Bad Frogs
Thacher Hurd
Candlewick Press, 2009
It's been harder to find time to post than I thought it would be (even hard to find time to take a shower)! Adjusting to being a stay-at-home mom has been a tad bit difficult both logistically (where's dad?) and emotionally (what's my identity?). But it's only week one and I am taking it slowly.
This blog is very compelling to me (as an antidote to making bottles and changing diapers) and I am making all kinds of unique and charming discoveries which I am excited to share!
One thing I have found is that these very famous authors and illustrators often have children that write books and/or illustrate.
For example, Clement Hurd, the illustrator of Goodnight Moon, and his wife Edith Thacher Hurd, also an illustrator and author, had one son named Thacher.
He wrote and brightly illustrated a bunch of sweet, colorful books: Art Dog, Sleepy Cadillac, and Bad Frogs. I love Bad Frogs. Its plot is about a bunch of funny green frogs who are bad. "Could they be good? Could they be quiet? NO WAY!" It's really fun to read and Mirette thinks it's very funny.
Disclaimer: Steve just told me he doesn't like this book. He doesn't like the labels "good" and "bad." He thinks the bad frogs are doing things that a typical teenager would do like staying up late and kissing their girlfriends. He has a point, but I'm still going with cute, funny, and fun to read aloud.
Thacher has a colorful website and blog: http://thacherhurd.com/. Through this, I discovered that Art Dog is coming soon to the Seattle Children's Theater. I will definitely be there!
Showing posts with label motherhood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label motherhood. Show all posts
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Friday, August 19, 2011
BACK TO THE GRIND
Tis the end of a great summer. My husband Steve goes back to work and I, um, go right on being a mom this year.
Our family has a sweet little bedtime ritual. I do pajamas, brush teeth, and read three books to Mirette. We share a family hug. Then I wait while Mirette picks out a book for Steve to read to her before he puts her to bed. If she picks out a book he hates, I laugh at him (all in good fun of course).
You see, so many kids' books are really horrible. The rhymes are boring and trite: Couplets like "Did you go to the butterfly ball? Let's go together in the fall." So when there is a good book – one that sings, one that flows, one that has stunning pictures – I notice.
When I am reading a book to Mirette, I always look at the publishing date and read the bios of the author and illustrator aloud. I think about how old I was when the book was published and sometimes I am instantly transported right back to the age I was when I first read the book. This concept I shall officially call INP—instant nostalgia picture or prose.
I started to wonder—What does it take to make a quality picture book? Who are the personalities behind the words and pictures? Why are some books so fun and others so boring? Why do some characters jump off the page, becoming dear friends to Mirette, and others slip into anonymity?
I did a little bit of research, read Margaret Wise Brown's autobiography; looked up websites on children's literature; Wikipediaed Ludwig Bemelmans, the author of the Madeline books, began to place holds on books at the library, and came to the realization that the topic is very interesting.
I also noticed that both Steve and I are wordsmiths. We love words. We play with words, embrace them, and are silly with them. We have imparted this love to Mirette. Our little two year old plays with language and is making up crazy words for everything these days. (For example, we just went on a carousal ride and Mirette named our horses Lono, Lonu, and Nonu.)
So I decided to write a blog about our year of reading. How we use language, books that turn us on, illustrators and authors, interesting links and, well, wherever our journey of reading takes us. I hope that you have fun with us and find some interesting books along the way!
Our family has a sweet little bedtime ritual. I do pajamas, brush teeth, and read three books to Mirette. We share a family hug. Then I wait while Mirette picks out a book for Steve to read to her before he puts her to bed. If she picks out a book he hates, I laugh at him (all in good fun of course).
You see, so many kids' books are really horrible. The rhymes are boring and trite: Couplets like "Did you go to the butterfly ball? Let's go together in the fall." So when there is a good book – one that sings, one that flows, one that has stunning pictures – I notice.
When I am reading a book to Mirette, I always look at the publishing date and read the bios of the author and illustrator aloud. I think about how old I was when the book was published and sometimes I am instantly transported right back to the age I was when I first read the book. This concept I shall officially call INP—instant nostalgia picture or prose.
I started to wonder—What does it take to make a quality picture book? Who are the personalities behind the words and pictures? Why are some books so fun and others so boring? Why do some characters jump off the page, becoming dear friends to Mirette, and others slip into anonymity?
I did a little bit of research, read Margaret Wise Brown's autobiography; looked up websites on children's literature; Wikipediaed Ludwig Bemelmans, the author of the Madeline books, began to place holds on books at the library, and came to the realization that the topic is very interesting.
I also noticed that both Steve and I are wordsmiths. We love words. We play with words, embrace them, and are silly with them. We have imparted this love to Mirette. Our little two year old plays with language and is making up crazy words for everything these days. (For example, we just went on a carousal ride and Mirette named our horses Lono, Lonu, and Nonu.)
So I decided to write a blog about our year of reading. How we use language, books that turn us on, illustrators and authors, interesting links and, well, wherever our journey of reading takes us. I hope that you have fun with us and find some interesting books along the way!
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