I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: RALPH’S WORLD-“Red Banana” (2006).

There’s something about kid’s music.  It’s simple, typically, and it can be either cloying or fun. But it’s a really fine line that stands between the two.  Ralph Covert of Ralph’s World manages to keep the line in view and stays on the fun side.  Ralph has a rock history (with The Bad Examples) but I think his kids music is much better and much more interesting.

“Red Banana” is a simple folk song with a wonderfully catchy chorus (“What am I gonna do if my mom finds out?”).  The verses are fun as well.  “Who ever heard of a red banana? Have you ever heard of a red banana?  I’ve never heard of a red banana.” “Who ever heard of a green gorilla?”  (Who is eating the red banana, of course.) 

Ralph knows silly, and he knows how to make silly catchy.  This whole Ralph’s World album, Green Gorilla Monster & Me is a lot of fun.

[READ: December 2010] Guinea Pig, Pet Shop Private Eye

My kids love books (surprise).  And Clark has been reading a lot by himself.  So I’ve been getting him some graphic novels for his reading pleasure.  I stumbled upon this series at the library.  It’s a little too much for him to read by himself–he read it but I know he didn’t get all of what is going on.  Nevertheless, we enjoyed the first book very much and when I learned there were four more I was thrilled!

This series is clever and funny.  And while the kids may not get all the jokes, I sure do, and I think they’re really funny.  And, there are more than enough jokes (visual and verbal) for them to enjoy and for me to enjoy reading to them.

There’s a Guinea Pig (with the best name–Sasspants) who lives in a pet store.  The pet store is owned by Mr Venezi, the most incompetent pet store owner (and business owner, frankly) ever.  Mr Venezi loves his animals but not only does he not know how to take care of them, he doesn’t even know what most of them are called.  Their tanks are mislabeled and often times animals are simply in the wrong places.  Obviously in real life this would be a disaster, but these animals are funny and clever and roll with the problems quite easily.

In the first book, the hamster named Hamisher reads the sign for Sasspants’ tank which says Guinea PI.  Naturally Hamisher thinks that Sasspants is a detective.  The story behind this name change is quite funny.  Sasspants seems to be the only animal with not only the correct name but also a name made out of sticky tiles rather than tape (one assumes this is because Sasspants is very smart and an extensive reader (as well as writer, rappeller and, eventually sleuth)).  When the G from Guinea Pi”g” falls off and goes missing, well, it’s time for our reluctant Guinea Pig to get to sleuthing. 

There are currently four books in the series and I can only hope that more are on the way soon!  All of the illustrations are by Stephanie Yue.  And they are wonderful (it is odd since Venable is a wonderful artist that she uses someone else, but hey, spread the wealth!)

#1 Hamster and Cheese
In addition to what I described above (which happens in the first book), the real investigation concerns Mr Venezi’s missing sandwich. I love when the two sleuths ask questions of the fish–they are hilariously clueless.

#2 And Then There were Gnomes
The funny title is an indication of the kind of punning in the book, and how it goes over the heads of my 4 and 6 year olds.  But that’s okay because the inside content is awesome.  Detective Pants (don’t call her that!) doesn’t want to be a detective but Hamisher won’t let up!  And this time he thinks there’s a ghost in the store…and he’s got the shadows to prove it! There are some great visual jokes…feeding a rawhide bone to the fish and rabbits labelled as camels.  This book also has three kids who want to buy a pet but really enjoy pointing out all of the errors in the store (like hermit crabs labels as tractors).  We also get further development of the secondary characters (big words for a book about pets, eh?).  And the Chinchillas are just out of this world (especially the one who likes dressing up one of the mice).  The end of the book has a some wonderful facts about the animals in the book and compares them to their incorrect names (why a hermit crab is not a tractor). 

#3 The Ferret’s a Foot  
In this book Hamsher tries to come up with a catch phrase for the dynamic sleuthing duo.  Since he has been reading Sasspants’ detective novels, based on “the game’s afoot,” he tries out “there’s something on my foot.”  Sasspants is not game and really wants nothing to do with being a detective.  But when two new pets comes in (ferrets–and they are awesome, especially when Hamisher fears that they are snakes with giant beards) and things starts turning up all wrong, Sasspants can’t help but get involved.  This book was so much fun because she takes the idea of the mislabelled animal cages to new heights of absurdity.  Sasspants and Hamisher decide once and for all to set the animal names straight.  So they make proper signs (with well drawn pictures–nice work Hamisher).  But soon enough chinchilla is changed to gorchinchilla and snake is changed to milk shnake (ha).  Oh and there’s also the latest pet added to the shop: shoes (which is labelled correctly).  What is behind all of these changes? Well, what would happen if Mr Venezi hired someone who actually tried to SELL the pets in the store?  That would be a disaster!  But seriously, who is changing all the signs?  And is it possible that one of the snooty chinchillas will actually help her figure it out?  The end of the book has a page of interesting facts about ferrets.   Did you know they are America’s third most popular pet (after dogs and cats).

#4 Fish You Were Here
After several hilarious interviews, Mr Venezi hires someone.  Viola is super nice and really smart (she actually gives the snake a branch to lie on and the lizards a heat lamp) and she introduces a brand new fish to the fish tank–a pleco who talks with his mouth full (of algae on the side of the glass).  But then just as soon as Viola starts, Mr Venezi goes missing.  Where could he be?  Why is Viola the only one in the store?  And why is she saying that Mr Venezi is not coming back?  No one knows anything.  Except maybe the fish.  But they’re suddenly all named Steve (hilarious).  Is the new fish trying to tell them something–it’s hard to read but very fun and it pays off to read it aloud.  Can the pets all work together to trick young Viola into thinking she’s crazy so she’ll quit?  There’s not much detecting here but the nonsense is fast and furious and it’s all very, very funny.

More more more!

After reading all of these books I decided to look up Colleen Af Venable (mostly to find out about her confusing name).  Her website is wonderful!  Not only does she work for one of the cooler comic book publishers out there (First Second), she has also done some gorgeous book covers and even a radio show (which is archived online [which she says is rated PG-13, so  be careful around little ones]).  There’s also some “color your own comics” to print out (although I wish there were more!).  And, phew, she explains her peculiar name (you’ll have to look it up yourself because shhh, it’s a secret).  But even that is not as much fun as the fact that she has a connect the dots tattoo (I’m not a fan of tattoos but this is a very cool one).

So I have now added a new name to keep a keen watch on.  Thank you Colleen AF, you rock!