Books Your Kid Should Read

"I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library." - Jorge Luis Borges

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Tuesday

19 August 2008

Tuesday
by David Wiesner
Illus. by David Wiesner
1991

Oooh, I love this book. I first found it when I was working at a wonderful local bookstore in Columbus, OH while attending grad school (anyone remember Nickelby's?). I was straightening out the children's section and surreptitiously checking out the picture books. The Caldecott sticker on the front of this one made me take a second look, and boy, I was hooked. Wiesner is an absolute genius at telling a story with few or no words; he simply doesn't need them, so rich and detailed - and hilarious! - are his pictures. Tuesday chronicles an unusual evening in the lives of some pond frogs, whose lily pads mysteriously rise into the air one night ("around 8 pm") and take them on a wild adventure. They encounter confused dogs, sleeping grandmas, paranoid insomniacs, and baffled police officers, before settling back down into their swampy homes ... only to pave the way for next Tuesday's odd happening. Now I will admit that I have a slightly obsessed love of things froggy, so I was predisposed to like this book for that reason alone. But trust me, you don't have to be fond of amphibian life to love Tuesday, any day of the week.