Category: Perfect Picture Book Fridays

Perfect Picture Book Friday – Double Feature! – Sophie’s Animal Parade AND Dress Me!

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Well, what do you know!

It’s Perfect Picture Book Friday again!

And I’m about to something unprecedented…

I’m reviewing two picture books today!

I know!

Unheard of!

But here’s why:

Two of my dear writer friends had books release this week on the SAME DAY from the SAME PRESS!  What are the odds?  And both books are too wonderful to pass up, and I couldn’t possibly choose one over the other in their book birthday week, so there you have it – two for the price of one 🙂

I hope you enjoy them both! (And in case you’re wondering, they are genuine Perfect Picture Books, not just here because they were written by friends!  That is just a happy coincidence :))

Title: Sophie’s Animal Parade
Written By: Amy Dixon
Illustrated By: Katia Wish
May 2015, Sky Pony Press, Fiction

Suitable For Ages: 3-5

Themes/Topics: imagination, loneliness, friendship, animals

Opening: “Everything Sophie drew came to life.  Mama called it Sophie’s imagination.  Sophie called it magic.
When Sophie felt hungry, she drew something scrumptious to eat.
When Sophie felt sleepy, she drew somewhere cozy to rest.
And when Sophie felt cold, she drew something snuggly to wear.“

Brief Synopsis:  Sophie’s drawings have the magical ability to come to life.  One day, feeling lonely, Sophie draws a friend.  And then another… and another…  Sophie’s room isn’t quite the place for any of them, and accommodating their needs makes them impossible to play with (the polar bear can’t reach the scones and jam from inside his igloo; the duck can’t play hide-n-seek in a wading pool with nowhere to hide etc.)  But in the end, Sophie finds a friend – no pencils or paper required 🙂

Links To Resources: if your drawings could come to life, what would you draw? Someone to be friends with, like Sophie? (animal, human, alien, unicorn, fairy etc.???)  Someplace you’d like to visit (a castle, a beach, an enchanted forest, etc.???) Something you’d like to do (perform on Broadway, compete at the Olympics, explore the jungle etc,???)  Now draw it!; discuss how you know if something is real or imaginary; why might an imaginary friend be better than a real friend?  why might a real friend be better than an imaginary friend? Sophie Coloring Pages

Why I Like This Book:  The concept of drawings coming to life is so engaging and fun – what child wouldn’t want to have that ability?!  And hasn’t every child felt lonely at some point and longed for a friend?  This is an endearing story with delightful animal-antic-filled illustrations, and the sweet message that as fun as imagination is, real friends are what matter.  The page where Sophie meets Luke and checks to make sure she hasn’t drawn him (no pencils!) is perfect, as is the very real friendship between two imaginative animal lovers 🙂

Title: Dress Me!
Written & Illustrated By: Sarah-Frances Hardy
May 2015, Sky Pony Press, Fiction

Suitable For Ages: 2-5

Themes/Topics: careers, being yourself, exploration, self-expression

Opening: “Dress me!
Tutu me!
Dancer me!“

Brief Synopsis: A little girl tries outfit after outfit, exploring the many possibilities of what she can be- dancer, artist, teacher, lawyer etc until she finds just the right one.

Links To Resources: think up 3 careers you’d like to try.  Do any of them require special outfits or equipment? If so, what is required?  See if you can find or make some items so you can dress up like the people in those careers.  Play charades and act out a job/career you’d like to try – fireman, doctor, plumber, lawyer, carpenter, teacher, minister, etc.

Why I Like This Book:  With simple text (the word count is 44!) and adorable illustrations, a little girl tries out being a dancer, an artist, a monster, a doctor, a plumber, and many other things.  In each case, her little dog is right alongside her, joining in the fun and often sporting his own accessories.  This is a wonderful story that makes exploration, self-discovery, the freedom to choose who you are and what you want to be accessible to youngest readers.  Sweet and fun.

For the complete list of books with resources, please visit Perfect Picture Books.

If anyone would care to visit Amy Dixon or Sarah Frances Hardy, they are both very talented and have wonderful sites!   Please visit Amy HERE and Sarah Frances HERE.  Should you be interested, their sites include links to purchase their delightful books! (Actually, I’m not sure Amy’s does, but you can find her books in all the usual places :))

PPBF bloggers please be sure to leave your post-specific link in the list below so we can all come visit you!  I can’t wait to see this week’s bounty of books!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!  And Happy Mother’s Day to everyone who is a mother, or has a mother, or knows a mother!!!  🙂

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Perfect Picture Book Friday – Kate And Pippin: An Unlikely Love Story

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Happy Perfect Picture Book Friday, Everyone!

And happy first day of May! 🙂

I have SUCH a cute book to share with you today!  You know me – I always love a good true animal story with a happy ending 🙂  I’ll just warn you in advance that I went hog wild with the photos 🙂  Enjoy!

Title: Kate And Pippin: An Unlikely Love Story
Written By: Martin Springett
Photographs By: Isobel Springett
Henry Holt & Co, February 2012, Nonfiction

Suitable For Ages: 4-8

Themes/Topics: Friendship, Love, Animals

Opening: “The fawn lay still and quiet.  She was alone and afraid as she waited for her mother to come back.
Every little deer needs its mother to protect it from the many dangers of the forest.
But her mother did not return, and three long days passed.“

Brief Synopsis: When a fawn is abandoned by her mother, a nearby couple takes her in, hoping to save her.  Their Great Dane, Kate, though she has never had puppies of her own, knows just what to do to raise a baby deer.

Links To Resources: talk about friendship – what qualities do you look for in a friend? what makes a good friend? who can be your friend?  Talk about family – what makes a family?  Talk about wild animals – what should you do if you see a baby animal by itself? when should you leave it alone and when is it a good idea to try to help it?  http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/resources/tips/injured_orphaned_wildlife.html
And here’s a bonus video of a mama cat who adopts an orphaned squirrel… and it learns to purr 🙂  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHT1nAX46dM

Why I Like This Book:  I love true animal stories.  And I love cute baby animal pictures 🙂  And I love happy endings.  This book has them all.  The story also serves as a lovely model for acceptance, tolerance, and different kinds of families, and allows for discussion about what makes a family and/or what are the important qualities in a friend.  The couple who took Pippin in make no effort to keep her.  She returns to the wild and lives a free and independent life.  But she comes back to visit 🙂

For the complete list of books with resources, please visit Perfect Picture Books.

PPBF bloggers please be sure to leave your post-specific link in the list below so we can all come visit you!  I always look forward to each new week’s list of fabulous books!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

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Perfect Picture Book Friday – Mossy

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Thank goodness for Perfect Picture Book Friday!  It gives me an excuse to sit in the library or bookstore and read picture books 🙂

Today’s choice is from one of my favorite author/illustrators.  And it’s loosely related to Earth Day (which was 2 days ago) because it’s about being kind to animals 🙂  I hope you like it 🙂

Mossy
Written & Illustrated By: Jan Brett
Putnam Juvenile, September 2012

Suitable For Ages: 3-8

Themes/Topics: consideration, kindness, animals in their natural habitat, perspective

Opening: “On a misty, moisty morning, a young turtle stood at the edge of Lilypad Pond.  Her name was Mossy.”

Brief Synopsis: Mossy loves her pond.  She spends so much time in the damp coolness that first moss and then a garden grow on her carapace.  One day, she meets a handsome turtle named Scoot who thinks she’s very beautiful, but just as they are on the verge of becoming friends, Dr. Carolina and Tory spot Mossy.  “She is perfect for the museum!” declares Dr. Carolina.  And so Mossy is carried away from her beloved pond and her new friend.  Dr Carolina gives her everything she thinks a turtle needs, but fails to understand that Mossy already had everything she needed.  It is Tory who sees that Mossy is sad.  So they come up with a way to keep Mossy at the museum but also give her what her heart desires.

Links To Resources:  The back jacket flap of the book tells about the real incident that inspired this story for Jan Brett.  The book provides a wonderful opportunity for discussion about animals in the wild vs. animals in captivity.  Why might it be good to take an animal out of its natural habitat?  Why might it be bad?  Have you ever captured anything (perhaps a caterpillar, a frog or toad, or a garter snake?) and kept it for a while?  How long did you keep it?  What happened to it?  Did you put it back where you found it?  A New York Times Q&A with Jan Brett about Mossy.  Jan Brett Coloring Pages (Mossy isn’t here yet, but she may show up!)  Jan Brett Activity Pages (also no Mossy yet, but lots of other fun things to choose from!)

Why I Like This Book: Well, to start with, it’s a Jan Brett 🙂  That means a good story and gorgeous art!  Add to that the fact that it’s about a turtle who is a walking garden and what’s not to like? 🙂  But the part I like best is how Tory realizes that Mossy isn’t happy in captivity and makes sure that she is returned to her beloved pond.  It’s a beautiful tale about doing what’s right for someone else, and realizing when you’ve made a mistake (even with good intentions.)

For the complete list of books with resources, please visit Perfect Picture Books.

PPBF bloggers please be sure to leave your post-specific link in the list below so we can all come visit you!  I can’t wait to see what you all picked!

Have a great weekend, everyone!  And maybe I’ll see some of you at the SCBWI conference 🙂

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Perfect Picture Book Friday – Meet The Dullards

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Happy Perfect Picture Book Friday, Everyone!

As you all know, I am behind (not even going to say how far!) in updating the Perfect Picture Book List.  One of my problems is that Blogger overloaded due to how much I was trying to put on that page.  I’m trying to sort out a better system.  Stacy, the wonderful and generous, put together a possible plan which I haven’t had time to figure out yet, but in the meantime, at the very least, I have two (2!) things to mention.

1.  I am experimenting with using Pinterest for the theme lists, so many Perfect Picture Books, grouped by theme, are on Pinterest HERE.

2.  The complete alphabetical list of books that have been done through April 10, 2015, is on another blog HERE.  It is grouped into titles A-H, I-P, and Q-Z.  Although all the titles are listed, the vast majority have yet to be linked to their reviews because I haven’t figured out how to get an eighth day into the week just for PPBF updating 🙂

There is a theme list on the new blog and it is complete – all the themes are listed alphabetically, and they connect to the Pinterest boards… but the Pinterest boards are only partially loaded.

There is a list of contributing bloggers on the right side of the new blog which I know is incomplete.  If you’re a contributing blogger whose site isn’t mentioned, please feel free to email me and I’ll add you in – I just couldn’t remember everything off the top of my head so have been adding slowly as I go along – and I apologize for not getting you up there already!

As I said, I’ve been experimenting, so things are a bit at sixes and sevens and this is a stop-gap measure until I can figure out what is going to work best for this amazing and impressive list.  In my dreams, I’d also like to list the books in a way that would be helpful to writers looking for mentor texts – examples of parallel stories, or wordless picture books, etc…  But like I said, I lack an eighth weekday… so we’ll see 🙂

As for today’s Perfect Picture Book, I have a fun one for you, because sometimes books should just be fun 🙂

Title: Meet The Dullards
Written By: Sara Pennypacker
Illustrated By: Daniel Salmieri
Balzer & Bray, March 2015, Fiction

Suitable For Ages: 4-8

Themes/Topics: humor, family

Opening: “One day, Mr. and Mrs. Dullard received quite a nasty surprise. [art: children are reading books: Becoming One With The Tightrope and The Nicest Way To Befriend A Lion]  The Dullards collected the books and handed their children some nice blank paper to read instead.  Then they left the room to discuss the problem in private.”

Brief Synopsis: Mr. and Mrs. Dullard are committed to raising a dull family, doing everything in their power to keep their children safe from the evils of applesauce cake, puppies, and thinking.  If only they knew… 🙂

Links To Resources: talk about family traditions: what are some things you do as a family? How are these things alike or different from what other people do with their families?  Do you think people are “weird” if they do things differently?  Discuss things to do together as a family.  In this book, the kids are completely focused on joining the circus while their parents concentrate on being dull – in a group or individually, think up and illustrate another Dullards story where the kids have a new plan and practice making the story say one thing while the pictures show another.  Why is this funny?

Why I Like This Book:  I have long been a fan of The Stupids and, more recently, The Dumb Bunnies.  The Dullards are full of tongue-in-cheek humor.  Mrs. Dullard faints at the sight of flowered wallpaper.  The Dullards’ idea of fun is (actually!) watching paint dry.  And when Mr. and Mrs. Dullard see a snail crossing the driveway they pack up their family and move away from such dangerous excitement.  Meanwhile, readers (young and old alike) will enjoy the illustrations which depict the elder Dullards picking out paint (gray or beige?) oblivious to their offspring juggling paintbrushes, climbing on clotheslines and befriending puppies.  The contradiction of the text and the deadpan illustrations is entertaining every time through the book!  This book is just plain fun! 🙂

For the complete list of books with resources, please visit Perfect Picture Books.

PPBF bloggers please be sure to leave your post-specific link in the list below so we can all come visit you!

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!!! 🙂

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Perfect Picture Book Friday – High-Tailing It Out Of The State!

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Happy Perfect Picture Book Friday, Everyone!

I’m just going to ‘fess up right away.

I don’t have a book today.

Not for lack of trying – I read a whole pile.  But none of the books in my pile particularly struck my fancy.  And my sister was visiting and there was a visit to the seamstress about prom dress alteration and college revisit planning and lameness diagnosis for Jemma who is very lame in the off fore (or at least that’s what you’d say if she were a horse) (and by “diagnosis” I mean everyone is scratching their heads because really we don’t know what’s wrong except maybe it’s her shoulder) and work, work, work, and etc. and I just flat out ran out of time.

And now, as you are sipping your coffee and happily anticipating loads of lovely Perfect Picture Books, I am high-tailing it out of the state!

That’s right.

Princess Blue Kitty and I are heading to the Green Mountains for the day so that I can hear one child present her honors history thesis at the symposium… after which I shall return home in time to hear another child sing at Arts Night.

That’s the plan.

Good lord willing and the creek don’t rise! 🙂

So please, share amongst yourselves, visit each other, enjoy all the picture books on offer this week… and I’ll catch up as soon as I can!

PPBF bloggers please be sure to leave your post-specific link in the list below so we can all come visit you!

For the complete list of books with resources, please visit Perfect Picture Books.

Have a great weekend, everyone!!! 🙂

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Perfect Picture Book Friday – Flap Your Wings

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Happy Perfect Picture Book Friday, Everyone!

Since it’s technically Spring, and since Sunday is Easter, I chose a book about an egg 🙂  It is another older book – almost 20 years older than last week’s older book! – but it is one of my All Time Favorites!

Flap Your Wings
Written & Illustrated By: P.D. Eastman
Random House, 1969, Fiction
Suitable For: ages 3-8
Themes/Topics: assumptions, non-traditional family, unconditional love, responsibility
Opening: (this is actually the first three pages.)
“An egg lay in the path.
A boy came down the path.  He saw the egg.  “Someone might step on that egg and break it,” he said.
He looked around.
He saw flamingos and frogs, and turtles and alligators.  “Whose egg is this?” he called.  But no one answered.”

Brief Synopsis:  A little boy finds an egg.  He doesn’t want it to get damaged, so he looks around until he finds the nest and carefully puts it back.  When Mr. and Mrs. Bird come home, they are surprised to find an egg in their nest… it wasn’t there when they left!  But Mr. Bird says that if an egg is in their nest it must be their egg, so they must take care of it.  So they do… with very surprising results!

Links To Resources:  Ideas And Activities For Guided Reading, Incubation & Embryology Activities, use with An Egg Is Quiet (from PPBF link list), talk about what kind of animals, insects and reptiles lay eggs and how the eggs are the same and different.

Why I Like This Book:  This book is fun to read as a picture book, but is also an I Can Read type book that is very accessible to new readers.  The pictures are delightful – Mr. and Mrs. Bird’s expressions are very entertaining.  But I really love the story because it doesn’t go where you would expect.  It’s funny.  And it’s a great example of what agents, editors and reviewers mean when they talk about re-readability.  This book delighted me as a child, and delighted my children in their turn.  I’ve read it so many times that even now, years since I last read it to my kids, I can recite almost the whole book.  It’s fun every time 🙂

If you get a chance to read it, I hope you like it as much as I do!

For the complete list of books with resources, please visit Perfect Picture Books.

Before we head off to our weekends, I just want to share a little housekeeping note for those of you who are new to Perfect Picture Book Fridays:

Perfect Picture Books are more than just reviews.

The thing that sets Perfect Picture Books apart is the resources.

It is our goal to make it easy for parents, teachers, and homeschoolers to expand on the use of picture books.

Essentially, we’re handing them a great picture book and one or more activities they can use with it ready-made.

The resources you provide may be online links, but they don’t have to be.  Many PPBF bloggers think up GREAT activities and discussion questions and recipes and games etc…

The crucial thing is that the book you post must have at least one good resource to expand on its use at home and/or in the classroom in order to be added to the comprehensive list.  And the resource must be ready to use – by which I mean, saying a book can be used for finger rhymes or a math activity doesn’t help a parent or teacher who doesn’t know any finger rhymes or math activities, so please tell us which finger rhyme and how to do it, or provide a specific math activity, etc.  Thank you so much!

PPBF bloggers please be sure to leave your post-specific link in the list below so we can all come visit you and see what terrific books you’ve chosen this week!

Have a lovely weekend, everyone, and Happy Easter and Happy Passover to those who celebrate!

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Perfect Picture Book Friday – The Baby Blue Cat Who Said No

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My Perfect Picture Book is below – I promise! 🙂 – I just have a little explanation for it first.

As some of you may know, I teach an online picture book writing class.

This week, we got into a discussion about subjectivity.

As a writer, how do you know if your story will appeal to agents, editors, and readers (both the adults who will read your picture book aloud and the children who will listen)?

There are some basic rules of thumb: your story should have a beginning, middle and end (i.e. actually BE a story), it should have an engaging character and/or plot, it should strike an emotional note of some kind, and it’s best not to write about inappropriate subjects, use foul language, glorify violence etc… – pretty much common sense 🙂

But beyond a certain point, there’s really no way to tell for sure who is going to like what.  If it appeals to you, if it touches a chord in your heart, if it highlights a truth in your life, chances are it will do that for other people too.  But there will always be at least one person out there who can find something to criticize.  And I don’t mean that in a bad way. I mean it in a comforting way.  You can’t please everyone, so write the best story you can and likely you’ll please someone.  Probably lots of someones 🙂

My Perfect Picture Book choice for today is a case in point – an older book, beloved by many (me and my children included!) – that received the following review:

“Line drawings that look like doodles of cute kittens in gray, orange, white, and blue cannot save this lame tale of a contrary kitten… This is a story of manipulation at its worst. The language is flat, especially when read aloud. This reviewer says “NO!”” Marianne Pilla, formerly at Allard K. Lowenstein Library of Long Beach, N.Y. Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Ouch!

But I don’t find it manipulative.  I find it an endearing and true-to-life example of the way toddlers behave – naughty one moment, full of remorse the next, right back to their own agenda the minute after that, but not mean-spirited or malicious in their intent.

Subjectivity 🙂

I hope you like this book as much as the people in my house do! 🙂

Title: The Baby Blue Cat Who Said No
Written & Illustrated By: Ainslie Pryor
Re-issue March 1988, Viking Juvenile, Fiction

Suitable For Ages: 3-7

Themes/Topics: behavior (contrariness), humor

Opening: “Have you heard the story of the Baby Blue Cat who said No?
Once there was a Mama Cat and her four baby cats.
Baby Orange Cat,
Baby White Cat,
Baby Striped Cat, and
Baby Blue Cat.
Mama Cat loved all of her baby cats very much.“

Brief Synopsis: Baby Orange Cat, Baby White Cat and Baby Striped Cat all behave the way little kittens should, but Baby Blue Cat is feeling ornery.  No matter what his Mama asks, he says, “No!”  But when he pushes his Mama too far, he apologizes and behaves… until his contrariness gets the better of him again 🙂

Links To Resources: Teaching Children A VocabularyFor Emotions; make cards with different emotions pictured and/or written  – e.g. a smiley face and/or HAPPY – and play emotion charades by letting kids pick a card and act out the emotions for the rest of the class or family and see if the observers can guess; talk about behavior – have you ever refused to do something just to be difficult? Do you sometimes do bad things and then feel sorry? Talk about how to say you’re sorry – resource HERE.

Why I Like This Book:  The “flat language” 🙂 is fun to read aloud.  (Years later, we still use the phrase “and here’s your delicious cupcake, YUM YUM” 🙂 )  The “line drawings that look like doodles” 🙂 are cute and engaging (right down to the smile on the fish sandwich :))  But mostly, anyone who has ever spent 3 minutes around a toddler will recognize and appreciate Baby Blue Cat’s desire to have some control, and some opportunity to be independent of his mother and siblings.  As I mentioned above, he’s naughty, but when he goes too far he’s genuinely remorseful.  Mama Cat loves her baby cats very much, and it is clear that Baby Blue Cat loves his Mama Cat too 🙂

For the complete list of books with resources, please visit Perfect Picture Books.

PPBF bloggers please be sure to leave your post-specific link in the list below so we can all come visit you and see your fabulous picks for this week!

Oh, and P.S. The lovely Alayne Christian invited me to be part of her platform building series, so I will have a post on her blog tomorrow if anyone cares to stop by.  She deserves lots of visitors, and there are other (undoubtedly much better :)) posts in the platform building series already published from Julie Hedlund, Miranda Paul, and Tara Lazar, as well as more coming from Katie Davis and I think maybe KidLit411 – so definitely worth checking out the series!

https://alaynekaychristian.wordpress.com

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!!!

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Perfect Picture Book Friday – Lost Cat

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Well, I don’t know where the week went, but here we are at Friday again!

Friday is a really excellent day.  It means we’re about to get a weekend, and it means a list of Perfect Picture Books to enjoy over that weekend – an unbeatable combination!  All we need to make it true perfection is a nice chocolatey snack to go along with our picture books and our weekend 🙂

I had another book in mind for today.  Based on the jacket copy I thought I’d love it.  But when I read it my reaction could only be described as meh (not what you want for a Perfect Picture Book!) and then I read this one and loved it start to finish, so there was really no contest.  Preconceived idea out, awesome surprise book in 🙂  I hope you like it too 🙂

Title: Lost Cat
Written & Illustrated By: C. Roger Mader
Houghton Mifflin Books For Children, October 2013, Fiction

Suitable For Ages: 4-8

Themes/Topics: journey, pets, love (person/pet)

Opening: “Ever since Slipper was a tiny kitten, she’d lived with a little old lady in a little old house in a little old town.”

Brief Synopsis: Slipper has always lived happily with Mrs. Fluffy Slippers, but when Mrs. Fluffy Slippers moves, Slipper accidentally gets left behind in the commotion.  Slippers searches for a new home, but not just any home will do – it has to be the right one.  Will she find a new family she can adopt?

Links To Resources: Washington Children’s Choice Award Activities (scroll about 1/2 way down the pdf); Fun Facts About Cats; How To Draw A Cat video; learn to draw a cat step-by-step guide.

Why I Like This Book: First and foremost, I love the art!  Soft pastels that render that beautiful kitty so life-like!  Her expressions are perfect, especially her fright at High Tops, her polite pleading with Miss Shiny Shoes, and her bliss on the last two pages.  And the cat’s-eye-view perspective is wonderful.  The story is a sweet one with both humorous and poignant moments.  I love that all the people in the story are named for their footwear – which is what Slippers sees of them first 🙂  And most of all, I love that this lost cat story has a happy ending 🙂

For the complete list of books with resources, please visit Perfect Picture Books.

PPBF bloggers please be sure to leave your post-specific link in the list below so we can all come visit you and see what wonderful books you’ve chosen this week!

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!!! 🙂

Perfect Picture Book Friday – The Name Jar

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Happy Friday, Everyone!

What a crazy week, huh?  All I can say is, no one in my neck of the woods is going to pay any attention to whatever the weather person says next!

But they better listen up to the Weather Hog!

That’s right!  Only 3 more days until GROUNDHOG DAY!  And you know what THAT means, right?

PHYLLICELEBRATION!!!

Some awesome Phyllis-lovers have already put together their poems for Phyllis, ready for Monday’s special post, but if you haven’t heard about it and want to join in, hop over HERE.

And now, for today’s Perfect Picture Book which has nothing whatsoever to do with Groundhog Day, winter, snowpocalypses, etc. but is still an excellent book which I highly recommend! 🙂

Title: The Name Jar
Written & Illustrated By: Yangsook Choi
Dragonfly Books, 2001, Fiction

Suitable For Ages: 3-7

Themes/Topics: acceptance/tolerance, fitting in, feeling different, multicultural diversity (Korean-American), being the new kid, names

Opening: “Through the school bus window, Unhei looked out at the strange buildings and houses on the way to her new school.  It was her first day, and she was both nervous and excited.“

Brief Synopsis: Unhei’s (pronounced Yoon-hye) first encounter with her American schoolmates leaves her feeling uncertain about her name, and different from everyone else.  Her name is difficult to pronounce.  Kids make fun of it.  It sets her apart.  How much easier to be Amanda, Laura, or Suzy!  So when she enters her new classroom, she tells the teacher she hasn’t chosen her name yet – she’ll let him know next week.  All through the week, her classmates fill a name jar with suggestions they think she might like.  But in the end, she is not Amanda, Laura or Suzy.  She is Unhei.  And she comes to realize just how special that is.

Links To Resources: Classroom Activities for The Name Jar; teaching tolerance with The Name Jar; more teaching resources for The Name Jar; make your own Name Jar.

Why I Like This Book:  This book is beautifully written, clearly communicating Unhei’s acute agony over having a name that’s different from everyone else’s which is just the tip of the iceberg of being and feeling different.  She just wants to fit in.  But she also loves her Korean family, the Korean market that feels like a little piece of home in this strange new world, and her Korean heritage.  She knows the history of her name – how her grandmother and mother went to a name master specially to get the perfect name for her – Unhei, which means “grace.”  She doesn’t want to let go of that.  It takes a special friend to help her see that Unhei is who she is and should be.  A great choice for any child who is having trouble fitting in, or to help children have more understanding of a friend or classmate who might feel that way.

For the complete list of books with resources, please visit Perfect Picture Books.

PPBF bloggers please be sure to leave your post-specific link in the list below so we can all come visit you!

Have a great weekend, everyone, and GET READY FOR GROUNDHOG DAY!  WOO HOO! 🙂

Perfect Picture Book Friday – Snoozefest

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Happy Perfect Picture Book Friday, everyone!

I have a delightful book to share with you today which is not about a groundhog.  But speaking of groundhogs (did you see how smoothly I slipped that in there? :)) if you missed yesterday’s Special Edition Post (which you easily might have because I almost never post on Thursdays so why would you think to check?) about Phyllis’s Birthday Bonanza (which you definitely will NOT want to miss!), hop on over and check it out HERE!  Join the fun and spread the word! 🙂

Now then.  Today’s book.  Which is not about a groundhog.  But IS about a sloth 🙂

Title: Snoozefest
Written By: Samantha Berger
Illustrated By: Kristyna Litten
Dial, January 2015, Fiction

Suitable For Ages: 3-5

Themes/Topics: bedtime, sleep, animals (sloths), language fun (rhyme and inventive vocabulary)

Opening: “In the center of Snoozeville, dwells the wee one, the sleepiest sloth, Snuggleford Cuddlebun.  Now, that sloth can sleep, for a month at a go. The few times she rises, she moves in slo-mo.”

Brief Synopsis:  It’s time for the annual Snoozefest at the Nuzzledome, an arena festival that celebrates sleep.  All the best sleepers attend.  Snuggleford Cuddlebun settles into a hammock with her blanket and pillow, her favorite stuffed animal and her best bedtime book, and a snack of milk and honey, ready to enjoy the show.  But will she?

Links To Resources: the author makes up some wonderful words in this story – what kind of words can you make up that sound just right to describe something you like to do (like sleeping, sledding, riding a bicycle, or any other activity)?; have your own snoozefest – make your room super comfy for sleeping, choose bedtimes stories, music, snacks, stuffed animals, pajamas and anything else that makes bedtime cozy for you.  You can even write up and decorate your own snoozefest program.  Have a lullaby sing-along and your own pajama fashion show!

Why I Like This Book:  How can you not love a book about a snoozefest that takes place at the Nuzzledome?  The text is full of delightful made-up words like “snoozillions” and “wumphiest” (as in “wumphiest, comfiest, coziest things” :))  There are designer pajamas by Diane Von Firstinbed and Louis Futon.  The snack vendors sell milk and honey.  The bands, with names like Chamomile Rage and the Nocturnal Nesters, play lullabies!  And everyone brings their nightlight from home 🙂  Adult readers will enjoy the spoof of music festivals.  The whole over-the-top celebration of bedtime is just flat out fun!  But you’ll have to read it to find out what Snuggleford’s experience of the show is 🙂

For the complete list of books with resources, please visit Perfect Picture Books.

PPBF bloggers please be sure to leave your post-specific link in the list below so we can all come visit you and see what kind of amazingly wonderful entertaining books you chose this week.  It’s supposed to snow… a good weekend to stock up on library books and spend the day reading 🙂

Have a great weekend, everyone!!! 🙂