book of the day: the storm whale by benji davies (henry holt 2013)

Noi is a lonely little boy who lives with his father in a house by the sea.  Every day, his father goes out on his boat to fish for a living, and Noi is left alone to talk to his six cats and explore the shoreline.  After a strong storm, a baby whale is beached on the sand and can't move.  Noi takes him home and hides him in the bathtub.  He knows it would be better to return him to the ocean, but Noi keeps him anyway because he is desperate to have someone to listen to him and talk with him.  When his father discovers the whale, a touching thing happens. He doesn't get mad.  He doesn't yell.  He hugs Noi and understands immediately that his son needs more from him.  Together, they return the whale to its home.

As a parent, I really enjoyed the father's understanding in this book.  There are so many times that I feel overworked and stressed out to the point that I can't see past my own nose, and it gets way to easy for my initial reaction to something my child has done to be one of frustration.  How frustrating!  I worked all day.  I'm exhausted!  I come home and now have to clean whale juice out of the bathtub!  Aargh!  The next time I'm faced with whale juice, I am going to do my best to take a deep breath and remember Noi's dad and his first instinct not to yell but to love.   

books for father's day : on our way home by sebastien braun

The book we are reading today is One Our Way Home, a lovely little story about a daddy bear and a son bear walking back to their den at the end of the day.  They walk through the forest, skipping and playing, watching the clouds drift by overhead, and making it home to snuggle together for the night.  

I love the illustrations in this - so happy, gentle, and colorful.  I especially love the one with the cub on his dad's shoulders.  It reminds me of my own husband with our kids.  This would be a great one to share with the special dad in your life for a very special storytime this father's day!

books to inspire them: last stop on market street written by matt de la pena, illustrations by christian robinson (2015)

FULL DISCLOSURE TIME:  I'm a crier.  Yep. A total crier. Show me a You Tube clip of a disabled dog learning to use his new prosthetic leg, fireworks choreographed to our national anthem, that episode of the Golden Girls where Blanche's daughter gives birth to her first baby and learns to love her own mother more in the process, and watch me sob uncontrollably like a wet mess.  Y'all, this book made me cry, but it was such a good cry.  The kind that comes with the warm, happy hopefulness I felt while reading this book.  

Last Stop on Market Street follows a young boy, CJ, and his Nana on a typical Sunday afternoon after church.  CJ sees the other boys his age running about and enjoying all of the material trinkets that he can't afford.  He feels envious until his grandmother teaches him to see the beauty in simple things - meeting new and different people, helping those with a greater need than your own.  In a world where we are so very connected with our screens, Nana urges CJ and readers to put down the istuff and engage in what is around us.  

So this book makes me hopeful - hopeful for the future of children's literature where we have writers like De La Pena producing work that in engaging and entertaining to young brains but also deals with more substantial topics like poverty, civic duty, and diversity, and hopeful for the future as a whole where books like this are published, read, and enjoyed.  

the best in board books: each peach pear plum by janet and allan ahlberg

There are many, many, many books out there with nursery rhyme characters.  In our house alone, we have several versions of the classic Mother Goose tales including a Richard Scarry edition, a Disney edition with Minnie wearing the Mother Goose frilly bonnet riding a giant goose, among others on our book shelves.  What sets this adorable little board book apart from the rest is the way it layers each familiar rhyme as the pages are turned, weaving the characters together to make one big story.  By the last page, all of our favorite nursery rhyme characters sit down and enjoy a wonderful picnic together!  

book of the day: beekle by dan santat (little, brown, and company 2014)

Step right up for the book of the day: Beekle by Dan Santat.  This book has been on my wishlist for quite a while, and I am so glad I finally bought it!  I get just as excited as my kids (maybe more)  about a fun new book.  

Beekle is about a fantasy world where imaginary friends are born waiting for children in the real world to dream them up and play with them.  Beekle waits and waits for his friend to imagine him, but it never happens.  So, he takes matters into his own hands and travels to the real world to find a friend of his own.  

It goes without saying that the illustrations in this book are phenomenal - warm and emotional, bright and happy, imagination to the top degree.  I ran this story through my little book test today by reading it to my eight year old son and my two year old son at the same time.  I feel like a book that keeps the attention of both of my children with their very different age groups is a book that can be considered a great pick.  This book did just that. Both my older and younger kid were engaged and enjoying the story.  

Beekle is also set to be the next big movie by Dreamworks!  According to online news sources, the movie production studio is gearing up to create a movie based on this great character.  We can't wait to get more Beekle!

overlooked books by classic authors: the color kittens by margaret wise brown

A while back, we talked about The Fur Family, a great book by Margaret Wise Brown often passed up for her more popular classic, Goodnight Moon.  Well, here is another good read by Ms. Brown that doesn't get much attention - The Color Kittens.

This story follows two curious kittens who love to mix paint and make all the colors of the rainbow.  The subject matter and simple language are perfect for preschoolers learning their colors!  

book of the day: crazy hair by neil gaiman, pictures by dave mckean (harper collins 2009)

Neil Gaiman is one of those super-human types that fascinates me with his versatility and creative ability.  He is the ultimate writer chameleon.  He moves from genre to genre - adult novels, comic books, children's picture books - and seems to master them with ease.  This is another perfect example of his mastery - a story about a man with the craziest hair you have ever seen!

Now, how crazy is his hair?  Exotic birds nest in it!  Explorers set out on expeditions inside it and are never seen again!  It is home to tigers, carousels, gorillas, and dancers!  One day the crazy haired man meets a girl named Bonnie who wants to tame his wild style.  She wants to (gasp!)  comb his hair.  He does his best to convince her that this would be a bad idea and even a dangerous idea, but she insists that she must.  

The illustrations by Dave McKean have this unique collage quality and provide the dark edge Mr. Gaiman's work is known for.  The texture in the hair illustrations is so realistic that you will touch the page to see if they are real.  My hygiene-resistant son is one crazy-haired guy, so this books makes us both laugh as the descriptions of what lies in his hair get wilder and wilder as the book progresses.  I'll be honest with you.  Summer time at our house =  mommy is willing to fight less hygiene battles = let the crazy hair fly!  

book of the day: food trucks! by mark todd (HMH 2014)

Food trucks have become an ingrained part of our culture that it seems only natural that we celebrate them in children's books the way we have celebrated fire trucks or construction vehicles in children's literature for years.  

This story playfully imagines food trucks with fun themes like a salad truck called "Mr. Cobb"  or a falafel truck named "The Pharaoh's Tummy"  and pairs them with short poem descriptions of each truck's menu as well as trivia fun facts about the food each serves.  For example, did you know that a group of chefs in Jordan created the largest falafel ever weighing in at 155 pounds.  It's true!  My two year old enjoyed looking at the pictures and talking about the food they serve, and my eight year old really got interested in the food facts.  By the end of it, we were getting out the crayons and paper to design our own takes on the food truck!

the book we read today: the sweetest fig, chris van allsburg (houghton mifflin 1993)

IF you love some of Chris Van Allsburg's classics like The Polar Express and Jumanji, this book, The Sweetest Fig, needs to be the next on your list.  My second grader and I read it today, and it was too good not to share!  

It has everything you would expect from this wonderful author - inspiring illustrations, unique story line, and an ending with a twist.  What I love about this story was the way that we couldn't judge this book by its cover.  The cover illustration didn't reveal what this clever little story is about, and I won't either!  By the end, the kiddo and I both had smiles on our faces.  

the real avengers: d'aulaires' book of norse myths

If you read a previous post of mine back in April concerning me tricking my eight-year-old into reading poetry and (gasp!) enjoying it, you know that there is no shame in my game.  I will use whatever mind manipulating necessary to get my kids reading.  This amazingly illustrated collection of norse mythology is another one of those books that when presented point blank, kids are not too thrilled about. HOWEVER, with a little salesmanship on my part, I got my eight year old reading and loving these tales. Kind of like when you bake homemade, healthy brownies with spinach puree and carob hidden inside but leave the empty box of Betty Crocker double fudge brownies on the counter top for the kids to see,  this isn't a collection of stories passed down for a thousand years indicative of the culture and concerns of an ancient people.  This is a book about Thor from the Avenger movie!  

Everyone at our house along with everyone living in the world right now for that matter has Avengers fever.  We saw the movie.  We have the comic books. We bought piles of the merchandise.  When my toddler gets angry, (and I'm not one hundred percent proud of this) he growls, pounds his fists, and yells "HULK SMASH!"  Why not capitalize on this mania and get your kids reading stories of intrigue, adventure, and family drama all packaged up in myths that are the basis for a lot of what we consider to be the classics of the literary world?  Plus this edition contains lively pictures and an introduction by the legendary Michael Chabon - two more for the win column.

overlooked books by classic authors: little fur family, by margaret wise brown

Margaret Wise Brown is best known for her wildly popular and ever-present classic, Good Night Moon.  Who hasn't read this calming tale to little ones at bedtime?  Brown is also known for the wonderfully illustrated The Runaway Bunny, but one of her less celebrated works deserves to be talked about.  Little Fur Family follows a family of wild creatures living in the forest.  It is just as simple as Good Night Moon and just as beautifully illustrated as The Runaway Bunny but seems to be forgotten.  The copy I have is so adorable because if you look closely at the photo above, you can see that my book is covered in fur (faux naturally) just like the fur family! So if you've reached your limit of reading about that great green room with a telephone and a red balloon and that yucky uneaten bowl of mush, pick up a nice alternative with Little Fur Family.

my swedish summer dreams

This is where I want to spend my summer - a little red and white cottage in the Swedish countryside with my kids running around without shoes, picking blueberries, taking a dip in an ice cold lake, drinking lots of coffee.  Unfortunately, this little imaginary house is thousands of miles away and is situated in one of the most expensive countries in the world.  We will have to just be okay with grocery store berries and sticking our feet in a kiddy pool for now.  If your summer dreams take you to the idyllic farms, lakes, and forests of Scandinavia, grab a pint of farmer's market blueberries and strong cup of joe, and read these selections to the kids at bedtime.

This post is all about the collective stories written about the Bullerby children by the famous Swedish children's author, Astrid Lindgren (If she doesn't sound familiar,  Pippi Longstocking is her creation.)  I have found these stories in separate volumes with titles like Happy Times in Noisy Village and The Children of Noisy Village.  I also have found older and possibly out of print versions still available through online book sellers that put all of the Bullerby stories together in one book.  My copy is called All About the Bullerby Children.  

The Bullerby kids are two brothers and a sister living on a farm in a Swedish village.  They run around with the other children in their village doing everyday kid stuff like climbing trees and learning to share new toys.  These stories would make a great choice for an introduction into chapter books for maybe kindergartners or first graders.  The stories are very sweet and innocent.  The words and plot lines are very simple, and young children will love reading about kids who are just like them.  Thanks for reading today!  Tack sa mycket (thank you very much in Swedish)!

mother's day books: the patchwork quilt, by valerie flournoy with illustrations by jerry pinkney (dial 1985)

Hello again!  With Mother's Day coming up soon, we are sharing books that remind us of the special relationship between a mom and her child, or in today's case, a grandmother and her grandchild.  Just like yesterday's pick, The Patchwork Quilt by Valerie Flournoy is also one of my favorite books from childhood brought into my life by that wonderful and influential t.v. show Reading Rainbow.  What an amazing show that was!  Why don't we just put this book chat on hold and have a netflix-reading-rainbow-watching binge for the rest of today?  No?  Later perhaps?  

This is the story of Tanya and the close relationship she shares with her grandmother.  When Grandma decides to make a quilt, Tanya's mom thinks the project is just too much work and decides to go to the store to buy a quilt instead.  Tanya insists on helping Grandma make the quilt.  Grandma accepts the help, but lets Tanya know that quilt-making takes a lot work, time, and patience.   

"It's gonna take quite a while to make this quilt, not a couple of days or a week - not even a month.  A good quilt, a masterpiece . . . "

The book follows a year with Tanya and Grandma quilting through the seasons, holidays, sickness, and health.  Eventually the quilt is finished.  It is indeed a masterpiece.  With the last square sewn, Grandma hands the quilt to Tanya as a gift for her help.  

I love the beautiful watercolor pictures of this book.  Each has been lovingly sketched and painted with tons of family love and life.  This story is great for first or second grade and up.  Each page has a full several paragraphs of story that younger ages might not have the attention span to appreciate.  

This would make a great gift for Grandma on Mother's Day!

mother's day books: a chair for my mother, written by vera b. williams

Mother's day is fast approaching, and there are so many special books that celebrate moms!   This week, let's share a couple of selections perfect for moms to cuddle up and read with their little ones unless the reading time happens to land on Mother's day.  Then Mom should throw the book into dad's lap and let him read to the sweet darlings while she gets a pedicure and a glass of chardonnay.  Cheers to mothers!

Do you have a book from your childhood that makes you feel the warm fuzzies inside every time you read it?  For me, that book is A Chair for My Mother.  It is one of the first books I remember seeing on the t.v. show Reading Rainbow, and one of the first books I can remember my mother reading to me.  It is the story of a girl who lives with her mother and grandmother.  The girl's mom is a waitress at a diner, and she works very long hours.  When she gets home at night, she is exhausted and has no comfortable chair in which to rest.  After every shift at the diner, she brings home her tips, and the family puts them in a giant glass jar.  When the jar is filled, they take the money to the furniture store to buy a big, comfy chair.  

I like this book for nostalgic reasons, of course, but there are a lot of other good reasons to cherish this book, too.  This book does not feature a typical, nuclear family - mom, grandmother, and child - bringing in a great diversity factor.  Being exposed to families of all different sizes and shapes is always a good thing.  The story also teaches us about the value of community.  The reason this family has no comfortable furniture is because everything they owned was lost when their previous home caught on fire.  What they bring to their new apartment was given to them by friends who rallied together to help them.   I hope this book makes its way to a special place on your bookshelf!

sweet toddler book: sam who never forgets, written by eve rice (greenwillow books, 1977)

Hi there!  I am so excited to tell you about this book.  This is one of those true little gems that you happen to find in a seemingly random way but that you couldn't imagine not having around.  In this case, I was poking around the kids' section of my local library looking for something new to read with my toddler.  I asked my librarian (much love to librarians) for some suggestions, and she picked this beauty off the shelf for me.  This short and sweet story is about a zookeeper named Sam who brings food to each of his animals at lunchtime.  A little mischief happens along the way, and all of the animals learn that Sam will always take care of them.  This book offers some great toddler mainstays:  zoo animals, playful pictures that are dotted with colorful balloons, and pages with simple, easy-to-follow, but entertaining sentences. 

amazing illustration alert: faeries tales, by brian and wendy froud (abrams, 2014)

Faeries Tales is the newest addition from Brian Froud who has given us unique fairy tales like Faeries, Good Faerie/Bad Faerie, and The Heart of Faerie Oracle to name a few.  This new work contains small almost poem-like stories that are written from the voices of the fairy tale characters themselves and contain wonderfully different twists and turns that wander away from traditional fairy tale endings.

 The stories are great, but what you really need to see in this book are the illustrations!  Pure magic!  The eyes are so alive and the features of each faerie are so achingly life-like.  A must see!

Check out the character called "Not Tinkerbell".  I love her eyes.  

"I'm not Tinker Bell.  I don't know any boys and I don't care about pirates.  I live under a mushroom and I ride a beetle that I tamed myself."

"The Shadow Man" whose face seems to be somewhat frightful and warm at the same time.  

"Children call my the shadow man.  You called me the shadow man when you were a child.  You saw me out of the corner of your eye and wondered if I was real."

This book is a great way to add a little magic to your day!  Read it together and then go take a walk in the woods to look for hiding fairies.  

See you next time!

poetry for kids: the out of the box edition!

April is National Poetry Month, and as a creative writing student who concentrates her studies on mostly poetry , I love and am very comfortable reading and talking about poems.  On the other hand, I completely recognize that poetry is an acquired taste.  We study poetry in high school and college and then never seek it out again because reading this stuff can feel a lot like eating your vegetables.  Let me give you my poetry student pitch:  get rid of the "classics", the poetry canon, the stuff you last read in a textbook.  Find something written in the last couple of decades.  Modern day poetry is funny, fresh, and written in language we use today.  My oldest son wasn't too keen on poetry, so I set out to find books of poems that were unusual and fun.  Here they are .. .. . 

Photo by kidsada Manchinda/iStock / Getty Images

Rimshots: Basketball Pix, Rolls, and Rhythms, written by Charles R. Smith, Jr. (Penguin, 1999)

"Sweet feet spin on concrete as I dribble to the beat of my own drum" - from the poem School's in Session, Rimshots

Conversation with son:  

Me: Oh, look, son!  Your thoughtful and caring mother bought you a book of poetry.  Son: audible scowl.  Goes back to reading his comic book.

conversation with son redo:

Me:  Oh look, son!  Your mother bought you a book about basketball.  Son:  Hmmm. . . I like basketball.  (plops down on couch to read said book of poems, um, I mean basketball.)

Poetry Speaks to Children, edited by Elise Paschen (Sourcebooks 2005)

This book is a wonderful collection of funny, fantastical, and just dog-gone enjoyable poems written by a variety of big name poets.  Every poem comes with pages filled with exuberant illustrations that make the poem come alive for even the youngest of readers.  What I like most about this book is that it comes with a c.d. recording of all of the poems being read by the poet themselves.  Hearing a poem instead of reading one on the page is a completely different experience.  Sometimes a poem is better designed for sound than sight. 

Rutherford B., Who Was He?  Poems About Our Presidents, by Marilyn Singer and John Hendrix (Hyperion 2013)

"By stovepipe hat, beard, large size, he's the one we recognize" - Abraham Lincoln poem

This collection of poems has verses dedicated to each of our forty three commanders-in-chief including some we know well, say Abe Lincoln and George Washington, and some we don't know so well, like William Taft or, as the title suggests, Rutherford B. Hayes.  

story time in outer space!

This weekend the International Space Station passed over my city, and the whole family, dog included, tromped over to the park with telescope in hand to watch it orbit over our heads.  The sky was dark, and from the horizon line, what looked like a really bright shooting star sped through the sky. Watching it, it was crazy to imagine that people were on that star eating and working and sleeping while they hurdle around the planet.  What an amazing world we live in!  

Our kids asked a lot of questions about the space station after it was over, and we didn't have all of the answers (I love you, Google). In our internet search, we found "story time in space"!  These are videos of astronauts reading children's books while on the International Space Station.  Brilliant!  If you would like to see more, check out their website:  storytimefromspace.com.  

book of the day: Anatole, written by Eve Titus, pictures by Paul Galdone (McGraw-Hill 1956)

Enjoying more beautiful springtime where I live - bees buzzing, daffodils pushing up, falling asleep to a good and loud thunderstorm, the whole bit.  This week the literacy council in our city put together something kind of cool - a "read-in" at the local city park.  They invited locals to bring a lawn chair or a picnic blanket and a good book and read out on the park green space.  A reading flash mob if you will.  It was quite fun.  On to today's reading pick!

I love anything French.  If you have anything you are trying to sell, slap a label with some French words on it, and I will buy it.  There is just something about all things French that seem so attractive to me.  This is the story of a mouse named Anatole who lives in a small village in France.  Every night, Anatole and his buddies sneak into homes and restaurants to gather food for their families.  One night, Anatole overhears a woman complain about the disgusting rodents that keep stealing her food, and he is saddened to hear her unsavory opinion of him.  He tries to find a way to give back to the humans that give so much to him.  He thinks up a plan to sneak into the local cheese factory at night and help the cheese makers with their recipes.  He tastes each cheese and then sticks a little label on it with pointers like "needs more salt" or "just perfect".  When the humans discover his critiques, they are amazed at his skillful suggestions and search for the cheese making genius named Anatole.  He never reveals his true identity but is given a place of honor in the cheese factory.  

I love how the illustrations are done in simple black, white, and grey sketches with splashes of the French national colors thrown in - red, and blue.  The end pages of the book are striped like a French flag, and all of the mice wear scarves and berets.  I read this story to my eight year old and my two year old at the same time and both enjoyed it.  Since my kids are pretty spread apart age wise, it can be difficult to find books from which they both can get something.  This book strikes a unique balance of appealing to a wide variety of ages.  I think that is because little ones can follow the simple story of someone wanting to help someone else and the mouse drawings are cute while the older ones like learning the French language phrases peppered throughout the story.  

Since the story illustrates a wide variety of cheeses, it was fun to go to the grocery store cheese counter afterwards and find the cheeses we read about!  Reading about France makes me want to just jump on a plane heading for Paris.  Le sigh.

My toddler's favorite books right now

When kids hit the toddler age, they tend to latch on to a couple of favorite books that get read so many times a parent's brain might turn to mush.  Some of these beloved stories are great, but some are not so great (I'm looking at you, Goodnight Moon.) and might get "lost"  along the way.  (Don't judge me.)  I wanted to share some of the books my two year old is asking me to read over and over and over.  I bet your toddler will enjoy them too.  I can vouch that after reading each more than one hundred times, I still find them cute/funny/enjoyable.  

Toby, by Cyndy Szekeres (Little Simon, 2001)

Books from the Toby series have been floating around my house for a while.  My now eight year old son loved them as a toddler, and now my two year old loves them too.  Titles we own include Toby's Rainbow Clothes, Toby's Alphabet Walk, Toby Counts His Marbles, and Toby's Good Night.  Each of them spins a sweet story about a toddler-aged mouse and his every day adventures.  I love these books for the darling illustrations of the sweet little mouse home where Toby and his mom and dad live and also for the fun and clever way they sneak learning into each book teaching colors, letters, and numbers.  My toddler loves these books for the way Toby's day to day life mirrors his own whether its helping his mom bake cookies or stomping in puddles after a rain storm.  We all like to read about characters with whom we can relate.  The Toby series is worth a check out  

Truckstop, by Anne Rockwell, illustrated by Melissa Iwai (Viking)

We received this book through the mail as part of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library program.  As if you needed another reason to love Ms. Parton, she has partnered with sponsors in communities across the country to provide children ages zero to five with a fun new book each month delivered directly to your mail box free of charge.  Honestly, I was a little skeptical about the free part at first.  Was this going to be "free" for the first month and then six months later, I've forgotten about it and receive a bill for the books I was given?  Nope.  It's completely free, and we have thoroughly enjoyed the books we have received.    Check to see if your area participates in this wonderful program at imaginationlibrary.com.  

This book has very vivid and happy illustrations that engaged my toddler right away.  The story is about a boy who goes to work each morning with his parents at their truck stop and diner off a busy highway.  My toddler loves the big trucks that drive in to eat at the diner.  This book inspired a lot of pretend "restaurant" play at our house.  The story line is perfect for the two and three year old set with its easy to follow and fun pages.  PIck it up today!

Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site

Do you sense a vehicle theme to my two year old's faves?  Oh yes, I have a little boy going through a classic little boy "big truck/air plane/train/boat" phase in full force.  But don't think I want to pigeon-hole gendery stuff over here.  I know plenty of little girls that love a good dump truck, and while he is a very boyish boy, this is the same two year old that wraps a towel over his head and prances around the kitchen shouting, "I'm Elsa!  I'm Elsa!"  But I digress . . . . In this story, a construction site full of big and loud trucks are settling down for the night.  The sky is getting dark.  The work is done for the day, and each truck gets ready for bed.  They take baths, get favorite blankets, turn on night lights.  This is a great book for settling bouncy kids at bedtime.  It is a fun read but also super calming.    

What favorite books is your little one excited about at your house?