Julius: The Baby of the World

Julius: The Baby of the World
By Kevin Henkes
Pub 1990

"I am the queen [. . . ] And I hate Julius"

I laughed out loud really hard the first time I read this to my little girl. The illustrations (and writing within them) make this story hilarious. Lilly is a small girl who couldn't be less thrilled about her new baby brother. She keeps asking about "after Julius goes away", tries to make him disappear. My favorite is how she sabotages his ABC's and 123's and whispers "I hate you, you're ugly" into his crib. Oh and the story she tells him (I have a lot of favorite parts). I feel like it was written by extremely amused parents who were smart enough to know that she would pass through this attention starved phase in no time and come to love the new addition to their family. Which (*spoiler*) she does.

Click here to find Julius: The Baby of the World on Amazon

Chrysanthemum

Chrysanthemum
by Kevin Henkes
Pub. 1991

"Chrysanthemum loved the way her name looked when it was written with ink on an envelope. She loved the way it looked when it was written with icing on her birthday cake. And she loved the way it looked when she wrote it herself with her fat orange crayon."

I love Kevin Henkes style. His illustrations are unique, fun, and vibrantly colorful; his prose, always clever. His stories are great at capturing the ridiculous way that children experience emotions-- one minute their world is crumbling to tear-filled pieces and the next they are positively beaming and happy as can be. That's what happens to Chrysanthemum as she goes from thinking her name is "absolutely perfect" to "absolutely dreadful" and back again. I love the little details like "her outfit with seven pockets", her evenings filled with "hugs and kisses and Parcheesi", and her classmates collection of seriously short names (Don, Eve, Al, Kay, Max, Sue, Ken, Jo etc. . . ) . Henkes also throws in little laughs for the parents like the fathers reading choices as he tries to comfort Chrysanthemum through her name crisis: "The Inner Mouse Vol. 1 Childhood Anxiety" and "A Rose by Any Other Name: Understanding Identity." Perfect book to share with any small child needing a perspective on others name-calling (which I can only imagine will shortly be on the rise. Weird names seem to be trending, no?)

And on an educational note, here is what a real Chrysanthemum actually looks like, just in case you didn't know.

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Here we go

Hi.  I'm starting this blog to chronicle the kids books I love.  When I first became interested in childrens books and started reading any I could get my hands on, I couldn't believe the poor quality I encountered right and left.  I realized quickly that truly quality kids books are hard to find.  This blog is an effort to find the gems in the slush pile--those childrens books that are genuinely creative, fun, and well illustrated.