Three really lovely dancing books today.
Flora and the Flamingo
Molly Idle
ISBN: 9781452110066
Wordless lift-the-flap book with a double-page unfolding spread. Beautiful illustrations.
This one really had to have been amazing to make it past the usual storytime hurdles. It's a wordless picture book, AND it has lift-the-flaps on quite a few of the pages (AND a big double-spread fold-out section at the end) so you know it has to be really cute or really amazing to get past all that. And it is! Both. Cute. And amazing. Flora is a dancer, and as far as I can tell, she's at the zoo. Maybe she's dreaming, or she has a pet flamingo, because there's really nothing in the way of backgrounds to let us know one way or the other, and I find that it doesn't really matter. Either way, Flora is a dancer, and she's wearing black swim flippers (to look like the flamingo's feet? Because she likes wearing swim flippers? Again, not important.) and a swimming cap, and she and the flamingo are DANCING. TOGETHER. It's beautiful, and the proportions are delightful and the matching movements with the very different bodies are just so sweet and the little bits of story that unfold through mirrored movements and poses and facial expressions are just delightful. It really is just lovely. I love Molly Idle's books so much.
Wiggle
Doreen Cronin, illustrated by Scott Menchin
ISBN: 1599610930
American-cartoon style dog leads an interactive-inviting story through a day of wiggles.
"Do you wiggle out of bed? If you wiggle with your breakfast, it might wind up on your head." These are the important questions in life, and ones that invite the audience to wiggle right along with the irrepressible dog star in this book. There's not much substance, and it's awfully quick, but for a short middle book and short toddler attention-spans? The wiggly content and the fast pace make it perfect. This one also got the rare award of actual toddler laughter. Adults tend to chuckle quite a lot in my storytimes, but I don't often feature stories that hit the little ones' funny bones. This one was a rare exception, and it was a smash hit. Prepare to follow this with a song or an activity that lets those wiggles free!
How Do You Wokka-Wokka?
Elizabeth Bluemle, illustrated by Randy Cecil
ISBN: 9780763632281
A diverse inner-city sidewalk is home to a variety of dance styles told with wokka rhymes.
Wokka-wokka is how the first kid dances, and they go along the sidewalk and ask a lot of others how they dance too - and the answers are as varied as the kids encountered. We get flamingo dances (how appropriate!) and mariachi dances, and breakdancing (dancing like a clock), and the worm (fish-flop dancing), and by the end of the book, the whole neighborhood is dancing all together in their different ways, all having a great time with the repeated rhyme chorus.
Showing posts with label Elizabeth Bluemle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Elizabeth Bluemle. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Tuesday, August 23, 2016
Tuesday Storytime: Summer Showers
We've finally had some rain here, so it's time for our Summer Showers storytime - I usually do one in spring and one in late summer after the Summer Reading Program finishes off. In South Carolina, summer is absolutely not over at the end of July - we're just getting started. Last year it didn't cool down til November, and I don't see that changing much this year either.
Thunder-Boomer!
Shutta Crum, illustrated by Carol Thompson
ISBN: 9780618918651
Loose free scribbly lines and washes of color and lots of small panels and vignettes.
The panels and vignettes make this a little less suitable for storytime, but we had a small-ish group today, so it worked out pretty well. I love the loose flowing scribbly lines and the slightly sloppy washes of color everywhere, and the differences between the wide-open outside and the slightly cramped and crowded inside. We start on a hot country afternoon: dad's plowing, mom and kids are cooling by the pond, and a "Thunder-Boomer" rolls in, prompting a scramble: tractor put away, chickens hustled back into the coop, laundry pulled off the line. The bottom falls out, and poor Dad has to run out to rescue a last broody chicken, and then it's just huddling together while the storm rolls through. After the rain and wind and hail die back down, they emerge to a wet and clean world, and a tiny kitten, courtesy of the broody chicken and drenched by the storm.
The Big Storm! A Very Soggy Counting Book
Nancy Tafuri
ISBN: 9781416967958
Oddly paced, but short and sweet: forest animals take refuge one by one in a small cave - surprise bears!
Tafuri's lovely drawings with their vibrant colors and clear lines are perfect for this short and sweet count-up-and-back-down. The frontispieces show a pair of bears heading into a hillside cave, and then the story begins with the smaller woodland creatures swooping in to take refuge from the storm - as the numbers and the animals reveal, they don't know the bears are already there! All ten crowd in for the night of storms and rumbly thunder, but in the morning the sky is clear, but why can they still hear thunder so loudly? A mad scramble for the outdoors makes up the count-back-down, and the bears are left peacefully asleep.
Tap Tap Boom Boom
Elizabeth Bluemle, illustrated by G. Brian Karas
ISBN: 9780763656966
An urban thunderstorm brings umbrella vendors and a retreat into the subway station.
The short choppy rhythms of this book and the syncopated speaking patterns and slant-rhymes (at least for me) make this a challenge to read fluidly, but it's a really great book, especially for my area, which is a lot more familiar with farms and suburbs than with subways and city sidewalks. A Tap Tap Boom Boom rolls in, and as the rain soaks through everything, people retreat to the subway station for refuge and a chance to dry off and socialize for a bit before re-emerging to find a scrubbed-clean city and a nice rainbow. This one also is good for humanizing and normalizing city life, again a challenge for this particular area. For a city-life trio, I'd pair it with Nana in the City and I don't know what else.
Thunder-Boomer!
Shutta Crum, illustrated by Carol Thompson
ISBN: 9780618918651
Loose free scribbly lines and washes of color and lots of small panels and vignettes.
The panels and vignettes make this a little less suitable for storytime, but we had a small-ish group today, so it worked out pretty well. I love the loose flowing scribbly lines and the slightly sloppy washes of color everywhere, and the differences between the wide-open outside and the slightly cramped and crowded inside. We start on a hot country afternoon: dad's plowing, mom and kids are cooling by the pond, and a "Thunder-Boomer" rolls in, prompting a scramble: tractor put away, chickens hustled back into the coop, laundry pulled off the line. The bottom falls out, and poor Dad has to run out to rescue a last broody chicken, and then it's just huddling together while the storm rolls through. After the rain and wind and hail die back down, they emerge to a wet and clean world, and a tiny kitten, courtesy of the broody chicken and drenched by the storm.
The Big Storm! A Very Soggy Counting Book
Nancy Tafuri
ISBN: 9781416967958
Oddly paced, but short and sweet: forest animals take refuge one by one in a small cave - surprise bears!
Tafuri's lovely drawings with their vibrant colors and clear lines are perfect for this short and sweet count-up-and-back-down. The frontispieces show a pair of bears heading into a hillside cave, and then the story begins with the smaller woodland creatures swooping in to take refuge from the storm - as the numbers and the animals reveal, they don't know the bears are already there! All ten crowd in for the night of storms and rumbly thunder, but in the morning the sky is clear, but why can they still hear thunder so loudly? A mad scramble for the outdoors makes up the count-back-down, and the bears are left peacefully asleep.
Tap Tap Boom Boom
Elizabeth Bluemle, illustrated by G. Brian Karas
ISBN: 9780763656966
An urban thunderstorm brings umbrella vendors and a retreat into the subway station.
The short choppy rhythms of this book and the syncopated speaking patterns and slant-rhymes (at least for me) make this a challenge to read fluidly, but it's a really great book, especially for my area, which is a lot more familiar with farms and suburbs than with subways and city sidewalks. A Tap Tap Boom Boom rolls in, and as the rain soaks through everything, people retreat to the subway station for refuge and a chance to dry off and socialize for a bit before re-emerging to find a scrubbed-clean city and a nice rainbow. This one also is good for humanizing and normalizing city life, again a challenge for this particular area. For a city-life trio, I'd pair it with Nana in the City and I don't know what else.
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Storytime Potentials: Tap Tap Boom Boom, Elizabeth Bluemle
Tap Tap Boom Boom
Elizabeth Bluemle, illustrated by G. Brian Karas
sketchy pastel and pencil figures over sepia-toned photograph collages of the city scenery
I'm always in the market for a good book about a rainstorm. I love storms, love thunder and lightning, and I love presenting books that represent them in a way that minimizes their potential as frightening.
This one is delightful. Rhythmic text emphasizes the sounds of the storm - the growing rumbles of thunder and the tap of the rain morphing into the harder louder dance of the growing storm, and then the waning energy revealing the blue sky and fresh air.
However, in addition to that, we're also treated to a very humanistic, very city-based representation of the storm, and for my rural patrons, that's something else that I'm very happy to represent as many times and an as many ways as possible.
Carts pop up to sell umbrellas on the sidewalk. Pedestrians huddle near the buildings to hide from the splashes of passing cars. When the storm picks up, they retreat into a subway terminal, waiting out the storm above in a temporary commune of like-minded and varyingly dry inhabitants. Pizza is shared, umbrellas are offered, smiles exchanged, and then up to the surface again to resume daily life, refreshed after a break from the ordinary.
I'd pair this with city-based rain books for a thunderstorm storytime, or with city-based musical books for a rhythm storytime.
Stormy Books:
Come On Rain, Karen Hesse
Monsoon Afternoon, Kashmira Sheth
Thunder Boomer, Shutta Crum
Rhythm Books:
Ruby Sings the Blues, Niki Daley
Max Found Two Sticks, Brian Pinkney
Elizabeth Bluemle, illustrated by G. Brian Karas
sketchy pastel and pencil figures over sepia-toned photograph collages of the city scenery
I'm always in the market for a good book about a rainstorm. I love storms, love thunder and lightning, and I love presenting books that represent them in a way that minimizes their potential as frightening.
This one is delightful. Rhythmic text emphasizes the sounds of the storm - the growing rumbles of thunder and the tap of the rain morphing into the harder louder dance of the growing storm, and then the waning energy revealing the blue sky and fresh air.
However, in addition to that, we're also treated to a very humanistic, very city-based representation of the storm, and for my rural patrons, that's something else that I'm very happy to represent as many times and an as many ways as possible.
Carts pop up to sell umbrellas on the sidewalk. Pedestrians huddle near the buildings to hide from the splashes of passing cars. When the storm picks up, they retreat into a subway terminal, waiting out the storm above in a temporary commune of like-minded and varyingly dry inhabitants. Pizza is shared, umbrellas are offered, smiles exchanged, and then up to the surface again to resume daily life, refreshed after a break from the ordinary.
I'd pair this with city-based rain books for a thunderstorm storytime, or with city-based musical books for a rhythm storytime.
Stormy Books:
Come On Rain, Karen Hesse
Monsoon Afternoon, Kashmira Sheth
Thunder Boomer, Shutta Crum
Rhythm Books:
Ruby Sings the Blues, Niki Daley
Max Found Two Sticks, Brian Pinkney
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