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An almost daily report of interesting, unusual and noteworthy books that passed under my scanner.
An almost daily report of interesting, unusual and noteworthy books that passed under my scanner.An almost daily report of interesting, unusual and noteworthy books that passed under my scanner.An almost daily report of interesting, unusual and noteworthy books that passed under my scanner.An almost daily report of interesting, unusual and noteworthy books that passed under my scanner.An almost daily report of interesting, unusual and noteworthy books that passed under my scanner.
It’s time once again for another Easy Picture Books roundup and I have three really cute one for you today. Tedd Arnold’s More Parts is one of a series of three books that are a pure D delight. In charming rhyme, Arnold explores the thoughts and actions of a small boy who takes common sayings literally. From "broke your heart" and "give him a hand" to "jumps out of his skin" and "lost your mind", Arnold’s beautifully illustrated tale is a sheer joy. This one comes Highly Recommended.
Happy Tuesday! Time for an Easy books round up. Remember you can click on any book cover to place a request for it with Your local library or click on any book title to purchase from Powell’s, an independent and ethical bookseller based in Portland Oregon.
A recent release in the Cat In A Hat line of Easy Readers The Belly Book is a delightfully illustrated look at all sorts of bellies from bear bellies to brass bellies, glass bellies and hula-dancing grass bellies. As always the Easy Reader uses a carefully chosen and limited vocabulary and is specifically designed for our newest readers. Recommended.
Resuming my regular posts with a Wednesday Easy Picture Book Roundup: Library Mouse, a 2007 release from author and illustrator Daniel Kirk is a delight. Sam, a mouse who lives behind the reference shelves in the children’s section at the library is a voracious reader. Then one day he decides to write a book and leaves it out on the shelf with all the others and the children read and enjoy it.
I don’t usually post about books that are not in English but this Spanish language children’s book I came across today is so unusual and a lot of fun even if you do not comprehend Spanish at all. Animalario Universal is spiral bound at the top rather than on the side and except for a few introductory and concluding pages, each page is cut in two places, creating three ‘mini pages’ or frames which can each be flipped independently. The first image shown is an elephant. As you flip each of the three segments over one by one the elephant becomes a pig, then the pig becomes an armadillo and so on until finally after the last three flips a camel becomes a fish. The Spanish words for each animal are displayed beneath the pictures and as best I can tell the book is intended as a fun vocabulary/animal names lesson for the Easy books crowd. Though it will certainly also appeal to anyone who admires clever and artistic books. Even it they no hablo Espanol.
Today’s post is for my blog friends who also work in libraries. Twas’ the night before Christmas and an over-worked, under-budgeted librarian is working late into the night to mend her battered and limited collection when a bright red bookmobile descends from the sky and a portly gentleman in red and his Pages elves deliver loads of new books and other goodies. Loaded with library terms and literary references this unique take off on Clement C. Moore’s famous poem, Librarian’s Night Before Christmas is a brand new book and was received in our branch for the first time today. And our head Youth Services Librarian clipped a note to it asking all branch staff to read the book and initial it. (No way that one was going home with a patron tonight ;) We all loved it and if you work in a library or wish you did, this one is Highly Recommended.
Good Night, Gorilla is a delightful picture book, written and illustrated by Peggy Rathman. The security guard at the zoo goes around telling each of the animals "Good Night", unaware that the gorilla has snatched his ring of keys from his back pocket and is following him around, open the cage of each animal after it has been wished good night. The animals all follow the zoo keeper home, startling his sleeping wife who leads them all back to the zoo. A very cute story with excellent illustrations.
This week’s Easy Picture Books round up is for Nikon, who was very enthusiastic about last week’s selection If You Give A Mouse A Cookie and suggested one I wasn’t familiar with, A Bargain For Frances. This Easy Reader is the delightful story of two furry little girls of indeterminate species who both really enjoy having tea parties with their dolls and both long for a fancy china tea set. The story by Russell Hoban does a wonderful job of entertaining at a true Easy reading level while the delightful illustrations by Lillian Hoban add charm that cause adults to remember this book fondly decades later. Highly Recommended.
For me, one of the great things about working at the library is getting to enjoy children’s books in the course of the day. As a non-parent, I would never have occasion to be exposed to what we call Easy Books at the library. So today I decided to feature four of my all time favorites, and invite you to remember along with me that very special time in your earliest life when you were first exposed to the magic of books. I hope you enjoy it.
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst was written back in 1972, when I was eight years old and had moved on to reading Juvenile fiction but I was lucky enough to discover Alexander when I worked as a book store clerk in New Orleans in the late 1980’s and it has been my all time favorite children’s book ever since. Poor Alexander wakes up with gum in his hair, and the day just goes downhill from there. From the breakfast table to the carpool, from school to the doctor’s office, nothing goes right for Alexander on his terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
I am painfully aware that the beloved children’s classic was disastrously made into a movie a few years back, but even that outrage can not dim for me the enduring appeal of Theodore Geisel’s pseudonym Dr. Seuss. By my count Dr. Seuss is easily the most prolific author ever of Easy Readers and is almost certainly the first poet most children have read and memorized since The Cat In The Hat first stepped in in 1957.
That these books were carefully designed to use a strictly limited vocabulary, repeated numerous times as an aid to children learning to read is largely obscured by the delightful poems and highly imaginative and playful illustrations that are indelibly stamped upon our memories. Who among us does not know I do not like Green Eggs and Ham, I do not like them Sam I Am or has not counted One Fish Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish.
If you do not have children, or even if you do, and have not recently been around these classic books, stop by your library soon and pick them up and pass a few minutes visiting with Dr. Seuss. As the ACOA people always say It’s Never Too Late To Have a Happy Childhood. (Alexander is shelved with Easy Picture books, look in the V’s for author Judith Viorst. The Dr. Seuss titles are all Easy Readers, filed in the D’s for author Dr. Seuss.)
It’s time once again for another Easy Picture Books roundup and I have three really cute one for you today. Tedd Arnold’s More Parts is one of a series of three books that are a pure D delight. In charming rhyme, Arnold explores the thoughts and actions of a small boy who takes common sayings literally. From "broke your heart" and "give him a hand" to "jumps out of his skin" and "lost your mind", Arnold’s beautifully illustrated tale is a sheer joy. This one comes Highly Recommended.
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