Bozeman News

New West Children's Book Review

Reptiles, Princesses & Paul Bunyan-Sized Women: New Western Picture Books

By Jenny Shank, 11-22-10

When my daughter and I look for picture books at the bookstore or library, we follow one rule: Does it look funny?  We’re not interested in the messagey books.  We like the weird ones that make us giggle.  You can tell just by looking at the cover of David Wiesner’s Art & Max (Clarion Books, ages 4 to 8, 40 pages, $17.99) that it’s going to be funny, with a tall, dignified horny toad gripping brushes and a palette and standing back-to-back with a messy, bug-eyed shorter lizard against the backdrop of a saguaro-filled desert like they’re about to have a showdown.

They do have a showdown through their artwork, in a delightful story that Wiesner tells mostly through his detailed, engaging illustrations.  As the story opens, Arthur, the pretentious horny toad, is working on a portrait.  The enthusiastic Max, the smaller lizard, zooms into view and announces, “I can paint too, Arthur!” Arthur tells him, “You, Max? Don’t be ridiculous.” When Max asks Arthur what he should paint, Arthur suggests, “Well…you could paint me.” And Max does, literally.

The book gets funnier with each of Max’s missteps, as Arthur turns all kinds of colors, then leaks them until he’s transparent, then unravels.  We giggled a lot over this one, even though it does sneak a message in there: there are no rules or boundaries for creativity. Art & Max would make a great gift for any child who loves to draw and paint.

Another funny new picture book is Dust Devil by Anne Isaacs, illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky (Schwartz & Wade, ages 4-8, 48 pages, $17.99), starring Angelica Longrider, an enormous redhead who previously appeared in the Caldecott Honor Book Swamp Angel.  “When Swamp Angel grew too big for Tennessee,” Isaacs writes, “she moved west to Montana, a country so sizeable that even Angel could fit in.” What follows Angel’s arrival in Montana is a whopper of a tall tale, providing the explanations for many geographical features.

For example, when Angel wants to block the early morning sun from waking her, she simply picks up a mountain and positions it for shade.  “‘That’s a beaut,’ she’d say proudly every time she set one down.  And to this day, every stand-alone peak in Montana is called a butte.”

The illustrations of the Montana landscape with Angel dwarfing everything near her are lots of fun.  Our favorite was one that shows her squishing a regular-sized horse that she’s trying to mount.  Since she can’t find a horse that will hold her, Angel ends up riding a monster dust storm until she tames it into an obedient horse named Dust Devil.  Now that she has her trusty steed, Angel is ready to wrangle with Backward Bart and his Flying Desperadoes, who “busted through Montana as fast as bad news, robbing and terrorizing everyone in their path.” Bart is also abnormally large.  “No one knew how much he weighed, but one day his shadow fell across a doctor’s scale and tipped the needle past 2,000 pounds.”

Sheriff Napalot of Billings isn’t going to do anything to stop Bart, so Angel takes up the task.  Dust Devil is a fun introduction to tall tales with a heroine who is as strong and brave she is funny.

As Angel would tell you, there’s no room for prissy regular princesses out West, only the kind who wear hiking boots with their tiaras.  In the latest picture book in Colorado writer Carmela LaVigna Coyle’s series that began with Do Princesses Wear Hiking Boots?, Coyle explores how rugged princess girls amuse themselves during playdates.  Naturally, mud is involved.  In Do Princesses Have Best Friends Forever? illustrated by Mike Gordon and Carl Gordon (Taylor Trade Publishing, 32 pages, $15.95, ages 4-8), the princess in hiking boots invites her best friend over to play.  “Are you a princess just like me?” she asks her friend.  “I’ve been a princess since I was three!” They play dress up for a while, then make a mess in the living room, leap barefoot through the mud in the back yard, and hose down the little brother and dog. 

The princess’s mother, perhaps figuring they’ve torn apart the house enough for one day, packs the kids up for a visit to the zoo.  At the end of the day, it’s craft time.  “Let’s make two bracelets with a double pink heart.  And then we can wear them when we’re apart.” The book comes with two pink paper bracelets for friends to share.  My daughter wants to keep them in the book, so she just ooches her hand underneath to try them on. 

No matter what the spell checker says, “ooches” is an actual word—I learned it from a Richard Scarry book.  And that’s the kind of silly learning any kid will enjoy from these three new picture books.

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