Garden Story Time

This week's story time theme is Gardens.  There are many books, songs, and fingerplays that fit this theme so I thought I'd share some of my favorites.

For the Mother Goose under 2 groups I have planned to read  3 titles.  One Mole Digging a Hole by Julia Donaldson is a simple counting story with colorful illustrations by Nick Sharratt.  Up, Down, and Around by Katherine Ayres is fun as it allows me to have the children and parents participate actively throughout the book by reaching up, patting down on the floor, and moving their hands around on their laps.  For the final story I chose Big Yellow Sunflower by Frances Barry as the pages open petal by petal to form the flower.
In between we had our usual songs, including a shaker song with our shaker eggs as well as "Bumble Bee" by Laurie Berkner (I use a bumblebee puppet with this) and the classic "PawPaw Patch."

For my Toddler group I used the Ayres title again along with one of my favorites My Garden by Kevin Henkes. This is a story full of imagination as a little girl describes her ideal garden:

 "In my garden, the rabbits wouldn't eat the lettuce

becasue the rabbits would be chocolate

and I would eat them."

I also sang along with the new book Jo MacDonald had a Garden by Mary Quattlebaum.  This is another story that has lots of audience participation in singing and activities:  " And in that garden was a worm, E-I-E-I-O.  With a wiggle-wiggle here..."  The only problem was that once in awhile I'd revert back to Old MacDonald instead of Jo!  This books is a fun new addition to my story time and I have the feeling it will become another classic for me.

Fingerplays include the folowing:

Rain 
Pitter-pat, pitter-pat                            (drum fingers on the floor)
The rain goes on for hours

And though it keeps me in the house
It's very good for flowers                       (Hold fists out, palms up then open and spread fingers upward)

Five Little Flowers

Five little flowers standing in the sun                                     (Hold up 5 fingers)

See their heads nodding, bowing one by one                  (Fold fingers down one at a time)

Down, down, down comes the gentle rain                       (Flutter fingers down)

And the Five Little Flowers lift up their heads again         (Raise fingers back up straight)

I hope everyone has fun at story time this week!  Hopefully we'll have lots of May flowers this year!

School visits

Wow!  I am back to story times after taking time away to visit the local elementary schools to distribute library cards and get the students excited about the library.  It is wonderful to visit the students and see so many familiar faces!  Last week I read the story Otto the Book Bear by Kate Cleminson, a wonderful new book about a bear who lives in a book, but comes to life when no one is around.  After some adventures he ends up in the library!!!  In one of my favorite pictures  all of the book characters come out to play when the library is empty.  Isn't that a great dream? 

Check out this book if you haven't seen it yet! 

Story Theme - Ducks

This week I will be doing story times with the theme of ducks.  This is always a fun theme each year as there are so many great stories, songs and fingerplays featuring ducks.

For the youngest group I will one of my Big Books - oversize picture books for library use,  Five Little Ducks - illustrated by Penny Ives.  This is a picture book version of the song, so it'll be sung instead of read.  I will then "retell" the story using my Mother duck and 5 duckling puppets.  This repetion is wonderful for early literacy.  Another book will be Little White Duck by Walt Whippo.As this story unfolds, the children and caregivers will help with some action and words. They will "quack" with the duck and "Hiss!" and slither with the snake.  Again, with be fore or after the book "reading" we will listen to the song and act it out. 

Other songs and fingerplays include:  "Four Little Duckies" on Ralph's World, "I Know a Chicken" by Laurie Berkner (we use shaker eggs with this and will change the lyrics to I Know a Duck.), "Six Little Ducks" from Toddler Favorites, and "Three Little Ducks" from Songs for Wiggleworms.

For the toddler story time, I will add the Big Book One Duck Stuck:a mucky ducky counting book by Phyllis Root and/ or Do Like a Duck Does by Judy Hindley.  For the first, I will stop several times to have the children count the various animals and also have them pretend to pull. 

For my preschoolers, I will use some favorite duck stories which include:

 Make Way for Ducklings - Robert McCloskey (As a Boston girl this is a must!)

A Jez Alborough duck book such as Duck's Key, Where Can It Be?, 

A Jackie Urbanovic booksuch as Duck Soup,

Mr. Duck Means Business by Tammi Sauer,

A Doreen Cronin book such as Giggle, Giggle Quack,

Farmer Duck  by Martin Waddell

This should be a fun week of storytimes!!!

Picture Book Month - Last but Not Least - Day 30!

Well I actually did it!  I highlighted 1 of my favorite picture book authors for every day of Picture Book Month.  I hope that readers have rediscovered some favorites or found a new author to read. 

I saved a very special picture book author for Day 30 - Easton's very own Leo Landry!  We are so lucky to have a wonderful children's author residing in our town.  Mr. Landry has visited the library on several occasions to talk about his books, read to the children, or teach them how to create an illustration.  He has written and illustrated picture books, as well as chapter books and early readers.  I want to highlight on of each in this blog.

Grin and Bear It is his most recently published work.  It is an early reader that tells a wonderful story about a bear who loves telling jokes, but has a bad case of stage fright.  We were lucky to have Leo Landry host an open-mic comedy event for children in October.  Children listened to the story and then got a chance to stand up and tell a joke of their own.  The book is a great early reader as the children will love the jokes and the story of a warm friendship while parent swill appreciate the visual puns in the illustrations. 

Space Boy is a wonderful picture book about a little boy who longs for quiet - so he builds a rocket and flies to the moon.  Leo Landry's pencil and watercolor illustrations add to the sense of quiet and adventure.  This is a perfect bedtime story.

Finally, I must spotlight Sea Surprise, a great chapter book that got my reluctant reader of a daughter hooked on books as a 2nd grader.  She just fell in love with this wonderful story about a group of friends - a mermaid, a shark and an eel - under the sea.  The vocabulary is just right for those moving beyond the early readers and the illustrations are beautiful and full of fun.

So, if you haven't yet discovered out very own children's author and illustrator - stop by the library and find a Leo Landry book today!

Thanks for reading!  I was so happy to be able to talk about 30 of my favorite picture books authors.  I know there are many more that I was unable to include and I know I'll be finding more favorites in the future. Picture books are such a wonderful genre for children.  I know that the future is bright. In honor of Picture Book Month, I'd like to include this list of favorites from Leo Landry's website (http://www.leolandry.com/index.html) :

"There are so many artists whose work I continue to be inspired by every day. Here are a few of my all-time favorites: Melissa Sweet, M.B. Goffstein, Helen Oxenbury, John Burningham, Kady MacDonald Denton, Erik Blegvad, Peter Sis, Lucy Cousins, Charlotte Voake, Satoshi Kitamura, Emma Chichester Clark, Olof and Lena Landstrom, Richard Scarry, Edward Ardizzone, Simon James, and William Steig."

Picture Book Month - Day 27, 28, 29

Wow!  I know we are now in December, but I still have 4 more authors to highlight in order to meet my goal of one author per day during Picture Book Month.  So many authors, so few spots left!  Today I'd like to spotlight 3 authors, Eric Carle, Doreen Cronin and Lauren Child.

Eric Carle is an award winning picture book author/illustrator.  He was the 2003 recipient of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award which honor an author and or illustrator whose body of work over the years has made "a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children."  His beautiful illustrations are made using hand-painted paper, layered in a collage technique.  Many of his works feature special cut-outs (The Very Hungry Caterpillar), sounds (The Very Quiet Cricket),  foldouts (Papa, Please get the Moon for Me) or even lighting effects (Dream Snow).  His newest title is The Artist Who painted a Blue Horse. It is a story that celebrates the freedom of the artist to paint things as he sees them, even a blue horse or a green lion.

We are very fortunate that we have The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art here in Amherst Massachusetts.  As he states on his website (http://www.eric-carle.com/home.html) :

For a number of years my wife Bobbie and I dreamt about creating a place where original picture book art could be enjoyed and appreciated. It has been said that picture books are an introduction to literature for the very young reader. We wanted to help build a museum that would be the same thing for the first time museum visitor: an introduction to the experience of looking at art.

I hope you get a chance to visit  his books and or the museum with your children!

Doreen Cronin published her first picture book Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type while working as a practising attorney in Manhattan- luckily for children's literature she left the law and has been writing picture books ever since! What I love about her books is the humor. Click, Clack Moo, received a Caldecott Honor in 2001.  This is a wonderful book that can be used to teach children about the power of the written word - as well as being laugh out loud hilarious!  Farmer Brown discovers that his cows can type.  Not only that, but they begin to make demands. "It was bad enough the cows had found the old typewriter in the barn, now they wanted electric blankets! 'No way," said Farmer Brown...So the cows went on strike."  Children love repeating the refrain: "Click, Clack, moo."  The barnyard hijinks continue in several more books featuring the typing cows.  I also love her series of insect diary books.  In Diary of a Worm , They are full of dry humor and Henry Bliss' illustrations add to the fun.  Here's one entry: "April 20  I snuck up on some kids in the park today.  They didn't hear me coming. I wriggled up right between them and they SCREAMED. I love when they do that."  You can also read Diary of a Spider and Diary of a Fly.  Check out this wonderful author today!

 



My 3rd author of the day is Lauren Child (http://www.milkmonitor.com/home/).  She is probably best known for her Charlie and Lola picture book series, which has been made into a successful television series for Disney.  Her first Charlie and Lola book, I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato, won a Kate Greenaway Medal in the U.K. for outstanding children's book illustration in 2000.  This is comparable to the Caldecott Medal in the U.S.  The series features the adorable, imaginative and demanding Lola and her patient older brother Charlie, as well as Lola's invisible friend Soren Lorenson.  I love Lola's spirit and Charlie's love for his little sister.  Each book begins: "I have this little sister, Lola.  She is small and very funny."  In my daughter's favorite Charlie and Lola book, I Am Too Absolutely Small for School, Charlie tries to reassure a nervous Lola, that school will be wonderful.  For instance Charlie says: "I say, 'At school you will learn numbers and how to count up to one hundred.' Lola says, 'I don't need to learn up to ne hundred.  I already know up to ten, and that is plenty."  Also be sure to check out another favorite, Lauren Child's The Princess and the Pea.  In a collaboration with photographer Polly Borland, Child constructed miniature  3-D sets for each page in illustration in the book.  Imagine a dollhouse with paper doll characters.  I look forward to many more of Lauren Child's picture books!

Picture Book Month - Day 26 author

I'm nearing the homestretch for featuring a different picture book author for each day of this month.  I hope you have maybe found a new author or illustrator that you now love.  Please leave comments about your favorites, too!

Today, I want to put a spotlight on Ed Young, winner of the Caldecott Medal in 1989 and 2 Caldecott Honors, illustrator of over 80 children's books.  He takes inspiration for Chinese painting.  As he says on his website (http://edyoungart.com/) :

“A Chinese painting is often accompanied by words,” explains Young. “They are complementary. There are things that words do that pictures never can, and likewise, there are images that words can never describe.”

Lon Po Po won the Caldecott Medal in 1989.  As the subtitles states it is "A Red-Riding Hood Story From China."  In the Chinese version of the tale, a wolf comes to the door of 3 children claiming to be their Po Po or grandmother. The younger children let the wolf in, but the eldest is cautious.  " 'Po Po,' she said, why is  your voice so low?'  'Your grandmother has caught a cold, good children, and it is dark and windy out here. Quickly open up, and let your Po Po come in,' the cunning wolf said." After catching a glimpse of a furry face before the wolf blows out the candle, Shang, the eldest makes a plan to outwit the sly wolf.  The illustrations are reminiscent of Chinese panel paintings and add to the atmosphere of the story. Beautiful and haunting.

Seven Blind Mice earned a Caldecott Honor in 1992 and is a story time favorite.  It is a retelling of a folktale from India.  Seven mice each come across a "strange Something", but they all describe it very differently. One feels a fan, another a snake and so on.  Finally, the seventh mouse explores the entire "Something." It turns out that they have all encountered the same thing,- an elephant - but the others have only felt part of it.  The "Mouse Moral" at the end is : "Knowing in part may make a fine tale, but wisdom comes from seeing the whole"  The illustrations are very different from Lon Po Po - utilizing cut paper collage and vibrant primary color paint.

The House That Baba Built: an artist's childhood in China is Ed Young's most recent book.  It is an autobiographical picture book of his childhood during the Japanese invasion of China and World War II.  His father has made a safe haven for his family - his wife, 4 children, and other relatives and friends in need of a place to stay.  Although a war is raging, inside the house there is still joy and imagination.  Towards the end of the war they can finally hear the bombs:
"We gathered in the hallway, where the dinner bell was - the safest part of the house, Baba said.  There were no windows there, so we could keep a light on.  When everyone was settled comfortably, the stories began.  Baba told of a woman kung fu warrior with bound feet...I pictured her, not the bombs outside, which didn't frighten me anyway.  I knew nothing could happen to us within those walls, in the house Baba built."
This is a lovely, lyrical and  true story.  The illustrations feel like flipping through and old scrapbook or photo album.  It is a wonderful way to get to know this very talented writer and illustrator.

I hope you will discover or rediscover Ed Young.

Picture Book Month - Day 24

Today's author is a classic - Maurice Sendak.  His most famous book is Where The Wild Things Are, winner of the Caldecott Medal in 1964.  He adapted his book to the stage in 1979 and it was made into a feature film in 2009.  He has written a children's opera, designed sets for operas and plays, produced an animated television show for his book Really Rosie and wrote an designed an animated sequences for Sesame Street. 

Where the Wild Things Are is probably most familiar.  It tells the story of a boy named Max who misbehaves and is sent to bed without supper. He journeys to another land: “And the wild things roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws.” Max is made king of the wild things, but he soon misses home and my favorite line is the very last:

“And [he] sailed back over a year
and in and out of weeks
and through a day
and into the night of his very own room
where he found his supper waiting for him
and it was still hot”

  I love how this shows, that no matter how much a child may misbehave, Mom is always there waiting with a warm meal and love.

Chicken Soup With Rice, was included in the tv production of Really Rosie.  I just love this rhyming trip through the seasons of the year.  If you've ever caught the film, you won't be able to read the book without singing it as Carole King performed it! It begins:

"In January

it's so nice

while slipping

on the sliding ice

to sip hot chicken soup

with rice.

Sipping once

sipping twice

sipping chicken soup

with rice."

It's a wonderful trip through the seasons and all of the ways of enjoying chicken soup with rice.  My daughter's kindergarten teacher used this book all through the school year.

Bumble-Ardy is Maurice Sendak's latest book and his first solo work since 1981.   The books grew from an animated segment for Sesame Street by Sendak and Jim Henson.  It tells the story of a pig who has reached the age of nine without every having a birthday celebration:

Bumble-Ardy had no party when he turned one.

(His immediate family frowned on fun.)

So two three and four were on purpose forgot

And five six seven just simply were not!"

And so it went, until he turns nine and decided to throw himself a party at last :"Which isn't bad. In fact, it's fine."  Sendak is still the master of the picture book.