18 months + / 2 years + / 2.5 years + / 3 years + / 3.5 years + / 4 years + — No comments
10
May 12

Books about the nature of cats

I’ve always found cats a bit mysterious. From a non-cat owner’s perspective, all of these books have amusing depictions of cat ways.

Feathers for Lunch, written and illustrated by Lois Ehlert

Age range: 18 months and up

A cat goes bird hunting but her bell keeps scaring them off.

Kitten’s First Full Moon, written and illustrated by Kevin Henkes

Age range: 18 months and up

Kitten sees the full moon and thinks it is a bowl of milk. She chases it and never quite catches it.

Ginger and the Mystery Visitor, written and illustrated by Charlotte Voake

Age range: 18 months and up

A roaming cat finds lots of people to feed him, despite having two square meals a day at home.

Magic Thinks Big, written and illustrated by Elisha Cooper

Age range: 2 years and up

Magic the cat thinks about his next move. Options include napping, checking the fridge for food, and having blueberry pie with some bears.

Wabi Sabi, by Mark Reibstein. Illustrated by Ed Young.

Age range: 3 years and up.

Wabi Sabi, a cat, goes on a quest to find out the meaning of her name.

The Tale of Tom Kitten, written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter

Age range: 3 years and up

Tom Kitten and his sisters sully their clothes, leaving their mother affronted.

Catwings, by Ursula K. Le Guin. Illustrated by S.D. Schindler

Age range: 4 years and up

This is the first book in the Catwings series. Four kittens, born with wings, fly from their dangerous life in the city and make their home in the country.

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16
Apr 12

Four Books about Metamorphosis

Bob and Otto, by Robert O. Bruel. Illustrated by Nick Bruel.

A worm and a caterpillar find that they are quite different, but still friends.

Age Range: 2 years and up

Gotta Go! Gotta Go!, by Sam Swope. Illustrated by Sue Riddle.

A caterpillar is making her way to Mexico without knowing why or how to get there.

Age range: 2 years and up

The Caterpillar and the Polliwog, written and illustrated by Jack Kent

A boastful caterpillar inspires a caterpillar to try to turn into a butterfly.

Age range: 2 1/2 years and up

Tadpole’s Promise, by Jeanne Willis. Illustrated by Tony Ross.

A tadpole and a caterpillar fall in love and promise each other that they’ll never change. *One of the best endings ever.*

Age range: 3 years and up

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29
Mar 12

Books about hesitation and trying something new

“The Falling Raindrop,” by Neil Johnson and Joel Chin

A raindrop is afraid to fall from a cloud, then finds itself enjoying the wild ride.

Age range: 18 months and up

“The Little Yellow Leaf,” written and illustrated by Carin Berger

A little leaf is hesitant to let go of its branch as she watches the transition from fall to winter.

Age range: 2 years and up

“Giraffes Can’t Dance,” by Giles Andreae. Illustrated by Guy Parker-Reese

Gerald the giraffe feels out of place because he can’t dance, then he finds his own rhythm by listening to the world around him.

Age range: 2 years and up

“Just One More Swim,” by Caroline Pitcher. Illustrated by Jenny Jones

Two polar bear cubs are hesitant to swim in the ocean for the first time, but end up loving it.

Age range: 2 years and up

“You Can Do It, Sam,” by Amy Hest. Illustrated by Anita Jeram

Sam goes all by himself to deliver homemade cakes to his neighbors.

Age range: 2 years and up

“Stella, Queen of the Snow,” and other Stella and Sam books, written and illustrated by Mary-Louise Gay

It’s Sam’s first snowstorm, and he’s reluctant to play in the snow despite his sister’s exuberance.

Age range: 2 1/2 years and up

“The Forest,” written and illustrated by Claire Nivola

A little mouse explores the forest that he’s always feared.

Age range: 3 years and up

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28
Mar 12

Books featuring mice

“A New House for Mouse,” written and illustrated by Petr Horáček

Mouse can’t fit her big apple into her little house, so she goes looking for a new home.

Age range: 18 months and up

“Tiny’s Big Adventure,” by Martin Waddell. Illustrated by John Lawrence.

Tiny, a mouse, and his big sister go exploring.

Age range: 2 years and up

“Mother, Mother, I want Another,” by Maria Polushkin Robbins. Illustrated by Jon Goodell.

A baby mouse and his mother have a miscommunication at bedtime.

Age range: 2 years and up

“Mouse Soup,” written and illustrated by Arnold Lobel

A mouse tells silly stories to trick the weasel who is trying to cook him.

Age range: 2 1/2 years and up

“Livingstone Mouse,” by Pamela Duncan Edwards. Illustrated by Henry Cole

A young mouse tries to find the most wondrous place on earth (China) to make his new home.

Age range: 3 years and up



“The Subway Mouse,” written and illustrated by Barbara Reid

A young mouse finds his way out of the subway tunnel he grew up in.

Age range: 3 years and up

“The Tale of Two Bad Mice,” “The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse,” “The Tailor of Glouster,” and “The Tale of Johnny Town Mouse,” written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter

Delightful tales of mice raiding a dollhouse, tidying up after bees, doing a tailor’s work for him, and visiting unfamiliar places.

Age range: 3 1/2 years and up

“Stuart Little,” by E.B. White

Our first big chapter book! Stuart is an adventurous little mouse who doesn’t get into situations that are too scary for a four year old.

Age range: 4 years and up

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28
Mar 12

Reading to two

I’ve been thinking of this sweet little (defunct) blog a lot this week. In the two years since I last posted I’ve amassed a large collection of library receipts with lists of the titles of the books we’ve checked out. On each receipt I’ve circled the names of the books we enjoyed and the date so that I could someday find them again. As my second child, Lincoln, has become trustworthy around books with paper pages, I’ve started to turn back to the old receipts from when Zadie was a toddler.

Finding and choosing good books at the library is nearly impossible with two kids running around. So I thought I’d fire up the blog again and use it more as a cataloging tool than as a place for detailed reviews. My plan is to post the titles of books we liked along with a short description and a suggested age range. And maybe it’ll make some parent’s life a little easier during the next trip to the library. Let’s see how it goes.

12 months + / animals — 2 comments
01
Feb 10

“Hooray for Fish!” by Lucy Cousins

cousins_eyefish2

We spend a disproportionate amount of time at the library parked in the stacks in front of the Lucy Cousins shelf. Her “Maisy” books have been in heavy rotation all fall and winter, which has been kind of maddening. As much as I can appreciate Maisy and her adventures, I do wonder if Maisy *ever* frowns (except in “Maisy Big, Maisy Small,” of course). And after repeatedly reading such varied titles as “Sweet Dreams Maisy,” “Maisy Goes to Bed,” and “Maisy’s Bedtime,” I’ve pretty much reached my limit. So I was happy to find “Hooray for Fish!” on the shelf next to all the Maisy books and happier still that it was compelling enough to subvert a fourth reading of “Maisy Goes Camping.”

“Hooray for Fish!” features a little fish who is greeting all of her fishy friends. She greets the spotty fish, the stripy fish, the happy fish, the gripy fish, etc. The fish are colorful and clever in such a way that makes it fun to talk about all of them. There’s a fish that looks like a bee, one that looks like a strawberry, and an “ele-fish,” which looks like an elephant. The text is pleasantly rhyming, but with only a few words on each page you don’t feel rushed by the rhymes. The illustrations have the same look as the Maisy books–heavy black lines and bold, solid colors–but you’ll never once have to wonder if that damned squirrel’s name is pronounced “Sigh-ril” or “See-ril.”

cousins_hairyfish

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29
Jan 10

“The Alphabet Keeper,” by Mary Murphy

The Alphabet Keeper“The Alphabet Keeper” is the story of an alphabet that has been held captive–caged and in the dark–by a mean alphabet keeper. The letters make a brave escape through an open window one day while she’s cleaning the cage. Though the alphabet keeper tries over and over to catch them, the letters outwit her by doing things like turning her plans into plants and her hedges into edges. They eventually fly to the moon (by turning a rock into a rocket and a moo into a moon), “and the alphabet keeper will never get them back.”

The alphabet keeper herself has a “Persepolis” like quality: black hair, big eyes, strong eyebrows, and a matronly knot on the top of her head. She’s a convincing captor who gets the dark ending that she deserves. In contrast, the letters are mischievous and sprightly, their counters filled with eyeballs and their stems notched with grins. They whiz and fly about with visible joy.

Caged Letters

Cloud
The word play aspect of the book is completely over Zadie’s head, but she really likes pointing out all the letters and is starting to catch on to the idea that each letter has it’s own sound. I can imagine this book being fun as a kid is learning to read and maybe even more fun once she’s ready for word games.

18 months + / animals — 2 comments
27
Jan 10

“If the Dinosaurs Came Back,” by Bernard Most

Dino dentistAs a former geologist I’m overly sensitive to intimations that dinosaurs and people overlapped. I have this fear that when kids read books featuring children who find a newly hatched dinosaur or dinosaurs who give their human parents goodnight kisses, they’ll start buying into the idea that the dinosaurs went extinct because humans didn’t invite them onto the Ark. The fact that no person has ever seen a living dinosaur means that any books featuring the two species have to somehow convey a sense of fantasy, which can be tricky when you’re writing for toddlers.

“If the Dinosaurs Came Back” makes it very clear that the dinosaurs are no longer with us while reading (happily) like a brainstorming session amongst 6-year old dinosaur enthusiasts. Each page features a different task that a dinosaur could perform if they made a comeback: Taking the place of ladders for painters, giving dentists a whole lot of teeth to take care of, keeping the grass short, etc. It’s a potentially great way to convey their scale, and some of the scenarios do this well: A dinosaur could, for instance, give people rides to work. But it’s misleading to suggest that dinosaurs were as tall as mountains, thus giving mountain climbers new mountains to climb. And it’s doubly inaccurate to suggest that dinosaurs could push rainclouds away so that the sun shines all the time. But it’s a fantasy, right?
Iguanodon fighting fires

Dinosaur beach

Our favorite part of the book is the key in the back, which shows a couple dozen dinosaurs and lists their names. We frequently skip right to it so we can “talk about all dinosaurs,” and I’m planning to photocopy it before returning it to the library. Any misgivings I have about the human-dinosaur interactions or the errors in scale are more than made up for by this key. It’s unbelievably adorable to hear Zadie rattling off names like corythosaurus and diplodocus, and I’m grateful to be learning learning along with her.

We’re in full-on dinosaur obsession mode here and I’d love to find a few good dinosaur books. If you have any suggestions please leave them in the comments.

18 months + / animals — 4 comments
20
Jan 10

“A Zoo for Mister Muster,” by Arnold Lobel

Mister MusterWe’re reading in themes these days, or at least in two themes: zoos and dinosaurs. We lucked out again on the zoo front by finding “A Zoo for Mister Muster” at the library last week. “A Zoo for Mister Muster” was published almost 40 years ago. I don’t remember reading this one as a kid, but I read a lot of books that had a similar feel. The peachy tones overlain by sketchy black lines are like the words to nursery rhymes: You might have forgotten them after the 6th grade, but they come back in a flood of familiarity as soon as you’re re-exposed to them with your child. When I read this one to Zadie, I kind of feel like I’m sharing a bit of my childhood with her.

The story is simple and sweet. Mister Muster, a well-dressed fellow with rosy cheeks, spends every sunny day at the zoo. The animals love him so much that when the elephant steals the zookeeper’s key and lets all of the animals out of their cages, they go straight to Mister Muster’s house. He happily lets them in and serves them a big chocolate cake while the zookeeper and a crew of weapons-brandishing policemen (“Open up in the name of the law!”) search for the missing animals. They eventually find them at Mister Muster’s and bribe them back to the zoo by offering Muster a job as the assistant zookeeper.

Monkeys

Police
“A Zoo for Mister Muster” is a good companion to “Goodnight, Gorilla,” by Peggy Rathmann. Both stories involve animals letting themselves out of their cages. But the former ends with a person going back to the zoo with the animals while the latter ends with a gorilla and mouse sneaking back out of the zoo and into the zookeeper’s bed. I find it odd that both of these books have animals getting out of their cages because they want to be with people, rather than for any of the real reasons why animals might want to break free. But I suppose the stories wouldn’t be as heart-warming if the animals trotted off into the jungle, lazy and vulnerable after years of being fed blueberry muffins from Starbucks.

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18
Jan 10

“Welcome to the Zoo,” by Alison Jay

KoalaZadie started demanding “more zoo books” when we got home from a day at San Francisco Zoo last weekend. After we read the two zoo books we had at home (“Goodnight Gorilla” and “Put Me in the Zoo”) about a dozen times, we headed to the library for more. As anyone who has visited a library with a toddler in tow knows, trying to find a book about a specific topic can be like trying to sing one song while listening to another through headphones. So I was especially pleased that the one zoo book I managed to find during our visit was a wonderful one.

The illustrations in “Welcome to the Zoo” are all two-page spreads of the type of zoo that we all wish we could visit: where giraffes sneak licks of your ice cream cone when you’re not looking, gorillas sit on benches, reading the paper as you walk by, and you have to watch out for penguins sliding across your path on their way to lunch. It’s a fanciful book where the animals and people do both ordinary and extraordinary things. The pictures are warm and bright, done with oil paint and a crackling varnish that gives them an old fashioned feel. There are no words (a quality I love in a book), but amid the chaos at the zoo there are stories hidden within the pictures. Sometimes we tell the little stories, other times we do more of an “I Spy…” kind of thing. The endpapers have hints of more things to look for.

jay_dolphins
RacoonsIt’s a funny thing, watching a kid reconcile the images of animals she has only seen in books with the real things at the zoo. A monkey in a book incites squeals of joy and cries of “swing! ape! greela!” But real life gorillas, even ones with tiny little babies in tow, were of no interest. Watching a grizzly bear catching and eating a live fish? Ho hum at the time, but a story we tell over and over again now, partly because the grizzlies in “Welcome to the Zoo” are also eating fish. And thanks to the zoo visit she now realizes that animals eat real fish, not goldfish crackers. Perhaps some food chain friends are in our future.

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