Two individuals look out their window and see a rainy day, yet they have completely different perspectives about the day to come. One individual is an extremely happy young child who shouts with joy that it’s a rainy day. He cannot wait to put on his frog rain hat and boots. The other individual is a grumpy old man who grudgingly puts on his rain gear. The viewpoints continue on the rainy day as the boy jumps in puddles and pretends to be a frog whereas the old man frowns at others. They both enter a coffee shop and the boy happily eats his cookie while the man drinks his coffee with a frown. The boy accidentally bumps into the older man who yells at the boy to be careful. The negative feeling almost settles on the young boy until he notices the old man forgot his hat. He quickly gives the man his hat. The frown slowly disappears as he jokes to try on the frog hat too. They walk away both with smiles on their faces. This was a very cute and simple book that demonstrates your attitude can make all the difference.
Tag Archives: picture book
Book Review: Rain! by Linda Ashman
Filed under Ages 4-6, Book Review, Children's Book, Picture Book
Book Review: Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
Can a book that focuses on one color be exciting to read? Green is a beautifully illustrated book that displays the many hues of the color green. Some greens are standards such as forest green, lime green, fern green, and pea green. Other greens are more creative with a tiger hiding in green grass, a chameleon in khaki green, faded green on signs, and fireflies with a glow green. Along the book, there are die-cuts giving a sneak into the next green. You can guess the next picture. My favorite die-cuts are the pages with the green fireflies that then turn to red apples on a green tree when you turn the page. There’s a page showing all the green shades. The book also displays pages with no green, such as a red stoplight and a white snow scene. The illustrations appear very lovely like a canvas with bold brush strokes and vivid colors. The last two pages show a young boy planting a tree then shows a grown tree that is forever green.
This is a wonderful book to explore the many shades of green. It’s perfect for younger ages, because there’s only a few words on the page. The book also can be used with older ages to view the unique canvas-like illustrations to then create art. Green is a great book to explore our naturally green world that hopefully stays green.
Filed under Ages 2-4, Ages 4-6, Ages 6-8, Book Review, Children's Book, Picture Book
Book Review: Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert
Eating the Alphabet: Fruits & Vegetables from A to Z
Eating the Alphabet is a simple alphabet book with no actual story, instead the reader enjoys colorful fruits and vegetables illustrations. Most letters appear either on one or two pages. Every fruit and vegetable is written twice – once in all capital letters and the other all lower case letters. It’s a great way for children to really view how letters are displayed in words. I really enjoyed this book, because most letters are represented with 3-6 fruits and vegetables. It’s not your typical ‘A is for Apple. B is for Banana.’, instead Eating the Alphabet highlights fruits and vegetables that are new to young children and perhaps even adults too. Some examples are avocado, artichoke, cauliflower, eggplant, jicama, kumquat, lime, okra, papaya, and xigua. Does the child need to know each food? Of course not, instead it introduces the colorful world of fruits and vegetables besides apples, bananas, and carrots. It goes beyond a simple food alphabet book and opens discussion about healthy foods, finding the fruits and vegetables in the store, and of course tasting the foods that are in the book. There is a food glossary at the back with brief information about each fruit and vegetable. This is also a great book to teach colors, since the illustrations are so vivid and colorful. I highly recommend this alphabet book in your child’s book collection.
Filed under Ages 2-4, Book Review, Children's Book, Picture Book
Book Review: Open Very Carefully by Nick Bromley
Open Very Carefully: A Book With Bite
The book begins with the story of The Ugly Duckling, but then disaster occurs when a crocodile interrupts the story. The book challenges the reader to turn the pages very carefully, since there’s now a crocodile loose within the story. Throughout the book, the ugly duckling appears on the pages almost interacting with the crocodile. While the crocodile is in the book it eats letters and gobbles sentences. When the crocodile is asleep then a crayon is used to draw a tutu and bow, so it no longer appears scary. Finally, the crocodile eats through the pages until it leaves the book from an actual hole in the book’s back cover.
Open Very Carefully is a humorous book that connects the reader and book, since the writing continually asks if the book will still be read with a crocodile. There are also pages when the reader needs to shake the book to hopefully get the crocodile out. The end was especially fun, because there are holes where the crocodile ate pages and climbs out the back. The first time reading it could be fun to hide the back so it’s a surprise.
Filed under Ages 4-6, Ages 6-8, Book Review, Children's Book, Picture Book
Book Review: Al Pha’s Bet by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
How exactly did the twenty-six letters form the alphabet that we know today? Well, it occurred long ago when a king announced that he wanted someone to arrange the twenty-six letters. A man named Al Pha made a personal bet with himself that he would indeed make the perfect arrangement for the letters. It started with A for his name then gradually everything seemed to naturally fall into place as he organized the letters. When his friend Jay came to visit HI J was formed. Near the middle Al became discouraged, but he told himself NO that he needed to finish. Finally, Al Pha presented his arrangement to the king who then sang the letters. Well of course the king asked Al if ‘this time won’t you sing with me?’ The king loved Al Pha’s letter arrangement and decided it would be known as Al Pha’s Bet.
I absolutely loved Al Pha’s Bet! The writing was fun and humorous with brilliant pictures to match the writing. The alphabet slowly forms on the pages as you read. After reading Al Pha’s Bet you’ll almost agree with how the letter arrangement formed. I’m sure children and even adults will laugh while reading this book.
Filed under Ages 2-4, Ages 4-6, Book Review, Children's Book, Picture Book
Book Review: The Curious Garden by Peter Brown
Liam is a curious young boy who lives in crowded city with no gardens, which makes it quite boring and unappealing. One day while exploring his city, Liam stumbles upon old train tracks that actually have a few dying plants. Liam decides that these plants need a gardener, so he begins his task to care for the plants and watches them grow and flourish. The garden itself is curious and grows across the tracks and soon throughout the city. With time there are more gardeners and the gardens grow upon buildings and many small spaces throughout the city. It no longer is a boring and gray city.
I really enjoyed The Curious Garden. Many individuals live in industrial environments and assume that they can have no gardens and landscapes. However, gardens truly can grow upon building rooftops and nooks if we let the plants grow. There is an author’s note and he states that he was curious what would happen if an entire city decided to cooperate with nature and how would the city change. I especially like The Curious Garden, because there are a few full color pages with no words to really ‘experience’ how the city has changed from all city life to small gardens throughout. This book could be used in the classroom during a discussion about the environment, gardening, preservation, and how plants can grow within cities. I suggest this book for older ages, because there are more words on each page and to discuss the overall topic. Although, all ages can enjoy this colorful garden book.
While searching through photos I stumbled upon a potential garden similar to The Curious Garden in my own city of Tacoma, Washington. You can just barely see the train tracks running through the grass and wild flowers. I’m not sure how long this train track hasn’t been in use. It’s amazing what nature truly can do when we leave it alone.
Filed under Ages 6-8, Ages 8-10, Book Review, Children's Book, Picture Book
Book Review: Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett
Extra Yarn
Written by Mac Barnett
Illustrated by Jon Klassen
Published Balzer + Bray on January 17, 2012
Genre/Topics: Magical Realism, Sharing, Humorous
Ages: 4+, 40 pages
Awards: 2013 Caldecott Honor and the 2012 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award
Perhaps, I enjoyed Extra Yarn because I love to knit and crochet. Annabelle and her dog discover a small box filled with yarn of every color. Her entire town is either white due to snow or gray from the chimneys. Well, you can just imagine what Annabelle decides do to with all this colorful yarn. She knits a simple sweater for herself and dog, however there’s still extra yarn. Annabelle knits sweaters and hats for everyone in town, but there’s still extra yarn. Soon the town is no longer in shades of white and gray, but cheerful colors created with all the extra yarn. The words are simple with a few sentences on each page.
As a knitter and crocheter I agree, there’s always something you can make with a little extra yarn left over. Perhaps I should share some of my yarn creations.
Filed under Ages 2-4, Ages 4-6, Book Review, Children's Book, Picture Book
Book Review: The Wind Blew by Pat Hutchins
We’ve all experienced a really windy day when we need to hold our hat tight and hope nothing gets blown away. Well, everything seems to blow away in the book The Wind Blew. It begins with an umbrella being turned inside out. (Living in a ‘rainy’ city, it always makes me laugh when I see people attempt to hold an umbrella on a rainy and windy day.) Soon the wind blew hard enough that it swept up a balloon, hat, scarf, judge’s wig, and much more. The words are simple and somewhat rhyme. It plucked a hanky from a nose and up and up and up it rose. The book is fun, because you can guess what may get blown away next. Here’s a small clue: the object is something on the previous page but you’re not exactly sure what it is. I read this book in a classroom and the students thought it was funny. I’d also like to highlight that this book was written in 1974, which proves that great books can be discovered anytime.
Filed under Ages 2-4, Ages 4-6, Book Review, Children's Book, Picture Book
Book Review: It’s Spring!
It’s Spring! is a colorful and educational book about how the season changes to Spring. The book follows one boy as he experiences different things during Spring. It begins how winter coats are no longer needed, the ice melts and then there are puddles to jump in. The different senses are in the book as he feels the soft buds on his cheek, hears birds cheep, and smells daffodils. Spring is now the season to plant and he starts a garden. He notices that the sun shines longer and the days are warmer. The illustrations are very unique, because it’s made with three-dimensional cut paper then layered to give depth and photographed with lights to give shadows. The pictures almost appear as though the flower is popping out of the page. The back of the book provides Spring nature activities.
Happy 1st Day of Spring!
Filed under Ages 4-6, Ages 6-8, Book Review, Children's Book, Picture Book
Wordless Picture Book: Zoom
Zoom was my first wordless picture book experience that got me excited to read more. Each page in the book ‘zooms’ out into a bigger picture. You really don’t know what’s going to be the next zoom. I provided the first three pages that hopefully catch your interest and you’ll want to know the last zoom. I stated that the book is ages 5 and up, but really any age can enjoy these bright colors. It’s a great wordless book to use for teaching predictions, since you really need to guess what the next ‘zoom’ will be. Don’t worry, the first three pictures don’t destroy the wonder of this wordless picture book.
Filed under Book Review, Children's Book, Picture Book, Wordless Picture Book
Wordless Picture Books
People normally associate picture books with well, pictures. There doesn’t have to be any text to understand the book. A picture truly can be worth a thousand words. Wordless picture books can be used in many ways. I’m going to review completely wordless picture books about twice a month.
Here are some elements that can be used with wordless picture books. Of course, many of these elements can be used with any book.
- Sparks imagination.
- Understand basic story structure (beginning, middle, end)
- Increases & enhances vocabulary that isn’t on the page.
- Mixed reading levels and ages are on a level playing field.
- Make story predictions through the illustrations.
- Create dialog between characters on the same page.
- Examine the character’s actions and traits.
- Promotes creativity.
- Encourages interaction with the book.
- It’s fun to read!
http://teachingmyfriends.blogspot.com/2012/03/using-wordless-picture-books.html
Filed under Reading Resources, Wordless Picture Book
Book Review: Leaf Man
Leaf Man is a colorful book that describes a leaf’s journey. The leaves begin joined together as a ‘man’, but then the wind blows it in all directions. Instead of stating leaves blowing, the book states it as though it was a leaf man travelling. The wind blew the leaf man over vegetable gardens, over meadows, flowing along a river, and flying over mountains with birds. Each page the leaves formed into the descriptions, such as leaves attached to become fish-like when it traveled along the river. Throughout the book it states ‘a Leaf Man’s got to go where the wind blows’. The pages are die cut that together create a landscape. The author collected actual leaves then made the illustrations to closely resemble the leaves. On the back, there are pictures of each leaf and its name. I really enjoyed Leaf Man.
This photo shows the die cuts on the top of each page. Think of each landscape element as a different page.
Filed under Ages 2-4, Ages 4-6, Book Review, Children's Book, Picture Book
Book Review: Fletcher and the Falling Leaves
Fletcher and the Falling Leaves
It is no longer summer in the forest as the green colors are slowly turning brown.Fletcher is worried about his favorite tree that now appears brown and dry. Fletcher tells his mother that he thinks his tree is sick, but she says that the tree is fine and that’s it’s now autumn. However, the tree doesn’t appear better at all as more leaves fall. He attempts to attach a leaf to the tree, but the wind carries it away. Soon the tree is completely bare and Fletcher notices that other forest animals use the leaves to provide warmth or build a nest. He takes the last leaf home and protects it. When Fletcher returns to his favorite tree he discovers that the once bare tree contains icicles. Fletcher is happy when he sees the beautiful tree.
Filed under Ages 4-6, Book Review, Children's Book, Picture Book
9/11 Book: September 12th Everything Would Be All Right
September 12th: We Knew Everything Would Be All Right
by Materson Elementary Students in Kennett, Missouri
Ages 5-7, 32 pages
The horrible acts on September 11, 2001, created questions about what and how to explain the events to young children. September 12th: We Knew Everything Would Be All Right is different because first grade students themselves wrote the book. It is a simple book that discusses that ordinary things still occur, such as homework, story time, and 2+2=4.
Filed under 9/11, Ages 4-6, Ages 6-8, Book Review, Children's Book, Picture Book, Reblogged, Uncategorized
