Funny Farm for Babies

This week's Baby Bookworms theme was "Down on The Farm."  It was great fun for all.  The books contained plenty of good rhyming and rhythm so they were fun for me to read aloud.  Bright illustrations held the audience visually and the fun stories had the adult partners in the audience smiling and laughing and participating.  I read four books, two are new and two from previous blog entries.  We sang several songs, including "Five White and Fluffy Sheep" (to the tune of "Five Green and Speckled Frogs") and "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" although we switched Old MacDonald to "Farmer Joe" to match the book.  The favorite was our tickle for today:

Milk the Cow (Baby Tickle)

(Tune: “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”)

Milk, Milk, Milk the cow 

(gently stroke baby’s arms, legs or hands)

Milking’s what we do

And when the milking is all done,

The cow says, “Moooooo!” 

(Tickle baby’s tummy)

I'm rather embarrassed to say that I don't have the source for this one.  I checked my usual resources and then even did a google search where I found a number of other variations, but not this version.  Thank you to whoever I borrowed this from, it was a big hit with my babies and their adult partners!

Here are the new books we read:

Baby Animal Farm by Karen Blair
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Babies meet baby animals on a farm, what could possibly be cuter than that?  Simple text ("Follow the ducklings. Quack, quack, quack.")  and soft illustrations of happy babies toddling after animals, petting and feeding them make this a very engaging book.  This is a good book to use to introduce new vocabulary to very young readers who will learn the words for animal babies of all kinds like, piglets, calves, kids and lambs.


Peek-a-Moo! by Marie  Torres Cimarusti
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Big bright pull down flaps show a variety of animals playing "Peek-a…" and you finish the phrase with the sound the animal makes: for example, "Peek-a-Oink!" when you see the top of a pig peeking out from behind the flap.  Everyone had fun finishing the phrase with the animal sounds.


Here are the two old favorites:

Lions and Tigers and Bears! Oh, My!

So, I admit I have used this theme before…but one of my story time regulars REALLY loves lions and tigers, so it seemed right to bring it back. The books were all new, the craft was new - we made a paper bag puppet lion The rhymes and songs were mixed - and I even rewrote some. Repeating this theme made me realize how much I have grown as a story teller over the past two years!  It was a young audience, so I didn't read all of the books I'd planned and I changed my presentation on the fly (another thing that is much easier to do now!) to better suit a small audience of rambunctious two-year-olds, but here are the books we read:

The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The illustrations are breathtaking in the wordless book.  My original plan for story time was to read a traditional version of this Aesop's fable, and then pull this book out next and have members of my audience help me tell the story…my audience was small and young, so I used this book instead and just ad-libbed the fable.  This version has it all: the fierce, majestic lion and a tiny, beautifully drawn mouse, hunters, a snare, and a promise kept.  In this version the mouse scurries back to a nest full of babies, so I included the fact that she was a mother in the conversation she had with the lion as she pleaded with him to save her life.  Don't let the fact that this is a wordless picture book stop you from sharing it with a story time audience - because my audience loved it.


Chloe and the Lion by Mac Barnett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is an hysterically funny book!  The author and illustrator (or should I say illustrators?) feature prominently along with Chloe the main character and a lion…no a dragon…NO a lion ("but a dragon is so much cooler")  The story progresses slowly, as the author and illustrator argue about text and pictures and replacement illustrators.  There is the running gag above (a dragon would be so much cooler) and humor filled illustrations and just plain funny text as the author argues with and fires two illustrators and then argues with Chloe about the way she looks.  Everything works out in the end.  This one had my audience rolling in the aisles!


Mr. Tiger Goes Wild by Peter  Brown
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
When the book opens, Mr. Tiger lives in a very proper city where everything around him is a very proper brown/gray and everyone wears hats and ties and sips tea from tea cups.  Then Mr. Tiger decides to go wild.  His life becomes much more colorful when he begins walking on all fours and abandons this suit and hat  for a swim in a fountain.  His next step is to go off into the wilderness where he is surrounded by trees and waterfalls and large, open, grassy fields.  One rainy day, he realizes that his misses the comforts of the city and he misses his friends.  Upon returning he sees that even in the city things have changed…The illustrations are lovely and have a very "retro" look and feel to them.  The use of color helps reinforce the changes in the Mr. Tiger and his friends.  The text is elegant in its simplicity and combines well with the illustrations to tell a fun story that even the youngest members of my story time audience could relate to.


Baby Bear by Kadir Nelson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Baby Bear is lost!  We feel his fear through the beautiful illustrations and simple text. The text is mostly dialog as he asks animal after animal for help in finding his way home.  This is an awesome book, that my story time audience loved.  It is a quiet, gentle story that worked well to close my story time and would also work well as a bedtime story.


Here are the two others that I had prepared to read:

The Lion and the Mice by Rebecca Emberley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is a retelling of the Aesop's fable, using simple language and the brightly colored illustrations that are the Emberley's trademark.  The bright colors captured and held my story time audience' attention, although I worried that some of the illustrations might be a bit too scary.  The story doesn't flow as well as it could, but since everyone knows the basics it is easy enough to ad lib a bit to smooth the rough edges.


The Rabbit And The Turtle by Eric Carle
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a awesome collection of eleven Aesop's fables.  Each fable is told in everyday language that is easy to understand.  Each fable covers two pages in this book - the first is the text of the fable and the facing page is an amazing Eric Carle illustration.


Here is one of my reworked songs (from King County Library's "Tell Me A Story"):

The Lions in the Zoo

(Tune: "The Wheels on The Bus")

The lions at the zoo say, “Roar, roar, roar! 

Roar, roar, roar” “Roar, roar, roar” 

The lions at the zoo say, “Roar, roar, roar” 

All day long. 

The Lions at the zoo… 

             …they groom their mane. 

         …they flex their claws. 

        …they swish their tail.

Aaah! Cute, Baby Animals

"Paws to Read" continued this week with a story time filled with cute baby animals. Some of the books we read were repeats from past story times and several were brand new. I modified some animal songs and rhymes and we did several others straight from the source. For craft I found a coloring sheet where the kids not only colored the animals but then matched the baby animal with it's parent.
Here are the new books:

Kitten for a Day by Ezra Jack Keats
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Cute, cute illustrations! Simple text tells the story of a puppy who spends the day playing with four adorable kittens. There are great engagement opportunities - my story time audience loved counting the kittens, spotting the mouse that appears part way through the story and laughing at poor puppy as he is less than successful at acting like a kitten!

ZooBorns ABC by Andrew Bleiman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
From Anteater to a photo spread of all of the zooborns this concept book is filled with amazing photographs of all sorts of adorable baby animals. Some are familiar (giraffe, hippo , and rhino) while others are less so (tapir, nyala, vicuna, and yak). Truly awesome and a real story time audience pleaser.

Charlie and the New Baby by Ree Drummond
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The illustrations are lovely and this story, like all of Charlie's stories, is told simply and are filled with humor. There are a number of laugh out loud moments here. A new calf is brought into the house and tucked into Charlie's bed! He is confused by this turn of events and he is not sure he wants to share with this new comer at first. In the end he realizes that his family has more than enough love to go around. The story is a bit choppy and feels unfinished…at the end there are several wordless pages and then text on the last page that talks about "Abigail" (who I assumed is the calf) and shows everyone happily working and playing. The last few pages left us all feeling slightly confused.

A Bit Lost by Chris Haughton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
My story time audience chimed in with Uh-oh and was very engaged in the story of an owlet who goes searching for his mother after falling out of his nest. A helpful squirrel has Little Owl describe his mom and then helps in the search - Owlet's partial descriptions lead to some very funny situations. The simple comforting text combines well with the brightly colored illustrations and was very pleasing to my story time audience.

Hush, Little Ones by John Butler
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Awesome bedtime book! Large beautiful pictures show a variety of animals as they are snuggling up at bedtime. The simple rhyming text reads like a lullaby.

Here are the two "repeats":

A fun story time!

Animals are Everywhere

Paws, fins, hooves, claws, and wings is the image that I pulled from our summer reading resources for the title slide of my power point presentation of the words for the songs and rhymes at this week's story time. I chose stories that each contained lots of different animals. The craft was based on the last book I read, Animal Masquerade by Marianne Dubuc - I printed some animal masks that the kids colored, cut and could wear so that they could also wear a disguise.

Here are today's books:

The Zoo I Drew by Todd H. Doodler
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a wonderful romp through the alphabet. With big bold pictures of all sorts of animals and goofy, rhyming text the reader is treated to a good laugh while learning the alphabet and all sorts of animal facts. The entries for "U" and "X" are marvelous. Great read-aloud although I found myself changing some of the text on the fly to make the rhythm work...

A House Is a House for Me by Mary Ann Hoberman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Houses of all kinds are the subject of this book filled with wonderfully detailed illustrations and rhyming text. The text flows beautifully and makes this a great read aloud. All sorts of houses for animals are depicted, "a hill is a home for an ant…a hive is a home for a bee…a web is a home for a spider…."and all sorts of homes for things as well: "a sandwich is home for some ham…a peach is a home for a peach pit…a hangar's a home for a plane…" Even the youngest members of my audience loved this book and afterwards we even came up with a few homes of our own…a book is a home for some words and pictures…a library is the home for books."

Almost An Animal Alphabet by Katie Viggers
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a beautiful concept book for the very young that will also please the adult reading/sharing the book. The illustrations are soft and sweet and there are plenty of opportunities to add some counting for additional engagement with the reader. Many of the letters illustrate multiple examples of the animal…for example "B is for Bears" features eight different bears all of them labeled. "E is for Elephant" is a two page spread illustrating the differences between Asian and African Elephants. Such a beautiful book!

Animal Masquerade by Marianne Dubuc
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
All of the animals are having a masquerade party - disguises are a must - and so, one by one, we meet each of the animals and what they are wearing. There are colored pencil drawings - and the ones depicting the animal in costume are hilarious. There is simple text mainly The went disguised as a and one animal leads to another - for example the wiener dogs went as a zebra and then, on the next page, the zebra went as a mouse. There are some puns (the fish went as a cat…which made him a catfish) and the author pokes fun at chickens (the hen didn't dress up because she didn't understand a thing) This was laugh-out-loud funny for kids and adults alike and there were plenty of opportunities to engage by identifying animals and making their sounds.

One little guy left the library wearing his brightly colored lion mask and roaring much to everyone's delight.

Party Animals

Well, the 2014 Summer Reading Program has officially begun.  This year's theme in California is "Paws to Read" all about animals.  So many great books and fun story time extras: flannels, songs, rhymes and crafts!  At my public library job we held a great big kick-off party and we registered almost 200 patrons for summer reading.  The theme was cat vs. dog, and one of the activities was to vote for the animal you like best.  Kids voted as they came into the children's area on our white board.  Dogs won, but it wasn't a terribly accurate vote as I caught a number of kids erasing tally marks several times during the day.

Dogs were the winners…but there was some voter fraud!

There were crafts as well.  The kids could make a cat or dog out of pipe cleaners/chenille stems, a dog or cat paper bag puppet and/or the most popular, an invisible dog leash and collar.  We lined a bent-out coat hanger with colored straws, and then kids decorated a card stock strip for the collar that was then attached to the end of the "leash" then they could take their dogs on a walk.  Watch for pictures on the library's Facebook Page.

It was this kick-off party that inspired the theme for this week's story time at the Base Library.  We did songs and rhymes about farm animals and pets and wild animals.  Even one that I made up directly relating to the theme:

Animals Love a Party

Animals love a party, oh yes, they do

With good things to eat Fun with friends.

A cake with candles, too

Rabbits, cows, lions and bears

They’ll even bring treats to share

Animals love a party, oh yes, they do

 So for your next birthday

Why not invite and animal or two?

Here are the books we read, the first two I previously reviewed:

The Surprise Party by Pat Hutchins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Lovely illustrations and simple text tell the story of rabbit, who is planning a surprise party, and all of his friends - who don't quite get the message right. Just like the child's game of "telephone" rabbit tells his friend owl that he is having a party and it is a surprise….as owl passes the message to the next friend, well, the message gets a little garbled…rabbit is hoeing the parsley tomorrow…then the next friend hears that rabbit is reading his poetry tomorrow ("how dull"). It isn't until it is almost party time, that the real message gets through to the friends and they end up having a lovely time. Most of my audience was too young to know how to play "telephone" but they loved the illustrations and still found humor in the story.

Big and Small by Guido Van Genechten
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a large board book, filled with pages of animals. Each two page spread shows a dozen or so animals (from hand/finger print elephants to sponge painted chicks and owls) and asks a series of questions like who is big and who is small? Who is asleep and who is awake? A Great book for getting an audience to engage with a book! It is bright and colorful and funny. Kids love shouting out the answers. The last question on each page is "and who is ready to go to a party?" and there is usually one of the animals is wearing or holding a subtle reference to a party (hat, present, candles) which foreshadows the final two pages where the animals are celebrating at a birthday party.

For today's craft I found a jungle animal coloring sheet and the kids turned them into a set of stick puppets that they could use to create their own animal party or feast. Great fun.

Baby Bookworms and Moms

My Baby Bookworms story time fell on the Monday after Mother's Day, but is it ever wrong to celebrate Mothers?  At the library, we have a "Mommy and Me" yoga class that runs about thirty minutes and then after about a fifteen minute break, I present a Baby Bookworms story time.  We have a great group of regulars and it has been great fun to see the babies and their moms bond and make friends in this group.

Here are the books:

Five Minutes' Peace by Jill Murphy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I discovered this book many years ago when I was home raising three young children and wondering if I would ever enjoy a hot meal or converse with an adult in full sentences ever again.  Mrs. Large yearns for just 5 minutes peace.  So she sneaks off to the bathroom to enjoy a soak in the bath with tea and the paper...and enjoys about  a minute of "heaven" before, one by one, her three youngsters invade the bathroom, and finally end up in the tub with her.  She sneaks back down to the kitchen where she enjoys three minutes and forty-five seconds of peace before her three wet young find her, wrapped in towels.  This is my mother's day gift for the moms in my story time audience, and every single one can identify with Mrs. Large and her desire for just a few minutes of peace.  But they can also identify with the love and humor that fills this book about that very special bond between mothers and their children.


Benjamin's Bugs by Mary Morgan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is a sweet little book -  that is not so much about bugs as it is about a boy and his mother...and her love for him.  Chosen for a bug themed storytime, I used it instead for my Mother's Day storytime. This is a small book, with tiny, detailed illustrations so it would not work well for a large group.  Benjamin spends most of the book being a youngster (The characters are porcupines) and being distracted while taking a walk with his mother.  He also tries out some independence - climbing trees and trying to catch fish in a pond....finding out the hard was that it is a good thing that his mom is nearby.


Seven Hungry Babies by Candace Fleming
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
While the rhythm isn't perfect, the humor in the illustrations make up for anything lacking.  Seven chicks hatch with a mighty crack and immediately demand to be fed.  Mom does her best buy by the time she feeds all seven she is exhausted.  There is a nice twist at the end, that made all of the moms in my story time audience laugh out loud.  Great read for Mother's day or to add to a bird themed story time.


Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
With wonderful read-aloud rhyming text and adorable illustrations the parents in my story time audience smiled in recognition of a bed time routine.  Mother Llama reads a story, kisses her little llama good night and turns out the light and heads downstairs to finish the dishes and her evening routine.  Llama llama has other ideas, though, and spends much of the rest of the book creating "bedtime drama" that sends mother back to comfort her panic stricken little llama.


The Moms in my audience loved the books…and don't tell anyone, but that is the real target audience for a baby-lapsit story time.

Furry and Purry

This month one of the celebrations is "Hug Your Cat Day" according to Brownie Locks so, of course we needed a cat themed story time!  There are so many great cat and kitten books and plenty of rhymes and songs this one is an easy-peasy child pleaser.

First the books:

Pete the Cat and His Magic Sunglasses by James Dean
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Pete the cool blue cat is back and he is in a bad mood!  This changes when he is given a pair of cool blue sunglasses that change the way he sees the world.  He shares the sunglasses with a number of his friends that are also feeling badly.  Eventually, he learns that attitude is everything - and it has nothing to do with sunglasses.  With a repeated rhyming phrase and great illustrations, this was an audience pleaser.


A Kitten Tale by Eric Rohmann
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a fun book about four adorable kittens anticipating their first winter snow.  The great illustrations capture a kitten's curiosity and playfulness as they romp through fall leaves and talk about cold.  One of the kittens actually looks forward to winter snow and immediately goes out to play in the first snowfall.  Simple, sweet text complete this wonderful, gentle tale.


Feathers for Lunch by Lois Ehlert
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is an awesome read-aloud with breathtaking illustrations and simple rhyming text.  A cat gets out and searches for lunch "something new" since "his food in the can is tame and mild, so he's gone out to find something wild."  The birds that he stalks are clearly labeled and there is more information about the birds in notes at the end.


Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
With illustrations that are in shades of gray to reflect the night, little kitten makes unsuccessful attempts to get a drink from the big bowl of milk she sees above her.  My storytime audience watched and listened to Kitten's every attempt and felt her pain with each failure.  In the end, they cheered when she found an actual bowl of milk waiting for her on her very own front porch and were very glad that there was a happy ending!


We did a cat/kitten version of "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" for our wiggle break.  It went like this:

Kitty Head and Shoulders

Head, shoulders, tail and claws. Tail and claws.

Head, shoulders, tail and claws. Tail and claws.

Eyes and ears and whiskers and paws.

Head, shoulders, tail and claws. Tail and claws.

For our craft we made a Kitten's First Full Moon inspired mask that I found on Pinterest.  Here is the sample I made:

All in all a very successful story time!

Bunnies and Eggs 2014

With the approach of Easter it is time for our story time about Bunnies and Eggs.  Flannels of bunnies and eggs and rhymes like "Robbie the Rabbit" and "The Easter Bunny."  We had great fun!

Here is what we read:

Minerva Louise and the Colorful Eggs by Janet Morgan Stoeke
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
There is simple text and bright, springtime illustrations and Minerva the chicken.  Minerva finds an Easter basket and then some colored eggs.  She is worried that mother chicken has lost these eggs and recruits her chicken friends to help save the eggs.  The chickens are alarmed until they see the farmer's children picking up the scattered eggs.  The story is filled with humor (Minerva tries to talk to a chocolate bunny and sit on an egg on top of a fence post) and my young story time audience loved it.

The Story of the Easter Bunny by Katherine Tegen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Filled with breathtaking illustrations we see the story of an "old, round couple" who spent every winter making baskets and eggs to distribute to the children of their village on Easter…and their rabbit who watched, helped and then took over for them when they became too old.  This is just a lovely book!

Ollie's Easter Eggs by Olivier Dunrea

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

With simple text and adorable illustrations we see how all of our favorite Dunrea characters are preparing for Easter.  Eggs are gathered, dyed, and hidden by everyone except Ollie.  Ollie is busy hopping and, well, being Ollie.  Ollie decides he wants all of the eggs and moves them.  When his friends start their hunt they can't find a single egg until Ollie takes them to his stash, which is now tied up in ribbons and decorated with flowers. My story time audience talked about how bad it was to steal the eggs…until we realized that Ollie gathered the eggs to give to his friends with his special touches added.  

Who Hid the Easter Eggs by Pirkko Vainio

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A sweet story of eggs, a bird and a watchful, helpful squirrel. When Jack the bird steals all of the Easter eggs and places him in his nest, Harry the squirrel saves the Easter egg hunt by convincing Jack to return the eggs and helping to hide all of them again, just before the children set out with their baskets.  The illustrations are awesome and the reader can't help but fall in love  with Jack and Harry.

The Easter Bunny's Assistant by Jan Thomas

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

With Jan Thomas' amazingly vibrant and humor filled illustrations and wonderful word bubble text, my story time audience found this book laugh-out-loud-funny.  The Easter Bunny is trying to give the reader very serious step-by-step lessons in creating beautiful Easter eggs. He is joined by his assistant, Skunk, who finds the whole process very exciting.  The problem is when a skunk gets excited….Skunk is put outside (step 4: remove skunk from room) but is able to return to help the Easter Bunny hide the eggs…outside.

Bugs are Back!

Spring is here…and that means that it is time for our annual story time about bugs.  Some things stay the same and some things are different.  I found some really good books this year and the audience was great, singing and rhyming and laughing in all the right places!  I dug out my old paper puppet ladybugs and we did "Two Little Ladybugs" and for our craft each child created a set of his or her very own.  That part was the same, as were the songs and rhymes.

Here are the books we read:

Yoo-Hoo, Ladybug! by Mem Fox
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book is so much fun to read aloud, and so engaging to a small story time audience.  Each page shows very detailed illustration in which a lady bug is hiding.  There is a call, "Yoo Hoo! Lady bug where are you?" and the hunt is on.  Turn the page and the reader is given textual hints to pin point her location.  Great fun and very engaging.

Butterfly Kiss by Marcial Boo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A beautifully illustrated story of the butterfly, Kiss, who sets off to find a new home.  He meets all sorts of other animals, none of whom want a kiss.  He does finally find a home…with an old man and his grandchild.  My story time audience loved this gentle story especially the gorgeous illustrations.

One Bear with Bees in His Hair by Jakki Wood
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
With bouncy, rhyming text and bold colorful illustrations this is a charming counting book about ten happy, hide and seek playing bears.  With lots of opportunities to engage a story time audience, this one ends in a cool guessing game.

I Love Bugs! by Emma Dodd
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
What a fun book about bugs!  My story time audience loved the large bouncy text and wonderfully kid-friendly illustrations.  Lots of great adjectives and "sound" words help the reader do what the young boy in the story is doing, enter the world of bugs.  This is a great read-aloud!

Wearing o' the Green

This is a fun annual story time to do the week leading up to St.  Patrick's Day. (Yes, I'm a little behind in posting here!) While I haven't found that many good read alouds about St. Patrick's Day for young children, there are a large number of really good "green" books.  So, "Wear Your Green" is our annual theme.  Many of the folks in  my audience did wear green and we had great fun.  I have a flannel sets of sparkly shamrocks and five little leprechauns which are always very popular this time of year.

Here are the books:

Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book is awesome…beautiful, rich illustrations of all sorts of green from sea foam and lime to forest and  khaki.  There are fun die cuts that help illustrate the color green and then on the backside become part of a spoon or apples on a tree.  Just when my story time audience was getting a little bit board with green, the book takes a turn and there is an illustration of "Wacky Green" that made the entire group laugh out loud.  This is a Caldecott Honor book and it shows.


Lizette's Green Sock by Catharina Valckx
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
One green sock, a pair of bullies, a best friend, and a change of perspective can turn a frown into a smile.  Lizette finds a single green sock, then searches everywhere for it's mate after being told that socks aren't any good unless they come as a pair.  She is disappointed until her best friend gives her a new way of looking at her sock which leads to a very happy ending.  My story time audience loved this one.


Nibbles: A Green Tale by Charlotte Middleton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Not only is there a lot of green in here...the whole town loves dandelion greens...but it is also a story of living green, when Nibbles works to save his favorite food from extinction...


Green Shamrocks by Eve Bunting
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Adorable illustrations and simple text tell the story of rabbit - growing shamrocks in a yellow pot and his friend goat.  When the pot of shamrocks disappears the night before the big St. Patrick's Day parade Rabbit searches everywhere and finds it just in time.  The last two page spread shows the entire forest celebrating, which means a great opportunity to engage a story time audience by having them count, identify and make the sounds of each of the animals.  We had great fun with this one.

Hey Cupcake!

While scanning a list of holidays searching for some story time theme ideas (Brownielocks' Holidays) I read that February 24 was National Cupcake Day.  I didn't look carefully enough to note that it was a Canadian holiday only…although my audience didn't care.   After all, who doesn't like cupcakes? I found plenty of songs and rhymes that I could easily adapt to cupcake.  For craft, I did provide a coloring sheet…but the kids were more interested in eating the real cupcakes that I handed out than coloring one.

First, the books we read:

Pinkalicious by Victoria Kann

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One rainy day, a girl and her mom make cupcakes…pink cupcakes.  When the girl eats one too many, she discovers she has turned pink…which is ok for awhile, because pink is her favorite color.  My story time audience giggled in all the right places and loved the nicknames our pink heroine gave herself, "Pinkerbelle" and "Pinkerella."  Her doctor prescribes a diet of green foods to cure the "pinkititis, which she follows after an encounter with birds and bees in a park.  We had a lively discussion about green foods, and laughed at the twist in the end.   Fun read-aloud.

If You Give a Cat a Cupcake by Laura Joffe Numeroff

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One lovable cat, a simple cupcake and some sprinkles start a typical chain of events in this Laura Numeroff story.  Cat demands to be taken to the beach. the gym, and rowing in a canoe.  My story time audience laughed at all of the antics and drank up the wonderfully detailed, humor filled illustrations.

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...

Maisy Cleans Up by Lucy Cousins

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

With simple large text and simple, colorful large illustrations the reader is introduced to Maisy, an industrious mouse who is cleaning house.  Her friend Charley comes to visit and he helps her clean while waiting for the kitchen floor to dry in order to get to some freshly baked cupcakes.  My story time audience loved this one as well - the adults agreeing that we all need a friend like Charley (he even does windows!) and the kids rejoicing in the friendship and the cupcake reward at the end. 

Glove set for "Five Little Cupcakes" Fingerplay:

Five Little Cupcakes (or Cookies)

Five Little cupcakes with frosting galore

Mother ate one and then there were four

Four little cupcakes, two and two, you see

Father ate one and then there were three.

          Three little cupcakes, but before I knew,

                                         Sister ate one, and then there were two.

                                       Two little cupcakes, yum - yum-yum

                                            Brother ate one, and that left one.

                                         One little cupcake, here I come

                                          I ate it and now there are none! 

All in all a very successful story time.  Kids and adults laughed in all the right places, participated and were engaged in the stories.