Woohoo!!! The Bookscoop’s sisters managed to pull off two Doublescoops in one month. Our review of The Day-Glo Brothers: The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer’s Bright Ideas and Brand- New Colors by Chris Barton and illustrated by Tony Persiani is part of our Purple Day challenge to raise public awareness about epilepsy and seizures. One in ten people will have a seizure in their life-time and one in a hundred will have epilepsy. We want people who have epilepsy to not feel so alone and this happens to be a favorite book of Cari’s daughter. If you comment on this post and/or participate in our Purple Day Challenge we will enter your name in a drawing for The Day-Glo Brothers. Please see our Purple Day post for eligibility requirements.
Cari: I love biographies like The Day-Glo Brothers – nonfiction picture books that tell a compelling human story, which doesn’t typically make the history books.
Holly: When I picked it up, the librarian was just putting it on the request shelf for us. She turned around and said, “That book has great pictures!” and I agree. The colors are very illuminating. Tony Persiani does an excellent job.
Cari: The pictures really, really add to what you’re reading. Which is what a picture book is supposed to do, but not all of them actually do. It helps that you are talking about colors that you can only see in the dark with certain lights. So the illustrations are black and white in the beginning with a few select colors. It helps you realize what the world is like before those eye popping colors. I liked the story too, did you?
Holly: Yes. I liked that the Switzer brothers had goals early in life, but their lives didn’t necessarily turn out how they planned them.
Cari: That’s a lot how life is. They weren’t always interested in the same things, either- Joe was an entertainer and Bob wanted to go to medical school.
Holly: And Bob had an accident that resulted in a head injury that left him with seizures & double vision so he wasn’t able to go to medical school anymore. The two brothers experiment while he’s trying to recover in the basement.
Cari: Yes, light would bother him. They started working together out of boredom. I’m very interested in these two because of my daughter’s seizures. I was curious to know how he dealt with seizures the rest of his life or if the seizures eventually stopped. During Bob and Joe’s era people with epilepsy did not talk about it. In fact a neurologist today has been doing research on Franklin Delono Roosevelt and there is a lot of evidence to suggest he had epilepsy. I wondered if he couldn’t complete medical school because of prejudice about seizures.
Holly: Medical school is very intense. Without specific allowances for a disability, it may be impossible to complete medical school due to lack of sleep, which I hear contributes to seizure activity.
Cari: Yes, we have to be very careful to make sure our daughter gets adequate rest. We’ve also had to put in place protocol with the school for the special allowances this sometimes requires. Like for instance, the recent time change that throws our sleep/wake cycle off triggered a seizure in my daughter last year. So this year, we took extra precautions and had to take her to school late a few times.
Holly: I’m glad that you take such good care of her! I liked that this is the author’s first book and that he was inspired to write it when he heard the Day Glo brothers’ amazing story.
Cari: Despite Bob having a what sounds like seizure disorder, I can’t say that he did have epilepsy although to be diagnosed you have seizures that do not have an underlying problem that can be corrected. Bob still did a lot of great stuff & both brothers had a lot of fun. If you suffer a traumatic head injury you have a 50% chance of developing epilepsy and it can develop years later. It’s so important to protect your head and that is why helmets are critical in prevention of post-traumatic epilepsy
Holly: The book makes it clear at the end that even though they didn’t become what they thought they would as kids, they still achieved their goals and I think that’s a great example.
Cari: Their paints were used in WWII to help pilots land and also to avoid problems with friendly fire. Their paints made it easier to identify the enemy from an ally.
Holly: Yeah, I wonder if there were spies trying to figure out how they made those glowing colors- or was that world wide knowledge by then?
Cair: Who knows?
Holly: So, how did you find out about the book?
Cari: It was a Cybils book we read in my book club. It was one of the ones I liked the most. My daughter also enjoyed reading it. I think she liked knowing that there were lots of cool things you could still do even if you have seizures.
Holly: I remember when ‘neon’ colors were all the rage.
Cari: I do too. Now we know who to thank. Some of them are coming back.
Holly: Yes, I’ve noticed. I’m wishing I’d kept my neon Golden Gate Bridge t-shirt and maybe my neon green striped t-shirt. But, I don’t need the neon spandex. I think we’ll pass on those.
Cari: You know I bet those brothers didn’t think that they would actually work together. You know a magician and a medical doctor don’t seem like they would go well together.
Holly: I beg to differ. Isn’t that what we expect from medical professionals? Magic?
Cari: Hah! That’s true.
Holly: I think the book is fascinating for kids – even if they can’t read it on their own, the pictures will appeal to them.
In lieu of a trip down memory lane, we thought we’d share some insight into our real personalities…
Cari: Growing up I was more of the idea person and tended to be in trouble more than Holly.
Holly: So far this isn’t any different than our stories.
Cari: How are you different from how we represent you in the stories?
Holly: I don’t let people walk all over me- you especially. I actually do have a back bone and opinions about things. I do tend to work in the background, so that much is true. How about you?
Cari: Well, I was not really a devious child. Yes, I did get in more trouble than Holly and have an overactive imagination. But, I wasn’t generally mean. I think I still come up with lots of good ideas for stuff.
Holly: Yes. You do. Like creating a book blog.
Cari: Thanks!
Holly: As always, I thought you were crazy when you brought up the idea, but did anyone ever tell you that you are convincing?
Cari: I’m known for my powers of persuasion. Speaking of which, isn’t it time we shared that one story?
Holly: Not unless you want to share the other one.
Cari: Blackmail. Did anyone ever tell you that you were good at blackmail?
Holly: Nope! It goes both ways, though. If you want to share my story, I’ll share yours.
Cari: You know, I think some stories are better left untold.
Holly: Now you’re talking!
Cari: You’re not so bad with those persuasion powers yourself. Maybe you should thank me.
Holly: For what?
Cari: For teaching you all my skills, of course!
Holly: I think we’re off track here. Aren’t we supposed to be telling them what we’re really like? I think we’re back to our paper personalities now.
Cari: Oh, yes. I guess it’s time to put out the lights on this doublescoop.
Holly: I think it might glo in the dark.
Cari: Yes, there is still a light on.
Holly: It’s your computer screen. Push the little circle button and it will turn off.
Cari: I’m not stupid.
Holly: I never said you were.
Goodnight!
This is a non-fiction book about one of Baseball’s best players. Satchel Paige played during a time of racial segregation in our nation’s favorite pastime. Satchel overcame a difficult childhood to become famous among black fans. Satchel Paige was overlooked by mainstream media and ‘regular’ fans. At one point when Satchel’s Negro League team played a white team, Satchel proved that he was the best by having all the other players sit down and he threw straight strike outs, until the other team apologized for their disbelief and racial remarks.
As part of the 
I loved Hatchet as a kid and when I saw this autobiography I had to read it. I wanted to know what was behind the stories. After reading this the man is lucky to be alive. Born in the 1939, he is not slowing down to say the least as of right now he is currently training for the Iditarod in Alaska.
I thought this book was okay. My daughter liked looking at the pictures of all the different “bugs”, which included spiders and insects. I liked that it had a little bit of information for each bug. My biggest complaint is that at the end of the book he says that “The Orb Spider, Water Spider and Tarantula are spiders. The Velvet Mite and the Scorpian are arachnids.” Spiders are arachnids too so I thought that was confusing. But that’s just me. So it could be a good book to begin a study of “bugs”, which I always thought of as insects. I am over analyzing too much?
I think I got this book at a Scholastic Warehouse sale for a buck. It wasn’t worth it. The book idea is cute as they go through the alphabet asking the reader to pretend what life would be like without that letter. However, the rhymes seem forced at times and just odd. I did like the illustrations, colorful and fun. The book has great potential that didn’t materialize.
This book was recommended by Bookie Woogie when I first posted a list of ABC books who said “the most vivid colors I’ve ever seen in a picturebook.” He was right. I cannot say enough about the pictures. They are vivid, vibrant and so full of color it’s easy to spend several minutes on each page admiring the art work. My 4-year old loved the book. The verse is fun creative and very buggy and compliments the illustrations very well. I would definitely buy this book.
This is a very thick, pop-up book with lots of different textures to use. This is a good book to use with young children as it is very tactile – little ones love to lift flaps and touch things. Like the Velvety tall Giraffes are really – velvety. Great way to introduce reading to a young child.
This book claims to NOT teach you the alphabet and is written for children ages 4-7. It also includes number counting as well. Each letter is represented by an fictional monster created by TINY. My daughter loved the book. She thought it was fun and that the monsters where funny. It reminded my of Dr. Suess only for older kids.
This is a wordless alphabet book for kids ages 4-7. In other words each page has pictures of things that start with that letter. For letter the letter A there is an acrobat. Loved the pictures which he did on watercolor paper with mixed medium. It took a while to go through the book and we have since read it at least 3 times. My daughter loves looking for pictures that started with the corresponding letter and each time we found more pictures that started with the corresponding letter. There is a key at the end of the book of all the different items, which helped because sometimes I didn’t know the name of a paricularly animal or illustration. Two mice accompany you on the journey – one to set up the letter and the other to watch. This is a fantastic book, great illustrations and a great way to teach beginning sounds.
I saw this one when I checked out the author’s website and thought it looked like a great companion to Amelia to Zora which I did a review for last month. I loved this book. It talked about so many different men from athletes to artists to scientists to peace activists and more and their contributions to the world from all backgrounds. Loved it, loved it, loved it! Same format as the other book as it uses the gentlemen’s first names and includes a quote from each man. The pictures are all done with a mixed medium in a collage style. One of my favorites is B for Badshah who lead the larges nonviolent protest group ever of 100,000 in what is now part of Pakistan. This would be a good one for 3rd grade on up.
