Baby Lap Time, 4/22

I didn't have a theme for this week, and actually even deviated from my plans. It's Spring Break here, so many siblings and older kids came along to story time, and it was tough to keep everyone focused on what I was doing with so much chaos all around. We did our best, though. Here's what we sang and read.

Opening Song: Clap Along With Me
I've been experimenting with different opening songs for this group, and I think I've finally settled on one I like.
 
Song: Numbers Are Our Friends

Song: ABCs (a cappella sing-along)

Book: A Was Once an Apple Pie by Edward Lear, illustrated by Suse MacDonald (Orchard Books, 2005)
This book is pretty long, but I wanted to do an alphabet book and this is the only that has been checked in for weeks and weeks. I probably could have done just a few letters, but I did read the whole thing. The babies seemed drawn to the illustrations, and I probably could have done more with the rhythm if not for the aforementioned chaos.

Song: The Wheels on the Bus
This is not the most baby-friendly song in the world, but I needed something high-energy to bring everybody back after that long book!

Song: Itsy Bitsy Spider (a cappella sing-along)
This was great! Every adult in the room sang along, and the babies loved watching our fingers climbing up and up.

Book: Uh-oh! by Rachel Isadora (Harcourt, 2008)
We watch as a baby goes through the day making mess after mess. A perfect book for babies, but not really for older kids. The big kids were bored and restless. It's fun to say "Uh oh" over and over again, though. It has a nice sing-song rhythm to it. Some of the moms jumped in on the refrain, too, which added to that effect. Rachel Isadora is one of my go-to story time authors.

Song: I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly
Using the flannelboard cut outs I found on kizclub.com yesterday, I sang this song with no musical accompaniment. I decided to forgo the usual version where the refrain is, "Perhaps she'll die" and changed it to "Oh me, oh my." This is a trick I picked up at the Wimpfheimer Nursery School, when I worked there back in college. The nannies and moms adjusted quickly and sang right along with me. At the end, when she eats the horse, we sang, "She had a tummyache of course!" It was almost perfect, except that an older sibling got right up in the front of the room and announced, "Actually, she died." Too funny! Oh well. I don't have an objection to the death theme, I just felt weird singing it to babies.

Song: I'm a Little Teapot

Song: Head and Shoulders Knees and Toes

Song: Tony Chestnut Knows I Love You 

Book: Blue Chameleon by Emily Gravett (Simon & Schuster, March 2011)
A lonely chameleon changes shade and shape to mirror potential friends - a yellow banana, a brown boot, a swirly snail, etc. Nothing seems like a good fit, though, until he meets another chameleon. Then they both shine bright with all the colors of the rainbow. The chameleon's comic little face draws you into the story, and the illustrations - including the one showing the white chameleon on a white background - are gorgeous and fun. Even the big kids got into this one. If you read this to a group, don't forget to show the end papers - the chameleon looks drab at the start of the book, and bright as can be at the end. A new favorite.

Song: Old MacDonald Had a Farm

Song: We Wave Goodbye Like This

6 Novels in Verse for Kids

•  What My Mother Doesn't Know
  (Young Adult)
  by Sonya Sones
  Sophie doesn't want to date geeky Murphy for fear of what her friends will say, but Dylan, the socially acceptable boyfriend she chooses instead, might not be all he's cracked up to be. I love this book because it's so true to life - as Jennifer Hubert said in her review on Amazon.com - "No woman will be able to read this heartfelt verse novel and not find a bit of herself in Sophie's secret, sexy thoughts." Any girl who has ever been boy crazy will see herself in Sophie's story.
• Shakespeare Bats Cleanup
  (Young Adult)
  by Ron Koertge
  Kevin plays baseball, but when he's diagnosed with mono, he finds himself reading - and then writing - poetry to pass the time. As he writes, he discovers his own thoughts and feelings about his friends, his dad, playing baseball, and his mother's recent death. It's hard to find accessible poetry that middle school kids will actually want to read, but Ron Koertge makes it difficult not to like Kevin.  The book also has a sequel entitled Shakespeare Makes the Playoffs.
• The Realm of Possibility
  (Young Adult)
  by David Levithan
  In my opinion, even David Levithan's prose is poetry, but this book is written in verse, and it's one of my favorites. Each poem is from the point of view of a particular teenager. Some are best friends, some are halves of the same couple; all attend the same high school. What emerges as the story goes on is a portrait of this group of kids, and an understanding of what makes them tick, what motivates them, and how they feel about one another. The poems are as diverse as their speakers, and each poem is very emotional. Read this one with tissues on hand.
• Song of the Sparrow
  (Young Adult)
  by Lisa Ann Sandell
  This may be the best historical fiction novel I have ever read. It's a retelling of the story of the Lady of Shalott, where Elaine is a teenage girl, raised by the men of the Briton army after her mother is killed. She mends the men's clothing, and heals their wounds, while pining for the love of Lancelot and trying desperately to get along with Guinevere, who treats her like a servant rather than a friend. The original story has a tragic ending, but this book takes a more uplifting approach. The language is beautiful, and the story is so engaging, I could easily have read it in one sitting. My full review from when I read this back in 2009 is available on  Goodreads.
• Home of the Brave
  (Middle Grade)
  by Katherine Applegate
  Kek is a Sudanese refugee whose father and brother were killed in front of him, and whose mother was left behind when he came to live with his aunt in Minnesota. This beautiful story tells of his adjustment to American life, and how he slowly carves a niche for himself in his new home. This book is amazingly well-written and really personalizes a situation that kids may have heard about on the news.
• The D- Poems of Jeremy Bloom
  (Middle Grade)
  by Gordon Korman and Bernice Korman
  It's becoming part of the weekly routine to include one book from my childhood. This week, I'm including D- Poems, because it was probably the first book I ever read that was written entirely in poetry, but which told a whole story. I can remember reading  this book over and over again, late into the night, enjoying the same joke - that Jeremy signed up for poetry because he thought it was pottery. The poems that come out of his accidental semester are hilarious and get at the heart of what middle school is really like. Sadly, this book is out of print now, but it is remains a favorite of mine.

Baby/Toddler Story Time, 4/19 (Special Jazz Story Time)

Each library in my system was asked to do a Jazz-themed story time during the month of April. I chose to do it for babies and toddlers because that is my largest and most stable story time, and I knew I would have a big audience. It was definitely a different kind of story time than usual, and I think that confused some people, but overall, it was a nice opportunity to step outside of my comfort zone and learn some new books and songs.

Opening song: Hello song

Song: ABC's


This song was fun because it sings the alphabet three times through, getting a little bit faster each time. I was thankful for some of the older siblings in attendance, who helped the little ones get into it by singing along at top volume.

Song: If You'd Like to Read a Book


Book: Jazz Baby by Lisa Wheeler and R. Gregory Christie

A musical family scats, sings, swings, and bops the baby to sleep. Lots of great rhythm and movement in this book. I felt silly reading it all, but it was worth it. With a book like this, the more you ham it up, the better!

Song: Session 1: The Wheels on the Bus; Session 2: The Wheels on the Bus

The jazz songs I used in the first session weren't very successful, so I didn't use as many in session 2.

Song: I'm a Little Teapot

Song: Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes (Session 2 only)

Book: A Tisket-A Tasket by Ella Fitzgerald, illustrated by Ora Eitan

I played Ella Fitzgerald singing this song, and turned the pages of the book along with it. I absolutely love  the song, and though the book didn't 100% follow the recording I had, I think it still worked well. A little boy mourns the loss of the little yellow basket that held a letter for his mother. He's convinced a little girl took it, and spends the rest of the book searching for it. The song leaves us hanging, without ever finding out the fate of the basket, but the book resolves the ending, and we find out the little girl didn't take the basket at all - there were two yellow baskets all along.

Song: Session 1: Ten Little Monkeys; Session 2: Monkeys on the Bed


Book: Jazzmatazz by Stephanie Calmenson, illustrated by Bruce Degen

This book features a baby and his animal friends playing and tapping along to jazz  music. They all play the same rhythm, which is  repeated again and again throughout the book: "Doo-dat ditty-dat, ditty-dat doo!" as each animal shows off his or her talent, then hands the spotlight over to the next one. A good rhyming story, with repetition that makes it easy for the audience to join in and read along with you. 


Song: There's a Little Wheel a-Turnin' in my Heart

Song: One, Two, I Love You (Numbers Are Our Friends) (Session 1 only)

Book: What a Wonderful World by George David Weiss and Bob Thiele, illustrated by Ashley Bryan

I can remember loving What a Wonderful World as a kid. I have a very clear memory of being at some sort of Girl Scout event and  watching a nature video where this song played in the background. I sat there fighting back tears and had no idea  why. So I decided this would be a good way to  end story time, by introducing the kids to a song maybe they haven't heard yet. Ashley Bryan's colorful interpretation of the song is beautiful, and many of the adults sang along with the help of the words on the pages. The kids don't know who Louis Armstrong is yet, but hopefully, someday they will.


Goodbye Song: Skinnamarink

5 Kids' Books About Libraries

• That Book Woman
  (Picture Book)
  by Heather Henson and David Small
  It's the 1930's and Cal lives in Appalachia. The Book Woman is a Pack Horse librarian, who brings books to remote areas. Cal is resistant to her deliveries at first, because he can't read, but ultimately becomes inspired by the librarian's visits and begs his sister, whose bookishness previously annoyed him, to teach him to read, too.
• Read It, Don't Eat It!
  (Picture Book)
  by Ian Schoenherr
  Various adorable animals are shown treating books badly. The accompanying text reminds us in a humorous way that we need to treat library books with respect.
• Because of Winn Dixie
  (Middle Grade)
  by Kate DiCamillo
  This book is not just about libraries, but it has a wonderful librarian in it. Miss Franny tells stories to Opal and her dog, Winn Dixie, gives them special candies called Litmus Lozenges, that somehow manage to taste sad, and becomes one of the many adult friends Opal makes during her first summer in Naomi, Florida.
• Please Bury Me in the Library
  (Picture Book)
  by J. Patrick Lewis, illustrated by Kyle M. Stone
  This collection of poetry about books, reading, and libraries is one of my favorite poetry books of all time. Among other truly brilliant observations, it gives us one of my favorite quotations: "A bad book owes to many trees / A forest of apologies."
• Help! I'm a Prisoner in the Library!
  (Middle Grade)
  by Eth Clifford
  I read this book when I was in elementary school. We started reading it in school, and I went home and read the rest of  the book ahead of the class. I remember specifically that I was scolded by my teacher and asked not to do that again. It was such a good story, though! Two girls are trapped inside a library during a blizzard, and various scary things happen. An intriguing premise and just scary enough.