by Nancy Pearl
Kimmel wrote a number of other books about Hanukkah (in fact, the selection of books on the topic would be sparse indeed without Kimmel’s contributions). His best known is Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins, a collaboration with illustrator Trina Schart Hyman.Among his other titles are The Chanukkah Guest, a hilarious story of a very unusual fan of Bubba Brayna’s holiday latkes; and The Magic Dreidels.
Mrs. Greenberg’s Messy Hanukkah by Linda Glaser describes what happens when Rachel learns that there won’t be latkes on the first night of Hanukkah. Glaser also wrote a lovely, heartwarming tale of sharing the blessings of Hanukkah in The Borrowed Hanukkah Latkes.
A grandfather shares with his grandchildren not only the story of the first Hanukkah, but also his own Hanukkah experience in Germany during World War II in Sheldon Oberman’s By the Hanukkah Light, illustrated by Neil Waldman.
Other Chanukah books include a retelling of the Gingerbread Man story, Leslie Kimmelman’s The Runaway Latkes; Inside-Out Grandma by Joan Rothenberg (especially fun for a grandmother to read to her grandchildren); Runaway Dreidel! by Lesléa Newman; and David A.Adler’s Chanukah in Chelm, which offers an invaluable introduction to the people of Chelm. (Chelm is a fictional East European village best known for its utterly foolish inhabitants. Take a look at “Noodlehead Stories” for more tales set in Chelm.)
LET ME INTRODUCE YOU TO . . .
I think that children are naturally curious about other people—the way they live, what they eat, how they dress. Lively biographies are the way to feed this curiosity. They help children realize that other people are both the same as they are, and different. Here are some of the best I’ve found:
Jeanette Winter wrote and illustrated The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq, about Alia Baker, a brave Iraqi woman who saved all 30,000 of her library’s books from the ravages of war. The same story is told for middle-grade readers by Mark Alan Stamaty in Alia’s Mission: Saving the Books of Iraq, using a graphic novel format.
The creative genius of Ben Franklin is described in energetic prose and entertaining illustrations in How Ben Franklin Stole the Lightning by Rosalyn Schanzer. Schanzer also wrote How We Crossed the West: The Adventures of Lewis and Clark, another fine example of how to bring historical figures to life for young readers.
To Fly: The Story of the Wright Brothers by Wendie Old uses a picture book format to discuss the lives of both Orville and Wilbur, who began as bike mechanics and ended up as the forefathers of the crowded planes we ride on today.
Jean Fritz wrote a number of books on famous people (many of them major figures during the Revolutionary War period) that offer a spirited introduction to their subjects. My favorite has always been And Then What Happened, Paul Revere?, with its homespun illustrations by Margot Tomes, but I also enjoyed Will You Sign Here, John Hancock? and Where Was Patrick Henry on the 29th of May?
Other quality biographies for young readers include Only Passing Through: The Story of Sojourner Truth by Anne Rockwell; Nikki Giovanni’s Rosa (the story of Rosa Parks), with illustrations by Bryan Collier; The Boy on Fairfield Street: How Ted Geisel Grew Up to Become Dr. Seuss by Kathleen Krull; The Last Princess: The Story of Princess Ka’iulani of Hawai’i, written by Fay Stanley with spectacular illustrations by Diane Stanley that deepen the impact of this sad tale; Sequoyah: The Cherokee Man Who Gave His People Writing by James Rumford; Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution by Ji-Li Jiang; I Could Do That!: Esther Morris Gets Women the Vote by Linda Arms White (the story of the woman who almost single-handedly madeWyoming the first state to allow women to vote and also was its first elected female politician); and Andrea Davis Pinkney’s Alvin Ailey (illustrated by her husband Brian Pinkney), which describes the contributions to the world of dance made by the great African American choreographer.
MANY CULTURES, MANY VOICES
It’s a large and diverse world we live in, and one of the greatest gifts we can give our children is a sense of that diversity. And, of course, books are one of the best tools we can use to do exactly that.These picture books do so extremely well, without being preachy or pedantic.
A little girl helps her mother shop for and cook a traditional Korean dish (recipe included) in Linda Sue Park’s Bee-bim Bop!
In its photographs of children and adults from around the world, Ann Morris’s Shoes, Shoes, Shoes pictures the many and varied types of footwear worn by children and adults from Colombia to Kenya, from Sweden to Hong Kong, and beyond. As the accompanying rhyme has it: “All over the world, in lands near and far, there are shoes that are right for wherever you are.” Morris uses the same format in Bread, Bread, Bread, Hats, Hats, Hats, and Houses and Homes.
Every family has its own traditions—in Patricia Polacco’s Russian Jewish family, described in The Keeping Quilt, it’s handing down a quilt that’s been used in family celebrations for four generations.
Another book that helps children understand the passage of time, offers them a picture of historical events, and also features a quilt and its history is Jacqueline Woodson’s Show Way, with unforgettable illustrations in a variety of media by Hudson Talbott.
Janet S. Wong’s Apple Pie 4th of July celebrates America’s birthday through the eyes of a Chinese American child, who discovers—despite her fears—that real Americans do eat Chinese food, every day of the year.
Much as they might love their adopted country of America, for many immigrants “home” will always be where they came from. In Faraway Home, Jane Kurtz explores this theme through the eyes of a little girl who both loves and hates to hear about her father’s childhood in Ethiopia, because she worries that when he goes there for a visit, he won’t come home.
Consider offering these to young readers, as well: Crow Boy by Taro Yashima; Allen Say’s Grandfather’s Journey, Kamishibai Man, and Tea with Milk; Riki Levinson’s Watch the Stars Come Out, illustrated by Diane Goode; and Mama and Papa Have a Store by Amelia Lau Carling.
MEET MOTHER GOOSE
Mother Goose rhymes are often among the first books that parents share with their children, and rightly so—these rhythmical and rhyming tales and riddles are conveniently short (so they’re easy to remember) and fun to listen to. According to Mother Goose scholars, the rhymes were handed down orally over the last five hundred years or so, and many of them perhaps originated in real events. (“Ring Around the Rosie” might refer to the ravages of the Black Plague in the fourteenth century, or it might not.You pick your scholar and make your choice.) The rhymes were first collected and printed in England in 1744 by John Newbery, who is memorialized in the children’s book award named for him.There are probably as many versions of the Mother Goose rhymes as there are stars in the sky (just a slight exaggeration). It does seem as though nearly every illustrator worth his or her salt has produced a book. Here, though, are the ones I treasure, in alphabetical order by illustrator.
Nina Crews’s The Neighborhood Mother Goose—the neighborhood is Brooklyn, and the illustrations are photographs
Tomie dePaola’s Mother Goose
Michael Hague’s Mother Goose: A Collection of Classic Nursery Rhymes
Arnold Lobel’s The Arnold Lobel Book of Mother Goose: A Treasury of More Than 300 Classic Nursery Rhymes
James Marshall’s Mother Goose
Will Moses’s Mother Goose, illustrated with warm oil paintings in his trademark folk art style.
Iona Opie and Rosemary Wells’s My Very First Mother Goose and Here Comes Mother Goose (Opie is one of the leading scholars of folklore and children’s rhymes; Wells shows her love for the subject in every line of every illustration)
Richard Scarry’s Best Mother Goose Ever
Blanche Fish Wright’s The Real Mother Goose (originally published in 1916 and now available in many sizes and types—get the fiftieth-anniversary edition with the wonderful introduction by children’s book doyenne, May Hill Arbuthnot)
Two others that I get a kick out of are probably more appropriate for adults than children, but tak
e a look at them and decide for yourself. Photographer William Wegman, known for using Weimaraners instead of humans in his pictures, takes on the classic rhymes in his Mother Goose; and the longtime NewYorker cartoonist makes good use of his trademark weirdness in The Charles Addams Mother Goose.
Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel take a familiar Mother Goose rhyme and give it a little tweak in And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon. Imagine what might happen if the dish and the spoon decide they’re not coming back any time soon—which means that nobody can ever read the rhyme again! Mini Grey also begins with the same rhyme, and takes it in a quirky direction, in The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon, characterized by her trademark humor.
MIND YOUR P’S & Q’S
As I was writing this section, I realized that I had no idea what the title phrase meant—what are p’s and q’s, anyway? After several hours of research, I discovered that nobody else really knows either.The idiom did appear in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1779 and was used then as we use it today. Adults spend a serious amount of time trying to get their kids to be more polite—Yes, Thank you, Please, Share, Don’t hit, Don’t bite, Be nice to your sister/brother, and Be patient are probably among the most worn-out phrases in a parent’s vocabulary. Here are some books that offer a lighter look at the topic.
Gelett Burgess’s Goops and How to be Them: A Manual of Manners for Polite Infants Inculcating Many Juvenile Virtues, etc. was published over a century ago, but is still great fun to read—the illustrations are a delight and the verses, once read, are almost hypnotically unforgettable. Burgess covered everything from tidiness to fortitude. Here’s the entry on table manners:The Goops they lick their fingers,
And the Goops they lick their knives;
They spill their broth on the tablecloth—
Oh, they lead disgusting lives!
The Goops they talk while eating,
And loud and fast they chew;
And that is why I’m glad that I
Am not a Goop—are you?
What Do You Say, Dear? and What Do You Do, Dear? by Sesyle Joslin, both illustrated by a very young Maurice Sendak, are fanciful introductions to the appropriate manners for many different occasions.
How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food? by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague (“Do they stick green beans up their nose? . . . Do they toss their spaghetti up into the air?”) will elicit a giggle from even the youngest listener.
In Mind Your Manners! Diane Goode drew on a primer written in 1802 to teach Americans “the advantages of good manners” as the basis of this whimsical book.While the correct behavior at a banquet in Colonial times is stated, it’s immediately contradicted by the detailed and very funny watercolor illustrations.
And in Are You Going to Be Good? by Cari Best, poor Robert gets advice on what to do and not to do from everyone in his family.
MUSIC TO MY EARS
Music plays an important part in the creative growth of a child, and I’m pleased to tell you there are some excellent books available that give a sense of the world of music, without a note being played—and they’re just waiting to be shared with a very young reader.
In The Philharmonic Gets Dressed, Karla Kuskin (text) and Marc Simont (pictures) offer a warm and loving picture of how the 104 musicians and one conductor of a symphony orchestra get ready for their evening’s performance.
Imagine a group of farm animals setting up their own band (their specialty is “Old Macdonald Had a Farm”) and rocking and rolling with the best of them at their nighttime concerts, and you just might come up with Punk Farm, written and amusingly illustrated by Jarrett J. Krosoczka. (This is an especially apt choice for young Wisconsin readers.)
Four terrific read-alouds that get kids’ toes a-tapping and their hands a-clapping and a-snapping include Chris Raschka’s Charlie Parker Played Be-Bop and Mysterious Thelonious; Hip Cat by Jonathan London, starring Oobie-do, an oboe-playing cat who heads for the bright lights and welcoming arms of jazz lovers in the big city; and Karen Ehrhardt’s This Jazz Man, which gives “This Old Man” a jazz beat. (And the lighthearted illustrations by R. G. Roth add a whole new dimension to the text.) All four are marked by the strong rhythms of their texts (kids will soon be reading along with you).
Lloyd Moss’s Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin introduces readers to ten different orchestral instruments by means of some rollicking rhymes and Marjorie Priceman’s watercolor illustrations. It also functions quite nicely as a counting book.
Kids age three and up will enjoy Peter Sís’s Play, Mozart, Play!, a biography of the musical genius who wrote his first composition when he was five years old, and, if we can believe Sís’s text and art, it’s all due to his father’s encouragement (not to say pushing).
NOODLEHEAD STORIES
Noodlehead stories are a subcategory of folk tales. And they’re pure joy, both to read and to tell.These tales just go to show that foolishness exists in countries all over the world.There’s a universality in the realization that we’ve all done something foolish at least once in our lives, and reading these stories gives us a chance to laugh at ourselves, too. Sometimes, as you’ll see below, all the noodleheads live in a particular village, but just as often they’re scattered throughout the population. Get out a world map and see how many countries are represented in these books.
A most famous town of noodleheads is Chelm, in Eastern Europe; among the many collections highlighting the escapades of these foolish men are The Jar of Fools: Eight Hanukkah Stories from Chelm, with text by Jeffrey A. Kimmel and illustrations by Mordicai Gerstein; three collections by Isaac Bashevis Singer, including Zlateh the Goat and Other Stories (with pictures by Maurice Sendak), Stories for Children, and When Shlemiel Went to Warsaw and Other Stories; and My Grandmother’s Stories: A Collection of Jewish Folk Tales by Adèle Geras.
Epossumondas, written by Coleen Salley with delightful illustrations by Janet Stevens, is the story of a little possum who takes what’s told to him very literally indeed, which leads to fun for the reader and a headache for his mother. Another book with a similar plot is Juan Bobo Goes to Work by Marisa Montes.
A prime collection of noodlehead tales can be found in Noodlehead Stories: World Tales Kids Can Read and Tell by Martha Hamilton and Mitch Weiss, and Noodlehead Stories from Around the World by M. A. Jagendorf, which is a good resource for adults working with children this age, but not an especially appealing book for kids.
You might also want to take a look at the “Tall Tales” category in this section.
ONE PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS
Sharing wordless picture books with children is an excellent way to help develop a child’s imagination and language skills by making up the words to go along with the illustrations, but even better than those practical outcomes is that these books are a pleasure to pore over:Anno’s Journey; Anno’s Italy; and Anno’s Spain by Mitsumasa Anno
A Boy, a Dog, a Frog, and a Friend; Frog on His Own; Frog Goes to Dinner; and others by Mercer Mayer
The Boy, the Bear, the Baron, the Bard by Gregory Rogers (this is a book that will work well with kids through the fourth grade, and it’s a nice way to introduce the youngest readers to William Shakespeare and his life)
Breakfast for Jack and Jack and the Missing Piece by Pat Schories (Jack’s an engaging—and misunderstood—orange-and-white spotted terrier)
Free Fall (a little boy’s imagination runs at full speed in his dreams at night) and Tuesday (frogs explore the world while everyone else is sleeping) by David Wiesner
Full Moon Soup, or The Fall of the Hotel Splendide by Alastair Graham (what unusual events occur when the chef has a bowl of soup by the light of the full moon)
The Other Side and Zoom by Istvan Banyai both explore how the world changes depending on your angle of observation
Rain by Peter Spier
Ship Ahoy! by Peter Sís
Sidewalk Circus by Peter Fleischman, with illustrations by Kevin Hawkes (almost wordless, but I couldn’t resist
it—and neither will young children)
Snow Day by Daniel Peddle
Sunshine by Jan Ormerod
Time Flies by Eric Rohmann (very strange and sure to provoke a discussion of what it’s really about)
The Yellow Balloon by Charlotte Dematons (children will enjoy searching for the yellow balloon on every page as it makes its wind-driven way around the world)
You Can’t Take a Balloon into the Metropolitan Museum; You Can’t Take a Balloon into the National Gallery; and You Can’t Take a Balloon into the Museum of Fine Arts by Jacqueline Preiss Weitzman (good books to look over before you’re off on a family trip to Manhattan; Washington, D.C.; or Boston)
PICTURE PERFECT
Trust me on these—although they’re done in different media, in different styles, and with very different sensibilities, the artwork in these books is simply remarkable. And best of all, you can follow these up with others illustrated by the same artists.
