Tuesday Storytime: Pumpkin Time

It's October and that means Halloween! Getting into the spirit early with a trio of pumpkin-related stories.

Ten Orange Pumpkins
Stephen Savage
A fun, slightly spooky, counting book - watch out for the enormous spider towards the end!

Pumpkin Cat
Anne Mortimer
Cat and Mouse prepare all spring and summer for a pumpkin, and when it's finally grown in the fall, Mouse has a final surprise for Cat.

Boo! Haiku
Deanna Caswell, illustrated by Bob Shea
This "guess who" format is fun with the haiku rhythms, and the guesses aren't too hard, as long as the adults are willing to offer additional clues - even then "skeleton" was a bit over their heads. Overall tho, very satisfactory as a creepy fun call and response book.

Tuesday Storytime: still space, even though the SRP is on a break for the 4th

This week's selections were chosen by my coworker:

The Babysitter from Another Planet
Stephen Savage
ISBN: 9780823441471

The Moon (Bamboo and Friends)
Felica Law, illustrated by Nicola Evans
ISBN: 1404812822

Chicken in Space
Adam Lehrhaupt, illustrated by Shahar Kober
ISBN: 9780062364128

Tuesday Storytime: Happy Halloween!

A cute set of books for Halloween, picked by my partner.

Trick or Treat
Leo Landry
ISBN: 9780547249698
Oliver the ghost is hosting a Halloween party for all his spooky friends, but one of the invites goes astray into the perfectly ordinary neighborhood house next door, allowing a pair of cute trick-or-treaters the chance to attend their first REAL Halloween party. All goes well, and Oliver ends up invited to a party himself!

Ten Orange Pumpkins
Stephen Savage
ISBN: 9780803739383
Graphically intense (all oranges and blacks and grey-scaled-desaturated colors) counting book with really nifty illustrations, and a serviceable "story" to accompany the counting.

Boo to You!
Lois Ehlert
ISBN:9781416986256
A clever crew of mice band together to outwit a mean cat in this Halloween-adjacent story made of fall-items-and-papercraft collages. 

Tuesday Storytime: Winter Snows

And finally caught up to this week!  We have had persistent rumors of snow this weekend, so I felt that was the best time to start my snowy series of reads.  I'll do a bit of Christmas intermission, and then pick the snow-and-cold theme back up in January.

Blizzard

John Rocco

ISBN: 9781423178651

Rocco engagingly recounts and illustrates his adventures in the New England blizzard of 1978,

This book is a lovely slice of Americana.  Rocco's character is thrilled at first as the giant storm shuts everything down under a thick blanket of snow, but after five days, facing the dire straits of cocoa made with WATER, he undertakes a perilous voyage that only he is qualified to complete (because he's the only one small enough to use tennis rackets for snowshoes and not sink into the chest-high powdery snow).  He sets off with good intentions, a grocery list, and a set of neighbors to check in on, and eventually (a four-page-fold-out-spread later) he makes it to the store to collect the necessary provisions.  A cute story of unexpected snow and sweet innocent playful fun.

Mimi and Bear in the Snow

Janee Trasler

ISBN: 9780374300937

Relatively new, and absolutely adorable.  Mimi Bunny loses Bear while playing in the snow, and the next morning finds everything melted away.

Bear does everything with Mimi.  Ice-skating, building snow hats, building snow monsters... but then Bear disappears, and he doesn't even re-appear by bedtime!  Something has gone wrong, but when Mimi retraces her steps the next morning, all the snow is gone too!  Will she be able to find Bear?  I like this story because the concept of snowfall that vanishes totally by the next morning isn't one that you see in a lot of children's books, but it's the reality for most of us down here.

Polar Bear Night

Lauren Thompson, illustrated by Stephen Savage

ISBN: 9780439495240

Absolutely stunning illustrations elevate this slight story about a polar bear venturing out into the starry, snowy, night alone.

Sweet, lyrical, short, simple.  If it weren't for those amazing lush thick spreads, I don't think I'd be excited to read this as often as I am.  The polar bear cub is sweet and the story is cute, but it really is the illustrations that keep this one moving along.  It is different enough from most other picture book illustration styles that the adults and the kids just can't stop staring at it.  Really a knockout visual treat.

 

Tuesday Storytime: Snowy Days

January is my time for snowy storytimes: it's (usually) finally gotten actually cold outside, and even if it doesn't ever actually snow here, there's frost on the ground in the mornings ("South Carolina Morning Snow") and the skies are often heavy and grey.


The Snowy Day
Ezra Jack Keats
ISBN: 9780670012701 (50th Ann. oversized hc edition, with background info, and author bio)
Classic tale of Peter and the snow in a city-scape, with Keats' vibrant colorful collage minimalism.

This is actually my own personal copy, signed by LeVar Burton. (Please imagine my eyes with big sparkles and hearts right now) and it's one of my favorite classic children's books.  There are a lot of my childhood favorites that are quite special in my heart, but a lot of times, re-reading them reveals that they aren't anything I would feel comfortable recommending.  Not this gem.

Peter is a young black boy in a bright red hooded coat, and he's outisde in the city, in the deep snow, just being a child and exploring.  It's simple, clear, childlike in the best way, and just delightful in every way.


I Love Snow
Hans Wilhelm
ISBN: 9780439795944 (Scholastic Reader)
Excitable white floofy dog explores in the snow, and helps out a wild friend.

I've used this book (and others by this artist) before because I feel like lots of people think that leveled readers are automatically terrible books with no artistry or joy or fun in them.  They VERY OFTEN ARE.  But prejudice is terrible, and there are beautiful and enjoyable leveled readers out there that have fun stories and enjoyable to read through in their own right.

Our little white puppy is out in the snow and enjoying every minute of it.  He does all sorts of traditional snowy activities, and then near the end finds a wild creature in need of some help, and gains a new friend to play with.  The plight of the hungry raccoon is adorably sad, and the conceit of eating the snowman's carrot nose blew some of my kids' minds!  Cute and very short.


Polar Bear Night
Lauren Thompson, illustrated by Stephen Savage
ISBN: 9780439495240
Textural blocky outlines and sleepy gentle blue tones make this a very good bedtime candidate.

Savage has outdone himself this time around, inspired by Thompson's lyrical language and sleepy sweet tale of a polar bear cub out in the soft still nighttime.  There isn't much focus on snow here, but the theme of a young creature out by themselves enjoying the outside in their home environment (as opposed to "going out to nature" or something like that) fit really nicely with the other two stories, and the gentle wording and evocative and minimalist artwork spreads are just too beautiful to pass up.

   

Tuesday Storytime: Halloween!

 I love Halloween storytimes!

We started off with the delightful Zombelina, moved through the equally new and strikingly illustrated Ten Orange Pumpkins, and ended on a lighthearted note with Happy Halloween, Biscuit.

Zombelina
Kristyn Crow, illustrated by Molly Idle (Flora and the Flamingo)
ISBN: 9780802728036
Sweet green zombie gets stage fright at her dance recital, until her spooky family arrives to cheer.

This book is ADORABLE.  I will probably read it on non-Halloween nights just as a dancing or performance book.  (Maybe with Rock n Roll Mole?)  Zombelina loves dancing at home, and her loving parents finally take her out to buy supplies and start in dance classes.  Her classmates are a little weirded out by this limb-losing ballerina, but her teacher is accepting and encouraging, and she blooms.  Until the night of her recital, where she gets stage fright, and starts acting like an actual zombie and scares her classmates and audience away.  Her family arrives and cheers her on in a more familiar way, and she performs beautifully, then is whisked home for a celebratory dinner.  Boatloads of wordplay and clever jokes with the illustrations had the parents laughing, while the kids seemed to enjoy our perky adorable heroine.


Ten Orange Pumpkins: A Counting Book
Stephen Savage
ISBN: 9780803739383
Already reviewed.

This one worked very well in the middle spot.  I got through the spider with aplomb (I thought) and the kids especially liked the alligators in the river and the skeleton pirate crew.


Happy Halloween, Biscuit
Alyssa Satin Capucilli, illustrated by Pat Schories
ISBN: 9780694012206
Lift-the-flap book showing Biscuit the puppy hiding or getting into minor trouble on Halloween.

Super cute and as inoffensive as it is possible to be and still cover dressing up in costume and trick-or-treating.  Biscuit and his little girl go out to the pumpkin patch to make a jack-o-lantern, pick out costumes to wear, meet costumed friends, and get treats from a family-member's house before going back home to bed.  Very cute, and one of the parents checked it out after storytime!

Picture Book Haul: Halloween books, I Am a Witch's Cat, and Ten Orange Pumpkins

Loads of picture books in today, and LOTS of them are Halloween/fall books.  I'm thrilled with that, because Halloween is my favorite holiday, but I wanted to highlight my two absolute favorites.

I Am a Witch's Cat
Harriet Muncaster
ISBN: 9780062229144

Freaking ADORABLE.  A little girl dressed up in a black cat pyjama suit wanders and frolics around informing people of all the things that make her homemaker mother actually a witch.  Of course, it's all nonsense, as the illustrations clearly show a normal family and normal house.  Until the last page where mom's night out has an entirely different meaning.  I especially like that there's no indication one way or the other if mom is single, divorced, or married and enjoying a solo night out.   The illustrations are equally awesome - on first glance, they look like straightforward collage or paper-mache, but a closer look reveals intricate created environments using cardboard and fabric and wires and paper cut outs and god knows what else amazingly transformed into living rooms, gardens, and shopping marts.  Too cool.  (Also a perfect length for storytime, so I have another good Halloween book that isn't too specifically Halloween - have to be careful about that in the Bible Belt.)


Ten Orange Pumpkins: A Counting Book
Stephen Savage (Little Tug)
ISBN: 9780803739383

(Phobia warning: GIANT (nonrealistic) SPIDER!)
I love our black cat companion.  I love the subtle color-fades on the spreads.  I love the stylized shadow-box scenery.  I don't love spiders.  BUT the rest of the book is so lovely, and the spider is likewise stylized (even though ENORMOUS) that I can make it through.  Great progression, great reveal, simply delightful artwork.  Excellent all around.    

Tuesday Storytime: Boats

Last week of summer for most of us here in SC, so I'm finishing out the season with the last of a trio of "vacation" books, looking at boats on rivers and oceans.

Two of these are repeats, I've used and liked them before, but the middle book (Little Tug) is new to my library, and I tried it out for the first time today.  I liked it also - very short and cute.

Toy Boat
Randall de Seve, illustrated by Loren Long
ISBN: 9780399243745
Painterly full-spread illustrations of a handmade toy boat on a dangerous night alone on the lake.

This is a sweet book, but it does get a little intense - there's a separation, then a storm, and a night alone on the water before the happy reunion with the boy.  I love the cadence of the words here, and the repeated "Move along" from the various sources.


Little Tug
Stephen Savage
ISBN: 9781596436480
Blocky print in limited color palette and very few words show the tug helping boats, and then a sweet goodnight.

This is my first read of this one, and I was a little worried that the lack of text would be a bit of a problem, but the flow was really smooth and slow, and that allowed plenty of time to appreciate the artfully blocky pictures.  I especially liked that the sailboat is male, and the motorboat is female.


Sail Away, Little Boat
Janet Buell, illustrated by Jui Ishida
ISBN: 1575058219
Stylized people and beautiful water scenes follow a toy boat from a brook downstream to the ocean, in verse.

This one is one where I'm not entirely sold on the verse structure.  Some books really just sneak it in there, and other books practically celebrate their verse structure, and some are just so brilliantly versified that it's a joy to read them.  This one is just a bit meh, and that makes it hard to summon the necessary energy to read this (decently long book) in the necessary rhythm to keep the verses and rhymes somewhat pointed.  That may just be me being a bit tired today.  Otherwise, I love that the boat itself is pretty much an excuse to explore the sights and sounds and wildlife (so much wildlife) along a brook, river, bay, and ocean.  The water, especially the fishes in the water, are just mesmerizingly painted.


And that's the end of summer for us, so next week, we'll do "Back to School" even though most of my group are too little to be in classes yet.