Toys Galore by Peter Stein

Toys Galore by Peter Stein, illustrated by Bob Staake

Rating: 5 stars

This author-illustrator pair is at it again!  First they created Cars Galore, which we own and love and have read approximately 52,486,002 times.  Next, there was Bugs Galore, which I liked even more, mostly because Jonathan and I chose a home for ourselves in the woods so we want to encourage bug-loving rather than bug-fearing.

Now, there's Toys Galore!

Hmm.  I'm not sure how I actually feel about it, because the whole reason Jonathan and I chose this home in the woods was to reduce the number of toys (and, I guess, increase the number of bugs) in our lives.  So I wasn't sure how I would feel about the message behind the book.

But Stein and Staake produce some good stuff, so of course we checked it out.  Literally.

Toys are silly.  Toys are fun.
Who loves toys?  Everyone!
THIS toy has a lot of flair.
What other kinds of toys are there?
It's good to know! And nice to share.

Hmm.  Okay.  So far, so good...  And the illustrations by Bob Staake are, as usual, fun and interesting and very quirky.  I mean, when you've got kids with green and blue faces, smiles beaming as they do silly things...  There is a lot for Kiefer and Ben to look at as I read the words to them.

And the words are good!  It's a long list of all the different kinds of toys: girly, musical, water-related, jump-on, ride-on, slide-down toys...you think of it, Stein's named it.  And then there's a lead up to the best toy of all, and as I'm turning the pages I, of course, am getting curious:

But which toy is the best toy ever?
The one most fun? Most cool and clever?
It can't be found inside a store
Or in a box or in a drawer
Or in your room or on your shelf.
No, this toy's found inside yourself.
It's there--right now a toy SENSATION!
Your very own imagination.

Ah!  I love it!  Yes, this is a book for us: one that includes toys but focuses on the most important one.

Such a good thing to remember as we roll towards the most toy-filled month of them all: December.

The Donut Chef by Bob Staake

The Donut Chef by Bob Staake

Rating: 5 stars

My kids don't eat a lot of donuts (see P.S. below), but they still like this book, and if your kids are donut-lovers, this is definitely a book to check out.  And I really like this book--it's too fun to not like.

The plump donut chef (apparently he likes to taste a few of the donuts from each of the batches he cooks) from the cover opens up a donut shop on a quiet street.

He stacked his pots, he cleaned his pans,
He dusted off the ceiling fans.
He grabbed a spoon, then turned a knob,
And set the stove to do its job! 

That donut chef, he worked so hard
By mixing flour, sugar, lard.
He baked his donuts fresh at dawn,
Then hoped by noon they'd all be gone.

Soon a skinny chef (clearly he doesn't taste enough of his product) saw his success and sought to steal the donut-chomping clientele.  He opened a shop nearby, and the two fought for customers through price points and shop hours.  But that wasn't enough.

They tried new shapes beyond just rings--
Their donuts were such crazy things!
Some were square and some were starry,
Some looked just like calamari!
Some were airy, some were cone-y!
Some resembled macaroni!

The donuts became so bizarre that customers couldn't even recognize them as donuts.  One day, a little girl walked into the shop, stared at the rows and rows of crazy concoctions, and asked why they didn't have her favorite kind: glazed.  Simple, uncomplicated glazed.

Soon, the crowd begins to shout for glazed.  Where've they been? they suddenly wonder.  The plump donut chef realizes his error and cooks up a batch and, when that batch is quickly gobbled up, cooks up another and another.  He realizes that success lies in providing the least frilly flavor of all.

I love the lesson: Go simple, go with the basics. You just can't go wrong.


P.S. I actually don't like donuts.  The super-sweet smell of them just turns my stomach, and when I do ignore my better judgment and eat one, my stomach gives me a hard time later on.  My kids have only had donuts a handful of times in their lives.  I try not to be a complete spoilsport, but their growing bodies need quality nourishment to fuel their crazy pursuits, and...donuts are not exactly what I'd call "quality nourishment."  Yup, that's right: I'm into depriving my kids of sweets, one donut at a time.  I'm okay with that.

Hello, Robots! by Bob Staake

Hello, Robots! by Bob Staake

Rating: 3.5 stars

Another good one by Bob Staake.  Here's a tale of four hard-working metal robots who have four different jobs around the house.  They happily do what they're programmed to do all day long.  (I'll take Zip, the cleaning robot, please.)  Halfway through their day, they are all outside when it starts to rain.  They get drenched and go haywire.

Enter a very giggle-worthy page: The baking robot is baking a birdhouse in a tree, the fix-it robot repairs an apple pie, the gardener robot rakes the window glass, and the cleaning robot shines a mound of grass.  As you can imagine, these things are pretty funny to little ones.

Blink, he bakes an apple pie. / Zinc repairs a birdhouse high.
Blip, he rakes a mound of grass. / Zip shines up the window glass.

In order to fix each other, they switch heads!  Funny images help out the funny concept...and the frowns from the metal robots turn to smiles as they go back to their normal tasks, the right way.  They end up smiling bolt to bolt, despite the miscolored, mismatched heads.

My kids are not robot-obsessed (yet?) but we like robots.  Mostly because my husband's one and only dance is the "robot dance," which you can imagine gets rave reviews.  Normally not the goofy type, he cracks up Lorelei and Ben and Kiefer with his moves.  They of course love to join in, doing their best impersonation of Daddy but also doing their own version.  They become "Lo-bot" and "Ben-bot" and "Kief-bot."

And me?  "Mom-bot," of course!

(If you're an educator or librarian or super-over-achiever parent, click here for cute storytime idea.)

The Red Lemon by Bob Staake

The Red Lemon by Bob Staake

Rating: 4.5 stars

Farmer McPhee is a lemon farmer; he grows beautiful yellow, tangy, tasty lemons in an orchard that goes on for miles.  Staake's words are almost like a chant, and McPhee is clearly the cheerleader for his own lemons.    

Lemons for sherbert and lemons for pie!
Lemons for drinks on the Fourth of July!
Lemons for cookies and sweet birthday cakes!
Lemons for muffins and fresh fruity shakes!

Then...GASP!...a red lemon grows on a tree.  Farmer McPhee freaks out, plucks the offending fruit from his otherwise yellow lemon tree, and hurls it across the ocean to an island.  The book fades out (well, not really, but...you get the picture) and two hundred years pass.  Turns out, in the future, there are no yellow lemon trees on the isle where Farmer McPhee once farmed.  Instead, on the new island, are red lemon trees that are even tangier and sweeter and tastier.  Who knew?

"That lemon's not yellow. / My goodness it's red!"

I love it!  I love ANY book that allows me to say: "Why don't you try it?  Might be better than what you know."  My kids are good eaters, but there are always new tastes to be had.  Usually, I whip out a taste test--it's my main tool to get them to try new things.  Which do you like better: Red or green apples?  Pasta in marinara or pesto?  Kale chips or beet chips (yup, another crazy beet recipe)?  Or, like last week, red or yellow raspberries?  Try something new--you might like it.

Staake says this book is one of his favorites.  When asked what he wanted to teach through the book, he states:  "Don't be afraid of the unusual, embrace the uncommon, evolve or die.  It's Farmer McPhee's intolerance, fearful assumptions and lack of seeing the bigger picture that literally dooms his future...  After all, when life serves you red lemons, the smart thing to do is make red lemonade."

I'm pretty sure I'll wait a few years to tell my kids that they need to "evolve or die," but I like the rest of what Staake has to say about his book, and in his book.

The First Pup: The Real Story of How Bo Got Into the White House by Bob Staake

The First Pup: The Real Story of How Bo Got Into the White House by Bob Staake

Rating: 4 stars

You know that Obama has a dog named Bo.  And you also probably know that they got him after hunting for just the right dog.  But looky here--a children's book to give you and your kids the whole story.

That story:  Obama gets elected, his family cheers, he tells everyone he's going to get a dog.  No one is more excited (about the dog part) than Sasha and Milia, who quickly turn the search into a research project.  They hunt high and low but, after many months, are still dogless.  Meanwhile, Senator Kennedy gets a Portuguese water dog from a breeder.  One of the puppies from the same litter gets returned to the breeder; the pup and first home weren't the right fit.  Quickly that same puppy finds his place in the real First Home and the First Family and Bo (named after Bo Diddley, sort of) live happily ever after.

The funniest part of this book are these lines: "The senator also knew that Malia was allergic to most dogs, but that Portuguese water dogs are hypoallergenic."  Ah, yes.  Poor Malia's allergies are now etched in a children's book!  It's definitely 2012.  My kids didn't miss a beat with the mention of allergies, thanks to peanut allergies and hay allergies and cashew allergies and egg allergies and gluten allergies and...

Bob Staake is definitely a fantastic artist, and a fine author.  His artwork and books (click here to see books of his I've reviewed) is best when cars are involved, I think.  His artwork is not my all-time favorite, personally, but my kids gravitate towards it, especially the pages that are jam-packed with interesting things to see, as if there is a look-and-find book within a story book.  But this book about Bo is a little different, a bit more mainstream, and I like it a lot.  His images of Obama--tall, smiling, proud--are spot-on.

It seems funny to have a "politics" label on my blog about children's book (even as I sit 30ish miles from the White House), but then I think: why are we reading books to our kids?  Sure, to increase vocabulary, to create a bond between kid and caregiver, to understand the rhythm of a story.  But also to expand their mind--to open their minds to possibilities that are beyond their day-to-day.  To start a conversation with them about something different, new, important.  A story about the dog at the White House is really an opportunity to talk about the President, about being a leader, about how our country is organized.

We read this book over dinner a few days ago.  Lorelei told me afterward: "You could be the first girl President, Mommy!"  I told her, "No, Lorelei, I'm sorta too old, and I've chosen a different path.  But you, YOU could be the first girl President.  You could do it."  She chewed on that while she chewed on her meatballs.  And hopefully she'll be thinking about it--and considering it--for a long time.  

So thanks, Bo and Bob, for a little tale about a big job, and for making my daughter (and sons) think about both.

Bugs Galore! by Peter Stein, illustrated by Bob Staake

Bugs Galore! by  Peter Stein, illustrated by Bob Staake

Rating: 4.5 stars

Kiefer is our resident Bug Patrol.  We have a few patrols in our house--most notably, "Safety Patrol," which I am constantly calling out to make one of the big kids go to make sure the gate is latched so Kiefer doesn't go up and then (bump, bump, bump) down the stairs unaccompanied.

But Bug Patrol is serious business to Kiefer.  If he sees a stink bug--thankfully we're not yet inundated with them (yet?) this year--he will point to it and yell in his I-can't-talk-yet-but-I-can-yell-already voice: "EHHH!!!"  And he'll continue to yell that out in that piercing little voice of his until I get it.  We all think this is pretty funny, especially when we can't find the darn bug he's honed in on.

So, here are some bug books in honor of our little Bug Patrol officer.

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This book is almost as wonderful as Cars Galore; maybe once I've read it a hundred and three times I'll love it just as much.

There are kooky drawings, courtesy of the creative Bob Staake, and witty rhymes, courtesy of the funny Peter Stein.  Here's a little taste of what's between the covers:

Some bugs cruise / around in groups.
Some bugs fly in / loop-de-loops.
Some bugs land / smack-dab in soups.
Some bugs crawl / right under ... OOPS. 

Blah!  A stinkbug! / Plug-your-nose bug!
Funky, smelly, / wash-your-clothes bug!
Bugs and bugs and / bilions MORE bugs!
Googols, gaggles / bugs GALORE bugs!

Fun stuff!