Tuesday Storytime: Summer Adventures

Last week's storytime was done by my coworker, celebrating the last dregs of summer fun before school starts back up.

Ice Cream Summer
Peter Sís

Summer Days and Nights
Wong Herbert Yee

Maisy Goes on Vacation 
Lucy Cousins

Tuesday Storytime: Autumn Thanks

Since we covered Thanksgiving pretty thoroughly last time around, I focused on a few of my newly-acquired fall books this time around.

Hocus Pocus, It's Fall!
Anne Sibley O'Brien, illustrated by Susan Gall
ISBN: 9781419721250
An entire book of fold-out flaps gives very short rhymes on different fall themes and situations, and then a "magic word" (a different one each time - there are SO MANY OF THEM!) to fold out the flap and show the "magic" change of seasons on the fold-out continuation of the spread.

Thanks for Thanksgiving
Julie Markes, illustrated by Doris Barrette
ISBN:  9780060510985
Short and as inoffensive as possible, this set of "thanks" are offered generally to no specified person or entity, and focus on the experiences of children - school and dress-up, play-dates and parents.

My Autumn Book
Wong Herbert Yee
ISBN: 9780805099225
Sweet but just a liiiiitle bit too long for my very young group this time around. A possibly-Asian girl notices lots of natural changes in the world as proof that autumn is approaching, and collects items to remember the season, building a book of memories to read in the winter.

Tuesday Storytime: Summer Daze

It's that lovely time between Summer Reading and fall, so it's almost like a second summer, where we aren't restricted to the summer reading theme. So that means lots of fun summery books.

Maisy Goes on Vacation
Lucy Cousins
ISBN: 9780763647520
Maisy the mouse goes on vacation to the beach, with the anticipation, packing, travel (a train ride in this case), and hotel stay all preceding a trip to the beach with friends.

Summer Days and Nights
Wong Herbert Yee
ISBN: 9780805090789
A tiny book that packs a great big nostalgic punch. Fuzzy grainy paintings appear summer-hazy as we follow a girl through a green and gold summer day into a warm cozy summer night of fireflies and late bedtimes. Very sweet and really attractive.

And Then Comes Summer
Tom Brenner, illustrated by Jaime Kim
ISBN: 9780763660710
This book is a straight-up When This Happens / Then This Happens, all on a summery theme. Very anticipatory, and lots of fun, as we follow through a set of summer activities (stereotypical or iconic, depending on how much you like summer rituals). We get fishing, parades, ice-cream trucks and camping, and more. Cute and vivacious.

Tuesday Storytime: Gardening

Well, MOSTLY gardening.  I thought I had a third gardening book already set aside for this week, but turns out I didn't, so we used a new arrival (Summer Days and Nights) instead, and it worked out fine.  Next time around I'd like to have it more specifically gardening, but que sera and all that.


Summer Days and Nights
Wong Herbert Yee
ISBN: 9780805090879
A generic "Asian" family spends an idyllic day and evening with traditional summer activities.

Yee is best known to me because of his sweet and simple Fireman Small, which I use with nearly alarming frequency when I do firefighter or local hero storytime themes.  It's just so sweet and kind and endearing.  This book is a little more generic, but it's still a lovely story, nice and gentle and just perfect for bedtime.  Perhaps a bit too sweet and slow for storytime (especially with the size - this is a SMALL book: 6 inches tall and only about 8.5 wide, and most of the pictures aren't even the whole size of the pages. Our unnamed and un-gendered child wanders through a summer day, with requisite mentions of cats napping in the sunlight, iced lemonade, splashing in pools, picnics in the park, and catching butterflies.  What makes it slightly more interesting is the inclusion of nighttime scenes, and here is where the sub-theme of summertime life (most especially insect or small-animal life) is most pointed, as we see a mouse, owl, fireflies, crickets, and frogs outside in the evening before finally it's bedtime.


Lola Plants a Garden
Anna McQuinn, illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw
ISBN: 9781580896948
Lola is a sweet Black child with a new and growing series of books about central child life topics.

McQuinn's Lola and Leo stories are generally very good for topical and child-interest storytimes.  As an aside, Lola is Lulu in the UK, where they're originally published.  For Lola, we have books about reading, and about interacting with baby siblings, and now about gardening, and we also have two featuring her little brother Leo (Zeki in the UK): Leo Loves Baby Time, and Leo Can Swim, for another set of important kid-friendly subjects.  I admit to being biased towards these simply because they feature Black children and families, and there are still too few of those books, and too few done by GOOD storytellers with GOOD illustrators.  I want people to know that just like girls and people of color learn to identify with all the millions of little white boys that feature as the heroes of stories, little white boys can do the same with a hero who is a girl, or a person of color.  It's a long slow slog, but I really feel like it's important to do as much as I can.  Soapbox over.  Lola is inspired by the nursery rhyme Mary Mary Quite Contrary, and with the help of her mom and dad, plants a flower garden, waits for it to grow, and then hosts a party for her little friends.  Simple, sweet, solid logical realistic activities.


If You Plant a Seed
Kadir Nelson
ISBN: 9780062298898
Previously reviewed here.

It worked out very well for storytime!  The little ones loved the bright active vibrant paintings, and the older kids were very intent on the story slowly unfolding with the turns of the pages.  I was very satisfied.

Tuesday Storytime: Summer Reading Program: Heroes!

We're in June, and the Summer Reading Program has started (even if the programs for older kids don't start until after school lets out on the 16th).  I'm starting the local Heroes themes early for my Storytime kids, because if I'm going to be doing Storytime anyway, I might as well have it be themed for the summer.  :)

Without further ado, Heroes!

Superworm
Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Scheffler
ISBN: 9780545591768
Silly rhymes and sillier illustrations, with a Wizard Lizard and a community of creeping creatures.

Superworm helps out his friends in lots of ways - he's long and stretchy and imaginative.  Sadly, his do-gooding draws the attention of the grasping Wizard Lizard and his hench-crow, who put him to hard labor digging "treasures" from the dirt.  Sadly, no treasures are forthcoming, so Superworm is set to become crowfood, unless his friends can rally and rescue him.  I love that despite the title, most of Superworm's saves are of the mundane and silly variety, while the un-super friends are the ones to make the wild plan and defeat the big bad.  This one is on the list for the big kids later in the summer as well.


Chickens to the Rescue
John Himmelman
ISBN: 9780805079517
SC Picture Book Award for 2008-2009 school year.  Saturday-morning-newspaper comic style.

LOVE this book and the rescue chickens.  It's so deadpan and perfect, and the illustrations are just wild.  It's like the less talkative version of The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate The Wash in that really all I have to do is show the page and everyone gets what's going on instantly.  Lots of laughs from kids and adults.  On my permanent favorites list, and it's fun to have the chickens recognized as heroes.


Fireman Small
Wong Herbert Yee
ISBN: 0395689872
Colorblocks and smudged edges work with repetitive rhymes to keep the mood light and smooth.

I've used this book for lots of themes, usually firemen or other "community hero" ideas.  It's really sweet, it's an excellent book for the end of storytime, and it's a very sweet and low-key introduction to the concept of firefighters and what they do, and how a kind community treats them.