Tag Jon Scieszka

The Real Dada Mother Goose

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The Real Dada Mother Goose
Jon Scieszka and Julia Rothman
Walker Books

I wonder who had more fun, Jon Scieszka, guided by Dadaism turning half a dozen nursery rhymes inside, outside upside down, or this reviewer reading the outcome. It is dedicated to Blanche Fisher Wright, who in 1919 illustrated the The Real Mother Goose and whose art is reproduced throughout the pages here. The whole book is just so clever, playfully subversive and absurd. 

Scieszka and illustrator Julia Rothman transform each nursery rhyme starting with Humpty Dumpty, into six new versions. These renditions are a censored form where key words are covered over, a verbose version, a boring version wherein the King’s horses and men ‘Didn’t really have to do anything.’ Then come a postcard from Humpty to his parents, a version using morse code and finally a version translated into a series of five foreign languages.

Jack be Nimble is given in three coded forms; in Esperanto, there are multiple choice options, presentations as a grammatical exercise, one is given the Spoonerism treatment and a classroom book report.

I love the Jabberwocky version of Old Mother Hubbard 

and in two variations, Old Mother Hubbard has morphed into ‘Old Mother Luvven’ who went to the oven ‘To get her poor iguana some crickets and mealworms.’ and ‘Young Dr Fabratory’ who went to the laboratory, ‘To refit her latest robot with a new, faster and larger memory.’ The two are left pondering however on account of the disappearance of the laboratory. Brilliant mucking about this.

Hey Diddle Diddle becomes a news article in The Daily Goose, a recipe for stew, 

a map of Diddle Town, a knock knock joke, the topic for a quiz and this splendid haiku ‘Hey diddle diddle, / Cat fiddles, Cow moons, Dog laughs / “Run!” says Dish to Spoon.’

And so it goes on finally coming full circle – kind of.

Throughout Julia Rothman has fun cleverly manipulating Wright’s original illustrations and there’s a wealth of backmatter that will please older children and adults be they teachers, parents or interested others. Dadaist delight this.

Saving the Planet – The International Yeti Collective: Shadowspring / Astronuts Mission Two: The Water Planet

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The International Yeti Collective: Shadowspring
Paul Mason, illustrated by Katy Riddell
Little Tiger

The Yeti Collective is a worldwide organisation with each of its strands having responsibility for an element of conservation while simultaneously aiming to avoid human detection.

Shadowspring (underground water upon which all wildlife and the humans depend) is under the protection of the Greybeards (the British group) but now somebody or something is interfering with the water levels and things are looking bad for the inhabitants of Tadpole’s community.

Tadpole (she of unripe character), daughter of the sett’s leader, Shipshape (she in perfect order), is next in line to become the Greybeards’ leader, a role for which she feels anything but fit.

Despite the precedent for avoiding humans contact, like her grandfather before her, Tadpole meets a human; his name is Henry, a boy just adapting to boarding school life.

Now, on account of the danger the Greybeards are facing, Tadpole and Henry (aka Hen-ree) must work together: an extremely dangerous undertaking ensues.

It’s a delight to enter and share in this world with its highly pertinent environmental messages, that’s populated by wonderful characters such as the two main ones in this story.

I missed the first book in the series, but I intend getting hold of it forthwith; I’m sure it too will be a superb read.

Astronuts Mission Two: The Water Planet
Jon Scieszka and Steven Weinberg
Chronicle Books

AstroWolf, LaserShark, SmartHawk, and StinkBug, the four NNASA agents, return having previously failed to find the perfect Goldilocks Planet, with a new mission, to find a planet fit for human habitation.

Having splash-landed on Water Planet, they discover it is awash with clams, a power-hungry, sub-aquatic force led by their president, P.T.Clam . Said creature is absolutely gushing with praise about his home planet and more than a little keen to swap his planet of residence for Earth. the polluted waters of which he claims to filter. Now why might he be so eager for that exchange?

It appears that he’s willing to do a special deal on the quiet with AlphaWolf (the mission’s leader) but another clam, Susan B. Clamthony tells a rather different story

and it’s one that the Astronuts really need to hear. It sounds as though not all the residents of Water Planet are as dastardly as their leader.

Packing the adventure with punny humour, hilarious interchanges and with a bounteous brio, Jon Scieszka, via his Earth narrator, cleverly knits together environmental information and facts about climate change. Combined with Steven Weinberg’s equally zany collage illustrations, every one of which is as immersive as the watery environment of the story’s setting, (love the spread on how they were created) this is a terrific second instalment.

More please! I hear youngsters, (especially fans of graphic novels) cry. (And this reviewer.)

AstroNuts

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AstroNuts
Jon Scieszka and Steven Weinberg
Chronicle Books

In this, the first book of what is to be a series, our narrator is planet Earth, yes that’s right Earth and it starts by taking readers back thirty one years to 1988 when, so we hear, in a secret lab. within Mount Rushmore two scientists working for NNASA (Not the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) built four super-powered animal astronauts designed to become activated should humans ever come near to destroying their home planet. Their role would be to travel through outer space in search of a new ‘Goldilocks Planet’ (not too hot, not too cold, but just right for human habitation).

That catastrophic time now has come, so let’s meet the AstroNuts – fearless leader AlphaWolf, along with SmartHawk the super-organised planner, electromagnetic LaserShark – protector and food finder, and StinkBug -as they blast off in their secret craft.

Having travelled 39 light-years in less than 3½ hours they crash land their rocket on Plant Planet.

This place certainly does have a super-abundance of lush vegetation. But it turns out that these plants aren’t the mindless flora the AstroNuts first thought. And yes, there’s food aplenty; shelter building potential – well maybe,

but a balanced ecosystem? Seemingly not. But are those inhabitants actually friend or foe? Don’t miss the fold-out feature.

This is a clever mix of science and laugh-out loud bonkerness.

What better way to put across the climate change message and along the way impart a considerable amount of biological and chemical information, than with this heady concoction of Scieszka’s irresistible verbal playfulness and Weinberg’s clever digital collages constructed in part from images from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Creativity Unleashed

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The Extraordinary Mr Qwerty
Karla Strambini
Walker Books
Norman Qwerty is a real ideas man; he just loves to invent things – amazing things, Heath Robinson style. But so extraordinary are his inventions that he keeps them under his hat (a large bowler) – quite literally – for fear that others will think him strange. Consequently Mr Qwerty feels completely alone, for what he fails to see is that other people also wear hats, all manner of them.

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There are cloches, boaters, top hats and fedoras all with hinged lids that can be unlocked and lifted to reveal such passions as butterflies, mathematics, exploration, tea even.
Eventually Mr Q’s ideas grow so huge they can be contained no longer. His piece de resistance is an enormous bird-like contrivance that spews forth appropriately egg-shaped ideas to all and sundry.

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In this way creativity begets creativity we assume, thus fostering a community of diverse thinkers and creators. And Mr Qwerty himself? He’s is no longer alone, unless he chooses to be.
Karla Strambini’s detailed illustrations are rendered largely in black and white, abundantly hatched and with just the occasional dash of colour – Mr Q’s brownish red tie being the most notable coloured item. From the title page, the whole thing is littered with visual symbolism

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leaving readers free to let their own imaginations run riot.
This unusual, fascinating book could well be used with children in both primary and secondary school; there is so much to look at, think about and discuss.

Imagination also runs riot in:

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Battle Bunny
Jon Scieszka, Mac Barnett and Matthew Myers
Walker Books
Either you will celebrate the creativity demonstrated herein or you’ll cringe in shock horror at the defacing, with black marker pen of the original saccharin sweet story.
(I have to admit when studying I have been guilty of writing my own comments all over textbooks, but I’ve never drawn in one). It’s something Matthew Myers does as he modifies the original pictures: He enhances, indeed completely revamps, the oil paintings with slightly smudgy black images of Alex’s anarchic making. It’s Alex too who renames the Birthday Bunny, Battle Bunny converting him from a cute character to a saw-wielding, helmeted and belted, eye-patch wearer bent on executing his ‘destructive Evil Plan’.

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(Little Rabbit Foo Foo you have a rival here.) He does have one more asset under his belt too – an extra fighting style bringing his number to 1104, one more than (Shaolin) Bear and (Ninja) Turtle his would-be eliminators.

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So is the world to be completely destroyed or can anybody stop Battle Bunny and his crazy plan? Thank goodness then for a boy who just happens to be called Alex and just happens to have a birthday too …
This hilarious book’s three co-creators/destructors are to be heartily congratulated: What a wonderful way to improve upon those cloying, sloppily written picture books out there – don’t try it with library or school books though. And, let’s hope that unlike our Birthday Bunny, readers will not be on the receiving end of a yucky offering inscribed on the flyleaf with such words as Happy Birthday Alexander. To my little birthday bunny on his special day. Love Gran Gran. After reading this, those who do will know just what action to take.
I’m off to get my hands on some of those terrible reading schemes to work on.

Use your local bookshop:localbookshops_NameImage-2

Don’t forget February 14th ibgdposterlarge