Ok fine, it's not the snappiest of themes, but I wanted to end our exploration of space with a reminder that we have a place in the universe, and that the world (and their own lives) are a part of the vastness of space. Yes, I'm a huge softy and the kids won't even notice or care, but I think it's important.
Light up the Night
Jean Reidy, illustrated by Margaret Chodos-Irvine
ISBN: 9781423120247
A black-haired boy goes to bed and he and his shape-shifting quilt take a tour of the universe from stars down to his own hometown and bedroom, in a "house that Jack built" sort of cumulative tale of shrinking down reference frames. The very end opens back out into space and slows the tempo way back down. Seems short and snappy til you read it, then it's pretty long and repetitive, but it's still a solid read for this age-group.
The Night Sky
Robin Nelson (photographs and diagrams by various contributors and sources)
ISBN: 9780761345770
There needs to be a book in this series about every nonfiction topic under the sun. It's short, sweet, clear, the pictures and diagrams are phenomenal, and basically it's just perfect. We learn about the moon and how it cycles through phases.
Our Solar System (board-book)
Peter and Connie Roop
ISBN: 9781454914181
Also perfect, but in board-book/lift-the-flap format! A "shaped" board-book where each consecutive spread is a slightly larger cross-section, and slightly further out from the center, starting with a sun-shaped circle to begin with, and ending with Neptune at the furthest reaches (sorry Pluto) and a shout-out to the updated memory catchphrase "My Very Excellent Mother..." Really beautiful, an excellent concept, executed beautifully.
And that does it for summer reading and for space this year (until I decide to do one on my own, just because I like space). Tune in next week to see the third set of self-selected books by our trainee storytimer!
Showing posts with label Jean Reidy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jean Reidy. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 1, 2017
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Tuesday Storytime: Big City Life
Only two more weeks before the Summer Reading Program kicks in, and we're all about the heroes and villains at that point.
For today, we're looking at life in the big city.
Blackout
John Rocco
ISBN: 9781423121909
Caldecott Honor book, large-format comic-book panels with minimal descriptive narration.
I am ambivalent about this book. I love it as a personal read, and I've had a lot of luck with it in one-on-one sessions, where it becomes less a "story" and more an exploration of the event that is depicted (a city-wide blackout that lasts for a few hours, through the lens of a young child who is desperate for their busy family to play a board-game with them.) On the other hand, the almost totally wordless nature of the book makes much less suited for storytime, even though the story and the concepts are really perfectly suited for this age-group. It's frustrating to try and balance being true to the book as written, and the desire to explain and narrate so that the younger kids, or the ones further back in the rows who can't see the action in the panels clearly, have a chance to understand what is going on. I always feel like I'm doing the creator a disservice regardless of what I choose. I hate that I feel this way, because I love the comic style, and I love the storyline itself, I just don't feel like this is the best setting for it.
Count on the Subway
Paul Dubois Jacobs and Jennifer Swender, illustrations by Dan Yaccarino
ISBN: 9780307979230
Yaccarino's distinctive pop-art livens a quick by-the-numbers run through the subway system.
I love this book! So cute and lively and the rhymes are so nifty and cleverly hidden in the numbers. A count up to ten, then back down to one, and ending in Grand Central Station, all through the perspective of a young girl and her mother, traversing the subway in the most matter-of-fact manner. Too adorable for words, and a perfect representation of the very different realities of life in the city that my rural storytime kids have no experience with.
All Through My Town
Jean Reidy, illustrations by Leo Timmers
ISBN: 9781619630291
Overstuffed and busy, with few grounding reference points in the text or illustrations.
I liked this one when I pre-read it, but when I started it in storytime, I realized it was much too busy and unfocused to be a keeper. The storyline is meandering - starting in the morning and the rhymes reference the buildings and events on the page as the day progresses, but there is no solid reference to time of day or to the buildings/events that are referenced, just the onomatopoeic language of the references; "shopping, sacking, sorting, stacking - rows so nice and neat" with an illustration of a market of some sort. I wanted to like it, and it wasn't bad, especially with the fun language throughout, but it was confusing to the kids, sadly. Would be really good with a classroom or one-on-one to ask "what sort of place do you think this is?" for each page and circumstance, and to refer that back to the kids' experiences with their own grocery stores, libraries, and streets.
For today, we're looking at life in the big city.
Blackout
John Rocco
ISBN: 9781423121909
Caldecott Honor book, large-format comic-book panels with minimal descriptive narration.
I am ambivalent about this book. I love it as a personal read, and I've had a lot of luck with it in one-on-one sessions, where it becomes less a "story" and more an exploration of the event that is depicted (a city-wide blackout that lasts for a few hours, through the lens of a young child who is desperate for their busy family to play a board-game with them.) On the other hand, the almost totally wordless nature of the book makes much less suited for storytime, even though the story and the concepts are really perfectly suited for this age-group. It's frustrating to try and balance being true to the book as written, and the desire to explain and narrate so that the younger kids, or the ones further back in the rows who can't see the action in the panels clearly, have a chance to understand what is going on. I always feel like I'm doing the creator a disservice regardless of what I choose. I hate that I feel this way, because I love the comic style, and I love the storyline itself, I just don't feel like this is the best setting for it.
Count on the Subway
Paul Dubois Jacobs and Jennifer Swender, illustrations by Dan Yaccarino
ISBN: 9780307979230
Yaccarino's distinctive pop-art livens a quick by-the-numbers run through the subway system.
I love this book! So cute and lively and the rhymes are so nifty and cleverly hidden in the numbers. A count up to ten, then back down to one, and ending in Grand Central Station, all through the perspective of a young girl and her mother, traversing the subway in the most matter-of-fact manner. Too adorable for words, and a perfect representation of the very different realities of life in the city that my rural storytime kids have no experience with.
All Through My Town
Jean Reidy, illustrations by Leo Timmers
ISBN: 9781619630291
Overstuffed and busy, with few grounding reference points in the text or illustrations.
I liked this one when I pre-read it, but when I started it in storytime, I realized it was much too busy and unfocused to be a keeper. The storyline is meandering - starting in the morning and the rhymes reference the buildings and events on the page as the day progresses, but there is no solid reference to time of day or to the buildings/events that are referenced, just the onomatopoeic language of the references; "shopping, sacking, sorting, stacking - rows so nice and neat" with an illustration of a market of some sort. I wanted to like it, and it wasn't bad, especially with the fun language throughout, but it was confusing to the kids, sadly. Would be really good with a classroom or one-on-one to ask "what sort of place do you think this is?" for each page and circumstance, and to refer that back to the kids' experiences with their own grocery stores, libraries, and streets.
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Summer Reading Program 2014. Week 6: Space
This is our "make-up week" for the program that was superseded by our special magic show earlier in the summer. We still have no AC, but the weather has been cooler, and so I didn't have to make any changes to the line-up this time around.
Storytime:
Toys in Space
Mini Grey
ISBN: 9780307978127
Bemused toys exist in a slightly skewed world with a faint English flavor.
I adore Mini Grey for her Traction Man series, and Toys in Space could very easily exist in the same universe, although Traction Man himself does not make an appearance - not even a cameo! The toys are left outside on the lawn overnight for the first time, so WonderDoll decides to avert panic by telling an interactive story about how the toys are abducted by an alien who is looking for his own lost toy.
The meta-storytelling (me reading a book about a doll telling a story (with interruptions) to an audience of toys) is challenging as a reader. I'm not sure whether the littlest ones realized that the story was supposed to be made-up all the way through. Some of the language was a little spicy for my toddler audience (I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and excised the cowboy's "darns" and "dangits" in favor of a broader "cowboy" accent overall). The story is cute, with just enough silly to counteract the potentially frightening elements - getting beamed into a spaceship, a giant closet filled with cataloged "lost toys," a potentially scary alien creature. Everything is lampshaded, and some things are lampshaded, mocked, and then incorporated non-ironically into the storyline. I also appreciate an alien that is named something interesting but still basically pronouncable. (It's is, or is a (was never clear on whether that was it's name or it's species) "Hoctopize" which is a totally cromulent alien name (or species).
This one was also one of our featured Summer Reading books.
This Rocket
Paul Collicutt
ISBN: 0374374848
Bright blue and orange colors this exciting (but reality-based) simple opposites book featuring rockets.
I am really shocked that this book isn't better known and more used than it is. The simple phrasing and related (mostly opposites) half spreads of this book really make it perfect for this age group. Besides that - rockets! Obviously a perennial favorite, just like dinosaurs and excavators and fire trucks. I had to look outside the county for it (first when researching the theme, and again this time to use) so I think I'm just going to give in and buy myself a copy. It really is perfect. Very sparse text, very expressive and contrasting illustrations of actual rockets, with even more rockets and rocketry factoids on the endpapers.
Light up the Night
Jean Reidy, illustrated by Margaret Chodos-Irvine
ISBN: 9781423120247
Blocky, brushed/sponged-textural paintings pinpoint a boy's location, from space to his own bedroom.
This is an excellent use of the "this is the house that Jack built" form of expanding poetry text, starting with a young boy at bedtime turning his quilt into a rocketship, and then zooming in from space "where stars glow bright / and light up the night" through the solar system, onto earth, a continent (left vague), and a country (likewise), town, street, house, bedroom, and bed, and then back out again to show the stars, and a small bed sitting on the earth in a very Saint-Exupery "The Little Prince" sort of image.
Summer Reading
For the older kids, I subbed out Aliens in Underpants Save the World for This Rocket, but kept Toys in Space and Light up the Night. I probably could have gone with a longer book, but we had a time-consuming activity and a fun craft this time around, so I wanted to save some good time for those - programs need to be focused on the books, but I'm not one of those who thinks they should be ONLY about the books.
Aliens in Underpants Save the World
Claire Freedman, illustrated by Ben Cort
ISBN: 9781442427686
Aliens routinely steal underpants from Earth, until a meteorite threatens the planet, and the resourceful aliens make one final giant panty heist to make the biggest stretchiest underpants ever.
I have to say, still not a huge fan, but I do like this one better than the Dinosaurs one. For some reason, the zany colors and silly sketchy art style works much better for me with aliens as the focus. Maybe it reminded me of the monsters from Monsters, Inc/Monsters U? So - similar idea. Rhyming couplets on each spread document how aliens descended from the heavens, stole all the underpants, sewed them into a giant springy underpant net, and bounced a meteorite back into space, saving the earth. Tada!
Next week is Food Science, and then we're all done with Summer Reading until next year: Superheroes!
Storytime:
Toys in Space
Mini Grey
ISBN: 9780307978127
Bemused toys exist in a slightly skewed world with a faint English flavor.
I adore Mini Grey for her Traction Man series, and Toys in Space could very easily exist in the same universe, although Traction Man himself does not make an appearance - not even a cameo! The toys are left outside on the lawn overnight for the first time, so WonderDoll decides to avert panic by telling an interactive story about how the toys are abducted by an alien who is looking for his own lost toy.
The meta-storytelling (me reading a book about a doll telling a story (with interruptions) to an audience of toys) is challenging as a reader. I'm not sure whether the littlest ones realized that the story was supposed to be made-up all the way through. Some of the language was a little spicy for my toddler audience (I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and excised the cowboy's "darns" and "dangits" in favor of a broader "cowboy" accent overall). The story is cute, with just enough silly to counteract the potentially frightening elements - getting beamed into a spaceship, a giant closet filled with cataloged "lost toys," a potentially scary alien creature. Everything is lampshaded, and some things are lampshaded, mocked, and then incorporated non-ironically into the storyline. I also appreciate an alien that is named something interesting but still basically pronouncable. (It's is, or is a (was never clear on whether that was it's name or it's species) "Hoctopize" which is a totally cromulent alien name (or species).
This one was also one of our featured Summer Reading books.
This Rocket
Paul Collicutt
ISBN: 0374374848
Bright blue and orange colors this exciting (but reality-based) simple opposites book featuring rockets.
I am really shocked that this book isn't better known and more used than it is. The simple phrasing and related (mostly opposites) half spreads of this book really make it perfect for this age group. Besides that - rockets! Obviously a perennial favorite, just like dinosaurs and excavators and fire trucks. I had to look outside the county for it (first when researching the theme, and again this time to use) so I think I'm just going to give in and buy myself a copy. It really is perfect. Very sparse text, very expressive and contrasting illustrations of actual rockets, with even more rockets and rocketry factoids on the endpapers.
Light up the Night
Jean Reidy, illustrated by Margaret Chodos-Irvine
ISBN: 9781423120247
Blocky, brushed/sponged-textural paintings pinpoint a boy's location, from space to his own bedroom.
This is an excellent use of the "this is the house that Jack built" form of expanding poetry text, starting with a young boy at bedtime turning his quilt into a rocketship, and then zooming in from space "where stars glow bright / and light up the night" through the solar system, onto earth, a continent (left vague), and a country (likewise), town, street, house, bedroom, and bed, and then back out again to show the stars, and a small bed sitting on the earth in a very Saint-Exupery "The Little Prince" sort of image.
Summer Reading
For the older kids, I subbed out Aliens in Underpants Save the World for This Rocket, but kept Toys in Space and Light up the Night. I probably could have gone with a longer book, but we had a time-consuming activity and a fun craft this time around, so I wanted to save some good time for those - programs need to be focused on the books, but I'm not one of those who thinks they should be ONLY about the books.
Aliens in Underpants Save the World
Claire Freedman, illustrated by Ben Cort
ISBN: 9781442427686
Aliens routinely steal underpants from Earth, until a meteorite threatens the planet, and the resourceful aliens make one final giant panty heist to make the biggest stretchiest underpants ever.
I have to say, still not a huge fan, but I do like this one better than the Dinosaurs one. For some reason, the zany colors and silly sketchy art style works much better for me with aliens as the focus. Maybe it reminded me of the monsters from Monsters, Inc/Monsters U? So - similar idea. Rhyming couplets on each spread document how aliens descended from the heavens, stole all the underpants, sewed them into a giant springy underpant net, and bounced a meteorite back into space, saving the earth. Tada!
Next week is Food Science, and then we're all done with Summer Reading until next year: Superheroes!
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