What Are We Reading? Once again it's time to share favorite books of the week:
My daughter is Elisa Kleven's newest admirer, and she's requested Kleven's books nearly every night since we borrowed them from the library this week. So far we've read three of her books: The Apple Doll, A Carousel Tale and The Paper Princess. How is it that we've never read any of Elisa Kleven's books until just now? I just can't understand how this we missed this author/illustrator. Kleven's books are enchanting. Truly and remarkably enchanting. Her stories delight and her illustrations seem to swirl and dance right before your eyes. It's like opening up a bottle of captured, fond childhood memories. While we love them all equally, I only have time to review one of Kleven's books this week.
The Apple Doll
by Elisa Kleven; Farrar, Straus and Giroux (July 2007); ISBN 9780374303808; 40 pages;
Book Source: Copy from public library
We picked up
The Apple Doll at exactly the right time of year. Kleven cleverly interweaves a story about starting school for the first time with the delights of freshly picked apples. On her first day of school, Lizzy picks an apple from the apple tree in her yard, gives the apple a twig body and names her newly-made apple doll Susanna. She whispers all her worries about school to Susanna and takes her new apple friend along to school for comfort. The other children make fun of her apple doll so Susanna stops taking Susanna to school even though she feels lonely without her. She confides to her mother that she wishes Susanna would last forever and her mother shows her how to turn her into a dried-apple doll. Lizzy is finally able to overcome her school-related anxieties and makes new friends after she proudly shows her new doll during sharing time.
The best part of this book besides the glorious watercolor and collage illustrations? -- In the back of the book, Kleven includes instructions on how to
make your own apple doll. My daughter has been begging and begging to make one so you can bet we're going to give this activity a try this week (a perfect activity for our Science Sunday post). At first I wasn't sure how my daughter would react to the sight of the wrinkled grandma apple doll in the book, but she adores it and thinks "grandma dolls" are pretty neat. Too bad my daughter doesn't have show-and-tell at her school! We're going to start our activity tomorrow
My children will have a new cousin very soon! We are anxiously awaiting news today of the newest addition to our extended family. Little babies bring so much joy to families. However, sometimes siblings get a little jealous and may find the bundle of joy more annoying than cute. I'm interested to see how my nephew handles the upcoming changes. Hopefully, he won't have difficulty adjusting. My daughter embraced her new baby brother and never really seemed to show much resentment towards him. But now that he's a little older and more mischievous she gets a tad annoyed when he messes with her toys and she does get slightly jealous when he gets more attention.
Everything was fine UNTIL her little brother, Marvin, came along. When Lizzie tried to tell a story before breakfast, her mother said, "Not now, dear. Marvin has a dirty diaper." When she tried to tell her father a story after dinner, he said, "Maybe later, Lizzie. It's time for Marvin's bath."
Once Upon a Baby Brother
by Sarah Sullivan, illustrated by Tricia Tusa. Farrar Straus Giroux (June 2010); ISBN 9780374346355; 32 pages; Ages 5-8
(Book Source: F&G Review copy from publisher, images used with permission)
Author Sarah Sullivan gives the classic sibling rivalry theme a comical and story-filled slant in her newest children's book about a big sister/little brother relationship. Lizzie, a young storyteller, loves to entertain everyone with her imaginative stories. When Marvin (her little brother) is born she continues telling stories but her parents are often too busy to listen. Lucky for her, she begins second-grade and her teacher, Miss Pennyroyal, encourages all the kids in her class to write stories. Lizzie ends up coping with her pesky brother by writing stories that star Marvin as an unpleasant character -- he's an ugly prince, a Marvinosaurus and even a nasty pirate.
Lizzie uses her special Princess Merriweather pencil and her creative stories starring Marvin flow forth onto the pages. Then one fateful week Lizzie can't think of a single idea for her new school assignment. A hero eventually emerges and Lizzie realizes that having a sometimes annoying baby brother isn't necessarily a bad thing.
This amusing tale not only helps children appreciate their siblings but it also may inspire a new generation of writers. I was expecting a book about siblings but I wasn't expecting the amazingly creative ways Sullivan manages to make writing sound exciting for children. Seriously, where can we get our very own Princess Merriweather pencil topper like Lizzie's? Teachers and parents will find this book useful in helping children overcome write
Well, now I HAVE to know why the cow loves cookies :) It's a good thing my library has it!
Thanks for joining WMCIR and sharing your reads. I was looking for Kleven books after Superheroes and Princesses reviews, but unfortunately our library doesn't have them. So now I am putting them on the request right now. And while I am at it, maybe I can snatch that new Karma Wilson book too!
My son loved to sing "Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar," so I bet he would have loved that book. What a cute cover!
We discovered Elisa Kleven this summer. We made paper princesses and are currently in the process of making the apple doll. We started ours when there was quite a bit of humidity in the air so we are on day five of letting it dry out. I'm going to post about it this week.
I'm going to have to check out some of those Kleven books.
We have a version of the Cookie Jar book and love it. This one looks cute too!
All of these sound so cute, I have to see if our library has them.