Simple things in life

 

Maybe I am suffering from a bit of nostalgia, but I have really been enjoying these three books for their simple stories of what seems like a simpler life where baking, gardening and self-sufficiency are important. All three stories are told with fairly plain language and illustrated with simple, yet engaging pictures.

A Garden for a Groundhog is the tale of a farming couple - at face value it is the story of planting a garden for a groundhog, however I think it does a great job of illustrating planning and growing a garden to sustain yourself and other things like weather forecasting and knitting.  I just wanted to curl up in the old couples house, like the cat in the winter scenes, and enjoy their warm house full of yummy foods.  I know, I am a bit odd like that.

This Is the Bread I Baked for Ned is a great rhyming tale of baking bread and preparing food for Ned and surprise visitors.  I enjoyed the picture it painted of a simple inviting house full of fresh baked bread and good food and friends.

Pancakes for Breakfast  I wrote about this one earlier.  This is an older story, published in 1978, but it is a good one for depicting how a person can really bake from scratch.  The main character collects eggs from the chicken coop, milks a cow, churns butter etc.   BB was fascinated by all of this, and has asked for this story over and over again and has even started helping me to narrate it.

Finding Giants

 Do your kids need to rediscover some magic in life? Where Giants Hide is a tale of a little girl who is doubting giants, fairies and all sorts of magically mystical creatures and discovers that the magic was there all along, right in her head.

I don't have much to say about this book other than that I really like the sentiment and I love the fresh illustrations.

More Wordlessness

  I posted earlier about some great "wordless" books and I never thought I would be writing so much on a book blog, where I expound on the wonders of reading to your kids, about books without words.  But I have embarked on a love affair with them lately.  There are just so many wonderful books to choose from, and I am finding that they are helping me to tell stories to my kids and have them help me in the storytelling (ok, not LF - she is a little young to help, but she loves the pictures).

Wonder Bear and Pancakes for Breakfast are our latest favs which we just happened upon at the library in the past two weeks.  I can't get enough of Wonder Bear.  The image shown above doesn't do the illustrations justice.  They are batik illustrations which tell a story of a magic hat which, when planted grows into a magnificent plant, and blooms with bear who takes the children on wondrous adventure.   It is such an imaginative story and such spectacular illustration that I felt like a kids reading it.

Pancakes for Breakfast is a cottagey tale of a woman who wakes up earning for pancakes and tells how she goes about obtaining the ingredients to bake them.  If you loved Strega Nona growing up, you will love this first wordless story by Tomie de Paola.