Picture books we love (July 2016 edition)

A short list this month (we're outside more, reading less right now). Here are the library books we loved:

There is a tribe of kids, by Lane Smith

There are a number of great things about this book, from the sweet illustrations to the adventurous story to the unique idea of building a book around what groups of things are named. I love language things like this and learned so many odd things here...like do you know a group of jellyfish is called a smack of jellyfish? Or a group of ravens is called an unkindness of ravens? In another life I think I would have studied linguistics...love this sort of thing. The kids each time we return books get to re-check out one and this is one Zo picked...

Room on the broom, by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler

We first got introduced to this story via a Sprout TV special and honestly I like the cartoon (out of Britain, and with an indie feel) a little more, mostly because the cat who first belongs to the witch has much more of an attitude in the cartoon when other animals (dog, bird, frog) are invited onto the broom. Other than that the stories are very similar and so charming. I think we'll be re-checking this out come Halloween.

Iggy Peck, Architect, by Andrea Beaty and David Roderts

Another book by the author/illustrator of Rosie Revere, Engineer, which we loved last month. This book has Rosie in it (in the pictures, at least) and is similarly positive and inspiring (although I do like Rosie better). 

The only child, by Gouging

I'm not always a fan of wordless books but this is one of the best books I've seen in a long, long time. It's from a Chinese author and also has a very indie feel to it and the drawings are superb and the whole story is so fantastical and yet you can imagine how a real child would react in the way this fictional girl reacts. Essentially what happens is a young girl's mom and dad go off to work and she (the girl) leaves the house deciding to visit her grandma and gets lost and ends up on this big adventure with a stag to take care of her. The pictures of the girl and the stag at the end are amazing...Zo also re-checked this book this month...the kids are as enthralled with it as I am...

How about you? What are you and your kids reading and loving?

XOXO