M is for...

The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone

This classic Little Golden Book is a favorite of my husband's from his childhood, and now he enjoys sharing it with our children.  Lovable, furry old Grover begs you not to turn the pages because he heard there was a monster at the end of the book.  With each turn of the page Grover frets more and more.  Little does he know that he IS the monster at the end of the book!  Silly Grover!

G is for...

 

Goldie Locks Has Chicken Pox by Erin Dealey

Poor little Goldie Locks, she is covered in polka dots!  Uh oh, she has chicken pox!  A number of her storybook friends stop by to wish her a speedy recovery, including The Three Bears and Little Bo Peep.  Her precocious little brother teases her relentlessly, but he won't be laughing for long...soon he finds the tell tale spots on himself! 

The nostalgia of the illustrations combined with the clever rhyme made Goldie Locks Has Chicken Pox one of our favorite library finds this summer.

A Hip Hop Tale

It's no secret that I enjoy children's books with clever wordplay and a touch of humor.  Hip and Hop, Don't Stop! by Jef Czekaj is one of those books.  Hip is a turtle from Slowjamz Swamp who loves to rap as slow as molasses.  Hop is a bunny from Breakbeat Meadow with a talent for rapping lightning fast.  One day they each see a poster for the Oldskool County Rap-off, and a new friendship forms as they practice together for the contest.  When the big day arrives, all of Oldskool County is there to see the contestants "battle" each other with their raps.  In the last round, Hip and Hop face off against each other.  Hip rapped so slowly that no one paid attention to him.  Hop rapped so fast that no one could keep up with her.  But when the two friends team up and rap together they find the perfect balance and pretty soon the entire audience is moving to the beat.  Hip and Hop share the title of "Best Rappers in Oldskool County."

My daughter enjoyed the bright, fun illustrations in Hip and Hop, Don't Stop!  The allusions to the world of hip hop music are amusing, including animal characters such as "Ludafish," "Jay Zebra," and "Queen LaTreeFrog."  The raps are clever and entertaining, and include visual clues to enhance the reading/rapping experience...red text is meant to be read slowly and green text is intended to be read very fast.  Hip and Hop, Don't Stop! was definitely the favorite pick from the library this week. 

There's No Place Like Home

"I'm off to find a planet where everything's just right!"

As I've mentioned before, we love a wacky twist on a traditional tale, and Goldilocks and the Three Martians by Stu Smith doesn't disappoint.  This zany take on the classic Goldilocks and the Three Bears is one of our family's favorite books.  I've lost count of how many times we've checked it out from the library!

Goldilocks is fed up with chores, homework, and her mom's strict rules, so one day she builds a rocket and prepares to set off on a quest to find a place where moms don't pack beets in your lunch, don't make you wash behind your ears, and actually let you eat on the couch!  "She filled her tank with porridge, packed cookies just in case, took her cat and dog along...and blasted into space."  Goldilocks and her pets scour the universe looking for a place that's just right.  After traveling to each planet in the solar system and finding a flaw with each one, they finally settle on Mars.  Upon landing, Goldilocks enters a quaint Martian house where she gobbles up a bowl of yummy Martian stew, rests her feet in a comfy Martian chair, and snuggles down for a nap in a cozy Martian bed.  The Martian family returns home to find their house in disarray and soon discover Goldilocks sleeping in the baby Martian's bed.  "Aliens for dinner! they all began to cheer."  Sleepy Goldilocks awakens to find the Martian family "ogling her like a burger and some fries", but her cat and dog come to the rescue and the whole crew scrambles back to the rocket to make a narrow escape.  The trio zooms back to Earth where they land with a crash.  As Goldilocks hugs her worried mom, she realizes that maybe the planet Earth isn't so bad after all.

The vibrant computer-generated illustrations by Michael Garland bring life to the action-packed story.  Unfortunately Goldilocks and the Three Martians is currently out of print, but we hope you will find it available at your local library.  It is definitely worth the search!

Bubble Trouble

"Little Mabel blew a bubble, and it caused a lot of trouble...
Such a lot of bubble trouble in a bibble-bobble way."

Bubble Trouble by Margaret Mahy is a tongue-twisting tale of a runaway bubble that causes nothing but trouble as it carries Mabel's baby brother away.  Mabel and her frantic mother chase the bubble all over as the baby bounces high above the town.  One by one the townspeople join in the pursuit, trying to come up with a solution to the baby bubble predicament..."they giggled and they goggled until all their brains were boggled."  Finally, the wicked boy Abel, "a rascal and a rebel" unintentionally saves the day with a sling and a pebble.

The use of playful rhyme and alliteration throughout the story make this tongue-twisting tale a delight to read.  The watercolor and cut paper illustrations by Polly Dunbar are whimsical and enchanting, much like the text.  So the next time you want to give your tongue a tickle, give Bubble Trouble a try.

Shake Your Rump

"I'll wiggle my rump with a bump, bump, bump, and smash your house!"

Ok folks, this one made me laugh out loud!  The Three Little Gators by Helen Ketteman is a very entertaining retelling of the classic tale The Three Little Pigs.  In The Three Little Gators, Mama Gator sends her three little gators out to make their mark in the wild swampland of East Texas.  But before they depart, she warns them to build sturdy houses to protect themselves from the notorious Big-bottom Boar, who would love nothing more than to make a tasty snack out of little gators.  So each little gator sets out to build his new home.  The First Gator wisely chooses to build his house out of rocks, but his two brothers think rocks are too heavy and require too much work, so they continue on to build houses of their own using sticks and sand.  Unfortunately, sticks and sand are no match for the Big-bottomed Boar, who wiggles his "rump with a bump, bump, bump," and smashes the houses down.  The Second and Third Gator "scramble through the brambles" "faster than a fox after a muskrat" straight to the home of First Gator.  Although the Big-bottomed Boar "wiggled and bumped, and waggled and thumped," he couldn't knock down the rock house.  Never one to miss out on the chance for a tasty snack, the Big-bottom Boar attempts to enter the rock house through the chimney, and receives a nice set of grill marks on his rear end as a souvenir.

From the silly catchphrase to the bold illustrations, The Three Little Gators kept us smiling from beginning to end.  We highly recommend this new humorous twist on an old classic.

"Yippee-O-Ki-Yee!"

Whenever I'm selecting a new batch of books to check out from the library, I'm always drawn to humorous retellings of classic songs, rhymes, and stories.  That is exactly what this book delivers.  There Was a Coyote Who Swallowed a Flea by Jennifer Ward gives a Southwestern twist to the classic silly song "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly."  In this version, a wily coyote swallows a tickly flea, plucked right from his knee.  In his quest for a remedy he continues swallowing a series of very interesting things, each one a little bit zanier than the last.  "It takes lots of practice to swallow a cactus!"  The flow of this rhyme is so catchy I find myself singing the story instead of simply reading it.  And the bold, delightful illustrations by Steve Gray make this one a new family favorite.

Troublesome Tresses

"She whines and she moans and she howls in despair, but Ella Kazoo will not brush her hair."

I'm sure that at some point as parents, we've all matched wits with a tenacious toddler who refuses to brush her hair.  This is a daily battle that I can certainly relate to, so when I saw this book at the library last week, I couldn't resist checking it out.  Ella Kazoo Will NOT Brush Her Hair by Lee Fox is a cautionary tale about a little girl who would rather do anything else on the planet besides brush her hair.  Ella "stashes her brush in the drawer with her socks," and when her mom desperately tried to tame Ella's mane, "she just runs off like a swift hurricane."  Ella's untamed tresses grow longer and more tangled with each turn of the page, until one morning Ella discovers her locks have grown so out of control that they've taken over the entire house!  "This hair must be stopped!"  A team of hairdressers rescue Ella from her troublesome tresses and "all due to a haircut, quite simple and snappy, both mother and daughter are blissfully happy."

We enjoyed watching Ella's tangled mane take on a life of it's own as the story progressed.  The wonderful ink and watercolor illustrations by Jennifer Plecas brought Ella's increasingly wild hair to life.  Most importantly, the hilarious Ella Kazoo Will NOT Brush Her Hair taught my daughter an important lesson...take control of your hair before it takes control of you!

"Howdy Folks!"

Hey y'all, our next book takes place deep in the heart of Texas!  The Cotton Candy Catastrophe at the Texas State Fair by Dotti Enderle is an amusing tale about a boy named Jake and his misadventures with his favorite sugary confection.  When Jake walks into the fair, he heads straight for the cotton candy booth to pick up a cone of his favorite fair food, pink cotton candy.  Little does he know that as he strolls around the fairgrounds, a strand of his cotton candy is still attached to the spinning machine, and he's leaving a trail of sticky pink fluff everywhere he goes.  Jake is completely unaware of the havoc his cotton candy is creating as he visits the midway, the merry-go-round, the haunted house, the livestock pens, and the Texas Star Ferris wheel.  Even Big Tex, the icon of the State Fair of Texas, can't escape the chaos, and the 52-foot tall cowboy soon finds himself wrapped in a pink tutu of cotton confection.  Luckily, Jake realizes what has happened and is able to herd the cotton candy into the Cotton Bowl, and in the end it's back to business as usual at the fairgrounds. 

The entertaining illustrations by Chuck Galey made us giggle as we witnessed the pink fluffy mass wrap itself around icons of Texas like longhorn cattle, the Texas Star, and Big Tex.  Whether you are a native Texan, or just wish you were one, The Cotton Candy Catastrophe at the Texas State Fair is sure to bring a smile to your face.