Tuesday Storytime AND Summer Reading: Sound Science!

For storytime, a trio of "school" themed books featuring music or noisemaking. For the summer reading program, a visit from Miss Frizzle, who also read Max Found Two Sticks during her fantastic science-filled program.

Storytime:
Violet's Music
Angela Johnson, illustrated by Laura Huliska-Beith
ISBN: 0803727402
Violet lives breathes dances walks sings and exudes music - which is fine, and generally satisfying, but there's no one else at school who really understands her passion. They all have their own different passions. So Violet starts to look for her people, and when she finds some others who REALLY dig music, they all validate her previous passion and vague loneliness, and then happily start up a band.

Music Class Today!
David Weinstone, illustrated by Vin Vogel
ISBN: 9780374341311
A boisterous music class is kept on a gentle schedule by a bearded teacher, while a shy/introverted/sensitive child hovers around the edges, unsure about all this noise and commotion, until they gather their courage and happily join in the fun. Very short, but very inclusive and positive look at a classroom setting.

Ruby Sings the Blues
Niki Daly
ISBN: 1582349959
I've used this one before, because I love Ruby, with her volume control permanently set to HIGH. She's just excited and happy and wants to be heard, which drives everyone at school and home absolutely bonkers, until someone suggests music lessons, and Ruby discovers Jazz and Blues, and puts her BIG voice to excellent (and finally appreciated) use.

Storytime Potentials: Tap Tap Boom Boom, Elizabeth Bluemle

Tap Tap Boom Boom
Elizabeth Bluemle, illustrated by G. Brian Karas
sketchy pastel and pencil figures over sepia-toned photograph collages of the city scenery

I'm always in the market for a good book about a rainstorm.  I love storms, love thunder and lightning, and I love presenting books that represent them in a way that minimizes their potential as frightening.

This one is delightful.  Rhythmic text emphasizes the sounds of the storm - the growing rumbles of thunder and the tap of the rain morphing into the harder louder dance of the growing storm, and then the waning energy revealing the blue sky and fresh air.

However, in addition to that, we're also treated to a very humanistic, very city-based representation of the storm, and for my rural patrons, that's something else that I'm very happy to represent as many times and an as many ways as possible.

Carts pop up to sell umbrellas on the sidewalk.  Pedestrians huddle near the buildings to hide from the splashes of passing cars.  When the storm picks up, they retreat into a subway terminal, waiting out the storm above in a temporary commune of like-minded and varyingly dry inhabitants.  Pizza is shared, umbrellas are offered, smiles exchanged, and then up to the surface again to resume daily life, refreshed after a break from the ordinary.

I'd pair this with city-based rain books for a thunderstorm storytime, or with city-based musical books for a rhythm storytime.

Stormy Books:

Come On Rain, Karen Hesse
Monsoon Afternoon, Kashmira Sheth
Thunder Boomer, Shutta Crum

Rhythm Books:

Ruby Sings the Blues, Niki Daley
Max Found Two Sticks, Brian Pinkney