Tuesday Storytime: Zoo Animals

Last week's storytime books were selected by my coworker, and they're a riot of wild animal fun.

1 Zany Zoo
Lori Degman, illustrated by Colin Jack
ISBN: 9781416989905
As one kid slips from the school field trip line into a secret gate into the zoo, he's witness to some wild and wacky shenanigans that his schoolmates will NEVER believe. A counting book with some zing to it.

Hilda Must Be Dancing
Karma Wilson, illustrated by Suzanne Watts
ISBN: 9780689847882
When the jungle thumps and bumps and things fall from the trees, it must be because Hilda is dancing. She loves dancing, but the jungle animals would really like some peace and stillness. All is well when the rambunctious hippo is introduced to water ballet.

Never, EVER Shout in a Zoo
Karma Wilson, Doug Cushman
ISBN: 0316985643
If You Give A Mouse A Muffin meets If I Ran the Zoo, with zany consequences and fun rattle-trap sentences.

Tuesday Storytime: Happy Holidays!

Yesterday was our last storytime of the year - amazing how quickly it all goes. It's ALSO the last storytime before Christmas, so I felt like I ought to do at least one specifically "christmassy" book.

The Snowy Day
Ezra Jack Keats
ISBN: 9780670012701  (50th anniversary edition)
This is a MUCH bigger edition than the original, which makes it much more suited for traditional storytime, instead of a lap-sit or child-held book. I love that the original was small and suited for tiny hands and arms, but it does make it more enjoyable for the pictures to be bigger this time around. There's a lovely section at the end talking about Keats and his work on this book and his dream of having "Peter" representing all the children who never got to see someone who looked like them.

Click, Clack, Ho Ho Ho
Doreen Cronin, illustrated by Betsy Lewin
ISBN: 9781442496736
This cute story follows Duck and all the other farm animals through an ill-fated attempt to bring Farmer Brown some Christmas Cheer, and unfortunately ending up all stuck in the chimney. Thankfully, the real Santa arrives to put things to rights (or at least shove everyone down the chimney into the living room) and the party gets to happen after all.

Bear Snores On
Karma Wilson, illustrated by Jane Chapman
ISBN: 06898780238
The classic story that started the whole thing. I like this one as a low-key holiday party book because there's no indication of them celebrating anything specific at all, just having a nice party with friends. With society as multi-cultural as it is now, it's really lovely to have a book that focuses on the important things: it's cold, it's dreary, and everyone needs an excuse to hang out with the people they love.

Tuesday Storytime: Colors Everywhere

A very colorful storytime this week, with a small crowd - still recovering from the back-to-school exodus. 

Baby Bear Sees Blue

Ashley Wolff

ISBN: 9781442413061

Baby Bear and Mama Bear explore the forest and all the different bright and beautiful colors it showcases.

Lucy Lady Bug

Sharon King-Chai

ISBN: 9780553510058

Lucy Ladybug has no spots, so she sets out into the world to try and find some. She doesn't find the traditional spots like the rest of the ladybugs have, but she has a delightful series of adventures, and meets some new friends along the way.

Bear Sees Colors (Bear and Friends)

Karma Wilson, illustrated by Jane Chapman

ISBN: 9781442465367

This concept book addition to the "Bear" book series is VERY RHYMEY, so if you tend towards getting sing-song lines stuck in your head for days (hello friends) then beware! It's cute and sweet and full of great colors and good lines, and it's just the perfect length for storytime. Wilson and Chapman struck gold with this concept and this set of books; they're all really solid reading time choices and this one is no exception. 

Tuesday Storytime: Only One More (Storytime) til Christmas!

With apologies to the Muppet Christmas Carol, there was only one more storytime til Christmas, so it's the final opportunity to showcase some really sweet Christmas stories. Every year at this time we have a lot of returning storytimers who have "graduated" into school attendance - they're all off on their winter breaks, and it's lovely to have a chance to see them all again in storytime. It also makes for a difficult balancing act between their older and more mature tastes and concentration levels, and the needs of the still very young infants and tiny toddlers who are just barely holding on for a full storytime as it is.

The Night Before Christmas
Clement C. Moore, illustrated by Kathy Wilburn (Little Golden Book)
ISBN: 03070475501
I used to read this book at Christmastime at my Grandmother's house, and I have very fond memories of the illustrations. The book itself is on the small side, but we all scrunched up close and managed anyway. The kids loved it, and I'm glad I put it first while attention and interest was strong enough to make it through.

Dream Snow
Eric Carle
ISBN: 0399235795
A humble farmer dreams of snow blanketing himself and his handful of farm animals (named One through Five) and his single farm tree (named Tree) and the kids have a blast guessing the identities of the farm animals based on their white-draped shapes before I pull away the transparency to reveal them one by one. The end of the book has the farmer in his suspiciously-red winter warm clothes tramping outside with a sack of toys and shiny things to decorate Tree for the Christmas season. A big hit because of the interaction.

Bear Stays Up For Christmas
Karma Wilson, illustrated by Jane Chapman
ISBN: 0689852789
I love these books so much. Bear is normally asleep at this time of year (hibernation, you know) but his friends are determined that he'll be awake for Christmas at least once. So they plan a full day and night of activities, and the sleepy Bear manages, until all the friends fall asleep themselves from exhaustion. A delighted tricksy Bear spends the night creating presents and decorating for them while they sleep, and they all enjoy a lovely Christmas morning together. So cute. 

Tuesday Storytime: Thanksgiving is Coming

My compatriot had lots of fun picking out Thanksgiving-themed books before she realized the rotation had her on the week before - but that's ok! We're not super tied to a schedule here, so there's no reason we can't have an anticipatory storytime a week ahead of time to remind kids what all the fuss is about.

She chose:

The Thanksgiving Play (a Herbster Reader)
by Cecilia Minden
Herbie and his school friends try hard to put on a fun and interesting Thanksgiving School Play, but everything keeps going wrong!

The Leaves on the Trees
by Thom Wiley
A beautiful nonfiction picture book focused on nature's glorious and varietal fall colors, to the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus."

Bear Says Thanks
by Karma Wilson
Another of the really delightful Bear books - this time focusing on the importance of family and friends as a cause for celebration and happiness.

Tuesday Storytime: Nighttime Noises

I'd been holding on to Bear Feels Scared since October when I didn't manage to fit it into the Halloween roster, so I snagged a couple of other "scary nighttime" books to offer a creepy-but-reassuring night-time themed storytime.

Creatures of the Night
Stephen Brooks, illustrated by Rodger Wilson
ISBN:  9780976901716
A catalog of the various animals that live nocturnally, with very little plotline.

I started out on this one because it's a straight call-and-response with the kids.  I flip the pages and they tell me what animal that is, and they all feel very competent and smart and adult.  The animals are a straightforward bunch, and the artwork isn't much past competent, but it flows smoothly and reads easily.  If it werent for bookending the scary part, I would have put this one in the middle because of the length and speed of reading.

Bear Feels Scared
Karma Wilson, illustrated by Jane Chapman
ISBN:  9780689859861
Bear stays out a bit late as a storm blows in, and gets disoriented and scared in the dark.  Friends rush to help out.

This one spends most of the time on the bear's big feelings of being scared and lost and worried, interspersed with bear's animal friends searching.  The comforting ending is a bit pat and quick, but no-one cried on me, which is what I worried about.

The Night World
Mordecai Gerstein
ISBN: 9780316188227
A boy is wakened by his cat and they venture through the dark of pre-dawn outside to see animals and plants in a strange new way.

This is a beautiful book and I really wish it didn't start off with practically three spreads of wordlessness.  That's just a rough hurdle for a storytime book, and while the payoff of the book is worth it, it does make for a challenge to the storyteller.  The boy and the cat wander through a confusing-dark house, where familiar objects seem odd and out of place, into a dark yard where plants and flowers are strange without color from the sunlight.  The animals begin to get excited about an upcoming event, and when the nighttime animals begin to leave, the astute reader realizes the sun is rising, as the skyline changes from blackness to greys to beautiful sunrise colors and sky blue.  Very pretty, and strangely-powerfully done considering the slim concept.

Tuesday Storytime: Christmas

It's our last storytime before Christmas, and our last of 2015, so I picked a lovely trio to end us on.  We'll start up in January with lots of books about snow, and hope that Mother Nature gets the hint.

Snowmen at Christmas
Caralyn Buehner, illustrated by Mark Buehner
ISBN: 0803729952
Luminous but cheerful and lighthearted spread paintings of animated snowpeople all festive.

This is actually a sequel to Snowmen at Night, but I like this one better as a Christmas story.  That said, I do have, and might read Snowmen at Night in the next couple of months with all the snowy themes.  This one is nice for Christmas for several reasons:
1) rhyming text means I can get through a slightly more substantial story in much better time.
2) this is one of the least-Christmassy Christmas books out there (only one veiled religious reference)
3) snowman party.


A Short History of Christmas
Sally Lee (consulting editor: Gail Saunders-Smith)
ISBN: 9781491460955
Very primary-grade juvenile nonfiction explaining the historic basis for Christmas traditions.

Really loving this series, and very happy to see them on the shelves.  This one is just as factual as Thanksgiving, and very straightforward, starting with the December festival of Saturnalia, the birth of Jesus, choosing of December 25th by church leaders, Saint Nicholas into Santa Claus, the tradition of caroling, Queen Victoria's German Christmas tree, and modern traditions of charity.  Not bad for just under 250 words total.  I just really wish there were similar books for the less-recognized holidays of the season: Hanukkah, Eid, and Solstice.


Bear Stays Up for Christmas
Karma Wilson, Jane Chapman
ISBN: 0689852789
Bear and Friends series, Bear's friends help him stay awake for Christmas Eve and Morning.

I adore this Christmas book.  It's so sweet and perfect and has just about everything you'd want out of a Christmas book - including the difficulties that children have staying awake for the fun!  Bear is the perfect sleepy focus, and all his friends are genuinely helpful and caring.  This entire series is beautiful, but this one is perfect for Christmas in a way that is deeply satisfying.  I personally would have been fine without an appearance by Santa as well, but that's not a battle I feel motivated about - it's just a slight preference.

Tuesday Storytime: Hippos!

And before you ask, yes there are LOTS of hippopotamus stories.  So many.  Here are my favorite three:

The Hippo-NOT-amus
Tony and Jan Payne, illustrations by Guy Parker-Rees
ISBN: 0439564182
Boisterous colors and compositions enliven an already silly story about accepting who you are.

Portly is a baby hippo (love the name) who is sick of boring lying in the water, and boring old grass to eat.  He's going out into the world to see whether any other animals have it better.  By the end of the story, he's not a hippo any longer, he's a hippo-ger-ele-bat-onoceros, tottering around on stilts, with bananas hanging from each foot, and wooden horns and a vine trunk hanging from his nose.  How he gets to that point is the fun of the story, and I love that the parents are kind and accepting of their kid's explorations of his identity.


Hilda Must Be Dancing
Karma Wilson, illustrated by Suzanne Watts
ISBN: 0689847882
Vibrant but soft-edged paintings feature lots of purples and blues.

Hilda Hippo loves to dance, but her moves are causing earthquakes and giant messes.  Her jungle friends try to get her into various sedate hobbies: knitting, singing... until they try swimming, which she interprets as water ballet, to her and everyone elses' newfound happiness.  Really cute, and fairly short for the story involved.  Lots of dancy noises and onomatopoeic words tho.


The Hiccupotamus
Aaron Zenz
ISBN: 9780761456223
Zany fun with exaggerated animals in primary colors, with expressive bodies and faces.

Our unnamed hippo hero has a horrid case of the hiccups, which is causing havoc.  (I'll stop now.)  In desperation, after several messy (and tongue-twisting) accidents, his friends get together to cure him, to no avail, until the hiccups finally fade out of their own accord - just in time to spring up somewhere else!  Seriously difficult to get through, because of the made-up combined singsong words.  An example: "She chased him toward a centipede/Pouring new cemetipede/He hic'ed by accidentipede/And tripped the elephantipede."  Sheesh.  Despite the challenge, it's great fun to read and to see the kids giggle at the silly situations and sillier language.

Tuesday Storytime: Swimming

Following up on our beach theme last week, I got all of my swimming books into the library early enough to move on to swimming, leaving boats for next week.

These are all new to me, and all three are adorable, but Don't Be Afraid, Little Pip is my favorite (not surprised, Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman are a great duo).

Don't Be Afraid, Little Pip
Karma Wilson, illustrated by Jane Chapman (Bear books)
ISBN: 9780689859878
Plump and cuddly penguins over colorful but soothing backgrounds of beaches and oceans.

It's time for all young penguins to learn to swim, but Little Pip isn't too thrilled about the deep dark ocean.  She'd rather fly, but after taking lessons from several birds, she's still grounded, and her final lesson ends with an accidental plunge into the sea!  Once in, she learns that swimming is natural, and swimming in the ocean is much like flying in the air.  My only quibble is that I would have liked that metaphor to be a little more metaphorical - "swimming is flying" doesn't work well with literal-minded toddlers.



Two Dogs Swimming
Lynn Reiser
ISBN: 0060086483
Naive art of two curly-haired dogs in a primary-colored world of grass and pond.

Spot and Whistle play together.  They are well-matched in their games of chase, fetch, and jump - "sometimes one wins, sometimes the other" - but when they are swimming, Whistle can't figure out why Spot always makes it back to the edge of the pond first.  The not-so-secret is that Spot isn't actually swimming - he's walking on the bottom, and not going all the way across the pond.  Another accidental plunge, and Spot forgets that he needs to walk with one set of legs, and accidentally starts swimming!  Now the games are equally matched no matter where they take place.  Very cute, with a little touch of dry humor.


Sergio Makes a Splash
Edel Rodriguez
ISBN: 9780316066167
Part of a series about Sergio the pop-art colored penguin.

Sergio likes soccer, fishies, and water, but he can't swim yet, so he's not too sure about the big field trip to the ocean to learn to swim.  Bolstered by helpful classmates and a kind teacher, and a good helping of positive self-talk, Sergio takes the plunge (safely ensconced in snorkel, swimmies, and a life-preserver) and learns that the ocean is not just water, it's LOTS of water (with bonus fishies), and great fun into the bargain!  While I like the illustrations and narrative of Little Pip, I have to say that Sergio is a much better choice for modeling behavior - Sergio is the only one who chooses to jump into the water - and also for representation of him encouraging himself despite having "scary" thoughts.

Next week, boats!

Tuesday Storytime: We're Beary Beary Sick.

I've had my annual sinus infection for the last two weeks, and I was actually going for a general "sniffles" theme.  I was amazed that there are three good story-time appropriate books featuring sick bears.  I suppose I shouldn't have been, and I couldn't resist the wordplay.

Sneeze, Big Bear, Sneeze!
Maureen Wright, illustrated by Will Hillenbrand
ISBN: 9780761459590
Bear is wandering the fall woods, and the personified Wind is messing with his mind by blowing things away every time he sneezes.  Poor bear insists that it's his sneezes, and tries to fix the damage (tacking leaves back on trees with hammer and nails, stacking fallen apples on branches) while the Wind grows more and more upset with him, finally chasing him back to his cozy den.

Bear Feels Sick
Karma Wilson, illustrated by Jane Chapman
ISBN: 9780689859854
I love all of these books,  Chapman's illustrations and Wilson's rhymes just fit so perfectly together into a happy warm fuzzy place where nothing bad ever happens.  In this one, Bear is, obviously, sick, and his friends pull together to help him feel better.  In the end, Bear is better, but the friends have all caught the bug, and now need care themselves.

The Sniffles for Bear
Bonny Becker, illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton
ISBN: 9780763647568
Poor bear here looks almost rat-like at times, with his dolorous red schnozz and his weakly curled hands as fate and illness are bemoaned and overacted.  I'm just tickled by the pictures.  This Bear is DRAMATICALLY SICK.  Perhaps DYING.  Unfortunately, mouse is not suitably impressed by this terrible news, and insists on mundane comforting advice and companionship.  What's a drama-bear to do?  Perhaps DIE... or maybe just a nap.  The ending here, like Bear Feels Sick, makes a point that the caretakers usually end up sick themselves, just when the sick-ee is feeling better.