Tuesday Storytime: Switching Gears to incoming baby siblings

New babies can be a fraught experience, and we've got several storytimers who are going through that process right now, so a small break from Halloween gives us some cute takes on new siblinghood.

The Baby Tree
Sophie Blackall
A cute compilation of all the different prominent American cultural myths about "where babies come from" from storks to cabbage patches to hospitals (vaguely) to the baby tree of the title and cover. At the end, the confusion is cleared up by a medically accurate but child-appropriate explanation of how the baby is made from a seed and an egg, and grows inside the mom until it's old enough to be born. Cute AND useful!

Baby Can
Eve Bunting, Maxie Chambers
Sibling rivalry starts early, and here we have an older sibling who is just a mite jealous of all the attention baby is getting for accomplishments that he can do just fine, but doesn't seem to get noticed or praised for! An attentive and complimentary (and distracting) family good-naturedly accomodate his need for attention in a positive and child-centered way, and by the end, the baby and brother are celebrating their successes together.

Bobo and the New Baby
Rebecca Minhsuan Huang
Bobo is an adorable dachshund, and he lives very happily with the Lees, until they bring home a baby. Suddenly everything Bobo wants must take second place to the baby - all the time! Despite that, Bobo is determined to be helpful and tries to kill a bee in the house, and initially gets yelled at, but when the Lees realize Bobo was trying to protect the baby, they formally introduce the two, and Bobo once more feels like an integral part of the family. (Hardcore echoes of Lady and the Tramp here, but that's probably because it's in the news with the new movie right now.)

Tuesday Storytime: Elephants on Parade

There are so many good picture books featuring elephants. It's really just astounding. Here are three of my perennial favorites:

Elmer
David McKee
Elmer is a patchwork-colored elephant - the only one in his herd. He always feels just a little bit out of place, so he plays the prankster and joker and always cracks the other elephants up, but when he thinks that they ONLY like him for his jokes, he sets off to try to become normal elephant color to fit in better. When he realizes that he's liked for himself, and that his patchworks mean that he is individual in a way the other elephant's can't be, he becomes a bit more accepting of his differences.

Tweak Tweak
Eve Bunting, illustrated by Sergio Ruzzier
A cute "growing up" story by Eve Bunting gets even more adorable with soft-edged and fluffy illustrations by Ruzzier. A mama elephant takes her baby out on a walk and they talk about what they see, and what's possible for baby elephants to do, or not to do as the case may be. Very cute, and a fun way to introduce the idea that not everything is right for everybody, and that families and people may be different and have different abilities.

Small Elephant's Bathtime
Tatyana Feeney
Sweet short story about Small Elephant, who really doesn't like bathtime, but when DAD starts having all the fun in the bath, now we can't have that, can we? It's a cute twist on the "wait til your FATHER comes home" trope (which is hopefully becoming more of a thing of the past) and an adorable family with good problem-solving skills.

Tuesday Storytime: Fun Clothes

It's getting to be VERY SLIGHTLY cooler weather, which means a lot of outfit changes and fraught clothing decisions to be made, so a storytime about all sorts of clothing conundrums is a fun take on the topic.

Ella Sarah Gets Dressed
Margaret Chodos-Irvine
Ella Sarah wants to wear a VERY SPECIFIC set of clothing, that, to be completely honest, is just totally over the top. Her family takes it in turn to suggest alternatives, but Ella Sarah remains insistent on her chosen outfit, which ends up working perfectly for her afternoon plans.

A Hat for Minerva Louise
Janet Morgan Stoeke
This series of books almost makes me like chickens. This time around, Minerva Louise is enjoying the winter weather, but it IS a little cold out. A hat would make it much more bearable to go exploring outside, but she keeps having troubles finding one that works out. Kids love identifying the various items, and parents enjoy that their kids can yell out stuff about the book without having to "shush" them.

Have You Seen My New Blue Socks?
Eve Bunting, Sergio Ruzzier
A cute little green duck(ling?) is wandering around pathetically looking for his new blue socks in this nearly-offensively rhyming story that thankfully is over before the rhyme scheme drives anyone utterly mad. There's a quite obvious twist ending, and other than the rhyming, it's sweet and cute and a familiar scenario to anyone with a toddler (or frankly anyone with too much on their mind or a forgetful nature).

Tuesday Storytime: Spring Birds

We did a bit of an experiment today with a VERY LONG but excellent book about how robins grow and develop, so we used that book as our first TWO book sessions, with a song at a good stopping place, and then read one final short book at the end. It worked ok, the kids are a bit young for this, and we had some talkers, but such is life.

Robins! How They Grow Up
Eileen Christelow
ISBN: 9780544442894
Really Really Really Really long and wordy. There was a lot of paraphrasing and eliding. However, there are ALSO two sections where an egg is stolen and eaten by a squirrel, and a fledgling is stooped on and carried off by a hawk, and I did NOT skip those sections. They were written matter-of-factly, and so I just carried on. I think one mommy was a bit scandalized, but kids don't care and they just want to know how things work. Very informational, good illustrations, SOOOOO wordy.

I'm a Duck
Eve Bunting
Will Hillenbrand
ISBN: 9780763680329
Really cute rhyming couplets show off this water-phobic duck, and how he used his friends and his smarts to develop skills and confidence to eventually go swimming with his family. Cute, sweet, and OH SO SHORT.

Tuesday Storytime: Celebrate Reading

I had a collection of spring books all selected, but apparently this is "last surprise winter" week, so instead I'll save those for next time and use this cute trio of books about reading and libraries.

Bear's House of Books
Poppy Bishop, illustrated by Alison Edgson
ISBN: 9781680100389
This is such a cute book. Four childhood friends share their one picture book every night, even though it's worn out and sticky from use, until they go on a search for a new book, and discover an entire library owned by a slightly grumpy Bear. Bear is upset at first about others using his books (especially with sticky paws and when they use a sandwich as a bookmark) but when he realizes that they only have ONE book, he quickly develops a solution. Really sweet and heartwarming.

Llama Llama Loves to Read
Anna Dewney and Reed Duncan (or should that be the other way around...) illustrated by JT Morrow
ISBN: 9780670013975
The standard llama llama rhyming scheme works its magic with the process of reading - from letters to sounds to words, sentences, songs, books, stories, and reading informational signs. Not much depth, but accurate and uplifting, acknowledging that sometimes words need to be memorized, and sometimes words are difficult to read or learn. Not as inspiring as some of the other more emotional llama llama challenge-facing books, but a solid introduction to the concept of learning to read as a process.

Our Library
Eve Bunting, illustrated by Maggie Smith
ISBN: 9780618494583
(minus the last three or four pages because I had a young and very wiggly crowd - I ended on the "library on the grassy meadow" spread.)
I will say, the grownups in the group really enjoyed the VERY SPECIFIC book titles that were checked out of the library in order to help the children solve their problems and overcome their difficulties. Mrs Goose made everyone sad when she revealed that the library was old and dingy, with a bad roof, and no money, and that the landlord (a weasel of course) wanted the land back, but with some judicious checking out of VERY SPECIFIC BOOKS, and a lot of hard work and effort, and a dramatic confrontation with an elderly and grumpy Beaver, the library was saved - all with the help and instruction provided by the library books.

Tuesday Storytime: Spring Flowers

This week's program was selected by my coworker.

Flower Garden
Eve Bunting, illustrated by Kathryn Hewitt
ISBN: 0152287760
An adorable black girl works with her father to create a miniature garden in a flowerbox in their city brownstone apartment, as a birthday present for her mother.

Planting a Rainbow
Lois Ehlert
ISBN: 0152626093
A long-time classic. Ehlert's cut-out collages are bright and vibrant, and generally short and sweet. About halfway through the book, there is a section of gradated-width pages that feature different colored bands to show progressively more flowers of that color. Really well designed.

The Flower's Busy Day (Bamboo and Friends)
Felicia Law, illustrated by Nicola Evans
ISBN: 1404812814
Bamboo the panda and his diverse animal friends investigate the day cycle of a flower in this nonfiction-adjacent conceptual picture book. Lots of information packed into a pretty tight narrative. They are cleverly done, but the illustrations aren't quite my style: a little too loose and bright and overproduced. Vibrant and fun and true.

Tuesday Storytime: Pets

A really stellar lineup from my coworker today: a trio of adorable animal books.

Zorro Gets an Outfit

Carter Goodrich

ISBN: 9781442435353

Zorro is an adorable pug dog, and he has been put into a superhero outfit, and the other dogs all laugh at him. He's inconsolable until another dog at the dog park shows up in a pirate outfit and just so happens to be a really cool dog - who likes Zorro's outfit! A good story about friendship and identity and feeling shame and pride.

Have You Seen My New Blue Socks

Eve Bunting, illustrated by Sergio Ruzzier

ISBN: 9780547752679

Eve Bunting is channeling her Dr Seuss here, with a cute rhyming (perhaps just a slight bit tooo cutely rhyming) quick story about a forgetful and perhaps somewhat disorganized duck who has lost their new blue socks somewhere. A progressively-further-unlaced shoe provides a tiny visual clue about the location of the socks as the story goes on.

Papillon Goes to the Vet (The Very Fluffy Kitty)

A. N. Kang

ISBN: 9781484728819

This is the cutest book about a very fluffy kitty with a very unrealistic story of what happens at a vet's office, but it's ok, because it's adorable. Papillon is soooo fluffy that he floats! Which is quite fun, until he accidentally ingests a cat toy and has to spend the night at the vet. Very low-key explanations of how Papillon feels less than well, which keeps the very lighthearted feeling flowing through even at the vet. 

Tuesday Storytime: Tickles and Tumbles

Three cute ones, and they all start with the letter T, in addition to being about tickling and teasing and tumbling around. I have way too much fun sometimes finding these sets of books.

Tweak Tweak
Eve Bunting, illustrated by Sergio Ruzzier
ISBN: 9780618998517
Baby elephant goes Tweak Tweak on mama's tail every time they come across anything new and interesting. Mama is tolerant and gentle and explains the differences between what can and can't be done, while suggesting alternative actions that CAN be taken. Very gentle and illuminating, and the illustrations are just plain cute.


Tickle, Tickle
Helen Oxenbury
ISBN: 9780689819856 (board book format, ISBN not on book itself)
Oxenbury crafts a cute but VERY short book with diverse babies and young toddlers all getting tickled and having fun. Sweet.


Tumble Bumble
Felicia Bond
ISBN: 9781886910157 (make sure to get the original hardcover, not the board book - it's sooo tiny)
Bears and alligators and cats and pigs and frogs and mice and bugs and one little boy Oh My! It's a tumble-bumble world for these animals as they bumble through the streets and through a house and into bed. Excellent "scaffolding" story, and lots of fun language.

Tuesday Storytime: Edgar Allen Poe

Our library decided to host a county-wide celebration of Edgar Allen Poe, and there were events across the entire system and in various other locations through the month of October.  We were asked to tie as many existing library programs into the event as possible, so I challenged myself to come up with toddler-friendly books that were both Halloween appropriate and which somewhat referenced Edgar Allen Poe or his thematic legacy.  I think I did pretty well, all things considered.  I chose to hit on gothic architecture and creepy suspense with Eve Bunting's amazing Night of the Gargoyles, I referenced the ubiquitous Raven with the sweetly translated Rosie the Raven, and double-teamed Poe's own pet cat (Catterina, because OF COURSE) and the creepy (and very child-UNfriendly) story The Black Cat with Cynthia Rylant's Moonlight the Halloween Cat, and finished off with a slightly expurgated and modernized rendition of Poe's courting poem about self-esteem and beauty.  Programming readers's advisory level: awesome.

Night of the Gargoyles
Eve Bunting, illustrated by David Wiesner
ISBN: 9780395968871
Gargoyles on a public building creep about and play tricks as they come alive at night.

Wiesner's illustrations really carry the story here, no offense to Bunting.  The graphite work is amazing, and the expressions on the various gargoyle and human faces is a master-class in showing, not telling.  Bunting's perfectly-honed slightly laconic and dry wit keeps the whole thing from imploding into a grotesque macabre sentiment.  Gargoyles have very simple, childlike pleasures: scuttling around the building and peeking into windows, playing in water fountains, and mildly tormenting helpless creatures (the hapless custodian who is the only one who believes they come alive).  It's beautiful and slightly creepy and subversively funny (jokes about bird poop appear well-received by all ages).  A perfect reference to Poe.  

Rosie the Raven
Helga Bansch
ISBN: 9781554518340
Rosie doesn't look like all her siblings, but she is self-confident and loved by her raven parents.

There is a real dearth of decent books about ravens in the picture book arena, and I find that a crying shame.  This is one of the few that I entirely enjoyed, and I decided it would represent all the sweet and innocent (or prosaic) writing that Poe did, most of which is largely forgotten.  Rosie is a miniature human child born to a family of ravens.  When her siblings grow up and leave the nest, her parents realize that Rosie isn't going to be able to do the same, and will need to migrate south with them.  The family works together, and Rosie learns to accept herself and her non-bird limitations with grace and courage.

Moonlight the Halloween Cat
Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Melissa Sweet
ISBN: 9780060297114
Moonlight is a black cat, and she loves the lights and noises and creepy creatures out on this particular night.

Moonlight stalks around, a black cat with gleaming, almost day-glow green eyes peering out from the various spreads and pages.  She's a black cat, a Halloween cat, and she knows this night from all the other nights because of all the Halloween things that she encounters; trick-or-treaters, jack-o-lanterns, strange lights, bright moonlight.  A sweet and VERY short story.  I probably should have stuck this one in the middle here.

Bonus Poe Poem:
"Thou would'st be loved?  Then let thy heart/"
from Poetry for Young People: Edgar Allen Poe  (2008 edition)
Brod Bagert & Carolynn Cobleigh
ISBN: 9781402754722
A curated collection of child-appropirate poems (and oddly enough some fragments of stories) by Poe.

Even in a collection of poems designed to be available and intelligible to young people, I only found one poem I felt like the kids would even slightly be able to understand, and that's Poe's untitled poem that he would send to girls that he fancied.  The poem itself is chaste enough, and I only slightly modernized and altered the wording to make meanings clear for a very young, very modern listening group.  It's good advice for all ages, and a nice positive note to end on.