Oh! I had forgotten about Esio Trot! Another reminder that I want to cover my skin with tattoos of the Quentin Blake's art. And so lovely to see the photo of M and your grammy.
Esio Trot is one of the last left on our Dahl journey! (Shelved some for later years.) I also surprisingly love a song book and haven’t heard of this one — putting on hold pronto. Thank you!
I hand-sell Endlessly Ever After at our shop on the regular! I was never a Choose Your Own Adventure reader, but I love this updated picture book version ❤️ Thanks for shedding some light on lesser known titles!
What we currently have from the library here in Australia:
Everynight at Midnight by Peter Cheong (Australian author). Won Picture Book of the Year by the Children's Book Council of Australia. Gorgeous art about a boy who turns into a wolf at midnight everynight. He can never go to sleepovers so kids stop inviting him so he decides he's happier alone anyway and doesn't need friends. My 4-year olds struggled a bit with it -- "why does he turn into a wolf?" and realising that the other wolf is actually the new girl at school (which is obvious to us adults but explained a bit subtly in the book). Still, one of my kids said "I like this book" and wanted to sleep with it.
The Bad Butterfly by Sally Rippin (Australian author). Billie decides to become a ballerina but is actually pretty terrible at it and becomes frustrated. Meanwhile he best friend Jack joins her at class and, along with all the other boys, is told to stomp like a monster. But Jack is good at ballet and Billie is good at stomping so they decide to swap places. They tell the ballet teacher and she thinks it is a great idea.
Sally Rippin is actually the current Australian Children's Laureate. This is an entry in her Billie B Brown series, which is targeted at grade school beginning readers (or parents reading to even younger children). Billie's best friend is her neighbor Jack. What's interesting is that Rippin has two series: one focused on Billie (though Jack appears in nearly every story) and one focused on Jack (vice versa) so whatever gender excites your kid the most you can read similar (but not identical) stories.
I like them because they are a bit longer than something like Frog & Toad but shorter than a lot of other beginning reader books I've found. They are very much like Daniel Tiger's Neighbourhood in that there's never really a "bad guy" and it is usually about dealing with feelings.
Ordered Go In and Out the Window from ThriftBooks immediately and we are just loving it—having so much fun singing together (or giggling as I attempt to read the music when singing songs I’m unfamiliar with!) and looking at the wonderful images. THANK YOU for this rec.
What a wonderful installment! Just ordered them all from my library. Thanks for your encouraging words!
Oh! I had forgotten about Esio Trot! Another reminder that I want to cover my skin with tattoos of the Quentin Blake's art. And so lovely to see the photo of M and your grammy.
I love both their faces in that shot. Of course Jen always captures the pure love and magic.
Esio Trot is one of the last left on our Dahl journey! (Shelved some for later years.) I also surprisingly love a song book and haven’t heard of this one — putting on hold pronto. Thank you!
I hand-sell Endlessly Ever After at our shop on the regular! I was never a Choose Your Own Adventure reader, but I love this updated picture book version ❤️ Thanks for shedding some light on lesser known titles!
What we currently have from the library here in Australia:
Everynight at Midnight by Peter Cheong (Australian author). Won Picture Book of the Year by the Children's Book Council of Australia. Gorgeous art about a boy who turns into a wolf at midnight everynight. He can never go to sleepovers so kids stop inviting him so he decides he's happier alone anyway and doesn't need friends. My 4-year olds struggled a bit with it -- "why does he turn into a wolf?" and realising that the other wolf is actually the new girl at school (which is obvious to us adults but explained a bit subtly in the book). Still, one of my kids said "I like this book" and wanted to sleep with it.
The Bad Butterfly by Sally Rippin (Australian author). Billie decides to become a ballerina but is actually pretty terrible at it and becomes frustrated. Meanwhile he best friend Jack joins her at class and, along with all the other boys, is told to stomp like a monster. But Jack is good at ballet and Billie is good at stomping so they decide to swap places. They tell the ballet teacher and she thinks it is a great idea.
Sally Rippin is actually the current Australian Children's Laureate. This is an entry in her Billie B Brown series, which is targeted at grade school beginning readers (or parents reading to even younger children). Billie's best friend is her neighbor Jack. What's interesting is that Rippin has two series: one focused on Billie (though Jack appears in nearly every story) and one focused on Jack (vice versa) so whatever gender excites your kid the most you can read similar (but not identical) stories.
I like them because they are a bit longer than something like Frog & Toad but shorter than a lot of other beginning reader books I've found. They are very much like Daniel Tiger's Neighbourhood in that there's never really a "bad guy" and it is usually about dealing with feelings.
Oh, yes! Endlessly Ever After was a huge hit the first time we had it from the library (for Blythe). Time to request again. Thank you!
Oh, and a songbook??? Yes! Thank you! Maybe now I can learn the actual lyrics to some of the songs I recall from childhood but have forgotten.
Ordered Go In and Out the Window from ThriftBooks immediately and we are just loving it—having so much fun singing together (or giggling as I attempt to read the music when singing songs I’m unfamiliar with!) and looking at the wonderful images. THANK YOU for this rec.
This makes me so happy!