123 - Books with Numbers

My Truck is Stuck by Kevin Lewis and Daniel Kirk
This is a strange book, the meter is complicated and the rhymes are seemingly random. But the subject matter and bright illustrations, make it a really popular choice. It also has some sneaky counting in it.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
This is a classic, with a caterpillar so hungry he eats through pages of fruits, counting them as he goes and then moves on to cake and sausage, which gives him a tummy ache. There are many different editions of this book, including a beautiful pop up version, which I'll be reading from.

Over in the Jungle by Marianne Berkes and Jeanette Canyon

This sing-a-long book is full of actual jungle animals in their actual jungle settings. The crazy half sculpture half illustrations are fascinating and strange.

Ten, Nine, Eight by Molly Bang
A bedtime countdown book, my favourite is 7, because surprisingly, that's shoes.

The Three Little Pigs
I have a ladybird board book version of this story, but I change the words so that the pigs say "no no not by the hair on my chinny chin chin". I will encourage huffing and puffing by all.

We'll be singing "Zoom, Zoom, Zoom", "Five Little Monkeys" and "Five Little Ducks"

Colours

(Every time I do a colour based storytime, it always descends into chaos, but I'm always willing to try again).

What Makes a Rainbow? by Betty Ann Schwartz
A lovely little rainbow book, with coloured ribbons strung between the pages, this book is told from the point of view of a little bunny, who asks her colourful friends "What makes a rainbow?"

A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni
A confused chameleon tries to find a sense of identity amongst his changing colours, instead he finds a friend with whom he can change colour and still know who he is.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.
It's a classic for a reason and I've recently noticed that the fruits that the caterpillar eats are in the same order that you would use when weaning children onto solid food. This could be a coincidence. But it's a fun little observation nonetheless.

The Big Orange Splot by Daniel Pinkwater
"My house is me and I am it. My house is where I like to be and it looks like all my dreams." An early Daniel Pinkwater book about letting the colours of your personality shine through. It's a little longer than I'd normally read at storytime, but it's got such great colourful illustrations, it would be a shame to not read it.

Fortunately by Remy Charlip
A very strange little "good news/bad news" style book where our hero borrows an airplane, gets chased by tigers and ends up at a party. When something good happens to him the illustrations are in colour, when something bad happens, they're in black and white. It's utterly absurd in a way that children really appreciate. This book gets a lot of laughs.

Monsters and Dinosaurs

Bootsie Barker Bites by Barbara Bottner.

Sometimes, people are not very nice. And sometimes children are downright monstrous (even girls). Bootsie Barker Bites addresses this issue with style. Wit, wisdom, dinosaurs, a rocket, chocolate donuts and a salamander all make an appearance in an ideal book for kindergardeners who are just discovering the meaner side of their sweet little friends.

Horns to Toes and Inbetween by Sandra Boynton.

A simple board book with catchy rhymes about parts of the body. I ask the children to point to the part we're talking about, someone always laughs when I ask where their tail is.

Dinosaur Roar by Paul & Henrietta Strickland.

A great opposites book with some happy friendly dinosaurs in it. I love the unconventional opposites too, like "clean and slimy" or "spiky and lumpy". It makes a nice change from "up and down".

The Wild Things by Maurice Sendak.

A classic in which Max becomes the King of All the Wild Things but gets lonely and goes home for his still warm supper. Cover to Cover has a resident Wild Thing, he's about the size of a toddler and a bit dogeared, he often gets sat on. He's stuffed, of course.

The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson.

"there's no such thing as a Gruffal...oh". A clever little mouse talks his way out of trouble with the unwitting help of a creature he thought he'd invented. I love this book, it's smart and funny and a real example of how not to be scared of monsters.

We'll sing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" (including the verse "if you see the Wild Things don't forget to scream"), "Heads and Shoulders, Knees and Toes" and "There's a Monster in my Closet" which is to the tune of "If you're happy and you know it" where we get to choose what colour it is and what noise it makes before we finally get to meet it. And the poem will be "the Dark" by Carol-Ann Duffy.

In Flight

Sadie the Airmail Pilot by Kellie Strom. I love this book. It has so much detail, both in the illustrations and the story telling. Sadie the pilot has a huge adventure when her plane goes down after a delivery to Knuckle Peak weather station. Will she make it back? Is that a monster? Will her stomach ever stop growling? "Things look grim, but don't get nervous, nothing scares the airmail service".

Owl Babies by Martin Waddell. A modern classic about young owls with abandonment issues, don't worry it has a very happy ending.

Blue Balloon by Mick Inkpen. This was one of the first proper storybooks that my son really enjoyed and he still likes it now. It has some very clever folded pages and flaps which never distract from the story, which is simply that of a boy's imagination running wild with the help of a blue balloon. Kipper the cartoon dog makes his first literary appearance in this book too.

Lisa's Airplane Trip by Anne Gutman. Lisa has never been on an airplane before, which is not surprising as she is a cuddly rabbit. This translated French travelogue is really charming and has lots of jokes for the grown ups. I would highly recommend this as a storybook to introduce toddlers to the concept of air travel, if you're about to take a trip yourself.

The Very Quiet Cricket by Eric Carle. He didn't just write The Very Hungry Catterpillar you know, in fact Carle has quite an opus of colourful children's books. This one has a good selection of flying bugs, mosquitoes, a cicada, a bee, a dragonfly and a lunar moth. Oh and there's a surprise noise at the end, which is always popular.

I'll be singing I'm a little Airplane, The Up and Down song and Yellow Bird (although not all of it) And the poem is I Am Flying by Jack Prelutsky.

Cats

Slinky Malinki by Lynley Dodd
A cat of dubious character spends his nights collecting interesting things from around the neighbourhood. It ends in disgrace. This book reads like a real action adventure story, lots of building tension and intrigue.

Grumpy Cat by Britta Teckentrup
I love this author/illustrator, she also gave us Smelly Bear and because I'm a bit of an art snob I love the fact that she studied at St Martin's in London. All this aside this is a lovely book about making friends and how sometimes lonely and grumpy look the same. I've got the large format hardback for storytime and I've been practicing my plaintive mewing.

The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr
A strange English 1960s classic in which a tiger pops round for a snack and eats everything in the house. The little girl in the story loves the tiger, although he seems somewhat aloof throughout. I've often wondered if it's a metaphor for class conflict. In any case it's very exciting to see a tiger eating all the food and drinking all Daddy's beer.

Hondo and Fabian by Peter McCarty
Hondo is a dog and Fabian is a cat, they live together in the same house, but they have very different lives. This is a beautifully illustrated book, the pictures seem so soft and calm, yes even the one where the little girl is playing with Fabian against his will.

Sugar Would Not Eat It by Emily Jenkins and Giselle Potter
One of the dafter books I've read, this is a story about a little boy who finds a kitten and attempts to make it eat chocolate cake. There are a number of grown ups who weigh in with some of the arguments used against children who are fussy eaters, they all sound very stupid in this context. You'll be pleased to hear that the kitten gets milk and chicken in the end.

Friends

A Visitor for Bear - Bonny Becker and Kady MacDonald Denton.

A very grumpy bear finds that he can't do without an initially unwanted visitor. The bear is a real drama queen and so it's great to read aloud his protestations of "I am undone!" as he throws himself to the ground. And his visitor, a small gray mouse is as cheeky as can be, another fun character.

Hooray for Fish - Lucy Cousins.

Bright colours and a large format book, make this one very popular with toddlers. A little fish introduces us to his friends, saving his best friend for last. Although my secret favourites are the Twin Fin Fin fish. (This one may be difficult to get hold of outside the UK, ask your local book store if they can find one for you).

How do Dinosaurs Play with Their Friends? - Jane Yolen and Mark Teague.

This is one of a series of books about how dinosaurs would behave if they were children. It's a really fun concept and the dinosaur's scientific name is always hidden somewhere in the illustrations. And the answer to the question in the title is "surprisingly nicely".

Duck on a Bike - David Shannon.

I love this book, there's plenty of opportunity for making animal noises and the illustrations are actually better (in my opinion) than the books that shannon is more famous for (No, David and Good Boy Fergus). It's a fable that a child will never grow out of. I think it's profound that each of these farm animals could hold three opposing opinions at the same time, just like people.

Froggy Plays Soccer - Jonathan London and Frank Remkiewicz.

The kids go crazy for Froggy, he jumps a lot, flops around, picks his nose, doesn't listen to grown ups and can't follow instructions. No wonder he's so popular! This is a good story about teamwork and a rare book about sport.

We'll be singing "5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed", "The More we get Together" and "Slippery Fish" which is actually about the foodchain and not friendship, but I think it's important to know your predator from your prey. The poem is "Some People" by Charlotte Zolotow.

Trains

The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper
This 1950s classic is seen throughout the world as a truly American tale. A struggle over adversity and a triumph for the little engine who wants to be helpful and try her best. But let's not forget those big unhelpful engines who think they're too important, too exclusive or just too weak. They don't disappear just because the little blue engine makes it to the top of the mountain. I'm sure many hours have been spent discussing the political ramifications of this book, but this is not the place to do it. I read from a version with the original text and modern illustrations by Loren Long, but I edit as I read. The idea of giving a child a "jack knife" now seems too odd to read aloud. I also edit the mean-spiritedness of the unhelpful trains, although mostly because my audience is normally 3 years and under and expecting them to sit still for the full length of the original text is a little unreasonable.

Chugga Chugga Choo Choo by Kevin Lewis
This train is a toy, but it still has a very busy day loading toy freight and crossing fish tank river. The primary coloured illustrations give you a real sense of a toy's eye view and the creative use of props to make landscape is refreshing. One of the best things about this book though is the lovely change of pace at the end of the book as the train gets more tired and eventually goes to sleep. It makes it a perfect bedtime story.

Bebop Express by H. L. Panahi, Steve Johnson, and Lou Fancher
This is a new discovery for me and an instant hit in our house. The train runs from New York to New Orleans, picking up jazz musicians along the way. The text is full of tongue twisting scat style rhymes and the illustrations are collage using real photographs of real people. So much more than a train book, this is a history of jazz; an introduction to stand up bass, saxophone, drums and voice and a proud fanfare for the "American jazz symphony".

A Train Goes Clickety-Clack by Jonathan London and Denis Roche
A more conventional book which lists different types of train as cartoon family rides the rails.

Freight Train by Donald Crews
This board book is incredibly simple and massively effective. Each type of train car is a different colour and they all run together as the train picks up speed and finally disappears off the last page.

I'll be singing The Runaway Train, Train is a Comin' and This Train is Going to Grandma's.

Family

The Family Book - Todd Parr.

Everyone is different and so are our families. This is a very simple list book with illustrations in primary colours (the illustrator's style will be familiar to anyone who's seen the author's TV show "Todd's World"). But the most refreshing thing here is that there is no family set-up left unlisted. Single parent families, two Mums, two Dads, adoption and even communal style living are all part of the Family package. I love reading this to children and knowing that they accept it as fact.

Ben and Gran and the Whole Wide Wonderful World - Gillian Shields.

This one may be difficult to source in America, but try your local bookstore, they'll certainly try to find a supplier for you. Ben lives on one side of the world and Gran lives on the other side, although sending messages is fun, it's no substitute for seeing your favourite person. So Gran goes on an epic journey to get to Ben whilst Ben prepares for her arrival. This is a great book to read to a transportation loving toddler, as Gran uses any means necessary, including camel and high speed express train to get to Ben.

Going on a Bear Hunt - Michael Rosen.

Sometimes families go on adventures together and in this popular version of the traditional story it's the Dad who takes the lead. It's illustrated by Helen Oxenbury who apparently enjoyed the subject matter being people and not anthropomorphic animals. There is a real sense of family adventure here and we can all understand why the bear looks so sad and lonely on the last page.

Mama Do You Love Me? - Barbara M Joose.

Toddler's love to push their parents and test the limits of the love. This charming book with an Innuit theme, calmly explains that Mama's love knows no limits, even if you turn into the meanest polar bear there ever was.

Harry the Dirty Dog - Gene Zion.

Back in the 1950s families were made up of one Mom (who cooked), one Dad (who went to work), one little girl (who liked dolls) and one little boy (who liked trains), they usually had a dog. This is nonsense of course, families have never been this way, but the Harry series of books gives us some interesting historical perspectives, not least into the way we used to think about family. Harry runs away from home to avoid taking a bath, but really misses his family and after getting very dirty he returns home to find that no-one recognises him. There's only one thing he can do. And yes, there is a coal chute in this book, you could use it as an opening gambit in a conversation about renewable energy sources!

We will be singing, "This Train is Going to Grandma's", "Splash, Splash, Bubble Bubble, Quack Quack" (one of mine...lyrics and music to come soon), and "I'm a Little Airplane" and the poem will be Seeing All My Family by Claire Salama.

Welcome to the Storytime Blog

It comes as no surprise to any parent when Educational Psychologists tell us we should read to our children for at least 20 minutes every day. Children love books and even before they can read they are learning so much from us when we read to them.

In this blog I hope to use my storytelling experience to suggest great books which you can read to your own children. I am not sentimental and I'm often highly opinionated about the books I choose to read, these are not exactly the average back cover blurbs. I've also grouped the books into themes, with songs and usually a poem. This can help you to explore a particular topic, or just when your toddler wants more books about trucks.

I have been reading to a group of under 5s at the local bookstore (Cover to Cover, San Francisco) for over a year, I have a two year old son and we read a lot.

Mice

A Visitor for Bear by Bonny Becker.

Bear is a grumpy drama queen and he doesn’t want any visitors. But a small gray mouse is persistent and eventually the bear realises that it’s great to have an audience. This is an awesome read aloud book, as the bear’s outrage gets worse you can really go to town on the drama! The illustrations are beautiful and detailed and it’s easy but fun to find where the mouse has appeared this time.

The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear by Audrey Wood.

A sweet take on the modern archetype of the American con artist. Our smooth talking narrator manages to convince the mouse that there’s a big hungry bear coming and the best thing he can do to protect his strawberry is to share it with us and eat it. When you’ve finished the book, ask your toddler to find the picture of the bear in the book. Of course, there isn’t one.

Mousepaint by Ellen Stoll Walsh.

Three mice experiment with colour and discover the joys of camoflage.

The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson.

My favourite read aloud author and this is one of her best. A cunning mouse manages to hold off being eaten by inventing a monster friend, but when the monster friend turns out to be real, the hero has to do some quick thinking.

Frederick by Leo Lionni.

This book is very popular, particularly in California and the illustrations are disarmingly similar to Eric Carle’s. However it’s a product of the Summer of Love and as such it leaves reality far far away. Frederick is a mouse who instead of gathering food for the winter, gathers, sunshine, colours and words. Surprisingly the other mice don’t leave him to starve and he manages to brighten their winter with stories and poetry. Even the most idealistic of post-beat poets would probably agree that maybe Frederick should have gathered some food as well as working on his magnum opus. Or maybe that’s my protestant work ethic shining through. In any case it certainly resonates with small children for whom the practicalities of life are dealt with by somebody else.

I’ll be singing “The Bear Went Over the Mountain”, “A Mouse in a Windmill” and “There’s a Monster in My Closet”