Recommendations from a Soon-to-Be FOUR-Year-Old

I'm going to take a break from fractured fairy tales this week to share some of my oldest's recent favorites.  Trains are his thing. Surprisingly, there are no train books on this list. I think we've gotten every train book ever written out of the library multiple times...but they are perpetual favorites, not recent finds. Since he'll be FOUR this week, consider these preschooler recommendations his gift to you :) Happy Birthday, H!

Another Brother (Matthew Cordell) - This book begins with one of the best opening lines: "For four glorious years, Davy had Mom and Dad all to himself." Talk about a set-up! Combine that with the title and you know there is going to be a big problem. But how big? "12 WHOLE BROTHERS!" big. Cordell takes a fairly common problem (older sibling has a younger sibling who is a copycat) and multiples it by twelve. H's favorite part is the spread smack-dab in the middle of the book with cartoon-like actions and speech-bubbles, depicting all the annoying ways Davy's little brothers copy him.

The Three Little Rigs (David Gordon) - In this big machine version of the Three Little Pigs (okay, so this post is not completely devoid of fractured fairy tales), the Three Little Rigs go off to build their own garages. But watch out for the Big Bad Wrecking Ball! This is not my favorite version of the classic tale. It seems awfully dark and ominous to me. The wrecking ball enlists the help of the Mean Magnet and the Cruel Cutter and their fate is a vat of liquid steel. But for some reason, H has been asking for this again and again. I'm looking forward to returning it to the library.

If I Built a House (Chris Van Dusen) - This incredible book is imagination epitomized. Jack dreams of a house that is not "bland". In vivid 50's-style art, Van Dusen depicts a child's dream house, complete with tower bedroom, racing room, and an aquarium so large you can swim around in it. This is a companion book to If I Built a Car, which has a similar theme.

Stop That Pickle! (Peter Armour; Andrew Shachat) - This is what you would get if you crossed The Gingerbread Man with a New York City Deli. The last pickle in the jar manages to escape from the deli. When the owner runs out of steam, a wide array of edibles, from a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to seventeen toasted almonds, take on the chase. The pickle outsmarts them all until he is knocked out when he runs into a boy. Will he finally be eaten? This is a very offbeat, bizarre story with a bit of a macabre ending.  I'm not sure why it is a favorite, although the refrain "Stop That Pickle!" is pretty fun to shout.

B is for Bulldozer: A Construction ABC (June Sobel; Melissa Iwai) - While the alphabet mainly highlights construction words, the illustrations tell the rest of the story. This is no ordinary construction site! Join the townspeople as they watch from the other side of the fence through all the seasons of the year in great anticipation of the opening of a ... No, I'm not going to tell you! Get this book out of the library and enjoy it with your preschooler.