George O’Connor doesn’t have a long list of children’s books, but what he does have is top-notch. Kind of kooky, offbeat and fun. I suspect O’Connor is a bit like that himself. We had originally received O’Connor’s “Uncle Bigfoot” as a gift from our super-cool friend who works at the Field Museum. Based on the fact that I was able to stomach multiple readings of it without getting whiny (yes, these things make moms whine), I took a chance on another of this guy’s creative endeavors. Despite the fact that little Sally’s mother lets her tromp around by herself in the woods, Sally and the Some-Thing is, as Sally would say, “really something.” I get to make goofy noises like “blegh” and “blippity bloop,” while my girls giggle and repeat; Sally isn’t afraid of anything; and, without needing any hammers on the head, the book departs not one, but two messages: 1) a kind of “don’t judge the scary-looking monster by its first impression” and 2) differences can be overcome with some creative thinking. By George, I think he’s got it.

This week, we loaded up a the library with nine books. Oy. I think we overdid it because I don’t know where they all are right now (by the way, the one that’s ripped was ripped before we brought it home, I swear). So we have two winners, but I’m going to use my official Mom license and hand one the Drake Top Tot Book Award. It’s Anna Dewdney’s stab at a book about manners called Nobunny’s Perfect, and it’s hands-down the cutest one I’ve come across. We love Anna Dewdney for her Llama Llama stories, and they’re rarely available at the library, so we took the leap of faith with this non-llama choice, and it paid off.

My 4- and 2-year-old were huddled around me pointing to bunnies and chattering about them so much I could barely get through a page. The draw? The bunnies have big-time personality: They’re mad and sad and nasty and kind and apologetic, and it all shows in Dewdney’s simple and inviting illustrations. She actually includes a drawing of one bunny spitting out his carrots—and it looks exactly like my 2-year-old when she spits food out right splat in front of her at the table or anywhere she happens to be eating, really. Gotta love it. But she picked up on this bunny’s bad behavior: “He didn’t like that.” Ah-ha. Teaching moment for me. “Yes, but it’s not OK to spit food out at the table, right?” Silence. At least she was thinking about it.

My daughters and I take field trips to the Sulzer Regional library in Lincoln Square every week or so and we pick out a pile of new-to-us books—bedtime includes two each night, so we (my husband and I, mostly) crave the variety. It’s something we started doing recently because, while I love adding to our children’s library, I don’t have space to store much more! So we buy certain forever-keepers (“Where the Wild Things Are,” “The Cat in the Hat,” “Goodnight Moon”), but we’re loving our rotating selection of borrowed books just as much.

But I have a problem. I’m a historically indecisive person, and the library has so many darn books, it’s hard to sort the worthy from the “I could have written that better” books. I know a handful of children’s authors whose books we’ve loved, but one memorable read doesn’t necessarily lead to another (you know who you are, Laura Numeroff). So, I’ve embarked on a project to choose one book of the seven or eight we borrow each visit and award it with the Drake Top Tot Book Award (OK, we’re working on the name and taking suggestions). Our first time winner? “The Art Lesson” by Tomie dePaola.

Part of dePaola’s autobiographical works, the story reveals how all of his friends had certain talents, and “Tommy” loved to draw. He was psyched about having a real art teacher in school, but disappointed when she asked him to copy a picture—you see, real artists don’t copy—and tells him he has to use boring school-issued crayons instead of his cherished box of 64 from home. So Tommy works out a deal with his art teacher that if he copies the Pilgrim man and woman with the school crayons, if there’s still time, he can do his own picture with his own crayons. “And he did/And he still does.” Part of me sees my little Haley as a budding Tomie, so I sneakily picked this one on purpose. And she loved it. Especially the last page where the author/illustrator includes a drawing of Strega Nona, another of our keeper books. Haley thought that was pretty cool. At first she pointed to it hesitatingly, like she wasn’t sure about it, but after I confirmed, “Oh, that’s Strega Nona!” it became her favorite part of the book. Such a gently sweet book. It kind of has it all: heart, soul, a message, a little insider joke and, of course, fabulous art.

Tomie dePaola’s website has more about him and his work. He’s such an interesting guy, I was rather engrossed there for a little while. He even has artwork for sale.