We're trying to track the books that slip through our fingers every week. It's hard. I'll put some on the home page, and I'll (lazily) keep the rest here for a while. Eventually, in my not-so-copious spare time, I might try to integrate them all into one list, but ... on the other hand, why bother? This site is starting to resemble my kitchen cabinets - perhaps it's art!
This wonderful fantasy story, about the Trumpets, who live underground and come out during the warm weather, and the Grumpets, who live in the cold regions, encompasses an entire world. It's got amazing pictures of the two races spying on one another (while harvesting berries), and so forth. Miniature submarines, poetry-spouting trumpets, a wonderful adventure, and totally cool pictures. Unfortunately, it's out of print and highly expensive (we were lucky and picked up our copy at a library sale.) But if you ever get the chance, your kid will adore it.
Colin McNaughton has created a fun story about pirates. Not too scary - just scary enough. And the kids win. This link from Achuka publishers in the UK lists other of Mr. McNaughton's 60-odd stories - these nominated for prizes.
There are many King Arthur books - thousands. But we like this one. It's by Hudson Talbott and the pictures are lovely.
We adore Marcia Williams and her wonderful classic series of intricately-illustrated classics. Everything from Hamlet to bible stories will keep your child interested for hours.
We have several Ganesha statues around our home. He's the East Indian god of removing obstacles and a wonderful entity. This beautifully-illustrated book is just at the five year old level, and talks about how Ganesha was created by his mother out of mud - to watch out for her when she was in the bath. Several of the fantastical Indian gods are mentioned. Good for multi-culti upbringings.
My son adores this book, and I liked the style so much that I bought about four other books by the author, Roy Gerrard. Roy Gerrard is a total kick. He's a baby historian. Each of his books takes place during a particular time in history, and the plot of that book mirrors particular things that happened during that time. In Mik's mammoth, Mik is left behind by his tribe, so he, um, builds a wall, builds a garden, hangs with his wooly mammoth buddy, and eventually finds clay, lets it dry, and starts doing (voila!) cave paintings. My son is enraptured by this story. He will say "let's play 'Mik and Rum' and then he'll do cave paintings, wander around dealing with interlopers, and so forth. Fun to watch a four/five year old's development run in parallel with a cave man's (if you want to get cerebral). But basically, just plain fun.
These adventures are good old stories of forest animals and their goings-on. By Thornton Burgess, the stories are timeless and wonderful for working imaginations. This story is part of a bigger series.
