Sometimes You Get What You Want

by Meredith Gary
ill. Lisa Brown

This simple book offers simple wisdom: Sometimes things go your way, sometimes they don't. Walking through a day to show a variety of scenarios, it repeats its point that yes, there are times that are open-ended, and times when there are requirements.

It's a message that I like, since it is something that children need to learn, and it is gently told here, an insistent but not harsh reminder that they do get their way sometimes, so they need to understand when they can't.

The illustrations are simple and have just a whiff of sweetness to them - enough to make the book feel loving, but not so much as to make it cloying.

It's not an easy lesson for kids, and one book is not likely to overcome the force of a child's frustration, but it works well as a reminder, and the words are just the right cadence to be adopted as a mantra for the times when reinforcing is necessary.

My Travelin' Eye

by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw

Books on wearing glasses, I've seen. I even had one or two as a child, when I wore glasses myself. But a book on something as specific as strabismus, when one or both eyes are not aligned properly, is a new one. Like the author, I had both a misaligned eye and a lazy eye, so this book grabbed my interest at once, and I just had to see how she would treat the subject for kids.

She is pretty happy with her travelin' (wandering) eye, but acknowledges some teasing, as well as a teacher who mentioned to her mother that she might see an ophthalmologist. She covers that visit in detail, and is sent home with an eye patch, a constant companion of my childhood, as well. The goal of strengthening the weaker eye makes for some weird exercises and experiences, as she describes!

Her mom helps her navigate the eye patch fiasco admirably, and in her case, the strengthening really did work well enough for her to g ahead with only her glasses, and with eye apparently now working in tandem.

While I don't think books written to a purpose are always great, I do like this one for a child who is experiencing this. Partly because the voice is upbeat, partly because the author has in fact been there herself and clearly knows how some of this feels, and partly because her mom has some fun ideas, I kind of like it.

It doesn't cover what happens when your eye is more stubborn than hers, but I think that this book if only partly informational, and that it is awfully hard to write about eye surgery without freaking a kid out. As it stands, this book is reassuring and sympthatic, just enough to give the message that no child with strabismus is the only one.

Goodnight Goon:

A Petrifying Parody
by Michael Rex

I had heard about this around Hallowe'en last year, but didn't get my hands on a copy until Hallowe'en had passed. I tripped across it again the other day and thought I should just back up a bit and tell you about it, since hey, some kids are into the creepy all year round!

This is a take-off on the classic Goodnight Moon, but replaces the great green room with a cold grey tomb, and fills it not with the everyday objects of a child's room, but with creepy things that still, somehow, manage to retain a strong influence of the original in the illustrations.

The rhythm works perfectly, a there are just enough similarities (bowl full of mush vs. pot full of goo, for example?) to make this spot-on. The monsters and creepy stuff are drawn in a style that nods to Clement Hurd's illustrations, though are not trying to replicate his work, while they manage to make even the creepiest look a little cute and friendly, so this is accessible even to young kids.

I think, to be honest, that this might just be brilliant.

Earth Day: Round Like a Ball

by Lisa Campbell Ernst

This book is perhaps that perfect book for introducing preschoolers to the wonders of the world. It is set up as a guessing game, with each page offering a hint. Each page also features a guess, and a small, round, die-cut hole. The guesses are not right, so more clues and more guesses follow, and the holes get bigger, until the very end, when the earth is finally revealed as the answer.

The illustrations are boldly colourful, the guesses cute, and just the sort of things that small children could relate to. At the end, the hints are reiterated, along with the message that the earth is "fragile, and needs to be handled with care."

Not messagey or serious, not too much information for a smaller child, the guessing game format also allows children to add in their own guesses, making this the perfect book to use with a young child or a group of them.