Ok, I’m going to say the winners first, since I KNOW you all want to know!
Special thanks to Random.org for picking the winners!
So, the winners of little idea books are:
Beth and Vivian!
Email me your address and what design you’d like
and I’ll make your book and send it on its way!
(click here to see the posts that include the designs!)
And the winner of the SIGNED Golidlocks and the three dinosaurs is….
TINA!
Congrats, Tina!
Email me your address and the book will be sent out to you soon 🙂
Before we get into today’s book, I have to say I had a nice reading time yesterday.
One of my little five year old friends came by with her Dad to visit,
and we sat on the couch and read.
She picked out books and we read:
Rock N Roll Mole,
Frog and Toad are friends,
My Many Colored Days,
The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore,
Where’s Walrus?
and Neville.
She loved them all and it was funny…for a while we were just reading,
and no one was paying attention (there were a few adults around)
and then they got sucked into the stories and were paying attention.
I really loved when she said,
“You have the most books ever! You’re like your own library!”
Kids are great.
OK,
FINALLY
on to today’s book.
AND
I met the author AND the illustrator.
(captions by Singe Singe)
Loved Won Ton, and her 101 ways series.
Kathy Ellen caught me reading 101 ways to bug your parents.
And then the book disappeared.
Hmmm.
I LOVED his illustrations in “Won Ton”,
and his book, “Breaking Stalin’s Nose” (also with illustrations)
And by the way, he would never break anyone’s nose in real life.
I asked him.
I love when I have a double signed book!
Title: Won Ton: A Cat Tale told in Haiku
Published by: Henry Holt and Company
Written by: Lee Wardlaw
Illustrated by: Eugene Yelchin
In one word: Meow!
In one sentence: A cat’s life told through Haiku poems and gorgeous illustrations.
Favorite pages:
Likes:
- the story is very sweet.
- the cat’s voice is obviously poetic, but distinct too. Kind of regal almost.
- the illustrations match the mood…not plain, but simple and effective.
- the angles and perspectives on the illustrations are great.
- Most pages have few words and a large illustration, which I really like.
- by the end you really feel like this is your cat, after hearing the whole story!
- the size of the book is nice. It’s about as all as most picture books, but not as wide, but a perfect fit for this book.
- anyone who has a cat will recognize these expressions and feelings!
Learns:
- Writing in a poetic way can be fun! I really like that the story is told in Haiku.
- things can be illustrated many different ways…I love how this cat is seen from so many different angles, and all the expressions of a cat are captured.
- White space is good. There’s a lot of white space around the words and the illustrations.
Woo-hoo, Day 21!
The bookshelf is filling up quickly…ten more days to go!
Happy Sunday and happy reading everyone!
Enthusiastically yours,
Kathy Ellen and Singe Singe
Hurray!!! Thank you, Kathy…I’m thrilled to win one of the little notebooks. 🙂
I’ve got to run out in a few minutes to our local SCBWI meeting…but I’ll check out the choices and email you my preference. 🙂
I love your book pic today. 🙂 I’ve seen the book before…the illustrations are superb and the poems are terrific…great combination that makes a super book!
Today I read “Hooray for Amanda & Her Alligator” by Mo Willems…yes, I am on a Mo Willems kick…actually I had heard so much about this author/illustrator…and had not read any of his books…that I decided to check out several…Mr. Willems obviously knows what the public/publishers want…and I am a good student. 🙂
I was a little confused…the book looks like a picture book…but then it seems to be formatted like a chapter book. It’s a tale about a toy alligator who is alive and his interaction with his owner a little girl who loves to read.
Then a new stuffed animal who is also real comes to live there…and although alligator is prepared to not like panda, they discover they have a lot in common and are soon friends. Great message delivered in quite a unique way. 🙂
Amanda and her Alligator can be a little confusing with the hybrid chapter book/ picture book format…I love Mo, though, and I think this one is really fun. I agree that it’s a great message delivered in a unique way.
What I am noticing about the newer books is that most of them are ultra unique…over the top in some cases…I’ll tuck that away in my what-manuscripts-should-I-submit part of my brain. 🙂
Hi Kathy!
My book today had to have been written for a much older audience than the picture books I’ve been reading lately. Today I read The Bones Of Fred McFee by Eve Bunting and illustrated by Kurt Cyrus. I love Ms. Buntings style of writing and as an adult I love reading children’s story but this one is probably way too scary for younger readers. The story is about two children to bring home a plastic skeleton from the fair and hang it high in their sycamore tree. There the skeleton swings and frightens everything from the kids and their dog to the the rooster and the hens. The illustrations are really lovely with their Fall/Halloween theme but much too dark I would think for most 4 or 5 year olds, especially when the skeleton disappears and a freshly dug grave ends up at the base of the tree. While I loved this book overall, it was not one that I read to my students this past week.
Donna L Martin
http://www.donnalmartin.com
http://www.donasdays.blogspot.com
Interesting to hear about books that are for older readers too…thanks, Donna!
Thank you!!!! I’m delighted to win one of your little idea books — the one I’d like is the one that says “BIG ideas” (hoping that it will be a self-fulfilling prophesy). Thank you again!
I *LOVE* the illustration of the cat’s yawn! I must make sure one of my friends who loves cats, picture books and haiku, has read this one!
Today I read “When Dragons are Dreaming” by James Mayhew and Lindsey Gardiner — which has delightful illustrations, and rhyming text that occasionally stumbles over its meter and rhyme, unfortunately. Did you know that when dragons are dreaming, fairies come out to play? One little dragon who can’t sleep plays with them one night… and it’s a good thing, too!
I soon need to make a trip to the library to turn in a pile of books and get a bunch more! (Very hard to believe there are only 10 days left in this challenge, though.)
Alright, Beth!
The Big Ideas one is my favorite!
I like making the notebooks because I’ve told myself I CANNOT buy anymore…
I keep buying them and NOT filling them.
So now it’s fun to buy them to make them for other people.
This book sounds cute…but stumbles in meter and rhyme can be hard to swallow sometimes.
What a surprise, Kathy! Thanks so much for the win of Mo’s book!! Can u send me your email address? Mine is tinamariecho@yahoo.com. If I click the email button above, it takes me to Outlook, and I don’t use that. (sorry!)
Congratulations to Beth & Vivian!!
I read “T is for Turkey” by Tanya Lee Stone; however, I didn’t really like it. I think for an alphabet book it had way too many hard words. Some of the letters stood for abstract things, like E is for educate. I’ve seen others out there, and so hopefully theirs is more kid-friendly.
Emailing you right now, Tina!
Weird to have abstract concepts in an alphabet book, I agree…
Congrats to the winners!! And yippee that my little notebook was mailed. You rock, Kathy Ellen!
Today I read THE WAY BACK HOME by Oliver Jeffers. I just love his work. His illustrations are so simple and sweet and so are his stories. Just found out his studio is in my neighborhood. Hope to stop in someday.
A little boy finds a plane in his closet so he flies around, runs out of gas and gets stuck on the moon. And a Martian flies around til his space ship breaks and he’s stuck on the moon. Both scheme how to get back home. So cute and wacky!
I also love how Oliver Jeffers’ characters always seem to have ADD and be easily distracted.
Totally recommend… But be prepared. It’s silly and won’t make sense. Maybe that is what I like about it. It’s playfulness.
You had me at “it’s silly and won’t make sense!”
Congratulations everybody! I haven’t had the opportunity to read WON TON. I’ll have to put it on my list. On this day, I re-read THE THREE PIGS by David Wiesner. I was introduced to that book within about a week of being introduced to WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE and, together, those books changed the way I thought of picture books. He has a new book coming out next year or the year after that. I can’t wait!
Yeah, I heard about this new book, and that he may do a graphic novel in the future. The Three Pigs is great….anything he does is simply amazing. I LOVED Art and Max.
Congrats to the winners! I am sorry I am day behind!
We read IF YOU WERE A PENGUIN by Florence and Wendell Minor. October 22 is Florence Minor’s birthday. My family loves watching the penguins at our local zoo. This book captured everything cool about the penguins with beautiful illustrations.
Don’t worry about being a day behind, Eric…I’m about a week behind in responding to these comments…but it’s what you finally do that counts.
you are making me want to go to an aquarium with all this penguin talk…I think I will soon.