Classics, Nonfiction, and Children's Literature
My Caldecott challenge: Although these Caldecott winner and honor books are not, for the most part, books I’ve read aloud to my son, I still found them interesting. A few I had strong negative opinions of; they show that even books that earned the Caldecott award do become dated! I’m rather conflicted about this Caldecott
I knew my son (age 3) would love this book as soon as I skimmed through it. Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein (Candlewick, 2010) tells of a father rooster who is trying to tell his daughter chicken some traditional fairy tales, but she keeps interrupting to save the character from the wicked witch, the mean old wolf,
LMNO Peas by Keith Baker (Beach Lane Books, 2010) combines two things my son absolutely loves: the alphabet and peas. (I kid you not. With the right amount of salt and pepper and butter, yes must have butter, he will eat a whole bowl). In Baker’s book, each letter of the ABC books stands for
The ever-talented Mo Willems wrote City Dog, Country Frog (Hyperion, 2010), but did not illustrate it himself; the also talented John J. Muth added his soft illustration style to this story. In this book, a dog from the city forms an unlikely partnership with a country frog. They play all spring and summer and remember during the fall.
Subway by Christoph Niemann (Greenwillow, 2010), was on a new bookshelf recently; it caught my eye because my son (age 3) loves trains and has never yet been exposed to what a subway is. He loves this book! The illustrations are on a black background, with white-painted rounded-edged figures of a parent and two kids, taking
It was last November that my son, then aged 2 years and 1 month, started showing an interest in being toilet trained. At a few times in the past year he has had days of “underwear only” with moderate success. Well, just before his third birthday, which was last week, he went from the “training”
Today opens the 2010 Cybils nomination process. If you don’t know, the Cybils are the Children’s and Young Adult Blogger’s Literary Awards. I didn’t participate last year or even follow it, but this year I intend to do just that! My focus will be on fiction and non-fiction picture books. I am not, at this
In honor of Children’s Book Week, I thought I’d mention a favorite author my son and I have discovered through our project of reading 1000 picture books together: Jez Alborough. Alborough has fun, quality picture books. Some rhyme. Some have a precious little gorilla that reminds me of my own little monkey boy. Most are
When I decided, in December, to read 1000 books with my son before he started kindergarten, I thought it was going to be difficult. I thought we’d have to force ourselves to read. I thought 1000 picture books was a lot. To my surprise, it’s going very fast. We both love this project. My son
In The Snow Day by Komako Sakai a little bunny and his mommy are stranded at home and daddy’s airplane can’t come home because of snow. The bunny watches it snow, he plays in the snow, and finally Daddy’s plane comes home. How perfect is that parallel? The beautiful illustrations and well-spaced text perfectly captured the feeling
After reading Siesta by Ginger Guy and illustrated by Rene King Moreno (An ALA Notable Book), I decided to try this. In the book, two kids and their teddy bear, gather together a few things, such as a yellow book and a blue backpack and then a brightly multi-colored blanket and then go outside for their “siesta.”
In his narrative of life in slavery and what led him to escape, Frederick Douglass captured the chief dilemmas that slaves dealt with, including slavery of the mind. Douglass’s slavery in Baltimore and surrounding areas was horrendous, and yet it was, as he admitted, quite tame compared to those experiences that slaves on plantations in
Page [tcb_pagination_current_page] of [tcb_pagination_total_pages]
