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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.
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.
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.)
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