Tuesday Storytime: Summer Fun

These were selected by my coworker!

An Island in the Sun
Stella Blackstone, illustrated by Nicoletta Ceccoli
A "House that Jack built" narrative structure, and a lovely rhyming flow make this sweet but fairly empty story move along quickly, held largely together by the utterly beautiful illustrations of sun and wind and water and islands in a tropical imagination of a world. Beautiful but slight.

North, South, East, West
Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Greg Pizzoli
An unpublished little gem from Margaret Wise Brown has a little bird fluttering off into different climates as she flies in each cardinal direction to discover where she most wants to be - finally (seemingly) returning home to settle and raise a family who end the story by taking wing in all different directions just like their mother.

Leo Can Swim
Anna McQuinn, illustrated by Ruth Hearson
Leo is Lola's little brother, a Black British child who has family-and-child-centered real-life adventures with his family and father, much as Lola does in her books. In this story, Leo and his dad go to a swim class at a local pool, and encounter locker rooms, swimming gear, a swimming lesson, and a nice rest after class. Perfect little books for explaining life experiences for kids about to start on them personally, or for kids who may never have that experience to learn about them in a realistic way.

Tuesday Storytime: Halloween Prep

It was a couple of weeks before Halloween, and I was still working my way through my tons of lovely Halloween and monster books.  This time around I focused on fears of Halloween (either parental or kid-centric) and picked a trio of reassuring monster mashes.

Me and My Dragon: Scared of Halloween
David Biedrzycki
ISBN: 9781580896597
The cute duo from Me and My Dragon handle big Halloween fears.

This one is more fun if you're familiar with the Me and My Dragon book, but even so, it's pretty obvious that the dragon isn't really the one who's apprehensive about Halloween.  Friends and family are reassuring, and the boy uses psychologically-appropriate positive self-talk to encourage himsel-SCUSE ME, his dragon, and everything turns out to be fun and enjoyable.

Where's My Mummy?
Carolyn Crimi, illustrated by John Manders
ISBN: 9780763631963
A baby mummy starts to play hide-and-shriek with his Mommy mummy, but gets lost.

I think I'll probably be reading (or suggesting) this book for my whole career.  Baby mummy is playing hide-and-shriek before bed, but now he can't find Mommy mummy anywhere.  He wanders the graveyard, swamp, and woods searching for her, and finding creepy (but helpful and caring) grownup neighbors instead, all prepping their own selves for bed in various ways, and eventually ends up in the woods, scared by something truly terrifying - a mouse!  Mommy mummy is instantly there to save the day and provide reassurance and a return to the bedtime routine.  Really really really cute.

Not Very Scary
Carol Brendler, illustrated by Greg Pizzoli
ISBN:97803743551470
Melly counts up scary creatures on her walk over to a Halloween party, where she meets them again.

Melly is headed to her cousin's Halloween party, and she's a little bit nervous that it will be too scary for her.  As she heads down the street, the ever-increasing numbers of creepy Halloween creatures in this cumulative counting book make her more and more nervous, until she gets to the party and is reassured to realize they're not very scary after all.