An impromptu storytime on demand with a leftover non-specifically-Christmas book from last year, and a couple of books liberated from upcoming planned storytimes.
Walking in a Winter Wonderland
based on the song by Felix Bernard and Richard B. Smith
as sung by Peggy Lee
illustrated by Tim Hopgood
ISBN: 9781627793049
I actually sang this one, and I didn't notice too many winces from the grownups, so I think I did ok. A lovely slightly-overlarge picture book with full spreads of beautiful stylized colorful winter landscapes full of cheerful people and animals. The kids were mesmerized, at least partially by the oddity of singing the text of a picture book, and the families knew the song well enough to come in and sing with me on the repeated title line "walking in a winter wonderland." Very cute experiment, glad it worked!
In the Snow
Sharon Phillips Denslow, illustrated by Nancy Tafuri
ISBN: 9780060596835
A lovely nonfiction, naturalistic book, focused on the types of birds and small wild animals that come for seeds and nuts left in the snow for them by a caring child. It seems VERY short, but it feels much longer when it's being read - I'm not sure why.
Snow
Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Lauren Stringer
ISBN: 9780152053031
I've done this one before a few times, and I love the lyricism and gentleness of this tender heart-of-winter story that uses snow as the lynch-pin. Our narrator tells us all about the different types of snow (all good, in this story) and the different lovely things that are done in and with and during the snow. It's sweet and peaceful and a little bit sad in a way that goes straight over little kids' heads, but hit the adults right in the feels. This is always a good one to end on.
Now I just have to find replacements for next week!
Showing posts with label Nancy Tafuri. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nancy Tafuri. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
Tuesday, August 23, 2016
Tuesday Storytime: Summer Showers
We've finally had some rain here, so it's time for our Summer Showers storytime - I usually do one in spring and one in late summer after the Summer Reading Program finishes off. In South Carolina, summer is absolutely not over at the end of July - we're just getting started. Last year it didn't cool down til November, and I don't see that changing much this year either.
Thunder-Boomer!
Shutta Crum, illustrated by Carol Thompson
ISBN: 9780618918651
Loose free scribbly lines and washes of color and lots of small panels and vignettes.
The panels and vignettes make this a little less suitable for storytime, but we had a small-ish group today, so it worked out pretty well. I love the loose flowing scribbly lines and the slightly sloppy washes of color everywhere, and the differences between the wide-open outside and the slightly cramped and crowded inside. We start on a hot country afternoon: dad's plowing, mom and kids are cooling by the pond, and a "Thunder-Boomer" rolls in, prompting a scramble: tractor put away, chickens hustled back into the coop, laundry pulled off the line. The bottom falls out, and poor Dad has to run out to rescue a last broody chicken, and then it's just huddling together while the storm rolls through. After the rain and wind and hail die back down, they emerge to a wet and clean world, and a tiny kitten, courtesy of the broody chicken and drenched by the storm.
The Big Storm! A Very Soggy Counting Book
Nancy Tafuri
ISBN: 9781416967958
Oddly paced, but short and sweet: forest animals take refuge one by one in a small cave - surprise bears!
Tafuri's lovely drawings with their vibrant colors and clear lines are perfect for this short and sweet count-up-and-back-down. The frontispieces show a pair of bears heading into a hillside cave, and then the story begins with the smaller woodland creatures swooping in to take refuge from the storm - as the numbers and the animals reveal, they don't know the bears are already there! All ten crowd in for the night of storms and rumbly thunder, but in the morning the sky is clear, but why can they still hear thunder so loudly? A mad scramble for the outdoors makes up the count-back-down, and the bears are left peacefully asleep.
Tap Tap Boom Boom
Elizabeth Bluemle, illustrated by G. Brian Karas
ISBN: 9780763656966
An urban thunderstorm brings umbrella vendors and a retreat into the subway station.
The short choppy rhythms of this book and the syncopated speaking patterns and slant-rhymes (at least for me) make this a challenge to read fluidly, but it's a really great book, especially for my area, which is a lot more familiar with farms and suburbs than with subways and city sidewalks. A Tap Tap Boom Boom rolls in, and as the rain soaks through everything, people retreat to the subway station for refuge and a chance to dry off and socialize for a bit before re-emerging to find a scrubbed-clean city and a nice rainbow. This one also is good for humanizing and normalizing city life, again a challenge for this particular area. For a city-life trio, I'd pair it with Nana in the City and I don't know what else.
Thunder-Boomer!
Shutta Crum, illustrated by Carol Thompson
ISBN: 9780618918651
Loose free scribbly lines and washes of color and lots of small panels and vignettes.
The panels and vignettes make this a little less suitable for storytime, but we had a small-ish group today, so it worked out pretty well. I love the loose flowing scribbly lines and the slightly sloppy washes of color everywhere, and the differences between the wide-open outside and the slightly cramped and crowded inside. We start on a hot country afternoon: dad's plowing, mom and kids are cooling by the pond, and a "Thunder-Boomer" rolls in, prompting a scramble: tractor put away, chickens hustled back into the coop, laundry pulled off the line. The bottom falls out, and poor Dad has to run out to rescue a last broody chicken, and then it's just huddling together while the storm rolls through. After the rain and wind and hail die back down, they emerge to a wet and clean world, and a tiny kitten, courtesy of the broody chicken and drenched by the storm.
The Big Storm! A Very Soggy Counting Book
Nancy Tafuri
ISBN: 9781416967958
Oddly paced, but short and sweet: forest animals take refuge one by one in a small cave - surprise bears!
Tafuri's lovely drawings with their vibrant colors and clear lines are perfect for this short and sweet count-up-and-back-down. The frontispieces show a pair of bears heading into a hillside cave, and then the story begins with the smaller woodland creatures swooping in to take refuge from the storm - as the numbers and the animals reveal, they don't know the bears are already there! All ten crowd in for the night of storms and rumbly thunder, but in the morning the sky is clear, but why can they still hear thunder so loudly? A mad scramble for the outdoors makes up the count-back-down, and the bears are left peacefully asleep.
Tap Tap Boom Boom
Elizabeth Bluemle, illustrated by G. Brian Karas
ISBN: 9780763656966
An urban thunderstorm brings umbrella vendors and a retreat into the subway station.
The short choppy rhythms of this book and the syncopated speaking patterns and slant-rhymes (at least for me) make this a challenge to read fluidly, but it's a really great book, especially for my area, which is a lot more familiar with farms and suburbs than with subways and city sidewalks. A Tap Tap Boom Boom rolls in, and as the rain soaks through everything, people retreat to the subway station for refuge and a chance to dry off and socialize for a bit before re-emerging to find a scrubbed-clean city and a nice rainbow. This one also is good for humanizing and normalizing city life, again a challenge for this particular area. For a city-life trio, I'd pair it with Nana in the City and I don't know what else.
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Tuesday Storytime: Ducks!
I went with a nice simple theme and picture today since we had a daycare attending. My normal group of about 20-odd warm bodies ballooned up to over seventy people today - I needed all the easy I could get!
Little Quack
Lauren Thompson, illustrated by Derek Anderson
ISBN: 0689847238
Math-concept book focuses on the first time ducklings leave their nest to go swimming.
Fuzzy bright simplistic paintings use the spreads to great advantage as the looming mother duck convinces her timid ducklings to leave the nest and join her in the water. The math is relegated to the bottom of the panels, and could easily be left out - all I did was ask the kids each time how many of the ducklings were in the water.
Have You Seen My Duckling
Nancy Tafuri
ISBN: 0688027989
Caldecott Honor book. Vivid naturalistic colored-pencil drawings have the missing duckling hidden.
An old classic. Hard to do in storytime usually because there's not anything to DO really - just turn the pages and ask on occasion: "have you seen my duckling?" but with a group this large, there's going to be a few kids who can be counted on to answer questions and anticipate events, so I can ask: "what sort of animal is mama duck talking to?" and "do you see the missing duckling?" (and of course point it out each time so that everyone can share the joke. I don't do a lot of wordless or near wordless books, so it's nice to be able to use this one at last.
Five Little Ducks
Ivan Bates
ISBN: 0439746930
Bates' illustrations are always sweet and just this side of precious, paired perfectly with the nursery rhyme.
Ivan Bates is a gifted illustrator, and his beautiful pictures always warm my heart. Something about how he lays down colors and the slightly scribbly edges on his shapes and the almost-minimalistic backgrounds just resonate really strongly with me, and I simply adore looking at them. Calming and fun at the same time. Matching that feeling up with an old nursery rhyme is a perfect choice, and makes for an instant classic. The only downside is that I never heard this particular one as a song, only as a chant, so I don't actually know how to sing it! I have to settle for halfway between reading and chanting, and my natural cadence is not quite up to the task. Oh well. Small price to pay for such a sweet and beautiful book.
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