Pete and Johnny to the Rescue

Pete and Johnny to the Rescue

Jorgen Clevin 1974

Interactive books are always fun.  This one has lots of things to look for and questions to answer as you read along.  There's even little stoplights on the pages to remind you to stop and answer the questions!   Pete the elephant goes to school while his friend Johnny stays home and takes care of their house on 14 Flower Street.  But as soon as school ends, Pete knows he has to get a job.  He wants to help people so Pete and Johnny start a Rescue Squad.  Soon they are performing all sorts of helpful tasks around their town.

Elephant end pages!

A Country Tale

A Country Tale

Diane Stanley 1985

 The best part about this story of two best friends is the detailed illustrations of Victorian cats!  Cleo and Lucy are two country cats and the best of friends.  They live simply and enjoy climbing Butternut Hill together on fine evenings.  Things change when haughty Mrs. Snickers moves into the manor house nearby.  Cleo becomes enamored with her fancy way of life and quite literally loses herself trying to be a fine lady.  In the end she makes her way back to her faithful friend, Lucy, who helps her rediscover who she really is and the kind of friendship that really matters.  

If you like Barbara McClintock illustrations (Heartaches of a French Cat, The Fantastic Drawings of Danielle), you'll like these as well!

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!