Author: Ferida Wolff and Harriet May Savitz
Publisher: Tanglewood Press
Rating: WORTHY!
DISCLOSURE: Unlike the majority of reviews in this blog, I've neither bought this book nor borrowed it from the library. This is a "galley" copy ebook, supplied by Net Galley. I'm not receiving (nor will I expect to receive or accept) remuneration for this review. The chance to read a new book is often reward aplenty!
Illustrated adroitly by Marie Letourneau.
This came to me in the form of a recommendation from a dear friend, and I thought, "Good call! I have to read that!" It's very much in the mold of an earlier volume I reviewed When the Anger Ogre Visits which is another reason I wanted to review this one. I was not disappointed! Note that the two books are not connected: they have different publishers, different writers, and different illustrators, although they do seem to have some aims in common, and the illustrations do share a certain style.
The story sets up realistic sources of worry, but frames them in rather absurdist and amusing scenarios which I think is a better approach than simply playing it straight. I mean who hasn't had a herd of elephants show up for tea? I know I have, and I didn't even have any lemonade on hand, so I made a peel for lemons and that worked out quite well....
A host of different sources of worry are explored and suggestions made, although I'm not sure that attempting to bribe your new teacher with an apple (or in this case bribing the new bear of a teacher with honey) is the wisest choice. I would have suggested a nice home-made welcome card. That's actually one of the joys of this book: it's so ebullient that you can't help but ponder the scenarios and try to come up with your own ideas. It's part of the fun, and an important skill to master.
I worry a lot about all sorts of things (the price of being a parent, and of working a demanding job), and I know it would have made a difference to my childhood had I been given excellent coping skills at an early age, so this is an inspired idea for a children's book - engrossing, amusing and practical to boot. Yes, I worry about that boot, too!
Marie Le Tourneau's illustrations are detailed and colorful. I adored the one where Uncle Herman comes to visit. The expression on the little girl's face is priceless and made me laugh out loud, for which I heartily thank the artist. The illustrations might be a bit scary at times, but overcoming the fear your worry induces is another important step towards conquering it. This illustrator has an image from this book on the opening page to her website. Her bio is well worth reading.
As a writer I always advocate that names mean something (or they ought to! You can't just pull a character name out of your aspirations and hope it works - they require some thought), but Marie Letourneau's name left me baffled. I had thought that Le Tourneau was French for something like "the tournament" or "the turn" (as in 'the rotation'), but when I ran it through a translator, it returned, "the runsat". I'm like "What?" I'm sorry but WHAT?
I ran that through that same website's dictionary, and it couldn't find the word! What's the point in giving a translation rendering a word that doesn't even appear in your own dictionary, pray tell?! Now there's an interesting name. The curious thing is that if you run it in reverse - and translate 'the runsat' from English to French - it gives 'Le tourneau', so at least it has consistency going for it if nothing else! Runsat is actually an app for Windows (Ian spits discreetly to one side) computers, but that's nothing to do with this.
Having hit that brick wall solidly, I was too dazed to chase after the writer's names, and I didn't need to because, playfully, they immediately suggested a 'meaning': Free the Wolf and Harriet May Save It! How charming is that? Thus delighted and mollified, I moved on, only to discover that Harriet May Savitz is no longer with us, which was disturbing to say the least. Her daughter evidently runs her website. Ferida Wolff has a site at the University of Southern Mississippi celebrating her work for goodness sakes! This whole name searching thing proved humbling, I can tell you! Maybe, sometimes, it's better not to ask? No, not really!
This is an entertaining and useful book, well-written, and nicely drawn and colored, and incorporating interesting ideas and good suggestions about how to cope with worries, and more importantly how to side-step a particular worry by adopting an improvised solution. These are all important methods to help children ease away woes and get them thinking about how to invent their own fixes, which is crucial. I can see this being of most use if parents discuss each scenario with their children - perhaps by exploring solutions to each problem before the book's own solution is revealed, and then discussing who came up with the best idea. No worries, mate!
