Yes, the occasional tiny tot with a Napoleon Complex will make fun of the really tall kid in class, but, from my experience, being blessed in the height department is rarely a bad thing, even in elementary school

ONE DAD'S OPINION
Went and got a haircut today.  I asked for a "two" clipper all the way around.  How that took 45 minutes is beyond me, but that's another story.  During her fourth pass over the left side of my head, we got to talking about Valentine's Day.  Since neither of us have plans that will make romantic history, I won't bore you with the details.  Nonetheless, I did take it as a sign that tonight was predestined to be the night that I would write my review of this book.  So here goes...  First of all, let me say that there should be a disclaimer on the front that warns parents not to bother with it for kids under five.  [I guess the title should have given it away, but still.] The whole concept of crushes was completely lost on my almost three-year-old.  For argument's sake, I pretended that I had a boy twice his age to see if that would help.  It really didn't.  A Giant Crush has about as much of a chance of staying in my home as six-year-old me had of kissing a girl in my all-male first grade class.    

Buy / Borrow / DONATE / Destroy

The Pirate Of Kindergarten

Shiver me timbers!  Another rotten scallywag off of the library shelf.  What's with this run of bad luck we've been having? 

THREE PROS

*Lynne Avril's depiction of the way the main character (Ginny) sees the world with double vision is realistic but also demonstrates the imaginative flair I demand to purchase an illustrator's work  

*George Ella Lyon wrote this from personal experience, and, to be fair, many of the emotions she felt growing up translate well as we read along
*Doesn't devote any text to the gender of the male nurse -- in some small way this will help reduce your kid's stereotyping of professions

THREE CONS 

*As you'll see in my opinion below, my biggest gripe is that this book should not have been elevated to elite status by any award-giving body 
*The whole pirate component doesn't even unfold until the last few pages, and even that's a huge stretch since the only link to the high seas comes from her wearing an eye patch for a week (oh yeah, and putting on a hat fashioned out of newspaper for all of one snapshot) 

*I don't understand how the writing team skipped over the ridicule a girl wearing a patch would face from her classmates after they spent the whole rest of the book showing us the lengths Ginny would go to avoid embarrassment caused by her poor vision

ONE DAD'S OPINION
Today's selection won the (youth) 2011 Schneider Family Book Award, an honor given to books that excel in their presentation of a perceived disability.  With such a positive reference in it's corner, I assumed it would be a virtual lock for Borrow status, at worst.  I was wrong.  The 'disability' Ginny faced barely qualifies it for such an important award category, not to mention that the writing itself should have knocked it out of the running almost immediately.  ALA: Are you telling me that out of all the picture books published in 2010 with the youngest audience in mind that not one covered a topic with more gravity than TPOK?  I find that hard to believe.  It's only saving grace is that the subject matter makes it more universal; so, in that regard, it might act as a comfort to children (like me) who were forced to wear glasses from a relatively young age.  Still, even when you remove any undue praise a prestigious award like the Schneider might carry, it's no better than a swabbie scrubbing the deck on the big pirate ship of children's stories...    

Buy / Borrow / DONATE / Destroy

Mouse's First Day Of School

Call the exterminator.                     

THREE PROS

*Buket Erdogan deserves very little blame for this effort, since her illustration is actually quite pleasing to look at 
*Does a good job of referencing objects that are often found in a classroom without going for the most obvious items
*Outside of the scary reality associated with a mouse nibbling on kids' snacks, the food page was a particularly appetizing feast for the eyes     

THREE CONS 

*Lauren Thompson severely miscalculated with the style she chose for MFDOS -- sound effects followed by a noun doesn't seem like a recipe for disaster, but it was super annoying to read (although I will give her credit for using some adjectives that might broaden your child's vocabulary)  

*It didn't help that the first exposure we have to this style was a car page whose only words were "vrim, vrum, vroom a car" -- you didn't have me at vrim

*The Achilles heel of Erdogan's art: super creepy depictions of grade schoolers

ONE DAD'S OPINION

You'll be surprised to find that I want this book Destroyed after reading the next sentence.  My son actually sort of liked it.  But, as a parent, I cannot stand by and let other families take a chance on MFDOS.  Much like that famous line from Billy Madison, everyone in (our household) is dumber for having been exposed to it.  Each page's text has a very good chance of possibly corrupting your son or daughter's speech pattern development for the foreseeable future.  In particular, the lack of conjunctions (specifically the word "and") really bothered me.  All things considered, it's not the worst book ever, but it's bad enough to warrant a trip to detention.                    

Buy / Borrow / Donate / DESTROY

Socksquatch

Sometimes the legend is better than the real thing. 

THREE PROS

*If you're looking for a primer on classic movie monsters, you've come to the right place  

*How can you not love the title and the resulting character it spawned
*Author/Illustrator Frank W. Dormer's simplistic approach to the writing is allowable due to the obvious vocabulary limitations of Socksquatch

THREE CONS 

*I gave Dormer a pass on the text, but with drawings equally as crude, it adds up to a book with a capped upside 
*The whole thing is about finding a sock that fits, right -- so it's ridiculous for the author to have 'Squatch turn down Frank's sock and then be happy with the Damsel's (her feet are half the size of his) 

*Pretty sure Wayne's a werewolf, not positive though (if he is, then he's the worst drawn of all, and if he's not, well, then what the heck is he)

ONE DAD'S OPINION
Hey, the title was catchy enough for me to take a chance on it, so kudos to Dormer on that front. Problem is, there's not much left to believe in after you get past the cover.  I think I saw what looked to be a story inside, but, in hindsight, how can I be sure?  I'd show you the images I found to verify my claim, but you'd just tell me how difficult it was to make out what we were looking at.  In the end, it's probably best to let Socksquatch roam in the wilderness, far from human contact...    

Buy / Borrow / DONATE / Destroy

Kitten's First Full Moon

Another waning crescent of an effort by Kevin Henkes. 

THREE PROS

*I really approve of the text -- for the font used (which is extremely easy to see), not so much the words themselves (the whole plot was so-so)  

*Has a surprising amount of vibrancy for something that insists on using only black, white, and various shades of gray
*If you are looking for a longer book to thumb through with your very young baby, this could work due to the color scheme mentioned above

THREE CONS 

*There is no lesson and kind of no point (outside of the whole "a full moon might look like a bowl of milk to a cat" thing) 
*Why would a kitten who hates swimming jump carefree into a big container of milk 

*My cats enjoy the 'reward' when it comes to eating flying insects -- I'm not sure if they are in the minority, but it's not as uncommon as Henkes might have your child believe

ONE DAD'S OPINION
I don't know what possessed me to ask my librarian to choose a story for me last week (normally, I just do a walk-through and grab what looks interesting), but, based on some basic demographic information I offered about my son, this was her recommendation.  With four books already in tow and being in a bit of a hurry, I didn't question her pick.  Only after I got home did I realize the card fate had dealt me.  You see, I don't like bashing authors on here more than once if I can help it, unless they are household names (at which point I feel like I'm doing more of a service by weeding out the bad titles in their esteemed collections).  So my apologies to Mr. Henkes.  I'm sure we can get together one bright moonlit night and laugh about this over some cold glasses of milk.  Until then, I implore you to find every last fault with my blog and air them publicly in retaliation for me giving you a second-straight Donate.    

Buy / Borrow / DONATE / Destroy