A Curious Statistical Anomaly

Stick Man by Julia Donaldson. Illustrated by Axel Scheffler. Arthur A. Levine Books, AN Imprint of Scholastic Books. ISBN: 978-0-545-15761-2, hardcover. $16.99 US/$19.99 CAN.

Stick Man is a delightful story about a stick man who lives with his stick wife and children in a very nice tree house. He goes out to jog and spends nearly a year having one adventure after another trying to get back home to his wife and children. Stick man is mistaken as a throwing stick, a Pooh stick, nesting material, beach detritus, building material, and kindling among others. Each mistaken identity leaves him struggling to escape and find his way home.

The drawing are semi-realistic as you can tell from the cover image. The drawing adds visually to the journey, showing the changing seasons and the various plights in which Stick Man finds himself. The colors are bright and cheerful and the people and animals realistic.

The text is simple and mostly rhymes. It’s difficult to do a book in rhyme and Donaldson manages to do without being too cutsey or over-the-top. I’d imagine a young reader would get caught up in the tale and cheer on Stick Man to find his way home.

The book was published in September 2009. The ending is very Christmas oriented and leaves a nice feeling of completion to the story. I’d suggest that this would make a great book for children anytime of the year but the tie to Christmas at the end makes it an especially good Christmas book.

The only problem I had with the story is wondering about the message underlying the story. Stick Man goes off one morning and doesn’t come back for a year. He doesn’t, of course, call home and he just shows up expecting to be taken back into the bosom of his family as if nothing has changed at all. It worked for Job’s wayward son but I’m wondering about the subliminal impact the book would have on children whose fathers have abandoned the family. Would they see this story as a reason to believe that he’d return and everything would be as it was? I don’t know. It just occurred to me on a third reading that there was another way children might interpret the story so I thought I should put it out here for potential buyers of the book to be aware of the circumstances of the child to be gifted with the story. In some cases this might be just the underlying message you want to convey in other, well, maybe not.

Bibliographic Info:
Crow Call by Lois Lowry.
Illustrator: Bagram Ibatoulline.
ISBN: 978-0-545-03035-9
Scholastic Press.
$16.99 US/$21.99 Canada.
Published: October 2009.
Hardcover.

The cover was so stunning that I just stared at it for a while before I bothered to open the book. The front flap said the story was based on the author’s personal experience. I flipped through the pages before reading and the art is all of that wonderful muted colors that, while not really old, gives the impression of time past and long ago. The scenes are all realistic and, for this reader, made me remember my own childhood in Maine. The town. The cars. The restaurant/diner. The countryside. Perhaps I don’t really remember but only think I do from photos, but nonetheless the images evoke that feeling of long ago but almost now. A magical time.

The story is a simple one. A young daughter is trying to connect to the father than has been gone for so long, fighting a war in a far off land. He’s back now. Her father. A stranger. This quote from the book, which was also on the flap makes the young girl’s feelings clear:

I sit shyly in the front seat of the car next to the stranger who is my father, my legs pulled up under the too-large wool shirt I am wearing.

I practice his name to myself, whispering it under my breath. Daddy. Daddy.

Saying it feels new. The war has lasted so long. He has been gone so long.

It’s the next page when she finally talks to him to say, “I’ve never gone hunting before….” that caused me to hesitate. At this point the story could go many different ways. Lowry has often taken me where I didn’t want to go in her books. So, I took a deep breath to calm myself and continued. Yes, they’re off to go hunting — crows not deer. The crows are eating crops and need to be culled.

But first there are a few incidents that are great opportunities to talk with children. They stop for breakfast at a diner. Obviously they are going hunting and girls don’t hunt. Liz has her braids tucked into her shirt and the waitress calls her “son”. Neither Liz nor her father correct the mistake and later they joke about it. I had to laugh because nowadays girls are allowed to do so much more than they were when I was a child and children on farms were often taught to do the same chores no matter what their gender. But, it’s more than that — it’s a nice bonding moment for Liz and her dad.

Once they arrive at the field where they will hunt the crows. Liz takes out her Crow Call. It’s her job to call the crows to them so her father can shoot them. They discuss this a bit and Liz is determined to go through with it because she wants to show her dad that she can be strong — but it’s fairly obvious that she doesn’t feel right about this.

Once she blows the call, the crows rise into the air and respond. The moment in story and illustration becomes almost magical. Have you every watched birds just fly for the fun of it. Circle on the air. Chase each other. Ride thermals. Can you imagine hundreds of crows answering a call of another crow in the distance.

It’s a simple story but one with many opportunities to talk with your child(ren) about what life was like, about activities that you or your grandparents used to play. Does anyone play kick the can or one-two-three-red light anymore? Or just spin and spin until you fall over and then watch the stars and fireflies until the world settles down? The world before Nintendo and Wii.

On the other hand, even though the world has changed since Lois Lowry was a child (there’s a photo at the end of the book of her in her big woolen shirt), this is still a story that children of today can relate to and enjoy. The fact that it’s also beautifully presented and is a bit of nostalgia for adults doesn’t hurt either when you’re looking for a good book for a gift.

In the world of PC and “won’t someone think of the children”, there’s nothing here that should upset children — or adults.

My Little Polar Bear is written and illustrated by the author, Claudia Rueda. Published by Scholastic Press in hardcover with a dust jacket which has nice sparkles like falling snow everywhere but the words, the bears, and the snow. The book is aimed at 4-8 year olds. At that age they may be able to read it to themselves as the words are very simple and very, very few — many that repeat. However, it can be read to children much younger.

There is no plot per se, the baby polar bear wants to know if he or she is a polar bear. The parent bear assures the child that indeed that’s what he/she is — a polar bear. The inevitable “Why?” elicits a list of polar bear traits that the baby shares with polar bears. The child is concerned because she/he doesn’t meet all those traits. It ends with the parent expressing an “I love you”. Simple affirmation of who you are and that you are loved for who you are–what all children should expect and receive–unqualified love. Just because you exist, you are loved.

I can see reading this snuggled up with a young child, and can almost imagine the questions the parent will get about polar bears and why can’t “I” be a polar bear. Parents will understand how the simplest story or homily will and often does turn into a philosophical discussion preceded by “Why?”. But its simplicity makes it a good cuddle down with me for five minutes book.

My only problem –and it’s a problem of my preferences in children’s art books–the art is very lovely in pale blues, white, and grey. I would have liked more contrast for young eyes. These older eyes prefer contrast too — while very stylistic and beautifully uncluttered I miss the contrast that could have been done with the dark sky of the winter polar region. But that’s only my preference.

However, I do love polar bears and thought as long as I’m talking about polar bears, here’s the National Geographic site which has some polar bear wallpaper that might just go along with the book, My Little Polar Bear. This particular photo shows what I mean about a stronger contrast between the blue and white–just saying.