counting – Page 3 – Mom Read It

Animal Fiction, Fiction, Preschool Reads

Ten Birds Meet a Monster teaches us to count and describe things around us.

Posted on March 22, 2014March 22, 2014 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Ten Birds Meet a Monster, by Cybèle Young. Kids Can Press (2014), $18.95, ISBN: 9781554539550

Recommended for ages 4-8

Ten little birds discover a scary shadow outside their door – what can they do? One by one, the birds rally together to create different beasts using the clothes in the closet, each shape becoming more amorphous than the last, with increasingly wild names to accompany their shapes: we have Vicious Polka-dactyls, a Gnashing Grapplesaurus, a Frightening Vipper-Snapper, and more. Will the monster be more scared of them than they are of him and leave the birds alone?

Ten Birds is a concept book meant for a slightly older child, due to the more elevated language. We go beyond counting here, althoug counting from one to ten is certainly the basis for the story, and delve into adjectives and wordplay. Every bird is described with an adjective as he or she jumps in to help: “always resourceful”; “always diligent”; “always creative”. Each concoction the birds come up with is also defined with an adjective, allowing the opportunity for a good discussion about adjectives and describing words. This would be a fun enhancement to an English lesson in addition to a Math lesson.

The story is repetitive,which appeals to younger readers. The black and white ink and paper artwork is spare and beautiful, with beautiful detailing on the birds’ faces and bodies. The white background and framed pages make this an art book almost as much as it is a concept book for children. The font is a simple, black font on the white background, giving the sign that this is a read-aloud book – no fancy or fun fonts to distract the reader or the audience.

Ms. Young has written and illustrated an earlier Ten Birds book – Ten Birds – where the birds encounter a problem and have to solve it with their own wits, much like they do in Ten Birds Meet a Monster. Ten Birds received the 2011 Governor General’s Award for Illustration. The Birds series is a good one for young readers and I look forward to seeing what other predicaments Ms. Young can find for these birds. Maybe a board book for little hands and minds next?

Preschool Reads

Book Review: Roar! A Noisy Counting Book, by Pamela Edwards Duncan/Illus. by Henry Cole (HarperCollins, 2000)

Posted on August 24, 2013 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 2-5

A little lion cub wants to play, but his roar scares other animals away, from one red monkey to eight brown gazelles – but then, he discovers nine other lion cubs.

This counting book has a story attached to it, and is good for older audiences who are about to enter Kindergarten and could use a brush-up on their counting and colors. A little lion cub wanders away from his pride, looking for some fun, and encounters different animals across the African savanna – from one red monkey to eight brown gazelles – who all run from his roar. He finally comes across a group of nine little yellow lion cubs, just like him, who aren’t afraid of him. The cartoon illustrations, done in acrylics and colored pencil, bring the savannah and the animals to life, from a group of lions lying lazily in the sun to a stampede of animals running from the group of little lions, to the little lion cub, curled up with his mother, asleep as the sun sets on the savanna. The animals’ facial expressions convey fear on the parts of the animals the lion confronts, confusion, frustration and despair, as the little lion searches for a new friend and finds none, and finally, happiness when he meets friends just like him. The book provides a fun lesson in numbers and colors in rhyme.

This would be a great opportunity to use a flannel board to depict the animals that the little yellow lion cub encounters on his trip across the savanna. Getting stuffed animals for each of the groups of animals depicted into the story area would allow for a fun playtime before or after the story. This could be part of a jungle animal read-aloud, with hand stamps of an animal for children to have as a memento of their storytime.

Roar! was a Buckaroo Book Award Nominee (Wyoming, 2003).

Preschool Reads

Book Review: The Spooky Hour, by Tony Mitton/illus. by Guy Parker-Rees (Orchard Books, 2004)

Posted on August 23, 2013 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 3-7

Spooky Hour is a counting story – counting down, rather than a counting up – about a dog and a cat who witness spooky creatures on their way to a party at the strike of twelve. The dog and cat follow the creatures: eleven witches, ten ghosts, nine skeletons, and more, all the way to the spooky castle doors, where Mitch and Titch, the witchy twins, are waiting to welcome them to the big, spooky party, where they feast on one gigantic pumpkin pie. The cartoon illustrations are fun, even silly, but never scary, and younger audiences will enjoy the anticipation of counting down to the party. The full-bleed images have a great deal of action going on in the frames: flying ghosts, a line of skeletons dancing into a forest, observed by owls, trolls tromping through a forest as the cat and dog hide behind a log. The font is black or yellow – whatever needs to pop on the page’s background – and looks similar to a typewriter font.

The book has interactive elements that make it a good candidate for a Halloween read-aloud. The story itself is written in rhyme, and each creature has a sound attached to its action that audiences can mimic and act out: the witches shriek, the ghosts swirl,whirl, and say, “whoooo”, the skeletons dance and go clickety-clack. Attendees can come in costume and receive a trick or treat bag with some candy and a small toy, and there can be a jack-o-lantern craft for children to color. Time permitting, they can cut out shapes for jack-o-lantern faces and glue them on. Perpetual Preschool has Halloween songs that the children can sing after the story, and there are CDs with Halloween music, like Kids Bop Halloween, which can play during the craft time, and children can receive a Halloween hand stamp before they go home.

Preschool Reads

Book Review: Twelve Bots of Christmas by Nathan Hale (Walker Books for Young Readers, 2010)

Posted on August 23, 2013 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 3-7

This robot variation of The Twelve Days of Christmas, complete with Robo-Santa, electronics, and droids, has the potential for an interactive read-aloud with audiences familiar with the Christmas classic, “The Twelve Days of Christmas”. In this retelling, Robo-Santa gifts twelve days of cyber gear, from a cartridge in a gear tree, to five BOT-TO-RIES, to twelve Beat Bots thumping. The electronic gifts will be fun for a younger generation for whom computers, tablets and iPhones are common household items, and the computer-generated illustrations manage to avoid looking flat, as tends to be the case with this type of art, thanks to subtle shading that offers depth of image. The left hand page of each spread features the text, Robo-Santa, and the growing group of gifts joining him. The right page features a full-bleed image of the day’s gift. Robo-Santa and his bots have fun and often exaggerated expressions, and the subtle details contained in the pictures reward careful viewers with fun details, including little gears that take the place of stars in a night sky, and a moon that looks similar to the Death Star from the Star Wars movies. The font is a plain black font that resembles old computer print. The endpapers offer a crush of presents, preparing readers for a fun holiday read.

This would be a fun addition to a holiday read-aloud or a robot read-aloud that takes place during the holiday season. The tune of the classic song is repetitive enough that singing along should be encouraged; the repetition of the gifts given will make the song easier to pick up as the story progresses. Incorporating a flannel board with robot images could make the read-aloud even more fun for younger audiences, who can also be encouraged to hold up the number of fingers that denotes each day in the song. Oriental Trading offers robot rubber ducks or robot tattoos in bulk that could be a fun gift from Robo-Santa to attendees at the end of the read-aloud, along with a robot hand stamp.

Uncategorized

Book Review: All Aboard the Circus Train!: A Foldout Book with Flaps! (Dora the Explorer), by Laura Driscoll (Simon Spotlight/Nickelodeon, 2004)

Posted on December 22, 2012 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Recommended for ages 0-4

Dora the Explorer and her friend, Boots the Monkey, are riding a train to the circus and need help finding their way there and in avoiding Swiper the Fox. Readers also get to count from one to three in English and Spanish with circus animals. Dora is always a good choice for toddlers and preschoolers, and this book is no exception. The lift the flaps create interest, and there are bilingual lessons in every book.