Submitted by county youth coordinator Janis!
Comin’ Down to Storytime by Rob Reid. This great picture book could definitely be used as a beginning book/song for every story time. This book is taken from the favorite song “She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain!” The author uses animals to depict the children at story time. The verses include “We’ll be comin’ down to storytime when we come. Yee ha!” “hear a funny story,” “say a nursery rhyme,” “make a fingerplay,” and so on, as all the farm animals run excitedly to the barn. It ends with, “We will check out lots of books when we leave, Bye Now!” The animals exit, each with at least one book in hand, and are shown on or under a big tree, reading. See this book listed in our catalog
Libraries or Books
Sue MacDonald Had a Book
Submitted by Catherine from Charlotte Hall!
Can you read without vowels? Of course not! Sue MacDonald Had a Book, by Jim Tobin and illustrated by Dave Coverly, tells the story of a little girl who loses all the vowels in her book. Set to the tune of “Old MacDonald,” Sue must go on a quest to return these important letters to her book. The words of the book fit pretty much perfectly with the song, making this a fun and easy book to sing or read aloud. Bright colors, and silly pictures make this an engaging and funny book to share with children who are starting to recognize and understand their letters. So remember, you cn’t rd wtht vwls* so always keep A E I O and U nearby! And sometimes Y.
*can’t read without vowels
Redwoods
Submitted by Tess from Lexington Park!
Redwoods by Jason Chin is an awesome work of nonfiction. A boy on a big city subway train is reading a book about redwoods, and he imagines the book coming to life around him. The city scape gives way to these enormous trees, the tallest living things on the planet, which have been around since the time of dinosaurs. The fantastic illustrations complement the incredibly informative and interesting text (including a fascinating passage about the proper way to climb a redwood, which includes launching a rope to climb into the canopy with a bow and arrow!), and there’s an afterword from the author about the value of conserving the redwood forests. Perhaps it will even inspire you to make a trip to California to see these amazing trees up close!
The Storyteller’s Candle
Submitted by county youth coordinator Janis!
The Storyteller’s Candle (La velita de los cuentos) by Lucia Gonzalez and illustrated by Lulu Delacre. This story is about two cousins that moved to New York from Puerto Rico in the winter of 1929. They are missing their homeland and the sunny days of December in Puerto Rico. They are also worried about The Three Kings finding them in their new home in New York. One day, a magical thing happened at school. “A visitor appeared in their classroom, a gifted storyteller and librarian Pura Belpré, the first Latina librarian in NY Public Library. She opened the children’s eyes to the public library and its potential to be the living, breathing heart of the community. The library, after all belongs to everyone – whether you speak English, Spanish or both.” The Storyteller’s Candle is a bilingual picture book. It honors the real-life Pura Belpre, the first Puerto Rican librarian hired by the New York Public Library System, who actively advocated bilingual story hours, bought Spanish language books, and implemented programs based on traditional holidays.
Ron’s Big Mission
Ron’s Big Mission by Rose Blue and Corinne J. Naden, and illustrated by Don Tate, is a truly inspirational story. Ron McNair loved to go the library and look through books about airplanes and space. But he couldn’t check them out and take them home, because he was black, and this story takes place in the south during the time of segregation. Only white people could have a library card, and Ron thought this was unfair. One day he had enough. In protest of the unfair rules, he climbed up on the library’s front desk and refused to come down. They called the police! They called his mom! Finally the librarian gives him a card and Ron takes his books home. And Ron grew up to be an astronaut! When he tragically died in the Challenger accident, they dedicated his childhood hometown library to his memory.
Sitting in My Box
There’s nothing much more fun than playing in a giant cardboard box. I remember as a child receiving an enormous Playskool kitchen set for Chanukah and having a lot more fun playing with the packaging it arrived in (no offense to Playskool–that kitchen set was awesome, but I unfortunately have never been much of a culinary artist). Dee Lillegard captures the excitement of letting your imagination run wild in Sitting in My Box, illustrated by the great Jon Agee. In the story a little boy is sitting in his box, reading a book about jungle animals. The animals suddenly begin to present themselves, asking him to make room, until he’s sharing the box with a giraffe, elephant, baboon, lion, and hippo. The box is getting a little overpopulated, but a pesky flea plans to change all that!