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...

Fraidyzoo by Thyra Heder

Fraidyzoo by Thyra Heder

Rating: 5 stars

We've been reading more books at dinner time.  It's a habit I tried to stop but...it is just too fun, the audience too captivated, the opportunity to read books together too limited that we've started back up again.  I know that we'll have to quit sometime in the future.  But not today.  Or next week.  Let me squeeze a few more months out of this habit of reading with our mouths full!

(Okay, I DO encourage good eating manners--I do the reading, generally without my mouth being full, and they do the eating and listening and adding...)

We checked out Fraidyzoo for the second time in a month this week.  It was just so fun the first time around, and we had an even better time with it on the second check-out.  The story is pretty simple: Little T is afraid to go to the zoo, and her family is trying to guess why.  Which animal she is afraid of?  They guess one for each letter of the alphabet by dressing up as that animal in some incredibly creative (yet doable in your home!) ways.

Does it live in the tropics? Or gloop through the ocean?
Does it hop with a pocket? Does it ROAR?

When we checked this out a second time and read it last night while eating, the kids took turns guessing what animals the family was dressing up as is.  Lorelei, Ben, Kiefer.  Lorelei, Ben, Kiefer.  Three ages, three reading levels, all guessing happily.  Fun times!

The illustrations are spectacular--SO creative they will invite you and your kids to examine them.  We noticed on this second read how the snake had a stuffed animal in its looooong body.  We talked about how the lion sort of looks like a gorilla but it's L's turn so...probably not gorilla because it starts with a G.  And that tail...definitely lion-like.

 It turns out, though, that Little T is not afraid of an animal...well, not exactly an animal...  I don't want to be the spoiler on this one and it's really worth discovering her (funny) fear along with your child.  We laughed like crazy, all together.  It was one of Those Moments, you know?

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!

Grumpy Goat by Brett Helquist

Grumpy Goat by Brett Helquist

Rating: 5 stars

Sunny Acres farm is a happy, lovely place.  "Until that grumpy goat moves in."  He stomps and frowns around, kicking dirt up everywhere he goes.  He doesn't share.  He doesn't play.  He doesn't say please and thank you.  He doesn't like animals very much so he moves out to a grassy knoll (not The Grassy Knoll) and flops himself to the ground in one big huuuumphhh! 

When he does, he comes nose-to-petal with a dandelion.  And he kind of likes that dandelion.  That sunny dandelion causes or inspires his heart to grow a little warmer--with love, of course.  While trying NOT to gather much attention, he starts to take care of the dandelion.  While trying NOT to make a big deal about it, some of the other animals (despite his grumpy disposition) start to help him take care of that dandelion.  A munch here, a munch there...they start to water and weed around the dandelion (kinda funny if you think about it).

And Grumpy Goat is getting content!  He is beginning to realize he has a friend or two!  And then: that dandelion changes...and becomes a fluffy ball of seeds and...even the little reader on your lap can guess what's going to happen next...blows away.

Grumpy Goat is no longer grumpy.  He's MAD!  And then he's SAD.

Luckily, now he has friends, and they try and cheer him.  Through the inevitable change of the seasons and passage of time, they sit beside him in his sadness and disappointment. And they do make him a little happier, they take his mind off of his flowers, until...one day...he realizes...that his dandelion has grown back.  And there are more of them!  A whole field of them!  And now he has friends with whom he can share the view.

Here's what I love about this book:

Who doesn't love the idea of a grumpy, prickly character having a big soft spot for sweet things such as flowers?  We all do.  Even kids.  And it's a great lesson for them to be kind to those who are grumpy and prickly around them because there's sweetness and goodness and I-want-to-belong-ness inside of everyone.

Grumpy Goat and all of his less grumpy buddies love dandelions!  Which are basically weeds!  So here we are celebrating a weed, holding it up as beautiful just like we would a peony.  I can relate--as I'm sure you can, too: my kids love dandelions, and take time and care to pick bouquets of them before any lawn mower gets to them.  Seeing beauty in that which most people don't--what a nice habit to pick up as a child.

The flowers come back.  He's so sad that they go...but with patience (what is that thing called patience?  I sure struggle with it!) and time (the inevitable passing of the seasons), the dandelion grows back.  In fact, it multiplies.   What a great message.

The story is fantastic, but the bright, full, gorgeous illustrations of these loveable characters are top-notch.  The sun and the dandelion pop out whenever they appear in the picture, and the characters are expression-filled and totally lovable.  You've got to see them to believe them--so go get this book!

Loved the book, Brett Helquist!  (And all those drawing lessons in sketches on your blog.)

What Do People Do All Day? by Richard Scarry

What Do People Do All Day? by Richard Scarry

Rating: 5 stars

A new thing: Throwback Thursday!  Here's an oldie but greatie...

The fact that I've been reviewing and recommending children's books for four years and have not mentioned this book is a crime.  I confess to it.  Right now. I am very sorry; I have been negligent in my duties. I will put myself in time out all day long (with a big stack of books beside me...oh happy day).

Truly, this is a must-have for any three-ish year old child.  Right now, at 2 years and 9 months, Kiefer can't get enough of the book.  Just like Ben couldn't get enough of the book when he was that age.  I sat with Ben just like I now sit with Kiefer, reading each story again and again and again, talking about the water wheel in this story, the special ladder to rescue Huckle in that story... I love the book still.  Which is a good thing, because I'll probably read it to Kiefer again later today.

from A Voyage on the Sea

I like all of the stories, but the priceless-ness is in the pictures: Scarry adds in a hundred little details in his illustrations, which means your child sees something new and different each time they read the book.  Oh--and a note on reading this book: because the illustrations are so intricate, reading isn't necessary to really understand what's going on.  That makes it an excellent choice for pre-readers like Kiefer.

Hopefully your childhood included this magical book.  If not, let me explain a little more about it so that, at the end of this post, you can immediately order it for any 3-ish year old child in your life.

The book is an oversized lap book, and is divided into seven or eight different stories.  I will challenge myself to remember them so I don't have to sneak into Kiefer's room to get it (he sleeps with this book; that, my friends, is book-love):

• Everyone is a Worker 
• How to Build a House 
• Fireman to the Rescue
• How to Mail a Letter
• A Day in the Hospital
• Where Wood Comes From
• How a Road is Built
• A Voyage on the Sea
• Where Bread Comes From

The best illustration in the whole book!
From How A House is Built

Each story is just a handful of pages long, and it uses animal characters to tell the story while also teaching the little reader about the topic.  Ben and Kiefer both love the house building one best--and that's my favorite, too.  I love the step-by-step explanations and the detailed pictures that go right along with it.

At the very least, check this book out to remember a bit of YOUR childhood.  At the very most, order it from your favorite bookseller to share the magic with your favorite reader.



P.S.  Many, many thanks to my godmother Andrea, who gave me this book seven years ago at the book-filled baby shower my sister threw for me.  I can't believe we still have the original!

Time to Pee! by Mo Willems

Time to Pee! by Mo Willems

Rating: 4 stars

When we potty trained our first child--or, really, when she potty-trained herself--we bought three or four books to help her understand what she was going to do.  We talked about it at length.  If there had been a movie, I would have sat with her and watched it, pausing it when I had something to add.  Which would have been a lot.

My sister took it one step further.  She potty-trained her twins girls, who are four months older than Lorelei, she WROTE a super long, super detailed book about what they were to do when they "got that funny feeling."  It was practically a chapter book!  With TONS of words.  Way too many words.  I mean, a LOT of words.

She and I recently potty-trained our cabooses--our last kids.  (Her fourth child is just six weeks older than my third; both are about 2 1/2.)  I think we had the same approach, quite different than the first time: "Hey, kid, here's the potty.  You know what to do, right?"

Okay, I am exaggerating.  But it was about the same amount of words as Mo Willems uses in his book, which is simply an explanation with cute illustrations about what you should do when you "get that funny feeling."  With the help of a lot of mice holding up a lot of signs, he tells kids what to do.  My favorite page is "Boys can stand; girls should sit."  That gets a lot of questions in my house.

Anyway, we checked this book out again a few weeks AFTER Kiefer started wearing underwear.  Oops.  We are planning an enormous celebration of the end of an era.  The End of Diapers!  After nearly 7 years of changing them, it is worthy of a celebration!

Thank you for using the toilet, Kiefer!

How to Train a Train by Jason Carter Eaton

How to Train a Train by Jason Carter Eaton, illustrated by John Rocco

Rating: 5 stars

"So you want a pet train?" asks the young boy-narrator.  "Well, of course you do!  Trains make awesome pets--they're fun, playful, and extremely useful.  Luckily for you, this handy guidebook contains everything you need to know to choose, track, and train your very own pet train.  Ready?  Then let's head out and find some trains!"

How can you resist an invitation like that?  I love how, right from the first page, this boy assumes you a) have realized that trains can be pets--and cool ones at that; b) are up for the adventure to find a train for yourself.  By the end of the first page, you're in.  Ready to go find your train.  You've long since forgotten that you once thought that having a train as a pet was a ludicrous notion.

Spend as much time as you can getting to know your train.
Does it like to play fetch?

And so begins a really fun imagination-filled tale of capturing your own train (with careful observation, then sweet luring it over to you, then winning it over with treats and pets in case you're curious).

What do you do with said train once you have it?  Well...lots of things!  You name it, of course, after getting to know it.  (Eaton names two of them after his own sons; I can only imagine their excitement of being in a children's book--my kids would go crazy in a sugar-before-bedtime sort of way.)  You can teach it tricks.  You can take it fishing with you, or take it swimming.

The story is neat and takes your kids on an unexpected, imaginative ride that makes them look around their normal lives and wonder: what else could I make into a pet?  And if a book makes your child wonder a little bit or a whole lot...well, then that's a great book in my book.

Here are some common train names...

But the illustrations!  John Rocco is so fantastic.  He brings to life these huge, heavy locomotives and makes them playful and funny and...just neat.  His trains-as-pets are brought to life, given sweet and kind and caring and even scared expressions on their steel engines in the most creative ways.  It's hard to read this book and not stop and examine the pictures in amazement and appreciation.  He's done our kids such a service here with his own imagination and talent.  (Thanks, John Rocco!)

This is definitely a great book--especially if you're little reader is into trains in just the slightest bit.  And maybe this is the way to persuade your child that they don't really want a puppy...they want a train instead?!

I Am Abraham Lincoln by Brad Meltzer

I Am Abraham Lincoln (Ordinary People Change the World) by Brad Meltzer, illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulos

Rating: 3.5 stars

This book is smaller than most picture books.  Rather than standing the usual 12 or 14 inches, and being a standard rectangle, this book is a small square, about 6 by 6 inches.  That smaller-than-normal stature is ironic because by its contents, it is a bigger-than-normal book.

Meltzer (a thriller and mystery novelist who also hosts "Decoded" on the History channel) aimed to create a biography series of individuals that should and could be the heroes for today's children.  Right now, the Ordinary People Change the World series has two published books--Lincoln, Amelia Earhart, and one soon-to-be-published Rosa Parks.  As a proven author, I'm betting that Meltzer will write at least a dozen.

I think he does a pretty good job of packing in a LOT of information in this book that's aimed for 5-8 year olds.  He teaches about Lincoln's young life; he includes a specific example of how Lincoln steps in to stop a group of boys torturing (my word, not his) a poor turtle.  Courageously, he spoke up, and demanded the turtle be released.  "When you're ten years old, it's hard to do the right thing.  But someone has to."

Another vignette Meltzer includes: when Lincoln was 22, a gang of bullies challenged him to a fight.  Lincoln lost, and was angry about the fight--not because he lost, but because his opponent had cheated. He called him out on his poor sportsmanship, calmly and confidently pointing out that he'd fight all of them if he had to.  "Sometimes the hardest fights don't reveal a winner--but they do reveal character.  Especially when you're fighting for something you believe in."

I preferred to read.

The book includes the tough and true topics of slavery and war (but not of assassination), which is to be expected in a book about Lincoln.  With Lorelei we've discussed these topics, but with Ben we've only begun to explain the definition of the words, let alone the heartache they caused both then and now. The book ends by teaching kids how Lincoln used words in Gettysburg ("all men are created equal") and elsewhere to explain his personal conviction and, ultimately, to change the law that ended slavery.

I'm trying to put a finger on what it is about this book that makes it not resonate with me.  I'm not a fan of comic books, and the illustrated Abraham Lincoln in this book is a kid version of the adult--he's small but has a beard and top hat from age 6 to age 60, so...the missing aging process is a little odd to me.  The book is told in first person; I think it's pretty gutsy to actually put words in a man like Lincoln's mouth.  I'm not such a fan of that (but would kids really care? Probably not).  Meltzer is VERY preachy, taking a few pages at the end to talk about how "strength takes many forms.  But there's nothing quite as strong as standing up for someone who needs it." Maybe it is preachy for me as an adult reader, but on par for 6- and 7-year old readers?

Even though I think this book is just okay, I certainly support a Ordinary People Change the World series.  I like how Meltzer starts Lincoln's story--and his conviction, his practice of sticking up for people or animals that can't speak for themselves, his love of words--as a child.  I love that my kids can glance towards their future and wonder where they'll end up.  I know I sure wonder, too.

Journey by Aaron Becker

Journey by Aaron Becker

Rating: 5 stars

Lorelei is now in first grade.  When I started this blog, she was not yet three (click here for the first time she appeared in a blog post).  Back then, we shared books that we found together in the library.  I'd order a bunch that I'd found on some list somewhere, and she'd just look around the library and grab ones that looked pretty neat.

These days, we share books in a different sort of way.  She often tells me about books and, since she knows I have a children's book blog, she suggests books for me to write about.  She searches on her own, in her own school library.  She brings them home for me or points them out at our local library when we go together.

Journey is one of the books she recommended to me.  She told me, in a gushing, girly sort of way: "Oh MOM!  You've just GOT to read this book!  Well, not read.  There aren't any words.  But the pictures are just AMAZING!  You've just GOT to put it on your blog."

Well, okay then.  I will!

I understand why Journey captured her imagination.  It makes me want to gush and use annoying all-caps to explain what a MASTERPIECE it is!  The book was recently awarded as a Caldecott Honor book...and it is so, SO worthy of the award.  It is one of the most magical books I've ever had on my lap.  It is an invitation to jump in and dream of what could be possible if you turned on the light switch to your imagination.

Take a minute (actually only 52 seconds) to watch this:

The girl seems frustrated that no one will play with her, so she creates and enters a magical world.  That you probably already know.  But let me tell you what the best part of the book is so that you parents who want to use books to teach will make sure to put this one on your list.

The girl enters a magical world in which she finds a purple bird that is in a cage, seemingly as lonely as the girl was in the first few pages of the book.  She takes a risk and rescues, then releases the bird, only to be imprisoned in the same cage herself.  And, to make things worse, she's dropped the magical red marker that she's used to create this world.  It is a low moment for her.

(I love that the low moment appears in the book--what a lesson for our kids to realize that life has these, too!  And that the challenge becomes: well, what now?  I like books where the characters rescue themselves and get themselves out of the low point, but...Journey has a neat resolution, too.)

And then, the bird appears.  With the red marker held gently in its beak.  The girl helped the bird escape, and now the bird has turned around to help her.  The bird then leads the girl through its magical world, and back to its creator: a boy, with a magical purple marker.  A friend.  Who also believes in magic.

Like the recent book Oliver, this book is about finding a friend that gets you.  And it's a story with sprinklings of self-determination and kindness and karma-filled goodness.  Definitely one to buy for the shelf, definitely award-worthy, definitely a great recommendation from my fellow bookworm and daughter, Lorelei.

The Shape of My Heart by Mark Sperring

The Shape of My Heart by Mark Sperring, illustrated by Alys Paterson

Rating: 4 stars

Here's a sweet book about a parent's love for a child, explained through the senses and with many, many shapes.

I'll explain.

Sperring writes: "This is the shape of our eyes.  And these are the shapes that we might see."  Paterson illustrates all the little things that a parent and child might see together while playing or walking or being together.  A fun dinner plate, a green plant, a picture in the process of being painted, a balloon, a ball of yarn.  All little reminders of things done together--or maybe things that will be done together.

Sperring writes: "This is the shape of our mouths. Now, what would you like to eat?" Paterson illustrates all the little things that a parent and child might eat together--hot pasta with peas, what-a-treat lollipops, carrots fresh from the garden, sweet strawberries, a hunk of cheese.  All little examples of food--both staples and treats--that will be eaten together.

In between the pages with things the parent and child will see, hear, touch, and taste together are

elaborate illustrations comprised of simple shapes that give a child a great reason to pause and take in the illustration before quickly turning the page.

The last page is definitely the best.  The punchline.  The reason I bought the book.

Sperring writes: "And this is the shape I love you with.  This is the shape of my heart."  Paterson illustrates all those little things that the parent and child did together, this time tucked closely together, collage-style in the shape of a heart.

For me, this is a great reminder to us parents that all those little, very tangible things we do with a child point out how much we love them.  "Forever is just a string of a lot of right nows," said a character in a movie we watched last night.  And love is just a collection of little moments...little moments that hopefully we parents will choose to be in--I mean really BE in, in a join-the-fun sort of way--again and again and again.

Hope your Valentine's Day is filled with a few of these moments.

How to Babysit a Grandpa by Jean Reagan

How to Babysit a Grandpa by Jean Reagan, illustrated by Lee Wildish

Rating: 5 stars

Sometimes, even though I'm nearly 40 years old, I do the Lucky Me dance.  I don't even care if someone is watching (that's the beauty of being nearly 40 years old).

What are the reasons I sometimes do the Lucky Me dance?  Oh good...I was hoping you would ask.

One of the many reasons: my kids know my parents really, really well.

(And I think that is a really, really beautiful and wonderful and priceless thing

Kiefer babysits his Grand-Dad

I'm lucky to say that my mom, a retired teacher, tries to come weekly to spend a little time with each grandchild, separately, before we all have dinner together and she heads home to her house in rural Virginia.  Everyone loves Grammy Days.  My dad, a retired Army general, isn't quite retired from work altogether so he actually is pretty busy.  We all see less of him than we'd like.  But with advanced notice, he'll happily come and babysit our kids.  And they LOVE when he comes to babysit.

(Slight disclaimer because I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings: my parents' new partners are equally wonderful with my kids.  Divorce stinks BUT my kids are lucky to two more grandparents who love them like crazy.  And then they've got two MORE grandparents my husband's side!  That's right: they have SIX reasons to do the Lucky Me dance.)

It's such a gift watching my parents with my children because they aren't confined to the discipline standards I need to be, they aren't exhausted by the day-in, day-out aspect of parenthood, they aren't over-present so their presence is a huge present (like that? I did!).  My parents are great at just playing and just being with my kids--and I am reminded to play and be with my kids a little more by watching them.

Oh!  The book!

How to Babysit a Grandpa is a delightful how-to book.  Flip through the pages and the main character, a young boy, will teach you how to properly:

• Greet a grandpa (by hiding until Grandpa totally gives up)
• Provide snacks for a grandpa (the short list includes both "ice cream topped with cookies" and "cookies topped with ice cream")
• Play with a grandpa (including building a cave or fort that you BOTH can fit into)
• Draw for your grandpa (while he snoozes in a chair, mouth agape as only grandparents can do)

When it's cold, bundle up.

Lee Wildish's giggle-worthy illustrations are a perfect compliment to Wildish's words.  He shows as she tells: and he shows, on page after page, a great, active grandpa choosing to engage and play like crazy with his grandson.  Grandpa's jumping in puddles!  Grandpa is playing a kazoo!  Grandpa is eating the ice cream and cookies!  I just love it.

And I just love the book--not only because I love the fact that my kids have a grandpa like that in real-life.  Lucky them!  Lucky me.  That's why I have to do the Lucky Me dance sometimes...!


P.S.  In a neat interview with the author, Jean Reagan (click here to read the whole thing), she says that she was even more inspired to write children's books after listening to a published author, Bruce Colville, say that he writes books to inspire children to be "kindler, gentler, and braver."  I really love that, too.

Happy Valentine's Day, Mouse! by Laura Numeroff (repost!)

Happy Valentine's Day, Mouse! by Laura Numeroff, illustrated by Felicia Bond

Rating: 5 unique stars

Here's my first favorite Valentine's Day book.  It's a silly little board book, but I just love it and the message it provides for kids.  I can't find our copy, so this is based on my memory from reading it last year.  And the year before that.  And the year before that.

Mouse is preparing Valentine's Day cards for all of his friends.  But he doesn't make them as most kids do these days--just buy a box, pop in some high-fructose-corn-syrup-filled candy, and sign his name.  Nope.  "Mouse wants each one to be just right."  He stops to think of each of his friends, and what they like to do, and then he creates a unique card for each of them.

Lorelei's owls, Ben's bumblebee

For Moose, for example, he thinks of how much Moose likes art, and creates a masterpiece of art for him.  Because Pig is such a good dancer, Mouse creates a card with a music note bursting with joy.

For anyone familiar with all of Laura Numeroff's books (If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, If You Give a Moose a Muffin, etc.), the images will be familiar--almost all of them are taken from different books, so it's like a gathering of sorts of all those fun illustrations by Felicia Bond showing the animals at their wackiest.

But I love the message: Be thoughtful; think of the other person as you create a card just for them.

We make our own Valentine's Day cards--not sure how long this will last, but I love it for now--and I was proud of Lorelei when she wanted to add glasses to two of her owl valentines.  "Red ones for Ritvik, purple ones for Jessica!"  I of course obliged; was so happy for her thoughtful additions.

Happy Valentine's Day, all.

The Smallest Gift of Christmas by Peter H. Reynolds

The Smallest Gift of Christmas by Peter H. Reynolds

Rating: 4 stars

Last fall I went through a Peter H. Reynolds-is-the-bomb-diggity phase.  I read The Dot and Ish and Plant A Kiss and appreciated his artwork in Tess's Tree and Someday and the Judy Moody series (that Lorelei is reading and loving now).  His stuff is pleasing to look at, but the underlying feel-good wonderful messages about creativity and inspiration and being YOU are what really impress me.  His hands and mind create gifts for children; they come in the shape of books.

So, when I saw The Smallest Gift of Christmas, I bought it immediately.  Didn't even read it.  It was by Peter H. Reynolds so it must be amazing and earth-shattering!

And it really is a sweet message, but one for grown-ups more than kids.

"Roland was eager for Christmas Day," writes Reynolds.  On the corresponding page he draws four stockings hung up with care, and we get a glimpse of what Roland cares about.  There are three appropriately-sized stockings and one stocking the size of a twin bed.  It rolls on the ground because it is too long to hang from the fireplace.  Funny!  And telling.

"When I say big, I mean BIG!" he yelled.

When he comes down on Christmas morning to a small gift with his name on the tag, he's disappointed.  So he wishes for a bigger gift. And right there and then, it doubles in size (and is still wrapped).  Wow!  He uses this magic again and again and again to make his gift bigger; yet instead of wonder and appreciation, he is angry and annoyed and grumpy.

Sounds like "I want a bigger gift!" and "That is not big enough!"pollute the air.

He gets into his rocketship and goes to outer space to try and find his now too-large-to-be-found gift.  It's from that rocketship that he peers out and sees Earth, now just a speck in the distance.

Oh.  He suddenly gets sad.  Earth.  So small, but it's what he wants.

So he wishes to be home. With his family.  Because they are the biggest gift.

Of course, I could wax poetic about how right Reynolds is, about how out-of-whack our Christmases have become.  I could reminisce about my Christmases abroad, away from my family, when I missed the laughing and eating together much more than the stuff.

But hopefully you already know these things.  And you've probably heard enough of my stories.  But being reminded about the importance of people over gifts by a sweet book with great illustrations never hurts.

The Dinosaurs Night Before Christmas by Anne Muecke

The Dinosaurs Night Before Christmas by Anne Muecke, illustrated by Nathan Hale

Rating: 5 stars

On the night before Christmas, "[t]he fossils were standing where they always stood / Looking out o'er a now fast asleep neighborhood." Across the street, a small boy looked over at the museum and wished the dinosaurs good night as he turns off his night light.

Then a band of young duckbills, all dressed up in holly,
Invited the boy, with a gesture quite jolly,
To stand upon their heads and reach out way far
And top their tall tree with a bright Christmas star!

Then, to his surprise, the fossils start to sway.  And move.  And come to life!  He is surprised to see that "the dinosaurs' bodies were growing anew-- / Sprouting rainbows of colorful feathers and scales / From the tops of their heads to the tips of their tails!" He jumps out of bed and runs across the street, happy to find the museum unlocked (!!).  He wonders if the dinosaurs will be hungry after being asleep and without food for so long...and find a meaty boy like himself delicious...when a dinosaur comes up behind him and...kisses him!  Because he's standing under mistletoe, of course.

"With a pat on the back and a cup of eggnog, / The boy helped the kind dinosaurs light their yule long. / And together they joyfully danced 'round the fire / Singing holiday songs in melodious choir."  The icing on this magical cake of a night is the appearance of Santa-sauras, pulled by eight dino-deer.

The next morning, the dinosaurs have turned back to fossils, though a sprig of mistletoe in the T-Rex's dinky hand hints at the mischief that was had.

Landing safe in his bed on soft pillows of down,
The boy waved as Santasaur flew over the town.

This is a must-buy for any dino-lover, for sure.  The story and the rhyme alone are fantastic and cute and magical, but the illustrations!  Man, the illustrations are top-notch.  Nathan Hale does a fantastic job of creating dinosaurs that are simultaneously real and sweet--no easy feat.  The book was published five years ago, but...as great as ever.  I doubt any copies have turned into fossils yet!

Santa! by Rufus Butler Seder

Santa! by Rufus Butler Seder

Rating: 4.5 stars

I might be one of the few people who does not own one of Rufus Butler Seder's scanimation books, but I really do think they are neat.  My kids and I have checked them out from the library, examined friends' copies, and sat with them in many bookstores.  He has produced six books with clever illustrations that seem to magically move while the page bends.  Gallop! and Swing! and WaddleI were followed by Star Wars and The Wizard of Oz.  In each of these books, Seder manages to capture decades of his passion and experience in photography and moving art.  

I was curious about this guy Rufus Butler Seder so, as love the bigger picture of a story, I found out a little more about him and how he evolved into creating children's books.  Turns out he's fairly fascinating--as most artists are.  Rufus' father was a journalist/photographer as well as an inventor--Gus Seder liked to tinker with things to figure out how they worked, and then manipulate these same tools and get them do things slightly differently.  Exposed to his father's creativity, Rufus was also encouraged to invent and create and tinker as well.  Photography was a known subject, one that was both familiar and widely open with possibilities, so Rufus experimented with photography.  One of his first little creations was a book involving trick photography: He photographed his sister jumping outside on the trampoline and manipulated the individual pictures such that, when he rearranged the photographs, it looked as if she was flying around the backyard.  

What a delightful trick for a big brother to have!  

Rufus made several small movies, but returned to the idea of moving art when most two dimensional artwork was still.  He had seen several antique and contemporary photographs where part of the image moved--think of the slightly creepy face from the past that winks or smiles as you look away from the image.  This idea is called the "picket fence"--a bar obscuring one phase of movement while reversing another.  With a whole lot of inspiration and experimentation Rufus came up with a flat image that appeared to move in a really cool way.  It's the old idea of flip-art book (didn't you have one of these books as a kid?), but much, much better.  While much of his art is directed at grown ups, a children's book editor pointed out that a collection of his already-existing scanimation images of animals, when collected together into a small book, would be a fun children's book.  He was right: his five scanimation books are wildly popular. 

That's the back story of his sixth book, Santa!  I hope that's moderately interesting to you, but what is certainly interesting to you is the answer to the question: Will my child like this?

The simple answer: yes!  People of all ages really like this stuff, and they're fascinated by how the scanimation pictures work--probably because it seems pretty magical, even in the era of the entertaining and ubiquitous app.  "This is Santa unlike you've seen him before!" it says in the promotional flyer that accompanied this book.  That made me laugh but it is so true!  This is a really great version of behind-the-scenes Santa.  Unlike the normal images of him checking his list, overseeing the craftsmanship of toys, and guiding his sleigh across the night, this is playful Santa: he hula-hoops, unicycles, juggles candy canes, ice skates, and does a back flip.  It is light and fun and sweet; seeing Santa taking the time to be silly and playful is a wonderful reminder to anyone who picks up the book to be a little silly and a little playful themselves.  I think it's just great, and a fantastic book for any age.  Or maybe for a grandparent whose shelves need to include a few children's books that appeal to children of all ages for an extended amount of time. 

I suspect that after a while SantaI will get put on a shelf, but the moment it is pulled off again--whether that's months or years later, the child (or grown up!) will be entertained and fascinated all over again.  And maybe a little bit inspired to create and tinker and make something of their own.

Santa is Coming to Washington, D.C. by Steve Smallman

Santa is Coming to Washington, D.C. by Steve Smallman, illustrated by Robert Dunn

Rating: 3.5 stars

I just told Ben about the whole naughty and nice list.  I'm hoping he kicks it up a notch out of fear of coal.  I'm doubtful...he's in the throes of lack of impulse control and when he gets going...man, he's just a blur of giggles and dimples and glee.

But...  'Tis the season for reminding kids to be good for more than goodness' sake!  And this book does start with a funny line.  Santa asks one elf if children in Washington, D.C., have been good this year.  The elf replies: "Mostly."  Santa: "Mostly?"  Elf: "Yes...but they've all been especially good in the last few days!"

This is a cute book in which Santa goes out to deliver tons of presents to the Washington, D.C., area but, because of a crazy blizzard, he gets hopelessly lost.  Santa's GPS doesn't help him (it's 2013, folks, all these books have Santa holding a GPS), that "old reindeer with the red nose" is helpless (my heart goes out to old Rudolph), but a young reindeer hears a church bell (turns out to be the Washington National Cathedral) and tugs the sleigh thattaway.  The blizzard magically disappears in a nanosecond, and the reindeer and Santa realize they are flying straight into the Capitol building.  They pull with all their might to (successfully) avoid hitting it.

Lots of local places are listed in the book: Capitol Hill, the Mall, Dupont Circle, the National Zoo, Rock Creek Park, Cleveland Park, Chevy Chase, Georgetown. In all these places Santa either zooms over or stops to visit, often taking a bite of a cookie and grabbing a carrot left out for his reindeer.  At the last house, as the sun starts to rise, he gives each reindeer a carrot and they fly home.

It's a cute book if you live here--the illustration of Santa flying over the Capitol building and the White House are fun images for kids to see.  But the story is unoriginal and barely there; it's not some magical tale that you'll get wrapped up in every holiday season.  Instead of that, the author just found a series that would sell well...he's written books about Santa coming to many cities, including: Maryland, Virginia, Pittsburgh, Georgia, Texas, California, Austin, Albuquerque...


P.S.  When my Dad read this review, he commented: "In this post 9/11 world, it's a good thing Santa didn't get shot down."  Good point, Dad.  Good point.  If the author had included that, it'd be a hard one to talk through with kids...

Henri's Scissors by Jeanette Winter

Henri's Scissors by Jeanette Winter

Rating: 4.5 stars

Lorelei has this new thing; she says she first saw it on a show called "Dino Dan."  She puts all of her fingers to her forehead then explodes them outward, with the proper sound as well.  She uses the motion (and corresponding exploding sound) to tell us that her mind is blown.

This book blew her mind a little--in how Matisse helped expand her definition of art, and in his life itself.

Underneath neatly illustrated pictures that correspond right along, Winter writes about Matisse's life.  As a small boy, he watched his mother paint children.  He wanted to paint, too.  He drew pictures in the sand, in his schoolbooks, and when he grew older, alongside his law books.  One winter, sick in bed, his "mother gave him a box of paints, and he painted until he was well."

After that, Henri never stopped painting.  Winter includes a few of his most famous paintings; he looks up at them, happy.

As he fell asleep, his grandchildren looked down on him
and saw his dreams.

When he was an old man, he fell ill.  "So ill he couldn't paint, so ill he couldn't sit up, so ill he could only lie in bed and sleep."  Finally, at long last, he had the energy to sit and paint.  Then one day, he picked up a pair of scissors, and decided that when he cut paper, he was "drawing with scissors!" He cuts himself into a new era as an artist, and he happily covers his walls (and, I imagine, others' walls) with cut-outs.

He is, once again, happy.

The book makes your kids want to
DO ART in a great, new-ish way!

When your child's mind is blown just a little...now that is a good children's book.  I love how cutting out shapes is included in art (Matisse might have done it in slightly more interesting ways than Kiefer currently does...) AND that Matisse tries something new at an old age.  How wonderful that he re-imagines what drawing is when his beard has long been gray!  This is a nicely done art book that teaches and inspires.

One last thing: I love that Matisse took a long pole, tied a piece of chalk to it, and drew the faces of his grandchildren up on the ceiling so that they smiled down on him and saw his dreams.  What a lovely way to fall asleep each night!

Cowboy Christmas by Rob Sanders

Cowboy Christmas by Rob Sanders, illustrated by John Manders

Rating: 4 stars

This book came out last year, got noticed by the international NYTimes as well as the local Washington Family Magazine.  It's pretty cute in a perfectly goofy, nicely focussed-on-the-right-things sort of way: 


It’s the day after Thanksgiving, therefore it is time to start getting in the mood for Christmas.  Cowboy Christmas will definitely help get your children to think about all things Christmas, with a cowboy twist.  They will be decoratin’, singin’, hopin’ they get some gifts…all the traditional stuff, without the “G” at the end.

Cowboy Christmas is a fine first book written by teacher-author Rob Sanders.  At first glance it does not look like a best seller, or one that your kid would be excited about unwrapping.  But there’s more to this book than a simple tale of three cowboys out on the range rather than home for the holidays.  

These cowboys are not happy about being stuck with cows rather than their families, and kick around their disappointment in the dirt.  To cheer themselves up, they do what all kids ought to be able to do by kindergarten: they improvise.  They lasso themselves a cactus tree and use what they have to decorate it.  It looks as you might imagine it to look: pretty silly. 

To read the rest of the review, click here.

An Otis Christmas by Loren Long

An Otis Christmas by Loren Long

Rating: 5 stars

We are fans of Otis.  We first met him in 2010 in Otis, then continued to fall in love with him in Otis and the Tornado and Otis and the Puppy.  There is even a board book and a stuffed animal available now!  He is a fantastic character; in fact, he's a character with character: a hard worker on his beloved farm, an enthusiastic player of all types of games, and the type of friend who looks out for the little guy, tries to include everyone, and genuinely cares.

So I was pretty psyched to see An Otis Christmas!

I'll warn you, I'm a little biased because Loren Long is one of my favorite illustrators AND...well...see that little foal on the cover?  I'm a sucker for all things horses.  When I was a horse-obsessed, riding-hours-every-afternoon girl, my cure for the uncurable giggles (in Church or in class) was to think of my horse, sick.  It would sober me up immediately.

Loren Long's beautiful illustrations swept me in immediately.  Otis is excited about his favorite time of year: Christmas!  This year, the excitement is bigger than ever because the mare is going to have a baby foal soon.  And this year, he gets something he's not ever received before...a gift!  It's a brand new horn.

"A special tractor needs a special horn," says his beloved farmer.

On Christmas Eve, a painful cry and troubled voices wake up Otis' putt puff puttedy chuff.  The mare is giving birth, but she's in trouble.  (As I saw the mare lying on her side painfully with the farmer and his son looking concerned over her, tears came to my eyes.  At a book!  Geez.  Yes, I cry at Hallmark commercials, too.)

Something was wrong.
Something was very wrong.

"We need Doc Baker out here tonight or we'll lose them both!" whispers the farmer.

But there's a blizzard outside.  One of the farmer's helpers already failed to make it down the hill from the farm because of the snow.  Yet, Otis does what he needs to do.  He goes out in the cold, chugs through the snowdrifts, calms himself when he gets lost, and finds the vet's house.  He uses his new horn to wake up the vet, who knows immediately that something is wrong.  They zoom back through the drifts and the night.

"The farmer prayed for a miracle.  All was quiet, until..."

Otis' horn cracks through the stillness and the sadness, and he brings Doc Baker to the horse and her unborn baby.  As that baby is born, with a star on its forehead, the whole farm stands around in wonder and appreciation.  Of a miracle.

This is a great Christmas book--one of the best from 2013 I think.

I love how Otis doesn't just stand by.  He does something.  This resonates clearly with me, an action-based person.  And he does something courageous, dangerous, and necessary--not because someone tells him to, but because he knows in his heart that it's the right thing to do.

See?  I told you he was a good character.

Bravo, Loren Long!  This is another great one.

Little Santa by Jon Agee

Little Santa by Jon Agee

Rating: 3.5 stars

How did Santa become who he is today?

It's a great, fun question for authors to ponder and write about.  My favorite book that answers this question remains Santa From Cincinnati by Judi Barrett--maybe that book is too front-and-center in my mind to fully appreciate the humor in Little Santa...?

Little Santa is the youngest of seven kids whose family lives in the North Pole.  Everyone grumbles about their cold- and snow-filled days, except Santa: his red little suit and smile stand out amidst his family's gray outfits and mopey demeanors.  Little Santa has Big Santa habits: he likes to crawl up the chimney so he can slide down it, for example.

They dislike the North Pole so much that they decide to move.  To Florida.  Santa is the only one who is sad about the upcoming move.

But then a blizzard strikes, and their house is completely buried in snow--all you can see is the chimney. They can't go anywhere, including Florida.  Little Santa heads up the chimney and goes looking for help.

He finds a reindeer (no ordinary reindeer as it can fly) buried in snow, and a whole colony of elves who build him a sleigh and travel back to his house with him to rescue his family.  The family stays a little longer in the North Pole and finds it a nicer place to live with industrious friends like the elves, but...eventually they move to Florida.

But Little Santa stays behind.  And, well, you know the rest of the story.