This was another of those "this book is amazing and I have to use it, so what theme can I build around it?" storytimes. In this case, the book in question was Ernest the Moose Who Doesn't Fit, which we got recently, and I fell in love.
The Odd Egg
Emily Gravett
ISBN: 9781416968726
soft-edged pencil sketches filled in with watercolors, with a penultimate graduated-length lift-the-flap page like in The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Everyone lays an egg except Duck (and the sharp-eyed will realize why - Duck is a drake, not a hen) so he goes out and finds one. And he thinks it's the best egg ever. All the other birds give a serious side-eye to this hugely oversized green-spotty egg, but Duck just ignores them. Even when all of the other eggs hatch, Duck is not daunted, and continues patiently waiting. Until finally his egg hatches, and out pops a beautiful huge green scaly alligator baby. Surprise!
I especially like that the other birds are a pretty exotic collection; we've got the traditional chicken, and the new-traditional owl, but we've also got what I'm pretty sure is a robin, and a grey parrot and a flamingo.
The body language is stellar, especially Duck - he's just so adorable and persistent.
Clifford The Big Red Dog (Deluxe Anniversary Edition)
Norman Bridwell
ISBN: 0439403960
Bright colors, cartoony figures.
Do I really need to review Clifford? This is the classic original story, and the one I like best for storytime use, with Clifford the Small Red Puppy coming in second. There are lots of visual puns, and fun subversion-of-expectation events, and Emily Elizabeth is the perfect stone-cold straight narrator, giving no indication that she realizes the extent of the shenanigans going down. This Anniversary Edition is slightly oversized, and perfect for storytime with larger groups. If you can find it, it's worth it to get an extra copy to keep as a library-use-only book.
Ernest, The Moose Who Doesn't Fit
Catherine Rayner
ISBN: 9780374322175
pen-and-ink and watercolor washes, bright backgrounds, oversized fold-out last page.
The reason for this theme - This is a seriously cute book. The premise is simple: Ernest wants to fit into this picture book, but he's too big for all of him to fit in. After trying various positions and approaches (literally) his chipmunk friend gets a great idea, and off they go to collect tape and paper scraps, and they build the page up big enough for all of Ernest to fit in (and it does end up being four pages large when folded out). Mad props to the designers who put the text on the fold outs in sequence, and who also made the folds accessible and easy to operate in a storytime setting with the book held frontwards in front of the reader. The kids were suitably impressed, and it was a great closer.
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