Month: February 2024

Elizabeth Brown loves to do one thing- read. She ignores dolls and roller skates (ha ha) as a kid, boys and parties when older, just always consumed by her love of reading. When grown up and gets her own house, she fills it with books- until there isn’t room for anything else! What will she do? Lovely solution. Love of cats, too, by the pictures. I think it’s fairly obvious why I liked this book so much, the drawings of stacks and stacks of books surrounding a cozy chair just made me smile ear to ear.

Borrowed from the public library.

Another lovely picture book I picked up browsing- just because I liked the cover so much. This was another one with a strong metaphor for an emotional struggle, in this case based on the author’s own experience, as he eloquently explains in the final pages. A young boy spends most of his days in silence, dreading the moments he’ll be asked to speak in class. He has a stutter: the words come out broken, jumbled, confused- or not at all. After a particularly difficult day at school, his father takes him to the riverside and points out that while the river has choppy and rough water, it also has calm and placid moments. Just like his speech. The images in this book are simple, calm and beautiful. I was really taken by one picture that had reflections in layers of color across each other (boy looking out of a window). How the light glows through his ears, dances in jots of light off the water, etc. You can almost feel it moving. I was a tad surprised to find some reviews online criticizing this book for being unhelpful to any child with a speech disorder- but I don’t think it was meant to give coaching on how to deal with the impediment or stutter itself, just imparting a feeling of acceptance and understanding between parent and child. To give the boy reassurance that good moments were among the bad, and he could find his calm. That was my impression.

Borrowed from the public library.

Two friends who are opposites, but they do enjoy some of the same key activities. Especially roller skating (the skates were drawn very well!) Three little stories in here. Bink loves her new outrageously colored socks, but Gollie thinks they are an affront to look at and refuses to make her friend pancakes until she takes them off. Eh. I laughed at the picture where Bink, tired from roller skating to the store and back, is struggling to take off her knee-high socks, looking quite cross. They come to a compromise. Second story, Gollie goes on an (imaginary) trek up a mountain and doesn’t want interruptions, but Bink keeps knocking on her door. (This reminded me of Winnie the Pooh and Rabbit). In the last story, Bink gets a new friend- a pet fish. Gollie rolls her eyes at all the unsuitable things Bink does with her fish- like bringing it along to the breakfast table (in its bowl) and taking it out roller skating. Yes, roller skating while carrying a fish in a bowl. Disaster. Gollie saves the day. And the last scene really made me smile. While I thought some of the situations were a bit over the top (the fish going skating, and what kind of friend refuses to be around someone because of their socks?) I did like that it showed friends don’t always have to like the same things, they can support each other and find ways to get along anyway. I like the sketchy style artwork drawn by Tony Fucile, too.

Borrowed from the public library.