Silly Lilly and the four seasons : a Toon Book
(Graphic Novel)

Another successful entry in the new Toon imprint (see Benny and Penny and Otto's Orange Day, also reviewed in this issue), this book is aimed at brand-new readers. Rosenstiehl follows Lilly (who appears to be three or four years old) as she undertakes simple, familiar activities through the seasons. In spring, she plays with her toy bear in the park; in summer, she's off to the beach; in fall, she picks and eats apples; in winter, she plays in the snow. When spring returns, she soars on a swing. Lilly is bold and engaging in both her rounded, childlike appearance and her heartfelt approach to the real world and to her imagined one. The text is very brief (only a few words per panel), the colors are warm and bright, and the panels are large enough to draw in children new to books and reading. A good fit for the intended audience.--Goldsmith, Francisca Copyright 2008 Booklist

What is there about Comics that makes children like them so well?" An exasperated schoolteacher posed this question in an article from the 1940s chronicling the uphill battle she and her colleagues were then waging against comic books, which they considered sub-literary fare. The battle lines have long since been redrawn, the graphic novel having attained critical mass and the comics aesthetic having slowly inched its way toward children's literature respectability on the backs of occasional forays into the genre by Maurice Sendak and others, and of more sustained efforts such as the Little Lit series edited by Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly. Now New Yorker art director Mouly, with Spiegelman as in-house adviser, takes the field again with the release of the first three titles from Toon Books, an innovative line of early readers presented in comics format. On the evidence of Rosenstiehl's initial contribution, Dick and Jane may now pack up their things and leave town for good. In this little marvel of distilled storytelling, five wee seasonal vignettes, starting and ending with spring, place a spry young girl in familiar situations that give free rein to her curiosity and love of action. As Lilly plays in the park, finds a snail at the shore, samples a basket of apples, hurls snowballs and swings on a swing, her bright thoughts and warblings appear overhead in speech balloons, in words of one to three syllables. Twice, a teddy bear serves as the straight man; in the winter scene, for example, he impassively takes a snowball on the chin ("Oops! Sorry, Teddy! I was only kidding!"). This comic moment, like others that Rosenstiehl extracts from her rigorously pared-down materials, draws us directly into Lilly's emotional world, where attention is routinely paid to everything, from a lowly dandelion on up. To know Lilly is to want to know what she has to say. Lilly, who is already familiar to children of the author's native France as Mimi Cracra, is Little Lulu with dance lessons. Apple-cheeked and graceful, she's nobody's fool, and her expressive action poses double as telltale clues to the child poised to begin decoding the printed word independently. Rosenstiehl's uncomplicated layouts--two panes of equal size per page, four per spread--and minimalist backdrops likewise keep the focus where it belongs: on the adventure of taking the measure of everyday things, whether it be a tiny sea creature washed up by a wave or the words "I'm flying." Ages 4-up. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

PreS-Gr 1-Minimal text and simple cartoons follow Silly Lilly through the course of a year. Each seasonal adventure is a complete story in which the child delights in the smallest discoveries. She wonders about a tiny snail, the taste of fall apples, and snow. The quiet humor will not bring on belly laughs, but will be appreciated by young audiences. The simplified comic-book format has one to two panels per page. Each panel has one dialogue balloon; each balloon has a single sentence. The short sentences and large print make this a good choice for beginning readers. The descriptive illustrations assist with the storytelling and make this book adaptable for preliteracy conversations. This small-sized book is best read alone or shared one to one.-Carolyn Janssen, Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, OH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(Preschool, Primary) Comic books meet picture books in these three titles that demonstrate the power of the comics format for young readers and listeners. In Silly Lilly, Rosenstiehl introduces the four seasons through a preschooler's experiences, with each season receiving only a snapshot (for example, during the summer, Silly Lilly sees rocks, fish, and a creature in a shell), but with Lilly visibly growing as the year progresses. All text appears in conversation balloons, reinforcing in (or introducing to) young listeners the relationship between the words they hear and the words printed on the page. In Hayes's book, mouse siblings Benny and Penny squabble about playing together, and here the profusion of frames helps pace the action, while the simple vocabulary and familiar situation ("Benny, what did you do to Penny?" "Nothing!") allow beginning readers to call this one their own. Otto's Orange Day is a takeoff on the King Midas story with three chapters and a small twist at the end -- just enough to keep beginning chapter book readers on their toes without being overly challenged. Palettes change from book to book. Silly Lilly is all bright colors with uncluttered illustrations; Benny and Penny employs pastels that add a sweetness to the sometimes harsh treatment Benny gives Penny; and Otto, of course, is all about orange, dramatically showing how too much of a good thing is, well, too much. [Review covers these titles: Otto's Orange Day, Benny and Penny in Just Pretend, and Silly Lilly and the Four Season]From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

This graphic-early-reader entry from Toon Books is itself an objet d'art. The slight story, in basic comic-book format, briefly and joyfully bounds through the seasons at the rate of four panels per page. The crisp, bright watercolors depict Lilly, a bouncy, endearing child with black pigtails and vim for life, as she happily engages each season. In the spring chapter, "Silly Lilly at the Park," she shows her teddy bear what she likes to do at the park: dance, jump and nap. In summer, she daintily tiptoes through the shore's shallow water, clad in her red two-piece, finding little treasures and surprising herself with a snail hidden within a shell. Fall is summed up in bite-size tastes of a sampling of colorful apples. Winter, of course, offers bountiful snow and Lilly's wayward snowballs. Emergent readers will be drawn to Lilly's ebullient perspective and captivated by the uncluttered layout; the easy lesson on the seasons is a bonus. (Early reader. 5-7) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Another successful entry in the new Toon imprint (see Benny and Penny and Otto's Orange Day, also reviewed in this issue), this book is aimed at brand-new readers. Rosenstiehl follows Lilly (who appears to be three or four years old) as she undertakes simple, familiar activities through the seasons. In spring, she plays with her toy bear in the park; in summer, she's off to the beach; in fall, she picks and eats apples; in winter, she plays in the snow. When spring returns, she soars on a swing. Lilly is bold and engaging in both her rounded, childlike appearance and her heartfelt approach to the real world and to her imagined one. The text is very brief (only a few words per panel), the colors are warm and bright, and the panels are large enough to draw in children new to books and reading. A good fit for the intended audience. Copyright 2008 Booklist Reviews.

Signature

Reviewed by Leonard S. Marcus

What is there about Comics that makes children like them so well?" An exasperated schoolteacher posed this question in an article from the 1940s chronicling the uphill battle she and her colleagues were then waging against comic books, which they considered sub-literary fare. The battle lines have long since been redrawn, the graphic novel having attained critical mass and the comics aesthetic having slowly inched its way toward children's literature respectability on the backs of occasional forays into the genre by Maurice Sendak and others, and of more sustained efforts such as the Little Lit series edited by Art Spiegelman and Franoise Mouly. Now New Yorker art director Mouly, with Spiegelman as in-house adviser, takes the field again with the release of the first three titles from Toon Books, an innovative line of early readers presented in comics format.

On the evidence of Rosenstiehl's initial contribution, Dick and Jane may now pack up their things and leave town for good. In this little marvel of distilled storytelling, five wee seasonal vignettes, starting and ending with spring, place a spry young girl in familiar situations that give free rein to her curiosity and love of action. As Lilly plays in the park, finds a snail at the shore, samples a basket of apples, hurls snowballs and swings on a swing, her bright thoughts and warblings appear overhead in speech balloons, in words of one to three syllables. Twice, a teddy bear serves as the straight man; in the winter scene, for example, he impassively takes a snowball on the chin ("Oops! Sorry, Teddy! I was only kidding!"). This comic moment, like others that Rosenstiehl extracts from her rigorously pared-down materials, draws us directly into Lilly's emotional world, where attention is routinely paid to everything, from a lowly dandelion on up. To know Lilly is to want to know what she has to say.

Lilly, who is already familiar to children of the author's native France as Mimi Cracra, is Little Lulu with dance lessons. Apple-cheeked and graceful, she's nobody's fool, and her expressive action poses double as telltale clues to the child poised to begin decoding the printed word independently. Rosenstiehl's uncomplicated layouts—two panes of equal size per page, four per spread—and minimalist backdrops likewise keep the focus where it belongs: on the adventure of taking the measure of everyday things, whether it be a tiny sea creature washed up by a wave or the words "I'm flying." Ages 4-up. (Apr.)

Leonard S. Marcus is most recently the author of Minders of Make-Believe: Idealists, Entrepreneurs, and the Shaping of American Children's Literature (Houghton Mifflin, May).

PreS-Gr 1 –Minimal text and simple cartoons follow Silly Lilly through the course of a year. Each seasonal adventure is a complete story in which the child delights in the smallest discoveries. She wonders about a tiny snail, the taste of fall apples, and snow. The quiet humor will not bring on belly laughs, but will be appreciated by young audiences. The simplified comic-book format has one to two panels per page. Each panel has one dialogue balloon; each balloon has a single sentence. The short sentences and large print make this a good choice for beginning readers. The descriptive illustrations assist with the storytelling and make this book adaptable for preliteracy conversations. This small-sized book is best read alone or shared one to one.–Carolyn Janssen, Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, OH