Busy Birdies

Tricycle Press

John Schindel; Photography by Steven Holt

John Schindel must be some sort of genius, as evidenced by his popular Busy Book series. Each board book features a different animal: chickens, pandas, bunnies and so on.  He collaborates with a handful of photographers, but the end result is always the same - an excellent board book. Schindel adds bits of rhyming text to the photos and the result is a line of board books that kids adore.

The beauty is in the book's simplicity. Unfortunately, that's the very thing that makes it a teeny bit difficult to review properly. The sentences are so short that it's hard to resist quoting them verbatim. I really struggled with coming up with clever ways of restating phrases that are only two words long! The birdies here are busy nibbling, pecking, stepping, stretching and finally, resting. We get to peek at finches, owls, hummingbirds, peacocks and a few others that I couldn't identify.  Guess I'm not really a bird aficionado.  

Busy Birdies is the twelfth book in the Busy lineup.  Busy Gorillas is scheduled for this fall and Busy Elephants will be swinging through in 2011. 



Review copy provided by Tricycle Press. 

Honest Pretzels

Tricycle Press
Mollie Katzen

Mollie Katzen happens to be one of my favorite cookbook authors. Apparently, I'm not the only who feels that way, as she is listed by the New York Times as one of the best-selling cookbook authors of all time. And deservedly so, after writing such classics as The New Moosewood Cookbook and The New Enchanted Broccoli Forest.

Thank goodness she has applied her skills to helping children become proficient in the kitchen! Mollie believes that cooking with children can be an absolutely wonderful, eye-opening experience for the adult as well as for the child. This great book provides the directions needed to make this an enjoyable process for both age groups.


All the recipes are broken down into simple steps, with each one nicely spaced in a neat white box, most accompanied by cute little drawings. This presentation makes it exceedingly easy for a new cook to follow. Step one? Check, ready to move on to step two. Take a look at the easy to use format for Guacamole or Not-from-a-box Macaroni and Cheese. Mollie gives thorough explanations on the components of each dish and is careful to point out the sections that require adult assistance.

The book is aimed at cooks "ages 8 & up", which seems to be the point at which a child could pick up this book on his/her own and start cooking. But don't count out cooks younger than this! A child as young as age four or five could still appreciate the process, as well as interpret some of the photos. We picked one of the easier recipes (Peanut Butter Doo-dads) for my five year old to start with, which he loved.


I really like that the recipes are actual dishes, not easy peasy little throw together things that just give the illusion of cooking. Here, kids are actually helping put meals on the table, with dishes like Spunky Chili, Gingerbread French Toast or Garlic Bread. There are also healthy snacking options to make, such as Sappy Trails Mix or Honest Pretzels.

Hands down, this is one of the best children's cookbooks that I have seen. Healthy food, easy to follow recipes and great instructions. This is a wonderful way to introduce your children to the kitchen and learn the basic process of following a recipe. Mollie says "Open up your kitchen to your children, let them lead you through the recipes in these pages, and make the leap. I think you'll be glad you did." I wholeheartedly agree!

Where Else in the Wild?

Tricycle Press
David M. Schwartz and Yael Schy; Photos by Dwight Kuhn

Being able to disappear into their surroundings is a necessary skill for many animals. Sometimes camouflage helps them find prey or keeps them from becoming another predator's dinner. Whatever the reason, their ability to blend into their surrounding is downright amazing.

Each page consists of a clever or elegant poem paired with a beautiful photograph. The rhyme offers clues to help the readers locate which animal is being cleverly camouflaged by the flowers and foliage. And I do mean cleverly! You'll have to look very closely, as these guys are masters of disguise. Luckily for clueless parents, the photo page lifts up, revealing an identical photo beneath with the backgrounds grayed out, so the hidden animal is instantly revealed. Thank goodness for the answer key, as I stared at the Leaf Insect photo for several minutes without making any progress at all.

In addition to providing the answer to the puzzle, the lift of the page folds out to reveal fascinating facts about each animal's natural history and how it relies on camouflage to survive. The Orchid Mantis so closely mimics its namesake that it can just stand next to a flower and be nearly impossible to see. The Lined Leaf Tailed Gecko (on the book's cover) is such an expert at hiding that the people of Madagascar think these lizards are possessed by evil spirits.

Several paragraphs of information on eleven different animals makes this a fairly substantial read. Beautiful photography, fun rhymes and a game of hide and seek combine to become an incredibly enjoyable book of nature. Younger children will enjoy finding the animals, while older kids will be more apt to learn more about these animals that are able to hide in plain sight.

Subtitled More Camouflaged Creatures Concealed ... and Revealed, check out the preceding book of the same concept Where in the Wild:

The Book That Eats People

Tricycle Press
John Perry; Illustrations by Mark Fearing

This is a very different sort of book. A mean, nasty, no-good people eating type. Honest. This book eats humans, and is not particular about its diet. It likes children, librarians and security guards - people of all sizes and nationality.

You will need to be very cautious with this book. Oh, you'll want to read it. You be intrigued once you see those slanty eyes and that crooked mouth, not to mention the police tape of a title! And gosh, this book surely wouldn't eat YOU, would it? Well, it might. But you can move pretty fast if you need to, right? So go ahead, ignore the beware stamp and crack open that shiny red cover.

First of all, this book is always hungry. If books had tummies, this one would be growling. Sammy Ruskin from Arkansas made the fatal error of touching this book with fresh peanut butter on his fingers. He's a goner. And it attacked sweet Victoria Glassford, the girl with eyes as round as marbles, whose hair gleamed like butter. If this book could attack a doll like that, you better believe it would eat YOU right up!

This is a bad book with teeth and claws, always hungry for the human touch. Worst of all, it has a way of being engaging and clever that makes humans hungry for it! Best be extra careful and steer clear of this fabulous read. Don't be swayed by the bright illustrations and funny text. Be safe and pick up a boring book about fairies and bunnies instead, not this tantalizing, toothed tale.

Busy Chickens

John Schindel; Steven Holt
Tricycle Press

This is the first children's book I have ever laid eyes on that has been written solely about chickens. Some board books can be a bit, well, boring. This one is anything but! If asked, I would have said chickens to be brown. In fact, they come in dozens of colors - spotted, speckled and striped. Toddlers will sit right up and take notice of the brilliant colors and bold plumage.

In addition to being colorful, it turns out these chickens are leading pretty busy lives. It isn't all egg laying and pecking in the dust down on the farm. These lively chicks particularly enjoy rhyming and therefore lay claim to plenty of grooming and zooming, searching and perching, flapping and napping.

Everyone can agree that young chicks are absolutely adorable, but full grown chickens don't get nearly enough credit. They are such an ubiquitous animal that it takes a focused book like this to remind us how extraordinary they can be. Summed up, this board book puts on a show that will inspire your toddler to start cheeping and leaping about your house in no time.

Busy Chickens is the tenth book in the popular "Busy" series from Tricycle Press. Check out some of the others:

Oooh! Picasso

Mil Niepold and Jeanyves Verdu
Tricycle Press

Picasso is easily one of the top ranked artists in the world today, as measured by the sale of his works. Another popularity measure - more of his paintings have been stolen than those by any other artist. Get your kids in on the Picasso fun (legally) with this fascinating book created at their level.

What is this? That's the question asked of the readers for five of Picasso's sculptures. The trick is, we are only shown a tiny piece of the puzzle, greatly enlarged for detail, which makes it difficult to identify. Use this limited view to encourage your children to visualize the possibilities. A bit more is revealed with the turn of each page, until we see the piece in its entirety, accompanied with the exclamation "Oooh! I am a ..." Just how close or wild were your guesses?

The effect of this presentation style is that we take a much closer look at each piece and are more likely to appreciate the details and composition. Viewing the sculptures as parts of a whole allows the readers to explore the works of a master artist by putting using their own imaginations to work. It's amazing what you can see when you want to. Even more amazing are the explanations that children will produce.

The simple text is brief, but poetic. I am water falling from on high. I am a tin moon hooked to the night sky. Awash in color, even the backgrounds are visually stimulating. The pages begin with bright yellow, deepening in hue to orange and then bright red to match the cover.

Overall, this is such a decidedly cool, unusual book. It serves as a wonderful introduction to Picasso for our children, and allows us all a closer look at some of his famous works.

Sculptures featured: Guitar, The Little Girl Jumping Rope, Baboon and Young, Guitar (a second one) and Bull's Head.


Created by the same team: Oooh! Matisse

Inside the Slidy Diner

Laurel Snyder; Illustrations by Jaime Zollars
Tricycle Press

Edie takes us on a tour of the most disgusting diner ever. If Ethelmae's sticky buns don't make you shudder, her sticky back will. Blech! Each detail provided is more loathsome than the last.

The interior of the Slidy Diner is loud, greasy and smelly. Strange critters creep about, moldy wallpaper hugs the walls and plates of unidentifiable foods layer the tables. Bugs creep in every nook, the coffee will give you terrible hives and strange animals roam about in the kitchen. Don't be fooled by the pretty waitresses - those are only masks. Edie knows it all - she was caught sneaking a lemon drop and now spends her days trapped inside the Slidy Diner.


The illustrations serve to make adults squirm in their chairs and children squirm with delight. There is an ick factor here that is intended expressly for those who appreciate it. From the oddball customers to the kooky animal heads mounted on the wall, there are gruesome details tucked in every corner that readers will delight in discovering.


But there is also a bit of magic at the Slidy Diner, as evidenced by the birds that rest on Edie's arm, the nightcap wearing mouse and secret trapdoors. Really, it isn't so bad here! Would you care for a lemon drop?

Laurel Snyder based the book on her own experiences at a diner, which is slightly disturbing. Exactly who does Ethelmae represent? Check out Laurel's blog, which is pretty entertaining.

The New Baby's Baby Journal

Michelle Sinclair Colman, Illustrations by Nathalie Dion
Tricycle Press

If you are anything like me, you want to be the guest at the baby shower that shows up with the *good* gift. You secretly want the others to admire your present and covet your good taste. Baby showers are typically an avalanche of tiny clothing and battery-operated toys. This baby journal is a gift that will stand out from the crowd, and still be appreciated twenty years down the road.

New parents need to write down the baby milestones because the first year is just one big sleep-deprived blur. This particular journal is ideal because it provides all the necessary creativity. The only thing new moms should be creative about is where their next nap is taking place. Answer the journal's cute questions, affix photos where indicated and voila! - an adorable summation of baby's young life. On a practical note, photo corners are included, as well as a small pocket for the first haircut, and a larger pocket at the back for mementos. There is also plenty of blank lines provided for parents to jot down their own thoughts.

The journal is an updated version of the traditional baby book, but with more fun stuff. Name? Check. What we almost named you? Funny. Expecting parents can get right to work on completing The Family Tree and Waiting for Baby sections. These include a space for the shower invitation and a pregnancy photo, and queries such as "Nickname before you were born." All the traditional "first" pages are there, plus a few more just for fun. Overall, this is a well done journal that would make an excellent gift for any new parent.

Others by this creative team:

For a great gift, pair with . . .

Eeboo Alphabet Wall Cards - Animal Parade from Sugarplum Dreams. Alphabet Cards are a wonderful learning tool for little ones. Printed on heavy laminated card stock, these are every bit as beautiful as they are useful. Twenty-six cards come in a lovely gift box tied with a grosgrain ribbon. Cards sized 8 x 10. $27