Tuesday Storytime: Rain and Mud

Fun set of books today again!

Waiting Out the Storm
Joann Early Macken, illustrated by Susan Gaber
ISBN: 9780763633783
Sleepy pastel landscapes make for a reassuring and refreshing background for a sweet sentimental storm story.

Mother and daughter are out working in the yard when they are interrupted by an approaching storm, and the book text is the dialogue between the two as the child is anxious or curious about the storm, and mother responds reassuringly and mostly factually.  I appreciate that this book has the duo retreating inside to wait out the storm, as most rain books focus on children headed outside to play in the rain, and not all children (or parents) are comfortable with that scenario - it's very nice to have the other impulse (to nest up and wait out the storm in comfort) recognized and celebrated.

Mud
Mary Lyn Ray, illustrated by Lauren Stringer
ISBN: 19780152024611
Faux-naive blocky dark muddy artwork make the short narrative more stark and powerful.

This one isn't a perfect fit for a rainy-day narrative, because here we have the mud as a direct reaction to the spring thaw (which we really don't even get in South Carolina anyway) but it was so perfect and dirty and muddy and playful that I couldn't resist.  A bit too much time is spent leading up to the mud (in my opinion) but once it shows up, it's a perfect medium for playful but powerful wordplay and dark evocative artwork that draws out the amazing browns and reds and greys in the dirt and mud.  It ends on a sweet note, calling for the spring and the green to arrive.

Raindrop, Plop!
Wendy Cheyette Lewison, illustrated by Pam Paparone
ISBN: 0670059501
Super-cute drawings are bright and lively and colorful, with a cheerful count-up-and-down rhyme.

This was a surprise favorite book out of this set - I expected I would like Waiting Out the Storm more, but the relentless cheerfulness and sprightly rhyme (and the length - perfect for middle or end) makes me really happy to have discovered this one.  This is my first time reading it for storytime, but it feels familiar and comfortable to read and to progress through.  That's a real bonus for anyone reading aloud, and I was delighted at how comfortable and smooth the read was.  Our story is simple; along with a count-up from one to ten, we follow a young girl playing outside in a sprinkle of approaching rain, then with "too many raindrops..." we head back inside the house to count back down through a bath and snack, before heading back outside into the newly revealed sunshine.  Super cute, super easy to read, and super simple.  Absolutely a great storytime read.

Tuesday Storytime: Mud Puddles

In case you missed it, South Carolina has been suffering from some pretty intense rainy weather.  We're in good shape in the Upstate, but thousands of people are without power or water, and it's literally been raining for over a week now.  The sun was out today, but I've got some lovely rainy-day books, and wanted to give kids a lighter and more optimistic counter narrative to the news they're seeing every night of flooding and evacuations.

Muddigush
Kimberly Knutson
ISBN: 0027508439
Marbled-paper collages look almost like Japanese papercuts.  Language is intensely poetic.

This one is a bit of a challenge to read, because the language here is just straight up poetry.  I love all the onomatopoeia going on, and the rhythms of the wording are just lovely.  Here's a bit:

The riverbed slime
is shivery and quivery,
bubbly and wiggly,
cold and jiggly.
Spread it, pat it,
till it's shiny and flat.
Smack and whack that
smucky mush
smacky mush
squooshy slooshy muddigush!

So fun to read.


One Duck Stuck
Phyllis Root (Oliver Finds His Way), illustrated by Jane Chapman (Bear books with Karma Wilson)
ISBN: 0763603341
Counting up to ten in the swamp with animals trying to help a duck with his foot buried in mud.

This is a fun and quick counting book.  There's lots of text, but it reads very quickly, and even with lots of expressive pauses, it still just hums along.  ONE duck is stuck, and then TWO fish come over and try to help, then THREE moose, and so on.  My favorite part is the different creative ways the animals try to help - all failing until ten types of animal have assembled, and all work together to rescue the poor duck.  Cute, fun wordplay, simple but bright and vibrant paintings, and a good message.  Also mud.  


Red Rubber Boot Day
Mary Lyn Ray, illustrated by Lauren Stringer
ISBN: 0152053980
Previously reviewed here.

Still one of my absolute favorite rainy-day books.  It's just such a perfect marriage of luminous paintings and child-focused interest.  There's only so much a creative child can do inside when it's raining before they just have to go outside and run around in the wet.  Super short, super attractive, and an absolute joy from start to finish.

Tuesday Storytime: Dancing

I found so many nice dancing books that just didn't quite fit my last dance storytime that I figured I could do a second round, and here we are!

Again, we were a little on the long side, and man did we have some active (and loud) kids today.  Lots of energy, maybe a bit less on the attentive side.  :)

Miss Lina's Ballerinas and the Prince
Grace Maccarone, illustrated by Christine Davenier
ISBN: 9780312649630
Very Eloise/Madeline drawings, lots of ballet terms and poses, tongue-twisting repetitive names.

I was torn between the original (Miss Lina's Ballerinas) and this one, because the original has no boys at all, and I try not to have books that exclude one gender or population entirely, but the original ALSO has a much better flow and storyline than this one.  I went with this one in the end for representation, but honestly, the group was so crazy today, and we had so many latecomers that I don't know that any of the kids even followed the story that closely.  I do still want to do Miss Lina's Ballerinas, but I'll wait a while, and perhaps save it for a class or a special event - hurrying through the names nearly killed me.


Deer Dancer
Mary Lyn Ray, illustrated by Lauren Stringer
ISBN: 9781442434219
Reviewed here.

Again, with such an energetic group, I'm not sure how much of the story got through, but at least by the time we got to this book, everyone was mostly settled in and were paying attention to the pictures (which are amazing).  I love the flow of this story, but it wasn't well suited for the energy levels today.


Giraffes Can't Dance
Giles Andreae, illustrated by Guy Parker-Rees (Dinosaurumpus)
ISBN: 184121681X
Vivid colors, similar to Dinosaurumpus, just sub-out jungle animals and add a dash of pathos.


Gerald the Giraffe is headed to the annual Jungle Dance, but he really can't dance, and the other animals aren't very polite about informing him.  He heads off into the moonlit night to be sad and alone (did I mention pathos) but a friendly cricket helps him find his own music and his own dance, and eventually the other animals also realize that he's got flair.  Short and snappy, gets right to the point, and the illustrations are wild and zany, even when the text is sad or quiet, so the kids have lots of bright colors and vivid compositions to look at.  This was the best tonal fit for my group's energy levels today, and I wish I'd had a whole set of books like it to match their energy.


Ahh well, if I knew the future, there'd be lots of other things I'd do instead of rigging my storytime books.

Next week:  either lions or penguins, haven't decided yet.

New Picture Books! Deer Dancer, by Mary Lyn Ray & Lauren Stringer

Oh what a pretty book.

Deer Dancer
Mary Lyn Ray, illustrated by Lauren Stringer (this duo also did my favorite Red Rubber Boot Day)
ISBN: 9781442434219

This is such a sweet book.  A girl practices her dancing in a woodland glade, and is delighted when a deer stops by.  After a ballet class doesn't go as well as she would like, she's back to the glade to practice, and an impromptu pas-de-deux blossoms between the two dancers in this magical space they share.

I'm not quite as thrilled with this one as with Red Rubber Boot Day, but it is beautiful and lyrical and expressive and filled with green growing life and joy.  Should be lovely for storytime with Miss Lina's Ballerinas (Grace MacCarone & Christine Davenier, ISBN: 9780312382438) and either Amazing Grace (Mary Hoffman & Caroline Binch, ISBN: 9780803710405) or Dancing in the Wings.

Tuesday Storytime: Rainy Days

I was away at a class this time around, so one of my lovely Clerks gave the storytime.  I didn't know we were slated for nasty weather when I picked these out for her last week, but given the rain last night, and the epic storms heading our way for today and tomorrow, I'm feeling a little prophetic!

Listen to the Rain
Bill Martin, Jr, and John Archambault, illustrated by James Endicott
ISBN: 0805006826
peaceful minimalistic paintings against a white backdrop

I love this book for storytime.  It's a perfect onomatopoeic verbal representation of a storm, with all the rhyming and similar words getting repeated and emphasized.  It's also a lovely combination of lyric and artistic minimalism and synthesis.  I'm a little jealous that I didn't get to read it, but I wanted something for my Clerk that would flow and read smoothly for someone with not as much practice at Storytime.  This one is perfect for that, and that's why I picked the theme.


A Letter to Amy
Ezra Jack Keats
ISBN: 0670880639
Ezra Jack Keats, y'all.

I don't like this one quite as much as The Snowy Day, but it's up there.  Peter wants to specially invite a special friend to his party, but there are some difficulties.  First, she's a girl, and that's a little weird.  Secondly, he wants to actually MAIL her an invite, to make it more special, but his day is just not going well - a storm blows in, and gets the letter wet, and then something even worse happens!  Poor Peter - will his friend even show up for his party now?  Love this man, love his books. Another good "easy read" for an inexperienced Storytimer.


Red Rubber Boot Day
Mary Lyn Ray, illustrated by Lauren Stringer
ISBN: 0152053980
saturated colors, close-focus, daily life, textural brushwork

I hardcore love this book.  I don't care that the author and illustrator aren't famous picture book people.  They are amazing and I want to send them all the love for this perfect perfect stompy rainy-day I've run out of things to do inside can I please go outside into the fresh rain-wet perfect new green day and play in the puddles book.  I like this book so much I went out and bought a copy for my home library and I don't even have a kid yet to read it to!


I miss my kids so much when I can't do my Storytimes so I'm really looking forward to next week:  Oversize Animals.

Tuesday Storytime: Stars

This one was spurred by finding How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers, while looking for "Space" themed books for our Summer Reading Program.

This program was riiiiight on the edge of too long for our wiggly ones, but it worked out ok overall.


Coyote Places the Stars
Harriet Peck Taylor
ISBN: 0689815352
Naive folk-art with a heroic Coyote.

This one was the really long one, and I'll admit to eliding some of the paragraph-long descriptions when I could get away with it.  Coyote is bored, so he climbs up to the moon and uses his arrows to re-arrange the stars into patterns and shapes more to his liking.  Afterwards, he is proud of his work, and shows off to all his friends in the animal kingdom.  I really liked that this story has Coyote as a clever cunning hero than a trickster, and that the images that were chosen to represent the other animals as his friends.



Stars
Mary Lyn Ray, illustrated by Marla Frazee
ISBN: 9781442422490
Pen-and-pencil episodic drawings, imaginative and fanciful concepts.

This one was a bit long for the middle spot, but would have been perfect length for one of my usual first or last stories.  Because it doesn't really have a plot - just a dreamlike improvisation off the theme of stars - I put it in the middle today.  The underlying theme is that between the stars in the sky and the stars that are all around us (paper stars, star stickers, flowers or snowflakes or fireworks) people should remember their worth and be "shiny."  Bonus stealth Firefly reference (probably unintentional) made it harder to resist.



How to Catch a Star
Oliver Jeffers
ISBN: 0399242864
Blocky NO David! -style artwork, very simple, but colorful and clear.  Super-simple storyline.

The boy loves stars, and he's imagined what a perfect friend a star would be - so he sets out to catch one.  He looks (and waits) all day, then tries and fails to reach an evening star in the sky, and the reflection of one in the water, and almost gives up before finding a star (starfish) on the beach to be his friend.  Other than the slightly odd note of having to "catch" a friend, this is sweet and simple and cute.