A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni

Leo Lionni is wonderful. This book is about a chameleon who is sad because he doesn't have a color of his own. He is constantly adapting to whatever color is around him. Finally after spending a long dark winter he meets a new friend. An older and wiser friend. This friend suggests that the two of them stay together and then together, even though they will keep adapting to their surroundings, the two of them will be the same color. And isn't that an elegant solution?

The Zoo by Suzy Lee

How many times have you gone to the Zoo only to leave feeling like you haven't seen a single animal? The Zoo by Suzy Lee is a darling book about a family who goes to the zoo. This book tells two stories...the story of the parents who are pictured in greyscale along with the "real" zoo and the story of their child...a pancho clad girl with red cheeks. She immediately notices what no one else sees; a brilliant peacock who she follows for the entirety of the book, even when she "gets lost". This book is very cute and the pictures are absolutely darling. A good one for before and after your Zoo visit.

The World that Loved Books by Stephen Parlato

The simple premise of this book is showcased through beautifully rendered pictures made of photo collage. The whole idea of the book is that "There once was a world where everyone loved books...so much that when they read their books, they became what they read." Following this simple statement are 14 collages...examples of animals and people who became what they read...like the rabbit who became turtles. The picture is so intricate and uses dozens of pictures of turtles cut and arranged in such a way to make a very believable rabbit. Take a look at this book to appreciate the simple message and study the very cool pictures.

The Umbrella Queen by Shirin Yim Bridges

During these trying economic times many people have had to make sacrifices to keep their heads above water. I'm getting ready to move back in with my mom, to help both her and me save a little more money, just in case. For me, moving back in with mom will also allow me to have a bit more extra money and with the extra money I'm looking forward to joining a gym, taking back up my violin lessons, and being able to see my friends out more. So, the extra is actually allowing me to be more of an individual even though I won't have the independence of living by myself. A balence. But I digress.

This picture book, set in Thailand, is about a little girl named Noot. She lives in a village where the one thing the village does to earn money is to paint umbrellas. The make the frames of the umbrellas, they make the paper of the umbrellas, and they paint them themselves. Always they paint butterflies and flowers. Noot tries her hand at painting and discovers that she is a good umbrella painter, however, she "ruins" a few umbrellas by painting elephants on them. This saddens her mother who has to explain to Noot that they can't paint just what they like, they have to paint what sells and what sells are flowers and butterflies. So Noot goes back to painting what sells, but makes her own tiny elephant umbrellas at night to keep herself happy and to celebrate her individuality.

I enjoyed the pictures and the story in this book. The ending reinforces the theme that balence is important in life. Noot eventually gets rewarded for painting from her heart, but she still understands the importance of helping her family by painting the expected butterflies and flowers. I would personally buy the elephant umbrella...but that's just me.

The Great Fuzz Frenzy by Janet Stevens / Illustrated by Stevens Crummel

This is a great picture book about a community of prairie dogs whose lives are changed when a dog drops a bright green tennis ball down into their town. One of them accidentally ends up with a fuzzy piece of the tennis ball on his head and this starts a new fad where to be "cool" you must have fuzz. Of course, the fuzz cannot last forever and once it's gone the frenzy starts. Everyone is trying to get everyone else's fuzz! A fun twist at the end leads the prairie dogs to try their paws at cooperation to end the frenzy once and for all. And it works. The book ends happily ever after...but on the end papers we see...

...the same dog, this time with a bright orange tennis ball! What will the prairie dogs do this time! You will have to imagine it out yourself.

Thanks a Million by Nikki Grimes

I picked this book up off the floor of my library today when I was doing a walk-through and straightening up and I leafed quickly through it and then sat down right then and read it. Poetry for children is such an accessible way to start appreciating the genre and this book is a beautiful place to start. This picture book collection of loosely tied together "thank you" poems is by Coretta Scott King Award winner, Nikki Grimes. The poems and the illustrations work together with such harmony! I especially liked "Even the Trees..."


Trees, arms raised in praise,
demonstrate the attitude
of gratitude. Look!


The picture of the trees makes you feel like you are standing underneath big leafy forest trees and turning your face up to feel their shadows and clean breeziness play across your eyes and nose. The brushstrokes are also visible and the color palette of the entire book is a lovely balence of muted tones and rich splashes, like the vibrant flower on the cover. A lovely book that will be cherished.

Ape by Martin Jenkins illustrated by Vicky White

Are you familiar with picture nonfiction? This genre is expanding with such alacrity and speed that we have created a new section at my library to house all these simple books (and sometimes not so simple) designed to give young readers an introduction to every subject imaginable.

This particular gem of a book is divided into five sections and gently describes the following apes: Orangutan, Chimp, Bonobo, Gorilla, and Humans. The text is designed with large generous letters along side smaller handwritten facts on each kind of ape. The pages are large and greatly do justice to the gorgeous illustrations. Beautiful animals grace every white page in a juxtoposition of full colored "finished" animals and "unfinished" line drawings. The contrast is beautiful and leads your eye to the focol point in the pictures. With just enough information to qualify as quality non-fiction, this book also includes a map, index, and websites for further research. A beautiful well-designed book on some of the world's most fascinating creatures. Till next time! Suzanne

A Father Like That by Charlotte Zolotow / Illustrated by LeUyen Pham

It's not always easy to find picture books that feature a missing parent...especially if that parent is missing voluntarily. This new picture book features a boy describing what his father would be like if he were around.

This kind of father would share jokes from the office, would bring home a new book if the boy was sick, would help with the dishes, and would play checkers. The litany continues and the variety and detail of the activities is one of the most endearing qualities of the book.

The illustrations are very good and complement the story nicely. The book ends with the mother who is "sewing very fast" saying "when you grow up, you can be a father like that yourself!"

Fathers everywhere should read this book to see what good fathers look like to good kids. A charming book without the saccharine feel that some mother/father books can give.

A Bear and His Boy by Sean Bryan

Here's another book about not getting caught up in lists and tasks to do on a day to day basis. Can ya tell that I myself am a slave to my lists?

One day a bear wakes up to find a boy on his back. I LOVE the fact that the bear is the one surprised by this, not the boy. The boy simply remarks nonchalantly "My name is Zach."

If you yourself woke up one day with a bear or a fairy or a Smurf or something equally surprising on your back, what would you do? The bear already has a full day planned and decided to just take the boy along.

The bear's day planner is hilariously like my own...I mean really...how does anyone think they will be able to accomplish eating flapjacks, collecting an award, going to a karate lesson, bird-watching, working out, returning a book to the library, cleaning house, and remembering a friends birthday all in one day? Me apparently. My days are turning into one long to-do list, much to the dismay of my husband. I need some little someone to appear on my back to remind me to smell the lilacs. Because that's just what the boy does at the end of the story.

Did I mention the restful simplicity of the pictures or the hilarious rhyme scheme? Or the great twist at the end? Here is one charmer of a picture book sure to entertain even the most discriminating reader. Till next time! - Suzanne

How to be a Baby by Me, the Big Sister by Sally Lloyd-Jones and Sue Heap

I have a bunch of nieces and nephews and it always cracks me up when they get siblings. The older kids who until very recently (like the day the baby is born) have always been the baby in my eyes are all of a sudden like these incredibly smart giants who know everything. They know how to walk and talk and can eat their own food and are counting and (this is my favorite part) they talk baby talk to their new siblings. I just love watching a 1.5 year old cooing to a baby. Hilarious.

So this book just speaks to me. It's all about a 6 year old who is teaching her baby sibling (never really specifies a boy or girl) how to be a baby. In reality, she's really going on and on about how great she is and how it's really boring to be a baby, but I just see so many traits of my nieces and nephews! My niece Abigail is vain about her hair (just like I was when I was in Kindergarten) and so is the Big Sister in this book. The baby in the book gets dressed up in all kinds of outrageous outfits reminding me of my nephew Matthew when he was a baby (I just know I put some doll clothes on him at one time or another). And don't even get me started on the nick-names. Till next time! -Suzanne

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Book? by Lauren Child

Lauren Child of Charlie and Lola fame has written a hilarious book about their friend Herb who falls into a book of fairy tales and has to fess up to crimes that he committed against the book...crimes like cutting out pages and putting them back upside down, drawing mustaches on some of the characters (like the queen in Cinderella) and sqishing peas between the pages.

Herb, looking for help from the characters finds only a crabby Goldilocks (she is the star, afterall and he is stealing her limelight), a Cinderella who can't go to the ball for lack of a prince (Herb cut out him a while back to use as a picture on a card for his mother) and a confused stepmother who is now in the book upside down.

The familiar story book characters paired with the frantic Herb make this book a pleasure to read to yourself or to shar with someone you love! The illustrations are very fun and children familiar with the Charlie and Lola characters may have to read it with a British Accent...very lovely!

The Baby BeeBee Bird by Diane Redfield Massie

Looking for a book to help get a silly little one to sleep? Try this book (or better yet, try the method the animals in the zoo use)! This book illustrated by Steven Kellogg is about an active little bird who wants to sing all night. By doing this, the silly little bird keeps all the other animals awake! The other animals get back at the bird by keeping it awake during the day. In the end, the other animals in the zoo are successful at changing the sleeping habits of the silly BeeBee bird.

I really like the illustrations in this book, and the text is fun and zippy, but I have a hard time with the premise of the story...why should the little nocturnal bird change his natural traits to conform to the group? Of course, living in a community residence, like the zoo, would make such changes beneficial for the good of the group, but why couldn't the author use this book to teach about nocturnal animals and perhaps have the zookeeper reorganize the zoo to put all the noctunal animals together? I suppose, the general idea was to show that babies or small children do need to sleep at night, but animals are not like us humans and I think personally (my own personal opinion!) that the nocturnal-ness of this bird should have been discussed. Till next time! -Suzanne

Every Friday by Dan Yaccarino

What a sweet book to share with a dad! In this father / son tale a boy and his dad share with the reader their weekly tradition of having breakfast together every Friday. There is even an author's note at the beginning explaining that the author has taken his son to breakfast every Friday since his son was three years old!

When I was in kindergarten, I remember a similar tradition I had with my mom...we would go out to lunch every Wednesday and I got to pick the place. For some reason, I really loved a good cheeseburger (I still do today!) so we would inveritable go to a fast food joint and have fries and a burger. I don't know if I'd choose the same places today (I'm a little more health conscience now that I'm not 5) but I still remember that tradition we had. The illustrations in this book are reminicient of the 50's including such details as a milkman, an egg cup, and cars with 50's type details. A very cute book for sharing with someone you love!

17 Things I'm not Allowed to do Anymore

The protagonist of this simple but hilarious book presents 17 examples of things she's not allowed to do anymore, mostly because they are all things considered to be naughty (like showing her underpants to a boy, disrupting class at school, and glueing her brother's slippers to the carpet as shown on the cover). I especially like how she's not allowed to give the gift of califlower anymore. Very hilarious!

As a middle child, there were often things I wasn't allowed to to either. For example, after leaving the glue gun sitting on my mother's ironing board with the power on, I wasn't allowed to use the glue gun anymore. After using house paint on my mother's cutting board, I wasn't allowed to use house paint anymore (or touch my mother's kitchen things.) And after cutting my own hair (when it was halfway down my back) I wasn't allowed to use scissors anymore.

The pictures in this funny book add so much to the story. Would that we all could be rendered so artistically when we are creating mischief!

So Few of Me by Peter H. Reynolds

Are you a list maker? I love to make lists. They seem to help me organize my thoughts as well as the tasks I want to do in any given time. However, sometimes just the thought of starting a list can be daunting, especially if the list is bound to go on and on.

This book is about Leo. Leo is a busy person who has a lot to do. He organizes his tasks on lists and realizes how much easier it would be if there were two of him. I have felt like this so many times! Leo thinks he's lucky when the doorbell rings and another Leo appears! This book is a little like a counting book...as the pages turn, the Leos keep appearing. But somehow, the more Leos there are, the more work there is to do and the less time there is to dream.

The sparse illustrations in this book are charming and the endpapers (lists in and of themselves) are so telling in their message with tasks like, "Prioritize!" and "Go faster!" and "Write to Aunt Iris."

A day is just a day and what it's for is up to us. Leo reminds us of that.