In the Waves

March 16, 2015
The Stella sisters, who have been riding a popularity wave via their YouTube music videos and their roles on the TV series Nashville, bring the lyrics of their first original song to picture book form. In appropriately sunny mixed-media illustrations, Björkman (Dirt on My Shirt) shows the girls gearing up for a trip to the beach as their mother hurries them along from her desk. Their idea of sisterly fun is encapsulated in the song's refrain, "In the waves, in the water/ In the waves, in the water/ Just use your imagination/ You can have a dream vacation" and in scenes of a day spent splashing with fish and building sandcastles. The full meaning of that refrain comes through in the final pages, where it's revealed that the girls are actually playing around in "the bubbly-wubbly bubble bath." Light, lively fun for the authors' fans, who can enjoy included photos of the Stellas and their family, as well as listen to the song online. Ages 4â8. Authors' agent: Rubin Pfeffer, Rubin Pfeffer Content.

February 15, 2015
Frothy fun from the Stella sisters, musicians and child stars of the TV series Nashville.Sans music, the text doesn't read any better than pop-song lyrics usually do: "Mom says, hurry, hurry come on / What could possibly be taking so long? // We say, Mama, we're almost done / Getting all ready for some sister fun // In the waves, in the water / In the waves, in the water." Bjorkman cranks the energy up, though, by portraying the recognizably drawn sibs exuberantly racing across a golden beach and diving into shallow waters positively crammed with brightly colored sea life and glittering treasure. Then, with a climactic view of a tub overflowing with suds, toys and a pair of hyped-up girls, comes the revelation that the beach was an imaginary one, the product of "two sisters who pretend a lot." The song is available for an online listen on the publisher's site. A photo album of the sisters on stage and elsewhere caps this souvenir of their first original release. As celebrity-authored books go, it could be worse. (Picture book. 5-7)