Tim and Charlotte

 By Edward Ardizzone

This book is epic.  My daughter makes me read it repeatedly and is on the edge of her seat every time.  A girl washes up on shore unconscious.  She awakes to find her memory lost.  When she finally remembers who she is, she must leave her newfound friends forever to return to her former life.

It's a real fairy tale, with the main character, Charlotte, an orphaned heiress, and Tim a rough and tumble lower class boy who lives on the seaside.

 A lot of the story is predictable, but still a thrilling read.  There is very real danger, something very rarely found in children's books.

There is a fight.  Tim fights for his and Charlotte's honour and is nearly beaten.  They describe him as being very noble.

It's an old book, and this kind of passage wouldn't fly these days.  But I don't mind.  It's not like I can't talk to my kids about these passages after we've read the book.

The Real Mother Goose

Illustrated by Blanche Fisher Wright

Hey, hey, hey!  It's the full book!  And it's widely available and constantly being reprinted.

This is a great compilation of all the essential nursery rhymes with tons of early 20th century Classical revival style illustrations.  Very Ars Nouveau, I think.

I'm no art historian, and I recognize that that description is kind of terrible.

 Look at this Robin Hood.  So effeminate.  Tall and lean with a baby face.  Pale blended watercolours with a fine outline.  I love it.

There are many, many full page illustrations, and most pages have smaller illustrations intertwined with the text.

The text is a little old fashioned.  A lot of death and gore and stuff, just the way it's always been.  But you can always pick and choose which rhymes you read aloud.  It's a big thick hardcover.

Martha Speaks

 By Susan Meddaugh

This is a classic.  It has its own show.  I'd heard of the book first, but I saw the show before I read it.  The show is delightful.  The book is less so, but only because the developments that were made later in the series really add a lot to it.  As a book on its own with no expectations, it's still fantastic.

The idea of alphabet soup going to Martha's brain instead of her stomach is so simple and ridiculous that there's no need to question it.

 There isn't  lot of plot.  It's just a book about all the adult things that Martha can do that are silly.  She eventually upsets her owners who very rudely tell her to shut up.

But she redeems herself by getting a burglar arrested.

I'm really tired of this plot point in books about pets at this point.  But what are you going to do.  I'm also really disappointed that the original has the family drawn as a ginger haired white family, while in the cartoon they're biracial.  I was really hoping the book would be the same.  But I guess that would be too wild.

It's still a good book.

La Chenille qui Fait des Trous

 By Eric Carle

I always hated this book when I was a kid.  The first time it was read to me was in kindergarten.  We read it every time we went to the library for the next two years, except for the times that we read "I'll Love You Forever", which I also hated.  I hated it because it was a baby book and I was so tired of listening to my teachers fawn over it forever.  I was getting into chapter books for crying out loud.

But it is a great baby book.  I like reading it now.  And it's fantastic to have a copy in English and in French.  My daughter likes reading it in either language, because she already knows all her foods, so she understands at least a third of it. I'm hoping she'll start learning her days of the week soon.  We read both copies over and over.  I'll have to buy the French one soon.

Bread and Jam for Frances

 By Russell Hoban
Illustrated by Lillian Hoban

This is a classic.  Francis is a great character, and we love, love, love this particular story.  It's another one of those "teach your kid to love food" books.  Except it isn't about the parent knowing that the child is just faking their dislike of anything but chicken strips.

 In this particular story, Francis just doesn't like being adventurous with food and is satisfied with the predictability of bread and jam.  Her parents let her eat bread and jam forever and eat tasty other things in front of her until she breaks down and cries.  It's a bit much.  But it's told in a charming enough way that I don't mind reading it anyway.  And Francis is delighted in the end to go to school and have a large and varied lunch that rivals her friend Albert's.

Now, I know kids like this, and my own kids are picky some days because they don't feel like being adventurous, and I get it.  I give them opportunities to try things without forcing them, but if I know that she's being unreasonable then I will put my foot down and force her to take a bite.  She can always ask for things that aren't on the table as long as she makes some effort towards something on her plate, which ultimately ends up in her discovering that she actually likes what I've made for dinner, anyway.  We know eachother's limits and we both make compromises.

And you know what?  Treating my kids fairly and letting them decide what they like and don't like and giving them options has worked great.  Occasionally forcing or bribing them to try things has worked out fine, too.  I guess the key thing is to know your kids and to work out a tactic that they won't find frustrating.

Books about kids with bad habits don't work.  Not unless they have a direct message to the reader about how they should change their ways.  Subtlety like this goes right over my three year old's head.

Little Bear's Friend

 By Else Holmelund Minarik

Illustrated by Maurice Sendak

This is a really interesting book because it introduces a human character into a world of animals.  When a children's book brings a human child into a make believe world, it risks breaking the fourth wall.

 The whole way through I'm waiting for the author to slip up and make it awkward, but it's doesn't really happen.  The book continues to have charming, kind and thoughtful characters doing simple things.  It's a great little reader, too.

At the end, little bear writes a letter to the little girl.  I wonder how that will go over with her parents.  But my daughter probably doesn't.

Happily, the adults are never featured.

The Berenstain Bears Go Out for the Team

By Stan and Jan Barenstain

I love baseball.  I grew up playing little league.  I was really, really bad at it, and my mother always wondered if it was a waste of time, but I developed some skill playing it, and I know the rules really well, so I don't think it was.

The only thing I hated about it was that I always got stuck in the outfield (because I couldn't catch the ball) and they always bemoaned when I went up to bat (because I couldn't hit the ball).

The coach would say, "oh, but Left Field is so important!  Sometimes the ball rolls out there!  Keep your eyes peeled!"  Sure I wasn't athletic, but I wasn't stupid, either.

 Unlike little league, this book isn't about winning or losing, it's about the AWFUL PRESSURE that comes with playing team sports, and how you should never succumb to it and just have fun instead.

And, on the side, there's a scene where sister bear accuses brother bear of being sexist, and Mother bear qualifies his remarks in a way that makes perfect sense.

They also put Brother and Sister on the same team.  And make sure to mention that Sister is pretty awesome at baseball, too, even though she's younger.  Take that Babar, always having the boys play every sport while the one girl remains consistently and conspicuously absent!  (I love Babar so much but it is, admittedly, a colonialist, sexist mess.)

Brother Bear and Sister Bear make it to the team!  And Mama stands up and yells at the umpire over a call that she doesn't agree with!  And Sister Bear, all embarrassed, tells her mother to chill!  And that's the end.

Really.  You never find out if they win or lose.  Because, who cares about that, anyway?

The Tiger Who Came to Tea

 By Judith Kerr

It finally came in the mail!  We love this book.

It's about a girl and her mum who let a tiger in to tea and he eats them out of house and home.

 But he's so polite, and of course they let him.  When their father comes home he decides that they had better have dinner at a cafe instead.

The girl cuddles with the tiger throughout the entire visit, and it's pretty adorable.  We've had this one for a day and I've read it five times already.

Friday Post - ¢25 colouring books

I found both the Alice in Wonderland and Wizard of Oz colouring books from the Treasury of Illustrated Classics published by Modern Publishing.

I was pretty excited because we watch the Disney version of Alice, which is totally botched, and it's a nice way to introduce her to the real story.

As far as the Wizard of Oz goes, we like to watch the Japanese television series from '86, which is pretty accurate for the most part.  She recognized every scene in the colouring book, as a result.

The art is bubbly and cartoony, and nothing like the covers.  It looks like the books are still available for super cheap from Modern Publishing.  I'll probably order some other stories.  These are so much better than the average franchise promotion colouring book.  They're still cheaply made, for sure, but we've gotten so much enjoyment out of them, and sometimes my daughter likes to just sit and read them.

Disney Anytime Stories Collection

 Written by Lisa Ann Marsoli

This volume is from 1996.  It's about as bad as you can imagine it being, which means that for some children I guess it's passably okay.  It has pictures in it, which is all they're really after in a Disney book.

The art here is spot on.  No weird modernization of older classics.  They tried to keep it very accurate, so that's nice.  The writing probably suffers from too many editors.

 The stories only make sense if you've seen the movies.  There is little or no introduction of new characters and little backstory.  It's basically a crazy compilation of Disney Fanfiction written for superfans.  My daughter has never seen any of these shows, so nothing in this book makes any sense to her.  The fact that the vocabulary is way beyond that of a 5 year old (my husband balked at the use of the word "pachyderm") only makes things more confusing.  Normally I'm all for varied vocabulary, but if I have to spend twice as long coming up with an explanation for the events and characters in the book than I would spend just reading what's on the page, it's not a very good book for kids.

It bothered me, too, that some of the events in these stories conflict with elements of their own universes.  I'm really not a Disney fan, and I was pretty annoyed, so I'm pretty sure a real hardcore superfan would burn up.  Or maybe a REAL superfan would be able to justify all the deviation.

Anyway, the book cost 25¢.  I'll probably tear out all of the full page glossies and do a craft with them or something.

Blue Hat, Green Hat

 By Sandra Boynton

Everyone gets this one, right?  I think.

My daughter didn't mind this book.  My son was OBSESSED with it.  As soon as he learned to walk (just before his first bithday), he would find this book, rush over to me, place it in my lap and sit patiently while I read it.  When I finished, he would grab it, flip it, and throw it back in my hands for another read-through.

It was pretty impressive because otherwise he hated storytime and wouldn't sit still for anything.

He obviously didn't understand the content.  He liked it, and still does, because it's really simplistic and very rhythmic.  He still mimics the rhythm of the text with melodic nonsense words every time he picks it up.

Scuffy the Tugboat

Written by Gertrude Crampton
Illustrated by Tibor Gergely

Little Golden Books were originally published to promote literacy among poor people.  Which is commendable.  But it wasn't just the printing and binding that they spared expense on.

The writing is heavy handed.  The moral of the story is to stay were you belong.  Probably because it's written for poor people.

Scuffy dreams of sailing out beyond into the wide ocean.  But the wide ocean is too much for him!

Luckily he is saved and confined to his little bathtub for the rest of his life.

The art is dreadful, too.  The artist had a terrible time with faces.  The only redeemable thing about this book is that it's slightly better than Tootle.

Curious George Rides a Bike

 By H. A. Rey

This book is not about George; it's about the completely daft people residing in the town who facilitate him.

 First, there's the man that he lives with.  The man in the yellow hat is constantly giving George toys to play with and then ignoring him, or just plain disappearing and leaving the monkey to run wild.

 Look at this irresponsible youth.  He sees a monkey and decides that this is a great opportunity for him to phone it in.  That's right, the MONKEY can deliver the papers for him.  And we're supposed to think that George is the one being naughty?

George ends up busting his bike and getting kidnapped, and when the man in the yellow hat sees him at the animal fair (AKA circus with poorly treated animals.  EVERY book has one, I swear.) everyone forgives him because he rides a bike so well.  Or something.  Even though nothing that happened was his fault.  And, what the hell?  Man with yellow hat goes home to find that his beloved friend is missing, but has tickets to the fair, so he just goes anyway?

Obviously, my daughter loved this book.

One, Two, Where's My Shoe?

 By Tomi Ungerer

Ungerer is a French author whose books sometimes contain a bit of dark humour, and are generally pretty absurd.

This one has almost no text and is just pictures of shoes and boots where you would least expect them.  It's fan-freaking-tastic.

 This page is my favourite.  Find the boots!

Sometimes they're a bit harder to find, but really, this book is less about how tricky the author is and hiding the shoes and more about the joke of swapping out shapes for boots and shoes.

This book is incredibly popular at our house.

The Original Clifford Collection

 By Norman Bridwell

These stories are not as good as I remember.  I got the original stories because I know that the new ones are particularly bad, especially with that newfangled Clifford TV show airing.

Oh boy, I could go on about that show.  But basically the worst thing about it is the opening theme, which is the most rambling folk-pop pile of crap.

 Now, the original stories are better than the television show because they don't have a whole host of characters, the drawings and colour pallet are really simple, and the story is short and sweet.  But they keep going to the circus which I hate.  And stuff like this happens, where Clifford displays fine motor skills, problem solving skills and the ability to use tools, which would be fine.

But then he does stupid stuff like this, because he's a dog.  The author just can't decide whether he's got a dog brain or a human brain.

Also, there are all of the usual problems you find in older books for kids where emotional responses are so simplistic and most of the events are pretty predictable.

But, you know.  The dog is HUGE and RED.  Which is just such an exciting idea for kids.  It doesn't matter what he gets up to.

My daughter lost her mind when I brought this home from the library.

The Lorax

By Dr. Seuss

I assumed this was a classic because they made a movie.  I don't have a lot of positive feelings towards this book.  I mean, I'm an environmentalist, for sure, but this was pretty heavy handed.

I feel like either you tell a morality tale, or you teach kids to read with nonsense words.  I guess it might be possible to combine the two, but this seems to me to be a failed attempt.  Too much compromise on both counts.  No kid learning to read is going to work his way through this many paragraphs. 

The morality part of it seems a little far to the left.  Like, of the "let's all live in the forest and eat bird droppings" variety.  Understand, I'm about as left leaning as they come, politically speaking, and this book still seemed a little weird.  And then the ending is kind of up in the air, which doesn't work for young kids. 

My 3 year old did not understand this story at all.  And was bored.  It's probably appropriate for a 5 year old.  By the time I was 5, I was bored with Dr. Seuss, but to each their own.  Overall, I guess it's okay as a book about sustainable living, but surely there's something better out there that doesn't rhyme?  Maybe even non-fiction?

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

 By Dr. Seuss

The 50'th anniversary edition, so it's gold.  It's also the party edition, whatever that means.

I was seriously disappointed in this book.  It's one of the most famous Dr. Seuss books, but I'd never read it and always wondered what I was missing out on.

4 pages about fish and then a lot of rambling.

 Now, the rambling can be okay if it's justified.  And it's justified in this book because it's teaching you to read with phonics.  But the ideas are pretty boring and there's no effort whatsoever to link the ideas together.  And it's SO long.  "Hop on Pop" is aimless and meandering, and to be fair, some of it probably could have been cut, but at least each 'story' lasts more than two pages and the whole thing overall is fairly short.  My daughter likes "Hop on Pop".

She didn't even ask to read "One Fish Two Fish" a second time and promptly forgot it was in the house.  I sent it back to the library after a single read-through.

Plus it's filled with nothing but Seuss' imaginary characters which are annoying after a while.  Some people argue that they all look the same, and I tend to agree.


There are so many early readers out there that are so much better than this.

Ring-A-Ring O' Roses

 By Alan Marks

This is a fantastic collection of nursery rhymes.  I've been searching the library for something decent, and this one was hiding in the bookshelf at home.  The words are slightly different than what I'm used to in some cases, but it's close enough to the versions found in the Oxford collections.

Each page has several poems, and the pictures for the poems are blended together.  There's a lot of play with perspective in the paintings and the characters and settings are a-typical.

All of the standard rhymes are in there.  All of my kids' favourites.  I don't think I'll be able to find anything much better than this.