Kids Blog : picture books

Mystery at the Club Sandwich

UndergroundLibrarian@evpl — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:41:00 GMT

Everybody likes a good mystery, right? And a good detective, too. Nick Trunk is a great detective -- that's his picture there on the cover. He works for peanuts -- not bad, since he's an elephant. Doug Cushman tells and illustrates this picture book in the style of the old detective stories and movies, hence the black and white illustrations. Just in case we miss this point, he dedicates the book to Sam, Phil and Dashiell.

This mystery is about Lola Gale, a foxy -- oops, a fox -- singer at the nightclub called Club Sandwich. When her lucky marbles get stolen (okay, they say she's lost her marbles), she sends her assistant to Nick Trunk for help. NIck narrates this story, and when he sees Maggie come in he tells us that she looks like trouble. She is. Her name is Maggie Trouble.

Clues? A very expensive brand of peanut butter called La Peanut Goo and an ostrich feather. And who uses those things? It turns out that several people --er, animals -- who work at Club Sandwich dol So who's the thief? The magician who performs the Disappearing Peanut Butter Jar trick? The chef who uses an ostrich feather to spread peanut butter on his culinary creations? Maggie herself with her ostrich feather boa? You can find out by reading Mystery at the Club Sandwich.

Doug Cushman has illustrated many picture books including those he has written himself. We have lots of them in our library collection. This one is fun to read for kids and adults, too.

It's a Duck! No, it's a Rabbit! It's Duck! Rabbit!

UndergroundLibrarian@evpl — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:43:00 GMT

OK, now it's your turn to take a good look at the picture on the front of this book, and it's nice and big so you can really study it. The two unseen characters inside are in disagreement. One thinks it's a duck quacking, and the other thinks it's a rabbit sniffing.

"It's a duck. And he's about to eat a pice of bread." "It's a rabbit. And he's about to eat a carrot." They even try investigating through some binoculars, but that doesn't help, either.

So what do you think? Is it a duck? Is it a rabbit?

Amy Crouse Rosenthal (author of Little Pea, Little Hoot, and Little Oink) and Tom Lichtenheld have corroborated on this picture book that show us there's more than one way to look at something.

Get a copy of Duck! Rabbit! and see what you think!

Does Your Toddler Love Vehicles?

UndergroundLibrarian@evpl — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 22:35:00 GMT

Jennifer Riggs Vetter has written a variation of the old song Down by The Station, with lots of modes of transportation. Of course there's the tried and true train to begin with, but this version goes on to include school buses, trucks, excavators, airplanes, boats, and more, up to a double page spread of a rocket. Illustrations are by Frank Remkiewicz, who has also illustrated the Froggy books by Jonathan London. Young kids who like transportation -- i think that must include every boy -- and kids who like illustrated songs will have a lot of fun with this.

Don't know the tune, or it's been so long you're not sure of it any more? You can hear it at www.tricyclepress.com, according to the inside front jacket.

Puff puff vroom vroom Off you go!

Gardening

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 21:43:00 GMT

This spring and summer, I've been working on making my yard a nice place to spend time. I grew up spending time in the yard at home or at my grandparents' house and I learned a lot from watching my mom and my grandparents take care of their yards. Now I'm checking out a lot of library books about gardening to try and add to what I already know. I hope that every year I will learn a little more.

If you think gardening sounds like fun, check out these books filled with gardening ideas, activities, stories and pictures!

Container Garding for Kids by Ellen Talmage; photographed by Bruce Curtis

Planting the Seed: A Guide to Gardening by Suzanne Winckler

Compost! Growing Gardens From Your Garbage by Linda Glaser; pictures by Anca Hariton

A Harvest of Color: Growing a Vegetable Garden by Melanie Eclare

Down to Earth: Garden Secrets! Garden Stories! Garden Projects You Can Do! Created by Michael J. Rosen with 41 children's book authors and illustrators

The Ugly Vegetables by Grace Lin

Over Under in the Garden: An Alphabet Book by Pat Schories

Sitting Down To Eat

UndergroundLibrarian@evpl — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:23:00 GMT

Author Bill Harley calls this a "zipper" song. He defines a zipper song as one where each verse is the same except for one word being changed. He gives as an example Pete Seeger's If I Had a Hammer. In Sitting Down to Eat, the singer relates the story of being all set to eat when an animal appears and askes to join him. "If you've got enough for one, then you've got enough for two," the animal reasons, and that always makes sense to the singer. This continues until there are nine animals (well, 8 animals and the singer) sitting down to eat, including a crocodile and even a whale. But when the tiny caterpillar asks to join them, it's just too much.

This would be a good story to tell with the audience joining in -- they'll be able to remember the refrain easily.

Ghosts of the Past (and Present)

mrsweasley@evpl — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 17:22:00 GMT

Have you ever been haunted by a book? I was haunted by a book I couldn’t remember. My mother told me that when I was about three years old, I had a favorite book, one I checked out over and over again. I had absolutely no recollection of that book, and I wondered—what kind of book captured my imagination at that age? Was it a worthy book for a future children’s librarian?

Armed with a partial title, I searched Loganberry Books’ stumper database (http://www.loganberrybooks.com/solved.html ) and discovered Mary’s Scary House by Edith Thacher Hurd, illustrated by her husband Clement Hurd and published in 1956, the year I was born. Well, at least I had good taste! Edith Thacher Hurd authored many children’s books, some of which are still in print. Clement Hurd was the illustrator of the classics Goodnight Moon and Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown, as well as many others.

My search grew cold. There were no copies of Mary's Scary House remaining in the EVPL system. A few copies (mostly ex-library) could be had from used booksellers at “collectible” prices. I yearned to know more about this book that had helped to shape my love of books.

At Christmas, my husband surprised me with a beautiful, gently used and AUTOGRAPHED copy of Mary’s Scary House.

I rediscovered a charming story of a little girl who lives in a haunted house with a reluctant little ghost. Mary decides to take over the little ghost’s job, but learns that it is, indeed, difficult to stay up all night haunting. The happy conclusion is that now the ghost can be her playmate during the day.

I was delighted to be able share the story with my grandchildren. I paired it with a recently published book, Ghosts in the House by Kazuno Kohara. I was struck by the similarties between my old favorite and Kohara's contemporary story and style of illustration. In this new book, an enterprising little witch finds a practical way to deal with the ghosts in her haunted house.

Did you have a favorite book when you were very young? What books do you love to share with your young friends?

It's a Fairy Tale! It's an Alphabet Book! It's an Art Book! It's a Cookbook!

UndergroundLibrarian@evpl — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 01:30:00 GMT

It's Carmine: A Little More Red by Melissa Sweet! This LIttle Red Riding Hood version has a main character named Carmine. The first page shows the word ALPHABET (Granny taught Carmine to read by putting together the letters in her alphabet soup.) The second page shows the word BEWARE (Granny phoned to invite Carmine for alphabet soup, and told her to look out for the wolf that Granny heard howling last night.) The next page features the word CLUTTER (Carmine rummaged through her clutter to gather her art materials for the trip.)

With a name like Carmine, as you can imagine, Carmine felt that any of her paintings could be improved by adding a little more red. In fact, that's what causes her to stray FARTHER (the word on the f page) off the path --and we all know what happens then! Except in this story it's not Carmine who talks to the wolf, but her quivering, quaking dog Rufus. And thus the s page, SURREAL ("Rufus began to bark, and the wolf knew exactly what he was saying. SURREAL as it may seem, dogs are descendants of wolves, and it made sense that the wolf could understand his language.")

I especially like the page for the letter u ("USUALLY the neighbors are home and would have heard Granny's cry for help. And USUALLY a woodcutter is around, but on this day he was deep in the woods, felling trees for a treehouse.")

So there you have it: the fairy tale, the alphabet, and the art. But what about the cookbook? On the back end page is the recipe for Granny's Alphabet Soup! As Carmen says on the v page, VOILA!

Christmas Guests? Here's a Reading Suggestion!

UndergroundLibrarian@evpl — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 20:04:00 GMT

Are you expecting an influx of children visiting for the holidays? Are you planning ways to keep them occupied? Here's one idea: Check out a stack of picture books from the library and put them where the kids can have access to them. Of course Christmas books are great for this time of year, but kids like to read about all sorts of things. You'll know your children best and can look for specific topics, but I've discovered that if there's a big selection available, my 4-year-old houseguests will go through them all. Sometimes a kid wants to want to "read" them by himself, and other times I'm invited to join for actually reading the words --and that's a great invitation!

Are your visiting kids a little older? Remember riddle books and I Spy books, and nonfiction books about whatever their passionate topic of the moment is!

Advantages to this plan for you: No cost for this holiday entertainment, and fills the spare moment here and there. Advantages for the children: They (and their parents) may discover or be reminded that the public library is a good source for them to use themselves.

Here are some titles I found on Oaklyn's New Picture Book Shelf today. All these authors have written myriad picture books that would be great to add to your mix. Just come in and browse, or ask us for some ideas! You may click on the picture below to be connected to our catalog info.

What's the Point?

mrsweasley@evpl — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:29:00 GMT

Mel's life was well-rounded until he tripped one day and fell into another dimension where everything is pointy. No one believes his stories of a pointy world, but he won't give up his tale.

What's the point of this picture book by the always quirky team of Yorinks & Egielski? Is it a pointed satire on our perception of reality? Does it point to our disjointed experience of life? At what point does Mel trip over the line into fantasy?

I don't know. Just enjoy the hilarity of What a Trip! by Arthur Yorinks and Richard Egielski.

Think Honda Is Only a Car? Think Again!

UndergroundLibrarian@evpl — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 23:45:00 GMT

I love my Honda Civic -- but I was surprised to learn that Honda is the last name of Soichiro Honda, born in Japan in 1906. Honda: The boy Who Dreamed of Cars is a picture book biography that begins with his early life and shows the long road to his eventual creation of Honda motorbikes and later Honda cars. He began working in a garage that repaired American-made cars, but all he was allowed to do was sweep the floor. It was almost a year before the owner decided he was dedicated enough to learn to become a mechanic. He spent six years there, and when he became an expert repairman he decided to open his own garage. Later he began to design specific motor parts, and even designed and drove race cars. At one time he built and drove the fastest car in Japan.

Mr. Honda was a perfectionist who expected all his motorcycles and cars to be built perfectly. He said that if things were't built properly, a customer's life was being put in danger. At the same time he gave his employees good salaries and built swimming pools and gyms in his company. He listened to his employees' ideas and they were allowed to keep the money that their inventions earned. He was an interesting guy!

When I read this book I found out how my Honda got the name Civic.

Ghost's Hour, Spook's Hour

UndergroundLibrarian@evpl — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 22:16:00 GMT

How does a kid feel when the electricity goes out in the middle of the night and he can't find anyone but his dog? That's what happens to the boy in Ghost's Hour, Spook's Hour by Eve Bunting. Donald Carrick's pictures are very realistic as boy and dog open a creaky bedroom door and look for his parents in an empty but still-warm bed. The clock strikes 12. "Ghost's hour, spook's hour, " he says. It's a perfect atmospheric story with a happy ending. Not in the Halloween collection, but good for this time of year!

What Can Kids Do About the Economy?

UndergroundLibrarian@evpl — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 22:53:00 GMT

Sheila Bair, FDIC chairwoman, has written a picture book for children on responsible money managing. Rock, Brock, and the Savings Shock relates the story of twins whose grandfather gives them one dollar a week for ten weeks. Gramps promises to match each dollar saved at the end of each week. Brock saved his money, but Rock bought whatever looked good to him. Brock kept getting more money, but Rock only got one dollar each week, because he had already spent his money. By the end of ten weeks Brock had $512; Rock had no cash and a lot of semi worthless stuff. By that time Brock had enough money to buy some really nice things and still save some money besides. You can read the story to see what happened to Rock.

After the story ends there are pages that explain the math and compound interest, and encourage kids ot save a portion of the money they receive.

Sheila Bair and her part in the present economic situation were highlighted on Nation Public Radio's morning show a few days ago. You can click here to read a transcript of the program, including a reference to Rock and Brock.

You never know what you're going to hear on NPR -- this morning I heard a person singing the praises of children's author/illustrator Mo Willems. But that's for a later posting.

Adele and Simon

bookmarkbeck@evpl — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:25:00 GMT

Kids and Moms will enjoy the interaction while reading the Adele and Simon books by Barbara Mclintock. They are definitely for readers who like to study pages and find the hidden objects. Reading these books will be fun and entertaining-not to mention informative, educational, and charming. A little boy, filled with the excitement of childhood, loses his belongings as he travels around with his sister,Adele. He is confident his things will find him again while his sister expresses loving frustration and concern. The settings are early 20th century. The illustrations are pen-and-ink drawings filled with soft watercolors, and yes, all ends well and the journey is fun. To add to the experience, have your lilttle one make magic spectacles to wear, or use a magnifying glass while reading.

Is a Picture Worth a Thousand Words?

UndergroundLibrarian@evpl — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 17:34:00 GMT

There has been a lot of interest in a new poster in the Children's area of Oaklyn Branch Library. It shows the cover of each Caldecott Award winner for the best picture book of the year since the beginning of the award in 1938. Kids are looking for books they'd like to read, and parents are remembering books they loved as children.

Stop in and have a look for yourself! It's on the column near the Children's Information Desk.

For the website with all the Caldecott Award and Honor books, click here.Here's the Caldecott Award winner from 1939.

Here's the Caldecott Award winner from 2008.

Have You Heard This Story About Abe Lincoln ?

UndergroundLibrarian@evpl — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 17:27:00 GMT

There's a new picture book about Abe Lincoln. Deborah Hopkinson has written Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek; A Tall, Thin Tale (Introducing His Forgotten Frontier Friend). John Hendrix has drawn the pictures. When Abe was seven , he and his 3-years-older friend Austin wanted to get to the other side of Knob Creek, but the water was very high and neither one of them could swim. Abe dared Austin to cross on a log, and he did. But when Abe started across, he fell into the water, and Austin rescued him.

The interesting part of the book is its illustrations and the way Hopkinson relates the story. She tells it as if she is sitting next to a bunch of people, just talking to them. Maybe it happened this way, she says, and then again, maybe it happened this other way, and she tells both ways. In the meantime, John Hendrix is busily drawing each version, and often we see his hand in the bottom right corner of the page, holding a a paintbrush or a pencil, drawing the double page spread.

Deborah Hopkinson says there's a moral to this story, and she gives us a couple choices. What do you think the moral should be?

Would this be a good candidate for this year's Caldecott Award?