As I mentioned yesterday on my blog, my little girl is turning five this week. Her antics bring to mind the song ‘Maria’ from the Sound of Music. It is as if the lyricist wrote this song for her. Every sentence in that song is apt and that is exactly why the new book out (which I plan to read and review sometime soon) – Cinderella ate my daughter – or its reason do not scare me too much. My little girl is a real-life princess just like the one Julie Andrews (Maria herself, a coincidence) writes about in ‘The Very Fairy Princess’. Her favorite colors are “all the colors, including the ‘no color’ of water” not just pink. Here are my reviews for this week towards the Read to Me – Picture book challenge at There’s a Book:
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The Books
The Very Fairy Princess
Book Info
Title: The Very Fairy Princess
Author: Julie Andrews & Emma Walton Hamilton
Illustrator: Christine Davenier
Length: 32 pages
Genre: Children’s Fiction /Imagination & Play (4 – 8 years, and up)
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; Illustrated edition (April 3, 2012)
Source: My personal copy
Book Description
This new picture book addition to the Julie Andrews Collection features the joyful illustrations of Christine Davenier, and is sure to inspire that sparkly feeling within the hearts of readers young and old.
My Thoughts
Illustrations full of motion, energy and whimsy capture the story of little Geraldine. She is a ‘real-life’ fairy princess, the kind who scrapes her knees, catches frogs in mud puddles (how else can she find her prince), wears sneakers (practical princess). This princess loves pink, purple, gossamer wings, and sparkle while being down to earth. The ‘sparkle’ she loves is the one inside every person like when she tells her friend ‘you sparkle when you play your trombone’. This is a princess’y’ story with strength of character.
Get It Here
I’ll Be You and You Be Me
Book Info
Title: I’ll Be You and You Be Me
Author: Ruth Krauss
Illustrator: Maurice Sendak
Length: 40 pages
Genre: Children’s Poetry/Classics (4 – 8 years, and up)
Publisher: HarperCollins (May 22nd 2001; first published 1952)
Source: My personal copy
Book Description
From the team that brought us A Hole Is To Dig, here’s another romp through the wild and wonderful imagination of children.
My Thoughts
The story telling in this is wonderfully childlike. It took me a while to realize that Ms Krauss wrote this book in the language of the child for the child and once it did, the child in me was thrilled. Of course, my little one understood the book better than I did. She must have been thinking, “at last, a book that makes total sense. Why can’t there be more books like this?”
It is a scrapbook of childlike imagination, wit, and wisdom. Maurice Sendak’s drawings though miniature, easily express the endless energy of a child and wonderfully bring Ms Krauss’s ideas and words to life. Who cannot fall in love with a book that has a little bit of observation tucked in the corner of a page ‘two little houses and their smokes are joining’? I just feel bad that I did not discover this book earlier but now that I have (from the library), I went ahead and ordered it from Amazon. I love it Because………
Get It Here
Note: If you want to hear or see the song ‘Maria’, here are the links: Lyrics: http://www.guntheranderson.com/v/data/maria.htm Song with lyrics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3voFeMlMTtQ
Needless to say, your review of The Very Fairy Princess absolutely delighted me, and what fun to have your very own Very Fairy Princess/Maria all rolled into one! I'm sure she has no trouble "letting her sparkle out"! I'm so glad you enjoyed the book.
Now I must find "I'll be you and you be me". It sounds my sort of book completely! Thanks!
— Beth