week 10: louder than bombs

This week's storytime began with an extended waiting period as half of the kids (along with me) arrived at the library early. We spent ten minutes or so saying hi to one another, doing fingerplays, and singing songs: Where Is Thumbkin? (which I hadn't done in a looooong time, for whatever reason) and Wheels on the Bus. I drew WOTB out as long as I could, Old MacDonald-izing it and having cows, ducks, sheep, lions, etc., all ride the bus. Lions, always lions; they rooooooooaaaaaar!, right? Right. So basically Seals on the Bus without the book. Hooray!

here comes the big bad wolf

Bianca's back! Story Man got his act together, unlike two of three titular little pigs in this week's first book (spoiler alert). So Bianca's back (again) and Head Start preschool storytime is a go.

week 9: return of the alligator

Another week, another grievous instance of this author forgetting his bag of storytime tricks at work and therefore not having Bianca along for the ride. Thankfully Ms. Amy had an old friend on hand who stepped up to help us sing "We Wave Hello Like This" and "We Wave Goodbye Like This." (Spoiler alert: it was Al the Alligator, who is a very popular storytime guest star).

So I know I said I was going to read The Three Little Pigs this week... well, maybe next week. I had some last minute second thoughts: mainly that, relatively speaking, it is so small. But the immediate future holds Three Little Pigs, I swear. Instead I chose The Three Billy Goats Gruff, a storytime favorite.

book review: remember dippy

Vernick, Shirley Reva. Remember Dippy. Cinco Puntos. May 2013. Grades 5-8. 156p. ISBN 978-1-935955-48-1

Fourteen year old Johnny worries his entire summer will be wrecked when his mom takes a seasonal job out of state, leaving him taking care of his autistic cousin Remember, Mem for short, while his eccentric Aunt Collette is at work. His summer, however, is far from ruined. Though Johnny has to deal with bully Dirk the Jerk and struggle with his longtime crush on his best friend’s sister, the opportunity to develop a real friendship with his sixteen year old cousin Mem provides a depth and resonance to his summer. This good-hearted coming-of-age novel may hold appeal for fifth through eighth grade readers; its portrayal of the narrator’s adolescent difficulties never veers into particularly gritty or uncomfortable territory. For Johnny, his coming-of-age adventures add up to "a regular kid summer. That was something Mem would never ever get—because he wasn’t a regular kid." Remember Dippy provides a nuanced portrayal of Mem, both as an autistic protagonist with, for example, personal space issues and distinctive speech patterns, and as teenager making new friends and exploring his world.

i will write about reading i will not read this book

A return to old favorites, I suppose. I my other life I recently had the distinct pleasure of reading James Marshall's Three Little Pigs to a class visiting the library (with great success), which made me realize how much I missed those three little pigs and the big bad wolf. So I've decided to invite them all along for storytime this week, along with Pigeon and the amusingly stubborn narrator of I Will Not Read This Book. Favorites old and new, all.

week 8: with the quickness

Woah, I need to catch up on my storytime posts I think. Busy, busy, busy but that's just the way it goes. Onward!

tiger, tiger, burning bright

This is a special week. Mainly I am excited to be reading It's a Tiger with my Head Start kids. It is an amazing book and I very strongly suspect it will go over quite well. Will there be hubbub and brouhaha? Prolly. Storytime hubbub and brouhaha are the best kind of hubbub and brouhaha, TBH. Ugh. TBH. Gross.

Anyway, Bianca will be back from taking a sick day and I imagine that will also contribute to the overall storytime good time. She sure is a fan favorite, and I cannot thank Amy enough for naming her lo those many... well, weeks I guess... ago. Two months is not that many months ago, TBH. See, there I go again. Oh boy. Let's get on with it.

week 7: burn down the library! redux

Head Start storytime returns to the library! Hooray! Well, hooray for all the good reasons that storytime happens in the library and maybe not-quite-as-hooray for all the mischief we find ourselves getting up to in new environments. Still, on the whole way more good than bad.