I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: ELVIS COSTELLO-“Monster Went and Ate My Red 2″

Of all of the songs that I might think would get turned into a children’s song for Sesame Street, I must say that “The Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes” was pretty low on the likelihood list.  It’s one of my favorite songs, but what might you do with it for the Street (and why would you pick a sorta popular song from 40 some years ago?).

I can’t answer the last part, but you can tell by the title what you’d do with it:  turn the angel into a monster and the shoes into the number 2.  And now Elvis can’t count to ten because the monster ate his red two.  Lyrically it stretched credibility somewhat, but when accompanied by the video in which Cookie Monster does in fact eat a number 2 that is red, it all makes a kind of weird sense.

True, Elvis never sings the “She said drop dead and left with another guy” line.  In fact, Elmo sings that verse in which he goes and gets another red two.  But, just when you think it’s all good, there’s a surprising twist.

And, best of all, Elvis looks like he’s having fun.

[READ: July 1, 2014] The Red Tree

It was surprising seeing this children’s book come across my desk, but since I love Shaun Tan’s work, I was excited to read this one (his other children’s books are gorgeous).

This story is quite dark–perhaps a little too ark for my six-year-old, although I feel like she could relate to it on some days (perhaps the wording was a little much even if the feelings were spot on).  And she has red hair too.

The story opens with a girl sitting in bed with the caption that “Sometimes the day begins with nothing to look forward to and thing go from bad to worse.”  Sure everyone has experienced days like that.  And the drawings are wonderful–in this case, the girl’s bed is swamped by leaves.

On the next page, Tan’s wonderful surrealism takes over as the simple comment that “Darkness overcomes you” is accompanied by the image of a girl walking down the street with a gigantic fish floating over her head.  Later the image of the girl having to wait “and wait and wait” is wonderful, the way it pulls back from her making tally marks on a wall into a much more impressive scene.

Perhaps things like “terrible fates are inevitable” are a bit heavy-handed for a six-year-old, but the pictures are complex and wonderful to look at and I think make their own sort of sense.

The eventual revelation of positivity is charming and sweet, but the end page is dynamic and magnificence.  I fee like this is a book that kids could come back to again and again when they are having a hard day.