By Jan Pease
“The corn is as high as an elephant’s eye!” Well, it’s more than knee high, anyway. It’s high summer, and a hot day might be a
great time to sit down with a picture book.
I checked out a new book one day this week. The title is “This is a Taco!” No, the title really is “This is a Squirrel”
with the word, “squirrel,” crossed out in red marker and the word, “Taco”
written in. Andrew Cangelose wrote
this very funny story about editing gone wild as the squirrel makes changes in
“his” book.
Doreen Cronin continues her funny series about the farmer
and his talented cows, duck, chicken and pigs in her new book, “Click Clack
Quack to School.” I don’t think the farm animals are quite
ready for school, although they did practice standing in line and using their
inside voices. 
Karma Wilson is one of my favorite authors. Her new, very funny book, is about a dog
named Doug who likes to dig. Doug digs huge holes and tunnels and eventually
digs his way into the White House. “A
Dog Named Doug” joins Ms. Wilson’s other picture books about Bear and his friends. Ms. Wilson says about her work, “Knowledge
comes through words, so for me literacy is the foundation of education, and it
bears the fruit of intelligent and empathetic citizens of this world and
humanity.” I just knew I liked her!
Brenda Child is professor of American Studies at the
University of Minnesota. The Minnesota
Historical Press has just published her bilingual book, “Bowwow Powwow.” Gordon Jourdain translated the story into
Ojibwe, and Jonathan Thunder illustrated this gorgeous book that captures the sights, sounds, and dreams of a pow wow. This book is the story of Windy Girl who has an active imagination,
tells stories and dreams vivid dreams.
She goes to a powwow with Uncle, sees the dancers and listens to the
singers. Then she falls asleep under the
stars and dreams the entire event, from the Grand Entry through the fancy
dancing. But all of the participants are
dogs! 
Emily MacLachlan Charest and her mom, Patricia
MacLachlan often write together, and their new book, “Little Robot Alone,” is a
sweet story that would be perfect for bedtime. In this story a lonely
little
robot decides to solve his loneliness problem with ingenuity and hard
work.
If your little
nature lover enjoys unusual animals, check out “Look at Me!: How to Attract Attention
in the Animal World.” Male animals seem
to go through the most just to catch the eye of a female. Steve Jenkins and Robin Page achieve their
usual standard of perfection. I watched
a nature program that featured small hummingbirds with a two ridiculous tail
appendages which were so heavy the poor bird had to perch most of the
time. He simply couldn’t hover for
long. But it would attract attention!
A boy at story time today told me about the bedtime story
they read in their tent while camping at Grandma’s farm. What a wonderful memory they made! See you at
the library!
