Summer Reading Research, Round 1

Our summer reading program is really geared towards grade-school students, but my population of Family Storytime parents all have babies or toddlers.  I feel a bit sad that they get left out of programming to such an extent, so this year I am attempting to match up the SRP weekly themes with additional books suitable for the younger set, so they can get a feeling that they are attending 'summer reading programs' even though it's just our normal storytime.

Our overarching theme this year is STEM, and our individual weeks are broken down into the following categories:
Robots
Space
Animals
Dinosaurs
Engineering
Food Science

I have a pretty good idea of what to use for a lot of these categories - for example, I already have all of my Robot titles (Robot Zot, Clink, and Doug Unplugged) and my Engineering titles (Willy & the Cardboard Boxes, How a House is Built, Demolition) picked out, but there were a few places where I wanted to branch out into new books, and even more (Food Science) where I don't have much if any direct experience with age-appropriate materials.

So, I've been looking about, and here's my first round of research.


Space:
This Rocket
Paul Collicutt
ISBN: 0374374848
Read February 7, 2014

Space Boy
Leo Landry
ISBN: 9780618605682
Read February 7, 2014

I'm looking for a good match for Mini Grey's Toys In Space and Reidy's Light Up The Night, which I've already decided on.  I  need a third story that is bright, has lots of action and color in the pages, and really short text blocks, because both of those are on the wordy side for my age-group.

For this purpose, This Rocket is going to be what I use for SRP, but I was glad to find Space Boy also.  Space Boy follows a young boy (perhaps on the spectrum) disturbed by the noise and commotion of his family as he tries to fall asleep, so he dons a spacesuit and travels to the quiet, peaceful, beautiful moon.  However, once there, the places he visits makes him think about the various noisy family-members and how they would also enjoy the moon, and so he returns home to them, and to bed.  It's a sweet story, with odd little naive illustrations, and a slow gentle storyline.  Excellent for a bedtime storytime - not so much what I'm looking for here.  This Rocket on the other hand is PERFECT.  Bright colors, contrasting rockets, really minimal text 'This rocket is tall.  This rocket is short.'  Excellent.  I'm already looking forward to reading it!



Dinosaurs:

I Dreamt I Was A Dinosaur
Stella Blackstone, illustrated by Clare Beaton
ISBN: 1841482382
Read February 7, 2014

For this category, I only need one more title, to match up with Dinosaurumpus and Dinosaur Roar!  I saw that this book had interesting felted-work illustrations (I really like mixing up different styles and types of artwork, so kids and parents realize that all sorts of illustrated works are equally valid and interesting) and since Stella Blackstone was the author, I was really hopeful.  To be honest, I Dreamt I Was A Dinosaur wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be, but since it's paired with a truly stompy book, and a good short read, I'm ok with it being a slightly more sedate trip through dinosaur-land.  (And I really love the felt and beadwork!)  The only thing I have to worry about with this week now is mixing up my dino-name pronunciations!



Food Science:

Where Does Food Come From?
Shelley Rotner & Gary Goss, photography by Shelley Rotner
ISBN: 0761329358
Read February 7, 2014

This is an excellent nonfiction early-childhood book.  I'm planning to use it with Growing Vegetable Soup and one other (as yet unselected) book.  This one will be a great short middle read, with lots of colorful photos and obvious conclusions to draw that will make the kids feel smart for knowing the answers.  It covers a lot of foods for such a short book - even includes salt, sugar, and maple syrup!  The format is simple and clear - THIS is a food source, and THIS is the food that it eventually becomes - showing photos along the outer edges of the pages illustrating the plant or source, and someone (usually a child) happily eating the resulting food.  Very nice nonfiction title.  I'm planning to use it for regular storytime rotations as well as for Summer Reading.