Tag: Perfect Picture Book

Perfect Picture Book Friday – Bugs! Bugs! Bugs!

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Happy Friday, All!

Before we get to today’s Perfect Picture Book, I’d like to thank everyone for their enthusiastic response to last week’s book, Diva Delores And The Opera House Mouse, and all the nice comments for author Laura Sassi!

AND…

I’d like to announce the winner of the hot-off-the-presses copy of Laura’s wonderful book!

Chelsea Owens, come on down!  You are the lucky winner of this fabulous prize!  Please email me (susanna[at]susannahill[dot]com) with your snail mail address so Laura can get your book out to you as soon as possible!  Congratulations! 🙂

Now.

In spite of the fact that every time I turn around it is snowing, it IS in fact officially spring!  And what says spring like bugs?

In an effort to encourage spring to show herself, let’s talk about bugs! 🙂

Title: Bugs! Bugs! Bugs!

Written & Illuatrated By: Bob Barner

Chronicle Books, 1999, Non-Fiction

Suitable For Ages: 2-6

Themes/Topics: Bugs

Opening: “Bugs! Bugs! Bugs!  I want to see bugs!  Butterflies that flutter in the sky.  Spotted ladybugs that go creeping by.”  (This is actually the first three spreads.)

Brief Synopsis: Simple facts about familiar bugs in a rhyme.

bugs 1

illustration copyright Bob Barner 1999

Links To Resources:  One back page of the book includes a display of actual-sized bugs so young readers can see how big they are in real life and how they compare with each other.  Another back page compares facts about all the insects mentioned in the book: can it fly, where does it live, etc.  Here are a few activities, and here are a bunch of coloring pages.

Why I Like This Book: This book is delightfully simple.  Easy enough for youngest readers to enjoy, but with enough information in the back to interest slightly older children.  The pictures are bright, colorful, and engaging and do a great job of making bugs look friendly and non-threatening.  I’m not really much of a bug person, but I find this book very appealing 🙂  This is also an interesting example for writers to study.  The author gets across information in a fun way in only 76 words!

bugs 2

illustration copyright Bob Barner 1999

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 – We Don’t Eat Our Classmates

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A heartfelt TGIF to everyone this morning!

Here on Blueberry Hill, spring has arrived, as you can clearly see 🙂

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What a week!

I am more than ready for the weekend and #5’s visit for her spring break this coming week!

What are you all planning for the weekend?

I have a tons-of-fun book to share today – completely different mood from last week’s! 🙂 – and I can’t wait to show it to you… even though it isn’t due out until June so you’ll have to wait a while to read it.  (I was lucky to receive an advance copy.)

Penelope Rex

Title: We Don’t Eat Our Classmates

Written & Illustrated By: Ryan T. Higgins

Disney-Hyperion, Coming June 2018, fiction

Suitable For Ages: 5-6

Themes/Topics: first day of school, making friends, humor, perspective, dinosaurs

Opening: “Penelope Rex was nervous.  It’s not every day a little T. rex starts school.”

Brief Synopsis: It’s the first day of school and poor Penelope is having a tough time making friends…maybe because she keeps eating her classmates!  It takes a little help from Walter the class goldfish to help Penelope see matters from another point of view 🙂

Links To Resources: class, small group, and individual activities for making friends (including a downloadable board game); discuss what makes a friend?; draw a friendly T Rex 🙂

Why I Like This Book: I love this book, not only because of Penelope’s personality, which oozes from every page, or the humor, which is delightful and unexpected, but also because of the wonderful message of empathy and the importance of seeing things from others’ point of view which is delivered in such a fun and unique way.  I’m not even going to tell you about Walter’s role – you’re just going to have to read the book and see for yourself!  This book is fun from cover to cover and I dare you not to love it! 🙂

I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I do when you get a chance to read it.  It will be out in June 🙂

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 – The Rabbit Listened

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So…

On Wednesday you’ll recall I was waxing poetic about March and Spring…

…and apparently we’re supposed to get 8 inches of snow today!

In like a lion, right? 🙂  I guess March is trying to live up to its reputation!

Grab a cup of hot chocolate and forget the snow for a minute, though, because oh my goodness, do I have a book for you today!

By definition, I love every book I post for Perfect Picture Books, but every once in a while one comes along that is truly special.  And when that special book is written and illustrated by a friend, that’s even more wonderful!  If you haven’t read this one yet, you owe it to yourself and your kids to take a trip to the library or the bookstore this weekend!

Rabbit

Title: The Rabbit Listened

Written & Illustrated By: Cori Doerrfeld

Dial Books For Young Readers, February 2018, fiction

Suitable For Ages: 3-5 (but seriously, this book speaks to all ages!)

Themes/Topics: empathy, emotions/coping with emotions, friendship

Opening: “One day, Taylor decided to build something.
Something new.
Something special.”

Brief Synopsis: When something happens to upset Taylor, all the animals try to help.  But none has the right approach until the rabbit, who knows just how to help Taylor feel better.

rabbit 3

text and illustration copyright Cori Doerrfeld 2018

Links To Resources: 5 Circle Time Lessons About Emotions (with activities); Scholastic: My Mini Book Of Feelings (downloadable pdf); talk about how different situations make you feel; talk about how you might help someone who felt angry, sad, or scared, or how you might join in someone’s happiness or excitement; draw pictures of what different emotions mean to you – what does anger look like? or happiness?  or surprise?

Why I Like This Book: Oh my goodness!  What is there not to like – nay, love! – about this wonderful book!  A sweet, simple story told in spare text, with illustrations that shine with emotion, and a situation every child, every person, can relate to.  We have all been upset.  We have all been the recipients of people’s attempts to make us feel better, and we have all done our share of trying to make others feel better.  But how do we know what will help?  Sometimes all someone really needs is quiet friendship and understanding – someone to just listen.  That’s something we can all learn from.  This is definitely one of those “wish I wrote that!” books!  Kudos to Cori for a truly special book!

rabbit 1

text and illustration copyright Cori Doerrfeld 2018

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 – Daddy Depot

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Happy Perfect Picture Book Friday, Everyone!

In my typical yes-sure-I-was-totally-organized-ahead-of-time! fashion 🙂 I am writing this post on an airplane on my way home from California.  We are somewhere over Utah experiencing the kind of turbulence that makes people gasp and clutch their arm rests, and I’m busily typing away hoping the internet actually works and this post will post!  Who can tell?  I guess if you’re reading this it worked!

First things first!

The lucky winner of Penny Klostermann’s fabulous new picture book, A Cooked-Up Fairy Tale, from last week’s giveaway is ANGELA VERGES!!!  Congratulations, Angela!  I will put you and Penny in touch!  And thank you, Penny, for offering the giveaway!

Now then!  I have a terrifically fun yet sweet book to share with you today about the special relationship between dads and kids – in this case, specifically, a daughter.  I think it’s a book you’ll want to share with your little ones 🙂

Daddy Depot

Title: Daddy Depot

Written By: Chana Stiefel

Illustrated By: Andy Snair

Feiwel and Friends, May 2017, fiction

Suitable For Ages: 2-5 (according to publisher info, but I think 3-7 works)

Themes/Topics: family relationships, appreciation, love

Opening: “Lizzie loved her dad, but he was always watching football.
‘Dad! Check out my new ballet twirls.’
‘You’re a star, Lizzie… TOUCHDOWN!'”

Brief Synopsis: (from the Amazon description) “Lizzie loves her dad, but he tells the same old jokes, falls asleep during story time, and gets distracted by football while Lizzie does her ballet twirls. When she sees an ad for a store called Daddy Depot, she decides to check it out―and finds dads of all kinds!”

Links To Resources: draw a picture of yourself and your dad; cut a piece of paper into the shape of something your dad loves (a football, a motorcycle, YOU 🙂 ) and write a note to him telling him what you love about him; things for dads and kids to do together; invent  your own “perfect dad” – draw him on paper, or use felt or cut foam, popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners, glitter, cotton balls, whatever! – maybe he’s different from your actual dad… or maybe he’s just the same 🙂

Why I Like This Book: I’m guessing pretty much every kid has wished for a different mom or dad at some point along the way!  It’s a very grass-is-always-greener kind of feeling 🙂  The idea of a megastore that sells dads is such a fun concept!  So many possibilities!  Rocker Dad, Astro Dad, Chef Dad…  Surely there’s someone out there who will make a better dad for Lizzie then her football-obsessed, boring-joke-teller, often embarrassing dad!  But though they all look good at first, in the end none of those dads are for Lizzie.  The story is a humorous and sweet reminder that sometimes what we have is just right 🙂  The art is bright and cheerful – I love that Dad makes pancakes while wearing a monkey hat 🙂 – and suits the story nicely.

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Text copyright Chana Stiefel 2017, Illustration copyright Andy Snair 2017

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!!!

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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 – Green Green: A Community Gardening Story

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Happy Friday, Everyone!

So, over Memorial Day weekend I put my planters full of flowers out on the back porch for summer.  (Please see exhibit A)

Exhibit A

 

(I refer to them as “flowers” because I grew up in an apartment in New York City where our windowsills were decorated with pigeons and we didn’t have a back porch.  I’ll hazard that some of my “flowers” are petunias.  And some others are possibly geraniums.  But that’s as far out on that limb as I’ll crawl! 🙂 )

Anyway, then we had a violent thunderstorm with fierce wind and giant hail.

I will not depress you with exhibit B – the resulting carnage.  I’ll just say it was sad!  Very sniff VERY sniffsniff sad!

While I am waiting for my poor little flowers to resurrect themselves (which is uphill work for them due to continued rain and not very much healing sunshine), I will share a gorgeous picture book about a garden that does grow 🙂  I think it will inspire us all to go out and spend the weekend digging in dirt 🙂

Green Green

Title: Green Green: A Community Gardening Story

Written By: Marie Lamba & Baldev Lamba

Illustrated By: Sonia Sanchez

Farrar, Straus & Giroux, May 9, 2017, fiction

Suitable For Ages: 2-5

Themes/Topics: community, environmental preservation, gardening, city, nature

Opening: “Green green,
Fresh and clean.
Brown brown,
Dig the ground.”

Brief Synopsis: First a green meadow is wide and fresh and clean for kids to play in, and brown dirt is just right for digging. But buildings grow up around the green space, gradually crowding it out.  Will the community lose their green?

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text copyright Marie Lamba & Baldev Lamba 2017, illustration copyright Sonia Sanchez 2017

Links To Resources: wonderful resource material at the back of the book gives a guide to making your world more green, helping bees and butterflies, and making bee and butterfly decorations.

Why I Like This Book: Simply told with gorgeous pictures (so beautiful I couldn’t decide which interior spread to share because I wanted to share them all!), this story is perfect to introduce youngest readers to the idea of community gardening.  It’s also empowering because it’s the kids who band together to save the green space.  I love the concept that even if a child lives in the city, he or she can have a garden and care for our earth.  The illustrations are wonderful and offer something for everyone from plants to animals to construction vehicles 🙂

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text copyright Marie Lamba & Baldev Lamba 2017, illustration copyright Sonia Sanchez 2017

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!!! 🙂  I’m off to the Children’s Writers of the Hudson Valley Conference.  I hope I’ll see some of you there! 🙂

 

Perfect Picture Book Friday – Lost In The Woods

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Happy June, Everybody!

It seems we’ve had rain forever. It’s so bad that the farmers can’t get enough rain-free days in a row to cut the hay, and it’s now well past time for first cutting.  Wednesday evening we had a violent thunderstorm with tornado warnings and hail that turned my porch garden into a cuisinart special.

But yesterday morning, as if to welcome June, we had a gorgeous clear sunny morning – the kind that makes you glad you’re alive to be out in it.

My daughter and I went for a walk.  We saw Mama and Papa Goose out on the pond with their 6-gosling flotilla (I tried to get you a video but they were too far away!)  And upon our return to the driveway we found a tiny fawn – not quite newborn, but pretty close, maybe a couple weeks old.  The fawn and our two dogs came face to face.  They were all the same size, looking at each other, and for a moment no one knew what to do!  Then I called the dogs off (they did not listen!), and the fawn bleated for his mama who was quite nearby and came running, and I panicked lest the dogs hurt the fawn or the mama deer hurt the dogs! and there was a bit of chaos!  But in the end I got the dogs in the house and the fawn and her mama scampered safely off into the green woods.

So after that, there was no doubt about what Perfect Picture Book I would share today!

I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I do!

Lost In The Woods: A Photographic Fantasy

Written By & Photographed By: Carl R. Sams II & Jean Stoick

Published By: Carl R. Sams II Photography, June, 2004, Reality Based Fiction

Suitable For: ages 5 and up

Themes/Topics: Animals, Patience, Seasons (Spring), Trust

Opening: “The Spring frogs sing-singing with a thousand trilling voices were silenced by the rising sun.  New life came into the woods before the sun touched the tops of the trees.  He slept quietly in the tall grass on the north edge of the meadow where the trees start the forest.”

Brief Synopsis:  The woodland creatures are worried that a newborn fawn might be lost.  “Mama said to wait right here,” the fawn whispers.  “She will come back.”  But the other animals aren’t convinced and offer their advice and help.  Does the doe come back?  What do you think? 🙂

Links To Resources:  The book itself is a resource.  Page after page of gorgeous photographs of woodland creatures will introduce children to animals and birds they may never have seen, especially if they live in the city.  The very last page of the book challenges readers to look back through the pictures and see if they can find a number of hidden animals.  Activity pages, Lesson Plan.  If you’re lucky enough to live in a rural area, go for a “deer drive” in the evening, cruising slowly along back roads, and see how many different animals and birds you can spot 🙂

Why I Like This Book:  I love this story!  It’s simple and sweet.  On the first page where the fawn appears, he is a tangle of fragile limbs.  His spotted fur helps him blend into the forest floor.  By the last page, he has mastered those rascally legs and can be seen bounding through the meadow grass with such joy you can’t help but smile at his airs above the ground.  But the best part is the photography.  It’s breathtaking.  Absolutely stunning!  The fawn’s fur looks like you could reach out and touch it.  You can see his eyelashes!  And there are so many other animals pictured – chipmunk, goslings, a tree frog whose camouflage is amazing!, cardinal, red-winged blackbird, raccoon, and many others.  I know I’m an animal lover (and therefore biased :)) but I think this book is exquisitely beautiful and one that anyone would enjoy!

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!!! 🙂  I hope to see lots of you at the NJSCBWI Conference!!!  And please tune in Monday for the next installment of Oh Susanna!

Also, just a heads up that we will have 2 more weeks of Perfect Picture Books – Friday June 9 and Friday June 16 – and then go on hiatus for the summer!

Perfect Picture Book Friday – Lost Cat

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Golly!  What a week!

A graduation!  A twentieth birthday! And first copies of three new books!  All within 5 days!

It’s no wonder I don’t know where the week went, yet 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 🙂  (Those of us who are mothers might luck out 🙂 )

I had another book in mind for today.  Something Mother’s Day-ish.  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, even though technically this one is NOT Mother’s Day-ish.  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.

(Sorry – I can’t make that picture turn the right way around so you’ll have to tilt your head! 🙂 )

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 🙂

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!!! 🙂

Oh, and P.S.  For those of you who didn’t already see it on FaceBook, my single first copies of my new books DID arrive 🙂 🙂 🙂

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Perfect Picture Book Friday – The Giant Jam Sandwich

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Today is a big day!

Our little boy is graduating from college!

Scan 157

One moment he was running around the house in nothing but a diaper singing “Oklahoma” at the top of his 21-month-old voice (yes, I have video footage but I think I’ve embarrassed him enough just by mentioning this 🙂 ), the next he’s a smart, kind, funny, lovable, handsome 21-year-old young man (nope, not at all biased 🙂 ) setting off into the world.

So I though I’d celebrate the day by sharing one of his favorite picture books – possibly THE favorite of all time for him 🙂

I hope you’ll enjoy it too!

giant jam sandwich

Title: the Giant Jam Sandwich

Written & Illustrated By: John Vernon Lord (with verses by Janet Burroway)

HMH Books For Young Readers, April 1987, fiction

Suitable For Ages: 4-8

Themes/Topics: humor/nonsense, teamwork, creative thinking/ingenuity

Opening: “One hot summer in Itching Down,
Four million wasps flew into town.
They drove the picnickers away,
They chased the farmers from the hay,
They stung Lord Swell on his fat bald pate,
They dived and hummed and buzzed and ate…”

Brief Synopsis: When four million wasps come to Itching Down, the villagers must figure out how to get them to leave.

Links To Resources: what kind of pests might come to your town or village?  what would you do to outwit them?  draw a picture of your plan and/or write a poem or a story about how you would defeat the pests!

giant jam sandwich int

Why I Like This Book: It is impossible not to love a book where 4 million wasps come to town and the obvious solution is a giant jam sandwich 🙂  I love that no one thinks of anything violent – they think, what do wasps love?  Strawberry jam, of course!  So let’s make bread that requires a scaffold to slice, tractors and horses to pull, and helicopters to drop.  The nonsensical, fun plan – exactly the kind of thing a child might think up and find perfectly reasonable! – makes for a most entertaining read.  As I can attest.  Since I think I read about 4 million times 🙂

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 – Happy Birthday, Cupcake!

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It’s Perfect Picture Book Friday and a perfect day for birthday cupcakes! 🙂

Join me, won’t you?

HB Cupcake

Title: Happy Birthday, Cupcake!

Written & Illustrated By: Terry Border

Philomel Books, July 2015, fiction

Suitable For Ages: 5-8

Themes/Topics: birthdays, creativity, friendship, surprise

Opening: “‘Today’s my birthday,” said Cupcake, ‘and I want to share it with friends!  But what kind of party should I have?’”

Brief Synopsis: It’s Cupcake’s birthday and she wants to celebrate with a party, but her friend Blueberry Muffin finds problems with every single idea!  What’s a cupcake to do?!

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text and illustration copyright Terry Border 2015

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text and illustration copyright Terry Border 2015

Links To Resources: have a cupcake party! bake your own cupcakes (easy cupcake recipes HERE or use a mix 🙂 ), then provide lots of fun toppings so your friends/family can decorate their own; draw a picture of the perfect cake or cupcake and label all the toppings!; brainstorm a list of party ideas for yourself or your friends or siblings – what’s the craziest or most fun idea you can think of?

Why I Like This Book:  Well, for starters, it’s about a cupcake 🙂 and stars a host of other dessert item characters like Donut, Ice Cream Cone, and Eclair 🙂  But seriously, half the fun of a birthday is planning what kind of party to have – every kid does it!  But it can be hard to come up with an idea that pleases everyone.  This story puts a fun twist on the whole concept, taking the anxiety out of the planning by the sheer silliness of the problems experienced by friends who are food.  And the ending is just right 🙂

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!!! 🙂  And Happy Easter to all who celebrate!