Pre-K Library Storytime

What a great session we had! I got out my face paint set from Klutz and did about a half dozen children in only about five minutes.   B o o k s The Perfect Nest   by Catherine Friend. I love to read books in bad foreign accents. Boris and the Wrong Shadow by Leigh Hodginkson. Cat Secrets by Jef Czekaj.   Very interactive. I put on my cat makeup, so thata I looked like a cat so the cats in the book would tell us their secrets.  (No one else would let me make them up.) But they all purred, and stretched, etc., so it was a good opener.  Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes  by Eric Litwin.  No book better. Cat Up a Tree  by John and Ann Hassett. All the moms were giggling at this charmer.  Great formula: the number of cats increase on each page, and on each page concerned Nana Quimby calls a different institution for help, always unsuccessfully.  I did the city officials in pompous, officious voices. I didn't count the ever increasing cats...

P r o p s  Backpack. B o o k s Rooster's Off to See the World by Eric Carle.  Big Book.  Off to see the world, but he's soooo disorganized! Let's Go for a Drive!  by the immortal Mo Willems. Props: jingley keys, accordion map, sunglasses, umbrellas, bags? (cardboard boxes?) In the Driver's Seat by Max Haynes.  Turn your chair around and rock this book! Hungry Bird by Jeremy Tankard. This (whiny) bird went off on a hike with his friends without packing any snacks for himself, and he doesn't like the snacks his friends brought!  Real drama the kids identified with here. We talked about the pleasures of having some grapes and Cheerios packed first, and this book really worked for this young crowd. Seals on the Bus Penguin's Big Adventure by Saloon Yoon. Oh, No! Gotta Go! by Elya.  These much needed pit stops happen to the best of us! Little Red by Bethan Woollvin.  Traveling through the forest! Don't talk to strangers! Are We There Yet  by ...

B o o k s Pete the Cat and His White Shoes by Eric Litwin. Everyone's favorite cat in everyone's favorite story!  Lemons Are Not Red by Laura Vaccaro Seeger. It took me a few pages to pick up on the right rhythm for this: Page One: Read with astonishment: Lemons are not red. And then point out that this is a MAGIC color book and something is going to happen to that lemon when you turn the page. Turn the die cut and -- the lemon is yellow! The apple is red! Next page: Here is some blue grass. Wait a minute! Is the grass blue? Turn page. The grass is GREEN. The sky is blue.  : Wow! Said the Owl by Tim Hopgood. Owl stays up into the day to see --- COLORS! and WOW is what he has to say. If you have ANY talent with the paint brush at all, paint along while you talk. Vincent Paints His House by Tedd Arnold.  Amazing -- a readable book about Vincent van Gogh painting! Vincent had a French accent -- I don't know what the Dutch accent might sound like. Butterfly by P...

Alligators pop up in so many children's stories because they are TERRIFYINGLY LARGE REPTILES. I live in Florida, and my storytime kids take alligators very seriously. They're constantly turning up in our swimming pools and roadside ditches. On  a personal note, I would like to thank all the Crocodylia in the state of Florida. They are the only species standing -- or crawling -- between us and an invasion of pythons who have already eaten everything else that walks and crawls in the Everglades. The pythons are only having trouble swallowing the eight foot gators & crocs whole. B o o k s : Wide Mouthed Frog. Snip Snap, What's That by Mara Bergman.  Lower your voice to bring the kids and read those terrifying words: "When the alligator came creeping ... creeping ... creeping up the stairs...were the children scared? (Turn page.) YOU BET THEY WERE! And then the next, as the kids are chased through the house by the until the brilliant end..This book is all action, dram...