14 Kids' Novels Illustrated by Beth & Joe Krush

 

Beth and Joe Krush are a husband-and-wife team of children's books illustrators, both born in 1918. (Beth Krush died in 2009.) They illustrated a variety of children's novels, mostly in the 1950s and 1960s. Here is a selection of some of their best-known work.

The Borrowers Series

 

This series by Mary Norton tells about tiny people who live in secret hiding places in a house in England, where they borrow things from humans in order to furnish their own homes. There are five titles in the series:

• The Borrowers (1952)
• The Borrowers Afield (1955)
• The Borrowers Afloat (1959)
• The Borrowers Aloft (1961)
• The Borrowers Avenged (1982)
  

Books by Beverly Cleary

 

The Krushes illustrated five works by beloved author Beverly Cleary: her sole historical fiction novel (Emily's Runaway Imagination) and the four titles in her young adult "first love" series:

• Fifteen (1956)
• The Luckiest Girl (1958)
• Jean and Johnny (1959)
• Sister of the Bride (1963)
  

Other Novels

 

Miracles on Maple Hill (1956)
by Virginia Sorenson
This Newbery Medal winning novel tells of a young girl's year in Maple Hill with her family as her father deals with post-traumatic stress disorder associated with his experiences as a prisoner of war.

Gone-Away Lake (1957)
by Elizabeth Enright
In this 1958 Newbery Honor book Portia and her cousin Julian discover an abandoned lakeside community and make friends with a pair of elderly siblings who still inhabit two of the rundown houses.The Krushes also illustrated the 1961 sequel, Return to Gone-Away.

All-of-a-Kind Family Downtown (1972)
by Sydney Taylor
This series, about a charming family of five girls and one boy living in early 20th century Manhattan, has had a number of illustrators. The Krushes provided the drawings for just this one volume.

First Grade CCD 2014-2015: Lesson 6: God Speaks To Us (10/20/14)

This post has moved: http://ccdlessonplans.blogspot.com/2014/11/god-speaks-to-us-first-grade.html 

20 Literacy Activities About Quilts

Winter is on the way! Snuggle up with your beginning readers and try some of these quilt-themed literacy activities collected from my story time archives and other education sites around the web.

 

Bedtime Stories & Songs

• Cuddle up in bed with a quilt and sing some lullabies. 
• Read The Quilt Story. This book was written by Tony Johnston and illustrated by none other than Tomie DePaola. I probably read this book to myself 200 times as a kid, and it still holds up even as an adult!
• Learn a quilt pattern for each letter of the alphabet in Eight Hands Round by Ann Whitford Paul.
• Celebrate each season of the year with the poems and quilt-themed illustrations in Pieces by Anna Grossnickle Hines.
• Imagine what could happen if a quilt were alive in the dreamlike picture book The Quilt by Ann Jonas.

 

Flannel Board Stories

• "The Quilt that Grandma Made" is a poem from Highlights High Five magazine that I adapted for the flannel board.  It's one of my favorite story time activities for the letter Q. 
• On her blog, Miss Mary Liberry created a flannel board for "A Blanket for the Princess" from Storytime Magic. When a princess wants a multi-colored blanket for her bed, a wise old woman suggests a quilt instead.

 

Quilts to Make

• Make a reading quilt. Reading is Fundamental (RIF) provides a list of materials and simple instructions to follow. 
• Create a story quilt inspired by scenes from a favorite book. Literature Circles Resource Center has instructions and examples. 
• Download a printable Phonemic Awareness Rhyming Quilt from Lakeshore Learning. (The link is under the Language Arts section in the middle of the page.) 
• Color a Queen and Quarterback Quilt. (The link to this activity on Pinterest is dead, but the blog it leads to is called Dinosaurs Toys.) Google Images is a great site to search for Queen and Quarterback coloring pages.
• Make a DIY Ziploc Quilt like the one shown in this post at Pre-K pages and play Swat the Bugs, where each bug is labeled with a different letter and your child must find and swat the letter you name.
• Print out a Sight Word Quilt (free printable created by Molly K.) and use it to mark off familiar words as you read.

Letter Knowledge

• Color quilt patterns by letter. Making Learning Fun provides five free printables for the Churn and Dash, Turkey Tracks, Variable Star, Water Wheel, and Weather Vane designs.
• If you're looking for a long-term project try sewing a Quilted ABC book like this one from Sew Inspired. 
• Practice writing the letter Q with these free printable letter tracing worksheets from Guru Parents.
• Glue pictures of items that start with Q around a letter Q (printable available from This Reading Mama.)
• Use scrapbook paper to create a quilted letter Q. Crystal and Co. has a printable pattern and photos to show you how to make it.

 

Fingerplays

• Count quilts from 5 down to zero with Quilts Galore. Fill in the names of family members or your child's friends to personalize the rhyme. 
• Count up everything your child needs at bedtime with Canton Public Library's "Good Night!" 

LibraryAdventure.com: Meet Emily Andrus, Youth Librarian

This month's Library Adventure interview profiles Emily Andrus from Queen Creek Branch Library in Queen Creek, Arizona. Learn about Emily here.