Animals: Ingela P. Arrhenius

It's HUGE! Likely as big as your totz, the graphic depiction of various animals by children's designer in Sweden, Ingela P. Arrhenius, is captivating. There's no particular order or arrangement in the beasts, but there is a celebration of shapes, including lettering which changes from piece to piece. The palette is subdued. All imagery is caught on the endpapers for comparison.

Consider this for young storytime groups or singular readers who are ready to meet an array of animals and twirling letters. Each is friendly and waits introduction.

Animals
by Ingela P. Arrhenius
Candlewick Press, 2016

Flaptastic Animals: Charlie Gardner

Don't be fooled by the simple cover with raised, textured animals. DK delivers a board book chock full of imagery for your totz.


The foal, tiger, clownfish, polar bear, and kitten are featured. The reader is asked where each lives, and then a flap lifts to ask what other creatures live in the location as well. It's a great representation of the animal kingdom. Aside from the strange disparity between the cover and interior, this is a beautiful board book from DK.

Flaptastic Animals
text by Charlie Gardner
design by Victoria Harvey
DK, 2010

Diane Muldrow: Somewhere So Sleepy

Do you know that somewhere, in a leafy tree, a little koala has just finished her supper?
(lift flap) Cuddle Up, Little Koala.

And thus begins this sweet lift-the-flap board book. I like books that slip in a little nonfiction information along with the fiction, and this book does that effortlessly. Each spread begins in the same way: Do you know that somewhere...

And then totz are lead to a cozy nest, a squishy swamp, a warm little house, etc. What will they find there? Lift the large flaps to find out. The book is sturdy board and the flaps are big, almost full page size. I enjoyed the surprise of the pull-down window shade on the last spread.

Artist Jui Ishida's site is really simple, but hints at wonderful art! I'd love to see more.

Very cute book!

Somewhere So Sleepy
Author: Diane Muldrow
Artist: Jui Ishida
Golden Books (Random House), 2010

Animal Babies Around the House

Picture (photos) and word clues help totz guess the baby animal and its mommy in this sturdy 24-page board book. Animal Babies Around the House includes photographs of seven common house pets: cats, dogs, hamsters, guinea pigs, parrots, rabbits, and goldfish. An adorable golden retriever pup, a graceful, gliding goldfish, a peckish parrot, a cute kitten...

Meow!
I have four
furry paws.
Who is my mommy?

My mommy
is a cat.
I am her kitten.

Kudos to Kingfisher for these young, beginning books that boost totz' awareness of animals. Encouraging an early understanding and empathy for other living creatures in totz is a wonderful thing.

Also in the series: Animal Babies in Towns and Cities, which looks at foxes, squirrels, and other animals who co-exist with humans in our habitats.

Animal Babies Around the House
Kingfisher Publications, (PanMacmillan) 2005

Mem Fox: Time for Bed

It's the end of the day and nighttime has come. Little ones are getting sleepy as they're tucked into bed by their parents. Mem Fox's rhythmic, repetitive phrases ease toddlers toward the notion that bedtime has arrived.

It's time for bed, little sheep, little sheep.

The whole wide world is going to sleep.

A sleepy baby animal and its parent fill much of the visual space on each spread. The refrains and illustrations are equally cozy and are full of the kind of warmth that helps lull readers. At the end of the book a mom kisses her young one good night--a lovely and helpful cue to your little reader that her or his bedtime has arrived as well.

Jane Dyer's soft-hued watercolor art of animals such as cats, fish, and even snakes are a perfect fit for the story. This was originally published as a picture book by Harcourt, but it translates so nicely into board book size that it really could've been published as either one initially.

A classic, and one of my favorite bedtime books.

Mem Fox

You and your totz can enjoy one class's study of Mem Fox's books.

Time for Bed

Mem Fox, author

Jane Dyer, illustrator

Red Wagon Books, 1997

~ Joan Holub, author