Day 223: Mr. Tiger Goes Wild

I've been eager to get my hands on a copy of this book since I heard of its release last fall.  Fortunately, my children get lots of books for Christmas, and this was one of them.  Hooray!  I fell in love with Peter Brown's work when we got Curious Garden a few years back, and it remains one of my favorite stories in our collection.  Mr. Tiger Goes Wild has only been a part of our home library for a few days, but we have already read it multiple times.  My 3 year old daughter is absolutely delighted by Mr. Tiger and his wild ways, and my 6 year old son finds the story equally fun.  It's a sweet, charming story with amazing illustrations that I know we will be reading again and again.

The story itself is fairly simple:  Mr. Tiger, sick of feeling confined by the expectations of society around him, decides to leave his conservative life behind and go a little wild.  First, he reverts to walking on all fours.  Enough of this two-legged nonsense!  Next go his clothes, portrayed in an adorable two-page spread.  So cute.  Appalled, some of his peers encourage him to take his nonsense to the wilderness, which he naturally thinks is a brilliant idea.  Once there, Mr. Tiger is free to be as wild as he wants, romping and roaring to his heart's desire.  Eventually, though, he begins to miss his friends and the city and decides to return.  Upon doing so, he is thrilled to discover that things have begun to change in his absence, leaving him -- and his fellow critters -- free to be himself.

I think my children and I love this book equally, though for different reasons.  My kids love the way Mr. Tiger busts out and just goes wild -- particularly because they love to be wild themselves -- and find his antics hilariously fun.  They also love the illustrations, and I'm always careful to give sufficient pause before turning the page so that they have time to study and enjoy them.  

As for me, I have found that this story grows on me more and more each time I read it.  The first time we read it together, I thought, "Okay, well, that was cute," but I wasn't blown away.  I liked it, to be sure, but it wasn't a story that immediately jumped out and grabbed me.  Then we read it again, at my kids' request, and I found myself trying to find a deeper meaning within its pages.  The overall message about the importance of being oneself (and feeling free to do so) is obviously a valuable one, but was there more that I was missing?  We read it a third time later that day, and I stopped reading as an (over-analyzing) adult and just let myself enjoy it the way my children do.  I studied the illustrations and details, and marveled at Brown's artistic style and artwork.  (I've never worked with ink and gouache, but now I'm dying to.)  Reading it again (and again… and again), I've come to the conclusion that while I find the story sweet and cute, what I really love is the way this book comes together as a whole.  The artwork is fabulous, especially the colors, and I love the emotion that Peter Brown is able to convey on the faces of Mr. Tiger and his fellow creatures.  Study their faces closely, and the story could tell itself without any words at all.  I even love the book's layout and feel of the pages.  (Be sure to take a look at the cover without the jacket on, too -- my daughter particularly loves the design!)  If I were on the Caldecott committee, I would certainly put Peter Brown and this beautiful book on my list of nominees! 

So, if you see this book on the new arrivals shelf at your local library, bring it home with you and see what you think.  Your children will likely love it, and there's a good chance you will, too.   

Day 199: Creepy Carrots!

Ever since reading and falling in love with The Curious Garden, I've been a fan of Peter Brown's work.   When I heard he had won a Caldecott Honor for his illustrations in Aaron Reynolds' Creepy Carrots (congratulations, Peter!), I knew we had to check it out. We brought this book home from the library a few weeks ago and have been enjoying it ever since.  It's silly and fun, and as the title suggests, a little creepy... though not in a super scary sort of way.

Jasper Rabbit loves eating the carrots in Crackenhopper Field and snacks on them whenever he can.  On the way to school, going to little league practice, coming home at night... He just can't get enough!  Until one day, the carrots start following him.  "He first noticed something strange after the big game against the East Valley Hards.  Jasper was about to help himself to a victory snack... when he heard it.  The soft... sinister... tunktunktunk of carrots creeping."  (My son always gets such a kick out of that part.)  Before long, Jasper is seeing creepy carrots everywhere... in the shed, while he's brushing his teeth, in his bedroom at night.  But it's just imagination.  Or is it?

I just love Peter Brown's illustrations in this book and think they are the perfect compliment to Reynolds' story.  I especially love the way Brown contrasts the orange carrots with the otherwise black and white illustrations.  His choice of tones and color gives the story an eerie feel, similar to how music can make scenes in a movie feel more scary.  Fortunately, for my kids, at least, they find the story hilarious.  Were Jasper being followed by monsters instead of carrots, it probably would seem pretty frightening; but he's not.  I mean, vegetables being scary?  Carrots creeping around?  The very idea is silly enough in itself that my kids don't find the story at all scary.  I love the subtle message about not being too greedy, and also think the story helps kids see that while their fears might be irrational (for example, there is no such thing as monsters), they are real but within their control.  For us, this book offers just the right amount of suspense and humor to make an all-around entertaining read.

Day 132: The Curious Garden

We haven’t even had snow here yet this winter and I’m already thinking about spring!  The worst part is, it hasn’t even really been that cold here yet (though I hear it’s coming this week...)  In thinking about the chilly week that lies ahead, all I want to do is snuggle up on the couch with my little ones and a cup of tea and read some of the new (and wonderful!) books that they got for Christmas.  They got several stories we have been hoping to add to our personal collection for some time, as well as some other new titles I hadn’t heard of before.  One lovely new book my son got from his Uncle Jeff is Peter Brown’s The Curious Garden.  We’ve read it each night at bedtime for the past few days, as well as at some other times in between.  Each time we read it, I manage to love it even more, and I’m so happy that my son enjoys it as much as I do.  The book has a wonderfully soothing quality to it (hence why we love reading it at bedtime), and the subtle language Brown uses throughout is as beautiful as his illustrations.  The Curious Garden tells the story of a young boy named Liam, who stumbles upon a few plants growing in the unlikeliest of places:  a old, abandoned railway in the middle of the dreary, gray city he calls home.  Fortunately for the plants (and later, for the rest of the city), Liam is determined to help them grow.  “Most gardens stay in one place,” but as Liam soon learns, “this was no ordinary garden.  With miles of open railway ahead of it, the garden was growing restless.  It wanted to explore.  The tough little weeds and mosses were the first to move.  They popped up farther and farther down the tracks and were closely followed by the more delicate plants...”  By the end of the summer, Liam and his garden have made their way to every corner of the railway.  But then, as it does, winter arrives, and Liam can no longer spend his days exploring his garden.  Instead, he busies himself preparing for the next growing season ahead, and before he knows it, more than just new plants are popping up:  a whole community of new gardeners is popping up, too.  As the months and years pass, Liam’s garden and spirit grows, until the entire city has blossomed into one lovely arboretum.  It’s lovely to picture, isn’t it?  I just love Brown’s early juxtaposition of the beautiful, thriving plants and the city’s boarded-up windows and pollution-spewing smokestacks, and his pictures of the garden city in the final pages of the book are inspiring and wonderful.  I especially love reading the author’s note at the end.  If you ever read this book, don’t pass it by.  Turns out, Liam’s railway is based on Manhattan’s old elevated railway, the High Line, and the gardens which now grace its rails.  More importantly, though, you’ll share in Brown’s sense of wonder and curiosity about nature and our place in it.  The jacket cover describes The Curious Garden as “a magical story about a boy’s dream and how the efforts of one small person can help change the world.”  In the same vein as one of my all-time favorite stories, Miss Rumphius, The Curious Garden inspires me to make the world a more beautiful place, and give my children the tools, compassion, and desire to do the same.