Shel Silverstein can do no wrong for me. I absolutely worship The Giving Treeas one of greatest children’s picture books of all-time. If I have already read a few now of his works what is there to hate about a book about poetry? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. I think he is brilliant at introducing poetry to kids and even though I am currently 23 years old as I am writing this review found myself cracking up countless times throughout this book of poetry.
I believe what makes Shel Silverstein unique is that he is able to tap into the innocence that makes up a child’s wonder and explore the limitless boundaries of the imagination. Every poem that is showcased in this collection illustrates that Mr. Silverstein had fun writing these poems and made them look effortless. That takes major writing craft to make a poem look simple and I applaud him for all his hard work. One of my favorite poems is called:
The Land of Happy
Have you been to The Land of Happy,
Where everyone’s happy all day,
Where they joke and they sing
Of the happiest things,
And everything’s jolly and gay?
There’s laughter and smiles galore.
I have been to The Land of Happy–
What a bore!
If you haven’t read this book since you were a child I highly recommend reading it again for the nostalgia and see whether the poetry holds up to the same standards as when you first read it. I think it is always a beautiful thing to discover your inner child and it is also important to learn to laugh and be stress-free while reading especially how each day feels like the world is going to end. The illustrations or rather Silverstein’s drawings help bring the poem to life and help keep the imagination flowing for readers. If you have kids and they have never read it then it is the perfect time for you to read to them and discover the beauty that is poetry.
I am reading one of my favorite children’s picture book from my childhood again because it was featured in Amazon’s 100 Books To Read In A Lifetimeand I am trying to get myself back into a consistent reading habit. Amazon editors curated this life to incorporate books from all walks of life and I remember vividly reading this as a child. I think what made me enjoy and loved this book was the illustrations.
Maurice Sendak has the powerful skills of being a great storyteller with his illustrations and making these unique monsters come to life. I have never seen these types of monsters as a kid and while it may be frightening for some children I remember picturing these monsters as warm and fuzzy. This has always been a perfect score for me and yet this time around the magic has worn off a bit for me and to be honest the actual writing of the story did not blow me away. I never liked to read as a child and odds are I used my own imagination when seeing the illustrations and daydreaming what would I do if I was the King of the Wild Things.
The plot is quite simple for those who may never had read it. Max is the main protagonist of the story who throws a temper tantrum one night during dinner and is sent to his room. He’s angry and furious and somehow the room mysteriously turns into a jungle. He escapes into the wild and travels in this uncharted land and discovers an island that is inhabited by these evil beast known as the “Wild Things”. They want to devour Max for supper and yet he is able to imitating them and convince them that he is actually scarier than them. They accept him as their own and he gets to explore life as a wild thing. Unfortunately during the whole festivities, he realizes that he misses the feeling of being surrounded by loved ones and tries to find his way back home.
The story is beautiful and a unique way of talking about anger issues but I am actually shocked that the writing style was meh for me. I hope whenever I read this children’s picture book again soon that I do not have experience these similar issues and raise it back up to 5 stars again. Overall I believe it is a great picture book to read to your children and if you by any chance have never read it then stop with what you are doing and pick up a copy. I cannot rave enough about Maurice Sendak illustrations and use of color. It is by all definition a true and beautiful classic to have encountered in your lifetime.
If you have seenAvengers: Infinity War by now and sat through the post-credits then you will understand why I am reading this graphic novel. For years I have seen friends and other people read and praise this book and I think now it is the perfect time for me to discover Ms. Marvel and it was available for free for Amazon Prime users. I believe it is a great comic series to introduce to people who are afraid to invest in the Marvel world and powerful to see a Muslim girl be a superhero.
We meet Kamala Khan who is a young muslim Pakistani girl who is trying to survive high school, her family, and for the most part dealing with her identity and her purpose in the world. She worships the Avengers particularly idolizes Captain Marvel aka Carol Danvers and wants to have her moment of seizing the day and solving crime. One day she is invited to a typical high school party and her parents refuse to let her go so she decides to sneak out from the window. Through the course of the night a mysterious mist surrounds the environment and when the fog disappears Kamala turns into Captain Marvel.
With this newfound powers comes major responsibility, secrets, and a new shift of personality. Kamala is actually not Captain Marvel, she takes the name and through the course of the story we get to learn more about her abilities and she tries to control and possess them. At the same time her family life starts to get chaotic because she is having to lie and betraying her parents. It is hard living up to the expectations of immigrant parents because they want you to have the best of what America has to offer to you but also trying to maintain your families culture and customs. It can be stressful at times because both cultures tend to collide with each other and its difficult especially a teenager trying to decide what path they want to embrace or better yet how to embrace both equally that makes everyone happy.
One theme that I found fascinating and powerful is how Kamala emulates Carol Danvers. Carol in Kamala eyes is the definition of beauty, strength and being white is a bonus. Kamala is not ashamed of being Pakistani but all her life she has been trying to assimilate to white culture and it has backfired tremendously. I love how in the journey of this first volume we see how she learns to adapt and accept herself as Ms. Marvel without having to actually having to look like Carol. She has her own identity and does not have to conform to anyone else.
I am proud of the writers who decided to create Kamala Khan because I believe it will help millions of girls especially Muslim girls to believe they can be the super hero of their own story and it will help to eliminate Islamophobia that is still apparent in this country. I have never seen islamophobia in person because I am fortunate enough to live in a city that is a melting point of all varieties of cultures but it breaks my heart to see immigrants from the middle east and other parts of the Arab world being treated like 2nd class citizens in the aftermath of 9/11. It is heartbreaking to witness that on television, film, and on the news especially with all this bigotry that is stirring up in this country. In the end I believe this comic will be powerful at illustrating that people of color and all backgrounds can be superheroes especially women.
I believe it is beautiful to witness this girl become Ms. Marvel and I look forward to continuing this series. The only reason why I rated this 4 stars instead of 5 is because there is certain parts of this graphic novel that I found confusing because if you do not know much about the Marvel universe especially the Inhumans then it will be confusing especially about the Terra Mist. There are questions that were left unanswered for me and I think I will get them as the series progresses.
I highly recommend everyone to read this children’s picture book because it is absolutely beautiful to read about babies and the positive and innocence energy to give off to people. Keith Haring believes babies are one of the positive images you can capture to the human being eyes and it reflects tremendously in his art. I remember the paintings of pregnant women, babies, and it is a repetitive theme in his artwork. His message about babies is spot on and I think people need to realize that hatred is not born but created by how our parents raised us, the culture we surround ourselves in, and the environment around us.
Babies are not born with evil or hatred in their hearts because they are innocent creatures whose sole focus is to be loved, cuddled, and have someone attend to their daily needs. We are the ones that nurture them and must make it our daily mission to teach them that they should love everyone who comes in all shapes and sizes and not judge them because of their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or whether they are rich or poor. For being a children’s book there are powerful images shown throughout and I LOVEthis book and must have my own copy!
I remember vividly back in 3rd Grade how my Language Arts teacher had decided that we would be reading this novel for school and knowing myself I only read maybe the first few pages and then skim the rest of the text. I hated to read back in elementary school for the simple fact that it was forced down our throats and I am still adamant against forcing kids to read or having to read a book only then to take a test to see whether they actually truly read the book. After we had read the book, we saw the classic animated film and life goes on. Then a couple of years back I rented from the library the live-action adaptation version with Dakota Fanning and Julia Roberts and truly cherished this story even though I knew perfectly well the ending of Charlotte’s Web. Now you must be asking why am I reading it again after all these years?
Plain and simple. PBS. Meredith Vieira is hosting this miniseries called The Great American Read on PBS where American viewers voted 100 Novels that everyone should read and week-by-week they countdown as to what novel gets the #1 spot. The idea is to make Americans read again and tackle on novels that probably they would never read or familiarize themselves with books from all aspects of their life. Theres tons of books I haven’t read since I was a child and I am excited to participate and engage myself with books. I highly recommend everyone to check it out and if you want more information click here.
Charlotte’s Web is an American beauty of a classic and I think it is one of the most heart-touching novels to read to kids and help them learn and discover that which is the beauty of life, friendship, and animals. We are introduced to the Arable family particularly Mr. Arable who is tending to his pigs who just have given birth to piglets now that it is spring time. One of the piglets stands out from the rest as he is too small and in Mr. Arable defected. His daughter, Fern, has faith in the piglet and begs her father not to kill it. The humanity and the innocence that pours out of Fern astonishes Mr. Arable and he decides to make Fern the new owner of the piglet which she names Wilbur.
As time moves on and Wilbur is growing up, it gets difficult to properly manage the pig so Fern is forced to sell the pig to her uncle, Homer Zuckerman, and the sole benefit about this transaction is he owns a farm so Wilbur will always have a place to roam about, plenty of food, and the Zuckerman’s live nearby so Fern can always visit Wilbur. At first Wilbur adjusts nicely to the new farm but overtime he becomes depress because none of the barn animals want to be his friend and he truly does not have much room to explore and have adventures especially since Fern cannot always be with him all the time. One day when he has a major episode, a grey barn spider by the name of Charlotte decides to engage with Wilbur and instantly they become friends.
As the seasons progresses we get to Charlotte’s influence on Wilbur as he starts to stick up for himself and actually believe that he is a pig worth of love and friendship. Rumors start spreading among the animals that come Christmas time Wilbur will be slaughtered by the Zuckermans and it becomes Charlotte’s main duty to make sure that never happens. At what cost does it take to make that a reality is the true definition of friendship and what we sacrifice to accomplish the great good. I was expecting to cry when rereading this and while some tears did come out in the end it was more out of nostalgia. This is a marvelous children’s book and I cannot praise it enough for people to read.
Charlotte was and still is my favorite character and in many ways she is the protagonist of the story. She helps educate Wilbur that the outside appearance of others is not essential compare to their personality. When they first start getting to know each other, Wilbur judges Charlotte because she kills flies and suck their blood for food and by the time we reach the end we see that Wilbur loves Charlotte because she was truly his friend and he’s eternally grateful for all the hard-work and sacrifices she made to protect him.
One question that bugged me throughout the story is Fern’s role and her laziness to help Wilbur. Fern is able to understand the animals as though she is Eliza Thornberry without the ability to talk to animals in their language. So for a huge chunk of the novel she knows that Wilbur is going to be Christmas dinner and she does nothing to stop it. She’s scared as to what will happen to him and she hopes that Charlotte is successful in her plan. Um how about you lend a hand and help out too because doing nothing and watching all this happen means you aren’t really a good friend. That is the only thing that bugged me about the book.
E.B. White is a genius in regards to picking difficult topics to discuss such as death and be able to not make children be scared about it. Charlotte’s goal of trying to save Wilbur makes the audience focus as to how is she going to accomplish this and makes it understandable that all living things on this planet has an expiration date and what we do with our time during our lifespan is what determines whether we lived a full-life or accomplished nothing. To create such a simplistic story and it all revolves around a pig astounds me how powerful E.B. White imagination is and the power of a great storyteller.
Stop with what you are doing in your life and grab a copy of this phenomenal novel. I had no clue what I was getting myself into when reading Roz Chast life story dealing with her parents. I had no expectations entering this book and I believe that is the best format. At first I thought it was a complete graphic novel but then my opinion changed to a nonfiction novel with illustrations provided by the author. I have no idea who is Roz Chast when reading this book and I will gladly invest in her books in the mere future.
Roz Chast chronicles her relationship with her parents and its not a pretty picture. We get insight into her childhood but the main focus is dealing with her parents at the last stage of their life. It is a difficult subject to approach with your parents about whether they want a DNR, putting into a nursing home, their will, and their funeral arrangements. Roz parents are extremely stubborn particularly her mother and this type of conversation leads to major dead ends and frustrations for both parties.
I cannot even begin to think the amount of pressure, headache, and pain it takes to deal with this topic which is naturally uncomfortable because most children including myself believe their parents to be immortal. In particular with my mother, I worship her for the countless sacrifices she has made to help improve my life and there is nothing that I can do to repay her. Nothing. The further I ventured into this story, major red flags were popping up about information that I should know about when it comes to dealing with elderly parents and while I consider my mom to still be “young”, the dealing of anxiousness, discomfort, and stress crept over me which is a major sign I will not be reading this book for a long time.
Death is not an easy subject to touch and yet Roz Chast has this special gift for inserting comedy with perfect timing. I kid you not there were moments where I should be upset or in tears and yet I was laughing out loud to the point of tears and I kept questioning myself whether something internally is wrong with me?
I am glad that this was my final book for 2016! Reading it makes me appreciate the moments I share with my loved ones and offer new perspective on the future. I recommend this novel for everyone because not only will you laugh but you can find it relatable especially if your parents have the magical buttons that can easily trigger your anger every time they stop by and visit. In my opinion 2016 has been a shitty year for me and while I want to remain positive I can say that this book pretty much sums up my feelings about 2016 and I am ready to pull the plug and end it. Goodbye 2016 and Hello 2017!!!
Reading In The Dark 