the sandwich thief

The Sandwich Thief is a comical and modern mystery written by André Marois and illustrated by director/animator/illustrator Patrick Doyon.  Originally from Canada, it was the winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award for Illustrated Children’s Literature, French Language.  It made its way to the U.S. and was recently published by Chronicle Books.

Marin's food-loving parents pack him a dreamy lunch every day with special ingredients like bread baked with special flour from “a secret bakery run by kung fu monks” and his mother’s homemade mayonnaise beaten with eggs, mustard and oil.  Eventually jealousy strikes at school and someone pilfers one of his favorite sandwiches--Monday's ham, cheddar and kale.  Distraught (and hungry), Marin comes up with a list of suspects and with the help of his quick-thinking parents, formulates a plan to catch the hapless thief.  Just a note: there are a few stereotyped characters in the story—Elizabeth Bird gives a good run-down of them in her review for School Library Journal.

the philharmonic gets dressed

“It is almost Friday night.  Outside, the dark is getting darker and the cold is getting colder.  Inside, lights are coming on in houses and apartment buildings.  And here and there, uptown and downtown and across the bridges of the city, one hundred and five people are getting dressed to go to work.”

The Philharmonic Gets Dressed is a unique and detailed account of how the members of an orchestra get ready for a show, if you ever wondered.  A perfect read if you’re taking your kids to their first instrumental performance!  Written by Karla Kuskin and illustrated by Marc Simont (illustrator of many Nate the Great books).

spunky tells all

“I could tell you everything about the Bates family—things you’ll never hear from anybody else.  Then this book could be titled ‘Spunky Tells Everything.’  But it’s not fair for a Dog to tell everything about his family.  A family deserves at least some privacy and loyalty.  So I will only tell all.  Almost all.”

Written by Ann Cameron and illustrated by Lauren Castillo, Spunky Tells All is a humorous and insightful story told from a dog’s perspective.  He gets somewhat frustrated trying to get his humans to understand his habits, but things get worse when an arrogant Balinese cat by the name of Fiona moves in.  Will they *ever* become friends?  Spunky Tells All is part of the Huey and Julian series.  Also just a note—if your kids happen to be working on social cognition or social thinking, this book is an excellent exercise in perspective-taking, or putting yourself in someone else’s shoes.

who built that? modern houses

Who Built That? Modern Houses, by Didier Cornille, is a fantastic intro to some of the most significant architects of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: Gerrit Rietveld, Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Charles & Ray Eames, Mies Van Der Rohe, Jean Prouvé, Frank Gehry, Shigeru Ban, Rem Koolhaas and Sara Wiggelsworth & Jeremy Till.  The design of the book evokes a sense of modernity with its spare and minimalist illustrations and layout.  Published by Princeton Architectural Press.

We have a short list of architectural books that we want to buy eventually, but does anyone have any favorites to share?