November 2012 Picture Book Challenge -- Willa

 For this month's Take Up and Read Picture Book Challenge,  I happened to find a stack of picture books my 9 year old had on his bed.   Very good!  It appears he is not past browsing through a picture book now and then when he doesn't have his nose in a chapter book or his Kindle!  There weren't quite ten, so I added a few that have been for one reason or another, often-requested favorites of my pre-readers.

Since we are getting quite a bit of snow up here,  I think I will call this month's theme for the Ryans:

Cuddle Up and Read Together November Theme

Here they are all together.    Now I will take pictures in smaller groups and add a short description.  I've linked to related resources in a few cases, ranging from philosophical to somewhat mystifying. 

Crocodile and Hen.  I think my kids loved this for the rhythmic language and the odd, surprising and funny way it proceeds.  But it also brings in, quite naturally, a beginner's taxonomy concept.  Here's a discussion page from Philosophy for Kids. 

Yellow and Pink.   All my kids liked this one, but it wasn't an oft-requested one.   It's one of the ones I found on my 9 year old's book stack.   William Steig is an interesting, quirky author who has published some classics as well as some rather strange books.     Teaching Children Philosophy:  Yellow and Pink.

The Greedy Man in the Moon.   A Chinese folktale with a lesson.  Fun reading.  The illustrations are OK, not great.  The author is an oral storyteller.   There's a resource page here.   Storytelling is a valuable art that has lots of applications in daily life; and it's fun and part of our literary heritage, as well. 

Brave Irene.   I think this is my favorite William Steig story, showing the courage that comes from love (a lot of Steig's stories are about how love overcomes all sorts of challenge).  Weirdly enough, the resource I found for this one is a Youtube retelling by Al Gore.  Yeah, uh, no.   But definitely in the "what's up with that?" category. 

Anatole and the Piano.   There is a whole series of Anatole books by Eve Titus.    They are so cute.  Anatole is definitely my hero, as he is musically talented, very intelligent, has a lovely wife and six little mouse children whom he is devoted to, and is incredibly brave.  Eve Titus also wrote Basil of Baker Street, about a mouse who tries to be like Sherlock Holmes (made into an animated movie which my older kids loved as children).    I will have to see if the library has any of the Basil books.

Leo Lionni, Six Classic Stories.   Leo Lionni is another childrens' author who has written many, many books of variable quality.  Some are classics, some are sort of odd, some are both.   Random House has Lionni resources here:  100 Years of Leo Lionni.    There's a Lionni teacher's resource guide (PDF).  I found this book on Paddy's bedside, but I am wondering if Aidan would like it, because the stories are quirky and somewhat rhythmic.

Be Nice to Spiders.   You can't really go wrong with Margaret Bloy Graham.   I can remember my little brother loving the Harry books, as did my kids.   This one is one of her lesser-known ones, not in the Harry series, but with the same "look", obviously.   There is a bit of a natural-history lesson here, gently presented.   You can find a lesson plan for Be Nice to Spiders here. 

The Church Mice Adrift.   This is one of a series by Graham Oakley.   Full of British humor, the pictures complement the story and are intricately composed.  You can find more information about the series here.    Graham Oakley packs more onto a picture book page than practically any author I know. 

Little Fur Family.    Margaret Wise Brown is better known for classics such as Goodnight Moon and Runaway Bunny.      Like Goodnight Moon, this one seems to bring you into another universe, one of gentle contemplation.   So it is perfect for lulling a toddler at bedtime.  There's a nice pictorial review here.   The half-poetry of the words is complemented by illustrations by Garth Williamson.    You can't really read this book and stay stressed; or at least, I can't.

There was a little fur family

warm as toast

smaller than most

in little fur coats

and they lived in a warm wooden tree.

Hungry, Hungry Sharks.   We have quite a few of the history and science related Step Into Reading books around our house (we skipped the twaddly ones in the series).  They were very helpful in getting my second son into reading fluency (he struggled to get to the fluent stage, and preferred non-fiction to fiction until he was in his teens, so it was nice he could work on reading and learn more about his favorite topics at the same time).    As you can see, the book was falling apart from reading, and so I had to do that duct-tape repair thing to the spine.

So that wraps up my November Picture Book Challenge.

Chari and I would love to hear: 

What are some of your favorite cuddle together with a blanket picture books?

TUAR Picture Book Challenge: October 2012 -- Willa

This month for a Picture Book Challenge, I decided to focus on Aidan.   Though Paddy is the youngest, Aidan is the one still firmly in the Picture Book stage.  In fact, his favorites are generally board books.

I went through our family bookshelves and pulled out about a dozen that I remembered being favorites of his.  I left them piled on the floor while I went off to make dinner.  When I came back, they had all disappeared.

I looked around, wondering if my middle aged brain had deceived me again.  Then something made me go over to Aidan's bed to look there.

Sure enough!   I guess I was right about these books being favorites of his : ).

This time I will separate them out so you can see them better.

Dr Seuss, PD Eastman, and Theo LeSieg -- are they all the same person?

I thought Aidan might like to look through a counting book or two -- he loves pictures of groups of things.

 

Songs made into books... the Teddy Bear one is excellent, the Twinkle one is just ordinary art, but he loves the song.

I didn't photograph it because the cover is just blue and it's not really a picture book, but I also got out an old book of Mother Goose rhymes.   It's hard to ignore that Aidan's all time favorites universally have rhymes, a strong rhythm or at least a repeating verbal motif, so really, I should encourage that since really, nursery rhymes are the bedrock of language and literacy and folk wisdom.     A lot of punch to pack in 4-10 lines. 

Happy Picture Book Days during October!

Willa

TUAR Picture Book Challenge: September 2012 for the Bryans

 

 

 

 

I am very much looking forward to choosing TEN Picture Books every month for the Take Up and Read Picture Book Challenge.  For me, this walk down memory lane will be a delight.

 

 

And before I have even introduced the idea to my son......he has validated the plan.

 

I chose my ten books...or, rather, they chose me......  :)

 

I left the pile of books stacked in my room.  Later, my oldest daughter tells me that he comes in the room, spies Katie and the Big Snow and declares:  I just love this book! Music to this mama's ears.

 

A few days later.......he spies the stack again.  I am in the room and he shares:  I just love this book and this book and this book (two Virginia Lee Burton books...and Ping).  I knew I was sooooo doing the right thing for this boy.  I am thrilled to start making new memories with him with these books.

 

I decided that for this challenge......most months, I will choose five old favorites and five new books....probably all from my own shelves.

 

For this first month, I turned to my ultimate childhood favorite, The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton.  That led to just choosing all of her books....and then Ping caught my eye.  He loved doing our little Five-In-Row study on it when he was five.......and has been attached to Ping since then.  Well, that made me grab another Majorie Flack book...bringing my total to six.  When I looked at my stack of "new" books......ones I had yet to read to him or myself, I found three had the word

 king or queen in the title...one had both!.......so inspired, I grabbed one more book with queen in the title...........an old favorite around here by Mercer Mayer, a family favorite author: 

The Queen Always Wanted to Dance. I guess that means.....going with the inspiration.....I have, in the end, seven old favorites and three new.  Works for me and the crowd I am going to read to!

 

 

 

Here is is the sad realization:  no matter where I look.....I simply cannot find my copy of The Little House book. What the heck??? I have some vague feeling that the college student had borrowed it last year......but she has no memory of doing that.  I actually have to borrow a copy of my favorite book from the library???  Thank God for our library.  We almost lost it two years ago......so.......as soon as it arrives, we will read it!  My ten books are as follows......

 

 

 

 

 

 

     We have already read the first two Burton books......he was very happy to hop up on the couch and cuddle with me.  He chose Katy and the Big Snow first.  In fact, reading this book was the absolute first official schooly thing we have done this school year.  That was yesterday.  Today, he picked Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel.  From across the room, on the other couch.....his 15 year old brother saw the book and said:  I have not heard that book read to me since I was a little boy.  I invited him to come sit next to me on the couch for our read.  He came over to our couch and listened in with his lap full of freshman English books. 

 

Sweet moment. 

 

I have always read Picture Books to my olders......glad to see they still like it.  :)

 

 

+++++++

 

Even after reading only two of the books, I have already observed that because his ability to think has grown so much since he first read these books......we are getting more out of our reads than I could have predicted.  His comments and questions are so much more mature.  Nice.

 

 

 

Picture Book Blessings,

 

                                 Chari

TUAR Picture Book Challenge: September 2012

“'What is the use of a book', thought Alice, 'without pictures or conversations?'” -- Lewis Carroll

My youngest, Paddy, has been a reader for a long time.   Though now the Kindle and chapter books have mostly replaced picture books in his quiet hours, when he was younger he was often to be found pulling stacks of picture books down from their shelves and poring over them.

And of course, most of the picture books were ones I had read to him many, many times before he could read on his own.   So  I don't have dozens of picture books around the house that Paddy and I haven't read.

“Child! Do not throw this book about; refrain from the unholy pleasure of cutting all the pictures out.” -- Hilaire Belloc

Aidan is a different matter.  He is 13 and thinks of himself as one of the big kids, though he still likes Pixar movies and some of the board books he loved to pieces as a preschooler.  He moved from the rhythmic books of early childhood straight to the realistic non-fiction books about ambulances, fire trucks and construction engines.   He loves creative language and loves researching on his own unique areas of interest, but he has never been much interested in Story per se.  I suppose he may be a little like an autistic child in that regard.

So I am in with the picture book challenge, for these reasons.    I believe that good picture books are excellent reading for any age.   They are great kick-offs for unit studies; at their best, they combine fine art and fine writing; and their compactness means that they pack a lot of punch for the time it takes to read them.

There are all kinds of ways to teach using picture books.  

Just look! 

My challenge is to bring in my independent-reader 9 year old and my active practical 13 year old. 

Now for what to pick for the September Challenge:

Since we are studying the Middle Ages this year, when looking for favorite picture books in our shelves I was not surprised to find myself picking out folk tales and medieval legends.

Here are my September choices: inn picture form.

I will let you know more about them when we've gone through them all. 

Here are the spines just to make it easier.  It is hard to photograph picture books! 

Note: I just picked books we have around the house that we have either read and loved, or want to read, but I thought I would add  a few  lists from other sources to help out if you are looking for Medieval-themed Picture Books:

• Medieval Picture Books from Love2Learn
• Picture Books about the Middle Ages -- an Amazon list by Suzanne Gallus
• Our Ten Favorite Books about the Middle Ages at I Capture the Rowhouse

 If you have a favorite picture book connected with the MEdieval period of history, please share in the comments!