Travel the World: China: No! That's Wrong

Looking for something that is purely silly and giggle-worthy? Giggle-worthy that is if you're a young child or a playful adult! Look no further than No! That's Wrong! by Zhaohua Ji and Cui Xu. This picture book comes to us from China. It is published by Kane/Miller.

I'm not a complete expert on what "funny" looks like. But I do know this: kids and books featuring underpants/underwear get along really really well together. When the wind blows a pair of red underpants off the clothes line and onto the head of a white rabbit...well, let's just say it's the beginning of a comical adventure.

It's a story told in multiple voices. On one side, we've got rabbit and friends discussing and debating what this red garment is...and on the other side, we've got the narrator clearly clinging to reality.

For example:

"What's This? It's a hat!"

"No, that's wrong. It's not a hat."

The narrator really has a fit trying to talk sense into this bunny character.

Anyway, I'm not sure that this one will delight each and every reader. But I thought it was fun and playful. And I think kids will like it.

A review by Fuse #8, Kids Lit, The Well-Read Child, and Books & Other Thoughts

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

The Willoughbys

Lowry, Lois. 2008. The Willoughbys.

I honestly didn't know what to expect from this one. Would I love it? Would I like it? Would I "get" it? You see The Willoughbys is an old-fashioned story. It's very tongue-in-cheek. It's very funny. Very enjoyable. But it's just strange enough that it has the potential to either really charm you or really irritate you. So which would it do to me? That was the question. I knew some bloggers appreciated it. But I know that sometimes I can't help being contrary. Well, I'm glad to say that I did really enjoy this one. I don't know that it was L-O-V-E, sing a song, do a little happy dance good. But I really really enjoyed it. I did love it. (I just don't know if it will be one that will go on my love, love, love list.) It's Lois Lowry. Expectations are naturally high. But this one is unlike what Lowry I've read. It's not The Giver. It's not Number the Stars. It isn't Gossamer. It isn't Messenger. Or Gathering Blue. It's very unique. You'll just have to give it a try yourself because there is no way I can do it justice. Not really.

Once upon a time there was a family named Willoughby: an old-fashioned type of family, with four children. The eldest was a boy named Timothy; he was twelve. Barnaby and Barnaby were ten-year-old twins. No one could tell them apart, and it was even more confusing because they had the same name; so they were known as Barnaby A and Barnaby B. Most people, including their parents, shortened this to A and B, and many were unaware that the twins even had names. There was also a girl, a timid, pretty little thing with eyeglasses and bangs. She was the youngest, just six and a half, and her name was Jane. They lived in a tall, thin house in an ordinary city and they did the kinds of things that children in old-fashioned stories do. They went to school and to the seashore. They had birthday parties. Occasionally they were taken to the circus or the zoo, although they did not care much for either, excepting the elephants. Their father, an impatient and irascible man, went to work at a bank each day, carrying a briefcase and an umbrella even if it was not raining. Their mother, who was indolent and ill-tempered, did not go to work. Wearing a pearl necklace, she grudgingly prepared the meals. once she read a book but she found it distasteful because it contained adjectives. Occasionally she glanced at a magazine. (11-12)

Quote is taken from an ARC, so it might not be true to the book in its published form.

Definitely recommended!!

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Double Click for Trouble

Woodworth, Chris. 2008. Double-Click for Trouble.

From the flap:

Eddie McCall is a good kid. He does his homework, picks up around the house, and cooks dinner for his mom when she has to work late at a Chicago hotel. Then Eddie's best friend, Whip, shows him a printout from the Internet--a picture of a full-grown, honest-to-gosh buck-naked woman--and suddenly Eddie can't seem to think about anything else. If only there were a man around he could talk to--but for all of Eddie's thirteen years, his father has been a mystery, absent and unknown.

Try as he might, Eddie can't stay away from the computer. He knows his mom will be upset if she sees the sites he's visiting. Still, he sure doesn't expect her to ship him off to her hometown of Sheldon, Indiana, to live with his great-uncle Peavey for an entire month. Peavey isn't exactly the father figure Eddie's been looking for. He spits tobacco juice into a can, calls a toilet a "commode," and certainly doesn't own a computer. He's never even been on a date!

As it turns out, however, both Peavey McCall and Sheldon, Indiana, hold some very surprising secrets...

There were parts of Double Click for Trouble that I loved, just really really loved. Then there were a few elements that didn't quite work for me. Slight irritants in the plot that just kept me from falling deeply in love with the book. Still, I must say that I'm rather fond of this book. It may not be L-O-V-E with fireworks, but I still liked it plenty. And I loved, loved, loved the ending.

The characters. Loved them for the most part. Loved Eddie. Loved Uncle Peavey. Loved Della. Loved Ronnie (Veronica). There were some other characters that I liked but would need to know more in order to love. I never really got to know the Mom enough or Whip enough for that matter. I was intrigued by Whip's story, however. His deep-and-sensitive and vulnerable side that readers get just a few glimpses of now and then. In my opinion, the novel's top strength is in the characters. The developing relationship between Eddie and his great-uncle. His friction-filled relationship with Ronnie. His whole coming-of-age story, it just works. It might not work completely evenly, but it works.

The setting. I loved the book once he got to Indiana. Everything just seemed better after that. The first setting, the urban setting of Chicago, it isn't that it doesn't work at all. It's just that it doesn't work as well. I'll try to explain it. This Chicago-setting was like climbing the first hill of a roller coaster. It's a bit slow, a bit jerky, and there is just a lot of waiting for everything to really begin. After he goes to Indiana, that is when it gets started, that is where the heart and soul of the novel is. It is here that the energy and focus reside.

The plot. The plot didn't work for me all the time. Parts of it worked--and worked well--other parts not so much. But here's the thing, I cared--really cared--about the characters. So I could be almost completely forgiving of the teeny-tiny didn't-quite-work-for-me bits in the plot. I'll be honest. I think the parts that irritated me slightly still ring with authenticity if that makes sense. Eddie, I believe is 12 or 13--somewhere around there, and there are just a few things about him that while authentic make him slightly irritating. There is a reason that it takes a special calling to work--as a teacher or volunteer--with kids in this age group both girls and guys. It's a difficult age to live through, and it's a difficult age group--in a way--to interact with. Not all the time, not every kid, but there are just rough patches that must be endured. It's not fun for the parent, the child, the teacher, or the sibling.

At its core, Double Click for Trouble is a coming-of-age story. It illustrates in just one of many ways this wonderful quote by Brent Runyon:

"The second hardest thing to do in life is to change from a child into an adult. There are so many ways to mess up. So many ways to get lost. It's like crossing the ocean in a rowboat."--Brent Runyon

http://www.chriswoodworth.com/main.swf

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

My Father's Dragon

Gannett, Ruth Stiles. 1948. My Father's Dragon.

Originally published in 1948, My Father's Dragon is a classic children's book that is perfectly suited for read aloud. Starring Elmer, a young boy, and Boris, a blue and yellow striped dragon, the book is full of one adventure after another. It begins off simply enough, "One cold rainy day when my father was a little boy, he met an old alley cat on his street." The boy, Elmer, is the narrator's "father" and these adventures are "tales" of what happened long ago and far away. (Sometimes the boy is called "my father" and sometimes he is called "Elmer.") He is the sort of boy that dreams of adventures, that dreams of dragons, that dreams of faraway lands. And it is this opportune meeting with an alley cat that is the start of it all. What I liked best about this one is that it is funny, creative, and resourceful. I like the way the boy is able to "think" his way out of each new danger. I also enjoy the illustrations by Ruth Chrisman Gannett. They're delightful for the most part.

The book was a Newbery Honor book in 1949.

96 pages.

The Poetry & Short Stories of Dorothy Parker

The minute I joined the Short Story Reading Challenge, I knew I wanted to read some Dorothy Parker. My introduction to Parker came in college in a literature class. We were assigned at various points two short stories. One was "Telephone Call" and the second was "The Waltz." These two remain my favorite of the ones I've read, but I would still recommend this whole collection. It contains 24 short stories by Dorothy Parker. These stories were originally published in 1939 under the title Here Lies.

What I love about Parker is how she portrays humanity--the good, the bad, the ugly. She captures nuances of humanity both personal and social. (Whether she's documenting the tortured, lonely soul or capturing the hidden layers of a relationship between two friends or two lovers or even the strain of family life.) The stories often contain commentary on social aspects of life--race, class, sex, etc.

Short stories include: "Arrangement in Black and White," "The Sexes," "The Wonderful Old Gentleman," "A Telephone Call," "Here We Are," "Lady With A Lamp," "Too Bad," "Mr. Durant," "Just A Little One," "Horsie," "Clothe the Naked," "The Waltz," "Little Curtis," "The Little Hours," "Big Blonde," "From the Diary of A New York Lady," "Soldiers of the Republic," "Dusk Before Fireworks," "New York to Detroit," "Glory in the Daytime," "The Last Tea," "Sentiment," "You Were Perfectly Fine," and "The Custard Heart."

I know I can't possibly hope to capture my reaction to all of the stories. I would have had to have been taking notes as I read each one. But I hope I can convey how much I appreciated the humanity, the attention to detail, the characterization. All the little things that added up to make each story work as a whole.

Here's how The Wonderful Old Gentleman begins, "If the Bains had striven for years, they could have been no more successful in making their living room into a small but admirably complete museum of objects suggesting strain, discomfort, or the tomb." (p. 241) Isn't that a great way to start a story? Isn't that a great hook? It continues a paragraph later, "It was as if they had all been selected by a single enthusiast to whom time was but little object, so long as he could achieve the eventual result of transforming the Bain living room into a home chamber of horrors, modified a bit for family use."

And here's the frantic but memorable beginning to "A Telephone Call," "Please, God let him telephone me now. Dear God, let him call me now. I won't ask anything else of You, truly I won't. It isn't very much to ask. It would be so little to You, God, such a little, little thing. Only let him telephone now. Please, God. Please, please, please." (254)

And perhaps my favorite, "The Waltz." "Why thank you so much. I'd adore to. I don't want to dance with him. I don't want to dance with anybody. And even if I did, it wouldn't be him. He'd be well down among the last ten. I've seen the way he dances; it looks like something you do on Saint Walpurgis Night. Just think, not a quarter of an hour ago, here I was sitting, feeling so sorry for the poor girl he was dancing with. And now I'm going to be the poor girl. Well, well. Isn't it a small world." (335)

The way she uses language (or she used language as the case may be) is such that it captures a time, a place, a feeling. It is like a photograph of the soul. Capturing the insanity, the loneliness, the confusion, the hope, whatever the feeling--whatever the situation. She's got it captured authentically in print.

Now a brief word about the poetry. The poetry was originally published in several volumes: Enough Rope, Sunset Gun, and Death and Taxes and Other Poems. While I didn't love every poem, I enjoyed enough of the poems to recommend it to others. I liked a good many. And there were a few that were just right. Perhaps I'll use a few in the upcoming weeks for Poetry Friday.

Diaries of Adam & Eve by Mark Twain

The Diaries of Adam & Eve Translated by Mark Twain. Illustrated by Michael Mojher.

This compilation combines several writings by Mark Twain. It weaves together the texts of both Adam and Eve's diaries. You can see snippets of both here and here. (Adam first, then Eve.)

One of the reviews I read notes that, "The Diaries of Adam and Eve contains a good sample of Twain's wry humor and his observations on the human condition. He portrays Adam as a man who would as soon sit around and do nothing, but whose curiosity eventually gets the better of him once it is sparked by Eve. Eve is seen as a curious woman who wants to understand everything around her and has the need to share it with any person who will listen, limited, at first, to Adam, who is passably indifferent to Eve and her passions." Another calls it a "spoof" of the creation story in Genesis. While it's true that it is slightly irreverent, I see it as capturing the bewilderment and awe of life as it might have been. It's not like there was an instruction manual. And their confusion, curiosity, and naive wonder at things we take for granted make for an enjoyable, funny, lighthearted read. At its simplest it is a funny look at how humans learned to be human. One of the more humorous sections is on how they became parents. Eve seems to "get" the baby thing more than Adam ever does. Anyway, I don't want to give too much away. But it is a short, simple, sweet book that I'd consider a must-read at some point in your life. I agree with the Amazon reviewer who wrote, "If there is a shorter, funnier, more delightful book on the planet, I have yet to find it. The genius that was Twain's is in abundant evidence here."

Gallery of Regrettable Food

Part of me thinks it should almost be illegal to have this much fun reading a book. Seriously. But I'm getting ahead of myself here. The book that inspired such fun and giggles is James Lileks' The Gallery of Regrettable Food: Highlights from Classic American Recipe Books. Why now? The Something-About-Me Challenge of course. This gem of a book is from Tiny Librarian's list.

This book got its start when the author, James Lileks, found an unbelievable book in his mother's closet--a "pristine" copy of Specialties of the House. A cookbook that arrived via the neighborhood Welcome Wagon in the early sixties. He writes in the introduction, "The truth of those times won't be found in these pages. These are the commercial bones of the past, what we're left with." (14)

This book isn't for everyone. Let me tell you that right now. It's not a clean read. The humor sometimes turns adult in nature. And its dosed largely with sarcasm. But there is just something so perfect about this book. It's funny. It's witty. It's brilliant.

The book consists of two things: pictures and illustrations and captions taken from authentic cookbooks from America's past (30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s) and adds the "observations" of Lileks. Both can get you into trouble. Sure you might laugh if you look only at the pictures, but once you start reading his narration...you're bound to laugh even harder.

I've been struggling on how best to capture and convey what this book is really like...since I know that most people won't rush on out and see for themselves...

The very least I can do is link to what portions are online...Excerpts of Gallery of Regrettable Food

Actually, I've just been exploring the links...and it seems these are things that aren't in the book. They're extra. They're even-more zany fun that I'll have to explore!! But even so, you'll know if you want to find the real book by examining this site. The review fun goes on at More Regrets, More Fun.

Be sure to visit Lileks' other site as well:

The Institute of Official Cheer

What does this book say about Tiny Librarian? That she has a great sense of humor. That she'd be fun to hang out with. That we are kindred spirits.