Banned Book: Winnie-the-Pooh

By A. A. Milne
Illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard
Originally published 1926

Sing Ho! For the Life of a Bear!

Winnie-the-Pooh is part of a collection of stories written by A. A. Milne featuring a boy, Christopher Robin, and his group of animal friends, Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet, Rabbit, Owl, Kanga and Little Roo, and Eeyore. This book has delighted audiences for many generations, so why was it banned?

Banned Book: Where the Wild Things Are

Where the Wild Things Are
By Maurice Sendak
1963

Where the Wild Things Are is a story about a child coming to grips with his emotions. Max is truly a terror and is punished for being so. Alone in his room, Max creates an alternate reality complete with tumultuous seas, sharp toothed monstrous Wild Things and deep dark forests. In this reality Max is King and enjoys romping around creating chaos, that is until he craves the comforts of home.

Banned Books Week September 21-27

It’s Banned Books Week this week, all the way through September 27^th.  Libraries, bookstores, and classrooms around the country celebrate the freedom to read through elaborate displays and fun events. Books that have been challenged or banned both in the U.S and around the world will receive recognition this week.

So what exactly is a banned book?

Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle

Where Did I Come From?

Written by Peter Mayle

Illustrated by Arthur Robins

Designed by Paul Walter

1973

“This Book is all about you.
We wrote it because we thought you’d like to know exactly where you came from, and how it all happened.”

A good old fashioned birds and bees book.  I picked this up because it looked familiar to me, as I witnessed the animated version (here) of the book on vhs at the ripe age of 8. My sister and I would giggle during the bath tub scene and share crooked glances at one another during some of the more preposterous parts. Some of the key elements in the book were changed around a bit for the animated version, which Howie Mandel narrated.

Richard Scarry's Best Board Game EVER

The best Concept books ever are written and illustrated by Richard Scarry. His Busytown series is amazing for both knowledge and comprehension. The Busytown board game takes all of those concepts and puts them into one clever Eye Found It! game. While playing this game you’re working on numerical understanding, vocabulary and deductive reasoning skills (since part of the game is finding objects hidden within the board). The game Clue is much the same and offers the same benefit, but I doubt it would keep my 6 year old’s attention; nor did Candy Land for that matter. This game, on the other hand, kept her engaged for quite a bit.

The object of the game is to get your pieces to the end of the board before the pigs eat all the food at the picnic. You spin the spinner and can advance in one of two ways. You can move forward the numerical amount listed, or, if you land on the goldbug symbol, you can draw up a card. The card has an object that you must find in a timely fashion, allotted by a sand timer. Then you may advance the numerical value set forth by however many objects you are able to find within the board. If you spin a pig symbol, the pigs get to eat one of the food items at the picnic. Those are the rules, but The Boog and I always see room for improvement and almost always will end up playing a second time making the rules up as we go along. Sometimes the Hubby will get in on the Busytown madness and voila!, family time is created.

I have written about Richard Scarry quite extensively in the past (here) and I am quite a fan. Not too long ago I sold a Look and Learn Boxed set (here) to pay for The Boog’s summer camp program a couple years back. Although I miss it immensely, and hope it found a great home, I do have many of his titles that remain in print. They seem to have redesigned some of the images and changed a few characters, but The Boog is none the wiser. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing, but Richard Scarry remains one my favorite illustrators to date.

P.S
You will need a lot of floor space since this game is set up like a puzzle of sorts and is a bit on the loooooong side. :)

My First Thanksgiving by Tomie dePaola

Happy Turkey Day Kiddos! What are your plans for Thanksgiving this year? The Husband, The Boog and I decided to celebrate Thanksgiving as a trio this year, forgoing all of the hustle and bustle that ensues for most families. So far so good! On that note, I thought I would share a Thanksgiving book from Mr. Tomie dePaola.



My First Thanksgiving Board Book
Written and Illustrated by Tomie dePaola
1992

"This is the first Thanksgiving."

"The Pilgrims had a feast to thank God for their being together in their new home."



"Their friends came with food for the feast."

"We celebrate Thanksgiving every November.

We will eat turkey with stuffing,

cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes,

pumpkin pie, and mince pie for dinner."

"Just like the Pilgrims,

we give thanks for our food

and for our being together

on Thanksgiving."



Whatever it is you do for Thanksgiving, I hope it's spent with those you love best!

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A Day in the Life of Oscar the Grouch

A Day in the Life of Oscar the Grouch
By Linda Hayward
Illustrated by Bill Davis
1981

Oh, will I ever tire of Sesame Street? NEVER! As most of you know by now, I like to delve into all the old Sesame Street books I have taken great care in collecting for The Boog. With no end in sight, and The Boog's new found interest in all things Sesame, it's with a very happy heart that I share with you our daily Muppet musings. This particular story is from my Sesame Street Book Club Collection and depicts a typical day in the life of the Sesame Street Cast, as seen from Oscar's point of view.

Given the fact that Oscar is a Grouch, the irony in the narration is what sticks out the most. What else can you expect from a grouch that lives in the happiest of neighborhoods? A very rotten time, that's what!

The book is full of all kinds of awesome rottenness that make Oscar his Grouchy-Old-Self.  You get to see how he starts his off his day. First, at seven o'clock in the morning, it's a yuchy breakfast. (Today it's orange rinds, rotten eggs, burned bacon and stale bread crumbs.)

After his yuchy rotten breakfast, it's off to watch everyone hurry to school or to work. (Oscar particularly likes this because no on has time to stop and say hello.)

 The mail carrier comes at nine o'clock. Today she delivered four letters to the Count.

At eleven o'clock some of the people around Sesame Street do chores and errands. Bert does laundry, Biff takes his paycheck to the bank. Rodeo Rosie picks up her cleaning at the cleaners. And what  about Oscar?

"Well, my favorite chore is waiting for the Mudman's delivery. Heh heh heh."

At twelve o'clock noon, friends share their lunches, eventhough Grouches don't share. Oscar hates to part with any of his delicious peanut butter and sardine sandwiches! (BLEH!)

At four o'clock on Tuesdays the bookmobile come to Sesame Street. Oscar is checking out his favorite book- Mother Grouch Rhymes.

At six o'clock in the evening Oscar eats his lovely supper of pizza with banana slices on top. (A Grouch has to stay healthy, you know.)

At seven o'clock Ernie takes his bath. Here at Oscar's trash can it's also bathtime, but not for Oscar. It's time for Slimey's Mud Bath.

Eight o'clock is storytime over at Big Bird's nest. Oscar does not attend because he is not a fan of happy endings. Now, you would think, since it's night time, Oscar would be getting ready to call it a day. Well, you'd be wrong!

It is now time for Oscar to practice his Trombone. And that concludes another yuchy day on Sesame Street. Horrible Dreams, now Scram!

Also by:

The Sesame Street Pet Show

Cookie Monster's Famous Cookie Dough Recipe

The Twiddle Bugs Dream House

Don't Forget the Oatmeal

I have also added a category listing on the sidebar of just Sesame Street Books!

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George Shrinks and the First Doodle Bugs Post

George Shrinks
By William Joyce
1985

"One day, while his mother and father were out, George dreamt he was small, and when he woke up he found it was true....."



Part of the Harper Collins Treasury of Picture Book Classics, George invites us to imagine living life as a tiny little person in a big world. After all, they are the small ones living in a grown-up world, so it's not hard for them to familiarize themselves with George's plight. Being in George's shoes is quite fun and as you will see, quite frightening at the same time.

Upon reading this book, The Boog stumbled onto a few ideas of her own. She discovered that if she shrunk she would like to "go into a snow globe and take a few trips on her Thomas the Tank Engine train set." Not a bad idea. I myself have always imagined eating a huge Oatmeal Cream Pie, just like the kids in Honey I Shrunk the Kids. Just one of my personal dreams I guess!

We got so inspired discussing different scenarios that there was only one thing to do. Draw about it! So we got out our crayons and she came up with a very happy take on Joyce's illustration. It turned out to be so much fun that I decided to do it again, and turn it into a series of blog posts aptly named Doodle Bugs. If you are at all interested in submitting some of your children's work, I invite you to comment. I would be more than happy to post about it. I'd love to see little budding Picassos in action!



This is The Boog's version of kitty chasing George

*I love that she made both the kitty and George happy despite the real image's suspenseful nature.





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Grover, Messenger of Love: The Sesame Street Bedtime Storybook

The Sesame Street Bedtime Storybook

Grover Messenger of Love

Written by Patricia Thackray

Illustrated by Joseph Mathieu

1978

Hey Kiddos~

Yes! I'm doing another Sesame Street post! Why? Well, because I now have another book to add to my Sesame Street collection, and I am PROUD! Along with The (original) Sesame Street Storybook and The Sesame Street 1 2 3 Storybook, I am now the proud owner of a third. The Sesame Street Bedtime Story Book is mostly about the various dreams of random Sesame Street residents, however, this particular story I chose to scan for you today is about cute little furry Grover and his quest to bring messages between two kingdoms.

THE END

All that back and forth and not a computer in sight! Very creative use of resources if you ask me....

 Also By:

The Sesame Street Story Book

The Sesame Street 123 Story Book

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The Twiddlebugs' Dream House

The Twiddlebugs' Dream House

Story by Pat Tornborg

Photographs by Alan Gelman

Miniatures by Pat Tornborg and Alan Gelman

1983

The most magical thing about Sesame Street are the Muppets! Sure, that's fairly obvious, but just once in awhile Jim Henson takes it a step further. The world of the Twiddlebugs is a great example of taking "an ordinary Muppet" to the next level by creating an already imaginary world and putting another within it! Every Muppet has it's own unique story, but none more fantastical than Ernie's resident insects, the Twiddlebugs.

Crictor

Crictor

By Tomi Ungerer

1958

A very lovely book about a woman, Madame Bodot, and her pet snake, Crictor; however, Crictor is no ordinary snake! He goes to school and even finds time to apprehend a cat burglar terrorizing his neighborhood. The Boog's favorite part of the book is when Crictor is delivered to Madame Bodot in a very peculiar O-shaped box! 

Folks are so very impressed by Crictor, they award him with a medal, a statue is resurrected in his honor and a park is named after him.

A little interesting tidbit from one of Tomi's illustrations is depicted on page 21, there is a drawing of an octopus to represent the #8; however, the animal is drawn with only 7 legs..... Very Curious Indeed!

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