Bravo, Tavo! by Brian Meunier

In a Mexican village, young Gustavo, nicknamed Tavo, has some busted up shoes that he's been taping together.  I was reminded of my friend Carolyn and her talking canvas shoes years ago.  He asks his dad for some new shoes so he can play basketball but his dad is focused on bringing water to the community.  There has not been rain and one day they dig irrigation ditches and find a spring in the earth.  One of the digs yields water for a supposed witch and soon Tavo has some shoes made of the witch's quilt.  I really liked this book mostly because it's about a poor kid.  This year I haven't read too many picture books about poor kids.   

 

Little Rabbit and the Night Mare by Kate & M. Sarah Klise

Sarah's local, she lives in Berk.  All right, Night Mare--as in two words.  This rabbit has trouble sleeping because he imagines a horse made of his pillow and blanket.  He's freaked out and can't concentrate on his school report.  Most WTF picture:  When the other animals are getting ready to do their reports, the giraffe is going to talk about tall buildings and there's a picture of Sears Tower.  Um, what about Taipei 101?!  Wouldn't that have been cool? 

 

The Blabber Report by True Kelley

LOVED IT!  Blabber is a talkative mouse who freezes up when he's asked to give an oral book report.  With the help of his mousey classmates who hold up cue cards that say things like "Why did you pick it?" and "Tell me something I don't know" he's able to complete his report and the class can have a cheesy-chip cookie party.  This picture book is a super introduction to simple book reports.

 

Grump Groan Growl by Bell Hooks and illustrated by Chris Raschka

A kid is in a grumpy mood and groans and growls.  watercolor pictures are pretty interesting to look at.  Raschka won the Caldecott for The Hello, Goodbye Window.  The book is super simple and reassures kids that it's OK to feel growly sometimes and eventually those feelings will pass.

 

Oodles of Noodles by Diana Hendry and Sarah Massini

I thought of a couple of authors as I read this story:  Tomi de Paola and Shel Silverstein.  Weirdest picture:  The mom has square boobs.  Ben and Ava's mom gets a pasta maker (that looks humanlike) and soon she's cranking out oodles of noodles but the machine won't stop.  The maker starts off looking innocent enough, but as the story progresses, it looks panicked, then psychotic and finally when they figure out how to stop it--it looks dead.  One would think that with the massive amount of noodles cranked out, they'd have noodles for lunch right?  Well no, they have burgers and fries instead :o)