Thursday, February 28, 2008

More Books, Please

This week, I don't think we checked out enough books. We've read all of the ones we have so much as to dull even Elise's enthusiasm for the favorites.

Never, fear, however! Based on the lively discussion of Skippyjon Jones I've reserved a copy of that (which may not be in for a few weeks) and also the "other" Polo book. We're also going to look for some of the items on Aunt Linda's most excellent cat book list.

On to this week's favorites...

Watch Out!
by Jan Fearnley
Little Wilf (oh, do I love names like this!) is a very good little guy who tries to listen to his mom but man is it hard. He falls down and gets hurt a lot as a result. We like that at the end the mom fails to heed his warning and causes the biggest mess of all. And that it's all okay.

The Muffin Munching Dragon
by Stephen Cosgrove, illustrated by Robin James
This was a huge favorite of mine when I was a kid, so I went looking for it in the library's online catalog. Luckily, they had one copy in Chinese with an English translation in the back. In this story, a greedy dragon inadvertently causes some rather backward seeming villagers to become destitute. Elise doesn't really like that part except for the fact that it gives her a chance to comment that the dragon couldn't possibly be that horrible. And in fact, the dragon does figure out how to solve the problem so Elise likes it as much as I did.

Will You Take Care of Me?
by Margaret Park Bridges, illustrated by Melissa Sweet
Every time Elise gets a little more independent, the change is followed by extreme clinginess and anxiety on her part. Usually some annoyance on my part as well. One particularly hard day last week, Andy suggested that I talk to her about how growing up doesn't mean we don't take care of her anymore. The effect was magical. Then, when we were at the library we found this book. The little kangaroo has some flights of fancy that lose all of our attention pretty quickly, but Elise definitely tunes in for the end. It's nice to have a gentle story that helps with this separation/growing-up dialog we're having.

Three Up a Tree
by James Marshall
We've enjoyed the Fox books by this author so much that we picked up one of his about some different characters. Elise likes that there are three stories in this book, and that reading it keeps us going longer than the average book. I don't know how much she likes the stories, though. We've got to find some more long books.

Caillou: The Phone Call
Adapted by Marilyn Pleau-Murissi, illustrations adapted by Eric Sévigny
I really hate it when I'm hanging out with someone and they spend a lot of time on the phone. Kids are apparently the same way, and the phone has been a struggle at our house for a long time. Seeing one of her favorite TV characters being blown off by his mom for the telephone has made some of the yelling and foot-stomping go away here, at least this week.

Pippin Takes a Bath
by K.V. Johansen, illustrated by Bernice Lum
When I was a kid, our dog Patches did not like baths. She didn't give us quite the same trouble that Pippin gives Mabel in this book, but she sure did look miserable after the torture that was bathtime. Elise was inclined to think that this story was the height of silliness (who doesn't like baths?!) until I told her all about Patches. Silly dogs.

And, not a book review at all but a music recommendation. My friend James blogged about the latest offering from They Might Be Giants, and we are now hooked. Longtime fans of the album "No!" we were thrilled to watch the podcasts of the ABCs and 123s. And, we've gone out and got both of them, which is nice except that the songs are at least as insidious as Laurie Berkner's stuff, only more weird.

3 comments:

SWE said...

We love everyone's comments about our library book lists, and welcome more every week. One of the best things about writing a little blog with few readers is that we can have actual discussions! Thanks to everyone for keeping it on topic. :)

Anonymous said...

One book that I love and that our counselor at school often uses to reassure worrying children is called Worryworts. It is about three friends who worry about everything that might happen when they go on a walk so they pack all kinds of things. Sure enough they are prepared for all kinds of potential disasters and they are ready for another trip in the near future. It is especially fun to read because of the wonderful wacky ways that it uses w-words.

SWE said...

I will definitely look for that one, Aunt Linda. Worrying is one of our things here and stories seem to help. Also looking for "Stuff On My Cat" tomorrow...