Pets are Great

So, for preschool story time this week the theme was Pets are Great.   This theme is serendipitous, chosen because of some random books that happened to come across my desk at the same time. A new Dr. Seuss (published 24 years after his death), a cute new book and one book that I had  requested from another branch - for another reason.  I do happen to think that pets are great and so did my audience.

Here are the books we read:
Who Wants Broccoli? by Val Jones
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Broccoli is a fun loving dog, who has spent most of his life in the Beezley's animal shelter.  Oscar is a young boy who wants a fun loving dog for a pet.  Will the two find each other and prove that "there is a lid for every pot and a pot for every lid?" This is an incredibly heartwarming story filled with humor and love. The illustrations are truly awesome and my story time audiences immediately fell in love with Broccoli, and the other incredibly cute animals in the shelter.  This one is a story time winner - when Broccoli does indeed"find his lid" against all odds my entire story time audience said "Ahhhh."

What Pet Should I Get? by Dr. Seuss
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is unmistakably a Dr. Seuss book - bold colors, the wonderfully whimsical illustrations that are such an unforgettable part of each of his stories, and text that just bounces along.  This one is a bit strained, however.  The story of a brother and sister at a pet store having to choose just one to take home is funny, but a little flat.  Maybe it is the two double page reminders to "MAKE UP YOUR MIND" that interrupted the rhythm and the story...or maybe it was the ending that made me feel slightly disappointed.  Don't get me wrong, this is a fun and well illustrated story, and my two story time audiences seemed to love it.   Both groups seemed to enjoy the ending more than I did, and it turned out to be a  point of great engagement with the kids as I encouraged them to use the imagination...which they did with great enthusiasm.

Not Norman: A Goldfish Story by Kelly Bennett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The illustrations are bright and bold and beautiful and the text simple.  This is a wonderful story about a boy and his dog...um fish and the growing affection between boy and pet.  When the boy receives Norman as a birthday gift, he is disappointed -he didn't want a stupid fish, he wanted a pet that could play catch and curl up on his bed at night.  The story contains a number of very funny attempts to trade Norman for a "good" pet which are laugh-out-loud good.  When the boy does get a chance to trade Norman for another pet, he finds that he really does have the perfect pet, after all.  In addition to good messages and plenty of humor, the main character in this book is dark skinned, and he is surrounded by other diverse characters.

This was a well received theme and the books complemented each other nicely.  Two out of the three books elicited a spontaneous "Ahhhh" from my audience - clearly they were touched by the tenderness of the stories.  Another good thing about this theme:  there are lots of great songs and rhymes and lots of great easy crafts as well.

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:

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!

Hats!

This theme was easy to put together, there are great hat books, great hat rhymes, and great hat crafts.  I had a rather large - for the base library - audience and they were wonderfully engaged and interactive.  We had a great story time!  Our craft was a simple coloring sheet which I crafted with three different kinds of hats, having lost the matching sheet I wanted to use.  I know I saw it somewhere on the web…oh, why didn't I pin it on Pinterest?

Here are the books we read and the rhymes:

Stormy's Hat: Just Right for a Railroad Man by Eric A. Kimmel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This wonderful book is based on the true story of George "Stormy" Kromer and his wife Ida who created the original railroad engineer's cap in 1903 - the same cap worn today, over one hundred years later, by railroad workers everywhere.  My story time audience loved all of Stormy's attempts to find a hat that was just right for a railroad man…fedora, pressman's hat, cowboy hat, firefighter's helmet…nothing worked.  With each failed hat, Ida tries to make a suggestion, to which Stormy replies, "don't worry your pretty little head.'  When he finally listens, Ida creates the perfect hat based on his description.  The illustrations are lovely and the text, a little longer than my usual story time books, held my audience's interest.  There are wonderful author's notes at the end as well.

Then we did the action rhyme, "Tall Hat, Small Hat":
          Tall hat (Arms overhead)
          Small hat (hands close to head)
          Big hat (arms spread out)
          Cap (hands on head)
          Let's take them off again (repeat rhyme with motions in reverse).
          And put them in my lap (fold hands in lap)

Whose Hat Is This?: A Look at Hats Workers Wear--Hard, Tall, and Shiny by Sharon Katz Cooper
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I love 'guessing game" books for story time - they encourage audience involvement and engagement, which encourages fun and enjoyment.  This one shows a portion of a hat/helmet and a one sentence question/hint and then, when the reader turns the page, there is the answer and information about the specific hat/helmet.  Some of the hats are quite esoteric - like a beekeeper's hat.  My young audience correctly guessed more than half, and really enjoyed the process.  The illustrations are bright and bold, and alternate well between men and women wearers.

This was followed by a hats flannel:

The kids had great fun identifying the various hats and we counted and identified the hat by color.  The green construction hat threw them a bit, since in the two prior books the construction hats had both been yellow!

Then we read:

Martin's Hats by Joan W. Blos

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is an older book (c 1984) with very detailed illustrations and imaginative text about Martin, who puts on a hat and has adventure after adventure…from spelunking under the bed to crashing a party to being a train engineer.  He also directs traffic, delivers mail, and puts out a fire in Chicago.  When he gets home, he finds a special hat waiting: a nightcap and he falls asleep.  This is a charing little book.

Do You Have a Hat? by Eileen Spinelli

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

With wonderfully bright illustrations, the text "name drops" depicting famous people and the hats they wore.  The end notes provide information about all of the people and their accomplishments.  The rhyming text is fun to read aloud and the kids love the refrain of, "Do you have a hat?"  There was much discussion of the types of hats my audience owns and wears.  Great, fun read-aloud.

There were lots of laughs and lots of participation.  We did our wiggle break, "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" twice and followed that by putting on our magic hats:

Put on your magic hat (put hands on head)

You can do anything in your magic hat!

You can hop and hop…

You can make a face….

You can flap and flap…

The kids really had fun hopping and flapping!  All in all this was one magical story time.