For the first time in 9 years here, and (mumble mumble) years elsewhere, I'm stepping back from the storytime programming for a while, and training a fresh new person to the ropes. They've been reading picture books and shadowing storytimes for a few months now, but a new year is a perfect time for new beginnings, so today is their first set of selections. From here forward, storytime selections will be theirs (guided by me, but ultimately selected by them) for as long as they're here at this location.
So, this development will actually be interesting for the purposes of reviewing, because I'll be looking at these books from a more neutral vantage - I won't be biased by having selected them myself. I'll get to see the books from a distance as they're read, so better see how the audience perceives them. I'll get to more clearly watch the reactions of the audience from a less distracted perspective. I think it's going to be a fun change in viewpoint.
So the first selection was "winter" themed, and ended up with the short middle read being a bit more of a 'holiday' book than a winter/outdoors/snowy theme, but I actually think that worked well. Holidays are always rough on kids - they are anticipated for so long, then they're overwhelming and routine-scrambling, then they're over and packed away so quickly and it's like whiplashing back into sudden normalcy. (Heck, that's stressful for me and I'm grown!) So I do actually like that this first winter story set has a reference to holiday festivities.
Mouse's First Snow
Lauren Thompson, illustrated by Buket Erdogan
ISBN: 9780689858369
Mouse and Poppa venture out into the snow for variations on snowy activities.
A very repetitive story has Mouse and Poppa out in the snow performing snowy-day activities in sequence: first Poppa does a thing, then Mouse repeats it. There are lots of repeated action words in the story like "Plop Plop!" or "Swoosh! Swoosh! Swish!" that need a bit more dedication to the delivery to really make them pop, but that's something that comes with experience (it IS hard to do those sorts of things in front of other adults without practice and experience and a decent bit of either no cares given or vibrant self-esteem.) Poppa's examples are uniformly beautiful and well-executed, and Mouse's are small and amateur, but still done functionally well. At the end, they combine giant "snowballs" into a snow mouse that they decorate together. Cute, sweet, fun, wintry without being specific to a time or place. I like that it's a young person and a caregiving male figure; seeing Poppa either as Dad or Grandfather works in the story. A BIT on the short side for a first story, but again; choosing stories that are an appropriate length comes with experience.
Llama Llama Jingle Bells
Anna Dewdney
ISBN: (boardbook format) 9780451469809
A cute and VERY SHORT addition to the llama llama books, focused on the more secular side of Christmas.
Very very short boardbook in about 5 spreads. This was a short read, especially after an already-short first book, but it is cute and thematic, and like I said, I like the impact of having a bit of acknowledgement of the holidays that are over now, just to give kids some processing space to handle the transition back to normal schedules. Rhyming couplets like all the other llama llama books go with really detailed pictures of secular(ish) Christmas activities like tree-decorating and shopping for presents. Cute, but don't expect content on the level of the actual llama llama books.
Jingle-Jingle
Nicola Smee
ISBN: 9781906250089
A winter themed sequel to Clip-Clop, and much more fun, in my opinion.
Cat, Dog, Pig, and Duck are off again with Mr Horse, this time on a winter sleigh ride that goes "Jingle Jingle" through the fields. (Again with the action words needing a bit more forceful delivery) Fun is had by all until they decide to all pile into the sleigh and toboggan down a hillside, where everyone tumbles out. This one is also a bit short, even though it's repetitive and a bit cumulative, where the animals are always called by individual moniker and the refrain "jingle jingle" shows up to mark the movement from spread to spread. Not the most inspiring story, but fun and simple, and the kids were very invested in the outcome of the snowy crash landing.
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