Books, books, books

A draft of this post has been sitting in my folder for almost a month, and we have since added a whole bunch of new books to our repertoire. We currently have sixty-one children's books checked out of the library, and I believe we have read all but five of them at least once, many far more times. For the past couple of months, Sava has been reading and enjoying: 

Alfie and the Big Boys, Alfie and the Birthday Surprise by Shirley Hughes: We love the Alfie books, even though I was sure they would be sappy and unbearable when I first glanced at them; Sava should be a bit old for them, but I think he enjoys the beautiful illustrations and the leisurely nothing-much-happens-but-still-interesting stories.
Art by Patrick McDonnell: by the author of The Gift of Nothing, this is a sweet little book for kids loving art, as our kid currently is.
Arthur's Chicken Pox, Arthur Goes to Camp, Arthur's First Sleepover by Marc Brown: I'll just come out and say it: I hate these books; they are badly written and read like a cartoon in slow motion, so this mama, who has close to zero experience with cartoons, also has close to negative patience with these books. But Sava enjoys the silliness and, so far, I am able to keep my promise not to censor my kids' reading habits, as long as the general habit of reading is being fostered.

A Frog Thing by Eric Drachman: We only read it a couple of times, maybe because the message of do your best at the thing you are able to do is a bit too obvious for Sava. Still, it's a very timely message given our anguish over the stopping of violin, about which more might be divulged in Sunday Slivers.
Stagestruck by Tomie DePaola: Also a timely book, given Sava's distress over having to perform in his end-of-summer-camp's singing show, by a favorite author of ours whose The Art Lesson Sava has read a couple of dozen times. He was not terribly impressed by this book, but requested it a few times anyway.
Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears by Verna Aardema: A sweet book with a patterned narrative of sorts (A did B who did C who did D etc.) that Sava enjoyed a good deal, not the least because he believes that it offers a true scientific explanation for why mosquitoes buzz.

Baby in a Basket by Gloria Rand: Ehe story of a mother traveling with her two young daughters across a snow-blanketed Alaska; good for the sensitive thrill-seekers, who like some suspense, but not too much.
The Cat in the Hat Comes Back!; Dr. Seuss's ABC by Dr. Seuss: We now own a bunch of the Dr. Seuss books, and I don't think there is a single one that my kids do not enjoy; since Raya is really into rhymes, and Sava is really into rhymes and silliness, Dr. Seuss may be the only author we can read to both kids at this point in time without losing one of them halfway through the book.
Grandmother's Pigeon by Louise Erdrich & Jim LeMarche and Up by Jim LeMarche: We fell in love with Jim LeMarche's illustrations after purchasing The Raft on a whim from Kepler's; these two new books both deal with what I would loosely term "the supernatural," and while I would not have expected my literalist pragmatic kid to go for them, he likes both a lot; Grandmother's Pigeon has the linguistic complexity for a Senior Lit AP class, and I am not sure whom the authors had in mind as the intended audience, but after one reading with stops every couple of sentences in order to explain an unfamiliar word (ornithologist, anyone?...congenial porpoise?), Sava's been asking to read it again and again. Go figure.

Berenstein Bears: Too Much TV, The Berenstein Bears Go To Camp; No Girls Allowed; and The New Baby; Get the Gimmies; and the In-Crowd (and others I'm sure I am forgetting) by Stan & Jan Berenstein: We are going through a distinct Berenstain Bears phase; clueless immigrants that we are, this is our first encounter with the books, and for the most part we enjoy the unabashed psychoanalysis and the cultural mediation aimed at helping parents to raise upright citizens; we do object to some very American middle-class assumptions, though, such as the resolution the Gimmies book offers, which is that each child pick one thing to buy before they go to the store so that they do not throw a tantrum requesting to buy three things in the store. How about not buying anything and teaching your kids about resisting compulsory consumerism in a consumerist society?
The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton: By the author of Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, which Sava loves, an exquisite book celebrating the bygone past of rustic simplicity and unadulterated nature. Overly idealistic, but Rado and I loved it, and big brother enjoyed it appropriately.
How Many Mice by Michael Garland; Missing Math by Loreen Leedy; Over in the Garden and Somewhere in the Ocean by Jennifer Ward: Sava brought all of these titles home from Math class during summer camp, and he enjoyed the heck out of reading them over and over again, playing some of the number games hidden in each book. I would never have picked those out of a library shelf for him, which, I suppose, illustrates why going to school is a good thing, all things considered.
The Big Snow by Berta Hader: We just read this 1949 Caldecott winner for the first time, and it is lovely beyond any words, in much the same way that The Little Island by Margaret Brown Wise (author of Goodnight Moon) is. Both write about the changes inherent in nature's seasons with simple and straightforward beauty that would appeal both to a two- and five- and thirty-four-year olds.
Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary: This is our second Ramona book, the first being Ramona the Pest, and while it did not grab our attention immediately, we all warmed up to it about a third of the way in. The language is perfect--difficult, but not too much--for a five-year old, and the subject matter--sibling relations--struck a note of particular interest for our household. Curiously, while Sava identified with Ramona the kindergartener in the first book, he found much more in common with Beezus in the second book, likely because Beezus' infinite patience with the brazen, reckless, and obnoxious Ramona bears a striking resemblance to the sibling dynamics in our family.
lots by Eric Carle: Mr. Seahorse; Draw me a Star; Little Cloud; 10 Little Rubber Ducks; 1,2,3 to the Zoo; The Tiny Seed: Perhaps I misspoke when I said that Dr. Seuss is the only author whose books we can read simultaneously to both Sava and Raay; Eric Carle is another one, which we are just now discovering, because Sava never had much interest in books like The Hungry Caterpillar when he was young; but he learned to draw a star after listening enraptured to Draw me a Star this week, and he loved rereading Mr. Seahorse, which apparently they also read in summer school art class as part of their ocean theme. Raya enjoys the simple words and illustrations of Little Cloud, and overall, I have no trouble seeing why Carle's art and simple reverence for nature appeal to kids and their parents.


Speaking of Raya, who increasingly reaches for a book whenever she is bored or at a loss about what else to do, here are some of the many books we have been enjoying; we have piles of baby/toddler books we own that never get mentioned here, because I can only reference easily the books that sit on my onlne library account:

Mem Fox: Hello, Baby!; Where is the Green Sheep?; Zoo-Looking; Time for Bed; Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes; The Magic Hat: Mem Fox is hands down Raya's favorite, and the most engaging toddler author, if such a term can be used without sounding condescending; the rhymes work beautifully for a child who speaks (as yet) English as a second language, and it would be only a very small exaggeration to say that Raya knows all of these books by heart; if you've got a toddler and you don't have Mem Fox at home, run, don't walk to the library to get her books.

Daddy Calls Me Doodlebug, Mommy Calls Me Monkeypants by J.D. Lester: silly books with silly rhymes that Raya loves to read
Every Mother Goose collection the library has: Counting Your Way; The Dorling Kindersley Book of Nursery Rhymes; Mother Goose Remembers; Ring-a-ring O'Roses & Ding, Dong Bell; Teddy Bears' Mother Goose; The Arnold Lobel Book of Mother Goose; Mother Goose Numbers on the Loose; Richard Scarry's Best Mother Goose Ever: She loves them all, and knows all rhymes in some, fewer in others, like the Arnold Lobel, which is the current favorite, and which probably has a few hundred rhymes. We sing them, we recite them, we sing them, and we recite them again. I've been agonizing about how to wean her from Mother Goose, and yet look forward to branching out more in the beautiful picture-book world for kids out there.

Lois Ehlert: Growing Vegetable Soup; Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf; Waiting for Wings: Sava never cared much for these books, but I am"encouraging" Raya to take an interest in them; not much luck so far, even though I think they are as good as Eric Carle's and up there with The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss; Sava loves Waiting for Wings, from which he traced a beautiful butterfly the other day.
 Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed by Eileen Christelow: Raya makes the funniest face when she shows how the monkey "bumped his head" and then shakes her finger vigorously as she chants, "No more monkeys jumping on the bed!"
More More More Said the Baby by Vera Williams: The most recent favorite, and one of the few "narrative" books we read in English, it's a sweet book about different ways to love one's baby. Perfect for a very young child just getting a grasp of the language as a sequence of interconnected, rather than just discrete, words.