Cats and Carols

Cats and Carols by Lesley Anne Ivory (1995, Little, Brown and Company).

I recently discovered the wonderful art of Lesley Anne Ivory, a British artist who has illustrated over 40 children's books, all about cats. I love her warm, detailed paintings, often starring her own kitties or friend's cats. 

This book has various Christmas carol lyrics with an illustration for each. It's a beautiful book for your collection. As you can see below, my own sweet Mia enjoyed it, too. 

Find more Christmas children's book ideas on my Pinterest board here.

Mahalia Jackson: Walking with Kings and Queens

Mahalia Jackson: Walking with Kings and Queens by Nina Nolan, illustrated by John Holyfield (HarperCollins, 2015).

In honor of Black History Month, I am sharing this wonderful book about how Mahalia Jackson became the Queen of Gospel. Born in New Orleans, Mahalia had a hard life growing up, but she always loved singing in church. She saved up money working as a maid so that she could move to Chicago and sing in more churches, sometimes for a little money, sometimes not. Eventually she got a record deal and her music was played on the radio. From there, she sang on TV, in movies, at Carnegie Hall, and for presidents and other world leaders. Mahalia even performed at the March on Washington, right before Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech. 

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. All opinions are my own.

Pete Seeger

Folk singer Pete Seeger died yesterday at the age of 94.  I immediately thought of his song "The Foolish Frog" which he made into a picture book illustrated by Miloslav Jagr in 1973.  Weston Woods then made a video of it, which you can watch below.  Be forewarned, though, you'll have the song stuck in your head all day!

The Foolish Frog - Video Dailymotion

The Animal Boogie

I received a free copy of The Animal Boogie from Barefoot Books, which is a great children's book publishing company with a focus on multicultural and diverse titles.  The reason I received it for free was because it was part of an information pack about how to be an Ambassador (affiliate marketer) for them.  It looks like a great opportunity, especially for people involved in schools or other children's areas. 

It was fun for me to discover that this book's text is a song by Fred Penner, whose show Penner's Place I grew up watching in the early 90s on Nickelodeon.  Below is a video of the intro.

 

 
Animal Boogie is a fun, brightly colored book illustrated by Debbie Harter. It also comes with a CD of an animated video of the book with Fred Penner singing along. There is also a version with the music but no vocals so that you can sing along karaoke-style.  I think kids would really enjoy this book.