Just Say No!

I realize I have fallen behind my in blogging about my storytime adventures.  So, I am attempting to catch up.  Over President's Day weekend, I realized that had forgotten to pull books for Tuesday morning story time, and the library would be closed on Monday.  So, I spent a little while on Sunday at a neighboring branch pulling books and determining a theme. That theme turned out to be Just Say, NO!  I did worry that it would be too negative, but I found a good set of books, filled with humor and/or love that made for a really good story time.  For our craft we colored pigeon, from Don't Let The Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems and the sheet included a speech bubble.  I encouraged the kids to  think about what the next thing is that Pigeon should ask for.

Here are books we read:


Martha, No! by Edward  Hardy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A very engaging story about angelic looking Martha and her new nanny (who is the 10th nanny so far).  My storytime audience loved chiming in to say, 'Martha, NO!" with nanny as Martha gets into more and more mischief - such as climbing up to the top of the t-rex statue and then drawing on the walls of the museum they visit.  Martha gets herself into some interesting situations and the illustrations and rhyming text are filled with fun.


Cindy Moo by Lori Mortensen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The story begins when Cindy Moo, a cow on the Diddle farm overhears Mom Diddle reading the classic Nursery Rhyme, "Hey, Diddle, Diddle!" and decides that if THAT cow could jump over the moon, well she could as well.  While the other cows laugh and tease her, especially when her first attempts fail, Cindy is determined to succeed.  With rhyming text and delightful illustrations - and a little help from a rain puddle - Cindy does manage to jump over the moon.  Truly a fun read aloud about achieving a seemingly impossible dream.


No by Claudia Rueda
My rating: 4 of 5 starsbr />
A sweet story about a stubborn little cub who does not want to go to sleep, and has an answer for each of Mother Bear's arguments...until he gets scared in the middle of a blinding snowstorm and makes his way back to the safety of his mother and his warm cave.  My storytime audience could identify with Baby Bear's not wanting to go to bed...and laughed as he says when returning to the cave, " Mamma, I'm back.  Winter is very long and you might get lonely."

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Mo Willems is brilliant when it comes to writing books with storytime appeal.  This book works up a storytime audience into a frenzy of interaction faster and funnier than almost any other book that I have read.  Everytime the pigeon comes up with another request...another reason that he *should* be allowed to drive the bus, my storytime audience gleefully shouted, "No!" amidst giggles.  This is a great read-aloud and a sure audience pleaser for all ages.

Babies Invade the Library

This week's post is about my public library job. The branch is located in the northern suburbs of San Diego. The schools are good, the houses on the newer side and the kind of community where there are a lot of moms home with their kids. We are a very diverse community with one thing in common - all the residents want the very best for their kids and want them to succeed. Many of the parents in the community value the library and the services and programs it provides for their children.

Probably because we are in a community with good schools and lots of parental involvement, we have a very active children's area - filled with waves of children all day.  There is a play area, where moms and toddlers socialize after story times, tables with crayons and coloring sheets and drop-in crafts on Saturdays.

And there are the babies.  Babies in strollers or in a mother's arms at the library because of an older sibling's needs.  Lots of babies.

So, this month we launched our Baby Bookworm Storytime and Baby Signing Storytime on alternating Mondays.  We have contracted with the presenter for the Baby Signing program, and her first presentation at our library was a great success.  Last Monday was our first Baby Bookworm Storytime...and that was all me.

I was pleased that I had twelve baby/toddlers in my audience.  Four were truly babies in their mothers' laps, and three were on the older side of "toddler" but the program and the audience were well matched.  The atmosphere was cozy and friendly, the audience participated in the songs and rhymes that we did and listened to the tips and advice that I gave out along with the stories.

Our first theme was "Baby, It's Cold Outside" and the weather cooperated since we were experiencing some of the coldest temperatures we have had in five years.  (Okay, so I know this is San Diego were 50 degrees is cold!)  We all learned our opening song, "If You Want To Hear A Story" (Tune: "If You're Happy and You Know It") and Moms got comfortable manipulating their baby's hands and arms.  We moved on to an action rhyme:

and then I read the first book:

I Am Small by Emma Dodd
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The world is very big for a very small, very cute penguin.  With good contrast, simple shapes and a very simple, touching text, this book if perfect for a very young storytime audience.  There are snowy scenes and scenes where our little penguin stands against an enormous cloud filled sky, on the edge of a very deep ocean filled with swimming penguins, and curled up with with it's mother.  Many of the pages have cool silver metallic sparkles.  A touching story of the love moms have for their children that made the moms in the audience hug their children a little tighter.

We did a finger play,

Warm hands, warm hands

(rub hands together while saying the first 3 lines)

Do you know how?

If you want to warm your hands

Blow on them now!

(blow gently on baby’s hands)

and then we were snowflakes. If the children were walkers, they were encouraged to get on their feet and whirl and twirl like snowflakes:

Snowflake, snowflake falling down down (Flutter hands down) 
Twirling, whirling to the ground. (Touch floor) 
Softly, landing on my nose (touch nose) 
Softly landing on my toes. (tickle baby’s toes) 
Snowflake, snowflake falling down. (Flutter hands down) 
Twirling, whirling to the ground (Touch floor)

Then I read:

I Like It When . . . by Mary Murphy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Another cute small penguin tells the reader about the things he likes to do with his adult penguin.  Simple text and pictures with simple shapes and bold colors make this a perfect book to read to very young storytime audiences.  I like it when...you hold hands with me...let me help...dance with me...hold me tight...and (of course!) read me stories.  Simple, but engaging.


We ended with a tickle:

And then a closing song.  Adults were encouraged to reach into a bin of board books to read more to their children and introduce and to get to know one another while the young ones played with toys.  All in all a great success.

Bear-y Tales

For Storytime at Miramar this week I pulled out an old theme and ready-made powerpoint.  This is a theme that I have used several times before at three different libraries and it is always popular.  The rhymes and songs are simple and there are always plenty of picture books about bears no matter where you are.  It is an easy "last minute" theme.  Each time I present this story time I have used a different set of books, based on what was available and it has worked every time.  This time around, one of my favorites (Don't Wake the up the Bear by Marjorie Dennis Murray) on the other hand I stumbled upon a new bear book that I fell in love with (and so did the kids!)  We discussed winter and hibernation and even why bears sleep in caves...I had a very interactive and curious group of eight in my storytime audience.  We sang "Bear is Sleeping" (Tune: "Frere Jacques") and did several fingerplays and action rhymes and made our own bear puppet (pasting bear parts onto a toilet paper roll).

Here are today's books and a couple of favorite bear stories that I have read in the past:

Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Originally I read this on 1/24/11 as part of the original  "Bear-y Tales" theme story time .  Kids loved the fact that the bear slept through animals gathering in his cave for a party...especially the surprise ending. With humorous illustrations and a wonderful rhyming text, one by one animals wander into bear's cave to get out of the cold, and bear sleeps right through each arrival.  Animals pop popcorn, brew tea and the cave turns into quite a party spot - and bear sleeps on.  It is actually not the noise or the smell of food that wakes bear, but a pepper flake that causes bear to wake with a great big sneeze.  My storytime audience created great snoring sound effects whenever I read the refrain, "Bear snored on" and we all had a great time.   We followed this book with the song, "Bear is Sleeping" and it was very effective.


I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
We meet Bear when his little red pointy hat goes missing and he sets out to find it.  The text is mostly dialog, as Bear asks animal after animal if anyone has seen his hat.  There are two colors used in the text so it is easy to distinguish who says what.  I warned my audience that they should help Bear find his hat, because the reader does find out where the hat is on page four or five...but bear doesn't realize he has seen his hat until much nearer the end. My audience rose to the challenge and loved this book...well, except one little boy who thought Bear looked "A little creepy."  This is an award winning children's book and it shows.


About a Bear by Holly Surplice
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
You will fall in love with Bear! This book is beautifully illustrated and filled with all sorts of wondrous images. The rhyming text is simple, and is quite a good introduction to emotions as we see a bear who is glad, and bear when he is sad. He is even puzzled when he encounters a small turtle. My storytime audience became quite engaged with this book, describing what "puzzled" meant and laughing at Bear and turtle and the other fun Bear has with his friends. A wonderful read-aloud book.

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Bill Martin Jr.
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
There is something comforting about reading a wonderful book which follows a predictable formula, especially when it illustrated with Eric Carle's wonderful collages and Bill Martin's chain of animals. A storytime audience knows how this story plays out and has great fun anticipating the next animal in the sequence, and in this case, making its sound. Polar Bear hears a lion, and the kids have great fun providing the roar. The hippo and flamingo, were a bit harder but my audience managed to come up with creative and funny sounds. This book is a reminder to all of us who present story times that classic picture books will almost always hit the mark with a storytime audience.

Jamberry by Bruce Degen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Originally read 1/24/11 as part of "Bear-y Tales" theme. A Boy and his friend Bear go hunting for Berries. Lots of great rhyming for literacy development. Used fingerplays, "Bears eat Honey" and "Little Bear,"along with story.

Don't Wake Up the Bear! by Marjorie Dennis Murray
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Bear is asleep in his cave, a wonderfully inviting big bear who was soft and warm...and one by one animals are driven into Bear's cave by the cold and snow. Hare arrives first, then badger. As each new animal arrives, they receive a welcome and then a warning,"but don't wake up the bear!" My storytime audience loved saying this phrase each time a new animal arrived. They also loved the big, beautiful illustrations.

My Little Polar Bear by Claudia Rueda
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a beautifully illustrated book with simple text filled with love. Little Polar Bear asks questions which his mother answers with patience and love.

Dinosaurs Love Christmas, too!

This week, due to changes in my work schedule, my story time at the Base Library moved from Mondays to Tuesdays. I was gratified to see that several of my regulars made the switch and that we also had some new families join us. All told, there were ten kids in my audience. A great turn out for this little library in the middle of a military base.

At the public library I have seen a number of new books come across my desk, including a number of holiday books.  These have included several holiday books that feature dinosaurs...and so a storytime theme fell quite naturally into my lap.  What child can resist books about dinosaurs? Christmas?  BOTH???  I have collected quite a few dinosaur songs/rhymes and love that most of them feature fun actions ("Dinosaur Stomp" and "Five Little Dinosaurs" in which dinosaurs drop out of the rhyme by twirling, stomping etc. and each action ends with all the kids making a big dinosaur roar.)  For the craft, the kids made a "shapeasarus" using shapes cut out of construction paper. Each child carefully constructed a dinosaur, glued onto background paper and then created a holiday scene around their dinosaur with foam cutouts.  Everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Here are today's roaring good books:

The Dinosaurs' Night Before Christmas by Anne Muecke
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a wonderfully imaginative adaptation of Moore's epic poem, "T'was the Night Before Christmas."  The children, already familiar with the original poem loved this wonderful variation.  With great rhythm and rhyme the story tells of a young boys who stumbles upon the annual Christmas Eve dinosaur ball at the natural history museum in his neighborhood. The images of the dinosaurs coming to life, and of the wonderful party that follows are bright and detailed and full of fun.  Placing the star on the top of the dinosaurs tree and a visit from Santasaurus are wonderful ends to a magical night...and leave the reader wandering if this was a dream or holiday magic...especially the next morning when visitors to the museum wonder about the sprig of mistletoe that T. Rex is holding.  The book comes with a CD of dinosaur Christmas carols and Al Roker reading  the story.  I did use a couple of the carols in the opening and closing slide of my power point presentation, but this was a book I wanted to read to my audience.
Dinosaurs' Christmas by Liza Donnelly
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book was published in 1991.  It tells the tale of a boy and his dog, Bones, who have quite an adventure when they meet a dinosaur who needs help - it seems that Santa and his elves are making dinosaurs all wrong!  Together the dinosaur and boy help the elves make corrections and then go on to save Christmas - all the reindeer have the flu and so the sleigh is pulled by dinosaur and half a dozen of his close friends.  There are quite a few proper dinosaur names in the text (consult the glossary in the back of the book BEFORE reading it out loud) and a simplicity to text and illustrations that books of this era possess.  It was a nice contrast to some of the other books we read with wild  text and even wilder illustrations.

How Do Dinosaurs Say Merry Christmas? by Jane Yolen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
With its text filled with questions, there is plenty of opportunity to engage a storytime audience in the story and have them interact with the reading by answering the question before turning the page.  Having some interaction between pages allows the audience more time to absorb the wonderful illustrations which fill this book.  Although some of the behaviors would have landed dinosaur on the "naughty list" in the last portion of the book we find that dinosaur actually behaves quite well - he even clears away his dinner dishes - and so my audience decided that he was actually going to be on the "nice list."  A fun, interactive, storytime read.

Dinosaur vs. Santa by Bob Shea

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Bob Shea's feisty red dinosaur roars his way through holiday preparations with wild abandon, much to the delight of my storytime audience.  They joined me in roaring along with dinosaur and cheered with each "win."  He writes his letter to Santa, decorates his tree, makes presents for his mom and dad, and avoids tempting cookies - all wins.  But will he fall asleep on Christmas Eve for a final win???  This is a wonderfully silly book which my audience quite enjoyed.

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.