The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: A Camping Primer by Jennifer Adams

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: A Camping Primer by Jennifer Adams, illustrated by Alison Oliver

Rating: 5 stars

In typical Kate fashion, I purchased a bunch of books for a baby born to my husband's colleague that I actually wanted to read first.  I've been careful with the book, but I need to get this review out soon or the baby will be three years old before I get it to him!

This is another in the BabyLit series of books by Jennifer Adams, and it makes me realize: There are some good options for boys in here. I mean, some GREAT options for boys.  This one might just be my favorite of all this clever little board books!

Each page has one word on it, one word that introduces a part of camping, followed by a quotation from Huckleberry Finn that describes that word.  For example:

RIVERBANK "I laid there in the grass and the cool shade thinking about things."
RIVER  "I'd go down the river about fifty mile and camp."
FRIENDS  "We took my canoe and went over the river a-fishing."
FISHING LINE  "Then I set out a line to catch some fish."

"Everything we had in the world was on our raft."

The reader puts together these little pieces and has a nice image of what a nice camping trip might feel like--not just look like, not just sound like, but feel like.

And the images of Huckleberry and Jim with their opposite skin color but same certain stroke, same grins, same ease, same contentedness lying on the green grass…  It's just priceless stuff for some of a baby's first images.

Another neat book by Jennifer Adams.  And now I'll be going…to reread Huckleberry Finn...

Wuthering Heights: A Weather Primer by Jennifer Adams

Wuthering Heights: A Weather Primer by Jennifer Adams, illustrated by Alison Oliver

Rating: 5 stars

Of the six board books I've borrowed from a librarian-friend in this clever BabyLit series, this one is my favorite.  As "fashionable ways to introduce your toddler to the world of classic literature," the board books are actually books on colors, counting, opposites, animals…and like this Wuthering Heights board book, weather.

The illustrations all have the same backdrop of Mr. Heathcliff's castle-like home, Wuthering Heights, and the same gnarled tree and same climb-up-me hill.  Yet each one, of course, is used to show that specific type of weather, so the sky above is either bright or stormy, full of clouds or lightning bolts.  The individuals in the picture are either basking in or hiding from what's happening above them.

And I think it's so neat.  With each type of weather, there is a sentence from the book that describes that type of weather. Not only does this provide a more sophisticated text than toddlers are used to these days, it gives us parents a nice change of pace with classic, poetic, descriptive sentences from another era, and often from our own bookshelf.  For example:

"The first feathery flakes of a snow shower."

BREEZY "The weather was sweet and warm."
SUNNY  "The place was filled with sunshine."
CLOUDY "Bright white clouds flitting rapidly above."
STILL "The mild glory of a rising moon."

I was talking about these books with someone recently and I said that I thought one drawback to them was that they seemed easy to buy for little girls, but…not so little boys.  I have Anna Karenina: A Fashions Primer in mind, mostly…  Then I looked up what other books are available and now I'm currently sitting on my hands trying not to order them to have them:

Sherlock Holmes: A Sounds Primer
Dracula: A Counting Primer
Jabberwocky: A Nonsense Primer
The Jungle Book: An Animals Primer
Huckleberry Finn: A Camping Primer

As you read these books to your little ones, it's a nice reminder that there are more things to read than board books--but that's where this love of reading all starts: board books.

Alice in Wonderland: A Colors Primer by Jennifer Adams

Alice in Wonderland: A Colors Primer by Jennifer Adams, illustrated by Alison Oliver

Rating: 5 stars

Have you heard about this BabyLit series?  They are board books--or, as their website explains, "fashionable ways to introduce your toddler to classic literature."  The first books in the series, Moby Dick came out over a year ago…I read a review of it in the New York Times and definitely shook my head at these literature-for-babies series.

I thought: Pretentious.  Obnoxious.  Is this what parents read to their babies while driving them from preschool to their Mandarin lessons?

Yup, that's what I thought.  Until I got them in my hot little hands (thanks to our librarian who, intrigued by the books and frustrated that they aren't yet part of the collection, ordered them on her own dime and loaned them out to me…it's nice to have friends in literary places!).

red hearts

I now think: They aren't so pretentious.  They aren't so obnoxious.  They are pretty genius.  They are very cute.  They are great for parent book-lovers to read to their baby bookworms.

Let it be known: I was wrong.  These are creative, cool, cute board books.  I REALLY love them!

Each book in the series is a different genre (I think there's a better word but it's escaping me right now…forgive me, I'm out of coffee…): colors, opposites, weather, even fashion (again, sounds obnoxious but I think it's done well and I'm not super girly-girly).

Take Alice in Wonderland: A Colors Primer.  The text reads:

white rabbit
black shoes
purple bottle
orange cat
blue caterpillar
brown hat
red hearts

If you're familiar with the story, the images probably jump to your mind.  And those images, produced by Alison Oliver, are fantastic--bright and clean, simple and interesting.  This book was one of the kids' favorites among the stack we've borrowed from Miss Daniella because they have read the picture book version of the story and watched the old Disney movie.  So they had fun remembering the characters and stories, and they liked how Jennifer Adams boiled down the huge story to such a simple text for little guys and girls.

Check 'em out!  I'm curious what you think.

But you can't check them out at Fairfax County Library, at least not yet…unless you want to request that they are added to the collection!  Click HERE and then scroll down to the bottom of the page to request this book, or any other.