Loot! Latest Children's Books from the Used Bookstore

The one on top is the Marie Curie volume of the ValueTales series. They had the whole set at a day camp I attended in junior high and I just loved these books. I've always been proud to know who Ralph Bunche is because of The Value of Responsibility. The other two are Dr. Seuss, but not the basic readers were familiar with--these are longer and I think intended for older children. The King's Stilts was originally published in 1939!

Board books: Sandra Boynton's Horns to Toes, which I believe is her "guide to baby's body parts" book; Daddy Cuddles, which I had to get because of the message of fatherly love and the adorable illustrations; Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree (wherein the little monkeys stupidly tease a crocodile), which is a followup to the same author's Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, a book that I have really enjoy reading/singing to the kiddo; Eric Carle's My Very First Book of Numbers, which has a fairly confounding split-page design, but heck, since I already found My Very First Book of Animal Homes at another bookstore, I just had to add to the set, since I'm OCD that way; and last but not least, a 1960s printing of Howard Pyle's King Arthur retelling, which is improbably illustrated by one  Sergio Leone. I can't imagine it's the Sergio Leone, but just the thought made me giggle.

Two paperbacks for older kids are Lois Ehlert's Planting a Rainbow, which is a pretty fun approach to teaching kiddos colors (I do love gardens), and Baseball Saved Us, which is the story of a young Japanese-American boy's experience in the internment camps during World War II. Our neighborhood is fairly heavily Japanese-American (as was the neighborhood I grew up in; apparently one-third of my high school's graduating class of 1942 wasn't there to graduate because they'd been deported to the camps) and while I don't usually like to mix my kidlit with my political indoctrination, this is a story I'd like him to encounter. Plus, it made me cry, so I hope it stands alone as a worthwhile story.

Hope you had as beautiful a July weekend as we did, filled with friends, family, bicycles, long days, water play and good food.