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By Mom Unplugged, September 19, 2007 6:41 pm

This one is truly silly fun. Don’t buy it if you are looking for something profound. Don’t buy it if you want something educational. Do buy it if you want you kids to have a good silly laugh! Or simply check it out of the library of course.

We were kindly given the hardcover version of this book as a hand-me-down this summer, and it has been a huge hit.

Zachary Zebra and Orfo the Orangutan love underwear. They wear underwear of all different colors, prints and styles…sometimes all at once. Gloomy Bismark the Buffalo doesn’t like underwear,and not many other animals like him (even the flies stay away). Zachary helps Bismark laugh for the first time by daring him to say the word underwear ten times without laughing. You can guess the rest I am sure.

What child under the age of seven can resist laughing at jokes about bodily functions or underwear? Well, thankfully there is no bodily function humor here, but the underwear joke is a big hit with my two oldest kids. The illustrations are marvelous too!

I guarantee that the six and under set will find this one hilarious. The paperback is eligible for the 4-for-3 promotion at Amazon.

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By Mom Unplugged, September 11, 2007 8:33 pm

My children and I just adore the sweet tale of how a stray cat makes himself a part of a lonely lady’s life. The illustrations are as delightful as the story.

I like to consider this book both a story book and a find-it book because in every two page spread, the kitty is hiding somewhere in the room. This adds a little element of fun to a nice bedtime read.

It seems that Amazon might be doing away with Where Is That Cat?. I don’t know if it has gone out of print or if it is just harder to find. My advice: grab this one while you still can! Also try shopping around: Ebay and Half.com are good sources for hard to find books at reasonable prices.

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By Mom Unplugged, August 31, 2007 8:02 am

One of the wonderful things about living in the Southwestern US is that there is a whole unique genre of regional literature, including children’s literature. There are not many other parts of the United States that come to mind with such a strong regional literary presence.

After finding my review of their book Baby Animals of the Southwest, publisher Rising Moon (Northland Publishing) asked me if I would be interested in reading and reviewing other books. I am very interested in Southwestern and multicultural children’s literature and I loved the idea of helping support a local publisher (Northland was based in Flagstaff, Arizona, not far from me).

Unfortunately, I heard on the news last night that Northland has just been purchased by a large East Coast publisher and has already closed its doors (which explains the lack of response when I requested some high resolution images of the book to add to this post).

Just when I was feeling like a “cool blogger” for having been asked to write a book review, “my publisher” goes out of business! Maybe I should have written my review sooner?? Oh well. They were kind enough to send me the book, and it is a great book, so I will write the review anyhow!

I was interested in Southwestern bedtime stories, so they kindly sent me Bedtime in the Southwest, by Mona Hodgson, illustrated by Renee Graef.

The southwestern animals in this story resist bedtime in ways that all parents will recognize (bouncing on the bed, ignoring Mama, begging for juice, etc,)… but at the end, the animals demonstrate the proper way to go to bed “scoot into bed and snuggle in tight, and offer big hugs and then say goodnight.”

The text is very simple so that it will appeal to younger children. The illustrations are humorous and very cute and depict such animals as prong-horned antelope, skunks, hummingbirds, and coyotes for example.

I gave this book the test of all my children (ages 7, 5, and 19 months). They all enjoyed it, but my 19 month-old actually made me read it twice more. She loved the story and for some reason, she found the skunk page absolutely fascinating!

If you are looking for an unusual, quality children’s bedtime story with cute art, give Bedtime in the Southwest a try. This might be a really fun one to read to a reluctant sleeper too!

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By Mom Unplugged, August 24, 2007 7:47 pm

I found this hardcover picture book at Tuesday Morning for $2.99. Even at Amazon, this hardcover is only $7.95 (and part of their 4-for-3 Promotion)! I don’t know why it is in everybody’s bargain bin, because I think it is totally cute!

This is the simple, classic story of Snow White recounted with no literary embelishments. The characters however, are dogs.

The photos are very cute and of good quality. The dogs are dressed up in costumes and are acting out the story (I know dogs can be cooperative animals, but I still suspect that a certain amount of photo manipulation is involved here).

I love the choice of the “cast.” Snow White is a lovable and innocent Golden Retriever, the wicked and vain Queen is a Poodle, and the Huntsman is played by a Rottweiler! The Seven Dwarfs are beyond cute (all small breeds of course).

Perhaps this is vaguely reminiscent in an odd way of that bizarre old painting of the dogs playing poker. Is that why no one wants to buy this one? I don’t know. But I do know that my kids and I read it again and again. I see this as a hidden treasure for any animal loving family!

Comments (1)

By Mom Unplugged, June 13, 2007 10:42 am

This board book is not your ordinary inventory of baby cows, pigs, and ducks. As a resident of the Southwestern US, I could not resist buying this for my 17 month-old, and she loves it!

This book contains adorable photos of the following babies: prairie dog, bighorn sheep, roadrunner, skunk, red-tailed hawk, javelina, mountain lion, coyote, bobcat, and quail.

It is a sturdy board book format. Each two-page spread has a photo and a simple sentence about the animal (for example: “A baby javelina has a snout.”).

What a welcome change from all the baby farm animal books out there!