As a picture book writer, lifelong reader, professional storyteller, and parent of a toddler, I spend a LOT of time thinking about children’s books. Welcome to my (and Z’s) semi-regular review of the must-reads for parents, kiddos, and picture book writers.

I have a problem. Well, really, I have a lot of problems. But they all boil down to this:

My ADHD dominates me more often than I care to admit. And I’m pretty sure the same is going to be true with Z. We did not set that kid up with the most promising genes.

The subject of our hyperfocus recently has been on the Mr. Men and Little Miss books, originated by Roger Hargreaves and continued by his son, Adam Hargreaves. You know the ones: small white square books with titles like Mr. Happy and Little Miss Splendid and Mr. Chatterbox. And in turns out, hundreds of others.

I mentioned in an earlier edition of Reading with Z that she absolutely adores these books. I had 40 or so from childhood that I’d kept and shared with her. At two, Z’s obsession merely means she carries them around in little stacks and insists on reading one at bedtime almost every night.

But I’m 30-something with a credit card, a love of Z’s smile, and a compulsion to overbuy books on the best of days. So her obsession has led to me staying up until 2 a.m. or so on a random night in May, hyperfocused on finding every single Roger Hargreaves book available on Thriftbooks. These books are absurdly cheap, hovering around $5 each, and there are HUNDREDS of them. I ended up grabbing 45 books in one sleepy spree.

I spend a lot of time lately reading and thinking about these books. There are quite a few reasons I love them:

• They’re cheap, so I don’t feel terrible if my toddler “reads” too roughly with one every now and then.

• They’re tiny, so even owning a hundred isn’t a huge burden on our bookshelves, and traveling with them is easy.

• The drawings are simple and easy to discuss with a little kid. And the stories are surprisingly long but always end just before the adult reading it gets impatient.

• The vocabulary isn’t dumbed down—in fact, it’s often pretty sophisticated!

• There’s always a lesson, but it’s often sillier and less didactic than you’d expect. Little Miss Helpful? Maybe insisting on being helpful all the time really isn’t very helpful at all. Mr. Wrong? If he becomes “right,” what happens to Mr. Right?

• There’s at least one for most major holidays, and special books where they travel to different parts of the world (or even the moon), or live briefly in a fairytale. A little bit of everything.

There are some not-so-great things: The stories become monotonous when you read one or more every day for months on end (oops). Some of the stories hold up better than others; in particular, I’ve noted some fatphobia in a few places that has me wondering whether there are certain books I’ll retire from my collection.

But Hargreaves created something so amazing: He has captivated Z’s attention day after day for the better part of a year. There’s a reason these stories have lasted. I highly recommend you pick up a handful (or a few dozen) and get reading!

Library Highlight: Amy Wu and the Perfect Bao

In Amy Wu and the Perfect Bao by Kat Zhang, illustrated by Charlene Chua, Amy Wu is great at a lot of things. Her one struggle is, as you might predict, making the perfect bao like her parents and grandma seem able to. I love Amy’s feisty determination to crack the code to bao. It’s sweet and relatable, with vibrant illustrations that made me super hungry. It also comes with Amy’s family recipe for bao—I might or might not be trying to convince my husband to make them for us before I return this to the library.

Runner-Up: Wheetle: A Little Wagon with a Big Heart

Written and illustrated by Cindy Derby, Wheetle is the sweetest little story. Our wagon protagonist goes out every day and helps out his tiny insect neighbors, transporting their things all over the place. But one week, while Wheetle eagerly counts down to a big event, they give him a bit too much to carry. This time, he’s the one who needs help. Derby is a fantastic artist, aptly capturing movement and emotion on every page. And there’s one spread toward the end that just made me gasp with how beautiful it is, paired with the most perfect fragment of a sentence. If you know me, it won’t surprise you to hear that I teared up just a bit.

Honorable Mentions

When You Love a Book by Kaz Windness, illustrated by Heather Brockman Lee: Brockman Lee is rapidly becoming one of my favorite contemporary illustrators, so this book is a joy for that reason alone. Add in its sweet poetry about the wonder and magic of books, and you have a delightful, heartwarming read.

Bruce Saves the Planet by Ryan T. Higgins: Having never read Mother Bruce, I would say this is a weird book with which to start the series. That said, it’s still cute and I loved joining Bruce as he stumbles into a messy press situation, muddles his way through a town hall meeting, and accidentally saves his forest. More books that gently teach kids about activism and elements of the democratic process, please.

To Make by Danielle Davis, illustrated by Mags DeRoma: To make anything, you have to have a lot of patience. This slow-paced book uses very few words paired with striking illustrations to teach kids that to create something, anything, you need to gather, make, and wait.

I’ll see y’all once we finally get through this massive Hargreaves collection. Send me some recommendations!

Till next time,

Jordyn Jefferson
Learn more about my writing at www.jordynjefferson.com.