Here’s the tart palate cleanser for all those (truly beloved!) sweet and cozy Christmas books. Who among us doesn’t sometimes feel a bit out of step, contrary, grinch-ish? And while I’m no Boris Karloff (the 1966 Grinch television special he narrated may be the best Christmas special ever–the live action version is a travesty), Dr. Seuss books are a pure pleasure to read aloud.
Author: Dr. Seuss
Illustrator: Dr. Seuss
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Posted in Picture Books
Tagged Animals, Boris Karloff, Christmas, Dr. Seuss, food, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, I read this as a kid, movie, toys
This book is irresistible. Stunning, unforgettable illustrations, utterly bizarre and intriguing stories. I loved reading it over and over in my school’s library as a child and couldn’t wait to grab a copy of our own for the boys. Even better, there is also an unabridged audio version (read by Paul Newman, Sidney Poitier, Kathleen Turner, and Matthew Broderick), which means the boys know how to pronounce all the names correctly. These stories are foundational texts for Western culture, and you couldn’t ask for a better introduction. And then they discovered Percy Jackson, which they deeply loved, but I never read it to them, so I’m not sure I’ll be talking abut that here.
Authors: Ingri and Edgar Parin D’Aulaire
Illustrators: Ingri and Edgar Parin D’Aulaire
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Posted in Chapter Books
Tagged Animals, Audiobook, D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths, Edgar Parin D'Aulaire, food, Greek, I read this as a kid, Ingri D'Aulaire, Kathleen Turner, Matthew Broderick, Mythology, Paul Newman, Percy Jackson, Sidney Poitier
A rollicking rhyming scheme, a rough and ready narrator (a New York City trash truck), and plenty of gross-out humor make this lots of fun for the younger set. There’s even an ABC interlude (from Apple cores to Zipped-up ziti with zucchini). This was very popular for a long time at our house.
Author: Kate McMullan
Illustrator: Jim McMullan
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Posted in Board Books, Picture Books
Tagged alphabet, food, I Stink!, Jim McMullan, Kate McMullan, Machines, USA
A blizzard is coming, so Mother Rabbit bakes carrot cake and knits her beloved Little Rabbit a hat. He loves it and asks her to make hats for their friends too. She happily agrees, they work together on the hats, and the friends (after seeing how warm they are and how special they feel wearing them) are very appreciative. Mother Rabbit and Little Rabbit go home and have carrot cake, warm and secure in each other’s love and being together (“the best gift of all”). The end.
It sounds so simple, but the pictures are so lovely and the rabbits are so realistically warm and their relationship is so caring; it may be the coziest book I have ever read. And both the boys still love it, which always surprises me a bit and also makes me happy each year. Apparently it is the first book in a series about Little Rabbit and Mother Rabbit, but we haven’t read the other books (which are focused on particular issues, like handling cleaning up or crying or nightmares).
Author: Kate Klise
Illustrator: M. Sarah Klise
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Posted in Picture Books
Tagged Animals, Christmas, Diverse Books, food, Kate Klise, knitting, M. Sarah Klise, Shall I Knit You a Hat? A Christmas Yarn
Bruce is a grumpy bear with one joy in life: preparing and eating fancy egg recipes that he has carefully researched online. But after a batch of (free-range organic) goose eggs hatch while he is off gathering firewood, Bruce becomes “the victim of mistaken identity.” (“MAMA!”) Much as he tries to get things back to normal (and he really, really tries, which is where a lot of the humor comes in), his life will never be the same.
This book kicked off a series, but we never picked up the later books; by the time they came out, my boys’ interest in new picture books was waning.
Author: Ryan T. Higgins
Illustrator: Ryan T. Higgins
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Posted in Picture Books
Tagged Animals, Diverse Books, E.B. White Read Aloud Award, Ezra Jack Keats Illustrator Honor, food, Mother Bruce, mystery reader books, Ryan T. Higgins, series
When the boys were in early elementary school, by far the most fun way to volunteer at school was to be a mystery reader. The teacher and parent made super-secret plans, far in advance, for the parent to show up midday, books in hand, to read to the class. The kids loved it (especially the mystery reader’s kids). And I’m a total ham, so I loved it too. Of course, when reading to 25 plus kids at once, you need to pick the right books. By which I mean, they have to read very well aloud, they have to have pictures that work even from a good ways away, they can’t be too long, and they HAVE to be funny. A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee was one of my mystery reader books (I’ve made a tag linking to most of the others below, there was one more that will be my next entry) because it easily checked all the boxes. Mr. Magee, and his little dog Dee, go camping in their (adorable!) teardrop camper trailer and havoc quickly ensues. This is one of Chris Van Dusen’s best books, which is extremely high praise (you’ll notice his If I Built a Car was also a mystery reader selection). The other Magee books (Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee and Learning to Ski with Mr. Magee) are also great fun.
Author: Chris Van Dusen
Illustrator: Chris Van Dusen
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Posted in Picture Books
Tagged A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee, Animals, Chris Van Dusen, Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee, food, If I Built a Car, Learning to Ski with Mr. Magee, Machines, mystery reader books, series, USA
WARNING!
Scaredy Squirrel insists that
everyone wash their hands
with antibacterial soap before
reading this book.
Scaredy Squirrel, true to his name, is afraid of just about everything. He has an emergency kit on hand at all times, plans for emergencies, and never leaves his nut tree until one fateful day… Well, I don’t want to spoil the fun (and there is lots of fun to be had).
Like One Kitten for Kim, this is a great book to read with early readers and non-readers, due to the humor and repeated rebuses (pictures that take the place of words). Be ready to read it repeatedly.
Author: Melanie Watt
Illustrator: Melanie Watt
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Posted in Picture Books
Tagged Animals, food, Melanie Watt, One Kitten for Kim, rebuses, Scaredy Squirrel, series
A little dragon is very excited about his favorite bedtime story. So excited that whenever his sleepy mama finishes it he has the same request: “Again!” When she finally falls asleep, things get surprisingly… heated.
The boys love yelling along with the little dragon (to the point where my husband came racing in recently wondering what was wrong). Channeling the dragon mother’s renditions of the ever-evolving (and shrinking) bedtime story is lots of fun, and there is a physical (die-cut) surprise at the end of the book that never fails to amuse us all.
Author: Emily Gravett
Illustrator: Emily Gravett
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Posted in Picture Books
Tagged Again!, Animals, bedtime, Emily Gravett, food, fractured fairy tale
In the words of my youngest: “I love this one! The tiger eats everything!” Charming, very British, and perfect for before bed.
Author: Judith Kerr
Illustrator: Judith Kerr
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Posted in Picture Books
Tagged Animals, bedtime, England, food, Judith Kerr, The Tiger Who Came to Tea
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is another book that needs no introduction and is utterly wonderful. Though there are many hints of the darkness to come (gulp), the tone is largely playful and the story and setting are as imaginative as ever. And it is here that Ms. Rowling, through Dumbledore, quietly states a message that goes to the heart of the series: “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”
About a year and a half ago, after we enjoyed reading the first book in this series together, I read half of this second book to my oldest before he lost interest. Now a number of his friends are reading the series and he decided to give it another try. He raced through the rest of the book (mostly by himself) in a matter of days and then hopped straight into the third and fourth books in the series.
Author: J.K. Rowling
Illustrator: Mary Grandpre
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Posted in Chapter Books
Tagged Animals, birthday, England, food, Harry Potter, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, J.K. Rowling, knitting, Machines, Mary Grandpre, movie, portal fantasy, series