My wife and I had previously discussed the way this kids book makes us feel uncomfortable. The moral of the story seems to be that if you do not give My wife and I had previously discussed the way this kids book makes us feel uncomfortable. The moral of the story seems to be that if you do not give away whatever makes you special, you will never have any friends.
So imagine the big goofy grin on my face when I check it out on GoodReads and see several of my GR friends indulging in scandalized rants about the socialist propaganda hidden within these seductive cardboard pages...!
I'm not going to go that far. It's really a very sweet little story, with lush painted images skilfully enhanced with shimmery foil - my little boy is now 3 and he's loved this one for the last year or so he's had it.
But still... something just feels off. Sharing is all well and good, and we encourage our kids to share and play nicely - but that's not what happens here. The little blue fish asks for one of the rainbow fishes shiny scales, and when he refuses to give away his beloved scales, all the other fish ostracise him... and that's OK? If the story was about a rainbow fish who voluntarily decided to donate his scales to enrich the lives of his friends, I'd be well on-board with that. But he only does it to make the other fish like him... and that's not what we want to teach our kids.
So, a 1-star from me dragged up to a 2-star by the boy's enthusiasm for all things rainbow-fishy......more
A few months ago my mother-in-law dropped off a huge box of kids books for Fin. My wife's youngest sibling is 12 years her junior, so while some of thA few months ago my mother-in-law dropped off a huge box of kids books for Fin. My wife's youngest sibling is 12 years her junior, so while some of these books have been in the family since my wife was herself a wee nipper, many others are more modern - it's a pretty great spread of stuff.
There's not much mystery to this one - this title pretty much gives it away. This is a story about a fish who can wish. He wishes all kinds of crazy things, and the pictures to accompany those wishes are pretty cool - the art is more detailed than most picture books I've met so far, which I liked - and the wishes are told in an easy to read-aloud, rhyming story.
And then, one day, the magic fish wishes he was just like a normal fish. And that was the last wish he ever did wish. The end. It's not exactly a tale with a beginning, a middle, and end. He just wishes a series of funny wishes, with no consequences, and then the wishing abruptly stops forever. It's a kind of melancholy moral with little room for a sequel.
I leave you with this picture, because I'd be a pretty grumpy looking fish if I lost my power to wish and wish and wish: [image]
One crisp Autumn morning, I ambled through the bathroom door, still three-quarters asleep. Splashing some cHave you ever peed on a cat's head? I have.
One crisp Autumn morning, I ambled through the bathroom door, still three-quarters asleep. Splashing some cold water onto a flannel, I sponged ineffectively at my face, and then tossed the wet rag on top of the toilet cistern. I flipped up the lid and began my leisurely morning pee.
My kitten-cat (what do you call a teenage kitten?), Cassie, came trotting into see me, mewing excitedly.
"Hey girl," I started to say.
She jumped up onto the toilet, not knowing the wet flannel was there. She slipped, skidded, bounced off the wall, clawed at the flipped-up lid, and fell into the toilet bowl with the lid slamming shut above her head.
"Hey girl," I finished, peeing on top of the closed toiled lid.
"Meow!" said the toilet. "Meow!"
**whisperwhisperwhisper* (a book review? really?)
A Squash and a Squeeze is another cracking rhyming story from the kiddy-fic superstar, Julia Donaldson. Room on the Broom = homerun! The Gruffalo = phenomenal! The Gruffalo's Child = flawless victory!
This one's about an old woman who thinks her house is too small. So she follows the advice of a old man and moves her farm animals into the house with her, then kicks them out again and - et voila - the house feels much bigger!
My son loves it because he loves animals. I mean, this kid REALLY loves animals. I'm not sure there are many eighteen month olds who know what a tapir is. The hen, goat, pig and cow in this book... too easy! For about two weeks this was his favourite book in the world. I probably read it aloud about a hundred times in that two weeks. I still have fond memories...
This book reminded me of the above anecdote because in that flat we had my wife and I, three cats and a bay. It really was a squash and a squeeze. I preferred to say it was 'full of life'.
Popular kids books are powerful vehicles of merchandise.
Take The Hungry Caterpillar (as just one example) - you can buy the book, the cardboard book,Popular kids books are powerful vehicles of merchandise.
Take The Hungry Caterpillar (as just one example) - you can buy the book, the cardboard book, the cloth book, the colouring book, the pop-up book, the touch-and-feel book, the finger-puppet book, the audio book, the baby 'development toy', the plushy toy, the 'big apple' toy, the play floor tiles, the bedspread, the toothbrush, the body-wash, the bubble-bath, the playroom stickers, the height chart, the calendar, the garden water toy, the memory game, the seat-belt strap covers, the baby vests, the kids t-shirts, the welly-boots, the backpack, the lunchbox, the pencil case... that's just off the top of my head - I'm sure there's more!
I remember that book from my own childhood, and I don't find this grating - it's sweet, it's unisex, the art style is lush and I don't mind seeing it splashed around.
But I was 15 when The Gruffalo was published... listening to Rage Against The Machine and lamenting the over-commercialised tat we peddle to our children... To my teenage self, The Gruffalo was just another hook to get parents buying their kids more crap: a symbol of a broken system. Obviously, I never read it - but I was aware there was a TV adaptation made (with much fanfare) and a sequel book, etc.
The Gruffalo has become a 'standard' (one of those books every kid should have...) and I was surprised to find how much I liked it!
The rhythm and rhyme is perfect - it's heavily structured, but flows naturally, so even the most stilted beadtime-story reader is guided smoothly into a sing-song cadence. The story itself is clever and fun. The art style is very modern and clean - a touch generic for me (which is why it doesn't get 5 stars) - but overall The Gruffalo is a great bedtime story, and certainly one of Fin's favourites.
We have the paperback and the noisy-hardback - the one where you press the buttons for Gruffalo's growl, or Owl's hoot, etc. We also have a Gruffalo flannel... but aside from that we've avoided any more of the merch!
We also have many of Donaldson & Scheffler's other books - and I'm pleased to say that they're consistently good. The Gruffalo's Child, Room on the Broom, The Smartest Giant in Town, A Squash and a Squeeze, Charlie Cook's Favourite Book, and Superworm all have my little boy's seal of approval.
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Following the resounding success of my Locus Quest, I faced a dilemma: which reading list to follow it up with? Variety is the spice of lif
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Following the resounding success of my Locus Quest, I faced a dilemma: which reading list to follow it up with? Variety is the spice of life, so I’ve decided to diversify and pursue six different lists simultaneously. This book falls into my GIFTS AND GUILTY list.
Regardless of how many books are already queued patiently on my reading list, unexpected gifts and guilt-trips will always see unplanned additions muscling their way in at the front.
I'm a big fan of Peter Hamilton's work, yet I'd never heard of Lightstorm until a couple of months ago, when I was compiling my Pantheon list.
This is a YA sci-fi, set in a shared world called 'The Web - 2027'. Half a dozen different authors each contributed a story, all with different casts, but a shared setting and antagonist. Hamilton did not create this world and is working within the framework of the shared project.
Initially, the most striking aspect of this story is the use of jargon - there's a lot and it's quite silly. A kids bedroom is his cocoon. Boring people (or things) are cogs. People you don't like should curl-up. Computer power is measured in mips. An online AI character has a phace. Leaving the web is scuttling. Eight is good, six is bad, widow is amazing. People spin in and out of websites. There's so much webspeak, the book has a glossary. It comes across as very 'teeny' but unconvincing.
Next up - the web itself. This concept of the web is built around VR. Everyone has VR interfaces to access the web, either through basic gloves and glasses, or more commonly suits - technology is just reaching to a direct link to the nervous system (a neural shunt/jack/chip, etc). There's no mention of basic 2D screen interfacing - which again, is unconvincing. So websites are places. Hacking is like pulling a heist, with security and viruses, etc, taking physical form (as spiders, rats, cages, etc). This is all very reminiscent of Tad Williams' Otherland series (an epic fantasy story disguised as a sci-fi set in a VR universe). If you liked Otherland, you'll like The Web 2027 as a kids version. Also worth mentioning that some self-aware AIs have been granted citizenship status and just live in the web as regular folk. To me, as a sci-fi geek, this is a pretty huge deal - friendly, independent AI being something of a techie nirvana - but it's just dropped in here as an aside (and link events from another book in the series).
Then we have the realworld situation: This is the UK after global warming has hit and oil/petrol has run out. People don't travel much, the roads are decaying, we all live in our local communities and use the web for anything more distant. Green energy is important. As is an eco-friendly mindset.
The story itself is a fairly simple one - a kid sees something strange. Him and his net buddies do a bit of web hacking to figure out what's going on, and then the kid goes on a realword mission to get the proof - nicely mixing the action between web and realworld. The kid is likeable, the mission is worthwhile, and the pacing/action skips along quickly. It's a light, breezy, easy-read story (as long as the jargon doesn't grate).
I have issues with the conclusion - it's very much a bad-guy out of nowhere - because that part of the story is tied into the larger series, which I haven't read - so that element doesn't work particularly well as a stand-alone.
This isn't brilliant, but it's alright - it's about a 2.6 rounded up to a 3 star rating, because I'm a Hamilton fan.
Also worth noting that Lightstorm was an Xmas present from my wife's parents - and as it's a fairly random and specific book which I particularly wanted and they bothered to track it down, I thought that was very cool.
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Following the resounding success of my Locus Quest, I faced a dilemma: which reading list to follow it up with? Variety is the spice of lif
[image]
Following the resounding success of my Locus Quest, I faced a dilemma: which reading list to follow it up with? Variety is the spice of life, so I’ve decided to diversify and pursue six different lists simultaneously. This book falls into my GIFTS AND GUILTY list.
Regardless of how many books are already queued patiently on my reading list, unexpected gifts and guilt-trips will always see unplanned additions muscling their way in at the front.
Please note, the low score given here does not indicate this is a bad book – the story is sweet and the artwork is great – it’s just that I’m so wide of the target audience that I don’t really know what to make of it, and didn’t particularly enjoy it.
(It’s not you, it’s me... )
Firstly, I don’t normally read manga, and Love Mode is panelled the original way, right to left. I started reading this one night, when I was already quite tired, and my brain just couldn’t get a handle on it. Pages right to left. Panels right to left. Words left to right. My eyes kept trying to read everything left to right, but I got there in the end.
Secondly, this is a mid-series volume (book 6) which I was reading as a stand-alone – so we come in midway through a story arc with no backstory and no idea who anyone is. Again, confusing, but fine, just roll with it.
Thirdly, this is ‘yaoi’ – something I’d never heard of before. To quote wiki, yaoi is: “female-oriented fictional media that focus on homoerotic or homoromantic male androphilic sexual relationships”. I’m a happily married guy with a baby boy: I have no problem with homoerotic manga, but nor do I have a secret passion for it.
So how did I end up reading this? It was given to me as a gift.
As a bit of quick background – I limit my to- read shelf, here on goodreads, to books I actually have here on the shelf. I keep that pool of books at 18 – three rows of six on the goodreads cover view. Once I finish a book, I pick a new book from that pool of 18 and order in something new to replace it.
I’ve been making a concerted effort recently to clear some of the gifts out of my to-read shelf because otherwise they’d languish there indefinitely (and choke up my shelf).
My wife’s best friend is currently dating the store manager of a manga and retro-gaming shop called Super Tomato. Before they started dating, I only knew him as they guy I bought N64 games from (I still have a working N64 and regard it as the golden age of gaming from my childhood). Turns out he’s got a bit of a dry, cheeky sense of humour and for my birthday he gave me a couple of N64 games and this volume of yaoi. I don’t think he expected me to ever actually read it – let alone be publicly reading it in a coffee shop when we met up last week. That tickled him.
So now I’ve finished it. What can I say?
The story concerns the owner of an exclusive club (The Blue Boy) where clients hire male escorts. This could be sleazy, but is portrayed as classy and liberating. The first short story is about the owner’s brother and lover getting caught up and taken hostage during an armed robbery. The second is a flashback story about an innocent and terminally ill client. Then there’s a wrap-up. The End.
My wife got excited about the gay sex scenes. My overriding reaction was... meh.
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