Children's Books discussion

The Picture Book Club will be ringing in the New Year without words and celebrating some beautiful illustrations and storytelling-through-art with Wordless Picture Books.

Here is your opportunity to VOTE for the five books you would most like to read from our list. To see a comprehensive list of the books nominated, please see the column on the right of this post, "Books mentioned in this thread" and then click the "More..." link. Please vote by listing the five books you want to read in a COMMENT.

Votes will be accepted until December 17th*. Thanks!

*Sorry for the brief period, I'm trying to get votes collected before Christmas week so there is more of an opportunity for people to get the books given holiday library closures and the general bustle of the season.

Here are a few that I really enjoyed:

You Can't Take a Balloon into the Metropolitan Museum by the Preiss sisters (Robyn Priess Glasser does the Fancy Nancy illustrations)

June 29, 1999 (another David Wiesner book)

And a few I would like to read:

Home (Horn Book Fanfare List

Dinosaur! by Peter Sis

Clementina's Cactus by Ezra Jack Keats

Museum Trip by Barbara Lehman

Here are my suggestions (I have not read any of them):

Good Dog, Carl (I really want to read this)

The Tree House

If You Lived Here You'd Be Home By Now

South

Sidewalk Circus

Wave

Window

Good Night, Garden Gnome

Where's Waldo? The Great Picture Hunt

Carl's Christmas

Here's my list:

The Yellow Umbrella

Sector 7

Changes, Changes

The Lion & the Mouse

Tuesday

Flotsam

The Snowman

I enjoy David Wiesner's books also, especially Free Fall, Tuesday, and Flotsam.

I have a question - would "The Arrival" by Shaun Tan be too mature for consideration? Could we look at it as an extra, if the group chooses to do so?

Wilhelmina wrote: "I have a question - would The Arrival by Shaun Tan be too mature for consideration? Could we look at it as an extra, if the group chooses to do so?"

I haven't read it (yet!) but know in looking over some of the reviews that people have found it challenging to classify this book. But, I see it is considered for grade 7 and up and 128 pages. So, while classifying it as a "picture book" is perhaps open to interpretation, I do think for purposes of our group it is too long and mature since we tend to focus on the 4-8 year old range and picture books of 32-pages or less. Thank you for bringing attention to it, though :-)

(Could you edit your comment so it is not hyperlinked to the title? That will prevent it from being on the master list when the nominations come up. Thank you! I don't want to delete your nice comment. ETA: Thanks for doing so :-)

Flotsam by David Wiesner

You Can't Take a Balloon into the Metropolitan Museum by Jacqueline Preiss Weitzman

You Can't Take a Balloon into the Museum of Fine Arts by Jacqueline Preiss Weitzman

You Can't Take a Balloon into the National Gallery by Jacqueline Preiss Weitzman

Wave by Suzy Lee

Sector 7 by David Wiesner

The Lion & the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney

Oh, I'm sure there are so many others I've read and enjoyed, or that I have on my to-read shelf. I'm now wishing I had a wordless-picture-books shelf. Ah well.

I'm happy to read whichever books are selected, although I've read a couple of wordless picture books I haven't enjoyed too.

I also loved The Arrival by Shaun Tan, but I don't consider it a kids' book.

Uh..let me see...
Flotsam
The Lion & the Mouse
The Snowman
Peter Spier's Rain
The Red Book

And are we allowed only five?


Zoom
Wave
Changes, Changes

I can't stop adding books! lol

Oh, I bought this book: Bubble Bubble and it has a story. But then I found it in the library and it was wordless. I guess they changed it to make it more marketable????

Definitely Flotsam - we adore this book. The Lion & the Mouse is great, but perhaps too obvious of a choice since it just won the Caldecott. Perhaps Pancakes for Breakfast? We just love Tomie dePaola! I think our girls will enjoy The Silver Pony: A Story in Pictures and Four Hungry Kittens, but we haven't read them yet.

Kirei wrote: "And are we allowed only five? ."

You may nominate as many as you like ;-) When it comes time to vote, then you must choose only five (very hard decision, I know!)

How did I leave out The Lion & the Mouse? I'm glad that others remembered! Too beautiful!

Chandra wrote: "I hope for those of you haven't read The Arrival we've inspired you enough to try it even though it likely won't be selected for the group read ;-)"

Me too. A masterpiece. One of my very favorite wordless books.

A Boy, a Dog, and a Frog by Mercer Mayer
Rain by Peter Spier
Anno's Journey by Anno
Story of a Farm by John S. Goddall
Chalk by Bill Thomson
Flotsam by David Wiesner
Any title by Arthur Geisert

This is a fun and exciting theme, Chandra!

A Boy, a Dog and a Frog is an old title, published in a small board-book-sized format. There was a film (video)? made of the book at one time that is highly entertaining too!

I love Anno and hope his works aren't being forgotten. Ditto for Geisert.

David wrote: "I love Anno and hope his works aren't being forgotten. Ditto for Geisert."

Sounds great, David! Would you like to select a particular title of Geisert's to nominate? It helps if we have something specific for the list and also if it's a more widely available title (via libraries, etc.) If not, I will be sure to look one up and add it to the list :-) Thanks.

David wrote: "A Boy, a Dog, and a Frog by Mercer Mayer
Rain by Peter Spier
Anno's Journey by Anno
Story of a Farm by John S. Goddall
Chalk by Bill Thomson
Flotsam by David Wiesner
Any title by Arthur Geisert"

A Boy, a Dog, and a Frog

Peter Spier's Rain

Anno's Journey

The Story of a Farm

Chalk

Kathryn wrote: "Sounds great, David! Would you like to select a particular title of Geisert's to nominate? ...If not, I will be sure to look one up and add it to the list"

Oink

Please VOTE with a comment listing the five books you'd like to read. Thanks!

My five votes go to:

Flotsam by David Wiesner

You Can't Take a Balloon into the Metropolitan Museum by Jacqueline Preiss Weitzman (I'd really like to read all 3 but I know that's not going to happen)

Wave by Suzy Lee

Anno's Journey by Mitsumasa Anno

Chalk by Bill Thomson

ETA: Oh no, I meant to vote for The Lion & the Mouse but I don't know which book to take off, so I'll NOT vote for it. :-(

My five votes go to:

Good Dog, Carl by Alexandra Day

The Tree House by Marije Tolman

Flotsam by David Wiesner

Wave by Suzy Lee

Window by Jeannie Baker

My five votes goes to:

The Yellow Umbrella by Henrik Drescher

The Lion & the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney

Flotsam by David Wiesner

The Snowman by Raymond Briggs

Wave by Suzy Lee

Here are mine:

Flotsam by David Wiesner;

The Lion & the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney;

You Can't Take a Balloon into the Metropolitan Museum by Jacqueline Preiss Weitzman;

Zoom by Istvan Banyai;

Chalk by Bill Thomson.

My five choices are
Flotsam
Pancakes for Breakfast
You Can't Take a Balloon into the Museum of Fine Arts
Wave
Clementina's Cactus

My Choices are:

A Boy, a Dog, and a Frog

Peter Spier's Rain

Anno's Journey

Chalk

Flotsam

Thanks to all of you for voting, especially given the short timeframe this month. The winners are:

Flotsam (the resounding champion!)

Anno's Journey

Wave

Chalk

You Can't Take a Balloon into the Metropolitan Museum (I realize some of you wanted the "Museum of Fine Arts" instead but I made an executive decision and went with Metropolitan Museum for the very selfish reason that that's the one my library has! Hope you can all get that one or, if not, feel welcome to read the "Fine Arts" as I know the basic concept and style are the same.)

Alternate/Sixth Title:
The Lion & the Mouse

I hope you will have a chance to get these given that it's the busy holiday season for most of us. Please note that, with the New Year holiday, we won't begin discussion until January 3rd so you have a few extra days ;-)

I am so sorry that I missed all of this discussion. I am still getting comfortable with the group.

I am so excited to read these books. I also love seeing everyones votes because there are books we have not read and will add them to our books to read.

Please help, in the future what is the best way to "keep up" with the discussion, check the home page then look in the picture book section?
Thanks

Leslie wrote: "I am so sorry that I missed all of this discussion. I am still getting comfortable with the group.

I am so excited to read these books. I also love seeing everyones votes because there are books ..."

Leslie, one of the best ways to keep up is to check the different threads (some of the earlier threads are hidden) in the group (click on the group). If you want to get an email message about a particular thread, I suggest posting a comment and then you will get notifications if/when there is another comment posted. Also, click on the "polls" section in order to see and/or vote for any current polls. I hope this helps somewhat. Oh, and in case you have not noticed yet, there is a mandatory poll concerning wether or not you are interested in remaining in the Children's Literature group. All you have to do is vote "yes" if you are interested in remaining (and, I think this has to be done by February if I'm not mistaken).

Gundula wrote: "If you want to get an email message about a particular thread, I suggest posting a comment and then you will get notifications if/when there is another comment posted."

Leslie, Actually you don't have to post a comment. At the bottom of every thread there is a link that says "Email me when people comment" and you just click on that. And, when I make comments, I don't get emails because I have the box unchecked by default.

But, that only works for existing threads, not ones not yet started.

If you know which discussions you want to follow, such as the picture books club every month, you can go to that folder, and look for that month's thread(s) and make sure to read them if you see there are unread messages. They'll be a number in red there for unread messages. I think.

I read all the threads in all my groups so from the group's home page, I click on the "unread" link and all threads with messages I haven't read yet show up.

Leslie wrote: "Please help, in the future what is the best way to "keep up" with the discussion, check the home page then look in the picture book section?
Thanks "

Leslie, I see that Gundula and Lisa have already offered excellent suggestions :-) I know it's a little more difficult with the Picture Book Club because we read more than one book at a time and thus the titles don't appear on the home page so I hope some of their suggestions will work for you. I'm glad you are excited about the group :-)

Check back to this link come January 3rd as we'll begin our discussion of the Worldless Picture Books there then:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/4...

Abigail wrote: "I haven't had a chance to read Suzy Lee's Wave yet, for our official discussion, but I wanted to mention another of her wordless picture-books, Mirror, which I greatly..."

I read "Mirror" as well, but I did not like it nearly as much as "Wave." Wave is definitely among my favourite wordless picture books.

(title here needs edit - still says worldess instead of wordless :)

I just read South by Patrick McDonnell, a really wonderful wordless picture book about a cat who helps a lost little bird find his travel companions after the latter misses the start of the Fall migration, highly recommended, a very sweet and easy to understand story.

I know it's too late for a vote ... I'm not really much for wordless books (with the notable exception of Good Night, Gorilla, which I adore), but I did enjoy The Lion & the Mouse, but the real reason I'm posting is to let people know about a great book I just "read" this week: Mirror by Jeannie Baker - my daughters and I really loved this book! it shows two parallel lives, one family in Sydney, Australia, and one family in a rather remote region of Morocco. The artwork is fabulous (far superior to Where the Forest Meets the Sea).

Jeannie Baker is amazing.

By coincidence, I just "read" another lovely wordless book, this one is a Christmas book (I had no idea! that came as a surprise to all of us - it's not shelved as a xmas book at the library) -Small, Medium and Large This book is SO cute! And the artwork is perfect - very realistic and lovely watercolors. A little girl gets a cat, a dog, and a pony for Christmas, she makes them all cereal for breakfast, they go sledding, and then all climb into her bed and go to sleep at the end. In the end notes, the author tells us that the animals depicted are real members of her "family", and she tells us a little about each of them.

I will be looking for Jeannie Baker books at the library next time!

And I love Christmas books so I am putting "Small, Medium and Large" on my list for next year! :-)

And I just put it on my to-read shelf because I saw it on Kathryn's activity on my update feed. ;-)

I thought The Chicken Thief was creative, delightful and offers some food for thought. It's from France. Check out Elizabeth Bird's wonderful review here, which also offers some insights in the wordless picture book genre as a whole:

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

I'm jumping on the Jeannie Baker bandwagon!!! I just read Home (Horn Book Fanfare List and absolutely loved it! :-)

We just read The Arrival by Shaun Tan. I've seen a few discussions about it on other discussion boards, but I thought I'd toss in my two cents here. We were floored - it was an amazing story. I couldn't get over how well he conveyed the confusion and feelings of being adrift in an unfamiliar place. Also, the alien language reminded me of a made-up language that was on a test that tested an individual's ability to learn languages. It didn't make sense to me, but I was able to discern patterns and "learn" a bit of it as I took the test.

I was afraid that our girls might be a bit alarmed by some of the illustrations, but they took them in stride; mainly they were charmed by the little creatures that reminded me of pokemon characters.

Dolly, Isn't it amazing?! It's a truly special book.

Dolly wrote: "We just read The Arrival by Shaun Tan. I've seen a few discussions about it on other discussion boards, but I thought I'd toss in my two cents here. We were floored -..."

I really, really need to read this book! It sounds so amazing! Have you seen his short film based on his book "The Lost Thing"? You can find it online and I thought it was stunning.

Kathryn wrote: "I really, really need to read this book! It sounds so amazing!"

Kathryn, I can't believe you haven't read it! Get thee to a copy!

Lisa wrote: "Kathryn wrote: "I really, really need to read this book! It sounds so amazing!"

Kathryn, I can't believe you haven't read it! Get thee to a copy!"

;-)

Abigail wrote: "Lisa wrote: "Kathryn, I can't believe you haven't read it! Get thee to a copy!"

Despite being a major Shaun Tan fan (and owning a copy!), I too have yet to read The Arrival. Soon, I ..."

Oh, glad I am not alone!

Abigail wrote: "Despite being a major Shaun Tan fan (and owning a copy!), I too have yet to read The Arrival"

I"m shocked! Shocked!!! ;-)

I just enjoyed The Silver Pony by Lynd Ward. It's a little long, at eighty full-page pictures, but it's entirely wordless. A patient pre-literate child could probably work through it all on his own, and create his own vision of what it all means. Except for the winged pony, most of it resembles reality (albeit of a small family farm of a few generations back), which makes it mysterious but not actually quite mystical.

is due to be published November 1, 2012. It looks interesting.

Thanks for the posts, Cheryl and Brenda!