Snow by Roy McKie and P.D. Eastman

Snow (I Can Read It All By Myself) by Roy McKie and P.D. Eastman

Rating: 5 stars

Throwback Thursday!

This book will always hold a special place in my heart.  I remember Jonathan coming home from work one night when Lorelei was about three years old at her bedtime, which was probably around 6:30 then.  So early!  Must laugh at that now...  Anyway, I told him, "Ask her to read this to you."

He walked in and sat with her; I looked on from the door.  As he turned the pages, she recited the entire book to him.  It was fun to see the look of amazement on his face.  In truth, she wasn't reading.  But she had memorized every single word, and she wouldn't say the next line until you turned the page to get to it.  She read it exactly like I read it to her so many times--with excitement.  Her three year old version of this book was PRICELESS.  She'd been book-crazy for a long time, but this was a different example of her bibliophile nature.

Snow is good
For making tracks...
And making pictures
With your backs.

And it's a great, fun book with simple rhymes and funny pictures.  Just a boy and a girl and their dog playing in the snow.  Making snow angels and igloos and snowmen...all before the sun comes out and melts it, and takes their fun away.  They have big smiles and seem to be laughing with each other and at the snow though they sit, frozen, right on the page.


A little sample of the simple text (I've still got the whole book memorized even though years have passed since Lorelei's infatuation with it):

Snow!  Snow!
Come out in the snow!
I want to know if you like snow.
Oh yes! Oh yes! I do like snow.
Do you like it in your face?
Oh yes! I like it any place.

AND it's perfect for this time of year, nearly March, when you want winter to be over (at least I sure do) but it's just. not. yet. over.  Much to my frustration.  Perhaps this book will help you look at snow and the cold in a more child-like way so that these last few weeks of winter will cruise by quickly...

Bennett Cerf's Book of Riddles

Bennett Cerf's Book of Riddles with drawings by Roy McKie

Rating: 4.5 stars

Here's a classic that I read to Lorelei and Ben this morning, "quizzing" them to see if they remembered the answers.  They did!  And I did, too, because this book is so old I remember reading it when I was in elementary school (it was published in 1960, so there might be a few politically incorrect drawings but they are all such safe, non-sarcastic jokes that the book is still great)...

Some of my favorites:

What holds up a train?
Bad men!

What is big and red and eats rocks?

A big red rock eater!

Why did the little boy throw the clock out the window?

Because he wanted to see time fly!

What gets lost every time you stand up?

Your lap!

Silly.  Funny.  Giggle-worthy.  And some logic-filled brain-teasers, too!  Any book with an illustrations of bandits holding up a train is a good book in my book!  Does anyone else remember this book?

Ten Apples Up On Top! by Dr. Seuss

Ten Apples Up On Top! by Dr. Seuss, illustrated by Roy McKie

Rating: 5 balanced stars

Obviously, I have two kids.  So I'm constantly juggling their needs and interests and snacks to try and keep things interesting and balanced.  Sometimes I succeed.  Books like this one help--both Lorelei and Ben love it equally.  Many of the I Can Read By Myself Books are great like that; the text is simple enough for the beginner reader (Lorelei, 3 1/2) but also silly enough with fun illustrations for the younger listener (Ben, 20 months).

I should go buy this book we've checked it out so much, but the few times I've done that the book suddenly becomes less special.  Just like when a toy at a friend's house is much more interesting than when your mother buys it for you at home.  Humph!

This is my favorite Dr. Suess book, and has been for decades.  I prefer the more tamed, more succinct Dr. Suess (I can't get over how long Happy Birthday To You and If I Ran the Zoo are!)...but that could be just a phase.

Summer by Alice Low

Summer by Alice Low, illustrated by Roy McKie

Rating: 5 summery stars

It's been retro week at our house for the past few weeks.  It all started with a trip to my Dad's house a few weeks ago.  He's got a pool, which is cool, but he's also got (drumroll, please) The Children's Library.  This library is a few shelves stuffed with all the old books that my sister and I loved as children.  During a break from swimming and sun, Lorelei said she was ready for some quiet time, so we got a stack of books from The Children's Library and set her up on a pool chair.  Her twin cousins joined in the read-fest and they turned the very pages I turned as a kid.

This was the best of the best in the stack of books.  I read it out loud to Lorelei and her twin cousins while the sun shone down on us, warming our towels that were wrapped around us.  It was towards the end of June, during an unusually hot spell here in Virginia that meant summer really is here, ready or not.  The girls' hair was still wet and in their face as they sipped their chocolate milk, given to them because it was Sunday and they were at GrandDad's house.

Really, is there a more perfect book than this one at that moment? 

All of them loved it, with the references to the sun and the heat and the beach and the waves and the fireflies and the roasted marshmallows and all that good stuff that childhood summertime should be all about.  It was like jumping back a dozen years into my own childhood, one that was full and dirty and fun and perfect.

We loved it so much that we checked it from the library, too, so we read it on the way to GrandDad's house again today, and then read it at his house, and then on the way home. 

Hooray!  Summer is HERE!