scholarly journals The Bear and the Piano by D. Litchfield

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Borle
Keyword(s):  
Child Health ◽  
Undergraduate Student ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
School Libraries ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Concert Pianist ◽  
The City ◽  
Grand Piano

Litchfield, David.  The Bear and the Piano.  Clarion Books, 2016.In this folio sized volume, David Litchfield presents a charming story and some amazing artwork.  You first notice the light in the forest, where the bear finds a piano and begins teaching himself to play. Then as you follow his career as a concert pianist, you see the extraordinary light in the city, with a spotlight on his picture outside the theatre, above the marquee that reads “The Bear and the Piano.”  Inside Litchfield captures the light and dark of an old tiered theatre, with the bear in a tuxedo seated at a grand piano.  The music messages in the story are as charming as the images.  Although the bear is very successful as a concert pianist, he misses the forest and his friends.  When he returns home, he discovers that his friends have not forgotten him and when he plays for them he knows that they are “the most important audience of all.” The text and the images work well together.  This book should be included in school libraries and public libraries.Highly recommended:  4 stars out of 4Reviewer:  Sean BorleSean Borle is a University of Alberta undergraduate student who is an advocate for child health and safety

scholarly journals Under the Bed Fred by L. Bailey

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Borle
Keyword(s):  
Child Health ◽  
Undergraduate Student ◽  
Reading Time ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Brown Bear ◽  
School Libraries ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Good Book ◽  
Award Winning ◽  
Page Book

Bailey, Linda. Under the Bed Fred. Tundra Books, 2017.In this offering of the “monsters are not scary” genre, award winning author Linda Bailey has written a chapter book for newly independent readers. There are five chapters telling the story of Leo, who is afraid of the monster, Fred, who lives under his bed. Eventually Leo befriends Fred and discovers he is not scary. He takes Fred to school, where Fred defends him against the class bully, who is portrayed as a red-headed child with a green shirt. Most readers will relate to dealing with a bully at school.The book is well paced for a new reader’s daily reading time. The text is simple and nearly every page has an illustration. One can imagine a child in Grade 2 or 3 being able to read a chapter each day and feel success at having completed a 63 page book by the end of a week.The illustrations are comic style. The monster looks a lot like a brown bear.  There are lots of action images, extreme expressions, and speech balloons.  The text appears as a very large typeface to emphasize something scary or loud. Sometimes the text is printed at an angle and sometimes words like “KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!”, “GRRRRRROWWLL!” and “CRASH! OOF! POP!” are printed over images for effect.Overall, this is a good book and it is therefore recommended for public and school libraries. Recommendation: 3 stars out of 4Reviewer: Sean C. BorleSean Borle is a University of Alberta undergraduate student who is an advocate for child health and safety. 

scholarly journals A New Song for Herman by P. McAllister

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Borle
Keyword(s):  
Child Health ◽  
Undergraduate Student ◽  
School Library ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Green House ◽  
The Subject

McAllister, Paul. A New Song for Herman. Herman’s Monster House Publishing, 2017.There are many books designed to help children who are afraid of monsters.  This is the second book that Paul McAllister has written on the subject. In this one, Herman, a green House Monster turned Barista Monster, works at Sarah’s cafe and is famous for his mochaccinos. However, his work is suffering because he is being kept awake at night by an Attic Monster. It turns out that the Attic Monster is just baking cookies in an old Easy Bake Oven, so Herman offers him a job baking at the restaurant. The text is simple, but includes some repetition of the Attic Monster’s song “humba rumba lumba rumba gurgle gurgle bing!”, which children will enjoy and will want to repeat during a reading. Both the text and the illustrations help children identify with monsters rather than being afraid of them. Emily Brown has made the monsters look like cuddly stuffy toys. Even the Attic Monster who scares Herman turns out to be “the cutest little monster he’d ever seen.” Brown has also included fun details in the illustrations. For example, when Herman is at his most sleep deprived, he makes the coffee with dirt and Brown shows him holding a coffee pot that has a flower growing out of it. This fun book is recommended for public and school library collections.Recommended: 3 stars out of 4Reviewer: Sean C. BorleSean Borle is a University of Alberta undergraduate student who is an advocate for child health and safety. 

scholarly journals The Pond by N. Davies

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Borle
Keyword(s):  
Child Health ◽  
Undergraduate Student ◽  
Picture Book ◽  
School Library ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Aquatic Environments ◽  
Water Lily ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
The Family ◽  
To Come

Davies, Nicola. The Pond. Illustrated by Cathy Fisher. Graffeg, 2017. In this picture book, a half-finished garden pond, “a muddy, messy hole that filled our garden,” becomes a metaphor for a family’s grief at the death of a father, “a muddy, messy hole that filled our hearts.” The story highlights the fact that when someone dies, the family loses not only the person, but also the activities that the family did with that person. Eventually, the mother in this story gets the pond lined and it starts to come to life with tadpoles, dragonflies and a water lily, mirroring the family’s progression through their grief.  The artwork really carries the story forward, and accompanied by the simple text Nicola Davies depicts aquatic environments in a variety of ways. Her work is cinematic, capturing the movement and messiness of pond life.  She uses dark colours, splatters, scribbles and fractures in lines to depict the family’s grief. Some of the images are beautiful.  Her water lilies on solid black backgrounds are exceptional. The images in this book will engage all ages. This book would be good for children coping with loss or those preparing to cope with loss and should be a part of public and school library collections.  Recommendation:  4 stars out of 4Reviewer:  Sean Borle Sean Borle is a University of Alberta undergraduate student who is an advocate for child health and safety.  

scholarly journals Bears in a Band by S. Parenteau

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Borle
Keyword(s):  
Child Health ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Undergraduate Student ◽  
Picture Book ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Brown Bear ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Musical Activities

Parenteau, Shirley.  Bears in a Band.  Candlewick Press, 2016.This is a great little book.  Children will love the rhymes, which tell the story of four brightly coloured teddy bears, who pick up instruments and begin to play.  They make a joyful noise that eventually wakes “Big Brown Bear." Instead of being angry, Big Bear joins as a conductor and the music becomes even better.There are two music messages in this book.  First, parents should celebrate their children’s musical activities and accept that there will be noise.  Second, everyone should attempt to find the music in themselves, and share that with everyone.The text is simple.  Young children will quickly memorize it.  “The bears all play a noisy song/They don’t care if the notes are wrong." The images are happy, uplifting and full of warm fuzzies. This would be a good bedtime picture book for young children.   I highly recommend this book for libraries. Highly recommended:  4 stars out of 4 Reviewer:  Sean BorleSean Borle is a University of Alberta undergraduate student who is an advocate for child health and safety.

scholarly journals The Pear Violin by B. Zhao

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Borle
Keyword(s):  
Child Health ◽  
Undergraduate Student ◽  
Public Libraries ◽  
Picture Book ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Children's Books ◽  
Children’S Books ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Fantasy World ◽  
Suspension Of Disbelief

Zhao, Bingbo. The Pear Violin, illustrated by Gumi. Starfish Bay Children’s Books, 2016.Bingbo Zhao, who publishes under his first name, Bingbo, has published more than 370 children’s books and won more than 50 awards.  The Pear Violin is an imaginative picture book which starts from the idea that pears and violins are shaped alike. In Bingbo’s fantasy world, a squirrel cuts a pear in half, uses a twig and some of his whiskers to make a bow, and begins playing.  In this world foxes, elephants, bears, lions and a variety of other animals all inhabit the same forest.  The music of the violin is so powerful that it can make the fox stop chasing the chicken and the lion “let the rabbit lie in his arms, so that the rabbit would feel warmer when listening to the music.”  The music also has the power to make a small pear seed grow quickly into a tree and grow many pears.  All the animals make the pears into cellos, violins and violas and all play beautiful music together. Throughout the book Gumi (no last name given) illustrates the motion and emotion of the animals.  The animals’ faces show curiosity when the seed starts to grow and excitement when they play together in the concert. A suspension of disbelief is required for the enjoyment of this book.  Some children will ask, “Why don’t the pears rot?” and “Why are bears and elephants in the same forest?”   However, for most, it will just be a fun book which carries the message that music brings people together.  This book would be good for public libraries and school libraries.Recommended: 3 stars out of 4Reviewer:  Sean BorleSean Borle is a University of Alberta undergraduate student who is an advocate for child health and safety

scholarly journals Give Me Back My Bones! by K. Norman

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Borle
Keyword(s):  
Child Health ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
School Libraries ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
Educational Work ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Front End ◽  
Hand Bones ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Shoulder Blade

Norman, Kim. Give Me Back My Bones! Illustrated by Bob Kolar. Candlewick Press, 2019. This book is a blend of fun and education. A pirate skeleton, whose bones have been spread across the ocean floor, wants to reclaim them. He “claim[s] his clavicle” and “hanker[s] for [his] humerus.” The text is a poem filled with surprising and creative descriptions of what the individual bones do: “Who can spot my shoulder blade, / my shrugging jacket-holder blade, / my shiver-when-I’m-colder blade? / Oh, scapula, come back!” The text is printed on Bob Kolar’s simple, bright,  two-dimensional illustrations. There are some fun things to find in the illustrations. For example, when the pirate is looking for his hand-bones, we see them in the sand, hidden among hand-shaped corals. A squid returns his arm-bones.  In some images fish peer at him suspiciously as he slowly collects his missing parts.  As an educational work, this book is excellent. The front end papers show all of the disconnected bones with their names. The back end papers show the whole skeleton together with the bones named. Because it is a jaunty poem and fun to read, children will want to re-read it and will eventually memorize it. As a by-product of fun, they will learn what metacarpals and phalanges are.  This book is highly recommended for pediatricians’ offices, as well as public and school libraries. Highly Recommended:  4 out of 4 starsReviewer:  Sean C. Borle Sean C. Borle is a University of Alberta student in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry who is an advocate for child health and safety.

scholarly journals Hansel and Gretel and the Green Witch by L. North

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Borle
Keyword(s):  
Child Health ◽  
Undergraduate Student ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Beginning Readers ◽  
Junk Food ◽  
Healthy Foods ◽  
Health Message ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
The Witch

North, Laura.  Hansel and Gretel and the Green Witch. Illus. Chris Jevons. St. Catharines, ON:  Crabtree Publishing, 2015. Print.This book is a “health message” twist on the Hansel and Gretel story.  The children in this story watch television and eat junk food.  They follow a trail of doughnuts into the forest, where they are captured by a witch. Instead of fattening them up, she forces them to do exercise and eat healthy foods, because she only eats healthy kids.   By the time the witch, who sometimes wears sweat pants and carries a megaphone,  thinks Hansel and Gretel are ready to eat, they are fit enough to run away. Children will like the brightly coloured pictures, which the illustrator, Chris Jevons, obviously had fun creating.  They will also be drawn in by Laura North’s completely original take on the story that they already know.  The story is simply told, with easy words for beginning readers. The two puzzles at the end of the book are not essential to the story, but would be a fun way to review the story with children.  This book is recommended for school and public libraries.Highly Recommended:  4 stars out of 4Reviewer:  Sean BorleSean Borle is a University of Alberta undergraduate student who is an advocate for child health and safety.

scholarly journals Isaac and His Amazing Asperger Superpowers! by M. Walsh

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Borle
Keyword(s):  
Child Health ◽  
Undergraduate Student ◽  
Picture Book ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
First Person ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Good Book ◽  
Negative Attributes ◽  
Positive Presentation

Walsh, Melanie.  Isaac and His Amazing Asperger Superpowers! Candlewick Press, 2016.This picture book is designed to help children better understand children who are on the Asperger’s/autism spectrum. Isaac, like many children with Asperger’s Syndrome, has symptoms that include needing to fidget, sensitivity to sound, exceptional memory for certain kinds of facts, and lack of verbal filters. Instead of making these as negative attributes, Melanie Walsh has used the “superhero” concept as a vehicle for their positive presentation. Telling the story in the first person allows Isaac to directly describe for the reader what his life is like. This allows readers to empathize more easily. For example, he says:  “Because I’m a superhero, I have lots of things to think about. I try to remember to be friendly and say hello to people I know, but sometimes I forget. I’m not being rude.” The artwork is brightly coloured. The images are simple and easy to understand, so it does not distract from the story.  This would be a good book to read out loud and discuss in a class where there is a child with Asperger’s. While it may not exactly represent all children with Asperger’s, it is a good generalization and will help other children be more accepting of others who have these “superhero” behaviours.Highly Recommended:  4 stars out of 4Reviewer:  Sean BorleSean Borle is a University of Alberta undergraduate student who is an advocate for child health and safety. 

scholarly journals One Bear Extraordinaire by J. McGowan

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Borle
Keyword(s):  
Child Health ◽  
Undergraduate Student ◽  
Public Libraries ◽  
Picture Book ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
The Moon ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Young Readers ◽  
Good Book ◽  
Just Right

McGowan, Jayme. One Bear Extraordinaire.  Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2015.This picture book is a story about a bear who begins the tale as a “one man band”, playing a guitar, drum, cymbals, harmonica and tambourine.   Although legendary in the forest, he feels that, “something is missing”, so he sets out to find it.  As he journeys, other animals join him, but none of them fill the void.  Eventually the group encounters Wolf Pup, who wants to join but has no instrument.  Bear offers him several of his instruments, but he just chews them.  Finally, Wolf Pup howls at the moon and Bear realizes that what his song needed was a singer.  In the end Bear just has his guitar left, but he has four other band members and their tune “sounded just right.” There are two music messages in this book.  First, being a solo performer is fine, but making music with others is fine, too.  The second message is that everyone has something to contribute, if they are just given a chance. McGowan’s technique for creating pictures is unusual.  She builds up layers of paper, and then photographs the image.  Children will enjoy identifying objects and creatures in the brightly coloured pictures.  This is a good book and should be included in public libraries and school libraries.Recommended:  3 stars out of 4Reviewer:  Sean BorleSean Borle is a University of Alberta undergraduate student who is an advocate for child health and safety.

scholarly journals I'm Sad by M.I. Black and D.R. Ohi

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Borle
Keyword(s):  
Young Child ◽  
Child Health ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Public Libraries ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Ice Cream ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Young Readers ◽  
The One ◽  
Whipped Cream

Black, Michael I, and Debbie R. Ohi. I'm Sad. Simon & Shuster Books for Young Readers, 2018. This book is about a sad flamingo and his friends, a girl and a potato, who try to cheer him up. This absurd collection of characters talk about whether or not flamingo will always feel sad and what makes them feel less sad. Much of the dialog is silly.  When the potato says that he knows what cheers him up, the picture is of a happy potato and the word “DIRT!!!” in giant letters.  Coming after a discussion of ice cream as a “cheer me up”, “dirt” is unexpected and funny. At the end of the book the flamingo asks, “Will you still like me if I’m sad again tomorrow?” The potato responds with an almost nasty, “I don’t even like you now.”  This response is meant as a joke and the next two pages show uproarious laughter.  However, young children may not understand that it is not usually an appropriate response and some people would find it hurtful.   Debi Ridpath Ohi’s simple illustrations do a good job of presenting expressions and emotions. There are often broken black lines around the images, which, strangely, make the characters, particularly the flamingo, look like they are constantly trembling. Apart from that, the images are fun. The most amusing is the one showing the potato as a fourth scoop of ice cream on a cone, with whipped cream and a cherry on top.  This book might give a sad young child a few moments of laughter and in the end delivers the message that it’s OK to feel a little bit sad. With these two thoughts in mind, this book is recommended for libraries for young children: daycares, schools, and public libraries.   Recommended:  3 out of 4 starsReviewer:  Sean Borle Sean Borle is a University of Alberta undergraduate student who is an advocate for child health and safety.

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