Some Real Gems

I know I posted about some of these last Tuesday, but the ones that are repeats have had a week to marinate at our house and we love them more and more.

Truly every one of these picture books are absolute gems and you must check them out. You must. There is humor and subtlety and depth and resilience. Oh! If every picture book could be this good.

The Hueys in the New Sweater by Oliver Jeffers (about a boy who wants to be different—then everyone else wants to be different too—the illustrations alone will make you laugh!)

Ellen's Broom by Kelly Starling Lyons (about the end of slavery and what it was like for slaves who hadn't been allowed legal marriages by their owners to finally get married—good for younger kids because the text is spare and simple. Lots of room for discussion.)

Old Robert and the Sea-Silly Cats by Barbara Josse (I honestly didn't care about the story as I read this book, the language was so delicious. It rolled off my tongue and made me want to say the words over again, just to say them. I am not a language connoisseur, so this is a rare experience for me! The story is great too, though.)

The Triumphant Story of an Underdog Olympig! by Victoria Jamieson (The ending is too awesome for words. Completely perfect and completely unexpected.)

Heroes of the Surf by Elisa Carbone (Flannery loves this one, though I would normally say this is a picture book for ages seven and up. The adventure is tangible to her, though she doesn't understand a lot of the words and there is a lot of text. This is truly a remarkable real story! All the kids have reread and reread it.)

Grammy Lamby and the Secret Handshake by Kate Klise (Nothing surprising here, but the story is so well thought out and the illustrations are wonderful. It makes you feel good about the world just to read it.)

Ralph Tells A Story by Abby Hanlon (Every teacher should read this to their kids as they are learning to write, and every parent should read it to their kids as they are encouraging their kids to shoot for the stars.)

Laundry Day Maurie J. Manning (What a wonderful story to show that good deeds generally get rewarded in the end, though not always in the way we think.)



  

 

And here is a link to a really heartbreaking/wonderful article in the New York Times. Read it if you want to read something else that will make you feel better about the world we live in. Well, better and worse I suppose:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/06/magazine/can-forgiveness-play-a-role-in-criminal-justice.html?_r=0