Being Frank by Donna Earnhardt & Andrea Castellani

Being Frank is the story of what happens when a person blurts out whatever is on his or her mind, for better or worse.  

Frank's motto is, "Honesty is the best policy." But, he's a little too frank when he speaks.  He tells people exactly what he thinks -- and his honesty is getting him into trouble.  He tells his mother she's wrinkled, describes a friend's freckles in a way that offends her and tells another girl her singing voice is screechy.

Pretty soon, Frank has made nearly everyone around him angry (except for the police officers, with whom he's shared the fact that his mother was driving too fast).  Frank asks his grandfather for help and learns how to be honest in a positive way.

You can actually see the entire book online: Being Frank at the Flashlight Press website. Just click on the image of Being Frank (or the words "Look Inside") and a PDF version will pop up.  

I love this story.  It is colorful, funny and provides a nice object lesson.  I found myself smiling as I read the book, which is pretty much a guarantee that a book is going to be a favorite.  The quality of books published by Flashlight Press is always consistently top-notch, as well.  There's a nice, shiny cover that exactly matches the slipcover.  With children's books, I prefer to remove the cover while reading and then replace it when I put the book back on the shelf.  And, they do often get torn to pieces, so you have to appreciate it when a wrecked jacket won't mean a less attractive book.  Highly recommended.

In other news:

Our sofa arrives tomorrow!!  Excitement!

Book news:

I received a package of 4 Christmas books from Sterling Kids and The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories 2  from Harper It on Monday evening.  Since I promptly sat down and read them all, I've just thrown myself even further behind on reviews.  I'll keep on cranking them out, as fast as I can!

Both of my current reads ended up getting ditched, last night.  How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read by Pierre Bayard is funny at times, but it's a bit dry.  Still, I thought I'd read it because it's a F2F group selection.  Unfortunately, the book contains spoilers.  I have not yet read The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, but I have a copy and I also have a pretty decent memory so I wasn't thrilled when Bayard went into great gasping detail, explaining the entire plot and how the main character managed to deduce the content of a mysterious book and solve a murder without having read the book in question.  But, I kept going . . . until it seemed he was about to do the same thing to Graham Greene's The Third Man.  Well, that did it.  I've been planning to read The Third Man soon (assuming I can find my copy) and I really am not a skimmer, so I wasn't willing to keep going and just tossed the book aside.

Unfortunately, I also managed to miss my F2F meeting.  I was too tired to drive the 30 miles.  Bummer.  But, I had a fun evening photographing cats in Christmas bows.

The White Forest by Adam McOmber also went on the DNF pile, although I'll give it a second shot.  I have read only a single chapter per night and it's a book that demands fuller attention than I'm able to give it at the moment.  What little I read (about 6 chapters) was interesting, though.  Weird, but interesting.

I'm now reading Outside In by Maria V. Snyder and Underground by Haruki Murakami.

That's all for now!  Happy middle-of-the-week!  Wahoo!

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