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.