The Last Batch of Books

Today I want to talk about the last batch of books that Hannah got when she was born. These books are in English and they are excellent. So I think that they will be helpful to those of you who may be interested in selecting instructional materials or reading to their children.

Books Given to Hannah by Catherine and Maria
The books below were given to Hannah by Catherine and Maria. Catherine is a librarian and the books she selected are books that her daughter used to read when she was a child. So there was a personal connection to the books that Catherine and Maria bought for Hannah.

The first book that I want to describe is Spot's Little Book at the Farm. This book is small, meaning that the child can handle it. It contains pictures of farm animals with the text at the top of the page. The font size is pretty big so it's going to help the child as he/she learns how to read.

The second book that I want to describe is Goodnight Moon. This is another small book, made with like carton. The book has beautiful, colorful drawings and limited text. What is great about the book is that the pictures allow for flexible stories, centered around a bedroon. For those of you interested in using the book in the classroom, here is a link to a page that has excellent lesson plans that promote pre-reading, while-reading, and post-reading activities. http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/goodnight_moon.html


The third book that Hannah received from Catherina and Maria is Little Bear's Visit. I have to admit that I had never seen this book before. The drawing do look familiar, but I did not know who the artist was. Well, today I found out that Maurice Sendak, the artist, is considered to be the "Picasso of children's books. This book is for an older child, it has a lot of text. However, the drawings are so beautiful that I would use it when Hannah can't yet read. For those of you interested in reading about the author of the book Else Holmelund Minarik and Maurice Sendak, here is an interesting article published in the Deccan Herald. http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/jun112004/os4.asp

The last book that I want to describe is the "The Big Burger Book." This is another touch-and-feel book. It has no text but the colors are beautiful. Imagine a hamburger with tomato, lettuce, cheese, and the burger itself. It's big and noisy. So Hannah already liked it today, when she almost grabbed it (it's still difficult to grab for Hannah! a little to big for her tiny tiny hands).

Sandy's Book
Sandy is a former bilingual teacher, who is a grandmother (who happens to be the incoming Prez of a big association). She sent us a wonderful book title "Where the Wild Things Are", by Maurice Sendak. The book received the Caldecott Medal for the "Most Distinguished Picture Book of the Year" (1964). I learned that the book was the very unique because it dealt with the topic of dark emotions. Again, the drawing are beautiful, though some of them might be a little scary for a child. But the story is excellent. Here is a link to a page that has information on the story. http://childrensbooks.about.com/cs/picturebooks/fr/wildthings.htm

OK. This is it for today! More tomorrow....