Monster at the Library

For some reason I love Monster themed story times. A new picture book made me think about doing one again. The titles was Goodnight, Little Monster by Helen Kettleman. This was a cute book with rhyming text and adorable pictures. It might be hard to think of monsters as adorable, but these ones are! I love the purple freckles Little Monster and his Mom both have. The soft toy slug instead of a teddy bear is another nice touch. I would definitely include this title in the next Monster Storytime I plan.

With the right books the kids go crazy for this theme, boys especially. Not all monster books appeal to boys only. A really great monster story will attract boys and girls to it. Some of my favorite monster stories are:

Monster Hug by David Ezra Stein
Thelonius Monster’s Sky High Fly Pie by Judy Sierra
Monster at the end of this Book by Jon Stone
Go Away Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley
Leonardo the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems
Frank Was A Monster Who Wanted to Dance by Keith Graves

Here Kitty kitty!

Cats make great characters in my opinion and I love most cat books. After seeing Where is tippy toes? by Betsy Lewin, I started thinking about all the great cat picture books that have come out in the past few years. Some of my favorites have been:

Chester by Melanie Watt
What will fat cat sit on? by Jan Thomas
There are cats in this book by Viviane Schwarz
I don't want a cool cat! by Emma Dodd
For the Love of Autumn by Patricia Polacco

Of course there are many more titles I could add to this list but that seems like a good start! Any other favorite cats books from last last few year to include?

The Wide-Awake Princess

I wasn't sure what to expect when I started reading The Wide-Awake Princess by E.D. Baker. I'm a fan of most fantasy and love any good fairy tale, but something about the cover to this novel looked a too little disney cartoon like for my taste. Boy am I glad I didn't judge this book just on the cover! What looks like just another retelling of Sleeping Beauty take a different turn when Sleeping Beauty's younger sister doesn't fall alseep with the rest of the castle. I was pleasently surprised by the story and how other classic fairy tales got mixed in with the plot. The love story is also perfect for younger girls who are more interested in puppy love then a Twilight level romance.

The Red Blazer Girls Series

by Michael Beil
#1 The Ring of Rocamadour
#2 The Vanishing Violin

For some reason I just love these girls. It's hard to put my finger on just why I like them so much. They remind me of a old fashioned detective novel but the characters still seem like modern tweens. Some might say that the girls are a bit too goody-goody some of the time, but that's one of the reasons I love them. I was just like that! (and I bet a lot of other were too but just don't want to admit it)

I love the puzzles Beil included is the novels as well. They can be challenging at times but never to hard I can't solve them. This format reminds me of titles like The Gollywhopper Games by Jody Feldman or the Puzzling World of Winston Breen by Eric Berlin.

I'll be looking for more books to come in this series!

I know a Chicken...

Most people wouldn't guess that Chickens is one of my favorite storytime themes, but there is so much great stuff out there that it is! I had the pleasure of presenting a storytime on this theme the other day and the kids loved it. This storytime works for kids 2-3 or 3-5 yrs. old. (it was done with both of those age groups with minor changes) I didn't use all of these books since the story time is only 30 minutes, but it provides a nice list to choose from.

Some recent titles to try:

Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein (Try this one with a puppet!)

Higgledy-piggledy chicks by Barbara Joosse

Big chickens go to town by Leslie Helakoski

Other books to included:

Here a Chick Where a Chick? by Suse MacDonald

Wee Little Chick by Lauren Thopson

This Little Chick by John Lawrence

Charlie Chick by Nick Denchfield

Chicky Chicky Chook Chook by Cathy MacLennan

Cock-a-Doodle Quack! Quack!, by Ivor Baddiel and Sophie Jubb

One Little Chicken by David Elliot

The Perfect Nest by Catherine Friend

Chicken Soup by Jean Van Leeuwen

Hungry Hen by Richard Waring

Big Fat Hen by Keith Baker

Tippy-Toe Chick, GO! by George Shannon

Where are my Chicks? by Sally Grindley

Music can also be a big part of any storytime and there are some great chicken songs out there. My favorite would have to be "I know a chicken" by Laurie Berkner on Whaddaya think of that? This song is great with shakers! Everytime I so much as think the tune, it's stuck in my head for the rest of the day! I also like "Here come the chicken" by the Wiggles on Racing to the Rainbow.

Going to the zoo

I've been wanting to plan a Zoo themed storytime for awhile now and found the perfect book to add to it. Now I'd really better get that storytime together!



1 Zany Zoo by Lori Degman
This is the winner for the Cheerios New Author Contest and it's no surprise to me that she won. This is such a creative story about what happens when all the zoo animals get out of their cages. I think #9 with the leopards choosing now spots was my favorite though. I'm excited to see what else this new author will come out with.

Super Chicken Nugget Boy and the Furious Fry

In Super Chicken Nugget Boy and the Furious Fry by Josh Lewis, Fern faces a terrible bully at his new school and decides to do something about it. He invents a superhero to stand up to the bully, but when the plan goes astray, Fern gets turned into the superhero for real.

I think this would be a good read for boys seeking early chapter books. It has the action, comedy, and even cartoon pictures on most pages. As far as the plot goes, many aspects are a bit unbelievable, but that's to be expected with a superhero based on a chicken nugget.

Mockingjay

Loved it! Every bit worth waiting for. For anyone who hasn't read it, I won't give anything away, but you should go and read it now. I was so excited to get my copy I finished it with in a day and 1/2. It would have been faster but I did have to go to work some of that time.

Just a few of the things I loved about the book:
the characters - especially how Katniss, Peeta, and Prim developed
the emotions it created
and of course.....the ending (well most of the ending anyways)

Tomorrow....

The book will come out tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar that I'll be reading it! Yes that's right Mockingjay will be out tomorrow and I plan on getting mine first thing in the morning.

Good books for a storytime

Some new books I came across recently that would be great to use in a story time:


Octopus Opposites by Stella Blackstone

This is a very cute picture book with great pictures for younger kids. Blackstone included interesting and unusual animals as well as some fun opposites, like push and pull. Early literacy skills would also work well with this titles. I'm already thinking of all the storytime themes it would work with: under the sea, the ocean, opposites, water....

The Cow loves cookies by Karma Wilson

Who doesn't love cookies? So why not a cow? Kids will love the rhythm of the text as it rolls of the tongue describing what the farmer feeds each animal. If I was the cow I know I'd love the cookie too! The pictures are also fun and show farmer sneaking cookies to the cow.

Tap Tap Bang Bang by Emma Garcia – tools and fun sounds

Just the title of this book gets me exited and I can picture it being used in story times on noises, tools, construction and all sorts of boy related themes. I especially loved all the fun alliteration, like the chippety chip with the chisel. The book really comes alive when you read it aloud!

I Dream of an Elephant by Ami Ribinger

The cute rhyming text should have preschools shouting out the color of the elephant well before its time. I love how Ribinger does even say the color of the elephant most times but leaves it to the readers to guess the color based on the rhyme and picture. That shouldn't be a problem for most youngsters though with these fun pictures!

Roscoe Riley Rules!

Great beginner chapter book series! This is good alternative to Junie B. Jones for Boys. The first in the series, Never Glue Your Friends to Chairs, had me giggling the whole time. I could just picture the scenes in my head and they seemed plucked straight from a classroom. This would also be a good read aloud for teachers looking for something to read to 1st graders.

recommended for kids starting chapter books

The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan

Very excited about this book when it came out and was pleased that it didn't disappoint. More mythology books are being published these days, but most still focus on Greek/Roman mythology. Riordan brings Egyptian mythology to the forfront with a bang like only he can. Even though I already know a little about Egyptian Mythology, after I finished Red Pyramid, I felt like I wanted to learn as much as I could about the topic.
Inspired to read other books about Egypt, I've now started on the Theodosia Series by R. L. La Fevers

Little Blog on the Prairie

Just finished reading Little Blog on the Prairie by Cathleen Bell over the weekend. I was surprised by how much I liked this book. As someone who has done historical re-enactment, I thought I would have trouble identifing with a somewhat bratty teen who doesn't want to be a frontier camp. Bell did a great job of makinGen a beliveable character who I was rooting for. Some parts might not be too realistic, but over I the humor and wholsomness of the story won me over.

recommended for grades 4-6.