Picture Books Archives - Page 4 of 9

Rabbit\’s Wooly Sweater

by Mark Birchall

Really cute book I found at the library with my kids the other day. Little Rabbit\’s aunt knits her a wooly striped sweater, but she doesn\’t want to wear it. She wants her toy doll Mr. Cuddles (who does everything with her) to have one too, and besides it\’s too big. Her mom insists the sweater is lovely, and makes her wear it to play outside. Rabbit takes her sweater off at the park and leaves it behind, but someone finds it and brings it home for her- all dirty from laying on the ground and getting kicked around in a soccer game. Into the washing machine it goes- and it shrinks! Much to small now. What will Rabbit do?

The pictures are lively and charming- they look very freehand. And the story presents a predicament lots of kids will be familiar with- disliking a well-intended gift, wanting something different… with a nice ending here. I liked it enough I\’m looking to find other books by this author to read to my three-year-old too.

Rating: 3/5 24 pages, 2000

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Current Reads, Picture Books

Stellaluna

by Janell Cannon

Stellaluna is an adorable young fruit bat. She is accidentally separated from her mother, and adopted by a family of birds- but only if she can follow mother bird\’s rules of conduct. So Stellaluna tries to adjust and learn to live like the birds- although some things make her miserable (eating bugs) and she\’s particularly awkward at landing upright. When Stellaluna learns to fly she is discovered by other fruit bats and learns her true identity. Then she wants to introduce her bird friends to her bat family- only to discover that they find bat manners just as strange!

This is a lovely picture book. It\’s a wonderful story about friendship and acceptance, teaching children about the biology of bats and birds at the same time. The end of the book has some facts on bats as well, for those who want to learn more. I have to share some of my favorite pictures with you:

especially this one

Rating: 4/5 48 pages, 1993

more opinions:
The Well-Read Child
The Reading Tub

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Animals Fiction, Current Reads, Picture Books

The Secret Life of Squirrels

by Nancy Rose

Mr. Peanuts is not an ordinary squirrel. He has quite the refined life- playing the piano, baking cakes, reading from his tiny library. He mails a letter inviting his cousin to come visit, and is shown making preparations- tidying the bedroom, doing laundry and so on. When cousin squirrel arrives, the two enjoy visiting an ice-cream parlor, going on a picnic, and playing chess among other things. Mr. Peanuts is sad to see his cousin go when the visit is over- having discovered that your favorite activities are more fun when you have a friend to share them with!

The pictures in this book are just delightful- showing real life squirrels among miniature furniture and sets. I thought at first these must be tame squirrels, but it turns out they are wild animals that visit the author\’s backyard. She describes in the back of the book her process for taking the photographs (creating tiny sets, baiting them with peanuts, waiting for the curious squirrels to arrive and taking dozens of photographs to capture just the right pose). My kids really enjoyed this book- the youngest loved seeing a squirrel doing \”people things\” and her older sister spent a long time looking at the pictures, to guess how the author made all the miniature items. The author has a website too. There\’s an article about her work here, with more pictures.

Rating: 4/5 32 pages, 2014

more opinions:
Indextrious Reader

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Animals Fiction, Current Reads, Picture Books

Smartypants

Pete in School
by Maira Kalman

I don\’t quite know how to describe this picture book. It\’s nuts, funny, quirky and downright hilarious. I have a suspicion there\’s a few of them revolving around the dog, Pete, but this is the first I\’ve encountered. This girl tells about the day her dog went to school, caused havoc in several classes, ate a set of encyclopedias and started talking. Then caused all sorts of new trouble because he suddenly knew everything and the kids wanted him in class to answer questions for them. Throughout the silly story of a dog in school there\’s all sorts of little hilarious asides and snide remarks on the school rules, the system, the quirks of various teachers, the girl\’s friends and classmates and so on. With these awkward but descriptive drawings and funky handwritten text (even the copyright info on the first page is handwritten into a picture on a classroom wall!) that really liven up the story. It\’s great. Way beyond the comprehension of my little one, but my ten-year-old ate this book up. I\’ve got to find more by this author.

Rating: 4/5 44 pages, 2003

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Animals Fiction, Current Reads, Picture Books

Palazzo Inverso

by D.B. Johnson

This very imaginative picture book draws its inspiration from the work of M.C. Escher. In a whismical, dreamlike story it features a young boy Mauk who is apprentice to a master builder. Mauk is supposed to only sharpen the master\’s pencils, but it seems he has turned the drawing around when no one was looking. As he runs through the corridors, courtyard and staircase of the palazzo in construction, things turn one way and then another, the ceiling becomes a floor, the staircases run the wrong way, all is confusion. The workers try to catch him, the mistress leans out windows the wrong way, the Master calls out, but in the end they see that all is right, even turned every whichway. The Master (and Mauk) realize the building is more beautiful in its confusing ambiguity. You read the book left to right, then turn it over and read it back the other way, with the pictures telling both sides of the story (beginning and end). It\’s quite intriguing. My favorite spread is the one where the boy runs over the bridge- on one end of the story birds and fishes are in their place, at the other end the birds are in the water and fish swim in the sky. Delightful!

Rating: 3/5 32 pages, 2010

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Art, Current Reads, Picture Books

April\’s Kittens

by Clare Turlay Newberry

April lives in a small apartment with her parents and their beloved cat, Sheba. When Sheba has kittens, the little girl is delighted, but her father is concerned- their place is too small for four cats, so the kittens must go. Of course April falls in love with them, and has a special favorite. When new prospective owners come visiting, she watches anxiously as they each pick out a kitten. Finally only one is left- and it\’s her favorite. Her father decides that they will give the mother cat to her her aunt, and keep the kitten \”you\’d rather have a kitten to play with, wouldn\’t you?\” but soon April realizes this will mean giving up the cat she has known for so long- and what if Sheba isn\’t happy in her new home? a young kitten would adjust easier. She agonizes and sheds tears, then finally decides to send the kitten to her aunt\’s house, and keep Sheba instead. But when she announces this idea to her father, he has a new plan that might allow them to keep both cats.

I have to say, not everyone would find the final solution practical, but it\’s a neat and tidy ending that leaves everyone happy. What makes this story shine are the very realistic conversations everyone has over the fate of the kittens- April wondering, tearful, hopeful at turns, her mother gentle and consoling, her father very matter-of-fact, other children questioning and thrilled with the kittens too. The illustrations are simply delightful. They are so beautifully drawn and depict precisely feline gestures and moods.

I snatched this up when came across it on a library shelf (I\’m familiar with a few other books by this author/illustrator). The book is a little advanced for my three-year-old; I have to edit out about half the sentences on a page or she looses interest but the illustrations are so endearing, she still wants to read it with me (my older daughter read a few of the picture books I brought home last week too, and this one was her favorite).

Rating: 4/5 32 pages, 1940

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Animals Fiction, Current Reads, Picture Books, Re-reads

E-I-E-I-O How Old MacDonald Got His Farm

by Judy Sierra

A man named MacDonald bemoans the effort it takes to mow his lawn. He decides to get a goat to eat the grass, then buys a chicken (online!) The chicken it turns out, is knowledgeable and can talk. She teaches MacDonald how to smother his lawn with layers of newspapers, feed the soil with kitchen scraps and make a worm compost bin. Then they plant seeds and soon MacDonald has so much produce he starts selling it from a mobile cart (built atop his old lawnmower!) Some of his neighbors complain about the smell and changes, but most seem pleased to enjoy the fresh produce plus cheese from his goat, eggs from his hen, even honey from some bees. I don\’t know if I\’d ever just throw vegetable waste and horse manure all over the ground like this book portrays, and the guy sure looks tired and confused through the whole process of converting lawn into garden, but the end result is so nice. My favorite picture is the one that shows bright vegetables growing, the root shapes with happy-looking worms around them underground. My three-year-old likes the last two pages, where she tries to point out and name all the plants, vegetables and things shown growing in the garden and spread out for sale around MacDonald\’s produce cart. The illustrations by Matthew Myers are vivid, funky and fun. Nice bold brushstrokes.

Rating: 4/5 32 pages, 2014

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Current Reads, Gardening / Food, Picture Books

Catch That Baby!

by Nancy Coffelt

Baby brother has a bath and then doesn\’t want to get dressed. Instead he goes running naked through the house. On each page, another family member joins in the chase. My little girl giggles at the nakedness (you only see his butt) and the romp through the house. She loves pointing out where the baby is hiding behind furniture on certain pages. In the end the little boy puts his clothes on by himself- all the wrong way of course, which elicits even more giggles! The illustrations by Scott Nash, ink line and color, are lively and fun.

Rating: 3/5 34 pages, 2011

more opinions:
Waking Brain Cells
BooksForKidsBlog
Sal\’s Fiction Addiction
Rosemary\’s Reading Circle
The Little Mom

Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Current Reads, Picture Books

Outfoxing the Fox

by Friederike Rave

A little fox wakes up one day and decides he doesn\’t have to go to school, because \”foxes are clever enough already.\” But when he visits the henhouse to get a chicken for his dinner, the hens are far too smart for him. They pretend to be sick, insisting they\’d love to help him out, but he doesn\’t want to eat a sick chicken- he should wait until they are better. The fox agrees this seems best. Each night he returns to the henhouse, and then hens are progressively wrapped up in more clothes, sneezing and coughing, claiming to still be sick. Finally the hungry fox gives up on chickens and with a bit of luck steals a hunter\’s sandwich. Pleased to have a good meal at last, he tucks into his sandwich planning to go visit the chickens again tomorrow. But they won\’t be there- you can see their getaway plan on the last page.

This is a fun book, with lively illustrations and some silly situations that make my little girl giggle. But there\’s a few things that bug me about it. One is the idea that this fox is skipping school- yet there\’s no mention of school brought up again, he doesn\’t learn some tricks or skills somewhere and then try them out as I half-expected. No parent figures in the story at all either. Another is that on most pages the hens are painting swathes of the page white, or rolling out white paper (see the cover). First time I read the story I thought this was part of their plan to fool the fox- maybe they were making everything white like winter, to back up their \”sick with a cold\” ruse. Then I realized it was a visual joke in the background: then hens are just making white space for the text. But it felt like it ought to be part of the story!

Regardless, it\’s a book my three-year-old really enjoys, so I shouldn\’t be so critical. But for myself, it feels kind of awkward. Some parts just don\’t fit together.

Rating: 2/5 28 pages, 2010

more opinions:
Jean Little Library

Tags: 2/5- Just Okay, Animals Fiction, Current Reads, Picture Books

Dandelions

by Eve Bunting

This is the story of a family that moves west across the plains in a covered wagon: a father, expectant mother and two daughters. They settle on a claim in Nebraska Territory, but there are no near neighbors. The pictures show how wide, flat and empty the land seems. The older girl narrates the story, telling how lonely they feel. They have to do everything for themselves: sow the crops, dig a well, build a house. When driving three hours to the nearest homestead they can no longer see their sod home, swallowed up in the expanse of prairie grasses. Near the end of the book the older girl accompanies her father into town while her mother and younger sister stay with neighbors (there\’s some sibling jealousy here!) She\’s anxious about leaving her mom and sister behind, but excited to see the town. It\’s full of shops, dust and strangers. Just as they are leaving to return home, she spots a clump of bright yellow flowers growing in a corner- dandelions. She wants to dig them up and take home to her mother. Of course we see dandelions as a pesky weed, but the tough plant was a spot of brightness to them. And it made me smile to see what they did with the flowers: planted them on the sod roof of the house! So they could see it from afar, a bright patch of gold above the prairie grass. The illustrations are oil paintings by Greg Shed, with lifted out areas that show the texture of canvas underneath. I remember learning this painting method in art school and I really admire how it\’s done here.

Rating: 4/5 52 pages, 1995

more opinions:
Katie\’s Corner
Children\’s Books
Collaboration Cuties

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Current Reads, Historical Fiction, Picture Books

Tag: Picture Books

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