Lost and Found

Charlotte really loves hidden picture books.  This one isn't too hard and the pictures are bright and full of animals.  It's by Dahlov Ipcar who also wrote my favorite "Bug City".  The rhymes are about a little girl who has lost all her pets and must find them hidden on the following pages.  Can you spot them?

Lost and Found

A Hidden Animal Book

by Dahlov Ipcar 1981

A Child's Book of Flowers

One time Henry and I took this book outside to see how many of the flowers we could find in the wooded part of our backyard.  There's not too much information given on each, but the vintage illustrations are nice and it's an interesting selection of wildflowers.

A Child's Book of Flowers

Irma Wilde 1952

These Trillium grow naturally in our woods.  It wasn't till we saw this picture that we identified them.  Ours have white flowers.

I love Jack-in-the Pulpits.  They're always a treat to find in the woods- every year we get about a dozen or so.  I wish I knew of a way to propagate them.

You might also like these books:

My Big Book of the Outdoors

Mushrooms Ferns and Mosses

Flora's Feast A Festival of Flowers

What Tree Is It?

Flora's Feast A Festival of Flowers

It feels like just over-night blossoms have appeared.  Our fragrant hyacinths are up and so are great clusters of happy yellow daffodils.  It's definitely Spring, Spring, Spring!

Flora's Feast A Fairy's Festival of Flowers

Walter Crane (first published in 1889)

I thought I had lost this book for a while (apparently it was only misplaced on our bookshelves).  Walter Crane's artwork is tremendous of course.  Each flower is represented in fairy form and dress and you just want to gaze at the pictures.  Flora calls the flowers forth and first to come are the snowdrops.  All through the summer the flowers are arrayed, finally ending with the Autumn blooming mums and the Christmas Rose.  I've included the illustrations of the flowers that we have in our own garden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(also known as a Hellebore)

The ABC Bunny

How can you resist such a bright cover and alluring illustrations by Wanda Gag?  Why, there's even a song on the first few pages!

The ABC Bunny

Wanda Gag

ABC books come in all different shapes and sizes.  This is one of the best.

Other ABC books:

The City-Country ABC

ABC Dreams

Christmas ABC

The Magical Land of Noom

Charlotte was inspired by our latest chapter book to build this "spaceship" out of an old box, buttons and spools.

The Magical Land of Noom

Johnny Gruelle

Gruelle, who is best known for the Raggedy Ann books, writes a magical, strange, story along the lines of Baum's Oz books.  Johnny and Janey use an old box to build a "flying machine", but imagine their surprise when it really does fly and takes them off to the other side of the moon where the Land of Noom is.  Their grandparents soon follow after them and before long they are running from the evil Jingles the Magician and rescuing the beautiful Princess Nidia of Nite.  It's an odd, sort of old fashioned story but it works and I love the silly characters.

Ollie's Ski Trip

This year we spent Spring Break out in California with my in-laws, skiing at Lake Tahoe.  Our trip was wonderful!  I realized that I kinda love California.  The mountains are beautiful, the sky is full of sun, the people are so laid back.  Unfortunately I didn't get to ski because of my broken hand, but the kids loved the slopes.  And Charlotte was a quick learner and natural ski bunny. 

 I guess we weren't quite ready to give up winter- just like Ollie in Elsa Beskow's story, who doesn't want Mrs. Thaw to come and sweep away all the snow. 

 Ollie's Ski Trip

Elsa Beskow

 Elsa Beskow was a Swedish children's book author and illustrator.  We actually have one of her beautiful books published in Swedish- which we can't read so we just enjoy the pictures and make up our own story.  This one is about Ollie who gets a new pair of skis for his birthday.  He meets Jack Frost (who is portrayed as an old man) scaring away Mrs. Thaw.  You see, it's not time for Spring just yet!

Ollie meets King Winter and the workers busy making skis and boots and toboggans.  Ollie loves winter and the snow so he has a grand time skating and skiing and having a snowball fight.  In the end when spring finally does arrive, it wasn't so bad after all.