October 2021 – Page 4

Spoooooky Books for your Halloween Displays!

Posted on October 5, 2021October 5, 2021 by Rosemary Kiladitis

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Halloween is my FAVORITE holiday. It’s a celebration of fun, all things spooky and weird, and candy.

If you’re going to have a seasonal, Halloween, or spooky book display up, consider some of these fun new books!

Poultrygeist, by Eric Geron/Illustrated by Pete Oswald, (Aug. 2021, Candlewick Press), $16.99, ISBN: 9781536210507

Ages 4-8

This cautionary tale is worth a giggle or three at storytime. When a chicken crosses the road without looking both ways, he reaches THE OTHER SIDE. No, not *that* other side, The Other Side: he’s a ghost chicken now… a POULTRYGEIST. The fun play on words brings us into a story where other ghostly animals try to pressure our poor chicken into scaring others, but Poultry doesn’t want to do that! The peer pressure continues until Poultry asserts himself, proving that even the friendliest ghost can show a little “pluck”. Smart wordplay, a fun story, and a strong messages about peer pressure and standing up for oneself let readers know that it’s okay to say “no” to bullies. The digital artwork is a Halloween delight, with sprawling midnight blue and black landscapes and shimmery, colorful ghostly animals. Spooky eyes dot the landscape, giving a tummy tickle to the littles. A free teacher tip card offers tips on introducing wordplay, homophones, and puns to students.

Poultrygeist has starred reviews from Kirkus and School Library Journal.

This Book is NOT a Bedtime Story, by Eoin McLaughlin/Illustrated by Robert Starling, (Sept. 2021, Pavilion Children’s), $16.95, ISBN: 9781843655060

Ages 3-6

This rhyming tale turns into a hilarious dialogue between a monster who sees himself and his friends as terribly terrifying monsters, and the woodland animals who have questions. Lots of questions. A red, stripey, fairly adorable monster tells us straight from the start that he’s got teeth, claws, and big roars, but everything else points to the contrary. He claims that his middle name is “Terror”, but his Scary Monster Society card reveals that his full name is “Fluffy Terry McFluff”. He calls in his “horrible bunch” of monster friends, but their monster stew is a tasty recipe they’re too happy to share, and their spooky hauntings are really quite sweet. As the story progresses, we see that the monsters have their own concerns and fears, and they’re getting just a little bit sleepy. Illustrations are colorful, kid-friendly, with kindly, cute monsters that readers will want to snuggle with, not run from. A monster story for kids who aren’t really crazy about monsters, this fits nicely with Rebecca and Ed Emberley’s Go Away, Big Green Monster and If You’re a Monster and You Know It. The rhyme scheme and fun spreads that break the fourth wall make this a great readaloud candidate. There’s no need to worry about these monsters – if they’re under your bed, they’re fast asleep!

Tiny T. Rex and the Tricks of Treating, by Jonathan Stutzman/Illustrated by Jay Fleck, (Sept. 2021, Chronicle Kids), $7.99, ISBN: 9781452184906

Ages 2-4

Tiny T. Rex is all about Halloween, and he’s ready to share with us what it takes to be a Treat-master! This delightful board book lays out the Six Tricks of Treating, according to Tiny T. Rex and his best friend, Pointy. Kids will love the step-by-step process, from costumes (try them all on!) to staying warm, to trick or treating with friends. Tiny makes sure to remind little Treaters to be kind and gracious, and that candy shared is much better than candy eaten alone. Tiny is cheerful and upbeat; the sentences are simple and to the point, injected with humor and kindness. Illustrations make this book a win – I can’t read Tiny books without squealing as I turn to each spread – with Tiny and friends dressed in adorable costumes. Cute details throughout, like Pointy’s and Tiny’s experimentation with bubble gum, and the costume montage, will have readers heading for this book again and again. A wonderful introduction to Halloween for little ones.

Owl Has a Halloween Party, Illustrated by Jannie Ho, (July 2021, Nosy Crow), $8.99, ISBN: 9781536217346

Ages 0-4

This cute little story about an Owl throwing a Halloween party for his friends is loaded with durable pull-tabs that babies and toddlers will play with for hours! Owl is having a Halloween party, and readers can help him look for his friends. Each page features a pull tab that reveals owl’s friends, hiding in costume. An astronaut monkey and princess frog peek out from behind pumpkins; a pirate lion and flowery bear hide behind treees. Tabs stick out from the book, showing a variety of friendly animals peeking out in all directions. Simple sentences are good for emerging readers and for a little lapsit storytime. Let your little ones play hide and seek with the animal friends, and identify who each could be; point out colors; count bats and pumpkins: there are so many great ways to extend the fun here.

My First Pop-Up Mythological Monsters, by Owen Davey, (Oct. 2021, Candlewick Studio), $17.99, ISBN: 9781536217643

Ages 3-7

Owen Davey introduces young readers to the world of mythological monsters in his follow-up to My First Pop-Up Dinosaurs (2019). Taking readers all around the world, My First Pop-Up Monsters encounters 15 faces familiar and new, as each spread reveals bold and colorful creatures rising off the pages, with a brief descriptive note and country of origin. Kids will likely recognize Greece’s Cyclops and the Minotaur, but have they met the Ushi-Oni from Japan, or Sarimanok from the Philippines? Absolute fun, with beautiful illustration and detail; this is a great book for kids and grownups alike.

My fun tip: display this with some picture books from Hazy Dell Press, starring some favorite monsters! Hazy Dell also has activity sheets for free on their website.

picture books, Preschool Reads, Toddler Reads

Animals, Animals, Animals for all!

Posted on October 4, 2021 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Ultimate Spotlight: Polar Animals, by Sandra Laboucarie/Illustrated by da-fanny, (Aug. 2021, Twirl Books), $16.99, ISBN: 9791027608782

Ages 5-8

As kids area getting ready to put on sweatshirts and jackets, the Ultimate Spotlight: Polar Animals are here to show readers how they handle the extreme weather in the Southern Hemisphere. Five spreads, loaded with flaps, pull-tabs, pulls, and fold-out spreads illustrate how penguins, orcas, whales, musk oxen, polar bears, and more animals eat, travel, and live on land and in the ocean. A brief, factual paragraph introduces readers to the subject matter on each spread: Born in the Cold, Eating Underwater, Traveling Underwater, Winter and Summer in the Tundra, and On the Ice Sheet. Interesting facts run through each spread: penguins use their wings to swim, not fly; humpback whales have baleen plates, not teeth; a seal’s clawed front flippers help it cut breathing holes in thick ice. Sturdy flaps and pulls will stand up to multiple reads; the illustrations and facts will make this an interesting book that will keep toddlers happy during a read-aloud, and preschoolers and emerging readers fascinated as they discover and learn about life in the Arctic and Antarctic.

Cool Antarctica has beautiful photos and facts about Arctic and Antarctic animals, as well as recipes, PowerPoints, and other school resources.

The Ultimate Book of Animals, by Anne-Sophie Baumann/Illustrated by Éléonore Della Malva, (Aug. 2021, Twirl Books), $22.99, ISBN: 9791027610006

Ages 5-8

This oversized beauty is chock full of activities for curious little minds and hands. With more than 50 flaps, pop-up, pull-tabs, mini-books, and more, kids won’t know where to look first! A great starter animal encyclopedia, The Ultimate Animal Book has spreads on Animal Bodies, Birth and Growing, Body Coverings, movement, the five senses, movement, and more. Each spread is loaded with manipulatives for kids to explore: lift the wings of a seagull or a macaw or pull a tab to learn how horses, cats, bees, and bald eagles see; pull a tab to see a snake’s slithery tongue, and lift flaps to discover the inner workings of all sorts of animals, from a pigeon to a dolphin. Loaded with facts that let kids learn hands-on, this is going to be a popular book in your collections. Preschool shelves should absolutely keep one of these on-hand for their science/STEM stations.

Put out the animal coloring sheets and display with other interesting animal books – maybe take a spread to draw attention to related books in your collection! If you were doing a spread on Animal Hearing, you could feature books like What If You Had Animal Ears?, by Sandra Markle; the immortal Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Bill Martin Jr., and Caroline Arnold’s Did You Hear That? Animals with Super Hearing.

Magnetology: Animals, by Maud Poulain/Illustrated by Camille Tisserand, (Sept. 2021, Twirl Books), $22.99, ISBN: 9791027609987

Ages 3-5

If you have play areas, this is the book for you! Perfect for science stations and play areas (and a pretty darn nice gift), Magnetology: Animals includes 45 magnetic pieces and a strong cardboard envelope, built into the book, for storage. Five magnetic spreads let readers create their own animal habitats across the Arctic, a forest, the Savanna, the rain forest, and a coral reef. A few lines on each biome gives readers an overview of each area; short fun facts across each spread give readers more to read and learn. Let kids create their own habitats, mix and match animals, and create their own stories! Consider putting a rubber band around the top of the page to keep pages open and offer some toy animals, too, if you have them available. Illustrations are colorful and eye-catching. Toddlers can easily get in on the fun. Make animal board books available around the play area, if you’ve set one up. Some recent favorites of mine include Giuliano Ferri’s Go Fish and Lo Cole’s Ten in a Hurry; Turn Seek and Find Habitats, and Brita Teckentrup’s Little Animal series.

Early Reader, Fiction, Fiction, Intermediate

Bridge Easy Readers and Intermediate chapter books with Barkus and Charlie & Mouse

Posted on October 1, 2021 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Transitioning from Easy Readers to chapter books is even more fun with these colorful chapter book series!

Barkus: The Most Fun, by Patricia MacLachlan/Illustrated by Marc Boutavant, (Sept. 2021, Chronicle Books), $14.99, ISBN: 9781452173344

Ages 6-9

Newbery Medalist Patricia Machlachlan’s Barkus series is adorable and perfect for easy readers who are ready to take on some more complex reading. The third book, Barkus: The Most Fun, has Barkus, the family dog, and his family going on a series of outdoor adventures. Composed of four stories, Barkus, Baby the Kitten, and his human family go camping, visit grandmother and grandfather’s farm, visit a parade, and head to their winter cabin. Narrated by the young girl who happens to be Barkus’s favorite human, the stories are brief enough to read one at a time or all at once; sentences are simple and informative, and the colorful illustrations show a happy family doing things together. There are warm and funny moments in each story: Barkus and Baby end up making news in “The Most Fun!” and witness the birth of a calf in “The Crazy Cows of Spring”. The images are warm, comforting, and familiar: a family traveling in their car, a dog and cat curled up together in the back; a grandparent hugging his granddaughter and patting Barkus’s head as he leans into the loving touch; even a mildly put-upon dad, frowning as his daughter, her dog, and cat peek out from a pile of leaves that he was raking. Patricia MacLachlan and Marc Boutavant make magic and memories here.

Visit Scribd and download Barkus activity sheets!

Charlie & Mouse: Lost and Found, by Laurel Snyder/Illustrated by Emily Hughes, (Aug. 2021, Chronicle Books), $14.99, ISBN: 9781452183404

Ages 6-9

Siblings Charlie and Mouse have new adventures in their fifth outing. Lost & Found has four short stories, taking the sibs on slightly smaller – but no less exciting – adventures, all taking place in the course of one day. In “Somewhere”, the two search high and low for Mouse’s blanket; in “Errands”, they join Mom on the dreaded series of errands – the bank, the post office – but make a BIG discovery! In “Silly”, Charlie and Mouse have a sad goodbye, but in “Boop”, another discovery warms their hearts. Chapters are short, with simple sentences; stories are kid-friendly and oh-so relatable (the very mention of the words “bank”, “grocery store”, or “post office” strikes fear into my 9-year-old’s heart), Illustrations are softly illustrated, with friendly, expressive characters. The body language between the siblings is comforting and playful. The siblings slump on each other in the car during the dreaded errands; Charlie comforts a distraught Mouse, who cannot locate Blanket. Parents show up for a few moments in the stories, but the focal point is the relationship between Charlie and Mouse, as it should be. The first book in the series, Charlie and Mouse, is a 2018 Theodor Seuss Geisel Award winner.

Get a free Teacher’s Guide to the series, and two activity sheets here.

Uncategorized

This is a Kobee Manatee Virtual Book Tour Stop!

Posted on October 1, 2021September 30, 2021 by Rosemary Kiladitis

The fourth Kobe Manatee adventure takes Kobee and friends, Tess the Seahorse and Pablo the Hermit Crab, to Belize on a mission to help Kobee’s cousin clean up plastic pollution so she can open up her new underwater bistro. As the friends are on their way, they see for themselves what plastic pollution looks like, as they help rescue a turtle with a plastic bag wrapped around her, and see the effects of climate change around them. As they dodge some scary marine life and discover the amazing Great Blue Hole off the coast of Belize, what started as a quick trip to help out a family member turns into a big adventure with lots to learn!

Kobee Manatee: Climate Change and The Great Blue Hole Hazard, by Robert Scott Thayer/Illustrated by Lauren Gallegos
(Sept. 2021, Thompson Mill Press), $17.99, ISBN: 9780997123999

Ages 4-8

There have been a spate of children’s books confronting climate change and pollution, particularly focused on single-use plastic, lately, and with good reason. It’s killing our planet and suffocating our oceans. Kobee Manatee and his friends are the latest group to confront the plastic menace; artwork shows plastic ever-present in the details – a discarded water cooler bottle here, plastic bags and straws there – and a subplot directly involves a bag that wraps around a poor turtle. The story is about exploration and friendship, too, as Kobee and friends are heading toward Belize to help his cousin open her underwater cafe. The story includes fun facts on every page, and story details provide further insight into sea life, like a Portuguese Man of War – not a jellyfish! – and how underwater life is affected by climate change. Colorful illustrations are kid-friendly, and the underwater world is vibrant and beautiful, hopefully inspiring readers to fight to cut down on plastic use and pollution.

Visit the Kobee Manatee website for information about all the Kobee Manatee books, resources, and a newsletter sign-up (where you can get free coloring sheets!). You can also snag these crossword puzzles here: