100 Books Like Martha Speaks

This book is an ode to the pleasures of words - their sound, look, and meaning. It consists of lists of words such as "words to read backward" including drows, mulp and gubdeb. Or "heavy words" such as duffle, blunderbuss, and galoshes. "Words for times of day" include dusk, owl cry, dewfall, and gloaming.

It is perfectly illustrated by Ben Shahn with black and white line drawings. The scratchy, uneven, expressive lines perfectly capture both the humor and gravity of the words. I have loved these books since I was a child and The Wordy Book sprang out of that love.

Another book by Steig! Yes! This book was written and illustrated by Wm. Steig. It does not contain CDB oils. It doesn’t actually contain words either. It only contains letters. When you read the letters out loud you hear words. Some of the sentences would be confusing, but Steig’s illustrations help you to figure out the meaning.

For example, C D B means See the Bee.
He talks about emotions: I N-V U
He describes situations: D N S 5 X. That one might be confusing if it didn’t have a picture of the hen and the x that she just laid.

This book makes you hear and see words differently, and it is funny. If you find this book X-L-R-8-N then you will be happy to know that there is a sequel - C D C! Dip your toes into the deep blue C of letters and sounds.

Alphamaniacs is subtitled: Builders of the 26 Wonders of the Word. Fleischman profiles 26 people who explore and delight in language. The book is a kind of gateway drug for language lovers. After reading this book I had to look for more books. I needed to see Anguish Languish by Howard Chace. Anguish Languish is almost the English Language: the words make up stories that you know, but the individual words have different meanings than you expect. Can you recognize the story of "Ladle Rat Rotten Hut"? Hint: the hut is part of a red cape, and the story includes a big bad woof.

Chace is just one eccentric wordsmith of the many introduced by Fleischman. Sweet’s collaged and painted illustrations play with the ideas in the book and use words as part of the imagery. The art is lovely and smart.

I love this book’s unique approach to sharing a story about fear – it lists all the wild ruminations that can run through our minds. In this case, it’s a dog Sukie who is not enjoying a trip to the beach because, among other worries, there might be lobsters! Sukie’s list of fears grows and grows as the story goes on, and she is paralyzed in the sand – until her precious toy Chunka Munka is swept into the water. Sukie lets love overpower her fear and jumps into the water without a worry to save her precious friend. It’s a wonderful story about what we are willing to do to overcome our fear for the sake of others.

Jeanne Steig wrote a giddy delightful poem for each letter of the alphabet. The poems are replete with weird and wonderful words. The goofy illustrations by William Steig tickle your eyes. One of my favorite poems is "Mishmash". Notice all of the many M words in Mishmash: mallet, misguided, minimize, mix, milk. Could Myron majestically mash potatoes? Mmmm, no.

Mishmash
Making mashed potatoes, Myron?
Must you mix them with the hammer?
This bizarre, misguided method
Causes quite a katzenjammer.

Might you add the milk and butter
In a more majestic manner?
Might a mallet not be better?
That would minimize the clamor.

Hound Won’t Go reminds us that dogs, like people, have unique minds of their own. (And despite all the training in the world, that we aren’t ever totally in control of our lovable four-legged friends.) The rhyming sparse text is fun for reluctant and new readers to read and listen to – again and again.

With two simple words--“dog” and “cat”-- in several configurations, Cat Dog Dog explores the stress of settling into a blended family as well as the power of pets to bring people together. If a child can recognize these two three-letter words, they can read this book independently. The illustrations are worth a thousand words.

When is an encyclopedia a fun read?  When it introduces you to 150 plus dog breeds with photographs, fun facts, and an overview of physical and behavioral characteristics. The Dog Encyclopedia for Kids is the perfect book to help you find your perfect pet. Yes, there’s definitely a dog for everyone. 

I loved how different the three main characters are. They’re unlike anyone I’ve met in real life, all at different ages and situations, but I could relate to them immediately. My heart broke for grumpy, widowed George, pushing everyone away, and Lizzie, coming out of an abusive relationship and wondering if she dares to feel love again.

This book filled me with hope. It gave me the courage to think about some of the more painful relationships I’ve been in and consider how far I’ve come. I was also seduced by the beauty of the writing; I kept wanting to go back and reread paragraphs because the descriptions were so perfect. And it made me laugh!

While the imagery and color palette seem simplified in Eric Rohmann’s Bone Dog, the mastery of his black line carries the art for me in this touching tale about a boy and his dog.

Rohmann uses a woodcut technique to create his black outlining. To actually carve around a drawn image, leaving the drawing raised up to ink and print on paper takes a tremendous amount of time for a 32-page picture book. The results are well worth it, these pages are stunning.

What I really love is the little bits of black around many of the carved areas having picked up some of the ink and left on the print, giving an added sense of movement, similar to cartoon motion lines. The dancing skeletons and running dogs really come to life!

The background washes of rich blue watercolor enhance the Halloween night mood, resulting in a beautiful mix of… show more.