AB’s Bookshelf.

AB is an artiste extraordinaire. Be it crayon, water color, pen, pencil or pasta sauce, she can create a masterpiece within a matter of minutes. I envy her ability to just have at it. There is no agony or deliberation over what she is going to create. She just grabs a piece of paper, her instrument of choice and creates. She has a gallery in our kitchen of her best stuff. Now this isn’t a My Kid Could Paint That kind of situation. She won’t be paid in anything other than praise for this work anytime soon. But it is something that she seeems to truly enjoy, so I encourage it. Not with (ridicuously overpriced) art classes, but by ensuring that she will never run out of fresh paper and a case of Crayola. In honor of AB’s artsy side, this edition of AB’s Bookshelf showcases art and creativity.

1. ish by Peter H. Reynolds: When Ramon’s older brother teases him about his one of his drawings, it leads to a mean case of artist block. Ramon finds himself struggling to draw. He gets some new perspective though when he realizes that his little sister has been keeping his discarded drawings and putting them on her wall. Sure he was trying to draw a vase of flowers and it didn’t look exactly like the vase of flowers but it was vase-ish. This realization frees Ramon to draw without worry.  Reynolds illustrations are simple and fluid which fits the story perfectly. Reynolds is also the author/ilustrator of The Dot which has a similar theme of allowing a new perspective to get the creative juices flowing again. His books are inspirational without being hokey. He is campaigning to make the world a more creative place. He is co-owner of The Blue Bunny, a delightful children’s bookstore in Dedham, MA.  Quality.
2. A Day With No Crayons written by Elizabeth Rusch and illustrated by Chad Cameron: One day, Liza, a prolific crayon artiste with an adorable beret, runs out of paper. So she moves on to the next best thing, a nice big blank canvas…that also happens to be a wall in her room. Needless to say, her mother is far from pleased  and takes Liza’s crayon bucket away for the rest of the day. Liza stumbles about in a gray funk inadvertently creating splashes of color with ordinary things: toothpaste, mud, grass. After realizes this, and creating some cool rainbow pants, she sets off to create and finds all kinds of colors that were right outside her front door. At the end of the day when her mother offers to return the crayons, Liza has had so much fun that she declines, opting to go one more day without them. This is a great “get out of the house!” book. Kick your kids out of the house and into the backyard to play and explore. Or if you are like me, kick yourselves out of the apartment and head to the park. Art is all around us, we just have to open our eyes and minds.
3. Katie Meets the Impressionists by James Mayhew: Grandma and Katie head to the art museum on Grandma’s birthday. Looking at a Monet painting that has a garden, Katie closing her eyes thinking of how much Grandma would like a bouquet of flowers for her birthday. When she opens her eyes, Katie is in the painting! On Katie’s quest for the flowers she has quite the adventure. She befriends Monet’s son, steals Monet’s paintbrush (completely by accident, of course),wreaks havoc in a Renoir garden, goes on a picnic, gets chased by bees, finds herself on stage dancing in front of a packed audience. She leaps from the final Degas painting and gives Grandma the bouquet of flowers she recieved from her impromtu dance recital. It is never too early to introduce your kiddo to the classics. After reading this book, AB went on a watercolor kick created a nice rendering of flowers that now hangs in her Grandmommy’s office. Impressionists, indeed.
4. Olivia by Ian Falconer: This one is a modern classic. The life of this precocious piglet fits a great deal of preschoolers, including my own, to a T. The exaggerations. The negotiations. The exhaustion. Degas makes an appearance in this book as well.  After a rainy day visit to the museum and looking at her favorite Degas, Olivia sees a Pollock drip painting and attempts to recreate it on her wall at home. Time out. Apparently, Falconer does his illustrations before he writes the text, so the story can be told by the illustrations alone. He does this specifically for the kiddos who cannot read yet. So he gets kudos for that. Who knew that black ,white and red could be so effective. The Nick, Jr. cartoon spin-off is great. The theme song is catchy as all get out and calls for extreme no-inhibitions silly dancing.

Happy reading!

AB’s Bookshelf.

I’m not a big fan of reality. Let me escape into a good book or film anyday as opposed to having to interact in the real world. But alas as I have started my two new jobs over the past two weeks, I have gotten a big fat dose of the medicine called reality. Therefore, I decided that this edition of the kiddo’s bookshelf should include some big helpings of healthy imagination.

1. Adventure Annie Goes to Work written by Toni Buzzeo and illustrated by Amy Wummer:  Saturdays are Annie’s day for adventures. She’s even got the perfect outfit complete with advernture cape and sparkle tights. But when Adventure Annie’s mom has to go into work to find an important report that has been misplaced, Adventure Annie finds herself on a Big Report Treasure Hunt. Annie makes a humongous mess, but finds the missing  gold report. “Adventure Annie to the Rescue!” Bringing your kid to the office is inevitable. Your kiddo will be sick but you have to hand something in or child care falls through or as in Annie’s mother’s case, you were the last one to handle something of importance. And offices are always way more interesting when you’re a kid, even if it’s boring. A kid can turn the most mundane setting and make it magical. Case in point: Annie does not want to sit at the desk and draw at her mom’s desk, she wants to go on a treasure hunt which requires her to get into stuff including supply closets and other people’s offices. Sure when you bring your kid to work, you get your work done, but you also spend the same amount of effort cleaning up after them. Oh, the joys of working parenthood.
2. When Louis Armstrong Taught Me Scat written by Muriel Harris Weinstein and illustrated by R. Gregory Christie: It is hard to find children’s books for the preschool crowd that serve as introductions to various subjects. Most of the ones that I come up are too wordy. AB’s attention per page is quite short, but I want to expose her to various things that will lead to our fun discussions. So I am always on the lookout. This book was perfect. A little girl is visited in her dreams by Louis Armstrong who teaches her to scat by singing about bubble gum. It is goofy and fun. There were many giggles over our imitations of Louis Armstrong gravel and our own attempts at scat. Then we danced around to his classic duet with Ella, “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off”.
3. Blueberry Girl written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Charles Vess: Neil Gaiman is prolific and splendiferous (and I am still bitter that we were left empty-handed when his Lit Fest event this weekend sold out with a quickness) . He wrote Blueberry Girl for Tori Amos when she was pregnant with her daughter Tash, which I found super sweet and it made the book even more endearing. Read this book, with great illustrations by Mr. Vess, with  “Ribbons Undone” from Tori’s The Beekeeper album on repeat softly in the background and have a little mother-daughter cuddle time. Blueberry Girl and Someday byAlison McGhee are two books that should help ensure that creepy Love You Forever is banished from bookshelves and baby showers everywhere.
4. Once Upon A Saturday by Leslie Lammle: Ah, those dreaded Saturday chores.  June uses her imagination to tackle the tasks that stand between her and  wild animals, lost treasure and learning how to fly.  She finds an alligator (or is it a crocodile?) in her oatmeal. A crow teaches her how to fly to the mailbox. She gets a helping hand from the wind while sweeping leaves from the porch steps. Last but not least, she drives out the monsters living under her bed. She accomplishes all of this wearing an adorable pink dress and pilot goggles. A-dor-a-ble. Ms. Lammle is one of those double threats who can write a great story and do kick-ass illustrations. The illustrations were just plain awesome.  I would love to get prints of some and to frame and put in AB’s room. A nice reminder that chores can be really fun if you just use your imagination. Hey, I still pretend that I’m playing “house” when I wash the dishes, cook dinner and other domestic activities.  A spoonful of sugar…

Happy reading!

AB’s Bookshelf.

AB is a scaredy-cat.  She thinks dogs and cats are the bees’ knees from far away but as soon as they get close, she becomes stiff and shakes like a diving board that just lost its diver to the water below. (“He was going to sniff my FOOT!!!!!”) I have no idea where this fear stems from, thought I hope it is just a phase. So I try to mix in books that feature pet dogs, in the hopes that I can ease the process along. (As far as the cats, I say let them eat cake. I’ve never really been a cat person.)

Current Stack:

1. Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy by Jane O’Connor and illustrated by Robin Preiss Wasserman: AB est folle de Fancy Nancy. (That’s fancy for AB is crazy about Fancy Nancy.) I am crazy for Ms. Preiss Wasserman’s illustrations. (Check out her trio of You Can’t Take a Balloon to the Museum books she did with her sister. Ab fab indeed.)  Nancy acquires a new dog named Frenchy, who is not the prim papillon she initially wanted, but the perfect family dog for Nancy and the rest of the Clancys. Jane O’Connor hit the jackpot with Nancy and the emphasis on vocabluary in the series (both French and English) make her even cooler in my book.
2. Always in Trouble by Corinne Demas and illustrated by Noah Z. Jones: Emma’s dog Toby is a handful so he is sent to dog training school. This story reminded me of AB as she is an absolute angel at school but switches to wreak havoc mode when she gets home.  The illustrations are great too. They have a bit of a Sunday comics feel to them. I loved Emma’s cloud of curls while AB found it hilarious that dogs sometimes pee on carpets and chew on shoes. (“But we don’t do that, Mama, ’cause…’cause…’cause… that’s deesugiting!”)
3. Henrietta, there’s no one better by Martine Murray: This one took us a few nights to finish as it is technically a juvenile fiction book. It reminded me of Lauren Child with the use of prints and smattering of different fonts. AB liked to flip through this when we had quiet reading time and I read one of my “grown-up” books. Henrietta is a young’un with quite the imagination. She has a dog name Madge and a baby brother named Albert. She sails to the Island of Rietta in her bathtub (after dropping off Albert in the Land of One Thousand Alberts, of course.)She teaches you how to curse innocently (“Sheezamageeza!” is now up there with “I swear to Bobby!” and “Oh my heavens!”) The best part of all is she teaches you how to become an animal! This is a really fun book that was packed with enough imagination prompts to keep kiddo busy for a long while.
4. Imagine Harry by Kate and M. Sarah Klise: Now technically, there is no pet dog in this one but there is an imaginary friend names Harry who could quite possibly be a dog. Little Rabbit has a best friend Harry and they are inseprable. When Little Rabbit starts school and makes a bunch of new friends, Harry thoughtfully fades to the background until he eventually moves away. AB has yet to have an imaginary friend. There was a flirtation with a lion who lived on the ceiling fan but that never really panned out. However, she does have her stuffed cohorts, Abby Cadabby, Dora the Explorer, Princess Jasmine and Froggie (who is apparently the more literary of the group). There have been many occassions when Abby or Dora have been stuffed into her bag onthe way and promptly forgotten the minute she sees her friends at school. It is more about comfort and this book does a great job showing that those (imaginary) friends will always be there when they are needed most. Bonus: Mother Rabbit appears to be a single mom.

Happy Reading!

AB’s Bookshelf.

We’re back with some children’s books  that will interest both you and your kiddo (tested by AB and approved by moi). I have found that if you are interested in the book you are reading to your child he or she will be interested as well. If you are more engaged (i.e. more likely to do funky, funny character voices and act out parts and actually have fun doing it) and your child will be too.    Though, believe me, I understand that sometimes the energy just cannot be mustered.  That is when it’s time to break out Goodnight, Moon and the like.

Current Stack:

1. Every Friday by Dan Yaccarino – It is very easy as adults to get wrapped up in all the many things we need to check off our to do lists.  We are forever on the go. This is a story about a father and son’s weekly trip to a diner for a pancake breakfast. Simple yet endearing, it will have you racking your brain of what traditions you want to introduce to you little one. Take the time to slow down, put away the Blackberry/iPhone, turn off the computer, turn off the TV and truly have quality time.

2. Think Cool Thoughts by Elizabeth Perry and illustrated by Linda Bronson – Summer is fast approaching so pick up this book to distract from the heat. Join Angel as she camps out on the roof, counts ice cubes in the sky and dances in the rain. A magically sweet and refreshing story to remind you of the wonders of the imagination. Great bedtime read.

3. Woolbur by Leslie Helakoski and illustrated by Lee Harper – A wonderfully illustrated tale about a free thinking sheep. His refrain of “I know…Isn’t it great?” will help lessen your exasperation when you find your own little one marching to the tune of a different drummer…at the most inopportune times.

4. Gertrude is Gertrude is Gertrude is Gertrude by Jonah Winter and illustrated by Calef Brown – My favorite of this weeks stack. When I saw it on the shelf I had an immediate flashback to my freshman year in college and wanting to throw Ms. Stein and her convaluted writing  out the window.  I found her style incredibly frustrating which is why I think I enjoyed this one so much. It’s a nice introduction to modern art and literature for the kiddos.  The repetition is a huge plus. Said repetition can also lead to some tongue tied sentences which makes it all the more fun.

Happy Reading!

AB’s Bookshelf.

One of the things I am most proud of is that I am raising book nerd just like myself. There are tons of great children’s books out there. However, there are also a lot of books that do not lend themselves to repeat readings (which is essential) and have bland illustrations. I feel it is our duty to help you separate the flowers from the weeds.

Current Stack:

1. Llama Llama Mad at Mama by Anna Dewdney : Both little ones and parents alike will see themselves in this tale of Llama Llama having a meltdown in the Shop-o-Rama. Great jumping off point for discussing how not to act in the store.
2. Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems: Perfect read for city dwellers. Plus three-time Caldecott Honor winner Mo Willems is just plain awesome.  The book is relatively short with great pictures which makes it a great bedtime read (especially when you are exhausted and don’t think you can make it through the 72 pages of Green Eggs and Ham.)
3. Freckleface Strawberry by Julianne Moore and illustrated by LeUyen Pham: Kiddo does not have to have freckles to enjoy this book. LeUyen Pham is one of my favorite illustrators (check out Grace for President.)
4. Crocs! by David T. Greenberg and illustrated by Lynn Munsinger: A cute tale  about a little boy escaping the critters of the city when some unexpected visitors arrive. There is a delightful surprise toward the end that cracks AB up every time.

Happy reading!