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Author Sue Fliess selects "Five Family Favorites" to share with readers ... Read the rest of this post

• I mention to folks that in my new job I actually don’t work day-to-day with children’s books all that often anymore and they wonder how I’m coping.  As it happens, I’m just ducky.  Since my spare hours are just as chock full of kidlit as before, I honestly don’t feel like I’m missing too much.  I still read my reviews and get my galleys.  But occasionally something will be published and I’ll be hit by an overpowering wave of self-pity.  This week’s, “Why Didn’t I See That?!” kvetch-fest?  Peanuts: A Tribute to Charles M. Schulz by Charles M. Schulz, illustrated by Matt Groening, Raina Telgemeier, and Jeffrey Brown amongst MANY others. And it’s a 2015 title at that.  Waaaaaaaant.

• Meanwhile, another very cool looking book was recently released.  Jules at the Kirkus version of 7-Imp has the skinny on The Complete Alice a.k.a. what you can get me for Christmas.

• I think I could be happy if I just spent the rest of my life reading snarky reviews of that darn rabbit book. First there was Travis.  Then Roger.  And yes, I know that the more we talk about the bunny monstrosity the more time it will take before it goes away.  But we have such a lovely literary community there of mutual appreciation that when we are actually allowed to dislike something, it has a tendency to go to our heads.  Wascally wabbit.

• Sure, they’re a mammoth publishing entity of massive production and countless staff but . . . awww. Look what Harper Collins did for Harold’s birthday.  Ain’t it sweet?

Hmm. Sounds good at first. The headline reads, “Tired of stereotypical characters in books for girls, this dad wrote his own.”  Then it shows a book of various professions helmed by women in an abecedarian fashion.  It’s no Rad American Women A to Z but it’ll do.  Except . . . when you get to “L”.  I don’t generally get all hot under the collar when folks stereotype my profession, but COME ON, MAN.  Shoot, it’s images like that that kept me out of the profession in the first place.

• File this one away in the It Isn’t Just Me drawer.  Some of you may be aware that before I post an episode of Fuse #8 TV, a series where I interview authors and illustrators in a free and easy manner, I always begin with a bit of “Reading (Too Much Into) Picture Books”.  This is a series where I acknowledge (without actually saying outright) that when a parent reads a picture book too many times to a small child, they start to conjure up some pretty crazy theories about the text.  Well, thanks in large part to a recent New Yorker profile of Sandra Boynton by Ian Bogost, I see that I am not alone.  I’m actually in awe of his take on But Not the Hippopotamus.  The North America vs. Africa vs. Central America theory?  Brilliant!  By the way, my most ambitious re-interpretation will preface my Fuse #8 TV episode this coming Thursday.  Be prepared for a truly wacky one.

• Okay. That’s it. No one’s allowed to quit their blogs anymore.  I like the blogs that I like.  I may not check them every day but I like the reliability of visiting them and seeing something new.  And I get very sad indeed when the best ones fall by the wayside.  I mean, let’s say someone walked up to you and asked, “What’s the best children’s literature blog where real kids review real books . . . and it’s fun to read?”  You would answer without hesitation (if you were me, that is), “Aaron Zenz’s Bookie Woogie blog, of course!”  Well, here’s the thing.  The blog?  It’s had a nice run.  Seven years worth, in fact.  And now it’s done.  Over.  Kaputski.  And we’re all just a little bit sadder today. *sigh*

• Me Stuff: First off, I want to bow down low and thank profusely all the folks who came out for my joint SCBWI-IL/Center for Teaching through Children’s Books welcoming party last week.  It was, without a doubt, the BEST welcome party I have ever had, bar none.  I even signed someone’s cookie (that’s a first!).  If you live in the Chicago area and missed it, never fear.  You could come on out to EPL and see me present on the topic of picture books rather soon.  Yes, the very kind and talented Brian Wilson has allowed me to join him on his annual Best Picture Books Presentation.  I’ll get to talk about some of my too little lauded favorites of 2015, which is just a joy.  Finally, Chicago Magazine interviewed me recently.  They’re using the same photo from my Chicago Tribune interview, which is confusing, but the talk is entirely different.  It was awfully fun to do too.

• In my interview I actually mention The Guinness Book of World Records a fair amount.  Rather appropriate since I recently learned that the book Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table has been selected by the Points of Light Foundation as the book to break Guinness World Record for the number of children being read to in a 24-hour period. Part of the Foundation’s “Read Across the Globe” initiative to raise awareness on the global literacy crisis, volunteers all over the world will read the book next Monday, October 19. Here’s a news article and a tv news report that say more about it.  Thanks to Philip Lee for the links.

• Did you see?  They’re releasing Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman.  Wouldn’t be particularly notable aside from the fact that it’s always nice to see diverse books back in print . . . except something’s a bit different from the last time it was printed.  Did you notice what it was?  Debbie Reese most certainly did.

• In case you missed it (like me) there was a new brouhaha last week.  This time it involved author Meg Rosoff.  There’s a recap over at Reading While White which breaks it down.  Aren’t recaps great?  There should be more of them out there these days.

• Each year I try to write a review of at least one self-published book.  It can be a tricky affair since so many of them make common missteps.  That’s why I really appreciated the ShelfTalker piece When a Self-Published Book Is Done Right.  There really are some great ones out there.  Finding them is often the struggle, but when they work, they work.

• By the way, I just want to give a shout out to The Curious Reader Store over in Glen Rock, NJ.  My buddy Tucker Stone was recently there and he mentioned that they had a particular love for Wild Things there.  Thanks, guys (but particularly Sally)! We do appreciate it.

• Daily Image:

The title of this piece is 15+ Book-Inspired Pieces Of Jewelry For Bookworms, which you’ll see is a bit of a stretch. Still and all, I do like these Labyrinth earrings:

We’ve collected the books debuting on Indiebound’s Indie Bestseller List for the week ending April 5, 2015–a sneak peek at the books everybody will be talking about next month.

(Debuted at #5 in Hardcover Fiction) At the Water’s Edge by Sara Gruen: “After disgracing themselves at a high society New Year’s Eve party in Philadelphia in 1944, Madeline Hyde and her husband, Ellis, are cut off financially by his father, a former army colonel who is already ashamed of his son’s inability to serve in the war. When Ellis and his best friend, Hank, decide that the only way to regain the Colonel’s favor is to succeed where the Colonel very publicly failed—by hunting down the famous Loch Ness monster—Maddie reluctantly follows them across the Atlantic, leaving her sheltered world behind. ” (March 2015)

(Debuted at #8 in Hardcover Nonfiction) Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen by Mary Norris: “Mary Norris has spent more than three decades in The New Yorker‘s copy department, maintaining its celebrated high standards. Now she brings her vast experience, good cheer, and finely sharpened pencils to help the rest of us in a boisterous language book as full of life as it is of practical advice.” (April 2015)

(Debuted at #15 in Children’s Illustrated) The Bunny Rabbit Show! by Sandra Boynton: “You’ve got front-row seats to the cutest revue in town—hop on down to The Bunny Rabbit Show! The latest addition to Sandra Boynton’s phenomenal bestselling Boynton on Board series, this book stars a cast of high-kicking bunnies performing in perfect unison to a lively song all about…them.” (September 2014)

My sweet little boys somehow grew into teenagers, so we have to take a trip back in time to talk about the five books that are special to my family ... Read the rest of this post

#69 Moo Baa La La La by Sandra Boynton (1995)
28 points

I found a copy of this book in the library book sale, and bought it for my young son. When I showed the other librarians, every single mother among them started reciting it from memory – some of them with children in college and beyond. – Ann Carpenter

Oh, this is a toughie.  Not tough in terms of praise.  This is indeed one of those board book staples we’ve come to love and rely on.  No, it’s just hard to find things to say about it.  We can say that it’s currently tied with Barnyard Dance for the bestselling Boynton book of all time.  But aside from that it becomes a little difficult.  The best I can do is mention that in keeping with the 21st century, the book currently has an app.  One that actually earned itself a star in a Kirkus review.  Should a long car trip present itself, I’ll consider it.  Here’s an image from the app:

The description of the book, such as it is, reads: “Various animals make their sounds, from the moo of the cow to the snort and snuff of the rhinoceroses.”

There was a time there where I had the greatest of difficulty hearing this title and not singing it to the tune of “Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga.  This isn’t too crazy when you consider how much weirder it is that I sing her other board book Your Personal Penguin to Depeche Mode’s Personal Jesus. Editor Molly O’Neill actually found great words to go with my Gaga version, but I’ve long since lost them somewhere.  Bummer.

I do love this alternate title:

Finally, the obligatory awwwwww video:

#72 But Not the Hippopotamus by Sandra Boynton (1982)
27 points

To me, what makes this book so uniquely great is the meta-joke that the Hippo isn’t allowed to join the group of animals until someone can figure out a rhyme for hippopotamus, but I know from speaking with other parents who missed that joke, that it stands out just on the basis of Boynton’s brilliant drawings and semi-absurd decision to exclude the hippopotamus (and the armadillo). – Mark Flowers

Okay, first off I’m ashamed to say that though I have read this book to my daughter approximately 1,000 times, I never noticed Mark’s point until now.  This explains everything!!!  Who knew that a board book could stymie an adult so well?  That’s probably a good reason why a board book made it onto the list.  Now the last time I conducted this poll I excluded any and all board books from the running.  That was needlessly cruel, I now understand.  After all, it meant that folks like Sandra Boynton, masters of their form, would never be able to be properly praised for their genius.  This time around the rules were changed and the result is that we get to have books like this one on the list.  Short.  Sweet.  Very very funny.

The description from the publisher reads, “In this simple, playful board book, a shy hippo watches as other animals engage in social activities. Finally, the other animals invite the hippo along and, after dithering a moment, she leaps into the fun…with hilarious results.  The repetitive, enjoyable rhythm, cheerful mood, and well-crafted, simple rhymes will endear this story to toddlers everywhere.”

Now Boynton is a puzzle.  Folks come to children’s books from a variety of different places but when I think of greeting card artists I must admit that my first thoughts turn to Robert Crumb.  Boynton’s style is a touch different (just a touch) but she too was in the biz.  As you can see from her autobiography she has “designed, by varying estimates (none of them in fact mine because I’ve not yet gotten sufficiently motivated to start counting) somewhere between 4,000 and 6,000 greeting cards.”  Her first book for kids was also Hippo-related.  It was Hippos Go Bezerk and it was her January Project while I was still a student the Yale School of Drama.  These days she’s all fancy with her personalized board books n’ such but there’s no replacing her great originals.  And But Not the Hippopotamus may be considered her best work yet.

The good news is that this August we’ll be seeing a 30th anniversary edition of this book coming out from the Simon & Schuster imprint Little Simon.  According to the publisher it will have “an enlarged trim size and a shiny foiled cover.”  Ooh.  Aah.  And if you’d like to see what the original art looked like (quite different really) there’s a shot of the original in this post.

Now there are quite a few videos out there of families reading this book either to or with their kids.  From the very young, to the very silly, to the more matur

I’ve become a bit of a board book connoisseur in my old age.  While my cohorts are reading speculative YA fiction and high end narrative nonfiction I’ve been getting up close and personal with books that have pages that can double as coasters.  Aside from realizing just how difficult the darn things are to write (darn hard, she said cleanly) I’ve noticed that board books just don’t get a lot of credit on the interwebs.  There are no board book blogs.  No board book Goodreads Groups.  No hashtags for #boardbooklove or #boardbookwarrior (there are hashtags for #bbforever but they have nothing to do with titles for tots).  With all this in mind, I think there’s room enough in the universe for a post about some of the board books we’ve seen this year so far and what they have in their favor.  Cause when you read something 500 times, you’re either going to go insane or you’ll internalize it to the point where it’s the most fascinating thing you’ve ever read.  In the latter (or is it former?) category:

Bizzy Bear: Off We Go by Benji Davies – So here’s the deal with Bizzy Bear.  On the outset, I wasn’t impressed.  I got some of these books sent to me by Candlewick and give them this sort of cursory glance.  They star a bear.  He’s British (a fact you’ll notice in a couple of the driving scenes).  The most striking thing seemed to be that you could move things or lift things with these strangely sturdy little circle cut outs in various pictures.  So I brought some home for the small fry and didn’t think much of it.  Fast forward three months and I’m part of the unofficial Yanks for Bizzy Bear Fan Club.  I can even pinpoint where the change of heart occurred.  It all comes down to Bizzy Bear: Off We Go.  The plot, such as it is, concerns our titular bear as he hops a cab to a train to a plane to a vacation where he rounds out the story with a lovely lass he must have picked up mere moments after arriving (well played, bear).  I read this book quite a few times, impressed with its ability to stand up to a baby’s beating.  There must be some superior form of cardboard at work on this puppy since Bizzy take a licking and keeps on ticking.  But it really wasn’t until we got to an image of a roundabout that my mind was blown.

The set-up shows a little roundabout with traffic moving.  There are trees on the left and right sides of the roundabout and the traffic sort of disappears under them.  Turn a little wheel on the right and the traffic circles around the roundabout.  Simple, no?  I’m ashamed to say that it probably took me thirty-some readings of this book before I realized something strange. Normally when a baby book contains wheels that turn n’ such the characters appear rightside up and then upside down.  It’s a circle, after all.  Not so with Bizzy Bear.  By some miracle of modern construction there must be two separate wheels at work that make it so that the characters never appear upside down.  It has been all I could do to keep from tearing my child’s beloved book into shreds in order to figure out what the internal logistics where of something that many parents won’t even notice.  All the books in the series work (and, thanks to their poundability, are perfect for library collections) but this is the one that truly has my heart.  Head over to There’s a Book and you can see a video of some kids putting Bizzy Bear through his paces.

14 Comments on Board Books 2012: What Works. What Doesn’t., last added: 4/23/2012