July 15, 2009
Keep Chipping Away Until You Get It
That Frog, book cover, by Sam Connery
cover of Secret at Chipping Green
How do you read a book? Are you looking for beautiful prose or gripping action that makes you turn the pages? Do you crave characters that make you weep or a setting in a landscape or time far, far away? Or are you, like one of my favorite characters, Alice, looking for conversation? Do you like to peruse the pictures and perhaps the captions and maybe only then read the text if your interest is piqued?
Sam Connery is the kind of writer that visually oriented readers will like. His detailed illustrations draw the eye into the story with action, character, and setting. Sam has had experience writing and illustrating children’s books before: he wrote and illustrated remedial readers and worked on line drawings for workbooks for Reader’s Digest Services in addition to his career at Sunset Magazine. That was before he retired and developed his work as a landscape painter here on San Juan Island, where he is well-known for work both in water color and oil painting, and for being a downright nice guy.
In That Frog, a beginning reader, a boy brings home a frog and asks his dad if he can keep it. The amphibian gets loose in the house. Dad finds he has a hard time catching it again. The illustrations, reproduced in black and white from original watercolors are alive with the emotions of the characters, the movement of the animals, and the hilarity of the devastation caused by the chase.
In Uncle Willie and the Cheadle Cup, Connery is much more the writer and much less the illustrator, writing a chapter book for a slightly older audience. The line drawings in pen and ink are perfect for paperback reproduction. The story takes two children on a time travel with their grandfather. Kids love the repetition of the time travel journeys. With more prose and fewer pictures, Connery has fewer opportunities to shine at what he is best at it this book.
In Secret at Chipping Green, another chapter book, Connery finds the perfect balance between illustration and text, and most of the action takes place in conversation. He has written a book that kids will like, and he clearly had fun making the pictures. The sly humor in the art comes through, conveying characters’ idiosyncrasies and emotions with just a few lines. Many of illustrations are reminiscent of old fashioned comic strips, and they feel perfect for the setting of the book in the rural English countryside.
Secret at Chipping at Green, and the other titles reviewed here, like all books reviewed in this column, may be found at the San Juan Island Library.
May 2, 2009
In which the adults grow up
book cover of Andrew Henry's Meadow
Andrew Henry’s Meadow
© 1965 by Doris Burn
book cover of Andrew Henry's Meadow
© 2008 Beth Helstien
Andrew Henry isn’t like all the other children. He likes to be alone, and he often gets into trouble. A charming illustrated story of a boy who leads all the children of town away to live in children’s village where he builds each a special house suited to their particular interests. When the children are reunited, their families learn to support Andrew Henry’s interests in inventing. Illustrated with detailed pen and ink drawings.
Andrew Henry’s Meadow, like all books reviewed here, may be found at the San Juan Island Library.
Dream with a child: The Land of Smaerd
book cover of the Land of Smaerd
© 2008 Beth Helstien
The Land of Smaerd © 2008 by Know Wonder Publishing, Written by Andrea Von Botefuhr, Illustrated by Bryn Barnard
An imaginative child, a child with nightmares, a child with large ambitions, a playful child, all with enjoy this adventure into the land of dreams spelled backwards. A lovely book to share for the detail of the vibrant color illustrations by local artist Barnard. It’s a literal and metaphoric rhyming story of dreams: both what happens at night, and things we wish for.
The Land of Smaerd, like all books reviewed here, may be found at the San Juan Island Library.
A Dream for all Ages: My Champion
book cover of My Champion
A Dream for all Ages © 2008 Beth Helstien
My Champion © 2007 written and illustrated by S.K. Carnes
Susan Carnes has published a beautiful children’s book that is inspirational for all ages. A little girl dreams of riding a graceful horse to win contests, but must make do with a big old draft horse instead. The girl learns to honor her horse and herself, “good enough” just being themselves. Rich illustrations of original oil paintings swirl with color. Depicted are ponds, forest scenes, and shorelines. Many of the pictures have a dreamlike quality similar to the text, reinforcing the idea of a child’s fantasies. An added bonus is the audio CD produced by Alan Boyne with Ernest Pugh narrating.
My Champion, like all books reviewed here, may be found at the San Juan Island Library.
Orca Encounters: Images of Southern Resident Killer Whales: Encounters with the ineffable
book cover of Orca Encounters
Encounters with the ineffable © 2007 Beth Helstien
Orca Encounters: Images of Southern Resident Killer Whales
© 2007 by Monika Wieland
If your family is like mine, you have guests in August, and one thing they hope to see is whales. Sometimes, however, the whales are hard to spot. Or even if you do have a magical encounter with the denizens of the wild, your photographs often fail to turn out like the ones the professionals take.
Orca Encounters allows the reader to sit comfortably in the dry climate of the indoors, out of the glare of the sun and blowing wind and spend some quality, intimate time with the killer whales of J, K and L pods. The book has 72 pages of full-color photographs. A short introduction provides general background information on natural history the Southern resident community of orcas.
Rich Osborne, the former director of The Whale Museum, has written a touching foreword to the book in which he celebrates Monika Wieland almost as much as he celebrates her book, which he calls a “beautiful tribute to the orcas.”
There isn’t a lot of information in the introduction, and there isn’t anything new. This book is about the photos, not the text. Photos of whales playing in the kelp, and diving, as well as newborn calves surfacing besides their mothers are some of the more unusual images that Ms. Wieland has captured with her camera.
Eighteen years ago I moved to San Juan Island to work for The Whale Museum. During my seven years coordinating the Orca Adoption Program and fund raising for the museum I had the good fortune to learn quite a bit about the killer whales, to see a lot of beautiful photographs of orcas and other whales, as well as to have some amazing experiences with the orcas and other marine life around the islands. I never made the orcas my totem animal (I don’t believe I have a single totem animal). Yet I do understand the ineffable experience of a close encounter with the orcas. Many of the photos in this book capture that feeling in a way that many of the flashy big-name photographers don’t succeed at.
This lovely book would make an ideal gift for adult or child. Anyone who has gone whale watching and been disappointed with their own poor photographs might buy this book as a way to treasure what Ms. Wieland calls an “indescribable” experience of having whales approach her as within a few yards as she sat on the shore to observe and photograph them.
Orca Encounters, like all books reviewed here, may be found at the San Juan Island Library.
San Juan Reads 