Soon to Be Classics

Isn't it fantastic that book reviews can come from so many places? Publishers, avid readers, friends, father-in-laws, librarian bloggers, and a few months back Real Simple Family magazine even threw their hat in the ring.  In a piece called, "Soon to Be Classic Kids' Books," Christopher Healy called out a handful of new books that he thinks "are destined to be read out loud, or under the covers with a flashlight, for years to come."  Given LP Reads' familiarity with a few of the titles, we'd have to agree that he has compiled a list worth checking out.  Top of our list, is Art and Max by David Weisner.

When books include a dash of meta-anything, the result is so often thought provoking, and in this case, just plain fun.  This simple book will leave you pondering the creation of art while your children will be lost in the playful and fantastically rendered pictures.  Healy summarizes,

When Art the iguana asks Max the lizard to paint him, Max takes the request literally, covering his friend in artistic styles from Seurat-like pointillism to the line drawing.  It's fast-paced slapstick but also a celebration of art itself.

Another book Healy recommends is The Quiet Book by Deborah Underwood (and we'd add in the sequel The Loud Book).

One family we know who read the book months back is still entertaining themselves thinking of their own kinds of quiet.

Additional titles from the article include Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce; City Dog, Country Frog by Mo Willems (illustrated by John Muth -- an amazing combination); Spoon by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Scott Magoon; Supposing... by Alastair Reid; The Night Fairy by Laura Amy Schlitz; and The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger.

We hope that one of these titles will be a resounding hit in at least one Moraga home this holiday season.