Children's Books

I know, I know, what I should post about is Christmas. But I acknowledge that Christmas should be posted about with pictures and I don't have any pictures on my computer, so for now I will postpone updating you on our (FANTASTIC!) Christmas week in favor of another post I've been thinking of for awhile. (You can read this as: Soon Christmas will be very passe and I have so many other outlets for keeping this information for myself that you may never actually see much about my Christmas, but, hey, now you know it was great.)

Anyway, the truth is, like most of you, I love books. Furthermore, I would like to be a published author someday. With that in mind, I'd like to make a shout-out recommendation for some children's books that we've loved. Though we do love them, I won't be listing well-known authors like Sandra Boynton, Dr. Seuss, and Mercer Mayer or others like them because you all know them.

1. Edward the Emu and Edwina the Emu by Sheena Knowles [Rod Clement, illustrator]

My mom (not surprisingly) introduced us to these books. Patrick prefers Edwina. I prefer Edward. We both like them both a lot, though. The illustrations are fantastic! The people have such distinctive lines and curves. The visual comparisons between Emus and lions, snakes, seals, etc. are just incredibly fun. And the rhythm is wonderful too-- it makes the stories easy to learn. The plot is unique. Definitely check these out.

2. My Name is Not Alexander by Jennifer Fosberry [Mike Litwin, illustrator]

My mom and I stumbled on this in a Barnes and Noble in Phoenix. Great stumble! It's sort of whet-your-appetite educational. With a three-year-old, I love the chance to introduce him to people, ideas, history, etc., but I don't want to be obnoxious about it. This is a great kind of story-- it makes the introduction and he can ask more about these historic people if he's interested. Plus, I admit, I'm sort of a sucker for dad books because I noticed at some point that we had collected tons more mommy-loves-you books than daddy books. Obviously, I was so pleased when we received this for Christmas from my mom. Someday, if/when I have a girl, there's a girl/mom one that we'll be acquiring, too.

3. A Very Hairy, Scary Story by Rick Walton [David H. Clark, illustrator]

So Caleb really got into this book about eight months ago (around 2 1/2). The illustrations, again, are stellar. And the concept-- the girl's imagination running away with her-- may not be original in itself, but it's done in a unique way. It can be scary for kids when they first read it, but it becomes fun when they begin to see that the monsters aren't real. My son loved to tell people, "It's not really a spider. It's a grill." I think he was trying to prevent them from being scared; plus, it's awesome when you start seeing the connection. I guess I ought to recommend this for Halloween, except that we love it all year long. This is another great Dad book; in fact, it was part of the assortment I got Patrick for Father's Day last year.

There are more that we love, but I'll leave it at these three for now. Maybe later in the year, I'll recommend some more. We love books, so share some of your favorites with us. And if you're on Goodreads and we're not friends, "friend" me because I'm nosy like that.