Of course, she falls asleep, but it's very nice how the parents give her the option as long as she stays in bed. Which is a reasonable thing to do for kids, and matches well with my parenting style. It's very well written and doesn't have a strong message but the message it has is good.

"Go use your imagination." "How do we do that?" Like they've never imagined anything in their lives. It's kind of bland. It just seems like they're copying this older story instead of being very imaginative. It's like the writer was being lazy.

The ending is kind of sappy. "When I was little I didn't know what a family was. When I was little I didn't know what dreams were. When I was little I didn't know who I was. Now I do." I still don't know who I am, and I'm in my 30s. Still working on that one, Jamie Lee Curtis. Still working on that one.

The nice things that he does for other people reward him by changing his outward appearance to a form that others will accept. It's so bizarre. It's like he has to earn the ability to fit in. It's difficult to tell whether it's saying that fitting in is good or not. It's hard to understand this book.

Byrd Baylor just kind of annoys me. Her books are just full of glorification of and romanticization of ancient cultures, especially Native Americans, in a way that I don't feel is realistic and comes off as sappy and too reverent of people who are no better or worse than we are.

It's basically an interesting personification of the dark as something to be respected but not feared. A force of nature, really. It's personified as something which is helpful, nice, and a little bit misunderstood. Not as scary as it first seems.

It's very weird. It feels like it should have a moral, but I can't find one. She claims early on to not be afraid of the oni, but when they're chasing her it says that she's frightened, so it's not like she's fearless. I guess she's brave because she perseveres despite her fear.

It's kind of like the kind of joke a young child would write. It's not very funny, and the whole book is based around it, which is just bizarre. Maybe a young child would find it funny, but I don't. It's not bad, but it's not great. Contrary to the quote on the back by Parenting Magazine, I don't think it will make children eat their vegetables. It might actually make them sympathize with them, which would be the opposite of your intention.

The creative genius of this man and his time, and how he ran into problems but persevered beyond that, makes for a fascinating book. All the little details of model construction and the beautiful pictures are informative as well as interesting.

There's no story line, really, it's just playing with artistic holes in paper and what appears to be oil paints. It doesn't seem intended to be educational, just a series of paintings that are all interconnected. It's one of those books that would be better as an art installation than a book.