BLL Book Reviews - June 2017
Brewster Ladies Library, 1822 Main Street, Brewster, MA 02631
In this issue… Teacup (Picture Book for 4-8 year-olds) by Rebecca Young and Illustrated by Matt Ottley (Nori Morganstein) We Do Our Part: Toward a Fairer and More Equal America by Charles Peters (Susan Carr) A World in Disarray: American Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Old Order by Richard Haass (Doug Wilcock) Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (Jim Mills) We Meant Well; How I Helped Lose The Battle For The Hearts and Minds Of The Iraqi People by Peter Van Boren (Don Boink) Democracy: A Case Study by David A. Moss (Doug Wilcock) The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finked (Jim Mills) Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: The Mavericks Who Plotted Hitler's Defeat by Giles Milton (Don Boink) Telegraph Days by Larry McMurtry (Don Boink) The Heir Apparent: A Life of Edward VII, The Playboy Prince by Jane Ridley (Jim Mills) The Fleet at Flood Tide: America at Total War in the Pacific, 1944 – 1945 by James D Hornfischer (Don Boink) But What If We Are Wrong: Thinking About The Present As If It Were The Past by Chuck Klosterman (Don Boink)
Teacup (Dial Books, 2016) (Picture Book for 4-8 year-olds) by Rebecca Young and Illustrated by Matt Ottley reviewed by: Nori Morganstein, Youth Services Librarian/Assistant Director
Teacup is a surreal story for readers who like tales of adventure. It’s the story of a boy who takes off on a boat in search of a new home. He travels across the ocean looking for a speck on the horizon. All he takes with him is a small bag and a teacup with some earth in it from where he used to play. He has good days out on the ocean and bad. He passes dolphins, giant waves, darkness, whales, and storm clouds. At one point, the earth in his teacup begins to grow. After a little time, a whole tree grows out of his boat. The book ends with him on an island, his new home, where he is eventually joined by a girl with a tree in her boat, and a broken eggcup. This is the kind of book that will have children wondering what is real. Is the boy dreaming or is he really in the ocean? The book never really answers that question. It’s up to the reader to decide. It’s a great book to broach the concept of fiction versus nonfiction. Is it possible for trees to grow in a canoe? What would the boy really need to survive so long on the ocean? For slightly older readers, the book can also work as a great way to start discussing metaphor and symbolism. What might the tree represent? Why does the girl have a broken cup too? On the surface, this is a book of an adventure or journey and any child can appreciate that. But, it also works as a good book to start talking about things beneath the surface. The best part of the book is the illustrations. This is a beautiful book. The ocean looks real. The artist clearly spent a lot of time on the ocean. And the opening pages (and front cover) look like Breakwater Beach in Brewster at low tide. This is a book for beach goers, and ocean lovers, and I can see a lot of children here relating to the pictures they see. Some illustrations look like photographs. And others look more surreal. There’s one page where the water is so clear, it looks like the clouds in the sky are also in the water (and not just reflected there), and it looks like whales are swimming in the clouds. This book can work for a wide range of ages. Adults would appreciate the artwork. Children would love the adventure story. And older kids would love a deeper discussion brought on by the dream-like atmosphere. This would make it perfect for a bedtime story read to more than one child. I also highly recommend it to ocean lovers and dreamers.