Today, I have a couple of children’s books to refer to you. They were written by a good friend of mine from here in Angier, NC, Jim Munroe. Jim is a poet extraordinaire who discovered he has a knack for writing children’s books. His first book is The Sneezing Toucan about a little boy that wanted a different pet, so he went to the pet store and spied a toucan bird with a colorful beak. The pet store owner said “Son, you don’t want that big-nosed black bird/because he’s got a problem that’s really absurd/ In fact he does something you just won’t believe/that big-nosed black bird can do nothing but sneeze!” It seemed that every hour on the hour the bird would sneeze. You could count on it.
“I walked in the kitchen, set the cage on a chair/and Mom stopped in her tracks and started to stare.”
To say the least, his mom didn’t like the bird so he came up with a novel way to be allowed to keep it.
Jim’s other book that I want to highlight is called The Alligator’s Red Shoes.
An alligator sees two girls and their dad in a boat; the girls have red shoes on. The alligator feels he must have them so he upsets their boat and soon the three people are throwing things at him, including shoes, to get him to stop.
“Dad started rowing and down the river they flew/and I drifted to shore with two pairs of shoes/I tried each one on and they fit me just right/not one was too loose and not one was too tight.”
And that’s how he got his red shoes.
Both of these books are beautifully illustrated by Samatha Bell and both are available on Amazon.com.
These books are centered around the imaginary town of Harpersville, named aftr Jim’s granddaughter.
I highly recommend these books. They help early readers interract with the story, especially The Sneezing Toucan. The kids are fully prepared to say, “Achoooo!” when the toucan does.
Buy these books - they’re nothing to sneeze at.