Library Tuesdays

One of the things that I am learning from participating in NaBloPoMo is that many, many bloggers assign a theme or post topics for a particular day of the week.

Around MusicianMama's house, Tuesday is the day we go to the library. From a very young age, I learned to love reading, and I am firmly committed to fostering that love in Richard O. as well. I thought I'd share a few of our favorite books from our library trip each week. All of these selections are available at the Tompkins County Public Library, for those of you who are Ithaca readers.

A note about this feature (and all my writing) -- I am not paid to render these opinions in any way, shape or form. I just love books.

This week's books:

My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss. Paintings by Steve Johnson & Lou Fancher. Random House, 1998. Board book edition.

Beautifully illustrated, this book uses Dr. Seuss's trademark playful rhyming verse to describe the spectrum of human feeling. An example for you:

On Purple Days
I'm sad.
I groan.
I drag my tail.
I'm all alone.

But when my days
are Happy Pink
it's great to jump
and just not think.

One of the other things I love about this book is that the text fonts are often altered to emphasize the words: e.g. the word "groan" is in a low, broad, thick, italic font, while "jump" is long, tall, and skinny.

I could picture this book as a great way for parents to talk to their little ones about feelings. It's one I would definitely purchase for my own library if I could find it at the right price (i.e. cheap)!

Yummy YUCKY by Leslie Patricelli. Candlewick Press, 2003.

As the title indicates, this book highlights which foods are yummy and which are yucky for baby. Ms. Patricelli's use of bold, bright colors and her sly visual sense of humor have already made this a favorite book for both Hubby & I to read to Richard O. As the parent of an avid carpet forager, I'm hoping the lesson of the book sinks in fast!

This book would also make a suitable first reader for a pre-school or kindergarten age child, as the text is simple, straightforward and pattern-oriented, and the pictures would be a good help to the child who doesn't readily sound words out.

Baby's Alphabet by Jean Marzollo. Photographs by Nancy Sheehan. Roaring Brook Press, 2002.

Richard O. loves to look at pictures of other babies, and this alphabet book serves up twenty-six beautiful color photographs of babies engaged in everyday play and routine, one for every letter of the alphabet. The words are a good mixture of nouns, verbs, and concepts (in/out, emotions, body parts, etc.) -- all are words that baby would likely encounter in the course of a typical day.

The only caveat I would issue is that this is not a board book. While the pages are made with a thicker & heavier paper, I know that Richard O. really likes to tug and pull at them because he gets so excited. He probably would have ripped the book to shreds if I wasn't quite so speedy!

Find the Teddy by Phil Roxbee Cox. Illustrations by Stephen Cartwright. Usborne Publishing, 1999.

I have yet to find a book from Usborne Publishing that I don't like. Seriously. Check them out if you haven't already.

There's a whole "Find the..." series from Usborne. We've already read Find the Pig and Find the Duck, and loved them both. I think what I find so appealing about this series is that the illustrations are both visually charming for the adult and visually challenging for the target child audience. Sometimes all we can see of Teddy is his little head sticking out of a bathrobe pocket or an overstuffed dresser drawer. And certainly, both parents and children can relate to a child's search for a favorite toy companion. (We haven't reached that stage yet here at MusicianMama, but I know it's coming!)

Well, that's all for our first edition of Library Tuesday. I hope you'll catch up with us again next week!