My Mama's Goodnight: This Week's 5 Picks!

My Mama’s Goodnight: This Week’s Top 5 Picks

Katie M. Zeigler

What do rainy days lunch ladies and leeches have in common? They’re all featured in this week’s top five best books for your children! Enjoy!

One Big Rain: Poems for Rainy Days

Compiled by Rita Gray

Illustrated by Ryan O’Rourke

Ages 4-8

As the rain comes down outside the window today, I pulled out one of my favorite collections of poems and was reminded how wonderful it is. Writer Rita Gray and Illustrator Ryan O'Rourke have teamed up to create a lovely little book, One Big Rain: Poems for Rainy Days. This simple little book is the perfect thing to snuggle up with, tucked in a big blanket and sipping a cup of hot chocolate.  And with various styles of poems, from haiku to free verse to rhyming meters, it's a great introduction to the wonder of poetry itself. The poems themselves are organized by season, so you'll find poems that capture the warmth of a summer rain, the harsh coldness of a winter rain and the refreshing and flower-filled rains of spring all in one book. (And imagine my joy at finding one of my favorite poems, Robert Frost's To the Thawing Wind!)   The illustrations are some of my favorites of all time - O'Rourke has outdone himself...So, go ahead and tuck yourself in today...start that pot to boil and cuddle up with this wonderful book.

Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute

Written and illustrated by Jarrett J. Krosoczka

Ages 9-12

Remember the Lunch Ladies we had growing up? Hair nets. Sausage Surprise. Mustaches. Today's Lunch Ladies are so much cooler. The Lunch Lady at my son's school is fabulous and nice and loves kids - all the traits the Lunch Ladies were certainly missing out on for me growing up. And their equipment today is so much cooler, too. My Lunch Lady's technology consisted of an empty can of Yuban coffee that she'd put the dimes in for a carton of milk. Today, the Lunch Lady has this cool credit card swiper-looking contraption that allows the kids to pay for their lunch like they're using an ATM. Super cool. Not perhaps as cool as the Lunch Lady in Jarrett Krosoczka's awesome book, Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute, since she can fly and drives a scooter with a "sloppy joe" button that allows her to cream her evil nemeses...ooo...and a "spatucopter" which sounds exactly like what is it - a spatula that can fly. Krosoczka's graphic novels (yes, this is just the first in a set of Lunch Lady adventures!) are fantastic - fast-paced, entertaining and with just the right amount of kid humor to keep your children engaged and asking for more.  Sure, she may have yellow rubber gloves and wear Mom jeans, but in this graphic novel, the Lunch Lady's the coolest thing since sliced bread, or Sausage Surprise as the case may be...

You Wouldn't Want to be Sick in the 16th Century

Written by Kathryn Senior

Illustrated by David Salariya

Ages 9-12

I don't know about you, but our house has been chock-full of colds, coughs, sore throats, vomit, stomach aches and the occasional rash. Seems we just recover from one nasty bug and another one is slowly crawling up our leg. It could be worse, though. We could be sick in the 16th Century and encounter all of the grotesque ways in which doctors of the time attempted to cure unsuspecting folks. Who knew there was such a bevy of repulsive health care practices? Well, apparently Kathryn Senior knew, and wrote her book, You Wouldn't Want to be Sick in the 16th Century: Diseases You'd Rather Not Catch - a veritable encyclopedia of disgusting medical facts that is just one in a series of You Wouldn't Want to be... children's books available. We've read You Wouldn't Want to be a Pyramid Builder (severe rope burn), You Wouldn't Want to be a Greek Athlete (athlete's foot galore) and You Wouldn't Want to be  Salem Witch (is it getting hot in here or is it just me?)...and now we can add the 16th Century to our braintrust of oogey facts. This book series is definitely not for the squeamish and definitely for an older set of kids, but if you're ready for a richly revolting romp back in time, these books are for you! Cough Cough. Oh, no, not again...

Bedhead

Written by Margie Palatini

Illustrated by Jack E. Davis

Ages 4-8

If you saw me walking to school this morning, I apologize on behalf of my bedhead. It was truly epic and yet, for a variety of reasons (spilled oatmeal, exploding kitty litter and a late alarm clock notwithstanding) I did not have time to tame the beast. So I subjected you all to its horror. And for that I am truly sorry. I feel much better, though, knowing that Oliver, the mane, er, I mean, main character in Margie Palatini's delightful book Bedhead has it much worse. Poor Oliver wakes up. Shuffles into the bathroom. Takes one look into the mirror. And there it is. Bedhead. Even the back of his head looks like a cat's "coughed-up furball." Trust me, I can relate. So Oliver's family takes action and tries combing, brushing, moussing, gelling - to no avail. Only a baseball cap will help at this late hour. But when Oliver arrives at school and its PICTURE DAY for heaven's sake (no baseball caps allowed), what will our follicularly challenged child do? A marvelous book for any and all who have suffered through bedhead...or are still recovering from seeing mine.

Sam’s Sandwich

Written and illustrated by David Pelham

Ages 4-8

Sweet little Sam...making a sandwich for his sister. What a nice little boy. Sliced tomato. Pastrami. A little hard-boiled egg. What a delicious little morsel for his sister to bite into. But what the reader will soon find out in this delectably awful pop-up book by David Pelham, is that sweet little Sam has hidden some additional "treats" between the layers. Like ants. And a big juicy slug. And don't forget the crunchy black fly. Yum. We've read this book probably 2,345 times and still my children squeal with delight as each horrific flap is lifted. And the book is even shaped like a sandwich! Sam's Sandwich is, hands-down, a family favorite. And it gives new meaning to ordering a sandwich with everything on it.