Hi, Pizza Man! by Virginia WalterMy 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 SturgesMy 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 MirandaMy 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 SayreMy 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 NumeroffMy 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 BenderMy 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 RylantMy 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 YorinksMy 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 TaylorMy 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:
The Beastly Feast by Bruce GoldstoneMy 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 WilsonMy 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment