...and it was still hot

The popular children's classic Where The Wild Things Are + Dave Eggers + Spike Jonze =



I'm so excited to see this I can hardly contain myself.

Edit: If anyone knows where I can get this movie poster I will love them forever.

Hangin' With Mo

We managed to make it to the wonderful Wild Rumpus in time to see Mo Willems. He was AWESOME! If you have a chance, stop by the Red Balloon this Saturday at 10:30. We just might go there too. I wouldn't mind getting my copy of You Can Never Find a Rickshaw When It Monsoons signed.

Get Naked

Children's book author extraordinaire Mo Willems is on tour once again. This time he's promoting his hilarious new book, Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed. He will be stopping by Wild Rumpus this Thursday, Jan. 22, at 3 pm. and Red Balloon on Saturday, Jan. 24, at 10:30 am.

The new book is fantastic and if you can find room, listening to Mo read his books to a shop full of kids is definitely worth the time. And while you're at it you may as well pick up Mo's latest Elephant and Piggy adventure, Are You Ready to Play Outside?.

Lost and Found

The beautiful children's book about friendship, Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers, has been adapted to a 30 minute animated film by STUDIOaka and broadcast over the Holidays on the UK's Channel 4. As far as I can tell from the trailer and comments from the Brits who had the pleasure of watching the whole thing, the stunningly gorgeous animation applied to the super touching story is an absolute masterpiece.



The DVD is scheduled for release March 23rd. I'm not sure if that includes the US or if it is just the UK... though I think I'd be willing to pay the extra shipping if I had too.

Economic Stimulus Part Six

I can't really do a review of a book I don't have yet, but from everything I've seen, Do Narwhals Have Blowholes? by Gibson Holub & Matt Cory has potential to join the all time favorites in my house.

Instead of weighing down this post with all my usual adjectives, here's a video of a recent reading by the author so you can see for yourself.

Recent Acquisitions

Ever since our visit to the Library of Congress my passion for great original children's books has certainly been reinforced. Here are a few that we've discovered that we really enjoy.

I Will Make Miracles by Susie Morgenstern illustrated by Jiang Hong Chen. One of the most beautiful books we own, in both illustration, verse, and substance.




Not a Stick by Antoinette Portis. As utterly cute and perfectly simple as its predecessor, Not a Box.




Elephant Elephant: A Book of Opposites by Pittau & Gervais is a VERY unique and funny demonstration of opposites with the help of some misshapen, disfigured, and in one instance, anatomically correct elephants. Though some parents may find this book "inappropriate" I like to see it as an opportunity to explain certain unavoidable aspects of life.




John, Paul, George & Ben by Lane Smith is a comical introduction to the founding fathers from the illustrator of some of our favorite books, including Big Plans.

Finally

I posted this video demonstrating the ABC3D book by Marion Bataille a while back when it was said to be available in some vague future. That future is now people. You can go to Amazon right now and get your copy of the coolest ABC book ever.

Children's Book Review: BIG PLANS by Bob Shea and Lane Smith

You know you've got a good kids' book when you can't read it with a baby sleeping in the next room. This book demands to be read ALOUD. Just like the books Lane Smith did with John Scieszka, this book is hilarious, imaginative, and fun for both child and adult.

excerpt:

"PENNSYLVANIA! Build a rocket ship!"
"IDAHO! Make some space suits using the latest potato technology!"
"MISSOURI! Cheer up! You're bringing me down."
"The rest of you, mill about! MILL ABOUT, I say!"

And how can you resist a book that includes a trip to the moon in a rocket built by the Amish?

Big Plans on amazon.

Picture Books A Go Go

Though a bit limited so far, LookyBook.com is a super way to find new picture books for the wee little ones. You can set up a bookself to share what books you and your spawn are reading over and over and over and over and... Or you can use it the way it should be, a wish-list of books that friends and relatives can go to for gift ideas. At least that's what I did because they don't have much for books that we already have at home. The feature that puts lookybook above all else though is that you can actually look at entire books on-line and even embed them like this:

Just click on the book.




And yes, I know the illustrations in the Jabberwocky book is pretty dark for the little ones. That one would be more for me. I'm weird like that.

Big Ups to My Homegirl in NYC

We got a care package in the mail yesterday from our favorite New Yorker, Becker. A couple of great books that we surprisingly didn't own and a "I (heart) New York" shirt for Ozzi. Great. Thanks Becker.

But forget all that stuff. She also included a tro-tro book that she picked up in Ghana a while back. I guess my begging the last time we saw her paid off. Tro-tro books are wonderfully bizarre and unintentionally hilarious. The Girl Who Lived in a Tree Part 1 seems to be about a little girl that climbs a tree to avoid the outbreak of a disease. Like I said, hilarious. They are a bit like a West African Aesop's Fables but with much stranger "lessons".

Thanks Becker. One of these days we will come to visit. I swear.

Update: Holy shmoly! She sent us 2 tro-tro books! "The Wicked Teacher and the Stubborn School Boys 1" was stuck inside one of the other books for the boys. Sweetness!

A perfect morning for a 3 year old

... and he pooped in the big potty so we walked to Red Balloon and picked up Follow the Line Around the World by Laura Ljungkvist. I don't know Laura but I'm quite positive that some how she wrote this book specifically for Q.

Thanks Mo!

The City Pages was right. Wild Rumpus is the best children's bookstore of the Twin Cities. Everything about the store is great. If it wasn't such a pain in the ass to get to from St. Paul we would be there every other day.

Q got a pretty big kick out of Mo Willems and the new The Pigeon Wants a Puppy book, but at 3 years old, the animals managed to get more of Q's attention. Mo absolutely packed the place. We now have an autographed copy of There Is a Bird On Your Head. I only wish I could have gotten my copy of You Can Never Find a Rickshaw When It Monsoons sign too.

My stalker skills need some work

I don't know how I missed it. Being Mo Willems unofficial Twin Cities pimp, you would think I would know when he is coming to town to make appearances at Wild Rumpus and The Red Balloon bookstores. I'm constantly extolling his books as the greatest children's books of our time on the web and on the playground and I check his blog and other websites on a semi-regular basis. So its pretty surprising that I didn't know about the visits until a mom in our ECFE class told us about it. I guess that's what I get for not signing up for the Red Balloon newsletter.

We've been meaning to check out Wild Rumpus for a long time now. This is definitely going to be the best reason to get over there that I'm going to find since I can't make the Red Balloon 7 pm appearance. With all the different animals running around, Wild Rumpus sounds like a blast. I'm a bit disappointed in myself for not taking Q there until now. But with the Red Balloon being a short walk from our house, its a little tough to justify loading up the car and driving across the river just to find another independent kids bookstore. For Mo though, we'll make the trip.

ABC popup book! Awesome awesomeness!

I known I overuse the word awesome but ABC3D really does deserve the adjective. A few other apt descriptives are unique, innovative, and awesome... oh wait, I already said that one.

Popup by Marion Bataille
by jacques_faciale

Today was a good day.

Serendipity started our day off by showing her humorous side. While leaving the house for ECFE, Q slipped on a little ice and fell in the big puddle in the backyard. After quickly changing him into dry pants we got into the car. As we pulled off, Nobody's Off The Hook by Rufus Wainwright was playing on The Current. The song begins with the line "Haven't fallen down in a while". This line is repeated a few times throughout the song and specifically right before some poor law student, overburdened with his bags, biffed it on some ice right in front of William Mitchell as we drove past. Comedy, they say, is all about timing.

ECFE was great with a little field trip for the parents, 7 moms and me, to Nina's Coffee & Cafe and Garrison Keillor's bookstore, Common Good Books. While there, I picked up Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois after my newest mom friend, Lauren, recommended it, likening it to a "new religion".

Even after class, when I foolishly forgot Ozzi's car seat back in the classroom because he was still sleeping in the Phil & Ted's, fate smiled upon us thanks to Lauren. She offered to run back into school to get it for us while we hung-out with her little guy, Oliver.

After a nice lunch I took the boys for a nice long walk, meandering and splashing through our wonderful Mac-Groveland neighborhood. At one point I saw an 80+ year-old woman get into the drivers seat of a Prius with a Green Party bumper sticker. Damn hippies!

Did I mention that it got to 50 degrees.... above zero! Time to get out the shorts.

Happy Birthday K8!

Monday was K8's Birthday. For her gift, Q and I went to the new Patina on Snelling and picked out a great box made out of recycled magazines for Ozzi's baby stuff, a candle lantern made out of recycled metal and glass, and Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth.



I also made her the best carnitas I've ever made.

Q is an artistic Genius!

Ok, maybe genius is a bit strong. I'm pretty sure MoMa will not be calling any time soon but for a kid that's just 2 months into 3, he seems to be pretty advanced in his art knowledge.

First, all his paintings and drawings seem to have a distinct style to them. In fact most remind me a bit of Miro... just lacking any real artistic skill. I'm not sure if this is common in his age group or not.

His other, much more amazing, artistic talent isn't in the creating but actually recognizing a specific artists work. We own a few post cards of various paintings that we've picked up over time and have them up on the magnetic wall in the playroom. A few are Van Gogh's. Quite a while back Q happened to point to the Starry Night postcard and ask, "What's that?" I explained to him that it was a painting by an artist named Van Gogh. Now here is where he started to amaze me. On his own, he began picking out the other Van Gogh paintings we have around the house and correctly identifying them as Van Gogh paintings. We have tons of other prints etc from other artists around the house and not once have I heard him incorrectly identify them as Van Gogh's.

This brings us to our outing today to Wet Paint on Grand Ave. If you're unfamiliar, it is an art supply store near Macalester College that is packed with stuff. We went there to pick up a little kid scissors and a glue stick for Q. While we are walking around he stops and points out a Van Gogh coloring book saying, "Look Papa. Van Gogh painting." The reason this was so amazing is that the cover had the Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin on it. To my knowledge, Q has never seen that painting, much less had it identified to him as a Van Gogh. It seems even more amazing when you consider that all the Van Gogh stuff we have around the house is landscapes, none of his portraits.

So, is this weird for a three year old?

Needless to say, we couldn't leave without buying the coloring book.

Children's Book: Rome Antics by David Macaulay

Rome Antics by David Macaulay was my valentines gift from K8. She ordered it after we watched Macaulay's video on Ted.com. Once again, she managed to give me the most thoughtful gift I could imagine. K8 and I love Rome and look forward to bringing the boys there someday. Until then, Rome Antics can fill that void. I can't think of a better concept for a children's book tour of Rome than Macaulay's pigeon taking the scenic route. Flying over, through, and into many of Rome's greatest sights, the reader gets a beautifully illustrated pigeon's eye view of the eternal city.

Hey Julia, give me a call. We'll set up a playdate!

Once again, a celebrity validates that I am... ahh, I mean my kids are way cool!

First, I have to make two small confessions:

1. K8 has a subscription to Entertainment Weekly. Her "guilty pleasure".

2. I, on occasion, find myself perusing its pages of oh so valuable information from inside the entertainment and celebrity world. I feel so dirty.

Anywho, while browsing through the latest edition of said filth, I dicovered that Julia Roberts and her offspring are big fans of Mo Willems. US TOO! Wow. We could totally hang out, maybe trade some recipes, complain about the cost of organic milk, and gossip about other moms. "Oh that Britney."

Seriously though, if you don't own any Mo Willems books, go to the Red Balloon and get them all right now. Then you too can be cool like me and the prostitute in Pretty Woman.

A COOL COOL ROBOT!!

After reading "My friend is Sad" by Mo Willems, the best children's book author alive today, for the hundreth time we decided that a robot would be a great halloween costume for Q this year. So after a quick trip to Home Depot and just a little time with a scissors and some spray paint here's what we came up with.