Five Favorites: Children's Picture Books

There are two necessary ingredients to a good picture book: a good story, and good pictures. Notice I said story. When I used to babysit, some of the kids had these gosh-awful books about "This is a fireman. He wears a red hat. This is a policeman. He wears a blue hat." Kill me now. These books aren't like that, because they have actual stories paired with gorgeous pictures.

1. Agatha's Feather Bed: Not Just Another Wild Goose Story

This was one of my favorites when I little. Don't you love the cover? And the story is great too, about how the naked geese come shivering to Agatha's window to get their feathers back from her bed.

2. Something Nasty in the Cabbages

(By the way, don't do an image search on this one. Some of the images... well, you can guess). This is a retelling of the classic French tale of Chantecler the cockerel, and it is hilarious. The writer has a great ear for language.

3. Crysanthemum

All I have to do is show some pictures, and you will buy this for your children:

It's about a little mouse named Crysanthemum who wishes she had a more normal name like Rose or Daisy. No one could pronounce my (very common) name - everyone thinks it is Carolyn, and I can't convince them otherwise. So I thought this story was the bee's knees. 

Eh, whatever, just 3. It's one of those weeks, and I feel like cheating.