Tuesday Storytime: Bathtime

Found a very cute picture book, and just couldn't resist building a storytime around it.

Bears in the Bath
Shirley Parenteau, illustrated by David Walker
ISBN: 9780763664183
Pastel colored baby bears all have great fun in their various activities, getting quite messy in their individually rhyming ways, until Big Brown Bear (identified as a he in the book, but easily adaptable) drags them all squirming back to the tub to clean off, with Big Brown Bear getting equally messy as a result, and needing a bath as well.

Time for a Bath
Phillis Gershator, illustrated by David Walker
ISBN: 9781454910329
Yeah I know, I try not to have duplicate illustrators or authors, but every once in a while it just seems inevitable. Once again in pastels, but this time at least pastels in greys and creams, with a baby bunny who gets oh so dirty, no matter what he and mommy bunny do. What else is there to do but take a nice bath after every activity? Short, sweet, and rhyming.

The Pigeon Needs a Bath!
Mo Willems
ISBN: 9781423190875
I do love Mo Willems, but I tend to try and avoid his books for storytime, because I feel like he's one of the few modern picture book writers who end up being known well enough that kids will come across either Pigeon, Elephant and Piggie, or Knuffle Bunny all on their own, and I can use my platform to show off lesser-known but equally excellent books. Still, when you have a perfect fit, you have a perfect fit, and the Pigeon definitely fits. He is QUITE dirty, and determined not to take a bath, for various excellent toddler-style reasons. Of course he changes his mind in the end, but the persuading is most of the fun.

Tuesday Storytime; Spring through the Seasons

A trio of very nice books that hit on all the seasons changing, but all with some level of focus on springtime.

Outside Your Window: A First Book of Nature

Nicola Davies, illustrated by Mark Hearld

ISBN: 9780763655495

Book of short meditations on natural occurances through the seasons.  

This is a LONG book - it's a large-format picture-book, mostly in spreads (lovely lovely spreads) with about 10 or so rhymes or short lyrical descriptions of events or sights to see in that particular season.  I read one each from Summer, Fall, and Winter, and then read most of Spring (skipping the first set, the sea-gulls, which are more of a summer thing for us, and the lamb's tails, mostly because it was my least favorite, and I had to cut so many for time).  The little short poems or stories are sweet and nature-based, and each is tangible and specific, and grounded in the beautiful large painterly spreads.  Excellent for this age-group in small doses, and would be perfect to use repeatedly through the year as the different seasons come and go.

Listen, Listen

Phillis Gershator, illustrated by Alison Jay

ISBN: 9781846860843

Rounded cameo paintings fill the centers of the pages, with the poem unfolding around the edges.

I like this one, but I had to tape off the last few pages, because it pretty seamlessly merges into a more interactive "seek and find" section at the very end, encouraging readers to search the pages "Where's Waldo"-style to find various animals or items.  The conceit here is using the sounds of each season to make a throughline - which works fairly well for some seasons; summer is all bugs, fall is leaves and nuts, and spring is birds chirping away, but winter was a bit of a reach, and some of the inclusions to make the rhyme scheme work seem a bit forced.  Overall, it's sweet and an interesting approach to sensing the seasons instead of looking at them.

Old Bear

Kevin Henkes

ISBN: 9780061552052

Bear falls asleep and dreams of technicolor fever-dream seasons, before waking into a delightful real spring.

The ONLY objection I have to this adorable book is that the bear comes out of hibernation in the full bloom of riotous spring (for the narrative to work well) and that's not in the least accurate.  Despite that one niggle, this is a beautiful book that showcases dreams and imagination, and reads quickly and clearly.  The colors and stylization of the dream spreads are simply gorgeous, and the bear is roly-poly and fuzzy and adorable.  Excellent length to be either an ending book or a middle book between two not-as-long offerings.