Some great finds in Infosoup!

 

This trilogy was a hit at story time. First we talked about the word “kahuna” which can mean both wise one and a big wave.

In PIG KAHUNA we meet Fergus and his little brother Dink who like to go beachcombing. A treasure they find is a surfboard that they name “Dave”. Fergus overcomes his fear of the water when he does a daring rescue of Dave. Dink had tossed Dave back in the water when he thought he was sad.

In PIG KAHUNA PIRATES! Dink is having a bad day. Fergus helps him out by showing Dink that he can channel his unhappiness into playing a very scary pirate!

In PIG KAHUNA: WHO’S THAT PIG? Dink and Fergus meet a fabulous personality named Tallulah. She is larger than life and a bit intimidating to Fergus. (Tallulah reminds me a lot of the character Fancy Nancy.) In the end they all become friends.

I am hoping that there are more planned for this fabulous series!

Shark week, 2025. Learning!

 

Walter feels self-conscious about his small teeth. He tries to replace them with seashells (during lunch) and then seaweed (during playground time) and then shrimp (during story time). With all three items, they all fall out. He goes home from his first day at school and tells his mom how sad he is about his teeth in comparison with the other sharks who all have big teeth. She explains to him that they are not that “kind” of shark. *I did a further investigation and found out that Walter and his family are filter feeders! Some filter feeders are basking shark or whale shark or megamouth shark. Filter feeders strain the water with their small teeth to grab and eat small organisms such as plankton from the water. Fascinating!

Love this trilogy, use it time and again for story time to school aged children!

I love this trilogy because Mr. Magee and his dog Dee are happy and enjoy adventures in nature.

There are similarities between the books that can be conversed about with children. These are just a few of them:

Each book starts with what time they get up.

Each book starts with Mr. Magee and Dee making a plan for an adventure.

Each book ends back at home. 

Each book features a creature from nature that creates tension! (Bear, whale, moose.) In each book, that same creature saves the puzzling situation.

All books have beautiful and vibrant illustrations.

Thank you to the author & illustrator Chris Van Dusen. 

In praise of ice fishing...three terrific picture books (very belated posting)! I am not allowed more renewals! ;)

 

I love regional customs and ice fishing is one of ours due to the climate and location. I like how this custom is passed on through the generations. These books celebrate ice fishing!

A beautiful story about a grandfather teaching his grandson how to ice fish. The paintings are vibrant in this book from Minnesota.

Seven little mice help their mom to ice fish and realize why she holds the title of Ice-Fishing Princess.

Milton sees the glass half empty and Odie sees the glass half full. They are both attempting to get a bigmouth bass. When their fishing poles get tangled they meet each other and agree to work together. Odie's optimism rubs off on Milton. Fun!

The moral of the story...

 This is an offbeat picture book. Sy Kravitz is great at selling fruit until he disappears one day. He has to rework his life for invisibility. And then in an unexpected way he becomes visible again. The moral of the story on the last page is, "Time, and fruit, heals all wounds." Written by Arthur Yorinks (currently aged 71). I love his signature lesson in each of his tales. 

(I could not believe that I discovered this book while  I was simultaneously reading a novel about becoming invisible called TILDA IS VISIBLE by Jane Tara.)

Our assumptions can be false--even our youngest readers can get this concept from this book!

 Stork makes an assumption about black cat;

black cat makes an assumption about raccoon;

raccoon makes an assumption about frog;

frog makes an assumption about stork.

All are set straight at the end through conversation, laughter and sharing a (fish) meal.

Wonderful!

This picture book works on two levels--love it!

 I love how this picture book teaches the haiku poetry style  (the 5, 7, 5 syllable pattern) but also is posing riddles. It makes both haikus and riddles accessbile.

GUESS WHO, HAIKU By Deanna Caswell and Bob Shea

Jump for Joy

 I think "wow, just wow!" with this book. It was the perfect book to share for COLOR OUR WORLD because it starts with black and white pictures and emerges into color. It has a very relatable/familiar story line. The girl Joy, who wishes for a dog. The dog, Jump, who wishes for a girl. They wish and wish and wish and wish and wish. This book has a very happy ending which is conveyed through vibrant colors. They are a relief and everyone made a sigh of happiness when I read this aloud to students and reached this page. There is also a spread three quarters of the way through that lent itself to discussion. Joy and Jump on each side of a river are separated and looking away from each other. This gives us a breath and the anticipation of resolution. Wonderful!

Respect!

A beautiful book about gravitating toward someone who respects you and appreciates the same things that you do. I read this to small children today who totally got the point that Trampoline Boy had a special perspective and was willing to share it with Peaches. The two pages where they assess each other are great! "He crawled off the trampoline and stood beside Peaches, then peered closely at her face."; "They helped each other up, and Peaches searched his eyes. 'Show me,' she said." Excellent.

 

A book about paying attention!

Duck apparently is a good friend to Cow because he knows what she likes. For cow's birthday, Pig and Mouse are busy making a cake. They keep telling Duck he is wrong about his desired addition of a TURNIP. The funny twist is that Cow loves turnips! 

Universal love of the sun

 Fantastic book about universality...the sun is there for all of us and the sun gives all of us life! The pictures are beautiful and take us on a tour around the world. When reading this aloud, this is perfect accompanied with a globe showing where all the countries mentioned are. The book begins and ends with MADAGASCAR/the rainforest. Very beautiful, very relatable.

Celebrate National Poetry month (April)

 Absolutely beautiful book for children of all ages. An example of a line from this poetic book: "If I was an apple and you were a worm you'd call me lunch and I'd call you squirm." Wonderful!

c/2019 IF I WAS THE SUNSHINE

Julia Fogliano & Loren Long

Moneybunny books are terrific! By Cinders McLeod

 

Through a collaboration with UW-Extension Outagamie County Money Smart week activities happened across public libraries last week. Our volunteer from the committee was Mia Peterson who works at Fox Cities Credit Union. She disseminated resources to families during a regularly scheduled story time on April 7, 2025. It was cool for children to walk away with banks to save their money in! For years, with my strong background in children’s literature, I have studied books that make sense for teaching money skills to young children. Many of the books are just so-so. They teach the names and values of coins and currency, but they do not teach healthy habits of dealing with and taking actions with money.

       This year I hit the jackpot (ha-ha!) with a series of books that have positive messages about how to work with money AND have good stories. I highly recommend these! They are available to you through Infosoup. (The series is Moneybunny; the author & illustrator is Cinders McLeod) In each story carrots are the currency, and a bunny rabbit is the main character.

 In Earn it! Bun wants to be a rich and famous singer. How will she earn it with practical goals?

 In Give it! Chummy is an ordinary hero helping the bees.

 In Save it! Honey scales back her wish to what she can afford.

In Spend it! Sonny makes a careful choice about what to buy with what money he has.

 

A new addition published in 2024! How do you spend? This is on my reading list!

 

 

Precious

 Beautiful color book, I love the way that it is formatted. It won my heart with "red is for cordial"!!!

This board book is designed for our youngest readers! Introduce ANNE to the next generation!

Yay!

 

Yay! A great book for anyone who has a kindness rock garden and very happy for this book for COLOR YOUR WORLD, summer reading, 2025.

Historical fiction in the picture book format!

 I love that the picture book format is so well suited to telling a factual story.  There are so many great picture books that take an overlooked piece of history and spin a yarn around it. This is a case in point, a story about how a stray cat won two blue ribbons at a cat show in a fancy hotel. The author and illustrator are sisters! The final two paragraphs of the author's note are delightful:

"It is the job of adults to make and change laws, but I think it's young people who change the culture. Children, like my fictional Louise and real-life you, are often able to see the world not as it is but as it should be.

Furry friends help, too. The year after the contest that inspired this story, Mr. Silver entered again and won six awards, including two first prizes, at the 1948 Greater St. Louis Cat Club Show. Hope sometimes comes on little cat feet."

Intriguing premise

A great book to think about opposites and differing perspectives.

Sun knows only what happens during the day and Moon knows only what happens during the night. Cloud comes along and offers sage advice: “stay up a bit beyond your bedtime and see what it is like.” They each get to see the human activities which change based on the time of day.

This is a very clever book. The hard part for young kids is to think that both Sun and Moon could be correct simultaneously. This is too hard for kids’ black and white thinking at a young age. I loved when I used this for read aloud and kids were saying, “Moon is right” or “Sun is right”. And they were so definite, adorable!

I used props with this book the second time around. They helped with comprehension. 

 

The beauty of a simple day outdoors

 This book is precisely why I adore picture books so much. It is the perfect example of a well designed book---wonderful text and wonderful illustrations!

This is an "oh so sweet" story about Father Bear and his cub. They have a wonderful time together going fishing and napping together afterwards. I love how they are able to while away the day. They are gentle and kind together and they enjoy the small pleasures of life (including reading!). Just lovely. Erin Stead does an amazing job of conveying the positive mood through her watercolor pictures.

Great rendition of THE THREE LITTLE PIGS!

I am so glad we have this book in our collection since we have guinea pigs for library pets here!
This book is patterned after the Three Little Pigs. Instead of the big bad wolf, the predator is a fox. After fox has destroyed two houses, the pigs tempt fox by telling him that he should try eating their tails first. They substitute something for their tails (genius!) which frightens fox and he runs away. Then we (the readers) are reminded that guinea pigs do not have tails! The illustrations by Amy Young are adorable.
*There is a fabulous two page spread at the end of the book called FASCINATING FACTS ABOUT GUINEA PIGS.

 

Two books that work for grieving, understanding the course of nature.

 I am including an "adult" book. However, truly anyone can go hiking for healing! Hurray!

I was astounded by this gorgeous book that gives a wonderful explanation of decomposition. There is a beautiful page toward the end of the book which states: "Life is everywhere. Death is not just an end, but a beginning." I think this is a perfect book for anyone who respects the cyclical power of nature. It is also a good book for a person grieving. How the fox departs this world is rough but realistic.

I am constantly recommending this powerful book to people here in Wisconsin who are grieving!

Why so slow?

 For anyone who has ever wondered why the zamboni machine moves so slowly, this is the book for you! There are nine distinct steps with this machine...fascinating stuff and, of course, it does an amazing job. This book also offers the good lesson that important things need to be handled slowly.

MLK Jr. tie!

 MLK Jr. Day is nearing and this is a perfect book to celebrate that occasion. In this book we meet the African American actress who was featured on the original STAR TREK TV series, Nichelle Nichols. She did not realize how much of a difference she was making as a role model to other African Americans until Martin Luther King, Jr. told her so. From that moment forward, she took that responsibility seriously. The illustrations in this book are beautiful and the message about how one person can make a striking difference is clear! Very cool!

Happy New Year!

I love this gorgeous picture book about horses Tim and Tom who take people for sleigh rides through the snow. First they take the children and then they take the elders. This is a celebration of the new year. Love it! The collages created by illustrator Micha Archer accompany this beautiful story about simple pleasures/traditions.
 

Wishing customs

 

Happy New Year, 2025! Making wishes is a universal habit across cultures. This non-fiction book for children (& up) explains many of them. The text is accompanied by vibrant photographs. Which of these wishing techniques have you used? For me, coins in the water is a favorite!