Saturday, November 29, 2014

I Am Small by Emma Dodd

This beautiful book tells a sort of poem-story about a baby penguin. The images and print quality are stunning. The poem is right on in terms of parents and babies feel about each other.

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Pete the Cat and His Magic Sunglasses by Kimberly and James Dean

Pete the Cat rides around on a skateboard checking in with his friends. The language is hip and artwork bright and fun. My daughter likes that they move around. I like that too. And the hip language and vibrant unpretentious artwork.

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Peanut and Fifi have a ball by Randall de Seve

Two siblings fight over a ball. My daughter likes that they are fighting. I like the healthy competition and also the fine artwork.

Reminder about our book reviews: As you know, we randomly select books off the library shelf. Well, not entirely randomly. I reject books that have too many or too few words in them. I reject books that are thematically inappropriate (like "My teacher is having a baby" which seems focused on a particularly event, for example). But that's about it. Since we will go through a lot of books throughout my daughter's childhood, I try not to miss any by going shelf-by-shelf, and the library organizes these shelves by author's last name. I blog about the ones we love most.

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Empty Fridge by Gaetan Doremus

I love this book. I love so many things about this book, I'm not sure where to start.

When I was a child, I remember hearing the book Stone Soup. In it, a community comes together to make a delicious soup despite each not having very much. I ordered Stone Soup for my daughter, but I got a version where some con men come to the town and take advantage of the villagers, manipulating them into making the soup instead of building community together with them. I did not like that version.

Empty Fridge is the same community-building story, even better. They live in an apartment building, and they get together all the time to make a meal together (it turns out in the end). What's more? They don't make soup, they make a quiche.

Now I am going to buy this book for my family and every urbanist family I know.

Saturday, November 1, 2014

The Short Giraffe by Neil Flory

A sweet book about family togetherness, a bunch of giraffes attempt to take a photo together and have to deal with one of  them not fitting into the frame. I love the art. My daughter loves that one of the giraffes is short and that some of the giraffes are yellow.