Not in the mood for a serious story? Want to share some belly laughs with your kids? Here’s a book that should have you both rolling…

The Book with No Pictures by BJ Novak

The title does not lie. This book, in fact, has no pictures. But it’s premise is a child’s delight: You – the grown-up – have to read every single word. Out loud. You can guess what that means. Yep. “I am a monkey who taught myself how to read.” What kid doesn’t love hearing that from an adult?! What else does the book command the adult to say? “BLORK.” “BLUURF.” You get the picture (without any pictures at all). LOL.

Pegged for ages 5-8.

Share your favorite silly books!

The weather has been CRAZY this winter. Last week it was nearly 75 degrees and sunny for six days – warm enough for t-shirts and long outdoor strolls. Reality check: This is Chicago. I can’t remember the last time it snowed. Does this sound like February???

Well, last night, after a nearly totally dry winter….it rained. The huge heavy drops kind of rain. Which made me think of this great book that kids and adults alike will relish with a knowing smile.

Come On, Rain by Karen Hesse, illustrated by John J. Muth

It’s hot and sticky in the city and Tessie is looking for rain. She stands on her apartment balcony, all arms and legs, watching the clouds gather, coaxing the rain to come. She leaves her post to entice her friends to join her, running and reaching high and gulping in the big drops as the rain begins to fall. And then the mamas join in.

The words and the pictures blend in poetic images. “Clouds rolling in,/ gray clouds, bunched and bulging under a purple sky,” And when the clouds open, “We turn in circles,/ glistening in our rain skin.”

A wonderful read in anticipation of spring.

Pegged for ages 4-8.

Share your favorite books about rain!

Today I recommend a book for Black History month. This is not the story of someone famous but a story of black history nonetheless.

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

Woodson won the Newbery Award for this poetic memoir of her life growing up as an African-American child in the 1960s and 70s. Through her bird’s eye view, Woodson touches on the larger black experience with Jim Crow and the Civil RIghts movement. It’s all in the details and Woodson gets them just right leaving the reader with a powerful sense of the period with its joys and struggles. A must read.

Share your favorite black history stories!

Jackson Pollock’s birthday is this week. You know Jackson Pollock – the guy who dripped paint onto canvas in energetic but seemingly random patterns. Some are puzzeld or dismissive when they look at Pollock’s work, unable to make heads or tails of it. But Pollock himself described his work as “motion made visible.” And many people agree.

Today, I recommend a book to share with your child that joyfully makes sense of abstract art.

Ish by Peter H. Reynolds

Ramon was nuts about drawing. Houses. Vases of flowers. Fish. He drew them all. But, as Ramon’s brother was quick to point out, what came out on paper didn’t look exactly like the real thing. Ramon considered giving up on painting all together. His sister had another way of looking at it. Ramon’s paintings were not exact replicas; they were “Ish.”

Illustrated with exuberant line drawings, Ish gets across to the reader the joy of creativity.

Pegged for Preschool-2nd grade.

Share your favorite books about art.

Before Morning by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Beth Krommes

I am a word person. So it is the spare but emotionally packed poetry of this new children’s book that moves me most. It begins: “In the deep woolen dark, as we slumber unknowing, let the sky fill with flurry and flight.”

And yet, the story’s power depends, in part, on the pictures. Together, words and images telling the tale of a little girl who calls up a snowstorm big enough to cancel a flight that would take her airline pilot mom away for the night.

Pegged for ages 4-7.

Curl up with your child and read!

Share your favorite books about snow.