Tiny Treasury

This is the first book in the series first published in 1955.
In this book, Harold decides to go for a walk in the moonlight. Armed with his purple crayon, he creates the moon and the world in which he takes his walk.
When he thinks there should be a forest, he draws one apple tree. Since he doesn’t want to get lost, one tree is enough for his forest. To guard his tree, he draws a fierce dragon. This dragon scares him so much that his hand shakes. Well this causes wavy lines that turn into an ocean. Luckily he draws a boat, to sail on.
When he gets hungry, he draws a picnic. His picnic consists of several pies. When he can’t finish them all, he draws a moose and porcupine to help him.
As he continues his walk, he draws a hot air balloon, a policeman, and even an entire city. But in the end, all he wants to do is draw his bed in his own house and go to sleep

I like to give this book as a gift along with a pack of crayons and drawing paper.

This charming story of Corduroy helps us to imagine what might happen after the lights are out and the people have disappeared. When all the shoppers have gone home for the night, Corduroy climbs down from the shelf to look for his missing button. It’s a brave new world! He accidentally gets on an elevator that he thinks must be a mountain and sees the furniture section that he thinks must be a wonderful castle. He tries to pull a button off the mattress, but he ends up falling off the bed and knocking over a lamp. The night watchman hears the crash, finds Corduroy, and puts him back on the shelf downstairs. The next morning, he finds that it’s his lucky day! A little girl buys him with money she saved in her piggy bank and takes him home to her room. Corduroy decides that this must be home and that Lisa must be his friend. Youngsters Your little ones will never get tired of this tale with a happy ending, so you may also want to look for Dan Freeman’s follow up, A Pocket for Corduroy.

“I went to sleep with gum in my mouth and now there’s gum in my hair and when I got out of bed this morning I tripped on the skateboard and by mistake I dropped my sweater in the sink while the water was running and I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.”

So begins the day in the life of Alexander. Everyone has terrible, horrible days, and Alexander offers us the grouchy commiseration we all desire and at the same time reminds us that things may not be all that bad. As Alexander’s day moves along, he suffers a million maladies: getting smashed in the middle seat of the car, a lunch sack void of dessert, a cavity at the dentist’s office, sneakers with NO stripes, kissing on television, and being forced to sleep in railroad-train pajamas.
He makes plans several times to move to Australia.

Judith Viorst perfectly captures a child’s unpredictable temperament. Her flawless crafting makes Alexander sympathetic and loveable rather than ungrateful and whiny.

“There has obviously been some kind of mistake,” writes Alexander T. Wolf from the pig penitentiary where he’s doing time for his alleged crimes of 10 years ago. Here is the “true” story of the three little pigs from the wolf’s perspective. Allegedly their houses are huffed and puffed to smithereens… This poor, misunderstood wolf has gotten a bad reputation. A victim of circumstance. He just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, with a sneezing cold, just trying to borrow a cup of sugar to make his granny a cake. Is it his fault those ham dinners build such flimsy homes? I will let you decide.

This is a wonderful book for all ages. I have used this book from Kindergarten to the 8th grade! The possibilities are endless.

Obviously I love the Ramona series by Beverly Cleary. I finally finished putting them all on here…hopefully encouraging you to read and love them the way I do. Ramona appealed to me in so many ways as a child. She seemed like a kid I would know. As and adult I appreciate her in a completely different way.

Below is a list of the Ramona series in chronological order.

Beezus and Ramona
Ramona the Pest
Ramona the Brave
Ramona and Her Father
Ramona and Her Mother
Ramona Quimby, Age 8
Ramona Forever
Ramona’s World

Beverly Clary took a 15 year hiatus between Ramona Forever and Ramona’s World.
Ramona’s World picks up with Ramona entering fourth grade, determined to find herself a best friend. A new girl at school named Daisy is Ramona’s perfect pick and shares the stage in two of the novel’s most memorable scenes: she and Ramona vacuum Daisy’s cat, and while the two play a game of make-believe in the attic, Ramona’s legs break through the floor and dangle over the dining room table. Though the precocious nine-year-old is doing well in school (”By the fourth grade she had learned to put up with teachers”), Ramona doesn’t agree with the emphasis that this year’s teacher places on correct spelling. She is also doing her best to ignore the perfect Susan and Avery. She fights and flirts with classmate Danny (whom she calls Yard Ape because he “acted like an ape on the playground”). At home, Ramona frets over her mother’s preoccupation with a new baby and rolls her eyes at how sister Beezus (now a high-schooler) is constantly trying to show off her new French vocabulary. Ramona’s trials are timeless and convincingly portrayed.

In the seventh book about the Quimbys, eight-year-old Ramona and her entire family are caught up in life changing events. Beezus and Ramona share stories and tears and learn to lean on each other instead of fighting when their dear cat dies. They worry about the what will hapen and what changes will come if their aunt marries a man they’re not sure they like, about Mr. Quimby’s new job taking them to a new town. Most of all, Ramona wonders about her status when Mrs. Quimby has a new baby.