Bumble Bugs and Elephants by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Clement Hurd

Bumble Bugs and Elephants by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Clement Hurd

Rating: 2 stars

Really, this book just makes me envious.

Oh to be a proven author, creator of dozens of wonderfully-selling children's books!  What is it like to be SO GOOD that you can write a book about not much at all?  Just a gathering of big animals and small animals?

Don't think there's more to the story.  I just hesitated to type "story" because...there really isn't one.

And please, will someone please tell me what a bumble bug is?

Here are the first pages of the book:

Once upon a time there was a great big bumble bug
and a tiny little bumble bug
And there was a great big butterfly
and a little tiny butterfly
There was a great big red bird
and a tiny little black bird
And a tiny little turtle
and a great big turtle

The book goes on like this, gathering small and big versions of a species. 

It's a book of opposites, but...neither the prose nor the illustrations engage my kiddos, who are actually pretty easy to impress.  All in all, the only reason I want you to check it out is so that we can be baffled together.

The Fathers are Coming Home by Margaret Wise Brown

The Fathers are Coming Home by Margaret Wise Brown

Rating: 4.5 stars

Jonathan and I went to Boulder, Colorado, early this week for a short second honeymoon.  It was wonderful, for many reasons: First, the kids got some quality time with beloved Grammy and her GrandBill; second, we hiked ten long miles in through the gorgeous and nearly completely silent Rocky Mountains; third, we decided not to hike the second day and just bum around Boulder, so I had the time to go into every shop I wanted--even stores with tons of breakable things, and I didn't even have to push a stroller around!  I also had the incredible pleasure of shopping at Boulder Bookstore, an independent bookseller that made me ashamed at the length of time between Tuesday and the last time I was in an independent bookseller with creaky floors, lots of rooms, and completely helpful salespeople.

In case you're in the area there, check it out in person or online.  And, while I'm feeling ashamed at only going to Books A Million and Barnes & Noble, does anyone know of any independent bookstores in the Northern Virginia area?  Feel free to comment and/or provide links below...

So there I was, with my husband dozing happily in the hotel room, and I was totally free to browse anywhere I wanted.  Where did I end up?  The bookstore.  The children's section.  Hmmm.  But I was only there to choose one book for Lorelei, and one book for Ben, as souvenirs (I was not so tempted by the "My parents went to Boulder, and all I got was this T-shirt" t-shirts).

This is the one I selected for Ben.  It is not without issues--the biggest of which is that it doesn't include mothers.  I stay at home with our kids, so this is a nice book for Jonathan read when he makes it home by bedtime.  But I suspect there are a lot of working moms out there who will be too miffed to buy it, and I respect that boycott.

But I'm from an Army family, and know plenty of fathers (and mothers, see problem above) who are coming home to their families from war.  For that reason, I started tearing up at the cover of this book.  Look how happy the dad and son are to see each other!  Stephen Savage did an incredible job, and we look forward to checking out each and every other one of his children's books. 

Wait, there's only one.  Well, that'll be easy. 

Anyway, on each page an animal father, including fish, ladybug, rabbit, pigs, and daddy longlegs, comes home to his family.  (Except for the father lion, who lives alone, and comes home to himself.)  And on the last page, the boy's father, "who is a sailor, comes home from the sea."  In a dark image, the father is in his white uniform, and the last page is the same as the front cover.  I just want to frame that page, even though I'm an Army brat and...well...I really thought I've said, "Beat Navy!" too many times to appreciate anything sailor-related.

My brother-in-law is going to Afghanistan soon, and my sister will take care of their three very little ones by herself.  So the whole fathers-coming-home thing really tugs at my heart strings for many reasons right now.  I really do wish that Margaret Wise Brown had a whole series of books like this, just with different endings, so to include mothers and fathers who are also Soldiers, Airmen, and Marines.

A Child's Good Night Book by Margaret Wise Brown

A Child's Good Night Book by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Jean Charlot

Rating: 5 stars

Our board book A Child's Good Night Book has a hole in it. Ben liked it so much he ate it.

So I am not a big fan of Good Night Moon. I admit it! But this book is great. We actually bought it for my sister's yet-to-be born son, but, um, well...it didn't quite make it to her house. Oops. This book is right up there with Karma Wilson's Sleepyhead for quality bedtime books, in my never humble opinion. It's a Caldecott winner, not surprisingly, but I don't understand why more people know about it. When we give it as a gift, people are surprised by it and then fall in love with it.

The storyline is wonderfully simple: Brown says good night to a bunch of different animals, ending their few sentences with "sleepy bunnies" or "sleepy wild things" or "sleepy sheep." The pictures are very nice and actually pretty sleepy, showing animals falling onto their paws, onto each other, into their mamma's laps, falling asleep. The book ends with "And the children stop thinking and whistling and talking. They all say their prayers and go to sleep. Sleepy children." The next two pages are just one large illustrations, and the book ends with a gentle prayer. I say gentle because it's a quietly Christian book, not obnoxiously religious or anything like that. For me, that makes it all the better, even though I'm stepping into that complicated topic of religion and children. I think I'll end this paragraph now before I have to draw lines in the sand...

The only funnily odd thing about the book is the page on wild things. If you had to choose three wild animals to write about and draw, what would they be? My thoughts immediately go to Africa, and images of zebras and lions and gorillas come to mind. Brown chooses lions and monkeys. Okay, I'm with you on these two. But then mice. Mice? Wild mice? I don't know...it makes me actually stop short and wonder what she was thinking. Maybe if she had made them all wild animals we see regularly--deer, raccoons, birds. Or maybe I just don't like mice because a few months ago I realized they were living in my toddler snack-infested car? Perhaps. Anyway, I still think this book is a gem despite the inclusion of mice as a wild animal.

Good Night Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

Good Night Moon by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Jean Charlot

Rating: 3 stars

I won't spend too much time on this one. I mean, it's a classic and I'd be shocked if it wasn't in your child's library. It's soft and soothing and I rarely read it without yawning. But the text is so silly--rhyming for ryhming's sake, with the whole "mush" thing. How many parents out there have had to explain, poorly, what "mush" is to their children? "It's what you eat in jail, so stay out of there" is what I thought when Lorelei asked me a few months ago.

And the other thing about this classic that I do appreciate is this: WHY IS THE TEXT RED?!!? Against black? When Brown was writing this book, she surely realized it was a perfect-for-bedtime book, right? Bedtime involves low lights. And parents are a little older, grandparents older than them, so eyesight is going downhill fast. This book doesn't help!

In the next edition, I move that the text be changed to white. Then my poor eyes would feel so much better.