Jan Brett, synonymous with the holidays in my mind!

This December I enjoyed using Jan Brett titles for story time. 

Snowy nap is about the animals telling hedgehog about all the winter fun he will miss while hibernating. 

He is brought inside a house for a few days and gets to witness through the windows all of the things he was told about. 

The comical ending is when the other animals want a piece of that action!

Animals' Santa is about the animals debating which animal their Santa could be. When we discover who it is, it is spectacular. The spread, showing the animal replete with a basket full of goodies, is gorgeous!

Gingerbread Christmas has the Gingerbread baby forming a band with gingerbread instruments that Mattie makes (again not waiting the necessary time before peeking!). The band performs in a gazebo in the middle of the village and bystanders are getting hungry for a snack. Mattie disguises the instruments in snow while the Gingerbread baby distracts the villagers by singing. Then he taunts the people to chase him. He lands in a Christmas tree with so many decorations on it that he is very well disguised. The Christmas tree is a fold out in the book. The children have fun looking for the Gingerbread baby. It is just the right amount of challenging to do that. 

I was showing 

patrons some of the art projects available from Jan Brett on her website:

janbrett.com

I ran off for them the Night Before Christmas tree topper, the Christmas tree cone, and Christmas gift name tags. All of them exude Jan Brett's signature beauty. I like the name tags because they are creatively reversed to have FROM first and TO second. 

Two adorable books about cookies!

 Bookie & Cookie by Blanca Gomez

This book quietly invites the reader to interact with the book in such a way as to engage with the pictures and think about left and right in a book. This prepares early readers to read from left to right. Bookie spends most of the book on the left and Cookie spends most of the book on the right. What are the circumstances when they will move out of their pages? You will have to read the book to see, it is delightful. And all about two of the best things in life: books and cookies!

Delivery Bear by Laura Gehl and Paco Sordo

Bear is very excited to get a chance at a job delivering cookies. The problem is that the cookie deliverers were all rabbits up until this point. The customers are pretty frightened of Bear. Part of the delivery job is to sing a jingle. Bear decides to give the jingle new words that introduce him as "not scary" and also that he is available to give bear hugs. So cute! 

Another Dinovember came and went!

 Here are three (older) books that I enjoyed reading at story time this month.

*I love this one! It matches different dinosaurs to different vehicles. Very clever!

Example: T. Rex=Monster Truck

*Ooh, I really enjoyed the rhythm to this one. There is a great explanation of "rig". From the end notes: "Before they go on display, broken bones are fixed with glue and plaster. Missing bones are replaced with dummies of plastic or fiberglass."

*Pure Mo Willems' wit. And the inside jokes are woven into the drawings. Written for kids and their grown-ups...enjoyable for all!

Enjoy the world around you!

So this is a different take on the familiar plot of an animal losing their voice and then hunting for it and finding it again. Instead of loss of voice, this story is loss of smile. 

I enjoyed this version because it illustrated that happiness is everywhere around us. All we have to do is notice and our smile will readily appear. 

 

Stunning feel good book about gathering around a bonfire

 

This is a great book for explaining how you gather your materials for a safe bonfire. Then it shows people gathering around and enjoying it, especially when the guitar arrives! 

A rainbow in brown

 

A Rainbow in Brown

                                                       By Pavonis Giron

Cool book about a little girl who adores the color BROWN in all of its variety. Her environment is brown, she is brown. 

It is fun to go over with kids the many ways you can arrive at a brown:

RED PLUS BLUE PLUS YELLOW;

ORANGE PLUS BLUE;

YELLOW PLUS PURPLE;

RED PLUS GREEN.

#ColorOurWorld

A gem that celebrates slowing down and observing to see how wonderful life is!

 

The title matches the content well. First "be still". And then you can appreciate "life". This book covers the five senses. A good lesson for readers of all ages.