I Want to Be An Astronaut by Byron Barton

I Want to Be An Astronaut by Byron Barton

Rating: 5 stars

Byron Barton should definitely be required reading for little boys.  His Machines at Work and Building a House are some of our favorites, and we've read all his other books a number of times. 

A few weeks ago my husband encouraged me to get Ben out and do some more fun stuff with him like I did with both kids all summer long.  I love some gentle prodding like that to push me out of my comfort zone, so Ben and I dropped off Lorelei and went to the Air and Space Museum out by us, called the Udvar Hazy Center.  We had a great time, and Ben was totally amazed by all the airplanes, helicopters, and space shuttles.  Of course he's about a decade away from really having the attention span and desire to read all about each and every aircraft, and he's way too young to do the way-cool simulation rides that they have there.  But my husband was really right--it was a cool new thing that got Ben to really look around him and see something new. 

We had a great time walking through everything.  I loved the helicopters the best, and Ben loved the look out tower at the top where you can see planes take off and land from Dulles.  (It would have been my favorite had an airplane actually flown by us, but we were whisked away from it before we could see one because some fancy-schmancy diplomat needed the room cleared for his/her visit.  Humph.)

I let Ben choose two books at the gift shop--one for him and one for Lorelei.  This was his choice for himself, and it didn't surprise me at all.  We've checked it out from the library two or three times, and both kids love it.  The text is very simple and the pictures are bright and glossy and uncomplicated.  "I want to be an astronaut, / a member of the crew, / and fly on the shuttle / into outer space."

Who wouldn't want to do that?  And I wonder: what will be our kids' options for space exploration? 

Building A House by Byron Barton

Building A House by Byron Barton

Rating: 4.5 stars

This is one of those let's-connect-it-to-real-life books for us.  There's a house that's being built down the road, and we like to drive by slooooooooooooowly to check out what's being done.  Since this was one of the first books we checked out at the library many months ago, Lorelei had a good idea of what was happening each time we drove by. 

A big machine digs a hole.  Check!  Concrete is poured in.  Check!  Builders hammer and saw.  Check!  A cement mixer pours cement!  Check.

You get the idea.  I'm tempted to stop by the construction site and have a picnic to let the kids watch, but I'm not bold enough.  Yet.  Maybe when Ben is old enough to realize the words "Be careful!" 

A simple book, and one that provides the foundation for knowing how a house is built.  Three cheers for the simplicity of Byron Barton!

Machines at Work by Byron Barton

Machines at Work by Byron Barton

Rating: 4.5 stars

You know how when you have a baby, they give you a bunch of stuff when you check out? Each time we left, barely managing the new baby in our arms, we got a bunch of newborn diapers (helpful), a booger-sucker (super helpful--should have grabbed a second), tons of samples and coupons for formula (not so helpful, I breastfed our kids), cheap diaper bags (um...wasteful), and other things I don't even remember. I think that in these grab-bags of stuff, tucked away in a pocket to read when you're up in the middle of the night, should be a book or two. If you have a boy, then Machines at Work or anything else by Byron Barton should be one of them. (I don't mean to be sexist here...Lorelei likes this book just as much as Ben! But, well...there's just some connection between boys and machines, just like there is between girls and horses.)

Barton's drawings are what grabbed me at the library. We first got Building a House and I was captured by its simplicity--the sentences, yes, but also the drawings. It was as if--and I know this won't come out as a complete compliment, but hear me out--his 8 year-old son (that I'm making up right now) did them. And I think that's great--this is one of the few books that I think Lorelei could look at the pictures of and say "I can draw that." It'll be a few more years, of course, till she can, but Barton's drawings are a bit more achievable than Tomie DePaola's or Eric Carle's.

We love to read Machines at Work out loud, together. I know that it would only be half as entertaining to my kids if I left out the sound effects of each page. I have no idea what a crane crashing a building actually sounds like, but both of my kids can mimic the sound I completely made up that I do at least five times before turning the page! And when the workers eat lunch, we make them munch and sip and munch and sip and, I confess, burp every now and then.

All of Barton's works are just great foundations. Dinosaurs is the basic story of when they lived, how many there were, and the variety of the species. Building a House has, I'm guessing, 15 sentences, from grassy knoll to a family moving in. Now, anyone who has ever seen a house go up in a subdivision realizes that it's much more complicated than that. But how wonderful, for our kids, Barton has provided an uncomplicated story of a bunch of basic things. We really look forward to reading the rest of his book!