Jack Prelutsky’s The Dragons are Singing Tonight (illustrated by Peter Sís and published by Greenwillow, 1993) is a poetry books about dragon–pet dragons, lazy dragons, mechanical dragons, disconsolate dragons, baby dragons–dragons of all shapes and sizes. My sister read this book often to her five boys when they were little and they love it to this day. Using wonderful rythms and imagery, The Dragons are Singing Tonight tells the secrets of a dragon’s life. ...
(This post is in honor of my mother Marian, one of the wisest–and kindest–women I have ever known.) The Owl and the Pussy-cat is a famous nonsense poem written by the English poet, author, and illustrator Edward Lear. A contemporary of Lewis Carroll, Lear first published the poem in 1871, and it has been illustrated and re-illustrated ever since. The edition to the left was illustrated by Paul Galdone (Clarion, 1987). Jan Brett also illustrated a Caribbean-style version in 1989...
What would you do if you woke up one morning and discovered that you had grown antlers? If the thought has never even crossed your mind, then you should read Imogene’s Antlers, written and illustrated by David Small (Random House, 1985). When Imogene wakes up on Thursday to find antlers on her head, it creates a few problems. Getting dressed is tricky. Getting out the door is trickier. Imogene’s mother is so shocked she faints clean away. The...
Have you ever lived far away from relatives? Wanted to go visit but couldn’t? Then The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman by Darcy Pattison, illustrated by Joe Cepeda (Harcourt, 2003) is a must read for you. The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman tells the story of Tameka from Redcrest, California. She writes her Uncle Ray in South Carolina and begs him to come for a visit. Uncle Ray replies that he can’t make it–he’s got to work all summer–but he’s...
If you love the art of Georgia O’Keefe, you’ll love the picture book My Name is Georgia written and illustrated by Jeanette Winter (1998, Harcourt). I picked this picture book up in Santa Fe when I was visiting the Georgia O’Keefe museum there. It’s a very simple biography of the artist from her days as a girl to art school in Chicago and then New York: “At school, I painted my teacher’s ideas. But when school...
The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes by DuBose Heyward and illustrated by Marjorie Flack tells the story of the five Easter bunnies. Yes, five. If you haven’t read the story, you probably didn’t know there were five. At any rate, a little country girl bunny decided that she wanted to grow up to be an Easter bunny. But all the fancy white bunnies and big Jack-rabbits with their long legs laughed at her. ”The little...
Well, what can you say about Mother Goose? My mother adored Mother Goose and read it to us often. But frankly, as a parent I never really got into it. I know the historic and literary relevance of nursery rhymes, but they just didn’t do much for me. My kids never seemed much interested in them either. Then I got the Mother Goose edition selected and illustrated by Mary Engelbreit (HarperCollins, 2005 with an...
Some children’s books are classics. Take Munro Leaf’s The Story of Ferdinand (Robert Lawson, illustrator). Originally published in 1936 by Viking, Ferdinand tells the story of a gentle, little bull who doesn’t want to butt and stick his horns around. Ferdinand wants to “sit just quietly under the cork tree and smell the flowers.” But when Ferdinand sits on a bee and gets stung, Ferdinand gets picked to fight in the bullfight in Madrid. Will Ferdinand fight?...
Move over Beatrix Potter because Little Rabbit is one cute bunny. I just finished Little Rabbit Goes to School (Peachtree, 2004) and really for me, it’s all about the illustrations. The story’s cute, yes, but this is a book I’d get for the illustrations. The Little Rabbit books tell about typical joys and fears of childhood: the excitement of a birthday, getting lost at “Rabbit World,” not wanting to share, the desire to be...
