Tuesday Storytime: Seeing Stars

A good set of books today, for a fairly large crowd.

Our Stars

Anne Rockwell

ISBN: 0152018689

Lovely factual and old-fashioned book examines stars, the sun, planetary and lunar orbits, comets, meteors (shooting stars), and constellations in clear illustrations and simple age-appropriate language, using the correct terms and explaining them straightforwardly.

The Sun is my Favorite Star

Frank Asch (Happy Birthday Moon)

ISBN: 0152021272

Skirt-wearing white child waxes lyrical about our own personal star: the sun. Beautiful fuzzy-edged and warm-toned imagery, and very short and sweet (and repetitive) sentences.

Fancy Nancy Sees Stars

Jane O'Connor, illustrated by Ted Enik (in the style of the original artist: Robin Preiss Glasser)

ISBN: 9780062572752

Fancy Nancy loves fancy words, and also loves stars. Her class is headed for a night trip to the planetarium when disaster strikes and the trip is cancelled, but her family makes the best of it (as they always do) and the class trip is saved (perhaps by a wish on a shooting star?)

New Arrivals: Juv Fic: Nancy Clancy Star of Stage and Screen, Jane O'Connor & Robin Preiss Glasser

These are too cute, and this last one has an interesting focus: the concept of "going viral."

Nancy Clancy Star of Stage and Screen
Jane O'Connor, illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser
ISBN: 9780062269645
Book 5 of the Nancy Clancy series
Read February 24, 2015

This book features the vocabulistically-enhanced grade-schooler first introduced in the picture book series Fancy Nancy.  There is also a set of "leveled" readers that are also "Fancy Nancy" branded.  Unlike both of those, these actual chapter books have her as a bit older, with more involved storylines, usually mysteries or minor school/home crises to solve, and a little higher-level vocabulary.

In this installment, Nancy is equal parts excited and nervous about her school's end of year program.  The action is multi-part, with a friend suffering from a perfectionist nature, a school-wide cough descending and keeping kids from performing, and tensions with her little sister, termed rambunctious by parents, but simply naughty by Nancy.  All comes together nicely in the end, with a plot-twist (telegraphed by a portentous dinnertime conversation earlier) that results in Nancy Clancy ending up on TV!

Went to the bookstore last night: Lulu & the Brontosaurus, Nancy Clancy Sees The Future

Don't laugh.  I work in the library, and when I get off, I tend to go to the bookstore - and read children's books there also.

Lulu and the Brontosaurus
Judith Viorst (author of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day)
ISBN: 9781416999621
Read February 8, 2014

Loved it.  Lulu is a massive brat, the Brontosaurus is massively entitled and irritatingly patient, and the 'author' pokes her head in at random parenthetical intervals to explain, comment, or disparage the narrative.

Lulu is just now turning three, and she's decided that she wants a brontosaurus.  She can decide this, you see, because her parents have spent her childhood to date giving in and giving Lulu anything she wants, just because she pitches truly massive fits.  Unfortunately for Lulu, her parents think brontosauruses are extinct, and are proof against her pleas, so she heads out to the forest to find one herself.

Sadly for Lulu, this does not go according to plan.  Wild animals try to eat her, and when she does find her brontosaurus, it decides that Lulu should be the pet in this relationship.  A bit of hard-earned maturity later, Lulu returns home for a set of delightful endings (the author couldn't get it quite right the first few times, you see).


Nancy Clancy Sees the Future
Jane O'Connor, illustrsted by Robin Priess Glasser
ISBN: 9780062082978
Read February 8, 2014

These books are the chapter-book associates to the Fancy Nancy picture book series (which I adore)  only now Nancy is a bit older, and involved in solving mysteries (Cam Jansen style).  In this installment (the third of the chapter books), Nancy makes a series of astounding predictions, and becomes convinced that she has a sixth sense, and can predict the future.  The story relies heavily on child-logic, which is amusing to read.  It also stays heavily focused on previously-established characters - best friend Bree, magician classmate, adored babysitter.  Nancy's illusions are shattered by learning about the words 'coincidence' and 'intuition,' a lesson that many adults could stand to revisit.  Bonus points for a plot-driving mention of Locks of Love.