This storytime was compiled and given by a different co-worker, as both of us were on vacation at the same time! Cute and good books tho, very well chosen.
One, Two, Cockatoo!
Sarah Garson
Essentially a counting and tongue-twister book, it's a silly romp through an idealized jungle canopy where cockatoos (and eventually other animals) all get involved in counting and dancing and frolicking around being generally silly.
Llama llama mess, mess, mess
An Anna Dewdney book (by Reed Duncan (her former spouse?) and illustrated by JT Morrow)
The shine is a bit off of this continuing series, but it still manages to be sprightly and cute, and handle child-level concerns and thought-patterns quite well. This time around, Llama llama sees what happens when no-one cleans up, and he doesn't like the chaos as much as he thought he would. Maybe a BIT of cleaning might be ok?
Kiss Goodnight
Amy Hest, illustrated by Anita Jeram
Always a sweet ending book. Sam gets all the standard bedtime rituals, but he's still waiting! For the most important part of bedtime, of course.
Showing posts with label Anna Dewdney. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anna Dewdney. Show all posts
Monday, September 16, 2019
Wednesday, March 6, 2019
Tuesday Storytime: Celebrate Reading
I had a collection of spring books all selected, but apparently this is "last surprise winter" week, so instead I'll save those for next time and use this cute trio of books about reading and libraries.
Bear's House of Books
Poppy Bishop, illustrated by Alison Edgson
ISBN: 9781680100389
This is such a cute book. Four childhood friends share their one picture book every night, even though it's worn out and sticky from use, until they go on a search for a new book, and discover an entire library owned by a slightly grumpy Bear. Bear is upset at first about others using his books (especially with sticky paws and when they use a sandwich as a bookmark) but when he realizes that they only have ONE book, he quickly develops a solution. Really sweet and heartwarming.
Llama Llama Loves to Read
Anna Dewney and Reed Duncan (or should that be the other way around...) illustrated by JT Morrow
ISBN: 9780670013975
The standard llama llama rhyming scheme works its magic with the process of reading - from letters to sounds to words, sentences, songs, books, stories, and reading informational signs. Not much depth, but accurate and uplifting, acknowledging that sometimes words need to be memorized, and sometimes words are difficult to read or learn. Not as inspiring as some of the other more emotional llama llama challenge-facing books, but a solid introduction to the concept of learning to read as a process.
Our Library
Eve Bunting, illustrated by Maggie Smith
ISBN: 9780618494583
(minus the last three or four pages because I had a young and very wiggly crowd - I ended on the "library on the grassy meadow" spread.)
I will say, the grownups in the group really enjoyed the VERY SPECIFIC book titles that were checked out of the library in order to help the children solve their problems and overcome their difficulties. Mrs Goose made everyone sad when she revealed that the library was old and dingy, with a bad roof, and no money, and that the landlord (a weasel of course) wanted the land back, but with some judicious checking out of VERY SPECIFIC BOOKS, and a lot of hard work and effort, and a dramatic confrontation with an elderly and grumpy Beaver, the library was saved - all with the help and instruction provided by the library books.
Bear's House of Books
Poppy Bishop, illustrated by Alison Edgson
ISBN: 9781680100389
This is such a cute book. Four childhood friends share their one picture book every night, even though it's worn out and sticky from use, until they go on a search for a new book, and discover an entire library owned by a slightly grumpy Bear. Bear is upset at first about others using his books (especially with sticky paws and when they use a sandwich as a bookmark) but when he realizes that they only have ONE book, he quickly develops a solution. Really sweet and heartwarming.
Llama Llama Loves to Read
Anna Dewney and Reed Duncan (or should that be the other way around...) illustrated by JT Morrow
ISBN: 9780670013975
The standard llama llama rhyming scheme works its magic with the process of reading - from letters to sounds to words, sentences, songs, books, stories, and reading informational signs. Not much depth, but accurate and uplifting, acknowledging that sometimes words need to be memorized, and sometimes words are difficult to read or learn. Not as inspiring as some of the other more emotional llama llama challenge-facing books, but a solid introduction to the concept of learning to read as a process.
Our Library
Eve Bunting, illustrated by Maggie Smith
ISBN: 9780618494583
(minus the last three or four pages because I had a young and very wiggly crowd - I ended on the "library on the grassy meadow" spread.)
I will say, the grownups in the group really enjoyed the VERY SPECIFIC book titles that were checked out of the library in order to help the children solve their problems and overcome their difficulties. Mrs Goose made everyone sad when she revealed that the library was old and dingy, with a bad roof, and no money, and that the landlord (a weasel of course) wanted the land back, but with some judicious checking out of VERY SPECIFIC BOOKS, and a lot of hard work and effort, and a dramatic confrontation with an elderly and grumpy Beaver, the library was saved - all with the help and instruction provided by the library books.
Tuesday, February 27, 2018
Tuesday Storytime: Getting Along With Others
Ok fine, I'm a giant drag, I know. I use storytime to force my agenda of purposefully acquiring manners and learning cooperation and developing emotional regulation on 4 year olds. Sorry not sorry.
Do Unto Otters: A Book About Manners
Laurie Keller
ISBN: 9780805079968
What it says on the tin, basically. Rabbit discovers his new neighbors the Otters, and is concerned about them being good neighbors and good friends. He learns the maxim "Do Unto Otters" (you get the idea) and spends the book laying out what exactly, behavior-wise, that sort of thing entails. Really really good for being clear and obvious about social expectations while also being cute and tongue-in-cheek.
When Sophie Gets Angry
Molly Bang
ISBN: 9780590189798
Love how this book just straightforwardly deals with emotions, and shows a valid way of processing them out in nature, and shows the progression of a general upset from rage to anger to frustration to sadness to acceptance and re-integration into the original scene. It's a lot of really big concepts that are conveyed perfectly clearly through illustrations and colors and perspective, and carefully chosen child-level vocabulary. Classic and nonjudgmental.
llama llama and the bully goat
Anna Dewdney
ISBN: 9780670013951
Llama llama and his preschool class (and Zebra! preschool teacher) deal with a kid who is leaning into acting in bullying ways. The resolution is a leeeeetle bit too pat, but with kids this young, there's a fine line between being a bully and just being un-social and needing a bit of help. I'm choosing to view it as the second, and they're just using the bully terminology because the beginning of "here's how to handle this" is the same in both cases: advocate for yourself, use your words to clearly set boundaries, then involve a trusted adult or authority figure. After that if it really is a settled bully and not just a fellow kid having a singular bad day, things get a bit too complex for a book I'm willing to read in storytime.
Do Unto Otters: A Book About Manners
Laurie Keller
ISBN: 9780805079968
What it says on the tin, basically. Rabbit discovers his new neighbors the Otters, and is concerned about them being good neighbors and good friends. He learns the maxim "Do Unto Otters" (you get the idea) and spends the book laying out what exactly, behavior-wise, that sort of thing entails. Really really good for being clear and obvious about social expectations while also being cute and tongue-in-cheek.
When Sophie Gets Angry
Molly Bang
ISBN: 9780590189798
Love how this book just straightforwardly deals with emotions, and shows a valid way of processing them out in nature, and shows the progression of a general upset from rage to anger to frustration to sadness to acceptance and re-integration into the original scene. It's a lot of really big concepts that are conveyed perfectly clearly through illustrations and colors and perspective, and carefully chosen child-level vocabulary. Classic and nonjudgmental.
llama llama and the bully goat
Anna Dewdney
ISBN: 9780670013951
Llama llama and his preschool class (and Zebra! preschool teacher) deal with a kid who is leaning into acting in bullying ways. The resolution is a leeeeetle bit too pat, but with kids this young, there's a fine line between being a bully and just being un-social and needing a bit of help. I'm choosing to view it as the second, and they're just using the bully terminology because the beginning of "here's how to handle this" is the same in both cases: advocate for yourself, use your words to clearly set boundaries, then involve a trusted adult or authority figure. After that if it really is a settled bully and not just a fellow kid having a singular bad day, things get a bit too complex for a book I'm willing to read in storytime.
Tuesday, January 3, 2017
Tuesday Storytime: Winter Holiday
For the first time in 9 years here, and (mumble mumble) years elsewhere, I'm stepping back from the storytime programming for a while, and training a fresh new person to the ropes. They've been reading picture books and shadowing storytimes for a few months now, but a new year is a perfect time for new beginnings, so today is their first set of selections. From here forward, storytime selections will be theirs (guided by me, but ultimately selected by them) for as long as they're here at this location.
So, this development will actually be interesting for the purposes of reviewing, because I'll be looking at these books from a more neutral vantage - I won't be biased by having selected them myself. I'll get to see the books from a distance as they're read, so better see how the audience perceives them. I'll get to more clearly watch the reactions of the audience from a less distracted perspective. I think it's going to be a fun change in viewpoint.
So the first selection was "winter" themed, and ended up with the short middle read being a bit more of a 'holiday' book than a winter/outdoors/snowy theme, but I actually think that worked well. Holidays are always rough on kids - they are anticipated for so long, then they're overwhelming and routine-scrambling, then they're over and packed away so quickly and it's like whiplashing back into sudden normalcy. (Heck, that's stressful for me and I'm grown!) So I do actually like that this first winter story set has a reference to holiday festivities.
Mouse's First Snow
Lauren Thompson, illustrated by Buket Erdogan
ISBN: 9780689858369
Mouse and Poppa venture out into the snow for variations on snowy activities.
A very repetitive story has Mouse and Poppa out in the snow performing snowy-day activities in sequence: first Poppa does a thing, then Mouse repeats it. There are lots of repeated action words in the story like "Plop Plop!" or "Swoosh! Swoosh! Swish!" that need a bit more dedication to the delivery to really make them pop, but that's something that comes with experience (it IS hard to do those sorts of things in front of other adults without practice and experience and a decent bit of either no cares given or vibrant self-esteem.) Poppa's examples are uniformly beautiful and well-executed, and Mouse's are small and amateur, but still done functionally well. At the end, they combine giant "snowballs" into a snow mouse that they decorate together. Cute, sweet, fun, wintry without being specific to a time or place. I like that it's a young person and a caregiving male figure; seeing Poppa either as Dad or Grandfather works in the story. A BIT on the short side for a first story, but again; choosing stories that are an appropriate length comes with experience.
Llama Llama Jingle Bells
Anna Dewdney
ISBN: (boardbook format) 9780451469809
A cute and VERY SHORT addition to the llama llama books, focused on the more secular side of Christmas.
Very very short boardbook in about 5 spreads. This was a short read, especially after an already-short first book, but it is cute and thematic, and like I said, I like the impact of having a bit of acknowledgement of the holidays that are over now, just to give kids some processing space to handle the transition back to normal schedules. Rhyming couplets like all the other llama llama books go with really detailed pictures of secular(ish) Christmas activities like tree-decorating and shopping for presents. Cute, but don't expect content on the level of the actual llama llama books.
Jingle-Jingle
Nicola Smee
ISBN: 9781906250089
A winter themed sequel to Clip-Clop, and much more fun, in my opinion.
Cat, Dog, Pig, and Duck are off again with Mr Horse, this time on a winter sleigh ride that goes "Jingle Jingle" through the fields. (Again with the action words needing a bit more forceful delivery) Fun is had by all until they decide to all pile into the sleigh and toboggan down a hillside, where everyone tumbles out. This one is also a bit short, even though it's repetitive and a bit cumulative, where the animals are always called by individual moniker and the refrain "jingle jingle" shows up to mark the movement from spread to spread. Not the most inspiring story, but fun and simple, and the kids were very invested in the outcome of the snowy crash landing.
So, this development will actually be interesting for the purposes of reviewing, because I'll be looking at these books from a more neutral vantage - I won't be biased by having selected them myself. I'll get to see the books from a distance as they're read, so better see how the audience perceives them. I'll get to more clearly watch the reactions of the audience from a less distracted perspective. I think it's going to be a fun change in viewpoint.
So the first selection was "winter" themed, and ended up with the short middle read being a bit more of a 'holiday' book than a winter/outdoors/snowy theme, but I actually think that worked well. Holidays are always rough on kids - they are anticipated for so long, then they're overwhelming and routine-scrambling, then they're over and packed away so quickly and it's like whiplashing back into sudden normalcy. (Heck, that's stressful for me and I'm grown!) So I do actually like that this first winter story set has a reference to holiday festivities.
Mouse's First Snow
Lauren Thompson, illustrated by Buket Erdogan
ISBN: 9780689858369
Mouse and Poppa venture out into the snow for variations on snowy activities.
A very repetitive story has Mouse and Poppa out in the snow performing snowy-day activities in sequence: first Poppa does a thing, then Mouse repeats it. There are lots of repeated action words in the story like "Plop Plop!" or "Swoosh! Swoosh! Swish!" that need a bit more dedication to the delivery to really make them pop, but that's something that comes with experience (it IS hard to do those sorts of things in front of other adults without practice and experience and a decent bit of either no cares given or vibrant self-esteem.) Poppa's examples are uniformly beautiful and well-executed, and Mouse's are small and amateur, but still done functionally well. At the end, they combine giant "snowballs" into a snow mouse that they decorate together. Cute, sweet, fun, wintry without being specific to a time or place. I like that it's a young person and a caregiving male figure; seeing Poppa either as Dad or Grandfather works in the story. A BIT on the short side for a first story, but again; choosing stories that are an appropriate length comes with experience.
Llama Llama Jingle Bells
Anna Dewdney
ISBN: (boardbook format) 9780451469809
A cute and VERY SHORT addition to the llama llama books, focused on the more secular side of Christmas.
Very very short boardbook in about 5 spreads. This was a short read, especially after an already-short first book, but it is cute and thematic, and like I said, I like the impact of having a bit of acknowledgement of the holidays that are over now, just to give kids some processing space to handle the transition back to normal schedules. Rhyming couplets like all the other llama llama books go with really detailed pictures of secular(ish) Christmas activities like tree-decorating and shopping for presents. Cute, but don't expect content on the level of the actual llama llama books.
Jingle-Jingle
Nicola Smee
ISBN: 9781906250089
A winter themed sequel to Clip-Clop, and much more fun, in my opinion.
Cat, Dog, Pig, and Duck are off again with Mr Horse, this time on a winter sleigh ride that goes "Jingle Jingle" through the fields. (Again with the action words needing a bit more forceful delivery) Fun is had by all until they decide to all pile into the sleigh and toboggan down a hillside, where everyone tumbles out. This one is also a bit short, even though it's repetitive and a bit cumulative, where the animals are always called by individual moniker and the refrain "jingle jingle" shows up to mark the movement from spread to spread. Not the most inspiring story, but fun and simple, and the kids were very invested in the outcome of the snowy crash landing.
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Tuesday Storytime: Back to School
It really feels like fall today - the air is crisp and cool, the breeze is blowing, and the muggy haze of summer is melted away.
Smaller group, but fun as always. One of our books (Go Home, Mrs. Beekman!) this week was a teeeeensy bit of a stretch for my group; it's a little long, and we have a lot of babies) but I did two really short ones to compensate, and I think everyone comported themselves quite well.
Go Home, Mrs. Beekman!
Ann Redisch Stampler, illustrated by Marsha Gray Carrington
ISBN: 9780525469339
Brightly colored busy scenery with colorful (but mainly white) students.
Emily does not want to go to school on her first day, so she extracts a promise from her mother to stay at school with her for a "million gazillion years" and keep Emily safely on her lap the whole time. Mom gamely lives up to her promise even though after noon on the first day, parents aren't allowed. This simply means Mrs. Beekman has to get creative, disguising herself as a coatrack, an oversized hat, a large green dog (a possible wink to the Emily with the big RED dog), a flying yellow bird (brought in on a helicopter) and a hula-hoop.
Emily, on the other hand, begins to realize that her promise wasn't too well-thought out after the end of the first day - she wants to start playing with her new school friends, and to do interesting new school things, but she's stuck on her mom's lap, as promised. Emily spends a few days passively hoping that her mom will "forget" about the promise, but on the hula-hoop morning, she finally bites the bullet and informs mom kindly that her services aren't required any longer.
Clever mom, lovely progression of emotions for our little Emily, and a very longsuffering school teacher makes for a fun inversion story, which makes it a great pick, even if it's a touch on the long side.
The Bus for Us
Suzanne Bloom
ISBN: 0563979322
Hugely diverse city-kids build up at a bus-stop, waiting for a school bus while a progression of other interesting vehicles pass by.
I partly like this one for the totally non-textual diverse kids that build up - the actual words are really limited and repetitive "Is this the bus for us, Gus?" "No, Tess, this is a(n) X" - but the scenes are dynamic and filled with lively and varied kids and pedestrians and drivers, and a whole unstated story involving a dog, cat, and turtle. Love showing it off to the kids, and the super-quick progression makes it perfect for my middle read.
llama llama misses mama
Anna Dewdney
ISBN: 9780670061983
Series books with a llama child and mother, this time dealing with new-school anxiety and separation.
I flat out love the llama llama series. The facial and body expressions are just amazing, the rhymes are cute and fun to read without usually feeling labored or reached-for, and the issues are just spot-on. All of them are good, and model excellent validation of feelings while still requiring appropriate behavior, within age-appropriate parameters. In this one specifically, I like that they make a careful note that it's ok to feel sad or miss people, but that it is also ok to try to distract yourself from your sad feelings, and that sometimes the distraction can actually help you feel better. Good "moral" for teaching kids how to self-regulate.
Next week is a holiday for me, and then after that I think we're going to read about mice. I like mice.
Smaller group, but fun as always. One of our books (Go Home, Mrs. Beekman!) this week was a teeeeensy bit of a stretch for my group; it's a little long, and we have a lot of babies) but I did two really short ones to compensate, and I think everyone comported themselves quite well.
Go Home, Mrs. Beekman!
Ann Redisch Stampler, illustrated by Marsha Gray Carrington
ISBN: 9780525469339
Brightly colored busy scenery with colorful (but mainly white) students.
Emily does not want to go to school on her first day, so she extracts a promise from her mother to stay at school with her for a "million gazillion years" and keep Emily safely on her lap the whole time. Mom gamely lives up to her promise even though after noon on the first day, parents aren't allowed. This simply means Mrs. Beekman has to get creative, disguising herself as a coatrack, an oversized hat, a large green dog (a possible wink to the Emily with the big RED dog), a flying yellow bird (brought in on a helicopter) and a hula-hoop.
Emily, on the other hand, begins to realize that her promise wasn't too well-thought out after the end of the first day - she wants to start playing with her new school friends, and to do interesting new school things, but she's stuck on her mom's lap, as promised. Emily spends a few days passively hoping that her mom will "forget" about the promise, but on the hula-hoop morning, she finally bites the bullet and informs mom kindly that her services aren't required any longer.
Clever mom, lovely progression of emotions for our little Emily, and a very longsuffering school teacher makes for a fun inversion story, which makes it a great pick, even if it's a touch on the long side.
The Bus for Us
Suzanne Bloom
ISBN: 0563979322
Hugely diverse city-kids build up at a bus-stop, waiting for a school bus while a progression of other interesting vehicles pass by.
I partly like this one for the totally non-textual diverse kids that build up - the actual words are really limited and repetitive "Is this the bus for us, Gus?" "No, Tess, this is a(n) X" - but the scenes are dynamic and filled with lively and varied kids and pedestrians and drivers, and a whole unstated story involving a dog, cat, and turtle. Love showing it off to the kids, and the super-quick progression makes it perfect for my middle read.
llama llama misses mama
Anna Dewdney
ISBN: 9780670061983
Series books with a llama child and mother, this time dealing with new-school anxiety and separation.
I flat out love the llama llama series. The facial and body expressions are just amazing, the rhymes are cute and fun to read without usually feeling labored or reached-for, and the issues are just spot-on. All of them are good, and model excellent validation of feelings while still requiring appropriate behavior, within age-appropriate parameters. In this one specifically, I like that they make a careful note that it's ok to feel sad or miss people, but that it is also ok to try to distract yourself from your sad feelings, and that sometimes the distraction can actually help you feel better. Good "moral" for teaching kids how to self-regulate.
Next week is a holiday for me, and then after that I think we're going to read about mice. I like mice.
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