Because there are enough good quality fun picture books out there to do a storytime SOLELY about comparing yourself to animals, here we are! A trio of excellent storybook authors/illustrators also represented, with very different art styles, so a win all around for this week.
Little Mouse
Alison Murray (Apple Pie A B C)
ISBN: 9781423143307
Retro-bold outlines and bright color-blocked cast of animals follow a little girl through her day.
Our narrator is mommy's "little mouse" when she's all cuddly and snuggly, but she wants us to know that she's lots of other animals too. This one is very fun because she never states out-loud what the animals are, but they appear behind her, so when she is shown grumpily heading for her bath with an irate bear behind her and the commentary "And I'm pretty certain that little mice don't stomp..." (emphasis in the original) the kids are happy to add "like a bear!" to finish the thought.
Quick as a Cricket
Audrey Wood, illustrated by Don Wood
ISBN: 0859531511
Classic stream-of-opposites with an engaging boy emoting along with the animal representative.
I don't read this one very often, but I really enjoy what it does: presents a set of emotional or physical feelings and relates them to the animals that are most associated with that emotion or feeling or attribute in western (American) culture, specifically the ones that have actual phrases associated. So we have "weak as a kitten" and "gentle as a lamb," but also "mean as a shark" and "strong as an ox" all of which are fairly common statements. In addition, there's others that simply make sense "tough as a rhino," "wild as a chimp," "slow as a snail" may not be actual folk-statements, but they hold true and would make sense to most adults.
Monkey and Me
Emily Gravett (The Odd Egg)
ISBN: 9781416954576
A cute little girl and her stuffed monkey (in scribbly pencil art reminiscent of Emma Kate, by Patricia Polacco, ISBN: 9780399244520) act out movements of various animals from the classic jump-rope rhyme.
Love the repetition, and the scrambles of the kids (and the patient hints of the parents) trying to figure out what the girl and monkey duo are acting out. The elephant pantomime is especially clever, and I like the sing-song effects of the repeated chant leading up to whatever they were going to see. The ending is perhaps a bit abrupt - because the story is entirely on sets of spreads, it's over very quickly compared to a lot of stories.
No comments:
Post a Comment