Tuesday, May 19, 2009

The Ice-Cream Cone Coot and Other Rare Birds

The Ice-Cream Cone Coot and Other Rare Birds
Arnold Lobel ~ Parent's Magazine Press, 1971


Finally discovered my son's all time favorite book. We've always been Frog & Toad fans. The boy is obsessed with the audio book collection and sometimes makes me repeat the story "A Swim" (from Frog and Toad Are Friends) some five times before moving on. It totally cracks him up.

Anyway, I was absolutely delighted when I stumbled across a never-before-seen-by-my-eyes Lobel classic that is all about birds (kind of). That is to say, it is all about imaginary birds... and it's only been in my possession since 11 o'clock this morning and already we've read it nine times. HE LOVES IT. This book and my son belong together. It was as if Arnold reached from the grave and created this book just for my son to enjoy. He tried to sleep with it tonight, but once he dosed off, I went back in and snatched it up. Make no mistake however, it will be the first thing I hear when he wakes up tomorrow, "WHERE IS MY ICE CREAM CONE COOT!?!" So, without further delay...

All the birds inside this book are very strange and rare, and if you travel to the zoo you will not find them there. Don't look for them in nature books, in parks or pet shop cages, The Drippet, Piffle and the rest live only on these pages.

Goodness. The awesomeness of this book is hard to put into words. Probably easier to put into names as we are introduced to the likes of The Milkbottle Midge, The Garbage Canary, The Jackknife Niffy, The Steampresser Sparrow, The Dollarbill Dodo, The Wetweather Wren, The Waterglass Goose, The Glove Dove and...

The Ten O'clock Tit Trush takes to the skies.
He soars high above us, and time really flies.


Needless to say, my son is hugely biased as this one is full of birds, but even still... The rhymes are impeccable. The bird illustrations imaginative and colorful. Really, you don't have to love birds to like it. Everything Mr. Lobel touched is gold in my book... Consider this 24 carat.Also by:
The Terrible Tiger
Red Tag Comes Back
Oscar Otter
The Star Thief
Mouse Tales
Prince Bertram the Bad
The Secret Three
Benny's Animals
Lucille
Miss Suzy
Martha the Movie Mouse
Terry and the Caterpillars
The Strange Disappearance of Arthur Cluck

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18 comments:

Roberta said...

I read this to my three year old just the other day... she loved it!

Unknown said...

What a stunning book, looks fabulous!

A said...

I've never heard of this, but it looks super fun!

Happy Reader said...

Wow! sounds like a great book! I would love to read it to my dd some day

Anonymous said...

I LOVED this book as a kid! Thank you for posting d my copy to it! I want to find my copy to save for when I have my own kids.

daysease said...

Ooh, love that it, seemingly, encourages kids to think outside the box...Fun!!!

Burgin Streetman said...

my son now demands this first before all others and has started making up his own bird names. too cute.

Anonymous said...

I am 16 and I loved this book as a kid. I still do. Thanks for the post. =D

Anonymous said...

I'm a new mom and will be buying this book for my daughter!! My three sisters and me loved loved loved this book when we were little!!

Anonymous said...

Absolutely love this book as much as my five year old.
I'm getting a tattoo of the gramophone gullfinch.

Anonymous said...

Hey - I've never seen this Lobel book before - I can see how it would get you inventing more crazy birds!

Dolly said...

I love this book also-and gave one to my sister for her 40th b-day. We had a fabulous time reminiscing about Ice Cream Cone Coot:)

Emily M Hughes said...

This used to be one of my favorite books as a kid too, and I still love looking at it. Seeing that your family is as much of an Arnold Lobel fan as mine, I recommend his picture book, "Giant John". I still remember the smell of that particular book, and I always got hungry when reading it- go figure!

Burgin Streetman said...

i love giant john! just haven't gotten around to posting on it yet. so many books so little time. thanks for reading!

Anonymous said...

This was my favoright book when I was a little girl (I am now 33). I will for sure be getting this for my little boy!!

Holly said...

Thanks for sharing this great review with all the photos! I have ordered my own copy of this book.

IanG said...

Have just remembered the fun I had reading this wonderful little book to my boys all those years ago!!

IanG said...

I have just been reminded of the fun I had reading this wonderful little book to my boys all those years ago!!

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