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| from Arnold Lobel's Owl at Home |
Mijo is turning ten in a couple of months. As anticipated, age 9 has been a year full of many developmental changes for our special little guy. For one, the transition from picture books to middle-grade books is fully on. This past year, we’ve read The Max & the Midknights series by Lincoln Peirce, a few Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, and the entire Lunch Lady series.
Since this transition is happening, it made me think of my favorite children’s books I’ve read for Miguelito. A few years back, I wrote about some of my favorite children’s books when he was littler, but now I want to write about my most favorite books I’ve read to him in recent years.
So here we go!
The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson
Illustrated by Axel Scheffler
For years, this has been one of our favorite books to read for story time, Miguelito’s nightly bedtime ritual. At the risk of sounding over-the-top, Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler are a legendary pairing in children’s literature: Donaldson’s dazzling prose and Scheffler’s cute and distinctive illustrative style. The Gruffalo is the second book they collaborated on; it’s one of my all-time favorite children’s books to read aloud. Maria and Miguel watched the animated rendition of the book and told me that the Gruffalo’s voice is similar to the gruff one I employ when I read it. That made me smile.
Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson
Illustrated by Axel Scheffler
This book has largely become a seasonal read for us (i.e., autumn and Halloween), but it’s my personal favorite Julia Donaldson book; probably my favorite book to read aloud. Her prose in this book is absolutely perfect and so fun to read and a marvel to hear aloud. Scheffler’s illustrations are the picture-perfect accompaniment. This book’s a ten!
Awful Ogre’s Awful Day by Jack Prelutsky
Illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky
It took Miguelito a while to warm to poetry; we had two Prelutsky books for littles that collected dust on our shelf for years. Once our son matured past toddlerdom, we found this book at our local library. Zelinsky’s expansive and detailed illustrations and the vulgar nature of Awful Ogre and his companions immediately drew us in. To date, it’s probably Miguel’s favorite book of children’s poetry. (We both think the poems and illustrations are noticeably better than the sequel, Awful Ogre Running Wild.) It’s probably mine, too. And we still marvel at Zelinsky’s illustrations in these books.
Coco y Pío by Alexis Deacon
Funny enough, we’ve never read the original version in English, Croc and Bird, because none of the libraries in our area carries it! But we love the Spanish version. It’s a sweet and cute tale that beautifully shows how kin don’t have to be bound by blood, or even species.
Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein
For a few years, I think this book was neck and neck with The Gruffalo for our favorite book to read at bedtime. It’s a funny and inventive book. (Alas, our trinity humbly feels like the sequels are lacking, though we dig his book, Tad and Dad.)
In our house, I would hazard to say that Arnold Lobel holds a place of distinction; we have all four of the Frog and Toad books and many of Lobel’s other works, including Grasshopper on the Road, which has a few of my favorite of his stories.
Frog and Toad All Year is special for me because it’s the first Arnold Lobel book I bought, as well as the first we read to Miguel. I don’t remember when I first bought it, but it was many years ago when I lived in San Francisco, well before Maria and I decided to bring a child into this world. I had read an article about Arnold Lobel and his Frog and Toad series; I learned that he was a gay writer and that the Frog and Toad books depicted a loving and caring relationship between the two. At that time, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever want to be a dad, but when I spotted the book at a used book store, I felt like I should buy it to share these stories with my child in case it was in my cards.
That was a good decision on my part.
Holes in the Sky by Patricia Polacco
This is a book I discovered this year, thanks to Maria who is a long-time fan of Polacco. After I read it the first time, it immediately became one of the children’s books I treasure the most. Living here in the East Bay, my trinity has developed an affinity for many of Polacco’s children’s books set in Oakland or Berkeley. I admire the expansiveness of many of her books; with a larger canvas, Polacco is able to tell more complex and nuanced stories than is often found in picture books. Her illustration style is distinct and full of life, inseparable from her stories, which are often autobiographical.
Holes in the Sky has two of my favorite characters in children’s literature: Stewart and Miss Eula. Reading Miss Eula’s tender dialogue often makes me laugh and fills me with joy. Polacco has a gift for creating and depicting characters that feel alive on the page. This book is one of my favorites because it speaks about mortality in such a beautiful and transcendent way.
Illustrated by Arthur Howard
We’re big fans of Cynthia Rylant’s Mr. Putter & Tabby series with illustrator Arthur Howard. We’ve read just about every single one of the nineteen books in the collection, and I think there is only one I am meh about. Miguelito’s favorite is Stir the Soup because it features Mrs. Teaberry’s pooch, Zeke, at his goofiest, but my default favorite is Write the Book because I’m a fucking writer and it riffs on the writing experience in a funny way. It’s hard to go wrong with any of these books, and Howard’s illustrations are fantastic throughout the series.
Chicken on Vacation by Adam Lehrhaupt
llustrated by Shahar Kober
Adam Lehrhaupt’s Chicken books always crack me up. Zoe is one of my favorite picture book characters with her ridiculous imagination. This one’s my favorite of her zany adventures on the farm.
Illustrated by Dorothy Leung
This is a really tender book and one conducive for an intimate reading. Few children’s books center on death, and this one evokes it like no other children’s book I’ve come across yet. Dorothy Leung’s illustrations are a pitch-perfect accompaniment to Larsen’s spare words and story. Their direct simplicity provides warmth and a childlike innocence that contrast beautifully with the book’s themes of death and mortality. I treasure this book. (We also really like his book, Me, Toma and the Concrete Garden with Anne Villeneuve, another fantastic illustrator.)
Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin
Illustrated by Harry Bliss
I bought this book at a Goodwill store in Watsonville two years ago and it’s quite possibly the best dollar I’ve ever spent. This book is cute, funny, and inventive. Cronin’s humor is perfectly matched with Bliss’s illustrations, which I’m particularly fond of. (His book, Grace for Gus, is also rich in illustration.)
At the Window by Hope Lim
Illustrated by Qin Leng
This is another children’s book I’m fortunate to have stumbled upon. (I think I came across it at the library, glancing at picture books under last names starting with the letter “L” after I looked for books from Andrew Larsen and Adam Lehrhaupt.) It’s a story about another topic that can be difficult for children to understand: change. Miguelito and I go on walks in our neighborhood all the time so it’s neat to read a book focused on a girl who often walks past a woman seated in her wide front window. It’s a quiet story that can nurture curiosity and Qin Leng’s illustrations are beautiful to behold.
Earl & Worm: The Bad Idea and Other Stories by Greg Pizzoli
This is another children’s book series I love. (I suspect I’m the one who loves them the most.) For me, it starts with Pizzoli’s simple yet vibrant illustration style; it’s what made me pick up the book in the first place. Every page is so darn cute to look at, and I especially like looking at ones when Worm is angry.
The stories themselves are fairly simple and easy to step into; I like how the stories flow together. Generally, we’re fans of Greg Pizzoli’s work (well, I am!); there’s a goofy lightness and simplicity to his books (like Good Night Owl, Lucky Duck, and The Book Hog) that I really, really appreciate in these times we find ourselves in.
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