The Barbapapas' Christmas

 

 

 

I'm a little late for Christmas but I hope you'll still enjoy this one!  The Barbapapa books were written in the 1970's.  I totally remember watching the 5-minute cartoons on tv as a child.  As you have probably figured out by looking at the illustrations, the Barbapapa family can change their shape.  When they do so, they say 'Clickety-click, Barba-trick!'  Aaaah, memories.  :)  Check out the official Barbapapa website here.

Here's a clip of the Barbapapa Christmas special.

Amazing stuff on Pinterest, of course!



Adorable!!

Want!!



Aaaahh!!


So much  cool stuff, must stop now!!

Walt Disney's Storybook Friends

 

 

 

 

Just a quick blog post today while the baby's sleeping!  I can't believe it's only a few weeks to Christmas...  I was talking with my friends Robyn and Whitney over at Pen Pals and Picture Books about how we love Christmas because it's a time to buy our kids all those children's books that we are secretly wanting for ourselves! ;)  My kids always get a lot of books for Christmas and birthdays and for other occasions too - the Tooth Fairy has been known to bring books, etc.  Now that my third daughter has just been born (1 month old tomorrow) I now have even more excuses to buy books!  Yay!!  :)

Ezra Jack Keats

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't know how I've been blogging for over a year and haven't done a post about Ezra Jack Keats yet!  And I am also a bad children's lit blogger in that I still don't own a copy of Keats' 'The Snowy Day'!  I know, it's crazy that I don't own it, it's a classic!  I plan to buy it for my daughters this Christmas.  Speaking of daughters, I now have 3, not 2!  My newest little girl Brielle is now 2 weeks old.  :)  So I thought 'Peter's Chair' would be a good post to commemorate that, as in the book Peter the older brother adjusts to his new baby sister.  My older 2 girls seem to be adjusting pretty well so far to their baby sister... hopefully that continues!

Cinderella - Disney Storybook Favorites

 

 

 

 

 

Love these gorgeous illustrations by Retta Scott Worcester, an illustrator for Disney in the 1930's and 40's.  I learned an interesting fact - that Retta was best friends with Mary Blair! (another amazing Disney artist.)  So funny as I had been thinking that her style reminded me of Mary's.

As I was thinking about the topic of Disney, I am realizing that my 7 year old has actually not seen a lot of the Disney movies.  I think she may have seen parts of Cinderella but not the whole thing.  She recently got the re-issue of The Little Mermaid on blu-ray for her birthday so now she has finally seen that one.  Don't get me wrong, she watches more than her fair share of tv, but I just haven't had a lot of Disney movies around for her.  She does watch the Disney Junior channel a lot and she would definitely love to go to Disney World!  I would love to take the kids too - I did not go as a young child but I did go to Epcot Center when I was 16 and again when I was in my late twenties.  Some of my favourite Disney films are Robin Hood, Peter Pan, The Aristocats, 101 Dalmatians, Mary Poppins, Beauty and the Beast, Finding Nemo, and more.

Trixie Belden

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most of my posts are about picture books, but today's topic is about a series of books for older kids - Trixie Belden Mysteries!!!  I love love loved these books as a kid.  Some of the ones pictured here are from my own childhood and some I picked up at a used book store - my goal is to collect the whole series at some point.  The books were written between 1948 and 1986 and there are 39 books in the series.  The books centre around 13-year-old Trixie and her group of friends, collectively known as the Bob-Whites, who solve mysteries and do good in the community.  The Bob-Whites include Honey and Diana, Jim, Dan, and Trixie's older brothers Brian and Mart.  Although I read the Nancy Drew mystery series as well, I always enjoyed Trixie a lot more - she was closer to my own age, easier to relate to, and fun.  The first book you see pictured here is a 'Cameo' edition and was published in 1954.  The other books are the kind I grew up with and are known as 'Uglies' and were published in the 1970's.  

Best in Children's Books - Part 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quite a few well-known illustrators in today's post.  Don Freeman, best known for Corduroy, Peter Spier, who created more than 30 children's books, Feodor Rojankovsky, a Russian illustrator who often depicted beautiful drawings of animals, Richard Scarry, (well, who doesn't know Richard Scarry??) and Leonard Weisgard, who illustrated a beautiful version of The Night Before Christmas, and many other adorable books.