Our family is crazy about picture books, saints books *and* alphabet books: this fantastic new publication fits all of the above. In fact, it was some time after my order arrived before I could get my hands on it: a Catholic homeschool mother who was over visiting opened the package and enjoyed reading it with a large sample size of our children before I could even see it!
I just love it when people we have just met compliment the children and report on their good, polite behavior. We have received compliments at restaurants, family homes and church. (Of course, I am purposely disregarding here those other times... .) I believe most homeschool families find it a priority to teach the children good manners from their tenderest years. I too have enjoyed purchasing the preschool books on manners from catalogs, as well as finding picture books on this subject from the local library. Alas, they are usually a disappointment.
Truly a "living book" in the fullest sense, An Egg is Quiet is a visual delight, full of soft, gentle colors and beautiful pages that manages to incorporate a great deal of scientific information without looking like a science book at all. This is a field guide to eggs for the youngest scientists, perhaps through the early elementary grades, that also feels like a story book with a surprise, but not wholly unexpected, ending.
This is a really nifty little picture book that illustrates the importance of commas through the use of simple sentences with humorous illustrations contrasted with the same sentence (on the opposite side of the page) differently punctuated. The results are entertaining and quite educational.
Here is one example:
On the left-hand page is the sentence: "Slow, children crossing." The cartoon-like picture shows a crossing guard signalling for cars to stop while some school children cross the road.
Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons is an outstanding new addition to our family library - this book is a very clever mixture of gorgeous children, lovely pets, and scrumptious cookies combined with important ideas for all ages. I think that this is one of the most memorable "virtues" books that I have seen for young children. Difficult concepts are described both through subtle clues in the illustrations and through little stories related to cookies in the text.
The title clearly explains what this book is all about: Gibson took the twelve months of the year, wove in the liturgical celebrations and linked these to marvelous picture books – creating a mosaic of Catholic culture and beautiful literature.
Newbery Medal runner-up 1935
This beautiful new edition of Hilda Van Stockum's little masterpiece was an exciting development in our household. You see, we missed the original Bethlehem Books run of this favorite title and ended up with an old copy from eBay with cracked and brittle pages. We still loved it of course.
The Salamander Room is a beautifully illustrated picture book that is sure to captivate the nature-loving child. Brian finds a salamander and asks his mother to keep him as a pet. Rather than saying "no" his mother asks leading questions as to where the salamander will sleep, what he will eat, where he will play and if he'll be lonely.
Eager to keep his new pet, but also desiring to give him a happy home, Brian reassures his mother that he will bring moss into his room, wet leaves, boulders and insects to make the salamander happy.
"The Friendly Beasts" is a lovely old English Christmas carol (the words and music are included in their entirety on the last page). Tomie de Paola has drawn beautiful pictures, in his signature style, to accompany the words to this song. (We didn't know the song before we came across the book. Now we tend to sing it, rather than read it, to the children.) It has been a favorite in our family partly because of it's beautiful simplicity and is frequently requested (even when it's nowhere near Christmastime) by our younger children.
This charming, classic children's story tells of Ping, a young duck who lives on a boat in the Yangtzee River in China. He runs away from the boat and his family in order to avoid a spanking for returning late to the boat. He has some interesting adventures and sees many aspects of life on the Yangtzee River, but discovers that it's much happier to face the consequences in order to be back at home with his family.
This is a well-loved book in our family - particularly in the preschool set. The illustrations are beautiful, the story simple and meaningful and the lessons timeless.