How to use this Page

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

The Night Before Easter

By Natasha Wing; illustrated by Kathy Couri

  ’Twas the night before Easter, just before dawn

  not a creature was stirring out on the lawn

    Our baskets were set on the table with care,

  in hopes that the Easter Bunny soon would be there…

Eves of holidays are usually fraught with excitement, expectation and little sleep for kids or parents.

It’s the waiting, the wondering, the watching and the wishful thinking of what the dawn will bring.

And with Easter, it’s the arrival of the Easter Bunny with his Willy Wonka-like treasure trove of brimming baskets filled with sweets, such as the traditional jelly beans, marshmallow chicks, dyed eggs and, of course, the centerpiece chocolate rabbit.

Natasha Wing’s “Night Before” books are a fun rhyming read to the familiar cadence of “The Night Before Christmas” by Clement Clarke Moore. It takes young readers on a prequel of the events that will envelop them come Easter morning.

Here, farm kids along with night capped raccoons, frogs, red foxes, lady bugs and a mouse or two, are all asleep, awaiting the arrival of the Easter Bunny when:

         Then out in the barn

       the hens made such a clatter,

         I sprang from my bed

       to see what was the matter.

The matter is the “…big fuzzy rabbit with a crook in his ear.” And, this yearly Easter delivery bunny has a yellow chick ( if I may clarify; a baby chicken) in tow, that assists this hare with a flair for conveying confectionary delights:

          His soft fur was spotless

          from his head to his toe;

         his vest was all checkered;

         his tie in a bow.

That’s exactly how I had him pegged in my imagination when I was young; nattily dressed for his annual foray with “…his tail like cotton; his nose like a berry.”

Looks like a raspberry to me!

And not to be outdone by “chocolates and striped lollipops, the Easter Bunny has one last egg treasure hunt drop off delivery before he hops away:

             He carefully hid them

             on couches and chairs,

             the mantel, the bookshelf,

             and under the stairs.

Plus, the Easter Bunny even leaves a parting note for young readers, different from the called out refrain of Saint Nicholas, as this hare in a tear, hippity hops on to his next delivery:

           Happy Easter to all –

           and to all a great day!

Kathy Couri’s inviting depiction of a farm with red barn, replete with a cozy, comfy, and Victorian pastel cottage, complete with fish scale accents, can be seen on the cusp of spring’s most famous harbinger since the groundhog!

It’s the perfect invitational abode for a visit from the Easter Bunny.

And, Natasha Wing’s The Night Before Easter is the perfect pre bedtime read to calm kids, awaiting his arrival!

Easter

By Jan Pienkowski

This 1989 Easter picture book classic is a perfect fit for families that would like the opportunity to share with their young readers, the events of Holy Week, beginning with the procession on Palm Sunday, through the successive solemn events that unfold, with their culmination in the joy of Easter Sunday.

Taken from the King James version of the Bible, Jan Pienkowski,  an emigre from the ravages of World War II in Poland, resided variously in Bavaria and Italy before coming to England, where his artistic skills at Kings College, Cambridge, emerged.

He is twice a recipient of the coveted Kate Greenaway Medal for illustration.

In Easter, Jan uses his keen insights culled from a lifetime of observing humanity, and  hones his craft into his own visual viewpoint of this remarkable and classically unique take on a religious weeklong journey at the heart of Christianity.

And, Jan has as his instrument of telling, his trade mark black silhouetted figures outlining with their depth of profound poignancy and passion, a breathtaking look at the powerful pull of the journey taking the Christ from the hosannas of Palm Sunday, through seeming defeat and death, to glorious resurrection on Easter morning.

The praise heaped on this book from newspaper reviews to publishing critiques is uniformly high.

Here are but a few:

             A memorable, dramatic, reverent

             presentation.

                                Kirkus starred review

 

 

             The glory of the presentation is

             matched by the exquisite illus-

             trations.

                               The Baltimore Sun

 

             

             This is a masterful ode to a biblical

             story, and will give readers of any

             age a cornucopia of images to pore

             over and think about.

  

                                  Publishers Weekly

 

          

           

             Dazzling beauty and poignant

             emotion suffuse these illustrations,

             which give an intensely personal

             interpretation of the King James

             Version of the Easter Gospels.

 

                               School Library Journal

                               starred review

Jan Pienkowski, with his ability to tell stories through his own unique artistry, is a gift that both picture book readers and other admirers, have come to linger over and love.

Please enjoy this classic holiday picture book that bears sharing with a young reader, if you are looking for one allowing children, guided by their families, to share in the journey of Holy Week.

Colors for Zena

By Monica Wellington

Monica Wellington, who teaches at the School of Visual Arts in New York, knows a thing or two about appreciating and identifying colors. And she has created a colorful picture book friend named Zena, to help young readers do the same, in Colors for Zena.

For those of a certain age, you may remember the color blocked squares in a chart on the wall at school, with the identifying word writ large above or below the splash of color.

Ms. Wellington’s Zena is on an adventure in the real world, capturing color visually in all  she sees around her on a rambling roadside tour.

Starting at home with the “absence of color,” in a black and white house and clad in the same tones of clothing, Zena is out the door with her pooch to find colors, as she calls:

         Where did all the colors go?

Ms. Wellington has picked things that kids might come in contact with in their everyday world. My one quarrel might be not the ubiquitous yellow school bus that all kids will easily recognize, but that not all small hamlets might have yellow taxis tooling around town.

But, the bright yellow orb of a sun and the yellow flowers blooming away in The Sunny Flower Shop more than make up for this!

Red fire trucks race down the road with lights flashing, and an orange maned lion joins Zena on her romp as she insists on more colors.

It’s a clever introduction for young readers that teaches the blending of colors to make new ones via Zena’s link up with the lion:

        “I am yellow and red mixed together,”

roars the lion.     

Blue skies and streams cross paths with Zena and her ever changing hat color as she comes in contact with the color palette including green that croaks via a jumping frog that ribbits:

  I am blue and green mixed together,

 croaks the frog.

Ms, Wellington has fashioned a walk with Zena for young readers that introduces the basic colors, then blends of the original red, yellow and blue.

My favorite blend is the purple dragon that announces:

      “I am a red and blue mixed together,”

rumbles the dragon.

Zena’s rainbow colored hat atop her head, greets her new friends at a paint party making a “beautiful picture with all the colors in the world.”

Anything is possible in Zena’s color-filled world. And, snuggled at the end of the day with the collaborative and newly painted picture on her bedroom wall, she is joined for a colorful cuddle by all her painter partners: her own black and white dog, green frog, orange lion, and purple dragon.

Zena even gets to wear a crown to bed fashioned of all the colors she’s met and painted.

If you have a young one at home that craves color and wants a picture tutorial on the same, a walk with “Colors for Zena” may just enliven both your worlds the next time the two of you are out for a stroll.

*And speaking of color, please check out this song called, “Think Pink,” sung by a force of nature and pure talent, named Kay Thompson. It’s from the Fred Astaire/Audrey Hepburn musical called “Funny Face.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbxXA70gvrA

Little Tree

By Loren Long

Loren Long’s Little Tree gave me a great idea for a “two fer” for young readers; back to back readings of two “tree” themed books.

The first is Hans Christian Andersen’s classic, called The Fir Tree, and the second, is Loren Long’s Little Tree.

Both are stories with a surface tale to tell, but with deeper meanings both you and your young reader may want to talk over, or they may simply intuit on their own.

Trees have always appeared to me as symbols of strength, growth and adaptability to change. They go with the flow, so to speak.  Most change with the seasons and take what comes…gently.

These two authors appear to depict opposite ways of a tree looking at adaptability to change. And there are truly wonderful lessons to be learned in both books!

In The Fir Tree, readers meet a small fir tree in a fresh forest awash with stately firs,  towering tall over him. He can’t wait to be as they are. But their fate, and use, is to be chopped down and carted off to be the masts of tall ships.

The sun and wind admonish him to rejoice in his youth, his fresh growth and in the young life in him. Does the tree listen? Nope! He wants more… the next big thing. Perhaps, Mr. Andersen was keying in to the impatience of youth? Can’t you hear those voices?

      I’ll be happy when… I can stay up late…have a two wheeler…have a sleepover… go to the mall or the movies alone… drive a car… go to high school… go to college… live on my own!

Sound familiar, parents? Well, some maybe not quite yet.

Yet, a passing bird tells the fir tree of a glorious future awaiting decorated trees in a households that he has seen.

The tale unfolds of the fir tree experiencing being felled as a Christmas tree, the excitement and moment of splendor on Christmas Eve as candles glow on his branches, and later he is pillaged of the gifts that fill his branches.

He sadly thinks there are more moments such as these to come, as he ponders his future, and unceremoniously stuffed in a garret.

Yet even here, he is hopeful entertaining the passing parades of mice and rats that listen to his retelling of the tale of Humpty Dumpty, he first heard on Christmas Eve.

What’s next? That seems to be his constant topic of conversation, and sadly the reader knows what’s next for all Christmas trees past their expiration dates!

Savor the moment seems to be the message here; revel in it, bathe in its beauty, and do not wish it too soon gone. For it will never come again. How do we teach our children to embrace and value the now? Just maybe with books such as these!

These are pretty sobering thoughts for a picture book, no? But then, the truly great authors both entertain and enlighten.

Loren Long’s Little Tree takes an entirely different tack:

        “Life is perfect just the way it is.”

He loves those leaves that cool him in the summer’s heat, and as the autumn winds ruffle his leaves, and those of the towering trees in the forest that surround him, he will not let go of his browned and dried up leaves.

The other trees surrender effortlessly to the harsher winds of the coming winter that strip the leaves bare. But not Little Tree.

        Then one by one, the trees began to

        drop their leaves. But not Little Tree.

        He just hugged his leaves tighter.

A squirrel, passing doe and red fox query Little Tree as to “What are you doing with your leaves still on you?” His answer is a tighter grip on what he knows. And the pattern continues as the seasons come and go.

All around him, trees of his original height are now burgeoning with new altitudes and lofty with leaves. But not Little Tree. He is safe and …stuck where is in his comfort zone, clinging tighter as successive  season pass.

At last, one winter, with snow falling in buckets, he looks at the trees, bare limbed that were once his size, now dwarfing him. And he gets it and lets go of his leaves.

Loren Long has written a simple parable about a number of things, and perhaps among them are:

         Let nature take its course. She’s a great teacher.

 

         Don’t be afraid of the unknown.

 

         Too much stubbornness stunts growth.

 

         It takes courage to let go of what

         we know.. to find what we need. 

Time, acceptance and love can be the great healers and facilitators of growth in us as well.

Even though Little Tree feels the harshness of winter minus his leaves, over time

            …something happened.

And hopefully, that something will resonate through the growth cycles of young readers in your own life, as it does wonderfully in the life lessons taught by Loren Long’s Little Tree and The Fir Tree by Hans Christian Andersen.

Growing, whether in child or tree, is a journey and a gift. Sometimes we want to stay where we are because it’s safe.

Children need to sense and savor that fully as it fills them with security, to be sure. And maybe it even works for us for a time.

But, we will never know how far we can journey, if we stay where we are.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar’s Christmas 1 2 3

by Eric Carle

It’s not “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” but for those parents of very young ones learning how to count this Christmas, here’s a fun and sturdy board book to help with the holiday numbering up to ten!

On each cardboard page, there is that famous hungry caterpillar to espy. Plus kids can count along with the numbers 1-10 seen on each page both as printed word and number; then they are pictured alongside simple things seen this time of year. Here’s a small sample:

                1  One Santa Claus

 

2  Two Christmas trees

 

4   Four holly leaves

 

5   Five snowflakes

 

7   Seven penguins (love this)

 

10   Ten presents

They all culminate with a “Merry Christmas” writ large, alongside a brilliant butterfly.

And when kids ask, “Hey, where did the caterpillar go?, Eric Carle provides the perfect teachable moment for a spontaneous young one’s science tutorial!

Young readers that are just beginning to point, and on the cusp of having a concept of what a number may mean, will enjoy this as a small stocking stuffer, or just a fun read, along with parents or grands.

Dear Santa, Love, Rachel Rosenstein

By Amanda Peet and Andrea Troyer; illustrated by Christine Davenier

The heart wants what it wants –

or else it does not care.

 

Emily Dickinson

This quote popped into my head after finishing Dear Santa, Love, Rachel Rosenstein.

It’s probably one of my favorite picture books of this season – though I do have some reservations. More on that to come.

The story centers on the very human and headstrong Rachel intent on the absolute and unequivocal certainty of what she wants.

And what she wants is a taste of Christmas. But, the fly in the poetic ointment of that desire is that Rachel happens to be Jewish.

Amanda Peet and Andrea Troyer have written a very realistic take on young Rachel’s determination to share in the traditions and culture of the Christmas season. And here’s why Rachel feels what she feels:

She loved the thousand twinkly lights

that went up in her neighborhood, the               

ginormous tree in the town square, and

the store windows crowded with Santas,        

elves, candy canes, glittery tinsel, and piles of presents wrapped in shiny, beautiful paper.

Rachel is in love with the entire idea of the secular Christmas that inundates our culture each year. Truth be told; no matter what your faith belief, it’s pretty hard to ignore all of this, and, if you’re a kid, nigh on impossible.

I do get that this is part of the point being made here; that, along with the importance of individual faith traditions needing to be respected.

But what I don’t get is the impermeable line in the Christmas snow that is unquestionably drawn for Rachel.

Admittedly, Rachel represents probably a host of many faiths that are not part of the Christmas season. Its secular messages are trumpeted everywhere AND OFTEN this time of year.

They’re pretty hard to ignore, even for Christian families that are trying to coexist with another “reason for the season.”

But our young Rachel is goal oriented, as relates to Christmas getting and giving, and, through a series of clever and elusive plots, endeavors to show that she will not be left behind in the Santa season.

She is a girl on a mission, and her objective is to find a way to be part of it – and she leaves no stone unturned in her pursuit of making Santa aware that she is there and eager to be part of the festivities. Her door is wide open, leave no doubt of it, Mr. Claus!

Patient parental explanations of the traditions of Passover, Rosh Hashanah and Hanukkah along with all the other wonderful foods, and religious and cultural heritage of her own faith, fall on deaf ears as Rachel ratchets up her quest for Christmas.

So, she resorts to a special ops operation of a sortie to Santa – the Big Man himself – in person! She visits a department store Santa when a neighborhood family invites her along as their guest.

Department store Santas have probably heard it all in the pleas of panicked kiddies in the thrall of Christmas gift getting.

But the look on this Santa as Rachel explains her dilemma is priceless – and so human that you cheer for Rachel’s spirit, tenacity, and her desire to be part of something she so desperately wants.

Rachel is a Christmas decorator nonpareil, as she secretly floods her house Christmas Eve with a flurry of last minute proper welcomes for Santa, all in the trusting hope, he will not pass her by.

She spares no known gesture, big or small, as even the cookies (latkes pressed into service and reimagined with chocolate chips pressed in ) and milk with a note for Santa, are placed with great care.

I am reminded of our Jewish next door neighbors growing up as a kid in New Jersey. Every Christmas, my friend, Sharon, would be invited over to help decorate our Christmas tree. She came, and had, I think, a good time and a peek at another tradition, other than her own.

What never occurred to me was whether she had one of her own, though I did enjoy delicious suppers at her home over time. We enjoyed one another’s homes and hearts that were open to each other.

But, the inevitable happens for Rachel. No Santa and no present. The reader can see it coming a mile away. And your heart breaks a bit, too, for Rachel’s disappointment – for a bit.

Her mom is a pretty sage and practical woman, as she says to her daughter:

              Sometimes, no matter how

              badly we want something

              we want, we just have to accept

              what is.

Those are indeed true and wise words, in the main, but I wonder….

What I do remember from my friend Sharon’s and my secular and faith traditions, was that they were no better, one than the other, just different. And we were the richer for sharing them. We could each be what we were, and not compromise the other person’s belief system, by enjoying, learning and participating in the other.

What was important was our shared friendship and the other 364 days of the year that we played games together, acted in neighborhood plays, laughed as we popped tar bubbles on the street and roller skated on the fast hill that ran past her house.

I guess I am going out on a PC improper limb here, when I choose to opine: Would Rachel be a better or worse person for even a fraction of participation in any of the traditions involved in Christmas? It’s an interesting premise.

And while her family’s meeting at the local restaurant; the only one open on Christmas, involves a communal get together of other non Christmas celebrators of Chinese New Years and Diwali, another festival of lights, as Hanukkah is, it does beg the question.

All of these children: the Rachels,  Aminas, plus young Mike Rashid and Lucy Deng, are all growing up in an incredibly diverse world of religions and cultures.

Would they be better served sharing the richness of who and what we all have in common, as long as it involves a growing respect of what we each hold dear – and a willingness to find out what each tradition means –  to them?

Sometimes kid’s insights are so pure and devoid of any past prologues to their future, that, even if her mom says no, I am rooting a bit for Rachel.

I couldn’t have said it any better than the simple sincerity of Rachel’s letter to Santa as she asks him to allow her to be part of Christmas:

      Dear Santa,

         I live in the brick house on Huntley

      Drive. Yes the one with NO holiday

      decorations. It does have a chimney

      and there will be cookies waiting if you

      come down it.

          I have been really good all year and I

      know that you are a fair person and will

not mind that I am Jewish. After all so

      was Jesus, at least on his mother’s

      side.

Check with mom first, Rachel, but you are invited to share a bit of Christmas with us – ANYTIME!  And, just for the record, I will come to Huntley Drive for Hanukkah. Just say the word!

I can’t make latkes, but I sure am willing to learn.

Happy Hanukkah, sweetie! You are one special young woman.

The Night Before Hanukkah

By Natasha Wing; illustrated by Amy Wummer

If you haven’t been introduced to Natasha Wing’s “The Night Before..” books, they are worth a look this time of year. They make great primers on a host of subjects. Not only on holidays like Hanukkah and Christmas, but others such as Thanksgiving, Easter, Mother’s and Father’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, and other notable family centered celebrations.

And many other meaningful events in young reader’s lives like Summer Camp, Preschool, Kindergarten, First Grade, Birthdays and, of course, the seminal, “The Night Before Christmas” are part of this “Night Before…” series.

Evenings before special family events are filled with traditional preparations that are familiar to most families, with Ms. Wing finding many main days to celebrate, along  with Amy Wummer, providing illustrations that oddly remind me of the Berenstain Bear books. And I mean that as a compliment!

Modeled after the cadence of Clement Clarke Moore’s “The Night Before Christmas,” this book on Hanukkah starts with a cute opening:

       “Twas the night before

       the eight days of Hanukkah.

       Families were prepping from

       New York to Santa Monica.

Hanukkah is a pretty tough word to rhyme, no? How about “harmonica?” I tried.

The Festival of Lights begins with kids “nestled” in beds, dreaming of chocolate gelt (coins), with an honored, heirloom menorah from great-grandma Claire, placed in the window for eight nights.

And with each night, new family fun is played out and shared, with spinning dreidels, eight days of gifts, delightfully deep fried potato latkes, doughnuts oozing jelly, made by Uncle Dan, and a brisket with gravy, whose celebratory scents fill the family kitchen.

The ancient story of the Jewish heroes, the Maccabees, is retold anew, as the tale of a miracle of a small amount of oil, burning brightly in a cleaned holy temple for eight days.

Natasha Wing continues to hit all the right notes in her poetic tellings of family centered traditions and holidays that emphasize the importance of happenings that are family centered.

In a world desperately in need of something to believe in that lasts, family is a pretty great place to start.

As the last candles burned like they had for eight nights,

we wished a Happy Hanukkah to all – the Festival of Lights! 

April’s Kitten

By Clare Turlay Newberry

I love these Way Back Wednesday classic picture books featured on The Snuggery. This particular one was given to me as a gift when my brother visited a favorite book store “haunt” of his in Florida. I asked him to browse the classic picture book section, and voila, he came up with this gem.

It won Caldecott Honor designation in 1940, and ALA Notable Children’s Book inclusion in books spanning 1940-1944. And it’s easy to see why, even in 2015. And if you think a book from 1942 is out of touch, listen to this line from the opening page as young April, living in a New York apartment with her parents and a cat has to find new digs for her cat’s offspring with this quote:

 

“Nobody has much room in

New York because so many

people are trying to live there

at the same time. So April and her

mother and father and Sheba live

all crowded up together in a very

small apartment.”

 

Still pretty true long after it was written, right?

Plus, its art and narrative hold up over time. It is not “dated” in the least. In fact, its story of a black kitten named Sheba, seemed a “purr fect” Way Back Wednesday fit for this season leading up to Halloween.

Imagine the reading worth of a picture book that can hold up for over 50 plus years, and has a reissued edition to boot.

That is pretty impressive, and just one of the reasons that I keep bringing books like “April’s Kitten” forward for new generations of readers, whose parents or grandparents might have missed them.

Their art and narrative with great vocabulary, sentence structure and imagery, both entertain children and show them what “great” looks and sounds like, as compared to mediocre.

Mediocre is okay, but maybe not as a steady diet, as unbridled candy consumption may be okay for a day come Halloween; but not everyday. There is nourishment of the mind to be found in these classics. So come and enjoy.

Young April is faced with a dilemma. Her cat, Sheba, has delivered three kittens. They are all different, and are named Charcoal, Butch and Brenda.

How young April finds a solution to finding adoptive homes for Sheba’s sweet cats living in a small apartment, is a wonderful book for cat lovers, animal lovers – or just about anyone.

Will she find all three homes or will a new apartment be the solution for at least some of April’s cat coterie?

I loved reading about Ms. Turlay Newberry’s  childhood in Enterpise, Oregon, and her innovative idea of drawing on small strips of  papers found between Shredded Wheat Biscuit boxes back then, as paper was scarce. Now that was enterprising.

Studying at the California School of the Arts and Grand Academie de la Chaumiere in Paris, among other places, she also wrote three additional Caldecott Honor picture books, and they are:

 

Barkis  – “Will go straight to the hearts of dog lovers of all ages – The New York Times.  Relates the story of a sister jealous of a brother’s new dog.

 

Marshmallow –  Tells of a relationship between a cat and a baby rabbit.

 

          T-Bone the Babysitter – Meet a cat with spring fever. 

 

All four are classic picture book reads!

Why not try one…. or all four?

Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin, Pie

from the National Geographic Kids series

By Jill Esbaum

There have been plenty of fall weekends this October, and several more to go, where families can go pumpkin picking.

Kids love to forage in fields for the “perfect pumpkin.” And, for each child, this perfectness will, in their minds, vary from the tiny to the titanic.

And, along with corn maizes and the onset of kid friendly “agra-entertainment”, is the ability post or pre pumpkin pick, to settle down for a quiet moment with a child and perhaps a picture  book about this worthy squash called the pumpkin.

If your young reader is loaded with questions such as, “How did my pumpkin grow?”, then this book from the National Geographic Kids Series, is a fine start for the youngest among us.

Its simple wording and accompanying bright photos of a pumpkin’s beginnings from seeds tucked into the “sun-warmed earth,” gets this pumpkin lesson off to a grand start.

Pretty soon the young reader is looking at a seed softened into a sprout by spring rains. Next, tangled vines protrude above the dirt and bright yellow flowers allow bees to spread their pollen from flower to flower.

And it’s a small leap to those knobs that form, morphing over time into pumpkins.

Here, at the farm, we saw firsthand how those cool October nights arrived, and those pumpkin vines fairly shriveled, and left in their wake, a veritable plethora of pumpkins.

Your young reader will marvel while turning  pumpkin filled pages showing the variety, size, and color of pumpkins that are part of this squash family contingent.

Did you know that they can be green, red, tan, yellow, white, and even blue? Though the ubiquitous orange pumpkin is probably known best by kids, they all are photographed in profusion in Jill Esbaum’s colorful read.

Found in varied sizes, my favorite pumpkin picture in her book are three men, each in a ginormous hollowed out pumpkin, paddling along in the water in their pumpkin boats.

She points out that that, though hollow inside, and full of stringy goo, the seeds of next year’s crop can be found inside.

Our family has a tradition when we carve our jack o’ lanterns, that each and every member put their hand inside the carved pumpkins and haul out a handful of the goop for luck. We’ve even mailed a small handful to members that couldn’t be there in person. We’re traditionalists; what more need be said?

And for the purists, and do it “from scratch,” souls, there are the suggestions and pictures of the pies, breads, desserts and soups thatmay emanate from the venerable pumpkin.

Pictures of jolly jack o’ lanterns, with toothy grins, are in evidence, as well as the important note that unused pumpkins may be used to feed animals on a farm, or left in the field to nourish the soil. Many an unwanted pumpkin has nourished our fields. Sniff Sniff.

Provide your young reader with a window into the cycle of the pumpkin and how, if we are careful, nothing is wasted. Instead, this past season’s pumpkins feed the growth cycle next spring as “Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin, Pie” gives a simple and salient homage to the “pumpkin moonshine” in your child’s future.

Turning the pages before or after your trek to the pumpkin field, is well worth a look at this pumpkin info book.

Happy pumpkin hunting!

A Woggle of Witches

By Adrienne Adams

Halloween has morphed slowly from a night out for trick or treaters into a huge holiday in the United States. And so, as the run up to All Hallows Eve begins, here’s a Way Back Wednesday picture book gem from the early 70’s.

I was curious about the term “woggle” from Adrienne Adams’ title, called “A Woggle of Witches.” Seems a “woggle” as defined in the dictionary is the thing that attaches neckerchiefs. If you have a Boy Scout in the family, or love scarves, you will know what I mean.

But my husband ventured that the title infers more a “gaggle” or gathering, than anything else. That’s what I think too.

Your young reader will love the haunting atmosphere created in Adams’  wood full of witches, lounging in hammocks amid the treetops on All Hallows Eve.

 

“On a certain night, when the moon is high,

one calls, “Wake up. Time for the feast is come.”

 

And feast the witches do …on bat stew.

Then, it’s a quick hop on a broom to circle the moon on a cloudless flight.

Adrienne Adams’atmospheric and mood-filled art of witches winging their way skyward, in formations Blue Angel pilots would envy, is fanciful and fun. Her use of color in green, black, yellow and purple makes this Halloween holiday woggle witch gathering a reading trip to enjoy with your young readers this season.

And its ending is sure to please with its “who really scares who” scenario as the woggle stumbles upon a “woogle” of young trick or treaters in a cornfield.

     “Let’s get out of here!”they cry.

     All quivering and quaking,

     they leapt on their brooms,

     and slant toward the sky.”

“A Woggle of Witches” by Adrienne Adams is a Halloween sweet treat picture book not to be missed.

*Here’s a link to another favorite witch of mine. She’s a witch called Hazel that appeared in this 1952 cartoon called “Trick or Treat,”with Donald Duck’s nephews named Huey, Dewey and Louie.

Donald wants to trick, but Hazel gets the nephews their treats in a witchy way.

Boo!

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-6LvIJKb_E

Llama Llama Gram and Grandpa

By Anna Dewdney

Who can forget their first sleepover? Not the one at a friend’s house; I mean the one at Gram and Grandpa’s house.

Ms. Dewdney, with her “every child” scenarios in her Llama Lama series, is in very comfortable and relatable territory for most kids of picture book age.

The ritual of the first sleep over at a grandparent’s house is a biggie, what with the determination of what to pack along with the pj’s. It all takes some careful planning. Bag? Check. Fuzzy? Check. He’s on the back seat. And off you go.

Things at Gram and Grandpa’s are the same as at home, with familiar pictures on the wall of family members, yet it’s a wee bit different.

Okay, time to unpack for the night.

Wait a gosh darn second! Where is Fuzzy Llama? Anything amiss, he’s asked. Should he fess up or no? Better press on with tractor riding, gardening and outside play.

Momentary distractions fill the time with Grandpa’s woodshop. Together they fashion a just-right size chair for…. Llama can only imagine….. the left behind Fuzzy. Oops!

Dinner passes, plus a nighttime show from the stars. The traditional childhood routines of bath, toothbrushing, storytelling and the final good night smooch ensue.

A quivering lip from Llama Llama betrays all:

            Fuzzy Llama isn’t here!

Will Llama Llama self-soothe, will the grandparents take him home to retrieve Fuzzy, or will Grandpa remember what it felt like to be Llama Llama, and provide a “fuzzy” solution all his own?

My money is on the wisdom and experience of Grandpa to provide a special much-needed, well-worn and much-loved toy, all of his own, to fit the bill in order to provide comfort.

Ms. Dewdney provides an important lesson for all children that find themselves, for a short or longer time, away from the familiar place that is home.

And that is, that a “home away from home” can be wherever there are good people that love us and care about us.

Night Night, Llama Llama!

Day is Done

Peter Yarrow; illustrated by Melissa Sweet

When I picked this up, the picture book title immediately brought up a soundtrack of life in the 60’s, with these familiar opening words:

 

Tell me why you’re crying, my son.

 

    I know you’re frightened like everyone…

 

If you’re of a certain age, the thrum of that song, has a sweetly calming feel, brought on by the mellow tenor of Peter Yarrow, plus the added harmonies of Paul Stookey and Mary Travers; widely known as the folk group, “Peter Paul and Mary”.

The song has been illustrated to picture book perfection by Caldecott Honor Book illustrator, Melissa Sweet.

The song’s words are paced and slow as animal parents, including bears, hares, deer, birds, raccoons, mice, foxes, and a host of other woodland denizens, reassure their young ones with these words:

 

 

  And if you take my hand, my son,

 

         All will be well when the day is done.

 

The cover flap terms it a “meditation on the environment and the kinship of all living creatures….”

Its soothing tempo and softly subdued illustrations, plus an accompanying CD containing within, a new rerecording of the original. Peter Yarrow’s daughter, Bethany, joining her father on harmonies, adds to the generational feel that reflects the intimacy of the song and its words.

And the song does, in its lyrics, ask some pretty existential questions that parents may be asked over time from young ones, such as:

 

 

             In a world filled with sorrow and woe,

 

  If you ask me why, why is this so?

 

 I really don’t know.

 

Yet, the song and picture book never let it end on a down note, because the continued refrain says it all.

 

 But, if you take my hand my son

 

All will be well when the day is done.

 

That “But“ at the beginning of the refrain is a pretty big statement. It serves as a reminder to young readers of the essential healing quality of “connectedness” on so many levels.

And this is a perfect bedtime book to bring the energy and stress levels way down for reader and listener both.

Why not introduce a new generation of picture book readers to Peter Yarrow’s timeless song and message in “Day is Done,” for a world sorely in need of some calming and reassuring words?

You may just find yourself singing to a small child, as they listen and learn the words and its message, too!

 

 

            Tell me why you’re smiling, my son

 

            Is there a secret you can tell everyone?

 

             Do you know more than those that are wise?

 

             Can you see what we all disguise

 

            through your loving eyes?

 

Let’s hope our children do, with picture books like these, to help their journey.

Little Red Riding Hood

retold and illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman

Did you know that the story of “Little Red Riding Hood” was a special favorite of Ms. Hyman’s? And, she apparently, if biography tales can always be believed, spent a whole year wearing a red cape as a homage to this heroine in red.

I love stories that give you a personal window into what motivates and influences a picture book author’s art.

And Trina Schart Hyman, winner of a Cal- decott for this particular book, and a Caldecott in 1985 for her “St. George and the Dragon” is both a wondrous artist and teller of tales. Thank goodness, we can discover and rediscover essential classics like this one with young readers of picture books. When we introduce narratives and art like hers to them, it certainly sets the bar quite high as we show them in that genre, what is great vs what is merely mediocre.

Mediocre can be okay – at times. Like food, a steady diet of the essentials is what will make the body strong. And equally so, a diet of the essentials of the canon of great children’s literature is the best way to feed the mind and imagination of children. The fluff of treats and sweets is also palatable and easy going down, but does it satisfy as well? Maybe, but I think not. Something to ponder.

I love borders in picture books. They add dimension, and sometimes depth to what lies within. And Ms. Hyman here, like the notable Jan Brett, has brought borders with rusticity that play perfectly to the story of the red caped girl.

Here, Red Riding Hood has a name. It’s Elisabeth and the red cape is a birthday gift from grandmother.

The wolf here is pretty cagey, as per usual, making polite conversation, all the while plying Red Riding Hood with queries about her destination.  

I love Ms. Schart Hyman’s pose of the wolf and Red Riding Hood in the wood with shafts of quiet light descending on the wolf as if to expose his evil intent. Heh Heh!

He is wolfishly wily and craven as he springs out of bed in grandmother’s garb!

But, thank goodness for the noble huntsman that Ms. Schart Hyman has clad in buckskin a la Davy Crockett! Charming!

If you’re looking for one version of this tale as old as time, this is the version to introduce to your young reader.

Red Riding Hood is as sweet as a Hummel figurine and the story with its detailed and muted illustrations, lends a cheery warmth to a red caped girl that knows her way around a wolf!

Smick

By Doreen Cronin; illustrated by Juana Medina

If you are into minimalism, and negative space can be a good thing, then a white floppy eared hound named Smick, a stick, and a chick may be just the ticket for a picture book read that allows your young reader to fill in the story line. They will be able to tell you the story.

Using broad outline marker strokes to fashion the adventures of a dog named Smick, Juana Medina gets the most from a little; art-wise. And New York Times best selling author Doreen Cronin of “Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type” and “Diary of a Worm” has a meet and greet story of the mighty and the mini into a charming, funny tail er tale.

Rhyming is always a great go to for young readers, and here, it provides the outline for the action filled adventure of a galumphing dog named Smick, his less than careful approach to a yellow and red chick friendship, and the playful play on words that define the wary circling of a huge Smick and a small chick. Terrif!

Once Upon A Cloud

By Claire Keane

What to give mom for Mother’s Day? It’s a question that not so big, and big children as well, ponder each year come May. It has to be special, and subliminally left unsaid by the little hands that clumsily wrap the gift, looms the question: Is it enough? Will she like it?

Celeste is on such a search. She has imagined beautifully wrapped gifts, with “To Mom”  tags attached of possible unnamed choices for her mother.

This ruminative thinking process usually precedes perfect gift selection, and here, in the middle of it, as Celeste is about to drift off, the Wind blows through her casement window – and she is off on a grand adventure.

Aloft in the fleece filled sky, she is adorned with a necklace, crown and sparkling slippers by a bevy of Stars, as if she is a long awaited guest. Even the Moon awakens from slumbers deep to read to Celeste. And as the sky lightens, the Sun, pictured as a Glinda-like figure from Oz, greets her before her journey home. 

Reminiscing about her adventure with the Sun, the Moon and the Stars, she remembers how each of her greeters made her feel special. And Celeste, in turn, as most kids do, finds her own unique way of personally conveying in gift selection, her own feelings towards her mom.

Celeste gives the gift of herself, which is what, I believe, Ms. Keane is conveying in her picture book. Celeste can give back to mom, what was modeled to her each day by her own mother.

That is what moms are. They are the givers of gifts that last a lifetime in the gifts of their time, talent, energy, sympathy, listening ear, nursing skills, patience and limitless ability to somehow “make it better.”

And speaking as a mom, most of us don’t need the ultimate gifts of a Bentley, Cartier watch or a home in the Hamptons, nor even the Sun, the Moon and the Stars.

Claire Keane, in her picture book, “Once Upon a Cloud,” reminds us gently through a little girl named Celeste, and her dream sequence, that a small bouquet gathered with love, and tied with a red hair ribbon, represents the gift of self; the best gift on any day! For that is what our moms have given to us their entire lives and not just for one night.

Especially on Mother’s Day, who could resist this similar gift of self from a child, in whatever form it takes, all wrapped up with a hug? Better yet, do it more than just on Mother’s Day!

Thank you seems not half enough to say; but thank you to all the moms out there, and to my own – You were the Sun, the Moon and the Stars – to me!

Bunny Roo, I Love You

By Melissa Marr, Illustrated by Teagan White

It’s a great feeling when you come across a picture book where the author’s story is perfectly matched with a spot on illustrator who adds the extras of the imagined goings on, with their particular take on it. And via their art, they make it all amount to something quite special, soothing and truthful.

And in “Bunny Roo, I Love You” such a match up takes place. And the book itself could not come at a more serendipitous time in my own life, as two friends have just become grandparents – days apart. Twin boys arrived to one family and the other, welcomed a single boy. The first set of grandparents have the twins joining a young sister, and the other has the baby boy, joining a big brother.

Isn’t it great how love just expands naturally to make room for more of the same in a family? I remember when my second chid was born. The thought crazily crossed my mind for a second, “How can I love this new child as much as the first?”

But love is like elastic. It’s ability to encompass more and more of itself as the need arises is quite miraculous! I can’t imagine the first child without the second. Each are unique and each are loved in that widening circle. 

The world can seem like a pretty chaotic and bewildering place to newborns. One minute you’re in a nice, quiet and rather confined space; the next you’re in the bright lights with voices and your foot hitting an ink pad!

But fortunately, as we approach Mother’s Day on May 10th, moms know their own. They know the sight, touch and smell of their own and just exactly how to soothe a small and vulnerable new entry into the world.

Teagan White’s animal art, uses a combination collection of soft green, peach, cream, blue and orange hues that flesh out a new bunny, roo, lizard, wolf, kitten, and piglet in her picture book. They all have moms who know exactly what’s wrong with their new arrivals, and how to both calm and comfort their offspring, keeping them safe.

One of my favorites is the wolf mom. Listen to her take on mothering:

           “Then you opened your

           mouth and howled, and

           I thought you might

           be a lonely wolf.”

 

           I ran to my

           house and made

           you a cozy den

           so you had a home.”

Ms. Teagan’s sign of “HOME” hung outside the wolf den, is matched by the mom tucking wee wolfie under a baby blue coverlet to illustrate Ms. Marr’s narrative.

It’s an easy jump for kids to make the connection set up by Ms. Marr, to their own mom’s care and concern for them as babies.

          “Then you smiled,

           and I knew…

 

           You are not a

           bunny – roo – lizard -

           wolf – kitten – piggy.

           You are my baby.”

I chanced across this quote from a book called “Kindred Spirits.” It said:

          “A mother is a mother from

           the moment her baby is first

           placed in her arms until eternity.

           It doesn’t matter if her child is three,              

           thirteen or thirty.”

 

Ms. Marr’s words celebrate in picture book form, and softly enlivened by Ms. White’s pastel drawings, the unbreakable connection of need and wants fulfilled by the simple, self sacrificing word of “mother.”

Please allow “Bunny Roo, I Love You” and perhaps a shared sit down read with your child of either this picture book, or some others I will suggest, to set the tone for this singular day. The operative words here are “share and savor.”

Let their words start the beginning of the day that is an honored tradition of celebrating the calling and the commitment that is termed… motherhood.

Happy Mother’s Day to all our mothers, both biological and spiritual, that have nourished each, and all of us, on this journey called life!

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Llama Llama I Love You

By Anna Dewdney

How will Llama Llama celebrate this day that both honors one of the strongest of emotions and shows the ones that you love all the sometimes unspoken words that are in your heart?

Llama Llama and Anna Dewdney have come up with one way in this sturdy board book that mirrors your child and all their very sweet Valentine’s day preparation and celebratory activities.

You’re probably sharing in the doing of most of these things with your child; picking out or making Valentine cards for both family members and your child’s classmates. And, like Llama Llama that involves the sending and receiving of same, to those near and far.

A brown-jacketed hippo mailman delivers a bouquet of flowers to Llama’ mama, and Llama Llama, in turn, receives a Valentine heart of chocolates from mom. I confess – via a conspiratorial whisper – that this is one of my favorite parts of the day!

And what child doesn’t like glitter? Glitter and glue are a must on Valentine’s Day, so Llama Llama comes up with a lace-rimmed glittery one for his mom.

And, of course, the small llama saves the best till last; an “I love you” whispered to mom as they cuddle, all snuggled up in her checked padded rocker.

It’s the sweetest part of the day, to my mind, and this board book serves as a perfect patterning for any child’s Valentine’s Day.

But, as you know, there is no one way to say, “I Love You.” Your child probably has their own unique way of saying those words that are so meaningful ANY day of the year!

Please remember to send and receive those words with the ones you love this Valentine’s Day!

When Everybody Wore a Hat

By William Steig

I confess I had never heard of this title by one of my favorite picture book authors. William Steig, former illustrator for the “New Yorker” who did not start his picture book career till he was in his sixties, is a sure reminder for all those second career, “Chapter two” people dreaming out there, that it is never too late to dream. What is that saying? ”There is one book in EVERYONE.

And Bill Steig had a slew of them in him from his Caldecott medal winning, “Sylvester and the Magic Pebble” to “The Amazing Bone”, also a Caldecott Honor book, and from “Amos and Boris” to “Dr. De Soto”, and “Abel’s Island”, BOTH Newbery Honor books. Quite a haul for someone that wrote such stories of imaginative adventure and characters of cunning, ingenuity, daring, along with a knowing acceptance of life. Coupled with wonderful vocabulary using words such as phosphorescent and odoriferous to describe the sea with the first word and a villain with the second, and it’s easy to see why young readers still love his books. Ever hear of a kindly ogre named Shrek? That’s Bill Steig’s book too!

I love books that connect generations. Kids want to know what life was like in mom and dad’s day, and better still, gram and pop pop’s day! And here, Bill Steig serves it up to this generation from HIS generation, in the story of when he was a boy, .”…almost a hundred years ago, when fire engines were pulled by horses, boys did not play with girls, kids went to libraries for books, there was no TV, you could see a movie for a nickel and everybody wore a hat,” as he tells it.

Bill gives a clear, but vividly cartoonish take in art and a wonderfully descriptive feel for his parents from the Old Country. I chuckled at his depiction of a typical mom/pop quarrel in which they spoke one of the four languages they spoke; German, Polish, Yiddish and English. Thankfully, the kids didn’t quite know what caused the ruckus, but the radiator also came in for a bit of dad’s ire for letting off steam as well.

Caruso and the opera were favorites of his parents, as they listened to a phonograph you wound up with a crank. Hey, I have one of those too, and the sound is great! Chess also was a favorite game played with a neighbor named Mr. Hoffman.

Hats were worn – sometimes with fruit on it – by ladies. Hey, I even remember wearing hats to church on Sunday! If you watch old news footage of baseball games in the 40’s and 50’s, EVERYBODY is mostly wearing a hat, even on a weekday! You’re right, Bill!

And, boy were things inexpensive as Bill points out. For instance, young readers will be agog at the fact that a hot dog could be bought for a NICKEL, as well as a pound of fruit and a seat at a movie.

They’ll also marvel at the number of times Bill moved and he was impressed at how strong those movers hauling huge pieces of furniture down flights of stairs were. Bill Steig lets us meet lots of interesting people that came in and out of his life when he was eight years old. Here are but a few worth meeting; foibles and all: Esther Haberman had a big mouth, a beefy butcher named Barney, Prince the janitor’s dog that scared the local kids, the elegant Mrs. Kingman who was just passing through the neighborhood with her pooch, and kindly Dr. Wager who actually came to the HOUSE! Yup, doctors made house calls then. I may be dating myself, but our family, too, had a fine man named Dr. Modrys that visited us when my youngest brother had the measles. It really wasn’t very unusual then.

Bill Steig’s trip down the memory lane of his young life is worth the reading journey for your young reader. It’s a fine peek into a window in time that has closed. Then, boys like Bill had haircuts in barber chairs and listened to stories filtering through the air at Ditchick’s Barbershop. And sitting on a horse like a real cowboy and having your picture taken was a treat.

All of these simple pleasures and interesting characters fed Bill’s very active artistic imagination with lots of material for his books. All the drawings in this book will make you feel as if you have taken a stroll through Bill’s neighborhood with him and know these people too.

But his closing lines are very telling. He says he wanted to be either a seaman or an artist. He DID become the artist, but you can’t tell me he hasn’t sailed to some pretty interesting places aboard those books he wrote!

And the best part of it all is that WE get to go along for the ride in all of them. Thanks for the ride, Bill! We get to see the past through your eyes and art. A time it was and what a time it was.

Christmas Tree Farm

By Ann Purmell; illustrated by Jill Weber

Like millions of other families across the country we were one of those that purchased one of the 25-30 million REAL Christmas trees hauled home atop car tops or dragged home this year.

There are 350 million Christmas tree currently growing on Christmas tree farms in the United States, according to the National Christmas Tree Society! The trees have their own society, yet!

We bought ours at a family tree farm run for generations by Ed Dart and a group of relatives and workers in the town of Southold, New York. As soon as you drive in, there is a cozy outdoor fire sending the welcoming smell of wood burning to your nostrils. Ah… Added to this is the scent of warming cider and hot cocoa to make the hunt for the perfect tree into a perfect adventure for the whole family. Step into a 200 year-old barn and you’ll see fresh wreaths being fashioned from greens, holly and such that are harvested on this tree farm.

But the adventure is over till next year, right? Not for Ed Dart and company. In fact it’s just the beginning of prep for NEXT Christmas and the eager families that have found their tree at his family’s farm for years! And tree growers start early so the cycle of tree growing can continue from year to year; and in a way that is respectful of the environment.

When I picked up “Christmas Tree Farm”, I remembered Ed Dart and the other growers across this country that make Christmas trees a reality in homes either with lofty furs in a great room or small table top trees tucked in a corner.

Ann Purmell has written a picture book for kids that will explain the beauty AND hard that goes on before the owner/Grandpa in “The Christmas Tree Farm”, switches on the glowing Christmas lights, posts the OPEN sign and swings open the doors of The Christmas Tree Hut. What has proceeded this magic moment is a year-long effort by some very dedicated people who value what they do.

Thanksgiving through Christmas sees the coming to fruition of their long hours of planting, pruning, trimming and tagging trees as to size and type. Some are spruce, pine or fir. “Some of these are older than Grandpa,” as Ms. Purmell points out.

It’s November, and Grandpa and his two young helpers are sizing up the current crop of trees as to which ones will be felled this year and sold to families for the coming season. Yet, always near the felled tree is planted a new seedling that will continue the growing cycle. Good to know!

Ms. Weber’s drawings are a picture postcard perfect renderings of the farm with families wandering through the woods for their prized and plump tree. Eager eyes and gloved fingers are seen running here and there pointing at and sizing up each tree till the big decision is reached.

What most families do not realize, and what Ms. Purmell carefully narrates in word and picture, is the year long process starting in spring that brought the Christmas trees to this moment and to these families. Hundreds of seedlings arrive in the spring about the size of an adult hand. Some of these planted seedlings will be lost to disease, insects rabbits and deer and so many more must be planted than will make it into full adult trees.

Summer sees the trees with shaggy coats in need of a trim that shapes them into Christmas tree perfection.

Grandpa has a long pole with different colored rings at progressive heights that show how tall a tree is and how much it will cost. The tallest are seven feet tall and it takes more than 15 years for it to grow that tall!

Young readers will love the scene as we peek in the window of the tree farm as it closes on Christmas Eve and the family decorates their own tree. AND one outside is filled with popcorn and cranberries, birdseed wreaths and suet filled stars for the animals.

Ms. Purmell has a whole page identifying Christmas trees of all types and her last page is filled with Christmas Tree Lore, interesting tidbits of info for kids, and a timeline tracing the history of the Christmas tree.

This book makes me want to go and revisit Ed Dart and his Christmas Tree Farm in January, and see what’s doing – and thank him for growing our family tree. Some that we bought will be replanted at our farm so we get to watch the growth process ourselves.

If you read this, “Thanks Ed!” Below is a link to Ed’s Farm or I’m sure your family has a favorite of its own!

http://www.dartstreefarm.com/info.html

Thanksgiving Is a Time of Giving Thanks

Turkey Day is just around the corner and families are already making plans to gather.

Thanksgiving is a time of giving thanks for the many blessings we enjoy – our homes, our harvests and the time we spend with our families. In our current culture, that time seems increasingly to be disappearing with the rapidity of cranberry, turkey and stuffing off a Thanksgiving platter.

Many stores today are impinging on that ever closing window of family time, even on traditional family holidays such as Thanksgiving. They are opening on Thanksgiving Day itself to get a jump on the traditional kick-off of the holiday shopping season, termed by retailers as “Black Friday.” I often wondered why that particular term was adopted, but I guess it’s because retailers have a grand opportunity to get into “the black” or plus side of the profit ledger on THAT day, if they haven’t been all year. I am certainly NOT against retailers, profits by any means, nor a vigorous economy, but can we hold the cash register “ka ching” till AFTER the turkey has at least cooled?

Stores are starting to try and outdo themselves with earlier and earlier opening times on Thanksgiving Day. Macy’s may have been one of the first to kick it off following its grand daddy of all Thanksgiving Day Parades, with the air barely let out of those lofty balloons of Superman and Snoopy, than the doors of Macy’s swing open at 6pm, two hours earlier than last year, to shoppers jamming their store for bargains!

ToysRUs is opening at 5pm not to be outdone. Best Buy will open also at 6pm on Thanksgiving Day and here’s one I had to blink to believe was true. Kmart shoppers attention: IT will open at 8am! That’s right, they will open in the morning, in case you would like to pop the bird in and then get a little shopping done BEFORE the guests arrive.

Maybe I am sounding just a mite peevish over this, but sometimes BIG changes in a culture happen so gradually, we rarely take issue until it’s a done deal. All right maybe this might be an over reaction on my part, and people should have the right to shop when they want to, even at the cost of family time. BUT, those stores must be staffed with OTHER people that might not have had the option to work on a day they might have preferred to lie on the couch after the turkey, and be lulled with tryptophan from the bird – with a good book. Great idea! and here’s a thought: maybe that shopping time could be better spent reading to a captive audience of small children gathered, and now sated at the feast, that famous six stanza poem by Lydia Maria Child, “Over the River And Through the Wood”. Plus, here are a great selection of others to choose from:

 

The Night Before Thanksgiving – Natasha Wing

In Every Tiny Grain of Sand – Reeve Lindbergh

Balloons Over Broadway – Melissa Sweet

Turkey Riddles – Katy Hall

I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie – Alison Jackson

One Little, Two Little, Three Little Pilgrims – B.G. Hennessy

The First Thanksgiving Day: A Counting Book – Lauren Kraus Melmed; illus. Mark Buehner

Thank You Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving – Laurie Halse Anderson

The Firefighters’ Thanksgiving – Maribeth Bolts; illus. by Terry Widener

 

And so, as Dickens’ Bob Cratchit intoned to his family on another holiday, “To the founder of the feast!”, and as far as I’m concerned, those founders would probably agree with me, and ask us to put off our shopping for just one more day!!

Jack

by Tomie de Paola

Jack is on a journey – and the message is – so are we! That is what is so unbelievably appealing to me about the picture book. For our very young readers, it takes them on their very FIRST journey into reading with stories told in pictures and a chance to see what lies ahead for a lifetime of reading.

And who better to be their escort on these early journeys than the inimitable picture book author, Tomie de Paola? His picture books are legend and his awards in the arena of the picture book are legion. And here in ‘Jack” is a deceptively simple tale of a young boy living on a farm with his grandpa “way out in the country” who goes to the city to seek his future. But, as you may see it has a powerful message

According to Jack, HIS perfect future involves an opportunity to “see the world and make new friends and live in a house in the city?” Sounds doable, right? And it sounds like the dreams of thousands of young people today as they enter young adulthood. But Jack relies on Grandpa for a plan and a mentor at the journey’s end. Smart Jack! The wisdom of the older generation is a treasure just WAITING to be plumbed – and so many times – it isn’t!

Kings too, make great mentors, being “wise and generous men, says Grandpa. And off Jack goes – alone – but not for long. He is joined on his journey to the city by a very noisy and diverse group of tag alongs. After hearing Jack’s plans, they, too, want to come along for the ride er walk. In beautifully nuanced artistic succession, Jack takes on a veritable armada of animals, all added on after a simple Q and A of “Where are you going?” and “We’re going to the city to ask the king for a house.” Naive? Maybe. But in the words of a Rogers and Hammerstein song called, “ Happy Talk”, it affirms the truth that Jack knows. And that is “You gotta have a dream – If you don’t have a dream – How you gonna have a dream come true?”

Jack has a dream and it is shared by a quacking, squawking, barking, cheeping, mooing, oinking, croaking menagerie of add on dreamers. I forgot the ones that are the late comers like the ones that baa, neigh and hoot!

I had to chuckle when I read the answer the guard gives Jack at the palace when he asks for admittance. ‘Go right in.” says the guard. The parallel to modern “white houses” is pretty funny – or not.

Jack gets his audience with the king accompanied by his noisy companions where he is handed the “key” to a house that is a veritable fixer upper – but doable as the king expresses confidence in Jack’s abilities.

Some say, as Jack moves in, “There goes the neighborhood,” as people have mimicked for years, BUT, others chime in with – “And it’s about TIME.”

Tomie de Paola has created a beautiful metaphor for the shared dreams of generations of people that go to the city to pursue a dream. The city IS a melting pot of different tongues and talents. But the dream is the same – a better life. And the best part of realizing a dream is that along the way, you usually have, if you are lucky – a ton of tag along friends that buoy you up in your dream. They may be create a din at times, and they may be diverse – but they share your dream! They believe in you – and the dream.

And as Tomie so wisely imagines in his simple tale – if you are dogged and determined – you just may be handed the key to a very small kingdom called a house where dreams come true. For Jack, it’s a house, but for others today, it may just be a job. BUT, kids will intuit the message that whatever your dream is, it may be shared by many who are NOT like you. And, in the end, journeys are made to be shared – as well as dreams -and there is room for all! Well done, Tomie! It needs to be said again and again for each generation of dreamers.

Scary, Scary Halloween

By Eve Bunting; pictures by Jan Brett

Isn’t it great when you have an essential Halloween classic that gives you a window in to the early art of an iconic picture book author like Jan Brett? “Scary, Scary Halloween” is such a book. I think anyone familiar with the artistry and attention to detail that Brett picture books are famous for would be very interested in this 1986 Halloween offering by Eve Bunting with pictures by Jan Brett.

Might you be familiar with a made-for-TV Halloween movie called “The Worst Witch” that came out in the same year, 1986? It was based on a book series of the same name by Jill Murphy. The series, published in 1974, may strike a chord with your young adult kids that may STILL remember the song from the movie, titled “Anything Can Happen on Halloween”, sung by the Grand Wizard himself, Tim Curry. And “Scary, Scary Halloween”, by the talented team of Bunting and Brett, is a visual of the words to THAT song. Funny how all these book and movies interrelate to a time in my now grown children’s Halloween time capsule. Movies and songs provide a sort of soundtrack to our lives, in that they can quickly take us back to a time and place.

Starting with the colorful and puckishly painted endpapers that set the tone to what follows, this tale of what can be seen and heard on Halloween is a hoot. Pictures are set against a purplish, inky night sky, as a ghostly band made up of costumed skeletons, vampires, werewolves, witches, goblins and gremlins cavort through a neighborhood, reveling in the freedom of being “someone else” for a night.

A costumed devil literally prances by a split rail fence, as he follows the happy hoard of trick or treaters. His elegantly bordered cape with eye ball design accents, is a window into Jan Brett‘s development for defining detail! It is the most chic of devilish designs in costume couture that I have seen in some time.

And as for those dark, glowing yellow and green eyes peering out from the dark following the parade of trick or treaters, whoooo can they be? Those are not owlish eyes you see, but practically purr fect and furry in nature would be my guess.

Have a Halloween treat with your kids reading the book and seeing this ghostly parade pirouette through the streets and fields even as you look out your window on Halloween and see its replication with YOUR kids.

And please give “The Worst Witch” a read too. Both the book and movie are very much worth it. Youtube has clips from the movie, so check it out. Happy Halloween!!

*******************

And here’s some more over-the-top Halloween Fun!

R is for Robots : A Noisy Alphabet

By Adam F. Watkins

Hey picture book lovers! I’m still at the farm and we’re nearing the close of another season “living close to the land” and feeling its rhythms. As the leaves begin to turn a rusty color on the enormous chestnut tree at the front of our farm stand, I’m sure I’ll also soon see the familiar sight of yellow school buses coursing up and down Main Street in our little town of Southold, New York. It’s Back to School time just in case you haven’t noticed, patient parents. But then, I’m sure as the Labor Day weekend wound down, you were making frenetic trips to Staples, stocking up on the endless list of school supplies, and all while fitting in ONE MORE trip to the beach! Beginnings and endings are full of memories and moments we never realize ARE a memory until they’e OVER!

And speaking of beginning and endings, it led me to a perfect start off to Back to School books, namely those featuring the ALPHABET! There are some great ones out there for your young soon to be reader! Tackling those letters and becoming familiar with their shapes and the sounds they make is the FIRST STEP to the magic Open Sesame door to READING. So why not make it an adventure with books that help make the intro easy and fun?

“R is for Robots: A Noisy Alphabet” is a colorful cacophonous romp through the alphabet . According to an article written on “The History of Robots” by Paula Timpson that I read recently, robots “come in every shape, size and color.” Did you know back in 850 B.C., the poet Homer wrote about a creature called a “bot”, short for robot? Today, they can play chess, talk, paint, dance and have even gone to Mars! Why even Leonardo da Vinci sketched a mechanical knight when he was 12! Yikes! He showed that movement by humans could be copied.

Remember Robbie the Robot in the great movie, “Forbidden Planet”? And who can forget the iconic R2D2 and C-3PO of Star Wars Fame. Well, Adam Watkins has fashioned a collection of lovable robot rompers that march forward on wheels and more. As they try to harness these pesky alphabet ABC’s, Watkins’ robotic roustabouts find it is no easy task! A lot of grunting and groaning of effort ensues. They’re on a assemblage mission replete with emanating sounds that begins with the letter they’re harnessing. Cool! As a giant B is carted into place, the phrase BEEP BOOP also moves into view and C falls to the ground causing a robot to cover its ears as a deafening CLANGO CLINK CRASH echoes on the construction scene.

These cute and clamorous robots vacuum, drill, haul, cycle, tractor and cycle. And as the letter T totters into place, a large robot with a tick tock clock for a body, points to the hands as if to say, “Let’s get it going, guys!”

Don’t let your young one miss the letter S hard working senior robot that uses a walker as he gingerly helps out. The tennis balls on the bottom of his walker glide smoothly over the grass as if to say, “I may be old, but I am STILL useful. KIDS, take note!”

By the time Y and Z are put into place with a YOINK and ZAP from a Super Soaker-iike gizmo, kids will be saying, “READ IT AGAIN! and please don’t forget the sound effects, reader! It’s half the fun of making Mr. Watkins’ book make the letters A to Z clatter clearly and with cacophony, into the consciousness of the young!