I’ve have been reading a lot of picture books to my little Gizmo over the past year. Most are completely unremarkable. Some are absolutely terrible. And a sparse few are fantastic. Here are two of them that deserve to be on your bookshelf if you have young children or teach them.

The Doghouse by Jan Thomas

This book made me laugh out loud the first time I read it. In fact, it still makes me laugh even though I’ve read it dozens of times.

It starts out with Cow, Mouse, Pig, and Duck playing ball in the yard. When the ball accidentally gets kicked into the doghouse, no one wants to  go retrieve it. A crack of lighting appears in the sky directly above the doghouse to illustrate their fear. I love how the art shows this as well. You can clearly see the fear in Mouse on the cover page.

That is probably why he volunteers Cow for the job. He butters him up by accentuating his strengths. Cow reluctantly goes into the doghouse. but he doesn’t come out.

Mouse then volunteers Pig to go retrieve them both Cow and the Ball, But he doesn’t come out either.

I don’t want to give away the story because I think you will enjoy it as much as my son and I do.

The Duck Says by Troy Wilson and Mike Boldt

I’m not sure why so many books and songs for children focus on the sounds animals make. It’s not really a life skill anyone needs.

Anyway, this one is refreshing because, “The duck, it turns out, says all sorts of things.”

Not content with just saying, “Quack,” the duck in this story plays pirate, duck-duck-goose, and gets into a little bit of trouble with a swarm of bees.

He has quite the adventure of the farm, but he also learns a bit about personal responsibility.

Both of these books are wonderfully creative stories with great art. I am sure you will love reading them to the young children in your life.