Tuesday Storytime: Builders and Construction

Back to non-thematic storytimes this week.  No holidays, no National Month of whatever, just me and whatever quirky theme my strange mind has dredged up in the last few weeks.  I do love picking out picture books to present to kids.  It's a fun mix of curating content and balancing ages and lengths and art styles and how complex or difficult the wording is... so much to think about.  When I choose badly, and the storytime goes poorly, it's quite frustrating, but when they flow nicely, that half hour is just a delightful flow of narrative and story from me to the families.

Fix-It Duck
Jez Alborough
ISBN: 0060006994
Spunky but accident-prone Duck tries to "fix-it" with problems that are usually his own fault.

It's raining outside, so when a DRIP falls PLOP into Duck's tea, he immediately thinks the roof is leaking.  This is a job for Fix-It Duck!  But he can't reach the roof.  So he goes to borrow Sheep's ladder, and in the process, notices the camper's skylight is broken.  Fix-It Duck is on the case - but he breaks the window.  Now Sheep's house is leaking too!  Fix-It Duck can fix it, by towing Sheep's camper under Goat's shed.  But Fix-It Duck has left tools and nails and broken glass lying around, and Sheep's Jeep gets a flat!  No worries for Fix-It Duck, who offers his own truck - which can't hitch to Sheep's camper.  A creative re-use of the ladder fixes that, until a wild swerve around a curve (because Duck is a bad driver, obvs) spirals the situation beyond even what the optimistic and ever-hopeful Duck can manage to fix.  Poor Sheep.


My Apron
Eric Carle
ISBN: 0399226850
True story from Carle's childhood, where he helped his uncle plaster a building for a day.

Uncle Adam is a plasterer, and he has a snazzy white apron with a pocket, and works on buildings all day, coating them with protective and beautiful white plaster.  The boy Carle gets an apron made by his aunt, and spends the day as a proud and effective helper in this very short and sweet story.


Building a House
Byron Barton
ISBN: 0688842917
Barton's trademark blocky colors and thick outlines are joined by rare humanistic people.

We start with a green hill (that color blocking!) and follow in quick succession the steps of house-building, from digging out the ground, foundation and flooring, walls, rafters, roof, plumbing and wiring, finishing, and painting.  The house is built (and garishly colored) in the end, ready for the final step of building a house: standing ready as a family moves in.  Simple words and clear illustrations, but everything is accurate and straightforward and realistic.

Nonfiction Picture Book: Me and Momma and Big John, by Mara Rockliff & William Low

Me and Momma and Big John
Mara Rockliff, illustrated by William Low
ISBN: 9780763643591
Read February 18, 2015
A fictionalized story of a mother and stonecutter working on St John the Divine in New York in the 1970s.

Truly beautiful story about a part of American history that I didn't know about before.  St John the Divine has never been finished, but for a while in the 1970s and 1980s, a program existed that took master stonemasons from Europe, brought them over to New York, and taught local workers the stonecutting trade.  Among them was a young mother, and this story is from the point of view of her young son, who is both proud of his mother's important work, and worried that she won't have her artistic creation honored like the people in the museum.  He's comforted by the imposing stature of the building, realizing that architecture is created to be used, not set back and admired.

Stunning combination of story and illustrations, but a touch on the slight side.  A beefy author's note at the end gives context and history, and explains that the church is even now unfinished, but is used constantly by many people of many faiths as a community center.