Tuesday Storytime: Ducks!

I went with a nice simple theme and picture today since we had a daycare attending.  My normal group of about 20-odd warm bodies ballooned up to over seventy people today - I needed all the easy I could get!

Little Quack

Lauren Thompson, illustrated by Derek Anderson

ISBN: 0689847238

Math-concept book focuses on the first time ducklings leave their nest to go swimming.

Fuzzy bright simplistic paintings use the spreads to great advantage as the looming mother duck convinces her timid ducklings to leave the nest and join her in the water.  The math is relegated to the bottom of the panels, and could easily be left out - all I did was ask the kids each time how many of the ducklings were in the water.

Have You Seen My Duckling

Nancy Tafuri

ISBN: 0688027989

Caldecott Honor book.  Vivid naturalistic colored-pencil drawings have the missing duckling hidden.

An old classic.  Hard to do in storytime usually because there's not anything to DO really - just turn the pages and ask on occasion: "have you seen my duckling?" but with a group this large, there's going to be a few kids who can be counted on to answer questions and anticipate events, so I can ask: "what sort of animal is mama duck talking to?" and "do you see the missing duckling?" (and of course point it out each time so that everyone can share the joke.  I don't do a lot of wordless or near wordless books, so it's nice to be able to use this one at last.

Five Little Ducks

Ivan Bates

ISBN: 0439746930

Bates' illustrations are always sweet and just this side of precious, paired perfectly with the nursery rhyme.

Ivan Bates is a gifted illustrator, and his beautiful pictures always warm my heart.  Something about how he lays down colors and the slightly scribbly edges on his shapes and the almost-minimalistic backgrounds just resonate really strongly with me, and I simply adore looking at them.  Calming and fun at the same time.  Matching that feeling up with an old nursery rhyme is a perfect choice, and makes for an instant classic.  The only downside is that I never heard this particular one as a song, only as a chant, so I don't actually know how to sing it!  I have to settle for halfway between reading and chanting, and my natural cadence is not quite up to the task.  Oh well.  Small price to pay for such a sweet and beautiful book.

Tuesday Storytime: Dragons!

This is my last free storytime before the Summer Reading Program starts.  I decided last year that I was going to have my storytimes for the little kids match up with the programs for the big kids in the Summer Reading Program, and I don't regret that - I love all the books and crafts that I've chosen - but I do feel a twinge that it will be AUGUST before I get to choose another personal, only at this library storytime theme (and before you ask, yes, I have already chosen them and picked out the books: swimming, going to the beach, and back to school).

So for the last storytime before we get to exult in science: Dragons!

(As a bonus, ALL THREE of the books I read this time got taken home by patrons - I LOVE when that happens!)

Me and My Dragon
David Biedrzycki
ISBN: 9781580892780
Bright red comically-exaggerated non-threatening dragon, and a mundane kid and environment

Some kids want puppies, some goldfish, but this kid - he wants a dragon!  He adopts a nice fire-breathing red variety from the pet store, gives it a place to sleep (a cardboard castle with a drawbridge) and teaches it how to fly (pushing it off a cliff) and takes it to obedience school, settling down to enjoy life together.  This could also very easily go into a Pet Ownership theme with Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy and Shirley Hughes' Dogger.

Waking Dragons
Jane Yolen, illustrated by Derek Anderson
ISBN: 9781416990321
Soft-edged pudgy oversized dragons are woken up and taken through their morning routine by a diminutive knight.

So little text to this story, but it's very sweet, and lots of fun.  The only weird issue I have with it is that in my accent, "syrup" and "cheer up" are nowhere close to a rhyme, and that always makes my brain hurt a little bit.  This is like the platonic ideal of a middle of storytime read - interesting pictures, minimal text, short or no plot, and no big drama.

Hiding Hoover
Elise Broach, illustrated by Laura Huliska-Beith
ISBN: 9780803727069
Thin, spiky, exaggeratedly elongated characters in a brightly colored world.

Daddy says "No pets!" so when the duo finds Hoover (a thin, spiky, elongated, green flappy dragon) in the back yard, they know they're going to have to get creative in order to keep him.  Hoover is hidden in bed, in the closet, tries on their clothes, ends up as a coat-rack, a stepladder, a chandelier, a vacuum, an armchair, and an umbrella, each time fooling poor Daddy, who never notices a thing.  Until the end, when there's a fairly big hint that maybe Daddy has noticed Hoover after all.