Dads Read Too

JER: “ This is Sadie ” by author Sara O’Leary and illustrator Julie Morstad is smart, slightly silly, and a beautiful exploration of imagination.  It starts with: “This is Sadie. • No, not that.  That’s a box.  Sadie is inside the box. • Wait, do you hear?  Sadie says she’s not inside the box at all. ‘I’m on an enormous boat,’ she says, ‘crossing a wide, wide sea.’” • Thanks to my friend Katie DuRocher for the suggestion.

JER: “ Little Bear’s Big House ” by Benjamin Chaud is a playful re-telling of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”. Here, little bear goes off on an adventure, and ends up playing in a Big House that he discovers.  He explores and plays until falling asleep in a bed, only to be woken up by “three bears”, who turn out to be his parents and baby brother, but due to the dark shadows they end up scaring each other and meeting back up at their home in the woods.  I love the illustrations by Benjamin Chaud.  They are packed full of small details that keep little eyes searching the page for hidden animals and subplots #thebearsseries 

JER: “Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever” -  I remember being really fascinated and intrigued by Richard Scarry books as a kid.   They weren’t really cute, like most children’s books were.   They had a grittiness to them, in a working-class-hero sort of way.   When I found this book in a used book shop in California, I couldn’t pass on it, even if it meant exposing my kids to the perplexing world of Richard Scarry.  Thanks to @booksfromwhenwewerekids for the idea

JER: “Ocean Meets Sky” by the Fan Brothers (Terry Fan and Eric Fan) represents to me the persistence of memory, the mystical, and our connection to our ancestors.   I love the name of the book and the magical point where "Ocean Meets Sky".  It took me back to an Optics course I took in College.  I remember being blown away by mirages.  In a "mirage", the light coming from the sky or from an object gets refracted, i.e. bent, in the different layers of air over hot surfaces, e.g. long stretches of roads or desert, where air rapidly cools with elevation which changes the air's refractive power making the air act as a prism.  The Encyclopedia Britannica explains it like this:  Mirage , in optics, the deceptive appearance of a distant object or objects caused by the bending of light rays ( refraction) in layers of air of varying density.   Under certain conditions, such as over a stretch of pavement or desert...

JER: “ Yellow Kayak ” by author Nina Laden and illustrator Melissa Castrillon feels like an homage to Japanese Art with waves and lines that remind me of the “ Great Wave Off Kanagawa ”  and short poetic stanzas that remind me of Haikus.

JER: “ Marilyn’s Monster ” by author Michelle Knudsen and illustrator Matt Phelan was a recommendation from a librarian at the Alexandria Duncan Branch Library.  I can see why it is one of her favorites.  Although Marilyn didn’t have a Monster yet, she wasn’t too worried because a lot of kids in her class didn’t have one either.  You have to wait for your monster to find you, that was just how it worked.  But Marilyn started to become despondent after her best efforts to be presentable and punctual (to make sure her Monster could find her) still ended up with her being the last person in her class without a Monster.  Your Monster was supposed to find you, but Marilyn decided she was going to set out to look anyways. Great book to help re-frame “monsters” as friendly companions and “how good it would be to have [a] monster beside her [in the dark]”.

JER: “ Tickle My Ears ” by Jörg Mühle is one of the best interactive children’s books I’ve come across.  Ejler caught onto the interactive cues really quickly: you need to tap Little Rabbit on the shoulder, clap your hands, say “Hoppity-hop”, give Little Rabbit’s ears a tickle, gently stroke Little Rabbit’s back (Ejler’s favorite), and more before telling Little Rabbit to “Sleep tight”. This book is definitely worth tracking down for a 1-3 year old.

JER: “ Mr. Tiger Goes Wild ” by Peter Brown, to me, is all about groupthink and social conventions.  Humans are social creatures, and I can relate to the intense biological drive to “fit in” and be part of a large or popular social group, but I have also found tremendous freedom by questioning social norms and checking in with myself to see what I really want, think, or feel.  Often when I have I vocalized a different viewpoint, I have found others have chimed in and agreed with me.  Mr. Tiger realized he needed to get “wild” sometimes, but he still needed his city, friends, and community. “There is a time and place for everything - even going wild”

JER: “ Book of Bones ” by author Gabrielle Balkan and illustrator Sam Brewster is one of those rare books that works equally well with 2-year-olds and 5-year-olds.  Ejler (2 yr old) loves rubbing her hand over the sandpaper shaped bone structure of the animal, but she wants to quickly turn through the pages - too fast to read the detailed explanations.  Ms. Balkan may have foreseen this challenge, and helpfully provided 3 quick bullet points about each animal, which I can quickly read before Ejler turns the page.  The illustrations by Mr. Brewster allow my kids to see the exquisite bone structure of each skeleton before bringing it to life in a vivid picture of the animal in their natural habitat.  Lake (5 yr old), on the other hand, loves learning all the minute details of each animal.  We have our friend Caroline - @linebarna - to thank for this wonderful book #gift #catinchinese #mao

JER: “ The Going to Bed Book” by Sandra Boynton is one of my favorite bedtime boardbooks.  It has a great rhythm, and it always makes me smile when they all “go up to exercise”.

JER: “ Big Momma Makes the World ” by author Phyllis Root and illustrator Helen Oxenbury is a re-imagination of the biblical creation story. “When Big Momma made the world, she didn’t mess around [and it w]asn’t easy, either, with that little baby sitting on her hip”. I love this book and this reinterpretation if the creation story, because it centers around the realities of being a parent.  Why did Big Momma make “earth/mud”? Because she would “need a place to put my feet down when they needed putting down [and] when that baby if hers got to growing more”. She was working hard, but all the while “laundry was piling up and the dishes needed doing.  She figured she better finish things off in one Big Bang”. But even then, Big Momma wasn’t done.  She needed some folks to keep her company.  So she scooped up some leftover mud “and the next thing you know, there were folks everywhere.  Big folks and little folks.  Fat folks and thin folks.  All k...

JER: “ Sam & Dave Dig A Hole ” by author Mac Barnett and illustrator Jon Klassen (one of my favorite artists/authors BTW) is all about expectations and the innate randomness of life. “Sam and Dave are digging a hole and they will not stop until they find something spectacular” (inside front cover). The reader watches in frustration as Sam & Dave narrowly miss digging up larger and larger pink gems.  Are the gems supposed to be the “something spectacular”? Ultimately, “something spectacular” does happen, but not what I expected.  Sam & Dave seem to be perfectly pleased with the result, and they are happy to head inside for “chocolate milk and animal cookies” to reminisce over their “spectacular”. If there were a narrator or reader of our life, would they look on in frustration as we missed finding increasingly large metaphorical “gems”? Are we missing out on “something spectacular” just out of sight or around the corner?  Are we better off findin...

JER: “ Douglas You’re A Genius ” by Ged Adamson is a very topical book.  Nancy and Douglas lose their ball through a large wall, but when it unexpectedly comes back through the wall, they begin hatching plans to get over the wall.  Nancy sketches out idea after idea, and Douglas dutifully executes them to no avail.  But when it is finally Douglas’ turn there is a breakthrough, and our heroes discover the benefits of cross-cultural dialogue and the importance of international alliances . . . okay, I may have been reading a little too much into this children’s book while I am hoping for a more humanitarian foreign policy agenda to spring forth in the U.S. #sigh #wishfulthinking

JER: “ Marta!  Big & Small ” by author Jen Arena and illustrator Angela Dominguez reminded me of my good friend @marta_dansie (IMHO “Marta” is a woefully underused, underrepresented name for how cool it is), but I digress.  This book has been the most successful book I’ve seen at blending two languages in a fun, playful way.  The author cleverly uses opposites, animals, and behaviors to introduce a handful of Spanish words interspersed through each page.  The illustrator plays with perspectives to add action to each scene and provide additional visual depth to the story - like how "tasty, very tasty" Marta appears to the snake.  Fortunately, our heroine is very "ingeniosa" #clever For additional photos, visit us on Instagram

JER: my good friend since 7th grade - @mshenriksen suggested this book: “ Hilda and the Troll ” by Luke Pearson.  It has unexplained creatures, adventure, rocks that look like Trolls, actual Trolls, and just the right amount of vulgarity.  Hilda enjoys sleeping in a tent outdoors in the rain since it makes her “coziness canvas thin”, and also learns that placing bells on the noses of Trolls is now considered a “barbaric practice”. My friend Mike summed it up best, “it is an interesting mystical adventure story, and the hero just happens to be a girl.” It isn’t pushing that storyline or detail, it just is.  I found it really refreshing. (NOTE: Ejler is an aspiring graffiti artist, and she has unfortunately left her mark all over this cover.)

JER: “Dog Loves Books” by Louise Yates is part of a series that Lake, Mallory, and I have grown to love. “Dog Loves Counting”, “Dog Loves Fairy Tales”  (which is my favorite), “Dog Loves Drawing”, they are all great, and are quick to get my 5-year-old giggling.

JER: “ Star Stories ” by Illustrator Andy Wilx and Author Anita Ganeri explores the stories that were inspired by the stars.  The last several years, I have become more and more fascinated with stars and the our inter-connectivity with the stars. “We are all made of stardust. It sounds like a line from a poem, but there is some solid science behind this statement too: almost every element on Earth was formed at the heart of a star. . . . During a supernova, when a massive star explodes at the end of its life, the resulting high energy environment enables the creation of some of the heaviest elements including iron and nickel. The explosion also disperses the different elements across the universe, scattering the stardust which now makes up planets including Earth.” - Physics.org