Sunday, December 6, 2015

Dreaming of Books: Things you think there are enough of, but there really, really aren't like tractors

More tractor picture books. No, I'm serious! I realize people are like "well, duh, there's tons of those" but that's because tons of people check them out! And then there aren't any! I've started buying multiple copies. They're especially popular in the fall here, when kids see the tractors in the fields. I've had a lot of requests for John Deere's Johnny Tractor but they look flimsy (not to mention pretty yech for art) and I'm going to try the Tractor Mac series, which is being republished I think.
  • Otis the Tractor I personally hate these books and only a few kids specifically like them, but they're good fill-ins when I've run out.
  • Farm Machines from Jump - I just bought a second copy of the tractor book.
In the same vein, more horse picture books! There was a recent thread on a Facebook group suggesting horse books, but many of them are, sadly, out of print. I'm not sure why there is such a dearth of horse picture books, especially with beautiful illustrations, but I have lots of horse fans who would love more books about this animal.
  • Horse by Malachy Doyle is amazing and gorgeous - more like this please!

4 comments:

SusanHughes said...

Ah, Jennifer, I couldn't agree more! I've written a horse book. Not a picture book, but an MG novel. Here's a link, in case you're interested: http://www.susanhughes.ca/books/islandhorse.php (And it's available as an ebook as well.)

Plus dinosaur books. Who can get enough of 'em?

Jennifer said...

I loved Island Horse! I reviewed it back in the day - I'd love to pull it out again for book club but I'm not sure I can find enough copies. See, not enough horse books!

Annette said...

Big Tractor by Nathan Clement was published this year, and I love it!
Speaking as an author, tractor and farm machine books are a surprisingly tought pitch to publishers. I don't know why. Because the publishers all live and work in cities? Boyds Mill Press, which published Big Tractor, is in a small town in Pennsylvania, so maybe there's something to that.

Jennifer said...

omigosh i totally missed that one! awesome! I shall buy extra copies!