Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale - review

Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale by Mo Willems
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Violet Says: 5 stars
I love this book! It's one of my favs, and one of the books I've probably read the most. The best part is when Trixie and her daddy forget Knuffle Bunny in the laundry machine. Before I could even talk I loved to point at Knuffle Bunny peeking out the window of the laundry machine and say "uh oh!" There is also a dog or two in the background of some of the pictures that I like to point out.

Dad Says: 4 stars
The story here isn't anything exceptional, but it's told in a lovely style with drawings mixed with black and white photographs. Trixie and her daddy walk through the city (pretty sure it's Brooklyn but who's counting), go to the laundromat, and forget Trixie's bunny, Knuffle Bunny, there. Because Trixie can't talk yet she can't explain that they've forgotten the bunny so it isn't until they get home that Mom realizes what's wrong and the whole fam has to hurry back to find it. I don't really appreciate that the dad is the dolt in the story, especially since he's the one going to the effort of taking the kid out AND doing the laundry AT THE SAME TIME...but that's nitpicky I realize. Anyway, the drama is pretty limited after the first couple readings, so it's not my all-time favorite, but it's just exceptionally solid across the board: well-written, nicely constructed, great art, cool style. And Violet loves it when they forget the bunny.

Violet probably likes it a little more than dad, but both of us recommend Knuffle Bunny highly!

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The Library! The Library!!!

A crucial part of this project -- and our daddy-daughter reading in general -- is the library. In our case, it's the Chicago Public Library, recently named the best urban public library by a German university (weird, but whatever, I'll take it).

With a library card we can cycle through a ton of books easily and for free to see what Violet and/or I respond to, then (as in the case of "The Day the Crayons Quit") if we find something we both really like, we can spend our hard-earned dollars on it. Plus, plenty of kids books are perfectly fine for a little while, but not great enough to bother owning forever ("Elephant & Piggie Are In a Book," I'm looking at you!).

Especially given the vastness of the world of children's literature, and the capriciousness of my daughter's reading moods, it helps to have a whole bunch of books on hand to offer up at bedtime or naptime or anytime. The library is crucial for us in maintaining a proper crop of variety, while also allowing us to limit the books we buy to the best of the best. To this end, I am not ashamed to say that I am in possession of not only my own library card but also my wife's card. It is a nearly impossible amount of borrowing power that I hold.

Now, I don't know how it works in other areas and library systems, but the Chicago Public Library's online system is absolutely fantastic. You can search the entire card catalog on the web, and put books on hold electronically. Then you wait -- sometimes a day, sometimes quite a while -- and you get an email letting you know your book (or movie! or CD! or whatever!) is waiting for you on the special shelf in the library of your choice. Plus, you can renew books online as well. I'm telling you, it's an absolute life-changer. I canNOT recommend the library highly enough. I've even been known to get a book or two out for myself by accident. And even more by accident to get a movie for the weekend.

"The Day the Crayons Quit" - Review

The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Violet Says: 5 stars!
I love this book! I'm still working on learning my colors, and each crayon gets their own page, which is a great way to try and keep all these colors straight. I especially love the peach page, where the crayon is naked; that's funny. The drawings are funny and I like to guess how each crayon feels by looking at its "facial" expression. I ask for this book a lot; because long titles are a pain to pronounce, I call this book "Duncan" since the crayons are all Duncan's crayons, and they each write a note to Duncan.

Dad Says: also 5 stars!
A funny book with a great hook and excellent (crayon-based) art. Each of Duncan's crayons have sent him a letter expressing their various concerns, complaints, and compliments. The book is almost entirely these literally self-penned notes. The text may be on the longer side (I sometimes need a glass of water mid-book) but there are enough jokes to keep it moving, and enough going on textually and visually to make re-reading a pleasure. Some of the pages are quite funny, a couple pages connect to tell little mini-narratives, and the variety within the wonderfully stylized illustrations (by Oliver Jeffries who I'm just learning about) on each page keeps both of our attentions. We first got this book out of the library, but when it had to be returned we actually decided to go out and buy a copy of our very own! This is, of course, the highest praise any book could ever hope to receive.

"The Day the Crayons Quit" is highly recommended by us both!

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Meet Daddy...Meet Daughter

Hi, I'm Martin and I'm the "Daddy." My daughter Violet just turned two a couple months ago. We love reading together.

I thought it would be fun to review and rate some of the books we read together, perhaps to serve as a little guide for other book-loving families, or perhaps just to keep track of all the books we've read. So we started a goodreads account together and will try and update this blog with our joint reviews and anything else that occurs to us as we explore the fascinating world of books.

Our reviews will attempt to include both of our perspectives, as best as Dad can intuit them, at least for now. The number of stars we give to a book will be the approximate average of both our ratings, again, as best as Dad can calculate.

Happy Reading, parents & kids alike!