REVIEW OF THE DAY
John, Paul, George and Ben

If you don’t laugh at this review, you need something stronger in your Starbucks today. What makes Deb Clark so funny? She taps into that Mommy fever dream of someday having an idle moment:

Ben
Sometimes I find myself attracted to children’s entertainers. Not just any old birthday clown or balloon twister. It’s got to be someone who holds my kids in rapt attention for at least 15 precious, precious minutes.

I had a crush, sight unseen, on Elmo’s puppeteer. I thought it would be fun to go to a Wiggles concert and throw granny panties on stage. And whoever was behind that Baby Van Gogh video—the only thing that calmed my colicky infant—has a place in my heart forever.

But none of those compare to author and illustrator Lane Smith, she goes on to say. By the time Deb gets around to describing his book, a comic riff on our Founding Father’s childhoods, you’re pretty much sold.

John, Paul, George and Ben is shaping up as one of the titles to beat in the non-fiction picture book category. Eisha, at Seven Impossible Things, summed it up this way:

I’m not sure how much history a young child would actually glean from
this, or whether kids would get the Beatles references (it opens with a
picture of the four “lads” walking single-file across the page, a la Abbey Road
– Paul even has his shoes off!), but it would make a fun Presidents’ Day
read-aloud for elementary-age kids who are already a little familiar
with the subject.