undercover

Loving this new-ish look and find.  It’s got a curious color palette with modern sensibilities.  Kids examine groups of items, searching for the “odd one out” and in so doing, work on early inferential and reasoning skills.  Also to be appreciated are the book’s clever subtleties — its grouping of items of very similar shapes and silhouettes (look closely or you might miss the umbrella hiding out with similarly shaped frozen treats) and tongue-in-cheek visual humor (the egg amongst the birds).  Something for everyone—young children and their design-centric parents—in Undercover: One of These Things Is Almost Like the Others by Bastien Contraire.

Published by Phaidon.

midnight creatures

Move surreptitiously through the dense jungle, a dark cave, the moonlit woodland, the deep ocean and follow the night birds in search of hidden animals in this extremely clever pop-up shadow search book by paper engineer and illustrator Helen Friel.  Midnight Creatures is perfect for this week leading up to Halloween, or any time you're in the mood for a mysterious look and find.  Do you spot the fork-marked lemur and long-nosed chimaera?  Grab your flashlight and look very closely, or they just might sneak past you.  Published by Laurence King.

the twelve days of christmas

The Twelve Days of Christmas is yet another delight from artist Britta Teckentrup.  In her latest peek-through picture book, each of the gifts from the well-loved Christmas song “The Twelve Days of Christmas” wondrously appears as the page is turned.  This is the magic of her work.  This book is for those of us who have sung the lyrics of this song since our childhood (and recall the endless practice it took to learn all the gifts, in order, and sing them in time with the music), and now for our children who are just learning the words to this nostalgic classic.  Looking forward to sharing this one with Avery and Nate.

From Doubleday Books for Young Readers.

dory fantasmagory

Completely excited to finally, finally read Dory Fantasmagory with Avery.  I don’t know what took us so long, but now that we’ve got the first two Dory books in our hands, we’re diving in wholeheartedly.  Also, if you haven’t gotten a chance, listen to the recent podcast with author/illustrator Abby Hanlon on All The Wonders.  I love this quote from Abby at the end of the podcast — “The best stories are about little things.”  She also shares the secret to being a writer.  What I love about All The Wonders is that it’s like listening in on a wonderful conversation between two friends talking about books, only it’s one of the most incredibly insightful conversations you’ve ever heard.

Off to read Dory!

a year full of stories

The cover of A Year Full of Stories is modern yet warm and inviting, which is a perfect fit for the collection of stories inside waiting to be read and shared.  The folk tales and legends are from all over the world and celebrate the changing of the seasons, cultural events and international festivals that take place throughout the year.  Some of September and October's stories are: Why the Evergreens Keep Their Leaves (America), The Gifts of the North Wind (Norway), The Raja and the Rice (India) and The Buried Moon (England).

This beautiful anthology is one to keep nearby to read aloud and enrich your year, as the days move forward and turn into passing months full of traditions, milestones, gatherings and convivial times with friends and family.

Written by Angela McAllister, illustrated by Christopher Corr and published by Frances Lincoln Children’s Books.