Tuesday Storytime: Spring!

Now that we're solidly into warm weather, I wanted to do some traditional "season" books, and I found a nice set of them: two weeks of spring books, and then a week about rain and mud!

It's Spring!
Linda Glaser, illustrated by Susan Swan
ISBN: 0761313451
Cut-paper dioramas in bright but naturalistic colors.  Amazingly intricate illustrations.

The rhyme scheme in this book is a little clunky at times, or perhaps I just wasn't feeling the rhythm properly, because it made me stutter a few times in storytime despite pre-reading and practicing beforehand.  Glaser has put together a perfect intro to how spring progresses, with straightforward but lyrical descriptions of natural processes and how the season progresses.  Swan's intricate and colorful dioramas and scenes enhance the immediacy of what is being narrated, and helps to ground the info in the real world.  It's not even that long!  Very good season book - probably one of the best I've read, despite the bad fit of the rhymes to my speaking cadence.


When Spring Comes
Kevin Henkes,illustrated by Laura Dronzek
ISBN: 9780062331397
Pastels and fluffy indistinct borders make everything seem fuzzy and soft and new.

This is a much more fanciful approach to spring, but still in the realm of the naturalistic.  The drawings are a lot more loose, and take a few liberties, but overall remain true to life and focused on nature.  This book's theme is waiting: if you wait, spring will do this, and that, and that other thing.  It also directly addresses the reader "I hope you like umbrellas" & etc, which I always like when that happens.  Makes the storytime seem more directly interactive and attentive to the focus of the children listening/watching.  Sweet and short.  A good length here: long enough to be a final book on it's own, and short enough that it can fit in the middle with a set of other shorter books.


And then it's spring
Julie Fogliano, illustrated by Erin E. Stead
ISBN: 9781596436244
Colored pencils and scraggly people and environments focus on the wait for spring to green up the landscape.

I don't like this one quite as much as the others, because the illustrations, while interesting, aren't as visually stimulating for little ones (there's a lot of detailed info and cute little grace notes for older or individual readers to pick up).  The narrative is entirely about the long wait for spring to come through and change the brown of the landscape to green. The only thing I don't like about this one is that the focus through the book is on seeds that were planted (presumably a garden plot from the illustrations) and the very end has the green flooding over the landscape, but doesn't show the garden plot we've been concerned about throughout the book.  It's a bit jarring to end without seeing whether the seeds have come up or not!

 

Tuesday Storytime: Winter

Even though it rarely snows down here, I feel like it's important for storytimes to show different places and different experiences.  These are three fun, wintery, snowy-day stories to show how different the seasons can be.

It's Winter!
Linda Glaser, cut-paper scenes by Susan Swan
ISBN: 0761317597
Extremely detailed, slightly stylized scenes with bright contrasts focus on the natural world in winter.

A perky (possibly asian) girl is our host for this tour of winter in the Northern USA, beginning with late autumn and the first snow-fall, and ending with the barest beginnings of spring snow-melt.  We see a few human-centric activities (catching snowflakes, sledding, making snowpeople) but the focus is on the natural world and what the animals and environment is doing.  The illustrations are crazy-detailed, with a stylized edge to them that makes them just sharp enough to avoid being cutesy.  Really good overview for the length, and an excellent jumping-off-point.


Hibernation Station
Michelle Meadows, illustrated by Kurt Cyrus
ISBN: 9781416937883
Adorable fuzzy woodland creatures (and the odd frog) dress in jammies and attempt to cozy up.

This one is short and sweet, with much of the interest in the busy overstuffed illustrations (very similar in feel to Jan Brett) that show the various animals failing at falling asleep for the winter in their cramped communal log.  After much whining, protesting, last minute complaining, and general unhappiness, the bears (the conductors) marshal the troops, rearrange the sleeping quarters and roommates, pass out last-minute snackies, issue kisses and hugs and snuggles, and get everyone tucked in properly for the winter.  Did I mention that it was adorable?  I've done this one before, and I'm sure I'll do it again.  This one also got picked to go home to older siblings, which is always nice to have happen.


Winter is the Warmest Season
Lauren Stringer (Deer Dancer)
ISBN: 0152049673
Plump, cozy, fluffy illustrations show why winter is actually warmer.

This is a favorite, and it went over just as well today as usual.  Several kids caught the title, and were instantly disagreeing with the premise.  They enjoyed the slight cozy subversion.  Our narrator (gender ambiguous) walks us through their reasons why winter is warmer: from hot cocoa to fuzzy mittens to cats who deign to sleep on laps now that the windowsills are too cold.  These are usually contrasted with summer activities or analogues, so cold summer pools contrast with hot winter baths, and cold jelly sandwiches with toasted cheese.  A great ending to the storytime, and a fun read overall.