Sunday, September 12, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Emmys Fashion
8. Tina Fey looks about as good as she ever does on the red carpet. It's like she's embarrassed that she's good-looking.
10. Sofia Vergara looks awesome! I think the haters who accuse her of pageant-ness are jealous of those curves.
22. Kate Gosselin gets to go to these things? What is the world coming to?
30. I have seen the dress Dianna Agron is wearing before. I can't place it. She's looked better; it's a little too much look for a small girl like her. She remains gorgeous, though.
31. Kelly Osborne has lost a massive amount of weight since the last time I paid attention, which, admittedly, was probably a few years ago. But she always styles herself to look older than she is, I feel.
34. Jewel looks awful. The whole thing is just unfortunate.
35. Carrie Preston looks awesome. Do you know she's married to Ben Linus in real life? Do you know I once saw Ben Linus on stage? Ask me all about it some time.
43. Seriously, Rita Wilson (Tom Hanks's wife) has been doing this for a while. Doesn't she know better?
57. You know, the thing is, that's not even a very good Mad-Men-esque dress. And furthermore, even if it were a better version of itself, it's what Joan Harris nee Holloway would wear to work. On a Saturday. Not what she'd wear to a fancy event. We've seen Joan get dressier than that for a night of clubbing with her lesbian roommate. So not
only is it not a nice dress, and not a fancy enough dress, it misses the point of the early '60s lifestyle that people who like Mad Men fetishize, the point of being more formal and glamorous than we ever are in daily life.
58. That's nicer than I've ever seen Jenna Ushkowitz look on a red carpet.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
What Ideal?
1. "The default family arrangement in many cultures, modern as well as ancient, has been polygamy, not monogamy." False. False, false, and false. Of course polygamy is not the default, in any culture. In many cultures it is acceptable under certain circumstances - like if you are the sultan, or like if you are already married but then your older brother dies, leaving a childless widow who would otherwise have no place to be, or there are places where a woman will (sometimes) marry two brothers so that their father's land doesn't have to be split, but it's never the default, and it's never the default for good reasons. One is that you have to be rich to be polygamous; you have to have plenty of extra income to support the extra wives and especially the extra children. And I know people say that in older, agrarian societies, children were economic helps, not economic burdens, but that's sort of bullshit. In agrarian societies, your
child could be an economic help AT THE VERY EARLIEST by age five and probably more realistically by age seven, and even then, their economic help probably doesn't even break even with their economic burden until (for boys) 15 or 16 and (for girls) when they get married and bring in a bride price. Which is only any good if you don't have sons who will have to pay for brides. And of course, reverse it for societies that have dowries. Which are already societies where children are economic burdens, not economic helps. Because if children are economic burdens, you demand money from a woman's family to support her and her children (dowry); if children are economic helps, you have to pay to get the woman and her reproductive labor (bride price). And pregnant women are of limited economic help and significant economic burden. So only the rich in a society that supports polygamy can actually afford to do it, and there is no such
thing as a society where everyone is rich. The concept of "rich" doesn't exist without "poor." Second, where polygamy - and specifically polygyny, which is much more widely practiced than
polyandry - is the "default," as in the fundamentalist Mormon circles depicted on "Big Love," you have to either exile a large number of young boys, import a large number of young girls, or both. And that's really problematic and unsustainable, especially the first part. So it's never the "default," in any society.
2. "The default mode of child-rearing is often communal, rather than two parents nurturing their biological children." That's true, but problematic. The nuclear family as we know it is very much a modern invention, but what one means by "communal" needs to be teased out. First of all, it's rather unusual for two adult persons to live with no other adult persons - in many societies, you live with either the husband's, or, less frequently, the wife's, family of origin - along with siblings and cousins and whatnot. This arrangement has its pros and cons, and when the cons get to be too much, frequently, one or another brother moves out and establishes his own household. But it needs to be complicated further because it's not like all of human history before 1945 was a monolith. It's not like heterosexual marriages or child-rearing practices are a monolith now. And it's not like we don't rear our children communally now; we just consider such things unnatural or abnormal or not what we're "really" doing. What are we doing, after all, when sure, we are the idealized heterosexual family with the mom at home and the dad at work, but the kid goes to preschool, and his/her "rearing" is assisted by the teachers there, and on Mondays and Wednesdays, Grandma comes over for a few hours, also assisting in the rearing, and there's a babysitter across the street who comes over Saturday nights, and then, when the kid is five, the kid is in school for 30 hours a week, being partially "reared" by teachers, principals, classroom aides, lunch ladies, and even the state, which mandates what the child will learn and when. I mean, we have communal rearing now, is my point, but we don't call it that. And we treat many forms of it - like day care and nannies - like they are the marks of bad parents who are refusing to enact this bizarre ideal. And going back, child-rearing has been handled in many different ways by many different cultures across time, just as now, but across those times parents have not been subject to this impossible-to-achieve ideal of being "reared" exclusively by the biological parents of said child. Which is not to say they didn't have their problems. But talking about a single default mode and the nubby concept of "communal" child-rearing is misleading or at least
not particularly thoughtful. Also, "communal" child-rearing sounds better to me - and t0 many people - than the nuclear ideal.
3. "If “natural” is defined to mean “congruent with our biological instincts,” it’s arguably one of the more unnatural arrangements imaginable. In crudely Darwinian terms, it cuts against both the male impulse toward promiscuity and the female interest in mating with the highest-status male available." There is some evidence that this is not true. I mean, some scientists support the notion that men need to "spread their seed" and women need to gold-dig, but others disagree, finding this explanation rather self-serving and culturally, rather than scientifically, mandated. Jared Diamond, one of my favorite guys in the whole wide world, has written really interesting stuff about that, but his major point is that human reproduction (EVEN FOR MEN) is not a numbers game; it's a raise-them-to-adulthood game, and that doesn't necessarily fit with this notion of men spreading their seed, because they still need to be sure that their children make it to adulthood. He does say that for some relatively small percentage of males in any given society (say 5-10%), that is best served by sleeping with married women whose husbands (if adequately tricked) are better suited to supporting those children, but it's not a good strategy for most men. For the most part, since it's impossible to tell when a woman is ovulating without major equipment and attention to detail (and even then . . .), it's evolutionarily best to stick with one woman for a while, to make sure you get her pregnant and nobody else does, and then hang around to make sure your kids make it into adulthood. Furthermore, precisely because humans don't know when ovulation is happening, and can and do want sex even when it's not (which is NOT THE NORM for mammals), sex isn't mostly about reproduction for humans; it's mostly a bonding experience to keep adults attached to each other so they'll be willing to raise those kids together. He says that what we actually do IS the most "natural" for the way we are built - we are mostly monogamous, with some instances of cheating, some instances of polygamy, and some instances of serial monogamy.
4. "This ideal holds up the commitment to lifelong fidelity and support by two sexually different human beings — a commitment that involves the mutual surrender, arguably, of their reproductive self-interest — as a uniquely admirable kind of relationship." This is so much nonsense. Why is the ideal so much more ideal because the two adults are sexually different? If a heterosexual marriage does, in fact, involve the mutual surrender of reproductive self-interest
(which, as I've argued above, I think is not true), how much MORE SO does the same commitment by two people of the same sex? Yes, committing to one another for a lifetime is admirable, I suppose, although, let's be serious, there are things that are more admirable,
like for instance being a doctor for cancer-ridden children or something. I also feel - and this is a sidenote - that there are certain people who think when they get married, "Oh no! I'll never have sex with anyone else ever again!" and then there are people who feel, "Thank God I never have to go through the effort of enticing anyone else to have sex with me." Both of those people might, in the end, turn out to be wrong. But I think these are just very different perspectives on marriage and not everyone things they are surrendering anything when they make a lifelong commitment to one other person. Anyway, total nonsense.
5. "It holds up the domestic life that can be created only by such unions, in which children grow up in intimate contact with both of their biological parents, as a uniquely admirable approach to
child-rearing." Leaving aside that this is a rather rose-colored view of families, and does not translate to most people's realities, even if they have, on the face of it, an "ideal" nuclear family, why is it "uniquely admirable"? Why is it better than when children do have an entire community they can rely on, rather than the two people out of whose loins they've sprung? Why is it better than living in a larger family household where, in addition to whatever "intimate contact" you have with your parents, you also have grandparents and aunts and uncles deeply invested in your life? Conversely, why is it so much better to have both of your parents - who, after all, have their own relationship with each other, which, good or bad, may take precedence
over their relationship with you - than to have one parent, soley and exclusively invested in a relationship with you? I'm not saying all these other arrangements don't have their problems; I'm saying, so does this "ideal" nuclear family, and that none of them are more admirable than the others. It's admirable when a child is well-loved, well-respected, and becomes a benefit to society as an adult. It's unadmirable when a child is neglected, disrespected, and turns into a
burden on society. Most children fall in the middle, and that's fine. Also, I think he thinks that because something is "unique," it is therefore "admirable." That's not really true.
6. "The point of this ideal is not that other relationships have no value, or that only nuclear families can rear children successfully. Rather, it’s that lifelong heterosexual monogamy at its best can offer something distinctive and remarkable — a microcosm of civilization, and an organic connection between human generations — that makes it worthy of distinctive recognition and support." Really? Really? Heterosexual marriage is a "microcosm of civilization," but he's not saying no other relationships or families are valuable? That's bullshit. I'm sorry, but if you're going to say something, say it and mean it; don't say it and then pretend to back out of it. This is the NYT equivalent of "No offense, but . . ." Also, what does it even
mean to be a microcosm of civilization? More nonsense.
7. "Again, this is not how many cultures approach marriage. It’s a particularly Western understanding, derived from Jewish and Christian beliefs about the order of creation, and supplemented by later ideas about romantic love, the rights of children, and the equality of the
sexes." Again, he's eliding many things without being thoughtful about it. Let's start with, for many centuries, Judaism wasn't considered a full participant in Western civilization. Second, Jews and Christians had VERY different ideas about marriage, so you can't lump them together. Third, these older forms of marriage were not "supplemented" by ideas about romantic love and children's and women's rights; those ideas RADICALLY changed what was considered "traditional" marriages at the times that these ideas were introduced. Romantic love was the same-sex marriage of its day, the thing that was going to destroy traditional marriage forever (and, if one looks at what one meant by marriage before romantic love in marriage became
so idealized, it did, in fact, destroy it). So were ideas about equality of the sexes, which, for heaven's sake, Ross Douthat should be aware of, since those days were, oh, yesterday.
8. "Or at least, it was the Western understanding. Lately, it has come to co-exist with a less idealistic, more accommodating approach, defined by no-fault divorce, frequent out-of-wedlock births, and serial monogamy." Look, he obviously hasn't read a single word by Stephanie Coontz, the leading authority on marriage history. I have read many words by her, and enjoyed all of them. But what it all boils down to is, there is no time and place when the "traditional" marriage/family of our imagination actually existed. Okay, maybe there was a decade, the 1950s, sort of, but even then it was not for everyone and it was always already going to be
short-lived, as it contained the seeds of its own destruction. It has always co-existed with less idealistic forms, albeit more or less accommodatingly.
9. "If this newer order completely vanquishes the older marital ideal, then gay marriage will become not only acceptable but morally necessary." It has already done so. Gay marriage is morally necessary as long as straight marriage exists.
10. "But if we just accept this shift, we’re giving up on one of the great ideas of Western civilization: the celebration of lifelong heterosexual monogamy as a unique and indispensable estate. That ideal is still worth honoring, and still worth striving to preserve. And preserving it ultimately requires some public acknowledgment that heterosexual unions and gay relationships are different: similar in emotional commitment, but distinct both in their challenges and their
potential fruit." Why, why, why is heterosexual marriage "one of the great ideas of Western civilization"? Why is it worth honoring, why is it worth striving to preserve? And preserve what, the marriages or the ideal? The marriages aren't going anywhere, or, at least, their departure is not being particularly hastened by same-sex couples. In fact, one could argue that the gay population's desire to imitate heterosexual lifelong romantically oriented marriage IS preserving it far better than heterosexual couples are doing it. And why be so concerned about preserving an ideal that's not being lived up to anyway? What is so ideal about it? I mean, I support preserving the ideal that a person ought not commit murder, because I see why that is beneficial, even if people are still murdered. But I don't see what's beneficial about the ideal of a heteronormative nuclear family - or at least what's more beneficial than myriad other arrangements. Nor do I see how allowing same-sex couples to marry will take anything away
from opposite-sex couples, in support or honor or anything. Also, ALL relationships are distinct. Yes, same-sex couples as a whole deal with a different set of issues than opposite-sex couples, although a lot of them come from living in an environment where one type of couple is thought more worthy and a better example of the awesomeness of Western civilization than the other. Ugly couples have a different set of issues than attractive couples, and both of these couples
differ from couples in which one partner is attractive and the other ugly. Wealthy couples have different issues than poor issues, and I bet that it's along those lines that one will find the most fractious differences. Okay? Acknowledged? Can we shut up now?
Monday, August 02, 2010
Random, Passing Thought
Thursday, July 29, 2010
More Zoe Cuteness
Monday, July 12, 2010
Zoe Went Peepee in the Potty!
Now, some will accuse me of trying to claim that she's potty-trained now at 22 months old. No such thing. Also, some will be expecting me to really push potty-training on her now. Also not happening.
The truth is, I really wasn't expecting this. She's always been "interested" in the potty and so we bought a potty chair and a potty insert. She prefers the insert so she can sit in the same place Mommy sits; the potty chair I think she just considers a regular chair. So especially lately, she's been very insistent on sitting on the potty insert and the truth is that I hate this activity because it means I have to sit on the floor in the bathroom for up to half an hour (at which point I lose patience and drag her out, as I did this afternoon) and it's not pleasant or comfortable but I can't leave her because a) she might fall, and b) she definitely will pull out all of the toilet paper and shove it in the toilet. So tonight she made a stinky and I went to change her and once she was clean, she asked to sit on the potty. So I let her. And lo and behold, not five minutes later - PEEPEE!
So now I will make these unpleasant trips to the bathroom more frequently to give her lots more opportunities. But we're not officially "potty-training" yet.
Want more cute Zoe things? How about these:
- She lies back on the couch arm and demands kissing. Best. Game. Ever!
- She puts my hands on her cheeks and says, "So happy!"
- She has started wishing us "Congratulations" all the time.
- Today at Old Navy, she chatted with the mannequins, hugged the toddler-sized mannequin, tried to touch the "daddy" mannequin, petted the doggie mannequin, and danced to the music in the store. So cute.
- She takes my books and "reads" them, repeating "ajah book" as she does so and then sometimes making up what the book says and reading it in a very "story-telling" kind of voice.
- She gives me this big grin and says, "Precious!"
In general, she continues to be the most awesome creature ever.
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
Retro
Friday, July 02, 2010
Zoeisms
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Glee Wishlist, Season 2
1. The song-to-story ratio in The Power of Madonna was perfect. Can we have more episodes like that?
2. Could we have a couple of episodes that are going to be Artie-centric, or at least giving him a good B-plot, open with a dream sequence of him dancing?
3. Somehow, Idina Menzel and Kristen Chenowith need to meet and share a duet of some kind.
4. Jessalyn Gilsig needs some reason to still be involved. And her sister. Couldn't the red-headed monster children want to start, like, a junior Glee Club or something? Maybe led by Puck and Quinn?
5. Please either drop the jocks picking on gleeks thing or explain it better. Of the 12 members of Glee Club, five are now or have been Cheerios, and five are now or have been football players. Even as it stands now, there are two Cheerios and four jocks - half the club. Also, we only ever see Kurt and Finn get harassed. And Finn is the captain. Are Puck and Mike and Matt getting harassed? If so, why don't we see it?
6. Can we see Rachel's dads already? How are they the stage fathers we've been set up to expect, when they never show up to her performances, can't help her out with a Lady Gaga outfit, and don't even appear when she finds her birth mother?
The truth is, that's all I've really got, because I've mostly given up on coherent plots or consistent characterization, so if each episode is just a series of excuses to introduce song and dance numbers, that's fine with me. Let's just also look for excuses to get Puck out of his shirts. Thanks!
Zoeisms
"Walloh" - water (as in, "Wash hands in walloh?" or "Walloh evevyvere!" as a description of the "walloh park")
"Piece of fire" - pacifier
"banana" - booger. I don't know where she got this from but I guess it explains her aversion to bananas.
"pocket" - female genitals. I don't know where she got this. We taught her the anatomically correct term as all the progressive parenting guides told us to. But it's a pretty good one.
"Quinn crying," "tiny baby" - the "Bohemian Rhapsody" segment of the last episode of Glee, in which scenes of the rival glee club performing "Bohemian Rhapsody" are intercut with scenes of Quinn giving birth. She requests this more often than she requested "Single Ladies."
I didn't include a really cute thing she does, where she initiates some face-holding and snuggling and says, very soft and sweet, "So much," which is shorthand for "I love you so much" and "so happy."
Best. Baby. Ever.
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
Awesome Things Zoe Does
Sunday, June 06, 2010
Mackie
My stepfather passed away one week ago today.
My first inclination was not to write about it at all. I don't intend to go into much right now. Especially not the anger, not the recounting of what an asshole various of his doctors were, etc. Basically, not the stuff I spent the week talking about.
I think it's been hard to define who he was to me. He was not my father. I have a father; it's not the same. And this wasn't a situation in which my father was gone and I needed a surrogate. My father was and is fully present in my life. In fact, he's been fully present all week, at the funeral director's office, at the wake, at the funeral, offering rides to various parties and making phone calls when needed. And, just as I have another father, he had another daughter. I knew I wasn't the same to him as she was. But he was more than, like, my mom's husband. She and he got married when I was five, and they dated for at least a year before that (I think). So he's been in my life for all but the narrowest slice of my ability to remember anything at all, and not just in my life, but in my house, as a parent.
I've tried to explain it like, "He's an uncle who lived with me." That level of love, that level of authority. It's not a bad explanation, but, you know, uncles come in different flavors. So to be more specific, he was like a really involved uncle who also lived with me. Whatever that means.
He did not come across to many as the warm and snuggly type. Well, apparently the priest who did the funeral thought he did. He described him as a man with "a kind word for everyone." Afterwards, my sister and I sniggered at that. If he had them, we didn't hear them. Sarcastic, funny words were more his style. But he was also capable of enormous caring and concern. He was the one who hugged me while I cried at my college graduation. And when my daughter was born, he was as tender and loving and protective as I've ever seen anyone. Her first Christmas, he kept walking us out to our car, hovering, with his arms sort of forming a bubble around me, just in case I slipped or she fell or something.
And he was a really good stepdad. My father was also a good stepdad to my stepsister, but in their situation, her father was pretty much absent from the daily parenting realm, so it wasn't a tiptoe act. It's not an easy balance to strike in a situation like mine, to be the parent in household but not the father of one of the children, to wield authority and to love and influence without stepping on the actual father's toes. And to love his own daughter just a little bit more without making his stepdaughter feel unloved, left out or jealous. Whether by accident or intention, he struck the balance perfectly.
There are so many things to say about him because he was such an interesting person, but everyone knows the other things - his music, his trucks, his beer, his taste in movies and TV, his love of travel, his love of a greasy spoon, his adoration of and devotion to my mother. These are the things I know. These are the things I will always remember.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
DANGER!
Theoretically.
This had not happened, of course. And let me tell you, theory doesn't always translate to reality. The truth is, if a baby was at a high enough stage in development to get the ball into the hoop at all, the then baby's neck was very likely already too big to fit inside the loop that such an act would create. In fact, if the baby was out of the womb, the baby's neck was very likely already too big to fit inside the loop that such an act would create. And I say this as a parent of a very tiny child. Furthermore, while it would take some degree of coordination to get the ball into the hoop, and also a great deal of emotional/mental development to be interested in such an activity, it would take an even greater degree of coordination to do this while the book was around one's neck. I suspect there are plenty of elementary school students who couldn't manage it, even if the string was large enough to fit around their necks.
But what's the point? That yet another product was ridiculously recalled for no apparent reason? Who cares? My point is this - even though I thought the recall was ridiculous, and couldn't actually bring myself to return it, I sort of stopped letting her play with it. I mean, I didn't snatch it out of her hands or anything, but I didn't bring it along on car trips; I didn't choose to show it to her if I was trying to distract her, and I didn't keep it with her most-played-with toys. So she sort of forgot about it and I let that happen. And I really, really didn't think she could choke herself with it. I just thought, but what if I'm wrong, and something happens, and then the reaction is, "Well, it was recalled. What kind of a parent lets their child play with something that's already been shown to be dangerous?" And a part of me wasn't really thinking at all, I was just reacting emotionally to a toy now branded DANGEROUS. My point is, community standards have their effects on even parents who are actively trying to resist them, and for better or worse (mostly worse) mass media largely constitutes our community. So all these recalls, and the culture of control and blame surrounding them, make a person paranoid. I mean, the fact is, as unlikely as it is that a child would be harmed by this book, crazy things sometimes happen. But instead of seeing a world in which crazy things sometimes happen, we see a world where some parent, some corporation, some school wasn't responsible enough. And it's making us all crazy even when we have our blinders off.
Exciting Zoe Development
What We Talk About When We Talk About Women
Saturday, April 24, 2010
The Price of Motherhood
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Push-Ups
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
More Thoughts on TV
Thursday, April 01, 2010
Television
Bragging
Friday, March 12, 2010
Breast-Feeding
Sunday, February 21, 2010
BOOKS ZOE OWNS
Zoe’s books (alphabetical by author or illustrator or publisher where appropriate)
A Little Golden Book (publisher) -
My First Book of the Planets
Old Mother Goose and Other Nursery Rhymes
American Girl (publisher) -
The Samantha Series
Barefoot Books (publisher) -
The Faerie’s Gift, told by Tanya Robyn Batt and illustrated by Nicoletta Ceccoli
Baby’s First Book by Clare Beaton
One Moose, Twenty Mice by Clare Beaton
Playtime Rhymes for Little People by Clare Beaton
Zoe and Her Zebra by Clare Beaton
I Spy the Sun in the Sky by Stella Blackstone, illustrated by Nicoletta Ceccoli
The Barefoot Book of Fairy Tales, told by Malachy Doyle and illustrated by Nicoletta Ceccoli
The Adventures of Odysseus, told by Hugh Lupton and Daniel Morden, illustrated by Christina Balit
Cleo and Caspar by Caroline Mockford
Cleo the Cat by Caroline Mockford
Cleo’s Alphabet Book by Caroline Mockford
Cleo’s Color Book by Caroline Mockford
Cleo’s Counting Book by Caroline Mockford
Come Here, Cleo! by Caroline Mockford
What’s This? A Seed’s Story by Caroline Mockford
The Barefoot Book of Classic Poems, illustrated by Jackie Morris
Shakespeare’s Storybook: Folk Tales that Inspired the Bard, told by Patrick Ryan and James Mayhew
The Story of Divaali told by Jatinder Verma and illustrated by Nilesh Mistry
Graeme Base -
Animalia
Ludwig Bemelmans -
Madeline
Stan and Jan Berenstain -
The Berenstain Bears books (all of them - thanks, Lisa!)
Stella Blackstone -
Bear in a Square
Bob Books Pals from Scholastic (publisher) -
Bump!
Cat and Mouse
Max and the Tom Cats
Willy’s Wish
Sandra Boynton -
Belly Button Book!
The Going to Bed Book
Let’s Dance, Little Pookie!
Philadelphia Chickens Book & CD
Sandra Boynton’s Greatest Hits, Volume 1, which includes the following titles:
A to Z
Blue Hat, Green Hat
Doggies
Moo, Baa, La La La!
Sandra Boynton’s Greatest Hits, Volume 2, which includes the following titles:
But Not the Hippopotamus
The Going to Bed Book
Horns to Toes and In Between
Opposites
Snuggle Puppy
What’s Wrong, Little Pookie?
Jan Brett -
On Noah’s Ark
Marcia Brown -
Stone Soup
Margaret Wise Brown -
Goodnight, Moon
The Runaway Bunny
The Important Book
Tricia Brown -
The City by the Bay
Eric Carle (illustrator, usually author) -
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?
The Very Busy Spider
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Tomie dePaola -
Strega Nona
Rosie Dickins -
The Story of Rome
Disney (publishers) -
Baby’s Book of Winnie the Pooh
First Look and Find: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
The Nursery Rhymes of Winnie the Pooh
DK (publishers) -
My First Hanukkah Board Book
Barbara Douglass -
Good as New
P.D. Eastman -
Are You My Mother?
Ian Falconer -
Olivia
Matthew van Fleet -
Cat
Debra Frasier -
On the Day You Were Born
Don Freeman -
Corduroy
A Pocket for Corduroy
Adam Gamble -
Good Night, San Francisco
Jim Gill -
A Soup Opera
Phoebe Gilman -
Something for Nothing
Nikki Giovanni -
Rosa
Green Start (publisher) -
In the Garden
One Tree
Maia Haag -
My Very Own Name
Doug Hansen (illustrator) -
Mother Goose in California
Happy Baby (publishers) -
B is for Bear
Animals, Colors, Words (a trilogy)
Piers Harper -
Little Rabbit
- A. Herman -
The Littlest Pumpkin
Amy Hest -
The Purple Coat
Where’s My Hug?
Hinkler Books (publisher) -
Baby’s First Sounds
Mary Ann Hoberman and Nadine Bernard Westcott (editor and illustrator) -
The Eensy-Weensy Spider
I Know an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly
Dave Horowitz -
Five Little Gefiltes
I Can Read! (publisher) -
Sammy the Seal
Steve Jenkins & Robin Page -
What Do You Do with a Tail Like This?
Kar-Ben (publisher) -
The Colors of My Jewish Year
Lawrence and Karen Kushner -
Where is God?
Munro Leaf -
The Story of Ferdinand
Maj Lindman -
Flicka, Ricka, Dicka and the Big Red Hen
Snipp, Snapp, Snurr and the Reindeer
Mercer Mayer -
Just Me and My Babysitter
When I Get Bigger
Sam McBratney -
Guess How Much I Love You
Nikki McClure -
Welcome
Miriam Moss -
Don’t Forget I Love You
The Snow Bear
Stuart J. Murphy -
The Greatest Gymnast of All
Noddy (character) -
Noddy’s Perfect Job (#1)
Noddy Lends a Hand (#3)
Norton (publisher) -
The Norton Anthology of Children’s Literature
Laura Numeroff -
If You Take a Mouse to the Movies
Mouse Cookies and More: A Treasury, which includes the following titles:
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
If You Give a Pig a Pancake
If You Give a Moose a Muffin
If You Take a Mouse to School
Paragon Publishing -
The Princess and the Pea
Leslie Patricelli -
Yummy YUCKY
Marcus Pfister -
The Rainbow Fish
Picture Me (publisher) -
On Halloween
Beatrix Potter -
The Peter Rabbit & Friends Treasury, which includes the titles:
The Tale of Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny
The Tale of Tom Kitten and Jemima Puddle-Duck
The Tale of Samuel Whiskers
The Tailor of Gloucester
The Tale of The Flopsy Bunnies and Mrs Tittlemouse
The Tale of Mrs Tiggy-Winkle and Mr Jeremy Fisher
The Tale of Mr Tod
The Tale of Two Bad Mice and Johnny Town-Mouse
Pudgy (publisher) -
Wheels on the Bus
Margaret and H. A. Rey -
The Complete Adventures of Curious George (a) which includes the following titles:
Curious George
Curious George Takes a Job
Curious George Rides a Bike
Curious George Gets a Metal
Curious George Flies a Kite
Curious George Learns the Alphabet
Curious George Goes to the Hospital
Curious George and the Firefighters (p)
Curious George at the Aquarium (p)
Merry Christmas, Curious George
The New Adventures of Curious George (p) which includes the following titles:
Curious George Goes to a Chocolate Factory
Curious George and the Puppies
Curious George Makes Pancakes
Curious George Feeds the Animals
Curious George Goes to a Movie
Curious George and the Hot Air Balloon
Curious George in the Snow
Curious George’s Dream
A Treasury of Curious George which includes the following titles:
Curious George Takes a Train
Curious George Visits a Toy Store
Curious George and the Dump Truck
Curious George and the Birthday Surprise
Curious George Goes Camping
Curious George Goes to a Costume Party
Curious George Visits the Library
Curious George in the Big City
Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury -
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt
Susan Goldman Rubin -
Counting with Wayne Thiebaud
Cynthia Rylant -
The Relatives Came
Robert Sabuda (illustrator) -
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
David Saltzman -
The Jester Has Lost His Jingle
Sandy Eisenberg Sasso -
But God Remembered: Stories of Women from Creation to the Promised Land
What is God’s Name?
Richard Scarry -
Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever
Betty Ann Schwartz -
What Makes a Rainbow?
Maurice Sendak -
In the Night Kitchen
Where the Wild Things Are
Sesame Street Book (publisher) -
Big Bird and Little Bird’s Big & Little Book
Dr. Seuss -
The Foot Book
Horton Hears a Who
Oh, the Places You’ll Go
Your Favorite Seuss, which includes the following titles:
And to Think that I Saw it on Mulberry Street
McElligot’s Pool
If I Ran the Zoo
Horton Hears a Who!
The Cat in the Hat
How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
Yertle the Turtle
Happy Birthday to You!
Green Eggs and Ham
The Sneetches
Dr. Seuss’s Sleep Book
The Lorax
Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
David Shannon -
No, David!
Shel Silverstein -
Falling Up
The Giving Tree
A Light in the Attic
The Missing Piece
The Missing Piece Meets the Big O
Where the Sidewalk Ends
Esphyr Slobodkina -
Caps for Sale
David Small -
Imogene’s Antlers
June Sobel -
Shiver Me Letters: A Pirate ABC
Mandy Stanley -
Lettice: The Flying Rabbit
Marlo Thomas, et al -
Free to Be . . . You and Me - 35th Anniversary Edition
Kay Thompson -
Eloise: the Absolutely Essential 50th Anniversary Edition
Michael O. Tunnel -
Halloween Pie
Judith Viorst -
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Tamson Weston -
Hey, Pancakes!
David Wiesner -
The Three Pigs
Karma Wilson -
Bear Wants More
Dan Yaccarino (illustrator) -
Five Little Pumpkins
Jane Yolen and Mark Teague -
How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food?
How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon?
Amy Young -
Belinda Begins Ballet