This has been a month of picture books. Last month and September we read most of the Henry Huggins/Ribsy books by Beverly Cleary, this month it has been almost all shorter things to the best of my recollection. But the Picture Books have been wonderful.
Guess Again by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Adam Rex
Hillarious picture book of rhyming clues in which you are lead to guess ordinary cute picture book answers like bunny and mouse, and instead the real answers are absurd things.
Billy Twitters and his Blue Whale Problem by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Adam Rex. More unexpected craziness. Billy's parents buy him a blue whale to punish him for his bad behavior. He is forced to care for the whale and take it everywhere with him, absurd antics result.
We have just begun reading a novel, The Magical Monarch of Mo by L. Frank Baum. This is not an Oz book. It is a less well known work that shares the wild imaginings of the Oz universe. Mo is a country where the people are always happy and everything they want grows on trees: shoes, rings, food, etc. There is a lake made of sugar syrup that the inhabitants of Mo can skate on when the top forms a solid sugar crust. Whimsical things happen, in chapters which are called surprises rather than chapters.
Muffin is enjoying the book very much. Each chapter is a short story with so far no overarching plot, , but lots of charm and silliness. I think I will try the Oz books next. Unfortunately I feel compelled to read them in order, and the first one is my least favorite of the series. I wanted to read it aloud a year ago, but she said it looked too scary. I think that knowing that they are by the man who wrote The Magical Monarch will be a proper enticement.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment