Faves: Read Roawr (Joosse), Max (Isadora), Pancakes for Supper (Isaacs)

Last week we read books by these authors:

Isaac

Isadora

Jonas

Johnston

Johnson

James

Joose

Joyce

Rachel Isadora's stories of children learning skills (dance, baseball, and music) and feeling pride in those skills offer lots of opportunities to talk about talents. We talked a lot about what the kids wanted to learn to do as we read each one. Somehow through the fiction children are presented with a sneak peak of possibilities.

Tony Johnston's book and the potential they have to teach about the westward migration. Amber on the Mountain is one of my friend stories of friendship I've ever read in picture book form.  Sunsets of the West (about pioneers moving from New Hampshire to the Rockies) and A Quilt Story are more stories of families on the frontier. The former is a great one to read to kids to teach about the process of moving by covered wagon--it reminded me of Eve Bunting's Dandelions.

My kids couldn't get enough of Simon James' Baby Brains who has all sort of adventures but then always cries out "I want my mommy!" and returns to her.

Barbara Joose's Roawr is a classic tale of a child confronting his fears heroically. We read it twice in succession and I resist that when at all possible, so you know can trust it was great. Get it and you'll laugh--that little boy is so clever.  She also wrote a great book about a big family get-together at Christmas time called A Houseful of Christmas that brought back so many memories of huge family get-togethers.

Anne Isaacs' award-winning Swamp Angel was our favorite read of hers, but all of her folkloric stories were enjoyable, though Luckless Gulch was long, albeit about my beloved California at the time of the Gold Rush. Pancakes for Supper is a great re-telling of a classic tale involving a smart child who outwits all the beasts of the forest and then enjoys pancakes with his family.

And finally, D.B. Johnson's Henry books are really wonderful. Henry the dog is really a type of Henry David Thoreau, and you follow his adventure as he walks instead of taking the train, as he climbs a mountain, and as he sits in a jail as an act of civil disobedience. And kids can understand it! I am partial to the pictures, too.


*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.