Just a Lucky So and So

Just a Lucky So and So. Lesa Cline-Ransome. Illustrated by James Ransome. 2016. Holiday House. 32 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: In New Orleans, Louisiana, in a part of town outside of Storyville, tucked in a corner called Back o' Town, in a section nicknamed the Battlefield, Little Louis Armstrong was born, black and poor and lucky.

Premise/plot: Just A Lucky So and So is a picture book biography of Louis Armstrong. The book focuses on his childhood and ends with the beginning of his successful career. It is very much a story focused on JAZZ MUSIC. Is it a picture book for young readers or older readers? Is it possible best-suited for adults? I can't answer that perfectly. I think it depends entirely on the life-experiences and interests of the reader.

My thoughts: I love Louis Armstrong. Love, love, LOVE Louis Armstrong. In fact, some of his songs would top my list of BEST SONGS IN THE WHOLE WORLD list. (Some of my favorites: La Vie En Rose, A Kiss To Build a Dream On, What A Wonderful World, Hello Dolly, Kiss of Fire, I Get Ideas, It's Been A Long, Long Time, It Takes Two To Tango, They Can't Take That Away From Me, Cheek to Cheek, I Won't Dance, Let's Call the Whole Thing Off, A Fine Romance, Our Love Is Here to Stay. I could go on.) So my interest level in this picture book biography was high. Any children's book about Louis Armstrong is one I'm going to "need" to review.

I liked this one very much. I loved seeing Armstrong quoted throughout the biography. If this is a trend in picture book biographies, I love it!

I would definitely recommend that if you are going to share this one with children, that you share his music as well. He's very charismatic, and, I think the more familiar you are with his work--his music, his performances, his films, etc--the more you'll appreciate this one. 

Text: 4 out of 5
Illustrations: 5 out of 5
Total: 9 out of 10

© 2017 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Mouse Scouts: Camp Out

Mouse Scouts: Camp Out (#3) Sarah Dillard. 2016. Random House. 144 pages. [Source: Review copy]

First sentence: Up until now, becoming a Mouse Scout was the best thing that had ever happened to Violet.

Premise/plot: Camp Out is the third book in the Mouse Scouts series by Sarah Dillard. Each book seems to be focused on the scouts earning a particular badge. This third book is focused on the "camp out" badge. Violet is nervous--anxious--about the trip. The thought of sleeping outside practically terrifies her. Tigerlily, on the other hand, is excited about the trip. Other badges may panic her--but not this one.

My thoughts: If you've enjoyed the other two books in this series then there's a good chance you'll enjoy this one and any other future books. The books are predictable and safe in a comfy-cozy early reader way. There's something comforting about book series delivering exactly what you want and how you want it. Predictable is essentially exactly what you want when you're seven or eight.

I like the series. I do. I'm not the target audience. I know this. But it is always good for adults to know a little something--or a LOT even--about what books are currently being published for this age group. It's a very important stage developmentally!!!

© 2017 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Stuart Little

Stuart Little. E.B. White. Illustrated by Garth Williams. 1945. 131 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: When Mrs. Frederick C. Little's second son arrived, everybody noticed that he was not much bigger than a mouse.

Premise/plot: Stuart Little acts more like a mouse than a son--for better or worse--in E.B. White's first novel. In the first few chapters he proves himself mostly of use around the house: getting things out of the drain, unsticking piano keys, etc. But for most of the book he is emotionally disconnected from his parents and his brother, George. At first this is running around New York City on his own and having adventures that a 'normal' child could never have. But as the novel progresses,he leaves home without thinking twice about it, with no regrets, with no plans to return. He leaves in search of a bird that has flown away after receiving a warning note that her life was in danger. Stuart knows nothing of the note just that his new friend is gone. Little visits a doctor and borrows a toy car that apparently has a real engine and runs on real gas. The doctor apparently sees him not as a child of a couple he knows well, but an adult mouse. The book ends with him no closer to finding his friend.

My thoughts: I should have listened to my mother. She told me that it was disappointing and strange, and that it had no real ending. I agree. This animal fantasy was odd start to finish. I would have preferred either a story of a small mouse-child that acted like a child, loved his parents, loved his brother, went to school, etc. OR a story of a mouse that acted like a little man: dressed in clothes, drove a car, had a job, etc.

The chapter where the school superintendent was so desperate for a substitute teacher that he hires a mouse off the street was peculiar and strangely entertaining.

Quotes:

Law is much more solemn than advice (93)

Summertime is important. It's like a shaft of sunlight. Or a note in music...or the way the back of a baby's neck smells if its mother keeps it tidy... Never forget your summertimes, my dears. (98)

© 2017 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Some Writer

Some Writer: The Story of E.B. White. 2016. HMH. 176 pages. [Source: Review copy]

First sentence: Elwyn Brooks White became a writer while he was still wearing knickers.

Premise/plot: Melissa Sweet has authored a fantastic biography of E.B. White for middle grade readers. (Or readers of ALL ages who adore the written word!)

My thoughts: Why didn't this win an award?! I loved the subject, probably not a big surprise. I loved the design and layout. They were not publishing books like this when I was a kid. So artistically creative, it is packed with photographs and illustrations. Every spread says READ ME! So it is a beautiful book. But it's not just beautiful trappings, the way the story is told is something masterful. I love, love, love the primary sources, White's story is told in many of his own words! Excerpts from letters, articles, books, interviews, poems, etc! Perhaps many readers who are only familiar with his children's books will be charmed by his other works. (I loved reading some of his poetry!) I also loved seeing his work in progress, his drafts with edits! I loved learning that it took him seventeen takes to record the "Last Day" for the audio book because he was weeping over Charlotte's death.

This is a wonderful compelling read!


© 2017 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

The Best Short Stories

The Best Short Stories. Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Translated by David Magarshack. 2001. 320 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: It was a lovely night, one of those nights, dear reader, which can only happen when you are young.

Premise/plot: This is a collection of seven stories: White Nights, The Honest Thief, The Christmas Tree and a Wedding, The Peasant Marey, Notes From the Underground, A Gentle Creature, and the Dream of a Ridiculous Man. The longest story was Notes From the Underground. The shortest was the Peasant Marey.

My thoughts: White Nights was the first story in the collection and perhaps my favorite. It asks, Is it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all? The narrator is a shy dreamer of a man who for a few days and nights finds complete happiness in love or the idea of love. He becomes the confidant of a young, sheltered woman. Promising not to fall in love with her, she begins to tell him her life story. Both hero and heroine are likable and sympathetic. This romance doesn't end happily ever after for our guy but it isn't a bleak story. That is something in its favor considering the others in this collection.

I liked some of the other stories. The Christmas Tree and the Wedding was an odd slightly creepy story. I don't think he meant it to be creepy, just the way things work out sometimes. In it the narrator first relates how he met a young girl at a Christmas party--she was young under thirteen I think--when her future inheritance or dowry comes up in conversation, a man, an adult, boasts that he'll marry her and get her money. He starts pursuing her that night and scares her very badly. The narrator intervenes that night, but years later happens to see these two as bride and groom on the day of their wedding.

I cannot piece together thoughts on Notes From the Underground. I don't know if that is because it was incoherent or if I was. The narrator's outlook on life was angsty, and he was determined to be in a mood no matter what.

A Gentle Creature was an intense, compelling romance. It begins with a distraught man standing over the body of his wife. She jumped out a window. Why? He tries to tell us what happened and why it happened. But is he reliable? Here is a 40 something pawn broker who sees himself wronged by the world in oh so many ways, he rescues an unhappy 16 year old girl about to be sold into marriage by her aunts. He expects gratitude, love, obedience, submission, worship. He wants her to be so beholden to him that every breath is for him and him alone. He doesn't woo her, he believes in sternness and silence and teaching her according to his grand plan. He frowns whenever she talks or expresses emotion or outbursts. He won't let her out of the house. He is hopeful that with training things will fall into place and perfect bliss will be his. Needless to say, i didn't like him at all!

The last story also deals with suicide--well, attempted suicide. A man is minutes away from shooting himself when he has a dream, a remarkable dream, that he is convinced is TRUE. Heaven on Earth is achievable. Perfect happiness can be ours for the taking--man is not evil inherently, but is perfectable.

Quotes:

Let us suppose, gentlemen, that man is not stupid. But if he is not stupid, he is monstrously ungrateful. (119)

Life is sweet even in sorrow. It's good to be alive, however hard life is. (177)

All man wants is an absolutely free choice, however dear that freedom may cost him and whatever it may lead him to. (116)

Once you have recognized the truth and seen it, you know it is the one and only truth and that there can be no other, whether you are asleep or awake. (271) 

© 2017 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews