Bunny Party and Bunny Cakes

 
A couple of friends have recommended the Rosemary Wells Max and Ruby books, and one fellow writer went so far as to put Bunny Party and Bunny Cakes in my hands the other day, saying "Read these!"

In case you've not had a chance to explore this series, they are a subtle exploration of sibling rivalry for young kids. My first take on the books was that they were a little too plain vanilla for my taste. They lack the contemporary irony and wink-at-the-parents prose found in popular picture book series like Olivia.

Having a had chance to re-read them, I think that they are a more gentle and delightful take on brothers and sisters learning to share, learning to play together, and yes even care about one another. What's more astonishing from an author's point-of-view is how clever the stories and dialogue are. Writing picture books is an exercise in deliberation and rejection.  The author is restricted to words appropriate to 3 - 7 year old kids, and often must keep word count down under the 1,000 mark. From that perspective, Rosemary Wells is a genius at saying so much with so little.

Even more remarkable, and putting aside an adult's take on the books, is that kids really respond to the stories. The books and their characters are very relatable and the illustrations are beautiful. My daughter immediately requested to hear the books again.

One final note, if you're looking for a good book on numbers for kids, Bunny Party is excellent. You'll find yourself counting guests at the party, and the numbers are repeated often, and it'll feel fun instead of a chore. The book encourages kids to chime in and say the numbers or count on their own.

26 Letters and 99 Cents

As is sometimes the case, my daughter requests a book over and over again much to my surprise. 26 Letters and 99 Cents by Tana Hoban is such a book, something we stumbled across in the library.

The book is two-in-one. One side of the book contains the letters of the alphabet - both upper case and lower case, along side a picture of a toy or a piece of fruit or some other kind of object that illustrates the letter. The version we checked out was dated - the pictures look like something from the '80s - but each image is colorful and my daughter liked talking about the connection between the letter and the object.

Flip the book over and each page is devoted to numbers.  For example, the number 4 is accompanied by 4 pennies while the number 5 is shown next to a nickel. My daughter doesn't grasp money yet so pointing to the coins has proven fruitless.  But she likes to recite the numbers out loud with me.  At some point, the book begins to count by 5 which is way beyond what my 3 year-old is managing with numbers.

Still, it's fun to flip the book, and she likes the colorful pictures. It also is fun for her to shout out something that she has been learning.  So this isn't necessarily a good night book but it's can be a fun take on counting on reciting the alphabet during a slow afternoon.

One More Sheep

My daughter is scared of the coyote in this book.
Only there is no coyote. There is only a wolf.
Funny what kids dream up and latch on to.

So, while she's hiding when I get to the pages with a coyote - oops, I mean a wolf - in sheep's clothing, I'm relishing the delightful rhyme that tells the story of a silly shepherd who can't stay awake to count his sheep.

In One More Sheep by Mij Kelly and illustrated by Russell Ayto, the sheep think that the shepherd is a bit of a dolt because he falls asleep whenever he begins to count them at nighttime. He protests that counting sheep just naturally leads one to snoozeland. The sheep considers this an affront: are they boring? How rude!

An excerpt:
Out on the moor,
the wind whistled and wuthered,
while the sheep safe indoors
snuggled under the covers,
drifting through dreams ...

It's a very fun and funny story and I adore the little nightcaps that adorn each sheep's head. The writing is clever enough for adults, but not over the heads of children, and conjures up wonderful images. The illustrations are modern - I want to like them, but I find the outsized bodies of the sheep distracting - but my 3 year-old takes them in stride. Perfect for bedtime, One More Sheep will have you and your counting your way down to ZZZs.

If You're Happy and You Know It

If you haven't met Jane Cabrera and her books for toddlers yet, you're missing out. Hands down, she is one of the most talented picture book illustrators (and writers) out there. Often, she paints scenes that accompany traditional children's songs or poems, and those paintings are gorgeous, lush, bright, bold masterpieces. I've often thought that I'd like to own a poster-sized painting from one of her books for a nursery wall.

But barring that expense, I'm grateful for the good fortune that allows all of us to share in her work through her books. It's hard to choose a favorite, but if pressed I'd go with If You're Happy and You Know It because it really gets my child up and moving about. It's fun, engaging and lovingly created with colors deep enough that you could go swimming in them.



Other favorites include Mommy Carry Me Please, Ten in the Bed (a good book about counting) and Over in the Meadow; the latter two are helpful when practicing numbers. This is just a small sampling of Cabrera's work.

  

One note: I have found one (and only one) of Cabrera's stories a bit awkward, although still beautifully illustrated. The Lonesome Polar Bear is magical to view, and the premise works - a polar bear cub looking for a friend - but the ending in which the cloud friend brings a snow bear to life isn't executed very well. As in most cases, when I find a book in which I don't love the text (e.g. Hey, Get Off of Our Train), I just make up words to go along with the pictures.