Monday, September 21, 2009

It’s a Grand Old Flag by George M. Cohan and When Johnny Comes Marching Home by Patrick S. Gilmore – Both Illustrated by Todd Ouren.

It is hard to get my 17-month old son Danny to stay still too long for a story at nap and bedtime. We have been trying different books to interest him, and one thing that is sure to grab his attention is a good song book. He may be dancing before bed time, but at least he’s paying attention and hopefully wearing himself out!

Two favorites that Danny and my 3-year old son Kile enjoy are It’s a Grand Old Flag by George M. Cohan and When Johnny Comes Marching Home by Patrick S. Gilmore. Both of these books have great illustrations by Todd Ouren and are part of a patriotic songs series published by Picture Window Books from Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The illustrations do a good job of putting a picture to what is going on in the verses of the songs, which give my 3-year interesting vocabulary such as “jubilee.” Also included in the back of the book are the complete song verses, and a great explanation about the song origins. The explanation of the song origins always entertains my husband and my self and we always learn something new.

We check these books out from the library fairly frequently, but tomorrow we’ll be searching for something new to entertain Danny!

4 comments:

  1. These look great. I can't get my 13mo boys to sit still long enough tonread a story too either. I might have to look these up.

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  2. I miss those days! My kids are a bit older, and we don't go to the library as much as we used to, although we do read together when we can.

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  3. Sounds like good books. My daughter always loved Sandra Boynton, at that age.

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  4. This book is excellent! The words to the song are split so there is one line to a page which is beautifully illustrated. It is very fun to sing the whole song while turning the pages and looking at the drawings. You can't botch up the words or forget something. A good feeling, patriotic book.

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