Diamond Bookshelf August 2011
Hands down, Toon Books and Agnes Rosentiehl are the key players in setting the stage for early reader comics. Her second Toon Book, Silly Lilly in What Will I be Today? is an adventurous journey for any young reader. It’s also a brilliant and fun way for teachers and librarians to hit on popular early reader topics, such as the days of the week, colors, creativity, and schema-building. In fact, this little story is so engaging and adventurous I found myself wondering what I was going to do today, tomorrow, and the next day. Today I am going to watch the women’s world cup. Tomorrow I am going to make up for lost time from watching the women’s world cup, reading and writing to my heart's delight. And the next day? Well, I'll probably play with my dogs and keep on reading and writing. What will you and your students do on Monday? Tuesday? Wednesday? And so on. Silly Lilly has some ideas. You can hang out with Silly Lilly each day, or you may want to come up with your own daily activities? An excellent opportunity for teachers and librarians to engage students with an adorable character and her (and, in contrast, their own) awesome adventures, Silly Lilly in What Will I be Today? is a valuable early reader text that belongs in classrooms and libraries alike.
School Library Journal This concept book meets comic is an excellent addition for beginning readers. A follow-up to Silly Lilly and the Four Seasons (Toon Bks., 2008), it is arranged around the days of the week. Lilly sets the course on the first spread, announcing, "Every day is a new day to play." What follows is a series of seven-panel vignettes full of gentle humor and familiar situations, one for each day. A subtle theme of empowerment runs throughout as the girl confidently enacts a variety of roles, from the decidedly grown-up city planner and teacher to the less-serious candy taster and vampire. Almost all of the text appears in word bubbles written at a very basic vocabulary level in simple sentences. The India ink and watercolor cartoon illustrations are clear, with white backgrounds to keep the scenes uncluttered. The panel layouts are as basic as they come–two per page–resulting in a comic-book reading experience that works for very young children. A fine example of a book that knows its audience, Silly Lilly is bound to tickle readers.
Good Comics For Kids, School Library Journal
When I read Rosenstiehl's first Toon Book title, Silly Lilly and the Four Seasons, I wasn't sure I liked the flat style of art, which has the main character marching across the long pages much like the decorations on an Egyptian tomb. But now, as I've had a change to let Rosenstiehl's paintings sink in, I realize I was wrong. There's something very appealing about the simplicity of Rosenstiehl's strong black outlines, bright paint colors, and large square panels filled with just enough detail to set the scene without any of the elements becoming overwhelming. Here Rosenstiehl has Lilly exploring different careers, which allows her to discuss colors, name the days of the week, explore the use of imagination, and easily define complex concepts like "city planner." All while having a lot of fun!
Gail Dent, Tuscon Unified School District
Except for the repeated use of the word So at the beginning of the section on each day of the week, this is a fine book for beginning readers. It goes through what occupation Silly Lilly chooses for each day and what activity she does as a result. At least that’s mostly how the book goes, but on Friday she’s a vampire and on Sunday is a candy taster instead of choosing a job.
Catherine Barnett, Chillicothe Public Library
Visually, Silly Lilly is an attractive book. The bright colors are cheery and reflect the playfulness of the story. The simple illustrations are unassuming, and yet contain fun details, such as the facial expressions on the teddy bear and the doll when Lilly is making music and trying to get them to sing. I also enjoyed Lilly’s creativity and resourcefulness. With the help of a few vegetables, cinder blocks, simple toys, her parents’ clothes, and her imagination, she explores the often-overlooked potential of everyday things. Perhaps this will inspire children to investigate their interests and discover that they can do a lot with a few simple things.
Comics Worth Reading
I didn’t care much for the previous Silly Lilly book, but this one is much more focused. Each four-page sequence, with two panels per page, shows Lilly engaged in some new activity, from cooking (which has some color surprises) to making music with her toys as audience. While the figure art is oddly flat, with Lilly shown in perfect profile, the portrait of her movement and creativity, energy and imagination, is attractive and involving. The pictures are crucial to supporting the simple vocabulary and sentences. Lilly’s choices are suitably off-kilter for a kid, too; I laughed at the idea that one of her choices was “vampire”.
Neil Secor, Beaumont Library Silly Lilly is the story of a dear little girl who takes on a new adventure each day! A great read for young and/or beginning readers as it highlights days of the week and commonly used sight words. The text is not overwhelming. The illustrations are simply pleasing.
Odessa Meyer, South Sioux City Public Library Silly Lilly starts each day with an occupation to be for the day, from cook to teacher with one thrown in at the end as a candy tester. Silly Lilly goes through some steps in what she believes are the way things are done in an adult world, very classic to what a child thinks. Since this book is a toon book, there are very little words, and they are all in “talking bubbles” from Silly Lilly as she goes through all the steps. This book reminds me of a classical book from my mother’s collection of her childhood books. Though written and illustrated well, I am not sure if it will “call” to the children of today.
Donna Babuskow, Healy Elementary Rosenstielhl’s Silly Lilly romps through the simple panels of this graphic novel. She takes on her week with a different career choice each day. Like the young children who read her book, she sees no difference in being a city planner, cook, or vampire. She confuses the idea of career and “what do you want to be when you grow up,” with “what do you want to be for Halloween.” After reading “What Will I Be Today” to a group of 3 and 4 year olds, they shared their own ideas ranging from mom to ballerina to crayon. Slightly older children will likely laugh at her confusion. She is “Silly Lilly” after all. This playfulness has educational value though. The days of the week are clearly presented and then reviewed at the end. Silly Lilly encourages role playing in a way any child can emulate, and introduces job titles young children may not have thought about before, i.e. city planner, ending with a job many adults would envy. As with any good picture book, the pictures carry part of the story. Her teddy reacts to her antics just they way children imagine their own toys interacting. I feel this is a great addition to my collection and is a good jumping off point for many more adventures.
In Silly Lilly and the Four Seasons (2008), emerging readers were introduced to a young child at play in simple vignettes during each of the year's seasons. Here, Lilly is a little more industrious as she moves through the days of the week engaged in "work," dabbling in cooking (getting beet juice on her hands), city planning (finding bugs under a cinder block), and teaching (reading a book to her teddy bear). The scenes are short (each only four two-panel pages long) but deftly work on several engaging levels, from introducing days of the week and various jobs to dynamically reinforcing word meanings withinthe context of Lilly's actions to rendering perfect child's-eye depictions of the nondifference between work and play. Rosenstiehl's uncluttered, expansive panels are decked out in bold colors and consistent compositions and are well designed to transition eyes from the large, full-page visuals of picture books to a more sequential reading experience. Another winsome beginning comic from TOON that balances the practical with the pleasurable and is itself an object to be savored.
The Washington Post
Agnes Rosenstiehl's "Silly Lilly" books, about a playful little girl observing her environment, are brief, simple, incredibly sweet and thoroughly in line with the sensibilities of 3-year-olds for whom recognizing every word in a word balloon is a real accomplishment. What Will I Be Today? (Toon, $12.95) finds Lilly experimenting, over the course of a week, with roles she might assume someday. On Tuesday, for instance, she's a city planner: She finds a couple of concrete beams with some bugs on them, sets them upright and puts them together. "Here!" she declares. "Now we have a bug city."
Reason for Reading: I was fortunate enough to sample the very first Toon Books and now can't help myself checking out every new one as it's published. Rosenstiehl's Silly Lilly is a delightful little girl, vibrant, joyful and intelligent. She's always on the go and has a wonderful imagination. Lilly knows the days of the week and every day this week she is going to have a different job. The jobs range from the practical city planner to the creative cook and the plain silly vampire. But she has them all planned out perfectly with an extra special job for Sundays. Rosenstiehl's illustrations are minimalist but every item in the picture has a purpose. Keep your eyes on teddy's expression during the musician sequence and on her apron as she is a cook. These details make the story twice as expressive than the text alone is able to do. The author bio lets us know that Silly Lilly has been around for years in France having all sorts of exploits in French children's picture books, hopefully someday we will get to know her better with English translations of these older works. Rating: 5/5
Graphic Novel Reporter
Kidsreads.com
Silly Lilly is a French import published in the United States by Toon Books. Toon prides itself on creating easily accessible children’s comics that utilize basic learning blocks of language combined with vivid visual interaction to help kids learn, and WHAT WILL I BE TODAY? keeps that directive going strong. WHAT WILL I BE TODAY? takes a fun topic and explores it over the course of a week, as Lilly decides first to be a cook, then a city planner, then a musician, and so on. Framed by simple yet colorful drawings, the story is playful and cute. Each day unfolds almost like an eight-paneled comic strip: There’s a setup, the building of the story, and then the payoff in the form of a punchline from Lilly. French author and illustrator Agnes Rosenstiehl provides Lilly with a simple story and then goes with it, making a well-rounded story for kids. The message behind the book, of course, is clear: The reader, much like Lilly, can be anything she sets her mind to be, and she can accomplish it with confidence and imagination. The bright blues, reds, greens and purples are very inviting, and Rosenstiehl’s crisp artistic style is whimsical yet solid. Lilly has a wide-eyed Little Orphan Annie-type look to her, but she’s an independent spirit all on her own. Also important is the use of easy-to-understand key words. The vocabulary is direct and simple. What Will I Be Today? is a wonderful book for the youngest readers. Brand-new readers, especially, will find much to enjoy here (and parents who opt to read the book to their young children will find a lot of playfulness and humor here just waiting to be reenacted by a gifted voice actor). GraphicNovelReporter.com |
