I've always adored children's books. I even started collecting them pre-kids. And I think it's because I appreciate when an author gets just the right combination of universal truth, adorableness, and humor. Life can be complicated. We'll never fully comprehend God or the architecture of the universe. At least not in this life. But truth is often a lot simpler than we are led to believe. Which is why it applies to a myriad of circumstances across time and space.
Anyway. I've decided to review some of my favorite children's books on this blog! I hope it's helpful...but it's possible you may leave thinking I put too much thought into it. I'm writing this on a rainy day at the beginning of a cold. (during NAPTIME of course!) Drinking coffee and thinking is the only thing I feel like doing. You've been warned.
I recently bought Stick and Stone by Beth Ferry & Tom Lichtenheld. It's a 40 page board book about the friendship between a stick and a stone. It's a great book for beginning readers as some of the pages only have a word of two. There are cute rhymes and few puns related to sticks and stones. Both my boys like books, but one really loves them and he asks for this one daily. At first he noticed the sad/happy change in Stone's face. Now he just flips through the pages to the part where I yell out "Then thunder and rain,
BOOM!!!! a loud hurricane!" Boys.
What I really love about this book is that it shows how how friendship develops between opposites when those differences are used to help the other. Stick and Stone are both alone and lonely. They find each other on a playground. But when Stone falls off a swing, Pinecone comes along and teases him mercilessly. Stick sticks up for Stone (a pun the book mentions, of course). Later, while at the beach, a hurricane blows Stick away. After searching all day and night, Stone finds him stuck in a muddy puddle and rescues him in a way only a big, round rock could.
I really think this book will be both read AND frequently referenced back to in the next several years.