Zombie in Love

I haven't written about any picture books in a while and there's one we've been reading quite a bit around here that's pretty cute. Zombie in Love by Kelly DiPucchio is both funny and rather sweet. And I love the illustrations by Scott Campbell; they fit nicely with the text.
 
It is the story of Mortimer, a zombie, who is looking for love. All his attempts to woo the ladies only scare them. (To the right is Mortimer trying to give a waitress a ring that is wrapped around a dead finger.) My boys and I laughed the first time we read it. We've read it several dozen times since then and still find the book charming.

Llama Llama...

Noah was sick for the better part of a week so I recently spent a lot of time reading to him in the recliner. I've been experiencing a bit of a lag with picture books lately. I usually grab a handful of new ones each time I go to the library and they've largely disappointed. Nothing has been horrible, nothing has been great, they've all been kind of BLAH. And so I've been turning to old favorites, like the Llama Llama books by Anna Dewdney. There are 5 of them, the newest being Llama Llama Home With Mama where he is home sick. We got that one at the library a couple weeks ago and I returned it early because though it was cute, I thought it'd be cuter to read while I had an actual sick kid. Ha- see how that worked? We have Llama Llama Misses Mama and Llama Llama Mad at Mama checked out and have been reading those. Llama Llama Misses Mama helped us tremendously with the transition to school last year when Noah cried every morning when I'd drop him off. He and I read it every day and memorized it and recited it on the drive to school. All these books are written in rhyme and have a light message and I find them fun to read. (Note: I find anything that rhymes or is in any way rhythmic fun to read aloud.) They are written primarily for preschoolers/ toddlers and my younger ones are beginning to “age out” of them. I guess that's why I'm reading them so much lately. I know my time with Llama Llama is coming to an end and I'm trying to squeeze as many reads out of them as I can before it's over.

Socks for Supper

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that Jack Kent's Socks for Supper played a role in shaping who I am today. I have no idea how many zillions of times I've read that book, but the evidence of all those readings is clear from the binding. I have other books from my childhood I repeatedly read and the constant love is evident, but looking at Socks for Supper the boundaries between love and abuse blur, though I've always treated the book with reverence. It has simply been read more times than it was designed to do and literally is hanging together by several threads. The story is simple: poor turnip farmers dream of milk and cheese and ask the dairy farmers down the road to trade milk and cheese for the socks the woman knits from her husband's sweater. I don't want to spoil the ending for anyone who hasn't read it, but it's seriously sweet and the book message is one of compassion and selflessness. I should probably get around to duct taping it soon because my kids love it as much as I did.

Wonderstruck

I started and finished Brian Selznick's Wonderstruck the other day. I thought I was going to put it down and go to sleep but I just kept reading until it was over. It makes you feel so cool to read a 600-plus page book in a day, nevermind that 75% of the book is pictures. For those not familiar with Selznick's work, he is an illustrator who won the Caldecott Medal for his novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret, which I just learned is being turned into a movie. His books use illustrations to help tell the story in a way that I don't think had quite been done before, at least not blended with text like he does. His books are very cinematic. What's cool about Wonderstuck is two stories are being told simultaneously, one with pictures, the other with words and the stories later become intertwined. Selznick was just in town and my son and two of my friends were lucky enough to get to see him. It sounds like it was a great experience. It had been so long since I'd read The Invention of Hugo Cabret that I didn't break a commitment I'd made, but after reading Wonderstruck wish I would've. I'm officially jealous.