Hello, friends. In June, my son received this book as a gift (not from us!). I rolled my eyes (when he wasn't looking) and thought, Oh, come on, Scholastic - you can do SO MUCH BETTER. I was tempted to incinerate it with my laser eyes but decided, instead, to wait and see what happened. For most of the summer, it sat on the shelf. A couple of weeks ago, he began to read it. After a while, he … [Read more...]
Fierce girls
A friend recently said that our four-year-old, H, reminds her of a Yoshitomo Nara character. I'd never heard of Nara but googled him and promptly fell in love with his paintings. I also saw the resemblance straight away. At home, H is brave and affectionate, funny and confident. What most visitors and strangers see, however, is this face: (No, she'll never be a Mouseketeer.) But those … [Read more...]
Love You Forever
Hello, friends. My mother has a huge collection of Robert Munsch picture books leftover from her teaching days. For the past couple of weeks, my children have been reading them. I'm ambivalent about Munsch's work. I've always loved The Paper Bag Princess but find a lot of the other books (Mortimer, Thomas' Snowsuit) far too shouty and obnoxious. I stand by those judgements. But there's one about … [Read more...]