HO, Ho, HO! Here we go!
This holiday my stocking runneth over. There are so many incredible books to share and so little time to write.
So, to try to get in as many books as I can, I've divided up the guide among four days.
Today, the first day, I've posted my 12 favorite holiday stories with full reviews. (Each title appears at the end of this post as a live link. Click the link to go directly to a review or scroll down the page.)
On Dec. 14, I'll spotlight books that look and feel as good as toys. This list will include pop-up books, crafts books, drawing books and books about, well, toys!
Then Dec. 19, I'll share some of the most enchanting books of the year, including some of the best surprises.
Among them Bumble-Ardy, the first book written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak in 30 years.
I'll wrap up on Dec. 23, with my lists of the best books of the year, from the best illustrated picture books to the most fun read-alouds. To get as many in as I can, reviews will be Twitter-style, short and quick.
I hope you enjoy this year's guide and it leads you to just the book you're looking for!
Happy holidays everyone!!!
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By: Jenny Miller,
on 12/8/2011
Blog: Where The Best Books Are! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: mommy bloggers, holiday gift guide, 2011, James Flora, best christmas books, books about presents, books about kangaroos, best reissues, Kangaroo for Christmas, Add a tag
Written & illustrated by James Flora
Enchanted Lion Books, 2011
$16.95, ages 4 and up, 40 pages
A little girl gets a kangaroo for Christmas that takes her on a rollicking ride through busy city streets, in this joyful reissue, originally published nearly 50 years ago.
James Flora's gem will have readers in stitches as Kathryn holds on for dear life to the back of her skittish new pet, and the pair bounce and crash through obstacles to Grandma's house across town.
When Adelaide pops out of a crate from her uncle on Christmas Eve, Kathryn can't believe her eyes. A kangaroo from Australia -- just what she never knew she always wanted!
She must show grandma.
So the two leap out the door with matching pink-and-black scarves, ready to brave the nippy air, with Kathryn chirping out the first lines of Jingle Bells.
But before she can get to "Oh what fun," she's gulping down a big "Oh no!" A beefy dog with an even bigger bark has startled poor Adelaide, and she's shot off like a rubber band.
Rebounding off roofs of cars, Adelaide leaps pell-mell through windows, startling poor Mr. Zwicky in his bath, then through stores, each time riding out with a token from a collision inside.
Adelaide hops out of a bakery with a frosted three-tiered hat and her tail beaded with doughnuts, and launches out of the toy store with roller skates on her paws.
Adelaide hops out of a bakery with a frosted three-tiered hat and her tail beaded with doughnuts, and launches out of the toy store with roller skates on her paws.
Every leap lands them in a more outrageous spot until they're zipping down electrical lines. Oh dear. But wait, isn't that Grandma's house below?
On Kathryn's cue, Adelaide leaps down, but oops. She's landed right in a big pan of taffy that Grandma's cooling on her porch. Startled, Adelaide ricochets off the pan and plunk, right on top of Grandma's fancy electrical car.
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By: Jenny Miller,
on 12/8/2011
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JacketFlap tags: mommy bloggers, holiday gift guide, 2011, best holiday books, books about giving, books about Rockefeller tree, books about paying kindness forward, The Carpenter's Gift, Jim LaMarche, David Rubel, Add a tag
Illustrated by Jim LaMarche
Random House, 2011
$17.99, ages 4-8, 44 pages
$17.99, ages 4-8, 44 pages
A wish made on a paper star one chilly Christmas Eve long ago leads to magical sequence of events, in this beautifully illustrated picture book.
Recalling back to childhood, an aging carpenter tells of how an act of kindness in 1931 inspired him late life to pay that generosity forward.
That year, the carpenter, then a boy named Henry, and his parents were at their lowest. His father had lost his job, and their house had deteriorated into a drafty shack.
It was the Depression and like many families, jobs were sparse and people had to eke out a living however they could.
So the night before Christmas, Henry and his father cut down trees in the woods, then drove an hour to New York City to try to sell them.
So the night before Christmas, Henry and his father cut down trees in the woods, then drove an hour to New York City to try to sell them.
Pulling off a city street, they saw a construction crew and asked if they could share their lot to sell the trees.
The crew could see from their worn faces and clothes that Henry and his father were down on their luck, and welcomed them in.
The crew could see from their worn faces and clothes that Henry and his father were down on their luck, and welcomed them in.
Soon, the workers were also hurrying over to help unload trees, unaware that the next thing they would unload would change Henry's life forever.
At the end of the day, with a good trickle of sales behind them, Henry's father showed his gratitude in the best way he could. He offered the workers their tallest tree to set out on the lot.
Together, Henry and his father, and the crew, cobbled together things to decorate it with, cranberries, empty tin cans and newspaper star that Henry folded.
Before hanging up the star, Henry closed his eyes and made a wish that his family would one day have a warm house to live in.
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By: Jenny Miller,
on 12/8/2011
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JacketFlap tags: Henry Cole, mommy bloggers, holiday gift guide, 2011, The Littlest Evergreen, best christmas books, nature books for kids, books about Christmas trees, Add a tag
HarperCollins, 2011
$18.99, ages 4-7, 32 pages
A young tree digs his roots into forest soil, never imagining that he'd ever grow anywhere else, in this beautiful, tender story about a little Christmas tree.
The tree, an evergreen with fine, stubby needles, is the littlest one in the forest, at first no taller than a sparrow. Every day, he pushes his way further up through the grass to find the sun.
Though all the other trees on the hillside are much taller, the Littlest Evergreen doesn't mind because he's happy just where he is and he feels a part of something grand.
Every spring, the Littlest Evergreen inches a little more skyward, stretching the tip of his crown to try to catch up to other trees. And each day into summer, he soaks in the smells and sounds around him.
He marvels at the heat pulling the scent out of his needles and the crackle of lightning in the air. He delights in the downpour that follows, the feeling of rain washing away dust from his bows.
And when fall comes and his sap slows, he sleeps, with his roots tucked under a blanket of snow until titmice and chickadees herald spring once more.
Living there, in a carpet of trees, is serene -- and for a time, safe. But then one day, a terrible sound rips through the air and his companions begin to fall to the ground around him.
The little tree's needles stand straight up, as an electric saw slices this way and that "like the wings of a swallow cut through air." Tree after tree slumps over "with a soft whoosh of needles," and workers haul them into a truck.
The Littlest Evergreen wonders if he'll be cut down too, never to know what it's like to be big. But then something incredible happens.
The cutters dig him up instead. They wrap burlap around his roots, then send him to a Christmas tree lot to be used fo
The cutters dig him up instead. They wrap burlap around his roots, then send him to a Christmas tree lot to be used fo
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By: Jenny Miller,
on 12/8/2011
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JacketFlap tags: Linda Sue Park, Bagram Ibatoulline, mommy bloggers, holiday gift guide, 2011, best christmas books, nativity books, books about wise men, the story of myrrh, The Third Gift, Add a tag
Illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline
Houghton Mifflin, 2011
$16.99, ages 7-10, 32 pages
$16.99, ages 7-10, 32 pages
A father and son walk a desert collecting tears of sap for market, not yet knowing that the largest of those pearls will become a gift for a baby named Jesus.
In this evocative, masterfully painted story, Newbery Medalist Linda Sue Park joins with renowned illustrator Bagram Ibatoulline to weave a captivating tale about myrrh, the third gift given by the wise men to the Christ child.
Imagining a father teaching his son how to gather the treasured resin, Park describes the two walking with a basket, water-gourd and an ax across a landscape almost entirely of sandy rock to a grove of stunted and spiny trees.
The boy's father kneels by one of the gnarled trees "to see inside." Gently, he feels the bark with his hands, and plucks off a leaf and sniffs, to determine whether its myrrh is ready to be harvested.
Finding a tree that is aged just right, he carefully selects a spot to wound, to cut a shallow X, so that the tree will weep. Then, making the cut, he watches as the sap bubbles up into a big tear.
After waiting for the tear's surface to dry into a shell, the father twists the resin off with his fingers and places it in their basket.
On this day, as the two are finishing their harvest, they see the biggest tear yet. It's the size of a hen's egg and the boy's father gives his son the honor of teasing it off.
This tear and the others will bring good money at the spice market. Some people will buy them for medicine or to flavor wine, but most will purchase them for embalming loved ones.
Two weeks pass and soon it's time for the spice market. As they arrive to sell their tears, they're ushered into a tent where three wise
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By: Jenny Miller,
on 12/8/2011
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JacketFlap tags: mommy bloggers, holiday gift guide, Brock Cole, 2011, best christmas books, books about giving, The Money We'll Save, funny Christmas books, Add a tag
Margaret Ferguson Books, 2011
$16.99, ages 4 and up, 40 pages
$16.99, ages 4 and up, 40 pages
In this rollicking read-aloud, a cozy family of six attempts to room with a turkey while they plump him up for Christmas dinner.
But as feathers begin to fly, it's not clear who's getting the better of whom.
One afternoon Pa returns home from market with a brilliant way to save pennies for Christmas dinner.
He'll fatten up a turkey poult and keep it in a wooden box by the stove of their tenement apartment.
He'll fatten up a turkey poult and keep it in a wooden box by the stove of their tenement apartment.
But with five children, himself and his wife packed inside, the family's flat is already feeling crowded.
And much to Ma's chagrin, the turkey doesn't like to keep to one spot, and soon, he's also much too big for his box.
And much to Ma's chagrin, the turkey doesn't like to keep to one spot, and soon, he's also much too big for his box.
Suddenly Alfred, their turkey, must be shifted somewhere else, but where do you put a boisterous young fowl?
It's up to Pa to find that somewhere else, but locating an empty spot in the tenement will require a bit of creativity.
The problem is, being clever isn't always enough -- every place Pa moves Alfred proves disastrous.
On the fire escape, neighbors up and down get a waft of him, and when he's strung out on the clothesline inside a crate, they get showered by droppings as they walk outside.
Poor widow Schumacher from upstairs can barely stand the clucking and smell, or so she says. She comes down to their flat three times a day just to complain.
And now with Christmas almost here, it's getting harder to think of Alfred as the centerpiece of Christmas dinner.
Do they really want to butcher their friend? And if they don't, will dinner still be just as special?
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By: Jenny Miller,
on 12/8/2011
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JacketFlap tags: Tomi Ungerer, mommy bloggers, holiday gift guide, 2011, best christmas books, books about giving, reissued childrens books, books about pigs, Christmas Eve at the Mellops, Add a tag
Four little pigs brighten the rooms of a cold, dilapidated house with the spirit of Christmas, in this charming reissue of a German classic.
When each of the Mellops brothers surprises their papa with a Christmas tree, they find they've all had the same idea and they burst into tears. Oh no, "what a to-do."
Four trees are just too many. And it wouldn't be fair to pick one brother's tree over another, so Mr. Mellops suggests that the boys look for people in need to give them to.
When each of the Mellops brothers surprises their papa with a Christmas tree, they find they've all had the same idea and they burst into tears. Oh no, "what a to-do."
Four trees are just too many. And it wouldn't be fair to pick one brother's tree over another, so Mr. Mellops suggests that the boys look for people in need to give them to.
The problem is everyone they ask already has a tree -- at the orphanage, hospital, prison and military barracks.
Poor Casimir, Isidor, Felix and Ferdinand, they really want to help someone and as the lug their trees back home, their ears wilt with disappointment.
Poor Casimir, Isidor, Felix and Ferdinand, they really want to help someone and as the lug their trees back home, their ears wilt with disappointment.
But just as these well-meaning fellows resign to throw away their trees, they see a girl pig quietly sobbing on the sidewalk. Could this be the person they've been looking for?
The girl pig explains that she lives with her ailing grandma, then leads them back to her rickety house.
The girl pig explains that she lives with her ailing grandma, then leads them back to her rickety house.
The mood inside is forlorn. Her grandma lays in bed: her eyes, dark scribbles, her hooves, dangling over the edge of the bed frame. Plaster has peeled off walls exposing brick and a mouse scrambles across a chipped floor board.
In other rooms of the same house, the brothers find an old soldier shivering in a wheelchair next to an empty wood stove, two scared children huddled in a corner, and an old pig grimacing by a photograph of a woman who's no longer with him.
All at once, the boys' heads flood with ideas to cheer up the lodgers in the house. Every room will have a tree, they shout. Then they dash home to gather things sorely needed in each of the four rooms.
Isidor pulls clothes and blankets out of their armoir, Felix hammers open their "people" banks to buy gifts and medicine, Casimir chops wood to heat the rooms and Ferdinand fills a wheelbarrow with food.
Soon the house is happy and warm, and every tree is just where it's needed, cheering at a bedside and brightening rooms. And the Mellops boys? Well they're hear
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By: Jenny Miller,
on 12/8/2011
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JacketFlap tags: ROBERT SABUDA, Michael Rosen, mommy bloggers, holiday gift guide, Chanukah Lights, 2011, best holiday books, books about Jewish tradition, books about Hanukah, Add a tag
Paper engineering by Robert Sabuda
Candlewick, 2011
$34.99, 5 years and up, 16 pages
Quiet, reflective scenes of Chanukah rise off the page, coaxing readers to linger and reflect, in this spectacular pop-up about the eight-day Jewish festival.
Celebrated author Michael Rosen leads readers around the world to imagine different times and places where the Festival of Lights was celebrated as each night's menorah is lit.
Then acclaimed paper engineer Robert Sabuda echoes Rosen's lyrical words with intricate pop-ups that rise off the page like silent exclamations.
Then acclaimed paper engineer Robert Sabuda echoes Rosen's lyrical words with intricate pop-ups that rise off the page like silent exclamations.
As in many other works, Sabuda displays scenes almost entirely in white, except for blackened windows lit with the flames of the Menorah and backdrops, darkened for contrast.
In one scene, readers see the blended shades of a sunset sky and in another, a lush green landscape deepening in fading light as a menorah lit at a window casts a golden glow on the ground.
Rosen conveys the Jewish experience so beautifully that, Jewish or not, readers will feel connected to it on a very human level. His words speak of things everyone values: freedom's promise, hope rekindled, unflagging faith.
With each verse comes a new scene and another candle lit, and a glimpse at what this holiday means to Jewish people.
On the fifth night of Chanukah, six lights flicker in a little house in a shtetl, a small Jewish village, "where families huddle, the gleam of a future -- free and safe -- reflected in one another's eyes."
Looking at the scene evokes the kind of reverent feeling that occurs when walking into a church, irregardless of whether it's associated with your denomination.
The book begins 2,000 years ago, with Herod's temple where Jewish freedom first was fought, and ends with a modern c
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By: Jenny Miller,
on 12/8/2011
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JacketFlap tags: JANE RAY, mommy bloggers, holiday gift guide, 2011, The Twelve Days of Christmas, best holiday books, books about giving, books about true love, Add a tag
Candlewick, 2011
$16.99, ages 3-6, $16.99
In this beguiling edition of The Twelve Days of Christmas, a suitor woos his love next door with a series of gifts that reflect his deepening affection.
The suitor, an elegant man with twinkling eyes, watches his gifts arrive from his window until the last one is delivered, and he feels brave enough to a walk over and declare his love.
As the first of 12 gifts come, tiny puffs of snow float down outside a row of color-washed houses by a canal. A postman knocks at flat #4 and the woman, her hair swept back with a ribbon, answers the door and gasps with delight.
There on the step is a potted pear tree, each branch perfectly positioned as if espaliered, and a partridge with mottled feathers perched on a limb. A tag dangles from another branch addressed, "To My True Love X."
Every day greater numbers of things arrive on her stoop, each more whimsical and grand than the last.
On the fifth day, five children in hats and mittens run by the woman's door, rolling golden hoola-hoops at their sides, and on the tenth day, ten lords-a-leaping, dressed in pinstriped pants and top hats, shuffle about on the roof swinging their arms.
Jane Ray's pictures are sumptuous, delicately ornate and folkloric, with gilted stars, sleek birds that glide into scenes and perch, and charming details, subtly adorning the page.
When the nine ladies dancing arrive on a boat in the canal, shimmying in fur-lined coats, a banner curves between masts that's as playful as the man's glances. Hung among triangles of fabric are socks and pantaloons.
Every spread captures the magic of young, new love. Houses have a rosy luminous glow that ties in with the blushing cheeks of the woman, and the air sparkles with possibility.
Ray even flirts a little with readers. On the first spread, s
Ray even flirts a little with readers. On the first spread, s
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By: Jenny Miller,
on 12/8/2011
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JacketFlap tags: mommy bloggers, holiday gift guide, 2011, Scherenschnitte, Pamela Dalton, The Story of Christmas, paper art for children, biblical stories for children, best christmas books, nativity books, Add a tag
Illustrations by Pamela Dalton
Chronicle, 2011
$17.99, all ages, 32 pages
In this reverent retelling of the nativity story, illustrations look as if they were pulled from the walls of a church.
Using a technique rooted in 16th Century folk art, Pamela Dalton scissor-cuts designs from a single piece of paper, then watercolors in details and mounts the scenes on a black backdrop.
Using a technique rooted in 16th Century folk art, Pamela Dalton scissor-cuts designs from a single piece of paper, then watercolors in details and mounts the scenes on a black backdrop.
Each design is a fragile tapestry of paper and has a mural-like quality. Ornate and naturalistic, it conveys a feeling of antiquity that works beautifully with the story, retold here from the King James Bible.
In one spread, readers see the angel Gabriel alighting before Mary, an Easter lily being offered in his hand, and later, three shepherds arrive at the manager to see baby Jesus, each of their gowns elaborately cut in repeating patterns.
At times, Dalton frames scenes with trees, their bows weighted by apples as flowers vigorously climb up around their trunks. Other times, carved stone fences, bridges or rolling paths define the background, as birds and butterflies angle here and there, or stars shimmer in the sky.
Each scene feels like a fresco commissioned for the wall (or ceiling) of a chapel, and is painted in delicate, earthy hues that evoke feelings of profound respect and peacefulness.
The most exquisite cuts resemble intricate carvings and look as if they might tear if they were touched.
On one page, baby Jesus is swaddled on an oval bed of wheat, its stalks as fine as feathers. On other pages, angel wings in tan tones look like thin wood filigree that's been cut with a laser.
Once again, the result is astounding: images that suggest the look of aged materials, parchment or plaster or wood, as if the pictures themselves were as old as the story.
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By: Jenny Miller,
on 12/8/2011
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JacketFlap tags: LAUREN THOMPSON, mommy bloggers, One Starry Night, 2011, books in poetic rounds, books about birth of Jesus, story of Jesus, Jonathon Bean, best Christmas stories, Add a tag
Illustrated by Jonathan Bean
Margaret K. McElderry, 2011
$16.99, ages 1-6, 32 pages
The story of Jesus's birth feels like a whispered lullaby in this breathtaking book that alternates line by line between two poems.
In the first poem, author Lauren Thompson describes nativity animals keeping vigil over their young, while in the second, she assures a child she'll always stay near.
The effect is lovely, and it allows the adult reading the story aloud to draw the reader in in a very intimate way.
When Thompson writes that on a starry night, a sheep watches over her lamb, the words, "I am here," echo afterwards in italics, as if spoken in a hushed voice to a child.
She continues on, introducing eight more creatures and their young, from a cow with calf to a dove with doveling, then ends with Mary and Joseph cradling their newborn Jesus.
With each animal comes another promise to a little one in the reader's arms.
After that first line "I am here," the poem continues, "always near / never far / wherever you are / caring for you / whatever you do / day and night / my love is bright…"
After that first line "I am here," the poem continues, "always near / never far / wherever you are / caring for you / whatever you do / day and night / my love is bright…"
The words are simple, yet stirring, and when paired with the first poem, create a feeling of harmony, much like the effect singing rounds has on the listener.
As a result, reading the verses feels like singing them -- a sensation that matches beautifully with Jonathan Bean's simple, fluid pastels.
In muted sandy tans, gray blues and coal-dark black, Bean depicts the animals moving starward across a silent, moon-washed hillside.
All feels calm, all is bright, and the sound of poetry lingers in the air.
Thompson also wrote the beloved Little Quack series and Leap Back Home to Me, while Bean illustrated The Apple Pie That Papa Baked, winner of the Ezra Jack Keats award.
As a result, reading the verses feels like singing them -- a sensation that matches beautifully with Jonathan Bean's simple, fluid pastels.
In muted sandy tans, gray blues and coal-dark black, Bean depicts the animals moving starward across a silent, moon-washed hillside.
All feels calm, all is bright, and the sound of poetry lingers in the air.
Thompson also wrote the beloved Little Quack series and Leap Back Home to Me, while Bean illustrated The Apple Pie That Papa Baked, winner of the Ezra Jack Keats award.
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By: Jenny Miller,
on 12/1/2011
Blog: Where The Best Books Are! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Bob Dylan, mommy bloggers, 2011, Jon Muth, books about compassion, Blowin' in the Wind, Best books about peace, best children's books of 2011, Add a tag
Lyrics by Bob Dylan
Illustrated by Jon J. Muth
With CD of Dylan's original recording
Sterling, 2011
$17.95, ages 5 and up, 28 pages
In this sublime picture book adaptation, a paper airplane gliding across the sky becomes a breathtaking metaphor for the roles we all play in making a better world.
Award-winning Jon Muth meditates on Bob Dylan's remarkable 1963 protest song with sweeping illustrations steeped in symbolism, the most resonant being that of the toy plane.
Four children of differing skin color are taken by skiff across expanses of water and shown scenes that make them at turns reflective, sad, uncomfortable, and ultimately, ready to face up to a difficult truth:
That unjust things occur in the world and it is up to each of them to do something about them.
Passing overhead in almost every spread, a folded airplane symbolizes "the answer" in Dylan's refrain, "The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind," a figurative verse about opening one's heart to all of humanity.
The idea, it seems, is that if one's heart and senses are receptive, the answer to what to do about life's injustices can be heard or felt, though it's up to each of us to want to act on it.
"Just as each of the children in my illustrations has his or her own paper airplane, each of us knows what needs to be done in our worlds," Muth writes in an end note.
"Just as each of the children in my illustrations has his or her own paper airplane, each of us knows what needs to be done in our worlds," Muth writes in an end note.
Dylan himself in 1962 compared the "answer" in his song to paper, and one wonders if this played into Muth's choice of a paper airplane as his guiding metaphor.
"Just like a restless piece of paper it's got to come down some," Dylan wrote. "�But the only trouble is that no one picks up the answer when it comes down so not too many people get to see and know …and then it flies away. I still say that some of the biggest criminals are those that turn their
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By: Jenny Miller,
on 11/25/2011
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JacketFlap tags: This New Baby, books for baby boys, It's a Little Book, Teddy Jam, A Box of Bugs, best board books for baby, LANE SMITH, mommy bloggers, 2011, Joyce Wan, You Are My Cupcake, David Carter, Add a tag
What do you give a newborn boy,
With eyes that twinkle full of joy?
A bundle of books just his size,
Full of wonder, love and surprise.
Click the links below for reviews of four board books "for now and to grow on." Or scroll down the page!
This New Baby by Teddy Jam
It's a Little Book by Lane Smith
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By: Jenny Miller,
on 11/25/2011
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JacketFlap tags: This New Baby, Teddy Jam, poems about baby, best baby books, books for new moms, Virginia Johnson, mommy bloggers, 2011, baby shower books, board books for baby, Add a tag
Paintings by Virginia Johnson
Groundwood Books, 2011
$8.95 (board book), 22 pages
A mother watches her newborn, and wonders about all that he sees and feels in this tender poem originally published in 1999 as a picture book.
"This new baby / sleeps in my arms / like a moon / sleeping on a cloud," the mother muses, as she holds him close, her face touching his.
Later, she says, as he drifts into a dreamworld in father's lap, he's "like a hawk drifting through the sky."
Later, she says, as he drifts into a dreamworld in father's lap, he's "like a hawk drifting through the sky."
For a time the baby's still, then something stirs inside him, disquiets him, "the sound of hawks' wings lifting," and he lets out a cry, deep from inside.
His wail challenges his unrest, and "chases old ghosts / back into the shadows." Then his body relaxes once more, his eyes open "like two moons / shining on a lake," and he rests limply over his father's shoulder.
His wail challenges his unrest, and "chases old ghosts / back into the shadows." Then his body relaxes once more, his eyes open "like two moons / shining on a lake," and he rests limply over his father's shoulder.
Later as the sun rises like a big orange balloon, mother takes him out in his stroller, aware that so much is new to him, and she wonders what he's thinking.
"This new baby stares at the sun, this new baby searches for his toes / what this new baby finds / what this new baby knows."
"This new baby stares at the sun, this new baby searches for his toes / what this new baby finds / what this new baby knows."
Johnson's delicate watercolors match the text's wondrous quality, a feeling of being blissfully lost in one's thoughts.
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By: Jenny Miller,
on 11/25/2011
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JacketFlap tags: It's a Little Book, sweet board books, best books for baby, LANE SMITH, books about books, mommy bloggers, 2011, baby shower books, It's a Book, Add a tag
Roaring Brook Press, 2011
$7.99 (board book), ages 4-8, 24 pages
A baby donkey tries to guess what a book is for and comes up with adorably silly uses in this pint-size companion to Lane Smith's gem It's a Book.
Instead of facing off over reading formats (the donkey's laptop verses the gorilla's book), as they did in last year's book, the two discuss the purpose of books as only babies would:
Plunked down on the floor, with their legs straight in front of them, as if they just lost their balance and tipped over, neither of them quite talking it over and both blurting out their thoughts.
The donkey's ears are perked up and he's trying to imagine what a book could be. The gorilla, a burly little guy with a tiny hat, is blankly watching him, as if didn't occur to him that he could help sort things out.
The donkey's ears are perked up and he's trying to imagine what a book could be. The gorilla, a burly little guy with a tiny hat, is blankly watching him, as if didn't occur to him that he could help sort things out.
Every time the donkey guesses what the baby's gorilla's book is for and acts that idea out (as if he were playing charades), the gorilla dismisses his suggestion with a matter-of-fact, "No."
First, the donkey tastes the book, then he opens it over his brow like a hat, props it on his legs like a laptop and sticks it in his mouth to make a beak.
Soon he's making it flap in the air like bird, riding it like a saddle, rigging it up to be a roof for his building of blocks, and even trying it out as a pillow. Ugh, definitely not a pillow.
Of course none of these guesses are correct, and by the end of Smith's book, the taciturn gorilla finally spills what the book is really for.
"It's for reading…It's a book silly!" Gorilla tells him, then opens it up for both to share.
"It's for reading…It's a book silly!" Gorilla tells him, then opens it up for both to share.
Lane's repartee between the donkey and gorilla is spare and hilarious, and made all the more funny because it's played out in the same way that babies play: alongside each other without a lot of interaction.
By: Jenny Miller,
on 11/25/2011
Blog: Where The Best Books Are! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: best baby books, best shower books, Box of Bugs, shower gifts, pop-up books for baby, pop-up board books, bug books, mommy bloggers, 2011, David Carter, Add a tag
Created by David Carter
Little Simon, 2011
$14.99 (board book set), 64 pages, ages 4-8
Boys and bugs. It's one of life's sure things.
It seems as soon as boys can walk, they're hunkering down with a hand in the path of a roly poly, trying to coax it up for a ride.
It seems as soon as boys can walk, they're hunkering down with a hand in the path of a roly poly, trying to coax it up for a ride.
And you know what that means. It's just a matter of time before they're carrying them inside, asking if their bugs can stay.
As parents, we love to see them enthralled in nature, but wouldn't it be nice if some of the bugs in their hands weren't so real, yet still moved about as if they were?
Well, the bugs in Carter's adorable set of four pop-up books do just that. They flap and crawl, while introducing toddlers to the basics of colors, opposites, counting, and up and down.
Paper centipedes, butterflies, beetles and bees play peek-a-boo with readers, unfurling their wings, sliding out of hiding places, even playing on a seesaw.
Among them, a striped red beetle with spiraling antennae that unwind as the page opens and a pointing finger bug (a human hand with eyes and feelers) that pops out of a box to direct the way to the right and left.
Every bug has a goofy, lovable look, capped off with oversized eyes, and is brightly colored with stripes, polka-dots, checks, swirls and even tie-dye patterns.
Perfect for little hands, the movable art is simple and sturdy, and can be closed quickly without wings or feelers getting bent.
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By: Jenny Miller,
on 11/25/2011
Blog: Where The Best Books Are! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: best shower books, Guido's coloring book, books for big sister, Brandy Cooke, books for big brother, busy books, new baby books, Cupcakes, Guido Van Genechten, mommy bloggers, 2011, Add a tag
Here are two ideas to keep a big brother and sister happy and busy while mother and baby snuggle nearby.
Cupcakes! (A Sweet Treat with More Than 200 Stickers), by Brandy Cooke, photos by Connie Kramer, Little Simon, $6.99 (board book), ages 3-5, 18 pages, 2011. A little decorator is needed quickly to sprinkle on toppings and make them stick! In this sweet board book, nine cupcakes with towering swirls of frosting are laid out for readers to decorate with colorful stickers. The stickers, stored in an envelope on the inside cover, are photographs of real-life confections and look as yummy as the frosting they stick on. There are sugar bugs to crawl up a chocolate mound of buttercream, gumpaste flowers to decorate a verdant swirl of frosting, and a host of mammals to swim and climb about the others, from gummy whales to a koala, lions and dinosaurs. In the first five spreads, Kramer suggests toppings that would match a frosting's color scheme. On the last spread, which unfolds four ways with a cupcake on every page, she invites readers to decorate frosting any way they like. Charming and irresistible, Cupcakes! is a delicious-looking project -- without any mess!
Guido's Great Coloring and Drawing Book, created by Guido Van Genechten, Clavis, $14.95, ages 9-12, 176 pages, ages 7 and up, 2010. Get ready, get set, draw! In this whimsical activity book from Holland, children receive coloring assignments designed to tickle their imaginations. In some, they're asked to finish drawings, such as color sweaters onto fish, draw a face around a pair of glasses or draw a line around a grid of d
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By: Jenny Miller,
on 11/18/2011
Blog: Where The Best Books Are! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Thanksgiving books, Melissa Sweet, mommy bloggers, 2011, Balloons Over Broadway, Tony Sarg book, best nonfiction for kids, books about balloons, books about Macy's Day Parade, Add a tag
Written & illustrated by Melissa Sweet
Houghton Mifflin, 2011
$16.99, ages 4 and up, 40 pages.
A man with a knack for making things move turns the concept of marionettes upside down and creates one of the greatest parades on Earth.
In this marvelous tribute, Caldecott Honor winner Melissa Sweet uses a menagerie of objects and illustrations to tell the story of Anthony "Tony" Sarg, the artist behind Macy's parade balloons.
Sweet's telling is wondrous, as she echoes Tony's creative genius with her own playful use of wood, fabrics, color and sketches.
Whimsical collages delight the eye as Sweet mixes photographs of thread spool towers, a building block tiger on wheels and other objects with watercolor illustrations.
On the opening page, the book's title hangs on a cardboard sign from antique pulleys and wire. Later, a worn book is opened flat and filled with hand-sewn puppets, sketched diagrams, swatches of fabric and buttons.
The story itself moves along with a skip and bounce, and is sprinkled here and there with curious anecdotes to amuse readers.
Sweet writes that from boyhood on Tony tinkered with simple machines. He rigged pulleys and ropes to make dolls do jumping jacks and used those same mechanisms to let out the family's chickens from their coop while he was still in bed.
Tony ran rope from the door of the chicken coop through his bedroom window, then closed that door, sprinkled feed just outside of it and went off to bed. When his alarm rang in the morning, he pulled the rope, opening the door so the chickens could wander out and eat.
When Tony was full grown, he discovered the art of marionettes was a fading, so he revived the craft with his own style of wood and cloth puppets that moved like real actors. Eventually Tony was invited to perform with his puppets on Broadway.
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By: Jenny Miller,
on 11/17/2011
Blog: Where The Best Books Are! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: mommy bloggers, 2011, Ruth Orbach, best books about birds, books about ducks, Acorns and Stew Too, George Flies South, fall children's books, best books about migration, Simon James, Add a tag
 |
| From George Flies South by Simon James |
As icy winds scatter the last of fall leaves, our skies fill with flocks of birds arrowing southward at a purposeful pace.
But was it easy for our plumed friends to go? Or for us to see them go? Here are two picture books about the angst of saying farewell, even if only for a season.
Acorns and Stew, Too is about a girl who finds a way to keep ducks safely grounded and George Flies South is about a baby bird mustering up the courage to fly away.
Click the titles above to go directly to the reviews or scroll down the page.
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By: Jenny Miller,
on 11/17/2011
Blog: Where The Best Books Are! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: mommy bloggers, 2011, fall books, Ruth Orbach, books about ducks, Acorns and Stew Too, books about resourceful girls, cheerful books, books about birds flying south, Add a tag
Written & illustrated by Ruth Orbach
Kane/Miller, 2011
$15.99, ages 4-8, 32 pages
A gumptious little girl uses nails and needles, acorns and stew to safely keep a flock of friends with her through the winter in this adorable picture book.
Illustrated in vintage style, with ink drawings punctuated with bright cheery color, the story plays out an imaginative plan that readers will feel a part of too.
Lenore looks every bit the free spirit with her tousled straight hair and cherry-red jumper over a fuschia shirt, and she knows what she needs:
To keep everything she loves just as it is.
Her house, its yellow door, her street with birds and trees, her cozy room, her everyday breakfast of pancakes, butter and jam, and her cat Sam.
But mostly, she wants the ducks in the lake nearby to stay where they are. Everyday she slings a bag of bread crumbs over her shoulder to share with them.
Sometimes she even brings them fish and porridge, and though none of the ducks know quite what to make of that, they love their girl.
But with winter coming, Lenore and the ducks are worried; soon they'll have to part.
Tears pour out of their eyes in a stream of dashes as they sit at a lakeside bench. Their bodies slump with sadness.
Try as they might, they can't keep winter from coming. The ducks try to stick leaves back on trees and before long they're shivering in an icy rain.
But wait, don't go, Lenore urges them, and she races home with a magical plan to keep them dry and
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By: Jenny Miller,
on 11/17/2011
Blog: Where The Best Books Are! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: mommy bloggers, 2011, books about bird migration, getting your wings, fall books, George Flies South, books about courage, Simon James, Add a tag
Candlewick, 2011
$16.99, ages 3 and up, 40 pages
A fledgling takes flight in a way he never imagined in this darling book by the creator of Leon & Bob.
George, a tawny wisp of a bird, would rather snuggle in his nest than try out his wings and fly south.
Perched midway down the branch of a big tree at the entrance to a city park, the nest seems cozy and safe.
But Momma bird knows it won't be either for long.
Only a few leaves still cling to the tree and soon snow will come and worms will be hard to find.
"Are you ready, George?" she asks, enthusiastically fluttering her wings above him.
"Not quite," he replies, peeking over the edge of the branch. "I might fall," then marches back to his nest and hops inside.
Feeling quite taken care of, he asks Momma to find him worms and assures her he will be right there snug in his nest when she returns.
But after Momma flies off, a strong gust of wind sweeps through the park and sends George and his nest swirling through the air.
George isn't a bit afraid; he's giddy with excitement. "I'm flying," he cries, as he angles his wings from the front of his nest, as if his wings are what's making him fly.
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By: Jenny Miller,
on 11/13/2011
Blog: Where The Best Books Are! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: mommy bloggers, 2011, win children's books, chronicle books giveaway, haul away chronicle books, holiday book contests, happy haulidays, gifts, CHRISTMAS, book giveaway, free, Add a tag
Leave a comment at the end of this post by Dec. 2 and you'll be entered in a random drawing to win the 29 books listed below.
Be sure to leave a way to contact you in your comment or by emailing me with your email address here.
Last week, Chronicle contacted bloggers across the web to post their favorite Chronicle books for its 2nd annual Happy Haulidays Giveaway.
In exchange, bloggers and the readers who comment on their lists will be entered for a chance to win the books listed on their blogs.
In addition, a charity of the bloggers' choice will be entered to win the same books. I've chosen Fairview Elementary School in Denver's poorest neighborhood.
That means if Where the Best Books Are! wins, one set of Chronicle books will be sent to one of you, to Fairview and to my blog!
Chronicle will announce the winners in early December! To enter, you must be a U.S. resident 18 years or older.
Here are my picks!
Milk & Cookies by Tina Casaceli ($24.95)
Scribbles: A Really Giant Drawing and Coloring Book by Taro Gomi ($19.99)
Fairy Tree House by Saviour Pirotta and Lockheart ($19.99)
4 Comments on Happy Haulidays is Back!, last added: 11/14/2011
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By: Jenny Miller,
on 11/1/2011
Blog: Where The Best Books Are! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Steve Jobs, Margaret Wise Brown, mommy bloggers, funny picture books, 2011, parody of Goodnight Moon, Goodnight iPad, Ann Droyd, David Milgram, books about kids and electronics, best bedtime story of year, Add a tag
Written & illustrated by Ann Droyd
Blue Rider Press, 2011
$14.95, All ages, 30 pages
It seems like only yesterday that Margaret Wise Brown's bunny fell asleep saying nighty night to the moon.
Now all sorts of things are glowing in his house -- iPads, WiFi, Nooks -- and the last thing Bunny wants to do is tell them goodnight.
In fact, no one in his family wants to wish their devices goodnight -- well, except Granny. She hasn't warmed up to electronics (at least not that she realizes).
It looks like Granny will just have say all of their goodnights for them -- and give those glowy things the sendoff she thinks they deserve.
In this hysterical parody of Brown's Goodnight Moon, David Milgram (aka "Ann Droyd") shows an old-fashioned gal getting her digital family to bed by hurling all of its distractions out the window.
The result is a bedtime gem for the digital age that underscores how hard it is to tear kids and parents away from gadgets -- made all the more funny juxtaposed with Brown's sweet 1947 poem.
Coming out just weeks after the passing of Apple Founder Steve Jobs, Goodnight iPad feels like a tribute and reminds us how much the iPad and all the devices Jobs created changed how we live -- and go to bed.
In Brown's classic, the bunny wishes goodnight to everything around his room. Then as the sky slowly deepens and he says goodnight to the moon, his eyes slip shut and he drifts off to sleep.
But in Milgram's spoof, the bunny and most of his family are too fixated on their electronic devices to realize it's bedtime.
The sky is already dark. The kids are in pajamas and everyone's clicking away in the family room.
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By: Jenny Miller,
on 10/21/2011
Blog: Where The Best Books Are! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: eric rohmann, mommy bloggers, 2011, bone dog, boy and dog stories, kid books about grief, Halloween books for kids, stories about trick-or-treat, skeleton stories, Add a tag
Roaring Brook Press, 2011
$16.99, ages 4-8, 32 pages
As a dog comes to the end of her life, she promises her boy she'll always watch over him, then stays true to her word, pattering down from the sky on Halloween to scare away graveyard goons.
In this uplifting, sweet picture book, Caldecott Medalist Rohmann shows a boy confronting the pain of losing a pet, but finding comfort in the thought of his dog's spirit following along above him.
Gus has loved Ella for as long as he can remember; he's loved riding on her back as she charged across the field with a pack of dog friends at her side. But now, Ella's coming to the end of her life and it's time for her to say goodbye.
As a harvest moon slides up over the hillside, Gus sits in the grass with his arm around Ella as she tells him she'll soon go away, but that she'll always look over him. "A promise made under a full moon cannot be broken," she says.
By the next spread, Ella has passed away and Gus is weighted with grief. Losing his dog has taken the fun out of everything, even dressing up and going out trick-or-treating. But it's Halloween and no one misses wandering door-to-door.
Dressed as a skeleton, Gus heads off alone into the night, his body slouched, reflecting how his heart feels. The dogs from the neighborhood tilt their heads in his direction, tuned into the loneliness he feels.
After Gus fills up his bag, he wanders back toward home and as he crosses the graveyard, he comes upon a fantastical sight all aglow in the full moon.
Skeletons are crawling out from behind tombstones and rattling about. They run to him because they think he's a skeleton too. But when the boy pulls off his mask to reveal he's really just a boy, the skeletons grow mischievous and try to chase him.
Suddenly up in the dark sky, a wagging bone dog comes running down to the boy; it's the spirit of his beloved Ella, watc
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By: Jenny Miller,
on 10/21/2011
Blog: Where The Best Books Are! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: mommy bloggers, 2011, Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen, Halloween books for kids, Howard Fine, children's books about misunderstandings, hampire, farmyard vampires, books about pig vampires, Add a tag
By Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen
Illustrated by Howard Fine
Harper-Collins, 2011
$16.99, ages 4-8, 32 pages
A hungry duck makes a late-night dash for a snack, as a fanged beast prowls the farm yard for his next delicious victim, in this hilarious story of misunderstandings.
Until now, no farm animal dared to step a talon or hoof out of its pen when the moon was bright for fear of becoming prey for a great cloaked hog known as Hampire.
They'd seen enough grisly remains from Hampire's feedings, the sticky red fluid dripping off the grass and the red stains on his canines as he returned to his pen.
But on this night Duck is too hungry to be sensible. The rumbling in his tummy is keeping him awake and all he can think about is snacking on the jelly rolls and ice-cream bowls in farmer's kitchen.
So Duck slips out of the barn and into the farmhouse to pile goodies onto a tray to take back to the barn. But as he steps back into the night air, a haunting, ruddy presence rises up behind him: It's Hampire, "grim and dire."
Frantic, Duck flaps off to the chicken coop as Hampire lumbers in pursuit with fangs bared. Duck quickly rouses Red the chicken and yells for him to hide, then both fly the coop as Hampire snuffles his nose inside.
"As Duck raced Red to Pony's stall, / They heard the Hampire screaming. / 'I'm starved, of course -- / I'd eat a horse!' / His pointy fangs were gleaming."
Hampire's rant feeds their fears and they climb onto Pony's back and gallop off to an abandoned shed, as the tray of goodies teeters on Duck's wing. Inside they hear Hampire bellow out that he's hungry and plead with them to let him in.
But none of them trust the beast, so they slam the door in his face and run to the farthest wall to cower in a corner. As Hampire pounds on the walls, Duck d
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What an honor to have such a radiant review. Thank you for sharing your light on this book. All good wishes to you and your readers for the coming holidays. All of them...Michael J. Rosen