Bear in Underwear: Goodnight Underwear, by Harriet Ziefert (illustrated by Todd H. Ziefert)

Bear in Underwear: Goodnight Underwear
Author: Harriet Ziefert
Illustrator: Todd H. Doodler
Publisher: Blue Apple Books
Publication Date: April 9, 2013
Source: Edelweiss
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There have been so many books and products inspired by Margaret Wise Brown's classic Goodnight Moon but this one is one of my new favourites. It's true to the inspiration but it's silly enough to give your little ones the giggles. Plus it's like the bedtime story version of "shaking your sillies out," giving kids a chance to laugh and point out all the problems the poor camping animals must face in order to get comfortable enough for sleeping but then it brings it back around to them all settling in to bed. It's a great bedtime story, especially for kids who are familiar with Goodnight Moon, or who enjoy camping, or who giggle at the word "underwear."

Scroll down to see lots of illustrations from the book!

Magda's favourite part: When they finally got comfortable inside the cabin and went to sleep.

My favourite part: The same!

It's Time to Say Goodnight, by Harriet Ziefert (illustrated by Barroux)

It's Time to Say Good Night

Author: Harriet Ziefert
Illustrator: Barroux
Publisher: Blue Apple Books
Publication Date: September 10, 2013
Source: Edelweiss
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It's funny that the book is called "It's Time to Say Good Night" when most of it is about saying good morning. The little boy in the book spends his entire day saying good morning to everything.

Good morning to the sun, good morning to the hills, good morning to the cow, etc. In fact by the time he's finished saying good morning to every single thing and animal he sees, the day is done and it's time to say goodnight. Hopefully he get more accomplished the next day...

Magda's favourite part: I liked the cows and pigs and all the animals, but I didn't like that all he did was say good morning to everyone and then he had to go right back to bed. I wouldn't like that.

My favourite part: I like the folk-art type pictures and the fact that the child has to see everything before he's ready to settle into bed. But I agree with Magda. It's sort of weird that his whole day is spent saying good morning and then he has to go back to bed.

Backstage Cat, by Harriet Ziefert (illustrated by Jenni Desmond)

Backstage Cat
Author: Harriet Ziefert
Illustrator: Jenni Desmond
Publisher: Blue Apple Books
Publication Date: March 12, 2013
Source: Edelweiss
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My daughter Magda is in love with this book. She's already asked me to read it to her a half dozen times. It's the story of a cat whose owner is a Broadway actress, so the cat spends most of its days backstage at the theatre. Except of course for the day it finds itself right on stage!



This book reminded me a lot of Rifka Takes a Bow, which I've previously reviewed. I liked Rifka better because I think it did a better job of showing the details of a backstage production, and it was more specific with the details. I would have liked this one more if it had been describing a specific theatre or a specific play (if it was I couldn't figure it out).



This is especially true when the various stage crew are trying to coax the cat down from its perch among the prop trees and the leading lady comes out to sing her cat down. The song she sings is long and difficult to read aloud, but I was not able to sing it because I couldn't figure out what song it was (if it was a real song). I would have appreciated an information page at the end with more details about the song and theatre depicted in the book.

Having said that, my three-year-old liked this book more than Rifka Takes a Bow (which she also likes) because, well, this one has a cat. And also if you look carefully you can see that one of the female characters in the book may be pregnant, a detail which delighted my daughter.

Monster, Be Good! by Natalie Marshall

Monster, Be Good!
Author: Blue Apple Books/Harriet Ziefert
Illustrator: Natalie Marshall
Publisher: Blue Apple Books
Publication Date: February 26, 2013
Source: Edelweiss
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My daughter Magda and I have read similar monster books before and--I hate to say it--we're often disappointed. The pictures are so great and promising (they remind me of Ed Emberley's monster books) but the books are very short (okay for very young readers I guess) and the lyrics don't seem to match the whimsy of the illustrations.

This one in particular is trying to tell children not to be scared of monsters by reminding them that they are "in charge" of them, but I found it a little clunky, if that makes any sense. I think the message could have been better told with funnier text (like Ed Emberley's books) and they would have suited to fantastic pictures better.

Magda's Take: "Is that it? Is that the end of the book? Oh."

My Dog Thinks I'm a Genius, by Harriet Ziefert (illustrated by Barroux)

My Dog Thinks I'm a Genius

Author: Harriet Ziefert

Illustrator: Barroux

Publisher: Blue Apple Books

Publication Date: September 13, 2011

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Barroux's paintings are lush and lovely and are sure to capture the imaginations of readers young and old. In My Dog Thinks I'm a Genius, a young boy who loves to paint comes home to find his dog has been trying out some painting of his own. Barroux's illustrations for this book were inspired by the artwork of Paul Cezanne, and the book includes end notes about Cezanne's life and art. Fabulous! 

One note about the e-book edition, however. I'm not sure if this book is widely available as an e-book but the review copy I received was digital and there were problems with the page numbering. The pages were not lined up, so I was not able to simultaneously view pages that would be facing each other in the print edition, meaning that I saw half of one double page and half of the next double page, instead of being able to view facing pages together. This made the digital copy I received very hard to read to its intended full effect. I contacted the publisher (a few times) about it but never heard back, so I can only assume that any e-book edition in the future may have the same problems. Stick with print. 

Hit the jump for Magda's Take and more...

Big Brave Daddy, by Smiljana Coh

Big Brave Daddy

Author: Smiljana Coh 

(text copyright Harriet Ziefert, Inc.)

Illustrator: Smiljana Coh 

(illustration copyright Smiljana Coh)

Publisher: Blue Apple Books

Publication Date: March 13, 2012

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There are a lot of great preschool picture books about kids and their dads...I'm just not sure this is one of them. The illustrations are, I think, meant to be folksy or something, but really they just look like they were done with MS Paint or Facebook Graffiti (and even then, they're not that great). The text apparently wasn't even written by the listed author, since the "text copyright" is held by the publisher, Harriet Ziefert (see below for more about that). I've looked at Smiljana Coh's online portfolio and some of her art is lovely and amazing, but I am definitely not a fan of the art in this book. I thought maybe my three-year-old, Magda, would find it cute and silly at least, but she seemed more confused than anything ("Are they mice? Why do they have big ears? Where are their tails?").

Hit the jump for Magda's Take and more...

Lucy Rescued, by Harriet Ziefert (illustrated by Barroux)

Lucy Rescued

Author: Harriet Ziefert

Illustrator: Barroux

Publisher: Blue Apple Books

Publication Date: March 27, 2012

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Unfortunately, this is another book by Blue Apple Books that has the page numbers all messed up on the e-book edition (I've contacted the publisher multiple times and have heard no response) so it was impossible to read the book properly on my desktop the way you would a print edition (with pages 2-3 facing each other, pages 4-5 facing each other, etc.). As a result, the illustrations were all cut in half when we were trying to read this, so we had to guess what was happening some of the time. I found it a bit annoying, though my daughter Magda didn't seem to mind since she really loved the story. Something about the story of the little dog that couldn't sleep without a stuffed animal friend really resonated with her (she herself is miserable without Lambie). If you have to choose between a print edition and an e-book edition, though, I would steer clear of the e-book, since it's very likely mis-numbered the way my review copy was (again, I emailed the publisher a few times and didn't get an answer).
Hit the jump for Magda's take and more!