[BOOK REVIEW] Great Day for Up by Dr. Seuss

Title:  Great Day for Up

Author:  Dr. Seuss

Artist: Quentin Blake

Genre:  Humor / Inspiration / Children's

Year Published: 1974

Year Read:  1992 (Re Read: 2018)

Publisher:  Beginner Books

Source:  Purchased

Content Rating:  Ages 3+  (Nothing Objectionable)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

Now, I have been reading Dr. Seuss’ books for DECADES now and I think that I have almost read all of the books that were written by Dr. Seuss (told you I have been reading his books for DECADES)! This also includes the books that Dr. Seuss wrote, but did not illustrate as there were some other artists that illustrated Dr. Seuss’ works, such as Lane Smith’s artwork in Dr. Seuss’ book “Hooray For Diffendoofer Day!”  “Great Day for Up” is another book that was written by Dr. Seuss, but has artwork by Quentin Blake, who was well known for his artwork in Roald Dahl’s children’s books and it was quite an interesting read!

This book is basically about the narrator encouraging everyone around the world to get up in the morning and approach a new day with a smile on their faces!

Dr. Seuss had done a great job at writing this book as the verses are short, creative and silly and I often found myself giggling at the crazy verses about the people in the book getting up in the morning, such as this cute little verse:

“Up, whales!

Up, snails!

Up, rooster!

Hen!

Up!

Girls and women!

Boys and men!”

I also liked the fact that this book is similar to Dr. Seuss’ other work “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” as it is another book that reinforces positivity for yourself and that you should get up and go out into the world to do the things that you really want to do.  I also loved the ending of this book as it was probably the most hilarious moment in the book and I definitely recommend that you read the ending for yourselves to see what I mean!  I must admit that I do find Quentin Blake’s artwork to be adorable to look at in this book as all the characters are rendered in a slightly scratchy look and look a bit exaggerated with their expressions, which is something I have always enjoyed about Quentin Blake’s artwork.  I also enjoyed seeing the images of the various characters jumping around excitedly at the approaching new day upon them.

The reason why I gave this book a four-star rating was because even though I thought that Quentin Blake’s artwork was cute, I personally think that it looked a bit out of place in a Dr. Seuss book, even though I was alright with Lane Smith’s artwork in “Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!”  I guess I was so used to Dr. Seuss doing the artwork for his own books that seeing another artist do the artwork for his books kind of threw me off a bit.

Overall, “Great Day for Up” is a truly cute book about getting up in the mornings to approach a new day ahead of you that children will definitely be inspired by!  I would recommend this book to children ages three and up since there is nothing inappropriate in this book.

You might also like:

• Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? by Dr. Seuss

• Oh, the Places You'll Go! by Dr. Seuss

• The Sneetches and Other Stories by Dr. Seuss

[ARC REVIEW] Downward Dog: Very Serious Haiku from a Very Serious Dog by Samm Hodges and Phinehas Hodges (@downwarddog_abc , @sammhodges)

Title:  Downward Dog: Very Serious Haiku from a Very Serious Dog

Authors:  Samm Hodges and Phinehas Hodges

Artist: Idil Gozde

Genre:  Animal / Pets / Humor 

Year Published: 2017

Year Read: 2017

Publisher:  Animal Media Group

Source:  eARC (NetGalley)

Content Rating:  Ages 10+  (Some Suggestive Humor)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository

I would like to thank NetGalley and Animal Media Group for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I will be honest here:  I did not know that there was going to be a TV series for ABC called “Downward Dog” since I barely heard any promos for the show.  However, when NetGalley offered me a chance to check out the book that is going to spawn into a TV series called “Downward Dog: Very Serious Haiku from a Very Serious Dog” which is written by Samm Hodges and Phinehas Hodges along with artwork by Idil Gozde, I just knew that I had to check this book out and I must admit that this book has got me interested!

The story is about a dog named Martin, who ends up being left at home by his human owner, Nan and during that time, Martin has decided to write a haiku about his life as a dog and you will be quite interested to hear what he has to say about his life!

I must admit that I found this book to be pretty creative and cute at the same time!  I liked the way that both Samm Hodges and Phinehas Hodges wrote this story as it is styled in a haiku type of poetry and we get to see how Martin the dog views his life while relating his story and his relationship with his human owner Nan, to the audience in poetic form.  I also liked the way that Samm Hodges and Phinehas Hodges incorporated some humor in this story, with my favorite moments being of Martin looking at Big Bird from “Sesame Street” on TV and commenting on it and Martin mentioning about how he would fart in bed with his owner.  Idil Gozde’s artwork is both simplistic yet humorous at the same time as the artwork looks like children’s drawings, which would make sense since Martin the dog is supposedly the one who is writing this book; the artwork would often downplay the introspective nature of Martin, but does it in a humorous way!

The reason why I gave this book a four-star rating was because while I thought it was creative for the story to be told in a poetic narrative, it was a bit hard to understand exactly what Martin is saying throughout the book. Since the book is written in a way where various sentences are shortened in order to fit in with the structure of a haiku, I found some of Martin’s thoughts to be a bit incomplete and therefore, it was hard for me to see where Martin was going with his inner thoughts on his life.

Overall, “Downward Dog: Very Serious Haiku from a Very Serious Dog” is a truly cute book for anyone who loves reading about dogs and who loves reading haikus!

You might also like:

• Tales from the Crib by Henrik Drescher

• Fowl Language: The Struggle is Real by Brian Gordon

[BOOK REVIEW] Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep by Jack Prelutsky

Title:  Nightmares:  Poems to Trouble Your Sleep

Author:  Jack Prelutsky

Artist: Arnold Lobel

Genre:  Horror / Poetry / Halloween / Monsters

Year Published: 1976

Year Read: 2009

Publisher:   Greenwillow Books

Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 7+  (Some Scary Imagery and Graphic Dialogue)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

Nightmares” is a book of poems written by Jack Prelutsky along with illustrations by Arnold Lobel.  This book contains poems about various monsters, wizards and ghosts doing horrible things to unsuspecting people.  “Nightmares” might be too scary for smaller children, but older children will love the macabre content of this book. 

Jack Prelutsky’s writing is dramatic and intense as he brings true horror to these poems.  Each poem describes a monster doing horrible acts towards their victims and Jack Prelutsky brings great detail to how these victims are tortured, such as in “The Vampire” where Jack Prelutsky describes how the Vampire bites down on its victim and licks the blood off its lips.  Arnold Lobel’s illustrations are the center of attention here as they are in black and white coloring, giving the story a gothic feel to it.  The image that stood out the most was the image of the Dragon of Death having seven heads and vicious looking eyes in the poem “The Dragon of Death.” 

“Nightmares” is surely one of Jack Prelutsky’s most haunting books he ever created since it talks about how monsters torture their victims to death.  I would recommend this book to children ages seven and up since there are too many advanced words that young children might not understand and because of the macabre content displayed vividly in this book.

You might also like: 

• In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories by Alvin Schwartz

• Boris and Bella by Carolyn Crimi

• Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam

[BOOK REVIEW] The Book that Jack Wrote by Jon Scieszka

Title:  The Book that Jack Wrote

Author:  Jon Scieszka

Artist:   Daniel Adel

Genre:  Children's / Humor / Surrealism / Poetry

Year Published: 1994

Year Read:  2009

Publisher:  Viking

Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 5+ (Some Violent Imagery)

Buy or Add on:  Amazon  //  Goodreads

“The Book that Jack Wrote” is one of Jon Scieszka’s books that the illustrator is not Lane Smith but Daniel Adel.  This book is based off the nursery rhyme, “The House that Jack Built,” except it has a more comic twist to the classic rhyme as all the characters in this book are either hit, pushed, or chased by other characters.  Surely, this book is easily one of Jon Scieszka’s most sophisticated books ever written. 

Jon Scieszka has written a more far-fetched version of this classic nursery rhyme by adding in various characters that came from various children’s books such as “Alice in Wonderland” and “Humpty Dumpty” and he makes the story even more creative when he starts the book off with the ending of the man in the tattered coat getting squashed by this book.  Jon Scieszka also made this book extremely funny to read as each character gets clobbered in a slapstick way, such as the Hatter accidentally pushing the Egg over the wall when he tripped on the rug that the bug was eating.  Daniel Adel’s illustrations are surreal and dark as all of the characters have large and realistic looking heads, while their bodies are also realistic, but very small.  The image that really stood out the most in this book is the image of the man in the tattered coat as he has large glasses and a large head on a small body, which is the same man on the cover of the book. 

“The Book that Jack Wrote” is a silly book that plays a surreal twist on one of Mother Goose’s lovable nursery rhyme and will surely be an instant treat for many children for many years.  I would recommend this book to children ages five and up due to the fact that smaller children might not like the violent images displayed in this book.

You might also like: 

• The Frog Prince Continued by Jon Scieszka

• The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! by Jon Scieszka

• The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka

[ARC REVIEW] Rabbit's Snow Day by Todd Strader (@ToddStrader)

Title:  Rabbit's Snow Day

Author:  Todd Strader

Artist: Penny Collins

Genre:  Animals / Winter / Children's 

Year Published: 2017

Year Read:  2017

Publisher:  Cyfarwydd Books

Source:  eARC (Author)

Content Rating:  Ages 4+ (Nothing Objectionable)

Release Date:  November 2017

Buy or Add on:  Amazon  //  Goodreads

I would like to thank the author Todd Strader for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have always loved reading books that deal with animals and when I got a free copy of “Rabbit’s Snow Day” from the author Todd Strader, I was really excited to check this book out since I love reading books about rabbits!  “Rabbit’s Snow Day” which is written by Todd Strader along with artwork by Penny Collins is a truly cute story about how rabbits survive in the winter that children will definitely enjoy!

Basically, the plot of this book is about the rabbits trying to survive the winter and about how they try to stay out of the fox and the humans’ way while the winter is raging away and this is all told in a poetic narrative.

Wow!  This book was a really cute read, especially if you love rabbits (like myself) and Todd Strader did a fantastic job at writing this book as the book is told in a poetic narrative that gives the book a unique and beautiful tone.  I also loved the information that Todd Strader provided about rabbits at the end of the book as I wanted to learn more about rabbits in general and how they live in the wilderness and survive the dangers of the wilderness.  Penny Collins’ artwork is gorgeous to look at as all the animals are drawn realistically, especially the rabbits themselves and I enjoyed seeing the winter atmosphere of the artwork as snow covers everything, from the ground to the trees, and all the snow covering up the pages give the artwork a beautiful and peaceful atmosphere.

The reason why I gave this book a four-star rating was because I felt that the story was a bit too short and I wanted a much longer story on the rabbits’ adventures during the winter season and their encounters with the fox and the humans.  I also felt that a good majority of this book was focused more on giving out information about rabbits in general rather than focusing on giving us a story about the rabbits and their time spent surviving the winter season.

Overall, “Rabbit’s Snow Day” is a cute book for anyone who loves reading about rabbits and loves reading about winter as a whole.  I would recommend this book to children ages four and up since there is nothing inappropriate in this book.

You might also like:

• The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

• Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie dePaola
• The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown

[BOOK REVIEW] The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss

Title:  The Foot Book

Author:  Dr. Seuss

Genre:  Fantasy / Rhyming / Humor / Body

Year Published:1968

Year Read:  2010

Series:  Bright and Early Board Books

Publisher:   Random House Books for Young Readers

Source:  Purchased

Content Rating:  Ages 3+ (Nothing Objectionable)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

 
 “The Foot Book” is a children’s book from the greatest mind of children’s books, Dr. Seuss and it is about how the main character, a fuzzy and golden looking character, introduces the various types of feet that everyone has.  “The Foot Book” is one of the greatest books from Dr. Seuss ever created that children will enjoy for many years.

Dr. Seuss’ talent for writing and illustrations has been astounding children around the world for many years and this book is no exception!  Dr. Seuss perfectly puts the book in a rhyming prose that gives the book so much creativity as children can learn with ease about the different types of feet in a hilarious way.  Dr. Seuss’ illustrations are perfect as usual as he makes the characters look surreal yet friendly as all the characters are wearing black and yellow jumpsuits along with red, green, and red shoes that look like clown shoes since they are large.

“The Foot Book” is an excellent book for children who love reading about different types of feet in a humorous way and will surely become a major cult classic in any family who are fans of Dr. Seuss’ books.  I would recommend this book to children ages three and up since this book is pretty straightforward for many toddlers.