I Am Me

Yes we will still be at Cover to Cover for storytime on Monday, even though it's MLK day.

Mama Do You Love Me? by Barbara M Joose
Toddler's love to push their parents and test the limits of the love. In this charming book with an Innuit theme, the Mama in question calmly explains that Mama's love knows no limits, no matter what side of your personality you show and even if you turn into the meanest polar bear there ever was.

Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood
A charming list of analogies with nature that all add together to make the fully rounded personality of one little boy. The illustrations are really vibrant and familiar. It's a great book to stop reading and talk about the pictures as there's a lot going on in there.

The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper and Loren Long
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. 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.

Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae and Guy Parker-Rees
Gerald the Giraffe is a little different on the dancefloor and the other animals tease him about it. Then he learns something new about music and he ends up charming the whole jungle. This "dance to your own tune" story has some amazing illustrations that really kickstart your imagination, especially when "the lions danced a tango that was elegant and bold".

Big Sister Little Sister by LeUyen Pham
Told from the younger sister's perspective, this is a great younger sibling book exploring the concepts of the similarity between you and your family and the differences that make you who you are. We'll be singing This is Me, If You're Happy and You Know It and This Train is Going to Grandmas

Loud!

Noisy City Night by Sara Anderson.
There are lots of good noises in this excellent board book, the weeeeee you of firetrucks the rumble of underground trains and the old man muttering. It's a delight to read aloud and always catches the toddler's attention. The book is also made of cityscape cut outs and has a number of jokes for the grown ups, take a look at the wording on the billboards, my favourite is "you never did like peas".

Noisy Nora by Rosemary Wells
Nora is a mouse who's little brother and sister are (in her opinion) getting way too much attention. She bangs around the house, but eventually it goes quiet, then they really notice her. Rosemary Wells is the author/illustrator of Max and Ruby, this is one of her earlier books for younger children, although her distinctive style is still apparent.

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. And a huge CRASH!

Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle
A familiar tale of the little guy saving the day, set in a very noisy countryside. The illustrations (by Jill McElmurry) have a great American Naive feel to them and the rhyming text has a light touch.

Mama Don't Allow by Thacher Hurd
Miles gets a saxophone for his birthday but he makes such a noise with it that his parents send him out into the swamp. There he meets more musicians (also familiarly named) Al, Bert and Doc. They form a band, but the band need their wits about them when they play their first gig at the alligator ball, because those alligators are hungry!

We'll be singing Old Macdonald, Ants go Marching and Ole King Cole.

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.

No Storytime this week

I'm having a holiday rest, eating mince pies and going to the zoo with my little boy.

We'll be back next week Monday January 4th.

Christmas!

The Gruffalo's Child by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
The Gruffalo's child is pretty certain that the big bad mouse is just a fairy tale, he sets out through the snow to try and find some answers. Instead he meets a mouse and a big bad one at that. A charming follow up to the classic Gruffalo story, all set in snowy woods.

Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
Peter wakes up one day to find everything covered in snow, then he has a lot of snow based adventures on his city block. My favourite thing about this 1960s classic is the way the narrative collapses from time to time, it reminds me of the way my son retells events. Also the pocket full of snowball is a brilliant illustration.

One Year With Kipper by Mick Inkpen
Kipper documents his whole year with his new camera then makes the photos into a poster for a Christmas present for his friend Tiger.

Santa's Twinkly Christmas Eve by Janine Amos and Lucy Pearce
Although not a great work of children's literature this little board book has a special feature, it is studded with lights that twinkle when you press the button. Absolutely captivating for the under 3s.

The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore
There are so many excellent illustrated versions of this poem, I like the Jan Brett one or the newish one by Matt Tavares. The poem itself is a little archaic in parts, but the naming of the reindeer is essential Christmas stuff.

NO STORYTIME THIS WEEK

Storytime is cancelled on Monday 14th December due to illness.

We'll be back next week with a Christmas storytime.

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.