Tuesday Storytime: November Days

It finally is starting to feel like fall outside, so I picked a quick trio of seasonal books for this week.

Hibernation Station
Michelle Meadows, illustrated by Kurt Cyrus
ISBN: 9781416937883
A crew of bear "conductors" sorts out the "passengers" in the hollow log "train" they all hibernate around.

The concept is a bit hokey on initial presentation, thus the liberal use of quotation marks: I know it sounds corny, you guys.  But the illustrations are fantastic, the story is solid, and the cadence and rhymes are delightful to speak.  We've got all sorts of hibernating animals boarding the hollow log train into winterland, and the bear conductors are clambering all over trying to get everyone into their jammies and settled down, but NOTHING is going right.  The log's sprung a leak, bunkmakes are snoring, and someone's afraid of the dark.  A quick re-arrange to dry rumpled fur, switch roommates around, and soothe fears makes everything peaceful again, just in time for the pyjama-clad conductors to drift off themselves as the winter snow piles up against the solid log.


Listen to the Rain
Bill Martin Jr., illustrated by John Archambault
ISBN: 9780805006827
A soft whispery onomatopoeic breathy book.

I don't use this book often, but I think about it quite a lot, and I really adore the language and the whispery calm unhurried nature of it.  I do think it's probably not entirely suited for storytimes, but kids are going to have to learn to appreciate (or at least suffer politely through) quieter books and less-interactive books, and less visually-aggressive books, and this is a beautiful and almost musical example to practice on.


In November
Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Jill Kastner
ISBN: 978015201768
A beautiful lyrical narrative that segues easily from nature to community Thanksgiving.

Rylant is so talented at her narratives.  Every year when I look at this book, I wonder how she goes from unabashedly nature-centric in the impact of the changing of the seasons, to a close-up examination of the communal and comforting underpinnings of most families' celebrations of Thanksgiving.

Tuesday Storytime: Winter is Coming

Some lovely nature books for the onset of winter, at the start of December.  Wanted to counteract all of the rampant Christmassing going on everywhere.

Winter is Coming

Tony Johnston, illustrated by Jim LaMarche

ISBN: 9781442472518

Reviewed here, read only exerpts for storytime due to extremely young attendees.

Such a beautiful book.  I trimmed it waaaay down so I could use it with this group - cut 6 spreads completely out.  Because it's sequential, it didn't detract from the narrative flow, just tightened the focus a good bit and moved it along a lot faster so our under-4 year olds didn't get terminal wiggles.  It's still one of the most beautiful books I've seen, but the language isn't as poetic or flowing as the illustrations (and the type is very small), which makes it a bit challenging to read aloud.

Moon Glowing

Elizabeth Partridge, illustrated by Joan Paley

ISBN: 0525468730

Blocky painterly collage elements and a lovely wintry color palette.

I've used this fall/hibernation book a few times in past storytimes, but not recently, and it goes very well with my natural progression of the winter concept here.  We follow three animals; squirrel, bat, and bear, as they prepare over the fall for the onset of winter.  The text is large and highly contrasted to the pages, the images are clear and stylized with crisp colors and sharp minimalist patterns and textures.  The tight focus on the three animals means that the book is super short, but still hits clearly on the natural world's focus in late fall; storing food, preparing shelter, sleeping.  Pretty and much more accessible to a younger crowd, not least because of the much more appropriate length and minimal text.

In November

Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Jill Kastner

ISBN: 0152010769

One day late with this one.  Much like the other two, but with a short coda about Thanksgiving.

This book somehow manages to be super-factual, but impressively lyrical.  While I have no problems at all with Kastner's beautiful illustrations (the contrast between the clear-as-a-bell framing and composition with the muddled and mottled colors and blurry edges of the actual paintings is stunning to look at) I have to contrast this lovely language with that in Winter is Coming, and see how much more apt and flowing it is, and it makes me wish that Rylant would write something natural and poignant for LaMarche to illustrate.  It would probably make me cry.