January Author of the Month: Mo Willems

I love it! Who wouldn't like this man??? We have been fans of the pigeon books and elephant and piggie for some time now so when I saw this picture I thought, "Yep, that seems about right." Here is Mo Willems website where you can get to know him even better. Some interesting things I learned about Mo: He was a writer and animator on Sesame Street from 1993-2002 where he won 6 Emmys for writing. He has won Caldecott Honors for Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus (one of our favorites), Knufflebunny: A Cautionary Tale & Knufflebunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identy. Also, his birthday is February 11th!!! No wonder he seems to be such a fantastic person, all of us February birthdays are (with a wink and a smile).
My girls love Mo Willem's humor. They have both been found rolling on the floor (I'm not kidding... literally rolling on the floor) as I've read them his books. Somehow we have missed out on "Knufflebunny" and his "Cat the cat" series. We'll be checking out what we can get our hands on of those this month as well as some of the "pigeon" and "elephant and piggy" books that we have not yet read and of course some that we already know and love. Please join us if you would like. I'm sure we'll be checking them out for several months since Ginny is nearing (and I'm being optimistic when I say "nearing") the end of Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. There are many easy readers that I love, partly because I grew up with them. However, I think these are more popular with my children than the tried and true because of the pictoral nature of the humor. Although, I'd have to say Mercer Mayer falls into that category as well. We'll see you soon for our end of the month update with our picks and pans.

Halloween Books

This was an absolute favorite that we will be returning to next year. Both girls LOVED this book, I think in part because Sugar Plum Fairy could read it to her sister. This book appeals to many ages because of it's humor. A little girl and her cat move into a new house that is full of ghosts. Luckily the little girl is a witch. She gathers up all of the ghosts, washes them, irons them and uses them for curtains, tablecloths, bedspreads, etc. Both the girl and the ghosts are happy in this scenario and the kids think it's pretty funny. A win for everyone!

These next two were destroyed by the boy in the house (the little one). We actually lucked out because the library GAVE them to us! Not that I'm going to leave books lying in his path in the future or anything, that would be dishonest;) Plus he managed to tear the pages cleanly out of these books and we might not be so lucky in the future.

A cute British import, this "curious little witch" sees a light left on in a house and goes to investigate. Unfortunately the attic room she peeks into is inhabited by mice and when her cat sees this he leaps causing her to tumble in and break her broom. She makes her way down through the house meeting witches with various talents on her way. In the basement she meets a tinkering witch her fixes her broom and gives it a couple of extras. Great detailed pictures and the last page gives us a view of the house from top to bottom in case you missed anything along the way. Super cute.
I love the illustrations in this book. They are reminiscent of Laura Bannon or Marjorie Flack, in style, if you're a fan, which I am. Great descriptions of what a witch needs to be, to be a witch. None of her spells or brews seem to turn out, however... and then she takes off each of her witchy accoutrements and voila! There's a little girl underneath the big nose, stringy red hair and hat.
We love Jan Brett and although these are not my favorite pictures of hers they do capture the spirit of October fairly well. This is a poetic story which is a little eerie until you realize at the end that a bunch of kittens have been hiding under the porch afraid of trick-or-treaters... the source of the mysterious almond eyes watching, watching.
A favorite author at our house who specializes in re-tellings of classic stories. If you haven't ever read "The Teeny Tiny Woman" (by anyone) you are missing out. And if you think you've read it or had it read to you but can't remember here's a little hint "Give me my bone!" This is fun to read and fun to listen to. Just scary enough that it is enjoyable for all ages.

February: Valentines books!!!

"The Ballad of Valentine" by Alison Jackson, illustrated by Tricia Tusa. My kids LOVE books that are told with a song. I don't always. This one is so cute and is sung to the tune of "Clementine". It was actually fun to sing this story. It was cleverly written and drawn (which isn't always the case. Not sure why a lot of the stories that are told to a song have mediocre pictures... they think the song can carry it??? Nope.) This particular story is fun for mom and kids, is great for Valentines AND has the cutest awkward couple EVER. My favorite from this list.
"The Valentine Bears" by Eve Bunting, illustrated by Jan Brett. This is a cute story about a bear couple who wakes up mid-winter nap to show each other how much they love each other. I like this book because it reminds me of my big bear of a husband. I also like this because it appropriately shares what a great adult relationship can look like for a child audience.
"Lilly's Chocolate Heart" by Kevin Henkes. Short and sweet (bad pun) board book. The fun thing about this book for our family is that my first grader can read board books to the little kids without getting bored and putting it down without finishing. No mom required (even though I still stand by and watch- too cute to miss.)
"The Day it Rained Hearts" by Felicia Bond. This was the kids favorite. They love a little bit of the ridiculous. Once they new the story it was fun for them to shout out who each Valentine was for before we reached that page. I didn't realize how funny the idea of raining hearts would be to a 4 and 6 year-old. Or hearts growing on trees, for that matter.
"Valentines Day Is...." by Gail Gibbons. We have a lot of Gail Gibbons books but we usually only enjoy her sciency-dinosaur-astronomy-honey bee-apple tree-etc. type books. I have never been a big fan of her holiday books. I think the reason I liked this one better is that Valentine's Day isn't as religiously based as some of the other holidays. This is a great book to learn more about the history of Valentines Day (for young children, that is) and how we celebrate the day. If you are familiar with Gail Gibbons you will know that the pictures aren't exactly spectacular- but they get the point across. These are things that I never knew as a young kid and I would have loved to have a book like this.

January Author of the Month: Jan Brett

Jan Brett, what can I say? I love her paintings- especially her books with a Scandinavian influence. Jan likes to include illustrated borders in her books which I love. I love all of the detail and the foreshadowing hints in them which is really fun for the kids. They love to show off by being able to guess which animal is going to come onto the scene next.

One thing I don't love... trolls. I don't know what my deal is with trolls but I just don't like them. Even though many of her trolls are cute. The word "troll" is so ugly and gross. Maybe I'm weird. Some of my other favorite author/illustrators have a thing with trolls and I just don't get it. It's the one thing I don't like about her version of "The Night Before Christmas". However, Abby loves "Trouble with Trolls" so I guess it's more about what the kids like.

Abby's teacher's favorite author is Jan Brett and she has been highlighting her at school this month. It was really perfect that we decided to focus on her at home this month (I was going to do November). Jan looks like such a fun person! The kind you'd like to be friends with in real life... or travel with. She is such a traveler which really gives her books a special flavor.

Our absolute favorite Jan Brett books:
The Mitten
The Hat
Daisy Comes Home
Annie and the Wild Animals
Gingerbread Baby

Books we really like:
On Noah's Ark- told by Noah's grandson, cute. Look for the big book instead of the tiny board book- it's all about REALLY being able to see the pictures.
The 3 Little Dassies- a great re-telling of the 3 little pigs set in Africa
Gingerbread Friends
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Town Mouse Country Mouse- a little long for my kids but I love the pictures, so I put it into my own words.

Books I don't remember loving but we'll give them another shot:
The Umbrella
Honey...Honey...Lion!
(plus several that include trolls)

Books we have not read that I'm putting on hold:
Comet's Nine Lives
Fritz and the Beautiful Horses
Armadillo Rodeo
The Three Snow Bears
Beauty and the Beast
If I remember, before the February/Valentines blog post, I'll let everyone know what we thought of these.

(She has MANY Christmas books that I'm leaving off of this list since it is no longer Christmas but "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is worth a mention)

Favorite Books for October Part 1

Okay- we haven't gotten all of our library books in and I know that we are missing some that we love. The problem is that a year is quite a long time for my sad little brain and so I don't want to include a book until we have re-read it. SO when it gets a little closer to Halloween I will do a part 2 and hopefully you can put them on your list for next year OR some may still work for November AND everyone else will have turned them in (in theory).
"Bones" by Steve Jenkins. These books are in no particular order but this book has gotten the most attention at our house this year. I would say that it's a great book for little boys but my girls love it so much that apparently it has cross-gender appeal. Each page shows a human bone and some animal counterparts. It is SO fun for the kids to compare what their arm looks like next to an elephants (etc.) There is a full fold out page of a full skeleton and the kids tested my memory of bone names because they kept pointing to different bones on themselves and asking what they were called. Educational and fun (and not creepy in the slightest, if you were concerned).
"Too Many Pumpkins" written by Linda White and illustrated by Megan Lloyd. This one is probably my favorite and you could definitely save it for Thanksgiving if you wanted. The pictures really get you in the mood for the season AND give me the desire to buy a farm and grow some veggies. If only harvest-time lasted all year long.
Rebecca Estelle plants EVERYTHING in her garden except PUMPKINS. She does not like pumpkins since she was forced to eat nothing but pumpkins for a month as a child when her family had no money. One fall day a pumpkin truck drives by dropping a large pumpkin into her yard which smashes and makes a huge mess. Rebecca Estelle tries to cover the pumpkin up but unfortunately the next spring something begins to grow. She tries to get rid of the pumpkins to no avail and ends up with TOO MANY PUMPKINS. Then she makes the best of it, makes pumpkin pie and has a party with the village. She sends all of the leftovers home with the villagers except for a few pumpkin seeds for planting in the spring.
"Bats at the Library" by Brian Lies. The pictures in this book are absolutely gorgeous. If you are afraid of bats get ready for a revolution... these bats are so darn cute! This is a great book for anyone who has a serious addiction to the library (me) and who wants to instill this love in their children even further. When a librarian leaves a window to the library open the bats come and play. The best part is when the bats love the stories so much that they become a part of them. My kids had fun figuring out which favorite stories the bats had insinuated themselves into. (ex. "Winnie the Pooh", "Make Way for Ducklings", "Alice in Wonderland", etc.)
"By the Light of the Halloween Moon" written by Caroline Stutson, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes. We're venturing into slightly eerier territory. My kids are pretty hard to scare so to me this book was perfect. I LOVE the rhythm of this cumulative story akin to "I know an old lady who swallowed a fly...". A toe hangs from a dock and leads to more and more humorous events. I think the pictures are fun (award-winning) and one in particular makes me laugh out loud (a sprite bites a ghost and the ghosts face is priceless). Worth checking out to see if your kids can handle it.
"There's a Nightmare in My Closet" by Mercer Mayer. I have to admit I grew up with the "A boy, a dog and a frog" books so I love these earlier Mercer Mayer books. (nothing against little critter, some I love and some I don't) The first time we read this (years ago) my girls were a little scared of it. It's grown on them and it doesn't hurt that they now understand the plot. It is now one of our old standby's that is invariable grabbed about every 4th visit to the library.

Where Did the Baby Go? To Kindergarten.

These are my two absolute favorite Eloise Wilkin illustrated books. These were my books when I was little and they have been very well loved.
"We Like Kindergarten" goes through all of the many things a child might do at kindergarten and can also be reassuring to the child who is going to start kindergarten soon. But really, the charm of this book is in the pictures. The children fingerpaint, make clay animals, swing at the playground, play music, drink milk (Jackie doesn't finish his. It spilled), rest on their own rugs and say goodbye to Mrs Hall.
When Carol leaves for kindergarten her little sister Laurie wants to go too, so do the pets and the stuffed animals. When Carol gets home she puts on kinderegarten for everyone at home. I love this because I did lots of role playing as a child and now I watch my daughter get home from school and do the same things.
"Where Did the Baby Go?" is my absolute favorite. I love the details. I love how it reminds me of my early childhood in the late 70's early 80's when there was a revival of these styles.
I LOVE this house. If I could find the interior of this house I would buy it.
A little girl finds a picture of a baby and wonders where the baby has gone. She asks her mother who tells her she knows this baby and see's her everyday. The little girl looks all over the house.
She finds lots of things but no baby. Finally she finds the hat the baby was wearing in the picture. She tries it on and realizes that SHE is the baby, just a few years older. She runs and tells her mother that she knows where the baby went.
"You do?" says the mother, "Where is she?" "Here I am" and she jumps into her mothers arms.

September Illistrator of the Month: Eloise Wilkin

Okay- I've come to terms with the fact that when it comes to children's books it's often all about the illustrator. Sometimes it's going to be "illustrator of the month". I grew up poring over many of the Little Golden Books illustrated by Eloise Wilkin. In many ways they sum up childhood for me. They helped me envision what I wanted my own family to be like one day. I simply cannot leave her out.

Some fascinating things I learned about Mrs. Wilkin:
- She was an award winning baseball player.
-Jane Werner Watson, author of many of the books she illustrated said that Eloise was "the soul of Little Golden Books". I agree.
-She illustrated paper dolls early in her career.
-She often used family members as models.
-She revised some of her work as society evolved. For a re-print of a book of prayers that had originally shown only Caucasian children she altered it to portray children of many races. A picture that had originally shown an infant sleeping on her stomach was changed with a re-release in the 70's as there was an increase in awareness about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
- She was a devout Christian who often illustrated books of prayers for children.
-She grew up in New York City but spent her summers in rural western New York state. The rural setting and domestic environs influenced her illustrations later in life.

Now, you can find some books with her illustrations at the library. My absolute favorites are a little harder to find. I will review some of both and let you know if it's worth trying to track them down on ebay or in your grandma's attic.

The Knight Books

"The Kiss That Missed" This book was our introduction to David Melling. Dew Drop Fairy picked it out at the library one week and it was an instant favorite for all of us. The drawings are so clever, comical and full of detail. Another plus: it's short. There are many children's books that I love but I wish that they weren't quite so wordy. No one gets tired of reading this story or tries to sneakily leave out parts to speed up the read.

A somewhat quick rundown: the king is in a hurry (from the pictures we gather he is on his way to a royal bath with royal rubber duckie in tow) Instead of properly bestowing a good night kiss on the prince he haphazardly blows a kiss to his son. As you may have guessed from the title the kiss misses. A trusty knight, whose horseback riding abilities are questionable at best, rides off to catch that kiss. He finds himself in a rather sticky situation surrounded by slathering beasts when the kiss floats past and SWAK's each animal in turn sending them off to dreamland. After being chased by a good night kiss giving dragon the knight successfully returns with the kiss and everyone is happy. The king has learned his lesson and even takes the time to read everyone (slathering beasts included) a bedtime story.

"Good Knight Sleep Tight" The continuing story... there is now a princess who has a special extra-soft bedtime pillow. The royal kitty destroys said pillow and the knight is once again sent on a quest. This time to find something soft enough to fill a new pillow and assist the very unhappy princess off to sleep. He tries bear hair (too coarse) leaving open patches on the bear's bottoms showing material which I can only assume are the boxer shorts bears wear under their fur. The wolves are too bristly, owls aren't enthused at giving up their feathers and take the knight to the feather tree. The knight returns to the sleep deprived castle with a nice fluffy pillow but it doesn't help the princess sleep. The prince, who as the story began was unconvinced of the new princesses charms, gave his little sister a cuddle and she calms right down. Everyone in turn gets a hug and some much needed rest.

While I didn't find this story as clever as Melling's first story it was undeniably adorable and the pictures held the same charm to the delight of my children!

August Author of the Month: David Melling

#1 I was torn over whether to say author of the month or illustrator. From what I gather David Melling thinks of himself more as an illustrator than an author... but he also writes and what I've read is delightful.
#2 I'm taking a small leap in the dark here. I do have several authors in the back of my mind for future authors of the month who I am more familiar with. BUT, we have LOVED David Melling's "The Kiss That Missed" for many years now. It has been one of those that we never want to return to the library, we renew it the optimum amount of times and then when returning it I always ask myself "Why have we not bought this book yet???" SO... I am going to take a chance. We have checked out all the books we can get our hands on by him and will be reading them this month for the first time! I hope you will join us. If "The Kiss That Missed" is any indication we are in for a big treat!

Okay- I took a break for a minute to watch some videos on his website. It was definitely worth my time. If you are fascinated by what goes into illustrating OR if you enjoy a British accent regardless of the topic you should check these out. (the star faced crocodile was my favorite video, but I'm glad I watched them sequentially) I find that it helps me have more enthusiasm when I read if I know more about the author and I hope I can pass on an interest in authors/illustrators to my children. It's great for them to know that these books don't magically appear in front of us, but that someone has put a great deal of work into creating something that can entertain us. In fact, that's part of the reason I started doing these author of the month posts . I have found that my children (at least my oldest) is more familiar with certain authors now.

PS. If you are heading over to watch the videos now just a heads up- they take a few seconds to load and if you are as impatient as I am you will pause the video, surf the web elsewhere for a moment, and then come back to it... it doesn't take long, really, I am just THAT impatient.

May Author of the month: Robert McCloskey

Robert McCloskey is one of my favorite authors. I have fond memories of "Burt Dow Deep Water Man", "Blueberries for Sal" and "Make Way For Ducklings". These books are spring and summer for me. "Burt Dow" is the definite favorite of my kids. Ginny often sleeps with it. If it were just a bit shorter! I often sigh a deep sigh when asked to read it, knowing what lies ahead, but then I get caught up in the story and the language and I forget to be annoyed any longer.

What might feel like spring everywhere else feels like summer on the New England Coast. These books are my childhood and I LOVE sharing them with my children. I should have saved this author for June. I know that I am going to be too anxious to get home and start searching for small creatures in tide pools. Every place has a feeling to it and when I pull out a book by Robert McCloskey (especially the Maine ones) I can't help but be transported by them.

April Author of the Month: Kevin Henkes

I chose to have Kevin Henkes (pronounced HENK-us, I've been saying it wrong for years) as our author this month because I feel like many of his pictures are full of springtime. Kevin grew up in Racine, WI and now lives in Madison with his wife and two children. He grew up wanting to be an artist. When he was in High school he gained a love of writing as well. His first book was published in 1981 and he is still going strong.

He has been a favorite of my girls since we discovered "Kitten's First Full Moon" at the library and after renewing the max amount of times decided we had to add it to our own library. We have since added many of his other books as well. He has also written novels but we are going to focus on his picture books.

If you would like a glimpse of Kevin Henkes creating his latest book "Little Rabbit" there is a video that is short and sweet!

Month's End: My favorite Seuss

Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) once said, "kids can see a moral coming a mile off" and therefore did not usually include a moral in his stories. The one thing he stuck to through out was his sense of fun. Kids love made up words, animals, etc. That's all I need is something to help my kids imaginations to grow! (and even though I said that with sarcasm due to the extra work imagination can cause a parent I really DO want their imaginations to grow!!!)

However, I'm a sucker for a moral. My favorites all seem to be the ones that did attempt to teach us something...

1. Perseverence: hard work pays off in the end.
2. Don't judge others, don't think that you are better or that you can buy your way into being better. We will all be happier for it.
3. Respect the earth and her creatures or it won't be a very nice place to live.
4. and finally life is a journey with lots of ups and downs. Don't get caught waiting for things to happen to you, go out and move mountains!

Of course, that's my quickly formulated generalized conclusion. PLEASE read these books and form your own opinion. They are all great!

If I Ran the Zoo, etc.

This is a fun story about what would happen if young Gerald McGrew ran the zoo. Of course HE knows where to find the most interesting animals as opposed to the boring everyday animals you would find at most zoos (such as a lion!!!) We read this on our way to the Denver Zoo this morning. My kids were under no illusions. When asked if they thought they would see any of THOSE animals they both said no.
Although we did not see any of the Seuss variations we saw more animals than I have ever seen in one day. I am still proud of our humble Hogle Zoo but it didn't fare well in comparison. We spent 6 1/2 hours at the zoo. My feet are tired.


This is probably our most read of the Seuss books. I guess my kids love a good tongue-twister, or watching their mom attempting them. This book comes with a warning: as all of the best books should. Warning: expect lots of laughing, lots of absurdity (of course, it IS Dr. Seuss) and do some tongue exercises before attempting (possibly practice it in private first). I Love the rhythm mixed with the tongue twisting which inevitably happens in many of his books. This is my favorite line, "When beetles fight these battles in a bottle with their paddles and the bottle's on a poodle and the poodle's eating noodles. . . they call this a muddle puddle tweetle poodle beetle noodle bottle paddle battle." Sheer perfection.


This has never been one of my favorites. I'm not sure why. Possibly it's due to my aversion towards indoor messes? I LOVE outdoor messiness. I did see a plaque in a friends home recently which made me realize I need to relax a tidge. It went something like this, "Please excuse our mess, my kids are making memories".
Anyhow- this was one of my daughters favorites a few years back and I learned to really enjoy reading it out loud. Seuss almost always (including this book) uses anapestic tetrameter which is made up of four rhythmic units, or anapests, which contain two weak beats and then a strong beat with variations that omit the first weak beat or add a weak beat at the end. If that doesn't make sense what it really means is an awful lot of fun for someone to read out loud. I find myself getting carried away by the rhythm when I read Seuss to my kids to the point that I don't notice the words as words some of the time but as fun sounds that work well together.

Sam I am

The luck of the Irish was with me when I chose Dr. Seuss For the author of the month. It was super convenient to tie in a reading of "Green Eggs and Ham" with our breakfast this morning. We had the title breakfast along with green milk and green butter on toast.
I had one squeamish child (it's bound to happen with 7 around). The great thing about "Green Eggs and Ham" is that it convinced her to give the eggs a try... and then the milk. The toast was a no go. I had gotten a bit too much dye in the butter anyway. Those who ate it were much more green-tinged about the mouth than the ones who went with out.
Happy St. Patrick's Day Everyone!!!

March Author of the Month: Dr. Seuss

This month we are going to focus on the beloved Dr. Seuss for our reading enjoyment. My decision was influenced by the fact that yesterday was his Birthday. Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!!!
Theodor Seuss Geisel was born on March 2, 1904 and died on September 24, 1991 of throat cancer. His birthday has been adopted as the National Read Across America Day. Geisel graduated from Dartmouth and attended Lincoln College, Oxford where he met his wife, Helen.
His early career included drawing/advertising for such companies as Standard Oil, NBC and General Electric, among others and he became a political cartoonist during WWII. After the war he wrote several childrens books. Due to a report published in Life magazine about illiteracy in school children Seuss was challenged to write "a book children can't put down" - William Ellsworth Spaulding.
Spaulding came up with a list of 348 words that first graders should be familiar with and asked Seuss to include as close to 250 of them as he could into a book for children. Seuss came back with "The Cat in the Hat". Other books whose purpose was to foster the reading of these words include "Green Eggs and Ham" and "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish".
Geisel is known for his inventive characters, drawings and verbiage. He is a joy for parents and children to read. The popularity of his books remains today and he continues to outsell the majority of newly published children's books.
Stay tuned for our fun with Dr. Seuss this month!