scholarly journals Christmas in the Mouse House by M. Kneen

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Health Sciences ◽  
Reading Level ◽  
Christmas Tree ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Small Children ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Wear And Tear ◽  
Adults And Children ◽  
The University

Kneen, Maggie.  Christmas in the Mouse House. Somerville, Massachusetts:  Templar Books, 2011. Print. This delightful pop-up and lift-the-flap book will entertain adults and children alike. English children’s author and illustrator, Maggie Kneen, who is also an architectural and archaeological illustrator, creates nostalgic images of the perfect family Christmas. The Mouse family lives in what might be a Colonial-era house. Mama Mouse wears long dresses and aprons and Papa Mouse has a knee-length red frock coat and a cravat. Mama Mouse cooks over an open fireplace with a tea kettle hanging on a hook. Upstairs, Nanny, in a pink candy-stripe dress and white servant’s cap, puts baby to bed in canopied cradle. It is Christmas Eve and Mama and Papa have hidden all of the Christmas decorations.  Readers help all the little mice find them by lifting the flaps. Christmas decorations are behind the clock, in a pot on the shelf, in cabinets and even outside in a bird’s next. During the course of their search, the little mice also collect toys that would make good ornaments and even make some of their own ornaments. Every pair of pages shows a different room in the house, each with several flaps. Every other room scene has a pop-up.  The last pop-up shows the whole Mouse family dancing around the decorated Christmas tree, which everyone agrees is “the most beautiful Christmas tree they’ve ever seen.” The reading level of this book is too high for the age 3-6 target audience.  However, it is the kind of book that adults read to small children. Like all pop-up books this volume will succumb to wear and tear, but will be much loved. Highly recommended. Recommendation:  4 out of 4 starsReviewer:  Sandy CampbellSandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines.  Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give.

scholarly journals The Dreaded Ogress of the Tundra by N. Christopher

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Full Text ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Reading Level ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Small Children ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Cautionary Tales ◽  
The University

Christopher, Neil.  The Dreaded Ogress of the Tundra.  Iqaluit:  Inhabit Media, 2015. PrintAmautaliit are giant ogresses who eat small children.  They roam the Arctic tundra looking for unsupervised children such as orphans or those who have wandered away from camp.  They sneak up on the children, capture and carry them away in their disgusting baskets containing rotting seaweed and giant bugs.  These stories have two themes.  First, they are cautionary tales designed to keep children from wandering away from camps and villages. Second, they usually show the children using their ingenuity or ancient magic to escape the not-too-smart amautaliit.This is an updated and revised version of Christopher’s 2009 volume, Stories of the Amautalik, which contains versions of the two stories presented in this work.  However, this edition of the book is more like a junior handbook to amautaliit (plural of amautalik). While this book has many illustrations which are appropriately dark, scary and creepy, there is much more text than one usually finds in an Inhabit Media book.  At least half of the pages are full text and like Stories of the Amautalik, the reading level is high for young children. The book includes a seven-page introduction to amautaliit, which describes who these creatures are, their clothing, their baskets, their caves and how they hunt small children.  At the end of the book there is an “Other Ogres and Ogresses” section, which gives single page, illustrated descriptions of similar creatures, including a giant spider that assumes a human-like form. Even though this is a revision of an earlier work that many libraries will have, the expanded content would make it a useful addition to libraries with children’s collections, and particularly to academic libraries that collect works on Arctic myths and legends.Highly Recommended:  4 stars out of 4Reviewer:  Sandy CampbellSandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines.  Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give. 

scholarly journals Down by the River: A Family Fly Fishing Story by A. Weiner

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Public Libraries ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Reading Level ◽  
Fishing Trip ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Fly Fishing ◽  
Young Readers ◽  
The University ◽  
Riverine Landscapes

Weiner, Andrew.  Down by the River: A Family Fly Fishing Story. Harry N. Abrams, 2018.  This is a beautifully illustrated book that tells a simple story about a boy, Art, who goes on a fly-fishing trip with his mother and grandfather. The story recalls a time when Art’s grandfather taught his mother to fish.  April Chu has used a subdued palette for her two-page riverine landscapes, with lots of green and rich autumn colours in the environment. The book has a calm and peaceful feel about it that mirrors the contemplative nature of fly-fishing.  The text is simple and descriptive of a day spent on the river. The reading level is too difficult for the intended Kindergarten to Grade 2 audience, so an adult will need to read the book aloud, especially those sentences that could confuse young readers with difficult concepts or complicated jargon: “The line arced forward and the fly landed softly a few feet above the rock. It drifted with the current past the rock. There was a splash and the line went tight.”  The last three pages contain information about fly fishing, the clothing worn by fly fishers and where to get more information about the sport. The end pages are decorated with images of intricate flys with such fun and mysterious names as: “Ian’s Crunch Caddis,” “Black Fur Ant,” and “Purple Parachute Adams.” This book is a good introduction to fly fishing for younger children that also tells a charming story. Highly recommended for school and public libraries. Highly Recommended: 4 stars out of 4 Reviewer:  Sandy Campbell Sandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines. Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give. 

scholarly journals The Great Sheep Shenanigans by P. Bently

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
School Libraries ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Harry Potter ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
Intended Audience ◽  
Small Children ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Peter The Great ◽  
The University

Bently, Peter.  The Great Sheep Shenanigans.  Illus. M. Matsuoka. London:  Andersen Press, 2011. Print. In this tale, it is really the wolf, Lou Pine (hear the French loup and Lupin, the werewolf from Harry Potter), who gets up to shenanigans, rather than the sheep.  The text is a clever and funny rhyme that tells the story of the wolf trying to catch a lamb to eat.  Along the way, we hear sheep-related cultural and literary references from, “the wolf in sheep’s clothing,” to Red Riding Hood. “I’m just in the mood for a Gran-flavoured snack,” the wolf tells us. The wolf makes many attempts to catch a lamb, but is always thwarted, if not by his own silliness, then by the water-gun toting Ma Watson, by bees, by Red Riding Hood’s Granny, and finally, by Rambo the Ram, who butts him into “a big pile of poo!”  While the intended audience is pre-school, the author sprinkles in some big words, such as “derrière”, “kersplat”, “skedaddling” and “vindaloo”, that children will enjoy and repeat, but adults will need to explain and pronounce on the first reading. The text is often printed over the illustrations, sometimes in extra-large font to emphasize a point.  Sometimes it is part of the illustration.  When “Lou found a thicket of blossoming trees,” the words from the phrase “Down came the blossom” float down the page with the blossoms.  The illustrations are as much fun as the text. The sheep are most often depicted as balls of white with heads, ears and four small pegs for legs.  Lou Pine is a two-dimensional creature, while Rambo the Ram blows steam out his nose and wears boxing gloves. The sheep occasionally have glasses, bow-ties or hair-bows. Because the rhyme is jaunty and the illustrations are fun and inventive, this will be a book that small children will want to have read to them over and over.  Highly recommended for public and elementary school libraries. Recommendation:  4 stars out of 4Reviewer:  Sandy CampbellSandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines.  Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give.

scholarly journals The Dog by H. Mixter

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
School Libraries ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Golden Retriever ◽  
Small Children ◽  
Therapy Dog ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Sick Children ◽  
The University

Mixter, Helen. The Dog. Illustrated by Margarita Sada. Greystone Books, 2017.  In The Dog, Helen Mixter has kept her text brief and simple, and allowed the images to convey the story.  It is a story about a boy who is ill and how much his quality of life is improved by the introduction of a therapy dog.  Margarita Sada’s artwork easily shows the fatigue, sadness and illness of the boy and the unconditional affection of the dog. The dog, who looks like a young golden retriever, is never given a name, perhaps to keep her more generic. She is depicted as having boundless health and energy. She even has rosy cheeks, indicating health. The colours that Sada uses are bright and natural and the pictures will attract and hold the attention of small children. Inspired by a visit to a Vancouver children’s hospice the book gently presents how effective a therapy dog can be for very sick children.  The Dog would be a good addition to public and school libraries. It would also be an excellent addition to libraries in children’s hospitals. Highly recommended:  4 stars out of 4 Reviewer:  Sandy Campbell Sandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines. Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give.   

scholarly journals Stories of the Amautalik: Fantastic Beings from Inuit Myths and Legends by N. Christopher

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
English Translation ◽  
Public Library ◽  
Deep Ocean ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Reading Level ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Valuable Addition ◽  
Cautionary Tales ◽  
The University

Christopher, Neil.  Stories of the Amautalik: Fantastic Beings from Inuit Myths and Legends.  Trans.  Louise Flaherty.  Illus. Larry MacDougall.  Iqaluit, Nunavut: Inhabit Media, 2009. Print. The End Notes for this book tell us that in “the isolated hills, under the ice of the sea, and in the darkness of the deep ocean, strange beings wait for lone travelers or careless children to make a mistake”. An amautalik is one such strange creature.  These are the giant, disgusting ogresses of Inuit mythology who capture and eat children. This volume contains two stories, each of a different kind of amautalik.  The first has a basket of slimy driftwood on her back, lined with maggoty, rancid seaweed.  The second has a huge amauti (a coat with a pouch for carrying children). The two stories are similar. Both are cautionary tales, teaching children of the dangers of straying too far away from supervising adults.  In both stories, one of the children does not have parents present to protect them and has been bullied in the community.  In each case, the inattentive children are captured and taken away by the amautalik. In “The Hungry Amautalik and the Restless Children”, the child who has been bullied uses the old knowledge of her shaman grandfather to gain freedom.  In “The Orphan and the Amautalik”, the orphan outwits the amautalik, by pretending that his toe, poking out of his worn out boot is a monster that will eat her. The first story is much longer than the second and there are many more images of the first amautalik.   Larry MacDougall’s somber paintings portray the ogress’s glee while tying the children to a stake and her rage when she discovers that they are gone.  The second amautalik is more cadaverous-looking and frightening. This book is an English translation of the 2007 Inuktitut volume Amautaliup miksaanut unikkaat and is also available as an English/Inuktitut tumble book.  Originally these stories were told by elders to children, so the language would have been at a child’s level.  However, this translation, although it is intended as children’s literature, has a reading level of about Grade 10.  In spite of that, the book is still a valuable addition for school and public library collections. Highly recommended: 4 out of 4 starsReviewer: Sandy CampbellSandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines.  Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give.

scholarly journals Gina’s Wheels by M. H. Bishop

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Role Model ◽  
Picture Book ◽  
Public Library ◽  
Reading Level ◽  
Small Children ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
The University ◽  
Adult Reader

Bishop, Mary Harelkin. Gina’s Wheels. Regina, SK: DriverWorks Ink, 2014. Print.While this is a picture book and the protagonist is just entering kindergarten, the language is quite a high reading level and the text dense.  It is definitely a book that needs an adult reader. The artwork in this book is simple and unsophisticated, but will engage small children with the work.  Illustrator Diane Greenhorn does resort to the visual cliché of diversity in the classroom, including the obligatory red-head, blonde, African American, brown-skinned children and child with a hijab, although kindergarten-aged Muslim girls are often not covered.The messages that the book conveys are complex.  It is about a child, Gina, who encounters Métis Paralympian Colette Bourgonje, who has a wheelchair.  Gina is sufficiently moved by the meeting that she goes home and for several weeks does everything while sitting in a stroller, to understand the experience of being in a wheelchair.  When she enters kindergarten and meets a child in a wheelchair, her experience helps her befriend the child.While the book does a good job of presenting how to interact with a disabled person, the concept of the Paralympics and the integration of a disabled child into school, it does not present the things that Gina had to do to adapt to life seated in a stroller.  As is often the case when the able-bodied write about the disabled, rather than from the disabled person’s perspective, the reader does not learn much more about life as a disabled person.  However, the book does present disability in a positive light and also shows Bourgonje as a role model.  It also presents Gina as a role model of a child demonstrating understanding and empathy and Gina’s Mom as a role model as a parent who is positive about disability and supportive of her child’s exploratory learning.   Because there are few children’s books about disability, and fewer still about disabled Indigenous people, this book is recommended with reservations for public library and elementary school libraries.Recommended with reservation:  2 stars out of 4Reviewer:  Sandy CampbellSandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines.  Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give.

scholarly journals Larf by A. Spires

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
School Libraries ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Small Children ◽  
Teddy Bear ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
The University

Spires, Ashley.  Larf.  Toronto:  Kids Can Press, 2012. Print. This book is a twist on the “lonely hearts” theme, with lots of humour.  Larf is a sasquatch who feels “like nobody knows [he] even exist[s].  Author Ashley Spires has given him a lifestyle that somewhat mirrors her own – jogging, gardening, and walking his pet bunny, Eric. Larf is excited to hear that another sasquatch is going to make an appearance in a town nearby, so he decides to go meet him.  When he gets there, he is disappointed to find out that it is a guy in a sasquatch suit who tells him that “Sasquatches aren’t real”.  But he does meet another sasquatch, who has also been enticed into town by the sasquatch performance, a girl sasquatch named Shurl.  She carries a handbag and wears a pink dress.  And so a friendship begins. This story is of the same genera as E.T., Shrek and Monsters, Inc. that make scary, imaginary creatures less scary by making them look cuddly or childlike and showing them leading day-to-day lives similar to our own.  Larf is both cuddly, looking a bit like a furry teddy bear and child-like in that his head is large for his body, like a baby’s.   Larf does ordinary things.  He eats at a table, rides a bus, does laundry on Wednesday and would like to have a friend to play teeter-totter with him.  It is hard to be afraid of a furry creature who is lonely and wants to have friends. The drawings are all cartoon-like and presented in a variety of attractive ways.  Some fill more than a page while others are overlapped like photographs.  Sometimes there are four small panels on a page, each with its own caption.  There are a few jokes in the book.  For example, we are told  that Larf “is a master of camouflage”, but  even small children will see that his beret, scarf and grey pants are not enough to disguise a giant-sized sasquatch. This book is fun to read and would be an excellent for public and school libraries, particularly those in “sasquatch country”, where children might have been spooked by scary stories about sasquatches. Highly Recommended:  4 stars out of 4 Reviewer:  Sandy Campbell Sandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines.  Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give.

scholarly journals The Owl and the Two Rabbits by N. Sammurtok

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Elementary School ◽  
Public Libraries ◽  
School Libraries ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Small Children ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Working Together ◽  
Children's Stories ◽  
The University

Sammurtok, Nadia. The Owl and the Two Rabbits. Iqaluit, NU: Inhabit Media, 2019. Nadia Sammurtok, author of several children’s books including Caterpillar Woman and Siuluk: The Last Tuniq, has written stories of tundra animals. Like many Inuit children’s stories, this one is cautionary, teaching children not to play in dangerous places. In this story two small rabbits, who have been told to “remain hidden when they played outside,” get carried away jumping and attract the attention of an owl who wants to eat them. They escape by outwitting the owl and working together, two common survival themes in Inuit children’s stories.  Marcus Cutler’s artwork is bright and fun. Often northern scenes are portrayed as muted or dark, but Cutler’s skies are orange, red or purple, and the grasses are vivid greens and yellows. Small children will be able to enjoy the pictures on their own, but the text will require an older reader. While this book is not meant to be realistic—the animals speak and small rabbits are able to push a huge rock—Sammurtok does include some real animal behaviour from which children can learn. For example, “the rabbits' brown coats blended in with the tundra” and they freeze when threatened. Overall this is an enjoyable volume which would be a good addition to public libraries and elementary school libraries. Highly recommended:  4 out of 4 starsReviewer:  Sandy Campbell Sandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines. Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give. 

My First NHL® Book Series (Hockey Shapes, Hockey Colours, Hockey 123, Hockey Opposites, Hockey Animals, Hockey ABC) by Ch. Jordan

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Leaf Shape ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Reading Level ◽  
Book Reading ◽  
Book Series ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
The University ◽  
Shape And Size ◽  
Tiny Part

Jordan, Christopher.  My First NHL® Book Series (Hockey Shapes, Hockey Colours, Hockey 123, Hockey Opposites, Hockey Animals, Hockey ABC). Toronto: Tundra Books, 2011.  Print [Board Books]. These six volumes are board books, with thick pages that would be difficult to tear and wipe-able surfaces that will withstand sticky baby fingers.  They cover the standard content of first books for pre-readers, but using NHL® examples.  In some of the books, the NHL® examples work well.  For example in Hockey 123, there are 2 hockey nets, 5 pairs of skates, and 11 whistles. In other books the examples seem forced and awkward. For example, in Hockey Opposites, “fast” and “slow” are illustrated by a forward and a goalie, respectively.  It would be very difficult for a child at the board-book reading stage to understand what a forward and a goalie are, much less who moves at what speed.  Moreover, I think most people would recognize that while goalies do not usually move quickly around the rink, their movements are lightning-fast and a “slow” goalie wouldn’t have a job in the NHL®. With the exception of Hockey 123, these books are too complex for pre-readers.  Most of the six books contain text which is at a Grade 6 reading level or higher.  For example, in Hockey Shapes, the description which accompanies the “leaf” shape begins, “[t]here are many different species of leaves, ranging in colour, shape, and size…”.   This is one of several clues that these books are meant as much for adults who will be reading them aloud, as for children.  In Hockey ABC many of the images chosen to illustrate the alphabet will appeal more to parents than to children.  In this book, “G” is not for the obvious “goalie”, but for Gretzky, whom children today will never see play.  Too often Jordan relies on photographs of players, which are complex images, for his illustrations.  In Hockey Animals, for example, instead of using just the team symbol containing the animal shape, Jordan uses full-length player shots, where the logo on the jersey is a tiny part of the image. There is a reason that board books usually contain simple shapes, bold colours and single syllable words.  It is hard to imagine sitting with a 1-year-old child on your lap reading Hockey ABC and saying, ‘Now you try saying this, sweetie… “O is for Ovechkin”’. However, if you assume that these books are really for hockey-crazed parents, then they will probably find readers. Recommended with reservations:  2 out of 4 stars Reviewer:  Sandy Campbell Sandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines.  Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give.

scholarly journals Tales from the Tundra: A Collection of Inuit Stories by I. Kaslik

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Publishing House ◽  
School Libraries ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Publishing Company ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Traditional Technique ◽  
Internal Dialogue ◽  
The University

Kaslik, Ibi. Tales from the Tundra: A Collection of Inuit Stories. Illus. Anthony Brennan. Iqaluit: Inhabit Media, 2010. Print. Inhabit Media is an Inuit-owned, independent publishing company that “aims to promote and preserve the stories, knowledge, and talent of northern Canada.”  This collection of five traditional Inuit stories from different regions in Nunavut is one of their most recent offerings.  Three of the stories tell of how specific animals came into being.  One tells how the raven and loon came to look the way they do and the fifth, The Owl and the Siksik, is a typical story of outwitting the enemy. Anthony Brennan’s illustrations have a two-dimensional fantasy quality to them that is more reminiscent of cartoons or Japanese anime than of traditional Inuit art.  Many of the creatures are outlined in black and then filled with solid colour.  While the backgrounds are usually ice-blue, and there are pastel colours in the images, many of the main parts of the drawings are black, giving the book an overall ominous look. While these stories are described in the forward as “contemporary retellings”, Kaslik’s voice is similar to that of an elder telling stories and her style is traditional.  The language is simple and direct, occasionally incorporating Inuit words.  Animals are anthropomorphized.  They do the same sorts of things that humans do and have human emotions and foibles.  For example, in “The Raven and The Loon”, the two birds sew clothes for each other.   When Raven thinks that Loon is sewing too slowly, she reacts impatiently: “Please, sew faster!” impatient Raven pleaded.” Kaslik also uses internal dialogue, another traditional technique, to allow the reader to listen to the characters reasoning out their actions. For example, “Siksiks often go in and out of their dens,” thought the owl, believing himself to be very clever.  “Today I will find a siksik den and wait there until I see one.” There are few children’s books of Inuit mythology available, and fewer that have the authenticity of being published by an Inuit publishing house.  Overall, this volume is a small, but welcome addition to the field, through which many children will be able to learn about the mythology of the Inuit.  For public and school libraries everywhere. Highly recommended:  4 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Sandy Campbell Sandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines.  Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give. 

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document