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.
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.