Friday's Five: Helen's Books

We'd been enjoying Helen Oxenbury's baby books for years before we discovered some of her other titles. She has the sweetest, loveliest illustrations, with stories that both my kids enjoy, spanning from sweet baby faces to a rhyming tale about the importance of appreciating the life you have.

Here are five of our favorites:

1. We're Going on a Bear Hunt (with Michael Rosen): I love the online description of this book almost as much as my kids love the book itself -- "Full of delightful comedy and high drama, this tale of a brave family's joyous romp through sweeping landscapes is sure to win new fans."
2. Pig Tale: This story of Bertha and Briggs, who really want to be rich and then are overwhelmed by their posh new life, makes me laugh (partly because they are pigs) -- and also reminds me to appreciate what I have and be careful what I wish for.
3. Tom and Pippo series: These tiny little board books tell short stories about a boy named Tom and his lovey (a sock monkey) named Pippo. I'm not sure if Pippi just loves them because she loves to say "Pippo," but I love them because they're sweet and oh-so-short.
4. Tickle, Tickle and others: These big square board books are filled with cuddly, round-headed babies of different ethnicities doing regular little baby things (like clapping hands and tickling). Pippi loves to pretend to tickle the babies at the end of the book, and I love that she sees babies of different colors without being hit over the head about big important messages on diversity (like you can find elsewhere in this blog).
5. The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig (with Eugene Trivizas): I'm in the queue to get this one from the library, so we haven't actually read it yet. But I always love twists on fairy tales, and apparently this one includes a flamingo.