A good book is captivating, cozy, exciting, one you can not put down. There is a certain connection you can make with the characters in a book that is not possible with any other form of entertainment. A good book allows you to breathe life into a character, by connecting the author’s words with the readers personal life-experiences.

Tonight’s book, was a good book. The Curious Disappearance of Professor Brown or The Pumpkin of Doom by Tim Flanagan, a book for pre-teens. I lost myself in the book, and although the book has skillfully drawn comic style illustrations, the wording style of the writing is astonishingly descriptive.

The way Lawrence Pinkley, the eighteen year old, private investigator and main character describes his first encounter with Russet Brown, is straight out of a 1930’s detective movie, descriptive and eloquent. “ An elegantly dressed woman had entered Piffany’s and seemed to be floating gracefully towards my table….”I’m Brown, Russet Brown,” and she was. Her red-brown hair tumbled across her shoulders, framing an olive-toned face and dark brown eyes. A thick coat that reached down to her knees was tightly wrapped around her body.”

But if you think this set’s the tone for the book as a romantic-sappy teen novel you will be in for quite the surprise, the book also contains the following lines “ It made me wonder why the monkey would be the lucky owner of such a red rear. Maybe it was due to its limited and prickly diet, or possibly a lack of soft jungle toilet tissue.”

These two lines, sum up the tone of the book, about a Private Investigator who is caught between being a teenager and an adult. Lawrence Pinkly, who takes over the family Private Investigations business, after the death of his father, has no previous experience or for that matter an interest in the family business. However unbeknown to Lawrence, the private detective blood in him is strong.

Why this story works, Long gone are the days where teenagers were familiar with detective style mystery novels. Lawrence, is new at this private investigating too, after recalling how he fumbled with his first assignment, the case of the missing monkey, he explains “That’s the sort of thing a P.I does. Missing items, the things the local police force lose interest in or don’t class as important, as well as situations of a more peculiar nature.” Both the main character and the reader are discovering unknown territory, working to solve a mystery and discovering a new genre.

There is an old-school charm to this book, with a touch of witty-humor (at times “bathroom-humor”.) that makes for a great read for middle-schoolers.
And of course it does not hurt that the illustrations are their own little masterpieces.

http://smarturl.it/professorbrown

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Have you ever wondered how culture and language influences a writer? Specifically a children’s picture book writer? An odd thing happens when I take my girls to the library here in Fukuoka, Japan. The library is packed from corner to corner with children’s  picture books, now, one thing about the Japanese culture, is that they really know how to do cute well “kawaii”, sweet, dreamy, pastel, eye-candy. When looking for picture books to read or look at with my girls, my eyes always seem to focus on “foreign” books. Western books, sometimes even European books. Why is that? Even without knowing the book previously, I am drawn to the ONE book that is most familiar in the style of which I am used to.

This got me wondering… how much of what writers choose to write about is influenced by previous readings? How can a children’s picture book writer think out-side-the-box when choosing WHAT to write about?

Case in point…

I picked up a book Mottainai Grandma by Mariko Shinju, and began reading it to my little one Yumi,  who is half-Japanese. Yumi, was born in and until recently had been raised in The States, she has a concept of culture, but at four not a very clear one. As I read, I marveled at how well the author had captured the spirit of MOTTAINAI, I though it was a clever read and could picture full Japanese children, giggling as they thought of their own grandmas. Yumi, not so much, she had no interest in the book, in fact, she disliked it, and we are talking about the kid that LOVES, LOVES, books, any and all.

I understood why Yumi, did not like the book, she could not relate to it. The writer chose to write about something, Japanese would find familiar and thus make for a clever and sweet read.

So I will do my best to give you a taste of MOTTAINAI.

Mottainai, is an expression that says “Don’t be wasteful!”  not unlike our “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”, HOWEVER, this MOTTAINAI, requires ingenuity to find a useful purpose for something that might otherwise end up in the G-A-R-B-A-G-E (see you can’t even say that word in front of a Mottainai Grandma!)

So, to answer my own question… How much of what writers chose to write is influenced by culture and previous reads? A LOT, so stretch your horizons, explore different cultures through books. And check out Mottainai Grandma, who knows your little ones may love it!

and in honor of Mottainai Grandma, our own Mottainai Great -Grandma WAKAKO who at 94 years old just finished making me a laundry basket out of recycled magazines and newspapers… the wonders of the Japanese…

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It is no secret that I love picture books, I love them. Once in a while there will be a book that simply touches my heart, my all time favorite Love You Forever, by Robert Munsch. I once read a review of this book that described the sweet mother as smothering her child right up to adulthood. I find these types of reviews amusing. I can tell you exactly what I felt as a third grader when my favorite teacher Mrs. Cota, read this out-loud, and it had nothing to do with fearing that my mother would overprotect me. The book, made a knot in my throat, I loved the way Mrs. Cota, had put emotion into the narration.

I found a new favorite, Once Upon a Home Upon a Home, by Kenya Hirata and translated by Arthur Binard. The circumstances around the book… we are in Japan, to be closer to grandma as she battles cancer. Grandpa, is trying his best to help me and my girls find happiness in Japan. Once a week, he drives us to the library, the girls and I look forward to it all week. Grandpa, takes off to the young readers section with the baby. Yumi, and I get a whole uninterrupted hour together, which is probably why Yumi, loves the library so much. Yumi, and I will each pick several books and sit together to read them, she pulled this book from the shelf, and I began reading, having no synopsis, no previous knowledge of the story. Early in the story (spoiler alert)………………………………………………..
The grandfather of the story, reminisces of days he spent with grandma while she still lived. The book is beautifully illustrated, simply serene. There is a particular illustration, that I could not keep my eyes off of, grandmother is on her dying bed, the family is surrounding here and grandfather is holding her hand. You would think that this scene simply TRAUMATIZED Yumi, but no it didn’t. She was so absorb in the illustrations and the story, that she just accepted the facts and moved on. And then I realized, having NO concept of death when you are a child and loosing a dear loved one, THAT is traumatizing, thank you- Once Upon a Home Upon a Home- you put a knot in my throat and earned a spot in my heart.

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