Miss Carol's Best Book Finds of 2014 - Picture Books

Every year at my library, I spend the last couple days of the year compiling my favorite book finds of the year.  They are not always new books.  Just books I discovered for the first time and really, really liked.

PICTURE BOOK DISCOVERIES FOR 2014:

Battle Bunny by Jon Scieszka and Mac Barnett, illustrated by Matthew Myers 

Alex, whose birthday it is, hijacks a story about Birthday Bunny on his special day and turns it into a battle between a super villain and his enemies in the forest--who, in the original story, are simply planning a surprise party.  

Catching Kisses by Amy Gibson, illustrated by Maria Van Lieshout 

A journey of the heart follows a handful of kisses as it travels throughout the United States from San Francisco and New Orleans to New York City.

Dino-Wrestling by Lisa Wheeler, illustrations by Barry Gott 

Meat-eating and vegetarian dinosaurs compete at the wrestling jamboree, demonstrating such styles as sumo, Greco-Roman, and lucha libre.

Elecopter by Michael Slack 

Fly along with Elecopter as she soars above the savannah, patrolling the skies with her fire-hose nose at the ready. The other animals are safe with Elecopter on the scene--Elecopter is a hero for all!

Extraordinary Jane by Hannah E. Harrison 

Jane the dog doesn't have a unique talent in the circus like the rest of her family, until the ringmaster discovers what is truly special about her.

Flora and the Flamingo by Molly Idle 

In this wordless book with interactive flaps, a friendship develops between a girl named Flora and a graceful flamingo, as they learn to dance together.

I’m Bored by Michael Ian Black, illustrated by Debbie Ridpath Ohi 

When a bored girl meets a potato who finds children tedius, she tries to prove him wrong by demonstrating all of the things they can do, from turning cartwheels to using their imaginations.

Norman, Speak! by Caroline Adderson, illustrated by Qin Leng 

After a family adopts a dog from a local shelter, they cannot understand why he doesn't respond to commands, until a chance encounter in the dog park reveals that their new dog only understands Chinese.

Open Very Carefully: A Book with Bite by Nick Bromley and Nicola O’Byrne 

A crocodile falls into a quiet storybook and wreaks havoc on the characters, in a tale that invites youngsters to slam the book shut or find the courage to take a peek inside.

Planes Fly! by George Ella Lyon, illustrated by Mick Wiggins 

Illustrations and easy-to-read rhyming text celebrate different kinds of planes, their instruments, what they carry, and what it is like to go for a flight.

Tulip Loves Rex by Alyssa Satin Capucilli, illustrated by Sarah Massini 

Loving to dance all of her life, a little girl wishes for a special friend and meets a dance-loving dog in the park who wears a sign around his neck revealing that he is unlike other dogs and needs a home.

Unicorn Thinks He’s Pretty Great by Bob Shea 

Envy turns to admiration and finally to friendship for Goat and Unicorn.

National Cookie Day

Officially, National Cookie Day falls on December 4.  (And that is the day my library held our National Cookie Day celebration.)  But I feel that this is a great program for the December holiday season.  A cookie celebration does not fall into any religious category.  Yet, baking cookies is a holiday tradition for many families, therefore it has a holiday vibe to it.  This is my second year throwing a cookie day party.  I find it to be an easy program to put together!  It makes for a fun, fantastic program for children of all ages.

Stories -- Start off with a couple of cookie stories.  This year we read two favorites:
Fortune Cookies by Albert Bitterman, illustrated by Chris Raschka (moving pieces)
The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins (Big Book)

Art Activity -- This year we had the children make and decorate paper fortune cookies.  We even had take out boxes to decorate and store the paper cookies in.  There were some very imaginative cookie designs.  Supplies needed: round lids (to trace circle shape), card stock paper, pens, crayons, scissors, glitter glue, bingo paint dabbers.  (Special note: While we put out glitter glue for this art activity, I think this project would be better without it because the glue took too long to dry.)

Cookie Activity -- What program about cookies is complete without cookies to eat and decorate?  We put out frosting and sprinkles.  Other than a few words about germs and safe handling of food, no other directions were needed.

Our little cookie monsters left on a happy sugar high!

Dinosaurs Storytime

Storytime for 1-1/2 to 3 year olds:

• Opening - Skinnamarink, Sticky Sticky Bubblegum

• Book #1 – Dinosaurs Dinosaurs by Byron Barton

• Stand-up Activity – "We Are the Dinosaurs" action song from Whaddaya Think of That? by Laurie Berkner

• Bridge - Open, Shut Them (fingerplay)

Open, shut them
(open and close hands)
Open, shut them
Give a little clap (clap)
Open, shut them

Open, shut them
Put them in your lap
(put hands in lap)

Creep them, creep them
Under your chin
(creep fingers up chest)
Open your mouth, but don't put them in
(do as words say)

Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Give a little clap
Open shut them
Open shut them
Put them in your lap 

• Flannelboard - Counting Dinosaurs (a color identification and counting rhyme I found on the internet a few years back)

• Book #2 – Dinosaur Stomp!: A Monster Pop-up by Paul Stickland

• Activity – Dinosaur, Dinosaur Turn Around (action rhyme I adapted from the familiar "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear Turn Around" rhyme)

Dinosaur, dinosaur turn around

Dinosaur, dinosaur touch the ground

Dinosaur, dinosaur dance on your toes

Dinosaur, dinosaur touch your nose

Dinosaur, dinosaur reach up high

Dinosaur, dinosaur jump to the sky

Dinosaur, dinosaur stomp your feet

Dinosaur, dinosaur show your teeth

Dinosaur, dinosaur give a roar

Dinosaur, dinosaur find the floor

• Closing - Tambourines using the music "I Really Love to Dance" from Buzz Buzz by Laurie Berkner

• Art Experience – Paint a dinosaur with paintbrushes and tempera paint

Space Storytime

Storytime for 1-1/2 to 3 year olds:

• Opening - Skinnamarink, Sticky Sticky Bubblegum

• Book #1 – Twinkle Twinkle Little Star by Jane Cabrera

• Stand-up Activity – Stars Around the Rocketship (to the tune of "Ring Around the Rosie" written by Carol Hopkins)

Spinning around the rocket ship

Dancing little stars

Jumping, jumping

The stars fall down

• Bridge - Open, Shut Them (fingerplay)

Open, shut them
(open and close hands)
Open, shut them
Give a little clap (clap)
Open, shut them

Open, shut them
Put them in your lap
(put hands in lap)

Creep them, creep them
Under your chin
(creep fingers up chest)
Open your mouth, but don't put them in
(do as words say)

Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Give a little clap
Open shut them
Open shut them
Put them in your lap 

• Flannelboard - Four Little Stars (a counting down rhyme I found on the internet a few years back)

• Book #2 – Astronaut Piggywiggy by Christyan and Diane Fox

• Activity – Five Little Astronauts (fingerplay I adapted from one called "Five Little Aliens")

(Hold up fingers of one hand)

One, two, three, four, five

Five little astronauts standing in a row

They nod their heads to the children just so

They run to the left

They run to the right

They stand and stretch in the bright starlight

• Closing - Tambourines using the music "I Really Love to Dance" from Buzz Buzz by Laurie Berkner

• Art Experience – White chalk coloring on black construction paper

Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief

After a visit from author Wendelin Van Draanen, my library did a series of after school programs each based roughly around one of her books.  This program came from the first book in her Sammy Keyes series.  In the book, Sammy gets in trouble with a thief while watching him through her grandmother's binoculars.  So we decided to do something with binoculars.

We started off with a relay race.  We laid out 3 zigzag race lines on the floor with masking tape before the program started.  The children (from 3rd through 6th grades) then formed up into 3 teams.  The teams had to race up and down the lines while looking through the binoculars backwards.  Believe it or not, it is actually rather hard to follow a thin line on the floor with the binoculars backwards.  The children had fun with this.  Our winning team (made up of all 3rd graders) had so much fun they did it twice.

Next, we had the children partner up and gave these smaller teams a scavenger hunt sheet to complete.  My library is lucky to have a park right outside the meeting room doors.  Each of our five scavenger hunt items could be seen with binoculars while standing outside the meeting room.  There were two look for something and then make a rubbing (with a crayon).  There were two fill in the blank items based off signs in the park.  Then there was a piece of art to search out and then count the number of windows on this artwork.  This scavenger hunt tended to be a bit difficult.  But the various partners had difficulties with different items on the sheet, so there was not one item that was extremely hard.

The hardest part of preparing for this program was actually finding enough binoculars to use.  Me and my coworker borrowed and brought binoculars from home.  It is amazing how few people we asked had working binoculars.

Shredderman: Secret Identity

After a visit from author Wendelin Van Draanen, my library did a series of after school programs each based roughly around one of her books.  This program came from the first book in her Shredderman series.  In the book, the main character creates a webpage with his superhero-type alter ego flying across the screen.  So we decided to introduce children to some basic animation using Scratch, a graphical computer programming language.

Scratch is a free computer language created by MIT.  Go to http://scratch.mit.edu.  It is done on your internet browser so no downloading is needed.  You must create an account in order to save your work, but you can get started without an account.

After going over the four areas of the Scratch interface, I handed out a step by step lesson for the children to follow at their own speed.  I used a lesson I found (and slightly altered) at Edutopia.

Of the 42 students (from grades 3 through 6), about half of them followed the lesson.  For the most part, this half had no clue how to do any programming.  The other half pretty much did their own thing.  This second half broke into two camps.  We had some who used Scratch before. We also had some who were just investigating the various commands and backgrounds and sprites available to them.

I had a lot of fun with this program.  I must admit, before it started I was terribly nervous.  I had just learned some basics about Scratch before agreeing to do this program.  I still only know the basics and that was evident while working with some of the children.  Now I need to figure out what I will do for the next Scratch class in the Spring.

Halloween Storytime

Storytime for 1-1/2 to 3 year olds:
(Oops!  I forgot to post this one back in October.  Enjoy this flashback.)

• Opening - Skinnamarink, Sticky Sticky Bubblegum

• Book #1 – Snappy Little Halloween by Dugald Steer, illustrated by Derek Matthews (pop-up)

• Stand-up Activity – Jack-O-Lantern, Jack-O-Lantern (action rhyme written by Carol Hopkins)

Jack-O-Lantern, Jack-O-Lantern turn around.
Jack-O-Lantern, Jack-O-Lantern roll on the ground.
Jack-O-Lantern, Jack-O-Lantern dance on your toes.
Jack-O-Lantern, Jack-O-Lantern light up your nose.
Jack-O-Lantern, Jack-O-Lantern reach up high.
Jack-O-Lantern, Jack-O-Lantern jump to the sky.
Jack-O-Lantern, Jack-O-Lantern smile with heat.
Jack-O-Lantern, Jack-O-Lantern find your seat.

• Bridge - Open, Shut Them (fingerplay)

Open, shut them
(open and close hands)
Open, shut them
Give a little clap (clap)
Open, shut them

Open, shut them
Put them in your lap
(put hands in lap)

Creep them, creep them
Under your chin
(creep fingers up chest)
Open your mouth, but don't put them in
(do as words say)

Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Give a little clap
Open shut them
Open shut them
Put them in your lap 

• Flannelboard - Three Little Pumpkins (Not sure where I picked up this rhyme a long time ago.  I love using it.)

Three little pumpkins, sitting very still
In a pumpkin patch on a great big hill
The first one said, "I'm very green,"
(show green side)
"But I'll be orange on Halloween."
(show orange side)
The second one said, "Oh me, oh my,"
(show orange pumpkin side)
"Today I'll be a pumpkin pie."
(show pumpkin pie side)
The third one said, "I'm on my way,"
(show pumpkin side)
To be a Jack-O-Lantern today."
(show face side)

• Book #2 – Maisy's Halloween by Lucy Cousins (board book)

• Activity – Pumpkins Over There (action rhyme written by Carol Hopkins)

Pumpkins small
(make small pumpkin with hands)
Pumpkins tall
(hands up high)
Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere
(spin around)
Pumpkins fat
(hands make fat pumpkin)
And pumpkins thin
(hands together almost touching)
Pumpkins, pumpkins over there!
(point across the room)

• Closing - Tambourines using the music "I Really Love to Dance" fromBuzz Buzz by Laurie Berkner

• Art Experience – Glitter glue designs on a pumpkin drawing