Halloween Storytime

To gear up for Halloween, I decided to do a storytime all about this holiday. The week prior I asked all of the kids to wear their costumes to storytime, and many did so with excitement. I brought along a costume of my own to share - my Little Red Riding Hood cape. We talked about how much fun it was to dress up before moving on to some "scary" stories.

Spooky Hour by Tony Mitton
This backwards counting book introduces a lot of scary or spooky creatures, but the bright, bubbly illustrations and whimsical rhymes keep the tone light.

Moonlight the Halloween Cat by Cynthia Rylant
This is a quiet story. Only a sentence or two on each two-page spread, but the pictures work well to set the mood. The Halloween references in this book are a tad subtle, but it was nice to break up my storytime with something not so incredibly saturated with the holiday.

Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman
My favorite Halloween story ever! This story lends itself really well to dramatizing to make it exciting for the kids. Just find a large pumpkin, tape the vine to the wall, and play the part of the witch while the kids take on the other roles.

We did a number of other activities, including a flannelboard story about Five Little Pumpkins and a draw-and-tell story about a witch and her cat. We also sang a song about Halloween creatures to the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know It."

If you're a ghost and you know it just say "boo!"
If you're a vampire and you know it show your fangs...
If you're a bat and you know it flap your wings....
If you're a werewolf and you know it give a howl....
If you're a skeleton and you know it shake your bones....

At the end, I also gave out a few treats. AAA had given the library a bunch of glow-in-the-dark Halloween bags perfect for trick-or-treating along with bookmarks outlining Halloween safety. The kiddos also received mellocream pumpkins as a fun candy treat

Crisis Averted! Sandra Boynton

When I started planning my Baby and Toddler storytimes, I wanted to incorporate an activity that I had seen done during one of my library school practicums. I picked out two board books (Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr. and Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton) and ordered 15 copies of each. My plan was to pass out one book to each parent and have them all read together as a group. It's a great activity to use with this age group because it really models how to read with young children. It's amazing how many parents are nervous about doing such a thing, so having practice during storytime is wonderful.

Well, my books finally arrived today. I was so excited! And then I got a phone call from my library director as she was cataloging the new books. "Sandy, did you know that we don't have copies of either of these books in the circulating collection?" What!?!? I was shocked. These are fairly prolific titles! So I wrote out cards to order these two titles. But then I got curious. Did we have other board books by these authors? We seemed OK with the Bill Martin books, but a search for books by Sandra Boynton revealed that we had only one of her board books.

Oh no! This shocked me. Sandra Boynton is one of the biggest names in the board book industry, and with good reason. There are several things that a good board book needs to be successful: 1) Quality, but simple illustrations, 2) Brief text, preferably with a good rhythm, and 3) Appeal to the sensibilities of both toddlers and adults. I have yet to see an author/illustrator achieve these goals with such flair as Sandra Boynton.

If you haven't had the opportunity to take a look at one of Sandra Boynton's books, I highly recommend that you do so now. In fact, look at several. Don't worry, I'll wait for you to finish. :) Your local public library will hopefully have copies, and even stores like Target and Wal-Mart usually have a few in stock in their book sections. Boynton's illustrations are distinctive - her characters' faces are so expressive, and the soft lines of her drawings are whimsical.

The text of her books is just about pitch perfect too. Boynton has an excellent sense of rhythm and all of her books have a good beat to them - not surprising when you remember that she has put together several collections of silly songs, several of which have been turned into board books. The sing-songy rhythm is great for babies and toddlers, who find the rhythm comforting and likewise use it to hear the distinct sounds in the words. There's just enough silliness to leave children and grown-ups alike with big grins on their faces when they are finished reading.


Sandra Boynton is the best of the best as what she does. The only good news about discovering my library's distinct lack of books penned by her? I got to spend the afternoon browsing around her website, looking at all of the wonderful books that I plan to order for the library. I can only imagine how giddy I'm going to be when the order arrives and I get to put the books on the shelves!

Overall Grade: A+

Here is just a sampling of my favorite Sandra Boynton titles. Check out her website for a complete listing of her books!

Barnyard Dance
Moo, Baa, La La La!
What's Wrong, Little Pookie?
Blue Hat, Green Hat

100th Post! Featuring a Funny Story

Today I am pleased to present this blog's 100th post! To celebrate, I'd like to share a story from my day yesterday.

Preschool storytime was all about the letter B. As a craft, we made birds by tracing our hands and then gluing the thumbs and palms together. You then fold down the finger to make wings and VOILA! A bird!


One little boy in my storytime got really excited about this craft. He even got creative with the paper scraps and constructed feet for his bird. After storytime cleared out the boy and his mother headed to the children's area to play and look at books. Awhile later I saw the boy run around the corner, ducking and weaving and making "Pshew! Pshew!" noises as he went with mom in tow. Mom called over her shoulder as they left the children's area that they were running from the bad guys and that his bird had laser eyes to protect them.

I was laughing too hard to tell the boy to stop running. And man, who am I to stop creative play like that? I'm actually kind of proud that my craft got this kid excited enough to imagine something crazy like that.

Moments like this really make me love the library.

Sisters Red

I have a confession. While I ended up going to library school and becoming a children's librarian, I almost went to grad school to study English Lit. Specifically, I wanted to look at fairy tales and the way that they have grown and changed over time. I really love fairy tales in all of its forms. The oldest versions of the tales we know today are fairly dark, and Little Red Riding Hood and among most perverse of the bunch. It's also one of my favorite tales, and I've always thought that this fairy tale would lend itself well to a modern retelling.

Good news: Jackson Pearce's version, Sisters Red, has proven my theory correct.

In this modern version of Little Red Riding Hood, there are actually two girls who fill the title role. The two sisters witnessed the murder of their beloved grandmother by a vicious Fenris as young children, and in the attack the oldest sister, Scarlett, was injured and lost an eye. Since that day Scarlett has devoted her life to hunting down and killing the Fenris, one werewolf at a time. Her younger sister, Rosie, is just as strong as Scarlett, but seems to long for something other than the hunt. When the two girls find themselves caught in the Fenris' search for a new potential wolf, how will the two girls reconcile their desires? And how will Silas, the son of their old woodsman friend, play into the mix?

This book really pleased me. This version of the story takes all of the classic themes that make Little Red Riding Hood interesting and molds them into something unique. Scarlett and Rosie are both strong characters and their alternating voices are smooth and distinct. It was also refreshing to see a supernatural story where a romantic relationship plays second fiddle to another relationship (in this case, the sisters') while still containing plenty of spark. The book has a few minor flaws (How many times can one really use the word "dilapidated" over the course of 100 pages?) and you have to let a couple of things go (What exactly does the modern woodsman do for a living?), but this book is a real satisfying page-turner.

Overall Grade: A