Fairy Poems by Laura Ingalls Wilder & Illus by Richard Hul

Did you know Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote Fairy Poems? She did! While she was out in San Francisco seeing Rose, Rose got her a job writing poems for a children's paper. 

I don't often associate LIW with fairies. I mean so much of her life was so practical and no-nonsense, where would fairies fit in? 

But then, if someone loves flowers and nature as much as Laura did, fairies are not far behind. 

I found this little gem on the shelf in my library one day and was completely delighted. 

The illustrations are SO NOT Laura Ingalls Wilder--okay, Laura Ingalls Wilder is really just Garth Williams, but I love them anyway. 

The Fairy Dew Drop

Down by the spring one morning

Where the shadows still lay deep, 

I found in the heart of a flwoer

A tiny fairy asleep.

Her flower couch was perfumed,

Leaf curtains drawn with care,

And there she sweetly slumbered

With a jewel in her hair...

...But a sunbeam entered softly

And touched her, as she lay.

Whispering that 'twas morning 

And fairies must away. 

The fairies in the Sunshine

Painting flower and baby faces.

...They color all the apples

And work for days and weeks

To make the grapes bloom purple

And paint the peaches' cheeks.

Ah! There's a tiny fairy!

She's in the garden bed!

It's little Ray O'Sunshine

Who makes the roses red. 

The Naughty Four O'Clocks

This is a sweet little book of fairy poems--just a dozen or so, but so darling! 

A Perfect Day by Lane Smith

What is a perfect day? Does everyone think one particular kind of day is perfect? 

This is a great one for teaching perspective .

The sun figures in a lot of perfect day scenarios.

Cat loves to be in the daffodil bed with the sun. 

That is a perfect day for Cat.

Dog likes sun and water.

Chickadee likes sun and food.

For squirrel, a perfect day involves a corn cob all to herself. 

But a bear!!! That was not in the perfect day plan!

Bear eats the corn and ruins squirrel's perfect day. 

He ruins Dog's day. 

He ruins the flowers AND Cat's day at the same time. 

Bear is making this a terrible day for EVERYone. 

But wait a minute... is this Bear's perfect day?!

I think so. 

Du Iz Tak? by Carson Ellis

When I first saw the idea behind this book, I scoffed. 

I mean seriously--someone writes in a made up language to tell about some bugs and a caterpillar or two coming into contact with a spider and then being saved by a hungry bird? Is that even a story? 

Or just nonesense? 

Turns out it is nonsense of the very best kind. High quality nonsense. My kids love this book. Kids at school love this book. Aides and monitors hanging out with kids at school love this book. 

In short, it is a ridiculous masterpiece. 

A caterpillar. 

There are so many details--details kids look at to gain understanding of the plot, the context, and even make sense of the made up language. 

Silly words. 

But they have meaning. If you read them with inflection, almost all kids can get the sense of

What is that?
I don't know.

Hopefully that is really what it means because that is what I read it as. 

Here are our main characters, knocking in Icky's door.  Icky is the friendly, neighborhood pillbug or rollie-pollie. 

One of the delights of reading this is saying made up words. I would say you need to read it through a couple times before it becomes fun. But once you have it, it is a blast! 

A bug--cricket maybe?--playing to the moon on an early summer night.

The villian approaches!

All is lost! Their lovely furt. 

But then, salvation! In the form of a hungry bird. 

Carson Ellis does cozy homes like no one's business. I want to visit the pillbugs house. 

AND the furt. 

And then, in fall, the cocoon begins to open.... 

Oh the magic and wonder!

And then, at the end of the book, we see the same kind of caterpillar saying Ta ta! to us again. 

Maybe it is a cycle. Do you think it will happen all over again? What is a cycle? 

This is such a fun way to introduce kids to the idea of nature being a cycle. 

We all could use a little more silliness in our life!!

Children of the Forest by Elsa Beskow

Elsa Beskow is magical. Her books are detailed and cozy, sparking all the right sorts of imagination. 

This book is one of my favorite simply because of the toadstool caps. I didn't even read it and I loved it, based solely on that fact.

"Deep in the forest, under the curling roots of an old pine tree, was a small house."

I am already captivated. 

Just in case you needed to see their little toadstool caps a little closer. 

The four children are named Tom, Harriet, Sam and Daisy

Delivering things to squirrels

The thing with cozy books is that too cozy is boring. So Elsa Beskow adds in dangerous snakes that their father can fight while he is safe in his pinecone armour, forest trolls, and other small little dangers that keep the book from getting sugary sweet. 

Working on the mushroom harvest

The moon telling the forest people that summer must come to an end. 

Looking for suitable schooling for the children

School in session

First snow!

In winter they trade their red toadstool caps for cunning little green caps trimmed in white fur.

And then, spring comes around again! Joy!