Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site

I know it's been a while since I've slowed down to take the time to share one of our favorite picture books, but I've finally have got one to share with you all today. It's called Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site by Sherri Duskey Rinker and illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld. If you happen to know my little guy you probably know he's all about things that go so this was the perfect read for him. We see different rough and tough construction trucks as they work during the day but then each one settles down at the end of the day for a good night's rest. The story is just a few lines of rhyming text on each page just the perfect length for little ones. The illustrations are so charming, and you'll find some surprising bedtime favorites that you might not expect being part of rough and tough construction trucks' bedtime routine. It's a very fun read but also a great wind down read to a busy day. I'm sure this will become a bedtime favorite for many!

Part 2 - Spotlight on the Author Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Welcome to part two of my spotlight on author Amy Krouse Rosenthal. She has published about 16 children's books and even a few adult books too. I'd love to highlight a few of our favorites here today.


First up is a fun little series of simple books that play on the opposite of what one might suspect like a little owl who would rather go to bed than stay up, a pig that's neat and doesn't enjoy having to mess up his room and a pea who wants to eat healthy food rather than junk food for every meal. Little Hoot, Little Pig and Little Pea are illustrated by Jen Corace and her simple line drawing with soft touches of watercolor illustrations add so much charm to these little books. These books have a fun way of teaching kids that it's good to clean up, get your rest and to eat the right foods.


Spoon illustrated by Scott Magoon is a funny book with a great message that we are all special in are own way. The illustrations add lots of humor in their depiction of different utensils like knife, fork, chop sticks and spork.



Bedtime for Mommy has Ms Rosenthal back to her humorous flip on the expected with a little girl attempting to tuck her Mommy in for the night only to be met with the usual excuses of wanting just a few more minutes, a glass of water, a bedtime story and so on. After succeeding at the task of getting Mommy finally to bed the poor little girl now has to get Daddy to bed. Its a great way of using humor to teach kids about situations in this case bedtime. This book was illustrated by LeUyen Pham and is filled with funny, lively and brightly colored pictures.

Other books by Amy Krouse Rosenthal include: Duck! Rabbit!, Yes Day!, One of those Days, the OK book, It's Not Fair!, The Wonder Book and coming soon Al Pha's Bet.

A Basket Full of Kisses

Valentine's Day is coming up so I wanted to share some of our favorite reads for the Holiday. Today, I've grouped some of our favorite Valentine books that all focus on kisses.

If Kisses Were Colors by Janet Lawler and illustrated by one of my favorites Alison Jay. A mother shares with her child that if kisses were colors, pebbles, comets, flowers and so on that there would be an abundance of each. The mother concludes that her kisses are her way of showing her love. It's a heartwarming, simple book that is a shower of love to share with your own little ones. The illustrations are gentle and soft perfectly complimenting this story done in Alison Jay's usual folk art, crackle style.


Counting Kisses by Karen Katz is a perfect Valentine's read for even the youngest of kids. A family helps lull their baby to sleep by counting down kisses starting with 10 kisses on babies toes all the way to 1 kiss on baby's head. Sure to fill your little one with love and giggles!


Next up is Kiss Kiss! by Margaret Wild and illustrated by Bridget Strevens-Marzo. Bold, colorful and lush illustrations of jungle animals and their parents accompany this story of a little hippo in such a hurry to start his day that he forgets to do something very important. But all along the way he gets reminders and he hurries home to give his Mom a kiss. My two are often in a hurry to get to their school or play dates that I don't even get a goodbye. I love this great little reminder to say goodbye and that a kiss is nice too.



If Animals Kissed Good Night by Ann Whitford Paul and illustrated by David Walker is a wonderful good night book close to this little basket of books. Soft, but vibrant pictures of baby animals and their parents kissing goodnight fill this book. The story is of a Mom tucking in her own little one as they wonder together how the different animals might say goodnight. Each kiss shares traits with the animal. One of our favorites is the sloths that kiss so slow that we have to check back in throughout the story to see if they have finished.

A Basket Full of Polar Bears

A basket full of polar bear books, that is. We're learning all about artic animals around here. So I wanted to share some fun Polar Bear reads with you all.


I love mixing educational non-fiction reads with fun fictional ones on the topic we're learning about. Usborne books never disappoints for educational and fun non-fiction reads. Here are some fact filled books for all ages:
Polar Bears Luxury Touchy-Feely Board Book by Fiona Watt - ages 9 months and up
Bears by Emma Helbrough - ages 5-7. About all types of bears including polar bears.
Polar Bears by Conrad Mason - ages 7 & up
As always you can contact me if you'd like to learn more about Usborne books!


Hush Little Polar Bear by Jeff Mack. Okay could that polar bear be anymore cuddly looking? It's a sweet good night read as a little girl sings her stuffed polar bear a bedtime song. Follow along as her vivid imagination transports the polar bear on a wonderful bedtime journey.



Polar Bear Night by Lauren Thompson and illustrated by Stephen Savage. I love the bold, modern illustrations in this book and the cool blue tone color scheme. It's simple story of a little polar sensing something special is about to happen wonders out of his den to explore. He returns to his cozy den sleepy from his adventures making it a great cozy bedtime read.



The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett. In her wonderful retelling fashion of old tales Jan Brett brings us a fun winter twist on the tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Beautiful realistic drawings accompany the text.



Panda and Polar Bear by Matthew J. Baek. A little polar bear lives at the zoo. At the end of his habitat is a high white cliff. Curious about the white cliff and what might be out there he heads off to explore. Its a story of exploration and friendship as two very different bears meet for the first time. The soft watercolor illustrations are sweet and stunning.



Romeo and Lou Blast off by Derek Anderson. Last is a funny read about two friends that are on quite the adventure in their very own rocket ship made out of snow. It's a fun, imaginative read with bold, expressive, colorful illustrations. Get ready to blast off for some serious fun with Romeo and Lou.

Long Night Moon

My last read to share with you from our reading list on the moon this week is Long Night Moon by Cynthia Rylant and illustrated by Mark Siegel. "Long Ago Native Americans gave names for each full moon they watched throughout the year", so starts this wonder filled story. January’s moon is a stormy moon, October an acorn moon and so on through each month. Rylant expands these given names and traits of the moon with an eloquent poem for each month's full moon. Equally magical are the charcoal, pencil and pastel illustrations that accompany the text. We love reading this from the fall through winter and watching the moon change as the months go by. It's a very peaceful and cozy read on a long chilly night.

Reading on the Moon

Continuing on with Moon Reads this week here is another pair of great books-


From Usborne Book's amazing picture book series is On the Moon by Anna Milbourne, created by Laura Fearn and illustrated by Benji Davies. This collection of picture books is hands down my favorite series by Usborne. These are fun reads that read like a story but are packed with educational facts about the various topics that are covered. This one will not disappoint as it takes young readers on a journey to the moon. There are full page illustrations that are combined with NASA photographs of the moon.



I Took the Moon for a Walk by Carolyn Curtis and illustrated by Alison Jay. This is a simply lovely rhyming story of a boy who takes the moon for a walk one evening. The text is poetic and visual as it takes you along this late night walk. The story plays on the idea of how it seems like the moon is always following you wherever you may go. At the end are two pages of facts about the phases of the moon. Equally lovely are Alison Jay's trademark oil painted illustration with a crackled finish. This is a moonlight walk you and your child will want to take again and again.

A Pair of Sleepy Reads

I'd love to end my quiet week with these two great artsy, sleepy reads.


So Sleepy Story by Uri Shulevitz. Everything in a sleepy house is sleepy, sleepy until there is a disruption to their quiet rest and soon everyone is up and dancing! Things quiet down and they all drift off again, sleepy, sleepy and hopefully your little ones will be sleepy, sleepy too. The illustrations are ink and water color and move between blue-gray tones for sleepy time and brightly colored for when they are disturbed out of their sleep. Everything in the sleepy house from dishes to chairs have faces and are alive to sleep or dance about.


A Book of Sleep by Il Sung Na, is just that a book of all the ways different animals sleep, except for a night owl, who's up for the night. He keeps a watchful eye over everything until the morning when he's fast a sleep. There's a collage style to the ink and watercolor illustrations playing with patterns and textures. The pages are filled with little line drawings with all kinds of animals and nature for your little one to gaze at.

The Quiet Book

I'm in a sleepy, quiet kind of mood these days. School's started, soccer has started and lots of playdates on the books. I feel like we're always on the run so I'm longing for those quiet fall days. You know just watching the leaves change color, long afternoon walks, enjoying the cooler weather. Speaking of weather it is still H-O-T, hot here I think adding to my quieter disposition. So I thought I'd feature some fun sleepy time, quiet time reads this week to match my mood not necessarily our reality. I'd like to start with The Quiet Book by Deborah Underwood and illustrated by Renata Liwska. This is simple read about all the different kinds of quiet. From sleepy time, to fun with friends, to taking in wonders around you there are many kinds of quiets and yes even mischievous quiets. My Mom often says that when we were little if my sister and I were being quiet she knew there was a good chance we were up to something. While not all the quiets might click with you and your young ones, many will and there will probably be others you and your child can add to the list too. The illustrations are sweet and quiet, a perfect match to the text. It is a wonderfully charming read.

Good Knight Sleep Tight

Yet another happy library find. Good Knight Sleep Tight by David Melling will capture your imagination and tickle your funny bone. I would like to start with a little on the illustrations. In my opinion illustrations are more important than the story of a picture book. A good story line can also carry a picture book but after all these are called picture books so the illustrations are where it’s at for me. This book delivers both a good storyline and wacky, whimsical illustrations that do what all great picture books should do. They add even more to the storyline than the written words tell. There are numerous cast of characters to be watched in the tapestries of the castle and on the Good Knights shield. The Good Knight is accompanied by a lion on his shield that has his own activities and actions going on as they go along their quest, so be sure to keep an eye on him.

This is a great read especially if you are about to welcome a new little baby to your family. The story is about just that. A young prince is not to impressed with his new baby sister. All is going along okay until her favorite royal pillow is destroyed and the Good Knight is called on to re-stuff the royal pillow so that peace and quiet will be once again restored to the castle. In the end the little prince’s attention and care is all that is needed for the little princess to be satisfied. I think it’s a great lesson for older siblings on how much their new little brothers and sisters look up to and adore them too.

Piggies!

Since we're celebrating my youngest's Birthday this week, I decided it would be fun to feature her favorite reads this week. I also wanted to bring in some flowers for the background too add to the fun of her week of picks here.

Piggies by Audrey Woods and illustrated by Don Woods is one of her absolute favorites. She squeals "Piggies!" every time we read it together, spends long periods looking at all those piggies and their antics. She even recites it pretty well from memory pointing to her own 'piggies' as she goes.

What's not to love in this lusciously illustrated book? There is so much fun packed into these illustrations, I love all the details. The story is sweet and simple just how I adore them. The piggies are delightfully entertaining and sometimes mischievous. It’s a great bedtime read too as it ends with goodnight kisses for each of the piggies before they all drift off to sleep.

Oliver Who Would Not Sleep!

Oliver Donnington Rimington-Sneep COULDN'T and DIDN'T and WOULD NOT SLEEP! so starts the book Oliver Who Would Not Sleep! by Mara Bergman and illustrated by Nick Maland. It became an instant favorite with us. It's reminiscent of the children's classic by Crockett Johnson, Harold and the Purple Crayon. Both tales of imaginative little ones that go on an adventure with beloved toys rather than off to sleep. Oliver takes the readers on an amazing journey into the world of play and imagination. It’s a fun, rhyming read that's a great way to end your day and send your little ones off to sleep filled with wonderful dreams of their own adventures.