Saturday, December 31, 2011

Reading Roundup: December 2011

By the Numbers
Picture Books: 14

Sources
Library: all

I read so few picture books this month that I'm only going to pick one standout and one award.

Standouts
Overall: I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen
Oh, yes. It's true. This quirky tale of a bear with a missing hat is that purely delightful. I read it, giggled helplessly, and then went running around making everybody at work read it, just to see their expression when they read the page where the bear realizes where his hat is, and then what he does about it.

Because I Want To Awards
Sort of a Tangential Holiday Book: The Third Gift by Linda Sue Park
This book about the harvest of frankincense is clearly a Christmas tie-in (three guesses as to where his first successful harvest goes) but to my mind it's really about a father passing on the art of his life to his son. While it's not laid out explicitly in the text, the close and loving relationship between boy and man is clear to see in the illustrations. You can tie that into Christmas however you wish.

1 comment:

Storied Cities said...

I couldn't help it, I laughed so hard at the end of this book, tears were streaming out of my eyes. I think my kids thought that was even funnier than the actual book (which my 3 year old didn't get at all).