Saturday, October 14, 2006

Picture books

Owen and I have been favoring the folk and fairy tales section of the library lately. We go there every week. We've also checked out a few seasonal books of late.

From the folk tales section:

Stone Soup by Marcia Brown
This is a traditional french folk tale, you probably all know it, but Owen really likes it. It is a Caldecott honor book, if that means anything to you.

Koi and the Kola Nuts-A Tale from Liberia illustrated by Joe Cepeda
This one has very colorful illustrations. The facial expressions of the main character are particularly funny. And of course, Owen loves it. Is there a book he doesn't love?

Yonder Mountain-A Cherokee Legend illustrated by Kristina Rodanas. Owen didn't 'get' this one at all, but he still wants to read it repeatedly. It has a good message and beautiful pictures.

and Owen's absolute favorite, Mariana and the Merchild-A Folk Tale from Chile by Caroline Pitcher and illustrated by Jackie Morris. It's about an old woman who lives alone by the sea and a merbaby she cares for for a time. The artwork is fantastic.

I enjoy folk and fairy tales, partly for the adventure component but also because I feel that being exposed to other cultures was a major missing piece in my education. It's great that Owen loves books so much. He'll read anything with me.

I already mentioned The Halloween Showdown with the witch Grizzorka in my other blog. Now we've got a book called Thanksgiving at the Tappletons' by Eileen Spinelli. We may end up paying for it because Soren took a big chunk out of the corner this morning. Not just on one page but the entire book. That kid loves to eat paper. Anyway, it's pretty silly and Owen laughs at the slapstick. Even Austin and I laughed out loud a couple of times. All the while I was reading aloud I was thinking, "how is this going to end?" But it has a great ending with a warm message.

2 comments:

Allison said...

Thanks for posting those. My kids love seasonal books. We'll have to check them out. There is one witch book called, Piggy Pie. (I don't know how to underline) The pictures are great and Tristan loves it. I read it with my best witch voice.

Bluebell said...

Allison, I've probably never told you how great you are. You never fail to make me laugh and whenever I read your witty comments I can hear your voice in my head. I do think I've told you that you remind me of my best friend from high school. She's blonde and beautiful and witty and funny, too.