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Book Review: Lemons

July 17, 2018 By Bradley Weber

cover for lemons

The cover for Melissa Savage’s latest book, Lemons.

 

LEMONS

By Melissa Savage

Yearling, 2017

Age Range:  8 – 12 years

Grades:  3rd through 8th Grade

Readership:  All genders

***Recommended

In Lemons, author Melissa Savage blends the comedy of the fish-out-of-water story and the zaniness of Bigfoot investigation with the real emotions of characters struggling with their individual losses.

It’s 1974. The Vietnam War is over; Nixon’s quit the White House; and Lemonade Liberty Witt is being sent to live with her only surviving relative: her dead mom’s estranged father.

While Lem banks on her 5th grade teacher requesting custody of Lem so she can stay in San Francisco, Lem must deal with all the rage and sadness of losing her mother, losing her place in the world, being under the care of someone she didn’t even know existed, and of being sent to a backwoods town that happens to be the Bigfoot Capital of the World.

It’s this last item which helps Lem; her grandfather, Charlie; and Tobin, the cryptid-obsessed neighbor boy who’s father didn’t quite make it home from the war. Though Lem joins Tobin on his Bigfoot hunt because she has nothing better to do, the investigation allows them all to redirect their angers and griefs long enough to begin healing.

Ms. Savage’s prose is crisp and well-paced. For a book full of people dealing with personal loss,  Ms. Savage gives everyone’s emotions their due without overwhelming the characters, the story, or the reader. The characters consciously chose restraint in situations that—on TV, in movies, or in lesser works—would be amped-up for effect. With any luck, young readers will pick up on this and see it as a better way to handle overwhelming emotions.

Ms. Savage’s second book, The Truth About Martians hits shelves in early October.

For your copy of Lemons, and to pre-order The Truth About Martians, visit Anderson’s Bookshop or your local independently owned bookstore.

For more information about Melissa Savage, visit her website at https://melissadsavage.com/.

 

TTAM_Cover
Cover for Melissa Savage’s forthcoming book, The Truth About Martians.

Filed Under: Book Reviews, Kid's Stuff Tagged With: book reviews, Lemons, Melissa Savage

Steadman’s Children’s Book Art

December 2, 2010 By Bradley Weber

Both of these books are long overdue. Not from publishers, from the library. They were checked out three weeks ago, read within days and have been sitting on my desk since then. So instead of being paid to review these, I’m now paying twenty-five cents a day per book. It’s tough that gold, not irony, is coin of the realm otherwise I’d be able to afford that flying pony Kidzilla wants for xmas.

There is no reason to spend much time on the texts. The Big Red Squirrel and the Little Rhinoceros was written by a Swiss publisher and is, despite its hyperbolic jacket text, pure crap. The Mildenhall Treasure is some decent reporting by Roald Dahl about a plowman’s January 1942 discovery of ‘the greatest treasure ever found on the British Isles.” The dwelling point here is Steadman’s styles in children’s book illustration separated by 35 years of craft and the effects of his being the birthing partner of Gonzo Journalism.

Published in 1999, The Mildenhall Treasure’s two–dozen illustrations are typical of Steadman’s well known style: thoughtful composition balanced with loose, seemingly frenetic, brushwork. His art here is a meatier, amped-up and menacing version of the skewed whimsy Quentin Blake did for most of Dahl’s other children’s books. For this story, Steadman’s style, not Blake’s, is the better fit.  Steadman’s merciless portrayal of people reveales their deeper natures; his environmental palate is dark, muddy, and cold –– nicely mirroring the actual dirt of a winter farm and the moral grime of that greedy bastard, Sydney Ford.

The one thing Steadman’s style fails to showcase is the treasure’s true value — the fine craftsmanship of each of the recovered pieces. Images of the treasure seem to be cut outs from a museum catalog or enlarged photocopies gouached over to less-than-stellar effect. Random House targeted this book for kids. Younger readers will likely have a hard time figuring out what Steadman’s pictures of the treasure are supposed to depict.

Why Steadman didn’t use actual photos or execute clear and representative drawings, I don’t know. There is likely some bullshit copyright/intellectual property reason the British Museum wouldn’t clear images of the treasure for this book. Too bad. Those photos with Steadman’s paintings and Dahl’s text would have been a powerful combination.

The same cannot be said for The Big Red Squirrel. Steadman’s art is the only rationale this boring, hollow, let’s-all-get-along tale is back in print after 45 years.

This not so much a picture book –– where the words and images work together to create greater meaning –– as an illustrated story. The text spells everything out, leaving the artist to decorate the white space around the words. Ralph seems to have done the best he could with what he’d been given, managing to deliver better art than the story deserved.

Gouaches and inks were Ralph’s mediums for this book, too. And while there is a certain looseness, the paintings are still well-mannered. Few people familiar with his Gonzo and post-Gonzo styles would be able to pick these out of a line-up of his work.  The crocodile and frog are the most memorable and many of the background animals are fun and eye-catching. The rest of the animals and many of the environments are muddy, uninspired and forgettable. Combine that with the puerile narrative and The Big Red Squirrel becomes less a curiosity than a boring artifact.

Filed Under: Art, Book Reviews, Fear & Loathing, JMS Labs, Kid's Stuff Tagged With: children's books, Gonzo art, Mildenhall Treasure, Ralph Steadman, Roald Dahl, Steadman

Father’s Day Activity Sheet

June 18, 2010 By Bradley Weber

ilh_fathersday_2010.jpg

click to download (638kb)

In just under the wire! Print, color and have a Happy Father’s Day. I know I will. Peace.

(special thanks to Bruce Lee , a.k.a., Loston Wallace, over at the PencilJack forum for the Kirby Krackle tutorial. YOU GO NOW. DO IT.)

Filed Under: Art, Coloring Books, JMS Labs, Kid's Menus, Kid's Stuff

Mother’s Day activity sheet

May 13, 2010 By Bradley Weber

mothersday2010.jpg
(click here to download .PDF, 868kb)

Here’s the Mother’s Day activity sheet for the Hilton Chicago/Indian Lakes in beautiful Bloomingdale, IL. It was a big hit with the kids, and the grown-ups, too — so much so that they ran out of copies to hand out. Note to self: bigger print run for next year.

The hotel’s nicer restaurant, Shiraz On The Water, will be doing a big menu change in a couple of weeks, for which they will be getting all new kids’ menus, too. More on that when it happens.

The hotel also has a Father’s Day brunch coming up on whatever Sunday Father’s day is. And guess who’s doing the activity sheet for that?

I’ll try to have it up before the holiday this time, so the kids at home can print it and color it for their own dads.

Filed Under: Art, JMS Labs, Kid's Menus, Kid's Stuff, Work For Hire

World’s Greatest Kids’ Menus

April 21, 2010 By Bradley Weber

kidsmenuicon.jpg

Click here to download (1.2MB PDF)

All right!

It took some finagling, but this is worth it. Download the .pdf, print it up and take this super-awesome kids’ menu and activity sheet to your next boring meeting. It’s got something for everybody, including a maze, word find, and lots of tasty food. The menu is designed for 11″ x 17″ paper, though it’ll fit on 8.5″ x 11″.

I’ll be starting the Mother’s Day edition early next week and the one for Shiraz On The Water once we get the new menu confirmed.

Have fun!

Filed Under: Art, Coloring Books, JMS Labs, Kid's Menus, Kid's Stuff, Work For Hire

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