Storytime Potentials: The Pigeon Needs a Bath, Caterina and the Perfect Party

So we got even more picture books in today!

Here we go:

The Pigeon Needs a Bath ("I Do Not" says the Pigeon on the cover)
Mo Willems
ISBN: 9781423190875
The Pigeon, Mo Willems.

Not as amazing as Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! and The Duckling Gets a Cookie? but still funny.  Pigeon is now totally filthy, and needs a bath.  Well, that's what YOU think.  The Pigeon thinks that you are full of it, and he's just fine thankyouverymuch.  Unless of course he really does need a bath - OK FINE!  But then the bath is too hot, too cold, too lukewarm, too full, too empty, too hot, too cold, too reflective, too wet, too empty, too many toys... (this was a lovely page) until he finally takes the plunge, and then TEN HOURS LATER we find him happily still lounging in the tub.  I don't even have kids and I know this is truth in publishing.



Caterina and the Perfect Party
Erin Eitter Kono
ISBN: 9780803739024
Adorable owl in cat-eye glasses.  Seriously too cute for words.

This is a book for the young Pinterest-obsessed craftschild.  Caterina has lists of everything, and she needs everything to be just perfect, especially her very first party ever - she's inviting all of her friends, you see, so it has to be perfect.

Caterina weathers some crafting mishaps like a pro along the way - the invites get a little drowned in red paint, the decorations might have gotten stepped on, and the food prep was a bit more intensive than she realized, but everything is still great for the party - except that it was an outdoor party, and it rains.  Caterina is despondent at the failure of her debut, until all of her friends show up anyway, and prove that a great party is in the people, not the preparations.

Did I mention that Caterina is an adorable owl with cat-eye glasses?  Did I?  Because it's important.

Picture Book Roundup: Nonfiction! The Day-Glo Brothers, Flight of the Honey Bee

And this post marks the last of the great pile of new books we got on Monday.  One final biography, and a really great naturalist book.

The Day-Glo Brothers: The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer's Bright Ideas and Brand-New Colors

Chris Barton, illustrated (IN DAY-GLO!!) by Tony Persiani

ISBN: 9781570916731
(Robert F. Siebert Honor Book)
Dexters Laboratory-style line drawings, with bright fluorescent colors and DAY-GLO!!! 

Did you ever think about who invented those eye-searing day-glo colors?  Me either!  And that's a shame, because it's a great story.  These two brothers had ambitions: Bob wanted to be a doctor, and Joe wanted to be a famous stage magician.  Sadly, life didn't work out for those ambitions - Bob hit his head, and Joe's magic needed some sort of extra spark to catch the eye of talent scouts.  Instead of getting discouraged, the brothers worked together - first discovering and marketing regular ultraviolet-fluorescing colors, then (accidentally) discovering the secret to DAY-GLO EYE SEARING COLORS!!!

And now you know!  Go read the book, seriously - it's awesome!

Flight of the Honey Bee
Raymond Huber, illustrated by Brian Lovelock
ISBN: 9780763667603
pen & ink, watercolors, and pencil, perspective-forced oversize bees, hyperfocus.

This is a lovely book.  Lots of detail in the artwork, but the text is simple and straightforward, following the adventures of a bee scout, sent to find a good source of pollen and nectar for the hive.  Scout braves birds and storms, finds a lovely patch of flowers, escapes from wasps, and figure-8-dances the directions to her sister bees.  The story includes factual details about the story elements on that spread, and the endpapers feature ways to help preserve honeybees, and an index.  I like that the book, despite the picture-book appearance, has many features of nonfiction for older readers; page numbers, index, text notes.  This would be a great picture-book to pair with a bedtime chapter-by-chapter reading of The Adventures of Maya the Bee.

Picture Book Roundup: Biographies! Founding Mothers, Grandfather Gandhi

These are way too long and complex for storytime, but I just couldn't see them come in and not read them.


Founding Mothers: Remembering the Ladies
Cokie Roberts, illustrated by Diane Goode
ISBN: 9780060780029

I really picked this up because of the illustrations - I hadn't noticed the author until I started writing this review.  The endpages on this book are especially worthy of note - made up of collections of writings of the founding mothers.  Very impressive, and beautifully done.

Inside, we get an introduction from the author explaining how the concept of the "founding mothers" was missing when she was in school, so she decided to correct the lapse (I agree with her), then we get a quick timeline of what the "founding" timeperiod comprises (1765-1815) and then we're straight into a spread biography of each woman - when they were in time, what they focused on, what they loved and hated, and what they are remembered for.

Eliza Lucas Pinckney (indigo)
Deborah Read Franklin (Ben Franklin's wife and business manager while he was in "exile" in France
Mercy Otis Warren (letter-writer/campaigner)
(brief pause for a spread on Women Writers of the time)
Phillis Wheatley (former slave, child prodigy)
Abigail Adams (wife and mother to presidents/presidential advisor)
Martha Washington (troop support/first First Lady/vaccine promoter)
(brief pause for a spread on Women Warriors of the time)
Esther DeBerdt Reed (fund-raiser/campaigner)
Sarah Livingstone Jay (expat patriot)
Catharine Littlefield Greene (Washington supporter/troop morale booster)
Dolley Madison (rescued orphans)



Grandfather Gandhi
Arun Gandhi and Bethany Hegedus, illustrated by Evan Turk
ISBN: 9781442423657
mixed-media collage, rich colors, sharp edges.

This is a lovely powerful book.  If I had slightly older children, I'd pair it with Peace, Baby, and have a storytime of the power of CHOOSING peace.  A grandchild of Gandhi comes to the commune, and is frustrated by the simple life there, by sacrifices, by racial tensions, by having to share his famous grandfather, and by his own inability to live in a feeling of peace.  The pivotal moment is when Gandhi reveals that not feeling anger isn't the goal - it's deciding what to DO with that anger.  Do we lash out and destroy like lightning, or do we harness the power of our anger like electricity to fuel our futures?

The mixed-media collage is mostly strings and threads and cloth, and when they appear, they're almost three-dimensional, inviting the reader to reach out and touch these characters.

Really impressive.

  

Picture Book Roundup: Biographies! I Am Abraham Lincoln, I am Amelia Earhart

I don't often use biographies in storytime, but I might actually be able to use the Amelia Earhart one - it's really short and kicky, and has some great illustrations that remind me just a bit of Calvin and Hobbes's Susie Derkins.

It doesn't hurt that they both also have that very Calvin and Hobbes simplistic way of taking complex moral ideas and just presenting them in kid-friendly language, with examples and illustrations that really resonate.  These are really short, and really simple, meant for very young audiences.  

I am Abraham Lincoln
Brad Meltzer, illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulos
ISBN: 9780803740839

Starting with the basics, Lincoln illustrates that character starts with the small things: persistence, determination, caring for others.  Then it jumps into a (VERY SIMPLISTIC) treatment of Lincoln's stances on the Civil War and ending slavery.  The running joke of being on the penny (what's a penny?) is a little silly for me, but perhaps it would strike a younger reader as more amusing.


I am Amelia Earhart
Brad Meltzer, illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulos
ISBN: 9780803740822

I am pretty sure this is going to get used in a storytime at some point.  Amelia is just too overenthusiastic to not take advantage of.  Seriously - this entire book is about the importance of enthusiasm.  If you want something, you work for it, and you fight for it, and you DO IT because it makes you happy.  Haters gonna hate - you just go for your dreams and see what you can do with them.  Again, a perfect Calvin and Hobbes style message, in a great little short biography for the youngest audience.

Tuesday Storytime: Rainy Days

I was away at a class this time around, so one of my lovely Clerks gave the storytime.  I didn't know we were slated for nasty weather when I picked these out for her last week, but given the rain last night, and the epic storms heading our way for today and tomorrow, I'm feeling a little prophetic!

Listen to the Rain
Bill Martin, Jr, and John Archambault, illustrated by James Endicott
ISBN: 0805006826
peaceful minimalistic paintings against a white backdrop

I love this book for storytime.  It's a perfect onomatopoeic verbal representation of a storm, with all the rhyming and similar words getting repeated and emphasized.  It's also a lovely combination of lyric and artistic minimalism and synthesis.  I'm a little jealous that I didn't get to read it, but I wanted something for my Clerk that would flow and read smoothly for someone with not as much practice at Storytime.  This one is perfect for that, and that's why I picked the theme.


A Letter to Amy
Ezra Jack Keats
ISBN: 0670880639
Ezra Jack Keats, y'all.

I don't like this one quite as much as The Snowy Day, but it's up there.  Peter wants to specially invite a special friend to his party, but there are some difficulties.  First, she's a girl, and that's a little weird.  Secondly, he wants to actually MAIL her an invite, to make it more special, but his day is just not going well - a storm blows in, and gets the letter wet, and then something even worse happens!  Poor Peter - will his friend even show up for his party now?  Love this man, love his books. Another good "easy read" for an inexperienced Storytimer.


Red Rubber Boot Day
Mary Lyn Ray, illustrated by Lauren Stringer
ISBN: 0152053980
saturated colors, close-focus, daily life, textural brushwork

I hardcore love this book.  I don't care that the author and illustrator aren't famous picture book people.  They are amazing and I want to send them all the love for this perfect perfect stompy rainy-day I've run out of things to do inside can I please go outside into the fresh rain-wet perfect new green day and play in the puddles book.  I like this book so much I went out and bought a copy for my home library and I don't even have a kid yet to read it to!


I miss my kids so much when I can't do my Storytimes so I'm really looking forward to next week:  Oversize Animals.

Storytime Potentials: Peace Baby, Brimsby's Hats

Rolling through the picture books still!

Peace, Baby!
Linda Ashman, illustrated by Joanne Lew-Vriethoff
ISBN: 9781452106137

This book made me want to grow my hair out long and straight, wear bell-bottoms, and put on a flower crown.  Seriously, tho, this is a cute montage of stress-inducing child situations, with a mantra of "Peace, Baby" to remind kids to seek alternatives to violence or anger.  Especially nice because the situations are very realistic for kids, and because there is absolutely no religious or cultural context invoked.  This one will be getting used soon!


Brimsby's Hats
Andrew Prahin
ISBN: 9781442481473

I actually saw a review for this one in Booklist a while back and specifically requested it.  I was so happy today to see it in person finally!  It's always a gamble for me to get excited about books based on a review - I so often disagree with them, or find some little niggling thing that bugs me that the reviewer didn't include.

I LOVE THIS BOOK!

Brimsby (most excellent name) had a good friend, and they would sit together and visit, until the friend went off to sea to fulfill his dream of being a sea captain.  Then Brimsby was lonely.  How Brimsby found a tree full of potential friends and set about making friends with them is just a sweet sweet story.

It's a bit on the long side, but I think I can make it work.  It's worth it for a sweetie like this.

Storytime Potentials: Inside Outside, and Look What I Can Do!

My favorite days in the library are when the new books come in.  They smell like ink and paper, the pages are crisp and bright, and the covers are all shiny glossy plastic in their new covers.

Got a WHOLE LOT today.

Inside Outside
Lizi Boyd
ISBN: 9781452106441
wordless paper-cut collage.

I'm not sure I'll be able to use this one in storytime, but I really enjoyed seeing it.  The pages are like paper-bag paper, a bit rough and stiff, and the drawings are deceivingly naive line-drawings with color scattered about seemingly haphazardly.  However, the real treat is watching the seasons pass by through the windows (die cut) looking out and looking in as the main character (gender neutral) plays inside and out.  Lots of detail here, and lots to notice on multiple read-throughs.  Would be really good with a classroom, I think, to revisit time and again.



Look What I Can Do!
Nancy Viau, illustrated by Anna Vojtech
ISBN: 9781419705298
soft-edged "dreamy countryside" illustrations of animals and children at play

This is a perfect storytime book, and I am actually going to use it with Oops a Daisy! and another book (still have to find it) to create a "try and try again" theme.  I've wanted a theme like that for a while now, and these will be perfect together, if I can find a third.

Seriously adorable woodland creatures (including a snake and a spider for those phobic) narrate their attempts to do their specific type of work/play - a fawn stands wobbily, a raccoon tries to catch a fish and fails - and ends with kids attempting new activities as well - skating, riding a bike, hitting a baseball.  Rhymed couplets with the "wise owl" and the "wise owlet" providing the capstone rhymes.

Tuesday Storytime: Friends can be Different

We had a HUGE crowd this week, lots of boys, lots of energy.  The only one that was a bit of a mismatch was Chopsticks, but a parent wanted to check it out afterwards, so that's a win regardless.

Alex and Lulu: Two of a Kind
Lorena Siminovich
ISBN: 9780763644239
Block-prints and naive blocky-shaped characters.

Alex is a stereotypical boy dog, and Lulu is a stereotypical girl cat.  They are good friends, but Alex begins to think about all the ways they are different, and worries that they can't be friends because they are opposites.  Lulu reassures him that friends are often better when they have some differences, because that makes play and time spent together the richer.  Other than wishing that either Alex or Lulu wasn't majority white, and that they weren't so super-duper stereotypically boy/girl in their interests, this is a very nice calm sweet reminder that friends can and do have interests that are different.


The Story of Fish & Snail
Deborah Freedman
ISBN: 9780670784899
Book-within-a-book, where Fish and Snail live inside a picture book, and Fish explores inside other picture books.  Watercolors against a greyscale background.

Fish is happy being with Snail in their calm book, but Fish does like going out into other stories and bringing the tales back to Snail (who is quite happy to stay and play calm friendly games in their own peaceful book, thank you very much.)  Fish and Snail get into it when Fish wants Snail to come see an interesting (scary) book in person, and Snail gets frightened and lashes out.  But when Fish swims off into another story, Snail realizes being alone is no fun, and bravely goes out into the unfamiliar book to find Fish.  So pretty, so interesting, and a little mind-bending with the background of book-hopping.



Chopsticks
Amy Krause Rosenthal, illustrated by Scott Magoon
ISBN: 9781423107965
(SC Picture Book Award: 2013-2014 school year)
Visual puns all over the place, and asides from background characters/utensils.

Chopsticks do everything together, until an advance training exercise (skewering asparagus) leaves one man down with a broken tip.  Dr. Glue says he'll be right as rain in no time, but meanwhile, his buddy is driving him nuts trying to keep him company.  So the wounded stick sends his hale and hearty friend out into the world alone, to discover that he can have fun alone (playing soccer, baking, playing dress-up) and come back with interesting stories to tell his injured friend.  The story ends with both back upright and healthy, able to work as friends either together or apart.

William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back

William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back (Star Wars, Part the Fifth)
Ian Doescher
ISBN: 9781594747151
Read April 21, 2014

Review of William Shakespeare's Verily, A New Hope.

Still digging this series, and cannot wait for Jedi to come out in a few months.  There are some rough spots here and there (the AT-ATs were a little strange for me, and some of the monologues were just a touch on the longwinded side, and the lamentation song was a little weird) but otherwise it was another brilliant installment in the ongoing marriage between Star Wars and Shakespeare.

Favorite parts:

Singing Ugnaughts.  Seriously.

Lando gets an actual character arc.  This one is actually a qualified success, because I think one of the strengths of the film is that the betrayal just comes completely out of left field unless you're naturally suspicious.  They're talking, they're walking, the city is beautiful, and BAM - Vader!  But in a book (er, play) that's harder to accomplish and then have Lando become a hero, so I like that he gets asides and monologues and hints that he's really unhappy to be forced into this choice.

"Exit, pursued by a wampa."

Murder of Crows, Anne Bishop

Murder of Crows: A Novel of the Others 
Anne Bishop
ISBN: 9780451465269
2nd in Series, after Written in Red
Read April 18, 2014

I read the first of this series and did a shorty review of it a while back, and I'm happy to say the sequel was pretty darn good.  I was sad to see less of the Elementals; I love the seasons and the weather/natural phenomenon ponies so much, but they weren't a big part of this.

I will say the plotting was more solid this time around, although the characters are still a little one-dimensional.  That's ok with me, because I like the dimensions they show off, and honestly I wasn't looking for the next great literary epic.

Good stuff: More about the background and the world, some really creepy moments (meat grinders and hands in jars) and a good bit of Tess (who is scary scary!).

Not so good stuff: A few elisions made me wonder about either plot-holes or the mental capacity of the Others.  After learning that it's not wise to use attacks that could involve ingesting the blood of their enemies, the main characters assist on an all-out-attack, where either the main characters forgot to tell the other assailants about this little detail, or the other assailants didn't give a crap - and none of the so-far pretty serious consequences were mentioned as a result.  That bugged me a little.

The totally unnecessary mis-communication regarding the "sweet bloods" kept at the facilities was really irksome.  I just hate that particular method of introducing in-group conflict or tensions, and it felt very false to the characters and story so far to end on that particular note.

However, I still enjoyed the crap out of it, read it straight through, and can't wait for the next one!

Tuesday Storytime: Jumpy

Add this one to my roster of "weird themes" - this one is about animals jumping.  It was great fun, if you're wondering, especially Jump! which seems created for wild and active toddlers.


Oops-a-Daisy!
Claire Freedman, illustrated by Gaby Hansen
ISBN: 1589250370
Pastels, soft edges, and a gentle "moral" to keep trying.

This one is very sweet.  Little Bunny is discouraged by her difficulties in learning to jump - it's so hard to get her feet to do what she asks, and there's so much to keep track of all at the same time!  Anyone, even adults learning a new physical skill, can sympathize with the frustration and despair of ever getting it "right."  But Mama Rabbit is always nearby, and she deflects worries and defeatism by pointing out the other "Little" animals learning to do things also; Mouse trying to climb a grass stem, Badger (with Daddy Badger!!) digging, Duck swimming in circles.  Daisy Bunny relaxes and continues to try, knowing that everyone tries and fails.
Good length for my little ones, with full-spread illustrations to keep their attention during the longer patches of reading.



Jump!
Scott M. Fischer
ISBN: 9781416978848
Super-bright cartoonish animals with exaggerated features and almost no text to clutter the page.

I LOVE IT!  Starting with a bug on a jug, the animals encounter something bigger and badder, each time JUMP!ing out of the way, til we get to the shark vs the whale, and we get a vertical spread instead of the normal horizontal flow.



If You're Hoppy
April Pulley Sayre, illustrated by Jackie Urbanovic
ISBN: 9780061566349
A very 'interactive' and non-traditional text, using the "If You're Happy and you Know It" rhyme to riff off of.

This one's cute, especially when it gets to "if you're slimy and scaly and mean, you're a... oh, never mind" with a multicolored shadow of a creepy monster on the page and reveals it at the end to be the frog from the start of the story.  Very fun, and a great ending for the day.  Any book with a surprise reveal pterodactyl is a good book.

 


 

Juvenile Nonfiction: Lives of the Scientists, Kathleen Krull & Kathryn Hewitt

Lives of the Scientists: Experiments, Explosions (and What the Neighbors Thought)
Kathleen Krull, illustrated by Kathryn Hewitt
ISBN: 9780152059095
(Part of a series of "Lives of" books)

First off, I really don't like oversized bobble-head art, but despite that, the faces are well done and engaging, and the other (non-portrait) illustrations are even more attractive, done in a soft-edged realistic style.

Second, I really DO like the effort put into highlighting women scientists, and that they included scientists of color and from non Western backgrounds (although they could have done a bit better, in my opinion - it's still pretty heavily western-centric).

Here's the biographical breakdown, non-Western scientists in bold, and women in italics:

Zhang Heng
Ibn Sina
Galileo
Isaac Newton
William and Catherine Herschel
Charles Darwin
Louis Pasteur
Ivan Pavlov
George Washington Carver
Marie Curie
Albert Einstein
Edwin Hubble
Barbara McClintock
Grace Murray Hopper
Rachel Carson
Chien-Shiung Wu
James D Watson and Francis Crick (with an honorable mention of poor Rosalind Franklin in England)
Jane Goodall

The biographies are short and to the point, focusing on the mind-set (and often on the peculiar personal habits) of these varied scientists.  In addition to their scientific discoveries, the biography talks about their beliefs, their family and children (or lack thereof) the hardships they overcame, and how they died.  Each bio also tries to add a bit of levity by including some 'truth is stranger than fiction' tidbits about their lives.

The For Further Reading page is sadly just one page, but the resources included look solid and comprehensive.

Picture Book: Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote, Duncan Tonatiuh

Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote (A Migrant's Tale) 
Duncan Tonatiuh
ISBN: 9781419705830

This is a hard one to review.  The surface story is a "brer rabbit vs wily coyote" tale of a young bunny's search for his father who is long overdue from working away from home.  The understory is almost not an understory at all - the parallel between the folktale coyote and the human trafficker coyote is obvious.  Equally obvious is the  mythical "North" on the other side of a great fence and wall where the father works in endless fields to support his family.

Here goes anyway.  I don't think I'll ever use this book directly in programming, because just the subject matter is too politicized for me to handle in what is intended to be a neutral space.  I deeply regret that being the case, but it's too far above my pay grade to rock the boat when there are hundreds of other titles available to suit my needs.  Am I glad it's in the catalog and available to check out?  Yes indeed, and I plan to use it for displays and other appropriate title-suggestion venues.  I just don't ever see myself using it as a storytime book.


Now on to the text and art themselves: On one level, I'm actually happy that the treatment is as obvious and as (I hate to say it) clunky and ham-handed as it is - because I feel less bad rejecting it from an artistic standpoint than I do rejecting it because of the socio-political environment.  If it weren't for the touchy subject matter and obvious intent, I don't think I would have given this art style and storyline a second glance.  It's just clunky and not very well written, and the art doesn't appeal to me.

What do I dislike?  It's just clunky.  It takes forever (5 full spreads) to set up the point - father is away and is expected back, but doesn't arrive.  It's cliched, and not in a good way, and super slow to get to what should be the point: young rabbit's adventures.  When we do get going, they're repetitive, and not in a good way.  The coyote requires food as payment, again and again over the travel (on a train, across a river, through a tunnel), as do the border guards (depicted as snakes with army helmets).  The ending is equally cliched - night falls and the exhausted rabbit and coyote rest in a shack, until coyote decides to eat rabbit for dinner (don't even get me started about the really NSFW implications of trying to explain THAT parallel in social studies class with middle school kids) and Papa appears magically over the horizon, drives the coyote away, and little rabbit reprises his arduous journey immediately (and off-screen) with all the papas from the fields who are ready to return home to their families, where the last spread reveals that (again off-screen) "crows" took all their money and supplies, so they have no way to support themselves still, after all that work.

Otherwise, there's a lot of dialogue, and a lot of text on each page, but it's didactic and obvious, not interesting.  Most of the text is white on darker backgrounds, but there are random pages where it's black, for no good reason, and it's jarring to switch.  The art is stylized, and I don't mind that, but the compositions are usually fairly poor.  When you're using a very stylized and static form, it's necessary to compensate for that by having vibrant compositions with a lot of implied movement, or implied social/emotional resonance.  There were only two pages I really felt accomplished that: the beginning of the story as the families are setting up the party area, and later the half-page of coyote pulling rabbit across the river.

Overall an interesting book.  I'm glad it was made.  I'm glad that we have them in the collection.  I wish that it were a better quality.    

  

Picture Book: Rock 'n' Roll Mole, Carolyn Crimi & Lynn Munsinger

Rock 'n' Roll Mole
Carolyn Crimi, illustrated by Lynn Munsinger
ISBN: 9780803731660

This is a delightful book, and I'm so glad it crossed the desk while I was around to intercept it!  My only sadness is that it's WAAYYYY too long to be used in my Storytimes - I'll have to hold on to it for the rare occasions that I get a school tour or a group of older kids.

Mole loves rock and roll - his idols are Mick Badger, Moo 2, and Goose Springsteen - and he can play too!  He rocks shades and a leather jacket, and he even has a trio of little school chicks who follow him around like groupies!

What Mole doesn't have is the confidence to play in public.  His friend Pig is fine as an audience - they're best friends - but the public?  Scary!  Still, when Pig organizes a school talent show, Mole is willing to help.  Help set up, help promote, help run - not to play.  Until Pig's i-pod for his dancing act fails, and he's left in the lurch unless one brave friend steps up to help out one last time.

I like that this book gives no indication that the i-pod failure is anything other than bad luck - that Pig isn't tricking Mole into performing for his own good - he's legit in the lurch, and Mole is such a good friend that he's willing to step out of his comfort zone to help his friend succeed.

I love the illustrations - everyone is so cute and still recognizably animals with snouts and hooves - even the little chick groupies are adorable.  The text is fantastic as well - the voices are realistic and not coy or overly precious, and Mole's "rock star" persona is too cute for words.

All the stars!  

Tuesday Storytime: Stars

This one was spurred by finding How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers, while looking for "Space" themed books for our Summer Reading Program.

This program was riiiiight on the edge of too long for our wiggly ones, but it worked out ok overall.


Coyote Places the Stars
Harriet Peck Taylor
ISBN: 0689815352
Naive folk-art with a heroic Coyote.

This one was the really long one, and I'll admit to eliding some of the paragraph-long descriptions when I could get away with it.  Coyote is bored, so he climbs up to the moon and uses his arrows to re-arrange the stars into patterns and shapes more to his liking.  Afterwards, he is proud of his work, and shows off to all his friends in the animal kingdom.  I really liked that this story has Coyote as a clever cunning hero than a trickster, and that the images that were chosen to represent the other animals as his friends.



Stars
Mary Lyn Ray, illustrated by Marla Frazee
ISBN: 9781442422490
Pen-and-pencil episodic drawings, imaginative and fanciful concepts.

This one was a bit long for the middle spot, but would have been perfect length for one of my usual first or last stories.  Because it doesn't really have a plot - just a dreamlike improvisation off the theme of stars - I put it in the middle today.  The underlying theme is that between the stars in the sky and the stars that are all around us (paper stars, star stickers, flowers or snowflakes or fireworks) people should remember their worth and be "shiny."  Bonus stealth Firefly reference (probably unintentional) made it harder to resist.



How to Catch a Star
Oliver Jeffers
ISBN: 0399242864
Blocky NO David! -style artwork, very simple, but colorful and clear.  Super-simple storyline.

The boy loves stars, and he's imagined what a perfect friend a star would be - so he sets out to catch one.  He looks (and waits) all day, then tries and fails to reach an evening star in the sky, and the reflection of one in the water, and almost gives up before finding a star (starfish) on the beach to be his friend.  Other than the slightly odd note of having to "catch" a friend, this is sweet and simple and cute.

Tuesday Storytime: Mice

Found a really cute book while selecting storytime reads called Busy Little Mouse, by Eugenie Fernandes, with clay-sculpt illustrations by Kim Fernandes, and so I decided to pair it with a couple of other cute mouse books for an easy theme.

Busy Little Mouse

Eugenie Fernandes, illustrated by Kim Fernandes

ISBN: 1550747789

Clay-sculpt illustrations, farms, animal sounds.

The story isn't technically about the mouse - it jumps from him pretty quickly over to a page-by-page handover of different barnyard animals.  Each is introduced through interactions with the previous, and each page ends with a "what does the little (insert animal) say?" which is great for a first story, as the kids can be interactive and bouncy and slowly settle into listening mode.  The illustrations however, do have the mouse tagging along with each animal switchover, and the story concludes with him going home to bed after his busy day.

Whose Mouse are You?

Robert Kraus, illustrated by Jose Aruego

ISBN: 0689840527

1970s Library of Congress and ALA notable book, yellow/orange naive illustrations.

This is one of those "classic" picture books that I feel I ought to like more than I actually do.  Not that I dislike it, but I don't get the cult love that many have for it.  That said, it is a classic, it is a cute little short story, and it fit well here.  Readers get a little mouse "Nobody's mouse" because his mom has been eaten by the cat, his dad is in a trap, his sister far from home, and brother is nonexistent.  Sparked into action, he saves his mother, father, sister, and wishes for a brother, and then the last third shows him happily belonging with each of his relatives, including the teeny tiny newborn brother.

I Miss You Mouse

Greg Foley

ISBN: 9780670012381

Lift-the-flap "search" story.

I love Greg Foley.  His stories are so cute and sweet and simple and nice.  This one is no exception - mouse gets a lovely note from Bear, and goes looking for him, because she has something important to tell him.  Lift-the-flaps hide animals in various environments - leaf piles, rocks, pond - where animals who are not Bear inform the mouse she has to keep searching, until she goes home at the end of the day to find Bear there, and tell him her important news (and give him a sweet lift-the-flap-wrapped present).