Tag: rhyming

Posted in Toddler Reads

Check out this high-contrast board book series that grows with your baby!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Kane Miller has the inside line on a board book series that grows with your baby: author Lily Murray and illustrator Jane Foster have new, high-contrast board books made for cuddle time. Originally released in the UK, the publisher has brought them to the U.S. Let’s take a look.

Jane Foster’s Baby’s First Stories (0-3 Months), by Lily Murray and Jane Foster, (May 2024, Kane Miller), $10.99, ISBN: 9781684649105

Ages 0-12 months

Four rhyming animal stories make up this first board book: an elephant uses her trunk to sing a special song; a panda snoozes and spends a day at play; a playful whale spends the day with under-the-sea friends, and a bunny spends the day exploring before retiring to her burrow for bedtime. Developed for babies 3 months old and younger, the high-contrast black-and-white illustration work is perfect for baby’s developing brains. The animal illustrations include contrasting shapes and patterns to help babies develop visual focus, and the simple rhyme is easy and soothing to read: “Little whale dives through the seas, / Where turtles swoop and glide. / She meets a friendly starfish / Who asks to hitch a ride”.

 

Jane Foster’s Baby’s First Stories (3-6 Months), by Lily Murray and Jane Foster, (May 2024, Kane Miller), $10.99, ISBN: 9781684649112

Ages 0-12 months

As baby gets a little bigger, Foster adds a splash of color to her illustrations and Murray includes fun activities in the storytelling to engage baby and caregiver: “Now here comes an octopus / Tickling your tummy. / Tickle, tickle everywhere / Tickling’s so funny!”; “There’s Panda! Smiley Panda, / Waving back at me. / I see Panda! Hello, Panda! / And Panda sees me”; “Little Elephant, stomp your feet. / Little Elephant, waggle your nose. / Little Elephant, flap your ears. / Little Elephant, touch your toes!” Caregivers will enjoy tickling and identifying noses, feet, and ears during lap time and cuddle time. The animals from the Baby’s First Stories 0-3 months return, providing comfortable continuity, and the rhymes incorporate movement, questions, and answers while adding blue backgrounds and details to the black and white images and patterns help developing eyes grow stronger and continue creating neural networks.

 

 

Jane Foster’s Baby’s First Stories (6-9 Months), by Lily Murray and Jane Foster, (May 2024, Kane Miller), $10.99, ISBN: 9781684649129

Ages 0-12 months

The animal friends celebrate baby’s new milestones with stories about daily routines: Panda goes through a morning routine of waking, washing up, and getting dressed; Bunny enjoys a tasty lunchtime; Elephant has a bath after playing in the mud all day, and Whale gets ready for bed. As baby reaches 6-9 months, these rhymes parallel a baby’s busy day and include questions like, “Have you finished, Little Bunny? / Let’s clean you up, don’t wait!” and playful phrases like, “Gently, gently, with a towel, / Rub-a-dub-a-dub! / All clean, Little Elephant…  / …till the next time you find mud!” A cheery splash of orange joins the blue, black, and white illustrations and makes the animals’ patterns stand out, easily recognizable. An adorable way to go through the day’s activities and teach babies about routine.

 

Jane Foster’s Baby’s First Stories (9-12 Months), by Lily Murray and Jane Foster, (May 2024, Kane Miller), $10.99, ISBN: 9781684649129

Ages 0-12 months

New friends, additional color, and more complex stories await developing babies and toddlers. Murray and Foster introduce new animal friends, including a tortoise and a duck, all sporting vibrant, high-contrast patterns. Playful text and question and answer formats make reading interactive, inviting readers to search for Bunny, help cheer Panda up and scratch his nose, find Elephant’s missing clothes, and guess where Whale’s friends are hiding. Active phrasing and rhyming text keeps babies engaged, and fun wordplay allows for playful storytimes: “Who’s this coming now, / Creeping oh so slow? / Plod-plod-plod! It’s Tortoise! / Where did Bunny go?”

Each book is easily read and enjoyed by a variety of ages while offering a grow-as-you-go approach to the special milestones of baby’s first year. Bold, high-contrast artwork and fun, rhyming text that becomes more complex keeps baby’s attention while assisting development. The series is an excellent addition to early childhood collections and makes a great gift for a new baby.

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads, Toddler Reads

Duck Goes Meow is great storytime reading

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Duck Goes Meow, by Juliette MacIver/Illustrated by Carla Martell, (May 2024, Kane Miller), $12.99, ISBN: 9781684648962

Ages 3-6

Rhyming, onomatopoeia, and an adorable cast of animals make Duck Goes Meow a storytime essential. Cow leads a group of animals singing their animal sounds, and everyone is on track – Dog says “Woof!”, Cow says “Moo!”, Hen says “Cluck!” – until Duck chimes in with a confident “Meow.” The animals all pitch in to help Duck try again and again, to no avail; the reason is charming. A fun animal story that invites plenty of participation, Duck Goes Meow is an unexpected and sweet adoption story, too. Animal sounds are bold and contained in word bubbles, making it easy to cue younger readers to be part of the fun during a read-aloud. Colorful, bold illustrations make this an excellent choice for younger learners. Read this one with Jules Feiffer’s classic, Bark George, for an animal sounds storytime. Endpapers show duck tracks crossing paths with kitten tracks, giving readers a hint to the story. Originally published in New Zealand in 2023, Duck Goes Meow is inspired by the true story of a mother cat adopting a duckling; tell families for extra squeals of joy. Download free discussion questions at Kane Miller’s website, on the Duck Goes Meow book detail page.

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads

Night Blooming Jasmine: An evening walk brings discovery

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Night Blooming Jasmine, by Diane de Anda/Illustrated by Kendra Binney, (June 2024, Star Bright Books), $17.99, ISBN: 978-1-59572-976-7

Ages 4-8

A young girl named Jasmine is fast asleep with the night-blooming jasmine vine outside her window calls to her, inviting her to go outside and discover the world that comes to life outside at night. Encountering frogs and crickets, sleeping dogs and hungry opossums, Jasmine explores the world that wakes up when we go to sleep. Written in occasional rhyme, the verses illustrate the quiet wonder of night, with a playful view, as seen through the eyes of a child: “The spotted hound lies on his back; / his feet run in the air. / Deep in his sleep he’s rousting birds / and chasing down a long-eared hare”. Parallel to the plant with whom she shares a name, Jasmine heads back to bed to “end her nighttime bloom”. Soft, blue-hued illustrations set a calming stage for bedtime reading; Jasmine sets herself apart from her world as she wears a pink nightgown. Back matter includes animal facts on the various nocturnals that appear in the story. A bedtime story that promises dreamy adventures, Night Blooming Jasmine is a great choice for collections.

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads, Toddler Reads

Zoom off to bedtime with Sleep Little Dozer

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Sleep, Little Dozer, by Diana Murray/Illustrated by Cleonique Hilsaca, (June 20245, Random House), $18.99, ISBN: 9780593119044

Ages 2-6

It’s been a full day for Little Dozer, but when Papa tells him, “Let’s roll! Time for bed!”, Dozer is concerned: Mama is working late! How will Dozer fall asleep? No worries: Papa knows the routine. This sweet rhyming bedtime story is just what a child needs when a parent is working late or traveling and another parent – maybe not the usual parent or caregiver – is left to handle bedtime. Papa Dozer is a large bulldozer with a bushy mustache; Little Dozer is a tiny bulldozer. The vehicles all have bold, friendly expressions and colors are soft, gentle, wonderful for bedtime. Much of the story is Papa’s bedtime rhyme, which Little Dozer chimes in on; it’s relatable to kids who have their bedtime routines down pat. Visions of numbered jeeps fill in for a human child’s “counting sheep”, and various vehicles bed down for the night as Dozer struggles with anxiety over not being able to sleep without Mom. Endpapers show truck-shaped clouds against a night sky. A very cute and comforting story that vehicle fans will ask for at bedtime, and a good addition to collections.

Pair with Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site and Steam Train Dream Train, both by Sherri Duskey Rinker, for a fun pajama storytime.

 

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads

The Paw-sibilities are endless! This Little Kitty in the Garden

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

This Little Kitty in the Garden, by Karen Obuhanych, (Jan 2024, Knopf Books for Young Readers), $18.99, ISBN: 9780593435175

Ages 3-7

Obuhanych spins a delighful rhyming tale about cats and gardening. Endpapers bring readers in with dirty kitten paw prints over bright colored leaves; the verso and recto pages show a cheerful garden with a marmalade cat peeking up from the leaves. Five kittens are ready to “help” their people garden today, and immediately set to rummaging through the tools and starter plants. They play in the garden, sneezing at pollen and poking at various flora and fauna as their humans work around them. When everything has been planted and cleaned up, the exhausted helpers take a nap in the garden bed. Cat lovers will want multiple reads of this sweet and silly story. Mixed media illustration is bold, bright, and textured. A playful story that will make anyone reading it or listening to it happy.

This Little Kitty in the Garden is a companion to Obuhanych’s 2023 book, This Little Kitty. You can see more of Obuhanych’s artwork at her website.

 

 

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads

Wheels and Springs and Moving Things: School of Monsters talk work

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Wheels and Springs and Moving Things!, by Sally Rippin/Illustrated by Chris Kennett, (May 2024, Kane Miller), $12.99, ISBN: 9781684649211

The Australian School of Monsters chapter book series arrives on American shores with a rhyming picture book/seek-and-find adventure. Each character in Wheels and Springs and Moving Things! introduces readers to a member of their family, offering rhyming clues to their jobs: can you figure out what they do? Spreads alternate between clues and a solution, featuring the occupation and related vocabulary. Frank’s Dad, for instance, is a farmer: clues include “My dad digs the earth to plant seedlings and trees, / which grow into homes for the birds and the bees”. The following spread shows Frank and his father in a tractor and trailer; Frank exclaims, “He’s a farmer!” and readers are treated to a spread filled with farm-related vehicles and equipment, all labeled for expanding vocabularies. The monsters are adorably kid-friendly, colorful, and sport cheery expressions. Additional activities, including seek-and-find challenges, await readers at the end of the story. Endpapers sport bats with different occupations fluttering about: one wears an astronaut’s helmet; another carries a letter. It’s a fun addition to collections where Where’s Waldo and other seek-and-find books do well.

Author Sally Rippin’s website includes a School of Monsters activity pack and parent pack, available for free. Publisher Kane Miller also has a special page dedicated to Rippin, a 2024-2025 Australian Children’s Laureate!

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads

Put down your phone and Look Up!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Look Up! Fontaine the Pigeon Starts a Revolution, by Britt Gondolfi/Illustrated by Amanda Romanick, (Apr. 2024, Paw Prints), $18.99, ISBN: 9781223188089

Ages 5-7

This hilarious rhyming story serves as a cautionary tale to look up from our screens once in a while. Set in New Orleans, a group of pigeons watches as the people below them rush around glued to their phones, never noticing anything around them. One pigeon, Fontaine, wants to change things for the better and comes up with a laugh-out-loud method that’s sure to get people’s attention. Black-lined colorful illustrations give an edge to the story, with little touches of New Orleans in the background details; Cafe du Monde and the French Quarter give life and character to the setting. Romanick captures the bustle of the city and the cluelessness of a populace riveted to their screens and beautifully captures the perspective of the birds staring down at the humans, lamenting their lack of attention. Fontaine dons a red beret and commands his legions, and the fallout will have readers squealing with delight. Give this one a read – I can’t wait to have a screen-free storytime with this one.

 

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads, Toddler Reads, Uncategorized

New Earth Day Reads!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Earth Day is right around the corner! There are some great new books to have ready for a great readaloud. Let’s take a look.

Miss MacDonald Has a Farm, by Kalee Gwarjanski/Illustrated by Elizabet Vuković, (March 2024, Doubleday Books for Young Readers), $18.99, ISBN: 9780593568163

Ages 3-7

It’s a new spin on an old favorite! Miss MacDonald has a farm, and she loves to grow her own food in this ode to farm-to-table food. Kids are going to love this easy-to-learn song, with repetitive phrases like “Miss MacDonald has a farm. / She loves things that grow” and “E-I-E-I-GROW”. Miss MacDonald grows all sorts of yummy food, like tomatoes and green beans, sweet corn and pumpkins, and she “shuck-shucks” and “thrish-thrashes” her way through her fields, planting and harvesting her wares to bring to a farmer’s market and feasting at a community table with a diverse group of neighbors. It’s a fun way to illustrate where our food comes from and how it gets to the table, with colorful and appealing illustrations that show a young female farmer of color growing and harvesting her food. Back matter includes vocabulary that explains the steps in getting food to grow from seed to table, and a recipe for a harvest vegetable bake included in the story. I sang this story to a pre-k class during a school visit this week, and they loved it! This is a great story for anyone who’s doing flannel storytimes, too – get those colorful sheets out and make yourself a vegetable garden.

Chicken Soup for the Soul KIDS: The Sunshine Garden: Being a Team Player, by Jamie Michalak/Illustrated by Jenna Nahyun Chung, (March 2024, Charlesbridge), $14.99, ISBN: 9781623542863

Ages 4-7

The Sunshine Squad returns in this sweet story about kindness, teamwork, and gardening. The Sunshine Squad are six friends who loves to pretend they’re superheroes, and do some pretty great everyday superhero stuff. Mia, one of the Squad, learns that her grandma’s friend, Mr. Angelo, is sick and unable to tend to his community garden and steps in to help… but it’s a much bigger task than she realized. The rest of the Sunshine Squad step in and use their “superpowers” to get the job done and save the day! It’s a sweet story about helping one another and being kind, while showing kids that kindness can be a superpower. Back matter includes tips on being part of a team, with suggestions that work nicely within an Earth Day setting. It’s a good additional add to picture book collections, especially where Chicken Soup for the Soul books do well.

 

 

You Are a Little Seed, by Sook-Hee Choi, Translated by Jieun Kiaer, (March 2024, Charlesbridge), $15.99, ISBN: 9781623544287

Ages 2-5

Originally published in Korean in 2013, this is a gentle story that reads like poetry, describing seven types of flowers that bloom from different types of seeds and became beautiful flowers: “A seed, a seed blowing / in the wind… / took root in / the wild and bloomed / as a dandelion”. Children show up in the flowers as seeds and fully bloomed, showing readers that we can bloom under all sorts of conditions. A soft color palette creates a soothing setting, and the flower illustrations are breathtaking. A wonderful metaphor for how we grow and our beauty in diversity. My only concern is a pssage that describes a seed as “ugly and wrinkled”, which reads more like the author is referring to the child as unsightly; I’m hoping it was more of a moment where the child may feel that way but blossoms into themselves? Other than that, You Are a Little Seed is lovely.

You Are a Little Seed has starred reviews from Kirkus and Foreword Reviews.

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads, Toddler Reads

Where Do Ocean Creatures Sleep at Night? Fun for bedtime and storytime

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Where Do Ocean Creatures Sleep at Night?, by Steven J. Simmons & Clifford R. Simmons/Illustrated by Ruth E. Harper, (Apr. 2024, Charlesbridge Publishing), $17.99, ISBN: 9781623542979

Ages 3-7

Ocean animals sleep just like land animals do – and like kids do, too! This rhyming story is nonfiction that reads like a bedtime story and will appeal to younger learners. Beginning and closing with human children to place the reader in the story, Simmons and Simmons weave a playful rhyme that delves into the sleeping habits and underwater areas of a plethora of sea creatures including stringrays, whales, sharks, and octopuses. The story educates as it charms, giving readers interesting facts like “A clownfish can wiggle and do a dance. / It eats tiny animals and also plants. / It lives in anemones that keep away foes; / these homes are poison, and other fish know. / But for the clownfish it’s safe to stay, / and here it sleeps at the end of each day”. Harper’s realistic watercolor illustrations show the colorful range of different underwater flora and fauna, with gorgeous texture that brings life to every spread (seriously – I want a print of the octopus spread). Beginning with a group of children enjoying a day at the beach and playing with toys of the very animals we meet throughout the story, and closing with the kids winding down for a good night’s sleep – with their sea friends nest to them as they drift off in their “nice, dry bed[s]”, this is a great choice for bedtime, pajama storytimes, or under the sea-themed storytimes. Where Do Ocean Creatures Sleep at Night? is the third book in a series that includes Where Do Creatures Sleep at Night and Where Do Big Creatures Sleep at Night? and is a fun addition to early nonfiction collections.

I Heart Crafty Things has adorable Sea Creatures coloring pages for a post-storytime activity. LucyJaneLovesLearning on TeachersPayTeachers has free sea creature student name tags, if you have large storytime groups and do name tags.

 

EDITED TO ADD: There’s a downloadable activity kit for Where Do Creatures Sleep at Night? Download it here!

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads, Toddler Reads

Taxi, Go is a rhyming run through town

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Taxi, Go!, by Patricia Toht/Illustrated by Maria Karipidou, (Feb. 2024, Candlewick Press), $17.99, ISBN: 9781536231533

Ages 2-5

An adorable, big-eyed taxi has a busy day ahead in this sweet rhyming story. Waking up and driving to the heart of town, Taxi picks up fares and drops them off at all sorts of places, from a business meetings to shops to concerts. The last fare of the day is a family coming home from a trip; Taxi picks them up at the airport and drops them off at home before heading back to the depot for a good night’s sleep. The story brings readers through a busy little town and touches on street safety and stopping for emergencies. An inclusive, diverse group of characters provide a welcoming feel. The colorful and cheery digital illustrations are eye-catching, with a bright red taxi sporting wide eyes and a smile; human characters have similar big-eyed, friendly expressions. A generous palette of reds and yellows add energetic flow, and there is a lot of movement in the book: Taxi is always on the move; dogs’ tails cheerfully wag; people hail Taxi and move through a bustling town. Vehicle books are always popular in my library, and this will be another entertaining read for storytimes. A good addition.