I love concept books. They're so much fun when they take simple ideas like shapes and colors and run with them to fun places like relationships or rivalries or even a story about outwitting a cat. These three have been sitting for a while waiting for a good time, and right before summer reading wildness is as good a time as any.
Blue VS Yellow
Tom Sullivan
ISBN: 9780062452955
Two sort of scribbly balls of bright color vie over who is the best: blue claims the sky, the blue whale, popsicles, and big blue trucks, while yellow gets the sun, the cheetah, lemonade, and fast yellow sports cars. Some (very minor color related) slurs are thrown, things get heated, and they end up in a blur of green! All is well until now red wades in, remarking that Obviously, everyone knows that red is best.
Perfect Square
Michael Hall
ISBN: 9780061915130
A square starts off - it's happy with it's solid squareness, solid sides, equal edges, sharp balanced corners. But then every day of the week something dramatic happens and Square has to figure out what to do with its new - very much not square - self. First it's hole-punched and sliced to bits! Then it's shredded, then reduced to ribbons, then crumpled and wrinkled all up... By the end of the week, Square is looking forward to whatever weird thing is going to happen... but nothing does. So Square creates a window that shows all the magnificent things it's been able to create from itself. Psychologically, it's a little bit iffy, but it's very pretty and it's a good surface story about being creative and "thinking outside the box" so I try very hard to not overthink it.
Mouse Shapes
Ellen Stoll Walsh
ISBN: 9780152060916
Our mouse friends from Mouse Paint and Mouse Count are back, and this time they're hiding in a pile of blocks (or perhaps paper cut-outs, it's never quite clear) from the cat. While they wait for the coast to clear, they use the shapes to make all sorts of fun things, and eventually they even hit on a solution to scare away the cat!
Tuesday, May 21, 2019
Monday, May 20, 2019
Tuesday Storytime: Love
It doesn't have to be Valentine's Day to do a storytime about love, right? These were picked out by my coworker.
You Are My Happy
Hoda Kotb, illustrated by Suzie Mason
ISBN: 9780062887894
A mama bear and her cub nestle down for the night and recite a list of the day's activities that made them happy, all of them centered around exploring and being together, and ending with the title phrase. A litttle on the cutesy side for me, but the artwork elevates it immensely.
Poor Louie
Tony Fucile
ISBN: 9780763658281
Louie has the best life a chihuahua can have; dinner at the table, movies with mom and dad, long walks, shopping, he has it all. Until things start getting strange. He has to eat on the floor now?! And the cute clothes are all being packed up... ? And Mom's lap keeps getting smaller and smaller. And everyone keeps saying "Pooooor Louie" in this very sad and concerned tone of voice, but sometimes laughing a little. What gives? But baby fever conquers all (as it always seems to) and Louie comes out ok in the end, even if he DOES have to share the stroller with his human baby brother now.
Love Monster and the last chocolate
Rachel Bright
ISBN: 9780374346904
Love Monster loves his friends, but he also loves chocolate. And when you have friends AND chocolate, it's very hard to figure out what is the right thing to do. So when he gets back from his vacation to find a box of chocolates, he's all in a tizzy. Without even opening the box (this is important) he starts pondering the possibilities. A good friend shares, but should he maybe open it first and eat one or two of the ones that he really really really likes FIRST? Or is that not quite friendly? What if his friends can ONLY eat those kinds? OR what if his friends eat ALL of them up and don't realize that he never got one to eat himself? What if there's only ONE in there that he likes and someone ELSE eats it and then there's a whole bunch that he doesn't even like? He gets all flustered, but then he runs out of the house to his friends playing on the hill and explains everything all in a rush, and they just laugh and tell him to open the box - there's only one in there, and they had saved it just for him.
(it's cuter and takes less time to explain in the book, I swear)
You Are My Happy
Hoda Kotb, illustrated by Suzie Mason
ISBN: 9780062887894
A mama bear and her cub nestle down for the night and recite a list of the day's activities that made them happy, all of them centered around exploring and being together, and ending with the title phrase. A litttle on the cutesy side for me, but the artwork elevates it immensely.
Poor Louie
Tony Fucile
ISBN: 9780763658281
Louie has the best life a chihuahua can have; dinner at the table, movies with mom and dad, long walks, shopping, he has it all. Until things start getting strange. He has to eat on the floor now?! And the cute clothes are all being packed up... ? And Mom's lap keeps getting smaller and smaller. And everyone keeps saying "Pooooor Louie" in this very sad and concerned tone of voice, but sometimes laughing a little. What gives? But baby fever conquers all (as it always seems to) and Louie comes out ok in the end, even if he DOES have to share the stroller with his human baby brother now.
Love Monster and the last chocolate
Rachel Bright
ISBN: 9780374346904
Love Monster loves his friends, but he also loves chocolate. And when you have friends AND chocolate, it's very hard to figure out what is the right thing to do. So when he gets back from his vacation to find a box of chocolates, he's all in a tizzy. Without even opening the box (this is important) he starts pondering the possibilities. A good friend shares, but should he maybe open it first and eat one or two of the ones that he really really really likes FIRST? Or is that not quite friendly? What if his friends can ONLY eat those kinds? OR what if his friends eat ALL of them up and don't realize that he never got one to eat himself? What if there's only ONE in there that he likes and someone ELSE eats it and then there's a whole bunch that he doesn't even like? He gets all flustered, but then he runs out of the house to his friends playing on the hill and explains everything all in a rush, and they just laugh and tell him to open the box - there's only one in there, and they had saved it just for him.
(it's cuter and takes less time to explain in the book, I swear)
Wednesday, May 8, 2019
Tuesday Storytime: Airplanes and Airports
With school getting out, there's lots of travel on the horizon, and air travel is stressful for lots of adults. Books about the process can help kids understand what's going on, and provide a sense of control and familiarity with the system, even if the adults are still longing for those mini-bottles.
The Airport Book
Lisa Brown
ISBN: 9781626720916
Really detailed comic-strip format (almost reminds me of a Richard Scarry book) follows a family (and a "lost" stuffed Monkey) through the process of getting to, through, and waiting in an airport, then getting onto, into, and settled into a flight, and then back out the other side. VERY detailed, and very darkly humorous about the lines and the waiting and the boredom.
Airport
Byron Barton
ISBN: 0690041691
Same idea as the first book, but much more simple. We also have more impressive clear blocky illustrations of airplanes, cockpits, and radio-control towers in this book, which leaves a more powerful visual impression. This simplified version really streamlines the human-centered portion of the process.
Miss Mouse Takes Off
Jan Ormerod
ISBN: 0688178715
From the perspective of a stuffed mouse lovey, we get the same process one final time. This time we really feel the boredom and time spent in the air, as well as the ample opportunities for things to get lost or mislaid along the way. We also get our first view of an airplane bathroom, which was VERY interesting to the kids. Details were about midway between The Airport Book and Airport, which works well for a final impression.
The Airport Book
Lisa Brown
ISBN: 9781626720916
Really detailed comic-strip format (almost reminds me of a Richard Scarry book) follows a family (and a "lost" stuffed Monkey) through the process of getting to, through, and waiting in an airport, then getting onto, into, and settled into a flight, and then back out the other side. VERY detailed, and very darkly humorous about the lines and the waiting and the boredom.
Airport
Byron Barton
ISBN: 0690041691
Same idea as the first book, but much more simple. We also have more impressive clear blocky illustrations of airplanes, cockpits, and radio-control towers in this book, which leaves a more powerful visual impression. This simplified version really streamlines the human-centered portion of the process.
Miss Mouse Takes Off
Jan Ormerod
ISBN: 0688178715
From the perspective of a stuffed mouse lovey, we get the same process one final time. This time we really feel the boredom and time spent in the air, as well as the ample opportunities for things to get lost or mislaid along the way. We also get our first view of an airplane bathroom, which was VERY interesting to the kids. Details were about midway between The Airport Book and Airport, which works well for a final impression.
Tuesday, May 7, 2019
Tuesday Storytime: Gardening
These three adorable stories were chosen by my coworker.
Dandy
Ame Dyckman, illustrated by Charles Santoso
ISBN: 9780316362955
Adorable. A dedicated lion daddy tries to keep his lawn beautiful in the face of fierce competition and judgement from the other neighborhood daddies, but he's thwarted when his baby daughter finds and adopts the one dandelion in the whole yard. He tries to decapitate it sneakily, but fails until the very last moment, when he (and the neighbor guys, who are also daddies too) realize what's truly important. So adorable and cute.
The Carrot Seed
Ruth Krauss, illustrated by Crockett Johnson
ISBN: 0060233516
A classic for a reason. The value of persistence, of knowing something in your heart, and keeping the faith in the face of everyone telling you to give up. All in a cute little minimalist story about a kid growing a carrot.
Lola Plants a Garden
Anna McQuinn, illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw
ISBN: 9781580896948
I Love the Lola books (and their baby brother set, the Leo books). They're an import from Great Britain, so there's a few small anachronisms, but this lovely Black family is a perfect showcase for lots of great stories about childhood, sibling-hood, and just general life from a kid's perspective. In this installment, Lola and her mom learn about gardens, and head off to the store to try their hands at a garden themselves. Mom plants more responsible things, but Lola is off to the races with lots of fun plants. At the end Lola and mom plan a garden party to introduce Lola's friends to all her new amazing plants.
Dandy
Ame Dyckman, illustrated by Charles Santoso
ISBN: 9780316362955
Adorable. A dedicated lion daddy tries to keep his lawn beautiful in the face of fierce competition and judgement from the other neighborhood daddies, but he's thwarted when his baby daughter finds and adopts the one dandelion in the whole yard. He tries to decapitate it sneakily, but fails until the very last moment, when he (and the neighbor guys, who are also daddies too) realize what's truly important. So adorable and cute.
The Carrot Seed
Ruth Krauss, illustrated by Crockett Johnson
ISBN: 0060233516
A classic for a reason. The value of persistence, of knowing something in your heart, and keeping the faith in the face of everyone telling you to give up. All in a cute little minimalist story about a kid growing a carrot.
Lola Plants a Garden
Anna McQuinn, illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw
ISBN: 9781580896948
I Love the Lola books (and their baby brother set, the Leo books). They're an import from Great Britain, so there's a few small anachronisms, but this lovely Black family is a perfect showcase for lots of great stories about childhood, sibling-hood, and just general life from a kid's perspective. In this installment, Lola and her mom learn about gardens, and head off to the store to try their hands at a garden themselves. Mom plants more responsible things, but Lola is off to the races with lots of fun plants. At the end Lola and mom plan a garden party to introduce Lola's friends to all her new amazing plants.
Thursday, April 25, 2019
Tuesday Storytime: Springtime
Not the most original of themes, but when you have cute books, what are you gonna do?
Finding Spring
Carin Berger
ISBN: 9780062250193
It's time to hibernate and wait for Spring, but little bear is waaay too keyed up for that. As soon as Mother falls asleep, he's off and searching for Spring. He finds something amazing, decides THAT is Spring, tucks some into his coat and heads back to his den for his long nap. When he wakes up, the "spring" in his coat is all melted, but when he heads back to where he found it, he finds spring for real. Lots of fun interactions with busy forest animals, and really cute illustrations.
Our middle "book" is actually a two-fer, with two small boardbooks tucked between the longer reads:
Funny Bunnies (boardbook)
Piggy Toes Press, 2011
ISBN: 9781615245949
Cute little rhymes on succeeding spreads with colorful backgrounds (one of my littlest ones was DETERMINED to announce the colors of all the backgrounds, including - with great pride - "MaGENta." Adorable all the way around.
A Little Book about SPRING (Leo Lionni's Friends series, boardbook)
Leo Lionni and Julie Hamilton
ISBN: 9780525582274
Frederick the mouse and his friends pledge allegiance and undying love to the season in vogue, with colorful backgrounds and springtime activities cutely (and very briefly) described.
Silver Seeds
Paul Paolilli and Dan Brewer, illustrated by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher
ISBN: 0670889415
Because April IS Poetry Month, y'all. This is a sweet little hard to find book that takes the first letters of various spring topics and uses them to create free-form poetry about that subject. So, for short:
Sliding through the window
Underneath the door
Nudging us out to play
makes SUN. Get it? That's pretty much all there is, but the paintings are luminous, and the choices for verse are moving and sweet and powerful. I am not really a poetry person, but I love all of these, and I love that I CAN love them and introduce them to kids with a clear and bright conscience so hopefully they learn to love poetry themselves too.
Finding Spring
Carin Berger
ISBN: 9780062250193
It's time to hibernate and wait for Spring, but little bear is waaay too keyed up for that. As soon as Mother falls asleep, he's off and searching for Spring. He finds something amazing, decides THAT is Spring, tucks some into his coat and heads back to his den for his long nap. When he wakes up, the "spring" in his coat is all melted, but when he heads back to where he found it, he finds spring for real. Lots of fun interactions with busy forest animals, and really cute illustrations.
Our middle "book" is actually a two-fer, with two small boardbooks tucked between the longer reads:
Funny Bunnies (boardbook)
Piggy Toes Press, 2011
ISBN: 9781615245949
Cute little rhymes on succeeding spreads with colorful backgrounds (one of my littlest ones was DETERMINED to announce the colors of all the backgrounds, including - with great pride - "MaGENta." Adorable all the way around.
A Little Book about SPRING (Leo Lionni's Friends series, boardbook)
Leo Lionni and Julie Hamilton
ISBN: 9780525582274
Frederick the mouse and his friends pledge allegiance and undying love to the season in vogue, with colorful backgrounds and springtime activities cutely (and very briefly) described.
Silver Seeds
Paul Paolilli and Dan Brewer, illustrated by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher
ISBN: 0670889415
Because April IS Poetry Month, y'all. This is a sweet little hard to find book that takes the first letters of various spring topics and uses them to create free-form poetry about that subject. So, for short:
Sliding through the window
Underneath the door
Nudging us out to play
makes SUN. Get it? That's pretty much all there is, but the paintings are luminous, and the choices for verse are moving and sweet and powerful. I am not really a poetry person, but I love all of these, and I love that I CAN love them and introduce them to kids with a clear and bright conscience so hopefully they learn to love poetry themselves too.
Monday, April 22, 2019
Tuesday Storytime: Farm Animals
These were selected by my coworker.
Peppa Pig and the Easter Rainbow
No Author Listed
ISBN: 9780763694388
When it rains on the Easter Egg Hunt, things could have been ruined, but Peppa and her friends look to the Easter Rainbow for inspiration and find out that everything's better when it's multicolorful!
The Cow Said Neigh!
Rory Feek, illustrated by Bruno Robert
ISBN: 9781400311712
This building-rhyming story details how wanting to be something you're not can sometimes cause the whole farm to self-destruct. In a fun and zippy way, of course, with everything coming (mostly) all right in the end.
No Sleep for the Sheep!
Karen Beaumont, illustrated by Jackie Urbanovic
ISBN: 9780152049690
Poor sheep in the barn just wants some shut-eye but EVERY OTHER ANIMAL is up, and heading NOISILY to bed in that self-same barn. How on earth is Sheep ever going to get to sleep with all this racket and all these neighbors?
Peppa Pig and the Easter Rainbow
No Author Listed
ISBN: 9780763694388
When it rains on the Easter Egg Hunt, things could have been ruined, but Peppa and her friends look to the Easter Rainbow for inspiration and find out that everything's better when it's multicolorful!
The Cow Said Neigh!
Rory Feek, illustrated by Bruno Robert
ISBN: 9781400311712
This building-rhyming story details how wanting to be something you're not can sometimes cause the whole farm to self-destruct. In a fun and zippy way, of course, with everything coming (mostly) all right in the end.
No Sleep for the Sheep!
Karen Beaumont, illustrated by Jackie Urbanovic
ISBN: 9780152049690
Poor sheep in the barn just wants some shut-eye but EVERY OTHER ANIMAL is up, and heading NOISILY to bed in that self-same barn. How on earth is Sheep ever going to get to sleep with all this racket and all these neighbors?
Tuesday, April 9, 2019
Tuesday Storytime: Candy!
I've wanted to do this storytime for a LOOONG time, ever since we got the book Ganesha's Sweet Tooth, but it's been hard to find a good time. Easter is approaching, and at least in the US, it's become secular enough that I can get away with having a somewhat tangentially related storytime - so candy it is!
Ganesha's Sweet Tooth
Sanjay Patel and Emily Haynes, illustrated by Emily Haynes
ISBN: 9781452103624
A ... creative re-creation of the myth of the writing of the Mahabharata has a child Ganesha breaking his tusk on an interesting ladoo (indian temple sweet) - a jawbreaker! Frustrated by his tooth loss, he tries to throw it into the moon (referencing a different myth) but misses and bonks Vyasa (the legendary/mythic poet) on the head. Vyasa is intrigued by this god-child's tusk, and they strike a deal for Ganesha to write out the poem as Vyasa recites it, as long as he can eat all the candy he wants in the mean-time. Many lots later, the poem is completed, Ganesha is happy with his magical writing tusk, and there's sooooo much candy to eat!
Owen's Marshmallow Chick
Kevin Henkes
ISBN: (board book, no isbn listed, HarperFestival 2002)
I love how sweet and innocent this Easter story is. Baby mouse Owen has a full Easter basket of all sorts of traditional candies, and each one is pronounced his "favorite" as he gobbles them all up one after the other - except for the bright yellow marshmallow chick (it's a peep, but branding issues I'm guessing?) that matches his blanket and looks like a toy. That one gets played with all day (trying not to think about the sugar and sticky fallout of that choice) and put in pride of place with his other treasured toys that night, and dreamed about - and that one is of course, his "favorite."
I pulled Fairy Floss (Ann Ingalls, Migy Blanco, ISBN: 9781499802382in case we had an older crowd (still somewhat unlikely this time of year, but always a possibility) which is a pretty fast-moving but somehow slightly staid stroll through the Chicago World Fair where the delights of electric motors make treats like cotton candy (then known as Fairy Floss (among other amusing names) possible for a mass audience. Cute, but it was just a bit long and just a bit... boring? Which seems really impressive for a book about the World Fair AND cotton candy.
So instead we went with:
Bad Kitty Does NOT Like Candy (Yes I Do)
Nick Bruel
ISBN: 9781626722309
I try to not use a lot of "branded" characters (Elena/Doc McStuffins, Bad Kitty, Caillou (mostly because Caillou makes me feel homicidal) because I want to encourage kids to realize there's lots of books out there that don't have anything to do with the TV (or whatever streaming device they're watching their shows on now) - but every once in a while there's a cute enough book (or a hard enough theme) that makes me step into the branded world for a bit. This one did it for me - Bad Kitty is hungry, but not realllly hungry - she just wants candy because it looks so tasty and sweet and fun. Of course candy is bad for cats, but she eventually snags some (because bad kitty) and has to get her teeth brushed to clear out all the candy that has stuck her mouth closed. Now kitty IS hungry, and is perfectly happy with fish, because now she knows that she does NOT like candy after all.
Ganesha's Sweet Tooth
Sanjay Patel and Emily Haynes, illustrated by Emily Haynes
ISBN: 9781452103624
A ... creative re-creation of the myth of the writing of the Mahabharata has a child Ganesha breaking his tusk on an interesting ladoo (indian temple sweet) - a jawbreaker! Frustrated by his tooth loss, he tries to throw it into the moon (referencing a different myth) but misses and bonks Vyasa (the legendary/mythic poet) on the head. Vyasa is intrigued by this god-child's tusk, and they strike a deal for Ganesha to write out the poem as Vyasa recites it, as long as he can eat all the candy he wants in the mean-time. Many lots later, the poem is completed, Ganesha is happy with his magical writing tusk, and there's sooooo much candy to eat!
Owen's Marshmallow Chick
Kevin Henkes
ISBN: (board book, no isbn listed, HarperFestival 2002)
I love how sweet and innocent this Easter story is. Baby mouse Owen has a full Easter basket of all sorts of traditional candies, and each one is pronounced his "favorite" as he gobbles them all up one after the other - except for the bright yellow marshmallow chick (it's a peep, but branding issues I'm guessing?) that matches his blanket and looks like a toy. That one gets played with all day (trying not to think about the sugar and sticky fallout of that choice) and put in pride of place with his other treasured toys that night, and dreamed about - and that one is of course, his "favorite."
I pulled Fairy Floss (Ann Ingalls, Migy Blanco, ISBN: 9781499802382in case we had an older crowd (still somewhat unlikely this time of year, but always a possibility) which is a pretty fast-moving but somehow slightly staid stroll through the Chicago World Fair where the delights of electric motors make treats like cotton candy (then known as Fairy Floss (among other amusing names) possible for a mass audience. Cute, but it was just a bit long and just a bit... boring? Which seems really impressive for a book about the World Fair AND cotton candy.
So instead we went with:
Bad Kitty Does NOT Like Candy (Yes I Do)
Nick Bruel
ISBN: 9781626722309
I try to not use a lot of "branded" characters (Elena/Doc McStuffins, Bad Kitty, Caillou (mostly because Caillou makes me feel homicidal) because I want to encourage kids to realize there's lots of books out there that don't have anything to do with the TV (or whatever streaming device they're watching their shows on now) - but every once in a while there's a cute enough book (or a hard enough theme) that makes me step into the branded world for a bit. This one did it for me - Bad Kitty is hungry, but not realllly hungry - she just wants candy because it looks so tasty and sweet and fun. Of course candy is bad for cats, but she eventually snags some (because bad kitty) and has to get her teeth brushed to clear out all the candy that has stuck her mouth closed. Now kitty IS hungry, and is perfectly happy with fish, because now she knows that she does NOT like candy after all.
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