For Kids Books

Night Night Little Pookie or Knuffle Bunny

2009-12-06T05:14:00.000-08:00

Night-Night, Little Pookie

Author: Sandra Boynton

It's evening, and mom patiently eases Pookie toward bed. Pookie cooperates (mostly)—though with that particular Pookie flair. And imagine who gets the last word.

Told in Boynton’s signature rhyme and illustrations, this humorous and gentle story will delight toddlers and those that love them.

Book about: Basic Business Statistics or Fundamentals of Math and Physics for Game Programmers

Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale

Author: Mo Willems

Trixie, Daddy, and Knuffle Bunny take a trip to the neighborhood Laundromat. But the exciting adventure takes a dramatic turn when Trixie realizes somebunny was left behind. Using a combination of muted black-and-white photographs and expressive illustrations, this stunning book tells a brilliantly true-to-life tale about what happens when Daddy's in charge and things go terribly, hilariously wrong.

Child Magazine

In a smart blend of cartoons and sepia-toned photos, Caldecott Honor winner Willems spins a comical tale of trouble at the laundromat. Knuffle Bunny, a beloved stuffed rabbit, accidentally gets tossed in with the wash. When little Trixie realizes what's happened to her bunny, the toddler gets creative in conveying her loss. (Ages 2 to 4)
Child magazine's Best Children's Book Awards 2004

Publishers Weekly

Any child who has ever had a favorite toy will identify with the toddler star of this tale. The plot is simple: Trixie loses bunny, finds bunny and then exuberantly says her first words-"Knuffle Bunny!!!" The fun comes from the details. In an innovative style that employs dappled black-and-white photographs of Brooklyn as backdrop to wickedly funny color cartoons, Willems (Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!) creates an entertaining story for parents and children alike. His economical storytelling and deft skill with line lend the book its distinctive charm, while the endpapers mitigate anxiety by clueing in readers concerning the solution to Trixie's problem. Willems renders the characters with Little Lulu-style pointed noses and their expressions are laugh-out-loud funny, from the hapless father's worried look as he and Trixie venture out to the Laundromat, to his roll-up-your-sleeves determination as he rescues the stuffed toy from the washing machine. But it's pre-verbal Trixie who steals the show. Her wide-eyed enthusiasm about the world around her is matched only by her desperate attempts to communicate. "Aggle flaggle klabble!" she says when she finds Knuffle Bunny missing, and her well-intentioned but clueless father translates, "That's right.... We're going home." An especially delicious scene finds the frustrated Trixie abandoning baby talk for action: "Well, she had no choice. Trixie bawled. She went boneless." The accompanying pictures comically corroborate the omniscient narrator's claim. Willems once again demonstrates his keen insight with a story both witty and wise. Ages 4-8. (Sept.)

Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz - Children's Literature

A treasured stuffed animal is all too often lost or left behind, resulting in a tragedy for the small owner. Knuffle Bunny is Trixie's beloved companion, taken on a trip to the Laundromat with her dad. Readers and listeners will spot her problem immediately, but Daddy just can't understand Trixie's desperate attempts to communicate in her own language. By the time they reach home, Daddy is as unhappy as Trixie. Her Mommy, of course, immediately asks the crucial question: "Where's Knuffle Bunny?" Back they all run to the Laundromat, where they finally find the elusive bunny. In her delight, Trixie says her first real words: "Knuffle Bunny." The very succinct text is basically no more than captions for the illustrations. It is the visual narrative that keeps the pages turning. The artist places his full color set of cartoon characters, hand-drawn in ink, on backgrounds consisting of digital photography in shades of gray showing the neighborhood and Laundromat. A few speech balloons add dramatic content. Here hand-drawn pictures and computer-manipulated photographs join in a happy marriage in a situation any parent will understand. 2004, Hyperion Books for Children, Ages 2 to 5.

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 1-Trixie steps lively as she goes on an errand with her daddy, down the block, through the park, past the school, to the Laundromat. For the toddler, loading and putting money into the machine invoke wide-eyed pleasure. But, on the return home, she realizes something. Readers will know immediately that her stuffed bunny has been left behind but try as she might, (in hilarious gibberish), she cannot get her father to understand her problem. Despite his plea of "please don't get fussy," she gives it her all, bawling and going "boneless." They both arrive home unhappy. Mom immediately sees that "Knuffle Bunny" is missing and so it's back to the Laundromat they go. After several tries, dad finds the toy among the wet laundry and reclaims hero status. Yet, this is not simply a lost-and-found tale. The toddler exuberantly exclaims, "Knuffle Bunny!!!" "And those were the first words Trixie ever said." The concise, deftly told narrative becomes the perfect springboard for the pictures. They, in turn, augment the story's emotional acuity. Printed on olive-green backdrops, the illustrations are a combination of muted, sepia-toned photographs upon which bright cartoon drawings of people have been superimposed. Personalities are artfully created so that both parents and children will recognize themselves within these pages. A seamless and supremely satisfying presentation of art and text.-Martha Topol, Traverse Area District Library, Traverse City, MI

Kirkus Reviews

Anguish begets language in this tale of a toddler's lost stuffie. Trixie and her daddy go on an errand to the local laundromat, an odyssey that takes the intrepid pair through the park and past the school and back-but "a block or so later . . . Trixie realized something." Her desperate attempts to communicate ("AGGLE FLAGGLE KLABBLE!") proving fruitless, Trixie resorts to time-honored toddler tactics: she bawls and goes boneless. Readers will deduce what Trixie's clueless daddy does not: her toy bunny has been left behind. Retro-style (think Rocky and Bullwinkle) cartoons depict the human players in the drama; sepia-tinted photographs of the artist's Brooklyn neighborhood, framed in pale green, provide the backdrops. Willems is a master of body language; Trixie's despair and her daddy's frazzlement as expressive as her joy ("KNUFFLE BUNNY!") and his triumph at the excavation of the errant bunny from the washing machine. The natural audience for this offering is a little older than its main character: they will easily identify with Trixie's grief and at the same time feel superior to her hapless parent-and rejoice wholeheartedly at the happy reunion. (Picture book. 2-5)

Olivia Helps with Christmas or The Ramona Collection Volume 1

2009-12-01T15:41:00.000-08:00

Olivia Helps with Christmas

Author: Ian Falconer

Everyone's favorite Caldecott honor-winning porcine and #1 Kris Cringle enthusiast is helping to make the season brighter than ever. Christmas is coming, and Olivia is incredibly busy. She has to wait for Santa, make sure dad sets up the tree, wait for Santa, watch mom make the Christmas dinner, wait for Santa, oversee the care with which the stockings are hung and, of course, OPEN HER PRESENTS! Do you see how hard it is to be so helpful during the holidays! A lovingly-told and lavishly-illustrated Olivia Helps With Christmas is the perfect stuffing for any stocking, and the newest star atop the Olivia series.

The New York Times - Julie Just

Falconer's clever illustrations—in charcoal, gouache and photo montage—tell us one thing while his story is telling us another…Olivia charms by throwing herself into whatever she does…

Publishers Weekly

More a succession of family anecdotes-in-the-making than a plot-driven story, the holiday installment of a much-loved series finds the adroitly accessorized piglet and her family decking the halls of a house in the country on Christmas Eve. Olivia, charged with "a very special job" (Mom-speak for interrupting the "Santa watch" Olivia and her younger brothers mount by the rain-streaked picture window), proudly shows off the table she has set by herself, topped with a decorated miniature tree: "Why, that's beautiful, darling. Where did you ever find that perfect little . . . " her mother beams; open the gatefold to see the rest of the room, where a saw and a stool stand next to the family's (decapitated) " . . . tree?" as the mother falteringly completes the question. Readers will claim other episodes as their own favorites; as usual, Falconer knows how to play pictures and text off each other to maximum comic impact. Ages 3-7. (Oct.)

Her antics seem a little forced in this selection, but the dazzling illustrations, highlighted with green as well as Olivia's signature red, are as charming as ever; and the ending-a snowy Christmas-is quite satisfying. This is a good bet for family sharing.-Virginia Walter, University of California, Los Angeles

We thought Christmas at your house would be much more fun. Despite several amusing moments in this latest offering about Olivia the precocious pig, Falconer has neglected to fully develop the narrative line of the plot or to further Olivia's development as a distinct character. She participates in some holiday preparations with her usual flair, such as chopping off the top of the Christmas tree for a table decoration, but other incidents fall flat, as when Olivia struggles and falls while trying to use her new Christmas skis. In a rather cheap joke, she feeds blueberry pie to her baby brother, causing immediate blue vomit, which will of course provoke laughter from youngsters but has nothing to do with Christmas. Several gatefold pages extend the holiday happenings without adding much humor; the final spread adds some sparkle with Olivia's grandiose dream of a scene from The Nutcracker. Falconer's charcoal and gouache illustrations are clever, as always, though it's sometimes hard to distinguish between Olivia and her brother when they alternate between red and green clothing. The overall effect has neither Christmas cheer nor the satisfying, saucy humor of previous Olivia adventures. (Picture book. 3-6)

The Ramona Collection, Volume 1: Ramona and Her Father/Ramona the Brave/Ramona the Pest/Beezus and Ramona

Author: Beverly Cleary

This wonderful Ramona Box Set, by Beverly Cleary, contains four books: Ramona the Brave, Ramona the Pest, Beezus and Ramona, and Ramona Quimby, Age 8.

Beezus and Ramona

Beezus tries very hard to be patient with her little sister, but four-your-old Ramona has a habit of doing the most unpredictable, annoying, embarrassing things in the world. Sometimes Beezus doesn't like Ramona much, and that makes her feel guilty. Sisters are supposed to love each other, but pesky little Ramona doesn't seem very lovable to Beezus right now.

Ramona the Pest

Ramona is off to kindergarten, and it is the greatest day of her life. She loves her teacher, Miss Binney, and she likes a little boy named Davy so much she wants to kiss him. So why does Ramona get in so much trouble? And how does Ramona manage to disrupt the whole class during rest time? Anyone who knows Ramona knows that she never tries to be a pest.

Ramona the Brave

Now that she's six and entering the first grade, Ramona is determined to be brave, but it's not always easy, with a scary new all-by-herself bedroom, her mother's new job, and a new teacher who just doesn't understand how hard Ramona is trying to grow up.

Ramona Quimby, Age 8

Ramona feels quite grown up taking the bus by herself, helping big sister Beezus make dinner, and trying hard to be nice to pesky Willa Jean after school. Turning eight years old and entering the third grade can do that to a girl. So how can her teacher call her a nuisance? Being a member of the Quimby family in the third grade is harder than Ramona expected.