COMPLETED

I haven’t made it a practice to read picture books since my daughter was young, over 35 years ago. But now that our three-year-old grandson and his mom are living with us, I’m back at them. (In fact, I’m determined that I will never be too busy to read a book to Steven if he asks.) Besides – I have to read 150 books in 2012 and anything with an ISBN qualifies.

So when I saw that An Abundance of Books was hosting The Illustrated Year: A Picture Book Reading Challenge, I jumped at it. And why not? Sometimes it’s the story, sometimes the illustrations, and a lot of the time it’s the fun of reading them out loud to kids that makes picture books so enjoyable. Picture books are a great way to share stories and the experience of reading with children. I’m going to include Steven’s opinion of the book along with mine.

I know that not all of my readers are looking for this genre, so I’ll keep my reviews of picture books short & sweet and, to keep them few and far-between, I’m entering only at Level 1 which requires me to read just 12 books over the course of the year. But I’ll be toting them up for this challenge!

1. Giraffe & Bird written and illustrated by Rebecca Bender
2. I Want My Hat Back written and illustrated by Jon Klassen
3. Do You Know Which Ones Will Grow? written & illustrated by Susan A. Shen
4. Madeline written & illustrated by Ludwig Bemelmans
5. Fuddles written & illustrated by Frans Vischer
6. A Few Blocks written & illustrated by Cybele Young
7. Horton Hears a Who written & illustrated by Theodore Seuss (aka Dr. Seuss)
8. Gimme Jimmy written & illustrated by Sherrill S. Cannon
9. Dog in Boots written by Greg Gormley; illustrated by Robert Angaramo
10. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom written by Bill Martin Jr; illustrated by John Archambault
11. Harry, the Dirty Dog written by Gene Zion; illustrated by Margaret Bloy Graham
12. There Were Monkeys in My Kitchen written by Sheree Fitch; illustrated by Sydney Smith
13. The Market Square Dog written by James Herriot; illustrated by Ruth Brown
14. One Winter Night written by Jennifer Lloyd; illustrated by Lynn Ray
15. Curious George written by Margaret Ray; illustrated by H.A. Rey
16. Eloise written by Kay Thompson; illustrated by Hilary Knight
17. Coyote Sings to the Moon written by Thomas King; illustrated by Johnny Wales

And some non-children’s picture books:
18. Griffin & Sabine written and illustrated by Nick Bantock
19. Sabine’s Notebook written and illustrated by Nick Bantock
20. The Golden Mean written and illustrated by Nick Bantock