November 2009

On our last trip to the library we came across a cute new book that was just put on the shelf. Cornelius P. Mud, Are You Ready for School? By Barney Saltzberg turned out to be a cute and fun short story that we all enjoyed. Barney Saltzberg has published several books about Cornelius P. Mud and his many childhood adventures including one about welcoming home a new sibling. Each of the books is written for very young children. All of them, including Cornelius P. Mud Are You Ready for School, are short stories with very brilliant pictures all the way through.

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My daughter’s occupational therapist introduced us to the world of Karen Katz, and we have enjoyed every moment of reading this author’s incredible, memorable works. All of her books share her trademark roly-poly, joyous children exploring the wonders of the world. They encompass many different cultures, activities, and holidays, but one thing they all have in common is their fantastic bright pictures of babies.

Katz cites traditional folk art for her inspiration in much of her art and writing. After a long career in various arts, it was adopting a daughter from Guatemala that inspired Katz to start writing children’s books. Her first book, Over the Moon, was written for her daughter and many more soon followed. Katz says that her teen daughter remains her biggest inspiration, even twenty-two books later.

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Many of you out there are familiar with author Lauren Child. She is the creator of the book collections that follow brother and sister, Charlie and Lola. I am Too Absolutely Small for School was a lot of fun to read. In this playful story about Charlie and Lola, Lola is worked up over having to go to school. She insists that she is too small for school and lets her imagination take off with reason after reason why she can’t go to school. It’s up to her big brother Charlie to help Lola work through her fear…and her imagination.

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Horn went “Beep!”Engine purred.Friendliest soundsyou ever heard.

So begins Little Blue Truck, by Alice Schertle and illustrated by Jill McElmurry.  I found this story by chance one day when I was on a walk with my oldest (and at the time only) son.  It had been a stressful morning for both of us.  I was adjusting to a new job and he was adjusting to having daddy gone a little more often than normal.  I made it a point to pay extra attention to him that day, and while we were on our walk I thought the perfect activity would be to visit the local bookstore.

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For our family, part of the appeal of Jamberry, by Bruce Degen, is the excitement of the berry hunt.  Seattle, Washington and the surrounding areas are covered with blackberries.  In fact, author Tom Robbins makes the battle against blackberry brambles in the Puget Sound area part of the story of his fantastic not-for-kids novel, Still Life with Woodpecker.  Our children loved to spend a Saturday afternoon at the local park or in the Grand Forest on Bainbridge Island hunting for blackberries.  Jamberry brings the hunt for berries to a magical land where it’s not just the berries that are flavored.

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When I was a child, my favorite book in the whole world was The Flying Hockey Stick by Jolly Roger Bradfield. I remember being read to as a chlid on a regular basis, and more often than not, I begged my mother to read this book to me. Even today, as an adult, not having seen the book for several years, I can still remember the story and how great it was.

The story revolves around a little boy named Barnaby Jones. For some reason or another, he wants to invent a flying machine. So, he comes up with this crazy plan to make a flying machine out of a hockey stick, a fan, an umbrella and some duct tape. Seriously. This is why Barnaby Jones rocks. He was the pioneer of duct tape engineering.

Barnaby goes around his neighborhood and collects as many extension chords as possible because this book was written in the 80's and they hadn't developed a better technology.

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