Start with a mention of magic the next thing you know, you have men marrying men. Thanks for clueing me in RJ.

Thank you, anti-gay concerned parent one-star Amazon raters, for invariably letting me know when a children’s book has unexpected LGBTQ content.

Seriously I didn’t even have to read the review of this one, I just saw the lone one-star and said to myself, “ooh, I bet there’s gay stuff!”

Parents Beware!, October 9, 2003 By kelly (Georgia)
I was hoping this would be another great book by Rylant, but I was shocked to find the cleverly woven references to homosexuality....this is a book for young readers...not appropriate! ( )

Discusses the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, with an emphasis on the fate of the USS Arizona.

Seven short sketches of life at the Van Gogh Cafe.

At the Van Gogh Cafe, located in an otherwise sleepy town, strange things have been known to happen....

This book caught my eye with its beautiful cover artwork, as well as with the author's name, as Rylant has written many a picture book. The description sounded interesting, but I felt that the book fell a bit flat.

It was not bad, but it was not entirely gripping either. It seemed to be more in a vignette style than a linear plot, although it was moving ahead chronologically. The characterizations were pretty slim and one-dimensional.

Perhaps it just wasn't my cup of tea, for this book did win heaps of praise and honors. To me, it just felt like the title didn't live up to all that. ( )

The Van Gogh Café was overall a good book. It is very interesting because it keeps 2 main characters: Clara and her dad, Marc, but each chapter talks about a different person or event that is not really mentioned in the next. It is more a collection of short stories than a chapter book, making for an interesting read while waiting to see if they end up connecting. It was a good book because the theme was based around magic while still talking about things that generally could happen, making it interesting. Like most chapter books, each chapter gives more depth about the characters’ lives through an interesting way. For example, I learned that Marc loves old movies because a man, who happens to be a (dead) movie star from the 1920s walks into the café. “…he came to the Van Gogh Café and waited for his friend to take him home” is how Rylant described the movie star dying. Each magical thing that happens in the café is good. I think this is good because in a lot of books with magic, magic is seen as both good and bad, but in this book it is seen as only something good that can bring people together. That is how I always thought of magic. The cafe used to be a theater and it shows how people's imaginations can truly shape the world others live in. ( )