Morning Mailbag: Trinkets, Treasures, and Apples

We’re experiencing that time of the year when the mail comes fast and loose and continual. Every day it seems like there’s something interesting to see. So while it lasts, let’s have another round of Morning Mailbag where I highlight some of the more interesting items that have cropped up in my office this week.

First up, Circles by Yusuke Yonezu (ISBN: 978-9888240678) which is a minedition book.  If you’ve seen Yonezu’s other board books you’ll know what to expect.  Good thick lines and bright colors.  This one has loads of cut outs as well.  Plus it’s hard to resist the back of the book.

See?

Moving on, the publisher Little Bigfoot’s been upping the ante lately.  I don’t know why but their books have been getting increasingly lovely on the eye.  Sure they’re all about the Pacific Northwest in some way, but why should that stop me from enjoying them?  One of the latest is My Wilderness: An Alaskan Adventure by Claudia McGehee (ISBN: 978-1570619502).  It’s sort of a memoir with the dimensions of a picture book.

Plus the interiors are drop dead gorgeous.

In other news, any book from Emily Gravett is cause for celebration.  Bear and Hare Go Fishing feels like a no-brainer.

This next book took me totally by surprise.  It’s In the New World: A Family in Two Centuries by Gerda Raidt (ISBN: 978-1580896306).  As someone who has to deal with the continual Ellis Island assignments given kids in NYC, it’s a relief to see a book that actually attempts to systematically remove the veil of confusion surrounding historical immigration and to show what it would have typically consisted of for European immigrants.

Note how it shows the different parts of the ship and what the sleeping arrangements would have resembled.

And in an interesting twist it shows a farmhouse when it was first built . . .

. . .  and what it looks like today!

Then there’s poetry.  Or the lack thereof.  In the past I had a hard time finding good fairytales and folktales in a given year.  Now?  Good poetry can be difficult.  Fortunately there are times when something like this comes along:

Curious?  It’s Beastly Verse by debut author/illustrator Joohee Yoon (ISBN: 978-1592701667).  I’d tell you more but I’ll be doing a little Enchanted Lion Press roundup soon and I don’t want to give too much away.

Finally, today we’re going to look at one of the more peculiar bits of advertising swag I’ve received in a long time.  I received a box of a peculiar size and weight.  Oh ho, thinks I.  Weirdo swag!  I’m fond of weirdo swag, particularly when it’s edible.  At first, though, I couldn’t quite figure out what to make of this.

On the one hand you had this little booklet for The Isle of Lost written for Disney by none other than Melissa De La Cruz (ISBN: 978-1484720974).  This appears to be a little novel to accompany the made-for-TV movie about the adventures of the Disney villains’ kids.  Yes, they all had kids.  Jafar, Cruella, Maleficent, the works.  I read an Entertainment Weekly piece on the film a couple months ago.  I had no idea a book would accompany it as well.

So there was the booklet.  Then there was this odd looking wooden box.  Open it up . . .

Nope.  They’re not real apples.  More like stress balls.  And that little purple piece there screams like a banshee if you open it. Me oh my.

Now to see what next week may bring!

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