In which Annie (high school teacher, mother of two young girls and a younger boy) and her aunt Deborah (children's bookseller, mother of two young women in their 20s) discuss children's books and come up with annotated lists.

Friday, June 6, 2014

The Big Book of Words and Pictures

Dear Annie,

I love thinking of toddlers as pointers -- I've used that a few times already at work.
Here's another for your list of pointable books:

The Big Book of Words and Pictures
by Ole Konnecke, a Swedish-born artist living in Germany.  It's definitely Big: a board book that measures 13 by 10 inches.  And it's packed with delightful stuff to point at.  It's a sort of toddler version of In the Town All Year 'Round: it feels European in its sweet sensibility, but also in some of its objects.  There are more berets in this one than you'd find in an average board book.

A group of charming animals stands in for people in this one, and they're always interacting with each other, sometimes across illustrations. I'm particularly fond of a picture on the first page, which juxtaposes various noise-making objects (wooden spoon, pot, toy trumpet) with a parent trying to sleep (double bed, bedside table).


Two pages later the reader in the single bed above has shed the pajamas and is working on articles of clothing:


A page with many flying objects, from satellite to paper airplane, includes a group on the grass watching a kite.  Along the edge of the scene are other fliers: wasp, mosquito, grasshopper.

And any book which includes croquet and bocce (well, they call it lawn bowling) in playground activities has got to be a favorite of mine:


The bottom of this page has mini golf, with a lion carefully marking a scorecard while the croquet-playing stork putts.

Here's to almost-summertime, mini golf, and lots of books.

Love,

Deborah

2 comments:

  1. We liked Maisy's Big Book of Words (or was it Big Word Book?) by Lucy Cousins.

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  2. We love Maisy's Amazing Big Book of Words too -- Cyd is the one who turned us onto it, a few years ago: http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2010/09/birthday-books-and-bedtime-reading.html
    It's excellent to point at, though the paper pages (as opposed to board) and flaps are easily destroyed by an eager toddler.

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