Tag Archives: food

How My Parents Learned to Eat

Posted on December 29, 2013 | Comments Off on How My Parents Learned to Eat

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In our house, some days we eat with chopsticks
and some days we eat with knives and forks.
For me, it’s natural.

Perfect for any kind of mixed family (and most families are mixed, in one way or another), this book shows how flexibility, willingness to learn, and a sense of humor can allow people from very different backgrounds to come together and create a new family.  Well, that is what I notice.  The boys just agree that “[i]t’s hard to be happy if you’re hungry” and that it is funny to watch adults learn (with a lot of trial and error) how to eat.

Author:  Ina R. Friedman
Illustrator:  Allen Say

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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Posted on December 6, 2013 | Comments Off on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

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This may be the perfect read-aloud chapter book.  It is terribly funny.  There are lots of pictures and they are great (nothing against Quentin Blake, but I suggest sticking with the original illustrator).  The characters are a hoot.  The candy creativity is off the charts.  The author is beautifully off his rocker.

But the best part of all is simply reading it aloud.  I had never realized how the language sings.

Author:  Roald Dahl
Illustrator: Joseph Schindelman

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Posted in Chapter Books

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The Chocolate Cat

Posted on December 1, 2013 | Comments Off on The Chocolate Cat

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Who can resist a chocolate cat?  Not us.  This sumptuous book begins by introducing a chocolate maker who lives in a “drab little place,” has nearly no friends (or customers), and has forgotten how to smile.  His only companion, a chocolate-colored cat, is rather lazy and grumpy.  But then–

One day, for no particular reason, the chocolate maker made something different.  Suddenly, there were chocolate mice with crunchy pink-sugar tails everywhere.

And everything begins to change.  This book inspires rapt attention and much wide-eyed dreaming as we watch an inspired cat transform an entire town.

Author:  Sue Stainton
Illustrator:  Anne Mortimer

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Posted in Picture Books

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Socks for Supper

Posted on November 18, 2013 | Comments Off on Socks for Supper

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When a couple of farmers eat one turnip too many, it kicks off a truly unexpected chain of events.  Bartering, knitting, a cow, and Christmas all come together to create a wonderful surprise that the kids are happy to see unfold time and again.

Most of our Christmas books are only brought out between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.  But we all have silently agreed that this one can stay out year round.

Author:  Jack Kent
Illustrator: Jack Kent

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The Seven Silly Eaters

Posted on November 16, 2013 | Comments Off on The Seven Silly Eaters

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This book is a pure pleasure to read aloud.  The rhymes are clever and apparently effortless.  My boys laugh and laugh at the ever increasing number of children in the family (the seven silly eaters of the title) and their ridiculously specific list of food demands.  The pictures are absolutely wonderful–Marla Frazee is an amazing artist and her renditions of the goings on are priceless.  My only qualm is that the mom seems responsible for just about everything (you see the dad in the background now and then, but he is barely mentioned in the text) and she spends a decade getting more and more frazzled before she finally lets the family know that she’s “a wreck.”

Sometimes we talk about how how the rest of the family could have pitched in more and how the mom could have put her foot down (much, much) sooner.  But only sometimes.  Most of the time we too busy giggling at the pictures and chanting along with the lines.

Author:  Mary Ann Hoberman
Illustrator:  Marla Frazee

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First Discovery Books series

Posted on November 15, 2013 | Comments Off on First Discovery Books series

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I began hunting down these books well before the boys were born.  I stumbled on one (Fruit?  Colors?  I really don’t remember) and completely fell for their simple yet brilliant design–regular page, transparent page, regular page.  For example, in The Rain Forest when you first open the book you see only lush, green plants.  Turn the transparent page and suddenly the animals and birds that have been hiding behind the plants burst into view.

The boys really enjoy non-fiction books and I gravitate to fiction, so these have been a great way to balance the scales a bit.  They are great for nap time and for paging through alone because their spiral bindings and very strong pages mean they are about as durable as board books.  Plus, their constant surprises help non-readers fully engage in what is going on.  We currently have (gulp) at least 35 books in the series  (I can’t be certain I found all of them for the photo shoot) yet I still pick up more whenever I can.  Many of the books in the series are out of print in English, but they are fairly easy to find online.  Both my boys consistently prefer the Airplanes and Flying Machines  and Castles books above all the others, although Boats has been a recent favorite. 

Author: varies
Illustrator:  varies

 

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Posted in Non-fiction, Picture Books

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Panda Cake

Posted on November 14, 2013 | Comments Off on Panda Cake

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A panda cake, a panda cake,
Mama is making a panda cake.

Panda Cake is, as far as I can tell, is Rosalie Seidler’s only book.  (I hope I’m wrong and will discover another one someday.)  It is quietly lovely, gently humorous, and makes me wish that I could somehow bake “that wonderful cake/That only a panda knows how to make” with my boys.  Some combination of the lilting cadence, soft black-and-white pictures (perfect for pandas!), and gentle message always draws us  in.  Great for before bed, or any time at all.

Author:  Rosalie Seidler
Illustrator:  Rosalie Seidler

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The Maggie B.

Posted on November 12, 2013 | Comments Off on The Maggie B.

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An easy way for me to get a “yay” from the boys is to pick out The Maggie B. as their bedtime story.  A little girl begins the book by wishing on a star:

North Star, star of the sea,
I wish for a ship
Named after me,
To sail for a day
Alone and free,
With someone nice
For company.

When she wakes up, she finds that she is “in the cabin of her own ship” and spends the day joyfully taking care of the ship and her “dear baby” brother (the nice company).  This book is always a favorite.  Both the words and the pictures are scrumptious and story is a perfect mix of the fantastic and the matter-of-fact.  (My youngest also enjoys the counting rhyme that ends with a nibbled little finger.)  I was lucky to find this book through raves on other sites (one look at the pictures and I was hooked) where the word that came up over and over to describe it was “cozy.”  I completely agree; we love ending the night snuggled up with The Maggie B.

Author:  Irene Haas
Illustrator:  Irene Haas

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Mr. Putter & Tabby series

Posted on November 11, 2013 | Comments Off on Mr. Putter & Tabby series

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The first Mr. Putter & Tabby book I picked up was Mr. Putter & Tabby Pick the Pears.  I loved it.  The relationships between Mr. Putter, his fine cat Tabby, their outgoing neighbor Ms. Teaberry, and her good dog Zeke are the heart of the series and the the soft, bittersweet tone and pictures grabbed me immediately.  Much to my delight, my boys loved it too.  So we’ve slowly been adding to our Mr. Putter & Tabby collection.  Like any series, we’ve connected with some of the books more than others.  But we’ve read most of the following over and over again (sometimes we’ll read the whole book at a go, other times we’ll read a chapter before bed for several nights running).  We also have several others in the series on our wishlist for “someday.”  Here is our current collection in the order the books were published:

  • 1994 Mr. Putter & Tabby Pour the Tea (a great place to begin–the origin story of Mr. Putter and Tabby’s friendship)
  • 1994 Mr. Putter & Tabby Walk the Dog (introduces Ms. Teaberry and her chaos-causing dog Zeke–the boys love Zeke)
  • 1994 Mr. Putter & Tabby Bake the Cake (a nice Christmas story that we just take out for a short time each year)
  • 1995 Mr. Putter & Tabby Pick the Pears (as mentioned above, my personal favorite)
  • 1997 Mr. Putter & Tabby Fly the Plane (a particularly bittersweet entry)
  • 1997 Mr. Putter & Tabby Row the Boat (great for a hot day)
  • 2000 Mr. Putter & Tabby Paint the Porch (the illustrations here are priceless)
  • 2001 Mr. Putter & Tabby Feed the Fish (Tabby’s “fish problem” is presented with both sympathy and humor)
  • 2003 Mr. Putter & Tabby Stir the Soup (Zeke gets lots of giggles here)
  • 2008 Mr. Putter & Tabby Run the Race (the boys are in complete agreement with Mr. Putter’s motivation for running the race–a second-place prize of a model train set)

Author:  Cynthia Rylant
Illustrator:  Arthur Howard

 

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Posted in Early Readers

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