Alright… so, picking up from where we left off…
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Mr. Men & Little Miss Series
Images Courtesy Viz Media
Written by: John Hardman, Michael Daedalus Kenny, Illustrated by: Matthew Britton, Victoria Maderna, Bryan Beach
Viz Media, 2012
ISBN(s): 978-1-42154-072-6, 978-1-42154-071-9, 978-1-42154-074-0 (PB)
$6.99, Ages 6+
Overview
The funny Mr. Men and Little Miss have been around since the early 80s, teaching gentle stories about proper manners and behaviors to kids off all stripes. In the New Millennium, they made the transition from print to television, starring in a wildly popular television series based off of the original works. Now, The characters are getting their own books, broken up into chapters, detailing a day in the life of a specific character.
Synopsis
If you’ve ever watched the television show, this will be pretty familiar, as the books follow the same sort of template for the most part. However, each book is geared towards a specific member of Dillydale. Other characters abound throughout the book, so everyone gets a pretty fair shake at on page time. Little Miss Sunshine spends the day leading the inhabitants of Dillydale on a singing tour of the town after finding a bus on her front lawn, riding horses with her friends, and judging the “Dillydale’s Got Talent!” show with Mr. Fussy and Mr. Rude. Little Miss Daredevil finds herself competing in “The Incredible Race” that leads her and the other contestants across Dillydale, into outerspace, and across time itself, and Mr. Bump spends an accident prone day trying to escape from the different channels in his television after a strange turn of events that suck him into his appliance.
Final Thoughts
Mr. Men and Little Miss has never really been a series to cause contention (with perhaps the exception of Mr. Rude, who, as his name implies, is rather rude), and the message that the characters pass along is one that we’re all different, and that’s quite alright. In all honestly, aside from the occasional fart joke (courtesy of Mr. Rude), Mr. Bump’s semi-constant refrain of “poopity-poop”, and Mr. Messy’s mentioning of something called “sock cheese” these books would probably right at home on Emily Post’s bookshelves. As the characters are all based off of geometric shapes, even pre-readers will enjoy looking at the images, and the Mr. Men / Little Miss books are a good starting point for emergent readers to start out with. I have a feeling that this will be popular with K-1 groups especially, but the paperback might not survive long if you have an exuberant reader. Mr. Bump and Little Miss Sunshine’s books are already out, and Little Miss Daredevil is due out in October.
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Mameshiba: We Could Be Heroes!
Image Courtesy Viz Media
Written by: James Turner, Lark Pien, Illustrated by: Jorge Monlongo, Lark Pien
Viz Media, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-42154-128-0 (PB)
$6.99, Ages 7+
Overview
Mameshiba (literally “Bean Dog”) are cute little bean dog creatures who have adventures that can get pretty wild at times. Each Mameshiba is named for the bean that it is (Edamame, Chili, Cocoa, Red, etc.), and the adventures they experience have to be seen to be believed!
Synopsis
A collection of short stories, interspersed with little “one shots” let us experience the wild times the Mameshibas have – from helping Chili Bean win the confidence to profess his love, to Cocoa doing a bang up imitation of Godzilla, to traveling to a mystical world under Red Bean’s bed – this is some crazy stuff. If you take a dash of Adventure Time, mix in some Regular Show, give it it’s own zany spin, and then add the cutest little legu-nines this side of Japan, and you’ll still not appreciate Mameshiba. The artwork gets a little busy at times, but is still clean and understandable, while the stories are interspersed with little trivia bits (for example, Boiled Bean explains that farmers will sometimes feed small magnets to their cows to prevent ingested metals from injuring the cow.)
Final Thoughts
Out of all the books I read this week, this was the one I kept coming back to. My youngest absolutely loves this book (he’s four), and he wants me to read it to him over and over again. Mameshiba may have you scratching your head at first glance, but a page or two in, you’re totally hooked. While the sheer volume of the stories may be intimidating to some readers, they move quickly, and the “shorts” in between stories help resituate readers quickly and painlessly. This is another great book for emergent readers, but I’m thinking more along the lines of 1 – 3 grade. Regardless, this is promising to be a fun series. Mameshiba is out now.
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