My Favorite Children's Book #4: Madeline's Rescue

What was your favorite picture book as a child? What book did you return to, over and over again, until your parents were completely sick of it? Was it Madeline? Max & the Wild Things? Paddington? This feature shows off some of my favorite children's books, in no particular order, and I also want to hear what you think! So comment below. :)

Madeline's Rescue by Ludwig Bemelmans

I asked my sister, A, what children's book I should do this week and she said Madeline, because "she has red hair like me". And then my mom mentioned a Madeline doll she wanted and it seemed like that was the book to do. Turns out I don't actually have the first Madeline book though! I really thought I did too, weird. This is the second book in the series, published in 1953 and a Caldecott winner in 1954. I always loved finding books with the Caldecott or Newbery seal on them as a kid, it made them seem so special. (Which I suppose they were or they wouldn't have won.)

I'm sure you know the original story of Madeline: "twelve little girls in two straight lines. The smallest one was Madeline." Madeline's Rescue can be taken two ways: the first in that she is rescued from the Seine river by a stray dog and the second in that Madeline herself rescues the dog from living on the streets. This book is super morbid for a children's book.

Poor Madeline would now be dead
But for a dog
that kept its head,
And dragged her safe from a watery grave.

Of course she is safe though and they take the dog home with them and name her Genevieve. All is well until the evil board of trustees arrive for their annual inspection and Lord Cucuface (really, that's his name) makes the dog leave. The girls scour the city, looking for her but she is gone. That evening, Genevieve shows back up at the home and the girls are ecstatic to see her. Even more so when she has puppies. (How and when did she have time for that?!) In the end, each of the twelve girls has her own puppy to walk in two straight lines and Genevieve has Madeline.

My Favorite Children's Books #3: The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish

Today is my dad's birthday, so I thought it was fitting to pick this book. :) He would probably rather be traded for 2 squirrels though. Also fitting, he shared his love for Neil Gaiman with me when I was a teenager and I am so glad he did. Happy birthday, Dad!





The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish
Written by Neil Gaiman
Pictures by Dave McKean




Two Goldfish (as I shall shorten it) is a cute little story about a boy who decides that his friend's 2 goldfish are so awesome that he must have them, at any cost. He offers him a variety of things, including baseball cards, books, a penny whistle, and Clownie the Clown. His friend wisely declines all of these offers. The boy sits and thinks and finally comes up with an outstanding offer...his father. The friend agrees and goes home happy with his trade.

When the boy's mother gets home, she is not quite so happy. In fact, she is a little peeved. She sends the boy out to retrieve his father and return the 2 goldfish. Unfortunately, the friend decided that Dad wasn't such a great deal after all. "All he did was read the paper." So begins a string of trades that takes the boy and his younger sister all around town, trying to get their dad back. In the end, they realize that he really is "a very good daddy" and are glad to have him back.

The artwork is different for a children's book, but knowing the author, it works well with his style. It's an interesting mixture of drawing, watercolors, and some collage of real pictures (the goldfish in particular). Overall, a great book for younger children. Especially those who are feeling grumpy towards their parents or have a tendency to want to trade their possessions.

My Favorite Children's Books #2: "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs"

This is a feature I decided to start to share my favorite children's picture books. And I want to hear about your favorites too!

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
written by Judi Barrett
drawn by Ron Barrett

I'm sure most of you are familiar with the Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs movies, but did you know it was first a children's book? Even though this book was first published in 1978, I had never heard of it until I did a children's book swap on Craftster back in 2003-ish. I received this book from my partner and had to create some items for her based on the story. I only remember that I made her a wind chime out of a plastic bagel and plastic cutlery with jingle bells lol. And just now, when I was adding the Goodreads link above, I found out there are 2 more books in the same land! How cool.

This story kind of goes along with Rain Makes Applesauce...both are nonsense stories about food. Actually I just realized they both have weather too. I made a theme and I didn't even know it! Cloudy starts off with a normal family eating breakfast and when a pancake flip goes haywire, it sets off a story about a small town called Chewandswallow. Chewandswallow is a normal town in many respects, except for one very important detail. Their food does not come from the store but from the sky.

It never rained rain. It never snowed snow. And it never blew just wind. 

It rained things like soup and juice. It snowed mashed potatoes and green peas. 

And sometimes the wind blew in storms of hamburgers.

Everything is hunky dory until the weather turns nasty one day. There are maple syrup floods and giant meatball hail and tomato tornadoes. The sanitation department, usually so efficient with their giant scoopers and tupperware, can't keep up. The townsfolk decide they must leave and so they sail away on boats made of stale toast and pizza sails.

Rereading this just now, I was surprised that it differs so much from the movie. There is no scientist and the reason for the foodnomaly is never explained. I haven't seen the sequel yet, but I want to. The part with the "leek" in the boat makes me giggle every time I see the commercial. (In case you didn't know already, I'm basically a toddler!)

My Favorite Children's Books #1: Rain Makes Applesauce

I've been wanting to start this feature for a long time but just got around to doing it this weekend. Growing up, I always wanted to be a 1st grade teacher (still do, actually) so I amassed a good collection of children's picture books over the years. I thought it would be fun to feature one every now and then and maybe discuss your favorite picture books too! This is not going to be a real review, because when I asked my sister how you would review a children's book she said in a sing-song voice "It was good, it had pretty pictures, it made me sleepy so I could go to bed!" Hah! So I'll just give a brief description and show off a few pictures.



Rain Makes Applesauce
words by Julian Scheer
pictures by Marvin Bileck

I'm going to start things off with one of my favorites that I discovered in a children's development class in high school. And I have a confession to make first...all this time, I thought Julian Scheer was a woman. Sorry Julian, I read your name as Julianne! Oops!

Rain Makes Applesauce came out in 1964 and was a runner-up for the Caldecott Medal in 1965. It's a nice sing-songy book that is all about the nonsense. You will definitely be reciting this one in your everyday life after reading it! The beautiful illustrations, that are almost like an "I Spy" book, compliment the poem perfectly.

Monkeys mumble in a jelly bean jungle
and rain makes applesauce.
Candy tastes like soap soap soap
and rain makes applesauce.
Oh you're just talking silly talk...