Happy 143rd Birthday Canada! Oona and I will be celebrating today book-style by reviewing M Is For Moose: A Charles Pachter Alphabet.

In case you're wondering this isn't one of those place-specific alphabet books that are sold at tourist trap shops. Charles Pachter is one of Canada's preeminent visual artists. The full span of his work (from landscapes to contemporary pop-art type collages) is all here including new artwork and images from some of Pachter's most well-known pieces. My personal favourite is Joy Ride (Queen Elizabeth II riding a moose side-saddle) from the playful QUEEN AND MOOSE series.

Back to the alphabet bit. The usual suspects of Canadiana here: B is for Beaver, H is for Hockey, M is for Mountie etc., but Pachter ups the cool quotient by mixing in some less pedestrian references. W is for Writer  (Margaret Lawrence); P is for Poet (Margaret Atwood) and T is for Trudeau and his (bright red) tie.

If you are feeling very Canadian or especially ambitious the book includes a recipe for that most Canadian of delicacies, the butter tart. Mmmmmmm butter tarts.

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Today is the 110th birthday of Antoine de Saint-Exupery and Google is celebrating with a Google doodle featuring The Little Prince. For some reason it is not being included on Google.com but english-speaking Saint-Exupery fans can hop over to Google UK where the charming little doodle can be seen all day.

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When I was pregnant with Oona my partner and I had all sorts of plans to make handmade picture books for our budding bookworm. Alas, the best laid plans were soon put to rest once our sleepless wonder arrived. Time passed and the plans were forgotten. Until last week when the folks at Cool Mom Picks wrote about some very cool handmade wooden baby books (check out their post here). 


I can't work wood, but I can knit and long ago I ordered the yarn to make a little picture book I found in Kat Coyle's book of baby patterns,  Boho Baby Knits: Groovy Patterns for Cool Tots. This book is probably a bit young for Oona (19-months) but what the heck, I'm going to make it. If it works out (i.e. I actually finish a project) I'm going to design a knitted alphabet book that will serve Oona for the next few years.  For those of you who have the time or inclination you could design your very own knitted books using some simple math skills and graph paper for knitters.

Below: Kat Coyle's most excellent book as pictured in Boho Baby Knits (cute baby not included with pattern).

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To celebrate its 70th birthday Puffin has put together the "Puffin Handbook". Its a free booklet that includes articles about child literacy, essays by writers including Eric Carle, and a list of the 70 best children's books from Puffin's extensive catalogue. This handy-dandy reference list is divided into categories by age and has recommendations for babies through to teens. My favourite from their books for baby list: Janet and Allan Ahlberg's  Each Peach Pear Plum. You can download the Puffin Handbook here.

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Last week my 18-month-old's new word was two. I'm pretty sure she doesn't know what it means but it got me thinking that maybe it was time to introduce her to that mainstay of little kid lit: the counting book.

Off we we went to library to look for a suitable one for an 18-month-old. It was confusing. For one thing, what is a suitable counting book for a toddler? For another, there must be at least 1000 counting books at the library. Maybe I am exaggerating a wee bit, but no-one can deny that an awful lot of ink and paper has been put to use in an attempt to teach kids how to count.

As Oona was frantically pulling half the books in the library off the shelves I managed to find an at least close to age-appropriate book,  More, Fewer, Less by Tana Hoban. In case you are not familiar with Hoban, she was the author of numerous children's books in which she used her photographs to introduce basic concepts to kids. The popular Black on White and White on Black books are considered must haves amongst many parents of young babes..

Strictly speaking More, Fewer, Less is not a counting book it is a comparison book, but I think it works well for the "pre-counter''.  It is a collection of brightly coloured photographs grouping various types of every day items in smaller and larger amounts. The book itself is text-less, but the note on the inside of the jacket flap encourages readers to  make the comparisons suggested in the title: more, fewer and less. Its a really versatile book that lends itself equally well to making other comparisons - differences in colour, size and shape are just a few of the possibilities.

Its so much fun to watch Oona's little eyes scanning the photos while she points out details and differences. I don't expect she'll be learning her numbers anytime soon but she sure is happy to sit on my lap, look at the beautiful photographs and happily babble two-two-two.........

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I was trying to place a moratorium on the buying of books until my family and I move house at the end of the month. I absolutely hate moving and the less things to take the better. Don't ask me why I decided to pop into our local children's book shop today - I think I actually believed I could just take a peek and leave without a new book in hand.

Alas, there will be one more book making the move with us. But what a book! Friendly Tales (Little Golden Book Treasury). Twenty stories and poems by my beloved Margaret Wise Brown including Sailor Dog (who doesn't love a sailor dog?), The Colour Kittens, and Home For a Bunny. Best find in a long while. If you have small children buy this book, your family will enjoy exploring the stories of the incomparable MWB for years to come.

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written and illustrated by Richard Scarry
publisher Random House Books for Young Readers

Wow, this really is the biggest word book ever. Every inch of its two-foot tall pages is covered with
scenes from life in Busytown , each object labelled with words or a short sentence.

For those of you (if there are any) who aren't familiar with Busytown -  its a very busy place populated by an assortment of eccentric characters. The citizenry is made up exclusively of anthropomorphic animals: butcher pigs, sailor cats, policeman dogs, handyman foxes, mice that drive pencil cars and one Lowly Worm.

The sheer number of things to look at keeps my 18-month-old happily occupied for 1/2 an hour at a time (that's at least 5 hours in toddler time). Meanwhile, my husband and I are endlessly entertained by Scarry's slap-stick style humour (kind of like a print version of a sketch comedy).

This book is big, busy and brilliant.

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written by Margaret Wise Brown
pictures by Stephen Savage

Forgive me if I gush, but I just really love the books of Margaret Wise Brown. When Simon and Schuster recently released the previously unpublished The Fathers Are Coming Home, I felt like a Beatles fanatic finding a lost recording. I pre-ordered the book months before my husband's birthday and counted down the days.

Originally written as a welcome home to the fathers returning from World War II the book shows various types of animal fathers returning to their children at the end of the day. Typical of Wise Brown (who was never typical) the animals featured in the book aren't limited to the cute and cuddly (though they are there too).This book celebrates animal dads of all kinds, even the Bug whose family lives under a log and the kind-of creepy looking Daddy Long Legs who, I am sure, loves his children too.

The book is illustrated by Stephen Savage whose retro-looking linocut illustrations are perfectly suited to Wise Brown's trademark sparse and quirky prose. I don't think they could have found a more suitable artist for this one. Check out Stephen Savage discussing his work on the book here.

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Check out Jacob Lambert's darkly comic musings about the picture books he loved as a child,

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Guggenheim Children's Book Reissued

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McElmurry's folksy illustrations are what sets this book apart. I grabbed it off the book shelf and bought it before reading a single line. An odd thing for me to do since I'm usually more interested in prose (yes, even in children's books). But this book is all about the rustic charm of the pictures, with rich colours and homespun details reminiscent of decorative folk art.