This is Australia - Miroslav Sasek

Miroslav Sasek was born in the Czech Republic and wrote and illustrated the This Is series of children's books, including This is London, This is Paris, This is New York, This is Rome, This is San Francisco, This is Greece, This is the Way to the Moon, many more, and featured here, This is Australia.  Isn't that cover just the coolest?!  I have only done travelling in Canada and the United States and would like to visit more countries one day.  My parents had a great trip to Australia years ago.  When I was teaching my grade 2 class we always studied a unit about Australia every year and had a lot of fun with it.  We would have an Australian Christmas party and I played songs about Australia on my guitar and we dressed as if it was warm weather and ate pavlova, it was great.

Check out this YouTube footage of This is Israel.  2 of my good friends just got back from a cruise to the Holy Land, very interesting to hear what it was like there!

Pippi Longstocking Comics

Get ready to be wowed!  How much do you love these comic-style Pippi books?!  Here we have Pippi Moves In and Pippi Fixes Everything.  They were illustrated by Ingrid Vang Nyman in the 1950's.  I was so excited to buy these re-issues for my daughter!  Apparently there will be one more volume to come!  It is the first time they have been published in English.  These stories were originally published in Sweden's Humpty Dumpty magazine about a decade after the original books were published.

My daughter Keira and I have been enjoying reading all the Pippi books together as well as these comic books.  We have also watched the Swedish movies subtitled in English as well as The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking, from the 80's, and a newer cartoon version on dvd that she got for Easter as well.  Pippi is the best!

Sometimes when I read Pippi I like to think of my Swedish great-grandmother.  I was lucky enough to have her around til I was a young adult, and she was 94 years old when she passed away.   She had some similarities to Pippi - Swedish, lived in an old house by herself, and had a bit of a mischievous streak.  :) Like Pippi, she was also very independent. She immigrated to Canada from Sweden all by herself when she was a young woman!  Who did that back then??  Very brave!

Sesame Street Treasury

Check out this awesome compilation of vintage Sesame Street stories. Look who's here- Farley!  Betty Lou!  Super Grover!  Snuffy and his little sister Alice!  Check out this page I found - 10 Things You Didn't Know About Snuffleupagus.

The Big Book of Berenstain Bears Beginner Books

The Big Book of Berenstain Bears Beginner Books (wow that's a lot of alliteration!)  contains the stories Bears in the Night, The Bears' Picnic, The Bears' Vacation, The Spooky Old Tree, The Bike Lesson, and The Missing Dinosaur Bone.  I always have my eye out for these at used book sales but so far have only been able to scoop up Bears in the Night.  So I caved in and bought this anthology of early Berenstain Bears stories at Chapters.  I would prefer to buy these books in their vintage form but this is the next best thing - at least we have them now.  I like anthologies for their usefulness but I prefer to have the books separately to be able to enjoy their covers.Speaking of The Bike Lesson - we really need to buckle down and teach our 7 year old to ride without the training wheels this year.  Anyone have any great tips for what worked well for you?  We did a few sessions last summer but didn't get Keira fully ready to ride a 2-wheeler yet.  

Richard Scarry- I am a Bunny and The Bunny Book

Happy Easter!  2 adorable bunny books illustrated by Richard Scarry here today.  I love the Golden Sturdy book I Am a Bunny- the pictures are so vibrant and fun.  And I love the story of The Bunny Book - so sweet.  

Gyo Fujikawa's Mother Goose

I thought it was time that I do another post about my favourite children's illustrator, Gyo Fujikawa.  Here is her adorable collection of Mother Goose.  Just wanted to say thank you to those of you who sometimes comment on my posts.  Sorry to my bloggy friends that I haven't been commenting as much lately - harder to find time since the baby was born.  And thank you as well to those of you who are reading although not commenting - I appreciate you stopping by!