Please, Malese!

We were driving away from the library the other day and my son asks, "Mom!  Did you give back the book with the fuzzy green shoes and the cat?"

I asked back, "Which book?"

"The one! The book with the two shoes and the cake?"

"O-o-oh, you mean Please, Malese?"

"Ya, that one!"

I informed my four year old that we had to take turns with books from the library so yes I had returned it.  I was then informed that we had to get it again soon because it was his FAVORITE book EVER!

My kids' "favorites"  change with the days but the fact that my son loved this book so much thrilled me because I really do love it too!  The main character uses his wits to get a lot of things for nothing.  Malese, is so entertaining about it though you love him and hate him all at once!  Truth be told, I don't know if I dislike Malese because he gets stuff for nothing or if I dislike that I am just not that clever.  It is extremely entertaining to read though!

Amy MacDonald does an excellent job of turning this Haitian tale into an amazing bedtime story.  It is meant for children ages four to eight but it was usually the two year old in my family that was grabbing it off the shelf first at story time.  The way Amy writes the ending I think every mother can relate to.  Would that we could all go to jail for a day and trick our captors into putting our houses in order just so we would leave!

Emily Lisker paints such bright and lively pictures that it is hard not to feel energized by them.  There is a cool cat in the pictures too and my kids loved finding/pointing him out on each page.  According to my son, the shoes are even drawn so well they appear to be "fuzzy"!

Show how clever you are and go check this one out!

Tatty Ratty

My name is Mattie and I am a stuffed animal addict.

There...I said it!  Phew!  I have unfortunately passed on my addictions to my children.  I thought maybe they were the only children with this disadvantage until my twenty-four year old nephew and his grey pound puppy came to stay with us.  Apparently this is not an uncommon addiction to suffer from. 

Tatty Ratty, by Helen Cooper, is a book about a little girl who loses her stuffed bunny.  She is sad and lonely imagining all the dangers and adventures her little bunny is surely getting into while she is away from him.  Finally her parents come up with an inventive solution that will make you laugh while your kids sigh in relief that Tatty Ratty is finally found!

This is a cute book with a funny twist.  The illustrations are amazing!  It makes me want to find a Tatty Ratty of my own to add to my collection.

BLOOM

Bloom!

A Little Book About Finding Love

No this is not a new book.  It came out in 2008 but I came across it in a book store a couple weekends ago.  My daughter's birthday was coming up and it looked like just the kind of book she would read, make me read, make her brothers read, take to the bathroom, and sleep with, until the binding fell apart.  Turns out, not only does it fill all of the above roles but I secretly wanna steal it as well!

This book is so cute.  It is simple enough that little kids are fascinated with it.  They see the obvious story line and they love the pictures.  (My son did get upset because on one of the pages there is a crayon scribble above one of the characters heads and he thought his younger brother had done that and gave him a "talking to".)  For adults though, you can read so much more into the story line if you want to or if you are as tired as I was tonight you can just enjoy it as is!

Maria Van Lieshout has two other books called PEEP! and SPLASH! that I can't wait to get!  She has done a fantastic job making this book apply to every age of life.  It would be ideal for a birthday gift or Valentine's Day. (Yes, that is almost half a year away, but you can never be too prepared right?)

So go enjoy this with the little loves of your life!