Merry's Book Club
Brought to you by The Merry LibrarianArchive for storiesRfun
“The Day-Glo Brothers: The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer’s Bright Ideas and Brand-New Colors” by Chris Barton Illustrated by Tony Persiani
Ages: 6-10
The telephone, the light bulb, the radio: boring, boring. But invention reports need be boring no more! Next time the invention assignment is going around your town, pull out this book for a lucky child. The fluorescent orange, green and yellow cover is enough to catch anyone’s attention, and the writing will keep them engaged for their report. This is the interesting story of how a magic show and an accident at the ketchup factory led to the invention of day-glo colors. While one brother was recuperating from the ‘ketchup’ accident, the other brother was playing with ultraviolet light for his magic tricks. Both became interested in how things would glow with this special light. When they took it to their father’s drug store, they noticed a label on one of the bottles glowed especially well. They began to experiment with different chemical combinations to come up with glow in the dark paint and eventually day-glo color. Their day-glo colors were used in several ways during WWII, making the two brothers rich from their invention. Today, Day-glo colors are used in everything from safety cones to golf balls. This is a very good read with lots of interesting information.
“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.
