more kid lit, library love, and warm woolens for the winter

these are our latest library finds! we've got a great city library here, and my university has a huge children's lit collection as well, so we're never short on books. our city library even has a youth graphic novel collection (think graphic novels for preschool age, as opposed to the typical young adult collections), lego night and good coffee, and michigan also has MeLCat (state-wide interlibrary loan system) which is probably the greatest thing to have ever existed when it comes to literature.

click clack moo: cows that type (video here)

poinsettia & her family

red sings from treetops

wabi sabi (the link has a video interview with the author and artist)

inside of red sings from treetops

purple poetry

the cow/hen requests remind me of a certain occupy movement

closed. no milk. no eggs.

1. click clack moo: cows that type. hilarious. i immediately thought of the OWS movement, reading through the cows' requests and the "closed. no milk. no eggs," when the hens joined in. i thought of the unfair demands placed on retail workers this weekend, and what would happen if the entire staff joined together to say "we're not coming in. no workers, no products." i'm dreaming, i know. but, the solidarity amongst the barn animals is great, and in the end, the animals collectively retain their power and the farmer has to compromise. electric blankets for the cows! a diving board for the ducks! click, clack, moo. a case for typewriters to return to common use. maybe i should be rating books on whether or not they meet my ungendered/creative/funny/overall out-of-the-box standard? this one would get a 5 out of 5, for sure.

2. poinsettia and her family. cute. poinsettia is a girl, but she's pretty adventurous, and she describes the sunlight in the window as butter. we really liked this one.

3. red sings from treetops. this is poetry-based, a book about the colors of the seasons. the illustrations are awesome - most characters are wearing dress-shaped things, and it looks like the scenes are crafted from scrap paper. usually, children's poetry doesn't make it very far in this house (much to my dismay), but this one was a winner. a lot of alliteration, and great connections between every day concepts (like color) with nature and sensations. i think we might buy a copy. i don't want to give it back!

4. wabi sabi. this is a book about how a japanese cat got his name! he sets out on a search to find what, exactly, "wabi sabi" means. there are three parts to each page - the english narrative, an english haiku, and the same in japanese. we've been writing haikus for my friend brittany at the home ground. the illustrations here are also done with paper, and the video (linked above) tells a story about what happened to the original artwork. the book also reads top to bottom, vertically, rather than left to right as we would typically hold a book in our hands. we might be especially drawn to this one because it's a story about a cat, but this one deserves a spot on the shelf. it's also great for us grown-ups who seem to easily forget about the simple, quiet, undeclared beauty - although, children's lit seems to take me out of the grown-up over-thought world and into serenity. this is probably why i love libraries. more wabi sabi for big people: habitblog. alexisyael.

a few more links i discovered this morning on kid lit:
2012 bill martin nominees
motherreader - ways to give a book (2011 season) - nytimes best illustrated kid's books 2011

more that i'm looking forward to reading:
the wizard of oz graphic novels
little yellow leaf
the outspoken princess and the gentle knight (this is on its way through MeLCat)
and pete the cat is one they've been reading at preschool that grace has talked about non-stop for the last several weeks. i should probably read it, too.

we're off to (hopefully) sell some warm woolens this afternoon at beezy's cafe here in ypsi. here's a peek at what i've been up to: