Colonel Trash Truck

Emmy and I are celebrating the one year anniversary of our blog. Hip, hip hooray! The very first post was on November 10, 2008. With forty-eight posts under our belts, we are excited to begin another year of blogging about our favorite books, favorite authors and favorite illustrators. We hope to show how these books help us to become better thinkers, readers and writers. So snuggle up with your favorite little person and get ready to read.

With our one year anniversary came an official request to review a book on our blog. We said yes, of course, and waited anxiously for the book to arrive. As luck would have it, Emmy checked the mail the day we received the book and eagerly helped tear open the package to see "our blogging book." She immediately giggled at the picture of the truck on the front cover wearing a hat and a monocle!

The book for review is titled Colonel Trash Truck and is written by Kathleen Crawley with illustrations by Manuel Conde. Any child interested in garbage trucks and helping to keep his community clean will enjoy marching along to Colonel Trash Truck's cadence:

From street to street,
He sweeps and sweeps
To keep our neighborhood clean.
From dawn to dusk,
Clean up he must
To make our world stay green.

As is often the case with books pertaining to the environment, the message is usually a bit too difficult for the young ones to understand, but Ms. Crawley has created a likeable hero that children can definitely relate to. Emmy is excited to be a part of Colonel Trash Truck's Clean and Green Team and can be heard saying "Karunch!" when she puts trash into the garbage can. Captain Michael Recycle will be joining Colonel Trash Truck in future books as they work together to defeat Litterbug Louie! For an introduction to Colonel Trash Truck, check out this video as well the website. It will have you marching right out into your community to pick up any trash that you see!

Britta Teckentrup

Emmy and I are so excited to share an author and illustrator that we just discovered - Britta Teckentrup. She is certainly not new to children's books having illustrated quite a few books for other authors as well as a popular concept series for toddlers (colors, shapes, ABC, first words).

But the book that made Emmy stop in her tracks and say "Read this one, Mommy!" was Big Smelly Bear. As we sat down to read the book, Emmy was immediately fascinated wanting to know what was flying around the bear and why he was smelly. My intuition as a Mommy and a teacher was telling me that this book was going to be a winner! With graphic illustrations that are beautifully simple, the reader is drawn into the storyline of a bear who is perfectly happy being smelly until he starts to itch! This is Emmy's favorite part of the story as Big Smelly Bear tries to find something to help with this terrible itch. "He tried scratching his back with a tree branch. But that made the itch even itchier." Along comes Big Fluffy Bear who persuades Big Smelly Bear to take a bath. The interaction between the two bears is hysterical as it reminds me of myself persuading Emmy that it is time to take a bath. Maybe I'll try the Big Smelly Emmy tactic next time!

Teckentrup follows up Big Smelly Bear with How Big is the World? and Grumpy Cat.
Emmy noticed that Grumpy Cat ended similarly to Big Smelly Bear where both characters decide to make a change for the better...or do they? Watching the kitten befriend the cat is just precious. My favorite of the three selections is How Big is the World? If I could enter the mind of a very young child, I think that this question would sum up the wonderment of all that surrounds her. A piece of advice that I hold very close to my heart is to remember that Emmy has only been in this world for three years. Expectations are so overwhelming at 42, I can't imagine what it must feel like at the age of three. I just want Emmy to relish every moment! A lesson that I desperately need to learn.

I would also like to mention that Britta Teckentrup has another spectacular series out that I will introduce to Emmy soon. There are three so far with my first choice being Big Noisy Book of Vehicles since Emmy is so curious about planes, trains and automobiles.
I love the way the book is layed out with bright, bold and beautiful images. It reminds me of the Richard Scarry book Cars and Trucks and Things That Go only a bit more organized. Each colorful spread features a different environment and the forms of transport that zip through it, from bicycles on the sidewalk to rockets in outer space. The text is simply irresistible to read aloud, with plenty of honks, clatter-clanks, and creak-squeaks to call out. And making it extra-wonderful is the inclusion of an animated DVD packaged right into the front cover. The DVD lasts fifteen minutes, has over 100 sound effects, and captures Britta’s subtle humor and childlike sense of play. If vehicles aren't your thing, look for the other two books in the series: Big Noisy Book of Animals and Big Noisy Book of Dinosaurs.

Ballerina

This past Christmas, Emmy asked Santa Claus for a tutu. As she really wasn't one to perform, her Daddy and I wondered where this idea came from. Silly grown ups! Of course the idea came from a book. Ballerina by Peter Sis had been in our collection for quite awhile before Emmy became attached to it, but once she did, her ballet aspirations took off at lightening speed! As a grown up who never experienced formal dance as a child, I was just as entranced as Emmy in this adorable book. It begins with a little girl coming home from school and immediately undressing and putting on her tights and leotard. From there her imagination soars as she digs through her dress up box and adds a few accessories such as a tutu, a turban and Emmy's favorite colorful
scarves. The most fun is to see the little girl look into her full length mirror and see herself as a mature ballerina dancing in a number of ballets such as The Nutcracker and Swan Lake. Emmy and I both love the way Peter Sis patterned the story beginning with a simple line-art illustration of the little girl in her colorless bedroom and continuing on with a two-page spread, the left-hand page giving a short descriptive sentence about the girl trying one colored item of a dance costume on and the right-hand page showing a corresponding imaginary view of the girl as an adult ballerina dancing in the complete costume along with a descriptive action word (stretch, reach, leap...). Ending with, as Emmy would say, "the best page ever" a fold out showing all seven of the previous ballerinas curtseying. As there aren't many books about ballerinas for young children, Ballerina is high on our recommendation list.

For our followers with a young boy, we haven't left you out. Check out Peter Sis' book Fire Truck for some fiery fun! In this book Sis celebrates a universally cherished childhood favorite—the fire truck—in simple, clean lines and smooth planes of color. And "the best page ever" for Emmy is a fold-out of the fire truck accompanied by a numbered list of items to look for that can be read as part of the narrative or returned to later as a find-and-count game.

In an interview with Barnes and Noble, Peter Sis shared a few anecdotes that I thought were fascinating and worth noting here:

"My first job in Prague was as a D.J. while still in art school. I did not take it seriously and perhaps, because of that, I ended up with a radio show, taping interviews in London with the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and many others. I also flew around Europe as an emcee of the Beach Boys."

"I painted a real egg (decorated with a map) for the cover of Print magazine that caught the eye of Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who was then an editor at Doubleday. This led to the book The Three Golden Keys. Then I received a phone call from the American Egg Board. They asked me to paint an egg for the White House. So, there I was, on Easter Monday, with my family, presenting a painted goose egg -- or was it a duck's? -- to President and Mrs. Clinton. One never knows!"

I think this is my new mantra, "One never knows!" Just put yourself out there and see what happens.

Byron Barton

Emmy's first introduction to books in a series was Byron Barton's collection focused on transportation. Found in the series are the books: Boats, Planes, Trains, and Trucks. Each one features bright, bold illustrations which grace Byron's simple text. These four books remained Emmy's favorites for quite a while. One or all of them could be found in the diaper bag at all times. We may have given up the diaper bag, but not the books. These and others are carried with us everywhere. They can be found in Mommy's purse, in the car, in the snack bag and even on occasion in Daddy's pocket. We may be in trouble when the weight of a Harry Potter book comes our way, but for now books are easy to transport. There are many more Byron Barton books that are just as enjoyable especially for children who are interested in how things work. Check out My Car, Machines at Work or I Want to be an Astronaut. For Emmy her next favorite book by Barton is his version of The Three Bears. She enjoys looking for the flowers that Goldilocks left strewn throughout the Bears' home.

I cannot say enough about finding an author or illustrator that your child loves and then spending the time really getting into the books. Your child will recognize this author or illustrator everywhere books are found and sometimes places they are not. Emmy relates all sorts of everyday sights back to Byron Barton's books and because of this I am truly grateful to him and his work.