Christmas in July

 

 

 

 

 

 When I saw that my blogging friends at http://silvershoesandrabbitholes.blogspot.ca/ and http://juliasbookbag.com/ both did a "Christmas in July" post, I decided to follow suit!  (Just in the nick of time, too!)  Yikes, summer is half over. Here is Richard Scarry's Christmas Mice and The Santa Claus Book - a Golden Shape book.  Cuteness galore.  I love birthdays and Christmases because it always gives me an excuse to buy more books for my girls and maybe also for my nephews and for my friends' children.  Although in this house, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny also bring books - who knew??  :) 

Arch Books - Jon and the Little Lost Lamb and A Penny is Everything

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I especially love the vivid illustrations on Jon and the Little Lost Lamb - the modern Arch books just don't have the same appeal, I think.  I would love to collect more of these Arch books. I remember spending time in my Oma's attic reading these books, among many others.  I would read anything I could get my hands on.  She even had old issues of Reader's Digest going back to the 1960's - yep, I read those too.  Seriously, I think that 90% of my free time as a kid must have been spent reading.  :)

Linking to Cozy Book Hop

Harry the Dirty Dog - by Gene Zion

 

 

 

 

 I love this series of books - so entertaining and adorably illustrated by the author's wife at the time.  As you can see, this copy that I have is published in honour of the book's 50th anniversary - wow!  Check out this awesome video of Betty White reading the book aloud.  Betty did this through Storyline Online - it features SAG members reading aloud classic children's literature.  Awesome!!

Linking to The Children's Bookshelf

Two Little Golden Books - "Bible Stories of Boys and Girls" and "Fire Engines"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So apparently about a billion and a half copies of Little Golden Books have been sold to date.  Cool.  I remember I always liked looking at all the characters on the back cover of Little Golden books when I was a kid.  Love these illustrations by Tibor Gergely on the Fire Engines book - am hoping to collect more books that he has worked on.  I really want to get this 'Golden Legacy' book at some point- it looks like it would be a fabulous coffee table book for me to have!!  And ohhhhhh my goodness, look what I found!!!  At http://www.birthdayexpress.com/ !!  Look at these awesome Little Golden books party decorations!!  Paper plates, hats, napkins, all kinds of stuff!  Too exciting!!!

Linking to Cozy Book Hop

A Baby Sister For Frances/Bedtime for Frances - by Russell Hoban

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I love these books - the antics of Frances remind me of my own little girl, and of course I love making up silly little tunes for the songs that Frances sings to herself in the book as I am reading the book aloud to my daughter.  Russell Hoban, the author, actually died just last year.  Besides children's books, he was also known for writing fantasy, science fiction, and poetry.  Other Frances books include Bread and Jam for Frances, A Birthday for Frances, Best Friends for Frances, and A Bargain for Frances.  You will notice that his wife, Lillian Hoban, illustrated the first of these books posted here, while Garth Williams (I tend to remember him most for his illustrations of E.B. White's Charlotte's Web) illustrated the other. 

Linking to The Children's Bookshelf

Picture Book adaptations of The Black Stallion by Walter Farley

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I haven't actually included the full chapter book version of The Black Stallion here, just the abridged picture book versions because I love the illustrations.  I loved The Black Stallion when I was a kid and I also read all of the sequels - there are about 20 in the series.  The Black Stallion was originally published in 1941.  The movie came out in 1979.  I own a dvd copy of it now.  The basic story is that a boy, Alec, is shipwrecked and manages to survive on a desert island with a horse from his ship that has not yet been trained.  After being rescued, Alec trains and races the stallion.

Kid Lit Blog Hop