Even more best books for children

I gave my son a copy of Chris Monroe's "Monkey with a Tool Belt" for his 5th birthday in November. He enjoyed it so much, I picked up her second book, "Monkey with a Tool Belt and the Noisy Problem" for him for Hanukkah.

My son loves the book's main character, Chico Bon Bon, and shares stories about him -- from the books and ones he makes up on his own -- with his own stuffed monkey, Loggy. He will sit for many minutes, examining all the tools on Chico's tool belt or tracing the path the organ grinder took when he kidnapped Chico or when Chico escaped to a bus stop.

He's puzzled by how someone as smart as Chico Bon Bon could be lured into a trap by a plastic banana split or why the organ grinder uses a vacuum cleaner when he makes dinner. And he loves to imitate sounds like, "Arooga, boom boom, clang, clang."

I love how, in each book, Chico comes up with a detailed 12-step plan to solve the problem at hand, and that includes using many tools and some math.

I highly recommend both books, especially for 5-year-old boys and their moms and dads.

And a couple more memorable books from recent library visits: Stone Soup as retold by Jon Muth and The Garden of Abdul Gasazi (Chris Van Allsburg). As with any of Van Allsburg's books, the story is entrancing and the illustrations superb.