23-24 Tolerance & Acceptance

23. Mommy, Mama, and Me by Leslea Newman. Illustrated by Carol Thompson
24. Daddy, Papa, and Me by Leslea Newman. Illustrated by Carol Thompson

I've recently finished watching Transparent on Amazon Prime. It took me 4 days to get through 3 seasons. Yeah, I guess you can say I liked it.

Now, I'm not apart of the LGBT+ Queer, Feminist community. And I'm not going to pretend like I understand what they go through or how they live, because I have no idea. I am a white, straight female living in the suburbs, with a baby, a husband, and a chihuahua. I can say with confidence that my family fits many stereotypical gender roles. I stay at home and take care of the baby while the husband works a labor-intensive job to bring home the bacon. I cook, I clean, I run the house.

Being said, I am 1000% supportive of the LGBTQI+ community. I have many friends who are in that community. I support and I LOVE them. I performed in Day of Silence and Night of Noise in college. I've been in drag shows. I've been to Pride. I believe they can be and love whoever or whatever they want. I've told Jenny already that she can do the same. I am teaching her, even at this young age, that some families have 2 mommies, some families have 2 daddies.

This series tells of a child doing everyday activities with their parents. There isn't any special attention to the fact that the child (who is not defined by a pronoun, or any gender-identifying clothing or other characteristics) has 2 mommies or 2 daddies. The title of the books are the only exception. I think the books are trying to appeal to all same-sex families by making the child gender-neutral. It's smart. The text is pretty repetitive. One page says "Daddy and I..." while the next page says, "Papa and I..." The story repeats with different activities until the end. Same goes with the Mommy and Mama title. The rhythm of the story is nice, and I think Jenny enjoyed the bright, bold pictures.

19-22. Library Haul

19. Hot Dog, Cold Dog by Rookie Toddler
20. Baby Penguins Everywhere! by Melissa Guion
21. Quick Duck! by Mary Murphy
22. Pancakes! An Interactive Recipe Book illustrated by Lotta Nieminen

A lot of great finds at the Sugar Grove Library this past week. We attend baby story time every other Monday with Miss Eli, and we also try to pick up some new books to take home.

Hot Dog, Cold Dog is a book of opposites as illustrated with dogs. Unfortunately, no chihuahuas. My favorite page is "Empty & Full" because the bulldog looks so pissed. This was a hit with Jenny, as it ended up in her mouth.

Baby Penguins Everywhere is a story about how a mama penguin is lonely, but finds a hat filled with many, many baby penguins. MANY baby penguins. Jenny and I counted, and on the middle spread, there are 40 baby penguins. Eventually the mama penguin just needs some peace and quiet, alone time. But eventually gets engulfed with baby penguins again as it's "a lot more fun!" This is a very accurate depiction of what it's like to have kids and to stay at home with the kids. They're great, we love them, but sometimes mama needs to unplug and be alone. We love penguins in this house, so right off the bat I knew we'd love this book. The watercolors are beautiful, and the little pops of color are a nice touch.

Quick Duck, of course, is great because tell me a Mary Murphy book that isn't great? Oh, you can't. In the book we're directing the duck to move quickly either out of the mud, or around the flowers, or over the stones. Eventually the duck reaches its mama and siblings with a big SPLASH. I love, love the splatter paint affect they went for there. Bold colors, bright and contrasting, thick outlines. Typical Mary Murphy, but it works so well with kids.

Pancakes is such a cool interactive board book. It's not just a story about making pancakes, it's an hands-on recipe book. A little over Jenny's head. Okay, a lot over Jenny's head, but the idea and execution is done so well. You pull tabs to pour the milk, and turn wheels to whisk the wet ingredients. The publishers are coming out with a similar book soon about making a pizza, and I know it will be a hit.

18. Farley Farts

18. Farley Farts by Birte Muller

This is a really terrible book. I found it at Goodwill, and I'm usually drawn to the weird and gross things in life. So when I saw the word fart in the title, I didn't hesitate. Not one bit. Unfortunately, the only good think about this book is the illustrations. I love the coloring and the character design is pretty amazing. I love the frogs blank expression and his little fingers. This book was originally published in Switzerland under the title Fritz Frosch. I wish they kept the name Fritz, it's great. The direct English translation is actually Fritz Frog. I wonder why there is no mention of farting in the original title... Maybe us silly Americans would be more drawn to it if "fart" was in the title... which is exactly why I even picked it up... touche.

Farley Farts is a story about a frog who cannot control his farts. He farts at home, he farts in the pond ("It was like a Jacuzzi!"), he farts for the doctor, he farts at school. His mother tells him to hold his farts in overnight, which causes him to blow up like a balloon (you know, because he's filled with gas) and floats away. His dad yells at him from the ground to, "Fart, Farley, just as loud as you can!" He does, and he "flipped and fluttered and floated" down to the ground. They celebrated his homecoming by eating, what? BEAN SOUP. No wonder he farts so much...

Now, this is an amusing tale. Jenny loves blowing raspberries with her tongue lately, so she laughs whenever we need to make Farley fart. I love the texture of the illustrations, and the use of color is beautiful. All of the frogs in this story have a creepy stare, like their mouths are sewn shut and their eyelids are glued open... which I find to be hilarious. But I have a few issues with the story.

1. Who takes their kid to the doctor because he's just farting a lot? Try not feeding him bean soup all the time, and maybe he'll stop! The mom is an idiot.
2. Joey McIntyre came out with his 2nd solo album in 2001. This book was published in 2003. Clearly the author ripped off his song, "We Don't Wanna Come Down," because we have a very, very similar line. Lyric: From so far away the world can look so beautiful. Narrative: From way up high, the world below looked so beautiful. THIS IS A CONSPIRACY.
3. Once Farley hits the ground, the line in the book says he landed on his back. Clearly, he is illustrated as landing on his belly.

I will keep this book in my collection, simply because Jenny loves blowing raspberries. You can do a farting book well (i.e. Toot by Leslie Patricelli or Walter the Farting Dog by William Kotzwinkle), but this isn't one of them.

17. You DON'T want a Unicorn!

17. You DON'T want a Unicorn! by Ame Dyckman. Illustrated by Liz Climo.

If you've been on the Internet for longer than 15 minutes you've probably seen a Liz Climo comic. You know, they're super cute and relateable, usually animal characters. Do a Google search, you won't be disappointed. So when I saw she illustrated this picture book, it didn't matter what it was about, I wanted to check it out!

You DON'T want a Unicorn! is a cautionary tale about how, well, you wouldn't want a unicorn. Definitely WAY out of Jenny's league, in terms of books she would be interested in at this age. But I quite enjoyed it. The narration is as if someone is speaking (or yelling, at times) to the main character, a little boy who dons a shirt that says, "I <3 Unicorns." This would be a really fun book to act out and perform.

The narrator warns the little boy not to wish for a unicorn, but he doesn't listen. A pretty cool looking unicorn appears, and quickly demonstrates why you wouldn't want to live with one. They shed, they scratch, and they poop cupcakes. They jump, they chew, and they burp rainbows. They also live in groups... which means you'll need to wish for MORE unicorns, which ultimately means they'll have a unicorn party, which will eventually drive you insane. The little boy wishes them all away, but not before wishing for a new mythical creature to hang out with...

I really think this book would go over very well with the older crowd, kindergarten and up. Any book that even mentions poop (even if its in cupcake form) or barf (even if its rainbows) will appeal to the boys, and unicorns almost always appeal to the girls. There is anarchy and there are unicorns in sunglasses and leg-warmers. What more could you want?

16. On the Farm

16. On the Farm: A Touch-and-Feel Book 

I'm really liking these touch-and-feel books for Jenny right now. She's slowly realizing things have different texture, so it's fascinating to watch her discover these different feeling patches in board books like this. I didn't know this when I picked it up from the library, but this is actually a perfect book for the upcoming Mother's Day. My first Mother's Day as an actual, honest-to-God Mother. I'm terrified. I'm excited. I told Peter, "I know it's a Hallmark holiday, but I do want something."

Each page repeats itself with different animals. For example, "I love my mommy. Her ___ is ___." Then it illustrates a mommy animal and her baby with the correct names. Horse and foal. Hen and chick. Pig and piglet. I don't like how the middle three animals all have very similar textures, while the first and last are the only truly unique feeling ones. But I guess you typically wouldn't have something with scales or something that's rough on a farm, so the publishers had to work with what they had.

15. Colors

15. Colors by Orla Kiely

I chose this book from the shelf simply because my home library had 2 copies. It's a simple book of colors and simple objects. I particularly like it because the thing doesn't necessarily match the realistic color. For example, Kiely chose to portray a boat as being grey, and an elephant as being red. And even though it's not obviously a counting book, there are multiples of these items on every other page, so it could easily become one. The pages with higher contrast appealed more to Jenny, and I counted to her. But overall this will be better for a 2 or 3 year old.

*edit* Upon further investigation, I've learned that Orla Kiely is an European fashion designer. The aesthetics of the illustrations, everything from color choice to the very rounded shapes, and repeating elements makes way more sense now. It also explains why there were 2 copies on the shelf... I'm going to be honest, her stuff is stinking CA-UTE. I mean, I would personally never spend $43 on an apron... but if I did have that kind of money, I'd be throwing it at her.

14. Five Stinky Socks

14. Five Stinky Socks by Jim Benton

Personally, I found this book hilarious. The monster is super cute and I think he talks about something that we can all relate to. He goes sock by sock explaining to the reader why they smell so much. He washes dirty dishes with the first, compares the second to a skunk, found the third in the trash, and relates the fourth to a dirty diaper booty (my personal favorite). Once he has on all of his dirty socks, he puts on his five stinky shoes. It's a great chance to talk about colors, patterns, and numbers with your child. Jenny, of course, is too young to understand these concepts, but I still explain to her the ideas and theories. She likes touching the monster and is enthralled with the bright colors.

Looking forward to finding and relishing in other Jim Benton books. The back cover mentions Piggy Paints, Where's my Fnurgle? and Robot Kitties. What promising titles!!

13. Hello, Baby Animals

13. Hello, Baby Animals: A High-Contrast Book by Julissa Mora

Now that Jenny has reached 5 months old, she's definitely interested in different things. She's very observant. She notices the puppy, and even grabs at books when I read to her.

The high-contrast colors in this book really appealed to her. I could tell. She was grabbing at it. She was cooing, and couldn't take her eyes off of it.

This book, essentially, says hello to a lot of different animals. But the way you say hello is different on every page. Whether you're asking Zebra, "What's going on?" or saying "Ni hao" to Little Panda.