Getting a new book always makes me feel a bit of excitement because you have a new adventure waiting for you and you never know where it might lead. My kids are also little bookworms so they are always eager to add new books to our growing collection. I was recently sent a box of books from Candlewick Press to check out and share with my readers here on my blog, I will be going through and reviewing 2-3 at a time to help break up the posts a bit.
Interrupting Chicken and the Elephant of Surprise - Retail $16.99 USD. This is an adorable book that actually gave me a good laugh because it reminds me a bit of my kids and how kids can be in general. This book is about a chicken who comes home from school and asks her Papa to read with her so she can find the Elephant in the story. Unsure of what she means Papa asks her what she means, he learns that her teacher taught the class that every story has an "element" as surprise but she thinks it is an elephant of surprise and thus wants to go on a hunt for elephants.
Papa chicken picks out a story he knows has no elephants but his daughter finds the elephant and 'rescues' it, afterwards it is a bit of a back and forth about there not being any elephants and they read two more stories with the same result. After finishing the homework of looking for the elephant "element" of surprise in three books Papa chicken and his daughter make up their own story with a elephant which was quite adorable. Even with as cute as the story is my favorite page is the last, when Papa chicken is ready for bed looking exhausted from doing homework when his daughter says "Now you can help me with my math homework!" this is exactly how I feel when helping my daughter with her pile of homework every night.
I thought this was a sweet book to read with the kids and they got a real kick out of it as well. The imagery is lovely, everything has a almost water color feel to it and the sharp lines used along with color choices are eye catching.
Night Job - Retail $16.99 USD. This book actually reminds me of a few nights when I was a child. This book is about a little boy whose father works as a night time janitor at a school and he goes with on Friday nights to join his dad for the night to spend time with him. I remember for a while when my mom worked several night shifts and I got to tag along a night or two (though I usually feel asleep on the sofa in the break room after a while) it was always an adventure.
This neat book is done completely in neutral colors giving it the feel of being night time which we thought went extremely well with the theme of the book. The book follows the father and son duo on their night at the school from room to room and what they do while cleaning up such as listening to base ball and playing music. Much like myself when I was younger the son can only stay up so long and falls asleep on a sofa in the library until his dad comes to wake him up to take him home.
