A Good Ending

I have the perfect book to end this month on . . . Once Upon A Cool Motorcycle Dude by Kevin O'Malley.  It has a little something for everyone.

I write about books for boys, but I always like coming across a book that has a cool girl character.  This book has a cool girl, but lots of stuff for boys, too.  The premise -- two students are paired up to write a report about their favorite fairy tale.  When they cannot agree, they write their own.  And it is obvious which parts of the story each of them writes. There are ponies and princesses in the girl's version, but the boy adds in motorcycles and explosions to spice things up.  When the girl doesn't like how her princess is portrayed, she takes back over and kicks some butt.  They manage to agree on an ending that satisfactorily defeats the pony-kidnapping/eating giant.

What really makes this book unique is the collaboration of three illustrators on the pictures.  Each adds his/her own flavor to sections of the book, matching the pictures to the character narrating.  The effect is visually stimulating and really fun to read.

Isaac and I had fun reading this book.  We have had fun reading most of the books that I have written about over the last 30 days.  Thanks for hanging in there with me this month.  I hope you have been inspired to read something new.

A Guy on Guys Read

Another from Matt on what he and Isaac are reading . . . 

I have a love/hate relationship with school library book fairs.  On the plus side they raise money for schools, give kids who would not normally spend time in a book store time to browse, and generally have some really cool books that I would never pick up otherwise.  The bad things about book fairs include the metric ton of poorly written books based on licensed characters (Clone Wars, Disney, and Marvel), over priced toys and posters, and Nancy is usually frazzled the week before and the week of her library’s book fair. 

At Isaac’s school’s most recent one, he picked a few of the beginning reader character paperbacks heavy on the illustrations and plot summaries of movies that we have seen a dozen times.  Nancy picked up a few more substantial books, and on the way out a book caught my eye -- Guys Read…Funny Business.  It was a collection of 10 funny short stories written by and for guys. 

The idea intrigued me.  I knew that some of the humor would be over Isaac’s head, but he would have fun grappling with the ideas.  The introduction of the book says, “Guys Read believes that humor is seriously one of the best kinds of reading.  Humor is important.  To get why something is funny, you have to first understand the thing itself, then understand why changing it in an unexpected way is funny.  Your brain is doing some great work when it is laughing.”  How could I say no to that?  The book also offered the challenge of reading without pictures, something that I am anxious to get into.

So far, we have read about half of the stories with mixed results.  “Best of Friends” is a remembrance of a childhood friendship based on greed and a lie.  “Will” is the story of a school where all of the children discover that they have different magic powers and are attacked by a villain in a robotic exo-skeleton. “Artemis Begins” by Eoin Colfer tells a real life story from his childhood and how his brother inspired the character Artemis Fowl.  “Kid Appeal” is a slap stick story of two boys trying to win a contest celebrating the history of their town in a way that would only make sense to someone who had been a young boy at one time or another.  “Your Question For Author Here” is a series of letters between a bored young school boy and a no nonsense author that form a very unusual friendship over a classroom assignment. 

There are five more that we have not read yet, but I am looking forward to them.  Isaac understands the stories and even laughs at some of them. The “Guys Read” website has volumes of cool guy books in “guy friendly” genres like Dragons, War, Apes/ Monkeys, at least one explosion, outer space but without aliens, and people being transformed into animals. 

I realize now that I opened a whole world of cool things to read with the boy by picking up a strange looking book at the book fair.

Matt

Chicken Soup for the Reader's Soul

The library book that Isaac brought home from school the week before last was Souperchicken by Mary Jane and Herm Auch.  It is a book that celebrates reading. Most books do, I suppose, but this book's plot is centered around a chicken who learns to read and uses her ability to save her coop-mates from becoming chicken soup.

The message that "reading is important" can come across rather flat, but this book escapes that pitfall through humorous, computer generated pictures and lots of wordplay, most of which went over Isaac's head but got chuckles from me.  The Auchs have teamed up on more than one book starring poultry and their trademark illustrations make their books immediately recognizable.

Computer generated pictures can be tricky.  In some books, I feel like they lack depth and detract from the story rather than enhance it.  But, in others, the artist manages to add layers of interest and soften the effect.  The Auchs' books are some that I like the computer generated illustrations in.

Isaac enjoyed Souperchicken so I think I will bring a couple more of the Auchs' books home to read.  After this one, though, I doubt I will look at a can of chicken soup the same.

The Magic of Movies, I Mean Books

Isaac and I are reading The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick.  There was a lot of buzz about this book when it came out.  It is hard to define what genre it is -- it is a picture book in the sense that the story is told with pictures as much as it is with text, but it is also a novel.  It even won the Caldecott, which was rather controversial, since it doesn't fit the category as neatly as some would like.

I read the book the first time soon after it was published.  I remember being fascinated by the format.  Last summer, when we went to see the final Harry Potter movie, there was a preview for a movie called "Hugo."  As soon as I saw the title, I knew what was coming.  And, of course, I was conflicted.  I knew that the movie could never live up to the book, no matter how much I would like it to.

When it was originally reviewed, people likened the experience of reading the book to seeing a movie -- Selznick used cinematic-like methods in his illustrations to make it almost feel like the reader zoomed in to the pages and much of the story is told without words.  You watch the characters as much as you read what they are doing.

I had been planning to read Hugo to Isaac at some point, but the movie opens this week, so I decided now was a good time.  Even though I expect to be disappointed, I would like to take him to see it.  It is a fast read and we are moving through it quickly.  Isaac seems to be really enjoying it.  We are only a quarter of the way through, though, so we will see if it holds his attention.

Many librarians, and others who love the book, would argue that making a movie of a book like Hugo defeats the purpose of the book itself.  It is as much experience as it is literature.  I have not checked, but I was wondering if the book is available in an electronic format and how that would change the experience.  These are the kinds of questions and debates I am sure that we will be engaging in more frequently.  For now, though, Isaac and I will finish the book and then decide if we will see the movie.  It will be his call.

A New Hero in Town

I read my first comic book/graphic novel after reading Michael Chabon's book The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.  Well, maybe not my first, but my first in a long time.  The plot centers around a comic creating duo and I loved the book.  I was curious enough after reading it to seek out some comics.  I didn't become a devotee of the format, but I can appreciate a good graphic novel.

I also read Chabon's YA book, Summerland.  This book's plot revolved around baseball.  I was not as much of a fan.

Now Chabon has written a picture book, The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man.  I was excited when I saw a colleague with it a couple of months ago.  Chabon and superheroes -- it felt like he was going back to what I first loved him doing.

We bought our nephew the book for Christmas, so, of course, I read it to Isaac to make sure it would be a hit.  He liked it.  I will not give away the end, there is a bit of a twist.  After finishing it, Isaac and I looked back through the illustrations to see if there were clues to Awesome Man's true identity that we missed.  There were, and it was fun to see the clues now that we knew what they meant.

For a boy who likes superheroes, this is a great book.  It's a nice change from the Marvel and DC heroes that I have been learning so much about these past few years.