The Neighborhood Mother Goose By: Nina Crews

Hey Diddle Diddle

This rainy day reminds me of a great book to help pass the afternoon inside with the kids. The Neighborhood Mother Goose is a collection of Mother Goose rhymes but with a contemporary spin. The pictures come from children in Brooklyn where the author is from.  The author blends the child's image with the surreal making it so much fun to read and explore the images that correspond with the rhymes.
For instance Jack jumping over the candlestick features a picture of a boy doing just that! It really is a fresh take on a classic and my girls love the art because the kids look just like them!

For me Mother Goose is a tradition something grandparents and parents alike can teach the kids because most of us remember learning them as a child.  There were also a couple new Mother Goose rhymes I heard for the first time myself in the book.

Check out the authors page for a peek at her books and the art she does so well!
http://ninacrews.com/index.html

So curl up and enjoy yourself today or any other day reading this superb book with your children!

Good Night, Gorilla By: Peggy Rathmann

 It is bedtime at the zoo and as the zoo keeper locks all the animals cages and says goodnight to each of them, the gorilla gets the zoo keepers keys and unlocks the cages behind him. All the animals quietly follow the zoo keeper to his house where they go to sleep in his room. When his wife says goodnight dear and turns out the light the room is lit up with all the animals eyes! She takes them all back to the zoo but as she does somehow the gorilla and mouse end up back in bed with the zoo keeper and his wife.

The kids loved this book and I remember Isy trying to pronounce the word hyena in the book and saying hi-yi-na. We would laugh and make her say it again and again! In each page of the book you will notice a pink balloon which gets farther and farther away. We always had fun trying to spot it. Also take note to all the cute things in each of the animals cages. They are like little cribs for the animals. The girls also would mimic the wife's face when she finds the animals in her bed and then we would say "good night" very fast and point to all the animals eyeballs on the next page. This book is really fun and simple to read.

So say good night to all the animals and your little cutie tonight with this great book!

Smitten By: David Gordon

An adorable tale of friendship the kids will find witty and want to read again and again!   A mitten and a sock are missing their other halves so after finding each other they set forth on an adventure throughout the city in search of their other halves.  They find themselves in some daunting situations and have to rely on each other for help. They forge a friendship and by the end of the story they become a "perfect pair".  "The two friends hugged, and from then on they were smitten."  Get it?!  Too cute.  The book doesn't lack on humor and will become a favorite read for the whole family. 

Make it more fun by getting the kids to wear a sock and a mitten on each hand and pretend they are part of the story or if you are feeling a little silly act it out for your kids.

Make Reading a Habit!  Happy Reading!

Clifford Preschool Treasury By: Norman Bridwell

Isy receiving these on her 1st Birthday

Clifford Preschool Treasury is a collection of great books for babies and toddlers.  We received these books from Great grandparents on Isabela's 1st Birthday.  I think almost everyone is familiar with the big red dog named Clifford and I myself have fond memories of the Clifford books as a young girl.  I never read these particular books from this collection until we got them on her birthday.  The books are simple, have great illustrations and most have rhyming which makes them perfect reads for little ones.  I remember vividly taking Isabela onto my bed each night to pass the time and reading books to her.  She would ALWAYS pick these books every night! My girls now at four and almost three years old still enjoy these books and because they are board books they have held up quite well. So if you have little ones buy them, or get them from the library or think of this collection of books next time you need a gift idea for someone expecting a child or for a first birthday!

There is nothing like the delightful smile of a child discovering a new friend in a book!

The Country Bunny AND THE LITTLE GOLD SHOES By: Du Bose Heyward Pictures by: Marjorie Flack

Easter time is a great time to pull this book out and read with the little ones. It is a tale about Easter and the Easter Bunny. But for all those grownups reading this to your child you will see the tale as much more, and hopefully so will the child you are reading it to.

For anyone who doesn't know there are really five Easter Bunnies and not one. They are chosen because they are the wisest, kindest and swiftest bunnies in the whole world! Once there was a little girl Cottontail bunny from the country who more than anything wanted to be an Easter Bunny when she grew up. The other rabbits looked down and laughed at her for believing she could do such a thing. When Cottontail grew up she had twenty-one babies at one time! The other rabbits said  "Only a country rabbit would go and have all those babies. Now take care of them and leave Easter eggs to great big men bunnies like us." She gives up her dreams of delivering Easter eggs as an Easter Bunny and takes care of the children. One day she heard at the Palace of Easter Eggs Old Grandfather was going to pick out a new bunny to replace one that had become to slow to do the job. So she took her brood to the Palace to see the fun! Grandfather Bunny came to look upon the Cottontail with all of her children and asked her several questions about taking care of her children and after she rounded all of them up very quickly he soon found out that she was wise, kind, and swift! He chose her to be the fifth Easter Bunny! I don't know if you know this but an Easter Bunny can hop out of sight in one single jump and be back a moment later to deliver more eggs. That night Grandfather Bunny gives Cottontail the hardest job of all; to deliver the most beautiful Easter egg to a sick boy who had been brave all year.  After she attempts to deliver the egg she falls and hurts her leg.  Grandfather bunny shows up with a pair of golden shoes for being the bravest one of all. The shoes take the pain out of her leg and flies her to the little boys house in two of the biggest jumps. After delivering the egg to the boy she then takes her own basket full of eggs for her own children home and hangs her golden shoes up on the wall. 


When you read this book you can see the feminist in the Cottontail.  She really can have a family, and also follow her ambitions, her dreams.  It is quite inspiring to all the little girls out there to think that their big dreams can come true too!

I'll See You in the Morning By: Mike Jolley Pictures by: Mique Moriuchi

This is a board book I have checked out of the library on many occasions to read to the girls.  The books rhymes and message is so sweet and comforting and a very good way to send off the kids to sleep.  Isabela at one time had a hard time with being in the dark like many little kiddos do and I liked reading her this passage in the book "Don't be afraid of darkness.  Don't be afraid, my sweet.  The night is just a blanket that helps the earth to sleep."  The pictures are adorable, a little silly, and perfect for children to admire while you read to them.   Have fun tonight with your little one and give them a beautiful story to soothe them to sleep!

Good Boy, Fergus! By: David Shannon

Get ready to laugh with this book about an adorable dog named Fergus. The humor for parents draws from the similarities between a toddler and this rambunctious pup. For instance he tends to do what he wants even when called but still gets a "Good boy, Fergus!", he has a tickle spot, he doesn't obey commands, is messy, hides at bath time, begs for treats, and likes his dinner with whipped cream.  He does some things only dogs do too like chasing cats and motorcycles, peeing anywhere he pleases, and hanging his head out the window until he becomes one big puff ball!  The picture of Fergus after he gets done going for a ride is absolutely our favorite page!  I mean look how crazy,cute,funny he is!!  Isabela and Emma always go back and look for this page again for another good laugh!

Isabela pointing to one of the many pee spots. =)

Pick up this great book next time you are at the library or any one of David Shannon's hilarious books!

Pretzel By: Margret Rey With Pictures by: H.A. Rey

 

I found this book when I was in the library looking at Curious George books for the girls.  The cover of the book along with the title hooked me in.  My littlest daughter Emma really likes dogs and what kid doesn't like puppies?  

The story starts with the birth of five dachshunds in May; Paul, Patricia, Priscilla, Percival and Pretzel.  As they grew Pretzel begins to grow longer and longer than his brothers and sisters and by the end of his first year becomes the longest dachshund in the world.  Pretzel was admired by dogs and people alike but not by Greta.  Greta was a little dachshund from across the street that Pretzel loved and wanted to marry.   Greta would tell him "I don't care for long dogs".  Pretzel tries to change her mind by proving it to her by bringing her things.  He brings her a bone and a green ball. She takes the gifts but refuses to marry him.  He even shows her he can twist himself into a pretzel shape but she is ultimately unimpressed.  Pretzel continues to watch Greta from afar and sees her as she plays with her green ball and ends up falling in a hole.  Greta can't get out of the hole and is very scared. Pretzel being so long is able to rescue her out of the hole and for saving Greta's life she decides to marry him. They get married" and one morning in May five little dachshunds were born..."

 

H.A. and Margaret Rey both were both Jewish and born in Germany.  They both fled Europe before the Nazi's seized Paris where they were living at the time.  They collaborated on their children's books including Pretzel and Curious George.

Here's to a Pretzel kind of day!

MAX Counts His Chickens 1 2 3 By: Rosemary Wells

I am officially starting the countdown to Easter with this amusing tale of Max and his chicks.

Most of you are probably familiar with Max from the Max and Ruby books and series on Nick Jr.  Rosemary Wells is a great children's author and often uses bunnies as the main characters in her books.

In this book the Easter bunny hides ten hot-pink marshmallow chicks all over Max and Ruby's house.  When Max and Ruby wake up the hunt starts to find the chicks.  "Finders keepers!"  they both yell.  During their search only Ruby finds chicks, and Max does a great job of making a great big mess around the house searching for the chicks. Each place Ruby finds a chick the number is displayed largely on the page along with the amount of chicks that have been found all together. This is a great book to learn numbers and to practice counting!  We all laugh as Max tears apart the house looking and not finding any chicks.  Grandma comes into the kitchen after Ruby finds the tenth and last chick and finds Max empty handed. She immediately makes a phone call to the Easter bunny who promptly drops ten yellow marshmallow chicks through the mail slot. "Pop!"  Max tries to count them all and ends the tale with "All mine!"

I guarantee this one will please the kiddos!


To check out more of Wells books go to : http://rosemarywells.com/

Make Way for Ducklings By: Robert McCloskey

I vividly remember every spring until I was about six years old waiting for the ducklings to hatch. We had a big pond near our home and my mother fed the ducks almost every day. The ducks would march right up onto our concrete slab porch and gobble up all the bread pieces. It seems like a hundred ducks would crowd around snapping at their neighbor to get the piece of bread that landed near by. One duck was reddish brown with a white collar around his neck and my mother called him Pope. Another one was a girl duck with the usual markings but much lighter brown than all the other female ducks and we called her Blondie. Both ducks came often for a bread snack. Usually I only dreamed of holding a baby duckling and feeling its soft feathers but the ducklings were always too quick and would only send me on a chase until they got back in line with their mother and back into the pond for a swim. But one day I was so proud of myself when I rescued a little, fluffy, yellow duckling from a basement well just in time to send it off with its mother again.

That brings me to the story of Make Way for Ducklings and 1942 Caldecott medal winner. I always was fond of this book from the moment it was read to me as a little girl in Kindergarten. The illustrations looked so life like and the fact that the ducks were a Mr. and Mrs. and had babies made me hope that maybe my "pet" ducks could talk like them too! The story starts with Mr. and Mrs. Mallard looking for a nice place to raise a family. They end up in Boston in the Public Garden. They enjoyed it there but Mrs. Mallard almost got ran over by a bicycle so they continued on their search for a place to build their nest. They end up building their nest by the Charles River. They meet a man named Michael who feeds them peanuts every day. Mrs. Mallard lays eight eggs and one day they hatch. Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack, and Quack. Mr. Mallard decides to take a small trip and agrees to meet them in one week in the Public Garden. Mrs. Mallard knows all about rearing children and she teaches them to swim, dive, walk in a line, and keep safe. They then start on to the Public Gardens but start to get into trouble when they have to cross the street. Even with all their quacking the cars keep driving and honking away at them. Michael the man who feeds them peanuts stops traffic for them and gets them safely across the street and calls for help to get them to the park. The spectacle ensues as the traffic is stopped to watch the mother duckling and her babies walk in a line across the streets to the park. When they finally arrive Mr. Mallard is waiting for them and they like it so much they decide to stay.

Read this book to the kids and then go out to a pond or a park and start looking for the little yellow ducklings that always come around this time of year! 

Tuck me In! By: Dean Hacohen & Sherry Scharschmidt

This is a great story for toddlers, and preschool aged children. In this book you get to "tuck" the animals into bed for the night with an adorable "blanket". "It's time for bed. Who needs to be tucked in? I do." and each animal takes a turn getting tucked in until at the end the book asks "Does anyone else need to be tucked in? Do you? Good night, you!" My littlest daughter would sit with this book for 30 minutes at a time tucking the baby animals into bed. This is an easy book for little kids to memorize and it is definitely a great bed time book! Have fun with your kids tonight and check out this book from the library and have fun getting tucked in!

Frog and Toad All Year By: Arnold Lobel

 

 

 While walking my daughter to preschool one morning I saw some flowers peeking up through the cold, damp ground and said "spring is just around the corner" pointing to the daffodils.  While we walked hand in hand Isabela looked up at me and said "Mom what corner is spring just around?"  This made me think of the book Frog and Toad All Year and the chapter "The Corner".

Frog and Toad are best friends.  They do almost everything together.  Frog is very outgoing and adventurous and Toad is well the complete opposite.  One of Toads favorite sayings is "Blah."  It is apparent in every story that their friendship is the most important thing to both of them. The humor in the stories brings these characters to life.

"The Corner" starts off with Frog and Toad coming out of the rain and Frog agreeing to tell Toad a story while they wait for the rain to stop.  Frog tells Toad of being little and his father telling him "'Son, this is a cold , gray day but spring is just around the corner."  Frog decides to then find the corner spring is just around.  Frog then goes on an adventure searching but becomes tired and it begins to rain. He heads home where he finds the sun shining, birds singing, his mother and father in the garden filling with flowers.  Toad cries "You found it!"  They noticed it has stopped raining and they go out "to make sure that spring had come again."

I actually found this book at the Hershey Library's Annual Book Sale for 25 cents.  I can recall reading these books as a little girl and the Frog and Toad books are what I used when Isabela was just starting to read by using her or my finger to follow each word.   Each book has five chapters and we always find ourselves not being able to stop until the book is finished. If you want to read another story fit for this time of year try Frog and Toad Are Friends chapter "Spring." Their is also A Year With Frog and Toad Broadway CD that we discovered. The song "Getta Loada Toad" based off the chapter "Swim" in the book Frog and Toad Are Friends is hilarious!  Toad doesn't want anyone to see him in his bathing suit!  Emma makes us put this song on repeat and laughs hysterically at it every time! 

Happy spring time reading!

Emma Dilemma Big Sister Poems By: Kristine O'Connell George Illustrated by: Nancy Carpenter

This collection of "Big Sister Poems" is a great read for all girls. When I was thinking of creating this blog I recalled one of my favorite poems in this book and sat for awhile trying to figure out which book it was in.  When I remembered it was from Emma Dilemma I quickly rechecked it out of the library so myself and the girls could enjoy it again!  Older girls can definitely relate to the big sister in this book Jessica and any little girls with big sisters can relate to Emma.  Both of my girls attention was fixed on the poems from start to finish. My littlest daughter Emma is so much like the Emma character in this book that we started calling her Emma Dilemma for awhile!

The poems create a full story that leads you into the lives of these two sisters and how they love, play, protect and annoy each other.  The poems do a great great job of showing how kids go through daily life and all the craziness that unfolds.  The humorous tone lends itself to help both parents and children relate to this book. Not to mention the sincerity of their relationship through the good and the bad.  You never doubt their love for one another and you see that a lot in these poems in daily small offerings of kindness.

So if you have little girls or you are a sister please read this book!  You will enjoy it!  Isabela wanted to add that her favorite poems are "Funny", "Not Funny", and "Sharing".  (Then she started picking more and more and eventually the whole book ended up being her favorite!)

My favorite poem in this book is pictured at the right of the page and is called :

Picture Books:
When I read
my picture books
to Emma, 
I feel 
as if 
I'm visiting old friends.

I don't think you can say it any better than that!

To learn more about the author of Emma Dillema or to learn about her other books visit her at : http://www.kristinegeorge.com/

In the Night Kitchen By: Maurice Sendak

The kids instantly loved this book! And to me that is the true measure of a great book.  Not that I leave entertained but that they get wrapped up in the story and they get embedded in their imaginations.  We had not read the book in many months and it was on our vacation in Duck, NC that we rediscovered it.  Our trip to Duck is a yearly family vacation tradition and it is also a tradition to allow each girl to pick a book from this quaint, packed book store there.  My oldest daughter Isabela has a real passion for books.  Her first birthday invitation shows her sitting on the floor "reading" an Elmo book, and right before our vacation Isabela had learned to read and was even more excited than before to pick a book.  We of course spent awhile at the bookstore looking and talking about everything we were finding. But when Isabela saw this book she made up her mind immediately that this was the book she wanted and Emma quickly agreed.  Leaving us only having to buy one book!  ( I have to admit I was glad and really proud that my girls picked this book over another Disney Princess book.)

So about the book, the main character is a little boy named Mickey.  As Mickey is lying in bed he hears "a racket" and falls down into the "light of the night kitchen."  In the night kitchen are three bakers that try to bake Mickey into a "A delicious Mickey-cake.".  Mickey gets out of the oven and gets covered in bread dough.  He makes a dough airplane and flies high into the night sky.  Mickey dives into a big bottle of milk and pours the milk into batter below for the bakers morning cake.  Mickey then falls back into bed.  Ending the tale by saying "And that is why, thanks to Mickey we have cake every morning."  Written in 1970 In the Night Kitchen is a Caldecott Honor book. The author Maurice Sendak is probably best known for Where the Wild Things Are another great book.  Apparently there is some controversy over the character Mickey in the book being naked in some parts of the book.  The pictures are anatomically correct and not vulgar. I simply explained that to my girls and they didn't mention it again.  They were too interested in the story.

When we got home from our vacation the Library had the Scholastic DVD of  In the Night Kitchen to borrow.  We took it home and the girls listened and watched this quirky tale over and over and over again!  I have to say that watching the DVD the story started to make a lot more sense to me.  He gave the words a melody and I started to see why the girls liked this book so much.  Included on that DVD are Where the Wild Things Are, and the Nutshell Kids with songs performed by Carole King.  My girls loved it all!  We even ended up borrowing a CD of Carole Kings songs featuring a lot of Maurices stories/poems and the kids liked singing along to them!

The Scholastic Storybook Treasures DVD series are true to the books so it isn't like sitting your child in front of the mindless "tube" it is like having a narrator for your books! 
Check it out : http://newkideo.com/

Cheers to Reading!

The Escape of Marvin the Ape By: Caralyn and Mark Buehner

Marvin the Ape escapes at feeding time from the Zoo.  In the following pages he tries to disguise himself all around New York City to avoid going back to the Zoo.

The first time I read this book the girls were entertained by it but it was a quick read.  So when I read it the second time I discovered that the book is much more fun than I first thought.  Hiding in the pages there is an ostrich and black cat.  The book took on a new level of fun and since the ostrich and black cat are a little difficult to find, I find that we spend quite awhile searching the book.  That turns into Isabela and Emma asking more questions about the images in the book and gets them interacting and learning.  Don't forget if you do get a chance to read the book that the ostrich and the black cat are on the back cover as well!

Happy Reading!

The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and THE BIG HUNGRY BEAR By: Don and Audrey Wood Illustrated by: Don Wood

I can remember my teacher in kindergarten reading me this story.  I think it struck me as a child because it has such wonderful and vivid images.  It is a short book but one that has a lot of humor and quite a cute little tale.  In turn this became my littlest daughter Emma's favorite book for awhile and after borrowing it from the library several times I decided to buy it for her.

The story is about a mouse, a mouse who really wants to pick a "red, ripe strawberry" and as the reader you get to interact with the mouse and find out exactly what he is up to. He is warned about a big hungry bear who would be quite upset if he finds out that he picked the strawberry but the mouse goes ahead and picks it anyway.  He then tries to hide, chain, and disguise the strawberry from the "bear".  This is quite comical especially the disguise he chooses, glasses with the eyebrows, and mustache. That always gets a giggle from the girls.  He ends up frantically deciding to "Cut it in two." and sharing half of the strawberry with "you". He then gobbles up his half and ends the tale full and satisfied wearing the green top of the strawberry as a hat swinging from a hammock.  Just too funny! The funnier I find a book the more I can have a good time reading it and making it entertaining for the girls.

After rediscovering this book to read to my girls I then went to look for more books by the Wood's.  The Napping House became another book my girls loved.  It is worth getting if you are going to look for The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and THE BIG HUNGRY BEAR.  It is also a very silly book that gets the kids laughing especially with its funny illustrations.  Audrey and Don Wood are husband and wife and have a website that lists all their books, including some fun activites.

http://www.audreywood.com/

Bear Snore On By: Karma Wilson Illustrated By: Jane Chapman

I received this book in a box of Cheerios many years ago in 2003 before I even had children.  Cheerios has a program called Spoonfuls of Stories where they include a full length book in a box of Cheerios. The paperback books are small and include the English and Spanish words on each page.  Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories program started in 2002 and this year is celebrating their 10th anniversary!  My last trip to the grocery store I bought 4 boxes of Cheerios, not only because we eat them a lot for breakfast but also because Cheerios has put books from previous years into their boxes of cereal.  My girls were so excited as we rifled through all the boxes to get to books we haven't read before.  I really like that the books are small and portable giving me more room for more books and that they are essentially free!  The picture of the book Bear Snores On is my second copy of the book.  After reading the one from the box of Cheerios so much it needed a little rest from little hands.  To learn more about the Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories program here is a great link that shares what it is and all the books they have showcased throughout the past 10 years. 

http://pages.simonandschuster.com/spoonfulsofstories/

 Bear Snores On for us was a bedtime tradition for my first born from the time she was about 8 weeks old until about two years old and by then had a little sister to share in the tradition.  I could capture my little ones attention with the rhymes and the way you can almost skip with your voice through the words.  Since the bear is hibernating for the winter in a cave a little mouse, a hare, a badger, a gopher, a mole, a wren and a raven decide to take shelter in the cave against the harsh winter night.  This is the perfect opportunity to get silly and use a squeaky mouse voice, and I always pictured the hare as having a very deep voice.  The two extremes help bring a little babies attention right to your face, to your mouth to watch how words are formed. The animals all get together and take over the bears residence by having tea, popping corn, sharing honey nuts, having a party and making stew. To make the story come to life for my kiddos I take each page and make it fun.  When the wind howls and growls so do I.  When the mouse creep crawls I use my fingers to walk up their belly's to their necks (they are always waiting for this one and the tickle that is comes with.). "Hare burps big BURPS!" so does mom! (the fake kind that is.). Gopher and mole arrive through a tunnel in the floor so I use my fingers to come up from below and then when raven and wren fly in I use my flying fingers to go in for another tickle.  (Just thinking of this makes me laugh to picture the girls all tensed up at the neck knowing the tickle is coming!) The bear finally wakes up with a sneeze after the animals season the stew with pepper.  The best part for my girls is when we all make such a scene doing our fake sneeze.  It is very long, drawn out, and loud!  What could be more fun?  The bear at first is angry and there are a lot of fun verbs to act out followed by a whimpering from a bear feeling left out of the fun.  Don't worry about the bear though, mouse offers to make more tea and corn for him too!  So the bear stays up with his new friends and ends up being the one who can't sleep when morning comes.

If you like this book there are a quite a lot of books about Bear and his animal friends.  They all have wonderful rhymes and teach about friendship. 

This book another favorite.  The animals are all using sign language to sign for "more".

McElligots Pool By: Dr. Seuss (September 12th, 1947)

I came across this book at my local library earlier this month. The book was sitting on a cabinet showcasing Dr. Seuss books for Read Across America Day which is also Dr. Seuss's birthday. I picked it up and suggested to my four-year old daughter that we should take this home since neither of us had the pleasure of diving into this story before. As a child I didn't read that many Dr. Seuss books. Only now as an adult reading to my two little girls have I found the humor and sensitivity and well insight in his method, his rhymes. 

 McElligots Pool starts with a man who questions a little boy named Marco who is patiently fishing in McElligots Pool. The man tells Marco that it is only a dumping hole for people's trash and that is he is wasting his time. That leads into the boys imagination opening up into a world of silly almost unimaginable fish and how this little pool might be really connected to something bigger. I think that is a great lesson. Don't we all want to think that we are going somewhere great or connected to something bigger than us? I do. My girls eyes light up as I run through the rhymes with my silly voices and inflections and as they look at the wonderful images depicting what I am reading. The pages illustrated with silly and fascinating images. As we take a ride with Marco and his imagination he sets sail for the ocean and all the small and large and the impossibly big creatures he can create. My two-year old daughter always grins as we read "Or even a fish Made of strawberry jelly." One of our favorite pictures is a fancy fish, almost like a beautiful Japanese painting. Marco never stops imagining that any of this "might" happen and so Marco ends his tale with the hope that by sitting patiently he will come up with a catch of his own!