The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

"The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane" is an unquestionable classic. I haven't felt this level of satisfaction from a children's book in so long. This is definitely an essential book to read to my students and maybe my own children, if I ever have any. The main character, Edward, is a toy rabbit with a privileged life. He belongs to a girl named Abilene, who loves him very much. She never fails to remind him that she loves him, but Edward does not love her in return. He only thinks of himself. His pride is easily damaged by any little upset. Abilene's grandmother, who gave Edward to Abilene as a gift, tells her a bedtime story one night about a princess who was turned into a warthog as punishment for being a cold-hearted person. Edward listens but does not understand the message of the story.

Edward has to go on a journey into the depths of despair in order to understand the story. On this journey Edward suffers greatly. He learns a lot about the joys and cruelty of the real world, but he also brings comfort to others and makes a difference in many people's lives. Each time he is torn from someone who loves him he learns to love a little bit more. At the end of his journey, he is humbled after numerous heartbreaks and years of loneliness. Finally, he has a chance to make up for his selfishness and love someone from his past who, after years and years, never forgot about him and never stopped loving him.

Pearl the shark

Pearl will persevere

Here is a sample from a short graphic novel I'm writing and illustrating called "Pearl." I started this book after dreaming I was a great white shark. It was after a night of cocktails with friends, defending sharks in one conversation and listening to someone gawk over how pale my skin is.

My instincts are telling me this an important book that will bring amusement to many people, especially shark lovers. But the other day I received a lot of negative criticism for my drawings. Two shark haters told me Pearl is too scary and that this book won't be good for children. One girl told me not to worry, that she would still read my book to her future children, as if my book were a pair of ugly orange sweaters I had knitted, which she would force her children to wear whenever I visited. These critics suggested I give Pearl a bow to make her less scary. I felt terrible afterward. I was so discouraged, but I kept drawing and soon my optimism was restored.

I thought of an interview I saw with the actor James Franco on the Charlie Rose show. He was talking about negative criticism he'd received and how that would never stop him from doing what he loves. He said, "The worst that can happen is that I'll fail." I thought that was a great line, but really, the worst that can happen is letting the fear of failure destroy your potential.

Ollie the Purple Elephant

“Ollie the Purple Elephant” by Jarrett J. Krosoczka is a sweet book. As an elephant enthusiast, I enjoyed it. In my opinion, having an elephant as the main character in a picture book is like having Meryl Streep as the lead in a movie. Even if it’s a mediocre movie and the other actors are only halfway decent, the main performance makes it all worthwhile.

Although I love the vibrant illustrations, I wasn’t sure about the writing in this book. Words like “chagrin” and “devious” and “conspirators” are sure to create a gap between the young audience and the book's designated reader. I am always asked to define words at my job as a high school English teacher, but I can’t imagine trying to explain the word “conspirators” to a five-year-old.

The book tells the story of Ollie’s quest to fit in and be loved by his new human family, the McLaughlins. (Okay, imagine a five-year-old trying to pronounce that.) When the evil cat, Ginger, teams up with the curmudgeonly old neighbor, Mr. Puddlebottom, and convinces Ollie he is a burden to the McLaughlins, Ollie leaves his loving home and joins the circus.

This book has kind of a implausible Scooby Doo-type ending, with the bad guys getting their comeuppance a little too conveniently. I would have preferred the cat getting some kind of punishment, instead of just the disappointment of his evil scheme not working.

Rapunzel's Revenge

"Rapunzel’s Revenge" is an old western and comic book mishmash, which, unlike the traditional fairy tale, empowers the damsel in distress and gives her a mind of her own. In order to save her mother from the evil witch, Rapunzel teams up with Jack who has his own complicated past. The world has become cold and desolate and people have lost the ability to trust one another, but even so, Rapunzel and Jack create an unbreakable bond. This book is filled with eccentric characters, like Witchy Jasper, my personal favorite. Next I will check out “Calamity Jack” by the same authors and illustrators. This is an entertaining and unpredictable take on the classic fairy tale. I think you'd have to be the antagonist of this book to not enjoy it.

Zoozical

I had originally written a positive review of this book, but now that I think about it, I don't really like it. My sleep last night was broken up by intervals of alertness, and for some reason, "Zoozical" came into my head. I remembered the illustrations being very colorful and varied, and I remembered the rhyming language being lively and sophisticated, but it is long for a picture book, does not have any real characters or conflict and seems a little schizophrenic as far as style and color goes. I would say this book has multiple personality disorder, but I don't think this book focuses long enough on any characters to produce even one personality and that's the problem. It's just an eclectic, confusing buffet-style children's book.The illustrations by Marc Brown, creator of the Arthur books, are colorful and original, but I wonder if perhaps he was so tired of drawing the same anteater over and over again for years that he just wanted to go wild and draw every animal in the whole animal kingdom, except for anteaters.

I ordered "Zoozical" because the description sounded like a rhyming children's book I wrote a while back called "Jazz Dogs." Many editors shy away from rhyming children's books, which is why I'm curious to read the ones that are being published. I think this bias against rhyming children's books is what propelled me to write a positive review. I really wanted to dismiss those editors' opinions and just focus on the positive aspects of the book. Good writing is not always enough to make a book work. It's the most important ingredient, just like love in a relationship, but it takes more than that to make the cake rise.

In some books that deliver a message to children, the author's personal problems are transparent. The worst children's book I ever read, whose name I have forgotten, was about a rat with low self-esteem. For the right age group, that idea could have worked, but this rat's tale of woe was made into a board book for babies. The message of "Zoozical" seems to be "Don't be depressed." That's a good message, but children are more resilient than adults. I don't think they need rhyming self-help books as an antidote to depression.

Reading Rainbow theme song.