Edith May Eleanor recommends...

This summer Miss Edie May has been hard at work reviewing hundreds of titles for the discriminating reader. Here at last she offers her recommendations, sure to delight those with sophistication and taste.

Most of the approximately 220 titles on her shelf don't merit much more than a casual glance at the spine. But the following handful are gems, worth re-reading several times an hour. Miss Edie May offers her comments below.

Counting Colors (Roger Priddy) -- "This is an incredible book, providing such a rich account of purple onions, orange pumpkins, green tractors, brown teddy bears, pink pigs, and yellow sunflowers as to leave you breathless. Each page of this engaging work bursts with so much detail that the casual reader may miss the most important subtext. Hint: I call this the Balloon Book."

I Love Animals (Roger Priddy) -- "It's the colorful cast of of characters in this comprehensive portrait of the animal world that makes this title stand out. Some figures are larger than life (see especially Ant and Mosquito) while others are enigmatic (consider Whale, represented by just a flick of his tail). But whether they feature prominently or on the margins of the action, each character, from Moth to Guinea Pig to Meercat to Cockatoo, is compelling and vivid."

My First ABC Board Book (anonymous) -- "The best part of this work is unquestionably the giant apple on the cover. But be sure to dig further so as not to miss the dog on page four, followed immediately by the 'E' page, which the author has dedicated to yours truly (or so my parents tell me)..."

Go, Dog. Go! (P.D. Eastman) -- "This is a must-have for those times when Mom and Dad look a little bored and you need to get them revved up again. You'll having them shouting the refrain 'Go, dogs, go!' with gusto in three seconds flat."

Whistle for Willie (Ezra Jack Keats) -- "Though I shun most books smacking of narrative (so pedestrian, laying out the whole story for you--I much prefer a minimalist style that encourages the reader to bring herself to the text), Whistle for Willie is an exception. The key to this work is flipping quickly through all the irrelevant pages to find those on which Willlie, a dachshund, appears. When you read this book with an adult, the adult can provide Peter's whistle, while you supply Willie's deep bark."

Noah's Ark, bathtub edition (God, as told to Peggy Lynn Johnson) -- "Ordinary readers will fail to appreciate the bold strokes with which this waterproof retelling of the considerably drier original tale has been recast. Not so the modernist. 'Noah loved and obeyed God. God told Noah it was going to rain. Noah built a big boat. He loaded it with two of every kind of animal. It rained and rained and rained. Noah prayed and prayed and prayed. God heard Noah's prayer and stopped the rain and saved all the animals.' Why get bogged down with anything more than that? All in loud primary colors, too."