A COUPLE OF NEW PICTURE BOOKS

I am not getting to blogging right now. It's just not happening. Here are a couple of picture books I have read recently.

MY NAME IS NOT ALEXANDER and MY NAME IS NOT ISABELLA are books that I think will be fun to include in (A) a "me"unit at the beginning of the year or (B) a study of character and values or (C) a genre study of biographies for a primary aged child. I could also see pairing this with Barack Obama's OF THEE I SING in a study of how to structure a picture books.

In each of these two books, a young child wakes up in the morning, and tells his/her parent that they are no longer going to be called by their "real" name. On each page, the child assumes a different identity.

Over the course of a day, for instance, Isabella, wants to be called Sally (for astronaut Sally Ride), Annie, for sharpshooter Annie Oakley, Rosa (Parks) and Elizabeth (Blackwell, the first woman doctor. She also wants to be a mom, and ultimately decides that being herself is the best of all.

Alexander is the "boy" version of this series. Alexander also runs through a variety of personalities, including Teddy Roosevelt, Thomas Alva Edison, Chief Joseph, and Jackie Robinson.

A fun series for beginning readers.

SPOON- AMY KROUSE ROSENTHAL

One of the hardest things about changing schools is having to change reading buddies. I miss my old friends- the people who would stop by my room or office with a book in hand. I'm starting, though, to develop new reading friends. This week, one of my new reading friends brought me SPOON, a book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, an author I really love.

SPOON is the story of a little spoon, who lives in the silverware drawer with his mama and daddy. One day he decides he is not happy being a spoon, he would rather be a knife, or a fork, or a pair of chopsticks. His mama and his friends, knife, fork, and chopsticks remind him that everyone has their own unique and special talents. A sweet little book, with lots of clever word play, perfect for a beginning of the year "Me Unit."

THREE FUN ANIMAL READS

This afternoon Son #2 needed a new needle for his DJ turntable. We went to the local music groupie store, which happens to be right next to the Tattered Cover, so while he bought his needle (which took more than 30 minutes and necessitated listening to several albums-- yes, albums, old time records like I used to have when I was a teenager!), I wandered over to the TC to read. Here are three of my favorite finds:

MR. PUTNEY'S QUACKING DOG- JON AGEE

Mr. Putney is a straight-laced, bald little guy, who has all kinds of unusual animals in his life. Each page begins with a question, then on the next page, the reader gets the answer.

Q: What do you call Mr. Putney's quacking dog?

A: A ducksund

Q: Who wakes Mr. Putney up in the morning?

A: Alarmadillo.

Q: What do you call the messy shellfish that splashes Mr. Putney during lunch?

A: The slobster.

The animals also have their own comments. Really clever word play from start to finish.

CHILDREN MAKE TERRIBLE PETS- Peter Brown

Lucy, a tutu-wearing bear finds a creature, who happens to be a little boy, when she is out playing in the forest one day. She takes him home and convinces her mother to let her keep the pet, who she names Squeaker. She soon discovers, however, that pets are a lot of work. Squeaker is hard to potty train and makes lots of messes. A great reversal of child and animal roles. Kids (and adults) are sure to love this one.

Seven Impossible Things did a terrific interview of author/illustrator Peter Brown. Lots of sketches and early drawings from his books.

My last find, A SICK DAY FOR AMOS MCGEE- Philip C. Stead, falls into the "sweet" category. Amos is a kind old zookeeper, who gets up every morning, eats his breakfast, and rides the bus to the zoo. He plays chess with the elephant, always has a tissue for the rhino's runny nose, and reads stories to the owl, who is afraid of the dark.

One day, Amos wakes up sick, and can't go to the zoo to take care of his animal friends, so they decide that they need to go to him. A sweet, sweet book with a huge "Aah factor" at the end.

ALFIE RUNS AWAY- Kenneth Cadow

Alfie does not like to take baths, make his bed, eat potatoes, or set the table. When his mother tries to throw away his favorite red shoes, Alfie decides things have gone too far, and makes plans to run away. He packs a water bottle, a box of crackers, a flashlight, three books, and his teddy bear and heads out to find a place where people don't make kids throw away their favorite, albeit too-small red shoes. The bag is a little heavy, however, so he settles down on a blanket in the yard…

I read ALFIE to a first grade class on the last day of school. It was 90 degrees outside, and almost that warm in our hundred year old, non air-conditioned building. The kids were excited and/or worried about getting out of school for the summer. Even so, this book brought forth lots of rich conversations. Everyone, of course, had a running away story to tell. There were also several favorite shoe stories. The kids had lots of great wonderings and comments about the book. J thought the mom was not really doing her job- she wanted the mom to lock the door and tell Alfie he couldn't go anywhere. K thought the mom should just tell Alfie they could go get new shoes, exactly like the old ones if he wanted them. M thought the mom should sneak into Alfie's room while he was asleep and replace the old shoes with new ones. P said, "I bet his mom is just trying to outsmart him. She probably knows he isn't going anywhere very far. Or if he does, she will follow him and bring him back when he gets tired."

Books as a way of helping kids explore big issues like the love of a parent or growing up… Could there be anything better?

LULU'S PAJAMAS- LUCIE PAPINEAU

Each night, when it is time to go to bed, Lulu the mouse puts on her favorite pajamas, the ones that smell "as good as a pink dream" and are "as soft as a butterfly kiss," then snuggles in with Lili-poo, her pet ladybug (who never wears pajamas). One morning, Lulu decides she likes her pajamas so much that she will wear them to school. Things do not go quite as well as Lulu had hoped, however. The other children laugh at her. She gets fingerpaint, then glue, then spaghetti on her favorite pajamas. The bottoms get dusty when the class does the fairy dance. Lulu feels very sad and decides she will never wear her pajamas again…

This is a fun story, sure to be a hit with the preschool/kindergarten crowd, also a great "big sister" present for baby showers. Lulu is a spunky little thing, not unlike Kevin Henke's Lily, of purple plastic purse fame. She is strong willed and a little stubborn, but well-intentioned. Mama and Papa deal with Lulu firmly (only little mice who wear pajamas get bedtime stories) but also with humor (when Lulu decides to wear her pajamas to school, Papa wears his pajamas to drive her there). Stéphane Jorisch's detailed water color illustrations match the story perfectly.

THUMP, QUACK, MOO- Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin

Hurray!  Duck is back! 

It's time for the annual Corn Maze Festival. Farmer Brown has big plans  to build a Statue of Liberty corn maze, and has enlisted the help of all of his animal friends to complete this project. The chickens are building the fence around the corn maze. The cows are painting the barn. Only Duck is less than eager to help, and has to be threatened with the loss of his special-order organic duck food, if he doesn't help.  

As always, though, there is a twist. Each day, Farmer Brown sketches, measures, graphs, and mows. Each night, Duck, with the help of night-vision glasses and a glow-in-the-dark ruler sketches, measures, graphs, and mows. The end results are hilarious. 

I bought THUMP, QUACK, MOO this afternoon, and read it to my boys at the dinner table tonight. My boys have absolutely no doubt that their mother is a total nerd, but secretly, they loved Duck's newest adventure!

THE WORST BEST FRIEND- ALEXIS O'NEILL

Mike and Conrad are best friends. They eat together, read together, play together, and that's the way it's always been. Things change, however, when Victor moves to town. Victor is cool, way cool, and has the sunglasses to prove it. Soon Conrad and Victor are doing everything together, and Mike is left out. 

Kids love the rhythmic, sing-songy playgroundish language and funny, collage like illustrations of Alexis O'Neill's RECESS QUEEN (another great back to school read aloud- it's pictured here because I can't find a picture of WORST BEST FRIEND) and WORST BEST FRIEND is another sure winner that kids will reread, and reread, and reread, and chant on the playground.

On a deeper level though, WORST  BEST FRIEND is one of those books kids NEED in their lives. The first couple of reads, they enjoy the book, notice new things in the illustrations, read along. The third or fourth time, though, they talk about heart issues- what it feels like to lose a best friend, being left out, loneliness, loyalty. All kids lose a deep and treasured friend at least once in their lives, and books like this make a very hard experience a little less painful. 

I'm sure this book will disappear, and I'll replace it more than once.