Monday Monday

Monday Is One Day
By Arthur A. Levine
Art by Julian Hector
Scholastic, 28 pages
$16.99, ages 3 to 8


It's Monday – a dreary rainy Monday where I live. For many 9-5 work-a-day folks it's the start of a long stretch until they can look forward to the long family days of the weekend.
According to the jacket flap, that was in Arthur Levine's mind when he developed the concept for his comforting and charming Monday Is One Day, which opens with the line: "The hardest part of going to work is being apart from you."
So "let's count the days till we're both at home."
Each day is marked by something special, puddle stomps, playing with a toy T. rex, helping dad pick out a special tie. Then it's the weekend and time for fun.
Hector's bright illustrations have a retro feel, but there's nothing retro about the families he depicts: multiracial, grandparents caring for a child, single mom, gay dads.

Mirror, Mirror

Mirror

By Jeannie Baker

Candlewick, 40 pages

$18.99, ages 4 to 8

Two books. Same title. Published the same year. Both thought-provoking.

The resemblance stops there.

Mirror by Jeanne Baker tells the story of a day in the lives of two families, one in Australia, the other in Morocco, North Africa.

You open the book to find two books in one. The Australian story reads from left to right, the Moroccan tale from right to left. Each nearly wordless tale begins in a cozy home, follows the father and son out on a shopping trip, then back home with their purchases. Not surprisingly there are many differences between the two cultures, but Baker has also made the two stories artfully mirror one another, both in broad concepts and in smaller details that readers will enjoy spotting.

Some scenes that at first glance appear worlds apart, on closer examination and discussion reveal fascinating similarities. The Australian father and son travel through traffic and construction to get to the hardware store. The Moroccan boy and his dad travel by donkey through desert and mountains to get to the village marketplace. But both routes are circuitous. One of the purchases the Australian boy and dad make is a "magic carpet" (made by the Moroccan family). Selling the carpet enables the other family to buy a computer (perhaps from a computer store pictured in the Australian city). At the end of the day, the Australian boy and his family sit on the carpet in front of a fire. He's drawn a picture of them flying off on together on a magic carpet over sand dunes and palm trees. The Moroccan boy and his dad and other family members are gathered around the new computer looking at Morocco surrounded by many other countries on a globe. So both families are transported by their purchases.

Baker's illustrations are beautiful and detailed collages. 

Mirror

By Suzy Lee

Seven Footer Kids, 48 pages

$15.95, ages 4 to 8

This is another wordless "Mirror," but packed with powerful emotions and darker overtones than the first. A little girl hunches sad and and alone in a corner, then she discovers her reflection. At first she's shy, then goofy, then delighted. Dancing ensues, becoming ever more exuberant. There's a lovely spread, wild with lyrical swirls of black, yellow and orange. But then what's happening? The two images merge and disappear into the fold. After two blank pages they're back, but they are now moving independently. There's anger. For the first time the mirror becomes visible. Glass shatters. The girl is miserably alone again. Children will be puzzled, but that's clearly Lee's intent. There is much to discuss here. The low-key color scheme – mostly black, with touches of yellow and orange, and abundant white space, reinforces the deceptively simple story and complex emotional content.

On Heather's mommies and Tango's dads

An interesting piece in The New Republic:
http://www.tnr.com/book/review/their-own-way

Multicultural tales

First published in The News Tribune, May 16, 2001

Long gone are the days when all the characters in children's books were white, Anglo-Saxon and Protestant. Visit the children's section in a bookstore and look at the book jackets. You'll see a multicultural melting pot.

Here is a sampling of recent books that help bring different cultures alive.

Madlenka

By Peter Sis

Farrar Straus Giroux, 44 pages

$17, ages 4 to 8

The plot is deceptively simple. A little girl who lives in New York City discovers a loose tooth. She's excited and runs to tell the people in her neighborhood the news. First she runs to Mr. Gaston, the French baker; then Mr. Singh, from India, who sells newspapers; Mr. Ciao, from Italy, who has an ice cream truck. By the time she finishes, she has spread the news to people from 10 countries.

Still sounds simple. But Sis has a way of complicating things with his amazing artwork. The Escher-like perspective he uses to illustrate is fascinating. So is the way he mixes black and white and color.

My Baby

By Jeanette Winter

Farrar Straus Giroux, 32 pages

$16, ages 3 to 6

A nearly perfect book, this is the story of folk artist Nakunte Diarra, her inspiration, her life in Mali in northwest Africa and the birth of her baby.

Nakunte's mama teaches her to make bogolan, a pure white cloth painted with sticks using the blackest mud, mixed with a special leaf. As the child becomes more skilled, she paints larger pieces and sells them.

Nakunte marries, wearing a bogolan her mother has made. She learns that she will give birth to a baby and begins to paint a bogolan for it. On one page Nakunte hears drums, and stylized drum shapes appear on the cloth. A leopard slinks by. Nakune paints her own version of spots. A scorpion's tail, fish bones, iguana's tongue, calabash flower, turtle dove footprints and stars all appear on the cloth.

Coolies

By Yin

Illustrated by Chris Soentpiet

Philomel, 40 pages

$7.99 paperback, ages 4 to 8

Two brothers from China, Shek and Little Wong, step off a crowded boat into what Shek calls "the land of opportunity": the United States in 1865. Along with hundreds of other Chinese immigrants, they have jobs helping to build a railroad.

Building a railroad was difficult and dangerous work, especially for the Chinese laborers. They labored over deserts, across steep cliffs and over the imposing Sierra Nevada mountain range. Shek is buried in an avalanche and almost dies.

In spite of all the hardships, the brothers were proud of the money they were able to send to family members in China, and also of the monumental project they helped to complete. They weren't recognized by the people in power, but they knew that they had had a big part in an important creation.

The Trip Back Home

By Janet S. Wong

Harcourt Brace, 32 pages

$16, ages 4 to 8

A girl 5 or 6 years old travels with her mother from the United States to the mother's childhood home in Korea. Before they leave on the long plane trip, they buy gifts for everyone: leather work gloves for grandfather (haraboji), a ruffled apron for grandmother (halmoni) and a simple children's book so aunt (imo) can learn to speak English.

In Korea, the child and mother blend seamlessly into the daily routine, helping feed the pigs, traveling to the market, making kim chi. Warm illustrations and descriptive text impart a good amount of information about life in a Korean village, and also about love and family connection. Wong is a Puget Sound resident.

The Blizzard's Robe

By Robert Sabuda

Atheneum, 32 pages

$16, ages 4 to 8

In the cold, dark Arctic the "People Who Fear the Winter Night" stay close to fires, fearful of the monstrous Blizzard. Among them is Teune, a skilled maker of robes. One night, sparks from Teune's fire ignite Blizzard's robe. The People rejoice, but Teune is upset. In a dream, Blizzard promises a great gift if she will help. Next morning she finds rolls of cloth made of ice. She creates a gorgeous new robe for Blizzard, which becomes the Northern Lights - the gift.

Sabuda's colorful illustrations for this original folk tale are fittingly made of batik. Sabuda makes incredibly engineered pop-up books, the most recent of which is a tribute to "The Wizard of Oz" (the tornado is a must-see).

Streets of Gold

By Rosemary Wells

Dial, 40 pages

$15.99, ages 4 to 8

Adapted from "The Promised Land," by Mary Antin, this is a touching fictionalized biography of a young Russian Jew who came to the United States in 1894.

Masha's family fled Russia when Jews were considered inferior and were tyrannized by unfair laws. Masha's father went to America and sent for the rest of the family.

The family was poor and had to work very hard. But Mary was allowed to attend school and eventually wrote a poem about freedom. The book ends with Masha, speaking to the sunrise, "I'm on my way ... here in America."

-Rebecca Young