Davy and His Dog

 In the bins at the thrift store I found this sweet Lois Lenski easy reader. With pops of green and her simple line drawings, Lenski's story about Davy and his dog Spot is a good one for beginning readers.  It even starts off with a song!

Davy and His Dog

Lois Lenski 1957

Great endpages!

Children on a Farm

Encylcopaedia Britannica released a bunch of these "True-To-Life Books" which used photographs to tell the story.  Published in 1962, this one has some nice photos and illustrations of a bucolic life on a farm throughout the seasons.   Because of the cover I like to display this in the Fall.

Children on a Farm

Jory Graham

illustrations by Hildegard Lehmann 1962

When their mother gets sick and "needs a long rest" siblings Jerry and Joan are sent to live on their Aunt and Uncle's farm.  It's so unlike their small apartment in the city!  The pictures take us through the year as the children learn to fish, pick blackberries, and collect apples and walnuts.  Just when it is time to pick out a Christmas tree, Jerry and Joan's parents are ready to take them home.  (I guess their mother needed a LONG rest!)

(I love the dresses!)

Say It!

I think we have been having one of the most golden, beautiful Autumns this year.

Say It!

Charlotte Zolotow

pictures by James Stevenson 1980

Absolutely lovely book about Autumn, the beauty and magic of nature and the love a mother has for her daughter.  Charlotte Zolotow is a premier children's author.  So many of her books are just beautifully written, simple but full of deep emotion.  In this one a mother and daughter take a meandering walk through an Autumn filled world.  The daughter keeps emploring the mother to "Say it!" but while the mother rhapsodizes about the nature around them... 

"It's magic," said her mother.  "It's a golden, shining, spendiferous day!"

It's not what the daughter is wanting to hear.  As they make their way back to the house, where their father has made a cozy fire for them to return to, the mother finally says what the daughter has been waiting for all along.  If this book doesn't end with you scooping up your child and hugging them, I don't know what will!

Although I like James Stevenson, he would not have been my first choice as illustrator for this book.  Yet somehow his loose almost messy illustrations have a beauty I wasn't expecting and fit perfectly.

In a Dark Dark Room

In a Dark Dark Room

an Other Scary Stories

Alvin Schwartz

pictures by Dirk Zimmer 1984

This was the first "scary" story book most of us read as kids.  And who could forget the stories- especially the one about the girl with the green ribbon around her neck!  It's a fun one to pull out at Halloween.

 

Through the Tempests Dark and Wild

 

Through the Tempests Dark and Wild

A Story of Mary Shelley Creator of Frankenstein

Sharon Darrow 

illustrated by Angela Barrett 2005

This was an interesting story about Mary Shelley and her time spent in Scotland with Robert and Isabel Baxter.  After her father remarries, Mary is sent away to ease the tension between her and her stepmother.  Sharon Darrow explores the idea that the seeds for Mary's most famous work, Frankenstein, were planted when she was a young teenager exploring the rough Scottish countryside and telling ghost stories with her friends.  I particularly liked the pairing with Angela Barrett's moody silhouettes.  

More Tales to Tremble By

More Tales to Tremble By

edited by Stephen P. Sutton 1968

illustrated by Gordon Laite 

An excellent collection of scary stories, some quite horrifying for those of us with intense imaginations!  Even the introduction is enticing.  

"Is this your time of night?  Are you most comfortable near midnight, when the shadows darken in the corners and the wind mutters through the eaves?"

Also it was a nice Gordon Laite to add to our collection.