It's finally getting cold out (now that it's December, of course) and so we're wrapping up with one final salute to fall. These titles were chosen by my coworker.
Fall Leaves Fall
Zoe Hall, illustrated by Shari Halpern
ISBN: 0590100793
Oddly-textured papercuts give this an old-fashioned stop-motion animation feel, with flat matte textures for people and backgrounds, and vibrant painterly textures for leaves and natural objects. Factual and quite short.
In The Middle of Fall
Kevin Henkes, illustrated by Laura Dronzek
ISBN: 9780062573117
This newest from Keven Henkes moves away from mice into a lovely exploration of fall and the activities and events that epitomize it.
Leaves
David Ezra Stein
ISBN: 9780399254970
Bear wanders around the woods, gently confused and saddened by the falling leaves all around. He gathers them up as he drifts gently toward hibernation, and when he wakes he sees the new leaves budding on the trees and is comforted.
Showing posts with label Shari Halpern. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shari Halpern. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 13, 2017
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Tuesday Storytime: Construction Crews
A fun, shortish trio of books today.
Build, Dogs, Build
James Horvath (Dig, Dogs, Dig)
ISBN: 9780062189677
Hanna-Barbara-ish dogs demolish an old building and build a new apartment complex, in rhyme.
Very much like Dig, Dogs, Dig, but with more of a focus on the materials and visuals of the emerging building, rather than on the actions of the dogs doing the work. A few moments where I wondered if pages were missing; we move from worrying about a moving van hitting a plate glass window to a scene of dogs chasing bouncy-balls all over the construction site. A sharper look reveals that the van is CARRYING said bouncy-balls, and they all fell out when the van swerved to miss the glass, but none of that is in the text, and it seems to jump wildly from work to breaktime with no warning. Even the ending is a bit abrupt. I was expecting a final repeat of the "x, dogs, x" motif that was scattered randomly through the book. Despite this, very clever, very readable, and highly recommended for the focus on plans and engineering and actual construction details like water and sewer pipes, the thickness of the concrete flooring, and the correct order of building, cladding, and finishing the interiors of the high-rise.
Demolition
Sally Sutton, illustrated by Brian Lovelock
ISBN: 9780763658304
(originally reviewed here)
Same thoughts as the review from before: Kids absolutely love it, and I enjoy the word-play and the super-fast flow. I do prefer Roadwork, and I would like to get my hands on Construction and see how it flows in comparison.
Construction Kitties
Judy Sue Goodwin Sturges, illustrated by Shari Halpern (I Love Trucks!)
ISBN: 9780805091052
Naif round-faced kitties run progressive pairs of heavy machinery; turning a field into a playground.
This book is too cute. Short enough to be a middle book, with a very clear and steady progression through the day, from mornings at home, the drive to work (often skipped over by picture books) the work day, lunch (sardines and milk, yum!) and a break for relaxation (also often skipped over) work again, and a drive home. All this powered by a steady flow of various equipment that digs, moves, pushes, and smooths dirt into a playground, and a rhythmic drumbeat of language that reads like poetry, even though it is non-rhyming. A good one to end on, and the one the kids paid most attention to and responded directly to, despite being last (and therefore more susceptible to wiggles).
Build, Dogs, Build
James Horvath (Dig, Dogs, Dig)
ISBN: 9780062189677
Hanna-Barbara-ish dogs demolish an old building and build a new apartment complex, in rhyme.
Very much like Dig, Dogs, Dig, but with more of a focus on the materials and visuals of the emerging building, rather than on the actions of the dogs doing the work. A few moments where I wondered if pages were missing; we move from worrying about a moving van hitting a plate glass window to a scene of dogs chasing bouncy-balls all over the construction site. A sharper look reveals that the van is CARRYING said bouncy-balls, and they all fell out when the van swerved to miss the glass, but none of that is in the text, and it seems to jump wildly from work to breaktime with no warning. Even the ending is a bit abrupt. I was expecting a final repeat of the "x, dogs, x" motif that was scattered randomly through the book. Despite this, very clever, very readable, and highly recommended for the focus on plans and engineering and actual construction details like water and sewer pipes, the thickness of the concrete flooring, and the correct order of building, cladding, and finishing the interiors of the high-rise.
Demolition
Sally Sutton, illustrated by Brian Lovelock
ISBN: 9780763658304
(originally reviewed here)
Same thoughts as the review from before: Kids absolutely love it, and I enjoy the word-play and the super-fast flow. I do prefer Roadwork, and I would like to get my hands on Construction and see how it flows in comparison.
Construction Kitties
Judy Sue Goodwin Sturges, illustrated by Shari Halpern (I Love Trucks!)
ISBN: 9780805091052
Naif round-faced kitties run progressive pairs of heavy machinery; turning a field into a playground.
This book is too cute. Short enough to be a middle book, with a very clear and steady progression through the day, from mornings at home, the drive to work (often skipped over by picture books) the work day, lunch (sardines and milk, yum!) and a break for relaxation (also often skipped over) work again, and a drive home. All this powered by a steady flow of various equipment that digs, moves, pushes, and smooths dirt into a playground, and a rhythmic drumbeat of language that reads like poetry, even though it is non-rhyming. A good one to end on, and the one the kids paid most attention to and responded directly to, despite being last (and therefore more susceptible to wiggles).
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Tuesday Storytime: Trucks
Yeah, I know, why pick this theme for this time of year. I felt like it. :)
Tough Trucks
Tony Mitton (Dinosaurumpus), illustrated by Ant Parker
ISBN: 0753456001
Anthro-animals work with slightly cartoonish trucks on jobs with very metered verse blocks.
I really like this one for the vocabulary: study, accelerate, "weave and wend," piston, liquids... really interesting and potentially unfamiliar words for little ones. The rhyme is solid (sometimes a bit too solid) and perhaps a bit plodding, but it works for the measured pace of the very loose framework of "trucks and truckers working at jobs." Because the characters are all various animals, there's no indication of gender, except for a waitress-cat wearing a frilly apron. I would have preferred to see frills on a couple of the truckers/workers or a gender-neutral apron on the wait-staffer, but at least they are animals, so one can plead that they are multi-gendered.
I Love Trucks!
Philemon Sturges, illustrated by Shari Halpern
ISBN: 0060278196
Multi-gendered, multi-ethnic drivers and characters fill a tiny town full of types of trucks.
Our narrator for this very short and simple trucking celebration is a kid playing with trucks in a sandbox, describing various types of truckish jobs that get done while the blocky, primary-colored artwork keeps the environment simple and straighforward and very appealing. The best-loved truck is an ice-cream truck, so if you're in a rural or ice-cream-truck-less area, be prepared for some really intense questions about trucks that dispense ice-cream.
Trucks Roll!
George Ella Lyon, illustrated by Craig Frazier (Stanley Mows the Lawn)
ISBN: 9781416924357
Abstracted and graphically-intense scenes in forced-perspective or otherwise intriguing compositions.
This is my favorite truck book from today, and might be my favorite truck book in general. Frazier's graphic art is just phenomenal, and everything from the endpapers (in that bright burnt-yellow industrial corrugated-iron pattern) to the movement and energy blasting out of his pages just makes me so energized and happy as a reader. The storyline isn't amazing - it isn't really a story, and is really very like Tough Trucks as far as ideas go, but here we stick with trucks on the road, and what they might carry (wild cargoes like rabbits or giant cookies under tarps) and it works much better to have our focus limited to road trucking. What also works much better is the rhyme and cadence here - we get shorter rhymes and so less interesting vocab, but the words and phrases just leap out, with the coda "Trucks roll" becoming more and more impressive til we reach the end. Finally, the idea of having the "Trucks stop" in the middle of the book, and ending at dawn (another bravura graphic design, with the shadows on the trucker, the steam on the coffee, and even the hood-ornament as a bird reaching for the sky, all with bright yellow and orange sun rays streaming across) is really brilliant, and a nice change from the usual choice of stopping at "bedtime." Love this book.
Tough Trucks
Tony Mitton (Dinosaurumpus), illustrated by Ant Parker
ISBN: 0753456001
Anthro-animals work with slightly cartoonish trucks on jobs with very metered verse blocks.
I really like this one for the vocabulary: study, accelerate, "weave and wend," piston, liquids... really interesting and potentially unfamiliar words for little ones. The rhyme is solid (sometimes a bit too solid) and perhaps a bit plodding, but it works for the measured pace of the very loose framework of "trucks and truckers working at jobs." Because the characters are all various animals, there's no indication of gender, except for a waitress-cat wearing a frilly apron. I would have preferred to see frills on a couple of the truckers/workers or a gender-neutral apron on the wait-staffer, but at least they are animals, so one can plead that they are multi-gendered.
I Love Trucks!
Philemon Sturges, illustrated by Shari Halpern
ISBN: 0060278196
Multi-gendered, multi-ethnic drivers and characters fill a tiny town full of types of trucks.
Our narrator for this very short and simple trucking celebration is a kid playing with trucks in a sandbox, describing various types of truckish jobs that get done while the blocky, primary-colored artwork keeps the environment simple and straighforward and very appealing. The best-loved truck is an ice-cream truck, so if you're in a rural or ice-cream-truck-less area, be prepared for some really intense questions about trucks that dispense ice-cream.
Trucks Roll!
George Ella Lyon, illustrated by Craig Frazier (Stanley Mows the Lawn)
ISBN: 9781416924357
Abstracted and graphically-intense scenes in forced-perspective or otherwise intriguing compositions.
This is my favorite truck book from today, and might be my favorite truck book in general. Frazier's graphic art is just phenomenal, and everything from the endpapers (in that bright burnt-yellow industrial corrugated-iron pattern) to the movement and energy blasting out of his pages just makes me so energized and happy as a reader. The storyline isn't amazing - it isn't really a story, and is really very like Tough Trucks as far as ideas go, but here we stick with trucks on the road, and what they might carry (wild cargoes like rabbits or giant cookies under tarps) and it works much better to have our focus limited to road trucking. What also works much better is the rhyme and cadence here - we get shorter rhymes and so less interesting vocab, but the words and phrases just leap out, with the coda "Trucks roll" becoming more and more impressive til we reach the end. Finally, the idea of having the "Trucks stop" in the middle of the book, and ending at dawn (another bravura graphic design, with the shadows on the trucker, the steam on the coffee, and even the hood-ornament as a bird reaching for the sky, all with bright yellow and orange sun rays streaming across) is really brilliant, and a nice change from the usual choice of stopping at "bedtime." Love this book.
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