A Visitor for Bear by Bonny Becker

THIS IS A FABULOUS KIDS BOOK!!! We got it from the library and the kids were totally involved in guessing what was coming next in the story and pointing out the feelings of the characters in the book and the pictures were absolutely delightful, which in my opinion, is all you can really ask for in a kids book. Basically, Bear is a bear that does not allow visitors because he is pretty sure that he will not like them. He even has a sign. But along comes a very persistent Mouse who makes Bear discover that he actually likes having a friend and having visitors. The book was great at illustrating how we should treat guests and friends and also illustrating the feelings of both the mouse and the bear. My children correctly identified when the characters were being rude which is a huge social skill to learn for preschoolers - LOL! The watercolor painting illustration made my children want to paint the next day and we talked about bears and mice and if they could really be friends all day the next day. It was a nice length, probably 15 minutes read aloud, making it perfect for bedtime (although there is a little excitement in it so maybe not the best one for the last story of the night).

Up In Heaven by Emma Chichester Clark

This is a great kids story about a little boy and his dog who died. It goes through the story of how beautiful heaven is for the dog but she just can't be happy until she knows that the little boy is not sad anymore about losing her. It has beautiful pictures of dogs frolicking in heaven and how happy they are and it ends with the dog sending dreams to the little boy that help him move on from the loss of his dog. It's touching and would be great for a child that has lost a pet. However, if your child has not lost a pet, you might want to consider that this might bring up more questions than you want to answer. Also, obviously if you do not believe in heaven, this is not the right book for you and your children because they tend to latch onto things very literally and especially religious things (IMHO). The illustration is nice but not wonderful and my kids (whom I always try to get to look at the actual art in the book) were not interested in this one. Overall, I loved the story but there were some downsides to reading this story, particularly before bedtime as then we had to have a 45 minute conversation about animals and people dying and where they go after they die. You might want to read this as a one on one book so you can discuss it more personally with each child.

I already know I love you by Billy Crystal

This is a kids book written by Billy Crystal about expecting his baby granddaughter. It's a great book to give to expecting grandparents and a great book for them to read to their young grandchildren. My kids liked thinking about the fact that someone loved them even before they were born. The pictures were watercolory and windblown and my kids thought that they looked "loving". It's a nice short book (probably a 5-10 minute read) so appropriate for younger ages or if you are tired at night and don't want to read that long. It's a very soft book and any time you use the word love in a book, kids like it.

The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon by Mini Grey

Fun story about the dish and the spoon "after" the nursery rhyme. The dish and spoon become a vaudeville act and become famous but dish gets caught up in gambling and drinking until they borrow money from the wrong people to keep up their habits. They rob a bank to pay the money back and they get caught and have to go to jail. Eventually they re-find each other and put on a show again for free and live happily ever after together. I liked this book because it was funny and had some true life aspects to it but it does have some more adult themes that I had some difficulty explaining to my 3 year old. I would recommend no younger than 5 on this story. The illustrations were beautiful.

The Accidental Zucchini: An Unexpected Alphabet by Max Grover

This is an alphabet counting book with a somewhat different choice of words for the examples. Instead of A is for Apple, A is for Apple Autos with a picture of people driving around in apples. Very cute and my son liked it. I would recommend it for any children learning their alphabet. Even my daughter who knows her alphabet laughed at the funny pictures and liked the funways they did the illustrations in this book.