Sailing Away

Comfort can be found and felt in the smallest of things.  The smell of bayberry candles reminds me of my Dad's smile and laughter; it was his favorite scent. The taste of hot chocolate reminds me of all those mornings counting the bubbles on top of a fresh hot mug; each representing a monetary amount.  The sight of Xena lying at my feet as I write and read reminds me of the countless hours we've spent walking and running.

Children find solace in a favorite blanket, stuffed animal, story or in the company of those who love them; as we all do.  In this third tale, Willy continues to find companionship with Bobo, his sock monkey.  Earl, the family cat, is never far behind, ready to steal Bobo away.  The entertaining trio is off on another adventure in Bobo The Sailor Man! (Atheneum Books For Young Readers) written by Eileen Rosenthal with illustrations by Marc Rosenthal.

This morning Willy woke up with a plan.

Not only is Willy taking Bobo exploring but he has BIG ideas.  The exuberance of Willy is contagious; knowing they might uncover dinosaur bones or, as improbable as it might be, a volcano.  With Willy and company a patch of mushrooms is not just a patch of mushrooms; they must be poisonous.

Each new item, acorns, a caterpillar, a stick, and a forgotten comb, are discovered treasures.  Their place in the world is elevated by Willy's imagination.  Cloud gazing reveals a menagerie of creatures past and present.

An abandoned pail by a nearby river, sends the ever present and most willing, Bobo on an unexpected voyage.  Willy can't run fast enough and the rocks are far too slippery to get Bobo back.  With a stern command to Earl to watch over Bobo, (as if he is not always doing so anyway), Willy runs off to get help.

What we see and Willy fails to see, will have readers giggling to their hearts' content.  Who's the rescuer and rescued?  Water trips, sailor hats and afternoon naps tell the tale.  And Earl...let's say he has the last laugh...again.

In each story Eileen Rosenthal, has created characters we want for friends.  The persistence and determination of Earl are to be admired.  No one would ever have a bad day with Willy's zest for life, his optimism, and his willingness to find joy at every opportunity.  Told entirely in Willy's conversations and thoughts, except for the first sentence, we can easily place ourselves in the middle of the action.

Bright yellow on the matching jacket and cover immediately attracts the viewer to the latest installment in the adventures of Willy, Bobo and Earl.  The contrasting vibrant red text, pail and boots hint at events to come.  As in the two previous titles, the back features Willy, clad in his pajamas, intent on his next undertaking, holding Bobo as he and Earl gaze out a window.

Plain pale yellow covers the opening and closing endpapers, with one exception.  In the lower right-hand corner of the beginning sits a tiny newspaper sailor hat.  Like the other two titles, the verso information takes on a specific shape.  This time it forms a pail.  

Drawn in pencil and colored digitally, Marc Rosenthal infuses each illustration with lively emotion.  For the most part chocolate brown lines define the settings with color filling in the characters and those elements specific to the narrative.  Text size accentuates the emotions flowing around several small illustrations on a page, single page pictures or the expressive double page spreads.  I think my favorite two pages are a series of six small pictures of Bobo's rescue.  I can't look at them without smiling.

The wife and husband team of Eileen Rosenthal and Marc Rosenthal have created another lighthearted winner in Bobo The Sailor Man!  Whether shared one-on-one or in a group setting, readers will fall in love all over again with these characters.  I would even venture to say, there might be more requests for lovable sock monkeys this Christmas season.  Bobo dressed in his bumblebee black and yellow is hard to resist.

If you want to discover more about the author and illustrator please follow the link embedded in their names to access their official websites.  Here is a link to the Simon & Schuster website for a look at more pages from the title.  It includes four activity pages to extend the fun of Willy and his friends. Here are links to my reviews of I Must Have Bobo! and I'll Save You Bobo!  For more sock monkey fun I would pair this with the series by author Cece Bell and Emily Gravett's book, Monkey and Me.

Just A Trip To The Corner Grocer

When your elementary school is only a few blocks from your home in a quiet little town, you walk home every day for lunch.  You and your younger sister never seem to enjoy the meal as quickly as your mom wishes you would.  To keep you eating, she tells you tales.  These are not the remembered narratives from books. These are stories she spins on the spot full of the unexpected, laughter inducing moments.

Decades later you still remember those tales told around the kitchen table. You've picked up the thread becoming a weaver of words yourself, as have your students.  There is a freedom, but also a unique sense of belonging, when you become part of the fabric of story.  When I began reading Neil Gaiman's new title, Fortunately, The Milk (Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers) with illustrations by Skottie Young, (Bloomsbury, UK edition with illustrations by Chris Riddell) it was as if a door had opened, a door where the past and the present could exist together.  It was a magical blending of remembered memories from my childhood with those of the here and now.

There was only orange juice in the fridge.

When your mom has left home for a conference presentation on lizards leaving explicit instructions with your dad, including the purchase of more milk, it is dismaying to realize there is currently none available for your cereal in the morning of the next day.  In the middle of wanting to suggest alternatives to said breakfast fare, it suddenly dawns on your father his tea will be lacking its usual dose of milk too.  Without further ado, he leaves you and your sister to quickly walk to the store to get what everyone wants and needs.

Regrettably your father does not return promptly.  What else can you eat?  What could have happened?  Finally, in walks dad with the milk and an outlandish explanation for his lateness.

Stepping outside the shop he hears a noise, looks up seeing a gigantic silver circle in the air. A beam of light transports him up to the interior of the craft populated by green blobs.  They make ridiculous demands to be met or the planet, as we know it, will be destroyed and remodeled.

Noticing an exit of sorts, amid their cries of not to open the door, Dad does, dropping him into the middle of the sea.  A bunch of scallywags lead by a Pirate Queen, from the eighteenth century, haul him out of the water to the deck of their ship. (The door did release a space-time continuum.)  Within minutes of his arrival, Dad is being forced to walk the plank, which he himself suggested they make him do.  All manner of dangerous creatures are swimming in the water below.

As he is about to step to his doom, a rope ladder falls from a hot air balloon. To Dad's surprise it is manned by a talking stegosaurus, an inventor from the distant past and a distant planet.  Zooming back and forth between history and the future, the duo meet people living in a jungle looking for a human sacrifice to appease the volcanic god, Splod, colorful ponies, a flock...er...group of wumpires, a bowl filled with piranhas and galactic space police of a prehistoric nature.  In what can only be described as multiple, quirky twists and turns of events, the container of milk (and three small people who pop from the air) become major players in an comic but completely satisfying conclusion.  Readers along with the boy and his sister will be left wide-eyed and wondering.


By the bottom of the first page Neil Gaiman has your attention with the inclusion of a sibling experiment involving mushrooms in chocolate.  With each sentence, paragraph, we become more captivated by the introduction of dad's endearing personality traits.  Before we know it, we are alongside the brother and sister in the kitchen, listening to the story of madcap mishaps unfolding.

We are whooshed into a spacecraft, standing on the deck of a pirate ship, floating in the sky and through time in a hot air balloon, or trudging through a jungle toward a volcano.  As inconceivable as all these characters and events might seem, Gaiman, the consummate storyteller, fashions them, link by link, into a chain of hilarious possibility.  Several times during the course of the dad's retelling, the children voice questions and comments which only add to the overall appeal.  Repeatedly the phrase, fortunately, the milk, appears giving strength to the flow of the narrative.


As a reader and a collector of books, I knew I had to have both editions of this title.  The US edition is cleverly illustrated by cartoonist, Skottie Young.  His intricate line work, his interpretation of the storyline, is full of the the fantastic.  Exaggerated facial expressions on the characters enhance the emotional impact.

Varied in size his illustrations appear with every page turn, a careful blend with the text.  Readers eyes will savor the writing, then drink in the liveliness of the pictures.  My favorite is of his portrayal of this sentence:

And he went back to reading his paper.

The knowing look, the smile on the dad's face, sitting in his favorite plaid-covered chair, the dog resting by his side, is wonderful.


Chris Riddell, illustrator of the UK edition, gives an entirely new look to the title.  His drawings, his depiction of the characters, while as detailed as those of Young, heighten the sense of adventure beginning with the cover, carrying the rings of time-travel to the endpapers. Opposite the first page, his illustration foreshadows the events to come. Readers will not realize the significance of this until the end.

Rather than show the passage of time as the children are waiting their dad's return with a single double-page spread as Young does, he presents readers with a series of panels showing the son engaged in a variety of activities.  His pictures expertly convey the humor, the sense of marvelous magic, found in the tale.  A full-color four-page foldout of the angry volcano god, is a delightful surprise.

I have to say, all his illustrations of the dad are favorites.  Following the story's end the publishers have written a small note to readers.  This in turn, is followed by Riddell's naming of all the characters, providing full-body portraits of each.


Fortunately, The Milk penned with purpose by Neil Gaiman and pictured by Skottie Young and Chris Riddell, is sheer pleasure from beginning to end.  Not only do I highly recommend this book as a read aloud but readers need to see and enjoy both editions of this title.  It will encourage discussions about illustrator's perceptions of text especially the final wordless scene of each.  I would love to know their views about these visuals.

If you desire to know more about Neil Gaiman, Skottie Young or Chris Riddell follow the links to their respective websites embedded in their names in the post above.  I invite you to follow this link to the Bloomsbury website teacher's guide.  It links to this website loaded with extras for this title.  Here is the link to the HarperCollinsChildren'sBooks Browse Inside feature where you can view the first twenty-five pages.  Enjoy the videos below.

It's All In Your Mind

There are moments when your memory fails you.  Waking up suddenly in the night can cause temporary confusion.  Going from one room to another, your mind loaded with tasks, only to discover the real reason you went to the room has left your mind.  Sometimes you will be writing along and the spelling for the simplest word has vanished from your thoughts entirely.

When joining my 93-year-old Mom for dinners in her assisted living home, I sit with her table companions listening and watching some of them struggle to put a sentence together.  You can see in their eyes as they search for the correct words to express their thoughts.  Imagine how this would be if you were only in middle school?  Kate Messner's newest title, Wake Up Missing (Walker Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Inc.), places six young people with head injuries, all hoping to get their normal lives back, together in circumstances where their very existence is threatened.

If you hit your head hard enough, your brain gets shaken up inside your skull.

Twelve-year-old Cat Grayson and her mom have recently arrived in the Florida Everglades to drop her off at the highly acclaimed International Center for Advanced Neurology, I-CAN.  They are taken to the former military facility by air boat along with another new patient Ben and his aunt.  Two other guests, Quentin and Sarah who have been there for two weeks already, and Dr. Mark Ames, head of I-CAN, greet them upon their arrival.  When Cat's mom and Ben's aunt leave, Cat is overwhelmed with conflicting emotions, should she be here or not.

Trent and Kaylee are in the final stages of treatment, their absence while noted by the other four, is dismissed as their first morning conversations focus on getting to know one another.  The initial inkling that something might be amiss is noticed by Cat that same day when she overhears an argument between Dr. Ames and a neurologist who specializes in genetic engineering, Dr. Gunther.  Later when Trent appears in the cafeteria, Sarah, who has spent the most time with him, insists he has changed; his personality, speech and mannerisms are altered.

Overhearing a cell phone conversation on the roof, Cat is certain she and the others are being told a distorted version of the facility's true purpose.  Sneaking into Dr. Gunther's office, she and Sarah discover even more alarming evidence.  Convincing the two boys, Quentin and Ben, is not so easy though....until they discover something and someone who are not supposed to be there.

Dead scientists' names adding up to a terrifying realization, clandestine trips into the Everglades, experiments gone wrong, kidnapping, a horrible statement overheard, drug runners and One-Eyed Lou spell serious trouble for the six.  They have become pawns in a truly frightening high stakes game reaching to the upper echelon.  In what can only be described as a tension-filled, page-turning series of events the group needs to work through their differences, find the best possible solution in multiple worse-case scenarios and search within themselves to find answers quickly.


Within the first two chapters readers will feel a sense of apprehension building.  Supported by meticulous research, in the capable hands of author Kate Messner, a sure knowledge grows that despite this being a work of fiction, it could happen.  It's this recognition combined with superb writing techniques which hooks readers, not letting them go until the final sentence is read.

We are there with Cat, Ben, Quentin, Sarah, Trent and Kaylee through conversation, thoughts, detailed descriptions of place and single potent sentences.  Supporting characters, Molly the air boat driver, Dr. Gunther, the neurologist with a less than stellar past, Gus and Eugene, the duo living on the wrong side of the law, good and bad all ring true.  Dr. Mark Ames, plotting and planning, with his eyes on the prize will stop at nothing to succeed.  Here are a few examples of her writing from this title.

I smiled back at her and reminded myself this was where I needed to be to get better.  I liked the birds.  The kids were friendly, and Dr. Ames seemed nice, too.  Like he cared about us, like he wanted to make sure we felt safe and happy.  Like we were important to him.
I guess we were, in a way.  Just not the way we thought.  

All the anxiety that had lifted from me watching the birds came back, twisting my stomach, pounding on my head from the inside.  Now I had to stay hidden; somehow, I knew I was hearing something I shouldn't.  

"Come on." Quentin offered Ben his hand.  Ben ignored it and almost fell in the water, but he caught a branch and started up the trail.  It didn't go far before the brush filled in, and we were climbing over snapping branches and mangrove roots thick as my arm.
"Did you hear that?" Sarah grabbed my arm.  We stopped and listened.
It was quiet.
I looked at Quinten.  His eyes narrowed, and I could tell he was thinking what I was thinking.
It was too quiet for the Everglades.


Kate Messner's Wake Up Missing is a science thriller jam-packed with heart-stopping action.  Precisely when you think you have all the dots connected, she throws in another tantalizing shift, a new element that changes everything.  You, like the characters, need to re-evaluate; they to survive, you to speculate on what the next turn of page will bring.  Plan on multiple copies; this is one book that will never be on the shelves.

In a detailed Author's Note, Messner outlines the spark for writing this book and the research involved.  Here is a link to the Pinterest board she has developed for this title.  My review is based upon an ARC I received from Kate Messner as part of one of her KidLit auctions.