The Easter Bunny's Assistant

The Easter Bunny's Assistant by Jan Thomas
Illustrated by Jan Thomas
Published by Harper
Ages 2-5
2012

     The Easter bunny is here to help you make beautiful Easter eggs.  He has enlisted the help of his trusted assistant, the skunk.  Easter bunny starts listing the steps necessary to make the Easter eggs, but there is a serious problem: Skunk is getting excited. Too excited. And do you know what happens when skunks get excited? Well, they do their skunk thing...they stink up the place. Easter bunny tries to get him to control himself but nothing is helping.  How will they get through their lesson on how to make beautiful Easter eggs?
     The Easter Bunny's Assistant is hilarious.  The bright illustrations by Thomas and the funny dialogue makes this a great read aloud for the youngest readers. It can also be used as an example of procedural writing and for sequencing activities.

The Buffalo Are Back

The Buffalo Are Back by Jean Craighead George
Paintings by Wendell Minor
Published by Dutton Children's Books
2010

     "In the mid-1800s seventy five million buffalo roamed in North America. In little more than fifty years, there would be almost none."  In The Buffalo Are Back, Jean Craighead George (Julie of the Wolves) explains in detail the historical events that lead these majestic animals to the edge of extinction.  In very clear terms, with very accessible narrative readers take a journey to the prairies during the 1800s, the westward expansion and the Indian Wars.  There is plenty to learn about the connections between the buffalo and the prairie and how the disappearance of the buffaloes eventually caused the prairie to become dust.
     The Buffalo Are Back is a beautiful non-fiction picture book to add to any home or classroom library. The paintings by Wendell Minor are gorgeous.  It connects to social studies and science curriculum but reads like a story. Wonderful find.

Squirrel's New Year's Resolution

Squirrel's New Year's Resolution by Pat Miller
Illustrated by Kathi Ember
Published by Albert Whitman & Company
2010

     It's January 1st and Squirrel just put up the new calendar. On the radio they're talking about New Year's resolutions, but Squirrel has no idea how you make a resolution.  He heads out to see his friends and ask them about New Year's resolutions.  Bear already has one: to teach skunk to read. Skunk already has one: to learn how to read. Mole and Turtle have one: to start a garden. Porcupine has one: to be less grumpy.  Without thinking twice, Squirrel ends up helping all of his friends get started on their resolutions and along the way he finds a resolution of his own: to help someone every day.
     Squirrel's New Year's Resolution is a great read-aloud to share on the first day back to school after the holiday break. I love having my students write resolutions that last till the end of the school year and keep them on display around the classroom to hold them to it.  Have you made your resolution yet? 

Good-bye, Havana! Hola, New York!

Good-bye, Havana! Hola, New York! by Edie Colón
Illustrated by Raúl Colón

    In Good-bye, Havana! Hola, New York!, Edie Colón tells the story of a 6 year old cuban girl named Gabriella. The story is basically autobiographical, but Colón explains on a note at the end of the book that she decided to use a different name for the main character "so that I could have some distance from my story."
     Fidel Castro has recently taken control of Cuba and under the banner of the Revolution, the government has taken control of all private property, including Gabriella's family restaurant.  In search of a better life, Gabriella's parents move to New York.  They travel ahead to get everything ready for their new life, while she stays with her grandparents in Havana.  When her father comes back to take her to the Bronx, Gabriella must face the pain of leaving her adored grandparents behind, not knowing when and if she'll see them again.  During the rest of the book, we see Gabriella dealing with the lifestyle changes after the move to New York. It is colder, more urban, she's far from her beloved ocean, and she doesn't speak the language. Throughout the school year, Gabriela makes new friends and learns to speak English. And at the end, she's reunited with her grandparents. The whole family is together again, but this time in their new home in the Bronx.
     Good-bye, Havana! Hola, New York! is a good book to share in the multicultural classroom. As an ESL teacher, I know my English Language Learner students will relate to Gabriela's struggles, feelings, and fears.  The story uses a lot of phrases in Spanish with an English translation immediately following (I found that since the phrases were long, the translations seemed to interrupt the flow of the story). The illustrations by Raúl Colón are simply beautiful, with a warmth of color that immediately brought me back to the Caribbean coast.  This book would also be a great mentor text to introduce memoirs. 

Picture a Tree

Picture a Tree by Barbara Reid
2011

"There is more than one way to picture a tree." Depending of the seasons, its size and its type, a tree can be so many things. A tree could be a tunnel (when trees from opposing sidewalks touch each other over the street), an ocean (when seen from a high rise terrace, a city filled with trees) or a home. Trees can be the umbrellas that protect us from the sun on hot summer days, or can be skeletons in the winter. The fallen leaves of trees in the autumn are part of "a wild goodbye party", while the evergreens in the winter get to "put on snowsuits". Weather they are baby trees, young or old, they all hold spring in their branches, "sleeping like a baby." "Picture a tree. What do you see?"

Illustrating the book with her incredible Plasticine style, Barbara Reid has created a beautiful book that wows at every page turn. I stayed on each page for awhile, admiring the detail and vibrant quality of each spread. The text is lyrical with great use of figurative language to explore in the classroom and many possible extension activities. I will have my students "picture a tree" and write from the point of view of one of the trees in their neighborhood. This is a gorgeous book that I'm truly happy to have in my personal library now.

Seasons

Seasons by Anne Crausaz
2011

     There are four seasons and five senses to explore them.   Following a circular structure, a girls enjoys the touch, smells, sights, tastes, and sounds of a year of seasons, starting with the spring, then summer, autumn, winter, and back to spring again.   She sees the greens of spring, hears the blackbirds singing, and feels the tickle on her finger as a ladybug lands on it. In the summer she can see the "fireflies, like flying stars," smell the vegetables in the garden, listen to a summer storm, feel the warm air and the cold ocean. In the autumn she can "taste the first blackberries, sweet and sour at the same time," smell the moss, and hear the cracking of the leaves as she jumps on them.  In the winter, she can smell the wood fires and taste the snowflakes. And soon, "the flowers will start growing up through the snow, ready for...spring."
     Seasons was originally published in french under the title Premier Printemps.  Crausaz illustrations are clean, bright and beautiful (I have a soft spot for the girls rosy cheeks). The text is simple, but still lyrical.  It's a great book to use in the classroom to introduce the seasons, but even better, as a way to encourage children to use their five senses to add details to their writing.  Great read aloud to use in a mini lesson as a mentor text for sensory details.  Use your senses to explore the world.

What Animals Really Like

What Animals Really Like by Fiona Robinson
2011

     The billboard is up. It announces that for one night only the legendary conductor Mr. Hervert Timberteeth will present his new song: What Animals Like (a pair of birds are holding a banner with the word "Really" above the billboard, changing the title to What Animals Really like... a premonition that things are not going to go as expected).  The conductor walks on stage, the red curtains open (fold out flaps) and we see twelve different groups of animals on stage, and an octopus piano player, dressed and ready for the performance. "A-one, a-two, a-one, two, three, and..." The song begins and each group of animals sings what they like to do. First, the lions sing that they like to prowl, then the wolves like to howl, the pigeons like to coo, and the cows like to...We all guess we'll turn the page and read 'moo', but instead we find the the cows like to dig.  The conductor is confused but lets the show go on.  But little by little, the show spins it out of control as more animals stray from the script and tell us what they really like.
     What Animals Really like is a riot.  It funny and clever.  I love the fact that it plays with the rhyme to create the unexpected.  The things that each group of animals like get more and more unpredictable and ridiculous: lions really like flower arranging.  The design of the book is also very clever: the cover shows the animals prepping for the show and the title page is its billboard. It is a great read-aloud and offers the possibility of extension activities where students come up with their own theories of what animals like.  Love it.

The Princess and the Pig

The Princess and the Pig by Jonathan Emmett
Illustrated by Poly Bernatene
2011

A poor farmer is heading home after a day at the market pulling his own car and carrying hay and a little pink piglet. He stops to take a break in the shade of a great castle. Right above him, the Queen is holding her new baby who she has just named Priscilla. The little princess fills up her diaper and the smell is so awful, it makes the pretentious queen run to get a nanny in such a hurry that she drops the baby. Luckily for Priscilla, she lands on the farmers cart and catapults the little pink piglet all the way up to the princess's crib. When the queen finds a piglet in the crib she can't believe her eyes, but the king, who was well versed on classic fairytales explains that he believes a fairy who was not invited to the baby's christening, must have put a curse on the princess and turned her into a pig. "It's the sort of thing that happens all the time in books" he ads.
On the other side of town, the farmer and his wife are shocked to find a baby girl inside the cart. But they also know about fairy tales and conclude that a good fairy must have turned the piglet into a baby girl to reward them for their kindness and honesty. "It's the sort of thing that happens all the time in books," says the farmer's wife. Priscilla grows up to be a kind and beautiful girl, and the piglet grows up inside the castle to be, well, a pig. Will they return to where they belong?
The Princess and the Pigis a wonderful fairytale. Playing with fairytale stereotypes, it offers and fresh and hilarious twist. Bernatene's illustrations are delightful and funny. It's a great read aloud with plenty of opportunities for kids and students to make text to text connections, and have a blast at the same time. Great find!

The Honeybee Man

The Honeybee Man by Lela Nargi

Illustrated by Kyrsten Brooker

2011

     Fred is a beekeeper.  He climbs up to the roof of his Brooklyn brownstone, and with the city all around him, he focuses his whole attention on another tiny city, one made up of three houses, each with three stories and thousands of rooms made of wax. Fred inhales the smells of a summer city morning: maple leaves and gasoline and the river and dust. He turns to the tiny city and inhales its smaller sweeter smell -a little like caramel, a little like ripe peaches. The bees are like a family to Freed, he knows everything about them and loves them.  He imagines himself flying over Brooklyn with them, looking for flower nectar.  When the bees have done their job, Fred collects the honey and pours it into jars to share it with his neighbors.  Fred loves the feeling of wonder and surprise he gets from each batch of honey, tasting its delicate sweetness and discovering what flowers have given it its special flavor each year.  This time around it is sweet, like linden flowers. It is sharp, like rosemary. It is ever-so-slightly sour. He's delighted to know his bees made it all the way to blueberry bushes to give their honey that special sweet and sour flavor.

     The Honeybee Man is a delightful example of realistic fiction.  While it reads like a story, it also provides tons of details about the beekeeper's job and the organization and behavior of a beehive.  The illustrations by Brooker are beautiful and offer and nice "view" of Brooklyn.  The Honeybee Man also offers students a different perspective on urban activities, showing that jobs associated with rural areas, like beekeeping, are actually also carried out within our urban landscape.  The end of the book offers a series of facts about honey, honeybees, and beekeepers.  It's a beautiful book to share at home and also to include in elementary classroom libraries.

The Vole Brothers

The Vole Brothers by Roslyn Schwartz
2011

The Vole Brothers, two little rodents, are very hungry. When they get a sniff of a delicious smell, they follow it all the way to a pizza slice. A cat, who also went after the smell, gets there first and the brothers must outsmart him to get the slice. They do, but in a matter of seconds they lose the slice to hungry birds and ants. The cat eventually nabs them is about to eat them for dinner, when at the last moment they catch a very lucky break and land on their feet, with plenty of food to eat.
The Vole Brothers is written in comic book style. There is plenty of action and adventure to entertained young readers. It can be used in the classroom as an example of onomatopoeia, and as a text innovation activity where students would write the narrative using the text as a storyboard.

Substitute Creacher

hris Gall

Substitute Creacher by Chris Gall

2011

     It's Halloween, Ms. Jenkins is not at school and they have sent in a substitute teacher.  When the substitute walked in he was green, with one eye on his front and three on his back, tentacles for legs and two long arms.  He spoke in rhyme and warned the kids that he was there to teach them a lesson about what happens to misbehaved children.  He tells the story of how he has being doing this for forty-nine years:

I've visited schools

I've collected some tales

whose lessons are grave

about boys and girls

who didn't behave.

They'll give you the goose bumps.

They'll shiver your skin.

Now pay strict attention:

It's time we begin!

     The creature tells them stories about kids like Keith who ate so much glue, things started to stick to him; Kylie, who drew during a test until a dragon she drew came out the page; Hank, who dumped a shark inside the classroom's fishbowl that destroyed the whole room.  And then there was Chris who "liked to trick for his treats: Dressed like a monster, he scared kids for sweets." He stole candy from a magical gnome who cursed Chris, never allowing him to go home again...becoming the substitute creacher.  There is a happy ending: the substitute creacher shares all the candy in his bag with the students and gives the last piece to the groundskeeper who resembles the magical gnome. As he walks away, he turns back into a kid and finds his way home.

     Substitute Creacher is an intelligent and entertaining read aloud.  The illustrations are filled with details to enjoy in multiple readings (try finding the gnome along in different pages).  Great read to share in the classroom during Halloween.

More Bears!

More Bears! by Kenn Nesbitt

Illustrated by Troy Cummings

2011

     An author is sitting in front of his computer typing up his latest story,  "This story was a lovely story with absolutely no bears in it -not a single bear anywhere. Then one day..."  That's when out of nowhere, the author hears voices shouting MORE BEARS!  Although the author tries to resist and keep writing his bear-free story, the insistent children yelling MORE BEARS! eventually convince him to add them to his story.  At first, it's just a little baby bear. Then, when the children clamor for more, he ends up adding a hilarious crew of bears of all sizes and occupations (even a Bulgarian Astrobear who always kept a hamster in his pocket).  And if as an author you get tired of so many bears taking over your story, well, there's always chickens.

     More Bears is definitely meant to be read aloud with full audience participation.  It's hilarious.  The bears the author comes up with will have kids rolling and the illustrations match the humor of the text.  Perfect for the preschool and early elementary classrooms.

The Black Book of Colors

The Black Book of Colors by Menena Cottin
Illustrated by Rosana Faría
Translated from Spanish by Elisa Amado
2008

     If you were blind and you had to describe colors, you would use all your other senses.  That's how Thomas describes them, using his senses of touch, taste, smell and hearing.  To him, yellow tastes like mustard, red is as sweet as watermelon but hurts when you find it on a scraped knee, brown smells like chocolate, blue is "the color of the sky when kites are flying," green tastes like lemon ice cream and smells like freshly cut grass.  "Thomas thinks that without the sun, water doesn't amount to much. It has no color, no taste, no smell." And black, well, black is the king of all the colors, "soft as silk when his mother hugs him and her hair falls in his face."
      The Black Book of Colors is a marvelous book.  Its use of sensory details to describe colors is wonderful and lyrical.  The design of the book is captivating.  The pages are all black, with the shapes embossed in shiny black.  Each page with text is accompanied by its Braille counterpart and the full Braille alphabet is also included at the end of the book.  The Black Book of Colors belongs in every household and classroom where diversity is encouraged and discussed.  Its use of metaphors, similes, and sensory details, also makes it a superb mentor text to use in the writing workshop.  A great find! 

Some Things are Scary

Some Things are Scary by Florence Parry Heide
Illustrated by Jules Feiffer
2000

     Jules Feiffer adds his wonderful illustrations in this edition of Parry Heide's 1969's text.  When you're little, some things are truly scary.  Like holding someone's hand thinking it's your mother's when it isn't, or seeing a big warning sign but not knowing how to read what it says, or getting scolded, or "being with your mother when she can't remember where she parked the car," or ... It's all scary.  Or "thinking you're never going to get any taller than you are right now," or climbing a tree and not knowing how to get down.  It's all scary, but not as scary as "knowing you're going to grow up to be a grownup. Now that's scary!
     Some Things are Scary has a timeless sense of humor.  Feiffer's drawings of the boy's facial expressions are captivating.  Children will relate to many of those fears and the book will also give them a space to add their own lines and share their own fears.  The book could also be used in the classroom for students to share their fears and create a group text.  

Duck Duck Moose

Duck Duck Moose by Dave Horowitz
2009

     Moose, wearing his awesome "I Love NH" t-shirt, is enjoying the cool weather. His two friends, the ducks, are definitely not.  It's time for them to head south.  Duck and Other Duck invite Moose to go south with them, but all Moose wants to do is get himself some pancakes.  Moose goes to Bear's Cave to invite him to have pancakes but Bear is already hibernating.  He checks out his favorite restaurant, Pancake Hut, but it's close for the season.  So Moose decides to join the ducks.  They get in a car and start their trek along the eastern seaboard.  They reach Florida and they have a blast together, hanging out at the beach, orange picking, golfing, even watching a shuttle launch. Winter is now over and it's time to go back home...and Moose cries all the way back. He now loves the warm weather and is proudly wearing a new t-shirt: I Love Florida.
     Duck Duck Moose is a hilarious road trip/family vacation tale.  The Moose is an adorable character that kids will surely embrace.  The details and little jokes included in the illustration will delight adults as well.  Its text is easy enough for young readers without losing it's read-aloud potential.  Great book to introduce migration and adaptations as well.

The Plot Chickens

The Plot Chickens by Mary Jane and Herm Auch

2009

      Henrietta is a hen that loves books.  She checks books out at the library and takes them back to the chicken coop to read the stories aloud to her aunts. One day, Henrietta decides that as much fun as reading is, writing books must be "eggshilarating."  So she checks out a book at the library about writing.  Following the rules she reads in the book, Henrietta writes her own story.  When her finished story is rejected by publishers, she decides to self-publish. The reviews are horrendous, and she's even embarrased to go back to the library. But when she finally does, she discovers that her book has been voted "Best Book of the Year" by the story hour children.  

    The Plot Chickens is a very funny picture book.  The mix of oil paints and digital art make the illustrations pop.  There are dialogue bubbles throughout the story that add little jokes to the main text.  The way Henrietta builds her own story, step by step, following what she reads in the book about writing, makes The Plot Chickens a great book to use as a guide during the Writer's Workshop in the classroom.  It covers the topics of characters, developing the plot (problem and solution) and even using sensory details to make the story better.  Great addition to the classroom library as well as a fun read aloud for home.

The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs

The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka
Illustrated by Lane Smith
1989

     "Everybody knows the story of the Three Little Pigs. Or at least they think they do."  These are the opening lines of The True Story of the Three Little Pigs.  In this fantastic retelling, we hear the story from the point of view of the wolf.  According to him, he was trying to bake a birthday cake for his grandmother and he ran out of sugar.  He was suffering from a terrible sneezing cold but since he really wanted to bake for his grandma, he decided to go and try to find some sugar.  His closest neighbor was a pig, and "he wasn't too bright." "I mean who in his right mind would build a house of straw?"  He was knocking on the door when his nose started to itch. He felt a sneeze coming and he huffed and snuffed, and sneezed and the whole house fell down.  "Right in the middle of the pile of straw was the First Little Pig -dead as a doornail."  To wolf, it seemed like a shame to waste "a perfectly good ham dinner lying there on the straw." So he ate it up.  Something similar happened with the second pig and by the time he got to the third pig, and  this one bad mouthed the wolf's grandmother, wolf tried to break in and that's when he was arrested by the cops.  But see, it wasn't his fault, he was just a wolf with a bad cold in need of a cup of sugar.
     The True Story of the Three Little Pigs is one of my favorite fairy tale retellings.  The clever text by Scieszka is complemented beautiful by Lane Smith's illustrations (author of the wonderful books Grandpa Green and It's a Book).  Aside from being a truly enjoyable read aloud, it's also a great book to use in the classroom to show point of view (narrated in first person).  One to have at home and in the classroom library as well.

Winston the Book Wolf

Winston the Book Wolf by Marni McGee
Illustrated by Ian Beck
2006

     A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a new version of The Little Red Riding Hood called Carmine: A Little More Red.  Today, we have another one: Winston the Book Wolf.  In fact, Winston the Book Wolf has a bit from Little Red and another bit from Three Little Pigs.  Winston is a wolf who loves to devour words, literally.  If he sees a sign with words in it, or a book, he just has to eat it.  That's why he's not allowed anywhere near the library.  One day, he ignores -in fact, he eats- the sign outside the library that says "No Wolves Allowed."  He goes in and the librarian calls for help.  Everybody starts chasing the wolf, trying to corner him.  But then, a little girl named Rosie (who wears a red hooded sweatshirt and carries a basket in her arm), comes to his rescue and shows him an escape route. They ran "through an alley, then under a bridge, and over a hill." When they finally stopped, Rosie asked Winston why he ate books.  Winston explained that words were delicious, "Why, words taste better than roasted skunk, even better than gopher stew!"  Rosie then told Winston that he couldn't eat books anymore, that there were other ways of tasting the wonderfull words inside. "Words taste even better when you eat them with your eyes!" She then teaches him to read.  Winston borrows clothes from Rosie's grandma and dressed up as a woman he heads back to the library with Rosie.  From that day on, he spent his time at the library reading stories to all that would come for story time hour.
     Winston the Book Wolf is thoroughly enjoyable. Readers will delight in finding subtle similarities between the classic tale and this story.  I loved the use of the same characters from the classic fairy tale but with a new story line.  This could be a model to follow in the writer's workshop in the classroom.  It is a great read aloud to do at home as well.

Never Take a Shark to the Dentist: and Other Things not to Do

Never Take a Shark to the Dentist: and Other Things Not to Do by Judi Barret
Illustrated by John Nickle
2008
Preschool-Grade 2

     Never Take a Shark to the Dentist: and Other Things Not to Do is a book full of very valuable advice.  You should never take a centipede shoe-shopping or sit next to a porcupine on the subway.  "Never share your lunch with a pig or hold hands with a lobster. Obviously!  There are some other pieces of advice that are not quite as obvious until you see the hilarious illustrations by Nickle, like never knitting a hat for a moose, or never taking a goat to the library, and my favorite, never go to the bank with a raccoon.  After all those "nevers", it's good to learn that you should "always go shopping with a pelican" (imagine how much you can fit in that beak of his!).
     Never Take a Shark to the Dentist: and Other Things Not to Do is a hilarious book.  The text by Barret (author of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs) is funny on its own, but Nickle's illustations take it to the next level.  Kids will laugh with this one!  The book can also be used in the classroom for text innovation activities: students can come up with their own advice following the book's format, and even create a whole classroom version of it.
 

A Grand Old Tree

The Grand Old Tree by Mary Newell Depalma
2005

     My son loves to make up stories. He's 4, so his stories are either really short or they go on and on and on.  Last week, he got in the car and said, "Once upon a time, there was an old tree. Then it died. But then a young tree came and sang to him and he was alive again."  I tell you all this, because I just read The Grand Old Tree and it made me think of his story again.
     "Once there was a grand old tree. Her roots sank deep into the earth, her arms reached high into the sky." She lived for many seasons, flowering, bearing fruit, sowing seeds, and shedding her leaves. "She basked in the sun, bathed in the rain, swayed in the breeze." Her children spread far and wide. Eventually she got too old, dried out, fell down to the ground, "and snow gently covered her."  While she no longer flowered or sowed seeds, she was still home to many creatures and her trunk became one with the soil.  "Today the roots of her grandchildren sink deep into this earth. Their arms reach high into the sky."
     The Grand Old Tree is the story of the circle of life as experienced by a tree.  The illustrations are bright and in some cases, mingle with the words to form concrete poems.  The text is very accessible for the K-2 groups and offers a good introduction to the life cycle.