Thoughts on saying farewell (or see you later) to a few books

There is an Anna Quindlen quote I love.  She says, “I would be the most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.”  So true, Anna.  So true.  My children have reaped the benefits of my love of children's books and my many years of being able to take advantage of an employee discount.  But they've also acquired quite a few books on their own, and the boys' bookcase is consequently filled to capacity.  We need a new "decoration".

We have commissioned a new bookcase from my super talented, wood-working father.  He will make something sturdy and beautiful and he always stains his work to my dark-cherry preferences.  But he actually has a day job, and excellence takes time, so we have been looking for a solution to the problem of the new books not having a home on the current shelf.  I'm a little obsessive and can't stand it when everything doesn't have its own place.  My husband suggested that we remove all Christmas books from the shelf, and bring them back out in time for next Christmas.  It's a great suggestion!  Practical, and maybe good for us.  Maybe reading Christmas books just at Christmas will render those books a little more special.  Maybe the association between the Christmas books and a certain time of year will become clearer. Yesterday, I pulled the books off the shelf.  I'm having a hard time.

Once, when DD was a wee tyke and could barely talk, I was picking up his books and putting them on the shelf.  I remember how he pitifully cried and asked for his favorites among them.  "Max", (as I attempted to shelve Where the Wild Things Are), "Moon" (for Goodnight Moon), "Mama" (for Mama, Why?). Through tears and pleas, he rescued each one back to his lap, and yesterday I remembered that moment, and understood.  I'll keep our Christmas books close, and we might even put them right back where they belong on the shelf once we have more bookcase real estate.  But the idea of putting a beloved book, any beloved book, up on a high closet shelf or otherwise out of sight, seems like a farewell to me.  Merry Christmas, Big Hungry Bear deserves a review, as does Bear Stays Up For Christmas  and Mortimer's Christmas Manger.  We love David Shannon's David, and we'll miss his Christmas book.  DD loves How the Grinch Stole Christmas any day of the year.

Maybe those reviews will wait until next Christmas.  And maybe they won't.

Are there any books that you put away for special occasions? 

Sophie's Squash

I mentioned in my last post that I had spent some Christmas gift cards on seven new picture books.  They have arrived, and I love them to varying degrees.  The one I love the most was a recommendation from a bookseller friend of mine.  We worked together for some years at Barnes & Noble.  I moved away and she stayed at the store I'll always consider the home of my career.  The very smell of that store moves me.  Anyway, she now supervises the children's department, and she gave me a list of titles to research.  I've lost count of how many times we've read Sophie's Squash since it arrived last week.

Written by Pat Zietlow Miller and published in time for Fall last year, Sophie's Squash is, according to the author biography, based on a true story of the author's daughter.  To be honest, I'm sure there's a common-interest element that comprises some part of my love for this one.  I spent my childhood not caring one tiny iota about any kind of plant life.   Then I got married.  My husband knows at least a little bit about almost everything, but one of the things he knows a decent amount about is gardening.  Probably not devoting much thought to it, he tossed a couple of basil seeds in a pot and a tomato plant or two in another, sometime before our second anniversary.  When those seeds and plants turned into something I could retrieve from our apartment's patio for dinner (or at least part of dinner), I was totally hooked on gardening.  We moved from that apartment to a house at which we've had a garden every year.  I cannot imagine ever getting over the wonder of spending mere cents on a packet of seeds, only to have it grow and blossom and become edible.  I love knowing how it's been cared for and the convenience of plucking a bit of this or that to be part of a meal that ends up on my table minutes later.  I can't help thinking we should return to food preparation that looks more like that and less like boxes from the supermarket.  So, the gardening-vegetable-farmers'-market element of this book made it somewhat of a shoo-in for my affections.

But while I believe parents probably have some influence over the books their children love, I didn't do a thing to force it upon DD.  It arrived with two others.  We read all three, then he asked to read all three again, starting with Sophie's Squash.  Then just Sophie's Squash.  At bedtime?  You guessed it.  When I announced my intention to shelve it on his sister's bookcase,(because his is full) he stared at me with the frown and furrowed brow of my people.  He's not the boss around here, but it's worth noting that Sophie's Squash has stayed on the reading bench in his room ever since.

About the story: young Sophie accompanies her parents to the farmers' market.  She selects the squash that her parents are intending to cook and eat, and discovers that:

It was just the right size to

hold in her arms.

Just the right size to bounce

on her knee.

Just the right size to love.

"I'm glad we met," Sophie whispered.

"Good friends are hard to find."

Sophie names her squash, paints a face on her, and protects her from her parents' designs on a gourd for dinner.  The delightful, funny illustrations by Anne Wilsdorf add to the appeal of the book, and show Sophie as an auburn cutie in pigtails.  (An additional touch of common interest.  I'm becoming quite a fan of auburn cuties in pigtails.)  Sophie tenderly cares for Bernice the squash, takes her to storytime, plays with her, and carefully tucks her in bed at night.  But despite Sophie's careful ministrations, Bernice starts to age.  When a boy at storytime draws attention to the spots forming on Bernice, Sophie announces that her squash has freckles. 

At this point in the story, I was becoming concerned that there couldn't be a positive outcome.  Smart Sophie, however, has a plan.  She revisits the farmers' market and consults the farmer on the correct way to keep a squash healthy.  The farmer gives instructions: fresh air, dirt, and love.  Sophie makes a bed of dirt for Bernice, and tucks her in.  The scene seems comforting and sweet, and not at all sad or like a goodbye. Sophie passes the winter with her new friend, a goldfish from her intuitive dad.  When Spring returns, Sophie visits her yard and recognizes the bit of green that has appeared.  Sophie and her goldfish picnic with Bernice the plant every day, and it's not long before Sophie finds a surprise beneath Bernice's large leaves.

My husband says it's his favorite of the new books, too.

What DD likes: when Sophie's mom suggests eating Bernice with marshmallows, when Sophie takes Bernice to storytime.

What I like: the creativity of Sophie, who doesn't settle for a mere toy store plaything, the great illustrations, the fresh gardening applications.

It's fun, sweet, funny and endearing.  We think you'll fall in love with Sophie and Bernice, too.

. 

Go-Go Gorillas

Well, Christmas happened around here.  And some holiday travel.  And some ongoing illness.  So while you may be sure that books are being read and pored over and otherwise adored at our house, it has indeed been frightfully long since I've posted.  The children got some really lovely new books for Christmas.  I got some Barnes & Noble gift cards from my oh-so-generous in-laws, who will doubtless not be the slightest bit surprised that I spent every last penny of them (plus a little) on children's books.  I expect, therefore, to have a lot of new, wonderful books to review soon!  But the one that I've picked for today is not really a new book.  It's new to us, because Gorilla got it for Christmas.

My husband and I did a quick read-though of this one at the store, but we primarily bought it because of the gorilla reference, and I wasn't really expecting to love the content.  Well, I'm here to tell you that I love the content.  Go-Go Gorillas was written by Julia Durango and published in 2010.  It's a rhyming book, and the bouncy text just makes me want to get up and dance.  It begins like this:

In the Great Gorilla Villa,

King Big Daddy paced the floor.

Then he called his royal messenger

and steered her toward the door.

  "Summon every last gorilla

to the Villa, don't be late.

I expect them all by sundown -

please don't make Big Daddy wait!"

Go get

gorillas!

Gotta get

gorillas, go!

The King's royal messenger is a tiny mouse on a bicycle, and she scurries hither and yon, gathering up the gorilla relatives.  The king's nephew, niece, aunt, uncle, sister, brother, cousins, grandpa and granny are all notified, and each chooses a different mode of transportation.  The air of expectancy is intensified by the responsiveness of the king's relatives.  Each finishes what he or she is doing and gets on the way, chanting:

Go-go gorillas!

Gotta go,

gorillas, go!

The relations choose a bike, rowboat, roller-skates, truck, bus, jalopy, hot-air balloon, pogo stick, taxi and airplane, respectively, to reach their destination.  A couple of spreads highlight the whole crew on their way, and DD likes to talk about who's riding on what.  He's four, and is able to identify each one.  It's been a fun way to discuss things like taxis and pogo sticks, with which he doesn't have personal experience.

One of my favorite things about this book is that at the end, we discover the reason for King Big Daddy's haste in gathering his relatives.  It's because he wants to introduce them to...his new baby girl!  We love that, as our own gorilla nickname sprang from a play on the word "girl".  And speaking of baby girl gorilla, her super talented and thoughtful aunt made her this amazing hat for Christmas.  Who knew a gorilla could look so sweet and feminine?

What I like: the rhyme, the gorilla references, the variety in transportation, and the refrain.

What the kids like: the refrain, the silly pictures, and the bouncy way the story moves along.  

Give it a read if you see it!  We hope you'll like it, too.

A dad who rocks and Trucks that Roll.

I apologize for the long, long break between posts.  Our house got hit hard with every kind of weather-changing infection you can imagine: strep, ear infections, RSV, and pneumonia.  Gorilla even ended up in the hospital for three days over Thanksgiving.  It was a scary time but I was actually relieved to get to a place where she could get fluids and oxygen.  She (and I!) spent a lot of time in an "oxygen tent". 

So many books, so little time.  Take one on into the oxygen tent, baby.

 

While I was in the hospital with Gorilla, my husband totally took over the affairs of the household, including the two boys, the disgusting poopy (cloth!) diapers and floorful of puke I left in my wake in my rush to get the baby to the doctor (who sent her on to the hospital).  Despite the fact that the situation meant that we couldn't be with his large family (who were all supposed to be together for the first time in 2.5 years) over Thanksgiving, he was Super Dad personified.  He took the boys to the library, gave baths, did laundry, cleaned, cooked, made cookies, built train tracks, gave breathing treatments, dispensed antibiotics without reminders, and still hauled the whole crew in to visit with the hospital-bound females twice a day (usually bearing coffee.)  I felt guilty about not being there to do my job and a little ashamed that he seemed to be doing it with considerably more grace than I usually do.

 

But the boys did miss me, and were very happy when "that nurse said Mama can go free", according to DD.  I had hardly scarcely gotten in the door with the last of the suitcases, discharge information, and get-well balloons before both boys called to me from the couch, laden with books.  Not to imply that my husband didn't read to them in my absence - he did.  But he didn't read the quantities that they're accustomed to, and so my sense of usefulness was renewed and we got to work.

One of the first ones in the stack was Trucks Roll by George Ella Lyon.  This book was given to DD at birth by my dear friend Kristin.  She blogs about family, life, adoption, faith, books and a lot of other things here, and you should definitely check her out.  Her daughter was two when DD was born, and Kristin and her husband had found themselves reading Trucks Roll quite a bit to little Cate.  Four years later, we're still so glad to have it as part of our personal library.  I love the realistic trucks rendered by Craig Frazier.  The text includes some great words my boys hadn't heard before, like "pistons", "dispatcher", and "weigh stations".  The rhymes are successful (certainly not a given!) and while there are many glimpses of "real life" as a truck driver, there is some fantasy as well (one spread depicts a pile of oversized chocolate chip cookies on the flatbed).  I like this word picture:

 

Haul them through mountains,

over rivers, past towns -

around blue sky curves,

through rain pouring down.

 

There's a refrain ("trucks roll!"), and I'm fond of those in a picture book.  It means I can quote portions of the books and the boys can chime in at the end.  The predictability appeals to them and makes them feel smart.  We all know how I love a book that inspires imaginative play:

 

We have read this book several times since Saturday night, and today Teep found his toy truck to play with while looking through the book.

 

 

I found him in his bedroom like this, repeating over and over again, "trucks roll!" I don't know how to give a higher recommendation than that.





The Birthday Week in Books

DD had a birthday recently.  Well, at the end of October.  It's taken me awhile to get my act together.  He turned four years old, and I had been thinking, prior to his birthday, how he was really seeming to "get" a lot more of the details surrounding the big day.  While I still can't stop delighting over his birth in the best month ever, he's always felt at the end of a row of family birthdays that start in early July (Teep), proceed to me in mid-July, and wrap up with my husband's birthday in late September.  Previous years have been hard on him, but this year he really seemed to be grasping the concept of the passage of time and the changing months, and I decided to capitalize on that feeling of anticipation with a week of birthday books.

I wish I'd taken more pictures.  Like, one a day or something.  But I didn't, and such is life with three small children.  I really like the one I did take, though.  I also wish I could say that I put a lot of thought and care into the selection of these books, but I didn't.  The idea of the week of birthday books came to me the day I would need to start reading them, and I just scrambled to find ones that would work.  As it happened, DD got a gift from his grandparents that acted as the first day of birthday books!  Since there are so many, I'll review a little differently today with just highlights of what he liked about the books and what I liked about them.

1: Five Little Monkeys Storybook Treasury by Eillen Christelow
This treasury includes five Five Little Monkeys stories, but the one in question is Five Little Monkeys Bake a Cake.  My boys are really wild about the Five Little Monkeys books, and DD was excited to read through all of the collection before his grandparents had made it out of the driveway after giving it to him.  But I made a special big deal about the birthday one and how it was going to be the first in a week of birthday stories. 

What he liked about it: "About eating the cake!  That's silly!" (Of course.)
What I liked about it: It's fun and funny for children, but there's some humor in there for parents, too.

2. The Secret Birthday Message by Eric Carle 

What he liked about it: "The shapes!" (A little boy gets a secret birthday message {shocker!} with a map to get to his birthday present.  Shapes are used to preserve the cryptic nature of the note.)
What I liked about it: The idea of a map, the unique way shapes are used, and the way the book appealed to all of the children (4, 2, and 6 months).

3. A Birthday for Frances by Russell Hoban
I should say that DD adores Frances and we read all of our Frances books on a regular basis, so this one wasn't new to us or anything.

What he liked about it: "Eating the cake!" Hmm.  Sensing a theme, here.
What I liked about it: All Frances books include some good talking points, good fun, and good chuckles for parents and kids alike.  This one's no different, and since it hits on the difficulty of waiting, when it's someone else's birthday, it's always a good read around here.  (Oh, yes, I know they're very, very long.  I do.  Sometimes it's just worth it, though!)

4. Humphrey's Birthday by Sally Hunter

What he liked about it: "The superhero suit!"
What I liked about it: The whimsical illustrations are lovely, the message is good, and there are plenty of great, descriptive passages that really set the scene.  I'm sad this one's out of print.

5. Curious George and the Birthday Surprise by H.A. Rey
This is another book that we read frequently, so I just talked up the significance of the birthday story/birthday week.

What he liked about it: "When the dogs clean up the icing for the cake!"
What I liked about it: George's efforts to help the man with the yellow hat as he's preparing for the party, and the fun familiarity of a beloved character.

6. Whopper Cake by Karma Wilson

What he liked: "Making the cake in the truck!" (You're kidding me!  Something about the cake?!)
What I liked: It's really best quoted:

Grandma blows her candles out. "I've just one wish, I guess.  I'll enjoy this whopper cake...and YOU clean up the mess."

Can I get an amen, moms?  Also, there is lots of fun vocabulary. (DD frequently shouts, "Eureka, I have just the thing!")  And a cake recipe in the back!  Get thee to a book store and get it, really.

 

7.  Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present by Charlotte Zolotow

 

What he liked: "All the fruit."

What I liked: Everything.  Every little bit.  Our copy of this is mine from my childhood and it brings back happy memories.  With Sendak's genius at illustrating and Zolotow's at storytelling, it's a slam dunk.  See if your children can start to guess, mid-book, what each next present will be. Published in 1977, it's still available today! 

 

8. On the Night You Were Born by Nancy Tillman 

This was maybe a little bit of a stretch because it's not about a birthday, in the traditional sense.  But it is the sweetest little love "song" about the night a baby was born, and it seemed appropriate.  When I was afraid I'd never have children, I fell in love with this book and the companion baby book, The Wonder of You. 

 

What he liked: "All the animals."

What I liked: The illustrations, the text, the magic.  It's all so sweet and gentle and lovely.  I think this is such a nice new baby gift. 

 

 

I would call this a very successful experiment, and I think I'll try to do something similar leading up to Christmas, and up to birthdays here on out.  It was easy and fun to do and it built excitement and anticipation.

 

And since this post is a little light on photos, I'll throw this one in here.  It has nothing to do with birthdays.  I asked DD to pick up his books and put them on his bench, last week.  This is what I found.

 

 

Hope Elmo likes to read.





Baby's Boat

I dare you to not fall in love with Baby's Boat.  I really do.  I also hope you don't have to pay $160.36 for a copy, which is apparently what it's retailing for on amazon.com, these days.  Listen, I don't know why some of the best books in the world sometimes go out of print, but I want to be sure to feature some of them, so that you know to grab them if you come across one of these titles someday at a yard sale or whatever.

I didn't realize it until I was doing some research for this post, but the text of Baby's Boat is evidently the lyrics of an old lullaby.  Even without knowing and appreciating that song, I instantly melted when I first saw this book.  The soft illustrations feature this little sweetie "sailing" in a sea of blankets and pillows, with her teddy bear nearby.  To me, it is always reminiscent of the beloved Wynken, Blynken & Nod.

Gorilla donned her purple to match the book.  Not really.



What is it about the moon and the stars?  They just make for such a magical backdrop for the classic Wynken, Blynken & Nod, and for Jeanne Titherington's Baby's Boat.  I had no problem reading this one to my sons, and it was in fact a bedtime favorite of my firstborn's for quite some time.  But this book's main character is a little girl, and I've enjoyed introducing it to my daughter.  The simple text is sweet and lovely, and includes two repetitions of this heart stirring refrain:

Sail, baby, sail

Out upon that sea,

Only don't forget to sail

Back again to me.

This little picture book only has 72 words, and I included 16 (or really 32, since those are repeated) above for you.  I think both its subject matter and brevity make it a great choice for a very young baby, or for in utero reading (if you're into that!) or for bedtime, or all of the above.  When I was pregnant with my oldest child, I routinely read aloud two books that I wanted him to recognize once he was in my arms: Baby's Boat and Bear Snores On.

Maybe he recognized them and maybe he didn't, but I will say they were both favorites of his from early on, and I offer these old pictures as proof.  Aww.  Wasn't he a cute little guy? (Don't take his frown/serious expression as displeasure.  He has always taken seriously the task of concentrating on a book.)

I hope you'll find this one someday, somewhere, and be able to snatch it up for something less than your car payment.  But....looking back on these sweet pictures, maybe it (and the memories you'll make with your babe) is worth your car payment after all.









Even Firefighters Hug Their Moms

Well, just look at this cover:

I really just couldn't help but pick it up and look through it when Even Firefighters Hug Their Moms showed up on my shelving cart at the children's department I supervised back in 2002.  Christine Kole Maclean's endearing picture book follows a young boy through his busy, busy day of sampling various career choices (firefighter, police officer, EMT, construction worker, helicopter pilot, train conductor, astronaut and garbage-truck driver).  I first read and fell in love with this book before I had kids, because the little boy (whose name changes with each occupation) brilliantly uses what's available to him in the  household to construct the things he needs.  His fire truck is the couch with a bowl as steering wheel, the police officer's prisoners get locked up in a crib "jail", the EMT's patient gets bandaged with toilet paper, etc.  Now, I have little boys who not-as-brilliantly-but-just-as-persistently attempt to build things.

 

 

You guys, the boys pull these pillows and blankets out and around my house multiple times a day. It's honestly a source of frustration to me, so I love to read Even Firefighters Hug Their Moms to remind myself that they're not hurting anything and they are growing their imaginations and it's actually a really beautiful thing.  That's DD there in the second photo, inside the toy box, surrounded by pillows.  And his firefighter hat. 

 

I love the way the little guy in the story incorporates his sister in every new imagining, and how she's right there with him.  The little sister in our house is too young to play along, but that doesn't really stop my boys from including her.  The other day DD and Teep were having this conversation at the breakfast table:  DD:  "When I grow up, I'm going to be a construction worker!" Teep:  "Me, too!" DD:  "And we'll have a special seat for Gorilla up on our digger machine."

 

As you might have guessed, a common theme throughout the story is that the kids' mother is (so much more sweetly than I) encouraging this play, and repeatedly reminding her little son that "Even firefighters" (police officers, helicopter pilots, etc) "hug their moms".

 

 



 

(Firefighter playing trains, and unenthused "astronaut".)

 

This whole book is a good example of how my children translate things they see in books into their personal reality, but I still love it when books come up in everyday life.  Here's a quote from the book, during the portion when the little boy is playing a train conductor:

 



"What do you get when you buy a ticket? a lady asks.

"You get a ride to Chicago," I say.

"Snacks?"

"No, but you can buy food in the dining car."

"Hugs?"

"No, no hugs.  Only a ride to Chicago."

"Even conductors hug their moms," she says.

 

 

Recently,  DD asked where his friend Sam lives.  When I told him that Sam lives in Chicago, he immediately grinned and said, "No, no hugs.  Only a ride to Chicago."

 

I really wanted to get my act together and post about this book on September 11th, because another really great thing about it is that the publisher donates a portion of the sales from the book to the Twin Towers Orphan Fun.  You know what else?  Christine Kole MacLean is such a friendly person!  You want to think that's a given for a children's book author, but...it's not.  She has several other books and you can check her out at her website above.

 

I'll stop sitting around at the computer now, because....

 

 

 

...I've got some little firefighters who need a hug.