Guaranteed, Malia and Sasha Obama are going to be famous first daughters.  But long before  Malia and Sasha made the White House their home, long before Jenna and Barbara, Chelsea or Amy, was Alice Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt’s oldest daughter and perhaps the most famous and celebrated first daughter ever.

What to Do About Alice?  How Alice Roosevelt Broke the Rules, Charmed the World, and Drove Her Father Teddy Crazy! by Barbara Kerley and illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham (Scholastic, 2008) tells the story of rambunctious Alice Roosevelt, who greeted White House guests with her pet snake, joined an all boys club, zoomed around Washington D.C. in her roadster, and danced all night at parties.  Her father Teddy “called it ‘running riot.’  Alice called it, ‘Eating up the world.’”

“I can be president of the United States, or I can control Alice.  I cannot possibly do BOTH!” said President Roosevelt.  Although her mother died when Alice was two and Alice wore leg braces for many years as a child, Alice possessed just as much “bully” as her bold and adventurous father.  Her “zest for fun” made her a 1900’s celebrity and irresistible material for gossip columns.  Nicknamed “Princess Alice,” Alice had babies named after her, songs written about her, and famous shenanigans that boosted her father’s popularity.   

Spunky kids everywhere (and kids who wish they were) will love reading What to Do About Alice?  The book offers an adventurous romp into the life of the spunky first daughter who was so famous she was called “the other Washington Monument.”

Since it’s summer, probably the last thing you’re thinking about is a snow day.  But in some ways, summertime seems like one long snow day–no school, a change in the schedule, extra family time.

Snow Day! by Lester Laminack and illustrated by Adam Gustavson (Peachtree, 2007) praises those magical days (to kids and teachers at least) when school is cancelled and everyone gets to stay home. 

It all starts when a boy hears the weather report:   “Did you hear that?  Did the weatherman just say what I thought he did?  Did he say . . . SNOW?  Oh please, let it snow.  Lots and lots of snow.”

Think of all the great things a snow day means:  “No alarm clock ringing.”  “Tomorrow we’ll have a PJ day.  We’ll pile on the sofa and snuggle under that old blue blanket.”  “We can build a snow fort down by the walk.”  “We’ll go sledding in Mrs. Cope’s field.” 

The snow begins to fall and the weather report says it’s getting colder.  “Maybe we’ll get TWO snow days.”  The family goes to bed as snow begins to fall.  Except . . .

. . . sometimes the weatherman is wrong.  And everyone has slept in.  And no one’s ready on time.  And you’d better hurry because you can’t be late! 

Sometimes the weather just won’t cooperate.  “Drat!  I really needed a snow day.”

What if your family had no soap, milk, sugar or shoes?  Such is the case for Katje and her family in Boxes for Katje by Candace Fleming and illustrated by Stacey Dressen-McQueen (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003).  Set in Holland just after World War II, Katje and her little town of Olst are struggling to get by.  Katje is thrilled when one spring morning she gets a surprise package from America, “the land of plenty.”  The box contains a cake of soap, a pair of wool socks, a chocolate bar, and a letter:  “Dear Dutch Friend, I hope these gifts brighten your day.  Your American Friend, Rosie Johnson.” 

Katje is so excited to have these three treasures.  How long it has been since she’s had nice soap, warm feet, and any chocolate or sweets (that will make kids think).  Although Katje is tempted to keep the bounty for herself, she quickly decided to share.  Katje writes a thank you note to Rosie and soon they are pen pals.  Each note of Katje’s leads to another precious package from Rosie. 

When winter comes, it is “snow-deep and bitter cold, the worst winter anyone could remember.  The townspeople of Olst layered whatever clothing they had.  They huddled close to their small fires, ate sparingly from their almost empty cupboards, shivered, and prayed.”  How would they survive?

With the help of boxes for Katje.  Rosie and the townpeople of Mayfield, Indiana send boxes and boxes of supplies that help not just Katje and her family, but the entire town of Olst.   As thanks, the people of Olst, Holland send tulips bulbs to plant throughout Mayfield.

Boxes for Katje gives children a slice of history along with a beautiful story of friendship and sharing.  Rosie shares with Katje and Katje in turn shares with her family and friends.  The tulips that Olst sends as thanks give and give as they bloom each year. 

Boxes for Katje is also based on the true experiences of the author’s mother.  The afterword to the story explains that the winter of 1945 was “the worst winter of the century–plunging temperatures below zero, and in some places, piling up thirty feet of snow.”  Katje’s family and their plight tugged at the heartstrings of the people of Mayfield, Indiana and “grew into a churchwide effort to support Katje’s family through the hard winter.”

My next door neighbor just got two puppies, so naturally my kids are now clamoring for one.  It seems like every kid at some point asks “Mom, can I get a dog?”  Nice parents (like my neighbor and my sister) say, “Sure honey.”  Mean parents (like me) say “Who’s going to vacuum up the dog hair and clean up the yard?  Who’s going to walk it and take it to the vet?  Who’ll watch it while we go on vacation?  Dogs are messy.  Vets and kennels are expensive.  A dog will end up costing us a fortune.  No, no, no!”

The Best Pet of All written by David LaRochelle and illustrated by Hanako Wakiyama (Dutton, 2004), gives all those kids who have always wanted a dog the victory they deserve.  For three days straight the hero of our story asks if he can get a dog.  The answer is always no.  Finally, the little boy asks if he can get a dragon.  “If you can find a dragon, you can keep it for a pet,” says his mother.

He searches and searches and finally convinces a dragon to come home with him.  Then the trouble starts.  Dragons don’t like to pick up their toys.  “They do not like to help with chores.  And they make a mess in the kitchen.  They roast hot dogs in the living room.  And they dance to loud music all night long.”

Naturally his mother does not like this pet dragon.  But it won’t leave.  The little says, “Too bad we do not have a dog . . . Dragons do not like dogs . . .  A dog would chase the dragon away.”  Smart thinking!

I guess my kids will be asking me for a dragon next.

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.  What should you do if your dragon gets sick?  The poem My Dragon Wasn’t Feeling Good has the answer:

(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 (Philomel).

The Owl and the Pussy-cat  is charming and silly, lilting and eminently memorizable.  When I was a girl, my mother recited this poem and had us children memorize it (the other great nonsense poem we learned being “The Purple Cow” by Gelett Burgess).  I believe all of my six siblings can still recite ”The Owl and the Pussycat” to this day (and shame on them if they can’t). 

After the owl and the pussy-cat sailed away in “a beautiful pea-green boat,” Owl serenaded his lovely Puss by the light of the stars.  Being a liberated female,

Not to worry.   After “sail[ing] away for a year and a day,” the couple finds an enterprising Piggy who is delighted to sell them his nose ring.  They are married the very next day by a turkey and celebrate with a magnificent feast using runcible spoons (a term coined by Lear and now in the dictionary).  They end the perfect wedding with dancing on the beach “by the light of the moon, the moon, the moon.”

Really, could there be anything more romantic?

So here’s to my mother, Marian.  Intelligent, compassionate, wise, and abundantly unselfish.   How we miss her.

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 doctor can find nothing wrong.  The principal has no suggestions.

But Imogene doesn’t seem to mind.  Antlers make great towel racks, lovely perches for birds, and the perfect candelbra when Imogene practices the piano.

Besides, Imogene wakes Friday morning to find the antlers gone.  Voilà, problem solved!    

Or is it?

(First let me say, this photo does not do justice to these illustrations  because they are rich and gorgeous. )

A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams  by Jen Bryant and illustrated by Melissa Sweet (Eerdmans, 2008).  is a picture book biography of the Imagist poet William Carlos Williams.   Williams is considered one of the great American poets, and the pared down simplicity and strong images of his poems makes them accessible to children.  Their very simplicity also creates a unique intensity and force.

Little Willie Wiliams grew up in Rutherford, New Jersey, playing baseball and racing his friends. “But when the other boys went inside, Willie stayed outside.”  He observed everything and listened to the rhythm of the river.

In high school Willie’s teacher read him poetry and he tried to write his own.  But “he had pictures in his mind that didn’t fit exactly into steady rhythms or rhymes.”  “I want to write about ordinary things–plums, wheelbarrows, and weeds, fire engines, children, and trees.”  So he did. 

Willie was a good poet.   But he needed money too.  Willie’s mother suggested  he become a doctor like his Uncle Carlos.  Willie liked the thought of helping people, so off he went to the university to study medicine.  Could he write poetry and study medicine too?

Of course!  And when he returned to his hometown of Rutherford, New Jersey to be a family doctor, Willie was busier than ever.   “But not matter how many babies he delivered, no matter now many sick people he cured, Willie could not stop writing poems.”  ”After his long doctor’s day, Willie climbed to the attic” and as the lights in the town turned off one by one Willie tooks words and “shaped them into poems.”

Jen Bryant’s lyrical style  is wonderfully suited to a book about a poet.  She has also written other books about artists:  Georgia O’Keefe, Marianne Moore, composer Olivier Messiaen.

Illustrator Melissa Sweet weaves several of the poems into her artwork and more poems are printed inside the front and back covers.  The dust jacket calls the illustrations “stunning” and that is not too strong of a word for Sweet’s mixed media.

 I adore this book.  I loved studying William Carlos Williams in college, and when I won this book at a writer’s conference, I was surprised by how many of my fellow writers had never even heard of him.  This simple biography provides a fantastic introduction.  It introduces Williams’ life, his poetry, his motivation, his style, and his amazing persistance and work ethic.  It has a timeline, additional biographical information, and a bibliography at the end.  All in just 32 pages!  A River of Words proves once again that picture books aren’t just for children.

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 sending his friend Oliver K. Woodman instead.

Well, Oliver K. Woodman is a man that Uncle Ray made from wood scraps (he reminds me of the Tinman in the Wizard of Oz), and he hitchhikes all the way from South Carolina to California.  Along the way, Oliver’s benefactors write to Uncle Ray and tell him about Oliver’s journey.

Aside from being a great way to learn geography, the story is told as a series of letters written by different characters.  Author Darcy Pattison does a fantastic job with all these different voices.  Tameka is simple and straightforward: “Please come to visit us this summer.  We will go camping.  We can swim and catch fish.  You are my favorite uncle.  Please say you will come!”   

A trucker writes Uncle Ray that Oliver K. Woodman is “an easy fella to travel with.  He never needs bathroom stops.  He doesn’t care where we eat.  And he stays awake with me all night.”   Three little old ladies who give Oliver a ride from Salt Lake City to California tell of their “distinct pleasure of entertaining Mr. Oliver K. Woodman for the past 23 days . . . he has the loveliest manners.” 

And finally, Bernard Grape, attorney at law, writes that he will deliver Oliver to Tameka’s doorstep: “Our family, currently on vacation, picked up the above named person in what I thought was a misguided goodwill gesture.  Little did I know how lucky that gesture would be.”

Oliver makes it to Tameka’s house thanks to the kindness of strangers, and Tameka and her family make it to Uncle Ray’s too.  At home with the people you love best.  The perfect happy ending.

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 days were over, I went out into the wide world to discover my own ideas.” 

Georgia paints the Texas sky, the sunset and clouds.  She paints flowers:  “I painted a camellia.  I painted it BIG, so people would notice.  I painted a jack-in-the-pulpit.  I painted it BIG, so people would see.”

Then she goes to the New Mexico desert.  Georgia again finds things to paint:  bones, deserts, mountains, and again the sky.  And in her last painting, she painted the sky.  “I painted my sky BIG, so people would see the sky the way I did.”

Georgia O’Keefe lived to be ninety-eight years old.  To my mind, her art seems particularly accessible to children.  It has a childlike immediacy and boldness of form and color that appeals to them.  So take your kiddo to the art museum then come home and read My Name is Georgia.