Ponder: Four Children's Books

Here it is the beginning of August and my tab in my Wander Or Ponder blog of Books Read in 2019 is only eight books long. At this rate I am far short of my 24 books a year goal. Before I feel too contrite, I can state that I have been reading books –  just not getting around to reviewing them in my blog. Book reviews seem less time critical than travel posts and I have been quite busy so far in 2019. Trips to South Carolina, Georgia, Florida (April posts) North Carolina (May Posts), and Oklahoma (July posts).  I will pad my page of 2019 reads by adding four children's books I found particularly good, especially since I got to read at least half of them to grandkids in Oklahoma (amongst other books in their copious collection). Then I will work on reviewing my backlog of adult books I have read.

Waving Girl by J.B. Nicholas ©2004 is based on the true story of Flora Martus who waved to all the ships that passed by the lighthouse near Savannah Georgia. Personally, I find it more difficult to get engaged in non-fiction than fiction so this was a beautiful book to tell a part of history accompanied by very soft beckoning illustrations throughout. I tell the story behind the book and the statue associated with Flora Martus in my 4/9/19 post about our time in Savannah. Autumn turns 7 in October and she was just the right age and gender for it. As children literature I give it three stars because of perhaps a limited audience. Not to be sexist, but research has shown that girls are perfectly happy to read books about boys but boys are not always so happy to read books about girls.

Superpower Dogs by Cosmic ©2019 was purchased at the Tech Museum in San Jose when we went to see the IMAX Movie of the same name on Mother's Day. I posted about the movie on 5/22/19. I took the book out to Oklahoma for Isaiah and Autumn who are very much into Superheroes. Robin reports back that Isaiah likes his dad to read this book to him often. It is a big hit. It is not very long but the photography is awesome and moreover it is a non-fiction book that holds the child's (and adults') interest. I give it five stars.

Extremely popular with Autumn and Isaiah was Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Mix & Match Hardcover by Harper Benjamin ©2015. Per the Amazon description:

Captain Phasma, Kylo Ren, Poe, Rey, and Finn are featured in this book that blends spectacular action with three-panel pages to create confounding combinations! Mix and match the heads, bodies, and legs more than 200 different ways to create crazy mash-ups between the Resistance and the First Order!

I started by explaining to them that this book could be read two ways. The first way is that the pages are turned three at a time – first Isaiah does the top third, then Autumn does the middle third, and finally Grandma does the bottom third. This method is great for practicing taking turns but it does get boring after the second read through. 

Then the fun begins. We each take a turn  flipping a page but can flip more than one in the top, middle, or bottom third. The kids found the resulting character combination and story positively hilarious. As the clueless reader (aka Grandma), I truly failed to see the humor because I did not know the characters. For those equally ignorant as me: Captain Phasma and Kylo Ren are the bad guys, members of the First Order who command the stormtroopers (army of the bad guys). On the side of the good guys are Poe, an X-wing fighter for the Resistance, Rey, a female metal scavenger with her own dilapidated ship, and Finn, a reformed stormtrooper. Apparently seeing an elite First Order Captain collecting trash is cause for uproarious laughter and giggling. This book, bought at the The Tech Museum in San Jose was certainly a dark horse for success with Autumn and Isaiah. I defer to their immense enjoyment and rate this book five stars.

When Robin and Dan were small, My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannet ©1948 was the first chapter book I read to them. This book is fantastic and I have always loved it. I enjoyed reading it to my eldest granddaughter Autumn during our most recent Oklahoma visit and I look forward to sharing it with other grandchildren as they get of chapter book age.

Autumn was truly engaged in following along on a map the path the hero Elmer takes on Wild Island and delighted in the creative solutions Elmer devises to deal with the dangerous animals that live there. Braiding a lion's untamable mane as shown on the front cover is just one example. Giving a rhinoceros a tooth brush to clean his yellowed tusk is another.

As Elmer eats and picks more tangerines, Autumn loved showing off her addition and subtraction skills. I tutor reading English at our public library and my adult Chinese learner was also entertained and eager to read on. My Father's Dragon is a real page turner at the most elementary level. It is a children's book but do not let that stop you from reading it! I give it five stars, most definitely!

I recall having old tattered copies of My Father's Dragon (and its two sequels) out on the shelves in our garage. For a while I believe the trilogy was out of print so I hung onto them dearly. They apparently made a comeback. The book I took to Oklahoma to read to Autumn was a library copy. I could not understand the temporary scarcity since it is both a Newbery Honor Book and an American Library Association Notable Book; but I learned from Wikipedia that its copyright was not renewed and now it is a part of public domain.  In the United States Public domain is explained per Wikipedia as

... every book and tale published prior to 1924 is in the public domain; American copyrights last for 95 years for books written between 1924 and 1978.

I wonder what happened after 1978? Per the

 

U.S. Copyright Office

As a general rule, for works created after January 1, 1978, copyright protection lasts for the life of the author plus an additional 70 years.

I was still confused as to being in teh public public domain entails. Amazon still sells these books and someone must be reaping the profit. Per the Stanford University Libraries article on copyright and fair use

The term “public domain” refers to creative materials that are not protected by intellectual property laws such as copyright, trademark, or patent laws. The public owns these works, not an individual author or artist. Anyone can use a public domain work without obtaining permission, but no one can ever own it.

So I learned about copyright from my frivolous ponder post on children's books. The implications of being in "public domain" still confuse me somewhat, however. Sigh. It does not really matter since My Father's Dragon is still accessible. Of the four books reviewed in this post, Waving Girl, Superpower Dogs, Star Wars Mix and Max, and My Father's Dragon, My Father's Dragon is still my absolute favorite and not to be missed.