November Fun

This week's theme was November Fun. We sang a special verse to our opening song, where we shouted "Turkey!" and sang other songs about falling leaves, squirrels with their acorns, and, of course, Mr Turkey. Our craft was handprint turkeys - the kids all made two: one to take home now and one which would decorate our children's room for the month of...November. We had ten kids join us...which was close to a record for this military base library. More importantly though, many of the little ones have come before, so the storytime is finally developing a core audience. Here are today's books:

In November by Cynthia Rylant
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Cynthia Rylant does a beautiful job "explaining" November in this book. The text is gentle and rich with description. (For example, "The trees are standing al sticks and bones.") The illustrations are perfectly matched with the text and are soft and gentle as well. We counted the cats "piled up in the corners of barns" (6) and the dogs lying before the fire (2) The foods of November with their "orange small" and all the warmth of Thanksgiving are captured between the pages of this book. A very special tribute to a very special time of year.
Go to Sleep, Groundhog! by Judy Cox
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I picked this book up originally while I was looking for some books for Groundhog Day. I decided that it was the perfect addition to this storytime. Rather than focusing on Groundhog Day, it is about a groundhog who goes to bed just after Columbus Day, setting his alarm for February 2, but suffers insomnia. When he looks at his clock the first time he wakes it is "only half past October." Deciding to take a walk to help make him sleepy he strolls out into the middle of Hallween and sees sights that he has never seen before. This happens again in November and December. This is a wonderfully imaginative book, and the kids loved it. So did the adults.

The Mitten by Jan Brett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is a beautiful adaptation of a classic Ukrainian Folk tale about a boy, his grandmother, snow white mittens, and eight animals. Jan Brett's illustrations are simply gorgeous. I told this as a flannel board story, with a ball of white yarn forming the mitten, but think that next time I might use the figures as finger puppets while an assistant holds the book...the illustrations are just too good to miss.

That Pup! by Lindsay Barrett George
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The entire room fell in love with this precocious little puppy and her game of finding acorns. The illustrations are gorgeous and the little puppy who "follows her nose" is too cute for words. When she encounters the squirrel who had hidden all the acorns she is so enthusiastically gathering, she quickly changes her game to "putting all the acorns back" and together squirrel (who is also very cute) and pup race around putting all ten (we counted them) acorns back in their hiding places. One little three year old sighed and said, "how sweet!" A very engaging book for all ages.

Halloween Spooktacular Party

This year Halloween fell on a Monday, which meant we hosted a storytime AND party. I had over 20 children, all in costume, arrive up to a half hour early for the event. I had a build-a-monster puppet with me, and so I used "Hal" to entertain the early birds. He was a big hit. After the stories, songs, etc we paraded through the library building complex and all the office staff handed out candy - and had almost as much fun as the kids! We then came back to the children's room and made ghost windsocks and ate brownies. It was exhausting but wildly successful. Here are the books we read:

Clifford's First Halloween by Norman Bridwell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Halloween, a cute blond girl, and a giant red dog - what more is there to say? I have a Clifford finger puppet and so, I had an assistant hold the book while I read the story and puppet Clifford added his personal comments. The kids loved it. When Emily Elizabeth settles on a ghost costume for Puppy Clifford, I pulled out one for the finger puppet that matched. I like Clifford books because of their simplicity and their great kids appeal.


When the Goblins Came Knocking by Anna Grossnickle Hines
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Written is rhyme, and touchingly illustrated this book captures the fear a very young child may experience on Halloween. A young boy tells the story of last Halloween when he was scared by all the ghosts, goblins, and monsters who trick-or-treated at his house. The little folks at my storytime nodded when asked if they had ever been scared by all the trick-or-treaters on Halloween and they shared a couple of their own stories. They also correctly guessed that this year would be different for the young boy and correctly predicted that this year he would be the scariest one on Halloween.


Pumpkin Trouble by Jan Thomas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a bright and cheery book featuring three friends duck, mouse and Pig. Duck gets into trouble while trying to carve his Jack-O-Lantern. He goes looking for a little help from his friends with hilarious results. This is a little bit difficult as a group read aloud, because it is graphic novel-like with speech bubbles and conversation happening on multiple places on the page, but the humor and pictures and general silliness more than make up for this.


Moonlight: The Halloween Cat by Cynthia Rylant
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is such a gentle and beautifully illustrated book about Halloween told from the perspective of a black cat who loves the night, especially Halloween Night. The kids hung on every word of the simple text and studied the beautiful illustrations with great interest. This is an amazing book that presents everything that is Halloween in a non-scary and gentle manner. Great ending book for a storytime.

We all did Five Little Ghosts and Five Little Pumpkins as flannel board and fingerplays and then we danced the "Hookey Spookey" before heading out for our parade. Lots of fun!

Air show a hit!

I took a bit of time off from delivering storytimes at the base library I was busy getting kids off to school and celebrating the Labor Day Holiday. Last week, storytime celebrated "Talk like a pirate day" and so we did a modified reprise of my pirate storytime which I covered previously. There were four little ones at that storytime and they all seemed to enjoy themselves. One even left wearing her pirate hat that was our craft.

Which brings us to this week. The base where I work is holding its annual air show this weekend, so the theme for this week's storytime was "Come Fly With Me" After all the songs and rhymes and stories, 12 small children decorated, folded and flew paper airplanes. It was great fun to see all these paper airplanes soaring around the children's room! This particular group doesn't seem to enjoy songs as much as action rhymes and fingerplays (they loved to "be" planes and they make airplane noises with great glee and gusto!) So, here are the books:

Air Show! by Treat Williams

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This oversized book is filled with bright, busy pictures of airplanes - including a stunt plane that future pilot, Ellie, enjoys. Although I worried that all the jargon in this book - the characters go through a pre-flight check with workds like "avionics" and "directional gyro" - would be beyond most 2 year olds, they really enjoyed this book. There are large colorful pictures, which help and lots of planes to count (which we did). Using a funny "radio" voice helped too, I suppose. Ellie's ride in the stunt plane is very cleverly laid out and illustrated. The kids eyes got big and there were some giggles. All in all a very successful storytime read.


Airplanes!: Soaring! Diving! Turning! by Patricia Hubbell

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Simple rhyming text and wonderfully imaginative pictures make this a storytime winner. All the planes "in the big wide sky" are represented and the pages where you have to turn the book just add more interest. Be sure to look carefully at the illustrations they contain tons of humorous detail (like the hydroplane labeled "school but dropping little fish off at school or the buffalo sitting on a passenger plane beside the other passengers). Great fun!



Moon Plane by Peter McCarty

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


With beautiful, muted illustrations, this book starts out with a small boy looking up at an airplane in the sky...and we follow that boy as he imagines that plane flying him to the moon and back. Simple text helps take even the smallest reader up in that plane and all the way to the moon.


A Plane Goes Ka-Zoom! by Jonathan London

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Great book to end with. The simple rhyming text and brightly painted, kid-like illustrations are eye catching and easy for even a very young reader to follow. This books talks about all the things planes can do and be. We had fun counting planes and naming colors and enjoying the rhythm and the rhyme of this book.

Next week, we slither, crawl and hiss as we read stories about our friends, the reptiles!

You Just Never Know....

Well, last week I felt very discouraged - not a single child showed for our Monday storytime. When I arrived on Wednesday my supervisor had other tasks for me, so we didn't even try to set up for storytime. As a result I didn't post here last week. I prepared a flier, which we placed around the library announcing the storytimes, hoping that it might generate some interest. Well, it did! This morning I had two kids arrive - for storytime - just before it was time to start, and by the time we started the first book, there were ten! This is one of the largest groups they have had for a storytime at the Base Library!

Our theme was "Summer Fun" and I read four books about summer time activities and we did two fingerplays, sang three beach/summer songs and enjoyed a flannelboard rhyme all about ice cream. It was quite a sight to see ten kids all giggling as we got our wiggles out doing "Head, Shoulders, knees and Toes" In a space that was not much bigger than my living room! The kids were attentive, engaged and even participatory!

The first book we read was:
A Fabulous Fair Alphabet by Debra Frasier

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book has amazing illustrations and fully captures all the color and excitement of a day at the fair. The kids studied the pictures and reacted to their favorites (like "C" - cotton candy) As a storytime book, I felt it was a bit flat, in spite of the images. We all decided that using "Zucchini" as the last item was somehow wrong...and even the kids expected the last image to be sleeping children driving home with "Z's" circling their heads..."X" stood for exit, after all, and to follow that by Zucchini....well....

We sang about a chocolate ice cream cone (Tune: "Baby Bumble Bee") and then got out a felt ice cream cone and said a rhyme and counted the scoops. Then it was on to

Sheep Take A Hike by Nancy Shaw

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Nancy Shaw's sheep are such fun! This one didn't engage the children quite as well as her "Sheep in a Jeep" but the kids loved the illustrations and the rhyming text of this great hiking adventure where the sheep must deal with loss of a compass, getting lost and having to be rescued from the mud by a moose! I made up a song about taking a summer hike (Tune: "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush") which we sang after this book.


The last two books and songs and a fingerplay was all about one of my favorite summer activities...a visit to the beach:

Sea, Sand, Me! by Patricia Hubbell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


We all loved this beautifully illustrated book about a young girl's visit to the beach told in rhyme. It was great fun to read. The rhythm makes this a great read aloud and girl and her new friend have a very busy day doing everything you possibly can at the beach!


At the Beach by Anne F. Rockwell

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Another day of activity at the beach! Lovely illustrations and simple text describes all sorts of beach activities. The kids expected the last page to describe the ride home, but this book only takes the reader through lunch! We followed this with the fingerplay, "Inchy Pinchy Crab" (based on "Itsy Bitsy Spider"), which the kids really enjoyed.

Everyone stayed for coloring sheets and I really enjoyed being able to spend a little time with the kids and their Moms, Oohing and ahhing over their great coloring and learning names. Hopefully, I will be able to build the sense of community that I have found lacking here. At a nearby public library, the storytime is done by volunteers, but they are amazing - it helps that one is a professional storyteller, another a retired teacher and another is a retired librarian. I was able to swap flannel tips with the retired teacher, and have picked up storytelling hints from the storyteller.

While working at one of the local public libraries, I also performed the annual periodical review for the branch, weeded the reference section and explained how to use e-readers and our e-book catalog to an ever increasing number of library patrons. The format may be different, but the desire to access library materials is still very much the same.

A Midsummer Knight's Festival and other parties

Life is interesting when you work have two part-time jobs in two very different library settings. At my military library, this week we celebrated the end of the summer reading program, while in my public library job, I'm still passing out prizes to finishers and chaperoning a "Teen-after- hours-lock-in" this Friday. Until the day comes when I have one full time employer, I will continue to juggle different themes, calendars and patrons!

So, at the military library, this last Monday was the big end-of-SRP-party: Our Midsummer Knight's Festival. We had 40 kids or so, make Prince/Princess swag bags (to collect all their small prizes) and crowns (for the photo opportunities this created) They were entertained by a celtic harpist dressed in Renaissance garb and an abbreviated storytime, a prize drawing and a dragon egg hunt. All of this in just under two hours. Everyone left happy with plenty of swag, a big prize and a crown. It just doesn't get any better for a toddler/preschooler.

We got the kids attention with our usual opening storytime song: "If you Want to Hear A Story" (Tune: "If You're Happy and You Know it") and opened with a Castle fingerplay. We did two other fingerplays with flannel board pieces: "Five Royal Knights" and "Five Green Dragons" sang "The Noble Duke of York" recited "The Queen of Hearts" with flannel board pieces and read the following three books:

Hush, Little Dragon by Boni Ashburn

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A dragon version of "Hush Little Baby," what could be better? The kids loved the rhyme, the lovely illustrations and the love between the mother dragon and her baby. The warmth and the humor comes through loud and clear and as I closed the book on the lovely last image a number of parents and children let out an "Ahhhh"

Glubbery Gray, the Knight-Eating Beast by Beth Kander

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The illustrations in this clever, funny counting book are appealing to even the youngest child...and older children like it for creative ways that Glubbery Gray eats one knight after another. The youngest kids had fun counting the ever decreasing band of knights...and the older kids in my audience had fun guessing which knight would be old gray's next victim. Humorous with rhyming rhythmic text this was a great read-aloud with a large group ranging in age from 2 to about 7 as it engaged all of them.

The Egg by M.P. Robertson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was the perfect lead in to our final activity which was a "dragon egg hunt" Ok, so everyone played along and pretended not to notice that our dragon eggs looked suspiciously like plain old plastic easter eggs! This book starts strong and has great illustrations, is funny and sad in places...but as a read aloud, it doesn't flow as smoothly as some of the other books I have read. Maybe the book tries to cover too much in too short a time, but I almost feel like I have skipped a page here and there as the story takes an unexplained jump. Overall, it is great fun when a boy hatches a mysterious egg, which turns out to contain a dragon.

Then, today I was back for the Wednesday storytime - today the theme was "Knights vs. Dragons" and we read "Glubbery Gray" again, did the knight and dragon fingerplays/Flannelboards and sang "I'm a Little Dragon" (Tune: "I'm a Little Teapot"). After we made dragon finger puppets. Once again, the kids reacted to the books, differently than I expected (enjoyed them more than I expected, always a good thing!) and everyone enjoyed themselves. We read:

Do Knights Take Naps? by Kathy Tucker

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

We started with this one, as it provided a great overview of a knight's life, in a way even young kids could relate to. Although the rhyming text was not as tight and rhythmic as I would have liked, the story and pictures were very sweet and informative. The kids enjoyed it more than I thought they would - always a pleasant surprise.

Don't Forget the Knight Light by Tina Gagliardi

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Everyone loved this twist on Knight vs. Dragon - Carly is a dragon with a deep fear of knights. A special "knight light" and an imaginary - human - friend are needed to help her overcome her fear when her class visits the dragon museum with it's dreaded "Knight room."

Dragon Pizzeria by Mary Morgan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a wonderfully creative book, which combines a number of children's favorite things: pizza, dragons and fairytales. When two dragon friends, Bebop (who likes to cook) and Spike (who likes to go fast) open a pizzeria in fairyland, they receive call in orders from such celebrities as the Giant from "Jack and the Beanstalk", the Three Bears, and Hansel and Gretel. The kids loved making the phone ring noise and guessing who was ordering the pizza - like when the order was "three porridge pizzas - one large and very hot, one medium that is cold and one small that is just right." Spike zooms through fairyland making his deliveries using various modes of transportation from hot air balloons to roller skates, which only adds to the fun. The kids loved this book!

This was one week where I felt I really got it right with my storytimes. Kids and parents left happy and everything worked just as it should. I hope I feel the same at the end of Friday's Teen Lock-In. More about that later.

Long May They Reign!

The summer reading program theme for the Department of Defense is "A Midsummer Knight's Read" and so our storytimes this summer have been themed around knights and dragons, royalty and castle life. I received lots of smiles as I walked through the library building wearing a crown purloined from my sons' stash of Halloween costumes and accessories and have read through countless - wonderful - children's books before deciding on specific weekly storytime themes and deciding which books will make the final cut and be read out loud. I have also spent the last several weekends experimenting with creating flannel board figures and working out the stories. I have also discovered the world of felt and flannel available on E-Bay.

So, far it has been a mixed summer for storytime...this Monday morning, no one showed up. Since I am now providing TWO weekly storytimes now, hopefully we'll have a better turn out for Wednesday morning's session. One day, the audience will be several new kids who refuse to sing, the next session will be filled with kids who can't get enough of those fingerplays and songs. I've even had sessions where the kids keep asking for more books!

Anyway the themes have been "A storytime fit for a King...or Queen" and we did a repeat-after-me-chant, "I've Got a Crown on My Head" (hence the purloined crown). Unfortunately, this was for the group of kids that refused to participate, so some of the fun was lost! I also used some beautiful felt royalty puppets to present a felt board version of "The Queen of Hearts" The kids loved it so much that we did it twice. We learned "Old King Cole" and did a fingerplay about a castle, garden and drawbridge. Here is what we read:

Ten Big Toes and a Prince's Nose by Nancy Gow

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a great read for a toddler storytime. There are beautiful illustrations that held the kids' attention, a recurring chant to encourage the characters to feel good about who they are and enough humor to make kids smile and laugh. The rhyming text allows the reader to get a good rhythm going, although, curiously, the chant about being yourself is not quite as tight. The kids loved it...we had fun with it and everyone is a sucker for a happy ending!

The Prince Won't Go to Bed! by Dayle Ann Dodds

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a great hit at storytime today! Who couldn't love a book with the refrain, "WAA! WAA! WAA! I will not go to bed!" the teeny-tiny, itty-bitty, little Prince said happening every couple of pages? This book was very engaging for many reasons - rich illustrations and subtle humor - as the entire staff of the castle tries to put the Prince to bed. After each attempt, more and more people tip toe down the hall and the Prince's wail just gets louder and louder. There are many opportunities to ask questions of the readers. Questions like, "do you think he is really asleep now?" and "What do you think he is really missing?" In the end, we learn what it is that the Prince really needed to send him off to dreamland and everyone sleeps happily-ever-after.

Over at the Castle by Boni Ashburn

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was also a great hit with my storytime audience! It is a counting book, it has a mother dragon and her impatient and adorable baby dragon, it has beautifully rich and detailed illustrations. It has a wonderful ending. This provided a great visual for young kids about life in a medieval castle and we had great fun counting and discussing just what the baby dragon was waiting to do.

Round Is a Pancake by Joan Sullivan Baranski

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was a great one to end a storytime with. Simple rhyming text - which swirls around the illustrations on each page allowed me to show the book to the youngsters while still finishing the last line of the text. A medieval festival is brightly illustrated and all of the round items are highlighted. We had great fun spotting and naming them, counting them and squealing with joy when we found our favorites...one girl couldn't get enough of the dog faced hot air balloon. This is a marvelous read-aloud!

The following week the theme was fractured fairytales...there are so many great books based on a standard fairytale. Most of them seemed too long and complicated for my young toddler audience. I was able to find some real winners, though. I read one "straight" tale: The Princess and the Pea, having found an older, simple well illustrated version and used some illustrations from an old version of "Rapunzel" to do a felt version of the story - I just couldn't find a version of the story that would be right for this group...so I created my own. I wanted to contrast a traditional telling with my favorite of the "fractured" tales we read today,

Falling For Rapunzel by Leah Wilcox

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a marvelous read-aloud laugh-out-loud book. The rhymes and illustrations are hysterically funny and appeal to both the very young and young at heart. It kept the attention of even the youngest in my audience and had every child giggling and pointing. Quite a contrast to the original, even if the telling is adapted for a younger audience. This is a book I will read again for storytime and it will never get old!

Fairly Fairy Tales by Esmé Raji Codell

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book didn't grab me right away, but by the time I read it at today's storytime, it had grown on my and it was certainly a big hit with my toddler audience. I wasn't sure the text format, ask a couple of questions about a well known fairy tale with answers (Straw? Yes. Sticks? Yes. Bricks? Yes.) and then through in a question that doesn't belong - "Solar Panels?" No. Then say, well, maybe and turn the page for a whole new take on that fairytale - colorfully illustrated and filled with humor. The kids loved it. They had a great time guessing the fairytale, and saying no...and then anticipating the "maybe" version of the story. There was a great response to this creative book. Great giggles and participation!

An Undone Fairy Tale by Ian Lendler

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was one of my favorite books that we read this week, but it was a little too long and complicated for some of the younger children. As we read this book - too fast - the poor illustrator can't keep up...and the harried publisher begs us to slow down. When we don't, well Ned the illustrator has to improvise, so the handsome prince attempts fight a dragon (who is still in the shower when he arrives) in a tu tu. A creative book filled with mayhem and silliness, probably best read by a school age child who will revel in the asides about what a good, and fast reader he/she is.

On Wednesday, the theme is Knights vs. Dragons. We will be making dragon finger puppets and have both a "Five Royal Knights" and "Five Green Dragons" fingerplay/felt rhyme and will be reading Boni Ashburn's other marvelous dragon book, "Hush Little Dragon" and Tina Gagliardi's "Don't Forget the Knight Light" as well as others. Stay tuned!

Arrrr! Ahoy Mateys!

It has been a couple of weeks since I posted here...because it has been a couple of weeks since I have performed a storytime. But today we came back strong with "It's a Pirate's Life for Me!" We practiced a spot of "Pirate Speak" which helped us sing a special pirate verse of our opening song. Then we launched into

How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This imaginative book is a great read-aloud if you are comfortable with Pirate-Speak. Captain Braid Beard and his crew have a lot to say and do...and a young boy loves their pirate lifestyle (no vegetables, no baths, no bedtimes) until it is bedtime and there is no one to tuck him in, read him a story, or give him a goodnight kiss - besides he has to get home for soccer practice. David Shannon' illustrations kept the kids eyes glued to the pages and had them laughing out loud.

Pirates, Ho! by Sarah L. Thomson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The colorful cast of Pirate characters in this book - which include a GIRL pirate - are brave swashbucklers during the day. Doing as the things that Pirates do. But when darkness falls it is a different story altogether. Told in rhyme, with great illustrations this book delighted the kids at storytime today. We sang "If You're a Pirate and You Know it." (Tune: "If You're Happy and You Know It") and modified the verses to match some of the same pirate activities described in the book.

Pirates Don't Change Diapers by Melinda Long

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is one sequel that is almost better than the original! In this second Melinda Long/David Shannon pirate book, Jeremy Jacob is visited by his old pirate crew, ready to dig up their treasure. Jeremy's baby sister though has other plans for the pirate crew and they have to change, feed and calm her before they can get to digging. The illustrations are just hysterically funny and the kids today loved them.

Shiver Me Letters: A Pirate ABC by June Sobel

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a creative, well illustrated concept book, and the kids really enjoyed the pirates' quest to steal all the letters of the alphabet for their Captain who decides that "R is not enough.......we need other letters to help make us tough." Did I mention that the Captain is a crocodile and the crew consists of a pig, a cat, a rat, and a mouse? The kids loved many things about this book, including the fact that the parrot on the Captain's shoulder wore a pirate hat and that the captain has a duck flotation device around his waist that wears an eyepatch.

Pirates of the Sea! by Brandon Dorman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I thought this book might be too long for my mostly toddler audience, but I was wrong. The kids loved this book laughing and commenting on the illustrations, especially when among the pirate treasure there was a teddy bear and a pair of purple pirate underwear. Great rhyming book, great illustrations just the right amount of pirate-speak to make this book a great read-aloud that will appeal to all ages.

Peg Leg Peke by Brie Spangler

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a charming book about a cute little pekingese with a "boo boo." An unseen companion, helps the little guy imagine that instead of a cute dog with a broken leg, he is an adventurous pirate with a peg leg. With some help, he sails away and finds a treasure which makes him feel better. The illustrations are sweet and the text, told in a Mo Willems' like dialog is engaging and funny.

We closed with a Pirate version of "Row, Row, Row, your boat":

Sail, sail, sail your ship

Gently o'er the sea.

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,

A pirates life for me!

The kids all stayed to color a pirate ship coloring sheet and it was great fun to have some time to interact with the kids and their parents informally. I did however learn that talking like burly, swashbuckling pirates is very hard on the throat and takes a toll on my voice. Even so, this storytime was worth it.