Sometimes the Magic Works!

We celebrated Thanksgiving at my house...and then I spent "Black Friday" working at the library.  It's okay, because I would rather be there than fighting crowds at a mall anyway.  However, I woke up Saturday, realizing that I had a storytime in two days which I hadn't prepared for...or pulled books for.  I looked at some of the library books I had at home, and scoured my own book shelves, pulled four books that I wanted to use for storytime and thought the theme would be a few of my favorites, or simple "Random Books." My IT assistant (my son in real life) looked at the books and found a theme - the letter "C" and so the storytime became "Brought to you by the Letter C"  One of the books featured the relationship between a gorilla and a cat, the others featured a chicken, a coyote and Canada.  Yep, just like magic I had a theme.  For the craft I printed out a mini coloring book about the letter C.  Everything fell into place.

Here are the books we read:

Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is such a fun read aloud!  This Caldecott Honor book features little red chicken - who wants a bedtime story but can't help but interrupt - to help.  Several favorite fairy tales are started here...only to have little chicken jump in to save the main characters, for instance, when Hansel and Gretel are about to enter the witch's house Little Chicken jumps in exclaiming "Don't go in she's a witch!" and the story ends with "and they didn't. The end." Finally, Little chicken writes her own bedtime story...and puts her papa to sleep.  Lost of humor, a chance to use different voices, and many opportunities for a storytime audience to guess about what will happen on the next page...will Little Red Chicken keep her promise and just listen or will she interrupt - again?

There Was a Coyote Who Swallowed a Flea by Jennifer Ward
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The illustrations in this book are amazing.  From the big eyed hungry coyote with his ribs showing to all of the items that coyote eats.  This book is filled with desert images. The text is a wonderful south west variation of the rhyme "I know an old lady who swallowed a fly." The text is bouncy and rhyming and makes for a great read-aloud, especially with the repeated chorus of "Yippe-O-Ki-Yee!"  We had read another variation, "I Know an Old Lady who Swallowed a Pie" last week, and so it was fun to compare and contrast the versions...almost as fun as being able to yell out "Yippe-o-ki-yee!" every page or so.

Little Beauty by Anthony Browne My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I stumbled upon this book while I was straightening shelves and putting the books in proper order - and what a find it was!  My storytime audience loved the wonderful illustrations - the large gorilla "who can ask for anything" sitting in an easy chair holding a remote in one hand and a hamburger in the other - and the tiny kitten, Beauty.  They loved the humor, and the happiness that a tiny kitten brings to this gorilla.  The kitten and gorilla do "everything together" and there is a bit of "potty humor" which my audience loved.  This is a sweet tale of a special friendship until the fateful night that Gorilla watches "King Kong" and gets angry and takes it out on the TV.  There is a wonderful twist in this story and a very happy ending.

Canada in Colours by Per-Henrik Gürth
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
On a recent trip through a small portion of Canada, we stopped into a small gift store in Kingston, Ontario and was very pleasantly surprised to find the author/illustrator of this wonderful concept book behind the counter!  He has written and illustrated several Canada based concept books for young children, and my only problem was which one to choose.  The bright, illustrations are wonderful and filled with colors.  There are wonderful images from all across Canada.  Happy animals engage in all sorts of activities and it is impossible to look through this book and not smile.  I can't wait to read this for a story time audience.

Next week storytime will be all about Dinosaurs and the holidays. I'm thinking that will be a winning combination.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This week's storytime was all about Thanksgiving...what else? We had a lively crowd of twelve, with a number of older kids, since schools here in San Diego give the students this entire week off. We made a craft afterwards - paper turkeys with traced hand tail feathers and the kids enjoyed a mini-feast of stuffing, cookies and spiced cider. The atmosphere was warm and everyone was talking and laughing as they traced and cut and glued. I do love my job!

 Most of the books that I read today, were books that I read, and posted about here, last year. They remain some of my favorite Thanksgiving books. A Turkey for Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting with its beautiful illustrations and surprise ending, delighted as always. A couple of the older kids remembered it from last year and played along to not reveal the ending. Probably because I was raised in an immigrant household, Duck for Turkey Day by Jacqueline Jules, resonates with me. A young Vietnamese-American girl agonizes over the fact that her family does not eat turkey on Thanksgiving.

We did read two different books:

Thanksgiving Is Here! by Diane Goode
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I had high hopes for this book as a story time read when I pulled it off the shelf.  Colorful pictures and swoopy text looked interesting and everything that is Thanksgiving is here.  There were sound words that usually add fun to a read aloud, but I never did quite find the rhythm of the text and only some of the text seems to rhyme.  The kids liked this, but reacted to the other four books that I read in more enthusiastically.
                                                           and

Gobble-Gobble Crash, A Barnyard Counting Bash: A Barnyard Counting Bash by Julie Stiegemeyer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is not exactly a Thanksgiving title, but, since it stars a flock of wild turkeys this is a natural read for this time of year.  The kids loved helping count all the barn yard animals, loved helping me say, "Gobble, Gobble, Crash!" and loved spotting the hidden turkeys later in the story.  The illustrations are filled with fun, documenting the chaos that happens when a flock of wild turkeys invade a sleeping barnyard on a quiet moon-filled night.  When the farmer wakes and threatens to put an end to the fun-and the invaders - the animals work together to protect their new turkey friends.  Fun and engaging with many opportunities to encourage a storytime audience to interact with the book.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I also hope that you all have something to be thankful for this year.  I am very, very Thankful for my wonderful storytime kids and colleagues at the Marine Corps Base.  I am grateful that I can do something for the families of these brave men and women who allow me to sleep in peace every night.

I am also very grateful for my wonderful public library job.  That I am able to share the gift of literacy and a love of reading with so many wonderful patrons is just a gift beyond measure.  That I am able to do this with a great team of coworkers in the library where I took my own kids to story time...well, it is a priceless gift to me.  The fact that I have a full-time job in this shaky economy is something short of a miracle.  I have so much to be thankful for this year!  I hope you all do too.

An Autumn Celebration

Today's storytime was all about the delights of Autumn, changing leaves, cooler temperatures and "the orange smells of Fall." Today, in San Diego, it was sunny dry and over 90 degrees! My storytime audience loved the books and rhymes about Fall anyway. In fact, we did most of the finger plays and songs twice. One boy even wanted to do an action rhyme about pumpkins three times! There were more than 20 children in attendance - so different from my early storytimes on the base where I may only have three or four.

 We sang as we counted flannel leaves, and our fingers became five furry squirrels and five little leaves. We even participated in an informal poll: for Halloween, did you carve a happy pumpkin or a scary one?  One little girl had three carved pumpkins at her house and so skewed the results somewhat!  The books, with their lovely illustrations in the bright, rich colors of Autumn, were lovely:

When Autumn Falls by Kelli Nidey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book, with its rhythmic text and wonderfully bright illustrations, introduces young readers to all that falls in Autumn.  Leaves, football players, the temperature, the sun. The three dimensional paper collage pictures are vibrant and detailed and the kids loved finding the hidden images that can be found throughout this book.  Birds in trees, a dogs eye peeking out from under a pile of leaves, the back of a child running behind a tree.  There were many opportunities for interaction with my storytime audience, as we counted crows, pumpkins, and students off to school.  My audience loved this book.

I Know It's Autumn by Eileen Spinelli
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a beautifully illustrated book about a family enjoying the delights of Autumn.  In rhyming text the reader learns about getting out jackets, and the joy of pumpkin muffins for breakfast; picking apples and raking leaves.  A wonderful book to introduce all the joys of Autumn.

In November by Cynthia Rylant
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Cynthia Rylant does a beautiful job "explaining" November in this book.  The text is gentle and rich with description. (For example, "The trees are standing al sticks and bones.")  The illustrations are perfectly matched with the text and are soft and gentle as well. We counted the cats "piled up in the corners of barns" (6) and the dogs lying before the fire (2) The foods of November with their "orange small" and all the warmth of Thanksgiving are captured between the pages of this book.  A very  special tribute to a very special time of year.

The Little Yellow Leaf by Carin Berger
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a charming story about a little yellow leaf who does not react well to change.  When all the other leaves are falling, this one holds on tight and states that he is not ready...even when snow falls and he is lonely and cold.  Finally, he spots another hold out, a scarlet leaf, and together they let go and go soaring off into the sky.  The simple illustrations are beautiful and bright and the text contains rich vocabulary - the afternoon sun "beckoned and teased" and "flocks of geese took wing." My storytime audience could identify with the little leaf's fear and loneliness, and rejoiced when the two leaves went soaring off together.  Lovely story.

I'll be encoring this story time on Thursday at the public library so I'm glad I like the stories and songs, rhymes, etc.  Next week, we are off for Veteran's Day and then in two weeks I will be presenting a Thanksgiving storytime at the base, complete with a multicultural potluck feast.  Stay tuned.

Halloween II

We followed up last week's Halloween themed story time with even more Halloween fun. We had one of the biggest crowds ever, which was unexpected since there had been no additional publicity, and we were not giving anything away. Usually we only see this large an audience when we publicize a party or giveaway! With an emphasis on Monsters, we had great fun with "Five Little Monsters Jumping on The Bed" using one of my goofy handmade felt sets

We also acted out "The Goblin in the Dark" (tune: "the Farmer in the Dell") Where the goblin in the dark, picks a witch who picks a cat, who picks a bat, who picks a ghost who shouts, "Boo!" Great fun!

For a craft we made toilet paper roll mummies. The kids really enjoyed it and really worked hard on their mummies.

Here are the books we read today:
The Monsters' Monster by Patrick McDonnell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The first half of this books follows three young monsters who live high on Monster Hill in a dark and scary monster castle. The text sets a great dark scary stage for the creation of the biggest, baddest scariest monster. These three set out to create one, and they do with the help of a convenient lightning bolt. But although he is big, this new monster is not what our three small monsters, or the reader, expects.

Night of the Pumpkinheads by Michael J. Rosen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The photographs of the amazing carved pumpkins in this book are amazing and my storytime audience studied each and every picture with an intensity that they don't always possess! These pictures make up for the choppy, somewhat disjointed text. The pumpkin patch pumpkins decide that this year they want to dress up for Halloween and have fun. They form groups and compete to try and scare the trick-or-treaters. Which group proves the scariest: The small pumpkins as eyes and bees? The green pumpkins as monsters? The white pumpkins as zombie mimes?? In the end, it isn't the pumpkins that prove to be the scariest to the kids...

Monster Mash by David Catrow
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This was a big hit at storytime today. The audience of toddlers found the bright, bold illustrations totally mesmerizing and the parents laughed and smiled as they remembered the Boris Pickett hit that the text is based on. We even turned this into a call and response for all I had to say was, "they did the..." and the kids quickly learned to shout out "Monster Mash." Use your best Boris voice and this is sure to be a "graveyard smash" for you, too!

I also brought a special Halloween friend with me: my spider puppet that when squeezed makes a laughing sound. While "spidey" didn't seem to scare any of the kids, when I invited them all to pet my little spider, some were hesitant, although I'll give these toddlers credit, they all did give him a pat!

Spooktacular 2012

I love the fall. I love those crisp cool mornings. I love the rich colors of fall; all those oranges, rusts, browns, monster greens and purples. I also enjoy the Autumn Holidays - Halloween and Thanksgiving. All about fun and families without the pressure of shopping!

We had the major Halloween celebration at the base library on Monday. There was supposed to be a costume exchange as part of the celebration, but I think the powers that were in charge planned it too late, as several of the kids came to storytime in costume, and those that didn't wear a costume talked about what they were going to be on the big night.

That aside we had a fun, interactive story time. We had two flannels: "Five Little Pumpkins" with lots of counting and whooshing (the audience was the wind, of course!) and "Go Away, Big Green Monster." This is the second time I have tried something with a book based flannel; I read the book by Ed Emberley, with its wonderful die cut design and then the kids retold the story as I put up and took down the flannel pieces. The kids really enjoy doing this, and it helps them with story sequencing and remembering story details. We also sang a great song with a number of Halloween Noises and I dug out two homemade bat puppets for the rhyme "Two Little Bats" which is my Halloween version of "Two Little Blackbirds"

Two Little Bats hanging in their cave,
One named Jill and one named Dave
Fly away, Jill. Fly Away, Dave.
Come back, Jill. Come back, Dave.

Whether it was the puppets or the familiar rhyme, we did it twice and all the kids did it amid smiles and giggles.

In addition to Go Away, Big Green Monster! Here are the rest of the books we read:

Ollie's Halloween by Olivier Dunrea
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
All of our favorite Dunrea characters, Gossie and Gertie, Peedie, Boo Boo, and Ollie, are costumed and ready for a big Halloween adventure. We follow them through the night barnyard with all of its scary sounds and images. It is, after all, "Halloween night. A night to betware. A night to scare." The text is simple and the illustrations are captivating being sweet and scary and funny all at the same time. The kids at my storytime loved this book and had some fun counting jack-o-lanterns and whooting like owls and yelling, "boo!" as part of the experience.

Boo, Bunny! by Kathryn O. Galbraith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a beautifully illustrated fun to read-aloud book. There are lots of scary shadows, great sound words in the text and two very cute, very scared fuzzy bunnies that my storytime audience loved. They hung on every word of the simple text and were captivated by the illustrations. The message, that life is much less scary and much more fun comes through loud and clear when you have "a paw to hold" came through loud and clear and everyone was smiling at our two brave bunnies when I closed the book.

Haunted Party by Iza Trapani
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a wonderful counting book which is also a great Halloween read-aloud. Mr. Ghost is hosting a party, and in small groups the guests arrive: two spooky skeletons, three gruesome goblins...all the way up to nine morbid mummies. The are all eating, flying, and "kicking up their heels" at this very active party. That is, until someone very scary rings the doorbell: ten cute, smiley faced trick or treaters. The nine terrified mummies leave first...followed by the eight fleeing witches...until Mr Ghost is left alone sitting on his porch. The illustrations are soft and lovely, the kids help count and the text contains some pretty rich vocabulary with words like "morbid" and "cuisine" and "extraordinary." That it was "sweet and sunny" children that terrified the guests brought a laugh from all the parents/caregivers in my audience - which was a nice bonus.

Very Scary by Tony Johnston
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The illustrations in this book are lovely, from the orange pumpkin moon to the big glowing jack-o-lantern on the last page. The largest pumpkin in the patch soaks up the moonlight and because of its bright shimmering glow, and charms the owl, cat, and witch. When a group of children find it and carve a face into it, the pumpkin frightens everyone. The rhyming text has lots of sound words, and while there are all the images we associate with Halloween, Halloween is not mentioned in the text.

Next Monday: More Halloween Fun!

Ch-ch-changes

So, with no story time on Monday, since the base library celebrates federal holidays, I have spent the week reflecting on what I would like to write about instead. There are so many possibilities! I could write about the car that ran into my library branch (local news coverage of accident) or disturbing trends in publishing of juvenile non fiction sparked by a recent article in The Guardian. I could review recent young adult/children's literature or I could talk about managing teen volunteers. Well, the list is endless.

But the topic I settled on is how children's library services has changed over the years. I am taking an online course (Infopeople's Fundamentals of Children's Services) and found a number of the titles from the bibliography from the first week's readings. I opened one this morning (Work with Children in Public Libraries by Effie L. Power, published by ALA in 1943). After tracing the early history of children's services (where in 1835 the best children's library in Massachusetts was the result of a $100 bequest...in the beginning of summer I placed an Amazon order for children's paperbacks that totaled over $600 and didn't increase my collection by much!) She goes on to describe quiet afternoons of children reading quietly together and the typical reference questions a children's librarian might have to answer. Impressive stuff especially considering these early librarians did not have Google or even a catalog that they could search on their desk top!

My library is rarely ever quiet. I do spend a fair amount of my day answering questions but it is mostly specialized readers advisory, or help in finding materials on a specific subject for a specific assignment. We have storytimes and other programs, and a play area where parents and their children can socialize afterwards. We are a community center with a focus on literacy. It really is a pretty sweet place to be.

It is not without its problems though. I spend some time every afternoon monitoring computer use by kids. Reminding them to sign in, helping them find sites, and shooing away rowdy kids who are harassing kids playing on the computer or yelling out suggestions or tips to "beat the level." At least once a week I have to settle some dispute over computer use. I wonder what Effie would have to say about those activities!

The worst thing is that I feel that I am witnessing the slow death of reading for pleasure, even in young children. The school district that surrounds my library is so focused on lexiles and reading scores, that kids are being told that they must read only books within a specified lexile range. As a librarian, the very thought of lexile level being the basis of book choice, makes me want to scream. The conversations that all too often end in tears, or stony silence that include phrases like, "your teacher won't let you read this it is not in your lexile range and we are not taking that home, your teacher said it is too (easy/difficult) for you..." make me feel as angry and frustrated as the kids and their parents. Lexiles are so artificial, and have such a chilling effect on children's enjoyment of books and reading.In the very eloquent words of Karen Szymusiak and Franki Sibberson in Beyond Leveled Books:

Reading can't be distilled to a reading level, a basket of books, or a test performance. All these efforts to "improve" reading too often tighten the parameters, limit growth, and give children an artificial perspective of what reading is all about.

Lexiles seem to take away a child's reading choices and turn reading into just another school "chore." As a librarian, I want to create life time readers; people that love books and reading and look forward to time spent with a book, not merely vewing time spent with a book as something that is assigned to them; something they have to grit their teeth and get through. I'm sorry, while I will do my best to support my patrons in their quest for books based on lexile, I will still do my best to fan the flame of reading in my young patrons and try to instill a passion and love for books for story's sake that will last them a life time.

With a Little Help From My Friends

About a week ago, a professional storyteller and I were talking about children's books and she recommended a few books that we didn't have at our location. I requested the books from other locations, along with a few new books that weren't ordered for our branch, and when they rolled in I found that they all had a common theme...helping. And so, a storytime was born. Our first book involved an independent young frog who gets himself into trouble, and must ask for help out. I have a great flannel set for "Five Green and Speckled Frogs" which the kids love, and it was a great companion to our first book. We did a "five friends" finger play, a counting rhyme about animals in the woods and sang "I'm a Little Piggie" (Tune: "I'm a Little Teapot") after our last book. I modified it somewhat to go with Mo Willem's best known pair of friends, Elephant and Piggie.

Here are the books we read:

Stick by Steve Breen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
In this book we meet a young frog, Stick, who was very independent...much to Mother Frog's chagrin. He insists on doing everything by himself, which doesn't always work out. My storytime audience laughed at his failed attempts and then loved following him on his great adventure; hungry, he tries to catch lunch...a dragonfly which catches him! He flies far from the swamp he calls home, even being carried through New Orleans by Mr. Dragonfly. He then bounces off of windshields and bikers, gets chased by dogs and knife wielding chefs, and gets carried away by balloons. Finally, Stick, "who like to do things all by himself" realizes he needs help. He asks, and receives, help to get home and is back with mom on his lilly pad just as the moon is rising. Charming story that reminds the reader that we all need a little help sometime.

Lost in the Woods by Carl R. Sams II
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The photographs in this story are stunning...and the new born fawn is guaranteed to steal every reader's heart. It is spring in the woods, and a fawn is watched over by all the other animals in the forest who fear he is lost. While our fawn is waiting for his mother to return for him, our young deer interacts with a number of other forest young. The absolutely amazing pictures were loved by my storytime audience.

Oh, No! by Candace Fleming
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Although I never did seem to get the rhythm of the text quite right, my storytime audience enjoyed the animal sounds as well as the repeated phrases. They even chimed in when a character shouted, "Oh, No!" every few pages. One by one the animal characters fall into a deep, deep hole while being stalked by a hungry tiger. I really didn't like the ending...and so I didn't read the last page, but rather closed the book, and had my storytime audience vote on what the animals should do. About half of my toddlers felt as I did, and the other half would have loved the ending as written.

Today I Will Fly! by Mo Willems
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Mo Willems books always make good read-alouds as long as you get listeners engaged in the story and get them to participate in the story. In this Elephant and Piggie book, Piggie is determined that she will fly, while Gerald insists flying is one skill she will never posses. We all agreed that that is not a proper way for a friend to act...and then we applaud Piggie as she makes several attempts at flying (running and jumping- as Gerald is quick to point out). Finally, Piggie enlists the help of a special friend as does fly - with help. Determination combined with knowing when to ask to help is a great message to hear in this very funny, very Mo Willems style, story. This was the most popular book at today's story time.