Tag: Ben Mantle

Perfect Picture Book Friday – The Spooky Wheels On The Bus

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It’s Friday!  It’s Friday!  The weekend awaits! 🙂

So what are y’all doing this weekend?

Apple picking? Visiting Granny? Washing the dog? Baking pumpkin-related items? Agonizing over costumes as Halloween approaches way too quickly for your busy schedule?  Making sure every flavor in the bag of fun-size candy is as delicious as the manufacturers purports them to be before you decide what to hand out to trick-or-treaters in a couple weeks?

That was a test!

The correct answer is “writing my Halloweensie Contest entry!” (Because in case any of you didn’t happen to notice, the rules for this year’s contest went up yesterday!!!)

Anyone who answered correctly may have one of these 🙂  You have earned it!  (And you’ll need it to give yourself time to write 🙂 )

get

The other acceptable answer to the question of what you are doing this weekend is, “Going to the Warwick Children’s Book Festival to see Susanna and many other writing friends!” And you can have a get-out-of-housework free card for that too 🙂

Now!  Since we’re warming up for Halloween, onto today’s Perfect Picture Book! 🙂

spooky-wheels

Title: The Spooky Wheels On The Bus

Written By: J. Elizabeth Mills

Illustrated By: Ben Mantle

Cartwheel Books, July 2010, fiction

Suitable For Ages: 3-5

Themes/Topics: holidays (halloween), concepts (counting)

Opening: “One spooky bus goes RATTLE and SHAKE,
RATTLE and SHAKE, RATTLE and SHAKE.
One spooky bus goes RATTLE and SHAKE
All through the town.”

Brief Synopsis: (From Amazon) “Count from One Spooky Bus up to Ten Goofy Ghosts as this Halloween ride races through town picking up a few unsuspecting passengers along the way.”

Links To Resources: Kids’ Halloween Crafts of all kinds!; Kid-friendly Halloween recipes; make up your own Wheels On The Bus song about Halloween, your birthday, or any other holiday!

Why I Like This Book: You can’t really go wrong with a fun Halloween-themed version of this popular song.  Kids can enjoy it as a story, or sing along with it.  In addition to being a story/song with an entertaining cast of Halloween characters, it is a counting book – great for youngest picture book enthusiasts.  The art is bright and warm, colorful and inviting, showing witches and ghosts and spiders in a way that is friendly and engaging and not at all scary.  The town looks like a cozy place to go trick-or-treating.  All-around Halloween fun!

screen-shot-2016-10-20-at-9-04-05-pm

text copyright J. Elizabeth Mills 2010, illustration copyright Ben Mantle 2010

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do 🙂

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

PPBF folks, please add your titles and post-specific links (and any other info you feel like filling out 🙂 ) to the form below so we can all come see what fabulous picture books you’ve chosen to share this week!

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!!! 🙂

 

Perfect Picture Book Friday – A Cooked-Up Fairy Tale PLUS A Giveaway!!!

47 Comments

HELLO EVERYBODY!!!

I hope you have all had wonderful, relaxing, enjoyable, sun-soaked, family-filled, back porch cookout, hammock-lounging, s’more-making, firefly-chasing, star-gazing, memorable, happy summers!

I know the return of Perfect Picture Books means summer is over, but isn’t it wonderful to see each other again?!  I have missed you all!

We have so much to look forward to this fall!  Would You Read It will be back next week.  We have finishing prizes for the blog tours.  There will be episodes of Oh Susanna (if anyone sends in questions!) and Short & Sweets.  The annual writing contests are just around the corner.  Wow!

But Rome wasn’t built in a day! 🙂

So for now, let’s just do Perfect Picture Books!

I know many of you continued PPBF throughout the summer, so anyone who would like to add their summer titles with post-specific links to this week or next week’s PPBF list is MOST welcome to!  It would be great to have them ALL on the master list!

But now, without further ado, I am absolutely thrilled to present today’s Perfect Picture Book, brand new from my talented friend, Penny!

Cooked-Up Fairy Tale

Title: A Cooked-Up Fairy Tale

Written By: Penny Parker Klostermann

Illustrated By: Ben Mantle

Random House Books For Young Readers, September 5, 2017, fiction

Suitable For Ages: 3-7

Themes/Topics: fractured fairy tale, perseverance, humor, cooking

Opening: “Although William lived in the magical land of fairy tales, he preferred pastries to princesses, kitchens to kingdoms, and recipes to the Royal Reporter.”

Brief Synopsis: William struggles to fit into the magical land of fairy tales, more interested in cooking up fabulous dishes than fantastical stories.  Will he find his happily ever after?

Links To Resources: invent, cook & serve your own magical fairy tale recipes using fairy tale ingredients (Snow White’s apple, Cinderella’s pumpkin, the Three Bears’ porridge, etc.); set up a fairy tale restaurant (like The Brick House and The Three Bears Bistro in the story) with a colorful sign and beautifully set tables and serve your customers; write articles about fairy tale characters or interview famous fairy tale characters or create recipes for the Royal Reporter; read this book with other fractured fairy tales like Little Red Writing by Joan Holub, Hensel And Gretel Ninja Chicks by Corey Rosen Schwartz and Rebecca Gomez, and The True Story of The Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka and discuss the different ways the authors fractured the tales; write your own fractured fairy tale!

Why I Like This Book: This story is creative and entertaining, full of fun language and delightful details.  While most fractured fairy tales are a new twist on one familiar tale, this story plays cleverly with a whole bunch, including The Three Bears, Snow White, Cinderella, The Gingerbread Man, Jack and The Beanstalk and others, tying them all together with a boy who loves to cook and create recipes.  Young readers will relate to William who means well and whose heart is in the right place, but who still manages to do the wrong thing!  Haven’t we all been there?! 🙂 The art is colorful, engaging, full of fun details and a perfect complement to the story.  All around a delicious treat of a read…(spoiler alert :)) topped off with a happily ever after!!!

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do 🙂

AND!!! This just in!!!  The lovely Penny is offering a giveaway of a copy of A Cooked-Up Fairy Tale!  Leave a comment below by Sunday September 10 at 5 PM Eastern and you will be entered in the totally random raffle for the book!!! 🙂

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

PPBF folks, please add your titles and post-specific links (and any other info you feel like filling out 🙂 ) to the form below so we can all come see what fabulous picture books you’ve chosen to share this week!

(I’m out of practice with this, so here’s hoping I didn’t mess it up!!!)

Have a wonderful wonderful weekend, everyone!!! 🙂  So glad to be able to say, “See you all next week!” 🙂

Perfect Picture Book Friday – The Spooky Wheels On The Bus

20 Comments

It’s Friday!  It’s Friday!  The weekend awaits! 🙂

So what are y’all doing this weekend?

Apple picking? Visiting Granny? Washing the dog? Baking pumpkin-related items? Putting finishing touches on costumes? Making sure every flavor in the bag of fun-size candy is as delicious as the manufacturers purport them to be?

That was a test!

The correct answer is “writing my Halloweensie Contest entry!”

Anyone who answered correctly may have one of these 🙂  You have earned it!  (And you’ll need it to give yourself time to write 🙂 )

get

Just a quick housekeeping item (since we’re on the subject of not doing any 🙂 ) which is that next Friday, October 28, there will be no PPBF because we will be all caught up in the excitement of the ongoing Halloweensie Contest which opens Thursday October 27!!!  So instead of posting favorite picture books next week, we will enjoy reading all the contest entries!!!  I seriously can’t wait!!! (PPBF will return on Friday November 11 – I think…!)

Now!  Onto today’s Perfect Picture Book, just in time for Halloween 🙂

spooky-wheels

Title: The Spooky Wheels On The Bus

Written By: J. Elizabeth Mills

Illustrated By: Ben Mantle

Cartwheel Books, July 2010, fiction

Suitable For Ages: 3-5

Themes/Topics: holidays (halloween), concepts (counting)

Opening: “One spooky bus goes RATTLE and SHAKE,
RATTLE and SHAKE, RATTLE and SHAKE.
One spooky bus goes RATTLE and SHAKE
All through the town.”

Brief Synopsis: (From Amazon) “Count from One Spooky Bus up to Ten Goofy Ghosts as this Halloween ride races through town picking up a few unsuspecting passengers along the way.”

Links To Resources: Kids’ Halloween Crafts of all kinds!; Kid-friendly Halloween recipes; make up your own Wheels On The Bus song about Halloween, your birthday, or any other holiday!

Why I Like This Book: You can’t really go wrong with a fun Halloween-themed version of this popular song.  Kids can enjoy it as a story, or sing along with it.  In addition to being a story/song with an entertaining cast of Halloween characters, it is a counting book – great for youngest picture book enthusiasts.  The art is bright and warm, colorful and inviting, showing witches and ghosts and spiders in a way that is friendly and engaging and not at all scary.  The town looks like a cozy place to go trick-or-treating.  All-around Halloween fun!

screen-shot-2016-10-20-at-9-04-05-pm

text copyright J. Elizabeth Mills 2010, illustration copyright Ben Mantle 2010

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do 🙂

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

PPBF folks, please add your titles and post-specific links (and any other info you feel like filling out 🙂 ) to the form below so we can all come see what fabulous picture books you’ve chosen to share this week!

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!!! 🙂