Tuesday Storytime: Dancing

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.