Some recent good children’s reads for you:
Long-term readers might recall my rhapsodizing a couple of years ago about a wonderful picture book called Adele and Simon by Barbara McClintock. Here’s that post.
Well, I’m happy to report that Adele and Simon are back! And they came to visit!
The little French siblings have come to America to visit their cousin,who is taking them on a grand tour. They see marvelous things along the way, (a map is provided so you may follow their travels from New York out to the West and back) and of course, along the way Simon loses all of his treasures, one by one.
The illustrations are rich and detailed, with lots of historical resonance and cameos by individuals of the period. It doesn’t have the surprise factor that the first book had, that’s true. But it’s quite enjoyable – an adventure to read and explore.
On the same trip, I discovered a couple of other new books (well, it is Fall, after all – the season) by favorite authors.
Bob Graham writes very simple stories – a child wants a dog. A child has a (half) birthday. They’re distinguished, in my mind, not only by the charming, comfortable drawings of Graham’s boho-families, but by the fact that the families always work together to solve their problems, listening, figuring things out as they go along. Graham has that gift of being able to take a rather ordinary situation and giving us reasons to be and stay interested in how it all comes out.
How to Heal a Broken Wing has a bit more of the touch of a parable about it than his other books. A bird smashes into a building and falls into the middle of a busy city. No one notices except one small child, who insists on rescuing it. A few pages later, the bird is, indeed healed through love and attention, and is set free – again, the big world doesn’t notice…which lessens the importance of the flight upward not one bit.
And in a change of pace…the Wild Boars are back, too!
The Wild Boars were introduced to us a couple of years ago – they are, as you should expect, rude, messy and single-minded about it all. This time they’re cooking. And it’s funny.
Speaking of porcinity, this book isn’t new, but it was new to us – Roman Numerals I to MM: Numerabilia Romana Uno ad Duo Mila
by Arthur Geisert. Geisert, is known for his books about pigs doing intricate, elaborate things, and this book takes that world and tosses Roman numerals into the mix – so that we have detailed scenes of many pigs engaged in various tasks, and the text asks us, after a few pages explaining the basics, to find and count the IX vases in one picture or the CVI flowers in another. (Well, you wouldn’t have to count the CVI flowers – just translate the Roman numerals into Arabic.

Finally (for today)..The Gold Coin gives us an intriguing and rewarding story about a thief pursuing a woman whom he believes, simply because of something he overheard, to be a very wealthy woman. Well, she is, but not in the way he expects.