All In A Day by Cynthia Rylant

All In A Day by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Nikki McClure

Rating: 4.5 stars

I just finished reading an actual chapter book--The Idle Parent: Why Laid-Back Parents Raise Happier and Healthier Kids by Tom Hodgkinson.  It was funny and refreshing.  I loved that he tries to stay on the sofa as long as possible, and that he and his wife try to stay in bed as long as possible on the weekends.  I don't love the fact that he doesn't think swaddling is good...I thank our well-worn Miracle Blankets (thanks, Stacey!) for many good nights sleep.

Anyway, among the tidbits I picked up from this book is this: Learn how to live in the moment just like your kids do.  They don't want to stop what they are doing to ____ (fill in the blank with: eat dinner, clean up, go run errands, go to a friend's house, do whatever!) because this moment is great and they don't want it to end.  We're constantly asking them about what they just did ("What did you guys do with Miss Chloe?" I asked Lorelei when I came home this morning) and what they're going to do ("Do you want to go to the pool after Ben wakes up?").  How many times have I called my friends to ask them if it's bedtime yet at their house...??  An embarrassing number of times.  So I'm trying to be better about letting them just Be, and Be-ing with them.  Trying to live in the moment, and not worry too much about the before and after.

I'm doing ok; I give myself a B-.  For over-achieving me, I think I can do better.

And here comes Cynthia Rylant to help me!  And the ever-wonderful, ever-talented Nikki McClure, who illustrated this amazing book.  This book is like a slow afternoon that you don't want to end, when you're at your best as a parent, full of appreciation for your kids at that moment.  Here's a snippet of text, and a gorgeous image to go along:

Underneath that great big sky

the earth is all a-spin.

This day will soon be over

and it won’t come back again.

So live it well, make it count,

fill it up with you.

The day’s all yours, it’s waiting now . . .

See what you can do.

I wrote earlier about Nikki McClure and her ways with her X-acto knife here; her website is really worth checking out if you're at all intrigued by the picture above.

I was so happy that Ben and Lorelei loved this book.  There's one page that Ben loves (see left)--Nikki McClure hides a dozen or so wild animals in one single, huge image, and Ben likes to find the snail, lizard, raccoon, deer, and especially the woodpecker.  This poem is one that I want to memorize so I can recite it to them when they are upset or having difficulty falling to sleep because it is so relaxing and enjoyable.

This is a wonderful book to give--I have to say it's going to be one of our go-to books for 3 year olds for the next few years, and is also a wonderful book for adults who might just need to be reminded of the importance of living in the present. 

Enjoy today, my imaginary friends!  Live it well.

Mama, Is It Summer Yet? by Nikki McClure

Mama, Is It Summer Yet? by Nikki McClure

Rating: 3.5 stars

On Father's Day Lorelei, Ben, and I made a list of Daddy's favorite things so that we could give/make/provide those to him.  On the list, tucked between homemade oatmeal cookies and tinkering in the yard, was taking an afternoon nap.  So Lorelei and I happily obliged; we read books to our boys, tucked them into their respective beds, and went to the bookstore.  It was a treat for all of us! 

That morning in the New York Times Book Review was a special children's section.  When they have reviews of children's books, I show them to Lorelei--once or twice we've already read them, which makes her feel pretty proud to know the books that she sees in Mommy and Daddy's newspaper.  Since they had the Children's Bestseller lists, we decided to bring the list along and see if we could find any books on it.  I particularly wanted to read The Quiet Book (I love the idea of it!) and Over the Rainbow.  We couldn't find either of those books (drat!), but we did find plenty of others.

Including Mama, Is It Summer Yet? 

The illustrations are incredibly beautiful.  I looked up Nikki McClure's bio and found out that she arms herself with an X-acto knife and cuts out her images from a single sheet of paper.  Pretty impressive!  The pieces of art she creates for this book are just gorgeous.  I will definitely seek out other books she's illustrated because the images are so captivating.  The text is nicely simple: A little boy asks her mother if it's summer yet, and she says no, and gives an example of how the boy should know that summer is almost here.

However, the story doesn't make me want to read the book again and again.  It reminds me of a road trip I don't ever want to take, with my kids in the back seat, asking "Are we there yet?" and then, five minutes later, "Are we there yet?" and then, five minutes later, "Are we there yet?" and then...  You get the idea.  The story would be so much better if the "Are we there yet?" pages were just taken out (in my humble opinion).

Still, if I were an art teacher, I'd want a book like this within arm's reach to show kids the different types of art that they can create.  It is illustrations like these that make me really appreciate artists for choosing to devote their time and energy to children's books.  What a gift to kids like ours!

PS  Check out the artist/author's GORGEOUS journals.  One for new mothers and one "verb-laden" journal.