JuniorBookWorm.com

The Long Weekend

Savita Kalhan has written a horror book for young teens that is realistic and compelling. This book deals with the subject of abduction as two boys are trying to escape. My nearly thirteen year old couldn't put this slim volume down. He didn't want to talk about it which makes me assume that he felt satisfied with the way Kalhan resolves the story. Horror is often written from the pen of a man. This book written by a woman, mother of a ten year old boy must have her finger on the aging playground pulse. Child abuse and "stranger danger" are subjects that children must confront, in order to be aware of what is out there.

Don't Buy This Book

I know that I have written about this before, but it takes a superhuman to sustain a non-collaborative career in the picture book industry. There are the exceptional few such as Rosemary Wells and Maurice Sendak. Even on the rare occasion that their books are not stellar the illustrations more than make up for the lack of content. There are also some illustrators whose drawing are mesmerizing that I would want their books no matter what the content is like, such as Sandy Turner and Elena Odriozola (although she doesn't write).  I guess I hate the conceit of someone who can draw well assuming they can write well too.
Why am I ranting? Not because I am incredibly frustrated having just had a micro discectomy but because I just read two lousy children's books that seem to be appearing in quality newspaper round ups. I am very skeptical about many of those mass children's book reviews because they seem to want to say one nice thing about a book from each publisher and sometimes that is simply not possible if you have any integrity.
First of all there is Kristina Stephenson's Sir Charlie Stinky Socks, which is the second in a series. He has a great adventure which is stupidly written and incredibly pointless. The only reason that a child would ask for it to be read again is for the odd pull out pages of towers and cauldrons and because they are so baffled by the ending. I am not even going to give a link to it. I happen to be biased against books that have smelly or stinky socks as a theme since I don't think that children notice or are interested in the fragrance of their socks or any other part of themselves. I am not a sock sniffer but I can only imagine that picture book listeners socks smell warm and lovely or at the extreme, like chicken soup.
My second target for my sheath of arrows is David Lucas' new book The Lying Carpet. He is a terrific illustrator. He went to the Royal College of Art. He started off with a book called Halibut Jackson which was okay. This is his third book and he desperately needs someone to write for him. Why can't Andersen Press tell him. The book should have been a chapter book. There are far too many words. The carpet tells lies all the time to Faith, a statue in the shape of a girl. Their conversations are banal and boring. There is a happy ending but I can't imagine anyone could sustain their picture book interest that far. But the man can draw from the lovely orange cover to the end of the grisaille tale. Sorry David, find a writer.