Close to You – Kimiko Kajikawa

Animal parents and their young have unique ways of bonding. In Close to You: How Animals Bond, by Kimiko Kajikawa, beautiful photos of animal parents and babies are paired with charming text. The reader is treated to cuddling polar bears, a kangaroo in its mother’s pouch, an alligator baby being carried in mom’s mouth, caressing manatees, a baby penguin balancing on a parent’s toes, and more. Children love to look at animals, especially baby animals. This would be a sweet book for bedtime stories. The text is simple enough for very young children. I would also recommend it for early … Continue reading →

The Tale of Pip and Squeak – Kate Duke

In this charming children’s picture book, we meet Pip and Squeak, two mouse brothers who share a fabulous house. Pip is a painter and has a tower where he creates the most wonderful pictures, but the fumes from his paint make Squeak feel ill. Squeak, on the other hand, is a singer, and can croon the most lovely arias, but Pip says the noise gives him a headache. So Squeak sings in his tower and Pip paints in his, and they never share the big room downstairs except for once a year, when they hold a party and invite all … Continue reading →

What Do People Do All Day – Busytown Books – Richard Scarry

I grew up with Richard Scarry’s Busytown books. His What Do People Do All Day was one of my favorites. My sons all loved the original Busytown books too. What’s unique about the Busytown books is that not only do they tell simple stories, or explain basic concepts, but everything is labeled. And I do mean everything. I will also admit that sometimes I hated reading these books to my children because each page took forever. There might be about twelve short lines of text, but many trucks, and cars, people and even flowers have labels beside them . The … Continue reading →

Princess Smartypants – Babette Cole

We’ve all heard the stories of the princesses who marry the handsome princes and they all live happily ever after, right? Not so with “Princess Smartypants.” This particular princess has decided that she doesn’t want to get married, and that’s the end of it. Her parents are confused – doesn’t every princess want to get married? They show her the long line of suitors outside their door. Smartypants agrees to give each man a test, and she will marry the man who passes the test. Well, she’s not named Smartypants for nothing. She devised the most clever test she could … Continue reading →

The Tom and Pippo Books – Helen Oxenbury

There are some books I can’t imagine raising children without. They are favorites of school teachers, parents, and librarians. I thought I would start sharing a few of these classic books here. The Tom and Pippo books by Helen Oxenbury are charming books for toddlers and preschoolers. Tom is a young boy and Pippo is his stuffed monkey friend. Tom’s parents are portrayed as caring and involved. The titles come in nice sturdy thick page books that hold up to lots of toddler mishandling. The illustrations featuring Tom and Pippo and their adventures are simple, but sweet and very appropriate … Continue reading →

Gardening Wizardry for Kids – L. Patricia Kite

Gardening Wizardry for Kids: Green Thumb Magic for the Great Indoors is a fun book for children and parents alike. Teachers will also find lots of fun growing experiments and food lore they can use in their classrooms. The legends and histories behind different foods are fascinating. Did you know that in the Middle Ages magicians put celery seeds in their shoes, hoping it would help them fly? Or that there are more pictures of onions on Ancient Egyptian tombs than any other plant? Or that the soldiers inside the Trojan horse ate carrots before getting in the horse to … Continue reading →

Take Me Out of the Bathtub – Alan Katz

Do you remember singing silly songs as a child? I found Take Me Out of the Bathtub and Other Silly Dilly Songs by Alan Katz at our school’s book fair. This song lyric book takes familiar tunes and puts very silly lyrics to them. The playful illustrations by David Catrow match the overboard goofiness of the songs. For me some of the songs are just too silly. But children love them – I think because they can relate to so many them, a messy sibling in a highchair, the challenge of cleaning a messy room, a little brother’s stinky diaper, … Continue reading →

Let’s Go on a Mommy Date – Karen Kingsbury

Christian author Karen Kingsbury is best known for her romantic suspense. I greatly enjoyed her novel “One Tuesday Morning,” about the bombing of the World Trade Center, and also “Like Dandelion Dust.” Would I like her children’s picture books? “Let’s Go on a Mommy Date” is not her first picture book to be published, but it’s the first one I’ve read. How would she transition, in my mind, from writing for adults to writing for children? The answer – very well. The children are lounging around in the living room, glued to the television screen. Mommy decides they need an … Continue reading →

The Biggest Shadow in the Zoo – Jack Kent

“The Biggest Shadow in the Zoo” is the story of Goober, a circus elephant who thinks he’s very special. He lives on an a little island with a moat around it, but there’s another reason he thinks he’s special. Every day, children paid ten cents to ride on a box strapped to his back. That was pretty cool, but that wasn’t the only thing that made him special. As Goober looked around at the other animals, he noticed they all had shadows shaped like themselves. His shadow was the biggest of them all, and that is why he thought he … Continue reading →

The Cranky Sun – Jerry Kramsky

“The Cranky Sun” is an oversized children’s picture book about a village named Underwind. Two things made Underwind special. One was its garden of sweets, and the other was a clock that was so precise, it never missed a beat. It stood tall and proud in the center of town, and everyone relied on it for accuracy. That is, until one day, when the sun decided not to go down when the clock said it was time for bed. Solly, the gnome in charge of greasing the clock’s gears, always went to sleep when the clock said it was bedtime. … Continue reading →