Tag: David LaRochelle

Posted in Early Reader, Fiction, Preschool Reads, Toddler Reads

Halloween Reads for Littles!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Halloween is my favorite holiday! I get to be spooky and goofy and dress up, encouraging everyone around me to do the same. Halloween storytimes are also my favorite, for the same reasons. I’ve got a few Halloween books to book-shout, but let’s start with the wee ones first, shall we?

Peekaboo: Pumpkin, by Camilla Reid/Illustrated by Ingela P Arrhenius, (July 2023, Candlewick Press), $9.99, ISBN: 9781536229813

Ages 0-3

Any time I get to enjoy Ingela P Arrhenius’s artwork is a good day. Peekaboo: Pumpkin is the latest in the Peekaboo series from Reid and Arrhenius, taking little readers through a series of rhyming words and accompanied by sliding panels, surprises, and adorable illustration. Sliders let little fingers explore a pumpkin’s shifting eyes, light candles, enjoy a game of peekaboo between a ghost and a cat, a frog and a spider, and other delightful pairings. A mirror reveals itself at the end, inviting a game of lapsit peekaboo. Arrhenius’s illustrations have expressive, cheerful characters, colors pop off the page. The pages are sturdy and the sliding panels will hold up to a great deal of exploring. This one’s a keeper for collections.

 

 

 

Holiday Magic: Happy Halloween!, by Harriet Stone/Illustrated by Giovana Medeiros, (Aug. 2023, Kane Miller), $14.99, ISBN: 9781684646401

Ages 0-3

Blend a fun Halloween rhyme with Venetian window panels and playful illustration, and you have a great interactive board book. Happy Halloween features shifting panels and clever cut-outs to create a rhyme about how vampires, mummies, werewolves, and black cats all get ready for Halloween, letting each friendly character change before a reader’s eyes: “This mummy’s tangled bandages are startingto undo! / Underneath, a skeleton jumps up and shouts out, BOO!” Perfect for a Halloween storytime, kids will delight in seeing a vampire morph into a bat, a mummy into a skeleton, a little boy into a werewolf, and a black cat into a witch in front of their eyes. The characters are friendly, never scary, and use of purples and dark blues, plus gratuitous smiling spiders, pumpkins, and other Halloween touchstones set a playful stage for Halloween. Buy a copy for your storytime reference, as the shifting panels may get worn out by curious learners who will open and close the book repeatedly to see how the change takes place. Holiday Magic: Happy Halloween! is a holiday companion to the Animal Magic series from Kane Miller, which includes In the Jungle, In the Ocean, In the Night, and In the Snow, all of which employ Venetian paper design. (And there will be a Merry Christmas book, too!)

 

 

See the Ghost: Three Stories About Things You Cannot See, by David LaRochelle/Illustrated by Mike Wohnoutka, (July 2023, Candlewick Press), $9.99, ISBN: 9781536219821

This is one of the best Easy Reader series in recent years. If you loved See the Dog and See the Cat, you’re going to go bananas for See the Ghost, which brings Dog and Cat together with a Ghost and a Fairy for three hilarious stories. Each story can be read as a standalone, but they also build upon one another to create a laugh-out-loud trilogy. The first story, “See the Ghost”, has Ghost scaring Dog and Cat… and eventually, themselves! In “See the Wind”, the Wind gets a bit carried away, blowing everything off the page: including the words to the story! “See the Fairy” introduces Trixie, a fairy “so small that you cannot even see me”. Trixie is a playful fairy with a mischevious streak, and Dog, Cat, and Ghost have to teach Fairy how to play so that everyone has fun. Easy-to-read sentences make this a great book to give emerging readers, and large fonts and colorful, playful illustration makes for an easy readaloud. Spreads use an omniscient narrator and word bubbles; sentences get tossed to an fro with the wind, playing with format.

See the Ghost has starred reviews from Kirkus and Booklist. Download fun activity sheets and a teacher’s guide at publisher Candlewick’s website.

 

Posted in Early Reader, Fiction, Preschool Reads

See the Dog follows See the Cat for wordplay hilarity

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

See the Dog: Three Stories About a Cat, by David LaRochelle/Illustrated by Mike Wohnoutka, (Sept. 2021, Candlewick Press), $8.99, ISBN: 9781536216295

Ages 4-7

The hilarious follow-up to last year’s Geisel Award-winning See the Cat has Cat taking center stage while Dog is out sick. Cat’s not thrilled with the bossy book, though, and the results are laugh-out-loud funny. In the first story, “See the Dog”, we get the scoop on Cat, who’s filling in for Dog, but isn’t really up for that whole “Dogs dig holes” sort of business. “See the Lake”, story number two, has the book trying to get Cat to jump in a cold lake and swim, and “See the Sheep” is all about how brave Cat will save a sheep… until Cat discovers that there’s a wolf on the way. A surprise cameo caps off this side-splitting story. Gouache artwork makes for warm, cartoony expressions and the back-and-forth dialogue between “Book” and “Cat” makes for a hilarious readaloud. Download the activity kit from Candlewick!

See the Dog has starred reviews from School Library Journal and Kirkus.

 

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads

“Everyone makes mistakes”: How to Apologize

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

How to Apologize, by David LaRochelle/Illustrated by Mike Wohnoutka, (May 2021, Candlewick Press), $16.99, ISBN: 9781536209440

Ages 3-7

A gentle and straightforward book about accountability and responsibility, How to Apologize starts off with a reassuring statement: “Everyone makes mistakes”. It’s a strong statement that’s meant to relax readers: it’s okay, no one’s perfect! But the important thing is, once we make a mistake that hurts someone or makes them feel bad, the kind thing to do is apologize. With woodland animals as our guides, David LaRochelle and Mike Wohnoutka lay out the differences between sincere apologies an insincere apologies; whether we like the person or not; apologizing is the right thing to do. And you can do it all sorts of ways! You can write a note, or you can say it in person. You can fix the mistake if it’s possible, but even if you can’t, apologizing will make you – and the person you hurt – feel better. And that’s the most important thing. Gouache artwork is subdued, letting readers readers take in the words and allowing the illustrations to show them how it’s done. Absolutely perfect for preschoolers who are still navigating social-emotional situations (and, let’s be honest, some adults, too).

Candlewick has a Teacher Tips card with some ideas for incorporating this book into the classroom, and coloring sheets that help emphasize some moments when an apology is helpful.

How to Apologize has a starred review from Kirkus.

Posted in Early Reader, Fiction, Preschool Reads

Award-winning and hilarious: See the Cat

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

See the Cat, by David LaRochelle/Illustrated by Mike Wohnoutka, (Sept. 2020, Candlewick Press), $8.99, ISBN: 9781536204278

Ages 4-7

The 2021 Theodor Seuss Geisel Award-winner, See the Cat, hilariously breaks the fourth wall, a la Elephant and Piggie, with three stories starring a dog who really just wants to take a nap. In the first story, an unseen narrator tells a story about a cat who rides a unicorn while wearing a green dress. It’s a study in concepts and colors and Max, a dog, insists on each spread that he is nothing of the sort, leading to a laugh-out-loud conclusion. The second and third stories see Max learn how to manipulate a story that’s not going his way; the first, when an angry snake shows up, and the final story, when the narrator keeps pushing Max to do something he just doesn’t want to do. Adorably funny back-and forth dialogue between the main character and the narrator, like Snappsy the Alligator or This is a Taco!, make this a great read-aloud between two readers; if you’re going it solo during storytime, let your dramatic flag fly and have fun with voices and facial expressions! Gouache illustrations are cheerful, and Max’s cartoony exasperation will have readers giggling wildly. A must-have.

See the Cat has starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, Kirkus, and Booklist.  Publisher Candlewick has free teacher tips (I love this offering) and a fun activity kit that I’ll be using as a grab-and-go book activity this week.