Mooch the Messy

Mooch the Messy

Marjorie Weinman Sharmat

picuters by Ben Shecter 1976

 I hate to admit how much I identify with Mooch!  He's a messy mouse who tries changing his ways when his father comes to visit.  But it's hard when you like everything messy!  It's a funny book because instead of being happy that his mouse hole is cleaned up and deciding to keep it that way, Mooch is unhappy and immediately reverts back to his messy self after his father leaves.  Let's just say this vintage I Can Read Book wasn't about a moral lesson!

Daniel Boone

 I didn't know Feodor Rojankovsky made some deliciously colorful illustrations for this 1945 book about Daniel Boone! 

Daniel Boone

Esther Averill

illustrations by Feodor Rojankovsky 1945

Once again such lovely end pages!  I would LOVE to have fabric with this pattern!

The House on the Hill

The House on the Hill

Christin Couture 1991

Christin Couture once again taps into childrens' natural curiosity and desire to discover the world around them.  Our other book of hers was about a band of kids delving into nature.  This one is about an empty old house on the hill just begging to be explored.

This could easily be a spooky story, but instead there's a sweetness to how the children wander through the rooms, marveling and enjoying each space.  My grandma in upstate New York told me that when she was a little girl there was an abandoned house (the old woman who lived there had died and the house sat empty but still furnished with all of her things).  My grandma would often go there to play and have tea parties with the dishes, always cleaning up and putting things away afterwards.  What a dream to find a place like this as a kid!

The insides of houses and rooms are some of my favorite illustrations and these are done beautifully (I actually thought they were Barbara Cooney at first glance)!

Find more books about houses here!

Changes

Changes

Anthony Browne

1996

 A unique approach to the story of a new baby in the family.  Anthony Browne uses his surrealist pictures to capture the curiosity and confusion and abstract wonder of the new change that Joseph's father says is coming to their house.

Amelia's Fantastic Flight

Amelia's Fantastic Flight

Rose Bursik 1992

 The time has come to sort through and cull our book collection.  It's proving harder than I thought as each book triggers memories!  It's almost like going back in time and reliving when my kids were little.  Even books (like this one) that really aren't exceptional story or picture-wise take me back to when the kids were small and we read aloud a LOT.

When Madeleine and Henry were toddlers I belonged to a book subscription club and it really started off our collection (along with some of my own childhood books).  If I remember correctly this book came from there and was a popular one with Madeleine and Henry.  The text is short and filled with alliteration, but what they liked was following the trail of the airplane on the maps.  This will go in the bin for the yard sale on Saturday and hopefully new little readers will get their hands on it!

Amelia builds herself a plane to fly around the world and be home just in time for dinner.  Everything about this book is pure 1990's!