Books My Son Loves: If You Take A Mouse To The Movies by Laura Numeroff

Christmas in July continues for the series Books My Son Loves.  Humorously, this series gets no love according to my stats, but they are the ones that I'm happiest to write and I feel so useful to new mothers.

The If You Give A... series by Laura Numeroff is pretty darned famous amongst the picture book reading set.  It's rare that you find a child who has not been read at least one or two.  We started off with a book about a cat and a cupcake (sure to be mentioned at a later date), but when I spotted this little Christmas themed book last winter, I made sure to pick it up.  There is nothing I love more than seasonal picture books when it comes to reading for my son. 

This book is adorable with the sweetest images which are bright and cheerful and a mouse that should seem annoying and bossy, but instead seems joyful and intent on enjoying the season.  My son finds so much to look at on each page, enjoying things like what ornaments are on the tree the mouse decorates, or the mouse's underwear and blanket after it comes in from the cold.  Similarly, both my husband and I find things on the pages to point out to each other when we read, just because they are cute in idea or because we think they'll make either our son or each other laugh.

While the book is clearly Christmas themed, it doesn't address the religious aspects of the holiday, leaving it pretty good as a go-to book for someone who celebrates the pageantry of Christmas, but not the holiness of Christmas. 

Books My Son Loves: One Snowy Day by Jeffrey Scherer

I know it's an odd book to highlight at this time of year, but let's treat this like a Christmas in July special!  I bought this book on a whim at a yard sale and the ten cents I paid have led to one of the best investments I've ever made in books.  This book is a hit with my son.  The art is just gorgeous cartoon-y fun about a bunch of woodland animals getting together to build a snowman.  First they must collect the parts, then they need to put it together and celebrate.  It's all heavily outlined in black with simple coloring and friendly animals.  Many pages have small things going on that my son and I can discuss such as, "Look, that mouse's tushie is sticking up out of the snow!"  This inspires my son to laugh for ages at the tushie and to point it out each time we read it. 

Also great is the very simple and repetitive text meant for a new reader.  While my son can't read, he can easily remember the story.  This means that I can read off the first part of the sentence and he can supply the sentence's direct object from memory.  He gets very excited by this, often screaming things like mitten and carrot at me while we read.  This is a book that I've read over and over to my son, probably fifty times or more by now.  I think the best part about it is that I don't get tired of reading it.

Books My Son Loves: Happy Lion by Louise Fatio

"Bonjour, Happy Lion!"  Oh, how funny this whole book is.  It's fun for both my son and I because he gets to hear the story of the lion and I get to use a faux French accent while reading it.  This silly story of a lion who accidentally escapes the zoo of his French town is another of my son's favorites. 

The pictures in the book are cute and provide my son with plenty to discuss with me, especially the picture of the lion in the zoo and the picture of the fire engine getting ready to try to get the lion into a truck to be taken back to the zoo.  (Though my husband did ask when he saw it, "Are they really going to hose down the lion?  This is horrible!")

The resolution is sweet and very happy.  I can't recommend it enough to those with children who like silly accents and big cats!

Books My Son Loves: Kisses For Daddy by Frances Watts

From the author's page:  "It’s time for bed, but Baby Bear is grumbly.
‘What about a big bear kiss for me?’ says Dad.
‘No!’ says Baby Bear. ‘No kiss for Daddy.’"

We have a number of "Mommy" and "Daddy" books in the house!  Many of them are sweet, but the majority are rather boring.  Luckily for my husband, the daddy ones are much more interesting, though I suspect this has something to do with the fact that I pick out quite a few for my husband for various occasions, but do not receive them back.  (Hint, hint, sweetie, I want some of the book I showed you.)

Anyway, that piece of Sunhi household trivia aside, this book is a treasure.  It's the story of a little baby boy bear who must get ready to go to sleep and the daddy who helps him by giving him a bath and putting him to bed.  During each step of the process, his daddy asks for a certain type of kiss such as a koala kiss or a giraffe kiss, and describes the type of kisses each animal gives.  The baby bear rejects each request, until the end in which he gives his daddy a big bear kiss.

The art is adorable and hidden in each scene are animal pictures that you could easily point out to your child.  For instance, while there is an obvious koala picture on the koala page, a railing post and wallpaper make the silhouette of a koala head, as well.  On the bat kiss page, a washcloth shadow gives the silhouette of a bat.  It actually took me three readings of the book to realize this!

The best part for my son is the fun way baby bear rejects the kisses.  He often imitates it when we read this story, and at the end of the book, kisses are given all around.

This is a great book for gifts for a father or for father's to read to their children.

Books My Son Loves: Little Gorilla by Ruth Bornstein

Little Gorilla is one of those rare books I don't discuss much in this series, the book my son loves much more than me.  I found the art to be a bit off-putting and gorillas are certainly not my favorite creatures, but for my son, this book was amazing. 

We will read it time and again and he is always fascinated by the beginning of the book.  Who loves little Gorilla, he'll ask me.  He wants a recitation of names and he superimposes his own life onto this book.  "Does Uncle E gorilla love the Nathie gorilla?" he begs of me, Nathie being his name for himself.  Does the mommy?  Does the other grandma?  How much do they love him?  Is that the baby's hand?  Is it reaching for his daddy? 

Then, we move into the animal section.  What animals are there?  What are they doing?  Do they love the Nathie gorilla?  While I get little joy from the illustrations, my son's thrill with the story tempers that and the story's gentle message that growing up doesn't cause love to fade makes me smile. 

Every time we read this, the story ends with my singing of Happy Birthday and the blowing out of the candles on the cake for Little Gorilla by my little son.  And every time we finish reading this, I remember how much, exactly, I love his reaction to it. 

Books My Son Loves: Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes

For the baby shower for my son, my hostesses implored that people include a book with their gift.  Most people gave me classics, but a few who knew me well gave me books about cats.  Clearly the person who knew me best got me this Caldecott Medal winner.

This is an adorably illustrated and sweet story of a kitten that just wants the bowl of milk sitting in the sky.  My son loves this story because I infuse it with a lot of emotions.  When kitten can't get the milk, I make it sad and I frown.  When she gets hurt, I touch him on his head or ear to indicate where she got a little banged up.  When she gets her milk, I smile and cheer. 

Though he appears to be getting over this book (my son now has a love for slightly longer books) it remains one of my own favorites, and I only highlight books that both my son and I both love in this series.  Otherwise, I'd be writing on my fifth Curious George post by now or I'd be detailing the horrible soccer story I just got from the library which he is obsessed with. 

I will note that my son is always happy to go back to this story and that it's been a favorite since he's been younger than one.  He was highly obsessed with the moon (third or fourth word), so take that with a grain of salt.  Of course, if your child is also obsessed with the moon, it might be a nice break from Goodnight, Moon.

Books My Son Loves: Zen Shorts by Jon J Muth

After reading a quiet but favorable review of this series, I decided to give it a go with my son.  Now, two months later, he is obsessed and I'm terrified because I have no renewals left on this book and its sequel (which I'll probably discuss in the future). 

This children's book is both gorgeous and intelligent.  It teaches zen lessons with a deft hand, applying a child's thought process to them.  The teacher is a large panda bear named Stillwater who has moved into a house next to three young children.  He is large, but gentle and sweet.  The story around the lessons is my favorite part as the children do things like take tea with Stillwater, fly paper airplanes with him, or go swimming with him.

One of my favorite sections is one in which Michael, the eldest, and Stillwater fly paper airplanes.  It's simply some of the most beautiful children's text I've ever read.  My son, on the other hand, is a large fan of the illustration on the page which shows Michael and Stillwater in a tree throwing two paper airplanes.

Being only two, my son cannot appreciate the sentiment behind many of the pages, but I'm happy to introduce them at a young age as he can grow to understand them.  In the meantime, he's simply happy to be reading a story about a panda bear playing with children.

Stillwater Books 

1. Zen Shorts
2. Zen Ties

Books My Son Loves: Snow Sounds by David A. Johnson

I picked up this book from the library due to my son's overwhelming love of snow.  I grabbed it, flipped through it, saw it had very few words, and decided it was good for our reading time.  (On a sidenote, I absolutely hate when I don't do this and I get a book with wordy paragraphs that my son cannot handle yet.  He wants to read the book, so he won't let me stop reading, but he climbs all over me because he finds wordy paragraphs boring.)

When I got home and read it to him, I was a little surprised by the subtitle of the book "An Onomatopoeic Story", but we started it together nonetheless.  I admired the gorgeous watercolor pages, full of expressive drawings.  These pictures make you remember the feel of a snow day from your youth, with the dark and the quiet.

My son settled into my side and after I started to make sounds, but not tell a story, he became impressed by the snow plow sounds I was making.  I encouraged him to tell me a story about what was going happening on the pages.  The lack of a story to tell became a story to hear from him.  I'd prompt him, "What is the boy doing at his window?"  "What is the boy eating?"  "What is he feeling?"  At first, my two year old would simply looked stumped and say, "Hmm..."  (No lie, my son puts his finger on his chin thoughtfully and says hmm.)

After the second or third reading, with prompts, he started to answer and tell me more about the pages.  "People drive the snow plow", "Boy eat cereal.  Cat get some too.", and "Boy get toy.  Boy happy?"

We'd have rudimentary discussions about the different types of snow plows in the book, and who was awake, and why.  Now, it's a nightly story at bedtime.  I don't know how I'm going to explain to him that we don't own this book!  It might be a keeper and one we have to grab off of Amazon.

I'm pretty sure that this is at least a nine in my son's eyes!

Books My Son Loves: Snow by Uri Shulevitz

I've decided to introduce a new feature (again) to the blog!  I have a very young child (two and a half years) and we've been reading together a lot recently and borrowing books from the library.  I want to highlight some of the books he loves for our memories and for your edification.  I plan to try and post these on Wednesdays.

The first book I plan to start with is Snow by Uri Shulevitz, a book that I had thought that my son would not like.  It turns out that the Caldecott committee that decides which books are noteworthy are vastly better at figuring out my child's interests than I am! 

This story is about a young boy with a dog who notices some flakes of snow and his enthusiasm for the snow even in the face of everyone's disbelief of the snow lasting.  After the snow really starts to fall, the boy and his dog play and dance in the snow while it swirls around them.

I'm going to tell the truth and say I was not impressed by either the illustrations or story in the beginning.  I read it tentatively to my son, and he so enjoyed the beginning of it that I have read it several times since.  While he tends to lose interest at the point that the snow falls heavily (my favorite part), he loves the early parts where a certain number of snowflakes fall.  He likes to count the snowflakes and point them out to me.  This makes the reading last a little longer which is nice. 

All in all, my son rates this pretty highly.  From his enthusiasm, I'm going to rate it around a seven for him.