More Picturebooks

I haven't spent much time in the past, in this blog, talking about picturebooks. I'm a novel reader and that's what I love most. Necessarily, however, I read a lot of picturebooks too and I'm coming to understand the beauty, simplicity, and power of picturebooks more and more. So now you get to read picturebook reviews too. Lucky you!

Orange Pear Apple Bear (Simon & Schuster, 5/07), by Emily Gravett
Orange Pear Apple Bear is a delightfully artistic book designed for children, but fun for adults. It opens as an object book, an orange on the first page, a pear on the next, then apple, then bear. But what comes next makes the book surprising and fun to examine. Next, we have an orange bear. Later, the bear juggles, changing the order of the simple words, apple, bear, orange, pear. So, it's a deceptively simple and clever picture book that will serve a variety of functions in early literacy. On the basic level, there is the vocabulary. Next there is the playing around with the meanings of words, nouns, adjectives, etc. Finally, there is word order and how it changes the meaning of a sentence. Best of all are the beautiful and simple watercolor illustrations.

A Dog Needs A Bone! (Blue Sky Press, 8/07) by Audrey Wood
What is your dog thinking about all day long? Bones! Toy bones, treat bones, squeaky bones. The dog in this story promises to do all kinds of funny, crazy things, if only his mistress will give him a bone! How about a carrot? No? Will this dog ever get a bone? This doggy sees bones everywhere! How many bones can you find in the illustrations? This newest offering from the classic Audrey Wood is full of her humor in both rhyming text and illustrations and is perfect for younger children.