The Gardener by Sarah Stewart

I mentioned The Friend, the first book I read by Sarah Stewart, on here a few months ago. It made me cry. 

Yesterday I read another of her books which did the exact same thing. In fact, my husband walked in, saw me crying and read the book for himself. Stewart's husband, David Small, offers poignant pictures in this simple story told through the letters of a girl living away from her family during the 1930's.  When she is sent to live with her uncle, a baker in the city, she is determined to make the stern man smile. She finds a secret place where she can plant the flowers she loves and with the help of new friends, makes it beautiful.

If you're looking for an uplifting, beautifully told story, I recommend The Gardener.

Jungle Drums by Graeme Base

I've mentioned Graeme Base before as an author who does more in his books than just write a cute story and pair it with illustrations. He always goes beyond the simple story to a deeper meaning and his pictures invite you to observe more than what your eye initially sees.

Such is the case with Jungle Drums, a story about a warthog who thinks he and his fellow warthogs pale in comparison to the other jungle animals with their feathers and stripes and spots. When he receives a pair of magic drums that will grant his wishes, what happens is a  feast for the mind and eye.

The Z Was Zapped by Chris Van Allsburg

My mom was a kindergarten teacher for years and she cleverly used this book as a reader's theater play, with each child holding up their assigned letter picture and reading the words on the back. Each black and white picture shows a letter in the process of some like-lettered verb. The K was kidnapped, the B was badly bitten, the N was nailed and nailed again.

I've encountered a lot of alphabet books that are bad attempts at being clever, but miss the mark with confusing images or overwhelming ideas. Van Allsburg's easy to understand pictures speak for themselves and encourage pre-reading. After one reading children will remember right away when they see the picture that the Z was zapped!

Pssst! by Adam Rex

I read Pssst! for the first time today and had to post.

Part comic book, part prose, completely funny. A young girl goes to the zoo and is enlisted by a variety of animals to get them items they desire. The penguins want paint, the sloths want bicycle helmets. Why? she asks them all. Each creature is able to answer with a seemingly logical response.

I found the choices Rex made both visually and with typesetting a treat, aiding in the out-loud reading of this book. (Think: words covered in ice for the penguins and a bright Hola! from the javelina). My almost five-year old asked for it to be read again immediately.

The Friend by Sarah Stewart

There have only been a handful of books that have caused me to actually shed physical tears while trying to read them aloud to my children. The Friend is among them.

I wish I knew more about the story behind this story--about the daughter of a rich couple who is left with the family housekeeper for a week. Beautifully illustrated by Stewart's husband David Small, we see how the older black woman loves the precocious girl left in her care. After each day's tasks - which the girl 'helps' perform - they walk down to the shore to rest and play.

Toy Boat by Randall deSeve

This story, beautifully illustrated by Loren Long,  gives life to a small boat that ventures away from his boy one day. In the wake of larger, faster boats on the lake, the toy boat feels lost and scared, but mostly alone.

While it focuses on the adventure of the toy, I loved that it showed the connection between the boy and his beloved boat. Children will connect with the boat's feelings, but also with the boy at the thought of losing a favorite toy.

* Don't worry-this one has a wonderful, happy ending.

A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee by Chris Van Dusen

Let me introduce you to Mr. Magee, a single man who has a trusty dog, Dee. In A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee, he packed his rv and headed out to go camping. Or so he thought. Enter one bear and a runaway camper and camping doesn't go as planned.

Then, I found him in another volume, trying another trip: boating, in Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee. Enter a pod of whales and a tree-born boat (yes, tree-born) and the boat trip, too, goes off-schedule.

Then there's Learning to Ski with Mr. Magee. You get the picture.

Told with an upbeat cadence of rhyme, it's one adventure after another for Mr. Magee and his dog, Dee. The cleverly solved disasters will delight older preschoolers. But beware: I found there are enough words on each page to make very young readers impatient for you to turn the page.

Pip & Squeak by Ian Schoenherr

Pip & Squeak follows two mice as they travel over the snow to a friend's house, looking along the way for the right gift to take.

Told in simple prose, this tale is wonderful for very young children. Beautifully illustrated, it captures the world from a mouse's view as they rush across a clothesline and tumble down a snowman.

Pip & Squeak easily wiggled their way into my middle child's heart and he loved to reread their adventure through the snow again and again.

I Know a Rhino by Charles Fuge

I could recommend any book by Charles Fuge, but I start with I Know a Rhino because it was my introduction to the author and might remain my favorite of his.

Even for a small child who doesn't understand the darling ending to this well-illustrated book, the playful pictures of a little girl living out adventures with various wild animals are captivating.  Each of my children have a page that they want to return to for just one more look.

John Butler- illustrator

As I've mentioned before, the pictures found in children's books account for most of its appeal--especially for younger children.

When I find an illustrator I appreciate, I hop on our library's online catalog and reserve everything I can by that artist. Such was the case when I read my first book written and drawn by John Butler, Can You Cuddle Like a Koala. He uses soft, realistic images of animals, not cartoony variations. I have found his works in board bindings, as well as in large, beautiful hardback versions. This is the sort of art I would want to use in a nursery, but more than that, I understand when my daughter pets the pages on her lap.

*Note: Butler has also illustrated books that are intended for older children like Bashi, Elephant Baby  and Shadow, the Deer, both by Theresa Radcliffe.