Karl's Reading List

This is the third entry based around picture books I've read to Ezekiel, and the first one I've done this year (it's far too long since I've acknowledged Ezekiel on this list !). It's interesting to see which books have dropped off the radar from when I did my first picture book list . At that point, Ezekiel was only 7 months old, so the books we read were largely our choice. It's also nice to see how many books are still favourites, now that he is able to decide for himself what we read. I'm trying a different format this time around for this entry, giving separate pages to each picture book even though this will still only take up one 'entry' in my list. Or you can skip this entry entirely fairly easily! Let's see how this goes... Karl's List My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes ; Do Not Lick This Book ; Scarry Word Book: On Holiday ; Perky the Pukeko ; I Can Fly a Plane . Elise's List Seek and Circle: Christmas Stories ; My First Clock Book ;...

Published by Hodder Moa Books/Hachette New Zealand Ltd: Auckland, New Zealand, 2010. I have previously talked about this author's version of  Old MacDonald's Farm  in the  first group of picture book reviews.   The Wheels on the Bus  does a similar thing to that book, taking the titular children's song and making it far more 'Kiwiana.' This one goes the anthropomorphic route, with the bus being driven by a Kiwi and picking up iconic New Zealand creatures, each from iconic New Zealand landscapes. Along with the usual verses, we also get a few like  "The lambs on the bus go baa baa baa"  and  "The passengers on the bus go bumpity-bump..."  which are a little more specific to the page. One page seems to have a cameo by the animal characters from  Old MacDonald's Farm,  which makes sense since the bus from this book is visible in the barn in that book. Another 'hidden' aspect is a little bit of Maori mythology: there are faces on the th...

Published by Penguin Group: New Zealand, 2007. Originally published 1974. This book is one I really like, and in fact is the first time that Elise has picked a book for her list that was on mine. Knowing how much I enjoy it, she changed her list to another choice. Thanks, Elise! I remember my primary school having this book in a large format, and for some reason it is a story that has stuck with me, probably because of it's repetitive and slightly humorous story. What I didn't realise then, but enjoy now, is that the illustrator of this book is Lynley Dodd of  Hairy Maclary   fame! Fun! Each page of  My Cat  introduces another cat from some international location, usually with an incredible talent -  "The cat from Spain/ Flew an aeroplane/ The cat from France/ Liked to sing and dance"  - only to compare it with the narrator's own cat, with the refrain,  "But MY cat likes to hide in boxes."  These international cats are dressed in traditional costu...

Published by Two Windmills Limited: Woodbridge, UK, 2024. I mean... dinosaurs! I love dinosaurs. So, what's not to love about this book? One Little Dinosaur  is a counting book, working its way from one up to ten, with each page introducing an increasingly large number of dinosaurs, with a descriptive adjective, involved in some sort of activity.  "One little dinosaur counts ten spotty rocks,"  for example. Or,  "Two smart dinosaurs with nine snazzy socks".  There are  bonus  dinosaurs thrown in on one page, when  "Nine dinosaurs roar and two dinosaurs wave,"  meaning that overall we get 57 dinosaurs. What's not to love about that? But, wait. There's more! After counting up to ten dinosaurs, we get a double page spread with  all  of the dinosaurs in one image, along with the various activities that they were involved in, or creatures that they were interacting with. This is a great page to re-count the various dinosaurs, and look fo...

Published by B&H Publishing Group: Nashville, Tennessee, 2020. This is a truly beautiful book, telling the Christmas story from the Bible in a ' Where's Wally'  type style. Each page introduces part of the story, which a short summary of what is going on, and then has a large, beautifully illustrated tableau, with a list of things to look for. Some of the things are directly from the Bible story (find Mary riding a donkey), some are things that  could  have been happening at that time (find a Roman soldier) and some of the things are a little more abstract, anachronistic, off-the-wall, or even humorous (find someone flying a kite). There are also various 'Names of God' hidden throughout the book, with a section on each page telling the reader which two are hidden within the current image. This is a book with lots of re-readability, and enough little details to keep parents as well as kids engaged on the twentieth read. It also highlights certain parts of the Chr...

Published by Allen & Urwin: Australia, 2017. The illustrator of  this  book is also responsible for animating the  Dumb Ways To Die   train safety advertising campaign that was used in Australia, and went viral. That cartoony style translates well to this book, about germs. Min is a germ that lives in 'this book.' The reader is instructed to pick Min up, and then take the germ on a journey: to their tooth, to their shirt, to their belly button, and back to the book. In each place, Min gathers friends who join the journey, showing how easily germs can be transferred. There are super-close-up images of books, teeth, fabric and skin to gross you out, and fun little cartoony germs to balance it all. And, interactiveness! Gotta love that. Ezekiel has started to anticipate where Min needs to travel, and will touch the spot on the book, or start looking for his belly button, as that point nears. Fun. Karl's List My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes ;  Do Not Lick This Boo...

Published by The Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited: London, New York Sydney, Toronto, 1984. Each time I do one of these picture book lists, I try to include a book which is  not  a favourite of either myself or Elise, but which Ezekiel likes. This is that book this time around. I remember that when I was young we had a few books in our house by Richard Scarry. I think they were more my brother's than mine, but they all shared the same distinctive art style, featuring animals in human settings.  This book is a little different than some Richard Scarry works, in that it is based on previous Richard Scarry works, with the drawings seemingly taken and repurposed to make a book on a theme (this time, holidays) and including word lists. Thus the name. We get images of animals on boats, animals rock-climbing, animals at the beach, and a bear dressed as Father Christmas. It's all pretty weird, but in a quirky fashion that is almost humorous in itself. And Ezekiel seems to enjoy it...

Published by Lake Press Pty Ltd: Australia, 2016. Ezekiel loves this book, even though the copy we got was already  very  second-hand when we got it, to the point that pages are falling apart and edges are frayed. Each page has a touch-and-feel aspect to it, from a fluffy dog to a soft blanket, and each page  also  talks about the playful pups encountering various opposites, like high and low, big and small, over and under. This makes reading quite fun, as I will often move the book around to demonstrate the different opposites; Ezekiel particularly likes when I move the book close to him for "near" and away from him for "far."  The strangest thing about the book is that a few of the touch-and-feel areas (specifically, a large bone and a mud-puddle) are not different textures at all, but rather simply expose the slightly spongy material that makes up the pages of the book. It seems an odd choice, and a cheap one, although there is a chance that this is  not...

Unknown publication. When we took a family holiday to Australia recently, Elise got this book in order to give it to Ezekiel during our travels. He  loves  it. Firstly, it has spinners in it (the propellers), which Ezekiel loves. Secondly, it is a book with sliding parts (open the hanger doors, slide the people up and down the boarding ramp, etc) that Ezekiel can interact with. And thirdly, for one of the sliding parts in particular (the wheels of the plane going up and down) there is a written "clonk" sound-effect that makes him smile when we voice it. The copy we got, similarly to the Playful Pups book, is very second-hand, and in this instance is missing all the publishing details. I've tried looking the book up online and only was able to find a mention of 'Evans Visual Arts' as the 'illustrator' - so I've added that information. Otherwise, its a pretty obscure publication. There's not a lot more to say about this one, really. Ezekiel has been...

Published by Little Friends Publishing Ltd: New Plymouth, New Zealand, 2007 (2004). A rhyming story set on a New Zealand farm,  Perky the Pukeko  tells the story of Perky, raised from an egg put under a hen, and his adventures around the farmyard, before he finally makes his way to a nearby  "pest-infested drain"  where he finds  "a place where he belongs/ with other pukekos."  It's cute, with basic yet expressive drawings, and a few humorous touches - when Perky snaps a shoelace left at the door, for example, the farmer literally boards up the front door and adds a sign with a 'no pukekos' image. Another image has the farmer racing frantically to the barn, throwing an open can of paint behind him in his haste. It feels very much like the story of  Perky the Pukeko  is based on a real-life animal, with possibly a few story embellishments, and Ezekiel seems to appreciate the story.  Karl's List My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes ;  Do Not Lick...

Published by Imagine That Publishing Ltd: Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2020. Omnibus edition featuring: 'I Love You SO Much, Grandma' by Susie Linn and (illustrator) Gail Yerrill; 'Can You Count the Stars?' by Susie Linn and (illustrator) Gabi Murphy; 'I Love You Because...' by Susie Linn and (illustrator) Gavin Scott; 'Daddy Loves Me' by Georgina Wren and (illustrator) Gabi Murphy; 'Mummy Loves Me' by Georgina Wren and (illustrator) Gabi Murphy; 'Goodnight, I Love You' by Oakley Graham and (illustrator) Gareth Llewhellin. This is a selection of six short picture books that work well together (although I believe each is available individually), and fit the theme of being short bedtime stories for young listeners.  All of them are very wholesome and loving, and three focus in on specific family members: Daddy, Mummy and Grandma (Poor Grandpa, Uncle, Aunt, Sister, Brother, Cousin etc get neglected). They are sweet, and show good bonds between the f...

Published by Mallinson Rendel Publishers Ltd: Wellington, NZ, 2000 (1996).  Omnibus edition containing stories first published 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1991.  Lynley Dodd stories are very cute and a huge part of any New Zealander's childhood - at least, I remember them from mine. The chance to now introduce them to Ezekiel is sweet, although at the age he is, we need to keep the pages at arms length to avoid unnecessary 'rippage.' This omnibus edition contains six stories, each giving a sense of the general Hairy Maclary vibes: detailed and subtly kiwi illustrations, good poetical story-telling with some good use of alliterative or onomatopoeic elements, an impressive vocabulary for a children's book (eg. bumptious, bustling, cacophony, caterwaul...) and a light touch of humour. The stories are easy to read for little kids with short attention spans, but also interesting enough that slightly older kids would appreciate them as well. The six stories in this volume a...

It's been a while since I've acknowledged Ezekiel, so here is another list of picture-books we are reading to him, most of which he is enjoying quite a bit. Now that he is beginning to 'interact' with things a bit more (he's almost a year old!!!), you will notice that a lot of these books have a common element... Karl's List: Edwina, the Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She Was Extinct - Mo Willems. Published by Hyperion Books for Children: New York, NY, 2006. This one is almost a cheat. I have known about this book since it was first published, and love its humour, so recently purchased a copy just so I could read it to Ezekiel and put it on this list. I've only read it to him once so far, and probably won't read it to him much until he's a little older, but I like it, and so here it is! The basic story of Edwina, the Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She Was Extinct is that Edwina is (surprise) a dinosaur who doesn't know she is extinct. She is friends ...

As I said in my review of Peter Rabbit's Storytime Collection , I am wanting to find a way to acknowledge the books I read to Ezekiel without adding individual picture books to my reading list - I feel that would dilute it a bit much. So in this post, I've decided to look at a group of picture books all together. I've picked five picture books that I like (with a notable and noteworthy exception), and also asked Elise for five picture books she is  enjoying reading to Ezekiel. It's interesting (and helpful for this list) that our lists haven't overlapped at all this time around. So, here are ten picture books (plus one bonus 'book') that Ezekiel has been exposed to in the first 7ish months of his life: Karl's List Bunnies on the Bus - Philip Ardagh and (illustrator) Ben Mantle. Published by Walker Books Ltd: London, 2020 (2019). This is one of my favourites among our current picture books. A group of bunnies hijack a bus and hurtle through the town on th...