Arnold Lobel: Children's Classics

Bookworm1 and I seem to be at that awkward in-between reading stage where I know he could stand to read above just a "regular picture book level" but he doesn't want to read chapter books because they are "too long." He seems to LIKE the stories that chapter books present to us, but the mere idea of having to sit down day after day and work on the same story is unappealing. I wasn't really sure what to do until I began scouring our bookshelves for award winning titles (with which to participate in the Children's Classics Carnival at 5M4B.) I came across Frog and Toad Together (which won a Newbery Honor award) which I picked up once upon a time. I presented it as a reading option to Bookworm1 and he liked it!

Enter into our world: Arnold Lobel. The length of his stories are absolutely perfect. They require a larger attention span, are divided up into "chapters" (Bookworm1 eyed this suspiciously at first) and have illustrations on each page to help keep your young reader beside you and intrigued in the story. Each of his stories are broken down into sections (i.e., chapters- without numbering them so) and deal with animals. So really, how could you go wrong?

Once I figured out that these books were exactly where we are at in our reading journey (being long enough for a 10-15 minute read but easily finished so as not having to approach the book with doom and sorrow that you have to come back to it again!) I trotted off to Borders and picked up some additional Lobel titles. These are the ones that we have read (and there have been requested re-reads!):





This has, of course, made me curious about Arnold Lobel and so I looked up a few quick facts to better familiarize myself with him and his work.

* He was born in 1933 and died in 1987.

* He grew up in Schenectady, New York (Kate & Leopold anyone?) and lived with his grandparents.

* He was frequently sick as a child and was out of school as a result of that until about 2nd grade. He entertained himself by drawing. One way that he made friends with his fellow classmates when he was back in school was by drawing animal characters.

* He was husband to one wife, Anita Kempler (also a children's book author/illustrator) and they had two children - Adrianne, a girl, and a son named Adam.

* Adrianne married a familiar actor (if you lived in MY family growing up!) named Mark Linn-Baker! (Perfect Strangers, people!!!) Linn-Baker adapted his father-in-law's stories into a musical which was the Tony-nominated Broadway musical, A Year with Frog and Toad. Linn-Baker played Toad.

* Lobel has a grand list of books that he wrote and illustrated himself but he also provided illustartiosn for the likes of Jack Prelutsky, Peggy Parish and Charlotte Zolotow.

* For a long while, beginning readers consisted of short choppy sentences (think Dick & Jane). Dr. Suess began to change that and Lobel quickly followed on Suess's heels, creating a more complex story line for young readers to follow.

* He saw himself as a "daydreamer" rather than an author or illustrator.

"I cannot think of any work that could be more agreeable and fun than making books for children." ~ Arnold Lobel

I'm glad he thought so! His books definitely have become our favorites this month!