book reviews

i'm excited about these library books i've recently come across.



this is a page from the board book "swimsuit" by kit allen. each page is a simple illustration with a one-word description, which together tell the story of a day at the beach. i love it because it reminds me of eastern point beach in groton, connecticut, where i grew up. it really evokes the feelings of the heat, the itchy sand, the cold water, the slimy seaweed, the yummy treats from the beach house, and the exhaustion on the way home. and the illustrations are great. his website is fun, and he has three other books in this series: "sweater," "long johns," and "galoshes."



this book, "river town," by bonnie and arthur geisert, is one of a series of four books on small towns, each dedicated to a different way of life depending on the landscape. the others are "desert town," "mountain town," and "prairie town." the illustrations are intricate, and you have to look really closely to follow the small changes that happen in each town over the course of a year (like weddings, births, funerals, fires, new buildings, etc.). they're great at teaching how geography and landscape affect how people live. we haven't attempted to read these to noah yet, but aaron and i have really enjoyed them.



this board book, "awake to nap" by nikki mcclure, i read about in mothering magazine--a few days after our friend rachel told us she'd gotten some of nikki mcclure's posters for christmas. i love that it's an alphabet book, with beautiful cut-paper illustrations for each letter, but it stops at the letter "n." (this is because, according to the review, that was just as far as nikki mcclure could get, since she was working on the book during her infant son's naptimes. she felt like stopping there said something about life with babies.) her paper cuts are really lovely. she also has another kid's book, "welcome," which she wrote while pregnant with her son, and a baby journal, "the first 1000 days." you can buy her stuff here.



this book i read at sarah and jessa's house. we just ordered it with some christmas money and now it's one of our absolute favorite books. "a teeny tiny baby," by amy schwartz, illustrates the daily life of a teeny tiny baby, and it rang really true to our experience. the baby talks about how often he likes to eat (and the illustrations show his mother nursing--all the time!), all the places his parents have taken him in the city, all the different ways he likes to be transported (i.e. snugli, sling, carseat, stroller, his "other sling," etc.), how moody he is, how everyone jumps to make hime happy... it's really funny and great. you can read an interview with author amy schwartz here.



okay, one more! this book, "that's not my truck" is a "touchy-feely" book from usborne. we got this one and "that's not my puppy" from grandma and grandpa bandstra for christmas. they're awesome! noah's just become interested in touching and feeling the sensory parts, and the text is really funny too. they choose sort of random aspects of the items in question to compare (like, "that's not my puppy. its collar is too shiny." or, "that's not my truck. its radiator is too holey."). there are a bunch more in the "touchy-feely" series.