Mollly Mischief: My Perfect Pet by Adam Hargreaves

Molly is often called Molly Mischief, and for good reason. She's a troublemaker. In Molly Mischief: My Perfect Pet by Adam Hargreaves, Molly and her brother go to the zoo with their dad. Her brother likes the warthogs best. Meanwhile, Molly gets in trouble for tickling a penguin, chasing a parrot, waking up a flamingo, and feeding the crocodile. Then, she discovers the hippopotamus and decides she wants a bigger pet than the one at home. She has a mouse named Polka but mice are small. Molly wants a big pet.

Molly starts bringing home zoo animals. First she brings home a hippo, but her mom and dad aren't happy about that. The hippo is muddy. Molly brings home a polar bear but her room is too hot and polar bears don't fit in the refrigerator. So, she tries bringing home a giraffe. He is way too tall. So tall she has to cut a hole in the roof for his head.

You can see where this is headed. Molly keeps bringing home animals, eventually settling on an elephant, but the elephant causes enough chaos (squishing the family car, tearing up the neighbor's garden) that eventually Molly decides maybe a little mouse isn't so bad after all.

Although there are some things that are better when they are bigger . . . 

The story ends with Molly dropping a very large water balloon on her brother's head.

Not a favorite - I noticed the illustrations in Molly Mischief look very much like the British Mr. Men characters and discovered that Adam Hargreaves inherited the Mr. Men franchise from the original artist. Interesting! I always liked Mr. Men books. But, I confess that the detail in some of the animals, with loose lines, didn't feel quite consistent with the tidiness of the human characters, so I'm not massively in love with the illustrations, although I don't actively dislike them. They just seem a little off. My problem with this book was that naughty characters usually learn their lesson in children's books and Molly is really not nice, not just naughty. On the page with the warthog, Molly says:

My brother liked the warthogs best of all. They are nearly as ugly as he is. 

OK, sorry, I just don't like nastiness in children's books and that's mean. So is dropping a very large water balloon on someone's head. I also think it's a bad lesson to show a child teasing animals at the zoo without repercussion. So, Molly Mischief: My Perfect Pet didn't work for me, although it had its moments. The high point was definitely the hole in the roof Molly cut for the giraffe. That actually made me laugh. Since it's not a favorite of mine, I recommend that you flip through Molly Mischief before making a decision about purchasing. Fortunately, it's the only one of the 5 books Penguin Random House sent me for National Pet Day that I disliked. The next two are totally fabulous. Stay tuned!

©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Flubby is Not a Good Pet and Flubby Will Not Play with That by J. E. Morris

It's National Pet Day and I've partnered with Penguin Random House to talk about 5 children's books (I'll be doing this in three posts) with pets in them. The two Flubby books shown with my Isabel are about a lazy cat. Both are great for beginning readers, with simple, easy-to-read words that are somewhat repetitive for the sake of ease. Flubby looks a little like Isabel, doesn't he? There is a real-life Flubby, whose photo is inside the cover of the second book, Flubby Will Not Play with That.

Flubby is Not a Good Pet by J. E. Morris tells the story of Kami's pet cat. Flubby is a chunky cat who doesn't do the things his person, Kami, wants him to do. He doesn't sing like her friend's bird, catch like another friend's dog, jump like a frog, or even run inside when it rains.

But, when it thunders and both Flubby and human are frightened, they need each other.

Cat and other pet owners will totally get the theme that what really matters is the affection between pet and human. The simple words for early readers make Flubby is Not a Good Pet a great book either to read to a small child or for new readers to practice beginning reading skills, especially little animal lovers.

In Flubby Will Not Play with That by J. E. Morris, Flubby's human, Kami, brings him a bag full of toys that she's bought for him but Flubby is not the most energetic cat. He doesn't want to play with the bird or chase the wind-up mouse. He's not interested in the dangling fish and the big mechanical toy terrifies him.

Kami apologizes to Flubby when the bag is empty. There are no more toys for Flubby to try. But when Kami runs out of options and leaves the room, Flubby discovers the empty toy bag is very fun, diving into it head-first.

Another easy-to-read and adorable Flubby book, perfect for little cat lovers. The simple illustrations and Flubby's expressive face are cute without distracting from the text.

I loved both books and I confess I'm probably biased because I'm a cat lover. I've met cats like Flubby. Mine are both energetic and enjoy their toys but some cats are seriously picky and even the two I'm owned by aren't interested in the same things. Bags, of course, are always tempting (like boxes).

My thanks to Penguin Random House for the two Flubby books, which I hope to share with my grandchildren. My eldest granddaughter is definitely a pet lover (she and Fiona kitty became friends during a recent visit) and is already beginning to read at 4 years of age. I wish she was closer so we could read these books together, right away!!!


©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner

The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner is about two girls who meet in an internment camp during WWII. Elise Sontag's father is a German immigrant who has been in the country for nearly 20 years. Neither he or his wife thought there was any urgent need to become American citizens. Elise and her brother were born in America and have never learned any German. 5 random things lead to Mr. Sontag being accused of siding with Germany in the war and he's arrested. Without his income, things slowly go downhill for Elise's family and eventually Mr. Sontag asks to be transferred to Crystal City Internment Camp in Texas to be reunited with his family.

Mariko's parents are Japanese immigrants and, like Elise, Mariko is as American as apple pie. But, she's from California, where all of the Japanese Americans have been rounded up. First taken to Tanforan, an internment camp at a race track where horse stalls served as their homes, the Inoue family eventually ends up in Crystal City.

Elise and Mariko meet at Crystal City's American school and their friendship is immediate and deep. They have much more in common than differences. But, their friendship eventually ends when, for different reasons, both of the families end up being repatriated to their home countries and then Mariko's family cuts off communication when she's forced to marry in Japan.

As the book opens, decades later, we find that Elise has Alzheimer's and knows it will eventually kill her. Elise's friendship with Mariko was one of the most important of her life and she has always been sad that they weren't able to keep in touch. She decides to look for Mariko and is helped by a young housekeeper who teaches her how to use Google. On impulse, Elise buys a ticket to San Francisco to meet Mariko's daughter and writes a reminder note on her arm, knowing that she may need help remembering where she's headed.

The story then returns to the story of Elise and her family, how her German father was arrested, the family's struggles, and how Elise and Mariko met. While the storyline does go back and forth between the historical and modern parts of the storyline, the bouncing back and forth is minimal. Most of the focus is on the historical storyline and the denouement takes place during Elise's journey to find Mariko.

Highly recommended - Wonderful characters, well-described historical settings, and a truly meaningful, beautiful story of friendship made this a 5-star read. The Last Year of the War has rocketed to the top of my favorites list for 2019. It's beautifully told, believable, and accurate to what I've read about the internment camps. In fact, there was even a little crossover with Learning to See by Elise Hooper, a book I just reviewed about 10 days ago, because Dorothea Lange (the subject of Learning to See) photographed and was horrified by the conditions at Tanforan, the camp at which people were originally housed in smelly horse stalls.

Elise (the character, not the author of the other book) is the narrator. She's an only child whose friends abandon her when her father is arrested and there is nothing more important to Elise than having someone to connect with. Her anguish is visceral during the times when she's friendless and the depth of meaning of friendship to her is immense. I couldn't count the number of times I teared up; so many heartbreaking moments for Elise. I loved both the historical and contemporary parts of The Last Year of the War equally -- which is extremely unusual. I expected a predictable storyline with the typical balance of historical and contemporary storylines. But, The Last Year of the War is far from trite and predictable; it's surprising in many ways.

I received a copy of The Last Year of the War from Berkley Books for review and every time I think of it I want to clutch the book to my chest, I love it so much. Many thanks to Berkley/Penguin Random House for the review copy.


©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.