I-can-read

I usually reserve my five star ratings for books that I can recommend to just about anyone, or to picture books with spectacular illustrations - but there's just something about this little I Can Read" book that won't let me give it only four stars. The voice of Scarlet is pitch-perfect; the cartoon drawings are a great match to the concept, the details provide rich context, and the ending is just "Oh! Yes!"

Read again Sept 2015 because I forgot the ending. Turns out that basically the blurb gives it away, actually. Why don't the people in her new neighborhood call on her? Because they're not sure that she'll like them. Someone has to reach out assertively - passively being open to friendships isn't the same as seeking them. And since they're shy, she should have tried to be more outgoing. Since she wasn't, finally one neighbor got up his nerve to talk to her. Sometimes I miss traditions & etiquette that gave us guidance for such situations. When I was a child, it was expected that new people would be greeted with either a plate of cookies or even a Welcome Wagon. Now, when ppl are even more mobile & transient, we have fewer rituals to help ppl feel welcome in communities and to find friends. :sigh:

And since leafmarks has 1/2 stars, I don't have to choose between either 4 or 5." ( )

I am by nature a textual creature. I never truly appreciated contemporary art until I visited a Joseph Kosuth installation, in which the walls of two connected hallways were completely covered in quotes (it was called Emigrants and Exiles, and the quotes were about James Joyce's sojourn in Trieste, and Wittgenstein's exile in Ireland - simply brilliant!). I once bought a group of Sadza batiks from Zimbabwe, because the abstract animals on them seemed almost like a form of script. I took Chinese in college mainly because I thought that the characters were beautiful, and I wanted to learn about a form of writing that was not alphabetic or syllabic. When I was considering learning a Native American language, Cherokee was at the top of my list, because the notion of a created alphabet was so fascinating. I secretly long to be the one who decodes the Phaistos Disk, reads the Voynich Manuscript, or unlocks the secrets of Rongo Rongo...

So you will know, oh fellow reader, when I tell you that one of my favorite books of all time is an early reader with less than a thousand words, that here is a small masterpiece! With not a single wasted or out-of-place word, Sharmat and illustrator Dennis Kendrick have created a gem - a little book both wise and compassionate...

When Scarlet Monster moves to a new house and neighborhood, she is happy and enthusiastic about her new home, and eagerly anticipates meeting her new neighbors. An affectionate and warm-hearted creature, Scarlet does everything that she can think of to appear friendly and welcoming, but all to no avail - her neighbors do not introduce themselves.

Terribly hurt, Scarlet retreats into her house, where she concludes that people do not like her because she is an overweight monster with evil-looking eyebrows. "Nobody knows that I think kind thoughts and have a loving heart," she cries. Progressing from hurt to angry, Scarlet decides that she hates everyone, and wants nothing to do with her neighbors. But when Scarlet eventually learns that her new neighbors do not think ill of her, but are simply shy and insecure themselves, all is happily resolved, and Scarlet learns that this is indeed a "kissing" neighborhood.

I have loved this book since I was a very young child. As someone whose family moved a number of times, it spoke to me, not only about the difficulties of fitting into a new place and making new friends, but about how easily hurt feelings translate into anger (I have always had something of a resentful temperament). It very wisely demonstrates how a loving heart can be hidden behind a rather intimidating face, and that we cannot really know what other people's motivations are.

Dennis Kendrick's humorous and endearing illustrations are a perfect complement to Sharmat's text, particularly Scarlet's cat, who proceeds from contented to concerned. In short, although I generally try to avoid hyperbole in my reviews, this may be the BEST I Can Read Book ever published, and I find it a TRAVESTY that it remains out-of-print. It speaks to me, quite simply, in the language of my heart. ( )