Recommended: Graeme Base
I cannot speak highly enough of children's author Graeme Base. He is a poet, an artist, and a storyteller. His books were a delight of my own youth, and sharing them with Mikey has been a joy. Mikey is still too young for The Eleventh Hour, over which my sister and I spent hours poring, hunting for clues, deciphering riddles, and solving the mystery. (And solve it we did, though the solution portion of our book is still sealed.) But he enjoys our old copy of Animalia, though he spends more time looking for the boy hidden in each picture than trying to identify all the things in the picture that start with the given letter. My mom gave Mikey Jungle Drums, which is a positively delightful tale (and the reason I have a construction paper warthog decorating the top of my laptop), and Uno's Garden, a cautionary tale. Mikey now knows Lewis Carroll's The Jabberwocky by heart, which thrills me to no end--it's one of his favorite books.
But the one that continually amazes me is The Sign of the Seahorse. Mikey and I usually take a few nights to read it as a bedtime story, at an average of two scenes a night. It is vividly written in perfectly metered rhyme (though you sometimes have to pronounce words in Graeme's native Australian way to get the meter just right). It's funny and suspenseful and adventurous and romantic, and I love it. And in addition to being wonderful, there is a secret seahorse sign hidden on every page, which Mikey must find before we can turn the page and go on with the story. Mikey and I just finished reading it again tonight, with supreme satisfaction.
Mr. Base, you rock my world.
But the one that continually amazes me is The Sign of the Seahorse. Mikey and I usually take a few nights to read it as a bedtime story, at an average of two scenes a night. It is vividly written in perfectly metered rhyme (though you sometimes have to pronounce words in Graeme's native Australian way to get the meter just right). It's funny and suspenseful and adventurous and romantic, and I love it. And in addition to being wonderful, there is a secret seahorse sign hidden on every page, which Mikey must find before we can turn the page and go on with the story. Mikey and I just finished reading it again tonight, with supreme satisfaction.
Mr. Base, you rock my world.