More Canadian Children's Books: Giraffe and Bird ; A Few Bites

Title: Giraffe and Bird
Author: Rebecca Bender aka Rebecca Buchanan
Publisher: Dancing Cat Books
Series: Giraffe and Bird, Bk 1
ISBN: 9781897151846
Obtained: ILL Library copy

Comments:

After reading Don't Laugh at Giraffe, I had to read the book that preceded it as well.  Unfortunately, my library doesn't own this so I was left waiting for ILL.  I read it and jotted down some notes before I returned it.  Too bad I promptly misplaced them.  So my memory about what I wanted to say is shaky.  My apologies in advance.

Like Don't Laugh at Giraffe this one emphasizes vocabulary.  One of them (can't remember which) can't abide the other.  One of them can't stand the other.  Etc.  They finally part ways, but then they discover maybe they'd be better off with each other than alone.  I guess it's a good example of a symbiotic relationship.  I had more to say, but I'm afraid it's gone now...

Title: A Few Bites
Author/Illustrator: Cybèle Young
Publisher: Groundwood Books
Series: A Few ..., Bk 2
ISBN: 9781554982950
Obtained: Library copy

Comments:

I found this on the new books rack, thought it was appealing, read it on my lunch hour, decided to check it out... And I did eventually read it to one of the kiddos.  I found Viola's imagination and the way she made everything so much more appealing to little brother Ferdie charming.  The illustrations are great as you can see each scenario from dinosaurs to aliens unfold around the setting of their house in color.  There's something so charming about books that emphasize the child's imagination.  The only part that fell slightly short for me was the ending when Viola runs out of ideas to convince Ferdie to eat his ravioli.  It was just so abrupt.

While I was looking up the links for this I discovered:

1. This is another accidental Canadian book! Cybèle Young lives in Toronto.
2. There's actually another book around Viola and Ferdie titled A Few Blocks in which Viola convinces Ferdie to go to walk to school using similar techniques to this one.  I look forward to trying that book as well.

Canadian Children's Books: Hide and Sneak ; My Arctic 1, 2, 3 ; Don't Laugh at Giraffe

Title: Hide and Sneak
Author: Michael Arvaarluk Kusugak; Illustrated by Vladyana Krykorka
Publisher: Annick Press
ISBN: 1550372297
Obtained: Library copy (kinda - a neighboring library system's copy)

Comments:

A young girl wants to go off and play hide and seek, but is warned not to go to far or the Ijiraq might hide her.  She isn't very good at hide and seek, but she does observe some fascinating thing in her exploration.  Along the way she sees an Inuksugaq (stones piled to look like a man), among other things (fish, butterflies, etc.).  And what do you know?  The Ijiraq comes along and tells her about the perfect hiding spot.  She follows along until she finds herself wanting to go home.  But where is home?  One of the illustrations as she tries to find is shows a shape barely more than a dot.  My niece immediately recognized it as the stone man.  I had to look closer.  Does she find her way home?

The illustrations are quite lovely with their color and detail.  The pages all have borders with what I believe is the Inuit language along the bottom.

Title: My Arctic 1, 2, 3
Author: Michael Arvaarluk Kusugak; Illustrated by Vladyana Krykorka
Publisher: Annick Press
ISBN: 1550375059
Obtained: Library copy

Comments:

This is a counting book, but it isn't like every other counding book.  The numbers follow from 1 through 10 then jump to 20, 100, 100000 (millions) [that's based on my notes - I know the numbers don't correspond, but I don't know what is accurate since I no longer have the book on hand], and back to 1.  Each number represents animals and such you'd find in the arctic world of Michael Kusugak and his family.  At the end the book goes over some of the words found.

Michael Arvaarluk Kusugak lives in the Rankin Inlet in Nunavut, Canada.  Illustrator Vladyana Krykorka is originally from what was formerly Czechoslovakia and is now the Czech Republic.  She has resided in Toronto (Ontario) since 1968.

Title: Don't Laugh at Giraffe
Author: Rebecca Bender aka Rebecca Buchanan
Publisher: Pajama Press
Series: Giraffe and Bird, Bk 2
ISBN: 9780986949562
Obtained: Library copy

Comments:

I chose this because I thought it'd be a good moral story. It turned out it is also a good book for vocab. Words like tremble, slinks, and pop are made larger. There are several different laughs named (guffaw, cackle, howl, cheep) along with descriptions about how they sound (Ah-Clack, Clack Clack; Oh-Hoo Hoo; Cheep Cheep Chirup; etc.).  Plus it kind of had the moral I expected. Think about how your friends feel if you laugh at them, but how everyone feels when they laugh together.  I saw some reviews on Goodreads that were negative about some of the same points I appreciated, leading me to believe this is a "depends on the person" type of book.  I think everyone could agree the illustrations are bright and charming.

While the above books were chosen for being Canadian books, this one was sheer coincidence.  The author is from Ontario.  I have requested the library either purchase or ILL Giraffe and Bird.