Fuse #8's Top Picture Books List

If you missed the fun that was the compilation and reveal of Fuse #8's Top 100 Picture Books Poll, head over and check out the final list ... which actually became a 101 list after an error. The poll lists were submitted by blog readers/writers as top ten lists and then were weighted and tallied by Betsy.

These were our Top Ten picture books and I noted if they made it on the list ...

1. Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel -- the absolute best book to read out loud and for kids to want to memorize - number 35
2. The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf -- smelling the flowers is MUCH better than fighting - number 11
3. Chicken Soup With Rice by Maurice Sendak -- a little book that takes you through the months AND around the world - number 60 (with my quote!)
4. I Am Not Sleepy and I Will Not Go To Bed by Lauren Child -- Lola has the most fantastic imagination
5. The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone -- a little bit of fear is fun and a lot of Grover is even more fun! - number 22
6. Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans -- a boarding school full of happy children? you don't see that often in fiction - number 8
7. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle -- the cadence of the book is perfect - number 30 (also with my quote!)
8. The Poky Little Puppy by Janette Sebring Lowrey -- puppies are so cute that they can still somehow have their fun and eat their cake too
9. Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina -- cheeky monkeys! - number 17
10. Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson -- imagination is everything - number 7

Eight of our ten made it to the final list and we own 25 of the books so I guess we like a lot of classics around here! There are so many other fantastic books on the list that I really suggest going to check it out. It's a perfect list for filling in those holes in your home library! There is also a complete list of nominated books that didn't make it to the Top list.

Praise to picture books,
K and Z

Eric Carle's Fables

Another of Z's Christmas gifts was the very attractive The Rabbit and the Turtle by Eric Carle. This book retells eleven of Aesop's fables with a single page of story and an accompanying page of illustration. At the end of each story is the moral.

This is an easily accessible version of Aesop's Fables for preschoolers and older children. My favorite fable is "The Fox and The Crow". The crow is eating and not sharing and Mrs. Fox and her son use the crow's vanity to get him to drop the food. The moral -- Common sense is greater than beauty. Z's favorite fable is "The Lion and the Mouse". The lion spares the mouse's life and later is able to repay the favor when the lion is robbed and tied to a tree. The moral of this fable -- Friends come in all sizes and shapes.

Eric Carle will turn 80 on June 25th of this year.

Sharing tales of friendship and cunning,
K and Z


Buy The Rabbit And The Turtle on Amazon or find it at your local library.

Stocking the Kid Shelves

Z got very few toys for Christmas this year. He spends most of his time typing on the computer and reading books anyway. He got a good variety of books this year -- some that he can read now and some that will be available to him on his shelves whenever he is ready. I also took this opportunity to clear out some of the toddler books. There are some that are very loved and worn but they aren't holding his attention anymore. Here are the books that are filling the spaces --

Charlotte's Web - E.B. White
James and the Giant Peach - Roald Dahl
The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster (this is a family favorite that I will probably take the opportunity to re-read this spring!)
The Rabbit and the Turtle - Eric Carle (a set of short retellings of Aesop's Fables)
Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse, A Color of His Own, An Extraordinary Egg, Inch by Inch, and the alphabet tree - Leo Lionni (there was a bundle of these offered through the Scholastic book flier)
My Friend Is Sad - Mo Willems
Starry Safari - Linda Ashman
Come Rhyme With Me - Hans Wilhelm
Bonjour, Babar! - Jean de Brunhoff (a volume with all 6 original books in it)
and our own copy of the much adored Wolf's Coming by Joe Kulka.

We will be working through these over the next month or two and will post reviews and links for most of them. Right now Z is reading The Rabbit and the Turtle but since he already knows it as "The Tortoise and the Hare", he changes the words!

Enjoying a life full of picture books,
K and Z

Library Visit Number One

Z and I took our first trip of the summer to the local library today. I tried to take him a couple of weeks ago but he said "no library ... bookstore". He loves to read books over and over and so he likes to own them. I'm guessing we are going to have to purchase at least one of the library books we borrowed today. I understand his feelings -- I too like to be able to pull out my favorite books on a whim. It's no different than owning a DVD, I suppose.

The first book he chose for himself was Tiger, Tiger by Dee Lillegard and illustrated by Susan Guevara. I thought, "that's strange, sounds like William Blake" and sure enough they had the first stanza of the poem, "The Tyger", before the story. The story itself interprets the poem into a tale about a young boy who imagines up a tiger and then, when it becomes too intimidating, imagines it away again while seeing the tiger in himself. The story tries to have its own prose style but I find that it loses its flow. I know that Z chose the book because he likes tigers but I think that he seemed to understand that this tiger was more abstract, symbolic even. No really, he did.

I picked out Yo-Yo Man by Daniel Pinkwater, mostly because I have read his writings about other authors -- and enjoyed them -- but hadn't read any of his own books. Z was excited about the book -- he used to have a yo-yo but then the cat ate the string -- but once we got home, he decided that he was against reading it. This happens sometimes with him. We get a book or a movie on Netflix and he absolutely refuses to try it out. Sometimes it's just a matter of time and he will eventually become curious and pick it up. Other times, he holds an unexplained grudge against the book or movie (or song) forever. We will have to wait and see with this book but I will probably keep it around longer than the others to give it a chance.

Z is also very fond of board books. Today we picked up From Head to Toe, another gem from Eric Carle. This one is great because it teaches body parts by incorporating movement and using animal examples. I'm not sure that any kid is a bigger fan of Eric Carle than Z is. I have even considered getting Z the bedding that I found on Carle's website. The first book Z learned to read was Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? So, as you can probably guess, we have already read this new book half a dozen times today and will read it many more times before I sneak it back to the library. And the next time we are at the bookstore, I can almost guarantee you that he will find it on the shelf and pick it up.

Until next time,
K and Z


Buy Tiger, Tiger, Yo-Yo Man and From Head to Toe on Amazon or, by all means, find them at your local library.