LibraryAdventure.com: 7 Qualities of Awesome Children's Librarians

My latest post at The Library Adventure is dedicated to awesome children's librarians everywhere. Check it out - and give a shout-out to your favorite librarians in the comments!

Picture Book Review: Hooray for Bread by Allan Ahlberg and Bruce Ingman (2013)

The story of a loaf of bread is told slice by slice and crumb by crumb in this well-written rhyming picture book. Bruce Ingman’s pictures use an interesting color palette, wherein some parts of each image are pink, red, and white, and others are drawn in full color. The colors give the book an overall cheerful look, which matches its celebratory tone, and the cartoonish figures look a bit like a child’s own illustrations.

My favorite page in the whole book is when the baker’s wife and the baby visit the duck pond and throw breadcrumbs to the ducks. Ingman perfectly captures the frenzied movements of the ducks as they paddle excitedly toward the bread crumbs, and the paint strokes he uses to convey the rippling water are perfect. I also love the illustration of the interior of the entire house at night, showing every member of the family in his or her bed.

If your family, like mine, bakes its own bread, this book will be a natural choice for sharing as a read-aloud. The story will also appeal to fans of Ahlberg’s other books, written both on his own and with his wife, and those who like Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s Little Pea, Spoon, and Chopsticks.

9 Daddy/Daughter Picture Books

With Father's Day just a few weeks away, now is a great time to start reading these daddy/daughter picture books. (Check back next week for a list of father/son books.)

• Apples to Oregon
  by Deborah Hopkinson & Nancy Carpenter
  Delicious and her siblings travel across country in a covered wagon, doing everything they can to ensure the successful delivery of her father's fruit trees to their new home in Oregon. 
• Has Anyone Seen My Emily Greene?
  by Norma Fox Mazer & Christine Davenier
  It's time for lunch, but where is Emily Greene? Her father pretends not to see her as the two engage in a silly game of hide-and-seek. 
• Higher! Higher!
  by Leslie Patricelli
  A little girl climbs on the swing and asks her dad for a push. He pushes her so high, she flies all the way up to space. 
• Interrupting Chicken
  by David Ezra Stein
  Chicken loves listening to Papa read at bedtime, but she just can't help interrupting to add her own exciting endings to each of the stories.
• Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale
  by Mo Willems
  Trixie and her dad are having a fun time on their trip to the laundromat until Knuffle Bunny gets left behind. 
• Lola Loves Stories
  by Anna McQuinn & Rosalind Beardshaw
  Lola's dad takes her to the library every Saturday, inspiring a week's worth of make-believe play for his daughter.
• Owl Moon
  by Jane Yolen & John Schoenherr
  A young girl and her dad go owling together in the woods on a cold winter night. 
• Please, Papa
  by Kate Banks & Gabi Swiatkowska
  Alice's toy farm is missing a horse. When she says, "Please," her father happily becomes the horse himself. 
• Ten Nine Eight
  by Molly Bang
  A little girl and her father count down to bedtime as they go through their nightly routine.

Story Time Music: Saying Hello

For the past few weeks, I have been sharing my experiences using music at story time. I have posted about recorded music, a cappella singing, and live music, but I have yet to say very much about the specifics of choosing story time songs. Today, I'd like to share my thoughts on the hello songs (and rhymes) librarians use to open a story time session.

Whether you start story time with a song or a rhyme, the opening activity is a crucial part of the session. Your opening routine represents the first impression you make on your audience, and also your opportunity to set the tone for story time and get everyone’s attention. In my opinion, a great hello song or rhyme includes a greeting to the audience and a set of simple motions for the audience to imitate. The greeting lets everyone know that this song marks the start of story time, and also welcomes the group to the library. The motions encourage everyone to begin paying attention, and to look to you to lead them through the story time experience. I also think it’s important to repeat the same hello song week after week so the audience becomes conditioned to associate it with the start of story time.

Here are some of my favorite hello songs:

• Hello, How Are You? is great for really large groups, classroom visits, and mixed age groups. I always have the kids wave during the first verse, then I choose motions for subsequent verses based on the age and activity level of the kids. I have had many families tell me that this hello song has become their children's favorite song.
• Say Hello is a good choice for small groups where there is time to greet every child by name. I used to use this song quite a lot in baby story times, until the groups got a bit too large, and the hello song started taking up half the session. If you're new to your library, or just have a new group of kids, this song will help you learn names quickly.
• This is the Way We Wave Hello is a short and sweet hello song that works really well with babies and toddlers. For this one, I never vary the motions I ask the kids to do. I find that repeating the exact same motions week to week encourages the kids to learn them and perform them along with me. 
• Say Hello to Your Toes is another short and sweet opening song that works best with babies. Parents and caregivers can hold the kids in their laps and point to each part of the body as it is mentioned. I like this song because it sets a tone for lap time wherein parent/child interaction is the central focus.

With preschoolers, and at class visits, I also like to sing a second song after the opener, which is usually If You’d Like to Read a Book. While the hello song signals that we have started, this song reminds the kids that we’re about to hear a story, and, because I ask them to “whisper hooray” at the end of the song, it gets them into that quiet place where they’re ready to hear what I’m about to read.

How do you open your story time sessions? Share your favorite hello songs and rhymes in comments! Check back next week for my thoughts on extension songs.