Children's Books We Love, Pt 1

Last month, I finally acted on my grand plan to start sharing some of our favorite books online. Only problem was it was only as facebook links, which are really hard to go back and find (especially considering how many links I share in a week!). I said I'd go back and blog about them so I'd have a more searchable record...and that's what I'm just now getting around to doing. So without further ado, one of my favorite books to discover with the kids is a slightly obscure title. Under the Sun and Over the Moon, by Kevin Crossley-Holland and Ian Penney, is probably the most intricately-illustrated counting book I've ever seen.

This picture is enlarged from a teeny thumbnail from librarything because Amazon doesn't have one.

Crossley-Holland's rhyming couplets are entrancing--though they most definitely require adult interpretation; the vocabulary and word choice make clear this is not for kids to read themselves. Each illustration is like an "I Spy" type puzzle: you know there are the specified number of each item in the picture of each garden, so finding how many various groups you can spot is fun, and there are hidden treasures along the way, as well. For someone like me, who enjoys discovery in numbers and counting is relaxing, this book is a dream. Incidentally, it has helped both of my boys to fall asleep at naptime on numbers of occasions! I really cannot say enough about how fun and beautiful this book is. Apparently I'm making it my personal mission to make it popular enough to get a flippin' picture of the cover on Amazon, too.