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Archive for the ‘The Not-Its!’ Category

Ariel Cohn & Aron Nels Steinke–The Zoo Box (2014)

Posted in Animals, Ariel Cohn, Aron Nels Steinke, Children's Books, First Second :01, Funny (strange), The Not-Its!, Zoos on April 5, 2015| Leave a Comment »

zooboxSOUNDTRACK: THE NOT-ITS-“Nose in a Book” (2014).

notitsIs it okay for parents to enjoy children’s music?   Like, even if your kids don’t really care about it?  I heard this song on the radio the other day and I thought it was so much fun.  My kids weren’t even in the room but I sang along anyway.

The song starts out with an interesting bass riff and feedback!  The guitar is nicely fuzzy–this is not a typical kids song.

Then the lyrics start–“Dad told me to turn out the light, but I just wanna read a couple more pages.”  The music in the verses is cool and even a little dark.  The chorus, on the other hand, is very poppy and fun to sing along with.

The bridge is a chant of Chapters 1-8, and the end of the song really rocks out.  It’s a totally great song, and clearly, I can relate.

Check it out at their bandcamp site.

[READ: March 26, 2015] The Zoo Box

As part of my decision to read all of the First Second publications (which I have been doing I just haven’t had a chance to post many of them recently), I knew that I wanted to read this book.  But I was delighted to see that Sarah brought it home to read to the kids.  And it seems like a good book to talk about for Easter.

The Zoo Box opens with two parents going out for the night.  They leave their older daughter in charge of their younger son.  There’s no fighting–the daughter is happy to be in charge, but the son isn’t upset by it.  And if they promise to be asleep when the parents get back, they will go to the zoo the next day.

As soon as the parents leave, the daughter suggests they play dress up in the attic.  I love that this is the idea she has and that he is excited by it.  And I love even more that dress up consists of full sized tiger and ape costumes.  It’s fantastic.  The kids growl and play (the attic is locked, but it seems very nice with a bed and plenty of space) and then they discover a box that says Do No Open. (more…)

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Amy Martin–Symphony City (2011)

Posted in Amy Martin, Books about music, Children's Books, McSweeney's, The Not-Its! on October 5, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE NOT-ITS!-“Puppy Dog” (2011).

This song was paired with the Billy Kelly song in OWTKs March podcast.  And it, too, is very funny.  It is almost aggressively catchy and in your face.  I found it a we bit off-putting, but it quickly won me over.

It has a kind of Ralph’s World feel (although they don’t really sound like Ralph’s World or anything).  I like the way the chorus actually slows the song down.  The “third part” of the song has quite an unexpected sound twist–so there’s more than a simple pop song here.

The lyrics are really quite funny (if a little dark).  And the talking dog at the front of the song is awesome.

[READ: 2011] Symphony City

Amy Martin wrote and illustrated this beautiful children’s book.  In it, a young girl with nothing to do, hopes to go to the free Symphony in the city today.  She gets lost from her parents and experiences the vibrant colors of the music of the city.

While it should be frightening and is a little bit (it gets resolved in a very quick and rather confusing way, but that clearly isn’t the point), the strength of the book is the vibrant colors on every page–bright yellows and reds, dark and moody blues, with different sounds evoking different colors.  It actually has a bit of a synesthetic effect, which is all very cool. (more…)

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