Smile

Tomorrow I drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles with two small children. So in preparation for that very long car ride, I'm thinking of two picture books that make me smile, I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean by Kevin Sherry and The Surprise by Sylvia van Ommen.

Both books have very few words. Well, The Surprise has no words. I actually have the Spanish language version, La Sorpresa, in my hands from the library. The illustrations of a little sheep dying his wool, shearing it, having it made into yarn by a pink poodle smoking a cigarette, and then the sheep stays awake long enough to knit a sweater with a very long neck as a surprise gift for his friend- makes me smile.

And how about the giant squid in, I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean? It's just like my girls in the back seat saying, "My stick of gum is bigger than your stick of gum." Yes this goofy looking squid is the biggest thing in the ocean until ... woops he's swallowed by a whale. He looks around at all the other sea creatures he's already told us he's bigger than and says, "I'm the biggest thing in this whale!" It makes me smile : )

Not only am I going on a family road trip. The destination is a family reunion! In preparation I think not, "What would Jesus Do?" But rather, What would Chevy Chase do?