The Kids Week In Books, No. 3

I wish I owned "1 is One" and "A is for Annabelle" by Tasha Tudor. I can't begin to tell you how gorgeous these little books are. Each page is full of lovely drawings and watercolors, and the text is hand written in calligraphy. The colors are wonderful, the rhyme is good, the detail is excellent, and Hannah is totally captivated by both books.

"1 is One" is, as you might imagine, a counting book, with each page bordered in a different type of flowering plant, and a detailed nature theme. My favorite page is for five: "5 is five eggs in a pretty round nest" with a painting of a robin perched on a nest filled with five eggs, surrounded by some flowers, pine, and fern. It's just lovely as are all the other pages.

"A is for Annabelle" is an alphabet book about the little girls' grandmother's doll. Each letter stands for one of the doll's accessories. If you have read "Hitty" (by Rachel Field, illustrated by Dorothy Lathrop) you will feel like this is about her, not Annabelle. If you haven't read "Hitty" I really wish you would, it's one of my favorites. Anyway, Annabelle is also hand lettered and quaintly worded ("I is for India whence came her shawl" "Z is for zither" and so forth) with sweet pictures. The illustrations are not as detailed as the ones in "1 is One" but it's a charming book nonetheless and your little girls may like it if they are into girly things and dolls and the like.

We're reading several different nursery rhyme and Mother Goose anthologies at the moment, and it's interesting to see how they differ. Hannah thinks "The Orchard Book of Nursery Rhymes" is "beautiful" and I agree. Zena Sutherland is the person who compiled the rhymes, and Faith Jacques illustrated them. The illustrations really are great, I think they are what makes this version one of my favorites. The selection of rhymes includes most of the standards, plus some lesser-known gems like "In a cottage in Fife." I'm glad to have found some good recommendations for these types of anthologies, but feel free to let me know if you have other favorites.


Another poetry book we're reading is A. A. Milne's "When We Were Very Young." These poems are so fun, and really capture the spirit of little children, in my opinion. Hannah likes them too, and enjoys looking at the pictures. We've just started "Winnie the Pooh" for a read-aloud book, so it's been fun to see Hannah make the connection between the Christopher Robin in Winnie the Pooh and the one in this book of poetry. I'd recommend this if you're looking for a way to throw some poetry into the mix with littles.


We finished "Stuart Little" last week, much to Hannah's chagrin. She keeps asking for more Stuart. And more Snowbell - she really liked the parts with Snowbell in them. I think Hannah responded really well to Stuart Little partly because of the line drawings in our version, and because the story lends itself to reading with great animation. I'm sure we'll revisit it again and again!