This board book is not your ordinary inventory of baby cows, pigs, and ducks. As a resident of the Southwestern US, I could not resist buying this for my 17 month-old, and she loves it!
This book contains adorable photos of the following babies: prairie dog, bighorn sheep, roadrunner, skunk, red-tailed hawk, javelina, mountain lion, coyote, bobcat, and quail.
It is a sturdy board book format. Each two-page spread has a photo and a simple sentence about the animal (for example: “A baby javelina has a snout.”).
What a welcome change from all the baby farm animal books out there!
Book Recommendations, Southwestern US, animals, baby, board book, children's books, nature, photos, young children
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Baby Animals of the Southwest, board books, Book Recommendations, Book Recommendations, children's books, nature books, Northland Publishing, Rising Moon Books, Southwestern US books, toddler books
Jamichael Henterly’s sweet illustrations in this book are so lovely and detailed, you could spend quite a time studying them! The rhyming text is minimal but very pretty (Rose Fyleman wrote it in 1918!).
This is a simple book that teaches children the value of kindness. The fairy goes to the market four times. Each time she buys an animal, which she enjoys for a while then sets free; or once a lovely “winter gown” which she enjoys for a while then gives to a cold frog. The final illustration depicts the fairy surrounded by the four animals that she helped / set free.
I just stumbled upon this by accident at Amazon while searching for a fourth book for a 4-for-3 promotion order. It was a lovely find!
Book Recommendations, children's books, exceptional illustrations, fairies, picture books, young children
| A Fairy Went A-Marketing, Book Recommendations, Book Recommendations, children's books, fairies, Jamichael Henterly, Rose Fyleman, Waldorf, Waldorf books
This sweet series of books contains the poems and illustrations of Cicely Mary Barker, arranged by season or subject. Since it is now spring, I feature Flower Fairies of the Spring. These little books were first published in 1923 and the language and pictures do feel like they come from the past.
Despite the age of the book however, it is still charming and fascinating today. My 6 year-old fairy-loving daughter frequently requests one of these poems before bed. Be advised, the language is quite sophisticated and some children, particularly younger ones, might be bored. Perhaps you might want to check it out of the library first.
Each two-page spread introduces a different flower fairy through a poem and accompanying illustration. For example, first are The Crocus Fairies, then The Colt’s-Foot Fairy, followed by The Celadine Fairy, etc.
Since Cicely Mary Parker was English, many of these flowers may not be so familiar to American readers. Perhaps it could be a good introduction to a botany or gardening lesson or discussion?
The illustrations are gorgeous. The fairies are lovely and expressive. For the pictures alone, this book is worth a look. Recently, the “Flower Fairies” have become quite commercialized. This series is the classic original and contains no modern, commercial references whatsoever.
I believe that these poems and illustrations can be found all together in a large volume, but I like this series since the books are quite small (about 5.5″ x 4.5″) and seem all the more magical because of their tiny size.
Other books in the series are:
Book Recommendations, children's books, exceptional illustrations, fairies, nature, older children, poems
| Book Recommendations, Book Recommendations, children's books, Cicely Mary Barker, fairies, Flower Fairies, kids poetry, poetry, poetry books
I have just started straightening out my garden, so this seems an appropriate book to feature today.
This is a simple book about the “life-cycle” of a vegetable garden. We follow a family and their garden through the seasons beginning with their eager springtime anticipation of the last frost, and ending with fall canning and the wait for next year’s garden. There is a certain comfort in this book as we follow the rhythm of the seasons, knowing that next year all will be the same.
The illustrations appear to be in colored pencil and are a nice complement to the simple happenings in the garden.
Book Recommendations, children's books, exceptional illustrations, nature, picture books, young children
| Book Recommendations, Book Recommendations, children's books, cycle of life, Cynthia Rylant, nature books, seasons, This Year's Garden, Waldorf, Waldorf books
Maybe I just don’t know my Maurice Sendak quite as well as I should, but I had never heard of this one when I found it in the “Friends Of The Library” used book bin for ten cents!
The subtitle of this 1962 book is “A Book of Months” because you will find a poem about chicken soup with rice for each of the twelve months of the year. The poems are funny and catchy. The illustrations are amusing, albeit not very colorful (mainly black and white with a few touches of blue and yellow) as is typical for many children’s books of the same era.
Of course repetitive readings of this book will help teach children the months of the year, but the real charm is in the amusing poems all about chicken and rice soup! My kids love it. What a great ten cent find!
Book Recommendations, children's books, funny, poems, young children
| A Book of Months, Book Recommendations, Book Recommendations, Chicken Soup With Rice, children's books, kids poetry, Maurice Sendak, poetry, poetry books
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