Merry's Book Club
Brought to you by The Merry LibrarianArchive for children's picture books
“The Magic Raincoat” by Ryan David, Illustrations by Sibylla Benatova
Ages: 3-7
The magic raincoat has a cute storyline and the illustrations are great. I really like mixed media illustrations. My kids and I enjoy trying to figure out what the pictures in books are made of and mixed media is always the funniest to explore. Ms. Benatova uses paper that appears to be handmade, along with watercolors and pen drawings. The main character appears to be computer generated which contrasts nicely with the paper and watercolor.
My oldest daughter really liked the part in the story where the girl uses her ‘magic raincoat’ to turn her brother into a dog (quite by accident to be sure)! You see, the mother gets a new raincoat for Emily, but it is way too big. When she puts it on and yells (use your best whiny voice here) “I wish it fit me”, the coat becomes smaller until it fits perfectly. Emily realizes this is a special raincoat, so she wears it all day. While Emily was wearing the coat, she got mad at her brother for playing with her toys, so she wished he was a dog, and then he turned into one! That’s when she realized the coat was not only special, but Magic! Then she uses the ‘magic raincoat’ to wish that her Daddy were home all the time. This is a quite common wish for little kids, but when he comes home saying he’s been fired, the whole house is sad. Not what Emily really wanted. This was a great opportunity to talk about how our actions and words can affect other people in ways we don’t always intend.
There are a few inconsistencies within the illustrations, but they are easily overlooked and most people who aren’t librarians would probably not even notice. All in all, a good book for the preschool and early elementary set.
review by storiesRfun
“Big Wolf and Little Wolf” by Nadine Brun-Cosme
genre: children’s picture book age: 3-6
The illustrations by Olivier Tallec in this book first caught my eye. The two wolves in the story (Big wolf and Little wolf) are sketched in a child-like fashion, which gives them lots of character. The backgrounds are wonderful, almost impressionistic scenes, with vibrant colors. My favorite illustration in this story is when “For the first time in his life Big Wolf’s heart beat with joy.” It’s amazing how much emotion can be seen in a character that has eyes consisting of a black dot inside a white circle. Truly, good illustrating!
But now, on to the storyline. Big Wolf lives alone under a tree—‘his tree’. Always have, always will; or so he thought! One day Little Wolf arrived and changed things in Big Wolf’s life. Big Wolf worried that Little Wolf would be better at things than he. But he begins to warm up to the little guy and even shares his blanket at night (although it was just a tiny corner of the blanket.) And he shares some food with Little Wolf (although it was just a bit of food—after all Little Wolf is little.) Then Big Wolf goes for a walk, but Little Wolf does not come along. When Big Wolf returns, Little Wolf is gone! Big Wolf is alone again under ‘his’ tree. Just like before. Except now Big Wolf is sad! It is then that Big Wolf realizes he has come to love Little Wolf and misses him terribly. When a tiny dot appears in the distance, Big Wolf’s heart beats with joy. And it is decided that Little Wolf will stay. The beginning of a beautiful friendship, I’m sure!
review by storiesRfun
