Magnus Maximus, A Marvelous Measurer

Magnus Maximus, A Marvelous Measurer
By Kathleen T. Pelley
Pictures by S.D. Schindler

"He filled his house with all kinds of clocks and scales, thermometers and barometers, and telescopes and periscopes.  With his glasses perched at the end of his nose, he measured wetness and dryness, nearness and farness, and everything else in between.

"Magnus Maximus is a marvelous measurer," people said to one another.

This one is just a gem.  This old, balding, mustached man, loves to (of all things) measure things.  He's good at it too.  So good that after saving the town from a terrifying escaped circus lion, the mayor declares him the towns official measurer.  He carries on, measuring "all kinds of NESSes, from the wobbliness of a jellyfish to the itchiness of an itch."  Eventually though, a fortunate accident leads him to realize that although it is terribly fun, there might just be more important things in life than endless counting and measuring.

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The Pout-Pout Fish

The Pout-Pout Fish
By Deborah Diesen
Pictures by Dan Hanna
Pub. 2008

"Deep in the water 

Where the fish hang out

Lives a glum gloomy swimmer

With an ever-present pout.

I'm a pout-pout fish

With a pout-pout face,

So I spread the dreary-earies

All over the place."

This book is a ton of fun!  The illustrations of every unique kind of fish you could imagine are bright and colorful, and the rhyming and repetition make it fun to read out loud.  This constantly glum fish travels through the ocean meeting one sea creature after another that think his "hulky-bulky sulking is an unattractive trait!"  But he continues with the sulking anyway.  That is, until one silent silvery shimmery fish convinces him to change his ways. 

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The Absentminded Fellow

The Absentminded Fellow
By Samuel Marshak
Translated from the Russian by Richard Pevear
Pictures by Marc Rosenthal
First Published in the Soviet Union in 1928,
Translation published 1999

"'Driver, stake me to the drain!

Striver, brake me to the strain!

Let me explain,

It's fairly plain . . .

Turn down that lane,

Arrive by five!'

The driver was so startled 

He forgot how to drive.

Oh, that absentminded fellow from Portobello Road!"

We all sometimes have those mornings when we put the milk away in the cupboard and the cereal away in the fridge.  This fellow is doing things like that from the moment he wakes up until he makes a very humorous train mistake, all the while too absentminded to notice the confused and protesting looks from those around him.  It's a silly, funny, lighthearted read with great illustrations.

Click here to find the Absentminded Fellow on Amazon