Author Spotlight : Rosemary Wells

Author Spotlight : Rosemary Wells 

I have loved Rosemary Wells' children's books for almost my entire life. I was introduced to her by my mother, who loved her work and read to me and my sister. 

Decades later, when I started working at the library, I discovered her other books that I hadn't known as a kid. I was in heaven! I started collecting the titles that my mom didn't have and now I have quite a collection for Mia. I love reading books that I loved as a child to MY child. 

I was able to hear Rosemary Wells speak at a children's literature conference several years ago and I was thrilled to meet her and have her autograph some of my mother's books from the early 1980's. She was impressed to meet a fan with some of her oldest books. 

If you haven't Rosemary Wells' books, then I suggest you do so...immediately! The stories and illustrations in her books work perfectly together and are funny and sweet. They are wonderful books for both children and adults. She is the first author I suggest when library patrons ask for picture book recommendations. 

Here are some of my favorites: 

It's been a while...

Wow! 
It's been over three months since my last blog post. 

So sorry for the absence. We moved in the first part of June and we are feeling like we are still getting settled. 

The next big thing on my family's radar is Mia starting Preschool in a week. She will only be going two half-days a week, but it will be her first time ever really being away from me (or Daddy or grandparents)...and I'm a little nervous to see how it goes. 

I was really worried about how moving to a new home would affect her...but she totally surprised me and handled the change significantly better than both my husband and I did! A couple of weeks before we moved, I found a bunch of books about moving at the library and we read them often. I know it helped a lot. 

So, we've been reading books about starting school. I thought I'd share the titles we have from the library right now. I'm sorry I didn't post this sooner, as I know lots of kids have already started school, but...maybe this will still be helpful. 

Curious George's First Day of School 
Margaret Rey 

Froggy Goes to School 

Jonathan London 

How Do Dinosaurs Go to School?

Jane Yolen 

I Don't Want to Go to School 

Stephanie Blake 

I Love School!

Philemon Sturges 

The Kissing Hand 

Audrey Penn 

Llama Llama Misses Mama 

Anna Dewdney 

Maisy Goes to Preschool 

Lucy Cousins 

Mama, Don't Go!

Rosemary Wells 

Timothy Goes to School 

Rosemary Wells 

What are your favorite children's books about going to school? I'd love to hear. 

One of My Favorite Things...

One of my favorite things as a parent is to come around a corner in my home and see something like this:

Finding Mia "reading" books all by herself has been occurring more and more frequently and it makes me oh-so-very happy. 

In other news, please excuse my neglect of this blog. We are moving to a new home in a couple of weeks and I'm trying to focus on packing. Right now, we are reading a lot of picture books about moving. Do you have any favorites on this subject? 

Author Spotlight : Oliver Jeffers

One of our favorite picture book authors is Oliver Jeffers. If you haven't read any of his books, look for them at your local library or bookstore immediately! 

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Of all of his books, Lost and Found and its sequal, Up and Down, are my favorites. They are two of my favorite picture books of all-time. After those two, I think I like The Great Paper Caper best. 

I Spy with My Little Eye...

Mia loves picture books with little hidden details/objects in them. We just discovered Guido Van Genechten's "Odd One Out" series of playful look-and-find books. The books are designed to entertain preschoolers while developing language skills. The books use illustrations with some animals that look or act different than the others, or "odd ones out", to teach early learning concepts like positions and opposites.

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Marc Boutavant 

One of my favorite author/illustrators is Marc Boutavant. Currently, we have three of his books checked out from the library, and all the others (that the library owns) on hold for us. :) 

His illustrations have a whimsical, retro feel to them that I love. 

Childhood Favorites

I love sharing books that I loved as a child with my own child. A recent example are the Little Miss and Mr. Men books. I liked these when i was much older than Mia (she's only 3, while I remember liking them when I was old enough to read them myself), but she loves them! We've been checking out  bunches each time we visit the library...and I think we will need to buy the whole set. 

They're such silly little "fluff" books...they don't have the greatest plots OR illustrations, but Mia likes them and so did I (and my younger sister...as well as other adults who also grew up in the 1980's)...so that's all that matters. 

It's so important for reading to be FUN for kids. Parents shouldn't force them to read what they want or think are better books all of the time. 

What are some of your childhood favorites?