Tuesday Storytime: Christmas

It's our last storytime before Christmas, and our last of 2015, so I picked a lovely trio to end us on.  We'll start up in January with lots of books about snow, and hope that Mother Nature gets the hint.

Snowmen at Christmas
Caralyn Buehner, illustrated by Mark Buehner
ISBN: 0803729952
Luminous but cheerful and lighthearted spread paintings of animated snowpeople all festive.

This is actually a sequel to Snowmen at Night, but I like this one better as a Christmas story.  That said, I do have, and might read Snowmen at Night in the next couple of months with all the snowy themes.  This one is nice for Christmas for several reasons:
1) rhyming text means I can get through a slightly more substantial story in much better time.
2) this is one of the least-Christmassy Christmas books out there (only one veiled religious reference)
3) snowman party.


A Short History of Christmas
Sally Lee (consulting editor: Gail Saunders-Smith)
ISBN: 9781491460955
Very primary-grade juvenile nonfiction explaining the historic basis for Christmas traditions.

Really loving this series, and very happy to see them on the shelves.  This one is just as factual as Thanksgiving, and very straightforward, starting with the December festival of Saturnalia, the birth of Jesus, choosing of December 25th by church leaders, Saint Nicholas into Santa Claus, the tradition of caroling, Queen Victoria's German Christmas tree, and modern traditions of charity.  Not bad for just under 250 words total.  I just really wish there were similar books for the less-recognized holidays of the season: Hanukkah, Eid, and Solstice.


Bear Stays Up for Christmas
Karma Wilson, Jane Chapman
ISBN: 0689852789
Bear and Friends series, Bear's friends help him stay awake for Christmas Eve and Morning.

I adore this Christmas book.  It's so sweet and perfect and has just about everything you'd want out of a Christmas book - including the difficulties that children have staying awake for the fun!  Bear is the perfect sleepy focus, and all his friends are genuinely helpful and caring.  This entire series is beautiful, but this one is perfect for Christmas in a way that is deeply satisfying.  I personally would have been fine without an appearance by Santa as well, but that's not a battle I feel motivated about - it's just a slight preference.

Tuesday Storytime: Sharing

These books are all delightful, and I'm glad I had the chance to put them all together.

Mail Harry to the Moon!

Robie H. Harris, illustrated by Michael Emberley

ISBN: 9780316153768

Very expressive faces and cartoony panel/vignette sequences.

Before Harry, there was Just Me.  Now there's Harry, who eats off my banana, who messes with my things, steals grandma's lap, and screams all night.  Our poor nameless narrator is very frustrated, but has a series of great ideas to solve the problem: throw Harry in the trash, stuff him down the toilet, stick him in the zoo, Mail Harry to the Moon!  Until he wakes up the next morning and doesn't see or hear or smell anything from the little guy.  What is there to do but journey to the moon to enact a rescue, and maybe discover that Harry's good for something after all.

On Mother's Lap

Ann Herbert Scott, illustrated by Glo Coalson (original sepia-tone edition)
ISBN: 0070558973 (?)  Published 1972, McGraw-Hill

Serene drawings of an Inuit family share a wise message about mother love.

 Michael is happy sitting and rocking with Mother, but he doesn't want his friends left out of the love, so first Dolly, then Boat, then Puppy, all end up snuggling under a reindeer blanket on the rocking chair with Mother.  But when Baby starts to cry, Michael is adamant that there is just not enough room.  (the facial expressions are priceless here) Mother disagrees, and gently shows that there is always room for everyone on Mother's lap.  Classic for a good reason.

Share

Sally Anne Garland

ISBN: 9781771470056

Sketchy-drawn bunny children in colorful evocative backgrounds.

Bunny's cousin is visiting, and he's not quite as old as she is.  Her mother pleads with her repeatedly to understand and to share, while she tries a variety of activities that the little one spoils accidentally.  Mother explains that he is copying and following and pestering because he wants to be just like her, and commiserates that it's difficult to handle little ones.  The ending is a little confusing, as Aunty retrieves the cousin with the wording "now it's his turn to share" - but he doesn't share anything? just gives her a hug and a thank you, which is nice, but not exactly sharing as a child understands it.  Regardless, still very nice and illustrative for the sometimes strained relationship between siblings or friends of slightly different ages.  

Tuesday Storytime: Winter is Coming

Some lovely nature books for the onset of winter, at the start of December.  Wanted to counteract all of the rampant Christmassing going on everywhere.

Winter is Coming

Tony Johnston, illustrated by Jim LaMarche

ISBN: 9781442472518

Reviewed here, read only exerpts for storytime due to extremely young attendees.

Such a beautiful book.  I trimmed it waaaay down so I could use it with this group - cut 6 spreads completely out.  Because it's sequential, it didn't detract from the narrative flow, just tightened the focus a good bit and moved it along a lot faster so our under-4 year olds didn't get terminal wiggles.  It's still one of the most beautiful books I've seen, but the language isn't as poetic or flowing as the illustrations (and the type is very small), which makes it a bit challenging to read aloud.

Moon Glowing

Elizabeth Partridge, illustrated by Joan Paley

ISBN: 0525468730

Blocky painterly collage elements and a lovely wintry color palette.

I've used this fall/hibernation book a few times in past storytimes, but not recently, and it goes very well with my natural progression of the winter concept here.  We follow three animals; squirrel, bat, and bear, as they prepare over the fall for the onset of winter.  The text is large and highly contrasted to the pages, the images are clear and stylized with crisp colors and sharp minimalist patterns and textures.  The tight focus on the three animals means that the book is super short, but still hits clearly on the natural world's focus in late fall; storing food, preparing shelter, sleeping.  Pretty and much more accessible to a younger crowd, not least because of the much more appropriate length and minimal text.

In November

Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Jill Kastner

ISBN: 0152010769

One day late with this one.  Much like the other two, but with a short coda about Thanksgiving.

This book somehow manages to be super-factual, but impressively lyrical.  While I have no problems at all with Kastner's beautiful illustrations (the contrast between the clear-as-a-bell framing and composition with the muddled and mottled colors and blurry edges of the actual paintings is stunning to look at) I have to contrast this lovely language with that in Winter is Coming, and see how much more apt and flowing it is, and it makes me wish that Rylant would write something natural and poignant for LaMarche to illustrate.  It would probably make me cry. 

Tuesday Storytime: Thanksgiving

A couple of old standards, and a new nonfiction Thanksgiving book.


A Short History of Thanksgiving
Sally Lee, consulting editor Gail Saunders-Smith
ISBN: 9781491460979
Nonfiction, primary-source images and photography.

This is a delightful short (very short) intro to the concept of Thanksgiving.  Just right for this pre-school age group of mine, and I'm very glad to have it in the system.  I'll have to check out the other holiday books in this series as well if they're all done as well as this one was.



Thanksgiving Cats
Jean Marzollo, illustrated by Hans Wilhelm
ISBN: 0590037145
Previously reviewed here


Thanks for Thanksgiving
Julie Markes, illustrated by Doris Barrette
ISBN: 9780060510961
Previously reviewed here

Tuesday Storytime: Bedtime Storytime

It's been a while since I've done one of these.

One Ted Falls Out of Bed
Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Anna Currey
ISBN: 0805077871
Counts from one to ten, and back down again through nighttime adventures of a teddy bear.

Our poor Ted gets dumped from the bed, and the sleeping child is all unaware, so the toys in the bedroom conspire to console him, then to try and get him back into bed.  Adorable, and the counting is a very cute way to organize the story.


Small Elephant's Bathtime
Tatyana Feeney
ISBN: 9780553497212
Pen and ink and a few bright splotches of color illustrate Small Elephant's shenanigans.

Our Small Elephant doesn't want to take a bath, and nothing Mommy does (toys, bubbles, pleading) is making any difference.  Perhaps getting Daddy involved will help matters?  Very cute and short, and love the response from the storytime mamas when the book invoked the Daddy card.



Ten, Nine, Eight
Molly Bang
ISBN: 0688009069
Short and sweet countdown of bedtime with an adorable black father and daughter.

I love this book because it's so sweet and perfect and timeless and universal, and it doesn't have white people as the default.  We count down sweet simple calming bedroom things, with a few quiet jokes: "7 empty shoes in a short straight row" (which of course means one is missing, as it always is) and "4 sleepy eyes which open and close" (meaning Daddy is tired also).  Very sweet, very calming.  A great ending point.


Lots of babies and lots of new storytime toddlers these past few weeks, so I've been purposefully working with shorter and more narratively-simple books to help them feel successful at sitting and listening.  There's nothing worse than having a really fun long book, but trying to present it to a young audience that's just so done with concentrating and books already.

Don't make things hard on yourself - there's always time later to move on to the complicated or longer books.  Focus on each storytime as its own singular interaction, and do your best to make it the best it can be for the majority of the attendee children, and you'll come out on top most of the time.  

Tuesday Storytime: Problem Friends

Making friends isn't easy, and there are often some setbacks and roadblocks along the way.

Too Many Frogs!
Sandy Asher, illustrated by Keith Graves
ISBN: 0399239782
Quirky characters here, in a story about imposing on other people, and getting permission.

Rabbit has a lovely neat orderly life all alone.  He has his routines, and no mess and no fuss.  Until Frog stops by one evening and sort of invites himself in to listen to Rabbit's goodnight story.  Night after night, Frog keeps making himself more comfortable, to Rabbit's growing (but unspoken) chagrin.  The final straw comes when Frog shows up with his whole extended family, and Rabbit finally speaks up.  The ending of the story is not as solid as it could have been, with some unfortunate choices and implications, but the message of clearly asking permission and not taking advantage is still present.


You Will Be My Friend!
Peter Brown
ISBN: 9780316070300
Lucy the bear sets out into the forest to MAKE some critter into her friend.

Lucy is enthusiastic about her new mission: to make a friend.  Enthusiasm isn't everything, and Lucy runs into some pretty extreme setbacks.  She even gets a little bossy and snappy at one point, before collapsing in exhausted defeat.  Still, friendships can come looking for you, even when you can't make one happen on demand.


Don't Copy Me!
Jonathan Allen
ISBN: 9781907967207
Little Puffin does NOT like this game.

Little Puffin is taking advantage of the lovely weather to go for a walk, but he's being followed and copied by the little Gull siblings, and he is not a fan of this game.  Nothing he can think of to do makes them stop copying him; "How annoying!"  Still, he keeps trying, and eventually hits on a strategy that works out.  This one is also very useful for kids having troubles with much younger siblings or siblings of playmates.  

Tuesday Storytime: Fall Weather

We've had yet another weekend of miserable wet weather here, and although I know we need the rain, the combination of dreary drizzly dark days with the sudden arrival of Daylight Savings Time has made me acutely aware that we're solidly into fall.

Fall Leaves
Loretta Holland, illustrated by Elly MacKay
ISBN: 9780544106642
Beautiful (if wordy) nonfiction about the progression of the season via natural environment changes.

This was a bit of a gamble - it's nonfiction and the content text is very small (so hard for a storyteller to read) and very dense (I admit freely that I did a lot of skipping and eliding of content) - but the illustrations are so beautiful, and the clear and grounded progression of the season was so lovely and so delightful in it's dedication to being totally grounded in science and observable natural phenomenon, that I just felt like I had to.  I really like presenting nonfiction whenever I can, because I feel like it gets unfairly ignored by parents who are intimidated by the nonfiction stacks.  That's a real shame, because even very little kids can enjoy a lot of nonfiction content, and there is a lot of that content being created for even the youngest audiences.  Anyway, it's absolutely stunningly beautiful to look at, and the book itself is a delight.  I think it would be a lot better as a one-on-one lapsit book.

 
When Autumn Falls
Kelli Nidey, illustrated by Susan Swan
ISBN: 0807504912
Dimensional collage illustrations with minimal text emphasizing the "fall" in the season.

This is a cute little read, and it's a staple this time of year because it is so short and cute.  We set off through an idealized small town in fall with short direct text: "Leaves on the trees fall..."  "The temperature falls..."  "Ripe apples" and "football players" also.  We learn that "sunlight falls through the almost-bare trees" and "days fall shorter" as we end the day and the book with "We call it fall."


Leaf Man
Lois Ehlert
ISBN: 0152053042
Ehlert's signature bold colors and outlines are interpreted here through collages of fall leaves.

A lyrical story of fall told through the creation of a Leaf Man who blows away in the wind and the reader is asked to imagine where he goes and what he sees on his autumn journey.  The journey imagines gardens and crops, farm animals and flying geese, migrating butterflies and swarming fish in rivers, but all of the illustrations are created entirely through images of various leaves.  It is beautiful and somewhat haunting.  The Leaf Man himself is re-created at the end with a prompt to find your own real Leaf Man out in nature.