Book Reviews – Page 69

More Po-Mo picture books (Picture book roundup 10)

Wolves

I’ve been fascinated with postmodern picture books ever since I took a course in children’s books back in college. Since then I’ve been building up my collection of po-mo picture books, and I’ve now got over 20 of them, mostly from rummaging through bargain bins.

I love how po-mo picture books challenge the reader to look at things in a different way, offering an enjoyable experience to both the young reader, the parent reading to the child, and even an older reader randomly picking up the book and flicking through the pages.

The multiplicity of meanings also encourages creativity and imagination in constructing the meaning of the text or illustrations, as well as the interest to reread a book.

I also marvel at the writers and illustrators’ creativity in taking the craft of picture books one step further, defying convention and structure

I have several books in this picture book roundup: The Story of a Little Mouse Trapped in a Book by Monique Felix; Wolves by Emily Gravett; Zoom and Re-Zoom by Istvan Banyai; Bamboozled by David Legge; and Pinocchio the Boy, or Incognito in Collodi by Lane Smith (books 175-180 for 2009).

(In case you missed it, I previously discussed the characteristics of po-mo picture books in the post I did on The Three Little Pigs.)

Continue reading “More Po-Mo picture books (Picture book roundup 10)”

Funny Famous Faces

famous faces Impulse buying at the bargain bookstore has gotten me a lot of books I have no earthly use for (as you probably know), but I like buying them anyway (as you probably also know).

This is another one of those books — Famous Faces by Norman Messenger (#174 for 2009). I found among the stacks of children’s books at my favorite bargain bookstore, and it was a bit more than I’d normally spend at the store (well, fine, it was P120 — a little over US$2) because it was a bad day and I needed some cheering up (haha!).

Famous Faces (#174 for 2009) is a novelty book featuring celebrity faces such as Groucho Marx, Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Charlie Chaplin, Elvis, and even Prince Charles and Princess Diana (before they separated).

(Incidentally, I found out this book has been a collector’s item after Diana’s death!)

Each face is divided into four flaps – hair, eyes, nose and mouth, and clothes. You can mix and match these celebrity features to create new faces — e.g. Chaplin’s hat, Marilyn Monroe’s eyes, Diana’s smile, and Margaret Thatcher’s clothes — and get absolutely hilarious results!

Continue reading “Funny Famous Faces”

Chicklit Capers

474760_87767689

I discovered Lauren Willig while browsing through a bargain bin and unearthing a hardcover copy of The Masque of the Black Tulip. The story summary appealed to me, so I bought it and looked it up online, only to find that it was the sequel to The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, which meant compulsive old me could not get started with Black Tulip, as I wanted to read Pink Carnation first.

After months of unsuccessful mooching, I found a trade paperback copy of Pink Carnation in another bargain bin and thus moved both books up the TBR pile (#172-173 for 2009).

These two novels by Lauren Willig make up an interesting set of genre-bending books, combining chick lit, historical mystery, and adventure. The Pink Carnation series runs on two storylines, one featuring present-day London, where Harvard grad student Eloise Kelly is doing research on English spies in the Napoleonic wars. This leads her to uncover the second storyline in each novel: tales revolving around these swashbuckling heroes.

Continue reading “Chicklit Capers”

Maus

This post is dedicated to the victims of the election massacre that took place in Maguindanao.

I was supposed to read another book to wrap up my World War II Challenge, but that will probably have to wait until next month, as I found another couple of books for this Challenge, lent to me by my book club friend Mike (thank you, Mike!).

I’ve only really started venturing into graphic novels recently but the critically-acclaimed Maus by Art Spiegelman is something I’ve always been interested in, although I haven’t seen it in the local book stores. While I’ve been acquainted with Art Spiegelman’s work in the Little Lit series, I’ve always wanted to read his masterpiece.

Continue reading “Maus”

Yodelayheehoo! (The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip)

Lane Smith (of The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, Hooray for Diffendoofer Day, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and many others) is one of my all-time favorite illustrators, and I’ve got a growing collection of his books (mostly the result of foraging in bargain bins!).

I’d been eyeing the book The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip by George Saunders (illustrated by Lane Smith) at a specialty bookstore for ages. Earlier this year, I finally scored a copy at one of the book store sales for only P59!

Continue reading “Yodelayheehoo! (The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip)”