Picture Books

I made a trip to Barnes and Nobles. The kids section in particular. I wanted to have a look at some of the picture books, to get a better feel for them. When I read children’s books, I usually stick with the ones that have more words and fewer pictures. Currently I’ll be looking into getting the entire series of the Guardians of Ga’hoole. It’ll be released as a movie soon; I’d like to have it read before then. Of course, money may be an issue, we’ll see.

Anyway, back to picture books. Three stood out to me for various reasons though I read many. Let me tell you about why I found them special.

The first was “Sugar Cookies: Sweet Little Lessons on Love” by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. What I particularly liked about this book was that it used cookies as a way of teaching about love concepts such as adoration, respect, protection, etc. For example, "Edearment means, come here, my sugar, my cookie, my sweet" (Amazon.com 'Look Inside' function provided this example). However, I will say that I thought some of the concepts were a little advanced for a toddler to understand. But then they are supposed to absorb things like this better than adults do. Another aspect of the book that I liked was that it also encouraged interaction with parents through a sugar cookie recipe at the end.

One of the other things I liked about it is that it didn’t rhyme. I understand that children learn better through repetition of similar sounds and patterns. But to be honest, I almost feel like it’s simply been done and over done. So none of the books I’m describing has anything to do with rhyme.

The next book was “Not a Box” by Antoinette Portis. This is my favorite. I will own this one. The book depicts a young rabbit sitting in a box on the first page. The text simply states “why are you in a box?”. Turning the page, you read “It’s not a box” and the young rabbit is now sitting in the box surrounded by red lines that reveal a racecar. The entire story goes back and forth, about whether or not the box is a box. This story absolutely touched my heart. It’s a celebration of the imagination of children. Additionally, the cover of the book was made out of cardboard, so I must give props to the creative team on this one. I loved it.

The third and final picture book I took notice of was “Pink me Up” by Charise Mericle Harper. This one also depicted a young rabbit, but in this case, it was a girl from a large family of boys who was meant to go on a “pink-nic” with her mother but ends up having to go with her dad. First, the title sounded so much like “Pick me up” that when I saw this book on the shelf I chuckled and said “ok”. However, what I like most about this book are the pictures. Without the pictures, the text wouldn’t be as much fun. For example, the author doesn’t tell you that she’s the only girl in the family, she shows you with a family portrait. I laughed aloud with this one. It was adorable. The only criticism is that it’s specifically geared towards girls.

Now I know boys are harder to write for because they don’t like reading, but I like picture books that celebrate childhood rather than putting genders in a box. Am I doing just that saying that a boy won’t enjoy this book? Maybe.

Okay, probably.

But the main character is a girl, she thinks only girls can wear pink, and while she comes to understand that boys sometimes like pink too, I can’t see how it would appeal to them since the only male in the story is the dad. I don’t know, maybe I’m reading too much into this but it certainly seems like they wrote this one for the girls.

Is that a bad thing, no. I just wonder where the boy books are. I know I said it’s difficult. I did acknowledge that. I just wonder what it is about reading that boys don’t like? A curious case that has yet to be solved by the greatest minds in literature. I doubt I’ll have too much luck with it.