All right, not babies so much as the very young, but old enough to want to hear the words and look at the pictures. I’ve been collecting for a while, and have got a sweet pile of five. All but one are board books.


Starting out with My Teeth by Richard and Michele Steckel (Tricycle Press). You will not believe how completely adorable this is – and what a great idea. Page one is “no teeth.” Page two, “one tooth.” Etc. The children are from all across the world: South Africa, Peru, Turkey. The second to last page says, “Bite!” and the last page says “Brush!” Grandmas will go crazy for this book, and the babies will like it too.


Another counting book is Island Counting 1 2 3 from Frané Lessac and Candlewick Press. I don’t know about you, but My Little Island got plenty of play in our house. Here, Ms. Lessac returns to the West Indies, portraying the colorful market life, animals, housing, people, and fun of the islands. “Three painted houses sitting high on a hill,” goes the text, but children will want to find and count the other things on the page as well: the chickens (3), the lilies (3), cats (3), palm trees (3), etc.

My Up & Down & All Around Book by Marjorie W. Pitzer (Woodbine House) teaches common prepositions using action. On the left green page, the boy is “behind” the tree, on the right green page, he’s “in front of.” “Before” and “after’s” a laugh as it involves food. “Between” and “Next to” gets friendly with dogs. All the models in the photos are children with Down syndrome.

Elyse April is a licensed early childhood educator. She’s brought her expertise to We Like to Read: A Picture Book for Pre-Readers and Parents (Hohm Press, illustrated by Angie Thompson). Basically, it’s a primer for how to incorporate reading into daily life, as well as a first book for young children. The engaging rhymes and pictures compliment each other while accomplishing their dual purpose. “We like to read to the babies at play. Touching and tasting is part of their ways,” says the text, while a dad and an older daughter laugh at the baby who’s chewing on a board book. Highly recommended and would make a wonderful gift for young families.



Finally, a book about not going to bed. I mean really – who needs another “let’s be good and go to bed” book. Just Five More Minutes by Marcy Brown and Dennis Haley, illustrated by Joe Kulka (Treasure Bay) is part of the We Both Read series. The left-hand page is for the caregiver to read, the right-hand page for the child. The story concerns Mark, who needsd “Just five more minutes” before getting into bed. Yes, he needs time to brush his teeth and get into his pajamas, but then he also needs to say goodnight to all his pets, make a snowman, do some knitting, deliver a letter… No child can help but become the tiniest bit pooped with all this pre-nightie-night activity. And of course, the end is just as good.

Every once in a while there is a perfect book for children. The Story of Ping is perfect, and Ferdinand the Bull. And Peter Rabbit. And Where the Wild Things Are. The way I came to judge a perfect book when I was a young mom with young children was how little I had to change or embellish the words on the page.

We’re talking very young children here. And there seemed to be a lot of books that my kids liked the idea (pictures) of, but in which the text was over their heads, or just silly. It’s very tiring to rewrite the words to a book over and over, and I vividly remember one evening choosing Peter Rabbit, and then marveling at what a total pleasure it was to read out loud. There was not one single word that I wanted or needed to change.

And of course, a perfect book needs to be perfect for the children, and not just for me, so it also has to be a book that gets read and reread a hundred times. Word for word.

All right, there can be sound-effects. When I read Where the Wild Things Are there were always sound effects. But that’s it. No changing anything else.

It was perfect.


I’ve found another one. It’s called Waiting for Mama by Lee Tae-Jun, and it was published in 1938 in a Korean newspaper. This edition by NorthSouth (978-0-7358-2143-9) was illustrated with graceful lines and suspenseful color treatments by Kim Dong-Seong.

The story is simple: a little boy goes down to a streetcar stop to wait for his mother. There are probably less than fifty words in the entire tale, but there’s a beginning, a middle -- there’s tension and characterization -- and there’s an end. It’s a classic in Korea, and although the dress and street scenes are foreign to most Americans, the theme is universal. The little boy and his experience is universal. And encouraging.

Don’t miss the very interesting paragraphs at the end of the book about the Korean language either.

Part of my morning reading always includes the online magazine Slate, and today I discovered that the parent company, The Washington Post, had added something new. A magazine, The Root, “that provides thought-provoking commentary on today's news from a variety of black perspectives.”

Okay, doesn’t the title seems a little cliché, and the timing of the debut, well, insincere? Does it take a black man running successfully for president for black perspectives to find a forum?

Or am I wrong. Is my reaction cynical? Am I too inclined (given the season) to see slavishness and pandering where there is only coincidence?

It’s not that we don’t need a forum for black experience and voices. And after all the editor-in-chief is Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard and Director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. His (and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham’s) eight-volume, 4,000-entry, completely stupendous African American National Biography is coming out next month from Oxford.

And the title no doubt references the interactive genealogical section that the site also hosts. Through AfricanDNA.com (co-founded by Gates) African Americans can trace their ancestry in a number of different ways, including DNA testing.

The website states that “The Root aims to be an unprecedented departure from traditional American journalism, raising the profile of black voices in mainstream media and engaging anyone interested in black culture around the world.”

We welcome their perspectives and wish them well.

On a personal note, I’ve been collecting great books about African American issues for the last couple of months in anticipation of Black History
Month. Yes, I’m a couple of days early, but here’s the first.

Andrea Cheng has written and illustrated a very unusual book, Where the Steps Were (WordSong, 978-1-932425-88-8) about an ordinary class of third graders, their always extraordinary questions, and the teacher who guides them. Miss D. takes the class through lessons on American history, with an emphasis on the experiences and contributions of blacks. Five of the children narrate the year in poems.

CARMEN
Rosa Parks

Harriet Tubman,
she came before Lincoln,
but then how did Rosa Parks
fit in?
Miss Parks
just died,
Miss D. says.
—And she was a slave?
—No, she was a seamstress
who wanted to sit
in her seat on the bus.
We find 1955
on my time line.
Dang,
that was about one hundred years
after slavery.
That’s the year I was born,
Miss D. says.
—So when you were little,
we couldn’t have sat together
on the bus?

The children also talk about personal concerns and family matters.

JONATHAN
Everything Dies

Grams had a husband once
and so did my mom
but their husbands died.
Everything dies
like these cicadas
all over the playground.
Simon’s dad
was murdered one day
and so was Lincoln
in that theater
and Martin Luther King
talking about dreams.

There is additional tension as their school is to be demolished at the end of the year.

JONATHAN
Keys

Mr. O’Leary
has all the keys,
every last one
to every last door
in our school,
even the bathrooms
and the boiler room
where he took me and Anthony
to show us
all that heat.
What’s he going to do
with those keys
when they tear our school
down?

Cheng’s sister teaches third grade in Cincinnati, and the book is based on her experience. The class takes a field trip to a farm, and finally to a theater to see a play. There, history comes home to roost as the children, sitting in the balcony, are accused without evidence of spitting on the crowd below. Back in their classroom—having missed the play—the children write letters to the theater manager, asking him if their skin color had anything to do with their presumed guilt.

Where the Steps Were is fascinating, heartbreaking, and hilarious. It’s an extraordinary collection of voices of ordinary children. Our ordinary (not) children.

It’s primary day in Michigan, where the main offices of ForeWord magazine are located. Unfortunately, the National Parties are punishing the state for wanting to have more a voice in the election process by canceling some or all of their delegates to the national conventions. While that’s nothing to celebrate, it is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday, and for that, we have a few book suggestions from Sleeping Bear Press.

Riding to Washington (Sleeping Bear Press, 978-1-58536-324-7) is the story of a girl who rides with her father on a bus from Indianapolis to Washington, D.C., to see and hear Dr. King speak.

At first, she’s convinced that the only reason she’s going is because she’s too much trouble for her mother to handle alone, what with her two baby brothers. On the way, however, she experiences first-hand the effects of inequality and segregation and comes to understand the need for all people, even little trouble-makers like herself, to do the right thing.

Author Gwenyth Swain’s father and grandfather made this trip in 1963, to march for civil rights. The language of the book is colloquial and historical – a choice that will provide discussion material for classrooms. The book is beautifully illustrated by David Geister, with the colors, sites, and textures of the '60s.

Sleeping Bear of Chelsea, Michigan, began publishing in 1998, and considers its authors and illustrators to be “the heart and soul” of the press. Many of their books would be welcome additions to public or home libraries. Here are two others that celebrate the trials and contributions of Black Americans.

 

Let Them Play by Margot Theis Raven
Illustrated by Chris Ellison
978-1-58536-260-8

In 1955 there were 62 official Little League programs in South Carolina, and all but one were white. This is the story of the Cannon Street YMCA All-Stars, an all-black team, that wins the state tournament by default when none of the other teams will play them. At the Little League Baseball World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, the Cannon Street team is invited as guests, but they are not allowed to play. Let Them Play takes its title from the chant shouted by the spectators who attended the World Series final.

 

D is for Drinking Gourd: An African American Alphabet
by Nancy Sanders
Illustrated by E. B. Lewis
978-1-58536-293-6

D is for Drinking Gourd,
and the North Star that led through the night
from station to station on the Underground Railroad,
escaping on a dangerous flight.

From the abolitionists to the Harlem Renaissance, D is for Drinking Gourd celebrates the role the African American community has played in the shaping of America.

Barefoot Books,  NorthSouth Books, and Green Tiger Press are all offering beautiful and well written picture books for children of all ages.

 

The selections from Barefoot Books are for older children, and are great for both reading out loud and reading silently in bed, or on a windowseat, or under a tree. The first one, Indian Tales by Shenaaz Nanji, showcases stories from the Punjab, Utter Pradesh, Rajasthan – each one different. All of the stories are introduced with an explanation of the origin of the tale, and a succinct and interesting overview of the region. Christopher Corr’s illustrations capture the colors of the world’s largest democracy. (978-1-84686-083-6)

 

Fireside Stories: Tales for a Winter’s Eve is another fabulous anthology, this time of winter stories from around the world. Sumptuous illustrations by Helen Cann and elegant writing by Caitlin Matthews make this one a pleasure for readers and listeners.

 

The illustrations in NorthSouth Books’ retelling of Anderson’s Fairy Tales are more restrained, but certainly no less imaginative. Silke Leffler’s choice of what to put on the page will keep the attention of lap-sitters, while the timeless stories unfold. Originally published in Austria, author Friederun Reichenstetter lives outside of Munich and writes briskly, and with poise. (978-0-7358-2141-5)

Ludwig van Beethoven: A Musical Picture Book was also first published in Austria. An amazing story, detailed illustrations, a chronology on the back endpage and a packaged CD of compositions all make this the perfect gift of knowledge and joy. (Written by Lene Mayer-Skumanz, illustrated by Winfried Opgenoorth, 978-0-7358-2123-1)

 

These last two books, from Green Tiger Press, will certainly entertain children, but they’ll also delight adults. Their version of The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse looks just like something my mom used to read me. (In fact, it is. It’s a reprint of the 1947 edition.) The cut-out shape, primary colors, the pink cake, and the cook’s dairy cheeks. The sensational expressions on the faces of the mice! You’ll have so much fun reading it out loud, the kids won’t be able to resist. (Illustrated by Ethel Hays, 978-1-59583-1-927)

 

Another nostalgic Green Tiger volume is their Make It Yourself: Paper & Cardboard Projects for Kids. Old fashioned illustrations and pretty projects are guaranteed to be irresistible to anyone over the age of forty. (Those who can wield a pair of scissors with more grace than a Wii, e.g.) Don’t they get to have fun over the holiday as well? (978-1-59583-188-0)

Cheers!

Comes the season of Christmas stories, and now that Thanksgiving is past and my tree is up, I feel that I can brightly bring them forth with comfort and joy.

Lucy’s Christmas, written by Donald Hall and illustrated by Michael McCurdy (David R. Godine, 978-1-56792-342-1) is the story of Donald Hall’s mother, Lucy, a stove, and a rural Christmas in 1909. Beautifully illustrated by scratching away the black to reveal bright colors beneath, this book is a gem, particularly for families whose traditions include church.

Another story based on a family story is Eli Remembers by Ruth Vander Zee and Marian Sneider, illustrated by Bill Farnsworth (Eerdmans Books, 978-0-8028-5309-7). A more apt title might have been, Eli Finds Out, for the boy discovers why his grandparents are so sad on Rosh Hashanah. A journey to Lithuania and the Ponar Forest provide the answer. Unsentimental and yet full of feeling, from the texture of the illustrations to the layout of the text, this is a good book for introducing history within the family.

The Sheltering Cedar by Anne Marshall Runyon (Portal Press, 978-1-933454-02-3) mostly takes place on Ocracoke Island, one of the Barrier Islands off the North Carolina coast. On the island, an old cedar tree, bent from the fierce nor’easters, shelters the creatures of the beach, just like a harbor shelters boats and a house shelters people. Cardinals, plovers, beetles, and toads decorate the pages of this book’s Christmas pages.

Kate DiCamillo, Newberry Medal winner, joins with illustrator Bagram Ibatoulline to create the story of Frances, a little girl in Cincinnati whose father is away, fighting in World War II. DiCamillo doesn’t actually tell the reader this, but through the carefully crafted illustrations in Great Joy (Candlewick, 978-0-7636-2920-5), Frances’s concern for an organ grinder strike a chord. This is a wonderful story about the spirit of Christmas, so often lacking in our contemporary commercial holiday.

Finally, I can’t resist this The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore (Candlewick, 978-0-7636-3469-8). The inky illustrations, reminiscent of 19th century cut-outs, are both crisp and frothy. Every single ornament on the Christmas tree sparkles and intrigues! At least as delightful is the biography of the illustrator, Niroot Puttapipat, who is the son of a Thai princess. This new version of an old favorite perfectly combines nostalgia and high-tech, with its two-dimensional graphics and its three-dimensional pop-ups.