Three Naughty Bunnies, "A Particular Cow" and a Responsible Canary

Last week we checked out books with artists' names beginning with F 
Flack
Fleischmann
Fleming
Fleming
Florian
Fox
Freeman

Each of our Candace Fleming stories were hilarious. We laughed aloud and re-read each of them. Sunny Boy (about the adventures of a turtle with a long, adventurous life) and Tippy-Tippy-Tippy Hide (about three very mischievous bunnies) were our favorites of the week, I think. (We can't wait until Mucha, Muncha, Muncha comes back to the library--we haven't read that one yet.)

We were lucky to happen upon several books by Don Freeman, author of the Corduroy books. My Amelia loved Quiet, There's a Canary in the Library, about a little girl who invites a zoo-full of animals to the library. His book Fly High, Fly Low about two birds in San Francisco (which reminded me of Make Way for the Ducklings) appealed to me personally because it gave me a chance to remind the kids that I definitely didn't fall in love with their dad until the day I stood with him on the Golden Gate Bridge, but after that I was definitely his. Sigh.

The four Denise Fleming books we checked out were all VERY colorful with simple text. They are perfect for new readers and toddlers learning print cocepts. No complicated prose here. Count! is a brightly painted counting concept book that helps kids read along counting to twenty and then by tens, which is unique. 

I can recommend Douglas Florian's books for his illustrations-much of the story in each book is only apparent through looking closely at the pictures. Because we're in the middle of a very noticeable change in seasons we enjoyed A Year in the Country. His books are more expository in nature it seems.

Newberry-winner Paul Fleishmann and Kevin Hawkes worked together on Weslandia and Sidewalk Circus. The latter is wordless  and requires great imaginative examination.

Many of Mem Fox's books seem to have heartwarming messages, and so I picked up a few books that seemed to stray from that pattern, though it turned out that only two were exceptions. I really loved A Particular Cow about an unfortunate string of events involving a cow and a cart and wedding and a few other unlucky players.


Marjorie Flack's simply-illustrated books about Angus the dog scottish terrier would please puppy-loving kids. Flack is also known for her very popular book about Chinese duck named Ping that I recommend.


*This school year I'm going on a Big (Picture) Book Tour. It's not a book tour to show off a book I've written. It's a trip through the children's section of our library. Here's how it works:

• Each week I give myself about ten minutes at the library to choose over a dozen books from one alphabetic section of the children's picture books, usually several of the same author. 
• This is not a comprehensive review of each artist. I limit myself to what is in the library that day.
• The objective is to share these with my kids and then I'll briefly review the authors here. 
• I don't give equal attention to the artists because the books aren't categorized that way, but I'll try to do that, too. 
• I'll highlight my favorites in case you're looking for recommendations.

A Woogle (of Witches), Oodles (of Animals), and the Slop (of Soup)

(I just started posting again to this blog after deleting all the posts I made five years ago. I don't think anyone checks it. I feel so sneaky and I'm going to see how long I can go before someone comments.)

I've somehow misplaced about five months worth of photos, so until I discover the first four photos of book stacks, I'm going to pick up where I am.

It was E Week two weeks ago! 

And here are the excellent authors I read up on.

Lois Ehlert is the author and artist well known for her collages. Her books are graphically striking, but simple. I'm a big fan of her books Growing Vegetable Soup and Planting a Rainblow, but we tried four new books by her this week. My favorite this week of hers was Oodles of Animals because it gave us so many ideas for simple cut-and-paste animal collages.  Her books are perfect for toddlers due to the low world count and simple graphics, but the kids can copycat her artwork so younger elementary-aged kids will enjoy her collages.

Rebecca and Ed Emberley (a father-daughter team) paired up for The Lion and Mice, an uber-colorful version of the fable about a mouse who convinces her lion captor to let her go. I also liked Go Away, Big Big Green Monster (which didn't make it to the photo) by Emberley, but it has so many cut-outs it would never survive a house with a little fingers still learning to handle books!

We giggled about Lisa Campbell's Ernst's stories, Zinna and Dot (about two competitive chickens) and Duke the Dairy Delight Dog (about an ice cream store owner and intrusive but sweat pooch). Round Like a Ball is an impressive question/answer concept book with cut-outs and a big fold-out of the planet earth at the end.

Pamela Edwards' anthropomorphic tales (one about the job description of a dog, one about a mouse looking for a house, another about a house looking for a family, one about a rooster with night/day confusion) are perfect for young children. My favorite books were Wake-up Kisses (about how nocturnal animals wake their young at the end of the day) because it reminds me of my little tradition of giving my kids "Good Morning Hugs", and we also enjoyed the hilarious Slop Goes the Soup because of the fun with rhyme and the messy plot.

We read two seasonal books, too. A Woogle of Witches was our favorite. It's an awesome Halloween book about the activities of a "woogle" of witches--our favorite part is when the witches get scared by the trick-or-treaters. We  might add this to our family library eventually.

*This school year I'm going on a Big (Picture) Book Tour. It's not a book tour to show off a book I've written. It's a trip through the children's section of our library. Here's how it works:

• Each week I give myself about ten minutes at the library to choose over a dozen books from one alphabetic section of the children's picture books, usually several of the same author. 
• This is not a comprehensive review of each artist. I limit myself to what is in the library that day.
• The objective is to share these with my kids and then I'll briefly review the authors here. 
• I don't give equal attention to the artists because the books aren't categorized that way, but I'll try to do that, too. 
• I'll highlight my favorites in case you're looking for recommendations.