Read Aloud Thursday - Author Highlight: Sandra Boynton

Time for another Read Aloud Thursday over at Hope is in the Word.

This week I am laughingly bringing you a collection of books by Sandra Boynton. I'm sure many of you have seen or read her books before and I'm just behind the times. Let's just say I'm glad to catch up! A friend of mine pointed out these books awhile back but I only recently had the opportunity to sample her work.

Workman Publishing is the proud publisher and promoter of Boynton's books and aren't they lucky?! I'm reading a bio of the author and she just sounds like a delight to know. For one thing, she's sarcastic and I have a bent towards that type of attitude so I like her right away, even before picking up her books.

Sandra Boynton great up in a Quaker family of four girls. She attended a Germantown Friends School from grades K-12. Although she "dropped out of not one but two fine drama schools: U. Cal. Berkeley and the Yale School of Drama" she did earn a BA in English from Yale. Since then she's been a cartoonist and children's book writer, writing and illustrating thirty-eight children's books.

Her latest gift to the children's book world is Your Personal Penguin which is written like a song, rather than your typical children's picture book. In fact, you can download the song to listen to on the Workman website. Davy Jones of The Monkeys fame sings the song and it has a rather catchy tune. My two year old bopped along with this book and thought it was cute.

Our hands-down favorite book of hers (that we've had the chance to look at so far) is Fifteen Animals!. This book tells the "story" of a boy who had 15 pets, all of whom he has given a special name. Nevermind that it's the same name. It's special all the same! Ok, so I wasn't sure what my son would think of this one but he laughed and laughed and laughed through this book, requesting continuous re-reads. We read it through four times and he kept laughing. I'm not sure if it's that the book appeals to a two year old sense of humor or what. I thought the book was equally amusing. Well, maybe not equally. It was funny but it was more fun reading it to my son who got such a kick out of it. We give this book four thumbs up. It rocks (if you'll permit me to say that).

Lastly, we really enjoyed her book Barnyard Dance!. Actually, I wasn't allowed to read the book aloud until kiddo had a chance to "read" the book "all by [himself]." He enjoyed just looking at the illustrations. That's the first time on record where he's snatched a book away from me to look at the pictures without being remotely curious as to what the words on the page said. Once I was allowed to read, he started bopping about all over the place as I read it in sing-song fashion.

These books are flat out good entertainment for young readers (and their parents)! We whole heartedly love and approve of them and would relish the chance to read more, buy more, etc. (We really, really liked them!) The illustrations are cartoonish and the books read more like short, silly children's songs than stories. They are extremely cute and display a nice sense of humor on the part of Snadra Boynton. If you are further behind the times than myself, definitely consider checking out these books! They are truly delightful.

If you'd like to learn more about Boynton or her books, visit her website here. The opening page alone should clue you in to her personality and sense of humor. Have fun!