"Slowly, Slowly, Slowly," said the Sloth, by Eric Carle (our review)

This is another book to which we keep returning on our library visits. I think the first time we read it was around two years ago when Calvin was about a year and a half and was fascinated by the variety of animals.

Here's what he has to say about the book now:

"it's about a sloth who is slowly slowly. Every animal asked him 'why are you so quiet?' 'why are you so lazy?' and 'why are you so boring?' and at the end the jaguar says 'why are you so lazy?' and he thinks for a very long time and when you turn the page [the jaguar's] gone and the monkey thinks that the sloth is talking to him when he answers the jaguar's question slowly, slowly."

Calvin likes this book because he likes the sloth. The sloth is his favorite character, the jaguar is his favorite supporting character, and his favorite part of the book is when the jaguar asks the sloth "why are you so lazy?"

As for me, I'm actually not an Eric Carle fan. I do not like the "What Do You See?" books, or most of his other learning books, but in his rather vast library I can find a handful of titles that I don't mind reading, and this is one of them. I even like the pictures in this one, which amount to a parade of South American rainforest animals, and the use of vocabulary with a hint of comedic timing adds just the right amount of humor. That's why it has become a regular visitor in our house.

How Big is the World, by Britta Teckentrup (our review)

We picked this one up from the library simply because it looked sweet. In the end, I think it is one of my new favorite kids' books.

Here is what Calvin has to say about it:

"The book is about a world, and a mole, and a seagull. The mole asks everyone 'how big is the world'; He asks a spider, a mouse, and a horse, and a seagull, and a whale. The whale takes him and travels through colors and all kinds of stuff, and then Little Mole says 'I miss my family', 'then it's time to take you home' says Whale. Then Mole went home and told his papa that 'the world is as big as you want it to be', and then he fell asleep."

He says he likes the book because "it has the whale and [mole] thanks the whale", and that the whale is his favorite part. I like this book because the pictures are sweet and the story is simple, yet it carries a big message, most obviously told in the first exchange when, after Little Mole asks her "how big is the world", the spider answers "the world is as big as my web. My web is the world." How many humans suffer from exactly this same misconception?

Simple and sweet, yet powerful in its own way, albeit mostly for the parents doing the reading at this age, this book gets an A+ from us.

Zanzibar Road, by Niki Daly (review)

We love to look for books with animal characters at the library, and that's exactly what drew us to Zanzibar Road, with its cover of whimsically drawn African animals. As I flipped through it initially, before we brought it home for the week, I was pleased to see that it was broken into five different short story chapters, one of my favorite things about books like Frog and Toad.

As it turns out, the book is cute but pretty one dimensional; it doesn't have any of the richness that makes the Frog and Toad stories such classics, and I can't really say it's well-endowed in the arena of the plot. One might even call it vapid, but a little humor here and a little problem-solving there keeps me from fully condemning it as such.

Even after that raving review, I can't really say that I dislike the book, I just don't really enjoy it, and there are so many better ones out there. Calvin, on the other hand, seems to enjoy it just fine, and although I would say he's not nearly as engaged with the story as he is with others, we all enjoy a little light reading from time to time, and this book is definitely that, with a little enjoyable whimsy on the side.

I'm the Best Artist in the Ocean, by Kevin Sherry (review)

I can't really say this is a sequel to Sherry's I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean (if you've read it you'll know why), but it's the same players in the same tone and with the same kind of twist at the end. I'm the Best Artist in the Ocean seems, somehow, a little kinder (not that the first one is really a problem, mind you). I like the bright and simple illustrations in both books, and I also love that they're just silly books—no lessons of any kind to learn. Calvin loves the characters.

Go Away Big Green Scary Monster!, by Ed Emberley (our review)

Another library book that I think is about to become a regular visitor at our house. This is a book that our fabulous children's librarian has read several times with the help of her not-so-big, green, not-so-scary monster puppet, and the kids love it every time. In our current felt craze I had the idea to make a monster with multiple face options (a play on the make your own monster puppet toy by Melissa and Doug). When, in the making, Calvin started requesting a number of specific decorations I started to recognize the little green guy, and Calvin requested that we check out the book the next time we visited the library.

Book Review, 11/5: Go Away Big Green Scary Monster!, by Ed Emberley

Cortney: So, what do you like about this book?

Calvin: (reading the book) ...has two yellow eyes...

Cortney: Or what's your favorite part?

Calvin: (still reading) ...and a long bluish greenish nose...

Cortney: I love that you can make a monster while you read it, how about you?

Calvin: (reading) ...goodbye big red mouth...

Cortney: Which page is your favorite?

Calvin: (coming to the last page) ...and don't come back until I say so! (now to me) I love the nose, don't you?

His rapt attention speaks for itself. As a book it's pretty sparse, but it sure it is cute, and it was just made to go with an activity like a puppet or a felt board. Calvin really loves it and I have no complaints at all.