Posts tagged as:

books for little kids

The Joy of Books

January 12, 2012

Found the above on this delightful site with the silly name sent to me by my sister-in-law (thank you!). The photos on the site make me want to pound the table and say, with Sally, “Yes! Yes! Yes!” (I heart bookshelves.)

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Letters from Father Christmas; J. R. R. Tolkien (1920-1943; first published 1976)

December 12, 2011

Another holiday favorite in this house are the extraordinary letters and drawings Father Christmas sent the Tolkien children between 1920 and 1943. Take a moment to remember the world created by Tolkien in The Hobbit and the Ring Trilogy, remember the maps, drawings and paintings with which he illustrated them, and then imagine being the [...]

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Pish, Posh, Said Hieronymous Bosch; Nancy Willard & The Dillons, 1992

October 31, 2011

It’s time to start thinking about holiday gifts (if you’re not one of those people who did it all in July). For the children on your list, you can never go wrong with books. Most kids don’t have enough, and those few who do, who are tripping over piles of them in their bedroom—well, hopefully [...]

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On the way home (two delightful books for kids)

September 29, 2011

Flew from Portland to Portland with no sleep. I paused in Newark in between and saw all my pals from my first pass through—it was Saturday morning again—the 15-year-old Arab-American girl who told me why jobs in the airport are the best around, the nice guy who’d taken my photo with Betty Boop the week [...]

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Thank you, Portland

September 28, 2011

For a blissful movie experience at Living Room Theaters. See Gainsbourg if you can (most smoking EVER in a movie). It’s made by the same fabulous woman, Joann Sfar, who wrote and illustrated the graphic novel The Rabbi’s Cat.

For yummy tacos at Por Qué No? and lush Pho at Jade Teahouse.
For stellar yoga classes, yin [...]

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Half Magic; Edward Eager, illustrated by N. M. Bodecker (1954)

April 5, 2011

When thinking about presents to bring to children I don’t see often enough, I tend to return to old favorites. Half Magic is one of these, the first of Edward Eager’s books, all beloved since my childhood and now beloved to my kids, all with memorable illustrations by N. M. Bodecker.
Modern children, subjected to some [...]

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Father Christmas; Raymond Briggs (1973)

December 16, 2010

Oh, I love Raymond Brigg’s Father Christmas—a nice counterpoint to ‘Twas the night before… My kind of grumbling, irascible, oft-tippling, animal-loving, snow-hating, gourmand bachelor Santa Claus. In brightly colorful, detailed drawings and a few choice words Briggs takes us through Father Christmas’s long day and night leading up to Christmas, and sees him through his [...]

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The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey; Susan Wojciechowski, illustrated by P. J. Lynch (1995)

December 7, 2010

This one makes me cry every year. “The village children called him Mr. Gloomy. But, in fact, his name was Toomey, Mr. Jonathan Toomey,” it begins. Jonathan Toomey is a woodcarver, maybe the best in the valley, but all his skill can’t mend a heart broken by the loss of a beloved wife and baby. [...]

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Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins; story by Eric A. Kimmel, pictures by Trina Schart Hyman (1989)

December 3, 2010

On the third night of Hannukah I propose my favorite Hannukah tale, Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins. When Hershel of Ostropol’s steps lead him, on the first night of Hannukah, to a small snowy village, he is sure he will be greeted by crisp latkes and the gleam of candles burning in menorahs in a [...]

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Hurry, Hurry, Mary Dear; Bodecker & Blegvad (1975/1998)

October 18, 2010

There’s a sweet story inside the front cover of Hurry, Hurry, Mary Dear, by children’s book illustrator and author N. M. Bodecker, illustrated by Erik Blegvad. Blegvad tells of his friendship with Bodecker, whom he met at the Copenhagen Art School in 1941 and later shared a studio with in Westport, CT. Bodecker wrote the [...]

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