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Aa: A Was An Apple Pie. Illustrated by Etienne Delessert.

This picture book is actually an English nursery rhyme from the 1660s. Something used by children to aid in learning the alphabet. It is illustrated by Etienne Delessert.

Aa A was an apple pie
Bb B bit it
Cc C cut it
Dd D dealt it
Ee E ate it.
Ff F fought for it

To read it in its entirely, visit here.

© Becky Laney of Young Readers

Welcome Winter is a delightful book; it is one of the Little Scholastic books published by Scholastic. It's designed to appeal to the baby to two crowd. It's a board book. It's a touch-and-feel book. And it's a concept book--the concept being winter one of the four seasons of the year.

Texas babies may not find much familiar with Welcome Winter. (Though of course there was that snow storm last year that surprised everyone.) But whether you are expecting snow or not, this book is a fun little addition to your library.

Here is how it begins, "It's winter! Snowflakes fall in front of your eyes."

There is much to do in this one. I loved running my fingers across the crinkled plastic (not sure of exact medium???) to make the snow crunching noise. And the plush hat that was oh-so-soft was fun as well.

© Becky Laney of Young Readers

A Child's Day: an Alphabet of Play written and illustrated by Ida Pearle. Harcourt, 2008 (978-0-15-206552-2) $12.95

A child's day, as seen here, is one full of action, starting with a for act and ending with z for zoom. There's also blowing pinwheels, dancing, growing things and even some lazy napping. It's an enticing ideal, aptly illustrated with cut-paper collages of featureless children that call to mind old-fashioned silhouettes, except now brightly colored and excitingly textured. But Pearle takes the book beyond rose-colored nostalgia by peopling it with a modern, multicultural cast of children, using different skin tones, hair types, and sophisticated clothes patterns to portray a diversity of backgrounds. Some of the children may catch butterflies in a net, looking like something straight out of Tom Sawyer, but others are practicing martial art kicks or holding up their hands together to "unite." It's a very happy mix of old and new. (2-6)

Jan Pienkowski's Dinner Time quite honestly confused me. On one hand, I enjoyed the pop-ups. Taken out of context, the pop-ups are quite fun and playful. Easy to manipulate. The frog, for example, the opening pop-up is just fun. You can make him "speak" based on how open or closed the book happens to be. The art is enjoyable as well, for the most part. I'm not sure if I would have found it fun or a bit scary as a kid--I spooked really easily--but it's well done. It's the premise of this one that confuses me. Not really. Just a little bit. It's the food chain done pop-up style. And not the food chain you might be expecting. Vultures eat frogs. Gorillas eat vultures. Tigers eat gorillas. Crocodiles eat tigers. Sharks eat crocodiles. Everybody but the shark is a meal. And the pop-ups show these greedy jaws--sharp, pointy teeth included--in action. The food chain does exist. It is a part of life. But whenever a wildlife documentary happens to be on, I'm one of those squeamish sorts that can't bear to see animals eating other animals. The chase. The capture. The blood. The devouring. And it's not like this book has any of the blood and guts. It's simple and straightforward enough.

"Tiger said, "I'm going to eat you for my dinner." And he did."

This one will either appeal to you or it won't.

Cocovini, Abby. 2008. What's Inside Your Tummy, Mommy?

What's Inside Your Tummy, Mommy? is a "nine-month guide for parents and kids to share!" according to the cover description. As soon as I saw this one, I knew I'd have to read and review it. It's oversized. It uses illustrations and simple text. There is a spread for each of the nine months. Each page is sprinkled with facts. For example, on month four, the reader learns that "the baby pees 15 times a day" and for month seven one of many things we learn is that the baby's "weight can double this month. That's like a ten year old boy turning into a man in just four weeks." But as informative as the book may be, where it really delivers is in the illustrations. See for yourself:



I'd definitely recommend this one for those with expanding families.

Lulu's Shoes by Camilla Reid. Illustrated by Ailie Busby. 2008.

Lulu's Shoes--like it says--is "an utterly fabulous touch and tie book." It's a board book (of sorts) that is quite sturdy. (At least when compared with the average picture book.) The story is about a little girl, Lulu, who loves shoes. She has shoes for every occasion--every season--each pair of shoes offers something to young readers. Something to touch. Something to lift. Something to grab. It's a fun concept and a fun book. Recommended for the tiniest shoe lovers!

Note: I'm not sure which cover is the correct one. Amazon, Bloomsbury, and the book-in-hand all have different covers.

Suen, Anastasia. 1998. Baby Born.

Baby Born is a gentle and soothing read that will show the transitioning of the seasons and the transitions of a growing baby. The book is small and sturdy which will make it a good choice for reading to young ones. Many spreads feature flaps to lift as well. (Those are always fun!)

It begins simply,

Baby born
in winter's sleep
snowflakes fall
snuggle deep

The post about judging people--I mean, getting to know people--by the books they read on the subway and keep upon their shelves sent me back to the books-by-the-foot mavens, who this month are offering a special for would-be wizards.

Marc Aronson and I have been talking about Boys Books a lot, and about how boys can be confounded by adult definitions of what constitutes worthwhile reading: usually it means a book, often it means fiction, and when it does include nonfiction, it had better look a lot like a novel.

But I am loving this:


Transit Maps of the World: The World's First Collection of Every Urban Train Map on Earth, by Mark Ovenden (Penguin). Unless you are a boy, you might not think that a collection of subway maps would make for such compulsive reading. It's a kind of reading that often gets dismissed as "browsing," because you don't start at the beginning and work your way patiently through, and because most of the text works as caption, not exposition: "Barcelona's current Metro map (4) is a successful hybrid. While it shows some topographic detail, it manages to retain all the attributes of a schematic." Yeah, baby, talk dirty! But what you're mostly interested in reading is the maps themselves. There are four of the Barcelona system, ranging from 1966 to the present, showing not only the growth of the system but the refinements in graphic design, creating and reflecting changes in how we look at abstract information. The current map is an organized glory of lines and colors and informative dots. Berlin gets fifteen maps, from 1910 to the present, including spooky ones from the 1960s that show the "ghost" stations of East Berlin that the West Berlin trains would shoot right by.

If I were a boy today, I don't know if a collection of subway maps would do it for me, but I bet that I would appreciate the way this book celebrates Facts, especially facts united by a theme but untied to any story save the one they allow me to tell myself.

The new issue of the Horn Book is out; online articles include Lolly Robinson's guide to alphabet books and Madelyn Travis's profile of Michael Rosen (the British one), including a gorgeous poem of his about reading:

. . . Some of these things
you may have never seen before.
But now you know them.
Some are as familiar to you as potatoes.
But these potatoes are different.

There's much more in the print edition, including a fascinating oral-history portrait of Ursula Nordstom compiled by Leonard S. Marcus from interviews he did with Nordstrom's writers and colleagues. As a companion (although she would probably sniff to see what company we're putting her in), we've resurrected the equally legendary Edna Albertson and the rejection letters that made generations of authors shake in their shoes. Save yourself from Edna's scorn and read all the web extras.

Claire has a new list of concept books up for your edification.