[Hot for Cybils] Of Cakes and Happiness – LeUyen Pham and Amy Schwartz

Myra here.

Part of our current reading theme this January-February gives love to CYBILS. I am privileged to once again be part of the Second Round Judges for the Fiction Picture Book Category along with several other amazing kidlit enthusiasts.

Second Round Judges for Fiction Picture Books 2014

Julie Larios
Books Around the Table

Dawn Mooney
5 Minutes for Books
@mteblogmama

Jennifer Reed
Reederama
@libraryreeder

Julie Rowan-Zoch
Julie Rowan-Zoch
@JulieRowanZoch

Currently, I am going through the books that have been nominated but didn’t make it to the Top Seven for Second Round Judging. Here are two that I feel would resonate with a lot of children.

100 Things That Make Me Happy

Written and Illustrated by: Amy Schwartz
Published by: Abrams Appleseed 2015
Borrowed from the Jurong West Public Library. Book photos taken by me.

I have to admit, this book made me immensely happy. While I don’t normally go for rhyming text, this one had a simplicity to it that reminded me of the beauty in the ordinary, the magical in the mundane.

And there is also a quiet exuberance to the illustrations that go beyond mere cuteness, but one that exudes joy and radiance and all things joyful.

There is loving detail in the artwork that breathed life to the sparse text, making it more than it is. At the end of this beautiful yet quick read, teachers and students, parents and children, would definitely be inspired to create their own hundred things that make them happy. And we could do a bit of that to feed our soul each day.

A Piece of Cake

Written and Illustrated by: LeUyen Pham
Published by: Balzer + Bray: An Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers, 2014
Borrowed from the Jurong West Public Library. Book photos taken by me.

If I were to sum up this picturebook in one word, it would be: clever. When I flipped through the pages and noted that it was text-heavy, I immediately wondered if it would be interesting enough to catch a young child’s attention.

Mouse prepared a tasty cake as a present to Little Bird for her birthday. On his way, however, he sees friends who asked for a slice of cake in exchange for the most unlikely things: a cork from Chicken, a wire from Squirrel, a net from Bear, and a fly swatter from Cow. By the time Mouse arrived at Little Bird’s home, there was no more cake left!

This is another clear example of a picturebook being more than it seems (similar to Schwartz’ picturebook above). A young astute child would have fun predicting and inferring from the first few examples what the animals would trade in exchange for the piece of cake.

I enjoyed how LeUyen Pham eschewed the obvious and hid little parts here and there in the narrative that came together quite beautifully in the end. And it is a very quick read, despite it appearing text-heavy in the beginning. Again, a case of being more than it seems. Whether or not Little Bird gets her piece of cake, I shall leave for you to discover.