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.

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.

Happy Birthday, Clifford!

There are few more beloved children's characters than Clifford the Big Red Dog, created by Norman Bridwell, 50 years ago. Everyone knows Clifford, dogs and celebrations, right? So what better theme for a storytime than Clifford's 50th birthday?

I donned the Clifford ears that Scholastic was handing out at ALA in June, found a pattern to allow the kids to create their own out of red construction paper, grabbed my Clifford puppet,and a stack of Clifford books. I modified a number of dog rhymes, songs, and finger plays to customize them for Clifford which only added to the fun, and had a great story time!

Here are the books we read:
Clifford the Big Red Dog by Norman Bridwell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Clifford, the big red dog, is probably one of the most loved and recognizable children's book character. He is lovable, and like them, has trouble fitting in as he makes his way through life. His person, Emily Elizabeth, loves him and the Clifford books subtly send positive messages about caring, loyalty, friendship, and responsibility. In this first book, Emily, introduces the reader to her dog, Clifford, and traces the ups and downs of life raising a jumbo size dog. Even though Clifford is fifty, the stories have a timelessness that still interest today's children.

Clifford's Puppy Days by Norman Bridwell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This was the second story in a book of four classic Clifford stories, and so we read about Clifford's beginning. He was a tiny puppy, and Emily Elizabeth was constantly worried about him getting lost or getting injured by her toys while they played. This is one book where Clifford's age was showing - at one point, Emily Elizabeth talks about Clifford loving the Merry-Go-Round she made for him, which is a record spinning on a record player. All the parents smiled when I asked my toddlers if they knew what the item was...and laughed at the kids' response which was a CD Player...In this book he also has an adventure in a bakery, get's bathed by a St. Bernard and then becomes the enormous grown-up dog we know and love today.

Clifford The Champion by Norman Bridwell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
When Emily Elizabeth enters Clifford into a dog competition, the results are humorous and somewhat predictable. Clifford is paired up with another dog, who runs the obstacle course and other trials perfectly - while Clifford, because he is so big, keeps getting stuck or breaking parts of the elements. However when it comes to the big splash competition, Clifford scores well, and almost wins when he saves his competitor who is unable to swim. My audience loved the funny pictures and the fact that Clifford always does his best and tries so hard to fit in to the world which is much too small for him.

Clifford Keeps Cool by Norman Bridwell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Here in San Diego, we have been experiencing unusually hot and humid weather, so I felt like I had to include this particular Clifford title in Storytime today. It is the height of summer and Clifford tries all the usual methods to stay cool, but at his size they don't always work quite right. For instance, watching a dog riding in a car enjoying the cool breeze, Clifford climbs on top of a large truck - which cools him off...until the truck passes under a freeway overpass. He empties swimming pools and fountains, until finally, Emily Elizabeth finds the perfect cooling spot for him: under a waterfall in a park. Not only is he finally happy, but he manages to save a boat load of kids in a canoe who were about to plunge over the falls. You gotta love this dog!

Clifford's Birthday Party by Norman Bridwell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is another charming book about Clifford's life and his struggles to fit in to this miniature world. The kids enjoyed this story, and there were many laughs to be had, especially when all the guests at the party dream about what Clifford would look like after a trip to the groomers. I was bothered by the way the story centered on birthday presents - at first none of the guests would come, because they felt that their gifts were inadequate for their friend. The bulk of the story features each guest and his/her gift and how grateful Clifford is to receive each one...even though they are all somehow wrong (a hand knit sweater that only fits over part of his nose, for example). In the end, his family arrives to surprise him, and the message about friends and family being the most important gift comes through...but only in the last few pages.

Although it was a day off for me at the public library, I didn't want the kids there to miss out on the fun! Last Saturday I made a birthday card for all the kids to sign and prepared the materials so that they could also make Clifford ears. I also put all of our Clifford books out on display. I passed the "official" ears to the librarian who would be working in children's area today, and put out a "Clifford's Birthday Party" board game for kids to play as they wandered in. Happy Birthday, dear friend, Clifford!

Avast Me Hearties!

Well, this week we celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day, and so this Monday, it was only natural that the storytime was all about pirates. Pete, my Melissa and Doug pirate puppet joined us to greet the kids, read a short book, and lead a couple of the songs we sang. ("If You're a Pirate and You Know It" and "The Pirates on the Ship" to the tunes of "If You're Happy and You Know it" and "The Wheels on the Bus" respectively.) The kids loved it! We did a flannel of "Five Little Pirates" with pirates that I made, for a little counting practice. We did a couple of fingerplays and practiced some Pirate-speak.
Here are today's books:

Pirateria: The Wonderful Plunderful Pirate Emporium by Calef Brown
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
With rhyming text and detailed illustrations, this book worked with my young storytime audience in spite of some very sophisticated concepts and higher than usual vocabulary. Privateer, mutineer, buccaneer seeking top quality pirate gear...wow. The kids listened to every word, describing this "glorious pirate emporium" and all the gear and classes available as well as specials. There was even a page of pirates modeling the latest in eye patches which the audience enthusiastically counted. What a fun pirate read-aloud.

Bubble Bath Pirates by Jarrett J. Krosoczka
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Clever illustrations (did you notice the rubber duckie with the Pirate eyepatch?) and a sing song text containing a smattering of pirate-speak made this an instant hit with my toddler audience. Pirate Mom (sorry, I just couldn't bring myself to say Pirate MOMMY) and her two little pirates just have too much fun at bath time. It almost made me want to follow along with them singing "Yo ho, yo ho, it's off to the bath we go" and jump right in behind them. Every page is filled with smiles. And after they count down and pull the plug there is pirate treasure waiting in the kitchen and more singing, "Yo ho, yo ho, we're now so sparkling clean...we're off to get our bounty of chocolate fudge ice cream!"

Pirate vs. Pirate: The Terrific Tale of a Big, Blustery Maritime Match by Mary Quattlebaum
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
My Toddler audience loved this book with its humorous illustrations and great read-aloud text. The kids enjoyed yelling "tie!" after each contest and enjoyed all the craziness that two pirates indulge in when they compete to see who is the mightiest, maddest, burliest, richest pirate in the whole world. One of the few pirate books to feature a female pirate, this book spoke to the girls in my audience, and they loved that Mo was every bit as good as her male companion whether she was eating hardtack or throwing a cannonball.

Pirate Princess by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Bea is not your usual princess when we first meet her she is standing on her head and she would rather read a book than wear fancy clothes and she has no interest in meeting a handsome prince. Bea does have a dream - she wants to be a pirate. One afternoon she comes across a pirate ship and convinces the crew that they should add her to their crew. She throws herself into being a pirate, but it is a struggle. Her first task, swabbing the deck, makes her shoulders sore and the mop is "really gross." She is next assigned to the galley, where she whips up an inedible stew. She gets seasick. Just when it seems like she is going to have to walk the plank, the pirates discover she has a gift for sniffing out treasure, and she is welcomed into the pirate band. This story is filled with fun, great illustrations and a reminder that we all have gifts and talents.

Pajama Pirates by Andrew Kramer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
< Dreams, pirates, and imagination. This is a softly illustrated pirate adventure book that ends with bedtime. Nice way to end a pirate storytime.

Ready for Fun

This week I thought we would get silly (ok, sillier than usual) at Story time and so I chose some silly books and two by Jan Thomas, including Is Everyone Ready for Fun?, which gave us the title for today's story time. There were plenty of funny, nonsensical action rhymes and songs out there. We did "Crazy Clap" (three times!) which was easy, thanks to Bethany from the Hennepin County Library:

Crazy Clap
A crazy clap A lazy clap
Clap like a duck
A MONSTER clap
A CROCODILE clap
A fairy clap for luck
(Source: The Moon in the Man by Elizabeth Honey)

We also did some other silly "Can you?" rhymes: "Can you Move with me?" and "You Clap and You Stop." Of course we did "Head, Shoulder, Knees, and Toes" as we always do and the kids offered great suggestions as to how to do it. (Today's selections: whisper, LOUD, and CRAZY) Lots of action and lots of giggles and we held everyone's attention. Here are the books we read today:

Is Everyone Ready for Fun? by Jan Thomas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Looking for a fun engaging book to put toddlers in a sily, giggly mood? This book is it. Three cows are ready for fun and find it...on chicken's couch. One cow asks, "Is everyone ready?" at the start of each new couch activity and the kids in my audience would yell, "yes!" as they jumped, they danced, they wiggled (giggling the entire time) along with cows. We all agreed that chicken sounded a little like our moms, in trying to protect his couch, and stop the fun. In the end, everyone comes together when they all agree on a good use for chicken's couch.

Don't Be Silly, Mrs. Millie! by Judy Cox
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Mrs. Millie's class laughs all day at all the silly things she says from "hang up your goats" first thing to "Put on your bats and kittens, butterfly!" (translation: put on your hats and mittens, good-bye!) Kids paint "on the weasel" in art class, say the "frog salute" and are invited to come "sit on the bug" for story time. The students laugh, calling Mrs. Mille silly and provide the correct sentence. All in all a fun read-aloud book, with bright illustrations based on the SILLY phrase. My storytime audience loved this book, and laughed and had fun yelling out the correct sentences. Very engaging read for toddlers.

What To Do If An Elephant Stands On Your Foot by Michelle Robinson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
In this book you will find instructions on what to do, or rather not to do, if you ever come face to face with a tiger, or are up a tree filled with snakes or if you ever find your foot trapped under an elephant. The title of this book intrigued me...and my storytime audience loved it. Of course, you should never startle an elephant, but how can you not yell "Yeowww!" when one is standing on your foot? This book invites the kids to become engaged in the story, so my audience helped make animal noises, waved their arms and yelled "Help!" when sitting in a lake surrounded by alligators and were on their feet going nuts with the monkeys. Thoroughly enjoyable read-aloud.

Can You Make a Scary Face? by Jan Thomas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A little over a year ago, I Grabbed this book for a last minute storytime off the shelf and got lucky - the kids (baby-lapsit & toddler) LOVED it. The readers do all kinds of actions at the suggestions of the cute bug that you see on the front cover. It was the perfect addition to this story time, and by the time I read this one my audience was primed to participate. They can make some very, very scary faces!

School is Cool

Today's storytime was all about the end of summer and the beginning of the school year. We had almost twenty-youngsters attend today - which is record attendance for an event that was not a party or contain giveaways! We started out discussing the end of summer and then read four books about starting school or the school experience. We sang "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "The Wheels on the Bus" and did two finger plays (one I made up!) and sang two other going-off-to-school songs. The group was very engaged and very participatory - always great fun. Here are the books we read today:

Summer's End by Maribeth Boelts
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a very sweet read-aloud for this time of year! A young girl, Jill, mourns the end of summer and all the wonderful things that she experienced while getting ready for the first day of second grade. The softly colored water color illustrations are lovely. This captures all of the emotions that we all experience with the change of seasons and the transition from summer to the school year.

Bailey by Harry Bliss
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Bailey is quite a dog. He goes to school with regular kids, who love him, but he retains his own doggie quirks! For instance, when it comes to choosing his school "outfit" his closet is filled with half a dozen dog collars. He eats his own homework, and then has to visit the school nurse. Bailey is so very lovable, and when that is combined with wonderful illustrations and a text filled with humor, the result is a fun read aloud book about school.

Never Spit on Your Shoes by Denys Cazet
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Arnie arrives home from his first day of school and tells his mother all about his great adventure over milk and cookies. As he recounts his day, we see the events in big bright illustrations. He describes his diverse group of classmates and enjoys the school tour, learning to write his name, and lunch in the cafeteria. Filled with humor, and interesting misadventures I read this one for all of the moms in my audience, who can identify with the experience of listening to tales told by sons and daughters.

We Love Our School!: A Read-Together Rebus Story by Judy Sierra
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The kids at my story time loved this book, which allowed them to participate in the telling of this story. The brightly colored illustrations held their interest and they loved this rebus story, happily yelling out the words represented by the rebus pictures. The rhyming text bounces along to make this a great interactive read aloud.

Mom, It's My First Day of Kindergarten! by Hyewon Yum
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
My storytime loved this story about a young boy getting ready to head off for his first day of kindergarten. In this version of a first day, it is the mom rather than the child that has first day jitters. The kids loved this twist to the traditional stories - you know, where the child is anxious about starting school and the parent is the calming influence. The text and illustrations are engaging and my audience loved this book.

Summer Time

It feels like I posted here just recently, it is difficult to believe that my last post was from May! It has been a summer of great challenges and great fun. It has also been a summer filled with two different summer reading program themes. At the Public Library, the theme was "Dream Big Read" which included "Own The Night" as the teen theme...lots of night time stories, and stories about imagination. At the Military Base we used the iread program theme: "Reading is so Delicious." For the storytimes on base the themes were "Pizza, Pizza!", "Just one Bite...Please?", "Breakfast", "Lunch", "Dinner", and "Party Food" - here are some of the highlights: Pizza is a popular food with kids and they loved this theme. There are lots of great songs and rhymes, and we recycled old CD's to make mini-pizzas as a craft. Our favorite pizza books were:

Hi, Pizza Man! by Virginia Walter
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I love this simple, funny, and oh so imaginative book based on a game the author would play with her granddaughter while waiting for dinner to arrive. This book starts out innocently asking what the little girl will say to the pizza man when the door bell rings (Hi, Pizza Man!) and then the question changes to, but what if it is a pizza lady? dog? dinosaur? The kids in my audience loved this book, and happily helped make the appropriate animal noises and giggled at the wonderful illustrations.

The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza by Philemon Sturges
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Anyone familiar with the traditional tale of the busy red hen with the lazy friends will recognize elements of that tale in this modernized story, especially the recurring phrase "Not I." However, this tale, with the lovely cut paper illustrations from Amy Walrod, is fresh and funny. The story opens with the LRH, having finished the last of her bread, preparing to make dinner - looking in her pantry she finds, next to the canned worms, a can of pizza sauce and decides to make pizza. She doesn't plan very well and makes multiple trips to the store and asks to borrow items from her - predictably - unhelpful friends. The detailed pictures engaged my story time audience as we talked about items in shopping carts (she always buys "some other stuff") and ingredient preparation. There are lots of opportunities to count and to predict what will happen next...and a happy ending for all the characters.

We read books about wild food and picky eaters for "Try Just One Bite":

To Market, To Market by Anne Miranda
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
For any food-based story time this book is a must-read. A wild variation on the nursery rhyme "To Market, To Market" this is one wild, hysterically funny version. All the animals are live and they make mischief once home. My story time audience LOVED this one and laughed out loud at the wonderful illustrations. Fun to read, with rhyming text, this is a real winner

Rah, Rah, Radishes!: A Vegetable Chant by April Pulley Sayre
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
With full page photographs of the most beautiful vegetables this is a wonderful story time book. The rhyming, rhythmic text will make even the most passionate vegetable hater change his/her mind!

Our favorite meal time books were:
If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Joffe Numeroff
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Laura Numeroff's books are such classics, and all the kids love them. The gently outrageous consequences that stem from a simple act: giving a mouse a cookie, a muffin to a moose or a pancake to a hungry pig - are sure to make any reader smile. The kids hung on every word and took in every colorful, detailed picture. They even giggled at most of them. They also knew what was coming so when we got to the last page, they all knew that the pig, in the end was going to ask for a pancake. After words I got out a flannel of the story, and the children retold the story with the help of the flannel clues - and they did a very good job of it, too!

A Most Unusual Lunch by Robert Bender
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
When a hungry frog innocently eats a beetle it starts a most...unusual chain of events. Each animal is swallowed whole by a larger animal who displays artifacts of the swallowed animal. My story time audience loved the soft, colorful illustrations and giggled at the wild combinations that occur - for instance lion, the top of this food chain, awakes from a nap to find he had "two antennae, six tiny little legs on his underbelly, two big green legs, a fish tail that rattled, a long forked tongue, plus strange scales.." the expression on the face of this unhappy lion is just priceless. He lets out a roar that begins the chain of animals being released and returning to normal. The warning is clear - you are what you eat - and laughter is guaranteed.

Little Whistle's Dinner Party by Cynthia Rylant
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
My story time audience was familiar with Little Whistle, the adorable guinea pig who lives in a toy store. He is nocturnal and spends many happy nights, once the store shades have been drawn, visiting with his toy-friends in the shop, who come to life at night as well. All of our favorites are here, soldier who reads stories to all the store's babies, lion who loves vanilla cookies, and bear who loves hats. In this book, Little Whistle invites all of his friends to a dinner party, makes elaborate preparations and then arrives in a helicopter to the dinner bringing dessert. Charming and lovable my story time audience hung on every words and smiled at every illustration.

Company's Coming by Arthur Yorinks
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
It was the quiet, normal suburban neighborhood where Moe and Shirley were preparing to host a quiet family spaghetti dinner when....
Aliens drop in on their way to another galaxy and ask to use the bathroom. Shirley is polite to these new guests inviting them to dinner and then calmly offering drinks and appetizers once they arrive to dine. Moe, on the other hand, calls the FBI and has the house surrounded by all sorts of big military tanks and guns. There is humor in the text as well as the wonderful illustrations - very popular with my story time audience.

Little Mouse and the Big Cupcake by Thomas Taylor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Sweet book about how difficult it is to share. When mouse finds an enormous cupcake he is thrilled - until he realizes that he can't carry it home! One by one he enlists all his friends to try and help him. Of course, Mouse allows each to take a bit...but then hungry mouse begins to fear that there may not be any left for him...

We even did a finger play about five little cupcakes, and I used the new glove set that I created:

For the storytime that included our end of SRP party the theme was - what else? - Party Foods and included these two favorites:
The Beastly Feast by Bruce Goldstone
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The illustrations in this book are detailed and vibrant, they almost jump off the page. The text is simple and the rhyming is wonderful. The beasts are having a feast and every animal is bringing something. Bears bring pears and parrots bring carrots....mice bring rice and mosquitos bring burritos. This book is a very engaging read aloud...kids loved the pictures and completing the rhymes (not always successfully) For instance when the feast is over everybody claps - the armadillos bring some pillows and then everybody...."Sleeps!" called out my young audience...naps. I'll keep working on rhyming...

Bear Wants More by Karma Wilson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I love Karma Wilson's books. They are great read alouds. With Jane Chapman's charming illustrations this one is an absolute winner. It is spring and one skinny bear wakes up hungry...with the help of his friends he eats his way through the day, devouring everything and wanting more (a great repeated phrase that a story time audience will pick up on. The rhyming text is very readable and the party scene at the end elicited giggles galore from my audience.

My biggest challenge at my public library job was to work with a fleet of volunteers to manage a summer reading program that included 1,045 registrants, 10 weekly programs and a teen lock-in event with a zombie theme (remember "Own the Night") It definitely kept me on my toes. We had a 56% completion rate, and huge attendance at the programs, so I guess I had a very successful summer@my library.