If You Want to See a Whale

 A story celebrating imagination.  With sweet, simple drawings by Erin E. Stead to match the sweet, simple words.  I feel like this book represents the early 2000's trend in children's picture books to make stories that are sparse, a little bit vague, abstract, with simple text that belies a deeper sentiment.  When they're done well, like this one, they're quite nice!

If You Want to See a Whale

Julie Fogliano

illustrated by Erin E. Stead 2013

Why Blue?

 

Why Blue?

Josh Tuininga 2014

Writer/illustrator Josh Tuininga takes a child's simple question and turns it into an existential wondering about the world around her.  Maya wonders why the sky is blue and not some other color, but as she asks other people she gets all kinds of answers.  A baker tells her something silly about blueberry pancakes, a musician references blues music, and her older brother gives her the scientific answer.  But Maya likes to think about "hard questions" and she lets her own imagination run wild.

Ballad

Ballad

Blexbolex

Here is a neat book with graphic appeal.  The story is odd and hard to explain (and there's something about it that reminds me a little of  13 Clocks by Thurber.)

This sort is about a child who goes home from school along the same road every day and how his small world suddenly becomes enormous.  It's a story as old as the world- a story that begins all over again each day.

Christina Katerina and the Box

Seeing a picture of Margaux's boys hiding in a box reminded me of this book.

Christina Katerina and the Box

Patricia Lee Gauch

illustrated by Doris Burn 1998

Christina Katerina loves boxes. When they get a new refrigerator, the box, sitting out under the apple tree, becomes Christina's castle. Her imagination knows no boundaries as the box gradually falls apart (and her mother is looking forward to getting rid of it). With her "sometimes friend" Fats, they turn the box into all sorts of things.

We've had a fair share of great boxes over the years- the best ones being our dryer box and our neighbor's refrigerator box. They've become houses, bear caves, forts, doll mansions, etc... When Charlotte was a baby we had a box (I forget where it even came from) and Madeleine and Henry decorated the inside with drawn on furniture for her. It's really true about the simplest things being the best toys.

Christina Katerina liked things:

tin cups and old dresses,

worn-out ties and empty boxes.

Any of those things, but mostly boxes.

Hat boxes,

bakery boxes with see-through lids,

shoe boxes.

Other books illustrated by Doris Burn:

Summerfolk

Mud Pies and Other Recipes

Mud Pies and Other Recipes

Marjorie Winslow

illustrated by Erik Blegvad 2010

I've noticed that left to their own devices, kids will start making mud pies or "cooking" with whatever can be found in the yard- leaves, sticks, dirt.  I find Charlotte's concoctions on the patio or in the tree house.  Sometimes the neighbor kids come over and there's pots of leaf stew with spoons sticking out or sandy casseroles.  Madeleine and Henry used to do this too.  I remember acorns were a particularly favorite ingredient in their dishes.  (And Madeleine just reminded me that onion grass was a staple.)


This absolutely adorable book is written with that child chef in mind. It's dedicated to "Susan and Kate, former doll chefs, who knew better than to taste for seasoning and, therefore, grew up."

It opens with:

This is a cookbook for dolls. It is written for kind climates and summertime.
It is an outdoor cookbook, because dolls dote on mud, when properly prepared. They love the crunch of pine needles and the sweet feel of seaweed on the tongue. The market place, then, will be a forest or sand dune or your own back yard.

The recipes include things like "Pencil Sharpener Pudding", "Pine Needle Upside-Down Cake", "Bark Sandwich", "Roast Rocks", and "Dandelion Souffle".

Erik Blegvad does the drawings. And though children's imaginations certainly don't need the intervention of this book, it's still fun to read and full of cute ideas.

Charlotte's "tea"

Other books illustrated by Erik Blegvad:

Moon-Watch Summer

The Dirty Old Man

Anna Banana and Me

Come Away From the Water, Shirley

We were recently at the beach with some visiting Tennessee cousins who couldn't get enough of the ocean.  Though I love to doze under the umbrella and bring a book or two, I also love to play.  I'm pretty good at making 'drippy castles', finding mole crabs and body surfing in the waves.

 

Come Away From the Water, Shirley (Red Fox Picture Books)

John Burningham 1992

I think this book is so funny.  It's exactly what kids think-  boring old parents just sitting on the beach while they are off having adventures.  Shirley's parents leisurely sit on the sand telling her what not to do, meanwhile she's out getting captured by pirates, walking the plank, fighting and running off with the pirate flag and finding buried treasure.  

Pirates in the Park

I love stories about adventurous girls!  Maybe that's because I was once an adventurous girl myself, and I have two such daughters of my own.

Pirates in the Park.

Thom Roberts 1973

pictures by Harold Berson

This story, very obviously illustrated in the 70's and looking similar to Peter Spier's work, is about a girl named Jenny and her crew of stuffed animal friends. When she goes down to the pond to play, a group of boys make fun of her.  She doesn't have a fancy model ship to play with like they do but she builds a walnut boat and her imagination makes up for the rest.

Jenny becomes the brave captain of the S.S. Walnut with her toys as her sailors.  She leads them to victory against the pirate boys and rescues her dog.  It's a cute story with a fun heroine.