Archive for the ‘Picture Book Spotlight’ Category
The Maggie B
by Irene Haas. One of my favorite picture books ever. When Margaret sails away on a houseboat of her very own, she knows no adventure would be complete without her baby brother. They sail through sun and storm, and efficient Margaret whips up a sea stew so tantalizingly described you can almost smell it simmering on the page. This is a warm, merry book that celebrates the quiet joys I treasure, most especially that bond between the capable big sister and the baby she adores.
(More books with babies here.)
Tags: children’s literature, kidlit, children’s books, books, picture books, babies
This is a week for piling on my bed with a snoozing bairn in the midst of us all, and these are the books we’re in the mood for…
How a Baby Grows
by Nola Buck. This little board book has been Wonderboy’s favorite for months. “These are the things that babies do: cry, wet, sleep, and coo. These are the things a baby sees: Mommy, Daddy, window, trees.” How well he relates to the key objects and events in these babies’ lives! He loves to snuggle in my lap and talk about all the small details on the page: the butterfly, the dandelion, the Cheerios on the floor beneath the highchair. And now, suddenly, he has a whole new connection to the book, with a real live crying, wetting, sleeping, cooing baby sharing my lap with him. I bet he has brought me this book ten times a day since his baby sister came home.
Daisy Thinks She’s a Baby
by Lisa Kopper. A sweet and simple picture book about Daisy the dog’s penchant for playing baby: she likes to ride in the stroller, sleep in the crib, and sit in the highchair. Her disgruntled toddler companion does not find this amusing. But one day something changes, and Daisy can’t be a baby anymore, much to everyone’s delight. I hope your library has a copy of this charming book, which is, alas, no longer in print. The spare, repetitive text and funny colored-pencil illustrations make it a perfect choice for a toddler read-aloud, and my beginning-reader finds it just right for her emerging sounding-out skills.
101 Things to Do with a Baby
by Jan Ormerod. A friend gave us this unique book when Rose was born. It follows a young girl, perhaps five or six years old, through the course of a day with her baby brother, listing all the many things there are to do together. From sharing a bit of egg to frothing up the soap bubbles in baby’s bath, the moments chronicled here are familiar, funny, and enchantingly real. Amazing illustrations. Every time we have a baby, the big sisters around here remember how much they love this book. (They are especially fond of the daddy’s red face during a family floor-time exercise session.)
These are just a few from the pile beside my bed…I’ll share more in the days ahead. For now, I’m off to bed (early!) with the bairnie snuggled beside me. Is there anything sweeter than those little sighs newborns make in their sleep?
Tags: children’s literature, kidlit, children’s books, books, picture books, babies
Aspiring artists and picture book fans alike will enjoy Art and Soul, the blog of illustrator Janee Trasler. Right now she is sharing a behind-the-scenes look at her first book sale. Fun!
The Three Pigs
by David Wiesner, author and illustrator of the enchanting Tuesday
. In this fresh take on the old tale, the wolf’s huffing and puffing blows the pigs right out of their book. They wander among rows of storybook pages, popping in and out of selected tales and gathering friends as they go. The stunning art (no surprise, since this is Wiesner, winner of multiple Caldecott Medals, including one for this book) is filled with intriguing details that kept my younguns poring over the page.
Are You a Butterfly? by Judy Allen, illustrated by Tudor Humphries.
“Are you a butterfly? If you are, then your parents look like this.” Beanie bursts out laughing. Her parents don’t look like butterflies! This sweet, simple book takes the reader through the life cycle of a butterfly. Although this is far from new territory for my five-year-old (her oldest sister, after all, is an enthusiastic lepidopterist who has been enthusiastically indoctrinating her sisters in the wonders of butterflies for years), Beanie greatly enjoyed this fresh look at the subject. The clean, crisp, detailed artwork gave us lots to pore over, and the engaging text sparked much conversation—especially the part about the caterpillar splitting its skin.
Also in the series:
Are You A Ladybug?
Are You an Ant?
Are You a Bee?
Are You A Snail?
Are You a Spider?
Are You a Grasshopper?
…on the feast of St. Lucy.
Hanna’s Christmas
. My kids are 1/8 Swedish, which I figure qualifies us to observe the old Swedish St. Lucia day custom where the oldest daughter dresses all in white and serves sweet rolls to her parents in bed. Not that a total lack of Swedish blood would deter us from keeping this lovely tradition…over the years it has become one of the sweetest parts of our Advent celebration. All three girls dress up here, of course, raiding my drawers the night before for long white slips and such. They make construction paper candle-crowns just like the little girl in the story—without the help (much to their disappointment) of a crotchety stowaway tomten. Hanna’s Christmas is the story of a girl whose family moves from Sweden to America right before the holidays. The intensity of her homesickness is surpassed only by that of a tomten who inadvertantly stows away in a packing crate and, in his indignation and misery, causes no end of mischief in the new house (for which Hanna gets blamed, of course). The St. Lucy day tradition becomes the catalyst to a new outlook for both reluctant immigrants. This is one of my kids’ favorite Christmas books. Not that they’re biased or anything….(she says mysteriously).
Well, doggone it. I was all set to begin today with a recommendation of Kate Banks’s Peter and the Talking Shoes
, but it seems to be out of print. You can find a used copy, but that’s not so great for gift-giving, which was supposed to be the point of this series of posts. Well, track down a copy at your library for your own enjoyment. This is a really charming twist on the cumulative or round-robin tale like the old story about the old woman and the pig. Peter sets off in his new shoes to buy a loaf of bread, but he loses the money on the way to the bakery. Turns out the baker has lost the feather he uses to make his loaves light as a feather, and if Peter can replace the lost feather, the baker will give him the bread. Fortunately, Peter’s shoes used to belong to a farmer, so they know exactly where to go for a feather. But the farmer needs a button…and so it goes. Come to think of it, maybe this exactly the sort of book you ought to buy a used copy of…if your copy could talk, what marvels could it share about its previous owners?
*Note: some used copies are going for over a hundred bucks. Don’t do it! There are $3.95 copies out there too. Also, for the record, I would like to state that as a general rule I do not buy used copies of books by authors who are still living. I try to make sure those hardworking folks get the little bit of royalty they earn on the sale of a new copy. In this case, of course, this principle doesn’t apply, since the book is (stupidly) out of print. C’mon, Knopf, bring it back! And while you’re at it, I want It’s Not My Turn to Look for Grandma back in print too!
OK. Back to my list. Except I’ve spent so long ranting about out-of-print Peter this morning that my time is running out. So here’s a quick list, no commentary. (Oh just cool it on the sighs of relief!)
When Moon Fell Down
by Linda Smith. A perfect picture book. I know, I know, I said no commentary. Humph.
Little Bird and the Moon Sandwich
by Linda Berkowitz. Ooh, a moon theme, looky there. While I’m at it, then, I must certainly mention Jane Yolen’s lyrical and haunting Owl Moon
.
But back to Little Bird—OH DRAT! I just discovered that this title too is out of print! Come on! Well, so much for the “what to buy your nephews and nieces for Christmas” theme. This has become a list of library treasures. Which is not a bad thing, just not what I was intending and also it’s really disappointing to see a good book go out of print. What I was going to say about Little Bird is that there’s a sequel, but the author’s name is different. Perhaps she got married between books. Anyway, my children have all adored this gentle hide-and-seek story. 
It’s Alfonse, Where Are You?
by Linda Wikler. And (sigh) I see that it, too, is out of print. Hmm, I think these were all Dragonfly Books (a Knopf picture book imprint). I wonder if the imprint was scrapped after its editorial director moved to another publishing house. I’ll have to ask my pals at Knopf. JS, NH, are you reading?
Leaving picture books behind, here’s a beginning reader we are screamingly huge fans of: Newt
, an I Can Read by Matt Novak. If it’s out of print too I really will scream. Except then I’ll wake up the rest of the house and since the bird clock is just now orioling six, that would be a really bad idea. Here goes, let’s pop over to Amazon to check…AAAAUUUUGGGGHHHH! I don’t believe it. HarperCollins, seriously, what were you thinking? Beginning readers don’t get any better than Newt. It’s of Frog and Toad
caliber, no kidding! Better art, in fact. Scott, who (with seven years of hiring and firing artists under his belt) knows a thing or two about illustrations, considers Matt Novak a storytelling genius. The expressions, the delicacy of detail so difficult to pull off in a comical, cartoonish style—and then to pair this charming art with text that manages to be both simple and nuanced at once, fresh and funny and lyrical without being heavy-handed—do you know how hard it is to pull that off? Beginning readers are reeeaaaalllly hard to write—even harder to write well—because the text is so spare, there’s no room for a single weak syllable. Well, I’ve said my piece. Snatch up a used copy of Newt while you can—too bad, small cousins, you’re getting something else for Christmas—and enjoy the gentle misadventures of this amiable salamander and the ugly bug he adopts.
Diary of a Worm
by Doreen Cronin, author of Beanie’s beloved Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type
. This quirky look at the life of a young worm never fails to crack me up. May 28. Last night I went to the school dance. You put your head in. You put your head out. You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself about. That’s all we could do. Hilarious details in the illustrations.
All the Places to Love
by Patricia MacLachlan. This breathtaking book was the first baby gift I ever received, and it has become a family treasure. We like to hear Scott read it because it always chokes him up. Everyone in the young narrator’s family has a place he loves best about the family farm: the blueberry hill, the river rocks, the barn. (“Where else,” muses his grandfather, “can the soft sound of cows chewing make all the difference in the world?”) The boy grows up rooted in this sense of personal connection to place, and when his baby sister is born, he is the one to share “all the places to love” with her.
Bub: Or the Very Best Thing
by Natalie Babbitt. Like many new parents, the king and queen are obsessing over exactly what is “the very best thing” for their toddler son. They solicit advice from all corners of the castle, and everyone from the gardener to the court musician has an opinion. Turns out the young prince knew the answer all along: “Bub.” What’s “bub”? Your two-year-old can tell you…
James in the House of Aunt Prudence
by Timothy Bush. Not much text in this book: the story is in the deliciously detailed artwork. When James visits his very proper Aunt Prudence, he tries to be on his best behavior. It’s not his fault the bearskin rug turns out to be a live bear…not to mention the arch enemy of the nasty Mouse King.
Around this time of year, I get a lot of queries from readers about book recommendations for gifts. I thought I’d post some of my suggestions here. I’ll start with picture books (which make great family gifts as well as special presents for small children) and over the course of this week will try to work my way up to older readers as well. And of course I’ve already listed a lot of our favorites in the sidebar—what I’ll be posting here are (mostly) books that aren’t already listed there. If I put ALL the books we treasure, this page would take forever to load.
All righty then. You already know that I think Jan Brett’s Christmas Treasury
would make a lovely family gift, one destined to become part of a holiday tradition. It brings together in one volume these stories: The Mitten, The Wild Christmas Reindeer, Trouble with Trolls, The Twelve Days of Christmas, The Hat, The Night Before Christmas, and the book that had me in tears earlier this week, Christmas Trolls.
The Rainbabies
by Laura Kraus Melmed. Beautifully illustrated tale of an elderly couple whose yearning for a child is answered in a most unexpected manner. (Would make an extra-special gift paired with some tiny little handcrafted baby dolls, of which I bet there are zillions on Etsy. Not to up the ante too much—the book is a beautiful gift all on its own.)
—More to come later—the kids just woke up and it seems St. Nick paid a visit in the night, for their shoes are full of candy. I am summoned to the joyful hullabaloo!
The Maggie B
How a Baby Grows
The Three Pigs
Are You a Butterfly? by Judy Allen, illustrated by Tudor Humphries.
. My kids are 1/8 Swedish, which I figure qualifies us to observe the old Swedish St. Lucia day custom where the oldest daughter dresses all in white and serves sweet rolls to her parents in bed. Not that a total lack of Swedish blood would deter us from keeping this lovely tradition…over the years it has become one of the sweetest parts of our Advent celebration. All three girls dress up here, of course, raiding my drawers the night before for long white slips and such. They make construction paper candle-crowns just like the little girl in the story—without the help (much to their disappointment) of a crotchety stowaway tomten. Hanna’s Christmas is the story of a girl whose family moves from Sweden to America right before the holidays. The intensity of her homesickness is surpassed only by that of a tomten who inadvertantly stows away in a packing crate and, in his indignation and misery, causes no end of mischief in the new house (for which Hanna gets blamed, of course). The St. Lucy day tradition becomes the catalyst to a new outlook for both reluctant immigrants. This is one of my kids’ favorite Christmas books. Not that they’re biased or anything….(she says mysteriously).
Well, doggone it. I was all set to begin today with a recommendation of Kate Banks’s Peter and the Talking Shoes
When Moon Fell Down
Little Bird and the Moon Sandwich
It’s Alfonse, Where Are You?
Leaving picture books behind, here’s a beginning reader we are screamingly huge fans of: Newt
Diary of a Worm
All the Places to Love
Bub: Or the Very Best Thing
James in the House of Aunt Prudence
