Children's Books, Part Two

I thought I'd mention a few more children's books that my kid has loved (since I've dissed so many of them in the past).

A little book in French called Peppino by Pascale Bougeault, about a pig who runs away from home, is his current favorite. He still adores many of the children's books in French by Antoon Krings (not sure if I mentioned those before), including Mireille l'Abeille and Camille la Chenille.

He is absolutely crazy about Thomas the Tank Engine's BIG Lift-and-Look Book which provides him with about a hundred flaps to lift.

Lift-the-flap and pop-up books have been favorites of his for many months now, although the Spot series of books by Eric Hill meet with only lukewarm approval. He loves The Wide-Mouthed Frog by Keith Faulkner and Jonathan Lambert, and Says Who? by David A. Carter. (He's always on the verge of destroying the final, exciting page in the latter, where every animal pops up all at once.)

And as mentioned in an earlier post, he loves Byron Barton, especially My Car, The Three Bears and Machines at Work.

Oh, and though he's never been wild about Eric Carle, he adores What's for Lunch, in which a little cardboard monkey swings from a real string throughout the book.

As predicted, the Dr. Seuss board books, while not exactly fading out of sight, have lost some of their appeal at this point, perhaps from overuse more than anything else.

I'm constantly on the hunt for new children's books that he'll like, as his appetite for books is still voracious; I'm constantly disappointed by what I find in libraries and bookstores for children of his age (around one year old). People need to realize what kids his age, especially boys, perhaps, really adore: books that offer vivid pictures, unusual sounds, and surprising images (or interesting tactile encounters with the page), as well as (believe it or not) some kind of plot, with a rhythm in the sequence of pictures and in the words. It shouldn't be that hard; but considering the paucity of good books for young toddlers, books that live up to these simple requirements, perhaps it's harder than I think.