Way So Cool

If you look at all of my book lists on a semi-regular basis, you will notice that I update them. I add books when I find something really special. It has to be REALLY special for me to put it up as a favourite on my blog. Not that they are all perfect (I consider My Place to be hugely politically flawed, but I still love the book, and I want one day to make a similar book myself - and one like Window)

For PSB (Picture Story Books for those of you who aren't kidlit people) my favourite ever has to be Not A Box. So great! My criteria for PSBs is fairly stringent, especially if I'm buying new, because those things are aout $20 a pop, and I can't spend that kind of money on something that easily. Especially something that lasts less than 5 minutes. But I bought Not A Box new the moment I saw it at Readings.

Criteria for a PSB:
- Pictures have to make me feel happy. Some can be really lush, or realistic, or collage photos, or simple, but they HAVE TO BE WELL DONE.
- Story needs to be good. 'Nuff said.
- It needs to be worded properly. If I hear something that aint written there, it probably isn't written well. When you read it, it needs to sound as though there is NO OTHER POSSIBLE WAY it could have been phrased.
- Morally appropriate. This rules out a lot of books. In a book, if a kid does wrong, they need to get punished. I won't read Olivia and the Missing Toy to my kids at work because she is a brat who is repeatedly rude to her parents, mean to her siblings, ungrateful, and her parents encourage her to be materialistic. I don't like many 'classics' for this reason, and don't have them - I gave the Rainbow Fish to work, because in my opinion it degrades natural gifts and encourages children to be 'just like everyone else' and it promotes communism. Seriously, I think that. We can talk about my issues in the comments, but my kids aren't reading The Rainbow Fish.
- Able to be read 5 times IN A ROW without me feeling ill. Because kids will ask for it at LEAST that many times if they like it. At LEAST. But in all honesty, if you can stand it five times in a row, you can stand it as many times as the kid(s) want to hear it.

Not A Stick is a book that I desperately want. I.E. one I'm going to be buying at Readings when I get my Readings voucher. Or at Readings before I get my Readings voucher, so I get a bigger Readings voucher. Check out the interview with Antoinette Portis - so awesome. And I want A Penguin Story too.

I need to earn more money. Oh well, Christmas is coming.