There's lots of focus placed on imaginary friends, but this time around I wanted to focus on how children imagine themselves as bigger, stronger, or more interesting people (or versions of themselves) to empower themselves through life and challenges. Here we have three different versions of "imaginary selves" helping kids face some pretty common kid struggles: baby siblings, bedtime, and new schools.
Rodeo Red
Maripat Perkins, illustrated by Molly Idle
Rodeo Red does NOT like that new cowpoke Sideswiping Slim. That ornery thing snaps up toys, food, and even messes up her favorite hat! Not only that, but the "law" (mom and dad) are inexplicably and unfairly on that little snake's side! When he steals her sidekick Rusty the (stuffed) dog, Red just has to set things right. After a few botched attempts, an unwanted gift proves to be a welcome distraction. Maybe, just maybe, things can get set right with this rascal eventually.
Bedtime for Batman
Michael Dahl, illustrated by Ethen Beavers
A sweet side-by-side comparison story shows a small boy in Gotham readying for bed in the persona of his favorite caped crusader, Batman. While the boy faces challenges like the potty and managing to stuff all of his toys into the bin, Batman is cleaning up familiar evildoers from the sewers. The comparisons are funny and sweet, and the story is full of good rituals (with a checklist at the end for good measure). There's a companion story "Sweet Dreams, Supergirl" (and one with Superman and Wonder Woman) which is also adorable, but I liked the paired storytelling of this one best.
Ally-saurus and the First Day of School
Richard Torrey
Ally-saurus is a dinosaur for her first day of school, which helps her be brave and gives her something to focus on while she learns to navigate desks and class rituals. When lunchtime comes, despite being shunned by the "princess table," she finds a set of friends (all of whom have their own favorite animal (or item) to play happily, even with the princesses, during recess and afterwards into class again. A positive story about the impact of imagination and acceptance and being friendly.
Showing posts with label Michael Dahl. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michael Dahl. Show all posts
Friday, August 16, 2019
Sunday, June 30, 2019
Summer Reading Storytime: space, week 4
My coworker picked these out, they're super cute!
Planet Kindergarten
Sue Ganz-Schmitt, illustrated by Shane Prigmore
ISBN: 9781452118932
Really cute gloss of the first day of kindergarten as a mission to space, and it holds together quite nicely. I especially like the touches of having various kindergartners be various types of aliens just through hair and clothing and poses. Very fun, and lots of nudge-nudge wink-wink about what things "really" are. Short and cute.
Kitten's First Full Moon
Kevin Henkes
ISBN: 9780060588281
Kitten roams outside at night and discovers the moon, the night, and a nice puddle of what looks like milk, but is in fact the reflection of the beautiful moon. Soft, gentle, and sweet. A classic.
On the Launch Pad: A Counting Book About Rockets
Michael Dahl, illustrated by Derrick Alderman and Denise Shea
ISBN: 1404805818
Lovely little counting book with BRIGHT simple illustrations of rockets getting ready to blast into space. Super short and sweet, with lovely primary colors and nice textural color washes and collage pieces to add depth and visual interest. An excellent visual walkthrough of the process (very simplified) of getting a rocket ready to liftoff and head off into space, centered into a counting book where the visual elements match the number of that particular page. Hard work to set it up, but it's a breeze to read through, and a delight to look at the finished design.
Planet Kindergarten
Sue Ganz-Schmitt, illustrated by Shane Prigmore
ISBN: 9781452118932
Really cute gloss of the first day of kindergarten as a mission to space, and it holds together quite nicely. I especially like the touches of having various kindergartners be various types of aliens just through hair and clothing and poses. Very fun, and lots of nudge-nudge wink-wink about what things "really" are. Short and cute.
Kitten's First Full Moon
Kevin Henkes
ISBN: 9780060588281
Kitten roams outside at night and discovers the moon, the night, and a nice puddle of what looks like milk, but is in fact the reflection of the beautiful moon. Soft, gentle, and sweet. A classic.
On the Launch Pad: A Counting Book About Rockets
Michael Dahl, illustrated by Derrick Alderman and Denise Shea
ISBN: 1404805818
Lovely little counting book with BRIGHT simple illustrations of rockets getting ready to blast into space. Super short and sweet, with lovely primary colors and nice textural color washes and collage pieces to add depth and visual interest. An excellent visual walkthrough of the process (very simplified) of getting a rocket ready to liftoff and head off into space, centered into a counting book where the visual elements match the number of that particular page. Hard work to set it up, but it's a breeze to read through, and a delight to look at the finished design.
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Tuesday Storytime: SRP Space: Rockets Away!
First set of books bequeathed to my trainee: rocketry is cool and fun. I don't blame her at all for choosing these for her first round.
The Moon (a Bamboo and Friends book)
Felicia Law, illustrated by Nicola Evans
ISBN: 1404812822
Bamboo and friends admire the moon and then take an imaginary rocket journey up to see it.Very cute combo of nonfictional information and cute preschool thinking styles.
On the Launch Pad (a counting book about rockets)
Michael Dahl, illustrated by Derrick Alderman and Denise Shea
ISBN: 1404805818
Counting down the iconic 10, 9, 8 with really good pictures and informational text, and a fun horizontal spread at the end that requires you to turn the whole book sideways.
Roaring Rockets
Tony Mitton, illustrated by Ant Parker
ISBN: 061388857X
Trippy wordplay and anthropormorphic animals traveling up to the moon and back down into a splashdown in the ocean.
The Moon (a Bamboo and Friends book)
Felicia Law, illustrated by Nicola Evans
ISBN: 1404812822
Bamboo and friends admire the moon and then take an imaginary rocket journey up to see it.Very cute combo of nonfictional information and cute preschool thinking styles.
On the Launch Pad (a counting book about rockets)
Michael Dahl, illustrated by Derrick Alderman and Denise Shea
ISBN: 1404805818
Counting down the iconic 10, 9, 8 with really good pictures and informational text, and a fun horizontal spread at the end that requires you to turn the whole book sideways.
Roaring Rockets
Tony Mitton, illustrated by Ant Parker
ISBN: 061388857X
Trippy wordplay and anthropormorphic animals traveling up to the moon and back down into a splashdown in the ocean.
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
Tuesday Storytime: Counting Concepts
One Giant Splash: A counting book about the ocean
Michael Dahl, illustrated by Todd Ouren
ISBN: 9781404805774
Textured collages and hidden images in bright saturated colors.
All of these are on the short side, to be totally honest - it's hard to get a long sustaining narrative going in counting or math-concept form. I'm impressed with books like One White Wishing Stone or Molly Bang's Ten Nine Eight because they manage a narrative flow so deftly, but even then it's hard to sustain. So, despite being short, I like this one for quite a few reasons: 1) it's a counting-down book (starting from 12) instead of counting up. 2) so colorful and vibrant. 3) the language is STELLAR. I love it. There are slant-rhymes and wordplay and alliteration and consonance and it's just fabulous to read. Delightful. 4) there's a decided mystery at play, because our first page is the Giant Splash, but we don't see who it is until the very end. 5) the pace of the "mystery" picks up as we move from languid spreads to hurried frantic pages to the last reveal page. Absolutely a winner.
Ten Little Ladybugs
Melanie Gerth, illustrated by Laura Huliska-Beith
ISBN: 9781581170917
Concept book with textured plastic ladybugs on board-book pages
Our rhyme counts inexorably down to zero as our ladybugs vanish after various encounters, but what's happening to the missing bugs? Surely they can't be getting eaten, but as the encounters range from big grasshoppers to even more dangerous frogs and birds, the kids start looking more and more concerned. Of course they're all safe at the end (this is a toddler storytime after all) drawn traditionally on the last page to preserve the happy surprise.
One, Two, Cockatoo!
Sarah Garson
ISBN: 9781842709443
Lovely orange and yellows suffuse this bright cheery book with rainstorms and happy birds.
Again with the unavoidable shortness, but we had a distracted and young-skewing group today, so it worked out nicely. This one starts off as a combined counting and math-concept book at the beginning, but it quickly drops that to move to just counting upwards to ten as the birds frolic in the trees before, during, and after a rainstorm (with a bonus bird at the end!). I like this book mainly for the colors and the brightness of the cheery friendly birds dancing and playing with each other. Something about the illustrations just makes me feel quite happy and content, and I hope that feeling gets transferred to the kids.
Michael Dahl, illustrated by Todd Ouren
ISBN: 9781404805774
Textured collages and hidden images in bright saturated colors.
All of these are on the short side, to be totally honest - it's hard to get a long sustaining narrative going in counting or math-concept form. I'm impressed with books like One White Wishing Stone or Molly Bang's Ten Nine Eight because they manage a narrative flow so deftly, but even then it's hard to sustain. So, despite being short, I like this one for quite a few reasons: 1) it's a counting-down book (starting from 12) instead of counting up. 2) so colorful and vibrant. 3) the language is STELLAR. I love it. There are slant-rhymes and wordplay and alliteration and consonance and it's just fabulous to read. Delightful. 4) there's a decided mystery at play, because our first page is the Giant Splash, but we don't see who it is until the very end. 5) the pace of the "mystery" picks up as we move from languid spreads to hurried frantic pages to the last reveal page. Absolutely a winner.
Ten Little Ladybugs
Melanie Gerth, illustrated by Laura Huliska-Beith
ISBN: 9781581170917
Concept book with textured plastic ladybugs on board-book pages
Our rhyme counts inexorably down to zero as our ladybugs vanish after various encounters, but what's happening to the missing bugs? Surely they can't be getting eaten, but as the encounters range from big grasshoppers to even more dangerous frogs and birds, the kids start looking more and more concerned. Of course they're all safe at the end (this is a toddler storytime after all) drawn traditionally on the last page to preserve the happy surprise.
One, Two, Cockatoo!
Sarah Garson
ISBN: 9781842709443
Lovely orange and yellows suffuse this bright cheery book with rainstorms and happy birds.
Again with the unavoidable shortness, but we had a distracted and young-skewing group today, so it worked out nicely. This one starts off as a combined counting and math-concept book at the beginning, but it quickly drops that to move to just counting upwards to ten as the birds frolic in the trees before, during, and after a rainstorm (with a bonus bird at the end!). I like this book mainly for the colors and the brightness of the cheery friendly birds dancing and playing with each other. Something about the illustrations just makes me feel quite happy and content, and I hope that feeling gets transferred to the kids.
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Tuesday Storytime: Summer Reading, Rockets
I personally think that rockets are a little bit tenuous of a connection for Heroes, but I like rockets and space and astronauts, so I'm game for it regardless.
This first month, the actual Summer Reading Programs are all "event" programs instead of reading programs, which is nice from a work standpoint, and less nice from a literacy standpoint, so these very early childhood picture books are the only ones I've collected for this particular theme. Once July hits, these posts will either be a bit longer, or split up between morning and afternoon programs.
Roaring Rockets
Tony Mitton, illustrated by Ant Parker
ISBN: 0753451069
Sketchy "crayon"-like art hides skillfully framed compositions, enhanced by an excellent vocabulary.
This book is really very nice, and a great one to start off with. The illustrations are misleadingly childlike and simplistic, almost Boynton-esque with the big-eyed animals as our astronauts. However, the illustrations are correct and labeled, and the narrative is chock-a-block with excellent astronaut terms and concepts, all rendered in deceptively simplistic phrasing and word-choice. Some highlights "Rockets carry astronauts with cool white suits, oxygen helmets, and gravity boots." and "Down comes the lander with legs out ready and fiery boosters to hold it steady."
On the Launch Pad: a counting book about rockets
Michael Dahl, illustrated by Derrick Alderman & Denise Shea
ISBN: 1404805818
Bright colored collages count down to a liftoff with a beautifully diverse crew of workers.
I think my first favorite thing about this book is the vibrant clarity of the colors popping out in every page spread. My second favorite thing about this book is that the "cast" is made of men and women in equal measure, and of beautifully varied skin-tones and hair colors. From the workers cleaning the rocket, to the engineers in the control tower, to the truck-drivers, to the astronauts themselves... all the way through to the one lovely lady pulling the launch towers away in her little cart - it's just nice to see. An excellent primer on the various and numerous people and tasks necessary to get a rocket up into space, with a great visual twist at the very end.
This Rocket
Paul Collicutt
ISBN: 0374374848
Stunning paintings stand in contrast to showcase the diversity of rocketry science.
This is an absolutely beautiful book. Technically, it's only about as long as On the Launch Pad, so I could have used this in the middle, but I wanted to slowly work through the concept sequentially, and felt like this one would be better after the basics of rockets and flight science were established by the other two books. Beautifully-drafted illustrations contrast on each spread, with rockets that are either fast or slow, tall or short, rockets like cars, rockets like trains... The endpapers are equally stunning. The front has detailed vignettes of each rocket in the book accompanied by dense technical explanations, and the back has a complex and beautiful illustrated timeline of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. This book also shares On the Launch Pad's ending twist, but with a much more vibrant and lifelike interpretation. Absolutely stunning book to showcase to the kids.
This first month, the actual Summer Reading Programs are all "event" programs instead of reading programs, which is nice from a work standpoint, and less nice from a literacy standpoint, so these very early childhood picture books are the only ones I've collected for this particular theme. Once July hits, these posts will either be a bit longer, or split up between morning and afternoon programs.
Roaring Rockets
Tony Mitton, illustrated by Ant Parker
ISBN: 0753451069
Sketchy "crayon"-like art hides skillfully framed compositions, enhanced by an excellent vocabulary.
This book is really very nice, and a great one to start off with. The illustrations are misleadingly childlike and simplistic, almost Boynton-esque with the big-eyed animals as our astronauts. However, the illustrations are correct and labeled, and the narrative is chock-a-block with excellent astronaut terms and concepts, all rendered in deceptively simplistic phrasing and word-choice. Some highlights "Rockets carry astronauts with cool white suits, oxygen helmets, and gravity boots." and "Down comes the lander with legs out ready and fiery boosters to hold it steady."
On the Launch Pad: a counting book about rockets
Michael Dahl, illustrated by Derrick Alderman & Denise Shea
ISBN: 1404805818
Bright colored collages count down to a liftoff with a beautifully diverse crew of workers.
I think my first favorite thing about this book is the vibrant clarity of the colors popping out in every page spread. My second favorite thing about this book is that the "cast" is made of men and women in equal measure, and of beautifully varied skin-tones and hair colors. From the workers cleaning the rocket, to the engineers in the control tower, to the truck-drivers, to the astronauts themselves... all the way through to the one lovely lady pulling the launch towers away in her little cart - it's just nice to see. An excellent primer on the various and numerous people and tasks necessary to get a rocket up into space, with a great visual twist at the very end.
This Rocket
Paul Collicutt
ISBN: 0374374848
Stunning paintings stand in contrast to showcase the diversity of rocketry science.
This is an absolutely beautiful book. Technically, it's only about as long as On the Launch Pad, so I could have used this in the middle, but I wanted to slowly work through the concept sequentially, and felt like this one would be better after the basics of rockets and flight science were established by the other two books. Beautifully-drafted illustrations contrast on each spread, with rockets that are either fast or slow, tall or short, rockets like cars, rockets like trains... The endpapers are equally stunning. The front has detailed vignettes of each rocket in the book accompanied by dense technical explanations, and the back has a complex and beautiful illustrated timeline of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. This book also shares On the Launch Pad's ending twist, but with a much more vibrant and lifelike interpretation. Absolutely stunning book to showcase to the kids.
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