Tuesday Storytime: Mother's Day

Shocked and amazed that there were still Mothers' Day books to choose from on the shelves, so I took it as a mandate to actually correspond with a day of celebration for once.

Bedtime for Mommy
Amy Krouse Rosenthal, illustrated by LeUyen Pham
ISBN: 9781599903415
Vibrant expressive watercolor-and-sketch faces and postures.

I can't believe I haven't done this book for storytime for so long.  I discovered it when it came out, fell in love, and bought it for myself immediately (that happens with me and picture books sometimes).  I've used it for storytimes before, but it must have been a while back.  It's short, adorable, nearly wordless, and made of little vignettes.  Roles are reversed for a whole night while the young girl puts Mommy to bed - with the whole process chronicled, from the inevitable "5 more minutes" to the selecting and reading of the bedtime story (Anna Karenina) to the precise adjustment of the width of the door opening.  And of course the coda is that now it's time for the same process with Daddy.  Just simply adorable.


Bee Frog
Martin Waddell, illustrated by Barbara Firth
ISBN: 9780763633103
Cute perky watercolor frogs in a cute and very short story.

If it weren't for the illustrations, I don't think I'd bother with this slight tale of a baby frog who pretends she's a dragon, gets ignored by her family when she tries to play pretend with them (they're working or reading or sleeping) so she runs away to play by herself, gets bored, and her family comes looking for her.  But, the illustrations are so adorable, the story gets away with being a little twee.  Besides, it's a nice very young-focused entry on the "nobody loves me, everybody hates me, guess I'll go eat worms" impulse that young ones get when they're feeling unjustly treated by the universe at large.


My Monster Mama Loves Me So
Laura Leuk, illustrated by Mark Buehner
ISBN: 9780688168667
Bright dayglow highlight colors and rich saturated dark pages.  Very "Monsters, INC."

A cute little green monster narrates what his Mama does for him, from baking cookies with bugs in, to taking him to the swamp to swim, to teaching him to brush his fangs, all of which shows how she loves him.  Very cute introduction to "scary" monster tropes like bats and spiders and dark nights, all talked about as comforting or lovable.