The Kids' Week In Books, No. 1

Given that January in Indiana is pretty grey and dreary, I decided to post some fun rain and snow books for kids. "James and the Rain" by Karla Kuskin is a fabulous rhyming and counting book about animals in the rain. Parts of the rhyme recur throughout the book, which is fun for Hannah because she likes to recite things. The illustrations by Reg Cartwright are great and colorful. I love finding books I don't mind reading again and again!





"In the Rain With Baby Duck" by Amy Hest, illustrated by Jill Barton, is another fun rain book. Baby Duck doesn't like the rain on her feet, the rain on her face, or the mud, mud, mud. Her parents think she's being weird, but her grandfather remembers that Baby Duck's mama didn't like rain either and gives Baby an umbrella and boots to help her enjoy the weather.






"Tacky thePenguin" is a silly book about a misfit penguin with bad taste who saves his perfect penguin friends from mean wolves and bears. Hannah has fun pretending to be the wolves. I know she's being the wolves because she growls and shouts, "Rocks and locks! Get RICH RICH RICH!" Those are two lines from the book, although there are a lot of other lines around those two, so I'm not sure why she chose those as representative. It's pretty funny though.





I think the best things about Jan Brett's "The Mitten" are the wonderful illustrations. Each page has an inset picture of the little boy's mitten and the animals who find it, but the edges of the pages are decorated in Scandinavian style with other pictures and drawings of embroidery. I feel pretty inspired by the embroidery! Brett wrote a followup book called "The Hat" that we also have checked out of the library right now, but it's not as good, in my opinion. The copy of "The Mitten" we have is a board book, and was a gift from my aunt Fran. Thanks Fran!

Also Reading:
"My Very First Mother Goose" by Iona Opie (editor)
"The Golden Books Family Treasury of Poetry" by Louis Untermeyer (editor)
"Stuart Little" by E.B. White