Classics, Nonfiction, and Children's Literature
Do You Know Which Ones Will Grow? by Susan Shea (2011, Blue Apple Books) is simple, delightfully fun picture book for the discerning child. Using windowed lift-the-flap pages, Shea asks which things around us grow, using familiar growing progression as a comparison. For example, my favorite one was this, “if a kit grows and becomes
In a fantastic dream, a young boy travels to the moon in a plane in the picture book Moon Plane by Peter McCarty (Henry Holt, 2006). Once there, he walks and jumps on the moon, which feels like flying. There is little science in this book, since of course airplanes don’t fly out of the
Leslie McGuirk’s “discovered alphabet” in If Rocks Could Sing (Tricycle Press, 2011) gives life to rocks by discovering everything from birds and dogs to kicking and noses in the rocks themselves. Although my son loves alphabet books, I must admit that I usually find them rather tiresome and redundant. Leslie McGuirk’s alphabet is anything but
I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen (Candlewick Press, 2011) is a hilarious simple picture book about a bear looking for his hat. As he looks for it, he asks his animal friends if they’ve seen it. Then he remembers where he saw it. Did the young reader see it too? My son (an
In a simple rhythm and using bright and realistic paintings of animals, Nadia Krilanovich introduces animal and their sounds to the young reader in Chicken Chicken Duck (Tricycle Press, 2011). The animals are all stacked on top of each other in silly ways, and they are also painted on a plain white background, which is
In honor of my recent trip to New York City, I bring you thoughts on two books about the buildings in the city: Urban Animals and Building Stories, both picture books by Isabel Hill featuring images from the buildings of New York City. Urban Animals By showing the images of animals as carved in and
Previously by Allan Ahlberg, illustrated by Bruce Ingman is a different type of fairy tale. It goes backwards, showing that each nursery rhyme or fairy tale characters came from somewhere else. showing the effect of the action before showing the action. It begins, for example, with Goldilocks: Goldilocks arrived home all bothered and hot. And
The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett (Putnam, 2007). Aloo-ki is a young Inuit girl. Her huskie team has floated away from her on an ice flow, and she sees a little igloo with the warm smell of soup. What follows is, of course, her finding what is just right in the house: the smallest bowl of
Goldilocks by Ruth Sanderson (Little, Brown, 2009). Although Ms Sanderson’s story begins in a traditional way, the end has a rewarding twist. Goldilocks stays to help make the beds, repair baby bear’s chair, and then, just when she thinks she will be eaten, she suggests her gathered blueberries. The book includes a recipe for the blueberry muffins
Goldie and the Three Bears by Diane Stanley (HarperCollins 2007). As the cover suggests, Ms Stanley’s version of the story has an autumn setting. Young Goldie is a picky girl who only likes her peanut butter sandwiches one way, loves to read books every afternoon, and otherwise ostracizes friends by her honesty about her preferences. One day,
Rubia and the Three Osos by Susan Middleton Elya, illustrated by Melissa Sweet (Hyperion Books, 2010). Rubia is a retelling of the story, using interspersed Spanish vocabulary words. The family of bears leaves their sopa (soup) on the table when they go for their walk, and Goldilocks discovers it is caliente and frío, a chair is too suave, and so forth. Raisin didn’t
The 3 Bears and Goldilocks by Margaret Wiley, illustrated by Heather Solomon (Atheneum Books, 2008). Margaret Wiley’s retelling is one I kept thinking of as I pondered this project. In fact, her creative retelling prompted me to consider this project in the first place! Goldilocks is a curious girl, and her father warns her in the beginning
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