It's Monday! What are you reading? We read books about cats, dogs, and more

It's Monday! What are you reading? - from picture books to YA is a kidlit meme hosted

weekly by Jen at Teacher Mentor Texts and Kellee at Unleashing Readers.

The purpose is to recap what you have read and/or reviewed and to plan out 

your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. Twitter: #IMWAYR

Here are the picture books we read last week:

Good Rosie! by Kate DiCamillo, 
pictures by Harry Bliss

Candlewick Press, 2018, 32 pages

In this graphic chapter book perfect for early readers, a lonely little terrier named Rosie lives with elderly George. One day, George tells her they are going to try something new. Sure enough, it's off to the new dog park. But as lonely as Rosie is,  she doesn't like the dog park, there are just too many strange dogs. When a big St. Bernard named Maurice and a small yappy dog named Fifi want to play with her, Rosie wants none of it. But when Maurice begins to play roughly with Fifi as though she were his toy bunny, Rosie knows just what to do. But can the three dogs become friends?

This is a great book for kids who are afraid of trying new situations that involve meeting new kids and/or those kids who may have difficulties making friends. DiCamillo's gentle episodic text is nicely supported by Bliss' charming watercolor illustrations.  I think the graphic format serves as a great introduction to that format. My young readers loved this format, the story, the illustrations, and now, they all want a dog just like Rosie.

I Hate My Cats (A Love Story) by Davide Cali, 
illustrated by Anna Pirolli

Chronicle Books, 2018, 44 pages

Ginger and Fred are two kitties who couldn't be more different. Ginger is energetic, eccentric, and playful. She likes mint, shoes, and drinking from the bathroom sink. Fred is a lazy black cat who loves to sleep on the white towels, or in the sink, or on the newspaper his pet human is reading. And both kitties love to help their human work. If the human yells at them, they will hide from him for the rest of the day. But when night comes, all is forgiven as they curl up around their human and go to sleep.

Anyone who has ever been owned by a cat will really appreciate this book. Anyone who loves kitties but has a bad cat allergy (as I have) will love this book. Anyone who doesn't like cats, well, this may not be the book for you. I'm not sure how young readers will feel about this book, but I suspect those who have cats will have some appreciation for it. Cali has really captured feline behavior so perfectly, Ginger and Fred must be based on experience with cats. And Anna Pirolli's has infused the pages with their personalities to perfection, capturing the differences and similarities that every cat lover will recognize from their own experience. This is a humorous picture book for kids and grownups alike.

The Other Dog by Madeleine L'Engle, 

illustrated by Christine Davenier

Chronicle Books, 2018 (2001), 48 pages

Narrated by a poodle named Touché L'Engle-Franklin, this is the story of how a dog regards the arrival of what she believes is another dog into her domain. Of course, the reader knows it's just a new baby named Jo, but Touché is not happy, believing one dog is enough for any family, and that she personally is everything her humans could want. As Touché becomes resigned to her new rival, she does notice that there are differences between the two of them. For instance, the new Jo-dog doesn't go out for walks when she does, she gets fed more frequently, and she has no tail and not much hair. But as the Jo-dog grows bigger, and becomes more interested in Touché, things begin to change and eventually she decides that maybe two dogs in a family might be a good idea after all.

This very tongue-in-cheek story will make anyone who has ever introduced a baby to a previously dog-only home laugh in recognition of dog jealousy. Originally published in 2001, the book has a definite old fashioned feeling. Touché belonged to Madeleine L'Engle's grandmother Madeleine L'Engle (that's right, author of A Wrinkle in Time), who acquired her in 1944, and the watercolor illustrations really capture the nuances of 1940s and 1950s picture books. This is a refreshing look at that old age-old competition associated with sibling rivalry.

A Home in the Barn by Margaret Wise Brown, 

pictures by Jerry Pinkney

Harper, 2018, 32 pages

This never before published story by Margaret Wise Brown begins with two four stanza rhymes before slipping into prose, and then ends the same way with two four stanza rhymes. Sadly, there is nothing very lyrical about the prose, and after reading the beginning rhyme, it was very disconcerting. This is not Wise Brown's best work by any means.

On the other hand, Jerry Pinkney's pencil, watercolor, gouache, and pastel illustrations are what really makes this book. When I shared it with my young readers, after reading the text, I put the book down for them to explore the illustrations. And kids are so great. They turned this lackluster story into a wordless picture book and made up their own stories about the animals, page by page. So, all I can say is that the stunning, detailed illustrations are the books redeeming quality. And I appreciated the depiction of the farmer as a black man, not the usual white default farmer of so many children's books, since some of my young readers are children of color.

What have you been reading?