I’ve been reading a lot lately but having trouble feeling inspired to write reviews. Fortunately I never have any trouble blathering on about picture books. I’m a life long reader, grew up surrounded by books and live in a house full of children’s books. Reading is important to me. Inspiring children to love books is important to me. Even before they can read, they can love books. Crocodiles are one of my favourite animals (someone once tried to tell me that adults shouldn’t have Favourite […]
“Congrats baby, soon you’ll be in good hands…”
For those of you who only know me through Cannonball Reads (as opposed to my blog, or Twitter or Tumblr or wherever), you may not know that the Sister Who Lives In My House* and her husband recently had a baby. An adorable, Auntie-melting, bundle of joy. Who also cries a lot and decided not to eat all that much for his first weeks on earth, thereby scaring the crap out of his first time, already anxious and definitely not prepared for this, no matter […]
International Princesses Day
In honour of International Women’s Day, here is a deeply feminist childrens’ book. Elizabeth is a beautiful princess who lives in a castle and is going to marry a handsome Prince called Ronald. Unfortunately, a dragon destroys her castle and makes off with Ronald, leaving Elizabeth no choice but to put on an old paper bag she finds and follow the trail of destruction to rescue Ronald. Spoiler Alert: She succeeds. She outwits the dragon and rescues Ronald. Ronald is not properly grateful and […]
Author/Illustrators are kind of cheating, taking all that talent up, don’t you think?
NetGalley introduced me to the work of Ashley Spires this week, and, if you haven’t read any of her picture books, you’re going to be thanking them as much as I am. Spires is both author and illustrator of The Most Magnificent Thing and Over-Scheduled Andrew, as well as many other books. The illustrations are simple – mostly penciled backgrounds, with the colorful characters and all the action in the foreground – but also really expressive. The young inventor in The Most Magnificent Thing, for […]