A Few Recent Storytime Hits

I have many posts in the works that I promise to get posted in May!  BUT I wanted to make sure I got something posted for April so I could keep my streak of posting going. In the spirit of my December post of BOOKS I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO I thought a fun and quick post would be a round-up of some books I’ve done in storytime over the past few months that have been really big hits.  I LOVE posts and recommendations on Twitter or Facebook, it always gives me new ideas and is there anything better than finding a new storytime book?  So why not share some of mine? Here’s some of my recent favorites.

How Hippo Says Hello and How Gator Says Good-bye by Abigail Samoun, illustrated by Sarah Watts These simple board books follow animals as they travel the world and learn to say “hello” and “good-bye” in a seven languages from Spanish to Arabic. The pictures share famous landmarks and each page has a simple one word with pronunciation.  I did these as opener/closer for a storytime and my international parents LOVED IT.  One of the moms squeezed her little girl into a joyous hug  with a huge smile when we got to India.  Lots of fun and a great way to introduce new vocabulary and a global touch to storytimes.  Please and Thank You are on the way.

WazDot? written and illustrated by Michael Slack A deceptively simple book about a little alien who finds himself on a farm this actually appealed to a huge range of kids. Kids LOVE guessing books and in this one they get to see outlined shadows to predict what will be on the next page.  My little kids loved it and the slightly older toddlers loved the noises and reactions from the little alien.  And they allllllll loved saying “Wazzzzzzzzz dot?!” as we turned the pages. The alien runs off from his school again (“Ooooh!” they whispered) and heads to  … town, leaving my kids begging for the sequel.

Why Are You Doing That? by Elisa Amado, illustrated bu Manuel Monroy Another predictive text with a few more words, this one still worked with a large age range.  A little boy named Chepito wanders around his house and neighborhood and asks the adults who are feeding chickens, tilling soil, and making food, “Why are you doing that?” The kids loved talking about what they saw and hearing the answers.  In our smaller town, it was great to have a book with a rural setting (“do you know anyone who raises their own chickens?”) and of course the diversity of the characters and their world was a big plus.  Lots of fun to pause and ask “And what do you think Chepito asked?” you can imagine what they shouted back!

Edgar’s Second Word by Audrey Vernick, illustrated by Priscilla Burris This is a book I used with our older storytime session since it’s slightly longer.  Our older session (Ready, Set, Read) is for kids 4-7 so they are ready for longer stories with more plots, so this was a perfect fit.  Poor Hazel, her baby brother Edgar isn’t fun at all – he cries and throws fits and never wants to play.  But maybe Edgar is paying more attention (as he grows) than Hazel expects. The kids and parents both loved this – from seeing Edgar misbehave to the cute illustrations.  And, naturally, when Edgar says his second word and he and Hazel share a moment of sibling closeness, EVERYONE was grinning.  Big and little sibling loved this one.  It was part of a sibling storytime that was a lot of fun.

The Very Big Carrot written and illustrated by Satoe Tone The only problem with this book was the size – it’s a little smaller than a traditional picture book, but the illustrations are so luscious and detailed and weird. I took the time to walk it through the crowd. Some rabbits find a VERY BIG CARROT and can’t figure out what to do with it.  Should they make it into a plane? A beautiful house?  What if they …. “EAT IT! EAT IT! EAT IT!” screamed every kid in the room.  This was a nice treat in a bunny storytime.

Bears in the Bath by Shirley Parenteau, illustrated by David Walker If you’re not using the BEARS series in storytime, you’re missing out.  So far there’s Bears on Chairs, Bears in Bed, and Bears and a Birthday.  They are fun, short, rhyming books about a set of four bears who make trouble.  The bears are each easily identified by color and the text is predictive and the right amount of silly. I used this one as part of a bath storytime (the older kids also got really into Who’s in the Tub by Sylvie Jones – but the younger ones didn’t quite get that one) and it was a big hit because of the muddy bears who just DON’T want a bath.  ALL of these books are great for storytime: the rhyme, the easy to fit multiple themes, the bears, the colors all lend themselves to re-telling and easy audience participation.4

SO!  There are just a few of my recent storytime hits – a few surprises (that weird carrot book!) with some familiar faces (the bears are back!) It’s always fun to try to figure out what worked with each crowd and why AND to take some chances to see how books will come alive with different ages and crowds.  That’s the magic of storytime and learning and learning every time.

What are some of YOUR recent storytime successes?  What are some books that surprised you or new books that worked in great ways?  Are there books you are looking forward to sharing? I think knowing what other people have used/tried/succeeded with (and even sometimes failed with…) in their real-life storytimes is the BEST kind of sharing and the BEST way to find new material, so I’d love to hear from you about some of your recent experiences. Leave a comment here or chat with me on Twitter.