Writing About Books

It's the end of a long day, and all I want to do is sit in the recliner with the cat and write about books. So here I am. Doing exactly what I want to do. Expect multiple posts tonight, depending on my time constraints. I've been reading like a fiend.

This post is dedicated to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named who is currently out for the count in the nursery. I picked up several books to read to him this week, and I've got to say: they were hits. Or maybe my ever expressive reading voice was what did the trick. Either way, the Hubs was in disbelief when I told him Little Man sat through 4.3 books in a row, absolutely hypnotized. And I wasn't lying. Although I do have more to say on that later. Lying, that is.

So. A few of the best:

We're going in order of favourites here, and this was definitely it. I have no words to say how much I loved this book, and Little Guy was a fan too. In fact, I love it so much that I almost want to buy it for him. But that's what libraries are for. At any rate, Go To Bed, Monster! tells the story of a wakeful young girl who decides she wants to draw instead of going to bed. She ends up drawing a monster, and they have all sorts of fun times together until she gets tired and has to convince the monster to go to sleep. My favourite part: the monster has incredibly expressive eyes. Sylvie Kantorovitz, the illustrator, is a genius. Seriously. I have no idea how she managed to take something that genuinely looked like a child's drawing and manage to give it so much character. Love, love, love. But if my child decided to draw instead of going to bed, there would be words. And then some.

Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed was a close second for the number one pick this week. I admit: I have a thing for naked mole rats. I always have. And no, I don't have a good reason for it. I don't like moles or rats or nudists, but there's just something about naked mole rats that makes me laugh. So I thoroughly enjoyed Mo Willems book about the naked mole rat named Wilbur who bucks convention to get dressed. There was a lot of understated humour, and the drawings were simple but fun. I loved the character of Grand-Pah, the big cheese of the naked mole rat world, who, when faced with the question of clothes or no clothes finally settles the matter with: WHY NOT? Which is as much of an endorsement as I need for getting dressed.

Last little note this time around is on the Guess How Much I Love You books. Someone gave us the original at one of our baby showers (yes, I know it's horrible that I can't remember who, but my memory is terrible at best and was five times worse when pregnant, so calculate whatever five times worse than terrible is, and you get the picture). Anyway, so I've been reading the original to Alex at night and picked up Colors Everywhere at the library. I love the Nutbrown Hare family and their books. They're sweet. And I'm occasionally a sap. So if you haven't read them to your children, make that happen. They really are classics.