Blog Finale

Thank you to everyone who visited this blog. You are welcome to refer back to it and to use it (although please cite when that applies). As the focus of this blog was how I incorporate early literacy concepts from my librarianship into parenting my daughter, the fact that I have stopped writing makes sense. She is a first grade student now. Exploring and enjoying language (both in books and in our environment) continues. However, the approach changes. She can read more and more on her own. I can ask her different questions now than I did when she was younger. I feel confident that she started school with a strong foundation in expressing her thoughts, feelings, and imaginings. She has a strong vocabulary. I often am awestruck by the observations she makes and the unique perspective that she brings to each situation.

Also, my professional focus has shifted from providing early literacy services to supporting educators in their use of the library. So, I have to be knowledgeable in our resources geared for kindergarten through twelfth grade students. My approach is one of outreach where I go to them more often than they come to me. This is an urban area, so minimizing driving maximizes our ability to have an impact. As of Summer 2013, I have been a monthly contributor to Lizz Zitron's blog at The Outreach Librarian.

I appreciate your readership and all you do to help children bloom and grow.

Peace,

Anna Francesca Garcia

Back to Reality

Here I was thinking that I'd not yet written about non-fiction works, only to see that it was my subject in a post eight months ago!  However, in light of recent book-choices in my home, it bears repeating.  My kid loves books about the actual world.

Pre-K has been focusing on changes-- like caterpillars to butterflies and seeds to plants.  So, naturally, the tadpole to frog change was one that my daughter has heard among her metamorphosis studies.  Being a librarian means that she mentions interests, and I pull books.  It isn't in the official job description of "mom" or "librarian," but it may as well be.

So, I brought home a book called Growing Frogs by Vivian French/ Illustrated by Alison Bartlet, and she chose that as the bedtime story for two nights in a row.  It tells of a girl whose mom helps her tend frog spawn at home, and the nature facts (which are in a different font) emphasize the importance of respecting the ecological status of the frogs by only taking spawn from man-made ponds and by returning adult frogs to their pond of origin. The story and facts work well together and focus on both the development of tadpoles/frogs as well as how humans can interact with the process.  However, the illustrations are bright but simple.  While cute, I wanted photographs.

So, I brought home Tadpoles and Frogs by Anna Milborne.  I like how this book expanded on the one we read previously.  It talked about the changes that frog spawn-->tadpoles-->frogs experience.  However, it also talked about a variety of types of frogs, camouflage, hibernation, and eating adaptations.  While there were some illustrations, many colorful and detailed photographs also grace the pages.  (I know that I can count on books that are published by Usborne to have awesome graphics).  There is a table of contents, glossary, and index, but the text is sparse enough that with a focused kid in the upper preschool range, it can be done in a single sitting.  With a bookmark, it probably would work over a few days for the shorter-attention-spanned kid.  While we did read it in a single sitting, I measure my daughter's jump as we took a break from the text to experiment as suggested in the text.  (Yay for kinesthetic learning!  Moving rocks brain cells!)

Even though Milborne's writing is geared to early readers, it is advanced enough in its vocabulary and content that I felt okay having this be a read-aloud.  (I tend to avoid early reader books ever since I heard Jim Trelease speak against parents reading those to children.  I heard him talk in Las Vegas, NV, in 2005.  However, in instances like what I just stated, I will read them to my daughter).

So, if your kid is curious (and really, what kid ISN'T curious?), do not be afraid to jump the line away from stories into fact-land.  Non-fiction uses words that fiction doesn't, and it is another bridge to expanding awareness through books.

Drama Mama

I grew up in the theatre, literally performing in my first play at age five.  Therefore, I am biased.  I love the stage.  That said, I would like to tie that passion into early literacy.  For me, that is what storytime has been about for years.  However, I got one of my first tastes this past week of how, as a parent and audience member, I can collaborate with performing artists to bring out many more facets of a book than I would with a simple reading.

My daughter and I went to a play of Diary of a Worm, a Spider, and a Fly based on the books by Doreen Cronin/ Illustrated by Harry Bliss.  Many lines in the script came verbatim from the books, but the plots had a bit of expanding in the theatrical version of the tales.  It was pretty true to the text, though. 

The next day, my daughter was sitting in her carseat with her pencil and a notebook.  I kept hearing her say "Dear Diary" and then talk while she scribbled. After that, we went to our local library and checked out Diary of a Fly and Diary of a Spider.  She chose Diary of a Worm as her book to keep for our Reading Partners program where you can earn a free book after reading 20 books together.  Since checking them out/ acquiring them, we have read all three books multiple times. 

My daughter and I share books every night and many days, too.  Still, I think that she really clung to these tales not only because they are cute and funny but also because of the experience she had watching the stories unfold on stage.

*Warning for my librarian friends-- I think these stories in text form work better one-on-one than for storytime readings.  (This allows time for studying the illustrations and for children to absorb the humor).

Simplicity

I have been hanging on to two books for weeks now because I wanted to blog about them.  Tonight, I am. In doing so, I am toasting simplicity. 

One book, Dot by Patricia Intriago, has just a few words per page, and the illustrations are altered versions of a basic, black circle.  It manages to teach opposites and rhyme so seamlessly that kids probably miss the lesson and just enjoy watching the dot's shifting characteristics.

The other book, Higher! Higher! by Leslie Patricelli has colorful illustrations of a girl on a swing.  As many children do, she begs her dad to push her higher.  With just a few words, the illustrations convey the extreme lengths of her trip.  (It may not actually be possible to swing to outer space, but it is fun to imagine that it is).

While neither book is probably a huge vocabulary builder, they both provide wonderful jumping-off points for children to do their own storytelling.  I am always a fan of the planted question, "What if?"  I am awe-struck by those capable of planting the question using sparce language.  Kudos, Intriago and Patricelli!

Español for American Kids Who Like Pictures!

I read a book tonight that is a Latino version of "The House that Jack Built" in terms of it being a story that builds on itself and that has a cadence.  What was really fun about it to me, though, in addition to the repeating ending, was the way that it introduced characters and objects in English and then called them by their Spanish names in the following pages.  From context, I really felt like I was remembering the words!  The book was The Cazuela That the Farm Maiden Stirred by Samantha R. Vamos/ Illustrated by Rafael López.  It includes a recipe for rice pudding at the end along with a glossary of Spanish terms.  I really like how the book not only introduces the language but also Hispanic culture.

This book reminded me of two others that I really like because of how they introduce Spanish words in context.  Say Hola to Spanish and Eight Animals on the Town-- both by Susan Middleton Elya-- do a fantastic job of keeping bright illustrations and fun text at the forefront of the reading.  Even though the reviews on Eight Animals on the Town say that it is for older childen, I found that my daughter loved it when she was three.  I do not believe she is out of the norm here.  We made animal sounds to go along with the text, and she came away wanting both re-reading and pineapple upside-down cake (which features in the story).  Both of the Elya books that I mention above are part of larger series that also have an immersive Spanish language feature in a mostly English text. 

So, enjoy your libros with your niños and niñas!

Nursery Rhyme Numbers

As of late, my daughter recites the "One, two, buckle my shoe..." poem at least once a day.  Her Pre-K evaluation a few months ago said that she needed to work on recognizing written numbers.  Ah ha!  While D loves the rhyme and rhythm of her chant, I see it as a wonderful way to practice seeing how we write different numerals.  Yay for the book Big Fat Hen by Keith Baker!  This book does not feature a complicated story and is only slightly an elaboration on the poem itself.  However, the bright illustrations an engaging companion to speaking the nursery rhyme.  Moreover, my daughter gets to see every number she says in bold, bright font.  This is a cute book that works for younger siblings or friends, too.  However, for the pre-writers of the world, it also serves a purpose.

Books Battle Bullying

"Bibliotherapy" means that books can help people in specific situations.  Yeah, it is an academic term.  It has legitimate uses, though.  In this case, I want to talk about a book that helped my daughter when she was being bullied.  Some of the big kids ("school-agers") were saying mean things to her and calling her a "loser."  She said that it hurt her heart.  How horrible is it for a mama to hear this!  Of course, I talked with the daycare director about the situation.  Luckily, we also stumbled into a wonderful book for dealing with the issue.

I found a copy of The Cow That Went Oink by Bernard Most.  In it, farm animals laugh at a cow who says "oink" and at a pig who says "moo."  However, these two animals decide to teach each other the sounds that they know.  With much hard work and perseverance, they become the only "bilingual" animals on the entire farm!  I love the empowering message this has.  My daughter, though, took it one step further.  She kept telling the story where all the animals then started learning how to make different sounds. 

We also read Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes.  She had read with her Pre-K class, too.  It is a classic for a reason.  The title character's long, floral name-- while deemed perfect by her parents-- earns taunts from several classmates.  Luckily, the awesome art teacher, Delphinium, restores Chrysanthemum's pride.  It is amazing what the positive effect of a mentor can be!  My daughter beams when she says how her name is also the name of a flower.

One of the Every Child Ready to Read 2 skills is "talking."  I like that these books give a springboard for important conversations.   

Adventures in Process

I grew up in theatre, so permanently emblazoned upon my brain is the phrase, A story has a beginning, a middle, and an end."  Acting teachers were pretty tired of scenes that lacked an end, I think.  Anyhow, the theatre where I grew up recently did a production of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie based on the book by Laura Numeroff and illustrated by Felisha Bond.  My daughter definitely enjoyed it. 

This was several months ago.  Last night, we read If You Give a Dog a Doughnut by the same author-illustrator team.  She loved it, and I loved seeing her "get" how cause and effect works.  (It reminds me of the "if...then" statements in the BASIC language of computers, but I digress).  She proved her comprehension even more tonight when she started telling a story (showing off her--as Every Child Ready to Read 1 would call them-- "Narrative Skills) "If you give a llama a book."  I asked her questions to prompt along the tale, but her imagination carried it.  While, unlike the books in the Numeroff-Bond series, her story did not end where it began, I still enjoyed it.  More importantly, she did. 

Happy Year of the Dragon!

Last week, my daughter and I enjoyed a community Chinese New Year's celebration.  Due to the reading that we did before attending this arts & crafts event, she derived much more from the activities than she would have if we had gone without our biblio-prep.  (Is that a term?  I guess that it is now!)

The book, which bore repeated readings at D's prompting, is The Magic Brush: A Story of Love, Family, and Chinese Characters by Kat Yeh/ Illustrated by Huy Boun Lee.  In it, Jasmine is a Chinese-American girl whose grandfather, Agong, teaches her the art of Chinese calligraphy as she explores her imagination.  Each page features Chinese characters, and the end of the book has an extra section that includes a pronunciation key, history of Chinese art, and list of several Chinese treats.

The story itself is touching. ::Spoiler alert:: Although it does not say so concretely, it is pretty clear that Agong dies.  However, the tale also deals with this in a touching though not saccharin way. 

I love the connection between Agong and Jasmine as well as the way that she comes to transmit the values and culture he shared with her.  The bold, colorful illustrations that incorporate Chinese characters like an Asian WordWorld are also impressive.

Fractured Fairy Tales for the Preschool Set

I am back, readers!  Today, I want to speak up on behalf of traditional nursery rhymes and fairy tales.  I grant that there are some stories that are rather violent for young folk.  I'm not one for reading Grimm tales straight to my daughter.  However, having heard some of the general cannon not only leads to a sense of commonality, but it opens the doors for kids to enjoy fractured fairy tales.  (It is sort of like grammar, you only notice the broken rules if you've learned what the rules are.  In this case, though, the results are funny). 

So, here a couple of spoofs of traditional nursery rhymes and fairy tales that have amused both me and my daughter recently:

Detective Blue by Steve Metzger/ Illustrated by Tedd Arnold:  So, Little Boy Blue grows up to become a detective who seeks the missing Little Miss Muffet.  The cartoon style book give many opportunities for character voices.  The detective-style tale is adorable, and there are a multitude of funny details in the illustrations that make this a wonderful choice for re-reads.

Dragon Pizzeria by Mary Morgan:  D asked for this one several nights in a row.  Two dragons work together.  One makes the pizzas while saying nursery-rhyme knock-offs.  The other delivers the pizzas all over fairytale land.  Fairy tale characters order each pizza to specifications that match their story's situation.  The biggest treat for us was probably the map at the end that included everyone from the book.

Let's Play!

Playing is one of the literacy skills that Every Child Ready to Read, 2nd edition emphasizes.  Duh!  Kids love playing.  (So do grown-ups, for that matter).  I think, though, that I'll use this blog as an opportunity to recognize innovative books where reading them is a form of playing.

Last night, I read In My World by Lois Ehlert with my daughter.  Cutouts of various parts of nature layer over each other to yield an image that looks like Earth.  I think the moths were D's favorite part.  (Naming all of the different elements ties into the former version of Every Child Ready to Read's "vocabulary" focus).  It puts a message about environmentalism into a preschooler-friendly format.  Moreover, the clever shape overlays are just fun.

Another Lois Ehlert book was a huge hit when I took it with me on fall storytime outreach.  It is called Leaf Man.  The illustrations are all made from collages of different leaves and acorns, and the end-papers identify what types of foilage they are.  I used how many animals the tale mentions for the children to join me in making animal sounds (which ties into "phonological awareness" from ECRR version 1).  Again, the creative way of seeing ordinary objects in a unique was is fun.

Alphabet Antics

Aunt Linda, of blessed memory, loved ABC books.  She had a bookshelf specifically to house her collection.  However, not all alphabet books are created the same.  I want to introduce my daughter to a couple of my favorite ABC books.  In addition to our nightly singing of the alphabet song (with a stuffed animal pointing to the specified letters on a wall-poster), this will help her become more prepared to read and write on her own.

She enjoyed when I read Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten by Joseph Slate/ Illustrated by Ashley Wolff to her.  I want to check out more in that series.  The fact that each kindergarten student is an animal whose name and animal type begin with a different letter of the alphabet is great.  I also like the other early literacy aspects of the kindergarten room set-up (shapes in the blocks, numbers on the wall, etc).  The other book that I have put on request for her is Matthew ABC by Peter Catalanotto.  In this book, every child has the name "Matthew" and a quirk that starts with some letter of the alphabet, with all 26 being represented.  It is cute, and I know she'll meet kids who get differentiated by their last initial.

*If you have ABC books that are particularly awesome for you, please feel free to share in a comment.

Boo!

Halloween is a much-anticipated event in our home.  My daughter loves all-things-spooky.  (If you don't believe me, check my earlier blog on Scooby Doo).  Anyhow, now that she is four, her attention span has increased.  This has allowed me the opportunity to share with her books that were previously not in our range. 

The two big hits I want to point out are Boris and Bella by Carolyn Crimi and Scary Fright, Are You All Right? by Scott Gibala Broxholm.  Both manage to have a monster-perspective twist on real conflicts, be they between neighbors (like the neat-freak Boris and the messy Bella) or between parents and children (like with Scary Fright and her folks).  I have been a huge fan of Boris and Bella since I first read it as a new book that came into my work at a library in Las Vegas.  The illustrations use jagged lines and muted colors to create just the right eerieness.  Just this year, I found Scary Fright.  The book goes through multiple episodes of Scary's young life after her outlook shifts once she befriends a human.  My daughter has requested multiple readings.

In general, both of these books, while being appropriate to the holiday season, are not overly gorey.  They teach an embracing of differences while respecting one's own individual traits.  All the while, neither book falls into preachiness.  Most importantly, they are fun!  So, if you're incorporating literature for your pre-kindergarten or kindergarten kiddo into your Halloween celebrations, give these two a whirl.

Worth a Thousand Words

Wordless picture books are a great way to empower kids to tell stories.  (In the old version of Every Child Ready to Read, this was the building of "Narrative Skills."  For the new version, we can just say that it encourages talking).  The Chicken Thief by Béatrice Rodriguez is an adorable wordless picture book that has bright, specific illustrations.  My daughter enjoyed telling me about what was happening on each page.  I think that next I will have to bring home The Red Book by Barbara Lehman.  It has been a while since I read it, but I remember this being another that impressed me with the clear plot and room for extrapolation that it provided.

Click Your Mouse Button Now!

As much as pop-up books are at hit at my home, I am delighted to have found a book that proves simplicity can still be engaging.  Press Here by Hervé Tullet tells the listener what to do (press a dot, blow the black background off of the page, etc).  With each page turn, the variation in illustrated dots seems to result from the action that the child did on the previous page.  While I enjoyed the inventiveness of the book and the way that it reinforces concepts of color, size, and pattern, the real sign that this is a winner came when my daughter chose it from the huge pile of library books at home as the one for me to read to her again.  The interactive nature of this book makes reading it feel like playing a game. 

Innovative Illustrator Illuminates

I wanted to write today about an author/ illustrator whose inventive paper-cutting techniques bring vividly to life basic early literacy concepts.  I love reading the work of Laura Vacarro Seeger.  Her books are simple, yet they make clear some important ideas.  Below are some books by her that I recommend along with the topics they cover:

The Hidden Alphabet  (Letters)

First the Egg (Processes)

Black? White! Day? Night!  (Opposites)

Lemons are Not Red  (Colors)

Just the Facts, Mam.

Not everyone will like everything.  Just as preschoolers assert their preferences in terms of what to wear, what to eat, and what to play, they have their opinions about what to read.  Even when kids are in the toddler phase, they tend to have a book that their caregivers could recite by heart due to having repeated in ad nauseum.  (In our case, this was Moo! Baa! La La La! by Sandra Boynton ).

Imagine my surprise to find that my daughter, the child of someone with her graduate academic certificate in storytelling, loves juvenile non-fiction.  For some of the most simple, we read cover to cover.  For others, though, we read some captions while we look at the illustrations, photographs, and diagrams.  (In her Pre-K orientation, the teachers emphasized the importance for parents who are not literate in the language of a book to share stories with their children by discussing the pictures). We talk about the history and biology that have come to life in amazing pop-up volumes.  Books about ancient Egypt, dinosaurs, plants, and animals have been the big winners at our home.  My daughter tends to be very tactile; she wants to feel the world.  For her, books as instructions for basic science experiments and crafts are as useful or more so than those where the entire experience is on the pages.   

Two books at my home that sparked conversation and nursed my daughter's intrigue are new selections from the Insiders Alive series.  They have pop-up and other interactive features, but the writing is also informative and relevant.  The ones we have enjoyed are: Earthquakes and Volcanoes by Anita Ganeri and Ancient Egypt by Robert Coupe.

Smaller and Smaller

 So, I've been thinking about this blog ever since writing the last one.  It is way past time to share information about two of my favorite re-tellings of a Yiddish folktale.  Especially in these times of hardship and economic challenge, the message in the story is pertinent.  The repetition and simplicity of the story makes it a great tale to share with preschoolers, though. 

The story is about a coat that, as it gets worn, a grandfather who is also a tailor remakes into many smaller garment pieces for his grandson.  In the end, once the boy loses the button that the coat eventually became, all that is left is a wonderful story.

Something from Nothing by Phoebe Gilman-- My favorite part of these illustrations is the mouse family.  As the humans lose fabric scraps in their home, the mice under the house gather them and use them to decorate their tiny abode.

Joseph Had a Little Overcoat by Simms Tabak-- This book (which won the Caldecott Award for children's illustration) has very fun, bright pictures.  My favorite part of this one is the collection of Yiddish and Hebrew newspaper clippings worked into the background.  For the kids, though, the way that the garment changes because of cuts in the pages is probably the most endearing way that the pictures convey the story.

Bigger, Bigger, Bigger...

Tonight, I read my daughter a book called Sally and the Purple Socks by Lisze Bechtold.  In it, a duck has cozy purple socks that magically grow, and grow, and grow.  As they do, Sally has to find new uses for the "socks" that no longer fit.  Sometimes their largess is a problem, but her creative responses tend to make the best of situations that initially frustrate her. 

This reminded me of a book that my mom read to me when I was little.  It was one of her favorites.  (Yes, kids can tell).  The story was Bembelman's Bakery by Melinda Green.  It is the tale of a baker's family who must deal with the growing mountain of dough that results from the children's attempt at making bread.  A little too much yeast leads to a wonderful tale.

When reading with my daughter tonight, the patterns of the socks' growth progressing as we turned the page allowed me to use the book to prompt predictions.  "What do you think will happen?  How will Sally use the socks next?"  Often, my daughter says, "I don't know.  Let's find out!"  Maybe soon she will progress to letting her imagination paint the blanks.  Meanwhile, I am glad to see that already holds enthusiasm for reading and the knowledge that secrets unfold as we turn the pages.

Illustrations Inspire Improv

My daughter has started a new game.  She often asks what the characters in different pictures are saying.  This allows me to improvise dialog based on the text of a story.  The Great Big Book of Families by Mary Hoffman/ Illustrated by Ros Asquith has fantastic illustrations for this exercise.  It has detailed cartoon-style drawings that speak to the multitude of various homes, families, and cultures in which children find themselves.  I like the non-judgmental approach to different backgrounds.  I keep encouraging my daughter to speak on behalf of the characters, too.  So far, she leaves me to do the voices.  Hopefully, though, she will soon add her narrative skills to the mix.