Many people are familiar with the Caldecott Award. Not as widely known is the (Theodor Seuss) Geisel Award that is given every year to author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished American books for beginning readers. We have fallen in love with almost all of the winners of this award for 2013 and wanted to share them:
Up, Tall and High!, written and illustrated by Ethan Long. This concept book about size and height has a group of zany birds for its characters. The dialogue in the book is great and is filled with humor. My daughter especially liked the interactive fold-out illustrations (I appreciated that the pages of the book were heavier and more durable).
Let’s Go for a Drive!, written and illustrated by Mo Willems. Mo Willems is hands down one of my favorite picture book writers/illustrators. His Elephant and Piggie books are hilarious and clever. In Let’s Go for a Drive!, Elephant and Piggie are making preparations for their driving adventure when they stumble upon a slight problem. But just as Elephant and Piggie always do, they’re able to make the best out of a sticky situation. My daughter was laughing out loud throughout this book and was talking about how goofy she thought Elephant and Piggie were long after we finished reading it.
Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin, created and illustrated by James Dean. My daughter asks for this book multiple times a day now. Pete the Cat is a chill, go-with-the-flow character. This book incorporates counting and singing into it’s pages. It’s funny and teaches a good lesson as well. Don’t miss Pete the Cat’s interactive web page. When my daughter discovered that there were more Pete the Cat books and their accompanying songs, she was ecstatic. Ecstatic over books people, a four-year-old! Go check this book out, my guess is that it will become an unsuspecting favorite around your house too.
Rabbit & Robot: The Sleepover, written and illustrated by Cece Bell. This was the only book from the bunch that I didn’t enjoy. It definitely falls into the young readers category rather than being a picture book. I mostly thought that the character Rabbit was really bossy and I didn’t like how he yelled and shouted all the time: two characteristics I definitely don’t want my four-year-old to be taking up.
