JuniorBookWorm.com

New York Times Reviews

The New York Times has a terrific slide show of the best children's book illustrations in the last 50 years. Lately, I have been choosing children's books to buy more for their illustrations then their content. I figure that if the illustrations are vivid and exciting, there is a good chance the story will follow suit. It does not always work, but the reverse (lousy illustrations, brain deadening book)is often true.

Ralph again

We went to the Tate Britain for Sam's birthday party. They were having festivities relating to Guy Fawkes Day, a funny little British excuse to do the 4th of July and Halloween kind of all wrapped up. The good thing is that fireworks are sort of legal here. I can't quite figure it out. Anyway, half of us drove and half of taxied it. I drove and put on my current favourite kids album, The Amazing Adventures of Kid Astro by Ralph's World. They don't sell him here. You just have to bite the bullet and Amazon.com it. It is so worth it.
Oliver, one of our eleven year old guests, loved it so much, he made us listen to the title track 4 times in a row. My favourites are the last 2 songs on the album. I even listen to them when the kids are not in the car with me. That is how good they are. He has a beautiful voice. He knows grown ups are listening and so there is no synthesizer in site. There is just lots of excellent guitar playing. Find him, play him, don't look back.
ps. No one seems to take kids to the  Tate Britain anymore because Tate Modern is so groovy. But it is really worth going back there. They have an art trolley too and the Turners are massive, action packed and there are so many of them!