Neatness Overload

In our area of Michigan last Wednesday we had high winds which caused power outages for many hours and for some, days.  The wind decided to leave her best handiwork in front of my home rather than any other house in the neighborhood.  The pile was more than three feet deep at some points.  Like others with less leaves, I could have left them for another wind to play with but on Saturday after four hours of work, thirty-two bags were filled with leaves and are now stored in my garage until pickup begins in April.

It's not that I am super-neat.  Okay, maybe I am but I am a librarian and there was no access to my front door.  When I read the newest title by Emily Gravett, Tidy (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, March 21, 2017), there was an instant kinship with the main character.  Although, with that being said, he does take neat-as-a-pin to a whole new level.  

Deep in the forest lived a badger named Pete, who tidied and cleaned and kept everything neat.

The wildflowers looked like a highly skilled horticulturist performed daily work in their midst.  The fox looked like he was ready to compete in the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.  The birds looked stunningly fastidious with nary a feather fluffed.  There was a place for everything and he put everything in its place.

When autumn appeared a single leaf fell into all this tidiness Pete had perfected.  Before long more leaves than could be counted drifted down to the forest floor.  Of course he had to pick up every single one.  He literally had mountains of bags.  Now, there was another problem.

What would he do with all those bare looking trees?  Oh, no!  He dug them all up!  The more he tried to clean, the worse it was for the forest until he realized there is such a thing as too much perfection.  

Pete had eliminated the essence of the forest.  He was without access to food and even his home.  This was an even bigger dilemma.  Fortunately this badger had a healthy work ethic.  Fortunately this badger still had friends.  And fortunately for the forest Pete had a new attitude...maybe.

Emily Gravett has been charming readers with her stories such as The Rabbit Problem, Wolf Won't Bite and Again! since 2005 when her first book, Wolves, won the Kate Greenway Medal.  (She won it again in 2008 for Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears.)  In this title sentences are structured to contain two rhyming phrases or two sentences are grouped with the final word rhyming which make this a read aloud treat.  To create a pause in the narrative, punctuation works to introduce a variance as does a single individual sentence.  

The story is told by an unseen narrator in an easy, conversational style providing a warm and inviting atmosphere.  This allows readers to speculate and form their own opinions as Pete pursues his perfection.  Here is a sample passage.

He picked up stray sticks,

he swept and he rubbed.

He polished the rocks,

and he scoured and he scrubbed.

The dust jacket, book case and opening endpapers (I have an F & G.) have an enormous WOW factor.  The opened dust jacket spans scalloped end flap to scalloped end flap.  The scallops edge around forest bushes, shrubs and trees.  It is a scene in Pete's forest.  The fox is looking up at the closing end flap information.  A magpie sits on top of the opening flap introduction.  On the left side tacked on a tree is a poster with Pete shelving a book which reads

PLEASE KEEP THIS BOOK TIDY.

The Tidy is placed on this book.  Near the tree is a rabbit and hedgehog.  The ISBN is held in place by the spikes on the hedgehog.  Beneath the title text on the right side is a die-cut opening which shows Pete placing a single leaf in a trash bin.  On the reverse of the dust jacket is another forest scene with Pete carrying a mop.  In the distance is his digger.

On the book case we are privy to another forest setting.  An owl sits in a cleaning bucket as a crow sitting on a branch dumps cleaning soap from a bottle.  A cleaning brush is sticking out of a hole in a tree trunk.  There is a die-cut in the book case front also revealing Pete.  The opening endpapers indicate it's autumn in the woods.  On the right is the final die-cut.  It's spring with pink blossoms on the tree branches on the closing endpapers and for once, no cleaning utensils are visible.  On the title page a rabbit watches Pete.  A rubber glove hangs from a tree and a bottle of soap is next to the same tree.

Rendered in pencil, watercolor and wax crayons each image is full of delightful details; Pete using a hedgehog to comb the fox's fur, birds carrying toothbrushes so Pete can scrub their beaks, a vacuum cleaner with eyes to sweep the forest floor, Pete's umbrella with a duck handle, the rooms underground in Pete's home and the numbered tags on the trees Pete returns.  (You are going to love the final two pages containing the publication information.) Many of the illustrations are spread across two pages in vibrant full color.  When Pete begins to go overboard on his neatness, those colors shift to darker more limited colors of browns, black and grays.  Emily's animals' expressions and actions are adorable; even the ants get in on the action.

One of my many, many favorite illustrations is one of two on a single page.  Pete is wearing a flowered full-length apron.  Next to him is a soap bottle with a tiny blue bird on the label.  He is using a large sea sponge to scrub an owl sitting in a soapy bird bath.  The bird bath basin is held in place by two sculptured badgers.  Another small bird is leaning over the edge holding a tube of tooth paste ready to squeeze some on the next brush and bird in line.  This is just one example of the humor in this book.

This book, Tidy written and illustrated by Emily Gravett (it was released in Great Britain in April 2016) is a must read.  It needs to be on every personal and professional bookshelf.  The narrative, illustrations and book design are heartwarming, timely and timeless.  I know you will want to use it in April for Earth Day but it will be requested to be read any time of the year.  I love this book and so does the Kate Greenaway Medal committee.  It is on their longlist. (And I just read a tweet which says it made the shortlist announced today.)

To learn more about Emily Gravett and her other work, please follow the link attached to her name to access her website.  This website also contains many activities to be used with her books.  At the publisher's website are seven images to view, including the cover.  At The Guardian Children's Books there is a wonderful step-by-step article on how to draw a badger. At Teaching Ideas, a UK website, there are many story stretcher thoughts related to this title.  There is an older series of video interviews with Emily at Reading Rockets.

Oops!

Reading aloud is a pleasure for both the listener(s) and the reader; a win-win relationship.  In many a household the daily ritual of reading before bedtime is treasured by all.  Invariably the reader will be asked to repeat the story for a variety of reasons, the story is loved, no one can read it as well as the reader or perhaps... the listener is stalling; putting off the inevitability of having to go to bed.

Emily Gravett's title, Again! (Macmillan Children's Books), released in October 2011, gives readers a glimpse into one particular dragon's bedtime practices. What they might not have imagined is how what he wants takes over his good sense. His burning desire to hear a story repeated repeatedly has unexpected results.

Cedric, a youthful dragon, has had a full day of play with his princess doll, flying, and sword swinging.  His bedtime snack of dragon cookies and milk consumed, his teeth brushed and a bubble blowing bath finished, he pads hopefully, book in hand, to his mother.  Curled in her embrace, his dragon blanket clutched tightly, he listens to his favorite story about a dragon named Cedric who:

He's never,
His whole life,
(Not once) been to bed.

At this first reading storybook Cedric teases the trolls without mercy and hungrily consumes princesses.  When youthful Cedric holds up the book imploringly questioning again, the second reading has an altered storyline; apologizing to the trolls and sharing dessert with them.  Subsequent readings are much changed and quite a bit shorter until an exhausted mama dragon dozes off.

No amount of shouting or foot stomping will awaken her.  Shaking the book, continued yelling and jumping up and down cause Cedric's temper temperature to rise.  His final frustrated, ferocious AGAIN! flares up, opening up a surprise ending.

Emily Gravett begins the narrative visually on the front jacket flap, continuing on the front endpapers followed by a double set of verso and title page information (Again?).  A careful reader will note that almost everything is identical except for the bath bubbles, a piece of punctuation and Cedric's expression.

Mint and lime green hues are prevalent throughout with rich reds, some golds and brown.  All of the illustrations flow across two pages on the characteristic, for Gravett, heavy cream paper.  Mood, especially that of the mother and the storybook trolls, is conveyed convincingly and with much humor.

As Cedric goes from contented to hopeful to willful to angry the text size changes as does the neatness of letter formation.  With his anger increasing Cedric undergoes a color transformation accordingly.  Gravett pictures the characters on the storybook's pages suffering his wrath looking like flakes in a shaken snowglobe.

I can not reap enough praise on the books artistically created by Emily Gravett; care given to detail is exquisite.  Readers like Cedric will crave to read Again! again and again.  Travel over to Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast to feast on an interview and partake of additional illustrations from other titles.

Three Pigs and One Wary Wolf

As far as I can tell the three little pigs and the wolf have been entwined together since 1849 when they were printed on the pages of Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales by James Orchard Halliwell.  He is later given credit by Joseph Jacobs when his version appears in the English Fairy Tales of 1898.  It is this variant with which most readers are familiar. 

Each author/illustrator brings their own particular slant to the tale choosing to either remain faithful to the original plot or by creating an entirely different scenario for readers.  Author/illustrator Emily Gravett in Wolf Won't Bite! (Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers, March 20, 2012) stages a production unlike any other.  Her troupe of trotters has managed to soothe the savage beast, a listless lupine.

ROLL UP!
ROLL UP!
ROLL UP!
We have caught a WILD WOLF!

Three pigs clothed in circus attire, one in a white fluffy tutu, another in the coat, shirt and tie of a ringmaster and the third in a one piece weightlifter tight, shout out news as a woebegone wolf peers from the openings of a covered carnival wagon.  Each of these porcine performers can make the wolf do unimaginable feats:  stand on a stool, dress him in a bow, ride him like a horse, jump through hoops or dance a jig.  Throughout all these antics WOLF WON'T BITE!

As each act escalates, the three attempting to outshine one another while in collaboration, wolf barely maintains his sanity.  When the daring, darling trio gloriously proclaim they can even put their heads in his mouth, readers are treated to a funny, flip-flop finale.  Instinct intact wolf prevails as porkers panic.

Emily Gravett's use of watercolor and water-based pencil to render the illustrations for this book is as always flawless.  The front and back cover create a full page picture of the three pigs arms raised in triumph string attached to a less-gleeful wolf growling...Grrr. The front endpapers visualize the chase as one pulls the carnival cart, another carries a huge net with the ringmaster leading in hot pursuit of their quarry.

Staying true to her theme the two page title spread is adorned with the trio pasting up a proclamation announcing the upcoming show.  Thick white pages provide an impeccable canvas for her hand-lettered text employing a variety of font styles accentuating each new wolfish exploit.  A small palette of hues, reds, grays and golds highlights Gravett's gift of detail and expression.

It is the wolf's eyes, at times wide and fearful, as the inattentive pigs playfully prance, that draws in readers.  Careful readers will sense the shift in his emotion before the text tells the tale.  Closing endpapers portray a harried hunt once again.

Wolf Won't Bite! written and illustrated by Emily Gravett, winner of the Kate Greenway Medal for Wolves, is a celebration of misguided jubilance coupled with a polished, classic turnabout.

Whether focusing on pigs, the role of wolves in stories, teaching about fairy tale variants or just for fun this title is a stellar addition.  Follow this link for a SpicyNodes creation about stories with some form of the three little pigs and the big bad wolf.  I could not resist adding a link to the YouTube video of the Disney version with the famous song.

Hippity-Hoppity

Back in 1202 a mathematician, Fibonacci, wondered how many male and female pairs of rabbits there would be after each month and one year given ideal circumstances starting with just one newborn male and female.  Mathematics aside, British author and illustrator, Emily Gravett , has clearly and cleverly with much humor given us a delightful visual interpretation in her title, The Rabbit Problem (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, November 2, 2010).

Using oil based pencil-watercolor paint and carrots? coupled with hand lettered text, readers young and old alike will find themselves eagerly turning the pages as each month rolls or should I say hops past.  Originally published in 2009 in Great Britain the American version followed in November 2010 with a different cover that resembles a chalkboard in color and texture.  After turning two pages of rabbits attempting to solve the problem, a rabbit hole, literally appears, inviting readers to join the bunny fun shifting the book's format to a wall calendar style complete with the requisite hole for hanging.

In January Lonely the Rabbit sends out an invitation, which is the first of many inventive, folding, attachments to the calendar pages.  By February Chalk has joined Lonely with preparations for impending parenthood underway.  As the population expands and grows so do the supplements from Bunny's First Month, to a Ration Book, to The Fibber, Fibonacci's Field's Only Local Newspaper headlining a Boredom Strike, to The Carrot Cookbook and of course, another rabbit hole.

Unfolding the pages leaping lapins burst forth in a final glorious graphic of paper engineering which will be viewed repeatedly.  Hop to it fans of long, lop-eared, wide-eyed rabbits, you will smile and discover something new at each reading.

To discover more about Emily Gravett and her other work, please follow the link attached to her name to access her website.  At the publisher's website you can view several interior images.