Commotion in the Ocean

Commotion in the Ocean Storytime

I've been doing Preschool Storytime at the local Preschool Summer Camp through the Town of Windsor.  Every week they have a new theme and I try to pick my books around the theme.  This week's theme was Commotion in the Ocean.

 

The Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen

One afternoon Cailin from Petaluma told the librarians that her favorite book to share at storytime is "The Pout-Pout Fish" by Diesen.  I immediately checked it out and it was a huge hit with my kids. So, I decided to give it a try for storytime.  The kids LOVED it.  It was by far their favorite.

I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean by Kevin Sherry

Another hit and it fit into the them.

We also read Hooray for Fish! by Lucy Cousins.  We talked about all the different types of fish and our favorite one.  

If you do an ocean storytime you must do "The Goldfish Song" by Laurie Berkner.  If you don't know "The Goldfish Song" you need to check it out now!

Noisy Night by Mac Barnett

Noisy Night by Mac Barnett. I used this book in a family storytime last Friday, and it was so great! It really worked for all ages, because it has simple, colorful illustrations, repeating sounds and rhymes, and is also a guessing game! The older kids really loved trying to guess what was making all the noise; there are some difficult answers and some simple answers, so the toddlers could participate too. I'm definitely adding this one into my rotation.

Dance of the Violin by Stinson

This new book just came in and I love it! I am planning to pair it with the recording of the song the boy in the book plays in his competition.  It is super easy to read and does a great job of turning music into a visual experience. I might have the kids listen to music and draw what it shows them. I think I will ask them what color the music feels like and what shape or form it might look like in a picture.  What other music books would go well with this for a storytime?

Best outreach ever!

This morning, I did a storytime for school-age kids at the YMCA summer camp. It was so much fun, and the older kids were actually really enthusiastic. (Sometimes those tweens can be a tough nut to crack!) We sang 2 songs and read 3 books, then talked about the Summer Reading Program.

Instead of a welcome song, I asked them to do their camp cheer for me, which was very long and very loud! We also sang The Pizza Hut Song (which I sang at camp as a kid) and Bananas (the Jim Gill version, which I love and play at almost every single storytime).

The books were a big hit. The camp director gave me the theme of "Time Warp," so these are the two I chose:

Otto Grows Down by Michael Sussman. It's about a 6-year-old, but really the older kids liked it and understood it a little better than the younger ones. Otto wishes on his birthday that his baby sister had never been born, so time starts going backwards. The best part is when the author starts describing how weird it would be to have normal, everyday things go backwards, especially going to the bathroom! The kids loved that part - so gross.

The Case of the Train Without Wheels and Other True History Mysteries for You to Solve by Patrice Sherman. THIS WAS FANTASTIC. It's one-page mysteries (like, "How did King Tut die?" with a few clues), and the next page gives what historians think is the true answer. They wanted me to read the whole thing, but I didn't have time. The kids were telling each other all about history and were so excited when they guessed the correct answer. I need to find more books like this!

Babytime

This morning I read two books that I forgot about at Babytime (0 to 18 months).  Both of them were great and I will read them again.

I really like the Brownie & Pearl books.  They are short, sweet with big illustrations.  I also really like that they use idioms too, I think idioms can be strange for children, so I like that I can introduce them with books.  I have read most of these books at one point during Babytime.  However, this one is perfect because the first line of the book is "It is a hot day."

 I always read "Jingle-Jingle" during Christmas time, so I forget about this book.  I'm glad that I found an old favorite.

Outreach Storytimes

I'm going to several different outreach events this summer.  This week I read these books to different groups and they were a big success!

The Secret Tree Fort by Brianne Farley
We talked about what we would put in our Secret Tree Fort.  I love the illustrations!

Morris Mole by Dan Yaccarino
This was suggested by Charity and I really enjoy this story.

If I Built a House by Chris Van Dusen
This was a huge hit at all my outreach events.  We talked about what type of room they would like in their dream house.  I encouraged children to draw their dream house and bring it to the library to show me.  

Picture Book Review

Bear and Squirrel are Friends by Deb Pilutti

The first time I read this book I was really confused at the moral or purpose of the story, so I read it again.  The story left me feeling uncomfortable and still confused.  I gave it to another staff to read, and they returned it with a similar reflection about the moral of the story.

Thinking of amphomorphic characters, there is the standpoint that people of different races have to struggle to be friends and no one will support them.

From another even more disturbing vision of the world, friends eat friends. And you can make blueberry pancakes to save yourself from being eaten by your bestfriend. Cannibalism is expected and accepted.
CLOV has the only copy of this book.  Are we reading too much into it? Wanna read it? I'd love your perspective.