We're closed today, so our "Storytime" was on Monday instead, with a special local guest banjo player. The program was sponsored by a grant from the county, gotten by a local music-appreciation and education society. They selected the main book, and I chose the others to fit the theme, and we had a nice musical interlude in our regular storytime program.
Here Comes Grandma!
Janet Lord, illustrated by Julie Paschkis
ISBN: 0805076662
Vibrant exaggerated environments and an old-fashioned paisley folk-tale grandmother.
I purposefully picked VERY short stories to go along with our feature book this week, because the program involved stopping for a song several times through the book, and that makes it right on the cusp of too long for my tiny kids. This story shares the same plotline and vibrant feeling, but is very short, very snappy, and gets the idea of the storytime across quickly while the late-comers are still filing in.
Banjo Granny
Sara Martin Busse & Jacqueline Briggs Martin, illustrated by Barry Root
ISBN: 9780618336036
Sweet homespun watercolors contrast Granny's epic trek with Owen's idyllic life at home.
Banjo Granny has heard she has a new bluegrass loving banjo desiring grandson, and she packs up her trusty banjo and heads over to see him, across a river, over a mountain, and through a desert. The story begins with "Owen's Song" which we actually sang and learned the end as a group, and then Granny uses the song to soothe the rough turbulent river, to settle the high steep mountain, and tame the wild hot desert - so we sang the song three more times for each of those scenarios - and each time we flip back to little Owen who is impatiently waiting on Granny to arrive. Once she does, we got one more repeat of the song, and then the story concludes pretty quickly after that. I did a coloring sheet with a picture of a banjo and some basic history and construction/playing information, and we called it a success!
Our last story was again a quick one, just to get the kids back into the usual routine after the oddness of having a musical book (and such a very long one) in the middle of the program.
Nana in the City
Lauren Castillo
ISBN: 9780544104433
Blocky wood-print-ish looking scenes full of color and weight show a city in two different lights.
Our narrator is visiting the "busy and loud and scary" city where his Nana lives, and he is not pleased. Nanas should not be in scary places like that. But Nana assures him that the city is extraordinary instead of scary, and he dons a cape (knitted by Nana overnight) and ventures out for her to show him the lovely city she knows. A really good story, and an excellent difference to most which show grandparents in suburbs or country settings, or have all of the characters as city natives. A good simple reminder that visits go both ways, and that people live happily in all sorts of places. Also, very very short, and very clear and easy to read.
Showing posts with label Nana in the City. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nana in the City. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
Thursday, April 30, 2015
So Many New Arrivals! 3/4: Nana in the City & Lucky Ducklings
A pair of "life in the big-city" books for all of our small-town, small-city Southern kids.
Nana in the City
Lauren Castillo
ISBN: 9780544104433
Caldecott Honor: scratchy heavily-outlined figures navigate various locations in a lively big city.
We are in the shoes of a young boy visiting his Nana in the city, and he's not used to all the noise and bustle and chaos - he's decided that this place is no place for a Nana; it's scary and overwhelming. The understanding Nana spends the night making a superhero cape for the boy, and then takes him around to all the places she loves in the city, showing that noise and bustle and chaos can be good, fun, interesting, lively things. I love that the boy's feelings of unease and discomfort aren't negated, and that the Nana is shown as a lively active character who is part of the city. I love that the scenes picked to show the life and happiness of the city are so varied, but I wish that all the people shown could have been more inclusive and varied. Still, spunky and fun to look at, and short enough that I might could use it for storytime!
Lucky Ducklings (A True Rescue Story)
Eva Moore, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter
ISBN: 9780439448611
Digital & charcoal artwork is simple; beautifully composed and framed.
A true account of a duckling rescue that happened in 2000 in Montauk, New York. We're introduced to the Duck family, with matriarch (slightly on the overprotective side) and 5 baby ducklings. On their outing, Mama makes it across the storm drain easily, but the ducklings aren't so lucky - being as tiny as they are, they slip through the cracks and fall down into the drain. The repeated cadence "That could have been the end of the story. But it wasn't, because..." encourages page-flips and reader/listener interest in the development of the story, and also helps hint that everything is trundling along to a nice ending, Which of course it does, helped along by kind firefighters and clever truckers, and of course, one overprotective Mama Duck. I know for a fact that this one will be in a storytime - possibly quite soon!
Nana in the City
Lauren Castillo
ISBN: 9780544104433
Caldecott Honor: scratchy heavily-outlined figures navigate various locations in a lively big city.
We are in the shoes of a young boy visiting his Nana in the city, and he's not used to all the noise and bustle and chaos - he's decided that this place is no place for a Nana; it's scary and overwhelming. The understanding Nana spends the night making a superhero cape for the boy, and then takes him around to all the places she loves in the city, showing that noise and bustle and chaos can be good, fun, interesting, lively things. I love that the boy's feelings of unease and discomfort aren't negated, and that the Nana is shown as a lively active character who is part of the city. I love that the scenes picked to show the life and happiness of the city are so varied, but I wish that all the people shown could have been more inclusive and varied. Still, spunky and fun to look at, and short enough that I might could use it for storytime!
Lucky Ducklings (A True Rescue Story)
Eva Moore, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter
ISBN: 9780439448611
Digital & charcoal artwork is simple; beautifully composed and framed.
A true account of a duckling rescue that happened in 2000 in Montauk, New York. We're introduced to the Duck family, with matriarch (slightly on the overprotective side) and 5 baby ducklings. On their outing, Mama makes it across the storm drain easily, but the ducklings aren't so lucky - being as tiny as they are, they slip through the cracks and fall down into the drain. The repeated cadence "That could have been the end of the story. But it wasn't, because..." encourages page-flips and reader/listener interest in the development of the story, and also helps hint that everything is trundling along to a nice ending, Which of course it does, helped along by kind firefighters and clever truckers, and of course, one overprotective Mama Duck. I know for a fact that this one will be in a storytime - possibly quite soon!
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