As part of our blog series Family Reads in the Open Field we’ll be rolling out reading lists for families to enjoy all summer long, as provided by local artists, artist-parents, and creative kids. Books selected from the reading lists, as well as radios, backyard games, and other fun stuff is available for check-out at the Open Field Tool Shed. This week’s list is provided by the Duluth-based cartoonist Chris Monroe, who’s comic strip “Violet Days” is featured in the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the Duluth News Tribune. Monroe has also authored and illustrated two great children’s books, Monkey with a Tool Belt (2007) and Monkey with a Tool Belt and the Noisy Problem (2009).
Chris Monroe
I am an artist, cartoonist, and children’s book author, and I live in my hometown of Duluth, Minnesota. There are so many books that I love, that I had a hard time picking ten. So, to narrow it down, I closed my eyes and pictured the books I would love to sit in the grass by the Spoonbridge and Cherry and read this summer. The first ten that came to mind made the list, no exceptions. Here they are:
1. Monkey With A Tool Belt and The Noisy Problem by Chris Monroe
2. Blueberries For Sal by Robert McCloskey
3. What Do People Do All Day? by Richard Scarry
4. Where’s Wallace? by Hilary Knight
5. Skateboard Monsters by Daniel Kirk
6. From The Mixed Up Files Of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L.Konigsburg
7. The Diamond In The Window (The Hall Family Chronicles) by Jane Langton
8. The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warren
9. The Trumpet Of The Swan by E.B.White Illustrated by Fred Marcellino
10. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien