Topsy-Turvy

If you've ever read a book aloud requiring audience participation, you know they are a huge hit with the storytime crowd.  When you are asked to do or say something by the characters or the narrator, it heightens the feeling of being a part of the tale.  Soon listeners will be eagerly calling out their ideas and leaning in, even closer than normal, to see the results of fulfilled requests.

If you've never read a book aloud requiring audience participation, don't hesitate any longer.  You and your listeners will enjoy the entreaties and humor found in Abner & Ian Get Right-Side Up (Little, Brown and Company, May 14, 2019) written by Dave Eggers with art by Laura Park.  The commentary by the unfortunate duo will have you laughing out loud.

Uh-oh.
What?

The duck, Abner, quickly points out their position on their respective pages.  Instead of standing on the ground, they are sticking out from the left and right sides.  They are hanging sideways. Ian, a prairie dog, is sure his companion will have an idea. Abner does not know how to fix this.  He suggests they ask

that kid

to assist them.

Even though Ian thinks the kid smells a little funky, Abner asks him to shake the book and then turn the page.  He's confident this will work based on previous practices.  Amazingly Ian agrees.   Next a first-class dilemma ensues.  The friends converse back and forth about who will signal the reader to shake the book.  When Abner concedes, Ian keeps saying anything but the appropriate word.  He prolongs their situation longer by wondering if the child is ready to participate.  Finally, Ian yells

NOW!

Much to their dismay, they are currently hanging from the top of the page.  Ian is revealing personal traits which Abner initially finds intriguing.  This does nothing to solve their problem.  Abner issues new instructions to the kid hoping to end this state of affairs.  The outcome is shocking for them and for readers.

Abner is not sure the kid can accomplish what is needed.  Ian wants him to try once more.  Just when you think it can't get stranger, it does.  The kid is asked yet again to shake the book like a wild child.  The effect is weirder.  Now Abner is sure this is being done intentionally.  Ian disagrees.

Shaking and turning and shaking and turning continue until Ian calls a halt.  Despite Abner's frustration, Ian has an idea.  If it works, it will be a miracle.  Do you believe in miracles? 


Told entirely in dialogue author Dave Eggers has designed the story like a comedy routine.  The personalities of Abner and Ian shine in their attitudes at their predicament.  One is ready for action with a let's-get-this-show-on-the-road mindset, the other is more contemplative with an optimistic and calm outlook.  This contrast elevates the hilarity.  Here is a passage.

The kid said yes.  Are you satisfied?

I am.  I think reassurances like
that are so helpful to the smooth
functioning of systems, and
greatly increase the probability of
success in an endeavor like this. 


Drawn with pencil and colored with a computer by Laura Park all the illustrations accentuate the discussions and consequences with utmost wit.  When we are introduced to the twosome on the front of the book case (I am working with an F & G.) we notice immediately something is amiss.  Abner and Ian are both wondering what is wrong.  (On the back is information you are likely to find on the front and back flaps of a dust jacket.)

A page turn reveals a stage with curtains on the sides and along the top.  A silhouette of a home and tree is seen in the background.  This scene is expanded with the first page turn.  It is in each illustration.  It does not change (usually); only Abner and Ian do.

 What raises the humor is the clothing worn by the characters, their facial expressions and body postures.  Their hands are very expressive.  Ian expresses his confidence in the kid with thumbs up.  Every time they move, Abner's scarf points toward the ground.  Abner's and Ian's colors appear to remain the same but the background shifts to a variety of solid shades to heighten interest and provide pacing.

One of my many favorite illustrations is for a shocking plight after one of the kid's shakes.  The ground stretches left to right as usual; the house and tree on the left and a small mound on the right.  Abner and Ian are not sticking out on the left and right sides.  They are not hanging from the top of the page.  We can only see a portion of their bodies.  (And that's all I'm going to say.)


You will find yourself smiling, grinning and giggling over and over again, no matter how many times you read Abner & Ian Get Right-Side Up written by Dave Eggers with art by Laura Park.  Trust me when I say you will be reading this more than once per sitting.  This is storytime gold.  You might want to have more than one copy for your professional collections and certainly a copy of your own for home.

To learn more about Dave Eggers and his other work, please follow the link attached to his name to access his website.  Laura Park has accounts on Instagram and Twitter.

The Lady Leads The Way

In 1865 she was only an idea; an idea born from a desire to commemorate a lasting institution and friendship.  She arrived in pieces by ship in New York City's harbor in 1885.  Months passed before her full 305-feet-tall height was established.  At the official unveiling and dedication on October 28, 1886 President Grover Cleveland in a speech voiced without the use of notes declared:

"we will not forget that liberty here made her home; nor shall her chosen altar be neglected."

Since that dedication day The Statue of Liberty residing on Liberty Island has welcomed all who visit, begin new lives or return home on the eastern shores of the United States of America.  Her Right Foot (Chronicle Books, September 19, 2017) written by Dave Eggers with art by Shawn Harris presents known and little known information about this great lady, a constant beacon of hope and freedom.  It also draws our attention to a particular aspect of the statue, encouraging us to think deeper about the symbolic implications behind her design.

You have likely heard of a place called France.  

The people who live there are called the French.  Our Statue of Liberty came from the country of France.  Two Frenchmen, one with an idea and one with a design, worked to build Lady Liberty.

Frederic Auguste Bartholdi oversaw the development of his design; piece by piece due to the size of the statute.  Over her frame a skin of copper was fashioned.  You know she was then delivered to the United States to stand in the New York City Harbor but what you might not know is what happened in Paris, France before she traveled across the Atlantic.

Unlike a chameleon the Lady did not shift colors after thirty-five years instinctively but did so because of her materials.  The book she is holding, the number of spikes on her crown, her torch, her interior framework and her construction all have unique meanings and stories attached to them.  One feature of Lady Liberty usually not discussed is the central focus of this book.  All of the information has been leading us to this point.

If you look at her feet, specifically the back of her right foot, it's not stationary.  Oh, no readers, she is not standing still.  Her back right foot is lifted, toe to the ground, heel raised.  For the remaining half of the book, points are offered for us to ponder, discuss, promote and champion.  This Statue of Liberty is meant to move our minds and hearts as surely as she greets all who come to our shores.


As soon as you begin to read this book, you know the writer, Dave Eggers, is passionate about his topic and is ready to chat with you about it, one-on-one.  That's the way his narrative reads.  He asks questions and follows them with his no-nonsense answers.

You find yourself informed but entertained through his sense of humor which is underlying in this book.  An excellent technique he employs is to maintain his lively commentary before taking a huge pause switching up his use of words from

And you may know

to

you might not know.

Here is a sample passage.

Bartholdi liked to see the sculpture rise above the harbor.
Sometimes he watched the construction from the water.
Sometimes he watched it from the land.  Usually he was
wearing a sturdy black hat, for he, like most European
men of the time, favored sturdy black hats.


Rendered in construction paper and India ink the illustrations, loose, stylized and somewhat geometric, beginning on the opened dust jacket, pair perfectly with the spirited, straightforward text.  The limited color palette, blue, green, yellow, white and black brings our eyes to the center.  To the left, on the back, we zoom in to the crown.  A park guide and visitors are standing in the eleven openings.  In this picture as in several others illustrator Shawn Harris includes a cat and a dog.

The book case, in the green shade of weathered copper, is a reflection of the book held in Lady Liberty's hand.  The opening and closing endpapers take us close to the exterior details on the torch when she arrived and as they appear today.  An airplane dots the sky on the final endpapers.

Many of the images span two pages but their perspectives are greatly varied; a street scene in Paris, France, the crew working on the statue's hand, a map of a portion of New York City and the harbor, the Statue of Liberty's face and crown and her right foot with a park ranger and young boy pointing.  With each visual Shawn Harris usually shifts his hues used but his choices are still limited.  His decision to include more details increases the animation but even without the added lines each illustration evokes emotion.  Little touches of humor can be seen, too; the dog eyeing a pastry, exhausted workers sleeping on the rays of the crown and a startled cat coming in through a special door.

One of my many favorite illustrations is when Shawn Harris shows us the base of the statute.  We can see both of Lady Liberty's feet, the front of her feet, beneath her robe.  The broken chains are visible.  It is a large picture beginning on the edge at the left and covering two-thirds of the page on the right.  It gives you a sense of the grandeur of this work.


This book, Her Right Foot, written by Dave Eggers with art by Shawn Harris is a remarkable portrait of the Statue of Liberty.  More importantly it asks readers to think of the intent of the designer.  It asks us to remember what these United States of America has offered to all people during the course of its history.  Some of the lines written by Dave Eggers will leave you stunned by their truth.  Some of the illustrations by Shawn Harris will leave you equally mesmerized.  I highly recommend this book for professional libraries and personal libraries too.  It invites, no demands, we partake in discussions.  There are lists for Further Reading and Sources at the end of the book.


To learn more about Shawn Harris please follow the link attached to his name to access his website.  This title is his first illustrated book.  At the publisher's website you have the opportunity to view and use a classroom guide.  Dave Eggers is interviewed in a broadcast about this title here.   The ins and outs of a children's illustrations project regarding Her Right Foot are found here.  Educator Alyson Beecher wrote about this book on her blog, Kid Lit Frenzy.  Shawn Harris visits author, reviewer, and blogger Julie Danielson's Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast to talk about his process.  Author illustrator Jarrett J. Krosoczka talks about this title on his podcast The Book Report.





To get a little bit of a better idea about Dave Eggers, this TED talk might help.

Please take a few moments to visit Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by educator Alyson Beecher to view the other titles selected by participants in the 2017 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.