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!

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.

For Book Lovers!

In addition to hosting Valentine's Day, did you know that February is also Book Lover's Month?  So, this week my story time theme was "Wild About Books" and the stories we read and all of the songs and rhymes were devoted to book lovers.  Our last song was about making books - the author writes the book…the illustrator drawers the pictures….and for the craft, the kids got to write and illustrate their very own four page book.

Here's what I read:

I Love My Little Storybook by Anita Jeram
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a magical book about a rabbit, a storybook and all the wonderful places they go.  The illustrations are beautiful and the text captures the true joy of reading.


Maybe A Bear Ate It! by Robie H. Harris
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Sweet tale of a book lover!  A cat-like figure crawls into bed with all sorts of stuffed animals and falls asleep while reading a book.  In the morning he stretches and knocks the book under the bed…and then panics because he can't find his book.  Panic stricken, his imagination runs away with him as he imagines all of the things that may have happened to his beloved book - maybe a bear ate it, or a stegosaurus stomped on it, or a rhino ran away with it.  He looks high and low…the illustrations are great…and eventually, with great joy, he finds his book, and falls asleep reading it.


Carlo Likes Reading by Jessica Spanyol
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Carlo is a giraffe who reads every chance he gets.  Many of the rooms in his house have labels on items, and he reads in his room, in the bathroom getting ready for bed, in the kitchen as he has breakfast.  He reads with family members, friends and to ducks and his cat, Crackers.  The bright, child like illustrations charmed my story time audience and there were many opportunities to interact with my story time audience and have them count items…and identify items, which was a nice supplement to the simple text.  A big hit with my audience.


Book! Book! Book! by Deborah Bruss
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This was my favorite book at Storytime.  This illustrations are sweet and there are animals and a library...and animal sounds.  What more could you ask for in a read aloud?  When the kids go back to school the farm animals are sad and bored and wander off to town in search of something fun to do.  They see happy people coming out of the library and so, one by one, they go in and ask the librarian for help.  The problem is that she can't understand them, until finally the chicken goes in and clucks, "Book, book, book." Finally, the librarian understands and the happy animals return to the farm to read their books. The kids helped me make all the animal sounds and giggled in all the right places.

Olympic Groundhogs!

OK, so here we have the first Storytime Mashup.  On February 4, with Groundhog Day happening a few days earlier and the start of the Winter Olympics happening just a few days later, I was torn for a theme…so I mashed both of those concepts together.  The kids loved it.  I suppose the only thing I missed including  was the Superbowl - maybe I should have gone with "Olympic Groundhogs that Play Football."  Hmmm.  Maybe next year.

Here are the books we read:

Snow Happy! by Patricia Hubbell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
All of the joy of a snow day are captured in lively rhyming text and soft, brightly colored illustrations.  Waking up to snow, the kids in the story are "silly-willy laugh, feeling slightly daffy" as they leap and run through the snow.  It didn't take long for my audience to join in the repeated chorus of "snow happy!"  and engage in counting kids, spotting animals in the illustrations, and counting snow angels.  Fun read-aloud.


Olympics by B.G. Hennessy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The winter olympics are coming and so I wanted to devote a story time to the olympics and various winter sports.  This book gives a great overview of the olympic games, using simple appealing text and brightly colored detailed illustrations.  All of the preparations, training, and the games themselves are explained in a way that even the youngest members of my story time audience enjoyed.  There is a page on the history of the games as well.


Tacky and the Winter Games by Helen Lester
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Tacky the penguin has always marched to a different drummer.  In this book he encounters all of his friends training for the winter games.  Not to be left out, Tacky joins the team, even though he was not "the fittest of birds."  The reader sees that while Tacky is well meaning, he trains a little differently, and he even participates a little differently in the winter games. There is a happy ending for our hero.  Easy to read aloud text and wonderful, fun filled illustrations made this a winner with my story time audience.


Grumpy Groundhog by Maureen Wright
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
It's Groundhog Day and the entire town is waiting for Mr. Groundhog to appear…but he decides he is going to spend the day in his cozy bed.  The rhyming text flows and the soft, detailed illustrations are filled with fun and humor.  My story time audience loved this one, it captured their attention even though it was the last book I read.


For the craft, we made Pop-up Groundhogs: