Q & A with Emily Gravett

Today we are beyond thrilled to welcome author and illustrator Emily Gravett to our blog. Emily won the MacMillan prize for illustration in 2005 for her book Wolves and is on the 2017 Kate Greenway Medal shortlist for her work on her newest book Tidy!

After going through our Q & A with her both of us came to the conclusion that we wish we were friends with Emily in real life. Her insights on picture book making, parenting and living a nomadic life all provided gems of wisdom.

Why We Love Organizing Books by Color

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love organizing books by color. Not only do I love how it looks aesthetically but it also happens to be very practical for us. It helps my kids find the books they are looking for and even helps them to clean up!

Currently, I have a toddler and an 8 and a half year old and this system works for both of them. My oldest is familiar with how traditional book organization in libraries works, but she knows that at home we organize our books by color. She also happens to be dyslexic and I think that organizing the books by color is a great system for her as authors and illustrators don't necessarily register as strongly with her.

Now that I've had these book ledges up for a over a year, I can't imagine our home without them.

Reading with Michelle of Avery & Augustine

Today we have the lovely Michelle with us from Avery and Augustine. She is an SLP (speech-language pathologist) and photographer, as well as a blogger. If you aren't familiar with her work already, we suggest you take a peek at her blog Avery and Augustine or follow her on Instagram @averyandaugustine where you are sure to find a myriad of book selections that you will immediately want to acquire. She also collaborates with an amazing group of educators, librarians, writers and artists on the Little Lit Book Series. They share carefully curated books on different themes each month on a dedicated instagram account @littlelitbookseries (there's also a blog, too).

Michelle started blogging about picture books over 7 years ago when she first started Avery and Augustine. She says, "I wanted to share different moments and aspects of Avery's life, including the toys and books she liked-- in order to share the information with other curious parents as well as document her life a bit. I'm big on documenting through pictures and words, and always have been. For the longest time, I wanted to be a photojournalist. Photojournalism is still my favorite genre of photography."

Read on for some wonderful insights and a list of must have books from 2016.

Christmas Book Advent 2016 | 24 Awesome Christmas Books

Being book lovers, it is only fitting that we do a book advent for Christmas. Our advent is of the more secular variety, in that we start on December 1st and go to Christmas Eve. We've had some questions about how we do our advent, so without further ado here are the details.

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13 Must Read Halloween Picture Books

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Reading with: Charnaie

Good Morning Friends! We are excited to introduce you to the delightful Charnaie from Here Wee Read for today's edition of Reading With.

Charnaie is a Computer Programmer by day, an aspiring author by night and a wife and mom 24/7 and did we mention she's also a Distinguished Toastmaster?! In her spare time she enjoys reading, writing, crafting, watching classic movies, volunteering (when time permits) and spending time with her husband, children, family and friends.

She is also currently working as a Reading Ambassador for an upcoming kid's festival sponsored by Fresh Kids. Which means she gets to curate a selection of books for their Reading Orchard. How dreamy is that?

Click through for all the wonderful thoughts we gathered as we got to pick Charnaie's brain on all things reading.

Reading With: Amy

We are so excited for another installment of our Reading With Series!

This month we are featuring Amy from Sunlit Pages who has always loved reading but fell out of the habit as a music major in college because a lot of her time was spent practicing music instead of reading. Once she had her first son she picked the reading habit back up and has not looked back. Besides reading and blogging, Amy also loves knitting, dating her husband, going on neighborhood walks and eating yummy food she doesn't have to make herself!

One of our favorite thoughts that Amy shared with us is that the books she reads with her family mark the milestones of their lives as much as their activities and achievements.

Read on for more of Amy's lovely thoughts.

Book of the Week: Travel Themed Edition

I don't know about you, but with school almost over we have travel on the brain. We love to travel and are in full on trip planning mode so we thought we'd kick off a travel themed week over here at Tee & Penguin. We'll be sharing books, travel tips, and more, but we're starting off with our Book of the Week, or rather Books of the Week because we couldn't limit it to just one.

These are three amazingly beautiful larger format books that we absolutely love because kids can pour over the information at their leisure or flip to a specific country, state or adventure. The illustrations are fun and engaging, the content is wonderful, and they get kids excited about exploring the world around them.

one / two / three

Book of the Week: May I Bring a Friend?

Our book of the week is May I Bring a Friend? by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers, illustrated by Beni Montresor, and winner of the 1965 Caldecott Award.  Yes, that says 1965.  We're going straight up old school today.

But, as we all know, beautifully written and illustrated stories are timeless.  

The King and Queen

Invited me

To come to their house

On Sunday for tea

I told the Queen 

And the Queen told the Kind

I had a friend

I want to bring.

The King told the Queen

"My dear, my dear,

Any friend of our friend

Is welcome here,"

Sp I brought my friend...

The King and Queen are the most gracious hosts imaginable to each and every unexpected friend the boy brings to tea (and breakfast, and lunch, dinner, apple pie, and Halloween).  I love the rhyming text, it's playful and fun and repetitive, a wonderful story to read aloud.

We spend so much of our time looking for great new books for our children, it's nice to take a moment to appreciate some of the classics.  Do you have any favorite 'lost' classics? 

Reading With: Miranda

Friends, today we are excited to introduce you to Miranda. She reads, she blogs about reading and life in general (over at My Book Bloom) and you can also find her sharing wonderful book selections on instagram. We've always thought that readers are generally more interesting people than non-readers and Miranda continues to prove our, obviously biased, but still seemingly accurate point. We hope you enjoy the thoughts she shares as much as we did!

Book of the Week: Roxaboxen

Our Book of the Week encompasses so many things that I want for my children that seem increasingly difficult to provide in this modern day and age.

I want them to have a group of friends that they can remember fondly, who they go on adventures with,  of the imaginary and actual sort.  I want them to have a place to play that they can call their own, and I want them to be able to use their imaginations to create magical worlds.

Roxaboxen is a book that let's them know all these things are possible. 

In Roxaboxen we get a peek into the world that a group of children create from rocks, pebbles and old wooden boxes. Horses are made of sticks, dishes come from bits of pottery, and their money is in the form of pebbles so that everyone has plenty. 

Barbara Cooney illustrates these scenes beautifully, the colors capture this dreamy world perfectly.

The true magic of this book is that it encapsulates the ephemeral moments of childhood.  

In a note at the end of the book we are told that the events in this book really happened, to Alice McLerran's mother. Alice says of this book that it is, "a celebration of the active imagination, of the ability of children to create, even with the most unpromising materials, a world of fantasy so real and multidimensional that it earns a lasting place in memory."

A beautiful book with a beautiful message.

More from Barbara Cooney:

Miss Rumphius
Ox-Cart Man
Chanticleer and the Fox

Book of the Week: Flyaway

This week we've selected Lesley Barnes' beautifully done lift the flap book, Flyaway, as our Book of the Week. We love that she has taken the lift the flap concept and elevated it.

Book of the Week: Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem

Mac Barnett has been everywhere lately, in a good way.  He has written so many fantastic books for children- and I have no doubt, will write many more, but his first children's book was Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem.

Reading with Eileen

Today we have with us Eileen Sim, formerly a magazine sub editor, now a stay at home mother to two, she has an amazing children's book review blog called Picture This Book and an equally amazing Instagram.

Her mission is to give honest reviews of children's books that parents and educators can easily access. She says, "Aside from the usual suspects (Suess, Boynton, Carle, Willems and other 'bestsellers'), many fantastic children's books tend to be unjustly overlooked, and, thus, sadly unread by their intended audience. So while we do feature deserving reads by the former, we also take pride in introducing books that are a little off the beaten track but worthy gems all the same." We love that and were thrilled when she agreed to let us interview her!

Please welcome Eileen.

Book of the Week: Animalium: Welcome to the Museum

Did anyone else have a set of encyclopedias growing up?

We did, and I remember being excited about having access to so much information. Fast forward to present time and the seriously ridiculous amount of information our kids have access to at the swipe of a finger. In so many ways it is incredible and life changing, but we still believe in kids pouring over a book and lingering over the discovery of new to them facts.  Our Book of the Week, Animalium: Welcome to the Museum lends itself well to such behaviors.

Learning Series: Transitioning to Chapter Books

We are so pleased to, again, share some expert advice on childhood literacy.  This week's installment in our Learning Series focuses on helping you navigate your child's transition to chapter books.  As parents, our goals is to help our children continue their love of reading while they are being challenged and building new skills.  Thank you, Janilee!

When should my child transition into chapter books?

Children usually transition from decoder books to chapter books in first and second grade, age seven to eight. Your child will go from decoding or sounding out each simple letter and sound blend to decoding words and eventually complete sentences. Once their decoding fluency increases, they are able to transition into simple chapter books.

Book of the Week: Mother Bruce

The main criterion I use when assessing a book is how my children react to it.  Are they engaged? Do they ask for it over and over?  Are they laughing?  How are they responding to the characters? This week's Book of the Week was chosen because my children had such a positive reaction to it.  And, as a mother, that is just the best.

Fairy Tale Roundup: Cinderella

C.S. Lewis wrote The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as a gift for his goddaughter.  But, as he explains in the preface, she grew faster than the story and was too old by the time it was finished.  But, he writes, "some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again."  Isn't that a lovely truth?

I love fairy tales, and I'm learning to love them in a new way now that I'm old enough, again.  Which is why we are starting a new series of posts to share our favorite versions of fairy tales.   We'll begin with the quintessentially classic tale, Cinderella.  There were already 345 known versions of this story 125 year ago.  Cinderella is endlessly evolving, across time and cultures.  In some versions she's born inside a vegetable and in others she rides to the ball in one.  Sometimes a fairy godmother intervenes, sometimes it's a dead fish's bones, and other times Cinderella's cleverness, and goodness, are all the magic she needs.

Book of the Week: Mr. Postmouse's Rounds

If you are a Wes Anderson fan, this picture book was made for you. If you aren't, we suggest you become one.

Q & A: Iggy Peck Architect

Our talented friend Reese is sharing her thoughts on Iggy Peck Architect. Reese is as big a fan of David Roberts' illustrations as we are.