the whingdingdilly. bill peet. (138)

as i mentioned in the post for "kermit the hermit".  i can't remember how i know this book but i do.  the story and the images are familiar i just can't recall how i know it.

the first thing i noticed was the dedication page.

and given the story, this dedication is super sweet!  even for an anti-dog person like me.

this is a story about about a dog named scamp.  scamp is sad because he feels he is not as special as the horse across the road.

one day while trotting around like a horse, his owner a little boy named orvie called him " a silly ol' dog".  this hurt scamp's feelings so he ran away.

he walked into a forest and came across a witch.  she knew scamp wanted to be a horse so she helped him out with her magic and turned him into a whingdingdilly!

scamp headed home but scared some pigs so when orvie called out to him, scamp was sure his new look would scare him so scamp hid from orvie.  

eventually, scamp went home.  he heard that orvie was sad that scamp didn't return home.  orvie's day offered to buy him a horse but orvie wanted a dog because they were a better companion.  this made scamp happy and a little embarrassed that he was now a whingdingdilly.

the next day, orvie found scamp as the whingdingdilly and scared off scamp.  scamp ran away and everyone started to chase him.  he went back to the forest to have the witch change him back but she was gone.  then the farmers caught up and a man from the palace of wonders came to take the whingdingdilly to be in his show.  scamp was miserable.  luckily he was up on display, the witch returned and saw that her tulips were ruined!  she decided to get her revenge by turning scamp back into a dog!  

since now he was only a dog, the man kicked out scamp.  scamp then returned home to orvie!!

scamp learned a very important lesson about being happy with who you are and you should not try to be something you are not!

the spooky tail of prewitt peacock. bill peet. (137)

"the spooky tail of prewitt peacock" might be my favorite peet book so far. (also love the pun!)  

sadly prewitt was born with a weird tail. 

his tail only had two eyes.  while all

the other peacocks' tails had many eyes.

phineas' tail had the most eyes so he was the leader.

one day when prewitt was older his tail grew into a monstrosity.

eyebrows grew over the eyes, a mouth formed and the feathers on the side grew out like arms and as a result, prewitt's tail looked like a monster!  the other peacocks were frightened by it. as a result phineas told prewitt that either the tail went or prewitt had to leave.

that night prewitt had a dream and decided he would keep his tail!

the next day, the peacocks decided they would take prewitt's tail.  so they chased him, trying to take his feathers.  they were so caught up in the chase the they ran into an open field.  just then a tiger went to attack them but . . . prewitt's spooky tail scared the tiger away and saved them!!!

afterward, the peacocks wanted prewitt to be the leader, but humble as he was he declined but said thr peacocks could hang out with him, which they did.

i loved this book not only because i thought prewitt's monster tail was amazing!!! but it is also a wonderful

tale (and tail) about how something that makes us "different" is actually what makes us special!  it's important for kids to know that they should be themselves and eventually they will find friends who like them for who they are!

chester the worldly pig. bill peet. (136)

"chester the worldly pig" is the story of an ambitious little pig.  chester knew his fate as meal but wanted more.  chester said "a pig is no better off than a cabbage or a carrot, just something to eat.  but before i end up as so much as sausage and ham, i intended to try to amount to something".  chester had a dream of being in a circus so he taught himself to balance on his snout.

he tried to get the attention from a passing circus train but it didn't work.  chester than decided to go to the circus and so he could be discovered.  and he did!

but he fainted before he did his act and was put into the clown act.  he hated it so he ran away.

chester was then chased by a bear.

and almost became a meal for some hobos.

chester even ended up in the city but discovered that it was not safe for him.

he then returned to a farm and accepted his fate as a pig.

but then a carnival man bought him for the farm because . . . chester was a very special pig!!! he had the map of the world on his belly!!!

so chester ended up a star!!! 

this book caught my eye because i love ending pigs but it turned out to be a great little book about never giving up on your dreams!  i also kind of feel bad because i would have totally ate chester.

interpreter of maladies. jhumpa lahiri.

i bought "interpreter of maladies" a while back at a $1 bookstore.  it had been sitting on my shelf but went on my to-read list when i saw this on mindy kaling's instagram:

and since i love mindy and think we could be BFF if we ever met, i decided to finally read "interpreter of maladies".

i must admit that at first i thought it was a novel, but then during the first story realized it was a collection of stories.  this disappointed me at first.  a book has to be a truly amazing collection of short stories for me to finish.  if there is a bad story, reading then becomes tedious and kind of ruins my attitude and ability with the rest of the book.  (see:  me reading the complete stories of flannery o'connor-  i will give her another try in the future.). but i didn't have to worry about that with this book because each story was truly amazing/beautiful.  i mean it did win the pulitzer so i should have known i was in for a treat.

every though the stories are short, you become invested in the characters and their lives.  each story was very emotional, i had to pause after each story to allow myself to process what i had read.  and though every story was different, they shared a theme of loneliness, longing, and love.  these stories demonstrated how we often suffer throughout life and the best option for us is not always the easiest but in the end we are better for taking the most challenging route.  many of the characters also learn that what they thought they wanted out of life is not what the needed.  each character has some void which they are trying to fill which regardless of what it may be is ultimately love.  

i know i have used the adjective alot in this post but these stories are beautiful.  i would rehash them here but you should pick it up for yourself and read it.

i will say the stories that i enjoyed the most were:

"the third and final continent" (i loved mrs. croft)

"a temporary matter" (it was only 20 pages but quite the emotional roller coaster, it had me teary-eyed in the end. which is a testament to lahiri's great writing)

"mrs. sen's" (partially due to her inability to drive")

"a real durwan" (which demonstrated that "you don't know what you've got til it's gone")

a truly beautiful (yes that adjective again) read.  please pick it up and enjoy.

the rainbow goblins. ul de rico. (135)

if you read my post for james franco's "palo alto", you know that reading that book was a big waste of my time.  however, i am not that bitter because it brought some great children's books in my life.  one of the characters served his community service hours at the library and he spent his hours reading children's books. one of the books mentioned was "the rainbow goblins", a book i had never heard of, so i checked it out.

"the rainbow goblins" is a story about goblins that drain the colors from the rainbow.  the goblins lassoed the rainbow and drank the color. they heard about a magical land called the valley of the rainbow  where the rainbow touches ground so they devised a plan to travel there and steal the colors from the rainbows.  luckily the roots of the flowers overheard their plan and warned the rainbow.

the next day the rainbow appeared and when the goblins attempted to lasso the rainbow, it disappeared.  the goblins become tangled and trapped in their lassos. then, the flowers having absorbed the rainbow then drown the goblins with the colors.  gruesome but a potent and ironic ending for them.  

as a reward for their help, the rainbow turned the flowers into birds and butterflies.

the rainbow also learned its lesson and no longer touches the round.

the pictures are beautiful and pretty high brow for a children's books.  here are a couple of my favorites:

this is one of the goblins dreaming of drinking the rainbow.

the storm that created the beautiful rainbow.

the rainbow appearing.

i will admit that goblins are scary but shouldn't they be?  but a wonderful

story to explain why we can never find the end of the rainbow.

the hundred dresses. eleanor estes. (134)

"the hundred dresses" has been on my to-read list ever since i saw it as book clutch on etsy.  i didn't buy the book clutch but thought it was super cute.  

(adorbs, right? but i couldn't afford or justify paying $175 for it.)

grandma bea bought me "the hundred dresses" a kid.  i owned a copy just like the library book.  i wouldn't call it one of my all time favorites but i do remember loving the fact that the little girl in the story drew a hundred dresses.

"the hundred dresses" is told from the perspective of maddie.  the story is about a girl, wanda, maddie's classmate, who was teased by the other girls for being different.  wanda was poor and polish.  as the book explained, she had a "funny" polish last name.  maddie's best friend, peggy was the one that started the teasing.  the teasing began one day when another girl had a new dress which everyone admired.  wanda then shared how she had one hundred dresses.  since she was obviously poor, peggy turned it into a sort of game, asking wanda every day about her hundred dresses and having a laugh at her expense.  maddie knew that it was wrong and felt guilty but sadly didn't stop it.  maddie was also worried that peggy would make fun of her for being poor and having a different last name.   

one day, wanda doesn't show up at school and maddie begins to feel guilty.  also, there was a drawing contest at school and the winner's drawings would be posted in the class, all the kids were excited to see who won.  when they went to their classroom, they saw one hundred dresses all drawn by wanda.  peggy and maddie realized she did have one hundred dresses!  however, wanda was not there to see that she won.  their teacher than read a note from wanda's father explaining that they had moved to get away from the racial discrimination and prejudices they had experienced.

maddie and peggy realized what they had done wrong and wrote a letter to wanda letting her know she had won.  wanda than wrote back and said all the girls could keep her drawings.  she gave two special ones to maddie and peggy which they then realized were drawings of themselves! 

rereading "the hundred dresses" as an adult, i realized there were some things that went over my head as a kid.  for example, as a kid, i didn't realize how racist and classist the girls were when they picked on wanda.  this was something that i never noticed as a kid probably because a) i wasn't sure what it meant to be polish and b) as a kid you never really notice race or class (i for one didn't).

being a mutt (my maternal family is mixed), i was raised without a strong racial identity.  i look filipino but grew up eating mexican and singaporean food, and only speaking english.  as a result, i never have felt loyalty to a specific race or ethnicity nor did i ever feel i had to stick to my race.  and i do want to clarify that i do  have racial prejudices and make horrible racial comments and jokes but unlike the girls of "the hundred dresses", i never allowed race be a factor when choosing friends.

random digression there is a story that my mom used to share about me when i was a kid.  we were at a family party and a kid that was not related to us came up to my cousin nalin (who is part black) and told us that we couldn't be cousins because we weren't the same race.  according to my mom, i then told the kid that we were cousins and that in some way everyone in the whole world was related and it didn't matter.  i have always been accepting of other cultures, if i like you it doesn't matter your race.  in high school our clique was diverse, we used to say we were the real international friendship club (there was an actual one on campus).

now the issue of class is different.  i never considered our family rich but other kids thought we were because i had nikes and wore guess.  i actually had someone tell me that in 6th grade.  what this girl didnt realize is that my family wasn't rich, but my aunt and my grandparents helped my mom out.  if it was just our mom, i would not have sported those clothes.  and maybe it's because we never really went without that i never noticed a thing like class.  but i don't remember judging other kids based on wealth.  looking back if anything all of my friends' families had more money than mine, so i am glad they weren't prejudice against me.

due to this, the reasons for the girls' teasing wanda went over my elementary school head.  however, as an adult, i fully understood.  and without sounding like a product of 90's politicial correctness, i am not accusing the kids of maliciously being racist and classist but noting the racist and classist undertones of their teasing.  at the end of the day, kids are kids and when they tease it is due to the unknown versus actually founded class/racial prejudices.

though i did enjoy the book and believe that it is important for kids to read it, so they can realize how their teasing harms others.   especially with anti-bullying movement in schools right now, "the hundred dresses" should be require reading.  however, i did not love this book because of the ending.  it seemed to be too soft on maddie and peggy, i understand that they recognized the error of their ways and decided to right the wrong they had made but it broke my heart when they realized that wanda had drawn the dresses for them.  the reason it broke my heart was because even though peggy and maddie teased her, wanda still wanted to be their friend.  it is so sad how wanda just wanted to be liked by her bullies, which i realize is how it is in real life. it's a sad fact of life. furthermore, it also seems unfair that the victim has to be the bigger person and forgive their bully when the bully doesnt have that type of compassion (they wouldn't be a bully if they did).  as i write this, i have realized, the ending is realistic, it was the best solution for the situation.  if it ended with wanda getting revenge, she would then be the bully.  so i guess it is a great book!

the hundred dresses is also listed as part of flavorpill's 50 books every parent should read post.  and yes i am on a mission to read those too!

map of tulsa. benjamin lytal. (133)

"a map of tulsa" was a flavorpill recommend and proved that no website is perfect.  "a map of tulsa" is an example that i should not always read what flavorpill says i must. 

though i will add that flavorpill was quoting publisher weekly when they said:

Publisher’s Weekly recently dubbed this elegiac love letter — to Tulsa, to a girl, to the late-’90s art scene — as the coming-of-age novel to replace Catcher in the Rye for “recent generations of Internet-suckled American youth.” And it’s never too late to come of age again.

i of course read this book because of the "catcher" allusion.  and shame on publisher weekly for ever attempting to put this book in the same league let alone sentence as "catcher".  and i know i am not its target audience but my dislike of this book doesn't have to do with my age.  whereas i loved holden, i had no real connection with jim (which is proven by the fact that right now i had to google to find his name).  he is what we in the late-90s would have called a poser and a user.  he was this pseudo intellectual that would never truly be a poet because he lacked a very important characteristic of a poet, a heart.  lytal would write these poetic lines to demonstrate jim's gift of poetry but all it did was make both of them look pretentious and silly.  

"a map of tulsa" is the story of jim returning home to tulsa for summer break after his first year at college.  while back home, he fell in "love" with an artsy girl named adrienne (also had to google her name).  doesn't everyone fall in love with eccentric artsy girl?!?!? adrienne was a heiress to an oil empire, a high school drop-out turned artist/musician, so a 90s slacker (the predessor to the hipster cos i mean only rich kids can afford to slack

like that).  but what jim feels for adrienne really isn't love but more like lust and desperation to be associated with greatness.  she is a local legend and jim was in love with the idea of adrienne than adrienne.  lytal tells us that jim loves her but there is no real indication of that, just words one can read versus emotional one can feel.  i mean he bought her a gun as a token of his affection.  to be honest, jim pretty much just used her for her coolness and money. he had this whole plan to live with her and then one day up and leaves.  

jim returned to school and grows up in new york.  he and adrienne never communicated after all those years.  then out of nowhere adrienne has a bad motorcycle accident and jim flies home.  he hangs around the hospital with adrienne's family and friends but is more concerned with how others perceive his connection to adrienne other than adrienne's recovery.  jim has a lot of regret but with adrienne in a coma, nothing is resolved.  then *spoiler alert*

adrienne dies.  jim attempted to have  some deep life lesson but again he is a user and a poser so he has it though it doesn't seem genuine.

this book was bad there was no depth to his characters. it felt like lytal thought he was going to write this profoundly beautiful book but it seriously fell short.  it's almost like he wrote this to impress a girl, probably the adrienne, of his life but he definitively tried too hard and if i was that girl i would be insulted his love resulted in something so boring and shallow.