Children's Literature - more picture books

1.      Carle, Eric. The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Philomel; BRDBK Edition, 1994. (13 pages)

A hungry caterpillar eats more and more before transforming into a butterfly. This book is vivid and fun, the holes where the caterpillar “ate” things and the pages of different sizes would be interesting on a physical level to young children.

2.       Brown, Margaret Wise. Over the Moon; The Runaway Bunny, Goodnight Moon, and My World. Illustrations by Clement Hurd. HarperCollins Publications, 1942, 1947, 1949.  (102 pages)

This collection of three books in one includes classic favorites featuring a sweet young bunny as the main character. All three stories feature themes of home comfort as the bunny is shown what a good home has. He sees what a mother will do for a son, he sees the comfortable elements of a bedroom at night, and he sees what elements of house and yard make up a happy home. The stories are simple and teach a simple vocabulary of objects that young children would be able to observe in their own homes.

3.      Lakin, Patricia. Snow Day. Illustrations by Scott Nash. Scholastic, Inc., 2004. (30 pages)

Sam, Pam, Will, and Jill are four young crocodiles who get to go sledding on a snow day when school is cancelled. This story celebrates friendship and an unexpected break from the daily grind of responsibilities. It’s a bit repetitive and preachy as it makes a point to recommend safety helmets and safety goggles for those who want to sled, so it was not a favorite for me. It seems to be geared toward toddlers, but toddlers may not appreciate a snow day from school the way older kids would – so in my opinion, it’s a bit mismatched.

4.      Galdone, Paul. The Little Red Hen. Clarion Books, 1973. (37 pages)

A hardworking hen goes through the rigors of farm life to prepare some bread without the help of her lazy animal friends. In the end, she’s the only one who enjoys the spoils of her work. This tale is repetitive in a fun way, it teaches the sort of lesson that even the very young can understand. As Sir Walter Scott puts it, “He that climbs the tall tree has won right to the fruit.”

5.      Rey, H. A. Curious George Takes a Job. Houghton Mifflin, 1947. (47 pages)

A curious monkey escapes from the zoo and tries his hand at different vocations with disastrous results until he finally decides to become a movie star. I love the illustration of George painting a jungle scene in a woman’s apartment when he was supposed to be washing the windows. I thought that the most controversial page was the page in which George gets into the ether at the hospital and goes on a little drug trip! Some parents might not like that particular page.

6.      Berenstain, Stan and Jan. The Berenstain Bears and the Trouble with Commercials. HarperCollins Publishing, 2007. (30 pages)

This tale teaches young ones to think critically about what they see on TV and not buy into ideas which may be exaggerated. The Berenstains do a good job of illustrating that children and adults alike may fall prey to commercialism and naiveté. These authors know how to portray believable and flawed adult characters. They also include a short poem in the beginning of some of their books which describe the moral of the story, this reminds me some of how Aesop would leave a moral at the end of some of his fables.

7.      Hoban, Russell. Best Friends for Frances. Illustrated by Lillian Hoban. Scholastic Book Services, 1969. (31 pages)

Frances excludes her little sister Gloria at first, but when she is excluded by boys in her neighborhood she decides to make a best friends club with Gloria and in the end the boys join it too. Hoban does a great job of broaching the dramas of childhood friendship, including sibling friendship and friendships between boys and girls. The scenarios seem very accurate and relatable. One thing that might bother some readers is the fact that Frances engages in name-calling and calls her friend Albert fat several times.

8.      Glaser, Higashi. Hello Kitty. Hello World! Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1976. (33 pages)

This children’s book doesn’t really have a story for me to summarize, but rather has a two-page spread for each major geographic area with many cultural relics and facts illustrated so that the reader may appreciate world culture. It’s a book that little girls who are into Hello Kitty would appreciate, although I don’t know that boys would care for it. One of the coolest features is that it gives translations of the greeting “hello” in many languages and offers a translation guide in the back where children can teach themselves a few vocabulary words and phrases in many languages.

9.      Sidman, Joyce. Ubiquitous: Celebrating Nature’s Survivors. Illustrated by Beckie Prange. Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2010. (40 pages)

Why is it that some species outlive all their contemporaries, barely changing for millions of years? This book of poetry explores and celebrates some of nature’s most “fit” species. In the poem, “The Lichens We” Sidman describes lichen as having “a slow but steady growing pace; resemblance to both mud and lace” and also offers concrete information about lichen (for example that lichen is in the kingdom fungi and has remained relatively unchanged for 400 million years).

10.  Sidman, Joyce. Song of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems. Illustrated by Beckie Prange. Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2005. (32 pages)

A pond is full of life and wonder, as this gorgeously illustrated poetry book highlights. In the poem “Spring Splashdown”, the words “leaping, leaping” take the form of a baby wood duck leaping down from a hole in a tree after hatching. Then on the following page after the poem, there is a short text describing the fun facts about the birds in the poem. I love how the author is able to blend literature and science in this book.

11.  Jenkins, Steve. What Do You Do When Something Wants to Eat You? Sandpiper, 2001. (32 pages)

Each page of this vivid book shows a predator species and a prey species; each page highlights a defense mechanism in the prey and teaches readers how animals adapt to survive. Jenkins uses an illustration technique that looks like cut paper scrap collage; I think it’s really effective. The colors are bold and the contrast is very strong. The illustrations are large – a full bleed with words printed right on the picture.

12.  Lauber, Patricia. You’re Aboard Spaceship Earth. Illustrated by Holly Keller. HarperCollins, 1996. (32 pages)

This book describes planet Earth as a giant spaceship, communicating in a way children will understand that earth is a closed system. Readers realize that the resources we use are recycled versions of the things that the dinosaurs used millions of years ago, and we will need recycled versions of what we have now sometime in the future. While it may feel a bit preachy, it is an important lesson and it’s communicated in a unique way children will really comprehend.

13.  Mansbach, Adam. Go the F**k to Sleep. Illustrated by Ricardo Cortes. Akashic Books, 2011. (32 pages)

Mansbach has an interesting and edgy concept for a picture book, I can’t see many parents of toddlers going for this although maybe parents of pre-verbal babies could read it in a sweet tone of voice and laugh to themselves. The summary is simple: this book is a rhyming sing-song plea filled with cuss words. I think this is more for a parent’s entertainment than a child’s. I loved the illustrations which were very cool, and I could envision some really trendy parents having some fun with this book, but I don’t think young children would care for it.

14.  Gaiman, Neil. Instructions. Illustrated by Charles Vess. HarperCollins, 2010. (40 pages)

I really loved this book in which Gaiman gives instructions for how to travel in a fantasy story. This book was one of the most unique and engaging picture books I’ve read all semester, I’m sure I’ll remember it. I think that, like many modern fantasy books, this book has a timeless quality. I could see toddlers enjoying it and older children finding deep messages within the instructions. A young one would think it’s cool to hear that all dragons have a soft spot, an older child may be able to think about the metaphor – how there are weak spots in the big problems in our lives – ways in which those problems are vulnerable to defeat.

15.  Chin, Jason. Coral Reefs. Roaring Brook, 2011.

A girl gets enveloped in a book about the sea before bringing her friends into the ocean world she has discovered. The text of this book was somewhat dry, but the illustrations brought another wordless story to the pages. It’s cool that her ocean journey began in a library and that the story ended with her showing her friends the portal to the new world she found. This communicates a real love of books, and how books have the power to transport us.

16.  Sidman, Joyce. Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night. Illustrated by Rick Allen.

Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2010.

This book follows the same format as Sidman’s other books (reviewed previously) although she has chosen a different illustrator for this book. The theme of this book is night, and the poems reflect about animals that prefer to move around through dark woods when most of us are sleeping. There is an author’s note in which Sidman talks about how the woods at night can be creepy to most humans, “But” she writes, “there are all sorts of creatures that prefer the night. Why? And how?  This book is my exploration of those questions.”

17.  Postma, Lidia. The Stolen Mirror. McGraw-Hill, 1976.

A boy who will soon be an older brother finds himself in a world of magical creatures and despondent people who have lost their mirror (the thing they look to in order to know who they are). He embarks on a quest to face the dragon and recover the mirror, and after he meets with success he decides that he will teach his younger sibling (regardless of its gender) to fight dragons too. It was especially interesting to me that the dragon said that there was only one mirror and that the boy’s despondent friends let the dragon have it, this could hold deep meaning. Overall, I loved it – beautiful and scary illustrations, thought provoking ideas about depression and identity, and an overall story that “has it all”.

Children's Literature - Picture Books

Here are a few descriptions of some of the picture books I've read this semester in my children's literature class. For anyone who is looking for a new picture book to pick up for a special little one in your life.

1.      Meng, Cece. I Will Not Read This Book. Clarion Books, 2011. Illustrated by Joy Ang. (32 pages)

This book is about a boy who will do anything to avoid reading, from menial tasks to hanging upside-down from his toe as dangerous things surround him. This book was a page turner and beautifully illustrated, I liked how the illustrator used different points of view (such as looking up at the boy from underwater through a swarm of circling sharks).

2.      Cannon, Janell Verdi. Harcourt Brace & Co., 1997. (56 pages)

This book is about a young python named Verdi who tries his best not to grow up. When he is injured and has to slow down for a time, he ends up as an adult but discovers that he can be an adult who is still fun. I think this book is gorgeous: one of the prettiest picture books I’ve seen. The story is wonderful, there is an information section at the back about snakes, and the paintings which are featured on the cover and pages are stunning.

3.      Long, Ethan. Chamelia. Little, Brown, and Co., 2011. (40 pages)

Chameleons are known for blending in, but the hero in this book likes to stand out. In the end she learns how to work well with a group while retaining her unique personality and style. This is a great book to read with a creative, unconventional, stylish little girl. The illustrations are bright and colorful, patterned after Alexander Henry fabrics.

4.      Brown, Margaret Wise. The Sleepy Book. Western Publishing Co., Inc., 1948. Illustrated by Garth Williams. (48 pages)

All the different animals need their sleep in this book, whether it’s a rabbit that has swallowed a bumblebee, a hibernating bear, or a child tucked into bed listening to this book. Margaret Wise Brown uses story, poem, song, and a chant to lull the reader to sleep in this vintage book. A great variety of literary styles and classic illustrations make this book a nostalgic favorite.

5.      Joyce, William. The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. Simon & Schuster Children’s Books, 2012. (56 pages)

Books are alive in this story about a man who struggles to write a book until he goes to live with some books for a period of years. I think children would really like this book because they tend to ascribe feelings and thoughts to inanimate objects, and the personification of the books would be really fun for them. It’s a book that communicates a love of reading.

6.      Scarry, Richard. Richard Scarry’s Busiest Fire Fighters Ever! Western Publishing Co., Inc., 1993. (23 pages)

The firefighters do a lot of things to help the people of the town; but they make a few funny mistakes. However, in the end they cook a barbeque for everyone and show the difference between safe and unsafe fires. This book is a lot of fun – I think especially young boys would be attracted to all of the pictures of vehicles. It also is a nice teaching tool for talking about what firefighters do and fire safety.

7.      Rosenthal, Eileen. I Must Have Bobo! Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2011. Illustrated by Marc Rosenthal. (34 pages)

A young boy loves his sock monkey, Bobo, but his cat Earl keeps stealing it! In the end all three lie down together for a nap. This book uses a really minimalist aesthetic; the pages are all cream-colored with only a small simple drawing on most pages. I found that to be really memorable, it sort of made me think of Winnie-the-Pooh. Also, the font is in all-caps which I like.

8.      Harper, Charlie. ABCs. Ammo Books, LLC, 2008. (20 pages)

This book is a simple ABC board book with gorgeous animal illustrations for each letter of the alphabet by the iconic Charlie Harper. I used to have his Big Golden Book of Biology when I was a girl, but now it’s impossible to get unless you want to spend hundreds of dollars for a collector’s edition (How I wish I could read that book again for this assignment!). However, small children’s books like this one allow a new generation to see his beautiful geometric nature paintings.

9.      Berenstain, Stan & Jan. The Berenstain Bears’ Nature Guide. Random House, 1975. (64 pages)

The Bear family goes on a long nature walk and they learn facts about animals, plants, and the earth itself. This book is humorous and informative. The illustrations are very memorable; this was a favorite of mine as a child and even after decades I could remember the cave illustration and some of the other pages. It’s an interesting mix of fiction and non-fiction.

10.  Sendak, Maurice. Where the Wild Things Are. Harper Collins Publishers, 1963. (40 pages)

A wild boy in a wolf suit is sent to bed without supper when surprisingly his room transforms into a forest and a sea and an island full of monstrous “wild things”. Luckily, when he returns he finds that his supper is waiting for him and it’s still hot. This book has several pages together with illustration only and no words, what a great time for a child to imagine the story or even speak aloud what he or she thinks is happening.

11.  Mendoza, George. Need a House? Call Ms. Mouse! Grosset & Dunlap, 1981. Illustrated by Doris Susan Smith. (34 pages)

Henrietta Mouse is a home designer with unconventional ideas about how to make the perfect house for her forest animal friends. This book invites children to imagine what a perfect home is and think about the needs of others creatively. We learned in class that hope and imagination are important aspects of children’s literature, and this book helps to open the mind.

12.  Yolen, Jane. Owl Moon. Scholastic, Inc., 1987. Illustrated by John Schoenherr. (30 pages)

A father and daughter go for a late night winter walk through the quiet woods searching for an owl. This story is told in first-person from the perspective of the daughter who is never named. It is a very introspective and quiet sort of story, which ends in the almost frozen silent joy when you find what you’re looking for. It’s a simple but pretty universal emotion when you know that you’ve made a memory, and I think children can really sense that feeling of “special”.

13.  Minarik, Else Holmelund. Little Bear. Harper & Row, Publishers, 1957. Illustrated by Maurice Sendak. (63 pages)

Little Bear has adventures with his animal friends and his Mother Bear is always around to help him with food, warm clothes, and bedtime stories. This book is so heartwarming; it seems to me to be a true celebration of what we appreciate in mothers. And also what mothers appreciate about their little bears.

14.  McCloskey, Robert. Make Way for Ducklings. Viking Press, 1941. (76 pages)

A family of mallards walks through the streets of Boston to make it back to the park pond where they want to live. Policemen and pedestrians are helpful to the mother duck and her ducklings. I liked this book because it was a wholesome story about people appreciating and protecting nature. The drawings were very biologically accurate and realistic, albeit simple and colorless.

15.  Freeman, Don. Corduroy. Viking Press, 1968. (30 pages)

Corduroy is a toy bear in a department store with a lost button, but a girl falls in love with him anyway. She buys him and gives him a home, friendship, and a mending. The bright red cover of this book is very attractive and memorable. I think anyone would empathize with the characters in this story, as we all long for companionship in spite of our imperfections and we all give companionship to others who are imperfect as well.

16.  Evans, Shane W. Underground: Finding the Light to Freedom. Roaring Brook, 2011. (32 pages)

A group of runaway slaves make it through a dark and scary journey to find a new a bright life. The most striking thing about this book is how picture value was used, most of the book being drawn in deep dark blue shadow with the ending showing yellow light. The pictures and even the picture value really helped to tell the story and symbolize what this journey must have meant to the participants.

17.  Cronin, Doreen. Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type. Illustrated by Betsy Lewin. Atheneum, 2000. (32 pages)

The cows have a typewriter and are leaving typed demands to a very frustrated farmer. In the end, the supposed neutral message-man, the duck, steals the typewriter and the fun starts all over again as the ducks begin typing. This book was light-hearted and funny – I loved the page in which the duck was carrying the terms of truce. The repeated refrain, “Click, clack, moo” would make this very fun for a toddler who would enjoy speaking a repeated refrain along with the reader.

18.  Graham, Bob. Let’s Get a Pup! Said Kate. Candlewick, 2003. (32 pages)

A modern family decides to adopt a puppy from the pound, but an older dog makes an impression on them and they all agree to go adopt the older dog as well. The characters in this book seem very likable and spontaneous (not to mention compassionate to the older dog). I did not really care for this style of illustration – the lines and shapes seem a bit sloppy and round which for me makes everything run together (no sharp contrast, maybe) – but I did like the closing picture which was all blue except for the highlighted bed with Kate and both dogs.

19.  Slobodkina, Esphyr. Caps for Sale: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business. HarperCollins, 1940. (40 pages)

A cap peddler naps under a tree only to wake and find that all of his caps have been stolen by monkeys! This book is so fun to read to little ones; the colors are bright, the illustrations are very crisp with clean contrast, the lines of text repeat in patterns, and there are simple concepts in the text where the reader can help to teach the young listener about counting and colors in an entertaining way. My favorite part is producing the sound that the monkeys make (“Tsz! Tsz! Tsz!”) and yelling, “You monkeys, you!” (I still yell this at my old kids when they are being naughty – haha.)

20.  Bunting, Eve. Smoky Night. Illustrated by David Diaz. Sandpiper, 1999. (36 pages)

A family survives a night of rioting and fire, as they simultaneously grow to appreciate neighbors in their community they may have misjudged beforehand. This book tackles some themes which are fairly deep: racial tension, riots, and life-threatening fires. It is done in such a way that is sensitive to the young audience of readers, while maintaining realism. I like the use of the cats as symbols for the racial tension and reconciliation the characters go through.

21.   Eastman, P.D. Are you my Mother? Beginner Books: A Division of Random House Inc., 1960. (63 pages)

A bird hatches while his mother is away and sets out on an adventure to find her, asking many creatures and objects the question: Are you my mother? There is great humor in this as the little bird falls out of the nest and makes so many mistakes. It’s heartwarming too when the reader sees him reunited with his mother in the end having discovered what a mother is after seeing so many things that a mother is not.

22.  Hyman, Trina Schart. Little Red Riding Hood. Holiday House, 1983. (26 pages)

Little Red Riding Hood ignores her mother’s advice and ends up with a dangerous friend in the woods on the way to her grandmother’s house. In this traditional folktale, we learn how it can be to “drift off the path”. Whenever I hear this story, I always think of this poem I have memorized (but I don’t know the author of it! Or where/when I read it!) which states the moral of the story as:

“Now, little girls this seems to say; watch your friends along the way,

Never trust a stranger friend; you do not know how it may end,

Keep in mind this simple truth: sweetest tongue hides sharpest tooth.”

23.  Young, Ed. Lon Po Po: A Red Riding Hood Story from China. Paperstar, 1989. (32 pages)

Three sisters must match wits with a crafty wolf (disguised as their grandmother) after they let it into their house. This variant of Little Red Riding Hood featured scary and dark images of the wolf inside the house, and dreamier non-crisp lines of the wolf below the tree. My favorite thing of all, though, was the wise and self-effacing dedication in the beginning of the book to wolves for lending their good names as tangible symbols for our own darkness.

24.  Aardema, Verna. Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears. Illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon. Dial, 1975. (32 pages)

An African porquoi folktale, this book gives a funny explanation for why mosquitoes buzz close to people’s ears. This book is cumulative and builds up to an entertaining conclusion as many animals make mistakes along the way like a cascade of dominoes. My favorite illustration was the lizard with sticks in his ears because his grumpy face was so expressive and the sticks were such a comical concept.

25.  Waber, Bernard. A Firefly Named Torchy. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1970. (39 pages)

Torchy is a firefly with a light that is too bright for the forest. His fellow fireflies discourage him from using his light and he’s upset until he goes to the city and learns that there are many types of light in the world. Waber uses a lot of abstract color block on black background – the color block style makes me think of Eric Carle.

26.  Gonzalez, Maya Christina. My Colors, My World, Mis Colores, Mi Mundo. Children’s Book Press, 2007. (24 pages)

A little girl starts this bilingual book by describing how the desert makes everything the same color, but then as she begins to look for beauty she finds beautiful desert colors in things like sunsets, flowers, and more. The plot structure and characterization are pretty simple, but the colors and language are very rhythmic for reading to a young one.

27.  Say, Allen. Grandfather’s Journey. Houghton Mifflin, 1993. (32 pages)

The illustrations in this story were some of the most attractive I’ve seen all semester and it has some universal themes which speak to what home means to people who have travelled. The thing I remember most from the reading, aside from the drawings, is the statement that whenever we are in one place we are homesick for the other. Also there was something about how being a parent makes you crave old things, I really resonated with that idea.

28.  Stevenson, Robert Louis. My Shadow. Adapted and illustrated by Monique Felix. Creative Editions, 2002. (32 pages)

A mouse observes and plays with its shadow, it notices that shadows don’t grow and move in the same way mice do. There was a beautiful page of yellow buttercups and no words. The poem was something a child would enjoy; it is relatable and made more fun with the fresh illustrations Felix adds.

29.  Dr. Seuss. Hop on Pop. TM & co, 1963. (64 pages)

This book does not follow a story line per se, but each page or two has rhyming fun for kids who are beginning to read simple words on their own. It’s really fun to see the silly things that the characters do like sitting on a cactus, chasing a bear out of a tent, and of course hopping on their pop. This book seems almost more like poetry than a story with all the rhyming and word play, Dr. Seuss just has a very unique style.

30.  Wolkstein, Diane. Little Mouse’s Painting. Illustrated by Maryjane Begin. Morrow Junior Books, 1992. (26 pages)

Mouse paints a landscape, but her three friends all think that the painting is of them. Mouse explains that she knows it’s just a landscape since she’s the one who painted it – but that night she begins to see her friends in the painting after all. The theme of this book is one of interpreting works of creativity, and even though that may be an abstract concept I think that children are really into doing this. They are better at interpretation than some adults give them credit for.

31.  Wadsworth, Olive A. Over in the Meadow. Illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats. Scholastic, 1971. (20 pages)

This classic counting rhyme was originally written by Wadsworth, but a number of illustrators have brought the rhyme to life with differing styles of picturebook art. I love Ezra Jack Keats’ version, which I remember from my own childhood, she uses bold collage artwork in a way which makes every animal type look unique and appealing. Out of curiosity, I looked on Amazon to see the other variations of this rhyme by other illustrators and I have to say that Keats’ version and the version illustrated by Feodor Rojankovsky are the most charming to me.

32.  Klassen, Jon. This is Not My Hat. Candlewick, 2012. (40 pages)

A small fish steals a hat from a much larger fish, but as he swims away he convinces himself that it will be just fine. This caper is pure naughty fun, as the onlooker can see that the small fish is in deeper trouble than he realizes. I can imagine kids reading this and getting really excitable as they yell out warnings to the small fish or laugh as they delight in knowing that the statements small fish makes are not true.

33.  Wilkin, Eloise. Prayers for Children. Golden Inspirational, Little Gldn Tre Edition, 1999. (24 pages)

Eloise Wilkin illustrates the pages where she has quoted simple rhyming prayers which children can repeat. The illustrations are old-fashioned, sweet, and detail-oriented. I think a spiritual family would really enjoy reading these poetic prayers with their children, but it would likely be frowned upon for school reading because of its theistic content. However, I have to say I really enjoyed reading it.