1001 Children’s Books #2

Okay if nothing else this project of mine is going to make me blog more. 

Since the 20th of January I’ve read:

0 – 3 years:

Each Peach, Pear, Plum – Allan Ahlberg

Bunny Bath – Lena Anderson

Bathwater’s Hot – Shirley Hughes

Little Brown Bear – Claude Lebrun

Meg and Mog – Helen Nicoll

What Anna Saw (substitute for Little Spook’s Baby Sister) – Inger Sandberg

The Elephant and The Bad Baby – Elfrida Vipont

7 books

3+:

Stina – Lena Anderson

Gorilla – Anthony Browne

Sleep Well Little Bear -Quint Buchholz — This book was so adorable especially the little note in an envelope in the back of the book that was obviously written by some little child that was taught well how to treat the books he’s had the opportunity of enjoying!

Avocado Baby – John Burmingham – Kind of lame as far as Burmingham books go.

One Snowy Night – Nick Butterworth

Bad Habits – Babette Cole

Pumpkin Soup – Helen Cooper — This was one of my favorites.  All about sharing and working together.

Freight Train – Donald Crews.  Crews has a new one out called A Night at the Fair.

Jamela’s Dress – Niki Daly – about a “naughty” little girl, the love of a Mama and the connectedness of community.

Crispin – Ted Dewan

Molly Goes Shopping – Eva Eriksson

Max – Bob Graham — Funny!

Ox-Cart Man – Donald Hall

This is the Bear – Sarah Hayes

Old Bear – Jane Hissy — A story about not forgetting and doing anything to keep dear friends from being forgotten.

The Sea-Thing Child- Russell Hoban — I love Russell Hoban.  I really do!  This is just another one of the fine story lines that Hoban is famous for!

Amazing Grace – Mary Hoffman — A story of what it means to go after a dream and not giving up.

Angelina Ballerina stories – Katherine Holabird — I read Angelina Ballerina and Her Little Sister.

Dogger – Shirley Hughes – Another fine tale by Hughes!  One seriously needs to check this book out if they are reading to siblings of a younger child who has a very special stuffed animal.

Alfie Gets in First – Shirley Hughes

Lost and Found – Oliver Jeffers

The Quangle Wangles Hat – Edward Lear

Lotta’s Bike – Astrid Lindgren

Rosa Goes to Daycare – Astrid Lindgren

Little Blue and Little Yellow – Leo Lionni

The Magic Pocket – Michio Mado – a grand offering of Japanese poetry with both a Japanese version and then translated into English.  The art is beautifully simple in this book too!

Peace at Last  -  Jill Murphy

Pancake Pie ( or Pancakes for Findus) – Sven Nordquist — This Swedish author has a real knack for telling a clever little tale complete with some talking animals, a busy, but scatterbrained farmer and the importance of celebrating the little things and celebrating them often!

The Diary of the Church Mouse – Graham Oakley – I actually read two books in this series, but I can’t remember which ones and didn’t write them down – Whoops!

Adele’s Album  – Claude Ponti — a substitute for Okilele

In the Night Kitchen – Maurice Sendek – Now normally I like Maurice Sendek books, but this one is seriously not one of my favorites.  Read it for yourself and decide.

Madlenka – Peter Sis –  Peter Sis is known for his wonderful wordless books but this book is different.  This book is the story of a little girl with a loose tooth and a VERY vivid imagination!  The illustrations in this book are suburb!

The Little Red Lighthouse – Hildegarde Swift

Winnie the Witch – Korky Paul and Valerie Thomas

Eloise – Kay Thompson

Barbapapa – Annette Tinson and Talus Taylor — This is a biazzare little offering.

The Story of the Root Children – Sibylle von Olfers

Can’t You Sleep Little Bear? – Martin Waddell

Knuffle Bunny:  A Cautionary Tale – Mo Willems – This is one of my kid’s absolute favorite authors and stories!  I’d expect no different from kids with very special favorite stuffed animals, just like the Knuffle Bunny!

Owl Moon – Jane Yolen

Harry the Dirty Dog – Gene Zion

41 books

5+:

The Calypso Alphabet – John Agard — a substitute for Lend Me Your Wings

Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain – Edward Ardizzone

Stay Awake Bear! – Gavin Bishop

Ug: Boy Genius of the Stone Age – Raymond Briggs — This would have been a great little comic books style book had the copy I received from our library not been defaced by someone with NO respect for the property of others.  I’m in the process of finding a new copy.

Stellaluna – Janell Cannon — Oneof my absolute favorites!  I’ve read this book many times over and it never gets old!

Chanticleer and the Fox – Barbara Cooney

Matilda – Roald Dahl – Another favorite author and another favorite story.  Read the book before renting the movie!  I first read this book when my eldest was 7 or 8  years old as a read-aloud.  Turns out that he didn’t like it very much but it turns out that his little sister LOVED it and still loves Rolad Dahl books today 8 year later!

Strega Nona – Tomi DePoola – One of his Classics!

The Blue Fairy Book – Andrew Lang — Another collection of famous fairy tales and classic tales!

Swimmy – Leo Lionni

The Paper Bag Princess – Robert Munsch

Amelia Bedelia – Peggy Parish

12 books

8+ years:

and finally my favorite title of the week: The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster.  I only wish I had read this book sooner like when I was in 4th or 5th grade!  This is SO good!  Read it!  Read it!  Read it!!

Okay!  That’s 61 titles in one week!  Likely the most I’ll ever read in one week!  Due to the length of many of the upcoming titles, I can assure you 61 titles in a week will NOT be happening again!

As of right now I’ve read 247 titles!  Only 754 titles to go!

Take care . . .

1001 Children’s Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up.

I’m not good at this blogging thing.

So now I’ve got a goal.  For Christmas I received this book:

So I got to reading through it on a recent trip to Minnesota and realized that while I thought I was well read I have missed some apparently great works!  So I decided to go through the book and find the books I haven’t read yet and read them – couldn’t be that many right?

HA!

In making my list I came to find out that according to this book I’ve missed well over 800 classics.  But I’m commited.

So Brian helped me create a spread sheet of sorts and I got on our local libraries online catalog.  I found many of them.  Other’s should be able to be found via inter-library loan.  Others, well if someone from Australia wants to locate a copy of the Tales of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie for me for a lot less than Amazon’s $214.07, I would greatly appreciate it.

So in the last week and a half I’ve spent a LOT of time at the library and I’ve read 29  great books thus far.

So I’m thinking I need to start listing the titles I’ve read here and reviewing a few of them.

Here’s my list so far:

0-3 year olds:

Good Night Alfie – by Gunilla Bergstrom

Mr. Gumpy’s Outing – John Burningham

Dear Zoo – Rod Campbell

Bedtime for Frances- Russell Hoban – One of my all time favorites!

Humphrey’s Corner – Sally Hunter

Make Way for Ducklings – Robert McCloskey – I’ve read this before but I really enjoy it and Zoe loved it too!

Owl Babies – Martin Waddell – I can’t believe I missed this one when my kids were little!

3+ years:

Up in the Tree – Margaret Atwood

Clown – Quentin Blake

Moominpappa’s Memiors – Tove Jansson – This was actually a substitute for a title I couldn’t find by the same author.

Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs – Ian Whybrow

5+ years:

Animalia – Graeme Base

Snip Snap – Mara Bergman

Come Away from the Water, Shirley – John Burningham

Beegu – Alexis Deacon

The Adventure of the Dish and the Spoon – Mini Grey

Grimms Fairy Tales – Jacob and Wilhem Grimm- I’m still reading these, a little at a time.  This is a great one to bring with me when I’m waiting on kids!

Are we There Yet – Alison Lester

Dodo Gets Married – Petra Mathers

You’re All My Favorites – Sam McBratney

One Morning in Maine – Robert McCloskey

Anno’s Journey – Anno Mitsumasa

Zen Shorts – Jon J. Muth

The Great Escape from City Zoo – Tohby Riddle

Flotsam – David Weisner

Leonardo, The Terrible Monster – Mo Willems

I Hate School – Jeanne Willis

The Boy Who Grew Flowers – Jen Woktowicz – This is a wonderful little story!

8+ years

Utterly Me, Clarice Bean – Lauren Child

29 books down.

Only 801 to go.

Originally I thought I’d be able to get through this before Aryn graduates high school, 6 years from now.  But to be more realistic it MIGHT take me til Zoe graduates in June of 2019.

So now for a book review:

This time I chose this book – The Boy who Grew Flowers by Jen Wojtowicz

This is a sweet tale of a boy and a girl and how they learned to accept who they are and make the most of that, regardless of what others chose to believe about them.  Pick this one up at your local library or bookstore!

As a parent I’m always encouraging my kids to appreciate who they are and to appreciate the unique qualities and abilities of others and this book is a great springboard for talking about how special and unique each person is and that that is okay.

This book is filled with gorgeous acrylic paintings by Steve Adams.

Well I’m off to start reading some more titles that I picked up over the weekend.

Here’s to a journey, filled with lots and lots of great literature and happy hunting!

Take Care.

Hubby’s birthday and a fun new project!

Today is Brian’s birthday.  41 years.  That looks like “$!” if you hit the caps button when you are typing it out.  Silly I know – but it kinda made me giggle.

 

Then Zoe and I tried a new project that we found in some craft book we got from the library recently.

Basically you take a piece of sandpaper, any grade will do, draw a design on it with crayon, filling in every available space, pressing hard getting as much crayon as possible on the sandpaper.  Then you put it crayoned side down on a tee-shirt, or any piece of white fabric  and iron.

It turned out like this!

To cute!!!  We will be doing more of these!  Maybe for gifts for Christmas and definitely on cloth napkins for thanksgiving if I can find white fabric napkins for a reasonable price.

 

Take care!

Sharing simple moments

Found this sweet blog today.  So I decided to give it a try.

In fact I think I’ll do this every so often.

October 7th, 2009, 5PM

Outside my window… late day sunshine. titmouse birds in my apple tree enjoying the sunflower seeds.

I am thinking… I need to get Ethan started on his homework.

I am wearing… black lounge pants, my Alaska t-shirt and my long sweater jacket.

I am remembering… that we should try to get to the zoo one more time before it closes for the season.

I am going… to be needing to get to the grocery store soon.

I am reading… A Little Bit Wicked.  Life, Love, and Faith in Stages, by Kristin Chenoweth

I am hoping… to get another favorite authors blog post done this week.

On my mind…finances – always on my mind – that and hoping hubby finds a job soon!

Noticing that… my desk is a disaster!

Pondering these words… From a friend of mine – “Being present is more than just being in the same room.”

From the kitchen… several half pints of fresh apple butter and soon yummy tacos being brought home by my sweet hubby!

Around the house… tall grass that needs to be mowed one more time and TONS of apples that need to be picked up.

One of my favorite things~ seeing those light bulb moments when a child finally understands a concept they are trying to learn!

a photo I’d like to share…

My eldest and youngest two children sharing a moment.

Take care . . .

Favorite Children’s Author series #2

Okay – Time to move to another one of my favorite children’s authors or in this case a husband and wife pair of authors/illustrators.

H.A. and Margret Rey.

Yes the creators of our beloved Curious George, among other wonderful characters.

H.A. and Margret were both born in Germany, to Jewish parents and were VERY well educated.  H.A., before he was 20 had studied and could speak relatively well 5 languages, and learned more in adulthood.  As a youngster he loved to draw and paint and would spend many hours doing so.  Margret wanted to become an artist and studied art and photography at the famous Bauhaus in Germany.

H.A served Germany during World War 1 as a solider.  He didn’t like it, but like his beloved little monkey character, H. A. was curious.  He love the stars and anything to do with astronomy!   And while serving his time on the Eastern front he also picked up a “smattering of Russian.”

After the war, having trouble finding steady work, H. A. left Germany and headed to Brazil.  He loved it there with all the colorful people, the sea, and of course the animals.  His first job there was selling bathtubs and sinks!  And he learned yet a 7th language!

Margret arrived in Brazil many years later before World War 2 and having known H.A.’s family in Germany, and admiring H.A, struck up a new relationship with him in Brazil.  In August of 1935 they were married and they changed their last name from Reyersbach to something easier for people in their new country to remember – Rey.  From then on they worked, wrote and traveled together.  And at every stop along the way – they would document their journey and visit zoo’s and circuses whenever they could.

The rest of their history can be found – very well written in fact by Louise Borden in the book The Journey that Saved Curious George.

My youngest daughter, Zoe, became a big fan of one curious little monkey, almost from birth.  She is now going on 9 years old and still cherishes her beat-up collection of Curious George stories.  We know exactly when the bus is scheduled to come – Exactly 8 minutes after Curious George and the Man with the Yellow Hat leave the screen of the local PBS channel.

and when the movie came out several years ago. . .  We HAD to be one of the first to see it at it’s noon premier at our local Rave movie theatre!  And we had to have the stamps.  Remember when stamps were just .39 cents?

The pair, H.A. and Margret, also penned and illustrated other books like:

More info on theses can be found here at the official Curious George/H.A. and Margret Rey website.

September 16th marks H.A.’s birthday and to honor him, Houghton Mifflin Books, is sponsoring Curiosity Day!  I think I’m going to check to see if our local library plans on doing something!  I’m sure Zoe will love it!

The Rey’s never had any children of their own.  But what a love they must of had for them!  To create such endearing characters and engaging stories, that children have loved for many, many years!

Take care. .