Classics, Nonfiction, and Children's Literature
For fun, I read my son Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton. I loved this book as a child, and while I know my son is still too young to sit still (he’s just 18 months), I read it while he played. I still enjoy it, and I can hope my
I haven’t reviewed my son’s reading since January. This is partly because I’ve been busy moving, but also because my son has been enjoying the books I’ve already mentioned. In fact, he loves all books at 18 months old. I can’t hold a book without him coming over and taking it away for his own
I loved reading The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkein (thoughts here), mostly for its beautiful and flowing language, so I thought I’d next pick up The Hobbit, which is a children’s story and takes place chronologically before The Lord of the Rings. Unfortunately, I didn’t like it. I found the story tedious and the writing stilted.
When I handed Pat the Bunny by Dorothy Kunhardt to my son after I read it to him in the library, he got a really big kid smile on his face and he held it close to him. It’s a small book, just right for little hands. But the pleasure comes from the interaction: my
I was going to read Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin for the US Presidents Reading Project. But then I started to be intimidated by its 800+ pages; I’m currently reading a 700+ page book and I have been for three months. So, while I do plan on
When, in 1918, a clerk erroneously ordered twelve times the number of children’s books intended, Western Publishing Company may have faced ruin. Instead, the company persuaded Woolworth’s department stores to sell it, a practice unusual since children’s books were normally only sold during the holiday season. Years later, in the 1930s, one publishing novice was
I found a lovely illustrated copy of The Little Red Hen by Heather Forest and illustrated by Susan Gaber. The hen doesn’t share the cake at the end, so the reader gets the lesson (unlike in some versions). I appreciate it when the lesson is taught in this type of traditional tale. The dog, cat,
Is there a movie from your childhood that you recall watching over and over and over again? One that you think of, still, with fondness? For me, that movie was Mary Poppins. In 2007, I read A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh and loved it along with the movie; they both have their merits. So this year, I
I can finally recommend something related to the Three Cups of Tea story. Remember how I hated listening to the audiobook of Three Cups of Tea, which felt like a journalistic report despite being called a memoir? My mother loved Three Cups of Tea and thought it was wonderful, so I enlisted her help in
This year’s winner of the Caldecott Medal is The House in the Night by Susan Marie Swanson, illustrated by Beth Krommes. When I asked the librarian to help me locate it (it was misshelved), she told me she didn’t like it; its illustrations were too dark. I wasn’t sure, then, what I’d think of The
David Wiesner has been awarded the Caldecott Medal three times and the Caldecott Honor twice. While his award-winning picture books are a bit out of my comfort level (for they have very words), Wiesner is able to carry stories with only illustration. In November, The Well-Read Child did a highlight of books like this: How
In the picture book Love You Forever, Robert Munsch captures every mother’s feelings of unconditional love. I can’t read it without my eyes tearing, and I love the tender expressions of love. But I wonder if children like it.
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