For years, my little sister’s favorite book was “Wonders of the Desert World.” I was hoping to track it down at my parents’ house over Christmas, but it apparently–and ironically–was left out in the rain at some point. We were able to recall peccaries, owls, jackrabbits, pack rats, and snakes, but that was about it.
“Creatures of the Desert World” features a similar set of animals, but presented in a truly amazing pop-up/action format. When you pull on something, it doesn’t just slide in the direction you’re pulling. Instead, the animals jump, pounce, and flap in surprisingly creative ways. At this point, I think we’ve found every little lizard, pocket mouse, and snake that there is to find, but for a long time we’d discover something new during each reading. Some of our favorite features are the cacti that stand a good 8 inches high off the page, a pack rat that scurries into a nest that’s viewable only by opening a secret door in a cactus, baby wrens nestled that can be seen through the window in the cactus spines, and peccaries that you can barely see peeking out of the sand.
We have lots of books featuring photos of animals and a great many more with animals that are so anthropomorphized that they’re unrecognizable (um, Arthur is an anteater). This is one of the few books we have with realistic, artistic portrayals of animals in their natural habitats. The illustrations are lovely, and I get a kick out of the fact that the book had an illustrator (Barbara Gibson), an Art Director (Jody Bolt), and two Paper Engineers (John Strejan and James Roger Diaz).
My mother-in-law gave this book to Zadie when she was only 6 months old, and I remember thinking that it would be years before she’d be able to understand that some books need to be handled with care. But she’s an unusually gentle kid (and unusually smart, but whose kid isn’t?) so we pulled this book off the shelves several months ago and it has been a staple ever since. But parents of spastic rippers should probably keep this on a high shelf until their children go to college.
A couple of minutes after my husband came to bed last night, I apparently turned to him, completely asleep, and said “There’s a duck on my head.” I talk in my sleep every once in a while, but I can safely say that this was the first time I’ve ever fully quoted a line from a children’s book while asleep.
We first discovered Emily Gravett’s “Monkey and Me,” a couple of months ago and fell in love with her style. I’m almost positive that if we owned a copy of it Zadie would want to read nothing else. So we just read it at the library–several times on each trip–and in between trips we talk about looking for it at the library and reading it again. Given the level of obsession that has surrounded “Monkey and Me” at our house, I hesitated a bit before checking out “The Odd Egg” this morning. It’s only been 12 hours, but I think “Monkey and Me” might have some competition.
Olivia is like Oprah at this point: she’s everywhere. She has a 
One of our favorite part of the book is a Richard Scarry-esque two-page spread showing Olivia trying on all her clothes. The text is simple (“Olivia gets dressed. She has to try on everything.”) but there is a lot to look for. Zadie loves to try to find Olivia in her bathing suit, or her turtleneck, or with her backpack. Some of the concepts (e.g. wanting to be left alone) might not be familiar to toddlers yet, but others, like confronting rules about where and when one can paint, are. And with that, I’m going to attempt to scrub the green crayon marks off of our oven door.
“Balloons, Balloons, Balloons” tells the story of a town of bunnies that mysteriously becomes blanketed in balloons. At first, the balloons are greeted with delight. But as the balloons filter into the streets, pools, and office buildings, we see shopkeepers and streetsweepers frowning as they try to maintain order. Meanwhile children continue to play happily with the balloons on the bus, in the pool, and at school. The various reactions the bunnies have make you think about how you define having too much of a good thing.
Right around the time that Zadie started to take an interest in reading–rather than eating–books, I read a 
The text on each page is short, which makes it perfect for little ones who are moving beyond board books but are sometimes overly eager to turn the page. And I love love love the illustrations, which are watercolor and ink but almost look like woodcuts. After just a reading or two, little Z had picked up on each animal’s emotions–a testament to Henkes’ ability to portray both sadness and joy. I was sad to take this one back to the library this afternoon, but am quite excited that we’re getting Z “Kitten’s First Full Moon” for Christmas.
