Posts Tagged marla frazee

Harriet You’ll Drive Me Wild by Mem Fox

March 10, 2009 at 1:27 pm · Filed under Books for little kids (0-3), picture books (ages 4-6) ·Tagged , ,

Harriet, You'll Drive Me Wild!

Harriet, You'll Drive Me Wild!

Well, whether your kids are driving you wild because it’s Purim and they have too much sugar in their bodies or because it’s Tuesday (or Wednesday or…), this is the book to read. In fact, we have several copies of it at home because we read it that often. Sometimes we read it so often that it is no longer about what my kids want to read but what I NEED to read — I need to read Harriet, You’ll Drive Me Wild by Mem Fox, illustrated by the fantastic Marla Frazee. And if they want me to read their stories, I get to read my story.

Harriet Harris was a pesky child. She didn’t mean to be, she just was.

Could that describe our my children any better?

Harriet’s mother has about 10 pages more patience than I do, but still, I like to think we are the same person (if I had a daughter, a lot more patience, stayed at home and, well, OK, she’s not much like me). After each thing that goes wrong (Harriet accientally pulls the tablecloth and lunch dishes to the ground; Harriet drips paint all over the floor as she shows her mom her painting, etc.), Harriet’s mother (“who didn’t like to yell”), gets “angry” and each time, her statements get longer and longer:

Harriet, my darling child. Harriet, you’ll drive me wild..

And of course, each time, Harriet apologizes, as children are sometimes good at doing.

 Until the end, when Harriet pops a pillow and the feathers go everywhere. And then, well, Harriet’s mother starts to yell. And she yells and yells and yells. And then she apologizes.

Basically, it’s an average day at my house.

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Everywhere Babies by Susan Meyers

October 24, 2008 at 4:05 pm · Filed under Books for little kids (0-3) ·Tagged , , ,

Board books are not my favorite kind of book. They either seem to be too much text and content squished into small, relatively sturdy, pages; or they bore me from the first pages. At best, they are funny and the words make your baby laugh. But often you wonder — would my baby notice the difference if I was reading The Wall Street Journal, pointing to the pictures and making animal noises?

Everywhere Babies

Everywhere Babies

But then you have perfectly wonderful board books like Everywhere Babies by Susan Meyers, illustrated by the fantastic Marla Frazee. it’s a delight to read and it has beautiful illustrations of babies of all shapes, sizes and colors scattered throughout. It actually reflects diversity without beating you over the head with it.

I read it to my babies, to my toddlers and now to my older kids (note: all the same kids — I only have 2). I could read it again and again and not grow bored. It’s sentimental without being saccharine which is almost unheard of in baby books. And best of all, if you look carefully, there are same sex parents all over the place in this book. Yay Marla Frazee for your illustrations! 

This is a wonderful gift for new parents and new babies and pregnant women, though it will probably make them cry. 

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