Picture Book Month: Cats

I love Christopher Denise's depiction of kittens in David Elliott's Knitty Kitty which fits today's Picture Book Month theme of cats:

Happy Thanksgiving to all those celebrating!  We're heading off to dinner soon, but in the meantime we were able to enjoy a Thanksgiving rainbow:

Rainbows are an incredibly common occurrence here.  I think I've seen more rainbows in the year and a half we've lived here than I had in my entire life before!

Back from Prescott

Well, I'm back in town after visiting family in Prescott, AZ.  We had a great time and kept very busy.  We started out in Tucson visiting the Pima Air & Space Museum, then drove down to Sahuarita and took a very thorough five hour tour of a decommissioned missile silo complex at the Titan Missile Museum:

 Stopped by the beautiful Mission San Xavier del Bac on the way back to Prescott:

 Got in some good hiking on the Centenniel Trail and near Granite Mountain:

And finished off with a tour of the Frank Lloyd Wright-influenced Arizona Biltmore before catching our flight out of Phoenix:

It was so good visiting with family and great fun all around!

Looks like I fell behind a bit on my Picture Book Month posting - and I even have books befitting the themes of all the days I missed!  Oh well - I'll pick up with today's theme of dogs.  I found this Little Golden Book on my shelf that I must have had since I was little.  I think the puppies are adorable.  And it looks like the book's held up pretty well considering how old it is!

Picture Book Month: Planes, Trains, & Automobiles

I can't say I have an especially deep interest in today's Picture Book Month theme of planes, trains, and automobiles, so I had to scrape a bit to find a book from my library fitting the topic.  The closest I could come was The Adventures of Taxi Dog by Debra and Sal Barracca, illustrated by Mark Buehner:

Picture Book Month: Elephants

Sally Hunter's Humphrey's Corner may be more a portrayal of early childhood than of elephants, but her softly illustrated elephant characters are simply adorable:

Picture Book Month: Creativity

Well, I missed a few days of my picture book month updates - not because I couldn't find any fitting titles from my library, but because I've been in transit to Arizona to visit family!  I'm still having fun here with my family, but thought I'd try to catch up on my posting, so for today's theme of creativity I dug out Robin's Room, written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by one of my favorite illustrator-couples, Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher.  Robin's parents try to channel his impressive, but somewhat destructive creativity by allowing him to renovate his own room:

Picture Book Month: Farm

Harvey Potter's rather, uh, nontraditional farm adds a twist to today's Picture Book Month theme of Farms:

Picture Book Month: Around the World

Holly Hobbie's first book in the Toot & Puddle series works well for today's Picture Book Month Theme of Around the World.  Toot takes off on a year-long adventure around the world while Puddle waits for his return:

Picture Book Month: Bedtime

I love Helen Cooper's rich illustrations in The Boy Who Wouldn't Go to Bed:

Picture Book Month: Bugs

For today's Picture Book Month theme of bugs, I pulled out my rather battered copy of Nicholas Cricket who "plays every night in the Bug-a-Wug Cricket Band."  Written by Joyce Maxner and illustrated by the illustrious William Joyce:

Picture Book Month: Rabbits

I thought Leo the Lop would be a perfect match for today's Picture Book Month theme of rabbits.  I adore those old Serendipity books and always make sure to scout used bookstores for titles missing from my growing collection:

I have only a fraction of the 70 (!) Serendipity titles.  I guess I'll have to keep hunting for the rest!

Picture Book Month!

November is the month to celebrate the print picture book!  Every day a new essay by a "picture book champion" celebrating picture books can be found at http://picturebookmonth.com.  

Lots of other fun activities can be found on the site as well.  I particularly like the calendar.  I thought it might be fun to take each day's theme from the calendar and see if I can find a picture book in my own collection that fits the theme.  If you want to play along, post picture books you own or love that fit the theme in the comments.  I'd love to see what everyone comes up with.  So, starting today, the first daily theme is Ocean.  I think The Walloping Window Blind by Charles E. Carryl, illustrated by Jim LaMarche fits the theme pretty well: