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
Showing posts with label summer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label summer. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 27, 2019
Thursday, August 15, 2019
Tuesday Storytime: Summer Fun
These were selected by my coworker!
An Island in the Sun
Stella Blackstone, illustrated by Nicoletta Ceccoli
A "House that Jack built" narrative structure, and a lovely rhyming flow make this sweet but fairly empty story move along quickly, held largely together by the utterly beautiful illustrations of sun and wind and water and islands in a tropical imagination of a world. Beautiful but slight.
North, South, East, West
Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Greg Pizzoli
An unpublished little gem from Margaret Wise Brown has a little bird fluttering off into different climates as she flies in each cardinal direction to discover where she most wants to be - finally (seemingly) returning home to settle and raise a family who end the story by taking wing in all different directions just like their mother.
Leo Can Swim
Anna McQuinn, illustrated by Ruth Hearson
Leo is Lola's little brother, a Black British child who has family-and-child-centered real-life adventures with his family and father, much as Lola does in her books. In this story, Leo and his dad go to a swim class at a local pool, and encounter locker rooms, swimming gear, a swimming lesson, and a nice rest after class. Perfect little books for explaining life experiences for kids about to start on them personally, or for kids who may never have that experience to learn about them in a realistic way.
An Island in the Sun
Stella Blackstone, illustrated by Nicoletta Ceccoli
A "House that Jack built" narrative structure, and a lovely rhyming flow make this sweet but fairly empty story move along quickly, held largely together by the utterly beautiful illustrations of sun and wind and water and islands in a tropical imagination of a world. Beautiful but slight.
North, South, East, West
Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Greg Pizzoli
An unpublished little gem from Margaret Wise Brown has a little bird fluttering off into different climates as she flies in each cardinal direction to discover where she most wants to be - finally (seemingly) returning home to settle and raise a family who end the story by taking wing in all different directions just like their mother.
Leo Can Swim
Anna McQuinn, illustrated by Ruth Hearson
Leo is Lola's little brother, a Black British child who has family-and-child-centered real-life adventures with his family and father, much as Lola does in her books. In this story, Leo and his dad go to a swim class at a local pool, and encounter locker rooms, swimming gear, a swimming lesson, and a nice rest after class. Perfect little books for explaining life experiences for kids about to start on them personally, or for kids who may never have that experience to learn about them in a realistic way.
Monday, August 14, 2017
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.
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.
Thursday, March 9, 2017
Tuesday Storytime: Beach Day
It's been so bloody warm lately that I just felt like I had to.
Surf's Up
Kwame Alexander, illustrated by Daniel Miyares
ISBN: 9780735842205
Orange and Green frog are headed to the beach, but distracted by the tale of Moby Dick. A celebratory look at reading and of the beach.
Beach Baby
Laurie Elmquist, illustrated by Elly MacKay
ISBN: 9781459809543 (board book format)
Sweet, soft, gentle, soothing. Spreads of gentle beach scenes paired with comforting assurances that baby won't miss anything while asleep. A bit on the quiet side for my group today.
Beach Day!
Patricia Lakin, illustrated by Scott Nash
ISBN: 0803728948
Repetitive and simplistic (large) type indicate it's mostly for beginning readers, but past the repetition, Sam and Pam, Will and Jill have a lovely full day trying (and mostly failing) to get to the beach.
Surf's Up
Kwame Alexander, illustrated by Daniel Miyares
ISBN: 9780735842205
Orange and Green frog are headed to the beach, but distracted by the tale of Moby Dick. A celebratory look at reading and of the beach.
Beach Baby
Laurie Elmquist, illustrated by Elly MacKay
ISBN: 9781459809543 (board book format)
Sweet, soft, gentle, soothing. Spreads of gentle beach scenes paired with comforting assurances that baby won't miss anything while asleep. A bit on the quiet side for my group today.
Beach Day!
Patricia Lakin, illustrated by Scott Nash
ISBN: 0803728948
Repetitive and simplistic (large) type indicate it's mostly for beginning readers, but past the repetition, Sam and Pam, Will and Jill have a lovely full day trying (and mostly failing) to get to the beach.
Tuesday, August 9, 2016
Tuesday Storytime: Splashy Summer
I have such fun picking out themes for storytimes.
All-Weather Friends
Udo Weigelt, illustrated by Nicolas D' Aujourd'hui
ISBN: 0735810486 (library)
A German wives' tale gets Moss the frog into weather forecasting trouble, before a new friend sets him straight.
Moss is flustered when his friend Hedgehog demands that he forecast the weather, and in his panic, he makes up stories. None of his forecasts come true (this book has the record for the weirdest-weather day ever!) and in despair, after ruining his friends' plans for the day, he sets off for the weather frog in the human house to learn forecasting. What he learns instead, is how to be a friend, and how to be truthful, even when people are very demanding.
Down by the Cool of the Pool
Tony Mitton, illustrated by Guy Parker-Rees
ISBN: 0439309158
A lively barnyard song-and-dance sparked by the frog at the farm pond.
This one is quick and lively and super-fast-paced, and the illustrations are likewise loose and bright and vibrant and full of action. The text is incorporated into the illustrations, which makes a couple of pages a bit hard to process in front of an audience, but the words and the escalation of the rhyme is fairly predictable. I do find the ending a bit abrupt, but otherwise it's a bright fun read.
Water in the Park: a book about water and the times of the day
Emily Jenkins, illustrated by Stephanie Graegin
ISBN: 9780375970023
A city park, with pond, playground, sprinklers, and grassy field, sees a full day of visitors.
This is an interesting premise, and it feels just a little bit forced, to be totally honest, but the close focus on individuals (from a child's perspective - so we have the names of children and dogs, but not of any adults) and on the ebb and flow of visitors to the park saves it from being tedious. We start at 6 am, with a quiet park, where turtles enjoy the first rays of sunlight on the rocks. Through the day, various people and animals enjoy the park and interact with water in lots of different ways, from dogs splashing in the pond to kids schlepping water in buckets over to the sandboxes, to babies playing in the sprinklers, to birds bathing in the puddles left over from the workers watering the flowers, until nighttime, when the last dogs finish their walks and a torrential storm soaks everything.
All-Weather Friends
Udo Weigelt, illustrated by Nicolas D' Aujourd'hui
ISBN: 0735810486 (library)
A German wives' tale gets Moss the frog into weather forecasting trouble, before a new friend sets him straight.
Moss is flustered when his friend Hedgehog demands that he forecast the weather, and in his panic, he makes up stories. None of his forecasts come true (this book has the record for the weirdest-weather day ever!) and in despair, after ruining his friends' plans for the day, he sets off for the weather frog in the human house to learn forecasting. What he learns instead, is how to be a friend, and how to be truthful, even when people are very demanding.
Down by the Cool of the Pool
Tony Mitton, illustrated by Guy Parker-Rees
ISBN: 0439309158
A lively barnyard song-and-dance sparked by the frog at the farm pond.
This one is quick and lively and super-fast-paced, and the illustrations are likewise loose and bright and vibrant and full of action. The text is incorporated into the illustrations, which makes a couple of pages a bit hard to process in front of an audience, but the words and the escalation of the rhyme is fairly predictable. I do find the ending a bit abrupt, but otherwise it's a bright fun read.
Water in the Park: a book about water and the times of the day
Emily Jenkins, illustrated by Stephanie Graegin
ISBN: 9780375970023
A city park, with pond, playground, sprinklers, and grassy field, sees a full day of visitors.
This is an interesting premise, and it feels just a little bit forced, to be totally honest, but the close focus on individuals (from a child's perspective - so we have the names of children and dogs, but not of any adults) and on the ebb and flow of visitors to the park saves it from being tedious. We start at 6 am, with a quiet park, where turtles enjoy the first rays of sunlight on the rocks. Through the day, various people and animals enjoy the park and interact with water in lots of different ways, from dogs splashing in the pond to kids schlepping water in buckets over to the sandboxes, to babies playing in the sprinklers, to birds bathing in the puddles left over from the workers watering the flowers, until nighttime, when the last dogs finish their walks and a torrential storm soaks everything.
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
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.
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.
Thursday, June 2, 2016
Tuesday Storytime: Beach Reads
I was off on vacation this past week, so I had a fellow librarian give my storytime, and I treated everyone to a collection of "beach reads" so they'd all be properly jealous of me. :)
The Twelve Days of Summer
Elizabeth Lee O'Donnell, illustrated by Karen Lee Schmidt
ISBN: 0688082025
Cartoonish illustrations with vibrant colors and careful plotting to get the numbers all counted in.
Our protagonist character is a cute little girl visiting the beach with her family, and she counts up from "a little purple sea anemone" along with the tune from The Twelve Days of Christmas. The rhymes are cute, the meter is solid, and the illustrations are adorable. An excellent silly summer read.
An Island in the Sun
Stella Blackstone, Nicoletta Ceccoli
ISBN: 1841481939
Dreamy fanciful illustrations (think Kinuko-Craft-light) are the star of an "I spy" building rhyme.
Another co-opted rhyme sequence, this one based on the old "I spy with my little eye" format mixed with the "the house that Jack built" cumulative concept. Despite the cumulative nature, this one is still easily short enough to be the middle book, and to flow quickly and nicely with few tongue-twisters or trip-up meters.
Three By the Sea
Mini Grey
ISBN: 9780375867842
Mini Grey's trademark faux-collage and quirky cartoon detailing.
The "three" of the title are a dog, cat, and mouse, who all live together in a shack by the sea, and have worked out an arrangement of chores and labor that all are happy with - until a slick foxy salesman stops by and insidiously manages to get everyone thinking they do more work, and their housemates are slackers or incompetent. After a heated argument, things get sorted out (mainly through the ejection of the slick fox) and while things do change, they do so organically, and with goodwill and mutual appreciation. I'm tempted to give this book to college students in shared housing.
Just one more regular storytime before our official start of Summer Reading Themes - it was a patchwork mess this year, making it difficult for me to find any extra titles to start at the top of June like I usually try to do. Oh well - gives me a chance to use some of the beach/summer titles that I rarely get to showcase.
The Twelve Days of Summer
Elizabeth Lee O'Donnell, illustrated by Karen Lee Schmidt
ISBN: 0688082025
Cartoonish illustrations with vibrant colors and careful plotting to get the numbers all counted in.
Our protagonist character is a cute little girl visiting the beach with her family, and she counts up from "a little purple sea anemone" along with the tune from The Twelve Days of Christmas. The rhymes are cute, the meter is solid, and the illustrations are adorable. An excellent silly summer read.
An Island in the Sun
Stella Blackstone, Nicoletta Ceccoli
ISBN: 1841481939
Dreamy fanciful illustrations (think Kinuko-Craft-light) are the star of an "I spy" building rhyme.
Another co-opted rhyme sequence, this one based on the old "I spy with my little eye" format mixed with the "the house that Jack built" cumulative concept. Despite the cumulative nature, this one is still easily short enough to be the middle book, and to flow quickly and nicely with few tongue-twisters or trip-up meters.
Three By the Sea
Mini Grey
ISBN: 9780375867842
Mini Grey's trademark faux-collage and quirky cartoon detailing.
The "three" of the title are a dog, cat, and mouse, who all live together in a shack by the sea, and have worked out an arrangement of chores and labor that all are happy with - until a slick foxy salesman stops by and insidiously manages to get everyone thinking they do more work, and their housemates are slackers or incompetent. After a heated argument, things get sorted out (mainly through the ejection of the slick fox) and while things do change, they do so organically, and with goodwill and mutual appreciation. I'm tempted to give this book to college students in shared housing.
Just one more regular storytime before our official start of Summer Reading Themes - it was a patchwork mess this year, making it difficult for me to find any extra titles to start at the top of June like I usually try to do. Oh well - gives me a chance to use some of the beach/summer titles that I rarely get to showcase.
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