These were selected by my coworker!
An Island in the Sun
Stella Blackstone, illustrated by Nicoletta Ceccoli
A "House that Jack built" narrative structure, and a lovely rhyming flow make this sweet but fairly empty story move along quickly, held largely together by the utterly beautiful illustrations of sun and wind and water and islands in a tropical imagination of a world. Beautiful but slight.
North, South, East, West
Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Greg Pizzoli
An unpublished little gem from Margaret Wise Brown has a little bird fluttering off into different climates as she flies in each cardinal direction to discover where she most wants to be - finally (seemingly) returning home to settle and raise a family who end the story by taking wing in all different directions just like their mother.
Leo Can Swim
Anna McQuinn, illustrated by Ruth Hearson
Leo is Lola's little brother, a Black British child who has family-and-child-centered real-life adventures with his family and father, much as Lola does in her books. In this story, Leo and his dad go to a swim class at a local pool, and encounter locker rooms, swimming gear, a swimming lesson, and a nice rest after class. Perfect little books for explaining life experiences for kids about to start on them personally, or for kids who may never have that experience to learn about them in a realistic way.
Showing posts with label Anna McQuinn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anna McQuinn. Show all posts
Thursday, August 15, 2019
Tuesday, May 7, 2019
Tuesday Storytime: Gardening
These three adorable stories were chosen by my coworker.
Dandy
Ame Dyckman, illustrated by Charles Santoso
ISBN: 9780316362955
Adorable. A dedicated lion daddy tries to keep his lawn beautiful in the face of fierce competition and judgement from the other neighborhood daddies, but he's thwarted when his baby daughter finds and adopts the one dandelion in the whole yard. He tries to decapitate it sneakily, but fails until the very last moment, when he (and the neighbor guys, who are also daddies too) realize what's truly important. So adorable and cute.
The Carrot Seed
Ruth Krauss, illustrated by Crockett Johnson
ISBN: 0060233516
A classic for a reason. The value of persistence, of knowing something in your heart, and keeping the faith in the face of everyone telling you to give up. All in a cute little minimalist story about a kid growing a carrot.
Lola Plants a Garden
Anna McQuinn, illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw
ISBN: 9781580896948
I Love the Lola books (and their baby brother set, the Leo books). They're an import from Great Britain, so there's a few small anachronisms, but this lovely Black family is a perfect showcase for lots of great stories about childhood, sibling-hood, and just general life from a kid's perspective. In this installment, Lola and her mom learn about gardens, and head off to the store to try their hands at a garden themselves. Mom plants more responsible things, but Lola is off to the races with lots of fun plants. At the end Lola and mom plan a garden party to introduce Lola's friends to all her new amazing plants.
Dandy
Ame Dyckman, illustrated by Charles Santoso
ISBN: 9780316362955
Adorable. A dedicated lion daddy tries to keep his lawn beautiful in the face of fierce competition and judgement from the other neighborhood daddies, but he's thwarted when his baby daughter finds and adopts the one dandelion in the whole yard. He tries to decapitate it sneakily, but fails until the very last moment, when he (and the neighbor guys, who are also daddies too) realize what's truly important. So adorable and cute.
The Carrot Seed
Ruth Krauss, illustrated by Crockett Johnson
ISBN: 0060233516
A classic for a reason. The value of persistence, of knowing something in your heart, and keeping the faith in the face of everyone telling you to give up. All in a cute little minimalist story about a kid growing a carrot.
Lola Plants a Garden
Anna McQuinn, illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw
ISBN: 9781580896948
I Love the Lola books (and their baby brother set, the Leo books). They're an import from Great Britain, so there's a few small anachronisms, but this lovely Black family is a perfect showcase for lots of great stories about childhood, sibling-hood, and just general life from a kid's perspective. In this installment, Lola and her mom learn about gardens, and head off to the store to try their hands at a garden themselves. Mom plants more responsible things, but Lola is off to the races with lots of fun plants. At the end Lola and mom plan a garden party to introduce Lola's friends to all her new amazing plants.
Tuesday, August 15, 2017
Tuesday Storytime: Back to Nature
Got some very nice naturalist/nature books newly in to the library and wanted to show them off for our parents: all of them got checked out afterwards by storytimers!
Out of School and Into Nature: the Anna Comstock Story
Suzanne Slade, illustrated by Jessica Lanan
ISBN: 9781585369867
Biography of famous early American naturalist and scientist Anna Comstock, and her crusade to learn more about the natural world, and to share it with students in the most inspiring and personal ways possible. A BIT pedantic at times, but overall very nicely presented. The illustrations and text effects are very attractively done.
Fantastic Flowers
Susan Stockdale
ISBN: 9781561459520
Such a clever and cute nonfiction book! Very light on the text, but takes longer to read because the kids were really interested and invested in the concepts. Stockdale takes a whole lot of plants with evocative names, and illustrates them in a way that really foregrounds the name-sake. The pictures are beautiful and vibrant and enormous, and there are actual photographs of the flowers at the end of the book. Really well done.
Lola Plants a Garden
Anna McQuinn, illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw
ISBN: 9781580896948
I love Lola and her little brother, and the stories Anna tells about them are just perfect. This time Lola is inspired by the Mary Mary Quite Contrary nursery rhyme, and uses that as the basis for her own flower garden that she designs and implements step by step with Mommy and Daddy (using resource books from the library, of course!) and then celebrates with friends and garden veggies.
Out of School and Into Nature: the Anna Comstock Story
Suzanne Slade, illustrated by Jessica Lanan
ISBN: 9781585369867
Biography of famous early American naturalist and scientist Anna Comstock, and her crusade to learn more about the natural world, and to share it with students in the most inspiring and personal ways possible. A BIT pedantic at times, but overall very nicely presented. The illustrations and text effects are very attractively done.
Fantastic Flowers
Susan Stockdale
ISBN: 9781561459520
Such a clever and cute nonfiction book! Very light on the text, but takes longer to read because the kids were really interested and invested in the concepts. Stockdale takes a whole lot of plants with evocative names, and illustrates them in a way that really foregrounds the name-sake. The pictures are beautiful and vibrant and enormous, and there are actual photographs of the flowers at the end of the book. Really well done.
Lola Plants a Garden
Anna McQuinn, illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw
ISBN: 9781580896948
I love Lola and her little brother, and the stories Anna tells about them are just perfect. This time Lola is inspired by the Mary Mary Quite Contrary nursery rhyme, and uses that as the basis for her own flower garden that she designs and implements step by step with Mommy and Daddy (using resource books from the library, of course!) and then celebrates with friends and garden veggies.
Tuesday, May 9, 2017
Tuesday Storytime: Gone Swimming
As the weather warms up, the chances of my storytime families getting involved in swimming lessons or simply trips to the pool goes way up. These are calming and ultimately fact-based "experiences" stories to help manage expectations and fears, and provide touch-points to reference later.
Maisy Learns to Swim
Lucy Cousins
ISBN: 9780763634800
Maisy is a popular mouse character done in faux naive childish style with heavy borders and bright colors. Like if someone did a Byron Barton book, but were a bit scribbly about it. In this particular installment, Maisy and her friends go to a swimming lesson, going through all the generally accepted motions thereupon. Everyone is excited and happy and successful, and the story ends with warm towels and hot showers.
Leo Can Swim
Anna McQuinn, illustrated by Ruth Hearson
ISBN:
9781580897259
Leo is Lola's little brother, and Lola is the Black protagonist of a set of slightly older-aimed experience books set in England. Those and Leo's books have only recently migrated across the pond, and I'm very glad they did. I love having poc in my stories, especially when that isn't the focus of the story. Here, Leo is obviously an infant, and he's attending baby swim class with his Daddy. (Also a great touch.) Once again all the general descriptive steps are there: from getting dressed to the different parts of the class to the shower and lotion and nap afterwards. Sweet sweet illustrations.
Sergio Makes a Splash
Edel Rodriguez
ISBN: 9780316066167
Sergio is a baby penguin, and his class takes their first field trip to the ocean, but Sergio can't swim. He's outfitted with swimmies, a lifejacket, and a swim ring, an encouraging teacher, enthusiastic friends, and a nicely-illustrated bit of positive self-talk, which I like to see modeled, so he's ready to tackle his fear. The ending is a BIT of a let-down, but it's still solid enough to be enjoyable.
Maisy Learns to Swim
Lucy Cousins
ISBN: 9780763634800
Maisy is a popular mouse character done in faux naive childish style with heavy borders and bright colors. Like if someone did a Byron Barton book, but were a bit scribbly about it. In this particular installment, Maisy and her friends go to a swimming lesson, going through all the generally accepted motions thereupon. Everyone is excited and happy and successful, and the story ends with warm towels and hot showers.
Leo Can Swim
Anna McQuinn, illustrated by Ruth Hearson
ISBN:
9781580897259
Leo is Lola's little brother, and Lola is the Black protagonist of a set of slightly older-aimed experience books set in England. Those and Leo's books have only recently migrated across the pond, and I'm very glad they did. I love having poc in my stories, especially when that isn't the focus of the story. Here, Leo is obviously an infant, and he's attending baby swim class with his Daddy. (Also a great touch.) Once again all the general descriptive steps are there: from getting dressed to the different parts of the class to the shower and lotion and nap afterwards. Sweet sweet illustrations.
Sergio Makes a Splash
Edel Rodriguez
ISBN: 9780316066167
Sergio is a baby penguin, and his class takes their first field trip to the ocean, but Sergio can't swim. He's outfitted with swimmies, a lifejacket, and a swim ring, an encouraging teacher, enthusiastic friends, and a nicely-illustrated bit of positive self-talk, which I like to see modeled, so he's ready to tackle his fear. The ending is a BIT of a let-down, but it's still solid enough to be enjoyable.
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
Tuesday Storytime: Gardening
Well, MOSTLY gardening. I thought I had a third gardening book already set aside for this week, but turns out I didn't, so we used a new arrival (Summer Days and Nights) instead, and it worked out fine. Next time around I'd like to have it more specifically gardening, but que sera and all that.
Summer Days and Nights
Wong Herbert Yee
ISBN: 9780805090879
A generic "Asian" family spends an idyllic day and evening with traditional summer activities.
Yee is best known to me because of his sweet and simple Fireman Small, which I use with nearly alarming frequency when I do firefighter or local hero storytime themes. It's just so sweet and kind and endearing. This book is a little more generic, but it's still a lovely story, nice and gentle and just perfect for bedtime. Perhaps a bit too sweet and slow for storytime (especially with the size - this is a SMALL book: 6 inches tall and only about 8.5 wide, and most of the pictures aren't even the whole size of the pages. Our unnamed and un-gendered child wanders through a summer day, with requisite mentions of cats napping in the sunlight, iced lemonade, splashing in pools, picnics in the park, and catching butterflies. What makes it slightly more interesting is the inclusion of nighttime scenes, and here is where the sub-theme of summertime life (most especially insect or small-animal life) is most pointed, as we see a mouse, owl, fireflies, crickets, and frogs outside in the evening before finally it's bedtime.
Lola Plants a Garden
Anna McQuinn, illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw
ISBN: 9781580896948
Lola is a sweet Black child with a new and growing series of books about central child life topics.
McQuinn's Lola and Leo stories are generally very good for topical and child-interest storytimes. As an aside, Lola is Lulu in the UK, where they're originally published. For Lola, we have books about reading, and about interacting with baby siblings, and now about gardening, and we also have two featuring her little brother Leo (Zeki in the UK): Leo Loves Baby Time, and Leo Can Swim, for another set of important kid-friendly subjects. I admit to being biased towards these simply because they feature Black children and families, and there are still too few of those books, and too few done by GOOD storytellers with GOOD illustrators. I want people to know that just like girls and people of color learn to identify with all the millions of little white boys that feature as the heroes of stories, little white boys can do the same with a hero who is a girl, or a person of color. It's a long slow slog, but I really feel like it's important to do as much as I can. Soapbox over. Lola is inspired by the nursery rhyme Mary Mary Quite Contrary, and with the help of her mom and dad, plants a flower garden, waits for it to grow, and then hosts a party for her little friends. Simple, sweet, solid logical realistic activities.
If You Plant a Seed
Kadir Nelson
ISBN: 9780062298898
Previously reviewed here.
It worked out very well for storytime! The little ones loved the bright active vibrant paintings, and the older kids were very intent on the story slowly unfolding with the turns of the pages. I was very satisfied.
Summer Days and Nights
Wong Herbert Yee
ISBN: 9780805090879
A generic "Asian" family spends an idyllic day and evening with traditional summer activities.
Yee is best known to me because of his sweet and simple Fireman Small, which I use with nearly alarming frequency when I do firefighter or local hero storytime themes. It's just so sweet and kind and endearing. This book is a little more generic, but it's still a lovely story, nice and gentle and just perfect for bedtime. Perhaps a bit too sweet and slow for storytime (especially with the size - this is a SMALL book: 6 inches tall and only about 8.5 wide, and most of the pictures aren't even the whole size of the pages. Our unnamed and un-gendered child wanders through a summer day, with requisite mentions of cats napping in the sunlight, iced lemonade, splashing in pools, picnics in the park, and catching butterflies. What makes it slightly more interesting is the inclusion of nighttime scenes, and here is where the sub-theme of summertime life (most especially insect or small-animal life) is most pointed, as we see a mouse, owl, fireflies, crickets, and frogs outside in the evening before finally it's bedtime.
Lola Plants a Garden
Anna McQuinn, illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw
ISBN: 9781580896948
Lola is a sweet Black child with a new and growing series of books about central child life topics.
McQuinn's Lola and Leo stories are generally very good for topical and child-interest storytimes. As an aside, Lola is Lulu in the UK, where they're originally published. For Lola, we have books about reading, and about interacting with baby siblings, and now about gardening, and we also have two featuring her little brother Leo (Zeki in the UK): Leo Loves Baby Time, and Leo Can Swim, for another set of important kid-friendly subjects. I admit to being biased towards these simply because they feature Black children and families, and there are still too few of those books, and too few done by GOOD storytellers with GOOD illustrators. I want people to know that just like girls and people of color learn to identify with all the millions of little white boys that feature as the heroes of stories, little white boys can do the same with a hero who is a girl, or a person of color. It's a long slow slog, but I really feel like it's important to do as much as I can. Soapbox over. Lola is inspired by the nursery rhyme Mary Mary Quite Contrary, and with the help of her mom and dad, plants a flower garden, waits for it to grow, and then hosts a party for her little friends. Simple, sweet, solid logical realistic activities.
If You Plant a Seed
Kadir Nelson
ISBN: 9780062298898
Previously reviewed here.
It worked out very well for storytime! The little ones loved the bright active vibrant paintings, and the older kids were very intent on the story slowly unfolding with the turns of the pages. I was very satisfied.
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