Springs Of Joy

Tasha Tudor's ode to Spring.  Her delightful illustrations are embellished with some truly wonderful words celebrating springtime, art, nature and life.  I suppose this could fall into the category of "inspirational" books, but makes a lovely picture book to read to children nonetheless.

The Springs of Joy

Tasha Tudor

Play on Words

We are fond of clever books in this household.  This one took some explaining for Charlotte, but the Provensens prove capable wordsmiths.  They combine their graphic art with clever wordplay.  Be on the lookout for puns and onomatopoeia!

Play on Words

A&M Provensen 1972

Rosy's Garden

Rosy's Garden

A Child's Keepsake of Flowers

Satomi Ichikawa 1990

We stretched this one out over several nights of reading.  Ichikawa's pictures make you feel like you are right there in the middle of an English cottage garden.  Rosy has gone to stay with her grandmother for the summer and each page tells a little story or some history or information about the flowers in her grandmother's garden.  

Other books by Satomi Ichikawa:

Suzette and Nicholas in the Garden

Round Trip

Another graphic design book brilliantly executed.  Read the story one way and you travel into the city, passing ponds and farms.  Then flip the book upside down and read it backwards and you'll marvel at the clever design as the journey continues home.  Charlotte couldn't stop talking about this book and we had to look at it several times in a row, flipping it upside down and right-side up over and over again!

Round Trip

Ann Jonas 1990

A House is a House for Me

Books like this are classics for a reason. Mary Ann Hoberman's rhyme about houses and homes is so delightful to read and deceptively layered.  Silly and sometimes profound, we sometimes carry it further and try to come up with our own "houses" for things around us.  (We have Margaux to thank for our copy!)

A House is a House for Me

Mary Ann Hoberman

illustrated by Betty Fraser 2007