Tuesday Storytime: Counting on Animals

So many good counting, sequential, and numeracy books out there, it's very easy to subdivide them into really specific categories.

Nine Ducks Nine
Sarah Hayes
ISBN:09780763638160
Bright white ducks (and one mallard hen) count down from 9 preparing a tricky surprise for a fox.

This one is very similar to Judy Hindley's Do Like a Duck Does, and I've used it with that one, putting the wordless Rosie's Walk (Pat Hutchins) in the middle for an 'outwit the fox' storytime.  Here I went with the count-down aspect of the story, as the nine ducks begin luring and teasing the fox to chase them down to the "rickety old bridge" as individual ducks keep slipping off to prepare the trap.  Cute, but a couple of comments calling characters "stupid" at the end get redacted by me, just to be on the safe side.



One, Two, Cockatoo
Sarah Garson
ISBN: 9781842709443
Saturated colors in the background make the white cockatoos (in the wild) stand out vividly.

Very cute, but VERY short.  A nice look at addition, on an extremely basic level, and slowly counting up to ten total, with a bonus baby chick bringing us to (an unstated) eleven.  The birds are drawn beautifully and expressively, with lots of inclusive and friendly gestures that don't ever cross the line into too-human.


One-Dog Canoe
Mary Casanova (Utterly Otterly Night), illustrated by Ard Hoyt
ISBN: 9780312561185
Consistently shocked expressions on our narrator's face really sell this cumulative canoe trip.

Our narrator is setting off on a canoe ride, but her sweet pup begs for a ride, which she agrees to, calling their craft firmly a "one-dog canoe."  Her decision gets repeatedly overruled by larger and larger wilderness-appropriate animals - a beaver, a loon, wolf, bear, moose, and finally the one frog that is more than the canoe can take.  The animals are sketched loosely for comedic effect, but remain mostly anatomically correct, and certainly are all size-correct.  The canoe at the end is barely visible.  Everyone naturally gets a dunking, then narrator and dog are back on their way, having reiterated that it really IS a "one-dog canoe."

Tuesday Storytime: Baby it's COLD Outside!!

I'm starting this year with listing the titles of picture books that I use for Storytime each Tuesday.
For the record, I do a "Family-Style Storytime" aimed at babies-in-arms to age 4, and usually have between 10 and 20 attendees (including parents/guardians).

Oh! by Kevin Henkes, illustrated by Laura Dronzek
Greenwillow, 1999
ISBN: 9780688170530
Various animals and children exclaim in delight at a fresh snowfall, cavort all morning and afternoon, and then head back home at night to rest for the next day of fun.  Sweet pastel short page-vignettes for each different animal all smush together at the end in a satisfying manner.

Snowballs by Lois Ehlert
HMH for Young Readers, 1995
ISBN: 9780152000745
Bright "found object" collages combine to create layered snow-creatures, from family members to cats and dogs.  High interest-value for identifying the snow-creature components (acorns, carrots, buttons...).  The endpapers feature actual snowmen created by the Ehlert family.

Utterly Otterly Night, by Mary Casanova, illustrated by Ard Hoyt
Simon & Schuster for Young Readers, 2011
ISBN: 9781416975625
Little otter is growing up fast (from his first appearance in Utterly Otterly Day) and during a winter night frolic, he proves his maturity by taunting and evading a pack of wolves while his family slips into their den to safety.  Snappy non-consecutive rhymes and onomatopoeic words make this a good one to practice a few times before reading to the kids.