Top Ten Tuesday – Books for Babies

Picture Book Review, Sondy's Selections, Top Ten Tuesday 4

It’s Top Ten Tuesday!

For a long time, the idea has been simmering that I should post my favorite books in different categories. I think it started when Betsy Bird of the Fuse #8 blog had her readers vote on their 10 favorite picture books, and later our 10 favorite books for middle readers.

The idea was still simmering until a couple weeks ago, when I met with a team of child care specialists as part of my new job working for the Fairfax County Office for Children, Provider Services. I wanted to be able to contribute to the team some of my experience as a children’s librarian, so they suggested that I put together lists of books for different age ranges of children, so they could give these lists to new child care providers.

Needless to say, it was a fun assignment! I made lists of my ten top choices for recommendations for children at several different age levels, with plenty of overlap. (The best books for children will be good for a wide variety of ages, so these are not hard and fast.)

So now I had several top ten lists, and I thought I’d better share them. I’ve got a new page on my main website, called Sondy’s Selections. I thought it would be even more fun if I could get other people to contribute their own top ten lists for the various categories. Since the choices are very personal, it would be nice to hear about other great books that you have enjoyed.

I’ll provide a link to Amazon for the books I haven’t reviewed yet, so you can get more information. (And if you order the book through my link, I get a small percentage.) If I’ve reviewed the book, the title link will take you to my review (which also has an Amazon link).

So, this week I’m starting with books for babies — ages 0 to 2. (Next week will be ages 2-3.) Please post in the comments your own top ten list! Or any good books for this age group that I’ve missed. Or better yet, a link to your own Top Ten Tuesday blog entry.

Here’s my first list of Sondy’s Selections:

Ages 0-2

Blue Hat, Green Hat, by Sandra Boynton
The ultimate toddler book, this board book presents colors and items of clothing – and a turkey who always gets it wrong. Oops!

Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, by Mem Fox, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury
This sweet-as-can-be picture book celebrates the love of all babies everywhere – especially your very own baby.

Where’s Spot? by Eric Hill
A classic lift-the-flap book has Spot’s mother looking for him, but finding many other animals.

Dear Zoo, by Rod Campbell
Another lift-the-flap book has the zoo sending a child bigger and bigger pets until they finally send just the right one.

Freight Train, by Donald Crews
Simple irresistible text shows different colored train cars traveling by.

Good Night Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Clement Hurd
The classic bedtime book to soothe toddlers to sleep.

More, More, More, Said the Baby, by Vera B. Williams
The opposite of soothing, this book has a built in tickle game.

Is Your Mama a Llama? by Deborah Guarino, illustrated by Steven Kellogg
This book uses rhymes to help a child guess which mama animal is coming next.

Peek-a Who? by Nina Laden
A simple rhyming board book with holes to peek through and guess who’s hiding on the next page – ending up with a mirror to see Baby.

Cat the Cat Who Is That? by Mo Willems
Cat the Cat meets an assortment of new friends until she meets one that defies naming.

Enjoy!

Review of The Plot Chickens, by Mary Jane and Herm Auch

Animal Characters, Chick Lit, Picture Book Review 0

The Plot Chickens

by Mary Jane and Herm Auch

Holiday House, New York, 2009. 32 pages.

There are many books out there where writers try to tell children how to be a writer. Most fall a little flat as far as the story goes. But The Plot Chickens makes me laugh. Perhaps it’s my over-fondness for puns, but this is probably the book I’d reach for if I were trying to teach a class of elementary school students about being a writer.

Henrietta loves books and decides to write one herself. All the other hens are in on the process. I love the way they first jostle to be the main character, but then pull back when Henrietta gets to Rule Three: “Give your character a problem.”

The nice basic rules listed give lots of room for creativity. I like Henrietta’s story, The Perils of Maxine: It demonstrates that the rules do make a better book, and ends up as a story that a child could write.

But the authors are realistic about its chances of getting published. Henrietta sends it off and, “Many, many, many months later, the publisher sent a rejection letter.” Henrietta self-publishes the book.

My favorite pun is when the librarian tells her she should get a review, so Henrietta sends the book to The Corn Book Magazine. (Not that The Horn Book Magazine would review a self-published book with little merit, but I can believe that The Corn Book Magazine might.) The reviewer says “Henrietta lays an egg with her first book. We hope this is her last book. The Perils of Maxine shows why chickens shouldn’t EVER write.”

I like the way the book reveals the emotional turmoil of being a writer when Henrietta takes the reviewer’s words to heart. But the children at her local library story hour vote it the best book of the year. Sometimes critics can hate a book, but you can still reach children. (Okay, so what if the local children hate it, too? But this does make a fun story….)

This is a silly way to give children a glimpse of the writing process and the life of a writer.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/plot_chickens.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of City Dog, Country Frog, by Mo Willems, pictures by Jon J. Muth

Animal Characters, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

City Dog, Country Frog

by Mo Willems
pictures by Jon J. Muth

Hyperion Books for Children, New York, 2010. 60 pages.
Starred Review

I’m sure that everyone who reads my reviews regularly knows that I am a huge Mo Willems fan. It’s gotten to the point that I resist reviewing his books — because I think I may be getting tedious telling every parent and child I know to read Mo Willems’ books. They’re consistently brilliant, and how many times should I say that? So I try to only review the stand-outs among stand-outs.

However, City Dog, Country Frog, is something new. It’s a book written by Mo Willems, but illustrated by someone else. I’ve already reviewed Jon J Muth’s book, Zen Shorts. The pictures in that book are beautiful, and the result is a quiet, meditative book.

As big a fan as I am of Mo Willems, what blew me away about City Dog, Country Frog was not the words but the illustrations. (Though both components are definitely necessary and work together beautifully.) I’m already thinking that I hope this book gets some recognition from the Caldecott Award committee.

The story is simple enough. We have a section for each season: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and then Spring again. The words are on pages facing big, beautiful watercolor paintings. The first page of “Spring” explains the set up:

“City Dog didn’t stop on that first day in the country; he ran as far and as fast as he could”

On the opposite page, we see a country house with a big enormous spring-green lawn overshadowed by a tree with blossoms. City Dog is running fast down at the bottom corner of the picture, heading off the page, and printed on the picture around him are the words “and all without a leash!”

When City Dog gets to a pond, he spots something he’s never seen before, sitting on a rock.

“(It was Country Frog.)
“‘What are you doing?’ asked City Dog.
“‘Waiting for a friend,’ replied Country Frog with a smile.
“‘But you’ll do.'”

That Spring, the two new friends play together, and Country Frog teaches City Dog “Country Frog games.”

“Country Frog’s games involved jumping and splashing and croaking.”

When Summer comes, City Dog teaches Country Frog “City Dog games,” involving sniffing and fetching and barking.

I love the way the pictures show Country Frog throwing a stick and City Dog eagerly running to fetch it, but then they finish when “Country Frog was too tired to sniff and fetch and bark anymore.”

When Fall comes, Country Frog is tired, so they play “remember-ing games,” remembering together all the fun they have had during City Dog’s visits.

In winter, “City Dog didn’t stop to eat the snow; he ran straight for Country Frog’s rock.” But Country Frog isn’t there.

Finally, when Spring comes again, there’s a nice full circle as a new creature sees City Dog sitting on a rock. My one warning to parents is that your child may ask where Country Frog went, and, as they said in Horn Book Magazine, “this is not a story about hibernation.”

But the story is so simple and so beautiful. City Dog appropriately remembers his good friend and passes on his legacy — but doesn’t stop living life now. As usual with Mo Willems books, there are profound truths behind this book, conveyed simply and so much more powerfully than the most eloquent sermon could ever do.

But let me talk about the illustrations! The story is excellent, simple and profound. But the pictures carry the book into a true stand-out. Jon J Muth has done an amazing job with this book.

His watercolor work is beautiful, there’s no question about that. But he keeps the book from feeling heavy or sad or overly serious, with nice touches like City Dog’s wagging tail and cartoon-like eagerness.

So many of the paintings I just love and would happily frame and hang on a wall — City Dog with his nose in the pond wagging his tail after the friends have been jumping and splashing and croaking; City Dog swimming with Country Frog riding on his nose; the sunlight shining on City Dog’s back as he carries a stick on the section page for Spring; Country Frog flinging a stick and City Dog eagerly running to chase it, tail wagging; the glorious colors of Fall when City Dog arrives again in the country and rushes happily to Country Frog’s rock; City Dog’s ear lifted with curiosity when he arrives at the snow-covered rock in winter and looks for Country Frog; the glorious two-page spread of City Dog waiting for Country Frog on the rock in the purple and yellow winter twilight; but most especially City Dog’s face when he meets a new friend and “smiled a froggy smile.” Jon J Muth manages to make his face look just like Country Frog’s face — yet remain fully doggy.

It’s probably silly for me to try to describe all the wonderful pictures. This is a book you should check out and look at for yourself!

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/city_dog_country_frog.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of Miss Brooks Loves Books! (and I don’t), by Barbara Bottner

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Readalouds, Starred Review 0

Miss Brooks Loves Books! (and I don’t)

by Barbara Bottner
illustrated by Michael Emberley

Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2010. 28 pages.
Starred Review

I’ve been a Barbara Bottner fan ever since our family got the book Bootsie Barker Bites and had the privilege of reading it over and over to our sons. When I saw this brand-new book she’d written, I knew it would be the perfect choice for the five second-grade class library tours we did in May.

Miss Brooks Loves Books (and I don’t) features an exuberant school librarian. In fact the only thing that gives me pause about this book is how Miss Brooks is an uber-librarian who puts me to shame. But she’s a great character, so I can enjoy her without feeling too guilty.

Miss Brooks goes overboard to get her classes to love books like she does. But the cynical little girl telling the story is not amused. The art for this book is absolutely perfect, with Miss Brooks dressing up as picture book characters and bursting with energy. The little girl, on the other hand, conveys all the body language — eye rolling, turning away, slumping — of someone who is just plain bored. Clearly she finds Miss Brooks tiresome. “Vexing” is the word she uses.

Then comes Book Week. Truly terrifying. All the kids are supposed to dress up for their favorite story and tell the class why they love it.

The girl is still unimpressed by the presentations about trains and fairies and cowboys and dogs. But then her mother finds her a book with warts in it. She reads Shrek! by William Steig.

“Shrek has hairs on his nose. And he snorts. I love that!”

My favorite part is when the girl dons an ogre costume and makes stick-on warts for the whole class.

It goes to show —

“Even ogres (like me) can find something funny and fantastic and appalling in the library.

“And that is the slimy truth.”

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/miss_brooks.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of Oh, Daddy! by Bob Shea

Delightfully Silly, Picture Book Review, Readalouds, Starred Review 0

Oh, Daddy!

by Bob Shea

Balzer & Bray (HarperCollinsPublishers), 2010. 32 pages.
Starred Review

Just in time for Father’s Day comes this book about a boy (hippo?) and his dad that I would love to read to toddlers any time of year. Alas! I am losing my job, so will not be doing any toddler storytimes any time soon, so I have to settle for urging others to try it. Of course, the very best pair for this book would be a father and child, acting it out as they read, especially the hug at the end.

The book opens up with the boy telling us, “I may be little, but I’m as smart as two eight-year-olds! I’m so smart, I even show my dad how to do things — and he’s a grown-up!”

Then he gives examples. When he’s getting dressed, Daddy asks him “Is this how you get dressed?” with underwear on his head, oven mitts on his hands, and a pail and a boot on his feet. The smart boy then shows him how it should be done.

Silly Daddy can’t seem to get anything right! Any toddler will enjoy Daddy’s completely silly attempts.

But there’s another level to the book for the adult reader, and probably for the child as he gets older and wiser. In each successive episode, the boy isn’t exactly on task. But when Daddy asks his silly questions, like asking if you should get in the car by climbing through the window, the boy quickly focuses to show Daddy how it’s done.

The progression is delightful and playful, including an example where the boy teases Daddy back. And it all ends up with Daddy’s multiple gyrations in the attempt to give himself a big hug — where he definitely needs his son’s help.

This book reminds me of William Steig’s Pete’s a Pizza, because like that book, it begs to be acted out by a loving parent-child pair. However, I do think it would work well in a toddler storytime, where you could encourage the toddlers to shout “No!” at Daddy’s silly attempts. I would like to try this on a child to see at what age they catch on to Daddy’s cleverness in motivating his son.

Great fun and delightfully silly!

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/oh_daddy.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of The Pout-Pout Fish, by Deborah Diesen and Dan Hanna

Animal Characters, Delightfully Silly, Picture Book Review, Readalouds, Starred Review 0

The Pout-Pout Fish

by Deborah Diesen
Pictures by Dan Hanna

Farrar Straus Giroux, New York, 2008. 32 pages.
Starred Review

Here’s a picture book that’s absolutely perfect for reading aloud to preschoolers, particularly ones young enough to still like kisses.

The Pout-Pout Fish has a big, clownlike frown with puckered, pouty lips. He’s also got a refrain. When the other fish and sea creatures ask him to cheer up in their own rhymed and jazzy ways, the Pout-Pout Fish replies,

“I’m a pout-pout fish
With a pout-pout face,
So I spread the dreary-wearies
All over the place.

BLUB
BLUUUUB
BLUUUUUB”

This scenario repeats with a variety of sea creatures, when along comes a girl fish who shows him that puckered lips have a much better use than pouting! So the book finishes up with our friend singing his song in a modified version, now declaring himself a kiss-kiss fish.

I read this book at a storytime with very young preschoolers, and got them making pouty faces and singing the fish’s song along with me. We all had a delightful time.

This wonderful book is delightfully silly and naturally interactive. A fantastic Storytime stand-by.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/pout_pout_fish.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of Katie Loves the Kittens, by John Himmelman

Animal Characters, Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Readalouds, Starred Review 2

Katie Loves the Kittens

by John Himmelman

Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2008. 32 pages.
Starred Review

I discovered this book when browsing through our New Books at the library for books to read at my Drop-in Storytime. I read it to the group, and believe I have found one of my new favorite picture books. This book, in both words and illustrations, is absolutely brilliant!

Katie is a dog, an exuberant, friendly, and loving dog, with a tail that is usually wagging vigorously. Here is how the story begins:

“Today was the most exciting day in Katie’s whole life! Sara Ann had brought home three little kittens.

“Katie loved those kittens so much. As soon as she saw them, she howled, ‘AROOOOOO! AROOOOOO!’ She always howled like that when she was very happy.”

Unfortunately, Katie’s enthusiasm frightens the kittens, drawn as tiny little fluffy things climbing to get away from Katie. Sara Ann has to scold Katie and tell her to stay away from the kittens until they get used to her. Poor Katie is sad.

Later, Sara Ann is playing with the kittens, and Katie wants to play with them, too. “She just loved them so much.” One of my favorite pages is the page of Katie trying to control herself. Her tail is wagging so fast it’s almost invisible, and her whole body is shaking as she tries to quell her enthusiasm.

“But Katie couldn’t stop herself any longer.

“She burst into the room. The kittens scattered.

“‘AROOOOO! AROOOOO!’ she howled as she chased them around the room.”

Poor Katie. More misadventures follow, springing out of Katie’s enthusiastic overflowing love. Another favorite part is when Katie walks into the kitchen the next morning.

“Three bowls of food waited for her.

“She ate the first bowl. Mmmm, this is good, she thought.

“She ate the second bowl.

“Yummyummyummyum, she thought.” [And you should see her tail wag!]

Of course, the reader has no trouble guessing who the three bowls of food were for! Poor Katie feels worse than ever.

So I’ve almost gotten you through the whole book, but I’ll just summarize the end by saying that eventually the kittens do get used to Katie, and Katie manages to control herself and let them get close. The final picture has Katie playing with the three kittens, with one of them caught up in her wagging tail.

This book is an absolutely delightful twist on the new-baby-or-new-pet in the house story. In this story, the “big sister” doesn’t resent the new pets, but she does have to learn to express her enthusiasm in appropriate ways. It’s a story that attributes emotions to a dog, and the emotions seem completely doglike and realistic.

I’d recommend this book to people with a new baby or a new pet, or to dog lovers. Of course, I’m not any of those things, and I love this book, so I will also recommend it to anyone who enjoys a picture book that tells a fun story with the perfect combination of pictures and words. This one will make you smile. And for reading aloud, you can easily get kids involved, joining in with Katie’s AROOOOOOs.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/katie_loves_the_kittens.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of My People, by Langston Hughes, photographs by Charles R. Smith Jr.

Children's Nonfiction Review, Picture Book Review, Poetry, Starred Review 0

My People

by Langston Hughes
Photographs by Charles R. Smith Jr.

Ginee Seo Books (Atheneum Books for Young Readers), New York, 2009. 36 pages.
2010 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award
Starred Review

My People is a beautiful, glorious, gorgeous book. I can’t adequately speak in its praise. It’s also, I believe, the first time a photographer has won the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award — but the award is completely deserved, as the images used are stunning and so wonderfully accompany the poem.

The text is the Langston Hughes poem, “My People,” which talks about how beautiful his people are. “The night is beautiful, so the faces of my people…”

Charles R. Smith Jr. uses incredible close-up pictures of African-Americans to illustrate each phrase. The faces are truly beautiful, radiant and glowing. I think my favorite pictures are the ones that illustrate the phrase “are the souls,” with children dancing, completely unself-conscious. But all the people featured — elders, adults, children and babies — are photographed in a way that makes us see the wonder of their joy and humanity. Truly beautiful.

You simply have to see this book to understand how wonderful it is.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Nonfiction/my_people.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of The Book That Eats People, by John Perry

Delightfully Silly, Picture Book Review 1

The Book That Eats People

by John Perry
illustrations by Mark Fearing

Tricycle Press, 2009. 36 pages.

This book is hilarious. I don’t think I can use it for storytime, because the body count is quite high, and I don’t want to scare very young children. For school-age children old enough to be pretty sure it’s all a joke (Though they may be careful just the same.), this book is perfect.

It all started one day in Little Rock, Arkansas, when Sammy Ruskin forgot to wash his hands after lunch, and the book tasted peanut butter on his fingers.

“So the book — this book — went SNAP! And took a bite! And then another and another. Sammy squirmed and wriggled. Sammy squealed and yelled. Sammy pulled as hard as he could, but the book ate him. Then it coughed up his bones and they clattered across the floor like wooden blocks.”

Sammy was only the first person the book ate. Then its pages tell of further nefarious adventures. It ate a security guard at the library. It ate innocent children. When they tried putting it in jail, it ate its cellmate.

Eventually, when the zookeepers weren’t able to tame it, they put a label on it that says THE BOOK THAT EATS PEOPLE in big, bold letters.

So if you find a book that looks like that, be careful.

Never read it with syrupy fingers.

Never read it with cookies in your pocket.

Remember, it’s always hungry.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/book_that_eats_people.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Review of Grandpa for Sale, by Vicki Sansum and Dotti Enderle

Contemporary, Delightfully Silly, Picture Book Review, Stand-outs, Starred Review 0

Grandpa for Sale

by Dotti Enderle and Vicki Sansum

illustrated by T. Kyle Gentry

Flashlight Press, New York, 2007. 32 pages.
Starred Review.
2008 Sonderbooks Standout, #5 Picture Books

Here’s another book I’ve been meaning to review for a very long time. Vicki Sansum, one of the authors, is my good friend and writing critique group buddy. We met at a Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators conference in Paris. I saw this book when she first wrote it, and rejoiced with her when it was published. The result is a charming story about how Grandpas are more fun than anything.

Lizzie is watching her mother’s antique shop for a few minutes, while Grandpa is sleeping on a Louis XVI settee. A rich, snooty lady with a poodle breezes in and starts purchasing antiques. Then she sees Grandpa:

“Oh, my stars! Look at this! I don’t think I’ve ever seen one for sale. How much?”

Once Lizzie figures out the lady wants to buy Grandpa, she tells her he is not for sale. The lady says everyone has a price. She offers more and more money.

With each offer, Lizzie imagines the wonderful things she can buy, kid-friendly ideas like an ice cream shop or amusement park. But with each one, she realizes that they wouldn’t be much fun if Grandpa weren’t there to share them with her.

Finally, there’s a lovely showdown with the two glaring at each other.

“Lizzie took a deep breath and leaned in too. ‘Mrs. Larchmont,’ she announced, ‘not everyone has a price, and not everything is for sale.'”

The artist does a fine job using color contrasted with black and white to illustrate what Lizzie is imagining and all that Grandpa would do if he were there, too.

The nice silly idea of buying a Grandpa makes a fun and sweet story to share with a child. Truly, not everyone has a price.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/grandpa_for_sale.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.