A review of "Good Little Wolf" by Nadia Shireen

Hello People in the Ether,

   Nadia Shireen's debut picture book "Good Little Wolf" is charming, playful and irreverent.

                                            

   Rolf is a model citizen - his best friend is a grandmother, he's pleasant to pigs, he enjoys baking and dutifully eats his greens. Then, low and behold, on a walk in creepy wood he's cornered by the archetypal bully - the Big Bad Wolf - who promptly informs Rolf that he's a failure as wolves go. Rolf maintains that he is a real wolf, he just happens to be of the good and little variety. But, though he is a very awesome, cute and spunky little wolf, he fails at the real wolf task list. Nearing the end of his tether, but sticking to his good guns, Rolf ties up the bully for hinting that devouring his best friend would prove his wolfhood. Rolf, being the nobler creature, releases the BBW and there follows a cordial tea at which the grandmother personage and Rolf suggest that BBW change his ways and become a BGW instead. Shireen then wraps it all up with a tasty ambiguity.

   Shireen's writing uses familiar characters in a "Revolting Rhymes" mode, employing repetition and a delightful cadence. The illustration sequence, a mixture of full spread scenes, split spread images and individual vignettes, sets the pace of the tale nicely. The characters are bold and wry - Rolf is furry and adorable, the BBW is deliciously dangerous in his ebony pelt and the elderly dear has a manic pain-killer induced grin all the while.

   All-in-all, this is an engaging story about identity and stereotypes, told with witty words and enchanting illustrations. A fairytale with bite!

      Thanks for reading,
                LJ

A review of "The Incredible Book Eating Boy" by Oliver Jeffers

Hi People in the Ether,

   So, I started a blog and then got timid and stayed quiet for two weeks - sorry about that.

   I thought I'd bite the bullet by telling you about my favourite picture book - 'The Incredible Book Eating Boy'.

   The ever-so-talented artist and author/illustrator, Oliver Jeffers, really doesn't need my praise - but he's getting it anyway. He's justifiably hugely successful and widely respected. Jeffers' story books are simple, clever, lyrical and beautiful. The style of artwork varies form crisp and bright, to dark and moody.

   The 'Boy' series is heart-warming and smile-inducing, 'Stuck' is giggle-creating, 'The Heart and the Bottle' is moving and elegiac and 'The Great Paper Caper' is an engaging whodunnit.  

   So, while I love all his books, the tale of Henry, the eponymous, book-gobbling hero, is closest to my heart. While his diet initially fills him with wisdom, he seems to have an addictive personality and soon overdoses on information. This results in a muddled head and a sore stomach. So he reverts to eating food  and reading books - "Henry discovered that he loved to read. And he thought that if he read enough he might still become the smartest person on Earth. It would just take a bit longer".

   The prose is sparse and strong. The font is funky and full of character. Jeffers used old books and papers to help create the background textures and illustrations and they lend the book a genuine bibilophilic atmosphere, so much so that it would best be read hidden in the dark aisles of a musty, old second-hand bookshop. And the clever, considerate, cherry on the design-cake is the bite that has been munched out of the book's cover - that never fails to make me smile! I'm so looking forward to his newest work 'The New Jumper'.

      Thanks for reading,
                LJ

Welcome to the "Picture House"

Hello People in the Ether,

   I write and edit children's books - lucky me! But since I'm passionate about so many types of books - for young and old - and about all the ways we share stories, I thought I'd collect my ramblings about picture books, YA fiction and maybe about some literature, theatre and movies on the off chance that they might be the teeniest bit interesting.

   My maternal grandfather was a projectionist and cinema manager. He'd have called it a "Picture House" - somewhere to get lost in the dark, in the story, somewhere to imagine and to make believe. So, welcome to Lisa Jane's Picture House...

         Thanks for reading,
                       LJ