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The Pink Refrigerator by Tim Egan

Jul22
Version 1.0.0

This picture book came to my attention via Tanya Arnold of Biblioguides, but I already knew and loved Dodsworth the rat. (I thought he was a mole, but he’s actually a rat.) Dodsworth and the duck are the main characters in one of my favorite easy reader series, Dodsworth in New York, Dodsworth in London, Dodsworth in Paris, etc. I had no idea that Dodsworth made his first appearance in print in The Pink Refrigerator.

Dodsworth “loved to do nothing.” “[H]is motto was basically ‘Try to do as little as possible.'” The Pink Refrigerator is the story of how Dodsworth got up, got moving, and became an adventurer, and it’s a perfect prequel of sorts to the Dodsworth and the duck books. The awakening of Dodsworth is all because of the inspiration he received from messages he found at the dump on a mysterious and rusty pink refrigerator.

I don’t want to spoil the story by telling too much more, but this one should be a classic. “Dodsworth suddenly felt a great sense of wonder about everything.” Isn’t that sense of wonder and adventure what we all want for ourselves and our children, for all of those we love? If they can learn it from a rat (mole?) named Dodsworth and a pink refrigerator, then more power to him!

“Tim Egan lives in California, where he makes a living as an illustrator and author of children’s books. Sometimes he visits the refrigerator for ideas, too. Except his refrigerator is blue.”

Read more about Dodsworth and his adventures in:

  • Dodsworth in New York
  • Dodsworth in London
  • Dodsworth in Paris
  • Dodsworth in Rome
  • Dodsworth in Tokyo

Read more about the duck in Friday Night at Hodges Cafe.

Sinclair Lewis also wrote a book called Dodsworth. Not the same Dodsworth.

I still prefer to think that Dodsworth is a mole.

This Picture Book Preschool book can be borrowed by member families from Meriadoc Homeschool Library.

Lola Loves Stories by Anna McQuinn

Jul18

McQuinn, Anna. Lola Loves Stories. Illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw. Alanna Books, 2009. Charlesbridge, 2010.

This picture book is the second in a series of nine books about Lola and her family and their love affair with books and libraries and reading. The first book, Lola at the Library, is more informational, showing how Lola goes to the library with her mommy and checks out books and listens to the librarian tell stories during story time. In Lola Loves Stories, we get to read about and see how the books Lola borrows from the library work themselves into her imagination and her playtime.

Every Saturday Lola and her daddy go to the library where Lola finds some “excellent books.” When they come home, they read the books together, one book each evening. And every day as she plays with friends and alone, Lola acts out the many themes and characters in the stories she has read. She becomes a fairy princess, an adventurer, a tiger, and one day just a girl with sparkly shoes. There’s even a not-so-subtle nod to Max and his imagination in Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.

I love that this picture book is so simple, with brief, large print sentences, and yet so stimulating to the imagination for even the youngest (and oldest) readers. I like that Daddy takes Lola to the library in this book, and that Lola and her friend Ben have a play tea party with their baby dolls in strollers beside them.

The Lola Reads series is originally from a British author, written for a British audience, but either it’s been Americanized or the concepts and vocabulary are simple enough to reach across the ocean. The original British title is Lulu Loves Stories. I didn’t catch any Anglicisms that would need to be explained to an American child. Just a simple story about a child reading with her parents and acting out what she hears and reads.

Other books about Lola include:

  • Lola at the LIbrary
  • Lola Plants a Garden
  • Lola Gets a Cat
  • Lola Reads to Leo
  • Lola Meets the Bees
  • Lola Goes to School
  • Lola Sleeps Over
  • Lola’s Nana-Bibi Comes to Visit

This Picture Book Preschool book can be borrowed by member families from Meriadoc Homeschool Library.

Knight Owl by Christopher Denise

Jul11

Denise, Christopher. Knight Owl. Christy Ottaviano Books, 2022.

“Since the day he hatched, Owl had one wish. To be a knight.”

At first Owl is just a child playing dress up. But eventually he is accepted into Knight School where he learns to be a real knight, and upon his graduation he is assigned to the Knight Night Watch on the castle walls. Then, one night Owl confronts a real, live dragon. Can he act with bravery and cleverness like a real knight? Can he find a way to keep the dragon from eating him as a snack?

For the legions of children who are enamored of knights and castles and fire-breathing dragons, this picture book would be a real treat. Or it might be an introduction to the world of knights and dragons, a tame and rather peaceful introduction. Owl does indeed make peace with the dragon, and no owls are harmed in the course of this story. The illustrations are somewhat dark, because most of the story takes place during the night, but the stars and the fire and brave little Owl himself inject light into the pictures and make the illustrations and the story shine.

“Christopher Denise spent much of his childhood in Shannon, Ireland, exploring castles and dreaming of great adventures.” Denise is both the author and the illustrator of Knight Owl, and he also illustrated many of Brian Jacques’s Redwall animal fantasy books.

I think my grandson would like this one, and probably my granddaughter as well. I plan to add this 2023 Caldecott Honor book to my booklists in Picture Book Preschool, too, so that lots of other knight-loving and dragon-loving children can find it and enjoy it.

This Picture Book Preschool book can be borrowed by member families from Meriadoc Homeschool Library.

The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr

Jul4

Kerr, Judith. The Tiger Who Came to Tea. W. Collins (London), 1968.

This picture book is quite well known and popular in Britain, practically a classic, but not so well known in the U.S. As one can tell from the title, it’s a very British sort of story. Nevertheless, American children as well as those from other countries should be able to appreciate this whimsical tale of an unexpected tiger who comes to visit and eats up all the food and drink in the house. Words such as “tap” and “tins” and “biscuits” and “packets” and even “tea” may need to be redefined for those same American children, but that’s part of the fun.

The illustrations are bold and simple, perfect for preschoolers. And the Tiger is big but not scary. Even though the Tiger does look rather ravenous throughout, there’s no hint that the little girl in the story is afraid or worried that the Tiger will finish off his meal with her. In fact, she snuggles up to him and plays with his tail in the pictures. The girl and her parents do have to come up with a solution for the lack of food and drink in the house after the Tiger leaves. And they also make a plan just in case the Tiger makes a return visit: a big box of Tiger Food to keep on hand.

Sometimes British humor is, well, somewhat foreign to my American understanding, but this book is spot on. It’s short and sweet, also memorable and imaginative, and I can see why it has been a children’s literature staple in Britain since its publication in 1968. It reminds me a little bit of Where The Wild Things Are, published in 1964, or The Cat in the Hat from 1957. But it’s more precious, in a good way, and more British. This book is another one that I will definitely be adding to Picture Book Preschool in the new edition.

This Picture Book Preschool book can be borrowed by member families from Meriadoc Homeschool Library.

The Apple Pie That Papa Baked by Lauren Thompson

Jun27

Thompson, Lauren. The Apple Pie That Papa Baked. Illustrated by Jonathan Bean. Simon & Schuster, 2007.

This story poem begins, “This is the pie, warm and sweet, that Papa baked.” With a rhythm and pattern similar to “this is the house that Jack built”, the story goes on to tell where the apples that make the pie originated: on the tree, in the earth, fed by rain, from the clouds, in the sky, etc. And it all comes back to a pie made by Papa with love for a little girl to share with friends.

Jonathan Bean has written and illustrated several outstanding picture books, including This Is My Home, This Is My School and Building our House, which are both about the daily life of a homeschooling family. But according to the illustrator blurb, The Apple Pie That Papa Baked was Mr. Bean’s first book. He says his illustrations in Apple Pie “were strongly influenced by the work of Virginia Lee Burton and Wanda Gag, as well as the small family orchard where he picked peaches, pears, and, of course, apples.” The influences were good, and the three-color pictures–red, yellow, and black– in this cumulative poem book are lively and engaging. The style is different from Jonathan Bean’s other books that I have read, but it fits well with this folk tale, nursery rhyme story.

I am excited to add this book to the new edition of Picture Book Preschool that I am working on. It makes a great read aloud, and children can spend a long time just looking at the pictures to find all the details of farm and family and pie.

This Picture Book Preschool book can be borrowed by member families from Meriadoc Homeschool Library.

Two Indian Picture Books by Rajani LaRocca

Jun20

Where Three Oceans Meet by Rajani LaRocca. Illustrated by Archana Sreenivasan. Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2021.

I’ll Go and Come Back by Rajani LaRocca. Illustrated by Sara Palacios. Candlewick, 2022.

Both of these books by the same author tell the story of an Indian American child and her grandmother (Pati) who lives in India. Both are inspired by the author’s childhood experience of visiting her grandmother in India. And both are a delightful introduction to the sights and sounds of South India, in particular, and to the joy of visiting family wherever they might live.

In Where Three Oceans Meet Sejal, Mommy, and Pati travel together to very tip of the Indian subcontinent. Pati is excited to go to the temples (and pray to “the goddess”, which they do). Mommy is anxious to visit old friends. And Sejal wants to see “what’s at the end of the earth” where three oceans–the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea, and the Indian Ocean— meet. The road trip that the three generations of women take includes a boat trip, a train, visits with friends, shopping, Indian foods and snacks, temple worship, and even a sick day in the hotel. The book culminates in the picture of the three women/girls standing on the shore where the three bodies of water meet near the city of Kanyakumari.

I’ll Go and Come Back tells of how Jyoti, another Indian American girl, goes to visit her family in India for the summer. At first Jyoti is homesick, but she and Pati bond over activities that they share despite the language barrier between them. In the second half of the book Pati comes to visit Jyoti in America, and grandmother and granddaughter again find joy in sharing games and books and food and shopping in Jyoti’s homeland of the United States. “Pati flew back home to India, but our love stretched across the world.”

I liked the illustrations, by different illustrators, one of South Indian origin and one not, in both books, but I preferred the stylized people with round faces and the colorful scenery in I’ll Go and Come Back. The pictures in Where Three Oceans Meet are more complex in the backgrounds and more evocative of feelings of family togetherness, but not as simple and straightforward. In the same way, although the stories are similar—a little girl visiting her grandmother in India–I’ll Go and Come Back is more simple and more accessible for preschoolers, even though it includes several Tamil words that are only explained in the context of the story.

As I said before either book would be a lovely introduction to India and Indian culture for preschool or primary children as well as being a reminder of family ties that can bind even across oceans and generations.

I Can’t Said the Ant by Polly Cameron

Apr11

This ridiculous rhyming story by Polly Cameron is a lark. Originally published in 1961, it’s the story of how the ant tries to help Miss Teapot who has fallen off the counter. The ant calls on everyone to help–all the kitchen foods and implements, and each one answers with a rhyme and and some helpful advice. With teamwork, they manage to rescue Miss Teapot, and “can’t” turns to “can”.

I Can’t Said the Ant is, alas, no longer in print. However, it’s fairly easy to find a copy of this book in a paperback edition. I’m not sure a hardcover edition was ever published, despite the fact that one hardcover copy is available on Amazon for an exorbitant price. Just get the paperback and enjoy the rhyming game that begins in your home when you read it.

The book is subtitled “A Second Book of Nonsense.” That subtitle made me wonder, of course, about the first book of nonsense by this author, and I found it with a little search online: A Child’s Book of Nonsense: 3 copycats, 3 batty birds, 3 crazy camels, a quail, and a snail by Polly Cameron, published in 1960. I’m not about to pay over $50 for a copy of the first book, which I’ve never seen, but I did find a couple of other books by Ms. Cameron on vimeo that I might check out:

The Dog Who Grew Too Much

The Cat Who Thought He Was a Tiger

"Thank you," said Miss Teapot, 
"You've been good to me. 
Polly, put the kettle on. 
We'll all have tea."

I Can’t Said the Ant is one of the books listed in my Picture Book Preschool book. Picture Book Preschool is a preschool/kindergarten curriculum which consists of a list of picture books to read aloud for each week of the year as well as a character trait to introduce, a memory verse, and activities, all tied to the theme for the week. You can purchase a downloadable version (pdf file) of Picture Book Preschool by Sherry Early at Biblioguides.

Over in the Meadow by John Langstaff

Mar28

Over in the Meadow by John Langstaff, illustrated by Feodor Rojankovsky. 

Over in the meadow 
In the sand in the sun  
Lived an old mother turtle and her little turtle one. 
"Dig," said the mother, 
"I dig," said the one; 
So he dug and was glad in the sand in the sun.

John Meredith Langstaff was a musician and music educator who wrote children’s picture books, produced music education videos for the BBC, and published songbooks, music, and texts, all emphasizing traditional and folk songs and music. He started something called The Christmas Revels in New York City in 1957, and later in Cambridge, Massachusetts. These amateur performances involved singing, dancing, recitals, theatrics, and usually some audience participation, all appropriate to the holiday season. Langstaff died in 2005, but his Revels still go on in select cities across the United States at Christmas time.

Langstaff, of course, didn’t originate the lyrics for the song, Over in the Meadow, but neither did Olive A. Wadsworth, aka Katherine Floyd Dana, who is credited with writing the poem, Over in the Meadow, in several places online. Katherine Floyd Dana (under the pen name Olive A. Wadsworth) wrote down the words to the song that she heard possibly in Appalachia or the Ozarks, and Mabel Wood Hill notated the music. The words and music together were published in the book Kit, Fan, Tot, and the Rest of Them by the American Tract Society in 1870. Langstaff’s version of the lyrics is much different from Wadsworth’s, using different animals, and different actions, and different descriptions. It’s an old counting rhyme that may trace back to the 16th century, and there are many different versions.

There are also several picture book versions of the song available, including one illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats, another by Anna Vojtech, and yet another illustrated by one of my favorite picture book artists, Paul Galdone. Still, my favorite for this song is this Langstaff/Rojandovsky partnership version. I like Langstaff’s lyrics, and Rojankovsky’s illustrations are delightful, just busy enough without overwhelming, with lots of endearing animal detail. The beavers build; the spiders spin; the owls wink; and the chipmunks play—all the way up to ten rabbits who hop.

If you’re looking for more folk songs in picture book form, I would suggest:

  • Old MacDonald Had a Farm, illustrated by Lorinda Bryan Cauley. Putnam, 1989.
  • Hush, Little Baby, illustrated by Margot Zemach. Dutton, 1976.
  • Frog Went A’Courtin’ by John Langstaff, illustrated by Feodor Rojankovsky. Harcourt, 1967.
  • Mary Wore Her Red Dress, and Henry Wore His Green Sneakers, adapted and illustrated by Merle Peek. Clarion, 1985.
  • Fox Went out on a Chilly Night, illustrated by Peter Spier. Doubleday, 1961.

All of these folk song picture books are listed in my Picture Book Preschool curriculum guide. Picture Book Preschool is a preschool/kindergarten curriculum which consists of a list of picture books to read aloud for each week of the year and a character trait, a memory verse, and activities, all tied to the theme for the week. You can purchase a downloadable version (pdf file) of Picture Book Preschool by Sherry Early at Biblioguides.

Picture Book Preschool–Come and Get It

Mar13

I’m excited because, beginning today, you can purchase a pdf copy of my preschool curriculum book, Picture Book Preschool, from the book website, Biblioguides. Picture Book Preschool is a preschool curriculum based on picture books I have been reading to my children, and now grandchildren, for the past twenty years. Each week of the year is built around a theme, and includes a suggested character trait to work on, a Bible verse, a supporting activity, and seven suggested picture books to read to your children. Now you can find all of the Picture Book Preschool recommendations on Biblioguides and purchase a PDF of the curriculum which includes all of the supporting resources and schedule.And while you’re at it, check out Biblioguides, a great resource for finding books and book information to enrich your own education and that of your children.

If you would prefer a print copy of Picture Book Preschool, you can email me at sherryDOTpray4youATgmailDOTcom.

Poet of the Day: Eve Merriam

Jul19

Whatever you do, find ways to read poetry. Eat it, drink it, enjoy it, and share it.

I find it difficult to sit still when I hear poetry or read it out loud. I feel a tingling feeling all over, particularly in the tips of my fingers and in my toes, and it just seems to go right from my mouth all the way through my body. It’s like a shot of adrenalin or oxygen when I hear rhymes and word play.

~Eve Merriam

Poet Eve Merriam was born July 19, 1916. She is the author of three books in my library. Epaminondas and A Gaggle of Geese are listed in my Picture Book Preschool curriculum book and are favorites of mine to read aloud. I also have Ms. Merriam’s book 12 Ways to Get to 11, a delightful book that combines mathematics and poetry and imagination.

Eve Merriam was well known as a children’s poet. She wrote several collections of poetry for young people, including Blackberry Ink, The Inner City Mother Goose, Funny Time, Higgle Wiggle: Happy Rhymes, and It Doesn’t Always Have to Rhyme, as well as many picture books and nonfiction biographies and nature books for children. However, she also wrote poetry for adults and had her work published in magazines and journals such as Poetry Magazine. The following poem, The Escape, comes from the October 1940 edition of Poetry Magazine.

THE ESCAPE

Suddenly in the subway
not having had time to purchase a paper at the newsstand
and having read all the car-cards
(even the Alka-Seltzer verse ones)
I came face to face with my immortal soul
and since it was three stations until my stop
I grew worried;
until I saw a boy passing through the various trains
distributing leaflets upon constipation and cure;
they were printed on both sides, with fine close print at the bottom,
so there was nothing to worry about really, nothing at all.

What a narrow escape! Nowadays, she would always be accompanied by her cellphone to distract from thoughts too dreadful to contemplate. I do recommend Ms. Merriam’s children’s books and poetry not as a distraction, but rather to encounter whimsy and perhaps even thoughts of immortality.

Picture Book Preschool is a preschool/kindergarten curriculum which consists of a list of picture books to read aloud for each week of the year and a character trait, a memory verse, and activities, all tied to the theme for the week. You can purchase an updated, downloadable version (pdf file) of Picture Book Preschool by Sherry Early at Biblioguides.