A Tea-rrific Time

It would seem that our lives are composed of rituals; certain practices done at specific times of the year, month, or even every day.  During the month of August it might be staying up into the early hours of the morning to watch the Perseid meteor shower, growing up it was new shoes before school started in September, or each night not being able to go to sleep until you've told members of your family good night, I love you.  These routines give comfort, a sense, whether true or not, that all is right with the world.

I'll wager that most people can barely begin their day without a first cup of coffee, or in my case, a cup of tea. In Asian cultures there are beautiful ceremonies for the preparation and serving of tea.  Low tea and high tea are British terms used to distinguish between the times tea might be served.  When you host or attend a tea party there is an etiquette to be observed.  In Tea Rex (Viking, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.) written and illustrated by Molly Idle adjustments to tradition prevail in a rather BIG way.

When hosting an afternoon tea for a special friend---
greet your guest at the door.

If a grinning Tyrannosaurs rex, invitation in hand wearing a teeny, tiny purple bowler hat and purple and yellow polk-a-dot bow tie, happens to be filling the open door frame, this could present the first of many...er...challenges during the event.  Having him follow you to the parlor is not going to be easy when he can hardly squeeze through the door.  With meeting the other guests and finding one's spot at the table complete, the polite conversation begins.

In response to shenanigans involving cutlery on the part of the younger brother, Mr. Rex lets out a mighty loud roar of approval.  Offering food, despite its variety, and the pouring of tea proves to be rather problematic.  The guest's enthusiasm for both is a tad over the top.

Mayhem quickly follows on the heels of one mishap after the other. Appropriate music and dance (more like riding  on a roller coaster at the amusement park) concludes the tea party. Whew!  With the special guest barely, in every sense of the word, out the door, a surprise is delivered to the hosts, actually, a bunch of BIG surprises.


Sentence by sentence in a most prim and proper form, Molly Idle provides a narrative which reads like pages from Miss Manners.  With little stretch of the imagination you can almost hear the voice enunciating each and every word chosen with care.  The pauses between page turns elevate the disparity between what is read and what is seen in the illustrations.


On the front jacket and cover we are treated to a snapshot of a very special occasion but a picture on the back, a circular inset, tells a different story, the real story.  The palette of colors displayed on the jacket and cover are used throughout on illustrations rendered with Prismacolor pencils. Opening and closing endpapers provide charming close-ups of an invitation and thank you note sent by Cordelia to Mr. Rex, the opened envelopes against his bowler hat, the notes held by his versatile tail.

The details in the decor, the characters' attire, the table setting and facial expressions (oh, those eyes) only increase the hilarity.  The "before the roar" and "after the roar" differences are the first of many.  For example in a series of three visuals for When everyone is settled, you may serve refreshments.  Be sure to offer several choices---and cater to the individual tastes of your guests, we see all the characters seated at the table hands and feet reaching toward delectable delights followed by the disappearance of all including a portion of the plate and then "whoosh", the teddy bear in attendance is about to be consumed too. My favorite of them all is the double page spread of what's left of the parlor after the party as Cordelia and her brother push (it's a tight fit) Mr. Rex out the door.  All sense of decorum has vanished.


With delicate, dramatic illustrations drawn to illuminate and accentuate Tea Rex by Molly Idle is most memorable.  The very idea of dinosaurs and tea parties is so foreign to our way of thinking, the humor begins immediately and grows page after page.  You'll be looking for a free date to have your very own afternoon tea.  Who will you invite?

Please stop by Molly Idle's website.  A link is embedded in her name above.  This is a link to Molly Idle Picks Kid-Friendly Dinosaur Books at BOOKish. (Thanks to John Schumacher for tweeting this link.) This book trailer is only the start of a wonderful reading experience.

 

A Dog, A Dinosaur and a Boy's Love

On the wall in my home is a signed print by the late artist and author, Stephen Huneck.  Huneck is best known in the children's literature community for his series of Sally, a black Labrador, books. My print is of the front paws, head, chest and winged back of a yellow Labrador, nose pointed upward toward a single shining star, the laces of a dangling shoe, in his/her mouth.  The print is captioned, Dogs Have A Soul.  

If you've ever loved and lost a dog, the need to believe this, for this to be true, is very strong.  When children grow up with a puppy, there is something extraordinary about the bond formed between them and their dog.  It's as if they are the other half of one another.  Author/ artist Doug TenNapel, whose graphic novels, Ghostopolis, Bad Island and Cardboard, are extremely popular with readers, has a recently released, newer version of the title, Tommysaurus Rex (Graphix, an imprint of Scholastic) filled with king-size heart about the remarkable connection between a boy and his canine....er....prehistoric companion.

Ely, an only child, living with his parents in suburbia has grown up with a golden retriever named Tommy.  We are introduced to the characters around the breakfast table as Ely is getting ready to take Tommy for a walk to the park.  On the way to meeting his friends with their dogs, tragedy strikes.  Another dog gets away from their human, chasing Tommy out into the street where he is struck and killed by a car.

Absolutely heartbroken, Ely is comforted by his Dad that evening with the suggestion he go stay with his grandpa, helping him on the farm.  Upon arrival at the farm, amid the greetings, Ely receives the gift of a toy Tyrannosaurus Rex from his grandpa. All goes grandly, as is often the case between grandparents and their grandchildren.

The next day after hours of hard work, Ely takes a break walking around the area with his new, smaller plastic companion.  A local boy, Randy and his two buddies Shem and Beckett approach Ely.  Their intentions, however, are not friendly.

Ely takes off with them in hot pursuit running through the woods trying to hide in a cave.  Caught off guard by strange sounds within the dark cavern, he is nabbed and bullied by the three, losing his grandpa's gift too.  That night neither Randy or Ely can sleep; Randy is filled with anxiety over the absence of his father and Ely hears those same noises, heard earlier, louder and closer, coming from the darkness outside.  Who or what is out there?

Making his way through the night back to the cave, Ely frees a trapped, full-grown Tyrannosaurus Rex.  The friendship between the duo is immediate.  Of course, there is the slight problem of his size, appetite, friendship with a local black cat and fear of fire.

It's up to Ely, Grandpa and Rex to prove to the mayor of the community that he's an asset rather than a liability.  While their determination to succeed seems to be working, Randy is equally driven to make life as miserable for Ely and Rex as possible.  When Randy's efforts roar out of control, Ely's decision alters everything...except for the love he shares with Tommysaurus Rex.


Told entirely in dialogue, visual and sound effects, Doug TenNapel creates a story poignant in its sadness and happiness alike; breaking your heart and fixing it more than once. His placement of humor (and dino poop) are spot-on.  His characters are fully human; flawed but rising to the occasion when they need to be better than they think they can be.  Here is an example:

The newly acquired Rex has just eaten a cow.

Ely: COOOOL!
Grandpa: A dinosaur is eating my cow.
Ely: They do that.
Grandpa: Mmm...so they do.
Ely: His name is Rex.
Grandpa: Ely, that's a Tyrannosaurus Rex! You can't keep him.
Ely: Oh, come on, Gramps! He's gonna be my best and only friend.
Ely: PUH--LEAAAASE!
Grandpa: And don't try to give me "Weepy Eyes"! I've got my Weepy-Eye Shields up!
Ely: Aw, come on, Grandpa! We get a T-Rex dropped in our lap and you wanna get rid of it!
What kind of man doesn't dream of owning a T-Rex?
Grandpa: You've got a point there.
Ely: Look at him go! He finished all of the bowels in thirty seconds!


In perfect sync with the dialogue the graphics accentuate the emotional heartbeart of the story.  Alternating between framed panels, single page and double page illustrations and shifting perspective they captivate the reader, pulling them into the center of the action.  Numerous times the humor is unspoken but obvious.  Some of my favorites are: the series of pages when Ely first encounters Rex foreshadowing events to come, the three panels when Ely throws a stick saying fetch and Rex brings back the local policeman dangling from his motorcycle, when Ely's dad comes to his room to comfort him, lying down on the floor next to him and the uplifting final two pages.


Having read Tommysaurus by Doug TenNapel twice cover to cover and other sections a third and fourth time, I can say, in complete honesty, this graphic novel is a great read.  It is first and foremost a story of the love a boy has for his dog and in turn of the dog's love for his boy.  But, many other life challenges are raised within this story, the why of bullying, remorse, forgiveness and death.  Plan on multiple copies.

PLIK! PLIK! PLIK!

One of the most anticipated events with elementary students is the loss of a tooth.  Many a lesson, storytelling circle and book browsing session has been interrupted by a young, eager and happy voice shouting out, "My tooth fell out!"  Students gather around the lucky soul as if they have discovered gold.  A plastic tooth on a string necklace, a small hinged box, perfect for holding the treasure, is a favorite piece of "jewelry", a point of pride.

The next morning they are regaling their best buddies with a story of the tooth fairy's visit.  Never having thought about it, but granting it makes perfect sense, other creatures with teeth probably have their own tooth fairies.  With a blast from the prehistoric past The Dinosaur Tooth Fairy (Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc.) written by Martha Brockenbrough with illustrations by Israel Sanchez tells a tale of teeth, longing and finding the one thing which bridges across the ages.


Inside the museum of truly old things, past the food court, the woolly mammoths, and the wheel exhibit, the last Dinosaur Tooth Fairy polishes her collection of fangs.

As you can imagine it has been quite some time since the Dinosaur Tooth Fairy has gathered in any new pearly whites.  You can only dust and shine your current cache for so many millenia before the urge, the urge for another tooth, is overwhelming.  Being the final one of your kind is mighty, mighty lonely, too.

With the practiced eye of one at the top of her profession, the Dinosaur Tooth Fairy spies a very loose tooth, so loose it falls out of the mouth of a young visitor at the museum. Lickety split she leaves her world behind to see the little girl gulped up by a noisy, yellow behemoth; she grabs on for all she's worth.  When it stops, with relief she notes, the child escapes only to enter another challenging menace.

As darkness descends, finally finding an opening, she continues her pursuit looking in the most unusual nooks and crannies (to her) with next to no help from the other irritating inhabitants.  As the sun begins it's climb into a new day, the Dinosaur Tooth Fairy's goal is at last within her grasp.  She reaches... getting more than she bargained for in the beginning.


As evidenced by her young adult title debut (Devine Intervention reviewed here) author Martha Brockenbrough knows how to spin a story that is heartwarming, thoughtful and surprising.  Her love of language, playing with word combinations, to create the correct atmosphere for the tale and meaningful moods for her characters, will call out to you, welcoming you to join in the toothy quest.  Choosing to focus on a single word, repeating it three times in a row, increases tension, further binding the reader to the plight of the desperate dino.  Here are a couple of examples.

She has a spiky beauty from a Spinosaurus,
a mighty molar from the Gigantosaurus,
and a splendid side tooth she snagged from a yawning duck-billed Hadrosaur.

It's definitely not with the parrot,
who is rude, rude, rude and that is ALL there is to say.


How can readers not be drawn to the green, grinning, crowned, flying dinosaur in a frilly skirt, purple purse loaded with large teeth, on the cover of this book?  The truth is, they can't.  Using gouache to color the world of The Dinosaur Tooth Fairy, illustrator Israel Sanchez, putting paint to paper, begins to add his special ingredients to the story as soon as the cover is opened.

His visuals tell a tale all their own complimenting and completing Brockenbrough's words.  Readers will immediately note and continue to look for the mysterious being in disguise.  Most of the the bold, bright pictures extend from edge to edge across two pages; a few single pages are opposite a large oval illustration.  The humorous delight is in the details, facial expressions and body language, dinosaur tails, dog drool, dentures in a glass, a hairy hamster and a cranky, tattle-tale parrot.  I think one of the funniest pictures is of the Dinosaur Tooth Fairy squeezing through the doggy door trying to placate the household pet with dog bones.


A first picture book for both author Martha Brockenbrough and illustrator Israel Sanchez, The Dinosaur Tooth Fairy will fly right into your heart filling it with laughter and friendship...and you won't even have to loose a tooth to get these gems.

By following the link embedded in the title you will find lots of extra goodies at a special website for the book.  There are links embedded in the author and illustrator names to their official websites.  Martha Brockenbrough is donating ten percent of her royalties to Kids International Dental Services, which provides pro bono dental care to impoverished children in developing countries.