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.
The line comes from Anne Miranda’s “To Market, To Market,” the story of a woman who brings home animal after animal, each one adding to the chaos in her home. The former vegan in me cringed when I opened the book for the first time and read the familiar “To market, to market to buy a fat pig, home again home again jiggity jig.” I figured that a book geared toward toddlers wouldn’t end with a cleaver and a turducken, but I was nervous. Thankfully, after the animals lay eggs in her cupboards, eat her shoes, frolic in the bathtub, and roost on her head, she gives up on whatever plans she had for them. Accompanied by all of the animals, she goes back to the market to get a bunch of vegetables and makes a big pot of soup for everyone.
“To Market, To Market” features animals and vegetables. The illustrations consist of collages of black and white photos of ’60s era supermarkets overlain with colorful acrylic, pastel, and pencil drawings. The combination is winning, particularly when you get things like a cow painted on top of a photo of a dairy aisle. Photos of the deli counter are suspiciously absent.
The rhyming text is repetitive and rhythmic, which makes it easy for little ones to chime in with the next word or line. Zadie has loved this book since she was about a year old, and it was one of the first books that she mimicked. When the woman declares “There’s a duck on my head,” Zadie would get up from my lap, find one of her toy ducks, sit back down, and put it on top of her head. We have a hardback copy of this book, but there’s a nice, big board book version, too.
Tags: 12 months +, animals, food, rhyming
On your colors page of 12-13 you feature my Balloons Balloons Balloons as being co-authored with someone named Katya Krenina. How did Krenina ever get into the picture? I am the sole author of Balloons and Bernadette Pons is the illustrator. I hope you will remove Krenina’s name from your page. If you look me up on Amazon.com, you’ll find many more of my titles. Thanks for the nice review!
Dee Lillegard
Dee, when I was writing my review of “Balloons…” I looked the book up on Amazon to make sure I had your name spelled correctly, and they had Krenina listed as a coauthor. Perhaps it’s a problem on their end? Whatever the reason, I’m happy to take Krenina’s name off of my post. Sorry about the confusion.
Here’s the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Balloons-Dee-Lillegard/dp/0525459405/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261177729&sr=8-1