Robin Smith

You know when people refer to “a book for all ages?” That usually means they are speaking in clichés. But in the new picture book Duck! Rabbit!, the cliché proves true. I know—I met two fans of the book on a flight to Baltimore last weekend. I was wedged into the middle seat but wanted to get some work done, so I pulled out a copy of Duck! Rabbit! and began reading. I soon realized with joy that the engineering student to my left and the beefy salesman to my right were watching the pages turn and chuckling with delight. They actually wanted me to read it again!

To get an idea of the book’s concept, think back to those pictures from your Psych 101 textbook, the ones that looked like an old hag or a young woman, depending on your perception. Author Amy Krouse Rosenthal and illustrator Tom Lichtenheld have fashioned an utterly captivating riff on those pictures. Readers will see a duck or a rabbit, depending on where their head is.

Thick black ink outlines the duck/rabbit and serves as a visual anchor for the story. The figure morphs as the animals are shown eating, drinking, running and flying, all while the duck/rabbit image holds steady inside those thick black outlines. When I read the book aloud, children giggled and gasped when they realized there was no right answer to the question of the character’s identity. This uncertainty makes the book wonderfully re-readable. The text is easy and accessible for the earliest reader, but the ideas are intellectually satisfying for the adults who want to join the fun. At the end of the story, the illustrator thanks Eric Rohmann, whose My Friend Rabbit is suggested here at many turns. That earlier book would make a lovely companion to this one.

Hop (or swim) and find a Duck! Rabbit! of your very own!

Robin Smith reads books aloud to her second-graders in Nashville, and sometimes to perfect strangers on planes.
 

Bob Shea is back with the same energy and humor that marked his earlier offerings, Big Plans and New Socks. This time, he nails the bravado of the young child right on the head.

Nothing can stop Dinosaur, not a pile of leaves, a big slide, a bowl of spaghetti, talking grown – ups or even bath time and tooth brushing. But, when Dinosaur faces bedtime, his energy and confidence are put to the test. The opening "ROAR! I'M A DINOSAUR!" will pull young listeners into the world of this appealing dinosaur instantly. Short red legs propel it to each new challenge and its spiky, white, oversized teeth seem ready for anything. The new reader will cheer along with the joyful "DINOSAUR WINS!" that follows each new success and will grin with recognition at each roar and chomp. Who hasn't seen a youngster brazenly cheer for himself when overcoming an obstacle? A mixture of collage and cartoon – like illustrations gives the book a bit of a retro feel, which will appeal to the adult reader, especially when the dinosaur dons its blue and white striped pajamas.

Repeating phrases, familiar words and universal situations will make this a book that any child will gravitate to and giggle over. It won't be long until the child is reading right along, maybe even by herself. Children who are just about to learn to read need easy text, engaging illustrations and lots of repetition and this hilarious offering gives healthy doses of each.

Prepare your dinosaur voices and exaggerated roars, because this is a read – aloud that children will ask for over and over. When it comes to Dinosaur vs. the mom or dad reader, Dinosaur wins!

Robin Smith is a second grade teacher in Nashville.

I wonder if Thomas Dorflein, the zookeeper at the Berlin Zoo, ever thought he would spend half a year as a foster parent to a polar bear? When Tosca, a female polar bear at the zoo, gave birth to two healthy cubs, she showed little interest in her offspring. The veterinarians and zookeepers had to step in quickly to save them. After one of the cubs died of a fever, Dorflein became the around-the-clock caregiver for Knut. Any parent can empathize with Dorflein's long nights and the constant feeding, grooming and cleaning that Knut required. The zookeeper's own family had to move to the back burner as the baby polar bear's needs demanded almost every minute of his foster father's time and energy. And when one animal rights activist declared that zookeepers should never have intervened to save the cub, little Knut became a worldwide celebrity.

In Knut: How One Little Polar Bear Captivated the World, it's the details that make the story memorable the nine-part photograph of Knut eating his first meal of kitten food and milk, his struggles with teething pain and his rollicking fun in the sandbox will remind young readers of the similarities between humans and their furry mammal relatives. Juliana, Isabella and Craig Hatkoff, authors of the popular Owen & Mzee, join forces here with Gerald Ulrich, CEO of the Berlin Zoo, to turn this story of one adorable and irresistible polar bear into much more. They highlight the effect of human civilization and global warming on the habitat of all polar bears and pose a painful question: Is it possible that polar bears could become extinct during our lifetime?

Detailed back matter will send interested readers deeper into the lives of polar bears and to scientific information about ecological activism. One very cute, very vulnerable polar bear cub might just do what the politicians seem unable to do: mobilize humans to pay attention to the effect they have on the Earth.

On its face, Gennifer Choldenko's first novel is the story of Kirsten, a seventh-grader whose life seems to be falling apart. She has put on a lot of weight, her parents are arguing, and, when school begins, her best friends have joined the mean girls group, leaving her alone. But there is much more to this story.

Choldenko's accessible, amusing novel in two voices turns its penetrating eye on the social vibe at a San Francisco private school and its students and families. Everyone in this moneyed society is trying to find out where he or she belongs. Kirsten narrates her chapters with a fresh, nervous, insecure voice that could be Every Nice Seventh-Grade Girl. She worries about her clothes, her backpack, her seat at lunch, the way her hair looks and her weight. She hates her giggle, her voice, the way her fat wiggles when she runs. The other narrator is a third person voice that sounds a lot like the other main character. Walk is confident, secure and not at all concerned about how others perceive him. He is new to Mountain School, a black kid from the decaying City School, on scholarship. Brianna, the blonde Alpha-girl, will be recognizable to anyone who can still remember middle school. With a sneaky smile, a rich mom willing to make things happen for her little girl and a cadre of buddies longing to do her bidding, Brianna seems to have everyone wrapped around her finger, and Walk just doesn't get it. What is her power? Why does she matter?

There are so many fascinating characters in this story: mothers who are overly concerned with their social standing; students who spend more time worrying about their social life than academics; one lovely boy who is willing to sell Amway to save money for private school; adults who must come to terms with the secrets they have kept for far too long; and kids who try to figure out if they matter. This is a perfect book for classroom or parent-child book clubs. It begs to be read over and over.

Robin Smith is a second-grade teacher in Nashville.

To read poet and novelist Naomi Shihab Nye's tales of driving and being driven is to hear her voice in every syllable. Like her poetry, mostly written for adults, Nye's prose comes from deep within a heart that believes, more that anything else, in the power of human connection.

Thirty-one stories of conversations and adventures while in cars make up I'll Ask You Three Times, Are You OK? Nye's gift is her ability to ask the right questions, remember the answers and recount them in a way that erases the distance between writer and reader. I nod in agreement when she remarks that all we see of taxi drivers are the sides and backs of their heads. And, when she is in a car accident (in a friend's car), I feel her sadness and responsibility as she surveys the damage to the totaled GTO.

In Dora, Naomi finds herself with an unexpected passenger shortly after finally passing her driver's test: An old lady who speaks only Spanish plunks herself in the back of the car and will not get out. This situation had not been included in the dull driving manual I had been poring over, reluctantly, for more than a year. So far every problem I had encountered in my life had not been predicted or described by anyone in advance. Indeed. And since she does not quite know what to do with this lady, now called Dora, she takes her home to her own mother, who helps her find her home.

These stories are for any age children will nod and laugh in recognition while adult readers will find themselves grabbing for a slip of paper to write down quotations and sentences to treasure. Poignant, hilarious, terrifying and always soul-sustaining, Nye's stories remind us what it is to be truly human. Put on your seatbelt; you're in for a satisfying read.

Robin Smith drives her late-model Saturn in Nashville when she can't get her husband to do the driving.