Since Sunday is Mother’s Day, the theme for Picture Book Preschool this week is Mothers. All the books on the list for this week are classics, but my favorite, because it brings back nostalgic memories, is Snipp, Snapp, Snurr and the Red Shoes by Maj Lindman. In this story, Swedish triplets Snipp, Snapp, and Snurr find jobs to earn enough money to buy their mother a pair of red shoes for her birthday. That’s about all there is to the storyline. The illustrations are old-fashioned paintings of three Scandinavian boys in short pants and shirts, fresh-faced, ready and eager to go out and work to buy their mother the best of all possible presents.

Ms. Lindman wrote and illustrated a series of these picture books about Snipp, Snapp, and Snurr and another series about girl triplets Flicka, Ricka, and Dicka. There’s something fascinating about the setting, Sweden in the 1940’s, the characters, identical triplets, and the situations, everyday adventures, that appeals to young children. I think I had never heard of triplets before I discovered them in the Snipp, Snapp, and Snurr books, and I also probably made my first visit to Sweden in these stories.

Here’s a list someone made at amazon of all the Snip, Snapp, Snurr books and all the Flicka, Ricka, Dicka books. I think Red Shoes is the best of the lot, but your preschooler may want to read them all. I did. The bad news is that these series are only available new in paperback, and I have not been very pleased with the quality of the paperback copies that I have purchased. They’ve all fallen apart. If you find a hardcover copy of any of Maj Lindman’s books at a used book sale or thrift store, grab it. A hardcover copy of Snipp, Snapp, Snurr, and the Red Shoes in good condition looks to be worth about ten or twenty (or more) dollars. But if I found one, I’d want to keep it for myself and my own children.

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.