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New-to-me books that I finished in April. (There are two or three, not counting a reread I may abandon, that I'm in the middle of.)
Neil Gaiman, The Dangerous Alphabet, illustrated by Cris Grimly. By chance, I noticed this while tidying, the day after![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ashnistrikes mentioned it in a post. Couplets, loosely about piracy and adventure, with odd drawings, including large numbers of what are either one-eyed creatures or people wearing very odd diving helmets. Also a dog that reminded me of Jeff MacNelly's cartoons. Ashni noted that it wouldn't work well as a first alphabet; she didn't mention that part of this is because C is for one of its homonyms, not any word beginning in C; L ditto, in Cockney; and I and Z are meta. An amusing bit of fluff; worth looking at, probably not worth seeking out unless you're a fan of Gaiman, Grimly, or both.
Lloyd Alexander, The Beggar Queen. Third of a trilogy, reading for upcoming discussion inmrissa's journal. Here I'll just note that many of the same characters continue, in ways that seem consistent with who they are, and that Alexander doesn't pull any punches. Also, Carabbas's motivations seemed more real, and hence plausible, than in Westmark.
Jean Merrill, The Toothpaste Millionaire. Light, cheerful YA, which I asked the library for after someone mentioned it on their journal, entirely on the strength of "by the author of The Pushcart War. This is a faster read (I think it took me from Columbus Circle to 181st Street, on the express train). Inventions and kids getting along with each other and pushing to get some adults to take them seriously, while others do so immediately. The title character is, in fact, a 12-year-old who got rich by selling toothpaste cheap, mostly because he got interested in what goes into toothpaste and why it costs so much. [The book is old enough ago that "so much" is 79 cents for a 3.5-ounce tube.] Large parts of the book take place in a seventh grade math class, where Rufus passes Kate a note, the teacher sees them and demands that she give it to him, and she says "it's not exactly a note…it's a kind of math problem" and the teacher is surprised to find that it is. So he sets the class to working on it, and Rufus is the only one who gets the right answer (because, of course, he wrote the note).
The book has an anti-racist and feminist message, of the "don't choose your friends by their skin color or gender" sort, unremarkable now but not when Merrill wrote this for Bank Street College around 1970: the narrator talks, early, about the first friend she makes in her new town not caring that she's white, and even more important, not minding that she's a girl, unlike her obnoxious younger brother. There's a character in the book who worries that he might not get a job because he's black, and she tells him not to worry, so's the guy who would be making the decision. There's also the same anti-monopoly attitude as in The Pushcart War.
Elise Broach, When Everything Came with Dinosaurs, illustrated by David Small. Another children's story, this one found in the building laundry room. Whencattitude brought this upstairs, I spent a minute or two speculating about whether it meant "buy a chocolate bar, get a free dinosaur" or "when you buy a dinosaur, it comes with one of everything." The story starts with a small boy grumpy because on Friday his mother does "boring errands" and he has to go with her. Then they stop at the bakery and get a dozen donuts…and their first free dinosaur.
Neil Gaiman, The Dangerous Alphabet, illustrated by Cris Grimly. By chance, I noticed this while tidying, the day after
ashnistrikes mentioned it in a post. Couplets, loosely about piracy and adventure, with odd drawings, including large numbers of what are either one-eyed creatures or people wearing very odd diving helmets. Also a dog that reminded me of Jeff MacNelly's cartoons. Ashni noted that it wouldn't work well as a first alphabet; she didn't mention that part of this is because C is for one of its homonyms, not any word beginning in C; L ditto, in Cockney; and I and Z are meta. An amusing bit of fluff; worth looking at, probably not worth seeking out unless you're a fan of Gaiman, Grimly, or both.Lloyd Alexander, The Beggar Queen. Third of a trilogy, reading for upcoming discussion in
mrissa's journal. Here I'll just note that many of the same characters continue, in ways that seem consistent with who they are, and that Alexander doesn't pull any punches. Also, Carabbas's motivations seemed more real, and hence plausible, than in Westmark.Jean Merrill, The Toothpaste Millionaire. Light, cheerful YA, which I asked the library for after someone mentioned it on their journal, entirely on the strength of "by the author of The Pushcart War. This is a faster read (I think it took me from Columbus Circle to 181st Street, on the express train). Inventions and kids getting along with each other and pushing to get some adults to take them seriously, while others do so immediately. The title character is, in fact, a 12-year-old who got rich by selling toothpaste cheap, mostly because he got interested in what goes into toothpaste and why it costs so much. [The book is old enough ago that "so much" is 79 cents for a 3.5-ounce tube.] Large parts of the book take place in a seventh grade math class, where Rufus passes Kate a note, the teacher sees them and demands that she give it to him, and she says "it's not exactly a note…it's a kind of math problem" and the teacher is surprised to find that it is. So he sets the class to working on it, and Rufus is the only one who gets the right answer (because, of course, he wrote the note).
The book has an anti-racist and feminist message, of the "don't choose your friends by their skin color or gender" sort, unremarkable now but not when Merrill wrote this for Bank Street College around 1970: the narrator talks, early, about the first friend she makes in her new town not caring that she's white, and even more important, not minding that she's a girl, unlike her obnoxious younger brother. There's a character in the book who worries that he might not get a job because he's black, and she tells him not to worry, so's the guy who would be making the decision. There's also the same anti-monopoly attitude as in The Pushcart War.
Elise Broach, When Everything Came with Dinosaurs, illustrated by David Small. Another children's story, this one found in the building laundry room. When
cattitude brought this upstairs, I spent a minute or two speculating about whether it meant "buy a chocolate bar, get a free dinosaur" or "when you buy a dinosaur, it comes with one of everything." The story starts with a small boy grumpy because on Friday his mother does "boring errands" and he has to go with her. Then they stop at the bakery and get a dozen donuts…and their first free dinosaur.Tags: