![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
juushikaI lied: there will be at least 4 batches of these. Gem in this bunch is Wobble, the Witch Cat, which I found when searching for a different book on Open Library & wouldn't have discovered elsewise. For ages I assumed that Open Library was somehow illegal scans? But it's totally above-board and while it isn't exhaustive it is a great source for obscure/older stuff.
Title: There's a Nightmare In My Closet
Author: Mercer Mayer
Published: Dial Books For Young Readers, 1968
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 333,170
Text Number: 1202
Read Because: from this list of scary picture books, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: Kids befriending what they fear is—by now—a tried and true trope; this is an effective but not particularly memorable example with a nice chaser in the last couple of pages. The salmon/orangey and hunter green palette is more remarkable, and works well for the monsters in particular but can grow overpowering; the art also works better for the monsters than elsewhere. But my real hangup is that this feels so gendered and militant—the armed conflict approach makes the friendship inversion that much stronger, but it's hard to relate to and has come to feel dated. (I can't imagine kids play with realistic toy guns much these days.) This is competent, more playful than evocative, but didn't grab me.
Title: The Widow's Broom
Author: Chris Van Allsburg
Published: Houghton Mifflin, 1992
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 333,200
Text Number: 1203
Read Because: some or another Best Halloween Picture Books list I can't refind, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: I love Van Allsburg's art for the way its rich hyperrealism brings to life speculative or evocative concepts—The Mysteries of Harris Burdick is one of my favorite books. And the art here is adequate, particularly the indulgent autumn aesthetic. But the faces are clumsy and, while it may be an attempt to differentiate this living broomstick from Disney's magic brooms, the broomstick is clumsy and improbable. There's more life in the text, and I appreciate the themes of kindness and acceptance (and fear), of women's work and ingenuity. But the combined art and narrative lack the transcendence I look for in Van Allsburg's work. This is a decent one-time read, but it's not something I'll return to again and again as I have many of his other books.
(Notes from Juu's demographic research: Van Allsburg is Jewish. But wait, you say, didn't he write The Polar Express? Yes; Van Allsburg is a convert; I'm not sure how those timelines coincide and TBH it isn't my business; The Polar Express is still great tho.)
Title: Goldfish Ghost
Author: Lemony Snicket
Illustrator: Lisa Brown
Published: Roaring Brook Press, 2017
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 35
Total Page Count: 333,235
Text Number: 1204
Read Because: reading the author, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: I keep running into goldfish in gallon fishbowls in picture books, and maybe it's not universal knowledge that this is inhumane, but it is a universal and for some reason accepted truth that kids' pets die a lot. For some reason—the reason is that this is about the ghost of a kid's dead goldfish—I thought this book might address that in any capacity. Which, to be fair, is a lot to expect of a picture book! But suffice it to say it doesn't.
Instead this is a standard "outsider finds happiness with another outsider" narrative except that the outsider-ness is because the protagonist is dead. The art has an engaging visual density and the tone is wistful without being melancholy. But it's a missed opportunity to engage my particular preoccupation and it feels hollow: this is remarkable only for its weird premise, not because of what it does with that premise.
(Lemony Snicket and Lisa Brown—his wife—are both Jewish, but the former at least I already knew b/c of A Series of Unfortunate Events.)
Title: Wobble, the Witch Cat
Author: Mary Calhoun
Illustrator: Roger Duvoisin
Published: William Morrow & Company, 1958
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 333,535
Text Number: 1206
Read Because: personal enjoyment, ebook borrowed from Open Library
Review: I love me an irascible children's book protagonist—there's value in teaching a little selfishness and self-determination, and honestly they're just so fun within the safe confines of kidlit's low stakes and happy endings. This fits the bill and comes with a fun Halloween aesthetic and charming illustrations—particularly the color palette, white-on-black, and lovable pudgy older witch. This isn't remarkable or memorable, but it's a solid pleasure.
Title: There's a Nightmare In My Closet
Author: Mercer Mayer
Published: Dial Books For Young Readers, 1968
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 333,170
Text Number: 1202
Read Because: from this list of scary picture books, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: Kids befriending what they fear is—by now—a tried and true trope; this is an effective but not particularly memorable example with a nice chaser in the last couple of pages. The salmon/orangey and hunter green palette is more remarkable, and works well for the monsters in particular but can grow overpowering; the art also works better for the monsters than elsewhere. But my real hangup is that this feels so gendered and militant—the armed conflict approach makes the friendship inversion that much stronger, but it's hard to relate to and has come to feel dated. (I can't imagine kids play with realistic toy guns much these days.) This is competent, more playful than evocative, but didn't grab me.
Title: The Widow's Broom
Author: Chris Van Allsburg
Published: Houghton Mifflin, 1992
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 333,200
Text Number: 1203
Read Because: some or another Best Halloween Picture Books list I can't refind, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: I love Van Allsburg's art for the way its rich hyperrealism brings to life speculative or evocative concepts—The Mysteries of Harris Burdick is one of my favorite books. And the art here is adequate, particularly the indulgent autumn aesthetic. But the faces are clumsy and, while it may be an attempt to differentiate this living broomstick from Disney's magic brooms, the broomstick is clumsy and improbable. There's more life in the text, and I appreciate the themes of kindness and acceptance (and fear), of women's work and ingenuity. But the combined art and narrative lack the transcendence I look for in Van Allsburg's work. This is a decent one-time read, but it's not something I'll return to again and again as I have many of his other books.
(Notes from Juu's demographic research: Van Allsburg is Jewish. But wait, you say, didn't he write The Polar Express? Yes; Van Allsburg is a convert; I'm not sure how those timelines coincide and TBH it isn't my business; The Polar Express is still great tho.)
Title: Goldfish Ghost
Author: Lemony Snicket
Illustrator: Lisa Brown
Published: Roaring Brook Press, 2017
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 35
Total Page Count: 333,235
Text Number: 1204
Read Because: reading the author, hardback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: I keep running into goldfish in gallon fishbowls in picture books, and maybe it's not universal knowledge that this is inhumane, but it is a universal and for some reason accepted truth that kids' pets die a lot. For some reason—the reason is that this is about the ghost of a kid's dead goldfish—I thought this book might address that in any capacity. Which, to be fair, is a lot to expect of a picture book! But suffice it to say it doesn't.
Instead this is a standard "outsider finds happiness with another outsider" narrative except that the outsider-ness is because the protagonist is dead. The art has an engaging visual density and the tone is wistful without being melancholy. But it's a missed opportunity to engage my particular preoccupation and it feels hollow: this is remarkable only for its weird premise, not because of what it does with that premise.
(Lemony Snicket and Lisa Brown—his wife—are both Jewish, but the former at least I already knew b/c of A Series of Unfortunate Events.)
Title: Wobble, the Witch Cat
Author: Mary Calhoun
Illustrator: Roger Duvoisin
Published: William Morrow & Company, 1958
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 333,535
Text Number: 1206
Read Because: personal enjoyment, ebook borrowed from Open Library
Review: I love me an irascible children's book protagonist—there's value in teaching a little selfishness and self-determination, and honestly they're just so fun within the safe confines of kidlit's low stakes and happy endings. This fits the bill and comes with a fun Halloween aesthetic and charming illustrations—particularly the color palette, white-on-black, and lovable pudgy older witch. This isn't remarkable or memorable, but it's a solid pleasure.
