Puff, the Magic Dragon

The beauty of this picture book version of Puff, the Magic Dragon perfectly matches the beauty of the original song by Peter, Paul, and Mary. I fell in love with it the moment I saw it. The book comes packaged together with a CD of the song performed by Peter and his daughter Bethany, but I can't tell you anything about the recording because I bought this book used and the CD was not included.

The song has always made me cry a little bit, and this book did the same. As I've mentioned before, I'm a sucker for growing-up or cycle-of-life stories, and this certainly is one. Jackie has so much fun with Puff, and then grows up and stops playing with him. This book adds a happy ending to the story, though. The words are the same as in the song, but on the final chorus, the illustrations show a new little girl coming to play with Puff. The last page reveals a grown-up Jackie Paper peeking in on the scene, implying that the girl is his daughter.

The illustrations in this book are unbelievably beautiful. The front cover image really does not do justice to the illustrations, and Amazon doesn't have a look-inside feature for this book, so you'll have to take my word for it. They are stunning. The inside covers show maps of the land of Honalee. The pages are gorgeous fantasy paintings that combine realistic and fantastical elements to create the effect that you're truly seeing inside Jackie's imagination. There are many details and hidden elements throughout: fairies, buildings in the distance, rocks that look like faces. I haven't read the book enough times to notice even half of them, I'm sure.

This is quite a sad story, with a deep friendship breaking up as Jackie grows older, and I was a little bit concerned about presenting it to Charlie. And indeed, Charlie was upset when we first read it. He kept asking me why Jackie and Puff are not friends any more. We talked about it at length, discussing how Jackie grew up and dragons are friends with little kids, not grown-ups. I pointed out the little girl who comes to be Puff's new friend, and explained that Jackie is her dad. I don't think Charlie understands exactly what's going on, but he's not traumatized by it. He likes to point out the little girl's dad hiding behind the tree, but I don't think he makes the connection yet that the dad is Jackie as a grown-up. Still, Charlie requests the book frequently and loves the pictures and the song, and he will certainly grow into it.

I adore this book. It's very emotional for me, so it's difficult to explain exactly what I love about it so much. The story is sad yet sweet, the pictures are beautiful, and the song is a folk classic, but together these elements add up to something even more.

Sunrise, Sunset

We received Sunrise, Sunset from PJ Library, an organization that provides free books to Jewish kids. I would wholeheartedly recommend PJ Library to anyone raising their kids in the Jewish religion. I recommend it with reservations to people like me, who want their kids to have a cultural connection to Judaism without pushing the religion aspect. PJ sends out one book or CD per month. We signed up for the baby level (under two years old), and over the course of the year, there were two books that I refused to give to Charlie because of religious or mystical content. The rest were straightforward explanations of Jewish holidays that we read but didn't love.

Sunrise, Sunset was one of the first books we got from PJ after graduating to the 2-3 year age group, and it's certainly my favorite book from them so far. It's the story of Motel and Tzeitel from Fiddler on the Roof, told in pictures accompanied by the words of the song Sunrise, Sunset. I am a sucker for happy cycle-of-life stories, and this one totally made me cry.

The religious content of this book is subtle and almost non-existent. There's nothing about religious beliefs or anything in the text. All of the characters are shown wearing religious dress, namely head coverings and tzit tzit. The Jewish wedding ceremony is shown and briefly described. One page appears to depict the discarding of bread before Passover, but it's not explained. All of these are elements that I want my kids to know about, and I like that they are presented mainly in the background to discuss but not as part of the actual story.

The illustrations are colorful and very expressive, and the characters are drawn to look very similar to the actors in the movie version of Fiddler on the Roof. Motel and Tzeitel are shown as children and then as young adults falling in love, then after their marriage Tzeitel is shown pregnant and then the couple with their new baby. Other elements in the illustrations also show the passage of time (A white kitten becomes old and fat. Tzeitel's parents appear to get older as well.). There is also a theme of sunflowers on almost every page, taken from the lyric, "Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers, blossoming even as we gaze."

The words of the song are just as they appear in the movie or play, so they will be quite familiar. It's a sweet reflection on the passage of time and how quickly children grow up. The final page of the book prints the sheet music to the song, so you can play or sing along.

I probably would not have paid money for this book, since it's essentially the same content one could get from the movie. But I'm glad we have it. It would have been nice to take out of the library, I think. It makes the story accessible to a much younger child than the movie would be appropriate for. Charlie has certainly enjoyed reading it.