Meal One

Ivor Cutler (here and here) is a wonderful British institution and his book Meal One is one of my favourites. Maybe because I was an only child with a single mother - Herbert's mother is super cool allowing him to plant a plum seed under his bed. The consequences of which are things of kids dreams.

Here you can read the book and see some scanned pages...

Chickens

Since before I even had children I longed to have a chicken girl daughter. This desire was kindled by a 3-yr old chicken chaser I once met and further fueled by Barbara Kingsolver's account of her own daughter in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I tried not to push this agenda beyond finding opportunities for my kids to spend time with chickens. I am thrilled that my older daughter actually is obsessed with chickens. Below are three favorite chicken books in case you want to inspire some chicken mania at your house.

First you have to get in a good chicken chasing mood. The Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar County tells the story a young girl determined to get her hands on the prize chicken of her grandmother's flock. She tries multiple tactics including standing statue still and thinking like a chicken - corn, corn, crunchy corn...worms, worms, fat juicy worms. The surprise ending will get you ready to tune into your motherly side with the next book.

What?! You don't know what it means to "get broody"? Don't worry. Gemma and the Baby Chick will teach you all about it as you follow the story of a girl whose hen decides to hatch some eggs. Mama hen sings to her eggs telling them to hurry up so they'll all hatch together but one of the chicks is late. You'll learn what to do as Gemma helps save the chick.

Oh no! The chickens are in a funk after their friend Rody the Chicken Man gets moved to a new job on the kibbutz. Rody makes every job on the kibbutz seem fun but he misses his girls and the hens won't resume laying until Rody comes back.

Picture Book Autobiographies

It's been a long while since we've posted with any regularity! But here's the first post of what I hope will be weekly installments for a while.

Over the years we've come across a few picture books which stand out for being autobiographical. It's really fun to get a window on the lives of some of our favorite authors.

The Junkyard Wonders tells the story of the year the author spent as a young girl in a special education class. Her unorthodox teacher fed the confidence and imagination of an entire class of students who went on to become a fashion designer, an astronaut and one of our favorite author/illustrators.

The Year I Didn't Go to School was a fun window into the childhood of another of our favorite illustrators. Giselle Potter's quirky style can't be mistaken for anyone else's. In this book we learn that she grew up in a family of puppeteers and spent a year touring Italy as a part of their puppet show.

Anyone else have any favorites?

Cherries and cherry pits by Vera B. Williams

I love Vera Williams' stories and this is another great one! Definitely worth reading. The drawings are wonderful and the story - structured around a girl's own storytelling - is really sweet.

To look at any thing by John Moffitt

To look at any thing,
If you would know that thing,
You must look at it long:
To look at this green and say,
“I have seen spring in these
Woods,” will not do – you must
Be the thing you see:
You must be the dark snakes of
Stems and ferny plumes of leaves,
You must enter in
To the small silences between
The leaves,
You must take your time
And touch the very peace
They issue from.

Picture Books About Moving

As we prepare for our upcoming move to Durham, NC we're digging out some of the books we got when we moved to CA two years ago. Thought I'd post a few of them here and will follow up with some new ones that address more "grown-up" issues like missing people.

Big Ernie's New Home is my favorite so far. It tells the story of a move through the eyes of a cat. Big Ernie doesn't feel so "big" in his new home and it takes him a while to give his new home a chance and find things to like about it. This book is pretty different than most books about moving because it isn't so literal (see below).

Moving House is an extremely literal young reader style book about moving that introduces many of the concepts of moving that might otherwise throw your young child off: going to visit your new house, people coming to see your old house, packing, movers, having your own room, etc.. Not a literary masterpiece but was reassuring for our daughter.

We're Moving covers many of the same themes but has the added storyline of exploring your new home (looking for a lost toy) and making it your own (planting flowers like at the last house).

Two old potatoes and me by John Coy

A children's book about a father and daughter growing potatoes together with the helpful advice of grandfather. The story is great and the artwork is really wonderful. We checked this one out of the library months ago and then rediscovered it yesterday!