Wild About You! by Judy Sierra and Marc Brown

Wild About You is just out and all about families

Judy Sierra and Marc Brown made a great team when they collaborated on Wild About Books, which went on to great acclaim. The award-winning book is one I like to share when I want to do a themey story time about librarians and reading for Dr. Seuss's Birthday or to launch a summer story time session. Wild About You! is another such book, with a loving story about babies at the zoo, including those naturally born to their parents, and two special babies who are adopted by their animal parents. 
The illustrations by Marc Brown are playful and really quite lovely. Marc Brown's illustrations bring together a profusion of greys and oranges and periwinkle blues with some soothing greens and happy-go-lucky yellows. The illustrations are a treat and full of story-enhancing details. If you are looking for the animals to resemble those in Brown's hit television and book series about Arthur the aardvark, then maybe you should plan to be a little disappointed. 
When I pick up a book that is a collaboration of two well-known individuals, I sometimes see the story taking a back seat to the illustrations. Not so in this book, which focuses in on two adoptive zoo animal parents who yearn for children of their own, and who finally, gloriously, get their wishes. I have read a few children's books about adoption over the years, and to be honest, none of them have really stood out. But this book is different. This one briefly focuses on the sadness parents feel when they can't have their own children, then moves on the celebrate the new adoptive families, highlighting how the zoo animals help the Pandas and the Tree Kangaroos meet the needs of their young.
This book is a lighthearted celebration of children, families, and the communities that help them thrive, but it doesn't hit you over the head with these messages.
Wild About You! is a medium-length book with over-sized pages that are spare on words. Perfect for a 3 to 5 year old age group. But the story and illustrations could find their way into a number of story hour themes:

• Families
• Community
• Zoo Animals
• Mothers
• Fathers
• Babies

If you like Wild About You! be sure to read Judy Sierra's Wild About Books!

Noisy Nora by Rosemary Wells

Noisy Nora by Rosemary Wells

Noisy Nora just wants to be heard. Looking for a book that will hook even the squirmiest of youngsters? Noisy Nora by Rosemary Wells could be your answer. This sweet story about a little sister acting out predates David of the No David! series by David Shannon, and is as old as I am. (And I'm older than dirt, in case you were wondering.)

I read this story to my little middle child, and well, her jaw was so slack I almost saw a fly buzz inside! This book is escape fiction at its finest. Poor little Nora, making so much noise, and still nobody notices her.

Nora rattles windows, slams doors, and bangs pots and pans together, but to no avail. Mom and dad are so busy helping an older sister with her school work and feeding and bathing the baby, that Nora gets lost in the shuffle. Even when Nora dumps her sister's marbles on the floor, nobody seems to care.

Finally Nora takes drastic action, and slams the door as she makes a dramatic exit. Of course, nobody notices she is gone until they realize the house is completely quiet! Now the search is on, and everybody is searching for Nora, and she finally gets the attention she is looking for with a dramatic crashing entrance at the very end of the book.

This book has a few things going for it from a storytime perspective. First, it has a cute little mouse as its main character. I find stories with cute mice almost always do well. Not sure why this is. I don't really want to encounter a cute mouse at home, but in stories it is different. Next, Nora does some outrageous things that would get her into big time trouble if she were my mouse--I mean child. Third, the book is well-paced and spare with words. Rosemary Wells doesn't have to say much to get her point across. I recommend this book for a preschool crowd, probably 3 and up.

A Little Story About a Big Turnip

A Little Story About a Big Turnip is a short version of an ancient folktale.

An early morning chill is hinting at my favorite season being just around the corner: Autumn. It is still late summer here in Farmerland, Iowa, and the fresh-harvested corn is just now beginning to brown on the remains of their stalks. Not quite ready to dive into the panoply of pumpkin-spiced tales, I wanted to share a fall-harvest vegetable themed story book based on a folktale about a different vegetable that has been passed down through the ages.

A Little Story About a Big Turnip holds a wonderful appeal for early preschool and up crowds. The book has a cast of likeable, rustic characters full of personality. There's a grandma and grandpa, a girl name Annie, her two pets, and a distracted little mouse who would rather be reading than doing anything else. The plot is simple and repetitive, which makes this book easy to join in.

And as you would expect, when they finally do pull out the giant turnip, you as the storyteller have the opportunity to make a sucking, slurping, popping sound. I hope you know what I mean. So practice up and maybe even invite your storytime crowd to do the same. The story is short and that part is a lot of fun!

Now to be sure, I don't know very many people who actually EAT turnips, but that is not the point.

Books to read with A Little Story About a Big Turnip

• The Big Pumpkin by D. Schindler and Erica Silverman puts a Halloween twist on the giant turnip folktale.
• The Gigantic Turnip by Aleksei Tolstoy and Niamh Sharkey is another version of my title pic. This book is lengthier, with zany illustrations ala James and the Giant Peach.
• Growing Vegetable Soup or Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert.

Get the Kids Involved

• Encourage children to repeat the refrain "but the turnip didn't come out."
• Show the kids how to make a giant popping sound by licking your lips, then smacking them together. Now they can help you make a sound effect when the giant turnip leaves the ground.
• Act the story out.

One Winter's Day by M. Christina Butler

One Winter's Day by Christine Butler

I am a sucker for books that focus on values, and this one, printed by a publishing house called Good Books, has a moral that is hard to miss. If you help others, treating your neighbors with compassionate kindness, you will be helped when the time comes. This is a worthy message to share with the young audience for whom this book is intended, and it is a pleasure to see Little Hedgehog rewarded for his compassion, even when he wasn't expecting it. Though it is easy to argue that the world doesn't always work this way, and the rewards of giving are usually much more ephemeral. Young children are usually looking for simple and concrete answers when they are caught up in life's storms, and I liked the way this book approached its story.

Tina Macnaughton's illustrations use dark colors punctuated by the vibrant red and orange hues selected for the hedgehog's scarf, hat, and gloves, which are featured in their touch and feel glory on almost every page of this story book. These clothing items are raised and give a soft surface, making this book just a little more pleasureful to read. I think this book would make a nice companion to The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, and either The Mitten or The Hat by Jan Brett, which are, interestingly enough, also both about cute little hedgehogs and their wintertime adventures with clothing.

Read This With

•  The Mitten or The Hat by Jan Brett

•  The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
  

This children's classic, The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
is another story about a snowy journey

The Quiltmaker's Gift by Jeff Brumbeau and Gail de Marcken

The Quilt Maker's Gift by Jeff
Brumbeau and Gail de Marcken

The Quiltmaker's Gift by Jeff Brumbeau is a rather long children's picture book featuring a powerful and wise old quilt maker, a greedy king who has a mind-boggling collection of things, so that "he kept a list of all the lists of things he owned." The king begins the story looking like a Bavarian in a showy military uniform with a sash and ostentatious jewelry. In this story, the quilt maker is an unabashed philanthropist, sharing her quilts only with the needy, and the king doesn't need a thing--except to learn the difference between the happiness that comes from owning things and the happiness that comes from serving and helping others. But the king wants a quilt, and he demands that she make one for him. She agrees, but only on the condition that he give away his other possessions.

This story won the Booksense Book of the Year Award, and it is easy to understand why. It reads like time-worn folktale, and lends easily to verbal retellings. The story has some truly charming moments, with florid prose that is rivaled only by the rainbow of colors in the fanciful illustrations.

Gail de Marcken's illustrations are complicated and they tell a story on their own that exceeds the already interesting and well-told story. On one page, a spider with a magnificent web pays homage to spider woman, the weaver of Navajo myth.

Visual references to the names of the quilt patterns depicted on the pages of this story are private jokes between the reader and the author and illustrator. In one scene of the story, the little old woman is imprisoned in a cave with a hungry bear, who is meant to eat her. Instead, we see his sharp-clawed paws outstretched as she shows him so much kindness that he forgets to eat her. On these pages of the story a bear-paw patterned quilt square is nested between the images of the quilter and her new animal friend. On the next page, the two eat berries and tea, and a tea-leaf quilt square is depicted on that page of the story.

Other elements in the story share the names of the quilt squares depicted in the book. On the endpapers a full-color glossary of quilt pattern names give clues to visual play inside the pages of the story. This book really isn't for preschoolers, because it is so long, but I think some preschoolers would still enjoy reading the story. Still, I couldn't resist sharing this book, because this is a wonderful choice as a gift book or for reading to an elementary school crowd.

I suspect the author drew his king character from a familiar story in the New Testament. I'm thinking of the wealthy young man who goes away sorrowing from Christ because he asks to follow the Savior, who then instructs him to give away all of his worldly possessions. But in this story, the ending is joyful.

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Who Ate All the Cookie Dough by Karen Beaumont

Who Ate All the Cookie Dough

Who Ate All The Cookie Dough by Karen Beaumont is a fast-paced rhyming story that simply tries to solve the mystery of the question Who ate all the cookie dough?. The meter of the rhyme bears a strong resemblance to the well-known chant, "who took the cookie from the cookie jar," and as Mrs. Kangaroo asks each animal friend who ate all the cookie dough, the reader gets closer and closer to the cute but somewhat predictable ending. This book, while not GREAT children's literature, fits well into the genre of read-aloud stories for young preschoolers, and would be a very good selection for a preschool story hour for ages 2-4.

This book, because it is short and sweet (sorry, sometimes I can't help myself with those puns), makes a good companion to Eric Carle's Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother Too?and From Head to Toe by the same author. For a cookie-themed story hour, pair this book with  If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, and Cookies, Bite-Sized Life Lessons. This book will be an attention-keeping addition to your reading arsenal if you have young children who aren't quite ready to sit down and read a longer, more complicated story, such as children who are transitioning from the board book stage.

   

The illustrations by Eugene Yelchin feature animals that are comic in character, their features are exaggerated, but their facial expressions add a mischievous something to the story. The other details are subdued, stylized, and monochromatic. This book makes an excellent selection for story hour or young preschoolers, but if I were considering this as a purchase, I'd go for the more well-known Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother, Too?

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On Our Way Home...Not Just for Father's Day

Father's day is one of those holidays I always dread selecting story time books for. Not that there's a shortage of books, but I find myself using the same three or four titles each year, hoping something better will catch my eye. Several children's book authors have found their niche with cute rhyming stories for a cadre of holidays. But you can't use these books for every big holiday, and sometimes the plots in these books feel a little forced or a just a bit stale.
On Our Way Home by Sebastien Braun is no such book.The lovely artwork in this story geared for toddlers and its focus on relationships instead of stereotypes makes it a true standout. You may recognize the bear cub and his daddy from Braun's two other successful books, I Love My Mommy and I Love My Daddy. This book is almost a concept book, because the plot is so simple. But the affection between the little cub and his father shines as they take a walk through the forest, slide down the banks of a stream together, catch falling leaves, and gaze up at the stars.

On Our Way Home by Sebastien Braun

The little cub has some childlike qualities that children can relate to. Holding daddy's hand, carrying a stick, cuddling up close. This book is designed for older toddlers and young preschoolers, but may be a guilty pleasure for the four and up crowd. For some groups this book may be just a little bit too dear, even a bit twee for the more world weary youngsters in your story time crowd.
This book does capture the magic of fatherhood at the young hero worship stage. It is also short, well-paced, and full of beautiful brown, blue and bottle-green pictures. I would definitely include in my Father's day story time program this year, with other selections like The Apple Pie that Papa Baked, the The Daddy Mountain, and Mr. Seahorse.

Trains Go by Steve Light

Trains Go by Steve Light is a fast-paced addition to a toddler or preschool story hour about trains. This board book is filled with bold, solid colors and quick, easy to read text full of onomotopaeia. I never realized that trains could make such a wide variety of sounds.  Don't make this the central book to your story time, though; it is just a little bit too short.

The illustrations for this board book are artistically executed, but still easy to a access for a younger toddler-aged crowd. And the letters of text are just as easy to look at as the pictures. Each train picture conveys a sense of motion and movement, and some of the pictures practically fly off the page. Since this book is short, you could read it aloud once, then invite your other children to read along with you. The illustrations are over-sized and easy to see.

Steve Light has also written a book called Trucks Go. I read this one to my son and neither of us felt the love for the truck book like we did reading the train book. Trucks Go follows a similar format with the same stylized illustrations made up of bold, chunky shapes in primary colors. But unlike the train version of the series,which I read during my story hour, the truck sounds were less distinctive, less memorable. Still, if you only have access to the Truck version of this series, I would go with it and use it anyway, though not as the main event.

My mother-in-law taught me a cute song to sing with children you are trying to herd around in a classroom setting. the song helps kids to stay in line, but could be a fun story hour movement exercise if you have room to move around in the library.

"Choo, choo the big train is coming down the track
choo, choo the big train is coming down the track
stop, look, and listen
stop, look, and listen
choo, choo the big train is coming down the track

Read this book with

Chugga Chugga Choo Choo by Kevin Lewis and Daniel Kirk would be a good pairing for a train themed story time. More train sounds with a toddler-themed story. For kindergarten and up, you might consider reading the classic children's story The Little Engine that Could. This children's story about the power of persistence and never giving up, is long for toddlers. All children are different, these guidelines are based on my experience and on the children in the areas where I was a story time presenter. Ultimately you are the best judge of what works for you.

Julius, Baby of the World

My son's 6-year old friend recently confided to me as he was walking out the door, "Hey, Carolyn, I might get a sister! Then, without missing a beat, he added "...or a puppy." I asked which one would be better, and after a long, pregnant pause, he decided on the sibling. He is a 6-year old only with no sibs, and I wondered how he would really fare with this transition.

Julius Baby of the World, by Kevin Henkes

That's what I love about Julius, Baby of the World by Kevin Henkes. If read with dramatic flair, this book is great in a story time setting. The illustrations have a droll, poke-fun-at-yourself-until-it-hurts quality, but they are a little small for large story time crowds.

Still, I love this story about Lilly, one of Henkes most beloved little mouse characters. The fact that Julius upstages Lilly, even in the title, underscores the feelings of this story about sibling rivalry. This book is laugh-out-loud funny, but is told with a poignant realism that explores the feelings of displacement that children often experience when a new baby comes along. This book will make you groan, then laugh, then groan some more and laugh even harder.

Lilly thinks her brother Julius is disgusting and dreadful, and even shouts to a stranger on the street, “You will live to regret that bump under your dress!” But her attitude turns around when her cousin decides that Julius is horrible too. And true to Lilly's flamboyant, princess style, she rises to the occasion by forcing her cousin to admit that Julius is the baby of the world.

Tone it Down

You may want to pair this book with other titles that are a little more cuddly on the baby spectrum during story hour. Check out any of Karen Katz's loving looks at babies, for cuddling and kissing. Then toss in a little Gyo Fujikawa with the vintage title Babies. This precious book is whimsical and very cute.

The Dirty Little Boy by Margaret Wise Brown

The Very Dirty Boy by Margaret Wise Brown (Goodnight Moon) is a newly illustrated version of a vintage story. The whimsical illustrations by Steve Salerno are hilarious, but they do stretch the limits of believability. Everyone knows that sometimes good fiction requires us to suspend our disbelief, and children are good at this. So if you are one of those poor, tormented souls who are hung up on the need for stories to follow good logic, then just stop here.

In this story, a very dirty boy comes in from an afternoon of play begging for a bath. Every mother's dream, right! Wrong. The busy mother (this part I can easily believe), becomes a little bit agitated and sends her child off to watch animals take a bath.

Animals? Really?

So where does the boy go? Straight to the farmyard, where he rolls in the mud with the pigs. And when the little boy comes home dirtier than ever, his mother just can't understand why he didn't come back clean as a whistle.

Maybe it was Margaret Wise Brown's intention to wag a finger at parents who don't give their children regular baths. Maybe this is just a superlatively silly plot device, but the book itself is a lot of fun to read. I for one found it quite amusing.

Brown's books tend to be verbose, like a lot of vintage kid lit, but this book doesn't wash out. My kids squealed with laughter at this very silly story, which is well-paced for reading in a group setting. The graphics have a stylized, vintage appeal, complementing the story by enhancing, certain, erm, details.

Creep Through the House with Little Bitty Mousie

Little Bittie Mousie by Jim Aylesworth and Michael Hague

An unconventional alphabet book with a tiny-sized view of the world is Little Bitty Mousie, by Jim Aylesworth and Michael Hague. For story time presenters and lap reading alike, this book has much to hold a child's interest.

A white mouse with over-sized pink ears and a blue and white polka-dot pinafore dress wanders through an unkempt kitchen that looks as if it stepped right out of the 1950s. From a mouse-sized viewpoint, a mountain of unwashed dishes becomes a towering feast of leftovers, and a chocolate cake missing a wedge is a bigger-than life morsel. Little Bitty Mousie appears to be the queen of the castle, until she encounters an unwelcome presence at the end of the story.

Like many alphabet books, this one has rhyming text, which make this book fun and easy to read aloud. But unlike most other books in this genre, this book also offers a surprise ending and a reason for the little mouse to run, run, run away. I liked the unusual 1950s color choices used in the illustrations, and the humorous and sometimes unsettling jab at poor housekeeping practices. Jim Aylesworth clearly wasn't visiting Martha when he dreamed up this delightful  little wonder.