Death to Battle of the Books

Well. Sometimes I'm a good mom. Every once in awhile, I'm a great mom. I'm not sure when those moments are, but they've got to happen. They've got to. I've got to believe it.

And then there are times when I've over-scheduled everyone, including myself, to the point of ridiculousness, and my house is so messy I could be arrested, and everyone is exhausted by all the fun/educational activities we're participating in. And no one wants to make dinner. Or do laundry.

No one.

It's at times like these when I have to change things up. Erase things. Erase great ideas like our Battle of the Books plan.

Oh, we read all the books. Most of us did. A few kids voted in a few of the brackets. But enthusiasm was waning. Mostly mine. And suddenly, I didn't care enough to force them to vote. I didn't care enough to make a big deal out of it.

So the black contact paper was erased and replaced by a list of things I want Sam to do. (Not nearly as inspiring) Goodbye summer reading plan. Welcome to the good ol' standby of going to library during the summer and shoving books at my kids every other day or so and seeing what happens.

Oh well.

It's at discouraging times like these (I know, I know—first-world problems), I have to go back to some of my favorite picture books to feel happy inside. So today we are going to celebrate one of my favorite illustrators ever:

Trina Schart Hyman

Here is a library list of books she has illustrated. You really cannot get better than this. These are classics. These are perfect. Check them out! (When someone else is the author, it is noted.)

Little Red Riding Hood
Tight Times by Barbara Hazen
Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins by Eric Kimmel (I love this book!!!)
Sleeping Beauty
Iron John by Eric Kimmel
The Man Who Loved Books by Jean Fritz
The Kitchen Knight by Margaret Hodges
Snow White
Merlin and the Making of the King
The Fortune Tellers by Lloyd Alexander
Saint George and the Dragon by Margaret Hodges



 

Emily Gravett

Apparently, parents spend more time doing cognitive activities—primarily reading—with girls than with boys. This was surprising for researchers on many levels. Read about it in this article:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/05/06/180816964/girls-may-get-more-teaching-time-from-parents-than-boys-do

So start them early. Girls AND boys, and that's what picture books are for! I've often bemoaned how short picture books are becoming. Hardly any text. Hardly any.

But there are some authors that make this trend okay. Their ideas are so wonderful, their concepts so unique and child-centered, the lack of words is just fine. Even appropriate. These are the sort of picture books that will help you build your child's stamina to listen to longer and longer text, because they will fall in love with books and they will want more. They will also help build your own stamina for reading aloud, and they will make you thirst to read only the best books to your kids (not Disney or Dora—sorry, book snob alert...).

Emily Gravett is one of those authors.

Here are some of our favorite books by her:



"Wait!" you might be saying. "Aren't those all of Gravett's books?"

Um, yeah. I think so. But that is because we've never met an Emily Gravett book we didn't like. She is perfect for the smallest children, but her illustrations are so good, even older kids will enjoy perusing.

And so will you!

Ollie's Presents a Library List

Do you have an Ollie's where you live?

We do.

It's sort of a random junk place where they buy overstocks from places like Walmart and sell things really cheap. It's the kind of place where you leave buying things you didn't know you wanted and you certainly don't need.

Not a place I normally shop, mostly because I hate shopping and places like that make me very, very tense.

I don't really blame a good friend of mine for my lack of self-control, but I kind of do, because she approached me the other day with the great news that Ollie's had hardcover picture books for four dollars or less, and that some of them were really good. Then she presented me with a book she'd found for me there, a book she knew I loved but didn't own:


One Cool Friend by Toni Buzzeo

She said there were more great books there, not a lot of course, but a few, and I should check it out.

So the next morning the kids and I went over there. "You can each pick one book," I said.

And then I saw their selection. It was like taking a vampire to a blood bank and telling him to select his favorite eight ounces. "Oh, you pick that one for yourself," I heard myself saying to the kids. "I'll get this one for you too and this one; that's okay, I didn't really mean you can just pick one." Then I heard myself saying, "Can someone help me carry these?" Then I heard myself saying, "Oh, Mary, I think I need a cart, could you go get me a cart?"

Carts are bad ideas when you are book shopping. I should know that by now, shouldn't I?

These were HARDBACK copies of really great books, normally anywhere from $20 to $35, and they were four dollars or less. Some were two dollars. Two.

I got a lot of books. Oops. And I am now on a book buying freeze for six months. I am sequestering myself, darn it, and if you hear me mention on this blog that I bought any book for any reason until October 23rd (so far away!), I assign you with the task of writing something mean and sarcastic in the comments. Just to get me back on track.

Anyway, I digress. But here are some of the books we picked up. They are so lovely! Lovely, lovely, lovely!

Let's Count Goats by Mem Fox
Max and Ruby's Bedtime Book by Rosemary Wells
Tomie dePaola's Mother Goose
Teeddie: the Story of Young Teddy Roosevelt by Don Brown
The Nightingale Illustrated by Igor Oleynikov
Bear's Picture by Daniel Pinkwater
Alpha's Bet by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Hook by Ed Young
Erika-San by Allen Say
Frankenstein Takes the Cake by Adam Rex
Probuditi by Chris Van Allsburg

Birthdays and books

Hooray! We have two birthdays coming up, which means I get to choose books for my kids (or I get to choose books for my mom to buy for my kids...).

The good news is, Flannery and Lucy both wanted books from their Baba (my mom) for their birthdays (with only a little encouragement from me—I'm very hands off...).

And the good news is, the books have arrived.

And the bad news is we may have broken into a few of the boxes a little early. Hopefully my mom won't read this post, but Flannery is getting nine books for her birthday, and it is better to spreeeeeaaaaaad them out then just get them all on the same day.

Don't you think? (And I'm very careful to attribute each book every time we read it to the giver of the book. So there is no question that these are birthday books. Even if it isn't the official day yet. I promise.)

We've read three of Flannery's books so far and we LOVE them. Plus we found a few excellent ones at the library this week, so get ready for a GREAT library list.

The Orphan: A Cinderella Story from Greece by Anthony Manna (another fabulous fairytale retelling by the same people who wrote Mr. Semolina Semolinus—and it has lots of words. Lots. And they're great.)
Ella's Big Chance: A Jazz-age Cinderella by Shirley Hughes (beautifully written—if you want your kids to be smart, read them this book!)
Just Ducks! by Nicola Davies
King Jack and the Dragon by Peter Bently (This is so well done!)
Me... Jane by Patrick McDonnell
Little Treasures: Endearments from Around the World by Jacqueline K. Ogburne
Clever Jack Takes the Cake by Candace Fleming
Oh No, George by Chris Haughton
The Gingerbread Man by Jim Aylesworth
Over in the Ocean by Jennifer Ward (these are versions of Over in the Meadow—one of our favorite songs)
Over in the Garden by Jennifer Ward
Way Out in the Desert by Jennifer Ward 

I'm out of town, but these are great

I love the Orbis Pictus awards. They are a nonfiction book award for young kids up through middle grade, given by the National Council of Teachers of English. I always try to have my kids read them all throughout the year.

This year's winner is my first advisor during my master's degree at VCFA, Leda Schubert. I love her book, Monsieur Marceau: Actor with Words. I've read it to my first grader's classroom and my fifth grader's classroom with equal success.

I'm out of town right now, and don't have time to post more, but here is the list of books this year and here is the link to the Orbis Pictus awards. They vary in word count and overall length, but there are always plenty of pictures and photographs in every book. Even if the text is too old for your kids, the pictures are not! Scan your way through past years, seriously, these represent the best in nonfiction available to kids today.

http://www.ncte.org/awards/orbispictus

2013 Winning Titles

Monsieur Marceau: Actor without Words

by Leda Schubert 

illustrated by Gérard DuBois

(Roaring Brook Press)

Honor Books

Citizen Scientists: Be a Part of Scientific Discovery from Your Own Backyard
by Loree Griffin Burns, photographs by Ellen Harasimonwicz (Henry Holt & Company)

Electric Ben: The Amazing Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin
by Robert Byrd (Dial Books for Young Readers)

The Mighty Mars Rovers: The Incredible Adventures of Spirit and Opportunity
by Elizabeth Rusch (Houghton Mifflin Books for Children)

Those Rebels, John & Tom
by Barbara Kerley, illustrated by Edward Fotheringham (Scholastic)

We've Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children’s March
by Cynthia Levinson (Peachtree Publishers)

Recommended Books

A Black Hole is NOT a Hole
by Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano, illustrated by Michael Carroll (Charlesbridge Publishing)

Abraham Lincoln & Frederick Douglass: The Story Behind an American Friendship
by Russell Freedman (Clarion Books)

The Amazing Harry Kellar: Great American Magician
by Gail Jarrow (Calkins Creek)

Beyond Courage: The Untold Story of Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust
by Doreen Rappaport (Candlewick Press)

The Case of the Vanishing Golden Frogs: A Scientific Mystery
by Sandra Markle (Millbrook Press)

Chuck Close: Face Book
by Chuck Close (Abrams Books for Young Readers)

Hands Around the Library: Protecting Egypt’s Treasured Books
by Karen Leggett Abouraya, illustrated by Susan L. Roth (Dial Books for Young Readers)

Life in the Ocean: The Story of Oceanographer Sylvia Earle
by Claire A. Nivola  (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) 

The Caldecotts

The Newbery/Caldecott Awards were announced yesterday. I don't always love these books, but I was really happy about the Caldecott selections this year.

(I do generally love a lot of the ALA notables, which include books from every genre—I'll post a link as soon as the 2013 notables are released. They are always worth looking at.)

Here are the Caldecott winners (I'll comment on the Newbery winners later)

“This Is Not My Hat,” illustrated and written by Jon Klassen, is the 2013 Caldecott Medal winner.

This book is hysterical and awesome. I'm so glad it won. Definitely worth checking out at the library, even for your older kids. If they have to cut words from picture books, this is the way to do it.

Here are the Caldecott Honors:

“Creepy Carrots!” illustrated by Peter Brown, written by Aaron Reynolds

I've posted about this book before. It's a good-un.

“Extra Yarn,” illustrated by Jon Klassen, written by Mac Barnett

I like this book. I do. But it's a little strange, and my kids did not love it. But it's worth checking out.

“Green,” illustrated and written by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

http://www.amazon.com/Green-Laura-Vaccaro-Seeger/dp/1596433973/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1359476363&sr=1-1&keywords=green

Here is a link to the Amazon page and the book trailer. You can see the entire book on the trailer. This is a great book for getting kids to think about color, to think outside the box. This is a book about perspective. 

A fun project with your kids—sort of a writing/art project—would be to do the same thing with another color. Or maybe a number. Or a season. Green means many different things to many different people. Imagine what you or your child could do with rice. Bread. A daisy. 

“One Cool Friend,” illustrated by David Small, written by Toni Buzzeo.

Love this book. Unlike Extra Yarn, this was a very rereadable book for me. 

“Sleep Like a Tiger,” illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski, written by Mary Logue.

This was the only book I hadn't read before. I'll check it out this week! If you've read it, tell us what you think of it.