Tuesday Storytime: Monstrous families

I also had Amanda Noll and Howard McWilliam's fantastic I Need My Monster cued up, but the crowd was predominantly littles, so it would have been too long. Highly recommended. 

I Am A Witch's Cat

Harriet Muncaster

ISBN: 9780062229144

Looooooove this book so much. The miniatures/dollhouse/collage illustrations are fantastic, the story is cute, and the premise is perfectly executed. Really excellent.

Go Away, Big Green Monster!

Ed Emberley

ISBN: 9780316236539

Classic cut-out reveal book. Simple, no nonsense, super fast, super fun for the kids to see how the monster grows and disappears. 

Creepy Monsters, Sleepy Monsters a lullabye

Jane Yolen, illustrated by Kelly Murphy

ISBN: 9780763642013

Slow and very sedate, but a welcome change in tone from most upbeat or quirky halloween/monster books. This one is sweet and gentle, and ramps down smoothly from the end of a school day to the nearly endless rituals of bedtime. Sweet.

Tuesday Storytime: Halloween Cats

I really love cats, and when I found that I had enough books (pulled to find a suitable candidate for the Edgar Allen Poe storytime) I decided that even though it was the day after Halloween, I'd do one last Halloween storytime featuring the best of the bunch.

I Am a Witch's Cat
Harriet Muncaster
ISBN: 9780062229144
Adorable girl-child in a cat costume in spreads of miniature-created doll-house like environments.

The setting and storyline seem very British to me, but that just adds to the charm.  A delightfully precocious narrator "witch cat" girl explains seriously why her mother is a witch, because of all the (totally mundane) activities that the girl has imagined into a more interesting reality.  The story progresses beautifully through mom's coven meeting (book club or coffee klatch) until the end, where we see mom soaring off on a broomstick.  Maybe the little girl was right after all?  DELIGHTFUL.

Black Cat Creeping
Teddy Slater, illustrated by Aaron Boyd
ISBN: 9781402719790
Cute little black kitten has no home, but he follows his nose (and some trick-or-treaters) and finds the best treat of all at the end of the road.

I love stories where sweet cute little animals get adopted at the end, but this is where I feel obligated to issue the public service warning to spay and neuter your pets, don't let them wander free (unless they're microchipped and collared) and to be careful with your own black cats and dogs around Halloween night so that bad things don't happen to helpless animals who rely on us for their entire lives.


Boo to You
Lois Ehlert
ISBN: 9781416986256
Ehlert's story isn't Halloween themed, but her signature cut-out and layered collages are certainly creepy enough to qualify.

Ehlert is always stunning.  Her collages are textural and layered and so interesting to look at.  This one is no different, but I have to say her grotesque cat even gives me pause.  That grimace on the cover - yow.  From a mouse's perspective, probably fairly accurate.  If a kid likes this story and have pretty good tolerance for mayhem, might I suggest a bedtime read of The Rescuers by Margary Sharp (yes, what the Disney movie was based on, and YES the book is a lot better, and nearly nothing like the movies at all).  If the kids like that one, there's about six more, all in the same vein of brave mice, scary cats and dogs, and suuuuper evil villains who don't actually do much on-screen.

Tuesday Storytime: Prepping for Halloween

I Am a Witch's Cat
Harriet Muncaster
ISBN: 9780062229144
Meticulous miniature dioramas are adorable mundane counterparts to the wild claims in the text.

Previously reviewed here.  Still adorable.  No worries from any parents or kids, and a few chuckles at the conflation of the "mommy book club" with a coven.


Duck and Goose Find a Pumpkin
Tad Hills
ISBN: 9780375858130
(Board Book) Short and sweet in the Duck and Goose tradition, good for audience interaction.

Duck and Goose books are usually just a smidge too basic for me to use in storytimes.  I'm sure the kids would love it, but I try not to subject myself or the parents to very simplistic "baby books" any more than I have to.  This one is an exception because I try very hard for my Halloween books to be lighthearted, family-centric, and generally utterly inoffensive.  Very simple set up has Thistle (Duck and Goose's occasional friend) wandering by with a pumpkin, spurring the young friends to acquire one of their own.  A series of spreads has them looking in all sorts of unlikely places, until Thistle reappears at the end to drop a much-needed hint about the pumpkin patch.

Hedgehug's Halloween
Text by Benn Sutton, concept and art by Dan Pinto
ISBN: 9780061961045
Colorful and blocky collage in textural swathes of bright or moody colors.

I'm not super thrilled about the artwork here, as I feel it's a bit too small for as busy and stylized as it is.  I wish it were a larger book.  That said, the story is adorable, and the pictures are very clear and understandable despite the blocky collage and rough-edged textures.  Hedgehug has forgotten about the yearly Halloween party in the forest, and he and his friends are desperately trying to find him a costume, but his prickles keep ruining things.  As the party begins, and he's still sans costume, he trudges through the forest sadly, but there's a three-headed big thing chasing after him!  It's his friends, with one last super-duper attempt at a costume, but this time they're prepared for the spikes.

 

Picture Book Haul: Halloween books, I Am a Witch's Cat, and Ten Orange Pumpkins

Loads of picture books in today, and LOTS of them are Halloween/fall books.  I'm thrilled with that, because Halloween is my favorite holiday, but I wanted to highlight my two absolute favorites.

I Am a Witch's Cat
Harriet Muncaster
ISBN: 9780062229144

Freaking ADORABLE.  A little girl dressed up in a black cat pyjama suit wanders and frolics around informing people of all the things that make her homemaker mother actually a witch.  Of course, it's all nonsense, as the illustrations clearly show a normal family and normal house.  Until the last page where mom's night out has an entirely different meaning.  I especially like that there's no indication one way or the other if mom is single, divorced, or married and enjoying a solo night out.   The illustrations are equally awesome - on first glance, they look like straightforward collage or paper-mache, but a closer look reveals intricate created environments using cardboard and fabric and wires and paper cut outs and god knows what else amazingly transformed into living rooms, gardens, and shopping marts.  Too cool.  (Also a perfect length for storytime, so I have another good Halloween book that isn't too specifically Halloween - have to be careful about that in the Bible Belt.)


Ten Orange Pumpkins: A Counting Book
Stephen Savage (Little Tug)
ISBN: 9780803739383

(Phobia warning: GIANT (nonrealistic) SPIDER!)
I love our black cat companion.  I love the subtle color-fades on the spreads.  I love the stylized shadow-box scenery.  I don't love spiders.  BUT the rest of the book is so lovely, and the spider is likewise stylized (even though ENORMOUS) that I can make it through.  Great progression, great reveal, simply delightful artwork.  Excellent all around.