This should really be titled what I’m reading at home this week. And actually, it was last week. Anyway, H hasn’t been in much of a mood to try new books, although she is still reaching for some of the Caldecotts we just bought. These are three I’d checked out of the library for her, but I really enjoyed them myself. Two of them were on a lot of Mock Caldecott lists as contenders this year.

I stumbled on Professor Whiskerton Presents Steampunk ABC by Lisa Falkenstern while hunting for another picture book, and I love it. I may check this one out again and try to get H to sit and read it with me. There is so much going on in these illustrations, the story of two mice using found objects to build a mysterious something. It is so geeky and DIY and, well, steampunk. In all the best ways, I really dug it.

I was less smitten with Raul Colon’s Draw!, but I do appreciate the scale of the illustrations of a boy doodling in his sketchpad and making larger-than-life scenes take shape. The boy’s imagination is definitely running free, but…sometimes I love wordless books and sometimes I don’t. I liked this one, but I didn’t love it.

Bad Bye, Good Bye by Deborah Underwood (illustrated by Jonathan Bean) starts out emotional and sad and ends with..good byes. A boy and his family are moving, and saying goodbye to their old neighborhood and friends is bad and so, so hard. But as the family makes their way to their new home, and the boy meets his new neighbors and checks out his new neighborhood, the sting of leaving one place is replaced with discovering a new one. This was full of real, kid-life emotions, and I thought it was great.