Reviewed Book:  The Nutcracker in Harlem – T.E. McMorrow and James Ransome, HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2017

Author T.E. McMorrow and illustrator James Ransome have set the the story of “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” in the extended cultural moment of the Harlem Renaissance. They are not the first African American artists to have reimagined this Christmas classic as an inspired vehicle for a little girl of color.  Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s did so in their jazz-inflected arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s music.

In the afterward to the book, McMorrow acknowledges that the specific characters of Uncle Cab and Miss Addie were created as homages to the great bandleader Cab Calloway and to Adelaide Hall, a singer with Ellington’s orchestra.  The Nutcracker in Harlem is much more than a transposition of the traditional story to a different era.

First, the book is elegant.  From the fur trimmed cloaks and black Mary Janes of the women guests to Uncle Cab’s bright red tie, the people in this Nutcracker are natural and life-like citizens of a cultural capital.  The dark blue sky and flat white moon are the background for Harlem townhouses and streets busy, but not as busy as today, with 1920s autos leaving white patches with their headlights on the blue streets.

Continue reading “The Nutcracker: A New Vision” →

A review of :  Queen of the Hanukkah Dosas – Pamela Ehrenberg and Anjan Sarkar, Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers, 2017

The child narrator of Pamela Ehrenberg and Anjan Sarkar’s Queen of the Hanukkah Dosas has a problem.  He looks forward to the yearly ritual of his Jewish and Indian family preparing their Hanukkah culinary specialty, dosas, a traditional Indian pancake prepared from fermented rice and lentils fried in coconut oil.

His sister Sadie, however, becomes the perennial younger sibling rival, possessor of some outrageous personality trait singularly dedicated to ruining any joyous experience.  Sadie “climbed too much.”  She scales a pyramid of coconut milk cans in the local Indian market and climbs onto the kitchen counter, knocking the salt out of her brother’s hands.  While this completely ordinary toddler activity seems a bit weak as a hook to hang a story on, author and illustrator put together a sweet picture of family unity, and of mixed ethnic customs that seem so normal to children who love them.

Continue reading “Fenugreek, Dal, and Hanukkah” →

Book reviewed:  Julia, Child – Kyo Maclear and Julie Morstad, Tundra Books, Random House of Canada, 2014

When you find an illustrator whom you like, the subject matter brought to life by her drawings is not always significant.  I am not a fine food enthusiast, a collector of cookbooks, or a follower of the late Julia Child.  I am awed, however, by the children’s book artistry of Julie Morstad, whose pictures accompany works by several different authors: Sara O’Leary, Caroline Woodward, Laurel Snyder, and here, Kyo Maclear.

In any successful author-illustrator partnership the two talents involved need to work together seamlessly, yet at the same time be identifiably separate. In some cases either text or image may stand out more; sometimes one is so strong that a book can survive a forgettable other.  Julie Morstad ‘s pictures are provocative delights which appeal directly to a child’s sensibility while at the same time sailing over their young heads directly to adult readers. All the authors with whom she works complement her images, which are idiosyncratic, but also adaptable. Let me describe one.

Continue reading “Julie, Julia, and Simca” →

Revisiting Oskar and the Eight Blessings – Richard Simon and Tanya Simon, and Mark Siegel, Roaring Book Press, 2015

It’s 1938. It’s the seventh day of Hanukkah for Oskar, a young immigrant boy fleeing Nazi persecution. It is also Christmas Eve, and Oskar must navigate his way through Broadway, which “stretched before him like a river,” as he seeks the refuge of his Aunt Esther’s home on 103^rd St.  Oskar has left his parents behind in war-torn Europe, not knowing if the adults he encounters will repeat the brutality and hatred he has come to expect, or offer the blessings promised by his father.

One year ago, I wrote a review of this moving story for Jewcy. During that past year, the terror confronting immigrants fleeing Syria, regions of Africa (can you add a specific region?) and other parts of the world has not diminished.

Continue reading “Hanukkah/Christmas Eve, New York City, 1938” →

Review of The Nutcracker – Niroot Puttapipat, Candlewick Press, 2015

Every version of The Nutcracker, like Tolstoy’s supposedly similar happy families, is beautiful in its own way.  Unhappy families, the author claimed, have unique ways to be miserable.  While the tale of the Nutcracker, the Mouse King, and Clara/Marie, originally presented by German author E.T.A. Hoffman in 1816, resolves happily, it also has dark overtones.  Author and illustrator Niroot Puttapipat has produced a lush illustrated version concluding with a delicately engineered pop-up stage set.

Continue reading “The Nutcracker: “Every Snowflake Tastes Unique”” →

A review of The Book of Gold – Bob Staake, Schwartz & Wade Books, 2017

Bob Staake is well-known as both author and illustrator of such inventive works as Look! A Book!, Look! Another Book!, and The New York Times “Best Illustrated Children’s Book of the Year” selection,  The Red Lemon (2006).  He has illustrated works by Dennis Shealy, Peter Stein, and Diane Muldrow, some under the Golden Books imprint.  Readers unfamiliar with contemporary children’s books (too bad!) may recognize his witty and politically committed New Yorker magazine covers.

In his latest book for children, The Book of Gold, Staake has penned a memorable fable about Isaac Gutenberg, a little boy whose mentors include a wise antique shop owner and the lions guarding the New York Public Library.

Continue reading “Not a Golden Book, but Gold” →

Instead of a review or commentary today, here is a poem about some famous literary lions in children’s books.  They each have to accommodate themselves to a different situation or environment and socialize with non-lions.  The illustrations for each book imagine their confused and incongruent status.  But don’t worry—either with human help or without it, they are all fine in the end.

Books referenced:
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz­ – L. Frank Baum, illustrated by W.W. Denslow, originally published 1900; Reprint edition: Dover Children’s Evergreen Classics, 1996
The Happy Lion – Louise Fatio, illustrated by Roger Duvoisin, originally published 1954; Reprint edition: Dragonfly Books, 2015
Dandelion – Don Freeman, Puffin Books, 1977
How to Hide a Lion – Helen Stephens, Henry Holt and Co., 2013
A Lion in Paris –  Beatrice Alemagna, Tate (translation edition), 2014

Every king has descendants.
The Happy Lion leaves his cage,
puzzled by the chaos,
of baguettes and purses
flying in fear.

Continue reading “A Gift for the Holiday Weekend: A Lion in Winter” →

Books referenced: Sharing the Bread: An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving Story -Pat Zietlow Miller and Jill McElmurry, Schwartz & Wade, 2015; Mad About Plaid – Jill McElmurry, Harper Collins, 2000; It’s a Miracle: A Hanukkah Storybook – Stephanie Spinner and Jill McElmurry, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2003

This past August, we lost the wonderful illustrator, Jill McElmurry.  It is surprising how few mainstream media publications reported her death or described her life’s work. McElmurry is probably best known as the illustrator of the popular Little Blue Truck series, written by Alice Schertle.  Jill McElmurry was 62 years old.

Oddly, I learned of her death today when I decided to post a short piece for Thanksgiving, based on her beautiful homage to a traditional American Thanksgiving celebration, Sharing the Bread, with text by Pat Zietlow Miller.

Continue reading “On Thanksgiving: Thank you, Jill McElmurry” →

The Doll People –Ann M. Martin and Laura Godwin, illustrated by Brian Selznick, Disney-Hyperion, 2003

Miss Happiness and Miss Flower – Rumer Godden, illustrated by Jean Primrose, Macmillan, 1961;      Reprint edition illustrated by Sarah Gibb, Pan Macmillan, 2016

This is My Dollhouse – Giselle Potter, Schwartz & Wade, 2016

  “Dolls are not asked.” Rumer Godden, Miss Happiness and Miss Flower                          

Dolls are not asked and neither are kids.  Both categories of small people need larger beings to control them, but sometimes a doll or a child just needs to take matters into her own hands.  Continue reading “Review Essay: Revisiting the Dollhouse” →

The experience of reading or listening to a picture book can be both expansive and comforting for a child. Some of the best books for children enable this dual sense of wonder and familiarity by providing both experiences within the same text and illustrations. 

Scottish author and illustrator Alice Melvin, in The High Street (Tate, 2011) and Grandma’s House, (Tate, 2015), draws readers and listeners into fully created universes of carefully constructed buildings and interiors populated by reassuring people.  The people are parents, children, shopkeepers, police officers, dog walkers, and grandparents.  The interiors are filled with an almost endless collection of the familiar objects in a child’s, or an adult’s, daily life.

In The High Street, the protagonist, Sally, goes shopping in a series of stores peopled by owners and customers of different races, backgrounds, and genders.  Continue reading “Review Essay: The Welcoming Universe of Alice Melvin” →