Picture Book Round-Up: What We've Been Liking From the Library

I liked the simple message in this book (see title). I'm always looking for good books that will help my students understand the value of reading. I think I might work this title into my beginning or end of the year lessons. It would be a great discussion starter for my students to talk about their own personal reading experiences. 

This book felt like a hybrid between a traditional picture book and a wordless picture book. There was minimal text in it, and the text didn't so much tell a story as much as it made simple observations of the illustrations and allowed the reader to fill in the story themselves. There were dangling questions that the reader could imagine or guess their own answers for. Would work great when studying quantity perhaps in a preschool science unit, or even just as a means for practicing some great quantitative vocab words: plenty, much, more, few, several, etc. Could lead into some fun circle time activities.

I picked this book up in the "new books" section at my library. I was not familiar with the series, but it's very cute. My preschool son liked this book. It's a simple little story, but the characters and illustrations are pretty darling. I think my son would enjoy reading more titles in the series. And my older son is able to read the simple words in it to his younger brother, so that make it extra fun!

Loved this book. Wordless. A walrus escapes from his tiny cage at the zoo, the zoo keeper goes searching for him, but the walrus cleverly disguises himself in a variety of situations. Lots of giggles from my preschooler. And of course, it makes him feel so clever to be able to spot the walrus on each page. Would be fun to give your students or kids a simple walrus cut-out, like the one in the story, and let them create their own illustration in which the walrus is cleverly (or not-so-cleverly) disguised. Perhaps you could do some fun brainstorming with them before this project, in which you come up with ideas for other places the walrus could have hid. 

This is one of those warm fuzzy (maybe cliche a bit?) that I could get behind. In it, a mom explains to her child that she loves them when they are doing all kinds of things that might make them feel unlovable: hitting, making messes, being irritating. What mom doesn't GET this? And what an important message to remind our kids of. All three of my kids (11,8, and 3) enjoyed hearing this story, and it made for some interesting conversation around the dinner table. 

I think I was expecting a lot form this book too; not sure what I had heard about it. But I wasn't really digging it. I guess it felt like one of those heavy-handed, cliched concepts to me: everybody is different, some do this, some do that, but be yourself. Left me feeling very "eh." The illustrations were pretty. And it would be fun to use the illustrations as inspiration for some cool fish art projects. Actually, if you found some nice, smooth, round-shaped stones, you could paint them to look like the fish in this story. That would be kind of fun. Maybe my kids and I will do that this summer. 

 

I love a funny story, and this is a funny story. My boys and I love to laugh together over a book, and this book was great for that. One of my sons has a hard time committing enough to a sport or activity to really put much effort into practicing, and this book was a great catalyst for us to talk about what it takes to get good at something. It's always nice when you can giggle about a topic and also have a thoughtful discussion about it. A humorous story can drive a point home much better than a lecturing parent. 

I was excited to read this title, because I had heard so much buzz about it. I was a little disappointed. I did enjoy it, but I guess I was expecting more. There is much beauty in this book. I love the tenderness between Baby Bear and Mama. The illustrations are pretty. The detail of all the various woodland creatures tucked most pages is fun. And because the story's theme is color, there is so much you could do to expand the story after reading. You could do a matching game with the colors and the critters from the book, you go on a color hunt of your own and create your own story book with a "baby" and a "mama"...