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This month The Edge of the Forest reviews picture books with a focus
on oridnary rituals and lives. What is special about all these books, though, is the way they are told, imagined, and illustrated.
From a joyful dinner with infectious rhyme on the side in Bee-bim Bop! to a father's storytelling talents in
Every Single Night, from a creature with a case of agoraphobia in Scaredy Squirrel to the brainless life of
Jellies, ordinary life is reimagined in these wonderful picture books for the very young.
Bee-bim Bop!
by Linda Sue Park, illustrations by Ho Baek Lee
Reviewed by Susan Thomsen, Chicken Spaghetti
All preschool classes ought to have a copy of this book: the title words are just so much fun to say. Linda Sue Park, who
won a Newbery medal for her novel A Single Shard, has written a picture book about bee-bim bop, a popular Korean
dish of rice topped with meat and vegetables.
Using rhyming quatrains, Park tells the story of a special dinner through the eyes of a little girl, who looks to be about
five in Ho Baek Lee’s cheerful watercolor illustrations. Mother and daughter begin at the grocery store, looking for the
right ingredients. “Hurry, Mama, hurry/Gotta shop shop shop!/Hungry hungry hungry/for some BEE-BIM BOP!” Little ones will
love chiming in on this refrain.
Side by side, the two prepare the food for the rest of their Korean American family—a father, a grandmother, and a baby.
Along the way, a young reader learns what goes into this delicious-sounding melange; by the end, she’ll want some of what
loosely translates as “mix-mix rice,” too. (And a side of kimchee, pickled cabbage, wouldn’t be bad, either.)
The little girl is so excited that she makes a mistake or two in the kitchen, but nobody yells. She cleans up and sets the
table with bowls, spoons, and chopsticks, and everyone sits down to eat.
Park, who has worked as a food journalist, even includes a bee-bim bop recipe for an adult and child to make together.
Bee-bim Bop! is a sweet story about a happy family enjoying a favorite meal.
Every Single Night
by Dominique Demers, illustrated by Nicolas Debon
Reviewed by Julie Falkner
“Daaaaddd!!!” Simon’s plaintive call is the nightly signal for his Dad to come upstairs to put the world to sleep.
Africa is first on the list and as Dad says his special words, Simon sees in his mind’s eye the animals of that continent.
Lions, elephants, gazelles, and other creatures all “run off to curl up in the arms of the night.”
Africa now sleeps, but Simon doesn’t yet. Dad pulls the bedcovers just a little higher and speaks next to the oceans. And
so it continues, until finally only one realm is still wakeful: the wondrous world of magicians, elves, and dragons. As Dad
offers his gentle words, the magicians respond by scattering stardust and the fairies prepare for their nightly watch.
Children will enjoy the repetition in Every Single Night, as Simon’s covers slowly progress up the bed and each
successful sleep-inducing step is accompanied by the words, “That’s all done, kid.” The serene text is enhanced by Nicolas
Debon’s paintings: homely images of Simon in his striped pajamas contrast with dramatic double-page spreads of the
soon-to-be-sleeping creatures. For example, as the inhabitants of the sea “join in one last water ballet, an ode to the
stars” we see a purple whale together with turtles and seahorses in a turquoise sea encircling the orange-tinted land.
The poetic words of Simon’s nightly ritual will help to induce sleep in the reader too, and the imaginative illustrations
could well inspire sweet dreams. Every Single Night is highly recommended bedtime reading.
Scaredy Squirrel
by Melanie Watt
Reviewed by Kerry Millar, Flying Dragon Bookstore, Toronto
Scaredy Squirrel is one of those books you can use to do an under-five-seconds-kindred-spirit test:
1) Show it to a kid you haven’t figured out yet. Show it to a total stranger. Your crush. Your new boss.
2) Open book.
3) Read Page 1:
“WARNING! Scaredy Squirrel insists that everyone wash their hands with antibacterial soap before reading this book.”
4) If your reader isn’t laughing by now, you know his sense of humour has been removed or disabled and you can hook him up
with the local shuffleboard league.
With Scaredy Squirrel, Melanie Watt has created a simply perfect picture book, the kind of book that makes kids and
parents giggle, and wannabe authors jealous. Scaredy Squirrel’s tree is his world. It offers him everything he needs:
nuts, a picturesque view, and security. Beyond the nut tree, in the “unknown,” lurks tarantulas, poison ivy, killer bees,
germs, sharks and, quite possibly, green Martians. Although he never leaves his tree, Scaredy Squirrel is ready for
impending doom. He has a plan. Emergency kit in hand, he watches and waits, day after day. Sure enough, doom arrives on
his doorstep, and sadly for Scaredy, when it does, nothing goes according to plan.
Watts’ kooky cartoon illustrations suit the deadpan humour of the text completely, and the subtle moral is timely when so
many kids are being raised to be afraid of the world. If you can stop laughing, you’ll cheer Scaredy on as he launches
himself into...well...“the unknown.” Since it’s been chosen as a Book Sense 2006 Summer Children’s Pick, with any luck,
lots of kids will be doing just that.
Jellies: The Life of Jellyfish
by Twig C. George
Reviewed by Susan Thomsen, Chicken Spaghetti
Nonfiction rules at my house. At least on many days, it does. Snakes, trains, sharks, plumbing, electricity, and lightning
are just a few of the many subjects of the picture books that land here. The last thing I ever expected from this
nonfiction parade was to be reminded of Bright Lights, Big City, the 1984 novel by Jay McInerney that used present
tense, second-person narration. (“You are at a nightclub talking to a girl with a shaved head.”) But here is the text of the
first page of Jellies, by Twig C. George:
“If you were a jellyfish you would have two choices—to go up or to go down. That’s it. Two. You would not have a brain, so
you could not decide what to have for breakfast or where to go for lunch.”
Full of large color photographs of different kinds of jellyfish, Jellies shifts back and forth between second-
and third-person narration, lending a humorous effect. What? Imagine I’m a brainless sea creature? a reader may ask. Well,
why not? “Sea turtles, dolphins, and whale sharks would try to eat you. You wouldn’t worry about it because you couldn’t.
You would just float on,” Ms. George writes.
This dare-to-be-a-jelly approach makes the beautifully designed book a fun read to share with four to eight year olds.
After all, you are no “idler in the kingdom of facts,” like Jay McInerney’s main character. You are a jellyfish.
Bee-bim Bop!, written by Linda Sue Park. Illustrations by Ho Baek Lee. Clarion Books, 2005. ISBN: 0-6182-6511-2.
Every Single Night, by Dominique Demers. Illustrations by Nicolas Debon. Groundwood Books, 2006.
ISBN: 0-88899-699-3.
Scaredy Squirrel, by Melanie Watt. Kids Can Press, 2006. ISBN: 1-55337-959-4.
Jellies: The Life of Jellyfish, by Twig C. George. The Millbrook Press, 2000. ISBN: 0-7613-1659-0.
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