It's getting to be VERY SLIGHTLY cooler weather, which means a lot of outfit changes and fraught clothing decisions to be made, so a storytime about all sorts of clothing conundrums is a fun take on the topic.
Ella Sarah Gets Dressed
Margaret Chodos-Irvine
Ella Sarah wants to wear a VERY SPECIFIC set of clothing, that, to be completely honest, is just totally over the top. Her family takes it in turn to suggest alternatives, but Ella Sarah remains insistent on her chosen outfit, which ends up working perfectly for her afternoon plans.
A Hat for Minerva Louise
Janet Morgan Stoeke
This series of books almost makes me like chickens. This time around, Minerva Louise is enjoying the winter weather, but it IS a little cold out. A hat would make it much more bearable to go exploring outside, but she keeps having troubles finding one that works out. Kids love identifying the various items, and parents enjoy that their kids can yell out stuff about the book without having to "shush" them.
Have You Seen My New Blue Socks?
Eve Bunting, Sergio Ruzzier
A cute little green duck(ling?) is wandering around pathetically looking for his new blue socks in this nearly-offensively rhyming story that thankfully is over before the rhyme scheme drives anyone utterly mad. There's a quite obvious twist ending, and other than the rhyming, it's sweet and cute and a familiar scenario to anyone with a toddler (or frankly anyone with too much on their mind or a forgetful nature).
Showing posts with label Margaret Chodos-Irvine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Margaret Chodos-Irvine. Show all posts
Monday, September 30, 2019
Tuesday, August 1, 2017
Tuesday Storytime: Our place in the cosmos
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!
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!
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Tuesday Storytime: Fourth of July
This was supposed to be a "vacation week" for Summer Programming, because of the coincidence of the holiday weekend and the American Library Association conference in San Fran last weekend through Wednesday.
However, I had a pile of families turn up (which I have to be honest, I sort of expected) so I did a short Fourth of July program with only one book.
Apple Pie 4th of July
Janet S. Wong, illustrated by Margaret Chodos-Irvine
ISBN: 015202543X
Comic-book stylings for the characters, and minimalist backgrounds focus attention to the story.
Our narrator is a young daughter of a family-owned chinese take-out and quick-stop corner store. She laments that they are open every day of the year except Christmas (even on the Fourth of July!) when obviously everyone knows that no one eats Chinese food on the Fourth of July! Her certainty is assured and a bit overplayed, as the ending of course has happy revelers enjoying their Chinese food, and everyone retreating to the rooftops to enjoy the fireworks shows. A great short course in tone and language and expectations.
Next week, back to heroes!
However, I had a pile of families turn up (which I have to be honest, I sort of expected) so I did a short Fourth of July program with only one book.
Apple Pie 4th of July
Janet S. Wong, illustrated by Margaret Chodos-Irvine
ISBN: 015202543X
Comic-book stylings for the characters, and minimalist backgrounds focus attention to the story.
Our narrator is a young daughter of a family-owned chinese take-out and quick-stop corner store. She laments that they are open every day of the year except Christmas (even on the Fourth of July!) when obviously everyone knows that no one eats Chinese food on the Fourth of July! Her certainty is assured and a bit overplayed, as the ending of course has happy revelers enjoying their Chinese food, and everyone retreating to the rooftops to enjoy the fireworks shows. A great short course in tone and language and expectations.
Next week, back to heroes!
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!
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Picture Books: Dinosaur Thunder, by Marion Dane Bauer & Alphabatics, by Suse MacDonald
Getting brand new freshly cataloged books into the library is always so nice, and I especially love when the picture books come in.
Dinosaur Thunder
Marion Dane Bauer, illustrated by Margaret Chodos-Irvine
ISBN: 9780590452960
Pop-art with ragged white highlighted edging shows off the imagination of a young boy scared of thunder.
This one is going on my list of books about storms. It's nice and short, and has various family-members trying to comfort a small boy by saying comforting cliches about what thunder is - all of which he imagines as still frightening, until his older brother latches on to dinosaurs as the magic imaginary remedy. Thinking of the thunder as familiar dinosaurs roaring and stomping around makes the boy much less nervous about the earth-shaking thunderous booms of the storm.
Alphabatics
Suse MacDonald
ISBN: 9780027615203
1986 book, Caldecott Honor, re-issue. Primary colored alphabet letters gradually morph into animals or items in action.
Love the colors in this book, and glad to see a re-issue of it in hardback. Each letter has a color scheme which takes the original letter through a series of three or four blocks of gradual morphing on one page, into the fully-formed scene on the facing page. As an illustrative example (not sorry for the pun), the letter J is a lowercase red J in a yellow box. The next box has the J turned sideways and resting on the floor of the box, and the box is given a "lid" with the inclusion of a simple white line. Next we have the box-top being slightly pushed open by a multiplicity of Js (now minus their dots), and the final box has the lid fully back, the stack of Js are wobbling slightly, and the dot is on top as a head. The facing page keeps the red J body and the yellow box, turns the red dots into the corners of a clown's smile, and adds a nicely contrasting turquoise ruffle and hat to the ensemble.
Sadly, this one isn't so good for storytimes, because there's no through-line or any action/dialogue, but I'm glad to have a copy to suggest to parents with kids who enjoy interesting illustrations. This would be a really interesting teaching tool to pair with a book like Numblers (also by MacDonald) to use in the classroom to help kids visualise numbers and make imaginative connections with them.
Dinosaur Thunder
Marion Dane Bauer, illustrated by Margaret Chodos-Irvine
ISBN: 9780590452960
Pop-art with ragged white highlighted edging shows off the imagination of a young boy scared of thunder.
This one is going on my list of books about storms. It's nice and short, and has various family-members trying to comfort a small boy by saying comforting cliches about what thunder is - all of which he imagines as still frightening, until his older brother latches on to dinosaurs as the magic imaginary remedy. Thinking of the thunder as familiar dinosaurs roaring and stomping around makes the boy much less nervous about the earth-shaking thunderous booms of the storm.
Alphabatics
Suse MacDonald
ISBN: 9780027615203
1986 book, Caldecott Honor, re-issue. Primary colored alphabet letters gradually morph into animals or items in action.
Love the colors in this book, and glad to see a re-issue of it in hardback. Each letter has a color scheme which takes the original letter through a series of three or four blocks of gradual morphing on one page, into the fully-formed scene on the facing page. As an illustrative example (not sorry for the pun), the letter J is a lowercase red J in a yellow box. The next box has the J turned sideways and resting on the floor of the box, and the box is given a "lid" with the inclusion of a simple white line. Next we have the box-top being slightly pushed open by a multiplicity of Js (now minus their dots), and the final box has the lid fully back, the stack of Js are wobbling slightly, and the dot is on top as a head. The facing page keeps the red J body and the yellow box, turns the red dots into the corners of a clown's smile, and adds a nicely contrasting turquoise ruffle and hat to the ensemble.
Sadly, this one isn't so good for storytimes, because there's no through-line or any action/dialogue, but I'm glad to have a copy to suggest to parents with kids who enjoy interesting illustrations. This would be a really interesting teaching tool to pair with a book like Numblers (also by MacDonald) to use in the classroom to help kids visualise numbers and make imaginative connections with them.
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