Stories need to be developed and while the fun, sparsely worded books are enjoyable to look at and giggle with... they aren't something that I put as high of a value on... both psychologically and monetarily.
Bring Back Stories
I stumbled across this article recently... discussing the problems publishers are having in the picture book industry and it made some very compelling points. Something I've noticed more and more of recently is the flourishing population of clever, popular, concept books. Books that have very little text but that are either neat to look at or innovative in design (think the hip: This Is Not My Hat or engaging Mix It Up! ) I love books like these myself and enjoy throwing them in our read-alouds often. But I almost never buy them. These are not the food with which I feed the souls of my children. These don't offer the narrative weaving and pacing a good, healthy tale does like Many Moons or Princess Furball.
Stories need to be developed and while the fun, sparsely worded books are enjoyable to look at and giggle with... they aren't something that I put as high of a value on... both psychologically and monetarily.
Publishers are noticing that some of the old standby classics are still selling well; people STILL want to invest money in things like Mike Mulligan and Little Toot even though there is nothing contemporary or short about them. We want a satisfying, soul feeding experience of sharing a tale with our children... we aren't interested in just amusing ourselves or being fascinated by innovation. To get this feeling, an investment of time, talent and treasure needs to be made by all parties: author, illustrator and publisher. This is what parents are chasing when they keep spending money on old stuff... it's not that we are just hopelessly nostalgic suckers— excellent books can still be found newly published today after all— it's that we want that beautiful development of story that is increasingly shunned by publishers today in deference to some desperate grasp of innovation, coolness or humor. This is why we hunt down out-of-print titles with a feverish hope... we are trying to escape the bilge of awful books on publishers' shelves today and reach into our memories for something meaningful and authentic.
Stories need to be developed and while the fun, sparsely worded books are enjoyable to look at and giggle with... they aren't something that I put as high of a value on... both psychologically and monetarily.
Top 10 Little Books
To this day, while there are many compilations and anthologies of the Peter Rabbit series, nothing... NOTHING compares to the magic of the small, hardback set of single, independent, tiny volumes. If your home library of picture books consists of nothing other than this set, you'll be leagues ahead of 90% of your parenting peers in the sheer quality of what you're offering.
Anyway, it got me thinking about the awesomeness of tiny books in general. What child doesn't love miniature things designed just for their size? Especially when the miniatures are real, be it functional tea cups, utensils, brooms, aprons etc. So it is with books. There is something special about volumes published under 7 inches tall. And the only thing I love more than reading tiny books to my children, is seeing my young ones sprawled out in the grass on their own with a little book of their own fitting so nicely in their little hands.
Little books pack into diaper bags well, fit into stockings, Easter baskets and everyday baskets, and make fantastic little bonus gifts to accompany other items. Here is my pick of the 10 best little books on the market today:
The Peter Rabbit books. Of course. Just go ahead and throw all 23 titles into one listing here. Each is excellent.
The Story of Little Black Sambo. Okay, so all the modern parents prefer The Story of Little Babaji (also on the small side) because it is more PC, but I love the original myself. I have both books and my children like both equally but I have a nostalgic spot for the old one because my mother read it to me so many times...
The Nutshell Library by Maurice Sendak. Alligators All Around is the standout book in this 4-volume set but they are so well priced as a collection, I'd go ahead and purchase the others with that title.
Pelle's New Suit (mini edition). I normally prefer my full-sized Elsa Beskow books, but this one in particular works as a mini because it doesn't have as much text as most of her other titles. For that, and the fact that it is the perfect springtime book, it's on the list.
A Hole Is to Dig is perhaps my very favorite "nonsensically profound" books (I made that category up; nice eh?). From the silly to the thought provoking, Ruth Krauss found magic in pairing with Sendak on this title. The hardback is out of print, but worth finding...
A Boy, a Dog, and a Frog is the first in the series and my favorite Mercer Mayer books by far. They are wordless but tell a lovely story... don't forget the equally excellent sequels Frog Goes to Dinner, Frog, Where Are You? and others.
The Brave Cowboy. My three year old fell in love with the Brave Cowboy when he first met him and it's still one of his favorite books to call his own and to be found curled up with in a corner somewhere. That's enough to merit a spot on this list.
Alphabet of Boats. Linocuts. Boats. Education. Beauty. Simplicity. All under 5 square inches. I can't help that so many of the books I love are out of print— sorry! Just keep your eyes peeled for this little gem. (Which reminds me... I've seen enough good stuff now to warrant "Volume 3" version of Top Ten Alphabet books... hmm, will attend to that soon hopefully.)
Let's Be Enemies. Sendak illustrating again! He excelled at the tiny books. Janice May Undry created a lovely little tale of making and breaking friendships. It's very fun to read with a 5 year old...
The Little Train... or really, any Lois Lenski books. All are small. My favorite ones are his seasonal books which are a bit spendy OOP, but any of his occupational books like this one or Policeman Small or The Little Airplane, etc are vintage winners as well.*********
And now, some qualifying remarks:
I would've included the gorgeous Flower Fairies Alphabet, but I'm mad that they skipped the letter X. You can cheat a little or work around it... but don't skip the letter altogether!
Also, these are slightly larger than 'tiny', but of immense importance in the picture book collector's world: The Year in Brambly Hedge Set and Adventures in Brambly Hedge Set. Unfortunately these books are long out of print but they are really wonderful to own and cherish... in the same botanical goodness vein as one would find the Beatrix Potter books.
And lastly, I've requested an inter-library loan to get my eyes on The Treehorn Trilogy. It looks fabulous. Edward Gorey is not everyone's cup of pictorial tea but I like him and am eager to see these books!
The Winner!
I reached into my bag of meaningless methods and chose a winner for Nature Anatomy: The Curious Parts and Pieces of the Natural World. Here is how it worked:Write down the posted times of all the comments.
Ask child number 1: "am or pm?"
All the PMs got crossed out. Sorry!
Ask child number 2: "8 or 9?"
All the 8s got crossed out.
Ask child number 3: "11 or 47?"
47 takes all.
Mary, who commented on the post at 9:47 am (PST) wins!
Congrats and I hope you all tune in for next time!
Just for Today...
I tried looking up the history of the prayer, because its origin isn't universally accepted and several adaptations of the prayer exist, one is in use by AA. Here is a common one:
- Just for today, I will seek to live the livelong day positively without wishing to solve the problems of my life all at once.
- Just for today, I will take the greatest care of my appearance: I will dress modestly; I will not raise my voice; I will be courteous in my behavior; I will not criticize anyone; I will not claim to improve or to discipline anyone except myself.
- Just for today, I will be happy in the certainty that I was created to be happy, not only in the other world but also in this one.
- Just for today, I will adapt to circumstances, without requiring all circumstances to be adapted to my own wishes.
- Just for today, I will devote ten minutes of my time to some good reading, remembering that just as food is necessary to the life of the body, so good reading is necessary to the life of the soul.
- Just for today, I will do one good deed and not tell anyone about it.
- Just for today, I will do at least one thing I do not like doing; and if my feelings are hurt, I will make sure that no one notices.
- Just for today, I will make a plan for myself: I may not follow it to the letter, but I will make it. And I will be on guard against two evils: hastiness and indecision.
- Just for today, I will firmly believe, despite appearances, that the good providence of God cares for me as no one else who exists in this world.
- Just for today, I will have no fears. In particular, I will not be afraid to enjoy what is beautiful and to believe in goodness. Indeed, for twelve hours I can certainly do what might cause me consternation were I to believe I had to do it all my life.
And I think that is a fantastic prayer for meditation.
Bimba Landmann's style isn't one that everyone will immediately appreciate. She has a whimsy to be sure... but not a fun, cutesy, whimsy like Elisa Kleven that everyone adores... Bimba's is more ethereal and almost Byzantine influenced. In this book, for example, the pictures are gorgeous but aren't always a perfect correlation with the text at first glance. There's a boy (who is he? The young pope?) who seems to be living in some kind of Turkish or Muslim-inspired seaside village. And he has, um... a pet reindeer... I think that's what it is at least.
Yet despite these oddities, it all somehow fits. And it makes the prayer's meditative quality shine through to not have such literal illustrations.
Easter Basket Board Books...
Nature Anatomy: The Curious Parts & Pieces of the Natural World, and a Giveaway!
"How many ways do I love thee? Let me count the ways..."
The find of the year (so far) for me is this piece of glory from Julia Rothman called Nature Anatomy: The Curious Parts and Pieces of the Natural World. The entire thing is the what makes me love to homeschool (and I needed a new boost in loving that lately). The book is fabulous, and everything one could wish for in a "textbook."
First, it's chock full of interesting facts covering various areas of geology, botany, biology, meteorology and astronomy. In being such a broad book, do we turn up our noses claiming it can't offer depth in any one area? Sure. You may look down if you like. But what it DOES offer is so beautifully presented and academically enriching that you'd be missing something great by choosing a dry science book over this one.
And then there are the illustrations. Folksy, detailed, handwoven with love and care and interest. My goodness, I'm in love!
This author is the same one who brought us Farm Anatomy: The Curious Parts and Pieces of Country Life a few years ago. It had raving reviews but it was brand new to me this year. I figured that I didn't have a whole heckuva lot of interest in farm life on a technical scale so what would I get out of it?! Little did I know that I'd lovingly turn each page in this too, admiring the art and the information each page provided.
Both books would be phenomenal springboards for deeper studies into any one area. Nature Anatomy especially is such a breath of fresh air in this home.
I have the highly lauded (in Charlotte Mason circles anyway) Handbook of Nature Study and while the information in that is excellent, the photos are in greyscale and limited by their time period. And much to my ever-burning shame, it doesn't get used nearly so much as I had planned. I'd like to think of this new Nature Anatomy filling in the gap in some way as being something fresh, useful, beautiful and worthy to include in our morning basket studies a few times a week. A must have in my opinion... you can virtually browse through it here.
I'm so in love with this book that I'm going to send it to one lucky person during this upcoming Easter season. I don't know how I'll choose a winner, but it'll be non-scientifically random of course. If you have read through this post and are interested in receiving the book, just post a comment about something, anything, I don't care— by Divine Mercy Sunday. That day is my birthday and it would give me great delight to share the gift of this book with someone!
Therapy in Picture Books
This post is for my sister—a soon to be licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She asked for my opinion on books that deal with difficult subjects in a delicate way... to aid children in making sense of trauma or sadness or difficulty in their lives. Note that I have NOT read every single one of these books. What I did, was pore over many, many lists, follow many rabbit-trails, read a few message boards, evaluated many reviews and compiled 24 titles that looked to be the most promising. This is certainly not exhaustive—I don't doubt I'm missing some great titles. But I did go ahead and ignore 90% of what was recommended for therapy books precisely because that's what they were designed to be (e.g. "Mommy and Daddy Dinosaur Got a Divorce" or somesuch). In this scope (as in most others) I seek stories primarily... good messages secondarily.
There are some exceptions, but I do think the art of subtlety in this area is perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind when reading books with children. Kids aren't stupid. They see through things that moralize or patronize very quickly. But again... I have not read all these books personally so maybe a few of them do exactly this... let me know! I am only bookmarking this list for people to peruse who may want to investigate ways to cope with life stressors through the welcoming, non-threatening medium of picture books. If you know of something that I'm missing here, please comment!!!
- Rabbityness (non-specific but sudden loss, grief)
- Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs (death of grandparent, love this book!!!)
- Horton Hatches the Egg (adoption classic!)
- Loon Summer (divorce)
- Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (enough said, by the way... the movie was pretty good!)
- Charlie Anderson (divorce, normalizing step-families)
- The Quarreling Book (stopping the cycle of anger. Classic and fun.)
- My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother (sibling rivalry)
- A Terrible Thing Happened (an exception to the "story first" rule, because it seems this could be really helpful in helping kids heal from witnessing or experiencing trauma—especially for things that are hard to find the right words for like sexual abuse, etc.)
- How to Take the Grrrr Out of Anger (another exception. I own this book. My then-8 year old read it... it's now being passed down to his brother. It didn't "cure" anger. But it helped him to remember some strategies for dealing with it in a healthy way.)
- Always and Forever (death)
- When They Fight (parental fighting)
- My Many Colored Days (for the preschool set to help put names to feelings)
- A Mother for Choco (adoption)
- The Invisible Boy (teaching empathy/inclusion)
- Spaghetti in A Hot Dog Bun: Having the Courage to Be Who You Are (bullying)
- You've Got Dragons (OCD or anxiety)
- Now One Foot, Now the Other (coping with physical disability)
- Michael Rosen's Sad Book (a beautiful book on grief; it doesn't try to 'fix' it. It just owns it and explores it.)
- Ian's Walk (a sibling with autism book)
- Those Shoes (wants vs. needs, making sense of poverty)
- A Day's Work (poverty, honesty, dignity... not just for kids in therapy!!!)
- If Nathan Were Here (non-specific death of a friend, making peace with that loss)
- Rudi's Pond (death of friend)
Brother Hugo and the Bear for Lent!
For Valentine's Day this year, I gifted each of my children a "one free book" coupon and they got to select ANY book they wanted to have shipped to them (all second hand "Like New" copies, to keep it cost effective and I retained veto powers of course...) With just a hint of guidance, my three year old saw the picture of Brother Hugo and the Bear and declared proudly that it was to be his choice. Yes!
The book came and immediately I fell in love with it. It is a story imagined by Katy Beebe from one tiny little line in a real, historical letter that comments this:
"And send to us, if you please, the great volume of letters by the holy father Augustine, which contains his letters to Saint Jerome, and Saint Jerome's to him. For it happens that the greater part of our volume was eaten by a bear."
The book would be a great unit study builder for all things medieval... especially cloistered life, illuminated letters, manuscript making and the 12th century in general. I am going to pair it with a viewing of that oddly strange and beautiful period movie: The Secret of Kells. If I was really motivated, I'd figure out some sort of illuminated letter lesson but I'm pretty sure all our markers are currently lost in heater return vents or chewed up by the puppy. So that may need to wait... All in all, I'm delighted to have this book and use it as Lenten reading (not in a pious way, but at least in a relevant, fun way) and highly recommend it to those who are interested in bringing the Middle Aged, monastic life alive for their children. Probably my best picture book purchase in a long time...
Check out this hypnotic video showing the start to finish illustrations, set to chant...
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