Picture Books are Not Just For Kids! Part 3

So many of my favorite books are based on lovably mischievous protagonists misbehaving or making trouble in some way, so that's what I'll share with you here in Part 3.  I enjoy reading these stories because they are funny to me and to the kids, but I've recently started feeling the need to explain morality to children to some degree: "Did you see that?  The raccoon is STEALING!!  We wouldn't steal, would we?  We'd pay for our pizza - that's the right thing to do!"  I don't want to take all the fun out of a silly story, but I do hear parents whispering suggestions to their children about what the naughty character could do instead.  It's a fine line, and I'm still learning.

On that note, here are some of my favorite stories of impish characters causing trouble.  Enjoy!

Secret Pizza Party by Adam Rubin
Why I love it: Probably because the main character is a raccoon who just can't help himself when it comes to the temptations of pizza - especially because the narrator (you) is egging him on.  I love that it almost feels as if it is written more for adults than for children.  It has no real lessons, although plenty of room to start conversations up about right behavior and such. It's funny in a grown-up-kid-humor, slap-stick sort of way.  You could analogize it to the picture book equivalent of super tasty, crave-able cheese puff snacks while books with upstanding characters, a good lesson, or a wider vocabulary would be a meatier, more nutritious dinner.  Another book I enjoy by the Rubin/Salmieri author/illustrator duo is Dragons Love Tacos.

Stuck by Oliver Jeffers
Why I love it: Every time I read this one, I think I know what will happen and then the absurd happens instead, and I laugh out loud.  The protagonist is, of course, another innocently mischievous kid just trying to get his kite out of a tree.  The changing color schemes and the comically expressive illustration style (including silly conversation bubbles that pop up here and there), are just bonuses. This is definitely my favorite book by Jeffers (link).

Here Comes the Tooth Fairy Cat, 
Here Comes the Easter Cat, &
Here Comes Santa Cat by Deborah Underwood
Why I love them: Underwood and her illustrator, Claudia Rueda, beautifully encapsulate the mischievous nature of cats in their main character named Cat.  Not all cats (or naughty protagonists) have a heart of gold under their troublemaker veneer, but it's clear that Cat does in these three books starring him.  With one simple illustration and one or two corresponding sentences occupying each spread, the stories are each a conversation between the narrator - who speaks in first person so that it sounds like the reader is narrating - and Cat.  The reader asks Cat questions and guesses the meaning of his expressions and the signage he uses to communicate (he draws pictures and holds them up because he can't talk).  Each of these books is laugh out loud funny, but my favorite is probably Here Comes Santa Cat, despite the fact that I'm not a huge fan of Christmas or Santa. 

Note: Here Comes Valentine Cat was published in December and has been recently added to the catalog.  I can't wait to read it!!

Any recommendations for books containing mischievous characters?  

By the Book: San Francisco

San Francisco. Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest. Web. 5 Feb 2016.
http://quest.eb.com/search/111_1494754/1/111_1494754/cite

There's a famous song about New Orleans, covered by the likes of Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday, Fats Domino, The Manhattan Transfer, and even Alison Krauss, that goes like this:

Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans
And miss it each night and day
I know I’m not wrong this feeling's gettin' stronger
The longer I stay away

...Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans
When that's where you left your heart

What is it about certain cities that capture our imaginations? The ones we long to visit, or aspire to return to. Iconic cities such as New Orleans, London, Rome; trendy cities, like Portland is right now - there's projection that PDX will grow by 250,000 souls in 20 years, and there's now a "Don't move to Portland, Oregon" movement; cities that get their "biographies" written,  whether they are in crisis, like Detroit or Rio de Janeiro, or out of nostalgia for bygone days like many books about Paris.

We've been thinking about the allure of certain cities since reading The Guardian series called Reading American cities, which attempts to "collate the perfect literary companions" using writer and reader suggestions of the best books that evoke the ethos of a metropolis. We've taken a page from their book (and a couple of other sources) to compile a list of books set in San Francisco and/or about San Francisco that we hope will sate your yearning for the "City by the Bay", whether you've "left your heart" there or hope to pay a visit someday.

Fiction

Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin

The City, Not Long After by Pat Murphy [eAudiobook] 

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

The Circle by Dave Eggers 

The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan

Valencia by Michelle Tea   

Romance

Bitter Spirits by Jenn Bennett

Daniel's Gift by Barbara Freethy [eBook]

Mystery/Suspense

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

The Dead Do Not Improve by Jay Caspian Kang

The White Van by Patrick Hoffman

Short Stories 

Monstress by Lysley Tenorio 

Young Adult

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow 

The Fire Horse Girl by Kay Honeyman 

Recommended Audiobooks 

Frog Music by Emma Donoghue [eAudiobook] 

China Dolls by Lisa See [eAudiobook]

Bear is Broken by Lachlan Smith [eAudiobook]

Non-Fiction 

Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father by Alysia Abbott

Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas by Rebecca Solnit

Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror, and Deliverance in the City of Love by David Talbot 

Bar Tartine: Techniques & Recipes by Nicolaus Balla and Cortney Burns

The Slanted Door: Modern Vietnamese Food by Charles Phan with Janny Hu

 

Links

16 Books to Read if You Love San Francisco [Buzzfeed]

Fog City Reads [Library Journal]

Listening Trip: Audiobooks Set in San Francisco [Library Journal]

Recommended Cookbooks

Various cooking and baking utensils on shelf and hanging from rail. Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest. Web. 10 Feb 2016.

If you've read this blog before, you know we are unabashed foodies who love to read about food! But there are so many new cookbooks out there, it can be difficult to winnow out which ones are going to get used until they are stained and falling apart and which ones are pretty to look at or might give us ideas but which, let's face it, are not really up our alley, for whatever reason. The library is a great resource for trying out cookbooks to see if they suit your cooking style and interests, but it's still nice to get recommendations, right? So, we went to the experts - foodie sites like Epicurious, Saveur, the Food Network, and Eater, among other sources - and worked our way through their best-of lists to compile a listing of recommended cookbooks you can find in our library catalog.

We found their lists to be heavy on classics, with some emphasis on global cuisine, but not much for more specialized diets - such as for vegetarians, or for cooking in a slow cooker, for instance. (There were also multiple cookbooks by Nigella Lawson and Yotam Ottolenghi mentioned, but we chose to only list one for each chef.) If you have suggestions for this list or would like to see future recommendations for culinary areas not covered, let us know in the comments!

Epicurious' Cookbooks Everyone Should Own 

Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, Ethan Becker

Mastering the Art of French Cooking: Volume 1 by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, Simone Beck

Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

The Taste of Country Cooking by Edna Lewis

Plenty: Vibrant Vegetable Recipes From London's Ottolenghi by Yotam Ottolenghi 

Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan 

Momofuku by David Chang and Peter Meehan 

The Zuni Cafe Cookbook by Judy Rodgers

Rick Bayless Mexico: One Plate at a Time by Rick Bayless, with Jeanmarie Brownson and Deann Groen Bayless

Food Network: Chefs' Favorite Cookbooks

The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg

The Art of Fermentation: An In-Depth Exploration of Essential Concepts and Processes From Around the World by Sandor Ellix Katz

Molto Batali: Simple Family Meals From My Home to Yours by Mario Batali

Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn  

Chez Panisse Vegetables by Alice Waters and the cooks of Chez Panisse 

Pok Pok: Food and Stories from the Streets, Homes, and Roadside Restaurants of Thailand by Andy Ricker with J.J. Goode

The Silver Spoon

Larousse Gastronomique with the assistance of the Gastronomic Committee

The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Dinnertime - Comfort Classics, Freezer Food, 16-Minute Meals, and Other Delicious Ways to Solve Supper by Ree Drummond

 

Chosen by experts

Nigella Kitchen: Recipes From the Heart of the Home by Nigella Lawson

Jane Grigson's Fruit Book illustrated by Yvonne Skargon

The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating by Fergus Henderson

Roast Chicken and Other Stories: A Recipe Book by Simon Hopkinson

The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden

Best of 2015

The Mission Chinese Food Cookbook by Danny Bowien and Chris Ying

The Broad Fork: Recipes For the Wide World of Vegetables and Fruits by Hugh Acheson

Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking by Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook

Tacopedia by Déborah Holtz, Juan Carlos Mena  

Rice, Noodle, Fish: Deep Travels Through Japan's Food Culture by Matt Goulding 

Rose Water & Orange Blossoms: Fresh and Classic Recipes From My Lebanese Kitchen by Maureen Abood 

Senegal: Modern Senegalese Recipes From the Source to the Bowl by Pierre Thiam  

The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt 

Tacos: Recipes and Provocations by Alex Stupak and Jordana Rothman 

Root to Leaf: A Southern Chef Cooks Through the Seasons by Steven Satterfield

The New Sugar & Spice: A Recipe for Bolder Baking by Samantha Seneviratne

My Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes That Saved My Life by Ruth Reichl

V is For Vegetables: Inspired Recipes & Techniques For Home Cooks From Artichokes to Zucchini by Michael Anthony with Dorothy Kalins

Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto by Aaron Franklin and Jordan Mackay

Gjelina: Cooking From Venice, California by Travis Lett  

Lucky Peach Presents 101 Easy Asian Recipes by Peter Meehan and the editors of Lucky Peach

 

Honorable mentions

We didn't have the recommended cookbooks by these authors in our catalog, but we have others!  Try cookbooks by these famous names: James Beard, Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa), Nigel Slater, Anissa Helou, Elizabeth David, Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers of the River Cafe, Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall of the River Cottage, Ferran Adrià, Heston Blumenthal,Thomas Keller, Christopher Kimball, Jacques Pépin, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Francis Mallmann, Diana Kennedy, and Madhur Jaffrey. 

Links

The Cookbooks We Fell For in 2015 [Saveur]

Introducing the 2015 Epicurious Cookbook Canon [Epicurious]

The 21 Best Cookbooks of 2015 [Epicurious]

50 Chefs' Favorite Cookbooks [Food Network]

What's the Best Cookbook of All Time? The Answer May Surprise You [L.A. Times]

25 Greatest Cookbooks of All Time [Telegraph]

The best cookbooks of all time, as chosen by the experts [Guardian]

The Best Cookbooks of 2015 [Eater]

Picture Books are Not Just for Kids! Part 2

Before I get started on this second installment of Picture Books are Not Just for Kids!, I'll tell you that another thing I've learned from my storytime experience has been not to get too crazy trying to make every storytime have a theme.  Themes can trap you into choosing books that are not that exciting and kids don't even care whether all of your stories are about ducks or not.  So I'm going to apply that principle to these posts and group some in categories if they fit, but let other groupings be miscellaneous.

Last time I shared a few dinosaur books, but this time I'll tell you about some that didn't fall neatly into a theme.

There is a Bird on Your Head by Mo Willems
Why I love it:  It's one of the Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems, obviously I love it!  This series is very popular for a reason.  The text is simple and sparse enough for new readers to devour on their own, and the super-funny, exaggerated pictures make it even easier for them to understand and enjoy.  So what happens when a bird lands on Elephant's head?  I'll tell you: the kids you are reading to laugh their heads off, say "Eww!!", and make other highly entertaining comments.  I have read several Elephant and Piggie books at storytime, and this one always gets the most animated reaction, so it has definitely earned its place on my favorites list. 


The Frog Who Lost His Underpants by Juliette MacIver
Why I love it:  It's about underpants!  And it's soo funny to read books about underwear to preschoolers.  One little boy said "Eww!" every other page at my latest underpants storytime, and when we reached a certain page depicting a clothesline full of underwear he shouted, "Eww, there are too many of them!".  Most don't get grossed out by the topic, however.  In fact, they thoroughly enjoy talking about underwear, which one must be careful about.  To conclude, I like The Frog Who Lost His Underpants because: aside from frog's adorability, the rhythm of this story is really fun, and there are wonderful messages within about resolving conflict with kindness and what makes an individual special. 

Brief Thief by Michael Escoffier
Why I love it:  Another one about underpants!  This one is about a lizard who ends up using a stray pair of underwear (which happens to belong to somebody else) to wipe after using the bathroom. From there, the story line cleverly introduces the idea of conscience.  This illustration of knowing the right thing to do and doing it is not annoyingly spelled out as some picture book lessons can be.  As I may mention later, I prefer the morals in picture books to be more subtle than overt, because often the overt ones feel a little too patronizing to me, even for reading to children.  It's much more fun to talk through morals that are shown through the story rather than stated outright.  The witty hilarity of this story and the slightly eccentric, but very appealing illustrations tie together in a delightfully surprising end to make this book seriously first-rate.  Whew, that was a lot of adverbs and adjectives.

Gaston by Kelly DiPucchio
Why I love it:  Gaston is thought-provoking and heartwarming, but still humorous, and the charming illustrations remind me a bit of the Madeline books by Ludwig Bemelmans.  It is an original story about two very different litters of puppies that each contain one pup who doesn't quite fit in with the rest.  The conundrums that the dog families face as they try to work out their differences will get the kids thinking so hard that you'll see it on their faces, which is pretty cute.  It's hard for me to actually rank my favorite books, but if I were to try, it is possible that this one would be in the top 5...  But who am I kidding?  I feel that way about way more than 5 books... Oh well, it's a good problem to have.

Let me know what you think of these or the others I posted about - I could talk about picture books all day! 

The Stephen King Universe: A Guide (Part 3)

In the last post of this series (you can find the first two posts here and here), I wanted to talk about Stephen King books that aren't necessarily related to The Dark Tower, but are connected to other Stephen King books. As always, this isn't a comprehensive list.

Note: This post may include spoilers.

Let's start with IT, because it's connected to several novels.

IT and Dreamcatcher: In Dreamcatcher, there's a plaque that mentions The Losers' Club and main characters, Beverly, Bill, Mike, Richie, Stan, Eddie, and Ben, all from IT. This plaque also mentions Pennywise, the clown from IT.

IT and 11/22/63: Beverly and Richie from IT make an appearance in 11/22/63.

IT and Christine: In IT, the ghost car Belch Huggins drives when he picks up Henry Bowers is Christine.

IT and Misery: Eddie Kaspbrak's mom and Paul Sheldon's family were neighbors.

Misery is also connected to another book, The Shining. In Misery, Annie Wilkes mentions a man burning down the Overlook Hotel; she's referring to Jack Torrance.

IT and The Dead Zone: In a dinner scene in IT, The Losers talk about Frank Dodd, a character in The Dead Zone.

Speaking of The Dead Zone, it's connected to Cujo, which is also connected to other novels. Cujo and The Dead Zone are connected by Frank Dodd, who is mentioned in Cujo. George Bannerman is also a character in both novels.

Cujo is also connected to Pet Sematary; Jud Crandal, a character in Pet Sematary, mentions Cujo. Pet Sematary is connected to Insomnia, as well; Atropos, a character in Insomnia, has a shoe that belonged to Gage Creed, a character in Pet Sematary.

Cujo has two additional connections, one to a novel, and one to a novella. Cujo is connected to Needful Things and The Body (found in Different Seasons) by the character Evelyn Chambers, who is present in all three works. In addition, Needful Things and The Body share a second character, Ace Merrill.

Needful Things is connected to The Dark Half; Alan Pangborn is the sheriff in both novels.

Last, there are some novels that have smaller connections, to only one or two other novels at the most. The first is Dolores Claiborne and Gerald's Game. The two books were going to be part of a larger work, titled In the Path of the Eclipse. The eclipse in Dolores Claiborne is mentioned in Gerald's Game, and the main characters in each story (Dolores Claiborne and Jessie) have a psychic connection, allowing them to share visions.

The second is Firestarter, The Mist, and The Tommyknockers, which are connected by an organization called The Shop, that plays a large role in each story.

Know of any other connections? Tell us what they are in the comments!

Girls to the Front: Female Music Critics

...men writing songs about women is practically the definition of rock 'n' roll. And as a woman, as a music critic, as someone who lives and dies for music, there is a rift within, a struggle of how much deference you can afford, and how much you are willing to ignore what happens in these songs simply because you like the music.
~Jessica Hopper, "Emo: Where the Girls Aren't"

We've always had an interest in music. As teenagers, we read Rolling Stone and Spin; we've checked out Mojo's playlists and NME's Albums of the Year; we pay for Spotify, stream Pandora (and Freegal, with our valid library card), read reviews on Pitchfork, watch Tiny Desk Concerts on NPR. We still want the albums so we can read the liner notes. We remember when MTV played videos. And, while now that we're older and probably never going to make it to Coachella or Glastonbury (though we've watched movies about both, and we've been to SXSW twice), we'd still consider staying up late on a "school night" if there's a good show in town, and driving to Denver to to catch Florence & the Machine this May is a distinct possibility.

So, of course we've heard about music journalists like Lester Bangs, Greil Marcus, Peter Guralnick, Stanley Crouch, Nat Hentoff, Chuck Klosterman, Rob Sheffield, Alex Ross, Robert Christgau, and Legs McNeil. A keyword search of "Music history and criticism" in the catalog (to search by subject you would need to add a specific era, music, instrument, or location, such as "Rock music -- California, Southern -- History and criticism", "Musicals -- United States -- History and criticism", or "Piano music -- History and criticism") brings up 674 titles - in the first 3 pages, there are 8 books written by women; in the next three pages, there are only 3. Yet there are plenty of female music journalists out there, including Stacey Anderson, Daphne Carr, Dream Hampton, Nekesa Mumbi Moody, Julie Burchill, and others.

We've been thinking about this a lot, since we recently read two books by female rock critics Ellen Willis and Jessica Hopper. Ellen Willis was, notably, the first popular music critic for The New Yorker, between 1968 and 1975, though she wore many other hats; until last year, Jessica Hopper was a senior editor for the Pitchfork website and editor in chief of the print quarterly The Pitchfork Review.

The First Collection of Criticism By a Living Female Rock Critic by Jessica Hopper

When the chasm of human experience feels unbridgeable, and the past is keeping you like the stocks, and there is no absolution to be had, no forgiveness to salve you, and the world feels too much in its infinite newness and it's midnight and people are screaming and feeding babies ranch-flavor chicken fingers from a bucket, when all you see is difference and a long string of your own unqualified failures, there is Van singing, "Lay me down...to be born again." There is so much  wanting in "Astral Weeks." but it's not desperation, it's all vessel; it's faith enough to cover us all.

Whether Jessica Hopper is talking about Van Morrison, Lana del Rey, Bruce Springsteen, Superchunk, or Kendrick Lamar, you will want to listen to their music to feel the emotions her writing evokes; trips to Coachella, L.A.'s all-ages venue The Smell, and Michael Jackson's hometown after his death will move and entertain you; "How Selling Out Saved Indie Rock" showed us how the music industry works today.  The pieces in Hopper's First Collection range from "Emo: Where the Girls Aren't" for Punk Planet in 2003 to "You Will Ache Like I Ache: The Oral History of Hole's Live Through This" for Spin in April 2014, and are split into sections such as "Real/Fake", "Nostalgia", and "Bad Reviews". At 201 pages, it's a slender tome, and one we highly recommend.

 Out of the Vinyl Deeps: Ellen Willis on Rock Music

Ellen Willis' book was a bit of a harder sell for us, probably because (the horror!) we are not fans of Bob Dylan or the Rolling Stones, and both these artists get extensive coverage by Willis. Her book, just a bit longer than Hopper's, is separated into sections such as "The Adoring Fan", "The Navigator", and "The Sixties Child", gathered by content rather than chronology. Most are short pieces, although the collection includes the 20-page essay on Bob Dylan that got Willis noticed by the New Yorker in the first place. Willis' Rock, Etc. columns for that magazine make up the bulk of the collection.

Willis' voice is serious and scholarly for the most part; there is a review of Dylan's Love and Theft that describes the tensions in his music as "never...about electric versus acoustic but about personal and idiosyncratic versus collective and generic; topical and profane versus primordial and sacred; transcendence as excess versus transcendence as purgation..." Yet, in "The Decade in Rock Lyrics", she wittily uses lyrics from some of the decade's most popular tunes to sum up its history on topics like celebrities, style, the Battle of the Sexes, and economics; and the pictures of Willis in the book include one of her in typical music nerd posture, in front of a large vinyl collection, plugged into giant headphones and taking notes on her latest record, and one of her wearing a T-shirt that says "Anarchy in Queens". Interestingly, having just recently read a lot of adulation of David Bowie in the press since his death, Out of the Vinyl Deeps contains an essay about "Bowie's Limitations", written in 1972. There are also essays about Janis Joplin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Grand Funk Railroad, and others.

The library catalog features more of Willis' essays in The Essential Ellen Willis, which is a broader collection of her writings. These essays are "...both deeply engaged with the times in which they were first published and yet remain fresh and relevant amid today's seemingly intractable political and cultural battles". There are a few pieces on Bob Dylan and Janis Joplin, but far more about politics and women's rights. Like Out of the Vinyl Deeps, this collection was edited posthumously by Willis' daughter, Nona Willis Aronowitz.

We hope these books will pique your interest in reading music journalism by female writers, or perhaps to start writing your own. In focusing on female critics, we are trying to do for their work what Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill did for female audience members too put off by all the all-male mosh pit to approach the stage when she would tell the crowd,“All girls to the front! I’m not kidding. All girls to the front. All the boys be cool, for once in your lives. Go back! Back! Back!” [quoted in the film The Punk Singer] 

If you would like to read more music journalism by women, try: Rip It Up: The Black Experience in Rock'n'Roll edited by Kandia Crazy Horse; Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution by Sara Marcus; Record Collecting For Girls: Unleashing Your Inner Music Nerd, One Album at a Time by Courtney E. Smith; Heavy Metal: A Cultural Sociology by Deena Weinstein; A Man Called Destruction: The Life and Music of Alex Chilton, From Box Tops to Big Star to Backdoor Man by Holly George-Warren; and Madonna: Like An Icon by Lucy O'Brien.

Links

The World Needs Female Rock Critics [New Yorker]

33 Women Music Critics You Need to Read [Flavorwire]

The Good Listener: How Do You Break Into Music Journalism? [NPR]

Picture Books are Not Just for Kids! Part 1

As much as I like books for people my age (as in grown ups), I spend the most time reading children's picture books.  I would never have realized  how much I love them if I hadn't begun doing preschool storytime here at the library almost two years ago.  At first it was daunting to have to select books to read.  How was I supposed to know what 3 to 5 year olds like?  And how could I find books that I liked too?  How could I find 4 or 5 good ones each week?  Who even knows how many children's books I've read since those questions plagued me, but I've learned a lot.

Over time, I have answered for myself the question of finding books that I enjoy just as much as the kids do, and here's the answer: it's no good to read books that I don't like myself.  If I start reading one that I'm not excited about to a group, then I start out questioning whether they like it (which never feels good!), and on top of that, I swear they can smell my lack of enthusiasm.  However, if I start out with a book I enjoy, it's easier to get the kids excited about it because my excitement is also contagious.  If they love it, I love it even more, and I will probably use it again in a few months.  It is so satisfying to see children really enjoy a book to the point of engaging with it - pointing excitedly at the pictures (and/or grabbing at them), gleefully shouting out what they think will happen next, rattling off question after question. 

By now I have a hefty list of favorite picture books that I have begun to recycle.  These favorites make the core of my storytime themes, and to fill in the gaps, I try out new ones that I've found.  In this series, I want to share some of these favorite picture books.  And trust me, these books are not just for kids - there is so much entertainment to be enjoyed in reading children's books, and I highly recommend the practice!  If I didn't have to read them for work, I would definitely be reading them for pleasure.


Camp Rex, Tea Rex, and Sea Rex by Molly Idle
Why I love them: Without the illustrations, the text of these books would be politely dry manuals for camping, tea time, and going to the beach.  With the illustrations, the story becomes cartoonishly amusing, the text reading "If the surf is up, you can catch a few waves..." and the corresponding illustration showing a T-Rex jumping into the sea and causing a big tidal wave to splash over the beach and the terrified character on it.  The illustrations are beautifully stylized with a uniquely whimsical flair, and as I hope I've demonstrated, much more story is told through the illustrations than the text.  These are the kinds of books (which I don't usually like, by the way) that still have a story with a beginning, middle, and end, but don't really have a plot to move along or a problem to solve.  My favorite of these three is probably Sea Rex - as a swimmer and beach-lover, I might be biased!
Note: You may also love Idle's Flora and the Penguin, and Flora and the Flamingo, a Caldecott winner. 

Tyrannosaurus Drip by Julia Donaldson
Why I love it: Dinosaurs may be my favorite subject for picture books, and kids almost universally adore them as well.  This one is authored by Julia Donaldson who writes fantastic picture book stories (check out Donaldson's other books).  I could read it over and over (like how your kid wants to read the same book every night three times before bed?  I hear that's pretty normal.) because it's everything a picture book should be - it rhymes cleverly, the villainous t-rex family is comically ugly, the illustrations are gorgeous with funny details and a unique color palette, and the story has a cheer-worthy ending that makes up for all of the protagonist duckbill dinosaur's sufferings that led up to it.

I'll stop there today, but I have enough more that I don't know how many posts I will fill before I finish.  Meanwhile, do you have any picture books you are in love with?  I would love to hear, so please share in the comments below!