A Few Good Books

Usually when we go to the library, we come home with about 8 books (the number I can carry while pushing the stroller) and out of those, 1 is a real gem. The others are sort of "read them once and hope you don't forget where you stashed them when it's time to return them". But on our last trip, we really outdid ourselves! We had six real winners that we have read and re-read and re-read again.

They are (in no particular order - a faint effort to disguise the fact that we think David Shannon is the best children's writer EVER!):

Parts (by Shelley Rotner) which is a sort of puzzle book. There is a little rhyme with some very nice detail pictures to give you clues of a bigger item on the next page. It is really too easy for Caleb, but I think he felt kind of triumphant that he got all of them right.

Where the Wild Things Are (by Maurice Sendak), obviously I should have read this one somewhere along the way, it was published in 1963 and is very well known, but I have no memory of ever reading it before. The kids like the big, frightened rather than frightening monsters and I like the lilting rhymes:

But the wild things cried, "Oh please don't go--
we'll eat you up--we love you so!"
And Max said, "No!"

Too Many Toys! (by David Shannon) This story is about a little guy named Spencer with too many toys and it is spot on acurate for portraying a parent's battle with their child's immense and ever growing toy collection. As always, the illustrations are wonderful and capture so much, plus there is a Fergus sighting - this time as a tiny dog toy hidden in the mass of other favorites.

Ralphie and the Swamp Baby (by Vicky Rubin) - very cute getting ready for baby story...or even still getting used to your 18 month old sister story...

Duck Soup (by Jackie Urbanovic) - I think this is from a series because it seemed to have a cast of characters that didn't need to be introduced. A cooking duck leaves his simmering pot of soup on the stove with a bay leaf on top - his bumbling friends find the pot and assume he fell in.

Doctor DeSoto Goes to Africa (by William Steig)- a mouse dentist helps an elephant with a rotton molar - Steig also wrote a book called Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, which I enjoyed as a child. The story is very different, but I guess his style is what reminded me of the other book.