Recommends from Books Around the Table

I love it when Joan and I review the same books on readertotz. We live across the country from each other, and we work fairly independently on totz as we write our own works. So if you see a book reviewed twice you can believe we recommend it! i.e. the last two Harry posts!



In place of a review this week, I want to redirect everyone to Books Around the Table. Author/Illustrator Laura Kvasnosky looks over her new grandson's collection of board books and is heartened by what she finds. Enjoy!

September Pick for the Older Sibling: Zelda and Ivy, Keeping Secrets

If you don't know Zelda and Ivy, run out right now and read everyone of these fox sister adventures. Laura McGee Kvasnosky brilliantly captures the antics and intrigues of the older and younger sibling.

First published as picture books, Zelda and Ivy's short chapters are now featured in the reader format. Brava! Perfect! Think James Marshall. Exactly.

In Zelda and Ivy, Keeping Secrets, the duo, along with their neighbor Eugene, woozy-weasel promise to keep secrets, while younger sister Ivy gets the upper hand on April Fool's day, and all three perform a most elegant opera. It's the subtle truths that Laura weaves into her stories which ring of the best in life and bring smiles to readers. Whether how it's so hard not to tell a secret, or be a diva and steal the opera, you and your younger reader will nod and giggle over the revelations.

Painted in gouache resist, the compositions, colors, layouts, and characters will keep you turning pages for more. I definitely need the fox sisters' style. I want Zelda's leggings! Be sure to stop and appreciate the endpapers. Beautiful turquoise butterflies flutter you into and out of the story.

Enjoy Zelda and Ivy, Keeping Secrets from the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award winning author. Read it and smile. And then share it with the older sibling of your totz!

Zelda and Ivy, Keeping Secrets
by Laura McGee Kvasnosky
Candlewick Press, 2009

Todd Parr: The Okay Book

It’s okay to like this book. It’s definitely okay to like this book. Readers of The Okay Book will learn that it’s also okay to have freckles, wear different socks, and try new things.

The art is all bold black lines with bright, solid-color infills. They’re childlike in their simplicity, but the story packs a powerful message: You are okay as you are.

Inside Scoop:
Todd Parr says: “My overall message is to empower kids to feel good about themselves while learning about differences, reminding them to be kind, and inspiring them. The end. Love, Todd.”











At 6 ½ inches square, The Okay Book is a fairly typical board book size, but its interior pages are heavyweight paper rather than board.

Todd’s website lists twenty-nine books to his credit. The Peace Book is another of my favorites and I love the whole Otto the dog series, which is based on Todd’s pit bull.

If your readertotz can’t get enough Todd, you’ll also find his characters on TV at ToddWorld on TLC and Discovery Kids. Your readertotz might enjoy these clips from the show. I particularly enjoyed seeing Todd interact with kids during a school visit 1 2 3 (in three parts) on YouTube.

This review wouldn't be complete without a quick shout out to author-illustrator Laura Kvasnosky for introducing me to Todd Parr’s books during a critique session in Seattle about five years ago. Thanks, Laura!

The Okay Book, 1999

Todd Parr, author-illustrator

Megan Tingley Books/Little Brown and Company

Joan Holub ~ author/illustrator

Leslie Patricelli: BIG Little

Hello all parents and grandparents of toddlers, as well as teachers, and librarians!

Joan Holub and I are psyched to begin readertotz together. We each will be posting every other week about an infant-toddler book in board, novelty, and interactive formats. We'll also throw a few extra blogs in occasionally. Watch for author and illustrator interviews and the highlighted book of the month entry for the older sibling.

We hope you enjoy the monthly community service project in the sidebar, and the playlist which will be updated periodically. Hats off to our sister site readergirlz. Nobody does it better!

So here's a warm welcome to readertotz and let the blogging begin!

Our first feature is Leslie Patricelli's board book:



I'm so proud that this is our first book review at readertotz. Leslie's bald baby character, clad only in a diaper, is a spirited, endearing figure. Join baby as he demonstrates opposites in BIG Little with humor and enthusiasm.

Leslie's graphic, bold colors and thick black lines combine to create an energetic delight. Her layers of colors build rich depth in her flat paintings. I especially appreciate her hand lettering which brings a cohesiveness to the entire layout.

Leslie's humor will be appreciated by totz and adults.

"Ladies are BIG.
Ladybugs are little."

Each comparison she has chosen to illustrate big and little are things dear to a toddler's life: dandelions, puddles, trikes, and of course babies themselves.

Be prepared to be charmed from the first spread:

"Heads are BIG.
Toes are little."

to the last:

"The moon is BIG.
My night-light is little."

Who can resist smiling at baby's square nose, wiggling toes, and pursed lips as he blows out his cupcake candle?

Insider Info:

I can share that Leslie and I first took an amazing picture book class together about ten years ago under Keith Baker and Laura Kvasnosky. Leslie and I sat next to each other as she wrote dandelion poems, and I wrote a book about squirrels. As critique partners a few years later, I had the pleasure of seeing her baby board books in dummy form. Margaret Chodos Irvine and I knew these would bring joy to many. Needless to say, we were right! Woohoo! Here's a recent photo of me and Leslie.


As a side note, Joan and I are author/illustrators, and we will review and celebrate books of authors we don't know and of those we do, dare I even say, our friends? The industry is not that large, and we refuse to overlook the best of the best, because of a relationship. Our aim is to bring great infant-toddler books to you. So enjoy!

Here's to Leslie Patricelli's board book BIG Little.
Candlewick, 2003
* Click on the cover to purchase from Powells.

Lorie Ann Grover ~author/illustrator