Picture Books That Shaped Me
Some of my favourite picture books when I was a kid
Throughout my life I have had so many seasons of reading. Perhaps I will write a blog post about each of them one day, but for now, here are the books that I loved hearing read aloud to me as a child.
The combination of beautiful illustrations and memorable text will forever be seared into my memory. I’ve been reflecting on the importance of illustrations in picture books lately. Many children who cannot read themselves, have their first experiences with these books simply by looking at the story that is being told through the images.
My very first favourites: But No Elephants, A Fine Mouse Band and If You’re Happy and You Know It
The first picture book I almost remember having been read to me as a child is But No Elephants By Jerry Smath. I didn’t rediscover this book until I found it in a thrift store for my own children, but I had heard my mom talk about it being one of my favourites when I was very little. When I opened the book up and saw the pictures I was immediately reminded of the story and the feelings of the wonderful and hilarious world being described in the book. I still love it.
If You’re Happy and You Know It was another distant book memory in my brain until I started reading it to my own children. I’m pretty sure there was a cassette tape that would read the story to me and play the song. I have hints of that memory when I reread the story. This book is so sweet and the toys that talked to the little girl feel like old friends.
If I remember correctly, it was my mom who absolutely loved the illustrations of Cyndy Szekeres’ books about mice. So that meant my sisters and I loved the books too. The little mouse families were so cute and my sisters and I always fought over which mouse child we “were” in the story. Similar to the stories of The Borrowers and The Littles, Szekeres’ books such as A Fine Mouse Band contain creative images of the mice using everyday human objects like thimbles, bottle caps and acorns in unique ways in their mouse world.
My favourite books in a series: Clifford, Franklin, Dr. Seuss and The Berenstain Bears.
What 90s childhood isn’t complete without Clifford, The Berenstain Bears, Franklin and Dr. Seuss books? My sisters and I read all of the books in these series, referencing the list on the back cover to check if we missed any. My children now do the same thing. For some reason the images of the Berenstain Bears have the strongest hold on my memory. I’m obsessed with how the bears, the candy, the food, the toys, and the flowers were drawn.
Books by Robert Munsch, John Bianchi and Phoebe Gilman.
No Canadian childhood is complete without stories from the Canadian greats such as Robert Munsch, Phoebe Gillman and John Bianchi.
I especially loved Stephanie’s Ponytail - maybe because Stephanie sounds like Bethany? Or perhaps it was one of my first experiences of Munsch’s books? Not sure! But I was always so drawn to it. Oh, and Pigs! Hilarious. Also, I have to mention how fabulous Michael Martchenko is. We are huge fans of his illustrations in my family!
Speaking of pigs, I found this particular book of John Bianchi – Swine Snafu – such an intriguing story as a kid. Piglets and warthogs potentially being switched at birth? So funny.
And Jillian, Jillian, Jillian Jigs. I loved that series and the repeated refrain throughout the books. My grade 3 teacher read our class The Wonderful Pigs of Jillian Jigs to us (Pigs again!? No wonder my sisters and I convinced our dad to buy us a pet pig!). To my delight, our teacher had us make the pig craft at the end of the book.
Such creative ideas! — Dogs Don’t Wear Sneakers and Harvey Potter’s Balloon Farm.
The next two books have such genius concepts! Dogs Don’t Wear Sneakers puts animals in hilarious situations and uses catchy rhymes. I am an animal lover so it was so fun to see all the different animals doing strange things in this book.
I don’t know if growing up we ever actually owned a copy of Harvey Potter’s Balloon Farm by Jerdine Nolen. But my grade three teacher (again! – she must have been a fantastic lady or maybe grade three was a formative stage for me in my reading?) read the book to my class several times. I absolutely loved it! And found it a bit spooky. And weird. And wonderful! Mark Buehner’s illustrations are SO incredible. This book is such an inspiration for me to use really unique ideas for my story writing. The fields of balloons are so cool! I’ve read this story to my grade 6 classes in the past and used it in a variety of ways (I think 11 year olds can still love picture books being read to them! A post for another day!)
I could go on and on. The If You Give A Mouse A Cookie series is so fun. I especially loved If You Give A Moose A Muffin. Again, those illustrations are forever in my brain. Anything by Jan Brett was widely read in my family. Rainbow Fish, Alexander’s Horrible, Rotten, No Good Very Bad Day…
I’ll stop there for now.
But I’m so grateful that my mom passed on her love of books to us. I’m grateful we were able to go to the local library to check out books. I’m grateful I had wonderful teachers who introduced me to new books and that I had a (small but quaint) library at my school where I could select my own book to bring home each week.
Nothing would bring me more joy than to be able to help children fall in love with reading through the books I have written and the illustrators I have partnered with.
