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.

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!