We did a bit of an experiment today with a VERY LONG but excellent book about how robins grow and develop, so we used that book as our first TWO book sessions, with a song at a good stopping place, and then read one final short book at the end. It worked ok, the kids are a bit young for this, and we had some talkers, but such is life.
Robins! How They Grow Up
Eileen Christelow
ISBN: 9780544442894
Really Really Really Really long and wordy. There was a lot of paraphrasing and eliding. However, there are ALSO two sections where an egg is stolen and eaten by a squirrel, and a fledgling is stooped on and carried off by a hawk, and I did NOT skip those sections. They were written matter-of-factly, and so I just carried on. I think one mommy was a bit scandalized, but kids don't care and they just want to know how things work. Very informational, good illustrations, SOOOOO wordy.
I'm a Duck
Eve Bunting
Will Hillenbrand
ISBN: 9780763680329
Really cute rhyming couplets show off this water-phobic duck, and how he used his friends and his smarts to develop skills and confidence to eventually go swimming with his family. Cute, sweet, and OH SO SHORT.
Showing posts with label birds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label birds. Show all posts
Thursday, April 4, 2019
Tuesday, March 13, 2018
Tuesday Storytime: To The Birds
Birds of a feather flock together - or sometimes not. This storytime was selected by my coworker, and the books are super cute.
Wow! Said the Owl
Tim Hopgood
ISBN: 9780230701045
Flight School
Lita Judge
ISBN: 9781442481770
Goose Goes to School
Laura Wall
ISBN: 9780062324375
Wow! Said the Owl
Tim Hopgood
ISBN: 9780230701045
Flight School
Lita Judge
ISBN: 9781442481770
Goose Goes to School
Laura Wall
ISBN: 9780062324375
Monday, May 18, 2015
Juv Nonfiction: An Egg is Quiet, Dianna Aston & Sylvia Long
And guess what got returned to the library today?
An Egg is Quiet
Dianna Aston, illustrated by Sylvia Long
ISBN: 9780811844284
Beautiful and evocative biology/naturalist illustrations and descriptions.
I was very excited about A Nest is Noisy, and mentioned this earlier book in the review, so when this one came back across the counter, I decided to go ahead and talk a bit about this one also. The two go together so very well, I think.
The doubled end-papers are here also, with a mottled-egg-spotchy outer endpapers, and a collection of all the eggs on the front inner set - eggs that I must note included sea animals, insects, and reptiles. What I find lovely about this is that the BACK inner set of end-papers don't have the eggs. What do you think they have instead? :)
This earlier book has much less text to it - the flowing script guides us simply and succinctly through varied colors and shapes of eggs, before finally getting a bit more meaty with the camouflage, and then immediately tapering back off again to look at sizes, designs, textures, and fossils. Our last spread gives us an overview of development, looking at a chicken for the birds, a salmon for the fish/reptiles, and a grasshopper for the insect world.
Such a beautiful book.
An Egg is Quiet
Dianna Aston, illustrated by Sylvia Long
ISBN: 9780811844284
Beautiful and evocative biology/naturalist illustrations and descriptions.
I was very excited about A Nest is Noisy, and mentioned this earlier book in the review, so when this one came back across the counter, I decided to go ahead and talk a bit about this one also. The two go together so very well, I think.
The doubled end-papers are here also, with a mottled-egg-spotchy outer endpapers, and a collection of all the eggs on the front inner set - eggs that I must note included sea animals, insects, and reptiles. What I find lovely about this is that the BACK inner set of end-papers don't have the eggs. What do you think they have instead? :)
This earlier book has much less text to it - the flowing script guides us simply and succinctly through varied colors and shapes of eggs, before finally getting a bit more meaty with the camouflage, and then immediately tapering back off again to look at sizes, designs, textures, and fossils. Our last spread gives us an overview of development, looking at a chicken for the birds, a salmon for the fish/reptiles, and a grasshopper for the insect world.
Such a beautiful book.
Thursday, May 14, 2015
New Arrivals: Juv Nonfiction: A Nest Is Noisy, Diana Hutts Aston, Sylvia Long
By the duo that did An Egg is Quiet, which I should also review at some point - it's delightful as well, and goes beautifully with this new one.
A Nest is Noisy
Dianna Hutts Aston, illustrated by Sylvia Long
ISBN: 9781452127132
Double sets of end-papers, y'all! The outer set (the actual physical endpapers) are a beautiful tangle of nest material, and the inner set is a spread of all the types of nests (labeled!) that are featured in the actual book.
Books like this make me despair of becoming a good writer myself eventually, because I find myself without the words to explain how beautiful and delightful this book is. The text is luminous, the examples concrete and quirky. The illustrations are expressive and individualized, but are also representational and specific. The flow of the narrative is often clunky in nonfiction, but here we travel smoothly from types of nest (and the notation that nests don't require birds) through environments and habitats, all with specific paragraph-or-longer descriptions of specific animal nests with pertinent information and quirky factoids, through to the end where the beautiful luminous poetry of the overall narrative flow picks back up and carries us to the very end - a quiet nest nestled into an oak branchlet against a dusky sky.
So beautiful. I just love that there are beautiful creations like this for kids to look at and to learn about and appreciate the wonders around them.
A Nest is Noisy
Dianna Hutts Aston, illustrated by Sylvia Long
ISBN: 9781452127132
Double sets of end-papers, y'all! The outer set (the actual physical endpapers) are a beautiful tangle of nest material, and the inner set is a spread of all the types of nests (labeled!) that are featured in the actual book.
Books like this make me despair of becoming a good writer myself eventually, because I find myself without the words to explain how beautiful and delightful this book is. The text is luminous, the examples concrete and quirky. The illustrations are expressive and individualized, but are also representational and specific. The flow of the narrative is often clunky in nonfiction, but here we travel smoothly from types of nest (and the notation that nests don't require birds) through environments and habitats, all with specific paragraph-or-longer descriptions of specific animal nests with pertinent information and quirky factoids, through to the end where the beautiful luminous poetry of the overall narrative flow picks back up and carries us to the very end - a quiet nest nestled into an oak branchlet against a dusky sky.
So beautiful. I just love that there are beautiful creations like this for kids to look at and to learn about and appreciate the wonders around them.
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