The Old Woman Who Named Things by Cynthia Rylant

This book is a bit sad and sweet at the same time.  There is an old woman who has outlived all her friends and has no more.  She names inanimate objects that will "live" longer than her.  There's Betsy the car, Fred the chair, Roxanne the bed and Franklin her house.  One day a brown puppy sits by her gate, which she hasn't named because it's broken, and she feeds it and tells it to go away.  Every day the dog comes but the woman refuses to name it because she might outlive it.  But one day the dog doesn't come and the old lady flips out.

 

The OK Book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld

Here is a super cool book!  First write out the letters OK.  See how the O looks like a head, and the K looks like a body?  Think stick figure.  That's the main character of the book!  It's just a bunch of pictures of OK doing random kid things like flying a kite, juggling, fishing, etc.  Super duper creative and clever!

 

The Great Show-and-Tell Disaster by Mike Reiss

Holy cow, this book is awesome and especially fun for a semi-wordfreak like myself!  First off it's a rhyming picture book.  Ned has show and tell and invents a device that transforms objects to their anagrams.  He turns his AUNT into a TUNA fish, a classmate named BRIAN into a giant BRAIN, PICTURES in a museum into PIE CRUST . . . Mike Reiss went to Harvard and worked on The Simpsons.  I can't wait to read more of his books!

 

While Mama Had a Quick Little Chat by Amy Reichert

This is another super fun book.  Rose's mom asks her to get ready for bed as she takes a phone call from Uncle Fred.  Dude, with a mom who always said, "I'll be really quick" I can totally relate to this book.  Check it out--as mom is on the phone, the doorbell rings and soon there's a full blown party with a magician, band and plenty of fabulous guests.  Every time Rose calls out for help, mom dismisses her.  The pictures are awesome here, I love how Rose has curly read hair. 

 

Lucia and the Light by Phyllis Root

Lucia lives with her mom, a white cat, her little bro and a cow.  Yeah, the cow lives in the house--weird.  I started thinking about how it would smell.  Anyway, the sun disappears and Lucia goes to find it.  Eventually she and her cat come across a bunch of trolls who have captured the sun and wrapped it in a long rag.  The book is pretty interesting--maybe a little bit sappy at times though.  The pictures are kind of dark which is very fitting since there's no sun. 

Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite

This controversial book about a boy whose newly divorced dad turns out to be gay was originally published in 1990.  I read the 10th Anniversary Edition and in the afterword the author mentions how he thought the book would just fade into oblivion but instead, with all the shocked parents and religious folk, the book gained widespread media attention.  Basically the book talks about the very healthy relationship between Dad and Frank.  They hang out, fight sometimes, but always make up.  My fave pic is the one where the two men are fighting:  Frank is holding a white long sleeve shirt burned by an unattended iron and Dad is sitting at a desk with a talk-to-the-hand pose. 

 

Ask Me by Antje Damm

This is a great little book, geared towards kids but I think it'd be cool for two adults too.  Each page asks a question, then has a picture on the facing page.  A random sampling of questions and their pics:  "Did you ever give an animal a name?"  The picture is of goldfish, rabbits and mice.  "What's your favorite place to play?"  Picture is a kid climbing a tree.  "Where would you like to sleep tonight?"  This comes with a photo of a little baby sleeping in a banana box lined with blankets (my fave!).

Randolph in Oakland by Erika Mailman

Our protagonist is a stuffed pony who travels around Oakland to places that would appeal to kids.  There's simple text for kids, and more substantial text for big people.  My fave photo is of Randolph visiting the library with the caption "He can get lost in a good book."  You can see his stuffed pony butt emerging from a stack of books on the bookcart. 

How to Hold a Crocodile by The Diagram Group

I love this how-to book, especially since it's got pictures!  This book teaches you how to identify different flags on ships.  Did you know there is a flag that means quarantine?  Or that this ship has mutinied?  Fascinating!  I've also learned that you can grow a pear in a bottle by putting the bottle around the blossom before it grows to a full fledged pear.  Other publishers should take note of the power of pictures in how-to books.  Seriously.

 

An Incomplete Education: 3,684 Things You Should Have Learned but Probably Didn't by Judy Jones

This book feels a little Mental Floss-y since it's got that tongue in cheek vibe to it.  It's a hodge podge-y collection of snippets about all sorts of subjects like architecture, artists, economics, etc.  Sometimes I'm hesitant to read some of the articles because I know I'll never remember them . . . If I had a super power I'd want to be a speed reader and be able to understand, remember and apply everything that I read.  Wouldn't that be awesome?

I'll Fix Anthony by Judith Viorst

Big bro is mean to little bro and little bro decides that when he turns six years old, he's going to be better than his brother at EVERYTHING.  Cute story that I'm sure a lot of younger sibs can relate to. 

Ben's Dream by Chris Van Allsburg

I love Van Allsburg!  His pictures are superb.  Young Ben falls asleep while studying for a geography exam.  In his dream, the world floods and a collection of monuments float by his house.

Anne Hutchinson's Way by Jeannine Atkins

This picture book is about an outspoken English woman who holds meetings in her home.  The lawmakers want her to stop having her meetings but she refuses.  The people in the book are dressed all Pilgrim style, something you don't see very much in today's children's books.

One Dark Night by Edna Mitchell Preston
This book is old, it looks like it's been around since I was a kid. And yeah, it's from 1969. The format is just like There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly, only it's about kids in Halloween costumes. Very cool black, white and blue illustrations. I like the old school pictures, especially of this variety.

Meg and Mog by Helen Nicoll and Jan Pienkowski
Really simple book about what Meg the witch and her cat Mog do one Halloween. Cute story, nice pics.

A Halloween Mask for Monster by Virginia Mueller
A little monster tries on all kinds of different masks--a dog mask, a girl mask, etc.--but they're all too scary. This is a very cute book.

The Girl in the Castle Inside the Museum by Kate Bernheimer & Nicoletta Ceccoli

The text is kinda meh but the pictures are awesome!  I love the illustrations, they kind of remind me of Japanese style.  Super whimsical.  Honestly the text is forgettable, it didn't draw me in at all--but maybe that's because I was too mesmerized by the illustrations.

 

Poop: A Natural History of the Unmentionable by Nicola Davies

This book is . . . AWESOME!  Did you know that rabbits eat their own poo?  Or that a blue whale's poo is 10 inches wide and SEVERAL yards long?  Betcha didn't!  Did you know that hippos make a trail of poo to follow back to the river, kind of like Hansel and Gretel. 

 

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz

SO MUCH FUN!  I really loved this book as a kid, especially the funny ones.  And the pictures are so scary too.

 

Way Up in the Arctic by Jennifer Ward

Counting book with lots of Arctic animals.  The end of the book gives lots of facts about the Arctic like Polar bears have black skin.  And there's also a song.

 

Detective Small in the Amazing Banana Caper by Wong Herbert Yee

Cute rhyming picture book about a fox detective who tries to find who stole all the bananas.  Is it the ape, nah, that'd be too easy!  Fave pic is of a couple of panda grocery store owners looking aghast at a pile of empty banana crates in the middle of their store. 

Goodnight Bush by Erich Origen & Gan Golan
Parody of Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. Next to Bush's bed is a small nightstand and in the beginning of the book, there are 5 lines of coke. As the story progresses, there are fewer and fewer lines, until the last page when it's just a shiny mirror and a razor blade. Then there's the Constitution page where Bush has scratched out certain pars with some crayons and there's a doodle of a drunken person setting the important document on fire.

The Week-End Book edited by Francis Meynell
This book was originally published in England and was some fancy pants book that people would take with them when they went to the country over the weekend. It's a book with collections of poetry, random info on birds, astronomy, how to recognize different architectural styles, and other hodgepodgery. I skimmed this one.

Scary, Scary Halloween by Eve Bunting
Green eyes peek out of the shadows and watch Halloween come to life in this rhyming picture book. My fave costume of all is the bandaged werewolf mummy.

Jungle Halloween by Maryann Cocca-Leffler
Another rhyming Halloween picture book, this one about a plethora of different jungle animals celebrating the holiday. Cute pictures and good rhythm. Fave pic is the giraffe wearing a pink tutu, yellow angel wings and using her tail to shake a tambourine with red streamers. Crazy.

How to Do Just About Everything by Courtney Rosen
She's the boss lady at eHow.com. Short descriptions of how to accomplish tons o' stuff. This book is pretty useful. One of the first things is how to teach your kids how to make friends. They mention having practice conversations with your kids--you know, your kid is your kid, and you pretend to be a potential new friend. Hm, I never would have thought of that! What else . . . You learn how to take notes for college. I was very happy to learn that I used to do what they suggested.

The Californios by Louis L'Amour
You know how I tried forcing myself to read scifi? Well, now I'm trying to force myself to read a western. Louis L'Amour is Mr. Western. Once again, I am not enamored. His sentences seem kinda . . . short. I think I'll quit this one too. Recently I just feel like reading nonfic.

Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh
Three white mice get mixed up in some paint and discover their secondary colors. Cute book for kindy kids to learn about colors.

The Gunniwolf by Wilhelmina Harper
This wolf talks pidgin. So it's kind of like Little Red Riding Hood. Mom tells the girl to be careful and the girl doesn't listen and goes romping through the forest. Weird thing is this wolf isn't mean or anything. He just wants the girl to sing and when she does, he falls asleep. This is definitely another of those weird children's books. Harper used to be a librarian at Redwood City because she kicked the bucket in 73. I felt kind of meh about it.

The Bones of Fred McFee by Eve Bunting
Eve Bunting has written way too many books. This is a rhyming one suitable for Halloween.

The Hallo-Wiener by Dav Pilkey
Don't you love how it's Dav without an "e?" This picture book is about a dachshund who is tormented by the other dogs because of how he looks. For Halloween his mom gets him a hotdog costume and he wears it so his mom's feelings aren't hurt. Yada yada yada, Oscar the weiner dog ends up saving the day when all the other dogs are stranded in the pond.

The Soup Bone by Tony Johnston
OK, this book is crazy. A lonely old woman wearing a white bonnet (WTF?) makes some soup and decides she needs to put in a bone because the soup's too thin. So she digs under a tree and eventually digs up a skeleton that comes alive and they become friends.

Urawaza: Secret Everyday Tips and Tricks From Japan by Lisa Katayama
Read this gem in Barnes & Noble today. After finishing this book, you have to just say that, "Wow, Japanese people are HELLA smart!" Who knew that putting the white part of a scallion up your nostrils would clear a stuffed up nose? Well, Lisa did! And did you know that pouring beer on a dry patch of a lawn will revive it? Magic! I would hella recommend this book. It's genius.

I'm giving up on The Other Wind.  I can't stomach reading that sci fi, fantasy stuff.  Watching the movies are fine, I can take it.  But when I read about other worlds and mages, and the power of names, well, my eyes kind of just slowly glaze over.  I gave it about 20 pages though, that's pretty fair.

 

The new book I'm reading now is called . . .

 

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore.  Heard about it a while ago from Jen R.  This one is hysterical!  I love it.  One of the first scenes of the book is of Jesus, who's also called Joshua, biting the head off a lizard and then bringing it back to life.   

Insight Guides Taiwan edited by Bernd Hans-Gerd Helms  

Got this book about 10 years ago right before I started living out there.  This time, I was mainly looking at the pictures and rereading the portions I had highlighted when I was younger. 

 

The Other Wind by Ursula Le Guin

You know that movie, The Jane Austen Book Club?  There's one guy in the club who's hot for an older woman--also in the club.  Anyway, he recommends some Ursula Le Guin books to her.  While The Other Wind isn't one of the ones he recommended, I chose it because it was thinnish.  I'm totally not a sci fi person but I decided to try it out.  So far I'm not enamored, but I'm only on page 17 or so. 

When Duct Tape Just Isn't Enough: Quick Fixes for Everyday Disasters by CJ Petersen

There are a lot of great home fixing tips in this book.  I'm mostly just browsing since I won't remember all the tips if I don't use them right away.  The format is really accessible, the book is structured like a question answer column of a newspaper.