Day 209: Living Color

A few days ago, a follower of the blog asked me for some nonfiction suggestions for 5-8 year olds.  As I searched through some past posts to see what titles I could share, I realized that I haven't featured many nonfiction titles on here.  Making nonfiction appealing to little ones can be tricky, but there are some gems out there that my kids and I absolutely love.

Living Color is one such book.  In fact, it's the kind of book for which I knowingly and willingly pay overdue library fines, because my son loves it that much and we've already renewed it as many times as we're allowed.  (I plan on sneaking it back to the library tonight so that it will be there for him to take out again tomorrow.)  Time to add another title to our must-own list!

We found this book on the library shelf in the nonfiction section about animals, and it was love at first read for my little nature lover.  In Living Color, author and illustrator Steve Jenkins has created a fabulous book that "takes a look at color in the animal world and some of the ingenious ways it is used."  Creatures of all kinds are sorted by color within its pages -- birds, spiders, snakes, fish, lizards, mammals -- each with an informative little description about what makes this animal unique.  The end of the book features an illustrated glossary of each animal mentioned within, including more information about the creature's size, habitat, and diet.  There is also an interesting page spread about why animals are different colors, how their colors are created, and how their colors have evolved through natural selection.  It's fascinating, colorful, and full of information for curious little minds.

If your child loves animals, science, or nature, be sure to look for this book the next time you are at the library.  My daughter (almost 3) loves looking at the pictures with us and learning about the animals, though doesn't have the attention span to sit through the reading the whole thing.  My 5 1/2 year old son, however, asks me to read this to him from cover to cover on a regular basis.

I've learned that Steve Jenkins has some other fabulous nature books out there, too, so am eager to look for more of them when we go to the library tomorrow.  In fact, I just realized that he also wrote Hottest, Coldest, Highest, Deepest, another great nonfiction book that we've read and loved.  If we're lucky, perhaps we'll find ourselves coming home with more than one of his books tomorrow.  If the others are as good as these ones, we'll be sure to let you know.

Day 205: Green

Spring has finally sprung, and we've reached that magical time of year when the leaves are popping open on trees throughout town.  (Yes!  Finally!)  When I saw this stunning book on the "New Arrivals" shelf at our local library, I just had to bring it home.  Featuring only two words per page, Green seems extremely simple at first glance, but really, it is a work of beautiful complexity from beginning to end.

The simple language of the book is remarkable.  With each turn of the page, we are introduced to another shade of green:  "Forest green, sea green, lime green, pea green" and so much more.  As described on the book's jacket cover, "there's the lush green of a forest on a late spring day, the fresh, juicy green of a just-cut lime, the incandescent green of a firefly, and the vivid aquamarine of a tropical sea." I absolutely love the way the whole story encourages children to delve into the wonderfully descriptive world of language, showing them how something as simple as a color can be described in so many different and unique ways.  The verse is lyrically written, too, though we never manage to read it quickly enough to notice the rhyme scheme as we read aloud.  In fact, I don't think I even realized that the lines rhymed until the fourth or fifth time we read it, since we were always too busy studying the illustrations.

And oh, the artwork!  The texture of Seeger's acrylic paintings is simply gorgeous, and every time I read this book, I just want to reach into the pages and touch the illustrations.  Her use of die-cuts is brilliant, as well, perfectly placed on each page in a way that never fails to delight and surprise us.  My children and I just love flipping the pages back and forth after we peek through the cut outs, eager to see just what those colors were on the page before.  Seeger's creativity and designs are simply incredible!  They make me want to try our own die-cut artwork and see what we can come up with.  Hmm...  Perhaps I know what our art activity will be this afternoon...

Green is a 2013 Caldecott Honor book, and deservedly so.  It also is a Kirkus Reviews Best Children's Book of 2012.  Creative, engaging, and positively lovely, Green is one book that's not to be missed.

Day 144: Where Is the Green Sheep?

Where Is the Green Sheep? is a book I have heard a lot about from other readers in the blogosphere, and today I finally brought it home from the library.  What a fun, cute read!  My son asked to read it four times in a row once we snuggled up for story time this afternoon, giggling more and more each time through. The story is simple -- somewhere, there is a green sheep, and we are trying to find him -- but the book is remarkably entertaining.  My son gets such a kick out of seeing a sheep sunbathing, reading a book in bed, and, my favorite, diving off a high-dive board.  My daughter was delighted by this book, too, happily pointing to the silly sheep on every page along the way.  To me, Where Is the Green Sheep? has all of the characteristics that make a picture book equally appealing to babies and preschoolers:  short, simple, rhyming text with repetitive phrases ("But where is the green sheep?"), and playful, colorful (yet not overly stimulating) illustrations.  Throw in some educational tidbits such as colors and opposites ("Here is the thin sheep, and here is the wide sheep... Here is the scared sheep, and here is the brave sheep"), and the adorable silliness of sheep doing all kinds of un-ovinely things (bathing in a tub full of bubbles, skiing down a slide, surfing, snorkeling), and we've got a real winner on our hands.  We just love Horacek's pen and watercolor illustrations, too, which I think are the perfect compliment to Fox's rhythmic text.  I can already tell that my son will soon be reading this book to us, and I have a feeling we'll borrow this one from the library enough times that we'll eventually just need to get our own copy.  I highly recommend this book for any child's library, especially if he or she is between the ages of one and four.  So where IS the green sheep?  You'll just have to read it for yourself to find out!

Day 139: Press Here

I've heard a lot of great things about this book, but it has been out of the library every time we have gone recently so I never had a chance to read it.  This past week, we got a surprise package in the mail from my incredibly generous brother-in-law (who loves getting my kids new books -- lucky us!), with three fabulous new stories inside.  One of them was the newest Elephant and Piggie book, Listen to My Trumpet (which, like all Mo Willems books, in my opinion, is worth a read) but Press Here was in there, too!  We were so excited!  The package came just as I was leaving to pick my son up at preschool, but he read Listen to My Trumpet in the car on the way home and Press Here as soon as we got inside.  It was love at first read!  Press Here is absolutely brilliant, a playfully interactive delight of a book that is perfect for children of all ages.  As you open it up to the first page, you see nothing but a lone yellow dot in the middle of the page with the words, "Ready?"  Turn the page and the same yellow dot is there:  "Press here and turn the page." The pages that follow contain a variety of simple instructions that get kids pressing, shaking, tapping, turning, and tilting the pages while the dots change color and size and dance around the page.  Its playful, engaging, interactive nature is reminiscent of some of our other favorite books, The Monster at the End of This Book or Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!  This book is a little different, though, in that it's not the narration that invites the reader into the story but the simple directions along the way.  It's kind of like an app in book form, as ironic as that sounds.  Every time we have read this fabulously fun story, both of my children crowd around the book to press the dots, shake the pages, and giggle along as we go.  It is SO much fun!  I also love the way the book is constructed, with a thick cardboard cover and sturdy, glossy pages that are clearly designed for lots of handling and enthusiastic turning.  If you ever see this book at your library, snatch up it quickly and read it as soon as possible.  This is one book you'll soon want to have in your home library collection.  Thinking of what to get your little Valentine?  Press Here makes a great gift.  My children and I can certainly attest to that.  

Day 110: Blue Hat, Green Hat

My daughter (14 months) cannot get enough of this book lately, so I figured it was well-deserving of a post here this week.  Seriously, it is the first book she wants to find when we sit down to read stories, and she'll reach and squirm and fuss until she has it in her cute little hands.  I'd say we read it repeatedly for a good 5 to 10 minutes before she'll be content with moving on to another book.  That's how much she loves it!  Now, I'll admit that there are other Sandra Boynton books that I personally like better (Moo, Baa, La La La is one), but the simple silliness of Blue Hat, Green Hat makes it perfect for little readers.  There are four characters in this book -- a moose, a bear, an elephant, and a turkey -- and each page features them wearing an item of clothing in different colors.  Big as they are, the animals all seem to be able to manage getting hats on their heads and pants on their legs, but not the turkey!  Try as he might, he gets it wrong every time.  He stands in his hat, puts his pants on his head, wears his coat backwards... and when he finally does manage to dress himself properly, he commits the ultimate "oops" and jumps into the pool with all of his clothes on.  My daughter loves the simple, bold illustrations and the brevity of this book (she's a speedy page-turner), and my son finds the turkey to be simply hilarious.  In between the giggles and cries of "oops!", children also learn some of their colors and items of clothing, too.  Sandra Boynton has a seemingly endless collection of  board books that are particularly adored by toddlers, and this one gets an emphatic seal of approval from our littlest reader.