REVIEW: 1000 Times NO

Warburton, T.  (2009).  1000 Times No.  New York:  Laura Geringer Books.

9780061542633

PLOT SUMMARY:  It's time to leave, but young Noah doesn't want to go.  So, he says no in just about every way and language imaginable.

The illustrations are fun and central in making meaning about the story and determining which countries the various translations of "no" are spoken in.

A crossword puzzle and morse code are also used to show no, most youngsters will probably let those images go by.  But a teacher may need to be ready to explain them.

The end papers are fun, sharing "no" in almost 40 different languages, reinforcing a portion of the story.  The ending itself also includes a few humorous twists.


ACTIVITIES:

While chances are good, the intended audience for 1000 Times No are already VERY familiar with the word, a teacher or parent can at least hope this book will extend their synonyms for no, while possibly helping to make the child more aware of the international community.

While I didn't actually count all the noes, there's no way there are actually 1,000 of them in the narrative.  So students who are interested in counting these types of things, won't actually have to be able to count that high.


QUOTES OF NOTE:

"All right, Noah, Dear.  It's time to leave."
"No."
"But..."

"No.  No!  No... .on."

"Okay, stop being silly."
"Nooooope."
"Please?"
"No way, Jose."


TASTY RATING:  !!!

REVIEW: Birds

Henkes, K.  (2009).  Birds.  China:  Greenwillow Books.

9780061363047

In the morning, a child (at the end she is revealed to be a girl...but through the majority of the text, almost any child should be able to place him or herself in the text) looks through the window at the birds beyond.  From there, she provides information on everything she knows about birds.

Since the illustrations show a pastoral setting, the images in the book may seem exotic to children accustomed to the cityscape (however, there is still an incorporation of telephone wires).  These illustrations, done by Laura Dronzek, are particularly wonderful.  She used acrylic paints to create life-sized illustrations of the birds the girl can see through her window.  My favorite among the illustrations is to the left.

Activities:

This would be an excellent book to share with students before having them bird watch out their own window (or on a trip to a park or nature preserve).  Other options include incorporating this into a lesson on the various breeds of birds.

For younger readers, a teacher can read the book aloud and draw the child's attention to the colors of the birds, encouraging the child to name the colors.  Children more proficient at writing could also write an "everything I know about birds" paragraph after finishing the book.  Other potential topics include the cloud shapes and types, weather and seasons (although the book does assume the weather patterns of the Northern Hemisphere).

Quotes of Note:

"In the morning, I hear birds singing through the open window."

"Sometimes they [birds] are so black that you can't see their eyes or their feathers, just their shapes."

"Sometimes, in winter, a bird in a tree looks like one red leaf left over."

REVIEW: Busy Busy City Street

Meister, C.  (2000).  Busy Busy City Street.  New York:  Viking.

067088944x

Busy Busy City Street shares the sounds and images typically found on a busy street, from the honks of the traffic to sirens of fire trucks.

This picturebook also includes some more unusual forms of transportation on the street, from a space car, to a gondola and elephant.  A parent or teacher could pause on that particular page and ask the child to pick out which forms of transportation would be available in another parts of the world or at another time in history (or the future, in one case).  Since traffic lights and crosswalks are also pictured, a teacher could discuss pedestrian safety.

Activites:

And this is another book that can be used to introduce students to the idea of riding the bus to and from school.

This book would be good to help prepare a child from the suburbs or country for his or her first trip into the city and all of the noise and activity that can be found there.

Since the illustrations use a lot of colors and fun shapes, students may want to draw in response to reading this book.

Quotes of Note:

"Honk Beep Honk Beep."

"Siren sounds, fire call.  Taxi jam, traffic stall."

"Green light, horses go.  Clippety-clop, steady, whoa!"

REVIEW: Eats

Jocelyn, M., & Slaughter, T.  (2007).  EATS.  Plattsburgh, NY:  Tundra Books.

 

9780887768200

 

As a concept book, Eats shares simple images of various animals and a common type of food that beasty eats. 

 

Each page includes an animal pictured with that food labeled according to color codes.  There are no complete sentences and if the child recognizes the animal and food chances are good the child will not even need to glance at the text.  So, if a teacher is using this book to help with phonics or early literacy, a parent or teacher will have to remind the young reader to slow down and actually look at the words and sound them out.

 

This is a good book to incorporate the world and nature beyond a child’s familiar home.

 

 

Activities to Do with the Book:

 

Since all of the words in the text of this picturebook are in lower case, this would be an excellent book to share with students who are just learning to write their letters.  It could be used with a child’s first trip to a zoo.

 

Before reading the book, a teacher could ask about a child’s favorite animals and what he or she knows about said animals.  Then based off of the book, a teacher or parent could ask questions about what other animals and foods the child is familiar with, beginning with what he or she likes.  A child could be prompted to name some of the locations where the animals live.

 

The book also incorporates many primary colors so a parent or teacher could ask the child to name the various colors and objects.

 

 

Favorite Quotes:

 

“worm”

“apple”

 

“bird”

“worm”

 

“squirrel”

“acorns”

REVIEW: Baby HAPPY Baby SAD

Patricelli, L.  (2008).  Baby HAPPY Baby SAD.  Cambridge, MA:  Candlewick Press.

 

9780763632458

 

Baby HAPPY Baby SAD is a good first board book that acknowledges babies’ emotions.  This book lends itself to having an adult go through the book with the baby and point out the details of the illustrations to help the baby realize the very relatable situations the characters are going through.

 

My personal favorite of the illustrations is….

...not that I enjoyed stripping off all my clothes as a small child and running around the house naked.  And my parents certainly do not have pictures of me doing said activity.  Since that would be a cruel event to keep a record of.  Right, Mom and Dad?  Right.

 

While a parent or sitter shouldn’t expect the young reader to actually READ this concept book, with the repetition of “Baby happy” and “Baby sad,” he or she could encourage the child to shout out the phrases as they go through the book.

 

It is worth noting, that all of the characters showed appear to be white, which is not ideal for a parent who wants to start showing a more multicultural representation of the world early on.

 

 

Activities to Do with the Book:

 

This board book is a great book for the youngest of readers to practice turning pages, gnawing on the corners and identifying objects and creatures like balloons, ice cream, dogs, cats and mommy and daddy.

 

This book shows issues of cause and effect, how the physical world can influence a child’s emotions, helps develop early visual literacy and helps wee-babes gain some important vocabulary:  Happy, Sad and Baby.

 

 

Favorite Quotes:

 

“Baby HAPPY”

“Baby SAD”

…and that’s pretty much it.

REVIEW: My Toys Mis Juguetes

Emberley, R.  (2002).  My Toys  Mis Juguetes.  Boston:  Little, Brown and Company.

0316174947

This dual language board book shows images of common toys and includes the name in both English and Spanish.  As far as concept books go, it will be more amusing to the wee little ones than most.  The majority of the toys are age appropriate and the illustrations colorful.

It is worth noting that on all of the pages, English is privileged over Spanish by appearing above the Spanish translation (although, the Spanish is in bold).

This is one book in a larger series of dual-language concept books.  Other topics are animals, clothes, colors, food, etc.

Activities to Do with the Book:

This is a good book to help students with labeling and to help children with second language acquisition--not only with the toy vocabulary, but also with colors, shapes and shapes.  

Also, for four or five-year-olds who feel bored, a teacher or parent could open to a random page to help children figure out an activity to do.

Favorite Quotes: 

"rings

los aros"

"paints

las pinturas"

"puzzle

el rompecabezas"

"scooter

el patinete"

REVIEW: Baby Shoes

Slater, D.  (2006).  Baby Shoes.  New York:  Bloomsbury Children's Books.

1582346844

One lucky little baby got some new shoes.  Nice clean, white ones.  Those shoes don't stay clean or white for long though as the baby and his mom go about their daily activities.

The illustrations are colorful and incorporate many different line shapes and angles.  A few of the illustrations incorporate some fun angles and perspectives.  The child consistently looks happy

I had a similar experience when I was in elementary school.  So excited for my new school shoes, I wore them the last week of camp and wandered through mud, brambles and a couple of streams.  My mother was not exactly pleased and had more to say than "Oh, no!"

Activities to Do with the Book:

 

 Since there is a lot of repetition, this book lends itself to having a toddler help a parent or teacher reading the book aloud, by supplying some of the key phrases.  

Since the shoes become stained by many different substances, this is also a good book to help a child learn their colors.  A teacher could point to the shoes every few pages and name all of the colors they see on them.   

Throughout the illustrations, there are a lot of swirling images that a young reader could trace with their finger to help with coordination.

 

 

Favorite Quotes:

 

“Baby's got some brand-new shoes,

white as light, stripe of blue.

He passed over all the rest,

chose the ones he liked the best."

"Baby says, "Uh-oh!"

Mama says, "Oh, no!"

But those shoes just go, go, go.

 

"Baby finds a puddle deep, 

takes a bouncing, hopping leap."

REVIEW: The BIG Sleep Book

Van Genechten, G. (2008). The BIG Sleep Book. New York: Clavis Publishing Inc.

9781605370125

Originally published abroad in Dutch in 2005, The BIG Sleep Book was first published in English in 2008.

This board book is just what the title would imply—a book all about sleep. It begins with it being time for bed for young Josh and goes on to share the locations and ways various animals sleep. The illustrations are pleasant and humorous, showing the animals sleeping with smiles on their faces in some funny positions.

The story includes one sentence of dialogue, so a parent or teacher could encourage a young child to repeat or “read” the spoken portions of the text after they’ve heard the story many times.

The story also lends itself to having an early reader name the various animals showed (they are never actually named by the text) or in one case to count the sheep present in the illustration:

Personally, I feel like it may be a slight problem to imply “everybody” sleeps at night as the first sentence of the book does. While it provides an argument for having troublesome toddlers go to sleep “because the book says so,” it also shows a bat sleeping at night, which kids will later learn is not the case. Another flaw of this is that as a child, I can remember fighting with my parents in the summer months over not wanting to go to bed because it wasn’t dark outside yet. If only I’d had this book to show my parents and say, “See…I don’t have to go to bed until it’s night and dark out.” Of course, any parent could point at the clock on the wall in the illustration and argue 7 PM, no matter the time of year, is bedtime. But in my head, this argumentative toddler version of myself would not have been able to read a clock yet and so would have found this counter-argument suspect.

Activities to Do with the Book:

A great book for bedtime. It’s less ideal for naptime, since it reinforces the idea of sleeping when it’s dark. It presents the idea that it’s okay to sleep in different places or positions depending on what is comfortable for the individual.

This can be an excellent book to share with young children who are anxious about going to sleep since the book shows each of the animals smiling as they snooze.

Favorite Quotes:

“Everybody goes to sleep at night.”

“Some sleep on their tummies in the mud.”

“Others sleep on their backs in the grass.”

REVIEW: Even Firefighters Go to the Potty

Wax, W., & Wax, N. (2008). Even Firefighters Go to the Potty. New York: Little Simon.

1416927204

As this blog demonstrates, I’m still struggling to get published. Because of this, I have often had to resort to checking new books out of the library to do these reviews instead of buying my own copies. The library copy of Even Firefighters Go to the Potty, strangely enough, reeks of pickles. I suppose I shouldn’t complain too much though. It is a potty training book and it could stink of things much worse.

The book makes use of onomatopoeia, repetition and tabs to keep its young readers engaged. In terms of potty books that have ‘passed’ before, this one feels most similar to Everybody Poops (2001) in that both normalize the activity and both are unintentionally hilarious. Of course, Everybody Poops includes animals and explicit imagery while Even Firefighters Go to the Potty is more concerned with people (who have jobs) and the actual use of a toilet as opposed to… the outdoors.

It could be the germaphobe in me, but I struggled with the fact that only a single illustration showed one of the many adults (the waiter) washing his hands. While an important step, I personally wouldn’t have minded if an entire page of text was devoted to reminding its readers, young and *cough* OLD, to wash their hands.  (I've used a public restroom!  I know you're out there, avoiders of cleanliness)

While a doctor, baseball player and pilot are all featured as having to go to the potty. I couldn’t help but feel a few occupations were missing. Does the teacher not go to the potty? The prison inmate?  And given the current economic climate, where does the laid-off factory worker go to the bathroom? Is his or her bathroom as nice as the factory owner’s? I don’t think so.


Activities to do with the book:

Honestly, I have no ideas beyond the, umm, obvious….

Favorite Quotes:

“The rocket ship is about to take off. But an astronaut is missing. Where could he have gone?”


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