A Tower of Giraffes: Animals in Groups

Collective Nouns are cute. But the illustrations in the 'A Tower of Giraffes: Animals in Groups' are super cute. Filling the animal bodies with fabric designs is creative. Adds a collage feel to it. Like onomatopoeic words, the collection of animals reflects its words.. the flamingoes are very flamboyant.. pig and monkey illustrations with obvious paint and random paint are creative too.
I didnt know most of these collective nouns.. mischief of mice, parcel of penguins..
The text and illustrations blend well with each other, the artistic flair still maintained.

Peanut's Mistake (Pumpkinheads)

Peanut's Mistake is very lyrical. Both in terms of the language as well as the props in the story. The hyperzoomed pictures are adorable too. The choice of text placement blending in with the surroundings, under the ledge are creative. In this simple tale are huge lessons about owning up to your mistake and cleaning up the mess.

Children's book: Blackie’s magic coat

Besmall Pet Sweater for Dogs Cats Knit Knitwear Jumper Coat Clothes American Flag Style Winter Warm Stars and Stripes

Children's book: Blackie's magic coat: (Dog books for kids, Bedtime Stories for children ages 4-8, short stories for children) , as you see on the title page has a fleeting color on the page which lends character. There is symphony in the pages. The few props, the coat the stand on which the coat is hung standout like the emblems of gift of the magi or the tongs in the Hamid ka chimta story, where the centerpiece object hinges the story on itself. The rhymes too are natural. The emotions of fear and strength are well portrayed through the illustrations and text.

Mistaking Each Other for Ghosts

I wonder why I never heard of Lawrence Raab before. His poetry is thoroughly enjoyable. The language, images, common occurrence subjects - fortune cookie (if this is a subject in a poetry book, then you know the poet's work is very approachable).

Following is the excerpt from an article "How to Pay Attention to a Poem":
“Don’t worry about the consequences until you’ve noticed all you can,” Raab says. “With this poem, or any, it’s important to avoid being reductive. A good poem resists paraphrase, refuses to let its meanings become too simple, like an answer found in the back of a textbook or a truism in a fortune cookie. No good poem, especially one as mysterious and reticent as ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,’ ever exhausts itself, even as it turns itself over to you, the reader. So you may secretly carry it around, discovering—perhaps by surprise, as I have—that you know it by
heart and then, years later, remembering it as a kind of revelation and finding it has changed, since you yourself have changed.”

Elsewhere I have read about his process of revision for poems. All in all, Raab's poems will interest you in asking and wondering how a particular poem might have been made.

Lily and the Paper Man

I read Lily and the Paper Man with my Pre-K daughter. The illustrations in the book are very realistic. The up and down buttons of the elevator, so zoomed to life size, I wondered if I would move along. The book shows the everyday world of a kid going to school and some different elements. Even though Lily is apprehensive about the Paper Man, eventually she does what can be described as an act of largesse very much the scale of 'The Last Leaf' by O Henry.
The picture views like the bird s eye view with Lily letting the snow tough her tongue or the description of snow flying put you in the books of the pages. Where we associate kids being possessive of their blankets and all, Lily is an inspiration and reminder of a child's untainted generosity.

Spinglish: The Definitive Dictionary of Deliberately Deceptive Language

After reading Spinglish: The Definitive Dictionary of Deliberately Deceptive Language, you wont ask others if they hiked the Appalachian trail.
Some of the terms are very funny(actually you will start thinking twice while using the terms in the book - refer fun-loving in the book) for eg - engaging the enemy on all sides, many real estates terms like almost new like almost pregnant, with natural light..
Recently I read an article on affluenza but didnt appreciate the evolution of the word until I read of it in the book. That word was the inflection point for me to see how contemporary it is.

You Cant Have too Many Friends

With weird characters like Lady Ladder and Babbling Brook, 'You Cant Have too Many Friends' by Mordicai Gerstein is a book that has an optional challenge. Duck is on his way for justice and takes along as many friends, who all turn out to be helpful when he is placed in very difficult situations. Now it is your turn to remember who might be helpful in which situation. It is almost like a Greek myth where the duck can use his powers.
Usually I have seen a page divided into rows for fast pacing the book, but this book has casual vertical column slits for that purpose.

Drum City

I was reading 'Drum City' by Thea Guidone along with my preschooler and feeding the rice cereal to my infant. And I think I have hit upon a great ritual. It couldnt have started with a better book. All that rhyming. I like how every page on the book starts with DRUM which is like a big caesura but the rest on the lines that follow flow like waves. There's mystery too..
" people in banks,
people in shops,
everywhere, everything, everyone
STOPS"

and I wondered why...
On the next spread is the huge army of kids with their tubs and tins..
The illustrations are well done too. Catchy enough for preschoolers to call out what they see.

Second time around, I started singing it..

The real character

In Richard II: Shakespeare: The Critical Tradition, Volume 9, Charles Forker makes a great point.
"The truth is, here in Richard II is a play without a hero. Richard is constantly represented in an unfavourable light - as weak, dilatory and selfish. The character with elements of popularity, who might easily have been made the central figure of the play, is Bolingbroke, yet, only lightly sketched in as compared with Richard ..."

What the playwright shows is not what there is. You can only see it as one viewpoint. The playwright paints a character in one way, but the reader at the end should know the character for himself.

Hotel Chic at Home

Long time ago, when I joined a company, I was provided temporary accommodation at a hotel. What I took away from the conveniences was, how cool would it be to have your room as clean looking, meaning stuff not flowing out, everything hidden in its place, behind cupboards (slow down to imagine a closet with shelves for dishes, cups, etc. I am used to hearing of it as cubbard like old lady hubbard and hence at a disadvantage of not knowing the meaning through origin) or curtains.

Sara Bliss in her book Hotel Chic at Home: Inspired Design Ideas from Glamorous Escapes makes that time possible with her gorgeous picture book of how each room of the house could be decorated glamorously.

Each picture invites you into many details. This book doubles both as a design book as well as a travel diary. You look at not just the color and mood of the room but also the furniture, lighting, walls and the architecture. Each picture gazed at, so intently, becomes a diorama. The oblong ottoman in one picture brings to relief the half, wide column. Contrast this full bodied ottoman with a bare leg plain stool.
Wood relegated to the floor is put on a pedestal by being lifted to the adorn the walls.
"Fabric is second only to paint in its ability to immediately refresh a room or to make it memorable."
With Patterns and Statement beds, all the pictures makes museums out of rooms.

Icicles in carrot

Icicles in carrot

Who made the holes

For the water to freeze

Some larvae

Water fills holes

Traces Crevices

To make

Earth

New Animals. New language

The Fallen Star: The Nocturnals Book 3 by Tracy Hecht is a different approach to teaching kids about friends. usual characters are relatable to the children. Tracy Hecht introduces new characters to them, new language French showing the whole wide world outside. And did I say already that this is in a forest. What is more mystical than a forest? All the good makings for a great story. Thats not to say that the book is inscrutable. It is readable for a 7 year old albeit with a little effort, but it opens them to the new world where you look up words and things and learn about the ways of new animals. All this in the friendship frame. The book will increase kids vocabulary as well as curiosity and a penchant for learning.

Tree Boa, Gold Poachers and Pepper Tree

In Secret Agents Jack and Max Stalwart: Book 2: The Adventure in the Amazon: Brazil (The Secret Agents Jack and Max Stalwart Series), Jack and Max relax to their room to do Homework. But that is not all that meets the eye. They are GPF Agents with code names. They are called on a mission to find another missing agent and that too in the Brazilian jungles. Who knows what animals call that forest home and the mysterious trees?
With latest hi-tech gadgets helping them, our little courageous agents meet great troubles. How do they tackle the grave situations? What do they find in the jungle? Who doesnt want to go on this mysterious adventure?
The illustrations jibe with the text. The book manages to be fast paced within few pages. Action packed, Globe trotting.
A Master key maker which can fit into any lock. Hand print locked backpack.

Myology

According to dictionary.com Myology is

Orofacial Myology uses tongue tie as a measurement tool.

Coffee Cornucopia

According to dictionary.com Cornucopia is

Infant Jupiter was nursed by Goat Amalthea.


Amalthea is also an irregular shaped moon of Jupiter.

Akshaya Patra too is a never ending cornucopia.

Out of those goat horns, for the modern day coffee lovers, you can have a coffee mug. It was made by Goat story who were inspired by the myth that goat discovered coffee.