Fall for a Fantastic Fall Baby and Toddler Story Time!

The first book that I read for my baby and toddler story time was Full of Fall by April Pulley Sayre. This delightful nonfiction book depicts how the leaves change into yellow, orange, and red colors and then fall onto the ground "they drift and dry; their edges curl" and how in the water "they float and sink; snag and swirl". There are pictures of how the leaves fade, brown, and decompose, and the book ends with "Oh. Hello, snow!" The photographs are breathtakingly beautiful and there are two pages of bullet point facts about fall at the end; explaining how and why leaves change their colors.

This book can also be used to help teach colors by asking the children what colors the various different leaves are. 

This book may work better for a preschool story time because my babies and toddlers started to get restless halfway through while they were listening to the book. 

The second book that I read was In the Middle of Fall by Kevin Henkes. The colorful and vibrant pictures depict the season of fall from the middle of fall until winter's arrival. Pictures of brightly colored leaves, frisky squirrels, brown dying sunflowers, bright red apples, and round orange pumpkins help to illustrate the season. The text is short and simple, but descriptive. I also like Kevin Henkes' book When Spring Comes. 

Kitten's Autumn by Eugenie Fernandes tells the story of a fall day in kitten's life through illustrations that resemble collages. The story shows how the other animals, for example how chipmunk, hummingbird, bear, beaver, and raccoon eat their meals. At the end of the story, kitten eats his meal by the fireside. 

Leaf Jumpers by Carole Gerber is a nonfiction book that illustrates the following types of leaves: red maple, sugar maple, white oak, basswood, birch, willow, gingko, and sycamore. The illustrations show a puzzled dog watching the leaves falling, children watching and collecting the falling leaves, and jumping into a huge leaf pile! A page about how and why leaves turn colors along with the various types of leaves appears at the back of the book. This book would be good for a preschool story time as well. 

Tree Story Time!

Today, I did a preschool story time with the theme of trees. It was a lot of fun for both me and the kids! 

The first book that I read was Shake the Tree! by Chiara Vignocchi. This delightful story starts with a mouse who sees a nut in the tree. He decides to shake the tree a little to the right and a little to the left to get the nut ..... but a fox falls out! The fox decides to eat the mouse, so the mouse runs right back up that tree! Then the fox shakes the tree and down falls a warthog! After the fox runs up the tree, the warthog shakes the tree and a bear falls out. When the bear shakes the tree all of the animals, all of the leaves, and the nut fall to the ground. Everyone is relieved and happy when the bear decides to eat the nut. It's fun to read this story and shake the book a little bit to the right and a little bit to the left as you read it. Also, this story is very interactive. You can ask the children the following questions: 
1. Who fell out of the tree?
2. Who ran up the tree?
3. Who wants to eat the nut?
4. Who wants to eat whom?

I finally got around to making a flannel board version of Fall Is Not Easy by Marty Kelley. The leaves for the trees that I made were loosely based on his illustrations. I added red leaves with pink hearts and blue leaves with white clouds. I kept the spring leaves, summer leaves, rainbow leaves, smiley face leaves, and jack o lantern leaves. This book is about a tree that has trouble changing its leaves in fall into the traditional fall colors of red, yellow, and orange. In the book, the tree never succeeds into changing into the fall colors, but in my flannel board it does. 

Tap the Magic Tree by Christie Matheson is one of my favorite story time books, along with her other book: Touch the Brightest Star. During the winter, you and the children tap the tree for leaves to grow! Rubbing the tree brings beautiful pink buds to the tree and touching each bud causes the buds to bloom. Give the tree a jiggle and watch the blooms fall off! Shake the tree to cause the red apples to fall. Pat the leaves and blow a breeze to get golden, red, and orange leaves. Clap your hands to bring the snow! Be patient as the bluebird builds a nest and lays a beautiful turquoise egg - your reward is a baby bluebird! 

Alternate Books: 

The Busy Tree by Jennifer Ward 

Tree: A Peek-Through Picture Book by Britta Teckentrup 

Fourth of July Story Time

Betsy Ross by Becky White is an excellent book for a baby and toddler story time, as well as a preschool story time. The book tells the story of the steps Betsy took to make our first flag with short sentences that have easy to comprehend vocabulary, along with bright vivid pictures. In the first picture, Betsy rips a red cloth to make "seven rich, crimson strips". She clips a white silk slip and cuts the white stars from it. The book shows how she used indigo dye to dye some of the cloth blue. When she is finished, Betsy stands smiling at the flag that is flying. The book also includes an author's note on the history of how the first American flag was made and instructions on how children can make their own Betsy Ross Star.

Hats Off for the Fourth of July! by Harriet Ziefert is a good book for a preschool story time. It tells the story of a 4th of July parade in Chatham, Massachusetts which is a parade that occurs annually. The parade features baton twirlers, cowboys, clowns, the high school band, and motorcycles. The parade also has unusual floats such as a whale watch float, and a float with Miss Eelgrass who is a mermaid with green hair, as well as marching patriots with muskets and hats. The parade ends with an airplane writing Happy 4th in the sky. The illustrations make the reader feel like he or she is standing on the sidewalk watching the parade go by.

Red, White, and Boom by Lee Wardlaw is a delightful book with a diverse cast of characters. The book has short, sweet, and simple rhymes and shows the different events that the characters experience on the 4th of July: watching the parade, going to the beach and having a picnic, and watching the fireworks. Some of my favorite rhymes from the book are as follows: 

"Shoulder seat

Thumping beat

July 4th drums down the street!"

"Frisbee zips

Doggie flips

Spike the ball 

Picnic sprawl"

"Peacock plume

Sunburst bloom

Star flakes spill

Heart-thump thrill"

I also absolutely adore the collage style illustrations! I would use this book for a baby and toddler story time or a preschool story time. 

Apple Pie 4th of July by Janet Wong tells the story of a Chinese girl whose parents own a Chinese restaurant that is open on the 4th of July. In vain, she tells her parents that absolutely no one will want Chinese food on the 4th of July! Her father reminds her that fireworks are Chinese. Later on that day, they get many customers who order Chinese food at the restaurant. The day closes with the girl and her parents climbing up to the rooftop, eating apple pie, and watching fireworks. I would use this book for a preschool story time. 

In this delightful book, Pie is for Sharing by Stephnie Parsley Ledyard, children learn the joy of sharing as they celebrate 4th of July by having a picnic, going to the beach, and watching fireworks. As the author mentions it's hard to share pie because "you can slice it into as many pieces as you wish. Almost." What else can children share? A book, a ball, and a tree. Children can also share a jump rope, a rhyme, and time. As the author mentions, some things are harder to share than others, such as your best friend who happens to be a dog. I would use this book for a preschool story time. 

Other 4th of July books 

The Great Cake Bake by Helen Ketterman

Hurray for the Fourth of July by Wendy Watson 

Celebrate Independence Day by Amy Hayes 

In 1776 by Jean Marzollo 

Happy Birthday America by Mary Pope Osborne 

Other books that aren't specifically about the 4th of July but fit in with the 4th of July theme 

How to Make an Apple Pie and see the world by Marjorie Priceman 

Grace for President by Kelly Dipucchio: this book has a section that explains how the Electoral College works! 

Olivia forms a band by Ian Falconer 

Duck for President by Doreen Cronin 

Singable Stories

What better way to promote STAR (sing, talk, and read) than to have a story time where you sing the songs? This was for my baby and toddler story time.

The first book that I sang was What A Wonderful World (based on the song by Bob Thiele & George David Weiss and as sung by Louis Armstrong). This is a beautiful song! The book's illustrations (by Tim Hopgood) are bright, beautiful, and vibrant and follow a happy boy's journey as he smells roses, rides in a hot air balloon, rides an elephant, admires a rainbow, says "how do you do" to a bird, swims with the dolphins, and rides a horse in a herd of wild horses. The only drawback is that this tune can be hard to sing. I lost my place in the song/tune for a few times, but nobody seemed to mind.

The second book that I sang was Row, Row, Row Your Boat by Jane Cabrera. This is a familiar melody and the both the parents and children enjoyed singing this song. However, the lyrics in this book are not the same as the traditional lyrics. Together, the children, parents, and I squeaked when we saw the swimming mice, chattered when we saw the monkeys swig, trumped with the elephants, snapped with the crocodiles, roared with the lions, growled with the tigers, cooed with the doves, and barked at mommy dog. Jane Cabrera is the illustrator of this book as well and the pictures are both whimsical and inviting. 

The third book that I sang was Baa, Baa, Black Sheep written and illustrated by Jane Cabrera. This was also a familiar melody that was easy to sing. However, the lyrics are remarkably different. In this retelling of the nursery rhyme, the sheep gives the little girl wool for a hat, mittens, and a pile for the kittens. Her wool feathers bright-blue eggs in a bird's nest. She gives some more wool for a shepherd, Bo Peep, and lots of small sheep. Her wool also creats a beard for a pig, a wig for a pig, and a tea cozy for a pig. At the end of the story, she has given away all of her wool! The little girl and the other recipents of the sheep's wool use some of the sheep's wool to make her a hat, a scarf, a coat, and boots. As the little girl states, "Sorry we took it all. Sorry it's all gone. Until your wool grows back, please put these on."

The fourth book that I sang was Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star by Jerry Pinkney. His illustrations are absolutely amazing! Everybody recognized the first verse of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and sang along with me, but did you know there are actually five verses in the song? I didn't know that either. But everybody sang along as best as they could for all of the verses. This would also be an excellent one-on-one read aloud because so much action is happening in the illustrations throughout the book. You could ask the child questions about what was happening during the wordless illustrations throughout the book. If you are going to read this in a story time, I recommend paper clipping the pages without words together, so you can get to the verses of the song more quickly. 

I didn't receive Today Is Monday by Eric Carle in time to use it for this story time, but it is a wonderful book to sing! I sang it during a food and nutrition story time that I put together for a local school. If you want to know how to sing it, you can watch the You Tube video here. 

Finale

Stephanie Garber does not disappoint in Finale, the third and final book of the Caraval series. I literally could not put this book down. In this book, everything is revealed and all secrets are uncovered. Scarlett finds out the truth about her father and the strange powers that she is just beginning to discover she has. Legend must deal with the consequences that come from freeing both Tella and the Fates from the cards. Tella must choose between Legend and Jacks: the Prince of Hearts. Both Tella and Scarlett find out truths about their mother that cause them both to see her in a new light. Tella discovers how to destroy the Fates, but it might mean the destruction of Legend as well.

I really enjoyed this series and I hope that Stephanie Garber continues writing!

Shapes - Baby and Toddler Story Time

For this week's baby and toddler story time, I decided to have a story time on the concept of shapes. The first book that I read was Go, Shapes, Go! by Denise Fleming. In this story, the shapes are introduced one shape at a time. The mouse puts the individual shapes together to form a monkey. I asked my story time audience what the shapes formed and one toddler proudly announced "a monkey!" But the mouse crashes into the monkey and all of the shapes come tumbling down. The mouse is horrified when the shapes reform into the shape of a cat! The story ends with the mouse saying, "I like monkeys. Yes, I do. I'll make a new monkey ....... for me and you." The last illustration is a monkey doing a hand stand by the mouse.

I had high hopes for Sweet Shapes: A Forest of Tasty Shapes by Juana Medina, but the book fell flat. In hindsight, I think that this might be a better book for a preschool story time than a baby and toddler story time. Not all of the desserts are easily identifiable. That said, it's a fun book! Some, but not all of the desserts include the following: a macaron owl, chocolate-dipped pretzel mice, strawberry foxes, baklava squirrels, jelly bean butterflies, and a brownie bear. This book made me so hungry! There's a recipe for chocolate-covered strawberries at the end of the book.

Here are some other books that I had but didn't read.

In Mouse Shapes by Ellen Walsh, several mice make a variety of interesting items from one oval, two circles, and eight triangles. At the end of the story they use the shapes to make three big scary mice to scare the cat away! 

In Shape Capers by Cathryn Falwell, children use circles, squares, triangles, semicircles, and rectangles to make a wide variety of colorful shapes. In the story, they use the shapes to make a scooter, car, rocket, dragon, and boat. 

In Friendshape by Amy Krouse Rosentha and Tom Lictenheld, a circle, square, triangle, and rectangle use their shapes to illustrate the joys and challenges of friendships. 

In Round Is A Mooncake: A Book of Shapes by Roseanne Thong, a young girl finds circles, squares, and rectangles in her home and in her neighborhood. The rice bowls, eyes of a mouse, and cups of jasmine tea are round. The checkerboard, tofu and radish cakes, pizza box and dim sum are square. Inking stones, paintbrush racks, and mobile phones are rectangles. 

The Belles

When I was in my twenties, I had a conversation with one of my girlfriends and she was complaining about how men didn't appreciate the pain and money that women spent trying to be beautiful. We discussed perms, hair dyes, dieting, and shoes that hurt your feet.

In the country of Orléans, beauty is a commodity that is purchased at a high price - both financially and with physical pain. The people of Orléans are born with gray skin, red eyes, and hair that looks like straw. Only the Belles who are not born with these features can transform them into beautiful people. 

The Belles transform the people in the kingdom by giving them color and beauty. They can give a person muscular definition or a smaller waist. They can even change a person’s manner or personality by making a person more charming or less stubborn. People pay huge amounts to Belles for beautiful transformations and drink cups of Belle tea to deaden the pain that they feel during transformations. 

It's not long before Camellia starts to wonder if beauty comes at a price - even for the Belles. Why are there official and unofficial Belles? Why do the Belles who have been at court wear long veils? 

Still Camellia is thrilled to be the favorite Belle at the royal court, that is, until she discovers Princess Sophia’s dark side. Princess Sophia is obsessed with being the most beautiful princess in the kingdom. The princess is cruel and capricious. Princess Sophia even asks Camellia to give a courtier a pig’s nose! The Queen has asked Princess Sophia to heal Princess Charlotte so that Princess Sophia will never be queen. But healing Princess Charlotte may kill Camellia. Will she try to heal Princess Charlotte and help out the kingdom even though it may mean her own death? Is trying to heal Princess Charlotte the only way Camellia can keep the other Belles, her sisters, safe?