Volunteer State Book Award

1
Volunteer State BookAward

• 2004-2005 Nominations
• Grades K-3

Child Reading. Punchstock.com
2
Noted Mexican potter Juan Quezada is the subject
of an inventive and engrossing biography from
newcomer Andrews-Goebel (who coproduced a
documentary on Quezada) and Caldecott winner
Diaz. On the left side of each spread, a "House
That Jack Built"-style rhyme accumulates the
often humble factors that shaped an extraordinary
artist ("These are the cows all white and brown/
That left manure all over the ground/ That fueled
the flames so sizzling hot/ That flickered and
flared and fired the pot/ The beautiful pot that
Juan built"). This lilting rhyme describes the
rudiments of Quezada's process, but for more
ambitious readers, the opposite page
(unfortunately, in very small type) provides a
straightforward elaboration ("Juan's pottery is
fired the traditional way, using dried cow manure
for fuels.... Manure from cows that eat grass,
rather than commercial feed, burns at the best
temperature to turn his clay pots into perfectly
fired works of art").
3
Velma Jean is the boldest of all her brothers and
sisters, unafraid of breaking colts, of meeting
strangers, even of the fierce bull, Alfred. By
comparison, her admiring sister Ruby Jane feels
quite ordinary. "Somehow, bein' the best kitchen
helper wasn't near as exciting as bein' the
bravest." But Velma Jean harbors a secret, which
is revealed when a tornado brews, and the family
must seek shelter in the root cellar. Velma Jean
is afraid to be cooped up underground, and it is
Ruby Jane who has the courage to go after her
sister and urge her to safety.
4
Tending the farm while his mother is away, the
boy narrator hears the dairy cow sneeze,
"Ka-Chooo!... I'd never helped a sickly cow," he
says, adding, in what becomes the book's refrain,
"But I knew what my mom would do/ if it were me
who had the flu." He puts the guernsey to bed but
soon finds he has an epidemic on his hands. The
next day, as he notes a donkey gorging on
chocolate donuts and a pig listening to a
Walkman, it dawns on the boy that there is a
corollary to the example set by his mother
coddling has its limits. The boy restores order,
but finds that he, too, has come down with the
flu. On the last page, the animals kindly
minister to him.
5
Jennifer's halmoni (grandmother) arrives from
South Korea the day before Grandparents' Day at
school. She speaks no English and wears
traditional Korean garb, and Jennifer wonders
what her classmates will think of her. The softly
colored illustrations in oils show a woman so
attractive in her silk gown, so quietly confident
with her Americanized family, that readers are
prepared for the outcome Halmoni is welcomed and
accepted. When each of the grandparents is given
a special award, she receives one for "the
grandparent who traveled the farthest to get here
today." And when she tells the children a story
from her own childhood (which her daughter
translates), Jennifer glows with obvious pride
and love. The illustrations lift this pleasantly
predictable story to a more universal level.
Though Halmoni is Korean, the message that all
grandparents, regardless of their cultural
origins, feel much the same about their
grandchildren is clear.
6
Picked on, pecked, and jostled, Daisy the hen is
not quite as happy as her Happy Hens market
basket might suggest. One evening, fed up with
the other pushy hens, Daisy crawls into one of
the baskets by the river, and falls asleep.
Unaware of the rising river, this put-upon bird
winds up floating downstream, past marauding
monkeys, snorting water buffalo, and a greedy
fisherman. Will Daisy ever make her way back to
the home of the little girl Mei Mei and the six
happiest hens in all of China?
7

Seventy-six children, one school bus in for
repairs, one small replacement, and one inventive
driver the numbers add up to a mathematical
dilemma waiting for a solution. Enter Mr.
Mathers, a driver of amazing confidence and skill
who assures students and teachers that all will
arrive home in time for supper.
8
With great affection and an appealing nostalgia,
Hurst (Through the Lock, reviewed below) recounts
the story of her father, an avid rock collector
from the time he was a boy. When people commented
that "he had rocks in his pockets and rocks in
his head," he would answer with an agreeable
"Maybe I have," then reach into his pocket and
eagerly add, "Take a look at this one." This
response, conveying both the hero's humility and
passion, becomes a recurring refrain. Stevenson
conveys the fellow's easygoing manner with
elegant pen-and-ink wash illustrations. Together,
author and artist chart the boy's growth into
manhood and touch on the world events that shape
him. As a young man, he opens a filling station,
where he displays his labeled rocks and minerals
and learns how to repair the then-new Model T.
After the Depression shuts down his business, he
moves his cherished collection into the attic of
his home, finding odd jobs wherever he can.
9
Everything's quietly copacetic at Sleepy Valley
Sloth School "Once in a while the teacher would
remember his job and wake up with a lesson. 'All
right, now,' he would drawl, 'everybody yawn.' Or
'Keep those snores coming.' Or 'All together,
students, let's roll over.'" But one day an
energetic young sloth (they do, apparently,
exist) starts mixing things up, much to the
annoyance of her classmates. But her "vim and
vigor and vitality" seem to have shown up not a
minute too soon, because she's got to find a way
for Sleepy Valley to pass the ratings board test
of the Society for Organizing Sameness (the
S.O.S., represented in this case by a wild boar
in a bow tie).
10
In this giddy, cumulative tale, a hiccuping girl
turns to each member of her family for a cure.
Her brother shouts, "Boo!," and her sister
recommends drinking water "from the wrong side of
a cup." Nothing works. "So there I was, scared to
death, in a wet shirt, wearing a paper bag...,"
says the disappointed narrator, interrupted by a
sudden "Hic!" Such a silly condition calls for an
equally outlandish antidote, a tongue-twister
provided by the girl's grandmother "Hiccup
snickup/ Rear right straight up./ Three drops in
the teacup/ Will cure the hiccups." Grandma, an
unconventional sort in a backward baseball cap,
mimes the nonsense words (sticking her "rear
right straight up" in a hilarious way), and then
the whole family performs the rhyme, three times
fast. Long (When Papa Snores) keeps the
first-person narration short and snappy, and
voice-bubble dialogue maintains the boisterous
pace.
11
What should have been a perfect summer for one
young boy is ruined when Jeremy Ross moves in and
becomes number one on the narrator's enemy list.
Fortunately, his father has a secret recipe for a
pie that is guaranteed to help get rid of
enemies. While Dad works on mixing the
ingredients and baking the pie, he explains his
son's role in the plan "-you need to spend a day
with your enemy. Even worse, you have to be nice
to him." It sounds tough, but the boy decides to
give it a try. Predictably, between throwing
water balloons at the girls, playing basketball,
and hiding out in the tree house, he decides that
Jeremy is not so bad after all. There's still the
problem of the pie, however. When his father
serves up the dessert, the young protagonist
decides to warn Jeremy that it is "poisonous or
something." However, it seems that both his
father and his new friend are just fine, and
what's more, the pie is delicious.
12
Little Chucky Ducky was just drying off from a
swim when he "heard the ground grumble. He felt
the ground rumble. And then, with a stumble,
Chucky Ducky went down in a tumble!" With that,
Chucky Ducky takes off "'Why, it's a quake!' he
quacked. 'I have to warn my friends!'" So then
Lucy Goosey, Brewster Rooster, Vickie, Nickie,
and Rickie Chickie, et al., receive frantic and
noisy warning. Eventually, a "wormy weasel"--a
"sneaky," "very hungry," and "lying, conniving,
wily" weasel--steps in to take advantage,
cleverly disguised as Herman Ermine. Will the
fowl and their farmyard friends find the true
source of the seismic surprise before they end up
as "one big banquet buffet"?
13
Plourde's (Wild Child) zany portrait delivers a
puckish message about nonconformity along with a
classroomful of giggles. Josephina Caroleena
Wattasheena the First is the only kid in class
who isn't dressed for picture day she's too busy
with her toolbox, "fidgeting, fiddling, fuddling,
and foopling." Her research leaves her
classmates' best clothes spattered with sawdust
and oil. The photographer lines the class up and
tries to take their picture ("Birdie wants a
cheesy cheesy") only to be confronted with more
"fidgeting, fiddling, fuddling, and foopling."
But when his camera doesn't work, who should fix
it but Josephina?
14
Snow in February yields to sap buckets in March
raccoons feast on corn under the August moon
while squirrels gather acorns on September
nights. The poems vary in rhythm and mood, and
are often arresting in their simplicity "Lilies
of the valley/ ring each silent bell/ when May's
bright moon/ lightens up the dell" in July,
"Young bucks/ in the hayfield,/ antlers held
aloft./ Moonbeams slanting down,/ show them
velvet soft." Traditional Native American names
for the moon serve as the poems' titles (January
is the "The Wolf Moon") and a simple explanation
follows "Native Americans believed that wolves
became restless in January."
15
"Queen Coleen" (as Salley sometimes goes in her
native New Orleans) tells her story in slow,
old-South cadence, repeating a cycle where
Epossumondas visits his auntie "most every day"
and receives something to take home to his
mama's. His gifts, however, never seem to arrive
intact After Epossumondas arrives home with a
piece of cake that's been squinched into a
fistful of crumbs, his mama scolds, "Oh,
Epossumondas, you don't have the sense you were
born with! That's no way to carry cake! The way
to carry cake is to put the cake on your head,
put a hat on your head, and come along home." But
the next day, Auntie gives him butter, which then
gets carried home cake-style (on his head).
16

Oh, that Mistah Bear! When he learns Callie Ann's
widowed mamma is looking for a new husband, he
gets dressed up in disguise and passes himself
off as gentlefolk. Soon she's feeding him all her
sweets, but savvy Callie Ann quickly uncovers the
truth. Now Mistah Bear is fighting mad and
enlists his sisters' help to get revenge on
Callie Ann.
17
When Duck gets the zany idea to ride a bike one
day, each animal on the farm has a reaction.
"M-o-o-o," says Cow. But what she's really
thinking is, "A duck on a bike? That's the
silliest thing I've ever seen!" Pig and Pig say
"Oink," thinking all the while, "Duck is such a
show-off!" But it's not until a crew of kids
shows up and leaves their bikes lying about that
the true feelings of all the animals come to
light, and for one brief, glorious moment, the
farm is a mad, mad world of two-wheeling road
hogs (and chickens and horses and goats).
18
This fun twist on a familiar song envisions Old
MacDonald as a capable, bespectacled sheep, who's
busy building something "in her shop." One by one
her animal friends and neighbors drop by and take
up various tools a hammer ("with a tap tap here/
and a tap tap there"), a file ("with a scritch
scratch here/ and a scritch scratch there") and
so on and join in on the project. Soon, the whole
barnyard is busily employed until the very end
when Old MacDonald unveils a scale replica
masterpiece of their very own home ("and in her
shop she had a farm!").
19
A clever book for a clever dog, Dear Mrs. LaRue
collects a series of guilt-inducing letters sent
home by the cat-chasing, chicken-pie-eating Ike
to his "cruel" owner Mrs. LaRue, whom he hopes
will come to her senses and spring him from
obedience school. Desperate to come home, Ike
shows great enthusiasm for stretching the truth
about his treatment at Brotweiler Canine Academy.
Illustrator and author Mark
20

Most dairy cows are content to stand and graze
and chew. But not Moo. She forsakes her life of
"waving wheat" for ocean waves. The feline crew
of a fishing boat agrees to take Moo on board if
she will pay her way in fresh milk. It's a deal
"Once aboard, she befriends her sea cousins, the
manatees, which turns out to be fortuitous--when
she's thrown overboard in a "sudden, savage
gale," they come to her rescue. But, what's this?
The goggle-sporting sea cows take her to a crusty
cattle barge of pirates led by Red Angus! Looting
steers? Cow buccaneers?
21

On a cold windy night, an itty-bitty mouse
"pitter-pat, tip-toe, creep-crawls" into a
sleeping bear's cozy lair, looking for relief
from the bitter winter weather. Soon he is joined
by a veritable menagerie of woodland animals, and
the party begins. Popping corn, brewing tea,
tweeting, and chatting, the critters enjoy
themselves thoroughly while the bear slumbers
through it all. Until, that is, an errant pepper
flake from the simmering stew wakes him up with a
giant sneeze. As the bear goes from ferocious
snarls and rumbles to pitiful whimpers, his
uninvited guests realize what the problem is.
22

• Material from Amazon.com at www.amazon.com
• For educational use only.