I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: NADA SURF-“Meow Meow Lullaby” (2004).

On the For the Kids Too! compilation, Nada Surf have a wonderful song called “Meow Meow Lullaby.”  It’s got a beautiful melody and is a really adorable song.  Lyrically it is very simple: “I am just a kitten, hardly fit my mittens, much too small I figure, one day I’ll be bigger.”  And the chorus is predominantly the band singing the word “Meow.”

It’s a wonderful lullaby and we have put it on many of the mix CDs we play for the kids.

Not many bands can successfully transition to kids’ music (a trend that as a dad I am down with, even if it can be annoying).  It’s clear that Nada Surf aren’t doing that–this is a one-off for a good cause.  But this song is a winner.

[READ: October 27, 2011] Babymouse: Puppy Love

This is my sixth Babymouse adventure.  It was quite different from the other ones which I’ve read (which is good).  Rather than focusing on school or Babymouse’s friends, this one focuses exclusively on Babymouse’s pets.

Babymouse is a terrible pet owner.  As the story opens we see that she has lost yet another goldfish.  (We see the previous fish in order of their demise).  Babymouse wants a new pet but she thinks that fish are too boring.  She wants to move on to something bigger! (Despite her clear inability to care for pets).

Then we see the succession of pets that Babymouse acquires, as she builds up to a puppy–hamster, ferret, etc.  My favorite part of this story was that Babymouse loses all of these pets (the hamster instructions say: “Do not leave cage open” which she reads a little too late), but we see where all the lost pets wind up–which was very funny indeed.

And then Babymouse gets her wish–sort of.  A stray dog comes up to her and she adopts it.

Babymouse learns the difficulties of owning a dog (especially one who chews everything but the bones she bought him).  But I have to say that I did not enjoy the ending of this book.  I can’t give it away, but I’ll say a few things about it.  In the other Babymouse books, things don’t go as planned (she doesn’t win a skating championship, for instance), and her favorite refrain for when things go wrong  is “typical.”  But it always feels like there’s a plus side to things.  In this book, the ending was “typical” but it didn’t feel like there was any kind of twist or humorous aspect to it.  It just seemed a little sad.  Not terribly sad (don’t worry the dog doesn’t die or anything!), just not hilariously “typical.”

I did enjoy the Charlotte’s Web tribute, though, and the parade of Babymouse’s pets was also quite enjoyable.  It’s hard to complain about Babymouse–the books are fun and funny and you can read them in about ten minutes.  I was just a little bummed by the end.