Book Review, King Hugo's Huge Ego by Chris Van Dusen

Not only are the pictures beautiful, but I even laughed out loud at the hilarity illustrated in one of the pictures.  His expression, the total ridiculousness of the situation, it was comic genius.  As for the rhyming text, well, I am actually usually not a big fan of rhyming verse in children's books.  It is just hard to do well and most of the time it becomes quite tedious, and I find myself just paraphrasing.  Quite surprisingly that is NOT the case with this book.  Which is quite the feat in my eyes.  Very few people can pull of rhyming text and make it work.  The pace is good, and not tedious and the storyline is exciting, funny and not repetitive.  And the illustrations are wonderful!  The colors throughout the book are vibrant and the compositions have just the right amount of detail.  We checked it out from the library, but now it is on our "to get" list.  Because it is a hit for both parents and kids in our house.

Have you read it?  What do you think about it?

Book Review, Beegu by Alexis Deacon

I have discovered so many wonderful books from other reviews on blogs and such, I thought I'd blog about my favorites.  And perhaps it would give me more incentive to blog.  Besides, yay for sharing book love!

see, book love!

and sharing

sort of.

Look close though.

This is Sohvi. Not Lucy.

I discovered Beegu when I was first researching authoring/illustration of kids books.  So embarrassingly long ago I am ashamed to admit how little progress I have made since then.  My own personal book making journey has been (and will continue to be) a very long process.  I am not what you would call ambitious.  But I do have a stubborn streak.  It is pretty selective, and though often buried, is fierce.  Anyway, back to Beegu.  Fell in love with the book, as did Sohvi and so I bought her the book and made up a quirky pattern to make her a stuffed Beegu for her birthday that year.  She loved (and still does, years later) both of them.

It is a delightful, and very charming book about a little three eyed alien who is accidentally stranded here and she is lonely.  I love that the heroine is female but perfectly relate-able/accessible to everyone.  Most "neutral" characters just always seem to be boys.  The pictures are expressive and beautiful and communicate the perfect mood and feel for the book.  Though alien in form, her body language is amazingly communicative whether it be in expressing forlorn or delight.  The text is concise and evocative.  I love that I don't have to paraphrase it for impatient little kids who just want to turn the page and see the next picture already.  It is a total favorite with both the kids and adults in this house.  We absolutely adore this book.

Have you read it?  What do you think about it?

Trade: evieivyoverstreet

The recent Beehive Bazaar wasn't my first opportunity to trade with my little sister. I first fell head over heels in love with this tote bag she made. Then she went above and beyond that one and customized another one with the lining and baby whale corduroy I liked combined with a darling hedgehog appliqué. You may have seen me with it, I use it ALL the time!

This one wasn't a trade, but I couldn't help myself last bazaar. I had been drooling over the darling lion tee-shirts in her etsy shop for a while, and seeing them in person (in my son's size, and on a darling green ringer tee) was just too much even for my frugal, non-shopaholic, normally restrained self. It mattered not that I wasn't getting something for my daughter, it had to be snatched up! I love it every single time he wears it. Makes me want to squeeze him, even more that I already do, if that's possible.

This time at the bazaar, I got to see all the goods as we were setting up. She makes the cutest felt button bracelets and watches ever. I saw a cutie cute bright yellow one and secretly hoped it wouldn't get sold. To my delight it didn't, and I traded it victoriously!
And THEN, because she's such a great sister, she GAVE me a absolutely darling, delicious smelling, lavender filled, flower button appliquéd, vintage kitty fabric sachet for my birthday. It almost makes up for the fact that I turned 30.
She makes some REALLY cute stuff, this is only a teensy tinsy sample of it. So, if you haven't checked out evieivyoverstreet's shop lately (or ever) you totally should.