Leo the Late Bloomer

 

Leo the Late Bloomer by Robert Kraus with illustrations by Jose Aruego.

Another favorite from childhood. I remember the librarian at Page Elementary reading this to us. It's a charming story of a tiger that doesn't develop as quickly as his peers. One of his parents is a little anxious about it and the other not so much. 

Like most good children's literature is a none-to-wordy, simple story that makes a great point stated somewhat obliquely yet still clearly. One additional word of text wold be one too many but one less would be one too few. 

Norman the Doorman by Don Freeman

 

I remember Norman the Doorman from my school days. I don't remember if we had a copy at home but I remember it from my school library as a kid and I'm sure it's popped up in libraries of the many schools where I've taught. This copy was one I had in my own classroom library for years. 

I reread it today. I guess I haven't read it to any of my classes for years since the plot only came back to me as I read each page. 

It was very nostalgic to revisit it. The story is sweet and the illustrations are very mid-20th century looking and quite charming. There were lots of books from the 1940s, 50s, 60s still in the libraries when I attended elementary school in the 1970s. 

I've retired recently and am trying hard to downsize the many materials I have. I've done a really good job but some items are much harder than other. There are so many memories attached to many of them. Corduroy is another favorite of mine by Don Freeman. I'll write about that one another time.