The Bat Can Bat - a review

The Bat Can Bat: A True Book of Homonyms
By Gene Barretta
Christy Ottaviano, 2018

Below is my review of The Bat Can Bat as is appeared in School Library Journal.

BARRETTA, Gene. illus. by Gene Barretta. 40p. Holt/Christy Ottaviano Bks. Feb. 2018. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9780805099461.

Gr 2-4–Sports and animals are perennially popular, and Baretta uses them as the common denominator in this collection of illustrated homonyms. It begins with the easily understood “The bat can bat!” featuring a bat playing baseball, then progresses to more difficult examples. The font is simple, in black or white, depending on the background color of the full-bleed illustrations. The homonyms are printed in capital letters. The use of horizontal and vertical spreads is helpful in explaining the finer points of homonyms. One of the vertical illustrations features a two-tiered, high diving board—the top deck hosts an angry, red-faced rhino who is throwing a fit over the fit of his ridiculously tiny swimsuit. For comic relief, on the lower diving deck, a young girl casts a nervous glance upwards. A “Note to the Reader” includes useful definitions of homonyms, homophones, and homographs. VERDICT More concept book than storybook, this is a fundamental purchase for school libraries and public libraries with heavy educator usage.

See a preview of The Bat Can Bat at the Macmillan Publishers site.

School Library Journal. Feb2018, Vol. 64 Issue 2, p54-56. 2p.
Copyright © 2018 School Library Journal, the property of Media Source, Inc.  Reprinted here with permission.


My copy of The Bat Can Bat was provided by School Library Journal.

Muggie Maggie

Cleary, Beverly. 2009 (1990) Muggie Maggie. Read by Kathleen McInerny. Harper Audio.

As regularly as the seasons, Beverly Cleary's name appears each year on children's summer reading lists. So, to help with reader's advisory, I downloaded Muggie Maggie to my mp3 player. First published in 1990, it was released by Harper Audio in 2009.

Bad move. I should have picked another title.

Aside from the fact that I found Kathleen McInerny's voice to be too saccharine for even the youngest of listeners, I chose the one book that extols the virtues of cursive writing. Call me new-fashioned, but I am just not a fan. Today's children receive the most minimal training in cursive writing before they are swept up in our age of modern technology and QWERTY keyboarding. Kids don't do cursive writing well because they don't need to, don't have time to, and shouldn't have to. Other than its usefulness for legal signatures, is it really necessary?

Yes, it's a useful skill, and as a lover of history and historical documents, I would be lost without a knowledge of cursive, but truly, I think the age of cursive is over. (We're not still using shorthand are we?)

I'm with Maggie on this one - who needs it?

The Plot Chickens

Auch, Mary Jane and Herm. 2009. The Plot Chickens. New York: Holiday House.

Full of puns and poultry yolks, I mean jokes, The Plot Chickens is a tongue-in-cheek look at writing a book. With the help of an encouraging, young(!) librarian , Henrietta the chicken writes her own book, and it's even reviewed in Corn Book Magazine, although reviewer "Noah Lyke" notes,

"Henrietta lays an egg with her first book."

Informative ,

"Rule 7: Make your story come alive by using all five senses"

and funny at the same time, this book is a brightly-illustrated, hilarious look at the writing process.

Children's Poet Laureate

The second Children's Poet Laureate has been named, and it is Mary Ann Hoberman, who follows in the impressive footsteps of the previous Children's Poet Laureate, Jack Prelutsky.

Details may be found in the blog, Poetry for Children, created and maintained by author, librarian, and educator, Dr. Sylvia Vardell.

http://poetryforchildren.blogspot.com/search?q=second+children%27s+poet+laureate

Birds on a Wire

Lewis, J. Patrick and Paul B. Janeczko. 2008. Birds on a wire. Ill. by Gary Lippincott. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong.

Birds on a Wire introduces children (and adults) to the ancient Japanese poetry form of renga, a precursor to the better-known haiku. Poetic, collaborative, multicultural, calming, beautiful - this book has much to offer, particularly for teachers or for children's librarians seeking interesting programming options. I know that I will come back to this book.