80 Books Like Peace at Last

Can’t get enough of Dragons…who can? Well, Cressida Cowell has written and illustrated a series of twelve books, beginning How to Train your Dragon about a smallish Viking with a longish name, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, Hope and Heir to the Tribe of the Hairy Hooligans. His name alone gives you a flavour of the anarchic stories. The embossed covers are striking and the books are full of ridiculous names, silly drawings, raucous jokes, and serious child appeal. 

A deft, charming re-telling of a Jewish folk tale, and winner of the Ruth Schwartz Award. In this gentle story, young Joseph grows up in a shtetl in a warm and loving home. His grandfather, a tailor, makes him a beautiful blanket at birth. As he grows, the blanket becomes worn, but Grandpa can always rejig the fabric into something new. At last, however, the sad day arrives when nothing is left of the blanket… until Joseph realizes that what’s left is a wonderful story. 

I nominate this book as a storyteller’s delight because of its comforting, cyclical nature, and surprise ending. While Gilman’s glowing pictures augment the story perfectly, with their warm, humorous depiction of family life, the story can easily be memorized, told, and enjoyed when no pictures are available.

As a kids’ storyteller, I’ve often used this book, and it bears telling even without its gently comic pictures. When Farmer Joe complains of his daily toil, his clever wife tricks him into becoming so uncomfortable that, once returned to normal conditions, he will never complain again! The story carries a message about positive attitude, without being didactic. Best of all, kids can chuckle along with Farmer Joe’s wife, understanding her trick while hapless Joe does not. Kids, in my experience, love to be smarter than at least one grownup in a story, and this book delivers that in spades! 

An oldie but a goodie, this is the circular story of a king dealing with an infestation of cheery but messy mice. At the advice of his wise men, he brings in a mass of cats to chase the mice away. But the king is “most unhappy” when the mice take over his palace. What to do? The wise men recommend dogs! And so on and on, with one animal after another till the king is forced to learn how to live with the mice. My kids loved the sheer ridiculousness of the tale, the comic pictures, and the fun of knowing what would inevitably happen each time the king, with inexplicable optimism, brings in a new animal to deal with the last. A great story for telling, even when you don’t have the book, and fun for kids to illustrate themselves, as they listen. 

One of my daughter’s perennial favourites, I read this so often I had it memorized, and found it great to tell even without the hilarious pictures. In this story, Kate is facing her first day of school. So miserable is she at the very idea, she gets out on the wrong side of the bed. So of course, everything goes wrong! Her school is a dungeon, her teacher is a gorilla, and the dinner lady serves spiders, snails, and snakes for lunch. Brave Kate fights back, runs home, and saves her own day when she gets up all over again, on the right side of the bed. This is, underneath, a story about attitude, and reassures kids about the reality of school by comically exaggerating one child’s fears. But it’s also great fun to tell, with silly voices, unexpected developments, and a fine arc of tension till Kate decides to… show more.

My children loved The Park in the Dark by Martin Waddell, believing it was set in a park near our house. Now our grandchildren enjoy it too, There might or might not be scary things in the darkness, but 'me, and Loopy and Little Gee' are heroes who look after each other, swing, slide, dance, jump and chase all over the place, until the thing comes! (It’s a train….) 

The three race back to bed Where we ought to be, me and Loopy and Little Gee, safe as can be, all three. The gentle rhyming text comes to a happy conclusion and Barbara Firth’s delightful illustrations show us it’s three soft toys, not children, sneaking out of the house in the middle of the night.

One of the best books about someone desperate to sleep is Good-night, Owl! written and illustrated by Pat Hutchins. This is short and jolly, excellent for very young children, and there is a board book format available. The clear bright pictures are like mosaics.

Poor Owl, who has to sleep in the daytime, is constantly disturbed by bees buzzing, woodpeckers pecking, doves cooing and squirrels cracking nuts. These are refreshingly local creatures, not exotic zoo inmates. It’s a rhythmic, cumulative text which I often read to the young children I taught. They loved to join in with the noises, and act the story. There’s a surprise ending. You’ll love to see Owl get his own back!

The night-time theme of wishing upon a star is dreamily presented in The Wish Gatherers, written by Karin Celestine, who also made and photographed the creature characters. A wishing star makes someone’s dream come true and is eventually collected by the Star Gatherer, then flown back up to the heavens by the beautiful Celestial Moths. Tamsin Rosewell painted the stunning backdrops of moonlight and starlight, and Joana Rodrigues created the combined images. Children will love the endearing creatures and adults will fall for this sumptuous picture book.

A little blue jay named Simon is off to find the menacing dragon. The rhyming text is excellent in this story. I love how Simon donned a bottle cap on his head to wear as a helmet. He flies through the forest and asks the rabbit, the ladybug, and finally, the wise owl where to find this scary dragon.

Ultimately, Simon's search finds him a new friend, and he’s not at all what he expected. The underlying message is to not always believe what you hear. The art by Vitali Dudarenka is beautifully drawn and rendered in a classical style. A lovely gift for the child in your life.

Because…burrowing owls! Because…the power of kids to make a difference!

Hiassen’s story (a Newbery honor) brims with love and awe for Florida’s natural world, including these adorable owls who live underground and stand maybe six inches tall. When greedy developers threaten their dens, our hero Roy teams up with a supernaturally strong girl and her slightly feral brother to save them.

I love this book for its unshakeable belief in kids, who know injustice when they see it, for how it handles serious topics with a deft and witty touch, and for how it made me think of Florida in new ways. A hoot for sure!