All the World

Liz Garton Scanlon
illustrated by Marla Frazee
Beach Lane Books 2009

Lots of picture books have made me laugh.

Very few have made me cry.

All the wonder in the world seems to be captured in the quiet poetry of Liz Garton Scanlon's text. Lyrical, it throbs with the steady rhythm of life. I love Marla Frazee's lively illustrations, simple but just bursting with personality. This book made me glad to be alive, grateful to tears for trees and oceans and sunsets and people. What better feelings are there to share with a child?

First Day Jitters

Julie Danneberg
Illustrated by Judy Love
Charlesbridge Publishing, 2000

One of my children brought this charming picture book home from the elementary school library. I liked the whimsical personality of the illustrations and the dialog that sounded just like those mornings when a reluctant child is protesting as I try to wheedle him or her out of bed. I read along as the tension mounted, enjoying the story, until I got to the last page. What an utter and delightful surprise! I never would have guessed. I had to go back and read the whole book again looking for clues. They were there, I simply didn't notice.

This is a great book, sure to be enjoyed by children and parents alike.

Bear Snores On

Karma Wilson
Simon and Schuster 2002

I found Bear Snores On in a cereal box while visiting my sister - it was a tiny little paperback, part of some promotional for getting children to read. "This is a really good book!" I exclaimed, utterly shocked. When was the last thing you got something of quality out of a cereal box?

I loved the book so much that the next time one of my children had a birthday I bought the big, expensive hardback version from the bookstore. At the time I was the literacy specialist in my women's group at church and at our next meeting I read them the first few pages as an example of exceptional poetry. The meter dances, the words sing, the story is charming and it has a clever twist at the end that always leaves me grinning.

An absolute favorite! I highly recommend it.

Harold and the Purple Crayon

Crockett Johnson
Harper 1955

In my earliest memory of the elementary school library, I zoom like a homing pigeon to the shelf where I know I'll find the Harold and the Purple Crayon books. When I began to read independently, these were my favorites. Little Harold in his foot pajamas draws himself adventure after adventure with nothing more than a simple purple crayon. The narration is spiced with wit and there's a jolly sense of anything goes within the broad scope of Harold's delightfully childish logic.

I hope that my three-year-old's earliest memories of books will include how gleefully his mother read Harold's purple crayon stories to him.

Flotsam

It was by David Wiesner and it had a Caldecott Medal stuck on the cover. I bought Flotsam without even looking through it, as a Christmas present for my eleven-year-old son.

"Mom, you have got to see this book!" My thirteen-year-old daughter insisted on Christmas morning. "It's weird!"

I took it to church because I thought a picture book without words would be a good way to keep little ones quiet during the meeting. Found it very distracting - my mind full of, "What the - ?" and "Whoa!" I turned the pages over and over, enjoying the story and the inventiveness of the images. On an east-coast beach a boy finds an antique "underwater" camera. The camera has a roll of film in it, and after waiting an hour at the photo shop, an amazing story in pictures unfolds.

Though not as exuberant as Wiesner's Tuesday, I found Flotsam filled with the delight of secret discovery. I wish I lived closer to the beach.