More of our recent favorite library finds. Hope some of these help others pass this long, blustery, sniffly winter away!
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This is hands down, our favorite recent tale. A rhyming story about all the animals of the forest (dressed in adorable PJs) getting onboard a giant hibernation train made out of hollow logs that runs along a tree-branch track. The conductor bears must untangle the twisted critters and get them organized so that everyone can settle in for a comfy winter's sleep.
The book is super cute, and the rhymes are easy to memorize, so they're helping Ayize learn lots of new words and phrases. In fact, I'm so in love with this book that we might actually (gasp!) buy a copy - despite my avowed anti-materialism/anti-clutter stance which prohibits book buying LOL - instead of our current MO, which entails checking it out from the library and renewing and renewing and renewing and renewing it:
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Another awesome train book. We read this awhile ago and he wasn't that into it, but that was before he could hear, of course - tried it again the other day at the library, and he was hooked. One should note, however, that the adult reader is forced to put tons of extra accent and much dramatic flair into the "choo-choo" and "whoo-whoo" portions of the main rhyming couplet to amp up the book's jolly quota:
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Sticking with the "large vessels of transportation theme" that is so popular amongst the boys (and tomboys) of our friends, here are three recent truck book finds that we're digging.
This is the top #1 choice, which Ayize requests at least once every afternoon (coincidentally, it's by the same team as the train book above, which I just noticed), and he also has it mainly memorized. The book is very funny (at least, it is if you're three), and is also teaching him a few different transport names, plus helping reinforce counting up to five. At each page with additional cars, we carefully count them before making a funny gophers-eating-bones sound together as a reward at the end (this is a bad description, but if you read the book, you'll get what I'm saying):
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A "lion & mouse" moral fable, in somewhat graphic novel form. A big hit with Ayize, because it features lots of trucks and cool tools which he's learning the names of, and because he's recently been hardcore into exploring emotions and feelings. He finds the crabby truck very humorous, especially when I do goofy voices to accentuate its anger. But he also seems satisfied when we arrive at the peaceable conclusion:
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This book is a pretty straightforward account, in easy-to-understand language for toddlers, about how a construction crew builds a new road from start to finish. It has great illustrations. But its best feature is the many women manning the construction crews on each page, who draw up plans, work, lunch, and proudly survey the finished product of their work, shoulder-to-shoulder with the guys. A sweetly-subtle book - written by a women, hurrah! - about equality of the sexes behind its straightforward description of the birth of a new highway:
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Two cowboy books have been in heavy rotation at the house. Yes, the cowboy phase is still happening. Sigh.
(Actually - truth be told - I'm secretly quite pleased because we've mostly, excepting the whole Thomas thing, managed to avoid the commercial traps that lurk in the guise of character-themed books and instead, he goes through general "category" phases like trains, trucks, cowboys. Reminiscent of how kids did in the "good old days", to my thinking. So a covert, obnoxious, smug and self-satisfied pat to my own back can be inserted here. Well...at least I fessed up!)
Anyway, this book has been a true gem. It's an adorable rhyming tale of a young urban kid who paints an imaginative picture of a day spent cowpoke-style with Grandma. The illustrations are charming and very colorful and vivid, and the action totally appeals to Ayize - each couplet sparks a comment about what's occurring in the accompanying pictures.
Big mongo major rockin' bonus? It's one of only two picture books aimed at toddlers I've come across that features an Asian mama and an African-American dad:
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This story of a cowboy and a cowgirl, strangers to one another, but similar in their shared adoration of eight cows, is a big fave with Ayize. I was surprised by this because the tale is a little involved for him to understand (the two get together in the end, hence the title), but I think he enjoys the rhythmic pace, the wonderful drawings, and the way I holler out the names of the cows. I dig the book, too, but I must confess, mostly on the basis of one of the ranches being named Biddle. If you knew my Alfie-girl, you would understand...
Anyway, another fun book for any kids into cowboys, but not so into Woody and Toy Story:
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This book is adorable and funny and has been a huge hit with Ayize. He's been into 'funny bunny' books ever since we read "Muncha, Muncha, Muncha!" a while back, and it's just not a theme that's easy to find (surprise, surprise). So I decided to see what else that author had to offer, and this delightful and silly story was the pot at the end of the rainbow.
Like A Wild Cowboy (above), this story is about imagination - a big theme with Ayize these days - but it's also about the frustrations of being little. Those aspects appeal to him, but let's face it - what he really likes is the safety of getting deliciously scared in the telling of this tale which he knows has a very silly ending:
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Sticking with the bunny theme here. Yes, I know...who doesn't know this story?? But I just wanted to include it because I think it often gets overlooked, standing as it does in the shadow of its toweringly-popular (and rightfully-so) big cousin, Goodnight Moon. I, too, had flipped idly through our ancient copy back when Ayize was a couple weeks old - $2 brand new, it must be from when I was a kid LOL - and put it aside in favor of GM.
But we returned to it recently, since he's been having a thing for bunny stories, and I'm delighted to say that it makes for the most fantabulous bedtime read just about every night. He may ask for other books beforehand, but when it comes time for lights out and last call, this is what he invariably wants to hear just before heading off to Snoozeville.
We even have a whole repertoire of "games" that we play among its pages, where we "hunt" for the bunny in the garden, "ring" the doorbell, "swing" on the trapeze (with our fingers), "blow" the bunny sailboat...I could go on. Anyway, honorable mention here, because this list would feel incomplete without it:
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Okay, since we're doing Margaret Wise Brown, I can't help but add this book. Actually, I think this is much less well-known than her other tales, but it's a very sweet bedtime read nevertheless, and one of our frequent choices (especially given its brevity - it's our top choice on a really late night, when I only want to postpone lights-out by two minutes). A little bear flies through his window and floats higher and higher, eventually cruising over what looks suspiciously like the Chicago skyline from his fluffy, comfy cloud, before waking up to a beautiful summer's day:
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Anansi and his many naughty antics fill Ayize with unparalleled delight. Anansi, in African folklore, is a clever spider, a trickster, a lazy dude, who spends his days scheming about how to hoodwink his animal friends in various ways that will result in his getting the most by doing the least. Of course, his plots invariably fail, and are quite funny to see as they go down in flames.
There are loads of great Anansi books in any library, but most are aimed at a slightly-older audience. Eric Kimmel wrote four that are geared for toddlers, so we've been reading and re-reading them like crazy. Ayize is not as fond as the one about a talking melon, and I don't like the fishing one much, for obvious reasons! But the two I've cited here are read almost daily in our household.
This one, about a magic stick (50 Cent, be damned), is similar in theme to that old Fantasia cartoon where Mickey, as sorcerer's apprentice, lets an enchanted broomstick get out of hand. A very fun story, and a particularly jolly tale for Ayize because I cannot help but tell it in this goofy, pseudo-Jamaican (by way of Brooklyn LOL) accent. I'm not even allowed to read it unless I bust out that voice:
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This one is also in heavy rotation. I don't do the psycho accent here, but the book is filled with so many opportunities to provide toddler hilarity via funny sound effects and accompanying illustrations of out-cold hippos, elephants, lions, etc. that the accent is not even needed.
The story concerns a magic rock, which makes animals who comment on it pass out (I know this sounds really stupid, but it's truly very entertaining), and I can never get away with anything except a really fervent
"KPOM!"
or else I'm forced into a series of redos until The Boss is satisfied with my performance:
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We adore this book, which is unfortunately now out of print, though most libraries continue to carry it. I first read it to Ayize long ago, before he even had hearing, but he was transfixed by the gorgeous illustrations alone. Now that he can hear the story unfold - a charming Ethiopian folktale about a childless woman who marries a widower with a young son, adores the boy, and must figure out how to make the feeling mutual - he is utterly engaged. And now I've got my nieces hooked, too:
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Another African folktale (while I'm on the topic) that Ayize chose himself. Interestingly enough, I checked this out and read it to him when he was around six months old, and I enjoyed it then but hadn't thought of it since. He saw it on a shelf a few weeks ago and pulled it down, telling me, "Want this one, Mama!" and I recognized it. He most likely chose it because of its bold, splashy, colorful illustrations, but he really liked hearing the story and has asked for many re-tells.
It's a fun fable about a leopard who builds a drum so large, even the gods are jealous. All the biggest, most powerful animals of the jungle try to take it, and when Turtle decides to give it a go, he is teased by all, but of course, in the end, he is the one who succeeds. He turns it over to the jealous gods and is rewarded richly:
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I've been looking for this (Asian) Indian folktale, which we also checked out when Ayize was pretty young, though he was by then old enough to stick with me for most of the story before crawling off and looking for something to teethe on. I was impressed that it could hold his attention for that long at the time (maybe around a year old) and I know that he would really love it now. A raging fire, an heroic bird, and gorgeous illustrations combine for the perfect recipe of an Ayize-adored book:
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This is a very clever book which exposes the human side to the people in our lives who sometimes appear scary. The illustrations are fantastic and the text is fast-paced and very fun. Ayize loves when I use a very "S-C-A-A-A-R-Y" voice at each appropriate point, and then follow up with an annoyingly-saccharine, reassuring voice in each follow-up passage. I guess it's kind of a game for us, but he does seem to take the message of the book to heart, and even tried to tell Grandma all about his book (he was quite serious as he did so), which made me very happy, as talking about our emotions (especially being scared) has been such a big part of our lives lately. This book has been a very fun way to talk about scary stuff, and about how lots of stuff ends up being not scary at all:
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I must admit, I'm pretty sick of this book, though I'm thrilled it did so much for us. We checked it out mere days after Ayize's surgery. It was his choice - he had pulled it off the shelf of the baby section at the library and was immediately entranced as he turned the pages. Dogs...and they were made out of food?? These are two of his favorite things in life (he was, in particular, going through a major 'play food' phase at that time) so he was totally hooked from the first read. He hung on every word, and even managed something that sounded like, "Again!" (remember, this was just days after he had hearing restored, so that fact alone made me want to lavish adoration and home-baked goods on the author) as soon as we finished it, so I read it again. And again. And again. In the days that followed, we read it nonstop.
I've returned it to the library - finally. After maxing out at two renewals! But I already know it by heart, I think. "Dog tired, sick as a dog, sick puppy..." Still, I will never complain, because this book brought me more joy than just about anything in the first few weeks after surgery. Ayize memorized the book, too, and some of the phrases, and began mimicking me and using his voice as we read together. He learned and used the appropriate sound effects for certain pictures, like the two dogs fighting ("Grrrr!") and he invariably shouted, "Good mama!" and grinned whenever we got the page with a puppy licking its mom's face. So I will always treasure this short, sweet, clever gem.
Actually, the book - in a Shrek-like kind of way - has a very funny for-adults-only humor going for it as well. On the surface, the book shows various dog breeds (made out of various fruits and vegetables, artfully arranged) doing various things. The only words are the captions. Sounds boring, I know! But actually, each caption turns out to be a very funny play on words, a common phrase using the word "dog" that means something entirely different than it's literal translation. But to be funny, the author provides an illustration of the literal translation. Pretty entertaining, actually (at least, it is the first fifty times around):
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Yes, I know this book is known by just about every human in the world, but somehow it managed to escape us until only recently. I went hunting for an old Leo Lionni book I'd read as a child about a wind-up mouse who, by dint of a magic lizard and a purple pebble becomes a real mouse - and ended up instead with Swimmy. Actually, I ended up with the movie version. But let me explain...
I couldn't find the book I was hunting for, since I didn't know the title and didn't have time to look through all of his books (there are dozens). But later, as I hunted for old Mickey Mouse DVDs for Ayize, I came across a Lionni collection and checked that out. It had cute five-minute stories on it (though - it turned out - not the one I was looking for), near-exact replicas of his books, except with a little minimal action thrown in, and narrated by a gentle-voiced man and woman. Though I didn't know any of these particular tales, both Ayize and I were immediately mesmerized by the video, which has become one of our fave rentals ever since. All four short tales are wonderfully-made and a joy to watch, but Swimmy was by far the best. The animations and sound effects are super trippy, super 1970's, super funky, and made both Ayize and I laugh out loud. Definitely will make you feel like you're floating on a chemically-induced cloud LOL. But the story - about a little black fish, faster than all his little red brothers and sisters, who endures tragedy but becomes stronger and cleverer as a result, and goes on to help others - is also so charming that we've checked out the book several times and never tire of reading it:
And last but not least, this book about a South American boy who finds a stone on an outing to the beach has been a huge hit with Ayize. It's an account of the journey of a giant prehistoric rock that eventually, through the ages - by volcanoes, polar ice caps, rain, tides, and time - becomes the small, smooth, round, red rock the boy has found.
The story of the rock is written in simple language that Ayize can follow and is interspersed every couple of pages with the boy's parallel mini-journey of finding the rock and bringing it home and storing it amongst his treasures, because although he knows nothing of the great history of this little stone, he senses its age and power intuitively and appreciates it as the "gift" it is. The book sounds uber-complex for a little one, but is truly written for toddlers, and if your kid is a big rock-lover LOL, as mine happens to be, it's a really great find:
I'm a nerd extraordinaire, but I have to pause here to show you our own "gift from the lake". Ayize and I found this rock last summer at Greenwood Beach and he has loved playing with it and holding it and enjoying it ever since. The first time we read this book (before he had ear surgery), he climbed off my lap halfway through and ran away. I assumed he'd grown bored and was just about to close the book and move on, when he raced back eagerly, from his "mission" to his bedroom, which turned out to be fetching this rock. He couldn't understand the text, but he associated the stone in the book (which really does look remarkably like ours) with his own prized possession! So this book holds a special place in my heart, and even now, when he can listen and follow the story, he still only wants to read it with his own "gift" in hand.
Our beloved stone, front:
and back:
I liked it from the day he found it, but now, as he holds it in his tiny hand, and as I hold my hand around his little fist holding it, and as we read together, I sometimes find my mind wandering, wondering what things our stone has seen and experienced and known, and from where, and even from when, it has come. And I hold Ayize just a little bit tighter as we read, in wonderment and adoration - my own little piece of eternity, longevity, and the passage of time.
Our stone keeps its secrets, just like the one in the story does, but I'd like to think that Ayize will grow to have the same endearing intuitive appreciation for all such "gifts" we have been given, as we each take our own brief walk through this enduring, endlessly-evolving world.
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