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.