Book Report

Like a bear lucking out at a honey tree, our frequent visits to the library this summer yielded quite the bounty of goodness. It's time now to lick the lovely stickiness from our fingertips and share them.

Take The 3 Bears and Goldilocks, for example. Cleverly told and wonderfully illustrated, it's a slightly newer take on the tale, but one worth checking out, especially because of the illustrations. Did I mention the illustrations?


It's always the illustrations which lead me to any book, but to report on it here means the story delivered as well. Such was the case with Big Rabbit's Bad Mood, which I saw at Powells and was drawn to. Rabbit's bad mood, represented by a large grey creature, followed him around and wouldn't leave him alone. It was only when he was distracted by something else that his mood disappeared. Young and old can relate. Julia especially enjoyed the drawings on the inside cover, penned doodles of rabbit's similarly quirky friends.


The Owl and the Woodpecker is the story of Woodpecker and Owl who are neighbors, but not friends. Woodpecker makes so much noise that he disturbs Owl, who likes to sleep during the day. Their argument gets so inflamed the other animals try to get involved but have no luck. Owl eventually changes his mind when Woodpecker saves him from danger. Brian Wildsmith's colorful illustrations enliven this story.


Last but not least, John Willy and Freddy McGee is based on the true story of two guinea pigs who get loose and find an adventure in an unlikely place: inside a pool table. The author recreates the sounds the balls make as they tumble down into the table and towards the trapped guinea pigs. Being a lover of guinea pigs, I especially loved this book and preschoolers through second graders will, too. With such hilarious names, these guineas are bound to make a repeat performance in another book one day, I predict.

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