You know, I think I should post a regular kids book review here because I just love kids books. We do a lot of reading around our house and we are HEAVY library users. And everytime we get out a really good book; one that they kids really enjoy and I really enjoy too, I feel like I should tell everyone about it. Because face it, not all kids books are good. There are many that I do not care for, and as an artist I am VERY picky about illustrations. A really good book has a good story, great illustrations, lots of detail, ga clear illustration style, and is one that both the kids like and I like. That last bit is important. In fact, there is a whole category of kids books that really only appeal to parents. I think those are the WORST! Unless they are made, specifically for adults. I've got no problem with picture books for adults (hello, graphic novels) but I'm very annoyed with books that are ostensibly for kids but then are all nudge, nudge, wink, wink to the adult readers and really have no appeal for the child being read to. And by the same token I don't enjoy reading books that really only appeal to their kids. I mean, I'll read them if requested to, but I don't enjoy them. (I'm looking at you Scooby Doo books. You suck.)
So, I've had a couple of really good books lately, that we've taken out of the library several times, so I wanted to share them here. Because really, a good book you can share with a child is such a great thing. Look what you get when you read a good book together. 
Here's my two boys with my brother. Uncle LemurBoy if you will. Let me show you what they are so engrossed in reading.
The Birthday Cake Mystery by Thé Tjong-Khing. This book is great, and endlessly intresesting despite the fact that it has no words.
Really. No text at all.
Just great big, lovely, super detailed pictures covering the whole two page spread.
What the kids really love about this book is the fact that there is so much going on in each picture.
There are many different characters and each character has its own storyline.
And on each page something new happens in each storyline. Sometimes the storylines overlap a bit, as characters interact, but the beauty of it is that you could go through the book a dozen times and follow almost a completely differnt story each time.
And the characters are all nicely drawn. Clear, but interesting. Not too sylized, but with enough style that you can see it is a specific illustrators work. L.D. is particularly fond of these little Chameleon characters, as you have to really look hard to find them on most pages.
And in the end many of the different storylines come together. Its very satisfying. I don't know how older kids would react to this book, but my 3 and 6 year old are completely engaged the whole time they are reading it. I've seen the Little Guy (3 years old) page slowly through the whole thing only to close it up, turn it over and start again at the beginning.
And as an added bonus its a book that you can really linger over and engage your kids in conversation with, if you have the time or, conversely you can motor through it really fast if you are in a time crunch (ahem, bedtime, ahem). You can be all like, "onceuponatimetherewasadogwhobakedabirthdaycakeforalittlebunnytheend."
And story time is over. Because sometimes you are too tired to linger. You know what I mean.
Happy Book Sharing!
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