Walk on the Wild Side by Nicholas Oldland

Walk on the Wild Side by Nicholas Oldland
Kids Can Press

Rating: 5 stars

This book had me from its opening page: "There once was a bear, a moose, and a beaver who loved adventure. But sometimes their competitive natures got in the way of having fun."

Anyone who knows me understands why this might speak to me... I might be a teensy-weensy bit competitive. Just a tad. Every now and then.

Here is the story of these three wild friends:

They decide to go for a hike. During a snack break a few pages into the book--a few miles into their hike, they discuss ways to make their adventure a little more interesting. The beaver thought it'd be exciting to make the hike into a race!

So off they go. (The illustration of them running, each on two feet, is my all-time favorite.) Because of his long legs, the moose takes the lead. But a boulder suddenly drops down in front of him. To avoid getting squashed, the moose had to jump over the side of the mountain. (Oh, no!)

The beaver huffs and puffs up. He doesn't see the moose so he thinks he's fallen behind. He picks up his pace, unknowingly passing his fallen friend.

Luckily, the bear hears the moose and tries to rescue him. Unfortunately, his rescue attempt fails and moose ends up grabbing his paw and saving him. Their cries for help echo up the mountain, and the beaver turns around when he hears them. The beaver's instincts kick in and he chews down a tree, chews several notches in it, and lowers down the simple ladder. Relieved to not be dangling over the side of the mountain anymore, the beaver's friends breathe deeply.

They decide they've had enough racing for a day, and hike along together, exploring little and big things--together.

I have to admit I'm a little annoyed with myself that I've not seen these books before--this is the fourth book with this wild trio by Nicholas Oldland. I've ordered them all from our local library, but really I would love a print of these guys--I love their silly expressions, the western backdrop, their simple adventures.

(Oh, and by the way, this author also has a cool clothing store company--he started this picture book venture by first making kids' pajamas then thought, "Hmm...wouldn't it be cool to write a book for kids to read while they wore these pajamas?!" Check his company, Hatley, out HERE.)

Some Bugs by Angela Diterlizzi

Some Bugs by Angela Diterlizzi, illustrated by Brendan Wenzel

Rating: 5 stars

This book is one, big, deliciously illustrated invitation for your kid to arm herself with curiosity, go outside, and search for some bugs.  As long as she doesn't get too close to a stinging type of bug, what's not to love about that?!

From first glance, I was in love with this book.  Wenzel's illustrations are bright and fun and he somehow gives the cover and pages a sense of movement with all these bugs. He balances perfectly the fine line between real bugs and cartoon-like character bugs.  Kids have a real sense of what the real bug looks like, but it's still cuter and more approachable than in real life.  His work completely shines here.

Some bugs click. Some bugs sing.

The story really doesn't have the rise and fall and resolution story that we hold up as The Way To Go. There's not much story at all--but that works in this concept book.  This book is simply one about a single subject: bugs (as if that's news at this point). "Some bugs sting. Some bugs bite. Some bugs stink."  The words are sparse--but we found ourselves lingering on each page to make sure our eyes saw all there was to see.

Until you get to the end, that is, and then there's a flurry of words:

Stinging, biting, stinking, fighting,
hopping, gliding, swimming, hiding,
building, making, hunting, taking,
bugs are oh-so-fascinating!
So kneel down close, look very hard,
and find some bugs in your backyard!

The final page is this, a vibrant field guide to all the bugs introduced in the book:

A great book for summer.  Pair it with a big magnifying glass and an hour or two, and you've got yourself a nice way to spend an afternoon!

Into the Outdoors by Susan Gal

Into the Outdoors by Susan Gal

Rating: 4.5 stars

What's a concept book? As I'm tip-toeing beyond the world of reading children's books into the world of writing them, I've got to know these things.  So I figured I'd educate you as well.  It's an informational children's book that takes a single category--numbers, the alphabet, colors--and focuses on that.

Those concept books are pretty common (betcha you can think of a dozen); one on prepositions is not.

But that's exactly what Into the Outdoors is, and it's a good read for parents and kids.  But it is also a quality, lesson-filled book for teachers to know about when they teach prepositions.  Even though I grabbed the book because of its cover (I try not to judge by a cover, but...well...I'm only human), the book turned out to be a whole lot more than I expected.

We're going camping!  Leaving the city down in the valley, we head up the mountain.
We drive over a bridge and under the towering trees.  At last we arrive in the great outdoors.

Each preposition, those words that "help children know where they are in the world," is highlighted.  The story is cute, the lesson plan possibilities endless.

The trail winds around the lake...

But the illustrations!  That's what got me.  For some reason--was I just feeling particularly nostalgic that day?--they felt like they were straight from my family camping days from 30 years ago.  Dark woods, bright streams, a wood-panel grocery-getter (a.k.a. station wagon) filled with way too much stuff, big brown hiking boots with red laces, and two happy campers.

Like my family, the one in the book drives to their campsite, pitches the tent, and then goes off on a hike.  Following them along the way are some curious animal-friends: a bear, a fox, a porcupine, and a chipmunk.  In almost every page you see those animals peering at the family, with the older boy skipping ahead and the mom carrying the younger boy in the backpack.  The younger boy is the only one who sees the animals, and the looks they exchange are super cute.  In one page the bear sneaks up and quietly replaces the little boy's fallen hat as the family sits atop the mountain, soaking in the view.

A great book, for many reasons.  Makes me want to go take a hike (and use lots of prepositional phrases along the way)!

The Grand Canyon by Marion Dane Bauer, illustrated by John Wallace

 The Grand Canyon by Marion Dane Bauer, illustrated by John Wallace

Rating: 3.5 stars

I'm an Army brat.  I grew up all over the place, and am fortunate to not only have seen a bunch of places in our country, but also to have lived there, and gotten to know the place.  There are only four states I've not visited: Alaska, Maine, Rhode Island, and New Mexico.  Any sympathy you might have for me will evaporate when I tell you that my father's overseas tour was in Hawaii.  I spent three years of my life shored up on Oahu, visiting neighbor islands for a few days here and there, hula-ing my way through my middle years.  It was rough...the sunburns and all.

My parents didn't have a ton of money for vacations, and we drove everywhere we needed or wanted to go.  We saw and did a lot, but...we never got to the Grand Canyon.  It is a place that I've always wanted to see, a place I've been curious about and dreamt about for decades.  I have dreams of running it--R2R2R they call it, rim to rim to rim.  I'm a big outdoorsy person and feel more comfortable in running shoes than heels, happier dusty than all dolled up.  And lately I've been really jonesing for a long hike.

Enter a short trip, sans kids, to Vegas.  Not exactly my style, but fun in its own way and a much-needed getaway.  During it, my husband surprised me with a short trip to the Grand Canyon.  I was so surprised and excited!  We took a short ride there and spent an even shorter but very calming 15 minutes in the Canyon.  It was more than I expected and I wanted hours to take in its hues, quiet-ness, and history.  I couldn't, so I had to be grateful for the little visit.  I'd like to go back.  Like, tomorrow.

Me, happy and awestruck, at the Grand Canyon.

Upon return to reality here in Virginia, I was very grateful that Lorelei and Ben and I had read this book together a few months ago.  They knew exactly what I was talking about when I said that we visited the Grand Canyon.  This book is part of a series of books that all kids should read.  They are not phenomenal literary works--the writing is not outstanding, the stories are not witty, the illustrations won't blow you away.  But they teach my kids about our country, and many of the great places that is packed in it.

In this series, there are books about Yellowstone, Niagra Falls, Mount Rushmore, The Statue of Liberty, the Rocky Mountains, the Mississippi.  We've read most of them--I discovered them last summer while preparing our kids to go to Colorado for a heavenly vacation within and around the Rockies.  It's important stuff, this teaching-of-America thing.  Lorelei and Ben and certainly Kiefer are too young to appreciate democracy and free choice and our relative affluence compared to the world...but they are not too young to start locating spots on the map and making lists of places we should visit together.

And they're not too young to appreciate beauty, and the awesomeness of a place like the Grand Canyon.  In fact, it's my own child-like awe of the place that makes me teach them about it.  I hope that when they are in their mid-thirties, they are awestruck by things big and small, too.

Tell Me, Tree: All About Trees for Kids by Gail Gibbons

Tell Me, Tree: All About Trees for Kids by Gail Gibbons

Rating: 4 stars

If you've got a pint-sized fact-lover around you, you should know about Gail Gibbons.  She is a leading author of nonfiction children's books, which are like home-drawn DK books.  There is a ton of information between the covers, usually not too much story or plot for kids needing or wanting that, but totally fascinating for budding researchers.  Check out the impressive list of books she's written here.

I've got a fact-lover in Lorelei.  She LOVES to get to the bottom of things, to know random facts about little things like butterflies or zebras or flowers.  Since she started reading she's been on her own a bit in the fact-finding mission, sometimes reading things I don't realize she's reading either at home or at school.  I know that some of it comes from National Geographic publications, of which we have many, including magazines but also children's books.  But a lot of it comes from just being curious and aware and from having an astoundingly good memory!

So Gail Gibbons is becoming increasingly popular in our house.  She's not for the youngest--Ben doesn't want anything to do with this book, especially after I read a few pages of it.  No story?  Nothing to laugh at?  He's not ready for a book of facts.  That's okay.  There will be enough of Gibbons' books lying around for him when he's ready.

So about this book.

We love trees because we live among them--we are lucky to live on about five acres of land that is mostly wooded.  So this book was really cool with its diagrams and drawings and definitions.  It is a great book to check out to compliment stories on trees, or other less serious (but still important!) books to encourage your kids to think more about nature.  I actually just paused and read about five pages now, hours after the kids' bedtime.  These books are like mini-encyclopedias (remember those?) for kids, on all their favorite subjects.

Funny thing: We set out on today's hike with a mission to collect leaves and then compare them to the leaves in our own backyard.  Would they be the same, or different?  We collected nothing!  The kids were so happy just running along and finding remnants of old houses and moss and stuff that I couldn't force them into a teachable moment.  Or maybe this--enjoying nature on a gorgeous day with each other--was their teachable moment.

A Tree Is Nice by Janice May Udry, illustrated by Marc Simont

A Tree Is Nice by Janice May Udry, illustrated by Marc Simont

Rating: 3.5 stars

I rarely push a book in my kids.  I'm rarely in this position.  If they see a book, they are almost always curious about it.  I put it in the book basket between the big kids in the car, I put it up for display during a meal, I put it in their rooms during quiet time.  They'll grab it eventually.

Not this book.  I finally said, "I'm going to read this!"  I was glad that they didn't groan or roll their eyes, but...  Man, hard audience today!

The pictures are gorgeous, worthy of the Caldecott award that sits on the cover.  My kids' favorite picture is one of a huge, climb-able tree with nearly a dozen kids playing on its broad limbs.  The words alongside the pictures are fine, just a simple tale of the importance of trees.  They are delivered more staccato and less rolling than I prefer, but...I love these words:

Trees make the woods.  They make everything beautiful.
Even if you have just one tree, it is nice too.
A tree is nice because it has leaves.
The leaves whisper in the breeze all summer long.

Lorelei and Ben on our hike today, among
some beautiful trees.

We're lucky to live in the woods.  There's nothing better than to open the windows and listen to the breeze in the trees.  You can ask my kids--they know it's one of my favorite sounds on Earth.  I'll make them pause and be quiet (if only for 4.5 seconds!) so I can hear it well.

But speaking of pushing things on kids, I definitely try to push a sense of stewardship of the land.  Doesn't that sound so big and grand?  And I'm talking about preschoolers here!  I have never had a problem thinking big.  Years ago I would have plans to create some group to take charge of environmental lessons in classrooms across the county.  After my Peace Corps years, where I learned how to scale back and focus instead on a few important people, my thoughts are different.

I do what I can.  With my kids.  And, slowly, their friends.  And their friends' parents.  And you know what?  I think it's working.  I think it's slow-going, but all the good stuff is.  I think it's going to run deep.  I'm optimistic and curious about how the seeds I've been planting will grow.  Time will tell.

Was I talking about a book?  Right!  It's fine.  Good for the classroom, I think, but not exactly a bedtime page-turner.

Maxwell's Mountain by Shari Becker

Maxwell's Mountain by Shari Becker, illustrated by Nicole E. Wong

Rating: 5 stars

Last week we were at REI, one of favorite places to buy unnecessary things just to help out the economy a bit, looking for a few unnecessary things for our upcoming trip to Colorado.  (A trip that we called our second honeymoon because of The Berenstein Bears and the Week at Grandma's, where Brother and Sister stay with their grandparents because Mama and Papa go on a second honeymoon.  Lorelei and Ben's grandparents were coming to them, but it was the same idea.)  We found a few things for us, but we found a few things for the kids, too.  Namely, this book.

First, before I describe the book, I have to tell you that even though we read an insane number of books (too many? I often wonder), we don't buy many.  In fact, the library has almost ruined the bookstore for us because there are so many we can check out, and of course we can't ever buy a ton at the bookstore...  So when I buy a book, it's got to be a really great one.

And this one is!

I was thrilled to find a book that talked about hiking, something Jonathan and I would be doing in Colorado.  Lorelei, Ben, and I had gone hiking on our field trip last Wednesday (doesn't it look like Ben's climbing up a mountain?), so they already had a hiking experience under their tiny belts.  But this book took hiking to a higher level...

Maxwell, the little boy in the book, looks around the playground one day and decides that all the stuff he sees on it are just a little expected, a little ordinary, a little plain.  Then he spots a mountain (really, a big hill) next to the playground and he decides to climb it.  This is where I have to stop and make a list of the things I love about this book:

First, I love the fact that he comes up with the idea himself.  No grown up suggests, no big sister orders, and no bully dares him to do it.  He just decides "I'm going to climb that."  This is a rare book where the main character sets a goal for himself.

Second, I love that he prepares for it, smartly.  He recognizes (with help from his parents) that he can't just climb all the way to the top the very same day.  He has to train for it.  As a marathoner, I love that he puts in the effort to achieve his goal--and that the goal is tough.

Third, I love that he makes a list of things he needs.  Any book that includes a list gets two thumbs up in my book...  Lorelei sometimes writes on her own and I ask her what she's writing, to which she replies: "A list."  A little scary, but funny!

Fourth, I love that his parents let him do it by himself.  They stand at the bottom and watch--this is 2010, of course--but they trust him and have faith in him, and let him have the sense of accomplishment that comes from doing it by himself.

Fifth, and this is definitely similar to the second thing up there, I love that this is a physical goal, and one that is done outside.  We all need to get outside more (I type from indoors), even on the hottest or coldest of days.  This book is a great reminder of that.

This book is more than worthy of buying--it's a book about setting goals and achieving them.  And about lists, too!