All The World

All the World

Liz Garton Scanlon

Marla Frazee 2015

A nice oversized rhyming book about the world, nature, and community.  Marla Frazee's (one of the best!) inclusive illustrations are so enjoyable.  This is one of those books in our house that seems to float around from room to room and everyone that comes across it picks it up to look through and enjoy.

New Baby Train

Here's one for my friends who are about to welcome new babies.  (Charlotte just read this to me last night).  Where do new babies come from?  Why the new baby train of course!  Gotta love those Marla Frazee pictures!  And I love the image of a train carrying all those bald-headed babies to their new homes.

New Baby Train

Woody Guthrie

pictures by Marla Frazee 2004

The Boss Baby

This book needs to be given to every new parent.  Frazee's pictures are hilarious.  The new baby that arrives in a young (retro-looking) couple's life immediately takes charge.  He sits in his walker like a desk with his bottle and baby monitor on hand and bosses everyone around with his demands.  I can't help but crack up every time I read it.  It's definitely going to be my standard baby shower gift from now on.

The Boss Baby

Marla Frazee 2010

Other books illustrated by Marla Frazee:

The Seven Silly Eaters

Hush, Little Baby

Harriet, You'll Drive Me Wild

Harriet, You'll Drive Me Wild!

Harriet, You'll Drive Me Wild!

Mem Fox 2003

illustrated by Marla Frazee

This book could very well be titled "Charlotte, You'll Drive Me Wild!" The little girl in this story is so very much like Charlotte, full of exuberance and curiosity. She doesn't mean to make such messes, and is always truly sorry afterwards but her patient mom can only hold it together for so long. All of my kids have heard me shout (in a half joking/half frustrated voice), "Ahhh, you're making me crazy!"

 

One morning at breakfast, she knocked over a glass of juice, just like that.

Her mother didn't like to yell, so instead she said, "Harriet, my darling child."

"I'm sorry," said Harriet, and she was.

Before lunch, when Harriet was painting a picture, she dripped paint onto the carpet, just like that.

Her mother didn't like to yell, so instead she said, "Harriet, my darling child.  Harriet, you'll drive me wild.  Harriet, sweetheart, what are we to do?"

"I'm sorry," said Harriet, and she was.

After Harriet is supposed to be napping and a feather pillow gets torn apart, her mom finally loses it and yells and yells.  There's hugs and smiles at the end though.

Hush Little Baby, and When I Was Young in the Mountains

I have been listening to and loving Genuine Negro Jig by the Carolina Chocolate Drops. It’s been the perfect companion when I’m driving home late from swimming at my parent’s house, down back roads lit with fireflies and the smell of summer rushing in the car windows. The songs have every manner of fiddle and banjo and old melodies that make you want to hike up your skirts and dance. 

Music like this makes me pull out these two Appalachian country living books:

 Hush, Little Baby: A Folk Song with Pictures

Illustrated by Marla Frazee 1999

Marla Frazee (from The Seven Silly Eaters fame) illustrates this classic lullaby which I’ve sung to my own babies. The pictures show each verse as frazzled parents and one big sister keep buying from a kindly traveling salesman until the horse and cart are upended and the parents and finally the baby fall asleep in the grass.

And also this sweet simple story of growing up in the mountains with a muddy swimming hole, baths by the woodstove, and shelling beans on the porch.

When I Was Young in the Mountains

Cynthia Rylant 1982

illustrated by Diane Goode

When I was young in the mountains, we pumped pails of water from the well at the bottom of the hill, and heated the water to fill round tin tubs for our baths.

When I was young in the mountains, I never wanted to go to the ocean, and I never wanted to go to the desert.  I never wanted to go anywhere else in the world, for I was in the mountains.  And that was always enough.