When you have a kid and you give the kid a name, one gift that people love to get you is a book about a character with your kid’s name. This can go one of two ways. You can end up with a charming awesome book that your kid loves, or you can end up with a dud that has your kid’s name on the cover.
A friend gave us You Can Do It, Sam when our Sam was born, and after we got over the “Hey, it says Sam!” stage and read it once, we thought that we sort of had a dud on our hands.
“It happened one winter morning on Plum Street . . . and the moon was still up, making moonbeams and shadows on Plum Street.”
This is the first page of the book, and that odd repetition continues throughout. After one reading, it was a little off-putting, sounding almost like it had been poorly translated from another language. And the “It” that “happened” turns out to be a bear and her son making cakes for their friends and then dropping them off at each door on the street. Not such an exciting happening.
(I just noticed that I mentioned the race of the characters even though it really has no effect on the story. I guess I shouldn’t do that. Bears are people, same as you and me. I’m sorry if I’ve offended anyone.)
So we had a book written in a very awkward style with a story that is beyond simple, but Sam kept requesting it, so we kept reading it to him. And of course, we fell in love with it.
You Can Do It, Sam is one of the coziest books we own. It is all about quiet winter mornings and the excitement of planning a nice surprise. What struck me at first as awkward repetition in Amy Hest’s writing eventually began to feel absolutely appropriate. One the one hand it sounds like any child’s random bouncy speech. It reminds me of my cousin’s son who greeted me one day by declaring, “I have a Pokemon watch and this is my Pokemon watch!” And at the same time it sounds like a mother telling her child all the nicest things. “I’m going to take you to bed, and I’m going to tuck you in bed, and I’m going to kiss you on the nose while you’re tucked in bed.”
Anita Jeram’s illustrations are covered in snow, but they also have a warm scarf wrapped around them and warm cup of cocoa held tight in their paws. Mrs. Bear and Sam are bears that I would like to know as we watch them making cakes before dawn in their little white house and taking them from door to door in their green truck. Mrs. Bear gives her son the priceless gift of trusting him to take each cake to each house all by himself, which he does flawlessly and with many waves back to his mom. Jeram also includes a nice visual B-story involving birds and crumbs. These kinds of details are always fun to find and point out, especially when your kid starts to notice them.
The book ends just the way you want any early morning winter outing to end, with cocoa and cakes by the stove with warm socks.
With children’s books the rule seems to be that it’s not important whether or not anything actually happens. Nothing at all can happen and it can still be satisfying as long as the nothing happens with some style and emotion.
So, my apologies to Amy Hest and Anita Jeram for not loving their book right away. Because we love their book and Sam loves to read it and it’s one of our favorite books.
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