children's books

Charlie Hits it Big

by Deborah Blumenthal
with illustrations by Denise Brunkus

HarperCollins

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REVIEWS

Barnes & Noble
Charlie is a pint-sized guinea pig with Tinsel Town dreams. Most of us know that stardom doesn't come easy, but Charlie is convinced that his rodent good looks and toothy smile make him a surefire candidate to be the next Tom Hanks or Tom Cruise. But what fate awaits him? We won't ruin the story, but we will say that writer Deborah Blumenthal and illustrator Denise Brunkus have concocted a story that will warm the cockles of your heart.

Children's Literature
The story of Charlie the guinea pig, who, after seeing a newspaper clipping in his cage about pigs making it big in Hollywood, leaves his family for his own chance at stardom. Once there, Charlie slightly impresses a casting director with his very emotional reading of the lines. However, the casting director is looking for dark and handsome. So tan furred Charlie dyes his hair dark and returns to truly impress. The casting director telling him that he’s going to be “Big!” After being exposed to hordes of flashing light bulbs from photographers and almost getting stepped on by people numerous times at his first Hollywood party, Charlie begins to miss the comforts of home: playing with his owner, Sophie, no pushy people, and his favorite treat Fruity-Nut Buffet. With these thoughts in his mind, Charlie hightails it back home and into the welcome arms of Sophie, who is more than happy to see him. Though the age is listed as good for 3- to 8-year-olds, it is more appropriate for 3- to 6-year-olds. The illustrations are big, bright, and colorful. Charlie’s want of the creature comforts of his home vs. the attention of Hollywood make a good point that sometimes simple things are the best. Reviewer: Patrick Hunter

School Library Journal
PreS-Gr 1- When a shocked Sophie finds that Charlie, her guinea pig, has escaped from his cage, she's unaware that the errant rodent has decided to make his fame and fortune in Hollywood. He flies cross-country first class, gets a part in a movie, and begins to lead the glamorous life of a star. Before long, though, he realizes that the glitz isn't for him and, homesick, he returns to his family. In this classic tale of the allure of bright lights, the sassy little rodent has chutzpah to spare. The candy-colored illustrations are lighthearted and have a sure, "stop action" frenzy; funny bits are woven into each spread, featuring the diminutive guinea pig amid the over-the-top splendor of a star's world.-Marge Loch-Wouters, Menasha Public Library, WI
Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews
What's a guinea pig with dreams of movie stardom to do? If it's Charlie, Sophie's pet, he sneaks away from the human family's home and heads off to Hollywood. People understand his speech and he is able to hail cabs and be dressed by the snazziest designers. (Clearly a strong suspension of disbelief is required.) In order to get the starring role in a Beauty and the Beast-type film he dyes himself dark brown (all the better to be small, dark and handsome, you see). Charlie is feted and fawned over by the humorously drawn sycophantic Hollywood crowd yet finds himself feeling lonely and dissatisfied. Now what's a homesick guinea pig to do? Hop a plane back to young Sophie, of course. Brunkus, the illustrator of the popular Junie B. Jones series, adds a great deal to the silly text via her funny, colorful and enlightening drawings. Easily conveying Charlie's hubris followed by his attainment of just a little bit of humility. (Picture book. 4-7)

Aunt Claire's Yellow Beehive Hair

by Deborah Blumenthal
with illustrations by Mary GrandPre

Pelican Publishing

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REVIEWS

Publishers Weekly

"This volume is not so much about Aunt Claire or her hair as it is about the telling details that set each of young Annie's family members apart. Annie longs to know about her ancestors:

'I want to reach into the past and bring them closer to me.'

With the help of her great-aunt, she does just that, sorting through photographs as well as such memorabilia as yellowed letters with faded handwriting and the lace wedding veil worn by her Swedish Great-Grandma Sophie. GrandPre effortlessly breathes life into these snippets of lives well lived. For instance, in a sepia-toned photograph, dashing Great-Grandpa Louis, who bet on horses, looks flirtatiously over at his wife, conveyed in a dreamy, smoky-blue image on the opposite page, who clearly returns his affection:

"Great-Grandma Sadie stayed home/ and sewed tiny silver sequins onto dresses/ and baked twisted breads/ to make back the money/ that Great-Grandpa Louis lost."

Blumenthal (The Chocolate-Covered-Cookie Tantrum) and GrandPre‚ create an anecdotal album within an album, making bygone times shine brightly for both the heroine and readers. The artist (best known for the cover art and interior spots for the Harry Potter novels) whimsically mingles images of past and present in radiant pastel paintings, which range from comical to affecting.

A family portrait to savor, this may well spark kids' interest in their own family trees.
Ages 5-up."

The Pink House on the Seashore

by Deborah Blumenthal with illustrations by Doug Chayka.

Clarion Books for Young Readers

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ABOUT THE BOOK

A house can be more than just a shelter. Some houses are places where family traditions grow, where memories live. But what happens to the traditions and memories when the house is gone? After losing a beloved summer home to a treacherous storm, two children and their parents discover the affirming answer to this poignant question . . . together. Evocative paintings and spare text show the family combing the sand for fragments of their possessions, sharing memories, and beginning to look beyond their loss.

From Booklist
K-Gr. 3. After a storm destroys her family's summer cabin at the beach, a girl tells of driving back there with her parents and her brother. Simple, evocative words and expressive gouache pictures show the destruction they find: "a world / shaken, / turned upside down, / inside out / by shrieking winds" that "had ripped along the coast / like a mad beast, / destroying everything in its path." The sorrow is heartfelt. The girl remembers happy times when the family felt safe. She talks about her present grief and loss, and, finally, about the hope of rebuilding, even as she hears her mother cry. Of course, the horrifying tsunami images and the reports of local storms and destruction will add immediacy to this story, which can open discussion about both the nightmares of sudden natural disasters and the loss of this one family--fortunate that its loss was not a loved one.
Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Kirkus
In the aftermath of a hurricane, a family returns to the site of its seashore vacation cottage to find "a world shaken, / turned upside down, / inside out." The small house that has been in the family for generations is now "only broken boards / and splinters of pink wood." The children search in the sand "for pieces of a lost time." The spare language, set in short, uneven lines, captures the shock, the sense of loss and the grief experienced by the family, as well as the sense of freedom that comes from creating something new. The family spends the next summer in a red tent upon which they paint blue shutters, a structure the children imagine is many things-a hospital, the Big Top and a base camp in Antarctica. Upon returning home, the children take their "make-believe house" with them, setting it up in the living room, where they "dream about summers to come." Chayka's broadly executed, colorful gouache illustrations effectively express the poignant mood of this lovingly told story that will resonate for anyone who has suffered a life-transforming loss.
(Picture book. 6-10)

Don't Let the Peas Touch!
and Other Stories by Deborah Blumenthal
with illustrations by Timothy Basil Ering

Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic, October, 2004

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A Book of the Month Club Alternate
Book Sense 76 Winner, Winter 2004

REVIEWS

Starred Review:
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (Champaign, IL)

Three personable stories chronicle the authentically thorny relationship between Sophie and her older sister, Annie. In the first story, Annie’s culinary display falls afoul of Sophie’s determined pickiness; in a second, Sophie’s good intentions aren’t enough to achieve the quiet time Annie requests; finally, Annie makes up for a mean big-sister remark with a surprise pet that she and Sophie can share. These gently shaped slice-of-life stories fairly vibrate with personality and that personality is usually that of forceful little Sophie, whether she’s holding her meat up to the light in wary search of fat and gristle or helpfully leading her toy animals in a very quiet circus while her sister studies. Sprightly natural dialogue captures the true, not always fond, tone of sisterly exchanges, and careful word choice makes the simple sentences a quiet triumph of rhythmic exposition. Mixed-media illustrations rely mostly on strong acrylic pigments, often textured with scrawls of grease pencil; Sophie’s redder-than-red curls draw the eye in most illustrations, but they’re well balanced with a delicious buffet of spicy touches and cool colors, standing out against softly muted backgrounds. The vivid colors and changing layouts, ranging from spot art to vignettes to spreads, provide a rollicking visual cadence, while the sharp lines of faces add emotional punctuation to the scenes. The three-chapter format allows the readaloud pleasure to be drawn out over several sittings, and beginning readers brave enough to tackle occasionally creative font will also enjoy this sisterly literary outing.

Kirkus

Siblings clash, then resolve their issues without parental meddling in these three child-centered episodes. Preschooler Sophie rejects every dish her preteen sister Annie tries to serve for a cooking class, then does her best to give Annie a quiet time (with notable lack of success), and finally receives a low-maintenance “pet” –a seed she dubs “Tiny”—of her very own. Blumenthal drolly captures the sisters’ disparate personalities—and so does Ering, depicting patient (but not unreasonably so) Annie with sensibly neat brown hair and Sophie as an unruly redhead. She’s flopped back in her chair with an expression of comical disgust when Annie proudly uncovers “Ze best blue cheese omelet!,” absorbedly constructing a doomed “very quiet, very tall house” from blocks, and at last, dancing delightedly on her bed when Tiny undergoes an overnight transformation. Here’s a right-on picture of a close, if not always smooth, relationship that will make knowing readers grin.

Publisher's Weekly

Three brief tales of two sisters add up to one warm and wise picture book. Annie and her younger sister, Sophie, are as different as can be. Annie loves to cook and try new foods while Sophie is a picky eater who doesn't like any of the foods on her plate to touch. Though Annie likes to take quiet time to read, Sophie has trouble keeping things at a whisper. And Annie is old enough to be keeper of the family pet, but Sophie's pleadings to get another household critter largely fall on deaf ears. As readers get to know these energetic girls, they'll likely relate to the universal themes here: sibling rivalry, age-appropriate responsibility and good old-fashioned, bratty bickering. Through it all, though, Blumenthal (Aunt Claire's Yellow Beehive Hair) sounds a realistic, reassuring note in the form of supportive, if sometimes exasperated, parents, and sisters who eventually learn to compromise while showing flashes of their love and concern for one another. Ering's (The Tale of Despereaux) mixed-media art featuring bright acrylics, ink and pencil, have zing. Sophie's fiery red locks and attention-getting antics make her a natural focal point-and a memorable interruption in the everyday rhythms of a typical family's routine. Ages 4-8.
(Oct.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 2–The trials, tribulations, and triumphs of sisterhood are perfectly captured in this trio of tales. In the first, big sister Annie is applying her newly acquired cooking skills but little sister Sophie has a set of culinary rules all her own. "The peas are touching the eggs! Don't let them touch!" A frustrated Annie uses some ingenuity and a lazy Susan to save the day. In the second vignette, Annie needs some quiet time and Sophie tries (but fails) to oblige. Both girls plumb their flexibility, imaginations, and affections when Annie introduces Sophie to a unique and ultimately satisfying pet in the final story. The personalities of these sisters shine throughout this well-paced, lengthy picture book. Sophie is, at times, a tiny termagantbut also an avid admirer of Annie, who is often exasperated by but truly cares for her exuberant sibling. Their dialogue realistically veers from gentle compassion to shouted insults. The pencil, pen, and, acrylic illustrations are lively and winsome and the cheerful palette reflects the upbeat tone. Moments of high drama explode across the page and eyebrows speak volumes in Ering's witty artwork. The dynamics of sibling relationships, both mundane and meaningful, are expertly captured so expect some heartfelt sighs from both adult readers and young listeners alike.
–Carol Ann Wilson, Westfield Memorial Library, NJ
Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

ABOUT THE BOOK

All's fair in war and peas...or is it? Meet Sophie and Annie, little sister and big. Read three stories about how they fight and make up becuse Sophie is a picky eater and Annie isn't, Sophie likes to make noise and Annie doesn't, Sophie wants a pet and Annie...well, surprises her. Kids everywhere will recognize their problems and laugh at the solutions in this smart, funny book.

Ice Palace
by Deborah Blumenthal
with illustrations by Ted Rand

Clarion Books for Young Readers

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REVIEWS

School Library Journal

"Kindergarten-Grade 4-A girl describes the annual winter carnival in Saranac Lake, NY.* Its centerpiece is an enormous ice palace, constructed in recent years not only by villagers, but also by crews from Camp Gabriels, a nearby minimum-security correctional facility. Each day, the 10-year-old and her father watch the building progress, block by block, with slush used as mortar. When the opening day finally arrives, it is a whirlwind of parades, games, races, and the crowning of a king and queen, culminating in spectacular fireworks. As the book ends, winter fades into spring, the ice palace melts away, and the child is left thinking about her Uncle Mike, one of the prisoners who helped construct the castle. He is due to be released and will perhaps participate freely in next year's activities. The text is poetic yet approachable. The description of the prison is straightforward without being alarming; it is "a place that keeps men away from other people for a while because they've broken the law." Rand's watercolor-and-acrylic illustrations capture the icy-blue feel of a small town in winter, with the brush strokes providing texture and layer to the story. Children will be fascinated by this unusual tradition, and the girl's personal relationship to one of the workers draws readers deeper into the tale."



* Want to learn more about the real Saranac Lake Winter Carnival? Visit the website:http://www.saranaclake.com/carny.shtml.

The Chocolate-Covered-Cookie Tantrum

by Deborah Blumenthal
with illustrations by Harvey Stevenson

Clarion Books for Young Readers

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REVIEWS

School Library Journal

"A slice-of-life picture book that acknowledges the intense emotions of a toddler. On the way home from the park, Sophie spots another child eating a chocolate-covered cookie. 'I want a cookie,' she says pointing a stubby finger, 'I want that cookie.'

Despite her mother's calm and logical response, Sophie becomes more and more upset, finally launching into a tantrum that involves kicking, screaming, tears, and a face as 'hot as a pepper.'

The straightfoward and simply worded text uses repetition to express the child's fury, frustration, and helplessness. Both words and pictures capture the sudden and surprising intensity of the tantrum, and the reassuring comfort of recovery."

UPCOMING CHILDREN'S BOOKS:

Black Diamond and Blake,(Knopf/Crown Books for Young Readers), with illustrations by Miles Hyman, February 3, 2009.

The Blue House Dog, (Peachtree Publishers), not yet scheduled.

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