squash, ballerinas, pink things, whales & ghost towns

March was a great month for reading!  Therefore my favorite March reads will be a two-part post.

Here are the best children's books I read in March!

Sophie's Squash by Pat Zietlow Miller

- this is a story about a girl who falls in love with a squash, and they become best friends until one day the squash is freckled and the little girl has to make a very serious and big decision - this is SO funny and adorable, especially when the squash starts to rot - there's a very touching moment when the girl and her pet fish have a picnic with the squash's babies

Ballerina Gets Ready by Allegra Kent

- who doesn't want to follow a ballerina around for a day? - this is a charming and rather glamorous way to talk about time and schedules with kids - it also demonstrates that it takes a whole lot of work by many types of people to make one night of magic

Pink is for Blobfish by Jess Keating

- have you ever heard of hairy squat lobsters (your brother doesn't count!) or pink fairy armadillos? - do you love all pink creatures, including slugs, and you can't get enough of them? - do you love crazy animal facts like how the pink sea star can stick its stomach out through its mouth? - yes, yes and yes? ok, you and this book are perfect for each other

The Blue Whale by Jenni Desmond

- the unique text and illustrations describe just how giant a whale is, like how 50 people can fit in its mouth and how a baby whale can grow up to 9 pounds an hour - playful and magnetic illustrations are a little like Pamela Zagarenski's art (Red Sings from Treetops)

Gone-Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright

-utterly and completely absorbing. the real world simply disappears after a few pages. - wonderfully imaginative. for instance, dinosaurs probably smell like wet raincoats and bad guys aren't the type to have rosebushes or ducks - the writing is so grand. lots of metaphors, similes and word play. the word 'gibbering' is used to describe the movement of silverware on a train, a dead tree has funguses sticking out of it in 'balconies and terraces,' and 'thunder rocks back and forth in someone else's sky.' - and let's not forget the characters. so charming and wacky and each one quite unique.

Return to Gone-Away by Elizabeth Enright

- a must read for anyone who has read Gone-Away Lake - the story picks up with the Blake's purchase of The Villa Caprice (the grandest of the dilapidated houses) - more wonderful summertime adventures including getting trapped in a spooky house with a goat, searching for the safe of the previous owner and uncovering many glorious treasures in The Villa Caprice