Picture Book of the Day: Mr. Tiger Goes Wild

Picture Book of the Day:  Mr. Tiger Goes Wild, by Peter Brown

I have been a fan of Brown's for a long time and this has now emerged as my favorite book by him.  In this witty tale of embracing your wild side, a tiger all dressed in Victorian clothes becomes tired of his oh-so sophisticated and socially restrictive society.  All the animals (elephants and monkeys and such, clad in similar attire) stand on their hind legs and exchange dull niceties that bore our hero, and any animal child showing any signs of wildness receives a verbal warning from their elders.  Unable to take it anymore, Mr. Tiger (in a brilliant spread that shows him going lower and lower on the page) decides to--gasp!--walk on all four legs and roar his way to heavenly wildness, all the while still wearing his fancy clothes.  But these duds soon fall off and this causes his friends to banish him to the wilderness where Mr. Tiger gladly races off the page to go.  What follows are spreads containing the most breathtaking work Brown has ever achieved:  beautiful drawings of the wilderness with waterfalls and wonder.  Seriously, these illustrations could hang on a museum wall.  Everything leads to a lovely conclusion that offers Mr. Tiger a chance to don an awesome Hawaiian shirt and his city folk peers now happily joining him in the rumpus.  A delightful book, one of the very best picture books of this year, an instant classic.
 

Picture Book of the Day: This Is Our House

Picture Book of the Day:  This Is Our House, by Hyewon Yum

In this delightful story, a young girl shows how important her cozy house is.  The first spread shows her immigrant grandparents arriving at the front doorstep, suitcases in hand.  The girl's mother is born and the reader follows the child through a variety of milestones (learning how to walk) and day-to-day activities.  The charming child-friendly illustrations capture the loving antics of the mom and her siblings as they grow up, sipping warm soup in the kitchen, running down the stair to go to school.  Soon the mother grows up, leaves for college, and returns home with "the boyfriend who would be (the narrator's) father."  We then see the couple preparing a room in a house for the narrator's arrival.  After the narrator is born, the reader enjoys watching her go through many of the same milestones as her mother.  This poignant book has a surprising power that makes it feel universal.  And although it is serene, filled with little gentle moments, Yum laces the illustrations with comical details that make this intergenerational slice of life story accessible for young readers.