February 09 Book of the Month

Announcing Planet Silas' February 09 Book of the Month:

And if the Moon Could Talk by Kate Banks ; illustrated by Georg Hallensleben.

This is not the first book I've featured as a BotM by the writer/illustrator duo of Banks and Hallensleben (see our very first BotM entry, Close Your Eyes). I doubt it will be the last either. I just cannot resist their thoughtful and strikingly beautiful books.

I can think of no better way to end the day than curling up with Silas to read this book. Like Close Your Eyes, And if the Moon Could Talk is a gentle bedtime story in which tranquil nocturnal scenes are intermixed with images and text of a child's peaceful bedtime routine. The moon looks down upon and unites each image, be it that of a silent harbor, animals bedding down for the night, or the comfortable domestic setting of a young child's bedroom (Someday in the future when Silas has his own bedroom, I hope to make it as inviting a space as the one in this book). The vibrant colors and eloquently simplistic text are sure to capture the attention of both parent and child.

Here's a bonus book, just for the parents! I've decided to feature a parents' "book of the moment" whenever I happen to come across a title I think would be worth sharing. I doubt it will be every month since I honestly don't read them that often. Drew and I have been enjoying this books, so I thought I'd mention it:

Peaceful Parents, Peaceful Kids: Practical Ways to Create a Calm and Happy Home by Naomi Drew.

Among many other useful concepts, the idea that we ourselves have to emanate peaceful behavior so that our child learns to model it really resonated with us. We got the idea for a "house of kind words" from this book as well. Many of the concepts discussed would be easier practiced with a slightly older child, but at it's core, peaceful parenting cannot begin too soon! We plan on implementing other aspects found in the book as Silas grows, including having regular family meetings and creating family guidelines, rules that Silas will be able to help us set. One of the misconceptions that Naomi Drew dispels is the idea that peaceful parenting must mean never getting upset or frustrated, or that peaceful parenting equals passivity. This is of course, not the case (as well as impossible, if you ask me). Instead, peaceful parenting focuses on acknowledging both parent and child's emotions while dealing with them in a mutually respectful way. This is a helpful book and is also easy to digest in small quantities (very useful for busy parents).

December 08 Book of the Month

Introducing Planet Silas' December 08 book of the month:

The Twelve Days of Christmas : A Pop-Up Celebration by Robert Sabuda.

This is an unusual choice for Book of the Month, not for lack of quality or kid-appeal, but because it is definitely NOT a toddler book. It is, after all, a pop-up book, and my toddler, like 99 % of toddlers worldwide, destroys pop-up books faster than you can recite "The 12 days of Christmas." But it's such a fun book, I couldn't resist highlighting it this month. Silas and I read it together, and it's safe to say that the words "don't touch, just look" are uttered from my lips as often as "a partridge in a pair tree." Still, it captivates both toddler and adult alike. Really, all of Robert Sabuda's pop-up books are incredible and are worth checking out. I've never come across one that didn't awe me. Seriously, he is a paper-engineering rock star.

Well, I probably don't have to go into a detailed summary of this book. It is the traditional song, as told through words and pop-up images. You can see a few pages here. We will be relying on this book to bring us some holiday cheer each night through this dark month.

The Librarian Takes a Vacation

I'm all smiles cuz I'm off of work for the next 3 and a half weeks or so. Silas on the other hand, well, he's cutting his first molar, so he's a bit testy/clingy/weepy. I'm not forcing him to use that shovel, I swear! He happily carried it all around the yard and then burst out crying, right on cue for the picture. My first order of business, aside from hanging with my boys all day, was to finish the Schoolmarm Vest that I'm wearing. I have a lot more fun things planned, but some of it, the things that involve traveling places, will have to wait a bit. Today, our gear shift would not shift out of park, and our brake lights stopped working all together. Apparently, the two things are related. The good news: our car is still under warrenty. The bad news: It's a holiday weekend, so we can't bring it in until Monday. And back to the upside: It's a good excuse to stay home and get some work done in my long neglected garden.

But that's right, I'm on vacation, better make Silas work in the garden instead:
But I won't make him work too hard. He can enjoy the Radio Flyer we got for him last weekend at the Bainbridge Island Rotary Auction ($1.50 --that's what I call a deal!).
He loves it, but he's really almost too big for it already. And he doesn't really get that he should make it go by using his feet. He prefers that I push him, which is kind of a workout, given how low to the ground that thing is. I think pretty soon, we're going to have to buy him something with petals. For now, the radio flyer is a hit.
A note about Si's books, since Jessi commented that I always find good ones. Shucks, you are a dear, dear. Well, I catalog children's books for a school district for a living. I probably see over 100 books a day, on average, so I'm exposed to a lot of great titles. Probably 95% of the titles on Silas' book wish list and the books of the month are books I cataloged at some point over the past 5 years. If you are looking for an inexpensive way to build your kid's library, check out your local public library's book sale. Most of them have them from time to time. The money from the proceeds usually filters back to the libraries, and you can pick up a lot of the books they've discarded or that people have donated for next to nothing. I've found that some of these books are in pretty good shape, some are a little worse for wear, etc. You never know what you'll find, but it's always worth looking. And we take Silas to the library ALL of the time too, so we are never short on reading material.

July 08 Book of the Month

Announcing Planet Silas' July Book of the Month:

The Wheels on the Bus adapted & illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky.
This adaptation has intriguing illustrations that introduce side plots and appealing characters along side the traditional song most of us are familiar with. It has pull tabs that move parts of the pictures and as you can imagine, Silas is a big fan of these. He's pretty hands on with this book, much to the book's chagrin. For instance, there's now only one remaining wiper on the bus going "swish swish swish."

This book is also known by the title "Not that one again!" Silas' is utterly obsessed with this book. We've read/sung it countless times, and it's now a bit worse for wear. But his love for it continues. If it happens to "disappear" he will search for it and come up to me signing "book." A couple of times, I absentmindedly sang a line from it (it's been stuck in my head for about three weeks now), then cursed myself when Silas excitedly went and brought me the book, expecting a complete recitation. For a baby who watches no TV, this book might as well be Sesame Street, and the bus might as well be Elmo. We are doing pre-potty training and have a little potty for him. Several times, we've sat him on his potty and he's read contentedly for half an hour. Not bad for an active little boy!

Here he is, about to shove the book at me so that I read it to him.
And 1.5 seconds later, he's attacked me with it. He will not relent until I make the wheels go round and round, make the doors go open and shut, make the babies on the bus go "wah, wah, wah." OK Silas, I get the point.
And pictured below is Si's favorite page: "The driver on the bus says 'move on back.'"
And the honorable mentions are... well, I don't have any this month. Not that there aren't plenty of good ones to choose from, but it's summer, and I don't feel motivated to capture them on camera and blog about them. Besides, The Wheels on the Bus is really the only book carrying major weight around here at the moment.

In lieu of honorable mentions, here's a bonus picture of us enjoying the 1,586th reading of The Wheels on the Bus.

Books of the Month Archive

In order to avoid an increasingly long list of previous books of the month on the sidebar, I've replaced that list with a link to this post, which I'll keep updated.

Here's the list, to date:

11/08: Engine Engine, Number Nine
10/08: Moonlight: the Halloween Cat
09/08: Hands are Not for Hitting
08/08: Goodnight Moon
07/08: The Wheels on the Bus
06/08: Frog Book
05/08: Puff the Magic Dragon
04/08: Kitten's First Full Moon
03/08: Close Your Eyes

June 08 Book of the Month

Announcing Planet Silas' June 08 book of the month:

Frog Book by Chelona.

This month's book is a departure from the more traditionally formatted picture books that have made the list in the past. This one truly blends the lines between book and toy.

This is a book with a touch of whimsy. The movable frog and wordless pictures allow parents and children to imagine a story together. I love the fact that he can't bend, wrinkle or tear the pages.
He can't chew on the binding until it comes apart either (see Good Morning Farm! below), and this makes it much sturdier than a board book. Because the wood pages can be wiped clean, this is a favorite to give to Silas to "read" at the table before and after meals.
Silas knows the sign for frog (in baby sign, it's sticking your tongue in and out), and it's pretty cute to see him say "frog" over and over again when he's looking at this book.

We have a video of Silas playing with this book when he first got it in March, which you can watch here.

"I really like this book, mom!"

And...this month's honorable mentions are:

Dr. Seuss's ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book!

A classic! It's easy to see why. Si's favorite passage is "big D, little d, what begins with D? Doughnuts and a Duck-dog, D d D!" D is his favorite sound to vocalize, at the moment. When we recited the D line for him today, he said "du-dog!" We haven't been able to get him to repeat it, but it was still fun to hear, even just that once. The only thing we don't like about this book is the K part, which ends with "K k K." As innocent as this book might be, we can't bring ourselves to say "K k K" when we read it to Silas, so we usually make something else up instead.
And finally:
Good Morning Farm! by Matt Mitter, illustrated by Frances Cony. A great board book for introducing animal sounds, Silas loves this book...
...in fact, he's loved it to death:
Just after taking these last two photos, the book broke entirely. Nothing a little glue can't fix!

May 08 Book of the Month

Announcing Planet Silas' May 08 book of the month:

Puff the Magic Dragon by Peter Yarrow & Lenny Lipton ; pictures by Eric Puybaret.

In which Puff (magic dragon) and Jackie Paper (human boy) have adventures in the land of Honalee.
Grandma and Papa arrived from WI this afternoon, just in time to read Silas one of his current favorite stories. Silas seems to love the fact that we can sing this book to him. The illustrations are lively and fanciful. I know this story from my own childhood, and it is a joy to share it with my child now.
And we have one honorable mention this month. In keeping with the dragon theme, it is:

That's Not My Dragon by Fiona Watt.

A little mouse is looking for his dragon. On each page, we meet a different and interesting dragon, but it's not till the last page that the mouse finds what he's looking for.
Our friend Katya bought this book for Si's birthday. You really can't go wrong with a touch and feel book right now, and he can't get enough of this one. The textures are varied and fit in well with the text. You can also see Silas examining this book in the Six Signs of Silas video.

April 08 Book of the Month

Announcing Planet Silas' April Book of the Month:
Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes.
Summary: Kitten sees the full moon and mistakes it for a bowl of milk, which she simply must have.
As a librarian who catalogs children's books for a living, I see many picture books, including those who win the big literary awards, such as the Caldecott. When Kitten's First Full Moon won the Caldecott Award a few years ago, however, I have to admit I wasn't totally convinced, though I do like the author quite a bit. Then the reviews started to come in from the school librarians: little kids LOVE this book. Silas adores it as well, and I can now say that I am a Kitten's First Full Moon convert, big time.
This book has what it takes to engage young readers--bold high contrast illustrations, an appealing character, rhythmic, appropriately repetitive text and a simple lightly humorous story. it's quite a fun one to read out loud (and believe me, I've already done so a bunch of times). I've added the baby sign for "milk" when I read that word in the text so that I can convey to Silas that Kitten and he have a common love of milk.
This month's honorable mentions:
Miffy's Counting Book by Dick Bruna. This was Silas' favorite book when he was 3 or 4 months old. Seriously. He couldn't get enough of that book and would always calm down when we read it to him. He's still quite a Miffy fan.
Hairbrushes for Babies with Little Hair by Silas.
no, just kidding.
I Love You Through and Through by Bernadette Rossetti-Shustak. Silas got this book from his Grandma G for his birthday. It's quickly been added to his daily book rotation. He seems to really "relate" to the little toddler and his stuffed bear. I like reading this book with him because it lists things about the toddler which are loved, such as "I love your fingers, your toes...Your happy side, your sad side." These sort of phrases allow for us to point out body parts or make emotional expressions as we are reading the text to Silas. Very interacting and fun!

Froggy Book in Action

Thanks, LeClair family, for this great froggy book. As you can see, Silas really has fun with it!

Chef Silas

What you see pictured here is a daily occurrence in our house. As long as he's not too rough with the cookbooks we really like, we don't discourage Silas from taking them down off the shelf, disbursing them across the floor, and paging through them to find the most scrumptious apple turnover recipe, or to glean other cooking hints. Since he can already turn the stove on, we figure, he should know how to bake us bread. He's gotta start earning his keep.

Seriously though, he loves books and cookbooks are no exception. Playing with them may actually buy us a coveted 5 or even, wait for it, 10 MINUTES to do some dishes, clean up a bit or even, gasp, make a cup of tea and enjoy it, without having to chase him and stop him from eating some unknown substance off the floor, or from crawling head first into a wall (yes it's happened). So , even though we SHOULD move the cookbooks up out of reach, we just haven't seemed to do it yet.

Other forms of baby-proofing around the house are now in full swing, however. I'll be talking more about that in the coming weeks. I leave you with this update today: We tried the dreaded avocado again for Si's dinner and this time, about face, he LOVED it. No gagging, no tears, no head shaking, no clenched jaw, and no pained looks. He just gobbled it down. Yessss!

March '08 Book of the Month

Announcing Planet Silas' first ever book of the month! Since Si and his parents love books we decided to share one with you (along with some honorable mentions) each month. Enjoy!

And this month's books is...
Close Your Eyes by Kate Banks ; pictures by Georg Hallensleben.

Silas LOVES this book. The vivid images capture his attention. He convulses with happiness when we show him the cover and will often laugh at the images of Little Tiger, who is resisting his mama's gentle attempts to get him to go to sleep. This is a beautiful story and Silas recommends that all of you parents out there read it to your young ones. You will be captivated too!


This month's honorable mentions:
Winnie the Pooh's Touch and Feel Adapted from A. A. Milne.
Silas is really into textured books now, and that makes this book very engaging for him.
And... 1, 2, 3 by UNICEF.
A counting board book that introduces readers to numbers as well as works of art. Silas is particularly interested in the picture for #5. He loves those clouds!

Books are not for eating

Silas LOVES books. He thinks they are an excellent source of fiber. We have to watch him pretty closely to make sure he doesn't take a big chunk out of whatever he's "reading." For this reason, we have to limit his access to books all together :( Since we still want to read to him everyday, we've developed a new technique wherein one parent holds Silas while the other holds the book--just out of reach. Tonight we read a book that Silas adores; Close Your Eyes by Kate Banks. He did cry a bit when we put it away, but otherwise did very well and really enjoyed it (we read it twice!). By the way, Silas is examining a very cool board book that Heather sent from Korea in the first two pictures. Thanks, Heather!

Ridiculous

Silas got this ridiculous horsy outfit from mom's friend Jill, who has two adorable little boys and lots of great boy clothes. As silly as this outfit is, he still looks pretty cute. Mom couldn't resist snapping the last picture of Dad and Si reading in bed this morning. For those of you unfamiliar with the book "Seen Art?," Silas highly recommends it.