worth repeating

Maybe it's just that my kids have good taste in reading material, but we own a lot of books that I don't mind reading several times. Of course, there are some that I reject for a myriad of reasons - Berenstain Bears because they're overly wordy and I think that the parents calling each other "Mama" and "Papa" is a little icky, The Cat in the Hat because he's like an annoying high-pressure door-to-door salesman who refuses to leave unless you've bought a new vacuum and a new carpet - but for the most part, our bookshelves are stocked with winners. This was my lengthy and roundabout way of saying that for this open-theme edition of Feed Me Books Friday, I'm choosing the books that I'll read over and over again to Madeline and Sadie. Without further ado ...

1. The Paper Bag Princess - the best of Robert Munsch, by far. I love this heroine who is a princess yet not a stereotypical princess. She cares more about doing good than looking good, and knows when to dump a guy. Need I say more?
2. Everywhere Babies - This book is really sweet, talking about various things that babies do or need over their first year of life. The text really comes to life through the illustrations (by Marla Frazee, one of my favourite illustrators), though. I like the inclusiveness that the artwork lends to the story. Besides showing families of all colours, the illustrations show some things that aren't always depicted in mainstream books - a baby being breastfed, two men being a family, babies who joined a family through foreign adoption. I rather doubt that my kids really noticed these things, but I did, and they made me like the book a lot more. 
3. Hippos Go Berserk - it's tough to pick just one Sandra Boynton book, but this one was an immediate hit with Madeline, and it looks like Sadie is going to share her fondness for the cute Boynton Hippo. The story here is that a lonely hippo decides to invite a couple of friends over, and things sort of escalate out of control until his house is invaded by plenty of party crashers. This all happens within the structure of a counting book, too, which is kind of cool. And the text also rhymes. The illustrations are completely adorable. 
4. Hand Hand Fingers Thumb - My favourite Al Perkins book! I had this book when I was Madeline's age, and the monkeys with the groovey sideburns still give me a weird feeling, but this book is adored like no other. Sadie (like her big sister before her) pats and drums along with monkeys in this book with the wonderfully flowing rhymes and refrain. That's what I love about this book - what it bring out my sixteen month-old. 
5. Fancy Nancy - my American friends tell me that Fancy Nancy has become some sort of commerical franchise with aisles of tie-in merchandise in Target stores, and that would probably make this book less appealing as bedtime material for me (for me to read to Madeline, that is). Luckily, I live on the other side of the planet and am still smitten by this little girl who struggles daily with her decidedly un-fancy family. 

I'm still rather happy with the books I chose last week, too.

Comments

[SkylarKD]

The Paper Bag Princess and Fancy Nancy would be on my list too, as well as 'In The Night Kitchen' and 'Where the Wild Things Are' by Maurice Sendak.

We live in Canada, so I had no idea about all the Fancy Nancy merchandise!

[Trenchmommy]

I've heard of a few of these, and not of the other few. Thanks for the recommendations!

[vanessa @ silly eagle books]

Berenstein Bears are banned at our house, too. ;)

[Ashley]

Thanks for sharing your favorite books! I love to add all the great books from FMBF to my library list!

[Chrissy]

Oh, I will be adding a few of these to our library list. Fancy Nancy is on it every week (I've a 3 year old girl!) Thanks so much!

[Janna @ The Adventure of Motherhood]

It's so funny, I used to collect Ber. Bear books as a kid and now that I'm a mom I' don't like them. I couldn't put my finger on it but I think maybe it is the wordiness as you said and lack of creativity in story line.

My daughter is not even 2 and she loves princess stuff so we'll be checking out fancy nancy and the paper bag princess.

Have a good week!