Do You Wear Diapers?

Do You Wear Diapers? by Tanya Roitman and Harriet Ziefert, Inc. board book ages 2-4 Toddlers may wonder - "Do tigers wear diapers? Does anyone else wear diapers"? Here is the answer book. No. The answer is "no". Only humans wear diapers. Others poop in or near their own habitats. If your family is full of doctors and nurses or biology teachers, then this a good book for your family. I don't recommend it for a genteel grandmother to read or for someone else who is easily grossed out. Half of my audience laughed and the other half thought it was icky. In case you were wondering: There are NOT pictures of poop, but there are illustrations of various animals. Readalike: Everyone Poops by Taro Gomi

Blue Hat, Green Hat

Blue Hat, Green Hat
by
Sandra Boynton
board book
ages 0-3

Sandra Boynton's comic art of animals teaches children about colors and names of articles of clothing while hamming it up. Various animals model different colors of clothing and the turkey shows us how NOT to wear our clothes - like socks on the hands and coats on backwards.

This is one of the most entertaining Boynton books I have read and one of the simplest. There are not very many words but the book is effective without them.

By the third time my audience encountered this book they knew what was going to happen next and enjoyed shouting it out.

I recommend this book for public libraries and bookmobiles that serve the youngest readers.

Surprise! Surprise!

Surprise! Surprise!
by
Gyo Fujikawa
board book
ages 18 months - 4 years

Rabbit is a trickster and the other animals don't trust him. Animals are frolicking around one day and trying to decided what to do to entertain themselves. They decide to jump over a fence and see what is on the other side. Surprise! You have to read the story to find out what is on the other side of the fence.

Unfortunately, the ending is ruined because the publisher put a picture of the ending on the front cover. So much for the surprise. What were they thinking?

Overall I enjoyed the pictures of the animals more than the text. The scruffy dog was my favorite picture.

I can't help but read the title as if someone from Mayberry was saying it.

Two Bobbies

Two Bobbies: A True Story of Hurricane Katrina, Friendship, and Survival
by
Kirby Larson, Mary Nethery, and Jean Cassels
Nonfiction, ages 6 - adult.
My library put this in the children's section, but it is one of those books that many adults would enjoy unaccompanied by a child. I would not be surprised if Reader's Digest didn't feature this story in the Drama in Real Life section.
A cat and a dog keep each other alive during the hurricane that decimated New Orleans. Have plenty of Kleenex ready. This is a tearjerker. There are some amazing details that can only be true because they are so bizarre and unexpected.
I am delighted to see that one of the authors was Kirby Larson, whose book "Hattie Big Sky" I greatly enjoyed.
This is a must have book for elementary, junior high, public libraries, and any library in the greater New Orleans metropolitan service area. It should take its place among the great cat and dog books. Put this on the shelf next to "All Creatures Great and Small", "Black Beauty", "Lassie", "Lad", "Listen to Your Kitten Purr" and other great animal books.
Then again, I have mixed up the fiction and nonfiction section of the library, so I should say that at home you could put them on the shelf together. At the library this book will be under Dewey 636 with true animal books.
You can safely recommend this book to even the most conservative home school parent as the animals act like animals (not people) and compassion is emphasized. You also can recommend it to your most liberal animal rights patrons, so this is a win-win book!