Valentine’s Book Love Art
If you don’t already, you should really follow Bookshelf Porn on Facebook. Click the image they shared today (Valentine’s 2013) to visit their page.
To My Beagle
Oh dear boy how you’ve aged…
As a pup I loved your floppy ears and soft belly
Now ears are lumpy, feel like hardened jelly
That belly is fat and your hair is half gone
You are going gray and don’t have long
Oh my dear, dear boy
How you’ve aged
You were so tiny, you brought me my keys
You gazed at me ’til I gave you a squeeze
We snuggled and played every day
On long walks you’d lead the way
You still snuggle, despite your bad skin
When we walk, you have trouble breathing in
Oh dear boy how you’ve aged!
My sweet little beagle, once so soft and fun
Has gotten old and greasy, too tired to run
I called you ‘boyfriend dog,’ side by side we slept
You’d rest your head on my shoulder whenever I wept
And now you curl up, away from us all
Old, tired, your peppy step now a crawl
We love you old boy, our sweet beagle dog
Our little old man, a bump on a log
My dear, dear, sweet boy
How much you have aged…
A Tidbit from Miss Golightly
“My dog and a book are ideal company when I feel sickly.” – Jennifer Joy Golightly
Hurray for Spring! And Elephants!
Weekly Low Down on Kids Books 5/03/12
Title: Hurray for Spring!
Author: Patricia Hubbell
Illustrator: Taia Morley
Publisher: NorthWord
Genre: Childrens, Picture Books
Ayla has a wide assortment of books of her own, she can’t help it with a compulsive book buying mother. But going to the library and picking out special books for just the week is always fun. At a year and a half, she already loves books and spends a lot of time pretending to read or browsing illustrations. ‘Shopping’ at a library, however, is so much different than shopping at a store. For starters, there’s the Dewey Decimal System to contend with, something I honestly haven’t used in about ten years. Then, there’s the lack of beautifully merchandised end caps – you can ask my best friend, I’m a complete sucker for a pretty display. (That’s probably why I enjoyed making them so much in my merchandising days.) Still, we manage to find precious gems and exciting reads every week.
This week we haphazardly pulled Hurray for Spring! off the shelf. The poem tells of all the adventures one can have throughout the season and is accompanied by gorgeous illustrations of kids playing and dragon flies and flowers. There’s mice playing in the weeds, beautiful blue skies, and the book is an all around treat. We read it four times in a row before bed time Tuesday night because Ayla kept demanding, “More” as she turned the book back to the first page and patted the title, indicating a re-read.
I’d like to buy a copy to use to celebrate Easter every year. Its fresh, lively, and is a good way to get kids excited about playing outside, but if read softly the cadence of the words can still put a baby to sleep. We love Hurray for Spring! Even now Ayla discovered it in my hand and is hopping around, rummaging through the book bag, and begging me to read it again.
Title:
Busy Elephants
Author: John Schindel
Photographs: Martin Harvey
Publisher: Tricycle Press
Genre: Childrens, Board Books
In the past, we’ve tried Busy Penguins, which I loved, but Ayla had little interest in. This time, Busy Elephants was all the rage. Each page contains a photograph of elephants out in the wild, eating, running, bathing, etc. And after months and month of every blessed furry (or even some non-furry) animals being called ‘Dog’ its nice to finally see her point with recognition at the elephants on each page, listen to me say elephant, and then try the word out on her own mouth. So far, all we get is “lphn,” but that’s enough for me this week. She’s excited to learn new words, even if she can’t quite pronounce them properly. That’s what makes these kinds of books so great for babies: real photographs, repitition of a word, until by the end they’ve seen the world and added something to their vocabulary.
Anakalian Whims 