Lots of Short Reads

47. Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet and Allan Ahlberg
Every page is a mini-I-Spy, sending children in search of missing nursery rhyme characters. The finale is lovely with all the characters reunited in a picnic.

48. Mr. Gumpy’s Outing by John Burningham
I could read this a hundred times. Gumpy sets out on an outing and keeps adding additional boaters to his adventure until the inevitable catastrophe occurs and the boat overturns. But it’s not really a catastrophe after all and everyone shakes off the water and promises to come for another outing soon.

49. Owl Babies by Martin Waddell
The babies awake and mother is gone; will she return? Of course she will, for this is one of those quietly reassuring picture books that children and parents love.

50. The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge by Hildegarde H. Swift and Lynd Ward
The Little Red Lighthouse has always been Absolutely Necessary, responsible for saving many boats and many lives. But now there is the Great Gray Bridge to keep boats and people safe. How Necessary is the Little Red Lighthouse now?

51. The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck by Beatrix Potter
Jemima is a silly goose of a duck. Where can she safely lay her eggs? And who will save her from the fox?

52. Kipper by Mick Inkpen
Kipper decides to rid himself of his smelly bed and toys and seek a new place to sleep. He tries the beds of other animals, but nothing satisfies and he finally returns home to the comfort of his old bed.

53. Maisy Goes to Preschool
Maisy goes through the routines of her day at preschool with confidence and joy.

54. Elmer by David McKee
Elmer is not an ordinary gray elephant; instead, he is covered with colorful patchwork skin and he is full of jokes and humor that makes all the other elephants laugh. One day, he decides he wants to be like everyone else and he rolls in some elephant colored berries until he blends in. It doesn’t take long for Elmer to tire of being like everyone else and return to his old funny self.

55. Lavender’s Blue: A Book of Nursery Rhymes compiled by Kathleen Lines
A book I remember from my childhood, filled with all the wonderful nursery rhymes I loved.

56. Little Toot by Hardie Gramatky
Little Toot is a silly tugboat who refuses to do anything more than play and toot. But one day, he discovers that it is only he who can help and he becomes a valued member of his community.

57. The Tale of Jeremy Fisher by Beatrix Potter
I love this blurb from Amazon: “A frog fishing from his lily pad boat doesn’t catch any fish, but one catches him.”

58. Utterly Me, Clarice Bean by Lauren Child
So happy I finally read this book. In this episode, Clarice’s best friend is off with her parents and Clarice is forced to work on a school project with the worst boy in the class. A mystery occurs and Clarice must use the detective skills she has learned from her favorite book to solve the mystery.

59. Keeping the Feast: One Couple’s Story of Love, Food, and Healing in Italy by Paula Butturini
I went into this book expecting it to be more of a moving-and-starting-over book, but it turned out to be more of a troubles-and-healing book. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it at first (a disconcertingly disappointing feeling in the pit of my stomach as I had committed to reading it for a blog group and had received an ARC free for that purpose) but my initial feelings soon changed and I found that I loved the story. Paula and John met later in life and fell in love and married, but then John got shot in the course of his job as a reporter and life for the couple changed dramatically. A very good read.

60. Anastasia Krupnik by Lois Lowry
Anastasia and her parents have the kind of relationship I’ve always had with my best and smartest children at school, the back and forth of intellectual (for a ten year old) discourse that has such great appeal for me. Anastasia is having trouble with almost everything in her life, including her grandmother, a soon-to-be-new-brother, her teacher, and even her onerous name.

61. The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden
What’s a cricket doing in Times Square? Chester soon finds himself surrounded by friends, both animal (a mouse and a cat) and human (a boy and his parents who own the newsstand where Chester finds himself). Chester discovers he is an extraordinary musician and develops quite a following in New York, but he longs to return to the country where he feels he really belongs.

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