Dear Dumb Diary: The Problem With Here is That It's Where I'm From

Dear Dumb Diary: The Problem With Here is That It's Where I'm From. by Jim Benton. (2007). 120p. New York: Scholastic Press. 

Awards and Honors: none

Review:
Jim Benton is an author of popular humor for tweens. His Dear Dumb Diary series is a hilarious look into the diary of Jamie Kelly, a sarcastic and sassy middle school student. In this installment, Jamie, who is bored with her school and her town, becomes obsessed with the idea of being "foreign" and "exotic". When the students of nearby Wodehouse Middle School are bussed into Mackerel Middle School because of a problem with their ventilation system, Jamie and her best friend Isabella are thrilled. Things get even better for Jamie and Isabella when they meet Colette, a beautiful Wodehouse student who challenges the social dominance of popular girl, Angeline. The book is a clever commentary on prettiness and popularity. 

Opinion:
I expected to not enjoy this book, as I imagined it was just a hasty attempt to cash in on the sarcastic adolescent diary trend started by Jeff Kinney's Wimpy Kid series. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Dear Dumb Diary series is  hilarious and even perceptive at times. The humor is intelligent and the stories also have a nice message without becoming didactic. 

Ideas:
This series may inspire tweens to begin keeping their own journals. 

Freckle Juice

Freckle Juice. by Judy Blume. (1971). 47p. New York: Random House Children's Books. 

Awards and Honors: none

Review:
Andrew Marcus wants freckles. He wants them so much that he agrees to pay his know-it-all classmate Sharon fifty cents for her secret family recipe for Freckle Juice. Andrew mixes up the juice according to Sharon's directions, but he doesn't get any freckles, he only gets sick. But Andrew doesn't want to admit that Sharon got the best of him, so he takes matters into his own hands.

Opinion:

Judy Blume is the author of some of the best known works of literature for children and Freckle Juice is a classic. It's an innocent story of childhood, best suited for younger readers. I do take issue with the fact that Sharon lies and steals, yet faces no repercussions and while it feels a bit dated, these are minor qualms.

Ideas:
This book is an excellent choice for younger tweens and English language learners. 

Franny K. Stein, Mad Scientist: Frantastic Voyage

Franny K. Stein, Mad Scientist: Frantastic Voyage. by Jim Benton. (2005). 103p. New York: Simon and Schuster.  

Awards and Honors: none

Review:

In this installment in Benton's Franny K. Stein series, the young mad scientist creates a doomsday device to destroy her inventions in case they should fall into the hands of evil-doers. Unfortunately, Igor, her lab assistant (who is only part Labrador Retriever) ends up swallowing the tiny device and Franny must shrink herself to deactivate the explosive before it detonates inside him. Plenty of over the top, gross out humor abounds, and along the way, Franny and Igor also learn about the dangers of advertising and television.

Opinion:

This was the first book I've read in the Franny K. Stein series, and while I didn't love it (Benton's Dear Dumb Diary is smarter and funnier), I can see its appeal for readers who enjoy humorous, easy-to-read books liberally dosed with cartoonish illustrations.

Ideas:
A good choice for reluctant readers, who will be drawn to the large type and comic illustrations.

The Magic Finger

The Magic Finger. by Roald Dahl. illustrated by Quentin Blake. (1964). 63p. New York: Scholastic Press. 

Awards and Honors: none

Review:
Roald Dahl's dark humor is on full display in The Magic Finger, a bizarre little story with an anti-hunting message. The Gregg family love to hunt, but the girl who lives next door to them thinks their sport is atrocious. When she tries to talk them out of it they just laugh at her. She finally becomes so mad that she puts the Magic Finger on them... After a particularly successful duck hunting excursion, the Greggs wake up one morning to find that they've been changed into ducks and now the tables are turned. Quentin Blake's wonderfully wry illustrations add to the humor in the book, which has a happy ending for the Greggs and for the little girl with the Magic Finger. 

Opinion:

This is a smart and funny book written with typical Dahl wit. 

Ideas:
This book would make a fine addition to a bibliography of humorous books for young readers. 

Big Nate: From the Top

Big Nate: From the Top. by Lincoln Peirce. (2010). 223p. Kansas City, MO: Andrews McMeel.

Awards and Honors: none

Review: 

Big Nate: From the Top is a collection of comic strips featuring the antics of eleven-year-old Nate Wright, a wise-cracking troublemaker, class clown and anti-hero. Big Nate goofs off, gets in trouble and generally drives all the adults in his life crazy, though he also gets his share of comeuppance, too.
 

Opinion:

Though much of the humor is rather unoriginal, younger tweens will be left in stitches at Nate's mischievous adventures. Unfortunately though there are a few laughs here and there, I find Big Nate a bit too mean-spirited for my taste. (For instance, making fun of a foreign exchange student for the way he speaks is just not funny to me.)

Ideas:

Big Nate should appeal to reluctant readers, as well as fans of the Wimpy Kid stories who have exhausted all the books in that series.

Babymouse: Rock Star

Babymouse: Rock Star. by Jennifer L. Holm and Matt Holm. (2006). 96p. New York: Random House Books for Young Readers.

Awards and Honors: none

Review: 

A humorous and charming addition to the Babymouse series. In this volume, Babymouse dreams of becoming a famous rockstar (even in the face of a serious lack of musical talent). Babymouse's active imagination leads her on some hilarious adventures as she deals with the universal issues of middle school life- bullies, riding the bus and making friends.

Opinion:

In a genre that is heavily boy-centric, Babymouse is a spot-on and spunky heroine for young girls and a great choice for reluctant readers. The series is easy to read and appeals to a wide age range of young readers. Though the series is aimed towards second through fourth graders, the format and humor extend its appeal to middle schoolers.

Ideas:

Many girls on the younger side of the tween spectrum adore princess and ballerina books and everything pink. I'd recommend Babymouse for these readers, as it offers a bit more substance but would still appeal to those who love girly books.

Moo, Baa, La La La!

Moo, Baa, La La La! written and illustrated by Sandra Boynton. 1995. New York: Little Simon. Unpaged. (067144901X)

Author/Illustrator Website: www.sandraboynton.com/

Media: pen and watercolor

Awards and Honors: National Cartoonists Society's "Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award"

Audience: babies through kindergarteners (or as Sandra Boynton puts it, "discerning children and peculiar adults")

Annotation:
A humorous exploration of barnyard animals and the noises they each make.

Personal Reaction:
With her wry sense of humor and illustrations that are cute without being cutesy, Sandra Boynton is one of those children's authors whose books seem to be just as popular with parents as they are with kids.

Moo, Baa, La La La! is a book for young children about barnyard animals and the noises they each make- a topic of endless fascination with little ones. Kids are encouraged to participate by helping to make the noises along with the animals, and they even get a chance to demonstrate their own sounds on the last page. In typical Boynton style, she throws in some laughs along the way- the singing pigs in a chorus line are sure to elicit chuckles from kids and caregivers alike, and the facial expressions of the animals (angry rhinos, bored pigs, and goofy sheep) are simply silly.

Girl Stories

Girl Stories 

written and illustrated by Lauren R. Weinstein, 2006. New York: Henry Holt and Company. (0805078630).

Author/Illustrator Website: http://www.girlstoriescomics.com/home.html

Media: pen and ink with digital color

Awards and Honors: Books for the Teen Age, New York Public Library; CCBC Choice (Univ. of WI)

Annotation: A collection of short semi-autobiographical comics about the awkwardness (and occasional hilarity) of the adolescence experience.

Personal Reaction: 

     I read Girl Stories immediately after reading Craig Thompson's acclaimed graphic novel, Blankets and I can't help but compare the two. While I appreciated the "heart on its sleeve" sincerity of Blankets, the extreme sentimentality of Thompson's memoir was overbearing at times. Girl Stories relates the experience of growing up as an outsider with tongue-in-cheek, dark humor. To be sure, Girl Stories is not the arching 600-page bildungsroman that is Blankets. While Thompson writes from a place not too far removed emotionally from the events depicted in his story, Weinstein uses the perspective gained from time to weave ridiculously entertaining tales of experiences that probably weren't at all funny at the time. From embarassing parents, to awkward school dances and first dates, Girl Stories relates the mortifying experiences of adolescence with a wittiness that's hard to dislike- I found myself laughing out loud at many of the vignettes.

The Composer is Dead

The Composer is Dead
written by Lemony Snicket, music by Nathaniel Stookey, illustrations by Carson Ellis, 2009. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. (9780061236280).

Media: watercolor

Awards and Honors: none

Author Website: http://www.lemonysnicket.com/

Illustrator Website: http://www.carsonellis.com/

Annotation:  A droll murder mystery featuring a decomposing composer, a handsome and intelligent inspector and some very suspicious orchestra instruments.

Personal Reaction: Who killed the composer? Was it the sneaky oboes, the boisterous trumpets or the overlooked violas? Lemony Snicket employs his trademark humor in this picture book introduction to the orchestra and its instruments. The instruments personified play the suspects in the murder mystery and are interogated by an over eager inspector. One by one, the inspector eliminates the instruments as suspects until he accuses the conductor of murder. The instruments stick up for the conductor, insisting, "The conductor didn't work alone. All of us have butchered a composer at one time or another". I found this slippery linguistic bait and switch unsatisfying and the play on words may fly over the heads of some younger readers. Ultimately, this is an inventive and original introduction to the orchestra for children, but adults may get the most enjoyment out of Snicket's clever allusions and puns.

Use of Alliteration: "We conquered the concert, battered the band, agitated the audience, rattled the roof..."

John, Paul, George & Ben

 

John, Paul, George & Ben

written and illustrated by Lane Smith, 2006, New York: Hyperion Books for Children. (0786848936)

Media: pen and ink with collage elements and photographs, combined digitally

Awards and Honors:

A New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year
A Publishers Weekly Bestseller
A Book Sense Summer Children's Pick
A School Library Journal Best Books of 2006
Horn Book Fanfare List - Best Books of 2006
A Child Magazine Best Book of the Year
An Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Book Award Winner
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
A National Parenting Publication Gold Award Winner
A Parenting Magazine Best Book of the Year
A St. Louis Post Dispatch Best Book  

California Young Reader Medal, Best Picture Book for Older Readers, 2010
The Columbus Dispatch Top 20
New York Daily News Jolly Good Books Round Up
Merit award in Children’s Trade Hardcover (Bookbinder’s Guild New York Book
Show)
A Miami Herald Best Book
A Blue Ribbon Book from the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Winner of the 13th Annual Zena Sutherland Award for "Best Text" and "Best
Overall"
2008 Virginia Readers' Choice Award (Elementary Level)
Best Children's Author - 2007 Connecticut Book Award

Author Website: http://www.lanesmithbooks.com/

Annotation: A humorous re-imagining of the boyhoods of the Founding Fathers John Hancock, Paul Revere, George Washington, Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.

Personal Reaction:

Lane Smith combines bold, appealing illustrations and his trademark humor in this smart re-imagining of the the boyhoods of America's Founding Fathers. Each patriot has his own special "talent" that gets him into some mischief in his formative years, but ends up later being indispensable to the American Revolution. John annoys the teacher with his boldness, Paul's noisiness does nothing to endear him to his customers, George's honesty gets him into trouble, Ben's clever sayings give him a reputation as a know-it-all, and Tom is a little too independent for his own good. Students who are already familiar with the history and personalities of the American Revolution will appreciate the jokes, if not all of the puns and allusions. The illustrations are filled with touches that evoke the historical period like crackle texturing and muted colors, yet still retain a bold, modern flavor through Smith's cartoon-ish characters. Although Smith stretches historical truth for comic effect, he separates truth from fiction in a "Ye Olde True or False Section" that gives students additional information about the American Revolution and the men behind it. 

Curricular Connection: 

5th Grade History/ Social Studies, California State Board of Education Standards

5.5     Students explain the causes of the American Revolution.
      4. Describe the views, lives, and impact of key individuals during this      

      period (e.g., King George III, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, George 

      Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams).