A Gaggle of Book Reviews

The girls of the Gaggle of Girls love dogs. We have 2 dogs, both of whom are good with the kids, and one that loves playing fetch with tennis balls and frisbees. But yet they begged for a new dog and/or a puppy regularly. We check out breed books and research training techiques, but there’s nothing quite like a real puppy. Imagine the joy when I got a puppy for my birthday!

For those of you who also have dog and puppy-loving kids, weve found two great puppy/dog themed picture books that you’ll love. We love Amy E. Sklansky’s books, including The Duck who Played the kazoo, so we were thrilled to find From the Doghouse: Poems to Chew On. We’ve loved the Fancy Nancy books by Jane O’Connor (as well as her adult novel), so we were eager to read The Perfect Puppy for Me. Both books celebrate the joy of dogs and puppies in a unique way, and in a way that will enchant the adult reading the story as well as the listening kids.

From the Doghouse: Poems to Chew On is a collection of dog-themed poems by Amy E. Sklansky, and illustrated by a team of 4 beaders: Karla Firehammer, Karen Dismukes, Sandy Koeser, and Cathy McQuitty. Each page has a poem, often one that will make you grin. Each of the poems is beautifully illustrated by using small beads on fabric to create an image. The poems are in a variety of styles, which encourages the inner poet in children by making poetry so accessible. Each illustration took 40-120 hours, a lot of work, and with an end result that makes a huge impact!

One sweet poem is called “Into Your Loving Arms I Leap:

Into your loving arms I leap –
Please scratch between my ears.
I love the way you cuddle me
And ease my dogy fears.

The mix of sweet and funny poems plus bead-iful illustrations makes From the Doghouse a great read. Even if you’re leery of poetry, give this a try! Sklansky writes poems that are really enjoyable and accessible, this is a fun read for the adult as well as for the kids!

Jane O’Connor and Jessie Hartland teamed up to write The Perfect Puppy for Me, with Jessie Hartland also providing the illustrations. This book is about a boy who loves dogs as he looks at the dogs around him, trying to find the perfect dog/puppy for himself. (A warning to parents - the boy is getting a puppy for his birthday - be prepared with an answer about puppies and your own child’s birthday!) Each two-page spread is about one of the dogs the boy knows, each one highlighting a different breed. When looking at the dogs and breeds, you learn the pros and cons of each type of dog, and why a certain breed may or may not be the perfect dog for your family. (They don’t include the type of dog in our family, though - Australian Cattle Dogs.

My daughters were excited to learn the little tidbits of information and trivia on the pages, and found some of the listings very funny. For example, when talking about his friend’s basset hound, the boy says, “Here is what Poker likes to do: sleep, nap, snooze, rest”. The assessments of each dog breed seem very accurate, and my girls quickly realized that some breeds would be a better fit for our family than others. Now that we have a puppy, they are especially curious to know the answer to a question posed by the book, is there a dog tooth fairy? The combination of cute illustrations, real breed information, and a story where the boy gets a puppy at the end made this book a winner in our family!

If your kids love dogs and puppies, and you’re looking for picture books youll enjoy reading, pick up The Perfect Puppy for Me and From the Doghouse. If you get a new puppy, good luck! You might also want to pick up How to Talk to Your Dog, by Jean Craighead George and illustrated by Sue Truesdell, a good read that also has some really useful information, and is one of the best non-fiction puppy picture books I’ve seen. Go enjoy some puppy books with your favorite puppy lover!

The Duck Who Played the Kazoo is the newest children’s picture book by Amy E. Sklansky, illustrated by Tiphanie Beeke. Amy’s catchy poetry combined with the beautiful watercolors by Tiphanie make a book that is appealing to children and also fun for the designated reader. It isn’t always easy to find picture books that enchant children which adults will enjoy as well, but Amy and Tiphanie have created such a book in The Duck Who Played the Kazoo.

The poetry in The Duck Who Played the Kazoo has a meter and rhyme that is fun to read; the poems also include zu zu, words that manage to evoke the sound of a kazoo! When we first meet Duck, he is alone in a quiet lake:

There once was a duck
who loved the kazoo
He played:

La ditty, da ditty
zu zu.

While the white duck loves his peaceful lake, he becomes lonely, and packs up to find some other ducks. He lands near a river, and watches a group of brown ducks play in the water. My daughters (9, 7, 4) thought that it would be difficult for Duck to find new friends at the river, but after he plays his kazoo, they are quick to welcome him:

“Hooray!” they all shouted
when his tune was through
“Would you like to swim
with our fine feathered crew?”
“You bet,
Let’s get wet!”
Zu zu.

The pages become brighter and more colorful as The Duck Who Played the Kazoo enjoys being with his friends. The repeating zu zu in the poetry is both reassuring and fun, a sign that the duck is content and the story is continuing.

The evocative words and the gorgeous watercolors bring Duck’s story to life. My daughters all gave the story a thumbs up, and we needed to read it several times. Unlike many rhyming books for children, The Duck Who Played the Kazoo continued to be enchanting even after the 5th reading in two days! We highly recommend The Duck Who Played the Kazoo; it’s a great mix of language play, accessible poetry, and a fun storyline for kids and adults. My only complaint was listening to the effusive kazoo playing by my daughters in the days after we read the book!

Once you’ve had a taste of the poetry in The Duck Who Played the Kazoo, you’ll want to check out Amy’s other books, and more books with Tiphanie Beek’s illustrations.

This book was received from the publisher for review

My daughters love fairies. They build houses for them, look for them on nature walks, and adore listening to stories and poems about them. Here are a few of our favorite tales of Fairies.

Cicely Mary Barker’s books are wonderful, and a fabulous peek into the world of the Flower Fairies. She has written a lot of books about fairies, so even if your library doesn’t have the ones we mention, they will likely have several others! A great book to get you jump started into the world of Flower Fairies is Cicely Mary Barker’s original book, The Complete Book of the Flower Fairies. Each page contains a picture of a Flower and its Flower Fairy, and the poem that goes with him or her. The poems are sweet and short, and teach you about the special qualities of both the plant/flower and the Fairy that lives there.

Once you read Flower Fairies Secret World, you will never look the same way at a stand of flowers or a group of sticks. Cicely Mary Barker’s book opens your eyes to all the places Flower Fairies are hiding (which gives you some great ideas on how to find them!), as well as teaching you about how the Flower Fairies live their lives in their world.

Once you have discovered the magic world of Fairies, you will no doubt be drawn into building homes for the fairies. So check out Fairy Houses … Everywhere!, and explore the photographs taken of homes made for Fairies by humans. Every creation uses natural materials, and is built into the existing landscape, in exquisite miniature. The photographs are astounding, and you truly feel as if a Fairy is just waiting for the camera to leave so he/she can move into one of these fabulous homes. Watch out where you step in your yard after reading this book, though - you may accidentally disrupt a Fairy house!

Fairies are fast - they will frequently leave their homes before your children get out of bed, and then seem to magically disappear whenever a human is nearby. Since real Fairies are not ideal playmates, the Klutz Fairies kit helps your children create Fairies to populate their homes, and brighten their days.

May the fairies come visit you and your family soon!

As I have mentioned before, I am not a big poetry fan. However, my children love poetry, and therefore I give it a chance. We have all enjoyed books by Shel Silverstein, Jack Prelutsky, and several others, but I’m finding it hard to kick that prejudice. It’s books like the two in this review that remind you that poetry can simply be very short stories. I know I spent a lot of high school having to analyze poetry, and it is great to just enjoy the poetry in children’s books!

I picked up Lemonade Sun by Rebecca Kai Dotlich, illustrated by Jan Spivey Gilchrist because of the pretty cover. I was quickly browsing the library shelves before I needed to run off to another errand, and I was grabbing the books on display by the children’s librarian that we had not yet read (we had read most of them!).

This book is a tribute to summer. The words flow in rhythms that match the Jump Rope patterns, poems that slip down sweetly like lemonade, poems that feel like the tide coming in to touch your toes, then racing away again. This is a beautiful book that is great for reminding you of sunny beach days, either in the evening after a day at the beach or on a rainy or wintery day. The illustrations perfectly match the poems, and make it feel like the sun is warming the pages. Lemonade Sun will bring a smile to your face, and warm you up. But watch out for kids who then want a glass of lemonade!

Rumpus of Rhymes: A Noisy Book of Poems is written by Bobbi Katz and illustrated by Susan Estelle Kwas. This is one of the few books we have read lately that is NOT a great bedtime book! It can be a good transition book between acting wild and calming down to read, though.

Rumpus of Rhymes starts with a poem about books that have the loud words explode out of them in the night, disobeying the “Quiet Please” sign in the library. That poem and all the ones that follow have fun sounds for the reader, using multiple fonts and font sizes for emphasis. The illustrations show children in enthusiastic play and noise-making. There’s even a poem called “Hay Fever Season” with lots of sneezes, and a great illustration of a girl sneezing the petals off a flower!

See if you can get past your issues with poems with these books - then check out the other children’s poetry in the library - I’m sure the librarian can help you find more fun poetry books!