Bridges Are To Cross by Philemon Sturges

Bridges Are To Cross by Philemon Sturges, illustrated by Giles Laroche

Rating: 5 stars

I LOVE how this book turns bridges, something that one could look at as pretty ordinary, and shows how extraordinary they really can be.

The book is, obviously, about bridges; it's not exactly a story book, but does have enough words on each page that describe the pictures enough to make it better for younger audiences than, say, a DK book on dinosaurs.  Each page shows a gorgeous illustration (see below) that draws the little reader in to that particular bridge.  Struges' text, just one sentence, explains how this bridge is unique.  Some examples:

• Tower Bridge (London, England): "This bridge lets boats float under the road."
• Segovia Aqueduct (Segovia, Spain): "And this one brings river to the city."
• Engetsu Bridge (Takamatsu, Japan): "This bridge was for the shogun to cross to find the quiet of his garden."

  

  "This bridge is very old and very new. 
  It was built long ago, but is always being repaired and rebuilt."

  
• Ponte di Realto (Venice, Italy): "And this one's for ordinary people to cross, to shop, or just watch gondolas."

Under the main text, there are a few sentences that go more in-depth, providing a bit more information.  They are always fascinating, and spark some really great conversation--from "Let's find this on the globe!" or "Is that far or near us?" or "Have you or Daddy ever been to this bridge?"

Giles Laroche is pretty neat himself.  He makes this elaborate paper collages that somehow, magically, turn into the background and foreground of these cool structures.  (The Brooklyn Bridge one is the most impressive, I think.)  I can't imagine how long it takes him to do each one!  He says that he likes to create pictures of faraway places; he is often is inspired by how own artwork to then travel to that faraway place to explore.  I love that no matter where he travels or hikes, he always has a sketchbook in hand.  I am really looking forward to exploring more of his work in books like What Do Wheels Do All Day? and What's Inside?


This book is an inspirational treasure.  Check it out (or buy it) today!

I Love Tools! by Philemon Sturges

I Love Tools! by Philemon Sturges, illustrated by Shari Halpern

Rating: 4 stars

Like I said, we can't stop reading these books!  They are each very simple but fun and a wonderful introduction to basic but important concepts.  Like tools.  I found myself really excited, in a super dorky way, about reading what little snippets Sturges found on each tool on the front and back cover/jackets (is there a right word for this?!) of the book.  He didn't disappoint!

Here are some of his random factoids:

 - The earliest rulers were based on the length of people's feet, hands, or fingers.
 - Because a hammer has so many uses, including making other tools, it is sometimes called the "king of tools."  (Is there a queen of tools?  I'm going to guess not.)
 - If you live in a typical American home, your house was probably built using around 200 pounds of nails!

The book introduces tools as a family of four (including both a son and daughter) build a bird house together, making this book a fantastic one as a springing board for such a project at home.  Lorelei will be ready to do this sort of project in the Spring, which means Ben will be, too.

She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain by Philemen Sturges

She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain by Philemen Sturges, illustrated by Ashley Wolff

Rating: 5 singing stars

Warning: This book/song will get stuck in your head, and you will definitely be singing it to yourself after the kids are tucked in bed, while on a date night with your partner, taking the dogs out for a walk.

That's the bad news.  The good news is that it's a really good book/song to have stuck in your head!  Philomen Sturges changes the words to the old folk song that no one can remember the words to anyway (or is that just me?).  It's a pretty decent length of a book, but the text/lyrics don't get old at all, and I even pretend to play a banjo as if there's a space left to rock out on my nonexistent banjo in front of my highly amused kids.  (I'll have the only kids who play air banjo, not air guitar.  Geeks in training!)  This book is so different from all the others because it's a song, and Lorelei and Ben beg for it again and again and again.  And I'm happy to oblige!  Even when my in-laws were in town so I had a crowd of people listening to me croon, I was happy to oblige. 

The basic storyline (songline?) is this:  Some "she"--it's a mystery who--is comin' 'round the mountain to this little animal village in the middle of some southwestern state.  Everyone is getting ready for a party when she arrives, including "making ensalada" and getting "old brass beddy" ready.  Here is Lorelei's favorite part: "We'll have a fiesta grande while she's here. / Salsa, rice, and candy--hope she's near! / That table looks just dandy, the pinata will be handy. / Let's build a great big fire for good cheer."  In the background of many of the detailed pictures is a camper, the vehicle of the mysterious lady, making its way to the town.  On the last page, when the whole town cheers "Yea, she's here!" we realize that it's a mobile library called Six White Horses, and everyone is excited to check out new books.

A book about books!  I love it.

I also must admit another dorky fact about myself, other than the fact that I play a pretty rad air banjo.  I make up songs for everything.  We have a quesadilla song, a guacamole song, a whatever-needs-to-be-sung-about song.  I usually take the lyrics to a song Lorelei and Ben know, and it cracks them up to here the latest version of it.  Lorelei plays along, too, and she makes up songs about things as she plays by herself or with Ben or with whatever it is that interests her at the moment.  We've all had a great time learning the lyrics to this book/song and also authoring our own!

I Love Planes! by Philemen Sturges

I Love Planes! by Philomen Sturges, illustrated by Shari Halpern

Rating: 4 stars

I have a great friend who is completely addicted to Alexander McCall Smith's books.  Every time she sends out an update about what books she's read/is reading on the book group/website thingy we both belong to, one or two of his books are in there, with an apology (to whom?  I'm not sure!) that she knows she should stop but she just can't help herself!  They are so good!  There are so many!  She just can't stop!

Well, I finally understand.

These books are so good!  There are so many!  We just can't stop!  (Ok, there are actually not over a hundred, though I wish there were.  I think there are 8 or so.) 

These are quickly becoming equals to our Byron Barton favorites!  I really wish that they came in board books--if they did, I would definitely be buying them for a bunch of first birthdays for little boys.  The drawings and text and rhymes are so appropriate for a 1 or 2 year-old, and are the perfect little books to help kids get interested in books.  Because who doesn't love looking up in the sky to see if it's a helicopter or jet or Blue Angel or little propeller plane flying over us?!  I still do.

If you've got a little guy (or girl!) who is 2ish years old, just check out every single one of these.  We grab one or two every time we go to the library--sometimes they are new ones, and sometimes we've read them before.  It's like seeing an old friend, or being excited to meet a new one!

I Love School! by Philemen Sturges

I Love School! by Philomen Sturges, illustrated by Shari Halpern

Rating: 4.5

There really isn't much to this big series of books, but they are each so cute and engaging that they're worth a blurb here and a check out there.  They are basic, introductory books on which you can expand if you want--or, if you're just pooped, you can just read it and save the extension exercises for another day. 

I do learn a few facts with every book; on the front and back inside cover are fun tidbits about school: that the world's largest peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich contained 150 pounds of peanuts and 50 pounds of jelly.  Or that more than 450,000 school buses transport close to 24 million students in the U.S. to school every day.  I appreciate that Sturges throws this stuff in for the older reader--whether that's 4 or 5 or, in my case, 34.

Since Lorelei is starting preschool in just five or six weeks, I am keeping a constant flow of books about school, about starting school, about making friends at school, and anything that has any positive vibe about school.  I really do think she'll do fine in the transition--when we moved from the Mommy and me gymnastics class to the "big girl" Mommy-sits-on-the-sides class she didn't look back once, and her crying fits of "I don't want to do that!" disappeared completely.  So I think she's ready.  I think.  I hope.  Am I ready?  I don't know.

The other books in this series:
I Love Trucks!
I Love Trains!
I Love Bugs! (review here)
I Love Tools!
I Love Planes!

I Love Bugs! by Philemen Sturges

I Love Bugs! by Philomen Sturges, illustrated by Shari Halpern

Rating: 4 stars

I'm not sure when to break it to Lorelei and Ben that I've actually tasted a few bugs, and not just when I was running really fast on a particularly gnatty day.  When I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Thailand, I clearly remember the khun yaais or grandmothers of the village standing by the porch light grabbing the flying whatever-they-were and yanking their wings off of them, then throwing them into a bucket, where they'd soon become part of an omelet.

Yum!  Are you hungry now?

I think I have a year or two until I can start with my Peace Corps stories.  I'm going to save them in my back pocket until I need Lorelei and Ben's full attention, because there are some good ones tucked away for that day.

Until then, we have this book, which Ben LOVES.  He might cry when we return it to the library (but, luckily, our local library has a copy of it, so we can check it out almost anytime we want).  It's a simple little book with just a few rhyming stanzas that outline the simplest things that bugs do.  There are more words on the front and back jacket of the book where all the bugs are drawn, labeled, and described.  I've read this to Ben a few times a day for the past week, and he seems to love it even more each time.

Since our house is surrounded by woods, we see a lot of bugs--and not in our omelets.  So it's fun to see them where they should be (i.e., in the pages of a book) rather than where they shouldn't be (i.e., eyeing me up in the shower).  Philemon Sturges has a whole series of books like these--she seems to love all the things Ben loves, including trucks and planes and trains and tools--so we'll be checking those out soon.

In the meantime, we love bugs!  We love them outside more than inside...