Storytime (vlog): I Will Surprise My Friend! by Mo Willems

My, oh,  my! Since Leslie raved about Mo Willem's Elephant and Piggie books here, Talon and I haven't been able to get enough. We've read  all in the series multiple times. And Leslie was right, these books never get old.  

I Will Surprise my Friend! is the first one we spotted at the library. We read it right then and there-- and giggled and laughed out loud. Yes, it is that funny. 

Here is Talon's Storytime vlog review:

As you saw briefly in the video, Elephant, Piggie and their friends speak and think in word bubbles.  And much of the meaning is conveyed through these cute little animals' facial expressions and body language-- and that adds to the funny. 

(Light bulb moment! Just realized these books would be a fun teaching tool for my students who have difficulty interpreting social language cues!)

 In this book, Elephant and Piggie decide to surprise each other by the big rock... they wait and wait on opposite sides of the rock and, of course, Elephant's imagination runs away with him...

  
He imagines scenario after scenario of horrible things that might have happened to Piggie.  The ever practical Piggie thinks Elephant must have went to lunch.

Then they nearly give each other a heart attack! Talon loves the next page when they both fall over on their backs. 

Such a cute book.  Aren't the word bubbles fun?! And the facial expressions are priceless.


That Mo Willems is a genius!


Talon and I join Leslie and her kiddos in highly recommending the entire Elephant and Piggie series. And the Pigeon series too... hysterical! 


If you are fans of Elephant and Piggie, which is your favorite book in the series?

If you haven't met Elephant and Piggie yet, go to the library immediately... read one ... don't laugh too loud and get shushed...then come back and report.



Linking to: Book Talk Tuesday at The Lemme Library

Kid Konnection at Booking Mama

Pseudo Celebrity

Ahem. Hello. It's me. I know. I haven't been around lately. I won't go into a looooong boring story about where I have been, BUT I will apologize. I apologize.
I am soooooooo SORRY!

Is that a tear I see? It's ok. I am here. Shh. I am here.

Let's move on, shall we? Stop looking back? Look to the future? A future filled with blog posts about books and book cases and book nooks. Yes. That is what we will do. Look to the future bookish posts. That's why you are my favorite reader. You are always so positive.





Awhile back, my kids' school hosted Celebrity Readers. The idea was to get exemplary people from the community and have them read to a few classes. They would explain why they loved reading, how it made them successful, and whatever else they thought may inspire young people and their spongy little brains. Our future, if you will.

So. Being the world famous blogger that I am, I volunteered. Actually, it was more like, "If you need readers to fill in, I'd be happy to come in. Just FYI: I'm NOT a celebrity. And I am not particularly exemplary. I will, however, sign autographs."

I did, of course, mention that I love to read and, in fact, participate in a witty, fresh, and unique book blog. The organizer was im.pressed. Actually, she did like it. I sent her a link and I was IN, baby!

I got to read for both of my kids' classes. It was fairly easy to find a book for my first grader. But how do you choose a picture book for fifth graders? I asked the school librarian. No help. The books she had chosen, to me, were boring (Yes, I said it. Books a librarian chose were boring. I know that's sacrilege). So, I went online in search of books for fifth graders. It was still difficult, since I had to read reviews and reviews and make trips to our library to find something funny but not too babyish, not too adult, AND that could be read within 15 minutes.

"Wait a minute," you are saying. "Too adult? How could that be?" Excellent question. I am glad you asked. Well, many picture books that I found are, for example, studied in college classes. They use to them analyze attitudes and cultures and child psychology, et cetera, et cetera. And so it seems the author wrote them more for adults than children. Anywho.

Here are the books I chose for my kids.



Scapegoat by Dean Hale, illustrated by Michael Slack.

For my first grader, I chose Scapegoat.

This is the cutest story. It is about a goat named Oat and how she gets blamed for everything bad that happens.

As you can see in the title, the -oat is used throughout. Very helpful for teaching those vowel combinations.
The illustrations were bright and funny. The words had a nice rhythm.

Bottom line: the kids loved the story and asked me to read it twice! Even the teacher was laughing.






The Secret Knowledge of Grown-Ups
by David Wisniewski 

For my fifth grader, I found The Secret Knowledge of Grown-Ups.

Ok. This story was hilarious. It finally reveals the real reasons behind all of our rules. Why do we tell kids to eat their vegetables and drink their milk and not to pick their noses?



Life as we know it could end otherwise.



Check out this book for all the details. But I warn you, there are those that would like to keep this a secret, so be very careful!

Bottom line: at first the kids were fidgety. But a few paragraphs in and I had their full attention. They were giggling and "ewwwing", and crept closer to see the pictures. The teacher even stopped her work a few times to listen and laugh.

I am really proud of schools these days. They are really stressing reading, and getting the community involved in these projects is a great idea. I just wish more parents and neighbors would take half an hour occasionally and get involved.

What about you? Do you have a recommendations for next year? Have you participated in a project like this? If there is nothing like this in your local schools, maybe you could take the initiative. Everyone loves being read to, and it's a lot of fun for the reader as well!

Storytime Challenge:Oso Pardo, Oso Pardo, Que Ves Ahi? by Bill Martin

It's been awhile since I have contributed to the storybook challenge. I haven't stopped reading to my little ones, just haven't posted about it.

I actually have a little challenge of my own happening right now. I am trying to teach my middle son Spanish.The background on the whys will be in one of my next posts.

One of my biggest goals in this is to get my son reading the language. Reading is, in my opinion, the key to learning any language. More on that in the next post!

So, in search of books. Well, my mom asked if she could buy presents for my kids. Yes, but they have to be books. Buy Spanish books for Nico, please. (See? I said please.) After a little grumbling about trains and tea sets, she agreed, and set off for Barnes and Noble. 

Well, I don't know if you have perused B&N for Spanish books for children, but there just isn't a lot at these stores. She bought several, but they were either too difficult or too boring for my son. He's a beginning reader in English and more than, say, twenty Spanish words on a page is overwhelming. 

So, I returned quite a few and got a gift card. Then I got online. Now, there are a TON of books in Spanish for beginners!

I selected, among others, a few books by Bill Martin. He wrote Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? I purchased the Spanish version: Oso pardo, oso pardo, ¿qué ves ahí?

I must admit, I never looked at these books in English. My boys were interested in trains, specifically Thomas, so I never looked for other things to read to them. I am so glad I got these!

After I received the books, I flipped through them to see if these would help me, or I should just pass them on as pretty books to my 2 year old. 

They are perfect! The illustrations are very pretty (or as mi suegro me dijo, "Que lindo!", and then began yelling about the weather or something. Los Argentinos. They yell. A lot. Anywhere. We go to a restaurant with my in-laws. "This bread is good. My mother made bread like this." ~ "Your mother never made bread like this." ~ "Hey! I think I know what my mother made!" ~ "How do you know what she made??!! You were never home!!! Always off having fun!!" ~ "FINE, MY LOVE!! FINE!! <mumbling> I don't know what I am talking about?! This woman doesn't know anything!" Then they both look at me and roll their eyes at the other one...) Uhhh...where was I? Oh, yeah. Books. Yes. Pictures. Yes. The pictures are very pretty, but the good thing is they don't distract!

This is exactly what I need! These books help in several ways: building vocabulary, learning colors, verb conjugation (you see, I see, they see, we see), and the repetition allows Nico to get comfortable with sounds and the rhythm of reading. 

At first, I read these to him, only asking him to read one word on each page. Then I had him read the "Animal, animal" que ves ahi? parts alone. Last night he read the entire book ALONE! It took for. ever. But he did it. I was sooooo proud of him!

But did Nico enjoy reading it? Let's ask him.

Nico, do you like this book? Oh, yeah! Yeah!

What is your favorite part? The bear. It's so...so...so meat-eatery.

Do you want to read it again? Yeah.

What language are you reading? Spanish.

Are you happy that you can read in Spanish? Yes. Because... Because I want to talk in Spanish.

Yep, I think we are making progress! Whew!

How about you? Are you reading any good books? Do your in-laws yell in restaurants?

Storytime: LEGO DUPLO On the Farm (DK READERS)

This is a really fun series for LEGO fans! And who isn't a LEGO fan? It's especially great for us parents - the fun of LEGOs, without the pain of stepping on them in the middle of the night. Or is that just me??

OUCH!

These books come in different reading levels. We read "Around Town", and my little boy liked it so much, I checked this one out as well.

Basically it is a simple story of the farm and the animals, and it spends a sufficient amount of time talking about tractors and combines (more on that later). Machinery! Oh yeah! That was the highlight! 

The illustrations are photographs of farm-y stuff that some grown up children constructed (could you imagine that job?).

The stories are simple and easy to follow. There is a lot of repetition of words, which is good, but sometimes the choice of words to be stressed is, in my humble opinion, odd!  

For example, "combine harvester" was used in three consecutive sentences. Yes, combine harvester. The story goes from "Cows go 'moo'." to "combine harvesters". There! I've used combine harvesters thre-, no, FOUR times! Just thought it was a leetle odd.

So, what does my motivationally challenged 6 year old think? 

"Good." 

Um, could you expound on that, darling? 

"I like the, uhhh, farmer. And the horses. The animals have to eat. Yeah. Heh. Yeah."

Alrighty, folks! You heard it here first! It is "Good." Check it out!

So what books are you reading little ones tonight?

That Black Sheep and Where is the Green Sheep

I have written about Where is the Green Sheep before, but I'd like to revisit it. Because there's something in our national news and something in Lesa's recent posts that remind me of the book. And, I like it and Lesa said I could write about whatever I like. So...

Has the 'Baa Baa Black Sheep' debate been reported in the US media like it has in the Aussie? Some nursery schools are changing the lyrics because of (IMHO) an over-wrought sense of political correctness. Rumour has it that the rhyme alludes to the slave trade, and some people are taking matters into their own hands by changing the words to a childhood classic. Our Black Sheep becomes a Rainbow sheep in the new version.

Wikipedia (the oracle of all truth) dismisses the assertion that 'Baa Baa Black Sheep' has anything to do with that nefarious time in history, which makes any debate seem ridiculous.

Aussie author Mem Fox created a classic when she wrote Where is the Green Sheep. It's repetitive and it rhymes, which Lesa says is great for children. It's also simple and funny, with all different kinds of sheep; a plethora of multicultural sheep. There's Train Sheep, Music Sheep, Brave Sheep and Near Sheep. Surely no-one will be offended by the Near Sheep, especially when she gets equal billing with the Far Sheep.

Look, there's even a bi-lingual version for all our bi-lingual bloggy families!

So, don't sing an old-fashioned nursery rhyme to your kids: read Where is the Green Sheep, and you'll be safe from the PC Police.

Linking to the Picture Book Challenge
hosted by There's a Book.

Storytime: iBaby: Goodnight, Baby illustrated by Ana Martin Laranaga

My mother gave Miss Nina the sweetest board book. 

 

The sun has set, the stars are out, the animals are in the barn.

Time to say goodnight to all the babies on the farm.

As you read each page, your little one tucks all the babies into their beds.

My little girl is about 2 1/2 and just loves this book. Each baby animal is attached to the book with a ribbon and she has to find the right baby and put it in the right place - piglet, chick, puppy, lamb, and a baby. That's her favorite - the baby at the end. (It looks like a boy, but he is in yellow, so you could get away saying it's a girl if it is important to your little one. Maybe scribble on a bit more hair?)

Nina absolutely does not let me help her find and place the babies. She squeals at each page, "Ohhh, the baby is so cute, Mama. Aww, look at the baby, Mama. Babies sleeping. Shhhhh, Mama. Babies sleeping."

Which brings me to my one complaint with the book. It states on the back that it is "perfect for bedtime." In our case, not so much. She gets too excited looking at the babies and the animals and squealing and oohing and awing...it's a bit hard to get her to wind back down again. I save this for during the day!

This is most appropriate (and recommended for) under 3. Maybe you could stretch it to 4 years, but I think an older child would get bored too quickly with this one.

All in all, we enjoy the book. It has a sweet little rhyme on each page. Nina is so happy to put the babies in bed over and over, and it doesn't drive me crazy reading it a few times each day. It's a win for us!

Check it out if you have little ones. I think you will enjoy reading this one to them too.

 

A Guest Review by Dellylu: The English Roses by Madonna

The ladies of Mrs. BG are tickled pink to present a guest review by Dellylu!  

Dellylu says:

I am crazy about Clarice Bean, writing, fashion, books and my best friend. I also like Alice in Wonderland but not nearly as much as my sister (Izzy).  I utterly love using the word utterly.

Dellylu is DeLynne's youngest daughter so, of course, she is an amazingly talented and delightful young lady.  Yes, we are biased but it is true! 

Dellylu is nine and her new blog,  I think...,  is a welcome addition to the blogosphere. She plans to write about  books, games, clothes, school, and other girl stuff.  The pillow she posted of her first sewing project is too cute.

If you have tween girls in your life, please direct them to Dellylu's blog.

Without futher ado, Dellylu's review:

My Grandma sent me a Angus and Robertson gift card for Christmas. I ordered The English Roses by Madonna and with pictures by Jeffrey Fulvimari.

It finally came and when it did I was utterly thrilled. The illustrations are sooo pretty. I also liked the bright colours. This book is so perfect for 9 to 12 year old girls.

This book is about 4 girls who do everything together.

But, there is a new girl named Binah and the English Roses are jealous of her.

Binah is very very beautiful, she is an excellent student and very good at sports,  she is very kind too.

 But Binah is lonely, she has no friends.  The English Roses are avoiding and ignoring her. This book tells a story of how The English Roses become friends with Binah.

Linking to the Read to Me Picture Book Challenge hosted by There's a Book!

Storytime: Cookie's Week by Cindy Ward

Talon's February offering for the Read to Me Picture Book Challenge is Cookie's Week by Cindy Ward.


This book was purchased at the Scholastic Book Fair a couple of years ago. As soon as I saw it, I knew  Talon would love it. A cute kitty that gets into one 'cat'astophe after another. Yep, great toddler fare!

Here is Talon's vlog review. Warning: may cause motion sickness. No tripod, a rocking chair and a book circling: Watch at your own risk! 





If you didn't make it through the vlog, here is a synopsis.  Talon says this book is about Cookie, a cat that causes a mess every day of the week. Everytime, Cookie has an accident something goes everywhere.

Talon thinks the book is funny. At age three, he laughed hysterically over Monday's accident: Poor Cookie fell in the toilet and water went everywhere! 

Now at the more mature age of five, he laughs at Wednesday's accident: Cookie upset the trash can and garbage went everywhere!  Talon and I get tickled imagining an aggravated trash can! In Oklahoma, we say 'knocked over' or 'tumped over'.

Talon says he has learned something from this book: Do not do what Cookie does!

This book is a great choice for parents or early childhood teachers to read to children age two to 6 for storytime.

Little ones can relate to a curious kitty innocently exploring the environment and inadverdently creating mess after mess. Cause and effect and days of the week are portrayed in a fun way.

I read Cookie's Week to the entire three year old Head Start class when I'm off schedule and can't see speech/language students individually. They love Cookie's antics.

Don't tell the author that I add an 'UH OH!'  between each of Cookie's explorations and the resultant accident to improve the flow and drama of the narrative. 

 A repetive catch phrase is a language therapy trick to entice kids with limited verbal skills to verbalise more. All kids love catch phrases, whether they are delayed or not. It makes the storytelling experience interactive and the whole class almost knocks me over shouting 'UH OH!'.  (the 'everywhere' at the end of each accident is also repetitive and shoutable)

The illustrations are cute softly colorful watercolors. Funny and realistic that most pages only show a paw or tail sticking out of a mess or disappearing around a door as Cookie scampers off to the next disaster.

Talon and I highly recommend Cookie's Week by Cindy Ward.

And we both hope that on Sunday, Cookie rests... but we have our doubts.

Dog In, Cat Out

This is one of my favourite books. It's only got four words in the text, but I just love the story.

Dog In Cat Out by Gillian Rubinstein is an Aussie book without being overtly kookaburra- and kangaroo-infested. It recounts the day of a family, from the first member up to the last one to bed. The family depicted here remind me so much of friends of ours who live nearby. The house is gently old and rambling. Mum stays at home with Bub and pegs out the washing. Kids wear their uniforms and bike to school. Dad does the dishes. And in amongst all this the family's dog and cat go in and out, out and in.

Because the text consists entirely of these four words this is the first book read by countless Aussie children, my girls included. Also, on every page there is a cuckoo clock with the two pets in the appropriate position and the time shown. It's a great clue to the proto-reader to see the animals in or out of the clock, and to have the text against a white background in the same position on each page. And they can start learning to tell analogue time, too.

But this is not just an educational book. This is a gentle family and animal book that has lots to talk about. Children can talk about what happens in the illustrations and laugh at the things that go wrong. They can compare the daily routine in their own house to the one in the book.

Storytime: There's a Bird on Your Head! by Mo Willems

Hey, Y'all! This is my first official post for the new challenge - picture books. I am super excited, because I read to my little ones so much, yet I hate to keep BLATHERING on about it, you know?

But, now, you HAVE to read my blathering, AND you have to like it. See? It's a Win - sorta Win situation.

Now. On to the review.


My review first. Now, I am speaking as a mom of three, count'em (I have to!), three squirmy wormies! And, although you may feel as though I am a regular June Cleaver (I give off that impression), I actually get rather bored reading some children's books. I know! Gasp! The horror!

So, my perspective is one of a young(ish) mother who will be reading said story about 20 times during the following week. How disgusted will I be with it? THAT, ladies and germs, IS the question!

This book, by Mo Willems, is absolutely. adorable. Aaaand (Yes, there is an "and"!) aaand...FUNNY!

I could totally read this one 20 times this week! 

The pictures are very simple- actually the same basic picture as the cover. I like that because you see the expressions on Piggie's and Elephant's face, and the colors are muted. So there is not a lot to distract from the words.

And the words are very easy to read - the story is a conversation between Piggie and Elephant and beginning readers can read the high frequency words that they will be familiar with (the, bird, on, etc), but there is enough repetition for them to grasp new harder words and memorize them (somewhere, head, etc).

This book will be entertaining for older readers, as well, but it will not be challenging. This is really a beginner's level book.

All of the books in this series (Piggie and Elephant) are similarly written, and I give them a "4 Whews!" and "2 1/2 Snickers (as in laughs, not the candy...although that could work too..)". I may just buy this book and a few more in the series.

 

Nico's interview. (Nico is six, and "motivationally challenged" - that means...uhh..lazy. So he HATES to actually read - he wants me to do it. He pretends, yes, pretends to sound out the words so that I will give in and just read the dang word. He works harder at not working than actually working!)

Me: Nico, did you like this book?

Nico: Uh-huh. Can I go?

Me: No.What did you like about it?

Nico: I don't know. Are we finished?

Me: Not yet. COME BACK HERE! Did. you. like. the. story.

Nico: Yeah. It was funny. Maaaamaaaa, can I go NOW?

Me: Jus' a sec. Did you like to read the words?
Nico: No. Well, yeah, but I just don't know how to read all those books. Can I go?
Me: *sigh* NO! Now. What was your favorite part?
Nico: Elephant said "Aaaaaaaaaaaaagh." And it was funny. He thinks there was a bird on his head!
Me: NICO! COME. HERE! Do you think other kids would like this book?
Nico: (Grinning) Yeah. It was funny. Now can I go?

I must say, I let him go. Through the entire interview, he was hopping up and down. How would Oprah or Barbara Wawa have handled it? Could they have made him cry? Or would they have started to cry?


Anyway, folks. There you have it. It was funny. And not torturous to read the words. He read it with me once, once by himself, and once with his brother and sister each. Not bad, boy-who-doesn't-like-to-read, not bad at all!



Please visit the Read to Me Picture Book Challenge's February linky party   hosted by There's A Book for more terrific picture books!

Storytime: Muddy Paws by Moira Butterfield

This cute little picture book has been a favorite since last spring. (yes, that is how long this post has been languishing in draft form.) 

As soon as I spotted Muddy Paws by Moira Butterfield, I knew my little boy would love it.  You see, we had a new puppy that we had been trying to name for several weeks and this story is about a boy attempting to think of a name for his new puppy. Just perfect!

The illustrations are soft, diffused and very sweet but also dynamic.

 

In the story, as the boy explores the neighborhood seeking inspiration for a puppy name, the puppy explores too.

Of course, each of puppy's adventures involve dirt, water and muddy pawprints everywhere--- but he earns a name-- Muddypaws!

This is such a cute book and my little guy recommends it highly. Here is his review!

Linking to the Read to me: Picture Book Challenge.