STORY TIME CPR

Real talk: I have conflicting feelings about Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb. I love this book; it’s got a beat, is fun to read but…apes. *shudder* However, we recently added this title to our home collection and needed to figure out how to use this book as an anchor for storytime pairings.

Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb by Al Perkins

Anchor Book:

Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb

by Al Perkins

Bridge Books: 

Moo!

by David LaRochelle

Betty Goes Bananas

by Steve Antony

so to our collection of books and thought about ways to share the book. It’s a delightful read introducing children to hands, fingers and thumbs by cute apes. 

About the Book

From the Booklist review: “Funny from beginning to end, this hits every note smartly, from the oblivious parents' hopes for Turk, their multitalented son, to their less accomplished son, Runt's, clever asides. The last page, which shows the turkeys masquerading as snowmen for the Christmas rush, is a fitting finish. It's hard to imagine story and art working together any better than this. The watercolors move the action right along, and Ansley's got all the turkeys' expressions--pride, fear, horror--down pat. That's not easy when your subjects are, well, turkeys!”

Why We Like It

About The Book

This well-known psalm finds expression in a picture book set in a contemporary urban neighborhood. Glowing, realistic paintings of two African American children in a warm extended family illustrate the lines of the psalm, taking the kids through one day from early morning to night. Ladwig's pictures make extraordinary use of light and perspective, showing that the children are being watched with loving attention.

Why We Like It

For the upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday (here in the USA) and into the December Holiday Season, this title takes a prime place in story times.

About the Book

The cumulative folk song “And the Green Grass Grew All Around” goes to Africa in this lively picture book with bright, clear, colorful collage, double-page spreads that show a small boy with his mother in the African savanna, pointing at a hole in the ground, a spreading acacia tree, a branch, and a nest. The colorful borders include pieces of bright Kente cloth along with bands of geometric designs. Isadora uses rebus icons in each chorus, which are explained in a final list, a confidence building device for readers in the early literacy stage. Sheet music and the full text are available at the back making this book a complete resource for classroom use.. A bright and engaging addition to story hour standards appealing to young preschoolers as well as to older kids beginning to read.

Why We Like It

Rachel Isadora is an iconic name in the picture book format and her artwork covers a range of styles and tones. There Was A Tree is a warm, bright, eye-catching book to share with an audience or as a cozy, intimate share one-on-one. The use of rebuses, the music, and the elements making up the illustrations speak to three of the five Every Child Ready to Read skills: play, sing, and talk, respectively.

What It's About

This picture book imagines the story of story—from the story's point of view. Bright, stylized illustrations move the reader from an ancient campfire to a - coming full circle - modern-day one, making key stops along the way as the tale proudly narrates through the page turns. Together words and illustrations capture a broad range of storytelling methods and platforms: from cave art and hieroglyphics through theatre, radio, television, to digital. The struggles of access as story prevails through time, contrasting wealthy private libraries with public libraries and showing failed censorship attempts are also quietly addressed; some may say too quietly, but this is not a book of political haranguing... it is an unapologetic celebration of humanity's singular gift.

Why We Like It

Powerful storytelling through simple sentences and bold imagery (reminiscent of 1960's line art animation) creates an almost jazz feel to the reading experience. For the older audience the book can serve as a jumping-off point for more in-depth study of communication through history. An excellent choice for read-aloud with a wide range of ages and for classroom discussions, too.

November is Picture Book Month! In honor of Guy Fawkes Day (November 5), today’s pick is Eugene Trivizas and Helen Oxenbury’s “The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig.” 

About the Book

Kirkus Review says it best: “Never mind the other incarnations of this tale--classic, fractured, rapped; this inversion will have children giggling from the outset. Sent into the world by a mother who wears hair curlers, three ``cuddly'' wolves build a brick house, then try to fend off a snarling thug of a pig who demolishes it with a sledgehammer.”

The successive houses are stronger and the pig’s escalating responses are correspondingly (and somewhat startlingly) aggressive. But the unexpected, exceptional twist at the end saves this tale from merely being one of loss and destruction. The wolves sagely decide on a different course of action and the pig pulls a ``Ferdinand, not only reforming but making it a happy menage … quatre. This latter-day plea for a peaceable kingdom reckons once and for all with the question at the core of this familiar tale--why must pigs and wolves be enemies? Oxenbury provides dauntingly well- executed watercolors, offering such charming contrasts as an angular modernistic concrete home in an otherwise pastoral setting.” (Kirkus Associates. 1993)

Why We Like The Book

Trivizas’ version of the classic tale has a very modern tone and young audiences (Ages 5-10) will connect quickly to the re-worked plot and the easy humor, and, after being surprised and not a little relieved, agree with the ultimate wisdom of the wolves final choice of construction material and the big bad pig’ s cheer-worthy transformation.