Mother Bruce by Ryan T. Higgins

Mother Bruce by Ryan T. Higgins
Disney Hyperion

Rating: 5 stars

Last night in between stringing the lights on our house and setting up the tree, I forced my kids to stop to eat dinner. They didn't want to--they felt and loved the momentum of decorating for Christmas and wanted to ignore their empty stomachs and increased crabbiness. They needed less persuasion when I promised we'd read books during dinner, a habit started nearly a decade ago when Lorelei was our only child and only a baby.

Ben grabbed Mother Bruce, but it was Kiefer who chose it first (the perks of being the youngest). And it was Kiefer who wanted to hear it again two hours later at his bedtime. It's one of those books--a book you'll read again and again because it's so funny, and so sweet.

Bruce is a grump of a bear who doesn't like sunny days or rainy days or cute little animals. He just likes eggs--eggs of all sorts. (Cue Bubba Blue's voice from "Forrest Gump" here.) Eggs on toast. Eggs Benedict. Deviled eggs. Eggs soufflé. Sunny-side up eggs. And then he discovered another "fancy recipe that he found on the internet:" hard-boiled goose eggs drizzled with honey-salmon sauce. Yum!

So he catches a few salmon, collects honey from a beehive, and visits Mrs. Goose to grab some eggs.

He runs into a few problems while cooking, so instead of getting hard-boiled eggs, he gets goslings. That's right: the eggs hatch instead of cook! Funny (and a little horrifying)!

It was hard work.

All of a sudden, Bruce is Mother Bruce with four goslings calling him "MAMA!" He tries to return them to Mrs. Goose, but she's gone south for the winter. The goslings won't stop following Bruce, so he tries to make the best of it. He tries to be a pretty good mama by bjorning the babies, letting them paint, feeding them, napping with them. The seasons pass and he tries to teach them to fly away, but they just buy warm winter stuff so they can stick around.

Finally, Bruce buys five tickets to Florida. And that's what they end up doing every winter: They go south together, and "laze about at the beach in tacky shirts, sipping ice cold lemonade, while Bruce dreams of new recipes--recipes that don't hatch!"

Dee-light-full!!

The story and the writing are both great--clever and witty and silly and good. But the illustrations bring the whole book up to another level entirely. The images just cracked us all up. Bruce pushing the grocery cart through the forest looking for ingredients sent my kids into a fit of laughter. Bruce dropping his load of firewood at the sight of four goslings starting at him from his pot made us smile. Grumpy Bruce with four innocent goslings following up a tree made them all laugh again.

You can't go wrong with this book--we give Mother Bruce eight thumb's up!

Brimsby's Hats by Andrew Prahin

Brimsby's Hats by Andrew Prahin
Simon & Schuster

Rating: 5 stars

For years, Brimsby's best friend visited every day. His best friend made wonderful tea, and Brimsby made wonderful hats as they filled the hours with chatter about everything and anything. Then one morning his best friend said he was leaving to travel far away so he could realize his dream of becoming a sea captain. Brimsby sent him on his way with a sad, little wave and a brand-new hat.

As you can imagine, Brimsby got pretty lonely. His house was way too quiet without the lively conversations with his best friend.

So he went out looking for some new friends. Despite a heavy blanket of snow and more continuing to fall, he found some, perched up in a tree, trying to stay warm. The birds were trying to stay warm with bird-sized wood-burning stoves. Brimsby watched these busy birds, and knew he could help.

The hats kept the snow out of their nests and
stopped the cold wind from blowing out their fires.

He went back to his hat-making shop and made some modifications on his hats. Some days later, he returned to the tree, climbed up with a ladder, and handed the busy birds hats that each had a door, a window, and a hole for the stove pipe. The grateful birds now had time to return to Brimsby's home, drink some tea, and talk about anything and everything.

Brimsby wasn't lonely anymore.

(And from time to time, Brimsby and his new bird friends trekked a far distance to visit his best friend in a seaside town full of ships, and talk about how wonderful it was that they had all been lucky enough to meet one another.)

I think I'm especially primed to love this story because some dear people in my kids' lives just moved away. I love that this story, unlike Bad Bye, Good Bye and some other picture books, focuses on the one who was left behind--in this case, Brimsby. In real life, me and my kids. I love how Brimsby supports his friend but also has the gumption to do something about his loneliness--and he makes new friends by changing what he normally does and giving something of himself to help others.

This giving of yourself is risky! In a big way! But for Brimsby it works out, and I hope kids all over--those who have dear ones move away and those whose best friends still sit beside them--realize that giving of yourself is often worth the risk. And what a gem of a book this is.

You Can Do It, Bert! by Ole Könnecke

You Can Do It, Bert! by Ole Könnecke
Gecko Press

Rating: 5 stars

"They" (those already-published, know-everything children's literature gurus) tell us yet-to-be-published writer wanna-bes to write books that have a definite beginning, middle, and satisfying ending. One that should surprise the reader. With as few words as possible (preferably no more than 500 words). Possibly with a lesson, but not a heavily delivered one. Oh--and make it funny, too.

Sigh. A tall order, for sure.

Yet Ole Könnecke delivers such a perfect, simple little story with such simple, delightful illustrations that I'm left in awe. I'm tempted to just throw in the towel right now! Or be inspired. (I choose the latter.)

Bert is a little bird whose big day is arrived. We see him at the end of a twig. He's trying to muster the courage to jump. He's well prepared, "mentally and physically." (I love that.)

Bert is well prepared, mentally and physically.

We're with him! Trying to help urge him along as he runs then screeches to a stop. He must eat a banana first. Then he'll be ready.

And he is. So he does.

We see him in mid-air. No wings flapping. Looking distressed. Saying "help" in what I'm sure is a pip-squeak of a voice.

Uh-oh!

And then... Splash! He's actually jumping in water! With three other feathered friends!

You tricked us, Ole Könnecke, in the most delightful way. Bravo!

Mama Built A Little Nest by Jennifer Ward

Mama Built A Little Nest by Jennifer Ward, illustrated by Steve Jenkins

Rating: 5 stars

If you've got a nature-loving kid somewhere near you, this book needs to be in his or her hands. We were all blown away by how many facts we learned from a book that appeared to be a simple rhyme with gorgeous illustrations.

Ward gives us a gift of a book jam-packed with great information about a bunch of different birds--from the more well-known emperor penguin and falcons to more unique birds such as the weaverbird (the yellow bird pictured on the cover), falcon, grebe, and shorebird.

This is a grow-with-me book, or a book for a household like ours--with one strong, curious reader; one emerging, interested reader; and one bird-loving, letter-finder. On each two-page spread is a succinct, one-stanza rhyme about the bird illustrated on the page. There are also several sentences about the bird written in a smaller, different font for readers like Lorelei to read on her own or for me to read to Ben (he can read most of the words in the actual poem himself).

Mama built a little nest / inside a sturdy trunk.
She used her beak to tap-tap-tap / the perfect place to bunk.

Each page not only shows the reader what the bird looks like, but what the nest is like. The diversity of each bird--from what it looks like to how it makes its nest--impressed me greatly and was fun to point out to my kids. The birds and their neat nests grabbed my kids' attention and set off their imaginations.

Here are some of my favorite facts about the birds and their nests in this book:

• A hummingbird makes the smallest cup-shaped nest out of spiderwebs so the nest will stretch as the chicks grow.
• The male cactus wren makes many dome-shaped nests to attract a female. If impressed, the female will choose one and then continue to add to its structure.
• Grebes create a floating nest on the water and anchor it to water plants.
• The swiftlet makes an edible nest (!!) using tube-shaped saliva, which hardens in the air. Swiftlet nests are used in bird's nest soup, a Chinese delicacy.

My kids love this type of bird feeder!

This is a wonderful, one-of-a-kind book that pairs nicely with the kind of bird feeder we have attached to our window...click HERE for link to purchase.

Shh! We Have a Plan! by Chris Haughton

Shh! We Have a Plan! by Chris Naughton

Rating: 5 stars

Shh! We Have a Plan! is sitting on Kiefer's bed right now, and it hasn't moved very far all week. He is just crazy about it. Almost as crazy as I am about the book, which is oddly dark for a picture book.

But the hues match the setting and story perfectly: Four wrapped-up guys go out hunting for a bird in the dark. Three are serious about catching one; one is along for the ride, seemingly too young to have been left at home.

"Hello, birdie!" this little one calls out.

"Shh..." says the first guy.

"SHHH!!" reinforces the second guy.

"We have a plan!" says the last guy, who is holding something (a cage, a ladder, a big log).

Kiefer likes to then tell me what their plan is: "They're going to CATCH the birdie and put him in the cage." Or "They're going to climb up the ladder to get the birdie in the tree!"

Ready one, ready two, ready th...!

The three guys try to get that birdie but never succeed.  Finally the littlest guy pulls out some bread and attracts not just the one bird but a whole flock, including a big, mean one that does NOT want to be caught. They run for their lives!

And they decide maybe they'll catch a squirrel instead.

This is a wonderful book with which your child or student can practice making predictions, and to talk generally of having a "plan." Maybe it's just plan-happy me that appreciates that...?!

The Boy Who Drew Birds by Jacqueline Davies

The Boy Who Drew Birds: A Story of John James Audubon by Jacqueline Davies, illustrated by Melissa Sweet

Rating: 5 stars

About a month ago Ben was playing with an airplane, complete with little pilot, that he had crafted from Legos.  As he zoomed the little thing through the air, he said, "I'm Amelia Earhart!  Here I go!"

I stopped what I was doing a few feet away in the kitchen (I'm there a whole lot), and asked him to repeat himself.  He did.  I asked him how he knew who Amelia Earhart was.

"Santa brought me a book about her for Christmas!" he stated.

Wow!  Go, Santa!  I patted myself on the back but was more surprised than proud at the fact that her name and a few facts about her sank into his bright, little brain.

I just wrote about Ben's interest in birds thanks to his pre-Kindergarten class's unit on birds (click here to read it), and the interest stayed alive throughout this quietly wonderful biography on John James Audubon. It's a beautifully illustrated, wordy book, best for age 5-ish and up, I think.  It tells this wonderful story:

To avoid fighting in Napoleon's war, his father ships his son, John James, to Pennsylvania.  The boy is talented at many things, but his natural instinct draws him to birds.  Soon after arriving to his new home and while spending most of his days outside wandering and observing, he finds a cave.  In it sits a small, empty nest.  Weeks later, he sees that the small pewee fly-catchers returned to the nest.

Right then, John James starts wondering the same thing that scientists and naturalists wondered around that time:  Are these the same pewees who built the nest last year? Where did they spend the winter? Will they return again next spring?  He quickly draws the birds and notes his observations in his notebook, which he kept in his musée, or museum, otherwise known as his bedroom.  Every inch of that room is covered with nests and eggs and tree brances and pebbles and lichen and feathers...

But where were last year's babies, now grown?
He began to search the woods and orchard nearby,
listening for their call.

At that time, some people thought small birds hibernated under water or in hollowed logs all winter.  Others thought the small birds transformed into another species, while one scientist claimed that birds fly to the moon during winter!  In case you're wondering, he thought that journey took 60 days (but I'm not sure if that's one-way or round-trip...).  John James is determined to figure out the mystery, so he begins to experiment with a tracking system.  After more errors than success in his trial-and-error process, he finally finds a light silver thread that fits snugly on one of the young pewee's legs.  At the end of fall, the bird flies off.

All winter John James waits, and also paints pictures of birds and collects little artifacts for his musée.  Finally, as the days grow longer, he sees a pewee bird fly into his cave.  But there is no string.  He begins to search the woods around the cave.  Sure enough, out in the meadow, he finds the now-mature baby with a silver thread around its leg.  In 1804, he is the first person in North America to band a bird.  And his simple experiment solved a complex theory.

I love that one boy's curiosity and respectful experiment with the birds he loved revealed so much.  What a wonderful lesson for girls and boys of today!

While Jacqueline Davies deserves applause for thinking up, researching, and writing the book (Bravo!), the book would not be complete without Caldecott-winning illustrator Melissa Sweet.  Her illustrations are spectacular, as always (my favorite book of hers is not the one for which she earned the Caldecott but for another nonfiction A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippen).  

Happy birding!

United Tweets of America: 50 State Birds by Hudson Talbott

United Tweets of America: 50 State Birds by Hudson Talbott

Rating: 4.5 stars

This (pretty random) book illustrates perfectly the truism: it pays to have a good relationship with one's librarian.  Once again, I have Ben to thank for this lesson.  Mr. Steven, his current favorite librarian, is oh-so-patient with Ben's imperfectly-spoken but always-earnest requests.  Of Ben's current current interests, sports is still at the top.  But, thanks to a long unit on birds in his pre-Kindergarten class, he's been looking for books on birds in between looking for birds out his window.  And, he's very interested in the United States.  In the past, Mr. Steven found him a DK Book on the United States and Texas, which Ben pored through quietly in one sitting.

Jonathan's home state is home to:
the Mardi Gras-partying Brown Pelican

One day about a month ago, Ben boldly walked up to the Circulation Desk with his "library list" in hand.  He asked Mr. Steven for a book on birds.  I think this was the beginning of the bird phase, the second time he asked Mr. Stephen about bird books.  So Mr. Steven strode off to the appropriate section, with Ben trotting happily behind him, dimples deep with joy.  (Who doesn't love joy in a library?  It's a good story already, methinks!) And Ben came back with this book, dimples impossibly deep with excitement.

"LOOK!" he said.  "It's a book about birds AND the United States!  Mr. Stephen found it for me!"

We've renewed it once already, and I think Ben might cry the day we actually have to return it.  We've read it cover to cover twice.  It's such a funny little book with funny little drawings--and that funniness is actually largely adult humor (for example, on the Tennessee page the bird is made to look like Elvis, and I had to explain why that was funny to Ben...although he knows what Elvis sounds like, he doesn't know what he looks like.  Well, until now!).  But Ben loves it.

Each page is dedicated to a state, and a big, usually silly illustration covers most of the page.  There are facts about the state--state anthem, state song, state capital, notable people from the state.  Also included are lots of little random things about the state that are fun to know.  For example:

• Kool-Aid was invented in Nebraska.
• Maine supplies 99% of the blueberries consumed and 90% of the toothpicks used in the U.S.
• Illinois is home to the world's largest cookie producer, Nabisco.  In 1995 they made 16 billion Oreos!
• Inspired by the view from Pike's Peak, CO, Katharine Lee Bates wrote "America the Beautiful."

Ben and Kiefer look for birds on a snowy morning...

Ben loves this book, and I have to say I've been really impressed with the big push about birds from his school.  Somehow it encapsulates all that I want for Ben that he doesn't naturally gravitate towards.  While he normally rushes through his day, expending endless amounts of his endless energy doing and chasing and running and laughing exuberantly, I think there's so much to be learned from quiet observation in nature.

I've written before about the huge effect the book Last Child in the Woods had on me eight years ago, but this unit on birds reminds me how great it is to:

1. Be in a natural environment as much as possible (breathing in that fresh air)
2. Be quiet and still in that environment (and, therefore, practicing quietness and stillness)
3. Observe things happening in that environment with all of your senses (with birds, definitely sight and sound, but how can kids not also listen to the wind and feel it on their skin?)
4. Note the uniqueness of each bird's markings and calls (what a lesson: within a group, each is different and special in their own way!)

Really, this blog post turned out to be a shout out of appreciation for those great people in our great community who are, luckily for us, having a wonderful affect on Ben's growth: a special librarian, and a special team of teachers.  Thank you!

Flora and the Flamingo by Molly Idle

Flora and the Flamingo by Molly Idle

Rating: 5 stars

Delightful.  Delight-filled!

Here's a feisty, silly bathing beauty, happy to mimic a regal, haughty flamingo while he dances regally, ignorant of his human shadow.  Using lift-the-flaps, Idle brilliantly shows the girl mock the flamingo and then--pull the flap down!--she looks away innocently when the flamingo looks back at her accusingly.  The reader shares the secret of the feisty little girl; the two know what the flamingo doesn't!

Flora copycats the flamingo...

Six pages in and the flamingo has the girl figured out.  One loud squawk leaves the girl tumbling, humbled from her little joke.  But just a few turns later and the flamingo forgives, forgets, and reaches for Flora.  And then...and then!...a lovely duet between the master leading his pupil through a complicated, beautiful dance.  The girl is ecstatic--the look of delight on HER face is so precious.

They dance beautifully until they cannonball into the water in one joyous, silly splash!

This book is so very worthy of the Caldecott honor it received just a few weeks ago.  And it reminds me of the great opportunities wordless picture books provide.  All three of my kids--Lorelei (6 1/2) who is reading advanced chapter books, Ben (5) who is reading solidly, and Kiefer (2 1/2) who is delighted (word of the post) to identify "his letter" K--like this book and all of them can get something out of it.  As a wordless picture book, it is accessible to all of them.

...and is found out in this adorable picture.

Here is a sampling of activities you can do with a wordless picture book:

• Have the child tell the story--even Kiefer can look at a picture and describe what is going on, and then he sometimes pretends to read by adding imaginary stuff or adding tidbits from his day or another book.
  
• Use Post-It notes (Ben's favorite thing right now) to write a story.  You can stick them right onto the pages!
  
• Have your child tell you more about the character. Why is the girl dancing?  How does she feel when the flamingo pushes her away?
  
• Look at the structure behind the book--Lorelei is ready to do this.  What happens in the beginning? What is the problem/conflict?  How is it resolved?  Words don't get in the way in wordless books...
  
• Challenge your reader to write or draw or think up a sequel to the book.  What other animals could this girl dance with or, for breakdancing Ben, what animal could best breakdance with him if he was in a storybook?

Some other great wordless picture books (including my all-time favorite, Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie dePaola, can be found on my blog here and even more here).

Hooray for Flora, the Flamingo, and Molly Idle!

On Meadowview Street by Henry Cole

On Meadowview Street by Henry Cole

Rating: 4 stars

There's this huge trend in children's book: to create lots of nonfiction books that parents and educators can use to teach while kids are turning pages themselves, or on their parents' laps.  I think it's a great trend; there are tons of incredible nonfiction books out there that do this well.

But.

You knew there'd be a but, right?

The books I'm talking about are often too wordy and too "teachy;" they are the type of book parents buy and give their kids or, like me, check them out from the library and just have them lying around in the hopes that facts will be learned through osmosis at the very least.  Books about the environment and living green definitely fall into this trap of trying a little TOO hard.

Sometimes, a simple tale of creating a simple garden can go a lot farther than a book about a woman who helped restore all the redwoods in California (or something like that).

Henry Cole does just that in On Meadowview Street.  Young Caroline moves in, and immediately starts looking for a meadow. Because shouldn't there be one on Meadowview Street?  There is not.  So she makes one.  She starts small, with just a little area of her yard, which she ropes off so her father doesn't mow that area.

The more Caroline and her family worked on their yard,
the more it changed.  It was now a home to many things.

But as flowers start to grow, the area gets larger.  And as more flowers bloom, she gets a tree for shade.  Then a bird comes, and she builds bird houses to put in the tree.  They need something to drink, so she and her family build a little pond.  And pretty soon, one step at a time, she creates a small wildlife preserve in her suburban neighborhood.  Of course, it wonderfully inspires others, and Caroline ends up inspiring many people to start small, in their own yard, to do their part.

It's a really great little go-green book for kids.


Small side note: I met Henry Cole last week.  He's the illustrator of over 100 books, and he's authored a fair number of them, too.  He was a neat, neat guy.  He grew up on a farm not far from where we live--in Purceville--so many of his books are inspired from these simple, rural roots.

Alex the Parrot: No Ordinary Bird by Stephanie Spinner

Alex the Parrot: No Ordinary Bird by Stephanie Spinner, illustrated by Meilo So

Rating: 5 stars

This is a great, great, GREAT nonfiction book about Irene Pepperberg, a female scientist who a leading thinker on animal intelligence.  Here's the review I wrote up for Washington Family Magazine:

Without a doubt, this is one of the best nonfiction children's books I've ever read--and, with two big readers and one children's book blog, I read heaps of children's books.  So that's sayin' somethin'.

Let me tell you about the book, and then I'll tell you why you should buy it for your child or classroom, and make it your gift of choice for any 5- or 6-year old's birthday.

Here's the real Alex, working his magic

Stephanie Spinner simply tells the story of the unique friendship of Irene Pepperberg, a graduate student of biology at Purdue University, and Alex (short for Avian Learning Experiment), the African grey parrot she purchased and studied.  Their relationship began in 1977 when most people thought animals weren't very smart--especially animals with small brains, like birds.  Irene soon taught Alex the names and shapes and how to count; Alex picked up how to say his favorite words on his own.

Over the years, Irene wrote about Alex and all of the things that he could do, but it wasn't until Alex was on TV that he started to get noticed.  His personality helped--he would bob his head and sway to the music, he would stick his head in a mug and make silly noises and he'd stretch out his neck and say, "You tickle!" when he wanted to be tickled.  "Alex liked being tickled so much that his face would turn pink with pleasure."  (How cute is that?!)

To read the rest of the review, please click here.

Elsie's Bird by Jane Yolen

 Elsie's Bird by Jane Yolen, illustrated by David Small

Rating: 4.5 stars

When I first started writing this blog, I remember coming across a book that I read to Lorelei where, in the middle of the story, the mother died.  Lorelei was probably 3.  I kicked myself for not reading the book first, so that I could at the very least plan my editing before making up words on the fly.  Now that she's 5 1/2, I appreciate the greater depth of understanding she now has about how the world works.

I don't want to supply her lots of books with sad topics, but let's face it: there's a lot of stuff that happens to our kids or to their friends that is, as my father would say, un-good.  I can hear his words: It's not what happens to you, great Kate (his nickname, once in a while I live up to it), it's how you respond to it.  And that's it: responding to adversity is a tough thing for a kid to learn.  One way of helping your child learn this necessary skill is by providing a book such as Elsie's Bird and letting them learn about and explore sadness and disappointment--and how to recover from it--from the comfort of your lap.

With that build up, this book really isn't all THAT sad!

"Here there is only grass and sky and silence," Elsie wrote.

Elsie is a happy-as-a-lark girl growing up in turn-of-the-century busy and bustling Boston.  She loves the sounds of the city, but the birds are her favorite.  When her mother dies, her papa longs for something far away from Boston, away from the sadness that resonates for him there.  Her papa takes her far away--to Nebraska.  The busy-ness of the city is replaced by the silence of the prairie, and Elsie is sad and lonely.

Her solace lies in her sweet canary, named Timmy Tune, who keeps her company during her solitary days and quiet nights.  Elsie rarely leaves the house; she isn't ready to embrace her new world.  One day her canary gets out of his cage, and she runs after her only friend.  The little bird returns to her when she sings him his favorite tune, and together they finally open themselves to the sounds of their new home and begin to appreciate them.

Perhaps it's the Army brat in me that identifies with little Elsie--going to a new place is pretty tough on kids.  Add in an extra dose of adversity with a parent dying, and you've got a sad situation.  But Elsie finds her happiness in simple joys: her papa, the animals around her, and nature.  I like that Lorelei has in Elsie an example of quality creature comforts, and as Lorelei faces pint-sized bits of adversity (i.e. losing a game of Monopoly to her little brother), she can learn to cheer herself up a little.

Jane Yolen is a great story-teller, and I found the story of how she wrote the book fascinating--she read an article in Smithsonian of women who moved from their comfortable Eastern homes to the quiet Nebraska farms and went a little crazy.  "It was too big a place," and many walked through the grasses, got lost, and died (this is referenced in the book).  Those who brought canaries from back East seemed to have a higher survival rate. Huh!  Amazing!  And David Small is just fantastic.  Realistic but very, very sweet illustrations, characters with warm expressions and sweeping scenes...these are all his specialties and are featured in the book.

A great book, though for a slightly older crowd.

A Good Day by Kevin Henkes

A Good Day by Kevin Henkes

Rating: 5 stars

Another simple book with a simple message: bad days can turn into good ones.  One by one Henkes introduces an animal that is having a not-so-hot day.  A dog gets tangled up in his leash; a squirrel dropped a nut.  "But then..." writes Henkes "The little white dog gets himself untangled and runs in circles through the dandelions."  And of the squirrel: "He found the biggest nut ever!"

What a great thing to teach our kids: don't worry, this bad-ness will pass, and good-ness will be sure to follow (hopefully sooner rather than later!).

Little yellow bird lost his favorite tail feather.
Little yellow bird forgot about his tail feather, and flew higher than he ever had before.

I think, though, that in real life there is often some in-between action, some stuff that happens after the bad and before the good.  It's called pulling yourself up and turning the day around all by yourself.  Wouldn't it be grand to be able to always count on someone else to do that job...a spouse, a friend, a child, even my trusty ol' mutt?  But I think we should take charge of our own happiness, and know how to cheer up ourselves.

I needed some cheering up mid-day today, and though I take full credit for making myself happy, I had some help in the form of a fairly adorable little toddler who thinks I am the funniest person in the whole world.  While the big kids were totally engrossed in whoknowswhat after lunch, I turned up Louis Prima on my iPod and he and I danced like crazy to some old jazz/swing music that never fails to lighten my mood.  My hair was up in a wild ponytail at the top of my head, spilling all over my face as we shimmied and scooted around.  He giggled, and I smiled, dancing like goofballs.  Thankfully, only the trees could see in from the windows, and I think they approved.

So, yes, like this sweet little book, my day is ending well.

Cook-A-Doodle-Doo! by Janet Stevens, illustrated by Susan Stevens Crummel

Cook a Doodle Doo! by Janet Stevens, illustrated by Susan Stevens Crummel

Rating: 3.5 stars

Here's the skinny on this book: It's a twist on the classic Chicken Little story, where the rooster wants someone to help him make strawberry shortcake but the animals don't want to help him, just as they didn't want to help his Granny.  But then three unlikely heroes step forward and offer to help--a turtle, iguana, and pot-bellied pig.  These animals are pretty clueless in the kitchen, so they do silly things like trying to beat an egg with a baseball bat.  But their can-do attitude is great, even when pot-bellied pig eats the whole cake when it's done because "I"m the taster!  I was just tasting it!"

Hmm...that's what my husband says about the cookies I bake...in-ter-est-ing....

Anyway, on the side of many pages are informative paragraphs about baking.  The authors teach you from where teaspoons and tablespoons are derived, what an ingredient actually is, and stuff like that.

I had trouble finding books on strawberries.  A friend of mine suggested this one, so I checked it out from our wonderful local library, and it has been traveling between the library shelf and Lorelei's room for the past week.  Ben isn't very interested; I read it to him once and actually thought the book was too long.  He has a good attention span, but this book is...looooong.

But then Lorelei saw it, grabbed it, and sat reading it on the sofa.  She laughed out loud at a few parts.  And for days she was obviously thinking about the book, trying to get the humor in it.  It was as if she realized she should be laughing, but she didn't exactly get the joke.  Out of the blue she asked: "Why did the iguana want to beat the eggs with a baseball bat?"

So the book is pretty good (thanks for the suggestion, Colleen!), though a little long for those with still-growing attention spans.  But for the little readers who are ready for more and have a good sense of humor developing in their little minds--those who are eager to chuckle at silly things (I know all of us in this house fall in this category!)--this is a good book to check out.

Beth's Post: Inch By Inch by Leo Lionni

Inch By Inch by Leo Lionni

Rating: 4 stars

Out of the library of Leo Lionni books we own, my daughter chose Inch By Inch to read tonight. Always happy to read a book with beautiful illustrations and a happy ending, I cheerfully agreed. This Caldecott Honor Book was published in 1960 and still is just thrilling enough for a two or three year old inch worm loving child.


The inchworm is able to convince a hungry robin that he is useful in measuring all of the birds. He is able to measure long enough to measure the song of the nightingale inch by inch until he inches himself out of sight. It’s the perfect length and subject matter for “one more book” before bed.