Issue link: http://winter.relevantize.com/i/523563
/ . / B O O K S ➻ F R I E N D O F D $ A $ L $ S $ Pseudonymous Bosch con't Pseudonymous's Picks The Circus in the Mist by Bruno Munari (only avail- able used) This almost wordless book was one of my favorites when I was very young and I still love to look at it. Written and illustrated—perhaps the best word is created—by the Italian designer and book-magician Bruno Munari, The Circus in the Mist takes the reader on a journey into a "mist," which is represented by translucent vellum pages. Spare yet playful, each page teases you into turn- ing to the next. In the middle of the book, you are rewarded with a circus, and all its fun and familiar acts, but at the end you are returned to the mist, as if to say that the mys- teriousness of the mist itself— not the circus it hides—is the true wonder. The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg Soon this unique picture book will be very well-known because an anthology of stories inspired by it was just recently published, but when I discovered it by accident in a used bookstore I felt as if I'd stumbled on an artifact of a lost civilization. I don't want to ruin the book for you by de- scribing it in detail, but briefly: it consists of a series of strange and enigmatic drawings with provocative captions that are meant not to explain but rather to elicit explanation. In a sense, the reader is the author of the stories that the pictures tell. The Something by Natalie Babbit (only avail- able used) Alas, I did not read this one as a child, but a friend (whom I will not name for her own protection) gave me a copy a few years ago and I treasure it, not least because this particu- lar copy is inscribed by the au- thor—to somebody else! This diminutive picture book tells the story of a monster who is afraid of the Something—a mysterious creature that enters through his bedroom window at night. Who or what the Something is is the question that animates the book. As in all good mysteries, the answer is at once surprising and inevi- table. Nate the Great by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat Before there was a middle grade graphic novel series called Big Nate there was a se- ries of illustrated early-reader chapter books called Nate the Great. Sadly, I didn't know about Nate the Great until the other day when, to my delight, somebody handed me the first Nate book. In the book, the eponymous kid detective endeavors to find his neigh- bor's missing painting—this being a painting that the young neighbor herself painted, you understand. Fittingly, the key to resolving the mystery lies in knowing what color two particular colors make when they are mixed. I imagine this would be a perfect first chapter book for a budding young reader—or maybe a second, after Frog and Toad. The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder The last book I wrote in The Secret Series, has an Egyptian theme; so I read this 1967 middle grade novel very recent- ly, looking for ideas to steal. Like many Newbery books (of which this is a lesser-known example), The Egypt Game of- fers a combination of mystery and fantasy that is grounded in "realistic" family life. (If you suspect I have been studying Newbery winners hoping to discover a hidden formula, well, I'm going to take the Fifth on that.) A multicultural cast of Berkeley, California kids secretly band together to participate in exotic Ancient Egyptian rituals and solve a creepy neighborhood mystery. What fun! Something for you and your kid to read after your copies of A Wrinkle in Time and From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler are all worn out. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: A Flavia de Luce Mystery by Alan Bradley OYcially a book for adults, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie stars one of the most mor- dant—and hilarious—pre-teen heroines ever created. Flavia is a brilliant, half-mad chem- ist bent on revenging herself against all who cross her—most of all her own sisters. I loved the book when I read it last year. I think I would have loved it even more when I was eleven years old, although I might have had to open a dictionary a few times along the way. A great book for a precocious kid whose reading level has way beyond kids' books—but who still enjoys a little childish mischief. I refer, of course, to myself. As an adult, I find that children's books help restore my sense of mystery. Hopefully these books will do that for you, too. 23