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!

John Tabor's Ride

 I found this recently at a flea and was quite smitten!  Sea stories and accompanying folklore always draw me in.  Blair Lent's illustrations (woodcuts?  linocuts?) feel old fashioned but mesmerizing.  

John Tabor's Ride

Blair Lent 1966

John Tabor has been shipwrecked when along comes the most curious character, a man who looks a hundred years old wearing a "greasy wool sweater and a pair of tarred and tattered trousers."  No sooner does he catch a whale than he takes John Tabor on a ride around the world back to his home in Nantucket.  This is just the sort of old magical sea chanty kind of book that we would spend Summer afternoons reading.

Terry and the Caterpillars

Terry and the Caterpillars

Millicent E. Selsam

pictures by Arnold Lobel 1962

Since this is the time of year for caterpillar hunting and butterflies, here's an early reader combining a story and nature facts illustrated by one of our favorites, Arnold Lobel.

Terry is my kind of girl, curious and loving insects!  Even better are her parents who encourage her to keep her caterpillars, finding out how to care for them from the library, calling the museum with a question, and even waking Terry up in the middle of the night so she can watch one emerge from its cocoon.

"I wonder," she said.  "I really wonder how this can happen."  

"Things can change when they grow," said her mother.  "You change when you grow, too."

Days of the Blackbird

Beloved illustrator Tomie dePaola retells and embellishes this northern Italian tale.  Per the author's note the story stems from a real Italian mountain village (which dePaola depicts on the title page) where the last three days of January are the coldest of the year.  As the story goes, the doves would roost in the chimneys to keep warm and this turned them black.  DePaola's retelling also takes some inspiration from The Emperor and the Nightingale. 

Days of the Blackbird

Tomie dePaola 2005

Laughing Time

 These kinds of books are always nice to have on hand because the silly little poems make great notes to put in lunches or pockets.  And when you're a kid, the sillier the better!

Laughing Time

William Jay Smith 

pictures by Fernando Krahn 1980

Paul Galdone's The Owl and the Pussycat

Here's another version of one of our favorite poems.  Illustrated by Paul Galdone, it has a loose, bright comical flair.   

Here are some other versions we have:

Hilary Knight's The Owl and the Pussy-cat

Jan Brett's The Owl and the Pussycat

Gertrude Elliot's The Owl and the Pussycat

The Owl and the Pussycat

Edward Lear

illustrated by Paul Galdone 1987

I kinda love this shark and rainbow picture!