A couple weekends ago I took Cole & Harper to the Asheville Art Museum for the opening reception of their new children’s book exhibit: Nouns: Children’s Book Artists Look at People, Places and Things! I don’t think they’re necessarily used to seeing children at the Museum very often, or maybe we just hit them on an off day (when we arrived to purchase our tickets they asked if we were looking for The Health Adventure. Although I love The Health Adventure, I’m smart enough to know when I walk through two doors labeled “The Asheville Art Museum” that chances are I’m going to end up in the Museum.)

So anyway, although you might get a bit of a frosty reception when you bring your kids to visit, rest assured that the exhibit itself is kid-friendly and fun. As you can tell from that really crappy photo from my phone (taken with permission, I might add) they have a little desk & chairs set up for kids and hands-on copies of almost all of the books on display. (Harper enjoyed matching the books to the images on display. Cole enjoyed the fruit & crackers that came with the opening reception. To be fair, he also liked the book about George Washington.) The docent who helped us was very patient & kind to the children, and she definitely made our visit worthwhile. Besides seeing the artwork in person, which was great! I had a hard time keeping my hands off the framed images, too.

This is the second time I’ve been able to view a collection of children’s book art up close & personal. The first time was waaay back in 2000 at the Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibit was: Once upon a Picture: Caldecott Medal and Honor Books. Simms Taback, David Wiesner…mmm, that was such a memorable experience! If you live by the Art Institute of Chicago, I envy you.

Another place I would love to visit is The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art.

All this to say, if you have the opportunity to see the artwork of some of your favorite children’s books, or just artwork in general, go do it! Introduce your kids early on to art museums and art galleries. (M’s Art School, taught by M, in Hendersonville, incorporates visits to the local art galleries into her classes. Not only does she strive to introduce her students to different kinds of art but she also wants them to know the proper etiquette for visiting a museum or gallery. Be sure to check out her summer camps for kids!)

Seeing & studying artwork is a great way to illustrate for your children the whole process of creation and design that takes place before a book can even be published. And it’s just fun to do something new once in a while, too.

In honor of Dr. Seuss’ birthday (in addition to the fact that it’s Read Across America day) we are celebrating this evening by reading books by Dr. Seuss. Outloud. Simultaneously. Because that seems to be the perfect Seuss style!

A few of our [many] favorites include:
Horton Hatches the Egg
Horton Hears a Who!
How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
Green Eggs and Ham
If I Ran the Zoo
Hop on Pop
The Foot Book
My Many Colored Days

PS. We also love Go, Dog. Go! which is not by Dr. Seuss but reminds us of him.

Our library card is responsible for providing an ever-rotating selection of books for the kids & myself. The best part, of course, is that it’s all free (except for those times when we have a small fine because Harper has decided to hide her very small, very flat books under the rug in her room and then forgets where she put them and we can’t find them in time.) The second best part is that we can request books from any of the libraries in our system and pick them up at our local branch, which is about 2 minutes from the house. The third best part is that it comes with other perks, like storytime, Friends of the Library book sales, and friendly librarians. And lastly, the most helpful thing is that our library is online, and I have a free computer application that keeps track of all the books we have out and alerts me the day before they’re due. Needless to say, we love the library!

The winner of the 2010 Caldecott award, awarded this past January, is this lovely book, “The Lion and the Mouse.”

The illustrations are exquisite! The illustrator is Jerry Pickney, who has a huge body of work. Seriously, what a talented man!

If you’re looking for books with great artwork, a Caldecott Medal or Caldecott Honor award winner is usually a great place to start. (That’s not to say that all beautifully illustrated books have won this award — and some of them are very text-heavy, too, as the books span many different reading levels.) You can view the complete list of books here. I have so, so many favorites on this list…and so many more that I still need to read! I don’t think I’ll ever catch up!

In honor of Valentine’s Day I thought I’d share our collection of huggable, lovable books by one of my favorite publishers: Candlewick Press. Candlewick Press has been around since the early ’90s. They’re a really, really nice bunch of people to work with and I love so many of the books they’ve chosen to publish.

All of the books pictured (with the exception of Yummy which we just borrowed from the library for the 1st time) are favorites in our house and perfect for cuddling up and reading together with your favorite toddlers or preschoolers:
Kiss Good Night — I cannot tell you how many times I read this book to Cole when he was little – over and over again!
Guess How Much I Love You — This super sweet book really illustrates just how much your heart swells after having a child.
All Together Now & Bunny, My Honey — Both of these feature more beautiful illustrations by the talented Anita Jeram. I love her work!
Hug — We have many Jez Alborough books in our house, including this adorable one about a little chimp who just wants a hug.

Also published by Candlewick Press:
Maisy — Lucy Cousins’ vibrant illustrations throughout the Maisy series will always brighten my day (and the short text is a nice little bonus!)
Yummy – There are more great illustrations by Lucy Cousins in this retelling of 8 fairy tales. I think this book is more suitable for a school-age reader, however…Cole enjoyed it when I read it to him just yesterday.
Charlie & Lola – Lola makes me laugh! I love these siblings and Lauren Child, the illustrator/author of this series.
Kate DiCamillo – Candlewick also has a great young adult section, including many favorites by this great writer.

I thought this choice was appropriate considering the 8 inches of snow we got over the weekend!

I love the textures & patterns in Ezra Jack Keats’ books! His accompanying text provides narration & insight into the world of a child (usually an adorable young boy) but his art really gives the pages a depth that makes one pause — to see & study the environment of a young boy as he explores his urban surroundings, makes friends, accepts (begrudgingly) his new baby sister, or simply takes a walk through the city after a snowfall.

Consider some of our favorites:
The Snowy Day
Peter’s Chair
Goggles
Apt. 3
There are many more – I just haven’t had a chance to read them all yet!

Though technically not books, many, many hours of our reading before naptime & bedtime have been consumed by these great magazines. First of all, the kids love the fact that something has arrived in the mail just for them. Second of all, they love to collect them – I’m pretty sure they haven’t thrown away a single issue.

Here’s a list of our current favorites:
Wild Animal Baby: Brought to you by the same people who do My Big Backyard and Ranger Rick, Wild Animal Baby features sturdy pages for little hands coupled with great images of animals (not just illustrations), poems and activities.
High Five: the precursor to Highlights magazine – Harper particularly loves the eye spy page and the stories of the Timbertoes’ pets
Highlights: This one’s been around a long time! I used to read these…just like Cole does now.
Zoobooks: Most definitely Cole’s favorite – these magazines are so informative and filled with awesome images and facts.
Ladybug & Spider: We just got our first issues of these yesterday – I’m excited to dive into them because the emphasis is all on reading.

Which magazines do your kids read? I’d love to hear about them, too!

Remember records? Okay, obviously, this is another collection of books from my own childhood. You can probably tell that both the books & the box (and the scratched up records) were very well loved. I still have such a fondness for so many of these stories today!

Little Golden Books have been around for years (65, in fact!) and, thankfully, the majority of the stories in this collection are still in print:

There’s No Such Thing as a Dragon ( I just saw a new hardcover version of this at Barnes & Noble; my kids love this one.)
Thumbelina
The Little Fat Policeman
Rumpelstiltskin I love this one, too! Never name your child Rumpelstiltskin.
The Little Engine that Could
The Poky Little Puppy
The Happy Man and the Dump Truck
Chicken Little
Little Boy with a Big Horn (re-released with new illustrations by Dan Yaccarino; I love Dan Yaccarino.)
The Saggy Baggy Elephant
Smokey the Bear
Noah’s Ark
David and Goliath
Tawny Scrawny Lion
Scuffy the Tugboat
Seven Little Postmen One of my very favorites – I love to get mail.
The Taxi that Hurried
Tootle
Puss in Boots (Another favorite of ours)

There are so, so many good ones in here! Be sure to check them out! Also consider Little Golden Books with their more modern counterpart - the CD.