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.

Best in Children's Books - Part 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These Best in Children's Books compilations from the late 1950's are so cool.  Wouldn't it be neat if they did a modern-day version?  What authors/illustrators/titles would be in your compilation of the last 10 years or so?  I would include Mo Willems, Todd Parr, one of the Ladybug Girl titles, a Charlie and Lola book, Oliver Jeffers, Sandra Boynton, Marc Boutavant, Julie Morstad, a Skippyjon Jones book, Kevin Henkes, etc...  who am I leaving out??

Alain Gree- PLOC Magazine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is PLOC - the Happy Little Magazine for kids.  I was so excited to find new work illustrated by Alain Gree!  This magazine is too fun.  Click on the tag to the right to see my other posts about this fabulous illustrator.  You can order this magazine here - http://shop.anorakmagazine.com/.  It is published by the makers of Anorak, which is also amazing.  Here's a YouTube clip if you'd like to check out Anorak, which is for slightly older kids.

The Hair Book

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just found this book the other day at my local children's consignment store - The Hair Book, illustrated by the awesome Roy McKie.  My oldest daughter Keira was born with black hair.  Her name actually means 'black-haired', by coincidence.  But throughout her first year, all her hair fell out - for a while she looked like a little old man with a bald fringe!  Towards the end of her first year her hair started growing back in again - blond.  It started getting longer and became very curly and wavy. My hair was wavy as a child and my husband's was curly. At times it has been hard to deal with de-tangling Keira's hair.  And don't even get me started on the year she got lice twice!  Now at almost age 7 (birthday is this weekend) her hair has become more of a light brown colour and is not quite as curly as it was when she was younger but it is still definitely quite wavy - it's very cute.  Now on to Tegan - my 2.5 year old.  Her hair is still very short and baby-ish.  Not much there to work with, and it is very blond.  I see a bit of curl in there so I wonder if it will turn out like her sister's.  When she was born her hair was a bit more of a reddish-brown.  Both of my daughters also went through a weird phase as toddlers where they liked to rip strands of their hair out.  My doctor said it was just one of those weird habits that toddlers sometimes get into as a comfort measure - I thought it so strange that they both came up with the same habit though!  They even liked to put the strands of hair in their mouths - ewww!  They never actually ingested it, but it was still gross.  My third daughter is due in a few weeks - I wonder if she will have hair when she is born or if she will be a baldie.  :)

The Berenstain Bears in The Bears' Almanac

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love vintage Berenstain Bears.  I'm not as big a fan of the more 'modern' titles but I love the earlier ones like The Big Honey Hunt, The Bike Lesson, The Bears' Picnic, Bears in the Night, etc.  Today there are more than 300 Berenstain Bears titles.  I had been planning to buy The Bears' Almanac on Amazon until one day I happened upon it at a used book sale - love it when that happens!