Familiar Faces, New Places

One of the most enjoyable aspects of any Mo Willems book, aside from the funny story he's dreamt of and illustrated to great effect, is finding his ubiquitous pigeon character in each of his books- it may be adorning a character's shirt or doing its best to blend in among a half dozen chocolate chip cookies in a jar.

It is this story-within-a-story, running-inside-joke theme in mind that has inspired tonight's post. Each Peach Pear Plum, written and illustrated by husband and wife team Allen and Janet Ahlberg, was the first such book I encountered with my daughter when she was wee and only getting acquainted with well-known nursery rhyme characters such as Mother Hubbard and Baby Bunting. The rhyming verse transports the reader to a fairy tale land where familiar characters' stories are woven together and illustrated with great ahem aplumb.

Along these lines, Alison Lester's delightful The Journey Home tells the tale of an intrepid, imaginative brother and sister due who travel across many varied fairy tale lands encountering many familiar characters-pirates, mermaids, gypsies until they finally arrive home again, home again, jiggety jig.

Charlie Cook's Favorite Book by author/illustrator dream team Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler (the great minds behind Room on the Broom, The Gruffalo, and The Snail and the Whale to name just a few other brilliant collaborations of theirs to check out) takes the story-within-a-story a step further. Each character mentioned in Charlie Cook- a wonderfully illustrated, truly enchanting story- has a favorite book featuring yet another character with their own storyline and favorite book which features yet another character and so on and so, delightfully, forth.

A Day in the Life

Both Bulldog's Big Day and A Glorious Day are very enjoyable picture books filled with engaging details and fun characters. Bulldog is off on a mission of sorts to find the job just right for his specific talents, while A Glorious Day follows the children dwelling in the same apartment building living magically simple moments, both apart and together. I lovelovelove the illustrations in both books, sweetly rendered in gouache and watercolor with some ink and pencil mixed in for good measure. Happy reading!

Hat

It's been ages since I last updated this blog, and oh!, the wonderful books that we've read in the past year.

Like Hat by Paul Hoppe.



This humorous, imaginative picture book beautifully illustrates empathy without doing so in a heavy-handed fashion. Very well done and very much enjoyed by Miss A., just shy of 4, who had quite a few questions about the crocodile and the explorer scenario (a classic) including, "Can he still talk inside of there????"

Caps for Sale, The Cat in the Hat, and Jan Brett's The Hat, are among a few well-know and well-loved titles featuring les chapeaux, and Hat, geniusly simple, is destined to join their ranks.

Library Haul

Goldie and the Three Bears

Tonight my daughter selected the traditional take on the story ofThe Three Bears for her bedtime read, and I wished instead that we still had Goldie and the Three Bears checked out from the library. Not only does Goldie have curly hair like Annabel, she also doesn't like it when her swing is pushed too high, or when her bath water is too cold. She likes things just right according to her own particular likes and dislikes, which is something that holds true for just about everyone on the face of the planet but is especially pronounced in children, I think. No crusts, no peanut chunks in her peanut butter, and a sandwich cut on the diagonal-that is certainly something that my daughter and I can both identify with from our respective roles. As can so many other parents and children, I'm sure.

Another likable aspect of this modern retelling is that the story does not end with "and she ran away and never again entered the woods." That sort of "lesson" or mentality is not something I wish to instill in my not quite 3 year old. While it's wise to be wary of strangers, I'm much more keen on Diane Stanley's version which has Goldie befriend the wee bear in the end. She just so happens to have tastes that run similar to Goldie's, and they become playmates and good friends, fur and all.

The pictures in the book are sweet and fresh. This adaptation is a welcome new take on the old, stale classic. Diane Stanley trims all of the fear and "oh dear"'s from her tale and embellishes the bare bones of the tale with revelatory PBJ, understanding, and friendship. Five stars for sure.

Most Perfect Spot

5 out of 5 stars.

As a child, I always loved a book with two narratives to follow, observing how the plot and subplot intermingled and influenced each other. Most Perfect Spot, written and illustrated by Diane Goode, the Caldecott-winning illustrator of When I Was Young in the Mountains, is comprised of two tales and an amusing dose of dramatic irony. The story is set in the early 20th century in Brooklyn. The watercolor illustrations are sweet and old timey and match the mood of this delightful book.

Little Beauty

In the interest of keeping this up, I’m going to ease back into book reviews using a star system and limiting the review to a few words. So:

5/5 stars or *****

gorilla! kitten! friendship! emotions! floral upholstery! beautiful style and illustrations! sweet message! and hidden faces in roses!