Elizabeth WinthropRecensioni

There are shoes to buckle, shoes to tie, shoes too low, and shoes too high. Which pair of shoes fits you best?

Adventure

As William turns twelve, he wonders if Jason is still his best friend. In the past year, Jason has grown a foot taller, while William is still a shrimp. When Jason challenges William to "jump the trains," William is terrified. How else can he prove himself to Jason? William gets his answer when his former housekeeper sends him a magic token that once again transports him to Sir Simon's castle in the Middle Ages, this time with Jason. There the two friends face a dangerous army of rats and their gigantic leader. Once before, William was a hero in Sir Simon's day. Now it's up to William to destroy the rats and save the kingdom in the final battle for the castle.

The text is taken from the King James Version of the Bible, but despite the claim it was "faithfully adapted," it just feels wrong for certain words such as "sore" to qualify "afraid" were omitted. Many words were omitted, and it just feels wrong. While the illustrations are beautiful, the omission of words from this well-known and much-recited passage weakens it.

YMMV- disrespect, element of not needing parents and a child being able to do all things by themselves.

William has just received the best present of his life. It's an old, real-looking stone and wooden model of a castle, with a drawbridge, moat, and a finger-high knight to guard the gates. It's the mysterious castle his housekeeper has told him about, and even though William is sad she's leaving, now the castle is his.
William can't wait to play with it--he's certain there's something magical about the castle. And sure enough, when he picks up the tiny silver knight, it comes alive in his hand!

Sir Simon tells William a mighty story of wild sorcery, wizards, and magic. And suddenly William is off on a fantastic quest to another land and another time--where a fiery dragon and an evil wizard are waiting to do battle . . . .

You can't read the first without following up with the sequel. We need more stories like these.

I read this YEARS ago, and again. I enjoyed it the second times as much as the first time.

Read as a kid (around age 9?). Re-read in March 2022 (with L, age 6).

3.5 stars. I started out thinking this would be a medieval version of the Indian in the Cupboard, but it was a lot better than that.

William is a boy desperate to keep things the way they are. He loves his nanny and doesn’t want her to leave. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have a lot of say in the matter. He’s a bit of a spoiled kid to be honest, refusing to accept that his favorite person’s world doesn’t revolve around him, as well as refusing to see how his parents (especially his dad) are trying to be more a part of his life. When he finds a magical knight in the castle his nanny gives him, he hatches an idea that only a young child could conceive of and actually consider worth completing.

This decision immediately causes regret, which leads to the biggest adventure William could possibly imagine. To save his nanny, he has join her in the trouble that he’s caused, and undo a curse he didn’t cause.
The quest and the action happens pretty quickly and is of typical fairy tale fare, but the point is made well. He listens to the wisdom given to him by the silver knight and his beloved nanny, and learns to trust in his ability to do what seems impossible, ultimately saving the day.

What irks me about this story, and others like it, is the multiple times it explicitly states that William was able to do this huge thing “by himself.” There is a measure of the resolution of the story that couldn’t have happened without William’s choice to take action and move forward on his own, even when he was expecting to have help. It’s an essential part of growing up, learning self-reliance and that you won’t always have adults or others to rely on, perhaps even in difficult and dangerous times. The tricky thing here is to not conflate this with thinking that he got to this place of maturity on his own and was able to rely on himself entirely throughout. The only thing that he was able to do 100% on his own was to come up with the crazy idea that led to the need for a quest in the first place. It was because of the training and wisdom given to him by people who are grown and have the experience needed to guide him in his path that he ultimately felt able to do what he needed to do. He learned a lot along the way, but it was with the help and by the design of those who had come before him.

There is a lot to like about this book - it’s fun and full of good life lessons, but I think I would only give or read it to my kids with the intent of discussing the ideas of self-reliance and interdependence.

I want a sequel!

A discussion starter for families who have showing affection issues. Simply a good book for youth to read although I wish author had not used swear words. Short book - easy reading.

Reading Rainbow Books

Author/illustrator team Elizabeth Winthrop and Charles Mikolaycak, who also collaborated on A Child Is Born: The Christmas Story, turn here to the story of Easter. Winthrop adapts texts from the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke in her telling, which begins with the Passover feast, and continues on through the betrayal of Jesus, the trial before Pilate, and the Crucifixion, before culminating with the Resurrection...

I read He Is Risen: The Easter Story directly after Brian Wildsmith's gorgeous The Easter Story, and the two books present an interesting contrast, when it comes to how to approach this tale, when retelling it for children. Winthrop's text here is far more Biblical than the Wildsmith telling, which is much simpler, and imagines the story from a donkey's perspective. Textually, I think this one would work far better for somewhat older children, who are ready for the more advanced vocabulary and sentence structure. The sepia-toned artwork here from Mikolaycak is more historical than the stylized Wildsmith paintings, and beautiful in its own right, although I found that I preferred the latter. I think my ideal Easter story picture-book would pair Wildsmith's artwork with a slightly simplified version of the text here. I like the idea of staying as faithful to the Bible accounts as possible, but somehow the text felt a little too advanced for a picture-book of this kind. Still, many parents and Sunday School teachers specifically looking for more Biblical Easter retellings, should find this one of interest, and it is to them that I would recommend it, as well as to fans of Charles Mikolaycak's artwork.

Grover is nervous about staying at a friend's house for the first time away from home. What if she thinks him babyish for wanting a nightlight? What if she doesn't have his favorite cereal? Good to show kids that the first-time nervous fears of being away from home are normal.

Children all around town don every sort of hat as part of their Halloween costumes in this rhyming romp of a picture-book, setting out to trick-or-treat, and eventually finding themselves at a party. Here they are encouraged to play 'musical hats,' donning new headwear and becoming somebody else. And so the fun goes on...

Although there isn't much to Halloween Hats, from a textual perspective - most of author Elizabeth Winthrop's narrative is devoted to describing all of the different Halloween hats - the story is expanded by the humorous artwork from Sue Truesdell, which captures the humor and fun of each hat (and costume) mentioned, and depicts the children getting dressed and setting out into the night to have fun. The illustrations had a somewhat scribbly style that reminded me rather strongly of British illustrators like Quentin Blake and Tony Ross. Recommended to picture-book readers looking for entertaining Halloween tales, particularly those in rhyme.

Here are "shoes to skate in, shoes to skip in, shoes to turn a double flip in"! A sweet and charming rhyming look at a favorite topic for pre-K and kindergarten kids — perfect for anyone helping children learn to tie their shoes.

A retelling of the old Russian fairy tale in which beautiful Vasilissa uses the help of her doll to escape the clutches of the witch Baba Yaga

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Each night a monster comes into Maggie's room and bothers her. One day, she decides to ask the monster what she is looking for. The monster tells Maggie she is looking for her mother and Maggie brings her to the broom closet where she lives. This story is a fun twist on the typical monster-child dynamic. Instead of being scared of the monster, Maggie is just annoyed which brings humor. I think this is a cute story.

Shoes is a fun story. It flows very well and I found myself picking up the reading pace. The pictures really enhanced the story a lot. It almost didnt need words, and could have just been pictures. It was a little short for my liking, maybe would have liked to see a couple more pictures but overall a fun and good book.

The "nanny-child" relationship seems quite a bit outdated for a book first published in the mid-80s. It seemed like something you'd expect from a late-19th or early-20th century children's story, and likely one with a British setting. This one's good enough that I am going to read the sequel, but it's nowhere near the top of my Middle Reader reading.

Very sweet story of a 6yo girl who wants a "best friend" -- she is so set on having a "girl best friend" that she doesn't see the boy best friend she already has. A sweet story of overcoming internalized sexism and gender stereotypes.

A little book about a kid trying to comfort or reach out to her mom, who is sad (and actually appears to be clinically depressed). She tries everything she can think of -- drawing, dancing, singing -- but nothing helps her mom feel better. Finally she offers to go away and her mom says no! that would make her cry. They hug, and the mom says that makes her feel better.[return][return]Clearly the book was written out of great sensitivity for children experiencing the depression or grieving of an adult in their life. There don't seem to be a lot of books on the topic of helping a little one deal with her grown-ups' feelings, so this is useful in facilitating those discussions. [return][return]However, the reader's heart aches for the little girl who tries everything, to no avail, and with very little explanation. When reading it to my 3.5yo, I understood why the mom in the story might say that the song made her even sadder, but how to explain that to my own child? [return][return]I could wish that there was a little more help in the story itself for the little girl, and some resources or discussion at the end for the adults reading this to their kids.

Cute story with artwork that just isn't my style, but my two year old loves it. The story is too wordy, so I did a lot of paraphrasing, which does make it easier to read over and over (and over, etc). The message of the book is an excellent one: that you can miss your parent figure but still have fun with the babysitter.