I Read Signs

I Read Signs
Tom Funk ~ Holiday House, 1962

Oh man, oh man, oh man.... I LOVE THIS BOOK. I mean, anything by somebody with the last name "Funk" has to be totally awesome, right? Let me jump to the punch line real quick... there's a boy see, he takes a walk through town on an errand for his mom and checks out all the signs there are to see...

"I read signs,"
Says Peter Malone.
"I know how to read them
By myself alone.
I like to see
What they have to say.
It makes a game
That's fun to play."

Toward the end, Peter spies a man working in a sign shop and becomes totally inspired to go home and label everything around him. One of which is a "For Birds Only" sign for his bird bath, and (of course) now you know what our weekend project is. Though my son has decided our sign is going to read "For Finches and Swallows Only and Also for Purple Martins".

I can't even begin to tell you how cool this book is. It is small and there isn't a great deal of text as the signs tell the story, and the illustrations are so busy with tons going on. Gotta love those New Yorker artists! I always dug those sorts of drawings when I was little. Pictures you could ogle for hours and still find something new. Definitely one I would hunt down rather than wait to find me.