The opposite zoo

AS WE GET OLDER, most of us come to associate vocabulary with rote exercises - flipping through flashcards, subscribing to "Word of the Day" emails, unsubscribing from "Word of the Day" emails. But for children, learning a new word is a powerfully creative act that can be, as four picture books show, both fun and profound. At first glance, "The Opposite Zoo," by Il Sung Na, appears to occupy well-worn territory: the concept of opposites, and a zoo setting. But as in his previous picture books like "Welcome Home, Bear," Na brings fresh energy to the familiar. With a coloring style that feels as if someone took a firecracker to a box of crayons, Na makes turtle shells as dynamic as a peacock's plumage. Our guide to the zoo is a monkey with a knowing smile and protruding ears, who explores the contrasting characteristics of its fellow animals. The monkey provides comic relief as it clings desperately to a speeding cheetah or sits bewildered among noisy baboons. It's characteristic of Na's playful touch that the book opens as the zoo closes and the zoo reopens as the book closes. A minor detail, but a delightful one that embeds the concept of opposites into the physical experience of the book. In "Yaks Yak," Linda Sue Park, the Newbery Medal-winning author of the middle-grade novel "A Single Shard," shows her range with a picture book that - simply and smartly - pairs animal names with their lesser-known verb forms. Park and the illustrator Jennifer Black Reinhardt pepper each page with witty details that will appeal to a wide range of ages. Even if children miss the humor behind a fish fishing for compliments, the crow crowing "I am super awesome" will surely elicit giggles. Beneath the humor of "Yaks Yak" lies the valuable truth that words, even those we take for granted, often have multiple meanings. In the world of puns, this can result in laughs (or eye rolls), but in other contexts, these nuances can have more complex implications. Lane Smith's "There Is a Tribe of Kids" begins with an image of a small child wearing a garment of leaves, hiding among a group of young goats ("a tribe of kids"). The story is told through declarative sentences built around the evocative collective nouns we use for animals ("There was a crash of rhinos," "There was an army of caterpillars" and so on). Within those restrictions, Smith, the author and illustrator of many picture books including the Caldecott Honor-winning "Grandpa Green," somehow weaves an emotionally resonant story of loneliness, loss and belonging. Smith's mottled landscapes accentuate the fragmented nature of the child's surreal journey. Whether the child is parading with elephants or swimming among jellyfish, each failed attempt to fit in exudes a Chaplinesque charm, skillfully blending slapstick and melancholy. Acceptance finally comes with the discovery of a diverse group of other leaf-clad children, kindred spirits who form their own "tribe of kids." Within the confines of the book, this is a heartwarming finale. Unfortunately, for me the juxtaposition of the word "tribe" with the woodland utopia conjured uncomfortable associations. For example, in the final scene, as the child describes his journey to his new friends, he wears feathers in his hair to re-enact his stint among an "unkindness of ravens." It's a whimsical visual in isolation, but some readers may detect something ill-advised, if not sadly familiar, in its echoes of the longstanding trope in children's literature that uses Native imagery or "playing Indian" to signify wildness, especially since the word "tribe" is so central to this often captivating book. The soaring "Thunder Boy Jr." illustrates the power of words through a more intentional and personal approach. This first picture book by Sherman Alexie, the author of the National Book Awardwinning young adult novel "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian," is illustrated by the much celebrated Yuyi Morales ("Viva Frida," "Just a Minute"). Together they deliver a story that feels both modern and timeless, a joyous portrait of one boy's struggle to (literally) make a name for himself in the world. Thunder Boy Jr. is named after his father, who is known as Big Thunder (leaving the son with the unfortunate diminutive Little Thunder). While he loves and respects his father, the son confides to the reader that he "hates his name." For children, few words are more powerful than their own names, so this constitutes a true existential crisis. Little Thunder tries on different identities, playfully mining his accomplishments, his likes and dislikes and his hopes and dreams, searching for some defining essence of himself. Successfully climbing a mountain becomes the possible name Touch the Clouds. His love of powwow dancing evokes the name Drums, Drums and More Drums. His dream of traveling the world inspires the name Full of Wonder. Alexie's expertly paced text zips along with loving interjections from the boy's entire family, led by a precocious little sister. Morales's richly textured art crackles with boundless energy. Somehow, in her hands the color yellow radiates with a life of its own. There is a crucial moment when the father recognizes his son's struggle and concludes: "I think it's time I gave you a new name. A name of your own." The boy's reaction - "My dad read my mind! My dad read my heart!" - breathes with an authentic mix of relief and exhilaration, the giddy thrill of being truly seen and understood by someone you love. The fitting choice for his new name (I won't spoil it for you) cleverly allows the boy to forge a unique identity without severing ties to the past. Morales shows him standing proudly upon his father's broad shoulders, ready to reach for new heights. Sometimes, to take the world by storm, all you need is the power of the right word. MINH C. LE'S debut picture book, "Let Me Finish!," will be published in June. He blogs about picture books at Bottom Shelf Books.

It's nighttime, and the zoo is closed, but one monkey's cage door is unexpectedly open. As a result, children have an opportunity to join along in a safari tour of the zoo as the monkey and young audiences are introduced to the concept of opposites. A wide-eyed owl is awake, while a tree-draped panda is asleep; a stretching lion is hairy, but a plump hippo is bald. Na's ink-and-colored-pencil illustrations deftly juxtapose subtlety and vibrancy, using soft watercolorlike hues for background images but vivid squiggles that convey freestyle crayon drawings for many of the featured animals. Even the typography gets creative to match each animal's description: For a sloth, the character spacing is extended to spell s-l-o-w, but the word fast is italicized to accompany a racing cheetah. Similarly, the word noisy repeatedly screams in all caps above a group of cackling baboons, while quiet is lowercase above an ambling turtle. As opposite books go, this picture book will be visually appealing to both adults and children, and it's a welcome addition to a genre that, for many parents, can often be opposite of interesting.--SinhaRoy, Sanhita Copyright 2016 Booklist