It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date, and adapted by Kellee at Unleashing Readers and Jen at Teach Mentor Texts with a children’s/YA focus. The Sunday Post is hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer. These weekly roundups are a great way to discover new blogs and bloggers, share some of the titles you’ve been enjoying, and add to your ever-growing to-read list.
Well, I hope everyone had a good Easter weekend, or is still enjoying their weekend, if you’re lucky enough to get Monday off! I ended up working Saturday and Sunday, so no long weekend for me, but at least it was pretty calm and quiet in the library, which gave me plenty of time to browse the shelves in search of books to use in my upcoming programs. Here are a few of my favourites, a nice mix of old and new-to-me.
I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with Dog’s Colorful Day. Well, it’s not so much love-hate as it is love-fear. I really, really love this book. The premise is a lot of fun – as the white dog goes about his day, he gets dirty in all sorts of different ways. On each page he adds a different colored spot to his collection – an orange spot from orange juice, a purple spot from a marker, a red spot from some jam – until he finally has 10 spots! The text is simple and cumulative, and it introduces both colours and counting in such a fun, accessible way. The only problem I have with this book is its length, but even this is typically more of an issue in my mind than in practice. I sometimes worry that because it counts all the way up to ten, kids will get wiggly and impatient, but in all honesty this rarely ever happens. The kids typically get so invested in Dog and his colorful day that they happily follow along and count the spots again and again and again. So, by all means, ignore my worrying and give Dog’s Colorful Day a try with your preschoolers!
This sweet picture book is a lot of fun – a dog just wants to have a nap in his cozy bed, but he looks so cozy that all the animals want to join him! The bed gets more and more crowded, until finally, everything falls apart in dramatic fashion. Come to think of it, this is pretty much the exact same storyline as Move Over, Rover, which I also really enjoy using. I’m not the biggest fan of the text in So Cozy, but I love the premise and the adorable illustrations, so I often just simplify the text and make it more repetitive when I reading it aloud. Whenever possible I like to have repetitive refrains that allow children to participate in the storytelling, so if a book doesn’t really have one, I’ll often just make one up myself!
Jan Thomas is just storytime gold. Her texts are ridiculously simple, and typically feature the winning combination of a wacky character (or characters) played off against a straight man character (or characters) that audiences can relate to. It’s a classic comedic structure, and works brilliantly in picture book format, especially when paired with Thomas’ eye-catching illustrations, with their bright colours and bold black outlining. In this outing, Cow, Mouse and Pig are making soup together, but Pig has some unusual and very silly ideas about what ingredients should go into the pot. Kids will definitely be giggling along with this delightful little story.
Have a great week – especially if you’re lucky enough to have a short week, like me!! 🙂
Thanks for all the animal recommendations. So Cozy looks really cute. I guess that means I should also check out Move Over, Rover.
Kids just can’t get enough animal books. 🙂
Thanks for the cute story time picks! I am also hoping to have a great, short week after spending time in a quiet library today.
Hurray for short weeks! 🙂
Thank you for a lovely post and great recommendations. I have no week as I am going away tomorrow, Hooray!
Oh, lucky you! How I wish I was going away somewhere, too!
I agree with Jan Thomas being story time gold. And this is coming from someone who actually hasn’t read any of her books. But browsing through the pages and feedback from others, I just know it is!
I learned about her books through word of mouth, too – everyone kept talking about how silly and fun her books were, so I just had to give them a go!
These are all new to me! They all have adorable covers! Have a great day off. Here in MA we get the week off!
A week off! You lucky duckies!
They’re all pretty cute – I’m a sucker for a cute cover. 🙂
These all look cute, Jane. As for read aloud, have you tried Have You Seen Elephant? It is a fun book for the little ones. Happy Reading!
Yes, I have, and you’re right, it’s so fun! I’ve had kids get so exasperated by that one, though – “He’s right there! The elephant is RIGHT THERE!” 😉
Really love Is That Wise, Pig? Made me giggle, so I know that’s always a good sign.
It’s so fun! i love being able to ask the kids what they would put in the soup – you can sometimes get some pretty silly answers! 🙂
I love that you take reader’s license to make books more friendly and fit for your audience.
I haven’t read this Jan Thomas title, but everything else of her’s I’ve read has been fabulous.
That’s something I really encourage caregivers to do when reading with their kids, too! I work with a lot of ELL students and kids with behavioural and learning challenges, so I often end up adjusting books to meet their needs. It can be hard to find books that can engage and excite my preschoolers, but which are simple enough to meet their developmental needs. So, I often end up making my own! 🙂
Great looking books! Thanks for sharing, and for visiting my blog. Enjoy your week.
Thanks so much for stopping by!
Happy Easter, and enjoy your short week. You always find nice reads that are good for kids, and I bet they’re a hit at library storytime. I think So Cozy looks really cute. 🙂
These have all been storytime winners, though I have had my fair share of storytime duds, too – sometimes you just never know what books will work with kids and which will go over like lead balloons. 🙂
I have a couple really young grandchildren and am always on the lookout for new books to get them. I’m going to order Is That Wise, Pig? and Dog’s Colorful day. Thank you!
Having grandkids must just be so fun much, I hope you enjoy reading them together! 🙂
So Cozy looks like a really sweet book. I’ve just added it to my To Read list. Thanks for the suggestion!
So Cozy looks like a wonderful picture book. I just added it to my To Read list. Thanks for the suggestion!
You’re very welcome!
So Cozy seems like a good pairing with Jan Brett’s The Mitten and The Hat too. Jan Thomas is awesome. My students love all of Thomas’ books.
Yes! Those would be great pairings, too.
Both those dog books sounds adorable! Sorry you had to work, but I hope you had a good weekend regardless!
I love these books. My children are grown and I work in an academic library now. I really miss being around all the wonderful children’s books. Guess I need to start taking the grandkiddos to the library. Have a great weekend.
Hi Jane! Sorry I’m so late on visiting you back for last week’s post!
I know what you mean about the long kids books but I’ve found if the book is a good one, my newly three year old seems to have a lot more patience.
I’m always on the lookout for new children’s books for my little one so I love your round up!