There's no better way to introduce preschoolers to Kant's moral imperative than Jo Ann Stover's If Everybody Did, an entertaining romp through the consequences of every person in the room engaging in the same minor misbehaviors after one child does a demo round. We have a love/hate relationship with morally instructive children's books, but we are learning over time that what makes them work well in our household is humor. From Jane Yolen's How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food? to Maurice Sendak and Sesyle Johnson's What Do You Say, Dear?, the use of humor puts everyone at ease while gently introducing real concepts that need teaching - in this case, helping kids conceive of the consequences of what would happen "if everybody did" what it is convenient or entertaining for them to do in isolation.

Some of the issues covered in the book might feel a little constraining for families with relaxed standards of physical behavior - it covers such issues as rough play, "changing your seat," and slamming doors - but the words are few and the illustrations are pretty hilarious if you ask Z and I, so it's easy to focus the "lesson" on the standards you actually care about enforcing. Consequences include doors falling off and crushing everyone, a sea of unseated children chaotically shifting positions around a room, and (for the action shown above) a pile of people laying like pancakes while the last of a dozen or so people gleefully leaps towards the dogpile.

Proof that this book is serving us well was close at hand recently. Jenni was sick with a cold and dropping used tissues on the floor (there was no trash can handy) and Z waltzed up and "corrected" her. "Mama, what would happen if EVERYBODY did that?"


Personally, this one cracks me up - Stover has an eye for details. The kid with his hands in his mouth makes me laugh every time.

You can pick up If Everybody Did on Amazon.com for about eight bucks. - Jeremiah

Inspired by Disney anthropomorphism, Czech animator Zdenek Miler invented Krtek the mole in 1956 to star in a short animated film to educate children on the processing of flax seed. In 1963 he began producing new cartoons based on the character, but instead of narraion elected to use his young daughters act as voice actors, providing non-verbal exclamations but no spoken words.

There is something very slow and deliberate about the cartoons in this series that make it feel at once primitive and perhaps a little slow for today's kids but make the stories' jokes that much funnier. Here are a couple of good episodes, which you'll find with translated titles from every eastern European country as well as in English. Like the Smurfs, Barbapapa, and Moomin, Krtek has become an international icon of only transitional importance in the U.S.

I liked this first episode a lot because Z and I have been working pretty hard on learning to read notes on a staff as part of her violin practice. Be patient with the pacing and you and your child will be delighted by it.



Mole's most frequent companions are the mouse and rabbit shown in the episode below. Their near-constant presence makes what happens at about 3:40 in the video you are about to see truly shocking. I find the music that accompanies this tragic turn of events hilarious. It is about as desperate a tenor as this slow-moving action can achieve.



- Jeremiah

Toon Books - the series that redefines "comics" for young children and makes them an invaluable early reading tool - introduced us to some surprisingly versatile online comic panel creation software that your kids will enjoy playing with.

After fooling around with it, I wrote:

In fact, it works so well, they should take it further. Add the ability to sequence multiple panels on a page and to draw your own characters with a rudimentarly drawing tool, and they could either sell this software on a standalone basis or provide exclusive access to purchasers of their books through an access code.

Then I started browsing some more and realized that Comics Lab Extreme, a companion product to the Comics Lab that Toon Books had brought me to, does just that. Multipage comic books, artwork upload, and more. Great stuff for tech-savvy kids with an interest in comics. And it's all free.

Anyone out there have kids who love a particular comics software, online or off? - Jeremiah

Merry Christmas, Punnyboppers! Four new Christmas books for you this time around. We read all of them at the library. Hope you find a great new book to read with your little ones.

Grumpy Badger's Christmas

Written by Paul Bright, illustrated by Jane Chapman | $12, Amazon.com

All Badger wants to do is go to sleep; he doesn't care about Christmas. It's his time to go underground and sleep all winter through. When his animal friends come knocking on his door trying to bring presents and asking to borrow his ladder to decorate a Christmas tree, he angrily sends them away. "Piffle!" he shouts. "I don't like presents and I don't like Christmas!"

But then one of them shows up to ask for his help because Mole is stuck on top of the tree he was trying to decorate. Again, Grumpy Badger wants to be left alone, so he closes the door and goes back to sleep... but he has a terrible dream that Mole is about to fall out of the tree. When he startles himself awake, he realizes what a bad friend he has been, rushes out to save Mole, and apologizes to everyone for being so grumpy.

To make it up to them, he throws a wonderful Christmas party, which he intends to make an annual tradition.

This story's only possible flaw is that badgers don't actually hibernate. They're less active in cold weather, and sometimes stay underground for long stretches, but they don't sleep through the winter as it suggests in this book. If you forgive this bit of artistic license, and the fact that the text can be a little hard to read against the background on some pages, it's a winner all the way. A solid message, an entertaining story, and nicely expressive acrylic paintings.

Merry Christmas, Splat

by Rob Scotton | $12, Amazon.com

In this latest book of the Splat the Cat series, Splat writes out his Christmas list for Santa: he wants a really big present. That's all he specifies. But his little sister gives him a "look" and asks, "Are you sure you've been good?" Of course he's sure! Well, almost sure. Just to be extra sure, he volunteers to help with all the Christmas preparations. He washes the dishes (which were already clean), redecorates the tree (which has already been decorated), and other such "helpful" tasks.

Then he tries to go to sleep, but is filled with anxiety - maybe he should stay up and tell Santa what a good cat he's been, just in case Santa doesn't realize it.

In the end, he awakes to find no presents under the tree, and he fears he wasn't good enough after all - but his family pops out from behind the tree with a big box just for Splat. He says it's the best Christmas present ever, though we never see what it is; that’s left up to kids' imagination.

The book is recommended for 4- to 8-year-olds, but my 2 1/2-year-old loved it, and so did I.

Olivia Helps With Christmas

by Ian Falconer | $11, Amazon.com

Surely you know of the little pig with the big personality, right? In this book, Olivia (of TV fame) sets out to help with the Christmas preparations, but mostly gets herself into trouble, similar to Splat (reviewed above). My daughter made me keep turning back to the page where Olivia gets all tangled up in the string of lights.

Olivia keeps peeking up the chimney to see if Santa is arriving yet, and gets soot on her snout. On Christmas morning, she and her brothers find some great presents (oh, yeah, and some clothes) under the tree.

The focus of the book is on the preparations and the waiting, rather than on Christmas day itself. Could have used another funny Olivia antic or two, and I really could have done without the illustration of her baby brother throwing up blueberry pie all over the floor, but aside from that, Olivia fans will love this one.

Suzy Goose and the Christmas Star

by Petr Horacek | $11, Amazon.com

Suzy Goose and her friends are finished decorating their Christmas tree, and it looks perfect, except one thing: It is missing a star for the top. Suzy sees a perfect star in the sky, so she sets out to get it. She reaches as high as she can, but can't reach it. She tries jumping to it and climbing to it and walking to it, but she only succeeds in getting herself lost and tired.

Finally, her friends lead her back home, where they all see that although she was not able to pluck the star out of the sky, it's now shining right above the Christmas tree.

I enjoyed this book and the mixed-media illustrations. For me, though, the ending wasn't as satisfying as it could have been.

Jenna Glatzer is the author of 19 books, including authorized biographies of Celine Dion and Marilyn Monroe. Read about what she’s up to at www.jennaglatzer.com. - Jeremiah

We're using Hooked on Phonics' newly revised curriculum to teach our five-year-old daughter Z to read. A lot of that learning centers around word families, groups of short words with similar endings (basically, they rhyme) that can be easily learned as a group. This is the second in a series. (Here's the first.) Enjoy!

-ape

-op

- Jennifer

Welcome to another music edition of Mini Media Mogul. Here are four CDs we've been listening to recently, arranged from our favorite to our least loved.

Pop Fly by Justin Roberts

Pop Fly isn't a new album, but it accomplished something that no other children’s CD has ever done - it literally made me squeal with delight when a scared little boy catches a pop fly ball (in the wonderfully energetic title track). Then, just a few songs later, it made my eyes well with tears with the beautiful “From Scratch,” a tribute to a grandmother who cooks everything from scratch.

This is our first experience with Justin Roberts, but certainly won't be our last. His voice is similar in tone to James Taylor's, but the songs are primarily lighthearted, entertaining slices of life about the elementary school years. They will bring you back to the best parts of your own childhood.

With subjects ranging from the student crossing guard to pool kickboards and stay-at-home dads (“If I were giving grades, he'd get a B or an A”), this collection hits just the right chord.

High Roller by Hullabaloo

Hullabaloo is a children's band for people who like country/folk/bluegrass music. The lyrics on the catchy High Roller often move fast, so you have to pay attention, but it’s worth it - they’re really funny. (“Sometimes things get crazy back home in my crib/ Sometimes I eat breakfast wearing nothing but a bib.”) They mix originals with a few traditional songs.

You can figure out if you like their style on the band's YouTube page, which has plenty of good samples. Their ode to caffeinated moms, "Sippy Cup" (not on this album), made me laugh out loud:

Rockin', Rollin' and Ridin' by Rebecca Frezza and Big Truck

You may recognize this band from their music videos on Nick Jr. and PBS. I'd never seen them before, and this eight-song EP is the first I've heard of this band.

It's high-energy pop written with elementary-school-age kids in mind. One of the album's selling points is that one song features Roscoe Orman, better known as Gordon from Sesame Street - but this was a letdown because the song is in too high a key for him, and it just sounds like he's straining.

Overall, this one's a mixed bag. Out of only 8 songs (23 minutes running time), I thought about half were entirely forgettable, with lyrics that didn’t do anything for me, but the other half were fun and danceable. My daughter was already singing along with “Hey-O” before the end of the song the very first time she heard it.

Somersault Season by Laura Freeman

I have a feeling Laura Freeman must be a hit in person with little kids. That doesn’t automatically translate to a good CD, though. I'm iffy on it; she's very “dramatic” on Somersault Season, and into using weird voices and repetition, which got grating to me. If I were a completely selfless person, I'd probably let my daughter listen to this again - but I'm actually afraid she’d like it.

That said, it's a compilation of songs about the four seasons, and has plenty of opportunities for kids to “play along” and help act out the songs. This might work well in a preschool or day care setting.

Jenna Glatzer is the author of 19 books. Her latest is the inspirational Christian memoir Unthinkable with Scott Rigsby, a double-amputee who completed the Hawaiian Ironman. Visit her at www.jennaglatzer.com. - Jenna G.