Christmas Best by Diana Kizlauskas

Rating: WORTHY!

Here's an interesting story for young children with a Christmas flavor. Or is that just another way of saying it's a turkey? Just kidding. I thought this was nicely illustrated by the author, but it seemed to send a mixed message. In the end I decided to recommend it because it can be used a a really good teaching tool about choices and consequences.

It doesn't work too well on a tablet though - this book will be of more utility as a print book I think, but it's very short, so tree-abuse is limited. The reason it doesn't work well on a pad is that instead of individual pages, all of the "pages" in the book are offered as double-page images, so you can only see them as relatively small images unless you spread them with a finger and a thumb, which is a nuisance. If you turn your pad sideways, they can be seen as a double-page spread, but then they're quite small. They're legible at this size, but not ideal.

The story is about job satisfaction, so it's very relevant in this day and age. Written in scattershot verse, we read of five elves, none of which is very happy with their lot in life making toys for International Santa Corporation. Why Santa gets such good PR when he clearly is running a sweatshop and making extensive use of slave labor is a mystery to me. I detest the little dictator, but that's just me.

Anyway, I guess the elves work in Texas or some place which has the same labor laws because they just walk out, offering no notice and decided to try something new. Baking isn't their forte, so they migrate to being choristers, mail carriers, present wrappers, and so on, but they are so poor at doing these other jobs that they give up and return to Santa Corporation to resume their original employment.

This actually offers room for a great discussion with your kids about working and job satisfaction, and loyalty and job training, which no on seems to offer these guys and girls. Should we stay in our little world trapped by our limited perspective and our exemplary skills in a job which offers only broken dreams, or set forth upon a sea of jobs and by embracing, mend them?

What if we fail? Is it a failure to try something new even if it doesn't work out? Is it okay to return to the sorry world we left if there appears to be nothing better? Can we be happy with what dissatisfied us when we realize there's no hope for an alternative out there, or do we have to mesmerize ourselves into being happy even when we're not? I recommend this book for its bold exploration of elvish existentialism and charming artwork.

Lettuce! by Diana Kizlauskas

Title: Lettuce!
Author: Diana Kizlauskas
Publisher: Diana Kizlauskas Illustration
Rating: WORTHY!

As I mentioned for the other review I posted today, some children's authors unfortunately feel that young children are an easy mark and not worth much time, and the path to success is via a series of cheap illustrations and a silly rhyme, and you're in business. This author/illustrator isn't one of those, I'm thrilled to report!

I've been lucky with the children's books I've reviewed, and I've found very few of them to be sub-standard, but I get to chose which ones I review, so I have an advantage! I try to review these books positively if I can because while children don't deserve less than adults, they are, bless their little cotton socks, far less critical and are willing (as I am in fact), to forgo excellence and finery if they can get a great story and/or some engrossing art work, and especially so if it's educational. This is one reason why I was so thrilled with the two books I'm reviewing today, because both of them are really, really excellent. On the other hand, it is Friday, so maybe I'm just in a thoroughly good mood. Naw, these books are great any day of the week!

This particular one has remarkable art work by the author, to which the sample images on my blog certainly do not do justice. It's the story of rabbit and his lettuce farm. He plants his seeds as usual, but the lettuce gets out of control. These things are humongous. They've lagomorphed to giant size. Rabbit doesn't have a clue what to do.

The author tells us what he does do in delightfully well-written rhymes. All of his friends come over and each of them has a suggestion, all of which advocate maximizing rabbit's fun and/or profitability. None of these weird and wacky ideas helps rabbit make up his mind at all. And yes, I'm giving him the male gender, but so is the author. Why this female author went haring off after a male farmer instead of a female, I don't know! It's enough to make you stamp your hind limbs!

Rabbit veg's out thinking hard, but he can't decide and calls up his sick friend owl, who does nothing but rabbit on about how sick he is, so while it was nice not to have the clichéd wise old owl here, this does give rabbit a brilliant idea of how to maximize value in a lettuce faire economy! I recommend this for the rhymes, the story, the good feeling this book delivers, and the beautiful art work. Buy it and burrow into it! You can't Pika better book!