Picture Book Roundup - October 2015 edition

This edition of the Picture Book Roundup features three funny books, a hilarious cautionary tale, and a sweet bookish story to melt your heart. Enjoy!

Review copies of Night Animals by Gianna Marino (Viking, 2015) and In! Over! and On! by Ethan Long (Penguin, 2015) were provided by the publishers at my request. The Good Little Book by Kyo Maclear (Tundra, 2015), Everyone Loves Bacon by Kelly DiPucchio (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2015), and Ragweed's Farm Dog Handbook by Anne Vittur Kennedy (Candlewick, 2015)

If you can't access the slide show with reviews below, you can see it on RiffleBooks at this link. [https://read.rifflebooks.com/list/185319]

Picture Book Roundup - Silly, dreamy, fun, well-done!

Silly, dreamy, fun, well-done  - these are my favorites today!

• Silly

Harrington, Tim. 2013. This Little Piggy. New York: Harper Collins.

Funny and silly, this is the story of what those other five little piggies are doing - forget about going to market or eating roast beef; these little piggies are painting, selling hot dogs, dancing and flying planes!

Browse inside This Little Piggy.

Click to hear the author's musical rendition of 
This Little Piggy.  You can download it, too!

• Dreamy

Giovanna Zoboli. 2013. I Wish I Had .... Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.  (Ill. by Simona Mulazzani)

A simple wish list  - one wish on each beautifully illustrated, double-spread page of this over-sized book.  Inspired by the animal kingdom, each wish is for an animal's ability,

I wish I had the quick heart of a mouse as it makes its escape ...

... and the wings of a wild goose on the day it takes flight. 

Perhaps it rhymes in its original Italian version.  No matter - it's still poetic and beautiful.

The link to a preview of I Wish I Had ... may be accessed here.

• Fun

Gibbs, Edward. I Spy on the Farm. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

I loved I Spy With My Little Eye when it was published in 2011, and I love Edward Gibbs' I Spy on the Farm as well.  Perfect for participatory sharing, kids will squeal out the answers as they look through the die-cut holes and hear the clues,

I spy with my little eye ...

 something pink that begins with a P.

Oink, oink!

Colors, letters, farm animal sounds - I Spy on the Farm has it all!

I Spy on the Farm preview here.

• Well-done

Falwell, Cathryn. 2013. Rainbow Stew. New York: Lee and Low.

Whimper, sigh, cloudy, sky,
Is it too wet to play?
We don't want to stay inside
because of rain today.

Grandpa smiles and says to us,
"I know what we can do.
Let's go and find some colors
for my famous Rainbow Stew!" 

Filled with love and frolicking fun, Rainbow Stew is a tasty delight! (Be sure to try the recipe)

Rainbow Stew preview here.
Rainbow Stew activities here!


If you're looking for the usual nonfiction post this morning, check out Sally's Bookshelf for today's Nonfiction Monday roundup.  Next week, Nonfiction Monday will be right here at Shelf-employed.  

Picture Book Roundup - Catch up edition

I am quite far behind in reading, reviewing, and blogging.  Here are a few new picture books that I feel deserve a mention:

• Marino, Gianna. 2012. Too Tall Houses. New York: Viking (Penguin).

A talented artist and writer, Marino's newest is a fable chronicling what happens when neighborhood one-upmanship threatens the friendship between Rabbit and Owl. Marino's beautiful paintings are expertly colored in a palette of nature's finest hues. The expressive faces of the erstwhile friends add much to this brief tale presented in an appropriately tall book.

• Marsalis, Wynton. 2012. Squeak, Rumble, Whomp! Whomp! Whomp! Somerville, MA: Candlewick.  Ill. by Paul Rogers.

Despite my relative lack of musical talent and rhythm (though I can read music and play a few instruments poorly), I am a great fan of music and music education for kids. One day I will write a post about the jazz story time, which I feature each year in April, sharing jazz-themed books and music for preschoolers.  In 2013, my job of choosing books will become much easier thanks to Wynton Marsalis and Paul Rogers' new book, Squeak, Rumble, Whomp! Whomp! Whomp! Some musically-themed books are difficult to read aloud, and I'm thankful when a CD is included (Jazz on a Saturday Night and The Jazz Fly come to mind), but this catchy, rhyming book may be easily read - even by those with a limited ability to speak jazz - for jazz may be found in the most common of places,

Big trucks on the highway RRRRRUMBLE!
Hunger makes my tummy GRrruMBle.
The big bass drum goes Bum! Brrrum! BRRRUMBLE!!!!

Another musically-themed book:

• Isadora, Rachel. 2012. There Was a Tree. New York: Nancy Paulsen (Penguin).

A favorite childhood song (a.k.a. "The Green Grass Grew All Around"), accompanied by Rachel Isadora's luscious Africa-inspired illustrations with rebuses to aid kids in singing along.  What more can one ask for?

• Sif, Birgitta. 2012. Oliver. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

In a style that is reminiscent to me of Oliver Jeffers' work, Birgitta Sif writes and illustrates this short and quirky tale of an introspective, thoughtful boy who finally finds a kindred soul. 

• Stevens, Janet and Susan Stevens Crummel. 2012. Find a Cow NOW! New York: Holiday House.

The Stevens sisters (The Little Red Pen, Harcourt) team up again for another delightfully silly story following the antics of the hyperactive herding dog, Dog, as he takes the advice of Bird and travels to the countryside to find a cow. In Are You My Mother? style, he queries the various creatures he encounters.  By the time he actually finds a cow, he's too tired to even ask.  Cute.

November is Picture Book Month!

Check out these great "shelf-talkers" from the folks at Picture Book Month.  

Lots of additional resources available at Picture Book Month.