Trashy Town by Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemesha

Trashy Town by Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemesha, illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

Rating: 5 stars

When my husband read this book to the kids, he first asked me: "Is Christina Aguilara in this book?"  In case you're wondering, no.  I always love exchanging some grown up quips about books such as these...it keeps me chuckling on the inside.  (Like the time in Thailand a coworker asked me how to say beetle in English after she showed me one she had stashed in her refrigerator for breakfast the next day.  "Inedible," I said.)

ANYWAY!

Zimmerman and Clemesha ROCK at books for little boys (and Lorelei likes their books, too, especially this one).  This has a very similar feel to it as Dig! which is another of our all-time favorites of theirs.  In this book, Mr. Gilly drives around "trashy town" to pick up trash.  He goes to the school, the fire station, the park, etc, and loads it up.  After he empties the cans into his truck, you get to read the catchy refrain: "Dump it in, smash it down, drive around the Trashy Town!  Is the trash truck full yet?  NO!  Mr. Gilly drives on."  He collects trash until his truck is full, then dumps it out and heads home.  When he gets home, he takes off his gloves and realizes there's only one more thing to clean up--himself!  He goes to take a bath.

This is a super cute book (not too dirty!) with fantastic, unique illustrations by Dan Yaccarino, someone we'll be checking out in the next few weeks thanks to a suggestion to my friend Beth, whose kids are a few years older than our kids.  I hear we'll be pleased with what we read!

Fire Engine Man by Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemesha

Fire Engine Man by Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemesha

Rating: 5 stars

We are loving these Zimmerman and Clemesha books.  The husband-wife team has three sons, so all of their books (that we've read so far) are SO perfect for little boys, including our little boy. 

Fire Engine Man, and their other book that's on our shelf Digger Man, are great simple books with the tried and true boy subjects of firetrucks and diggers.  You can't go wrong with these images on the pages of a children's book!  The stories are both told through the voice of a young boy, maybe 5 or 6 years old, and tell how he's going to be a "Fire Engine Man."  He's going to drive his own big fire engine, hook up his hose, and help the other firefighters fight the fire. 

But what makes this book (and Digger Man, too) special is the fact that the little boy has a younger brother, maybe 12 or 18 months, whom he actively adores.  He drives by his family in his big fire engine, so his brother can see him, and then invites his little brother to the fire station to visit, "because it would be safe."  There's a great picture of the big brother driving the fire truck, and the little brother in the passenger seat, in a car seat, with a bottle.  Lorelei and Ben and I always wonder if a real fire truck could have a carseat in it...I'm guessing not, but it's fun to pretend it's possible.  The end of the book shows the two brothers playing happily together, with the big brother declaring, "When my brother gets bigger, he can help."

How wonderful to see a positive sibling book!  I can't get the ones where one sibling is trying to sell off the other one out of my hands fast enough.  I don't want to give Lorelei any ideas...  Really, though, I don't think it's too much to expect that my kids are going to love each other.  Most days, at least. 

This book, and Digger Man too, are GREAT books for boys who have a new little brother in their life. 

Dig! by Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemesha

Dig! by Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemesha, illustrated by Marc Rosenthal

Rating: 5 stars

I don't need to say who loves this book.  Yup, that's right, our construction-worker-wanna-be, Ben.  And we found this book while Ben and I were at the library last week.  Ben was spending some quality time jumping into the bean bag chairs, which are located right next to the very end of the alphabet of children's book authors.  But what a great discovery we made with Andrea Zimmerman, and her husband David Clemesha!  They have three sons, so their books are pretty wonderful for boys.

This book is so great.  It has all the different Ben components that, together, make it perfect for him, at 22-ish months:

1. It has a backhoe on every single page! Oh happy day!
2. He has a cute dog, Lightning, who also likes to dig.
3. The main character, Mr. Rally, wears a construction hat just like Ben wears!
4. Mr. Rally does five different jobs, and at the end of each job, the text asks, "Is the digging done?" And Ben gets to shake his head as violently as possible and say, "NOOO!"  Except for the last one, when he gets to say, "Yesh!" in that very-Ben way.
5. The last job Mr. Rally does is at the zoo, which we just went to yesterday.  That made the evening's reading of this book all the more exciting.

I will add that, from Ben's mother's point of view, it has two more great things.  Though it does rhyme completely, there are two lines that appear in each job: "Dig up rock and dig up clay! / Dig up dirt and dig all day!"  I think that the rhyme and repetition are helpful at this stage of development.  Also, when his five jobs are finished, Mr. Rally goes home, but does not take off his overalls and work boots.  Instead, he goes to dig in the garden--turns out Mr. Rally digs for work and for play!  How nice to show someone who loves his job so much, he happily does it at home, too.