This is the final installment of our annual roundup of children's gift books for the holidays. These books star characters we've met before, but can be fully appreciated without having read the previous titles.
Dog and Bear: Three to Get Ready by Laura Vaccaro Seeger (Neal Porter/Roaring Brook, $12.99, 9781596433960/1596433965, 32 pp., ages 3-7, September 2009)
In Laura Vaccaro Seeger's third book about tried-and-true friends Dog and Bear, the author-artist once again combines her signature ingredients: suspense, surprise twist and heart. And she does it all in a few brief pages in a trio of tales ideal for beginning readers. In the first, "Uh-Oh," Seeger mixes full-page illustrations and cartoon-style panels to demonstrate Dog's solution for removing a bucket from Bear's head (naturally, the solution introduces a new problem for Dog). Only the star dachshund's hindquarters are visible on the title page for "Oops." Why? Because Dog is "flying." "Please stop jumping on the bed," cautions Bear. When Dog pays no mind, Bear prepares for the inevitable. In the final story, Bear helps Dog to get "more organized" by alphabetizing his bones, sticks, toys and books. But where did Bear put Dog's sock monkey? Maybe it's in the box marked "c" for "cuddly" or "a" for "adorable," Bear suggests to Dog. No matter what challenge lies before Dog and Bear, Seeger keeps the focus on what matters most: a loyal friend.
The Frogs and Toads All Sang by Arnold Lobel, color by Adrianne Lobel (HarperCollins, $16.99, 9780061800221/0061800228, 32 pp., ages 4-8, May 2009)
Who could resist a lady frog in a long dress dancing with a gentleman toad in pants--in a bucket of lemonade? That's the opening image paired with the title poem; there are 10 in all. In these pages, frogs and toads sing, dance, bake apple pies, play waltzes on a violin and drive fast cars. Adrianne Lobel, daughter of the late great Arnold Lobel, tells in an introduction how she came across these works by her father, which he fashioned as gifts to friends long before his unforgettable Frog and Toad stories were published. Adrianne, a set designer, also discusses her preparation and approach to coloring her father's illustrations. My favorite, "Made for Toads," seems almost like a blueprint to the personalities of the inseparable friends Lobel would later create: "A sunny day/ Is made for toads/ To play and leap/ Down dusty roads./ A rainy day is made for frogs/ To swim in swamps/ And under logs./ In weather gray/ Or weather bright,/ For some, the day/ Will be just right."
Ivy and Bean: Doomed to Dance by Annie Barrows, illustrated by Sophie Blackall (Chronicle, $14.99, 9780811862660/0811862666, 122 pp., ages 6-10, October 2009)
Even if readers are only now discovering Ivy and Bean (this is their sixth adventure), they will be taken with the pair immediately. And if--like Ivy and Bean--they have tried ballet lessons and moved on to other pastimes, they will especially relate to the events here. When Ivy's grandmother sends The Royal Book of the Ballet to Ivy, the two friends find out just how gory ballet can be, and they beg their mothers for ballet lessons. Their mothers resist (they've been this way before), but Ivy and Bean promise to stay for the full session, perform in the recital and agree to the terms: "No quitting. And no complaining." But ballet is nowhere near as gory as they'd expected, so they hatch a plan to exit gracefully and still keep their promises. Blackall's illustrations play up the girls' growing impatience with third position and pliés and make the most of Barrows's humor.
Al Capone Shines My Shoes by Gennifer Choldenko (Dial/Penguin, $16.99, 9780803734609/0803734603, 288 pp., ages 10-up, September 2009)
For those unfamiliar with Moose Flanagan from Choldenko's Newbery Honor book Al Capone Does My Shirts, set in 1935 Alcatraz, the author quickly gets them up to speed and begins just where she left off. In the last book, Al Capone helped narrator Moose's older sister, Natalie, get into a special boarding school "for kids who have their wires crossed up." How Capone did it is a mystery, but (as the con who does Moose's family's laundry) he sent a message in Moose's shirt pocket that said, "Done." But now Capone wants a favor back ("Your turn," says his note). The trouble is, Moose's friend Annie's onto the situation (the laundry was delivered to her in error), and she thinks Moose should come clean. But what if Capone can undo his good deed? Moose must do this favor for Capone or risk his sister's expulsion from the school, just when Natalie is showing improvement. Choldenko is at the top of her game with Moose's latest adventure. The story combines a baseball-loving hero, a power-hungry prison guard and cons likable enough to plant a seed of doubt in 12-year-old Moose. Are all bad guys completely bad? Are all good guys good through and through? Both boy and girl readers will want to explore the gray area with this thoroughly likable narrator.
The Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days by Jeff Kinney (Abrams/Amulet, $13.95, 9780810983915/0810983915, 224 pp., ages 9-12, October 2009)
Okay, okay, so you know about the out-of-control popularity of the Wimpy Kid series. But did you know that many kids sign up on a waiting list for the books at their school or public library and then wait for weeks to read it? Many of them don't actually own the books. This is what I've learned from talking with multiple kids in the 9-12 age range. So perhaps there's a handsell gift-planting opportunity with parents and grandparents here, since these are books kids read over and over again and would love to own. As the title implies, this one focuses on Greg's summer vacation. The humor continues to arise from the layering of Greg's first-person narrative with Jeff Kinney's minimalist, cartoon-style pictures--e.g., the look on best friend Rowley Jefferson's face as Greg informs Mr. Jefferson that "the quality of service at [his] country club was starting to go down a little." Greg then tells readers that he doesn't mind that Rowley "wasn't allowed" to invite Greg to his pool anymore ("I'm much happier inside my air-conditioned house"). Kinney's wit is spot-on for fourth-graders on up.
A Season of Gifts by Richard Peck (Dial/Penguin, $16.99, 9780803730823/0803730829, 176 pp., ages 8-12, September 2009)
Meet Grandma Dowdel, if you haven't already (in the Newbery Honor book A Long Way from Chicago or the Newbery Medal-winning A Year Down Yonder), in her best tale yet. It's not really one tale--more like a series of interwoven vignettes, set against the summer, fall and winter of 1958, with a cumulative payoff at the end, all told by 12-year-old Bob Barnhart. Bob's father is the new preacher in town, and they've moved in next door to Grandma Dowdel. Bob's birthright earns him a dousing in the crick from a gang led by Roscoe Burdick, age 20. They string up Bob in netting suspended above Grandma Dowdel's privy--and that's where the narrator, gagged, bound and naked as a jailbird, first meets the legendary Grandma. More trouble brews when Roscoe's mismatched eyes take in the sight of Bob's 14-year-old sister Phyllis. And then Ruth Ann, Bob's younger sister, at six, becomes enthralled with Grandma Dowdel. How Grandma Dowdel secretly plays a role in the success of Bob's preacher father and works an invisible hand in other matters around town makes for some suspenseful and very comical moments.
Fire by Kristin Cashore (Dial/Penguin, $17.99, 9780803734616/0803734611, 480 pp., ages 14-up, October)
This companion book to Kristin Cashore's riveting debut novel, Graceling, tackles entirely new territory--literally and literarily. Only one character carries over from the Seven Kingdoms setting of her previous novel. Instead, Cashore takes teens to an outlying area called the Dells, home to a beautiful, 17-year-old redhead named Fire. She is the last of a human-monster hybrid species, who has the ability not only to read minds but also to change minds. Fire and her longtime friend and sometime lover, Archer, get drawn into the complex turf wars between the neighboring kingdoms, and Fire must decide if and when to use her powers, and also with whom--if anyone--to align her talents. Cashore delves deeply into questions of feminism, fidelity and responsibility. These themes make this book appropriate for more mature teens, as it explores questions of monogamy versus free love. Give this one not only to sophisticated teens who seek high adventure, but also to adult fans of Twilight for its thought-provoking take on the subtleties of male-female affairs.--Jennifer M. Brown
