Picture Book Comparison

My 3 year old son received Bark, George by Jules Feiffer (1999) and I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen (2011) for Christmas.

Their similarities didn't occur to me until I read them back to back. So far my son has demanded me to do so on subsequent readings.

Bark, George was a staple storytime activity. We were lucky to have a fantastic children's librarian who turned a stuffed dog into a puppet that swallowed tiny stuffed animals (cat, duck, pig, cow). It was just amazing.

Poor George is a puppy that can't bark: he can meow, quack, oink, and moo. Mother takes him to the vet who reaches down into George's mouth to pull out each animal. It's outrageous and I love to see this surprise on the faces of my kids. But there's one more surprise. In the end, George is asked to bark one more time... and he says "hello". WHA?

(pause) Then my son gasped, "He ate a person!?"
Me: "He's probably just saying "hello" to all those people on the street. He's being polite."
Him: "He ate a person."

I Want My Hat Back is distinguished as one of the most talked about picture books of 2011. Bear is looking for his hat. He asks all the animals if they have seen it, but they have not. When a deer asks the bear to describe the hat he realizes that he has seen his hat on the head of one of the previous animals. Bear confronts this animal, there's an intense staring contest between the two, and then we see bear sitting on the clump of grass that formerly held the thief animal. It's an intense scene. As an adult do you interject with a note on the laws of nature? Or do you let the story play itself out to the reader? My son giggles that "bear squished him with his butt!" even though two pages later bear mentions eating the offender. I think one of the best aspects of this type of picture book is that the reader brings his or her own information to the story. My son likes it now as it is. When he gets the joke later on, I hope he enjoys it all over again in a new way.

Also, the first time I read I Want My Hat Back, my 8 year old was there, too. I wondered if he would spoil the surprise of the animal with the hat, but he missed it himself. He had the same reaction bear had when it was figured out. He, of course, finds it totally hysterical that bear eats the thief. "I can't believe he ATE him! Ahaha hahahaa ha!"

Give your audience a really interesting storytime and pair this with Wolves by (the amazing) Emily Gravett. Heh. "Alternate vegetarian ending." Yes, we own that book as well.

Below is the Westin Woods/Scholastic video of Bark, George (not one of their best) and the book trailer for I Want My Hat Back.

Pintrest: Book & Library Activities

Hi, All!

I'd like talk a bit about my latest online time waster: Pintrest. In addition to looking at lots of pretty pictures and wishing I a) had a sewing machine/knew how to sew b) had a craft closet of unlimited supplies AND a totally cool workspace that I -of course- made myself from Ikea hacks and goodwill finds c) had lots of time to putz around the kitchen ...there are loads of great ideas to use in a classroom or library.

I find fun craft ideas that I wish I knew about when I was doing storytime or having a teen craft.  Here's a sampling of library, book, kid related pins.

Have fun and remember - it's for work! :) 

Pintrest: a beginner's guide

PAGE CORNER BOOKMARKS

Bottle Cap Snowmen Craft

Stay Put Puzzle (or, another use for book jackets!)

The Worst Storytime EVER!

A little known fact is that most (all?) of us teen librarian posters on here also do storytime. Honestly, this is one of the highlights of my week. It is just fun. I do an all ages storytime, but I have a great group of mostly under 3's that are regulars. Tonight, I had quite a few newcomers. Tonight, all hell broke loose.

It started out fine, I did my opening of a hello song, Six Little Ducks, and finished with The Wheels on the Bus. So far so good. I lost them at the very first story. They started wandering. They started chasing. I finished my story as fast as I could. Not that anyone could actually hear it.

Next up fingerplays, action stuff, more songs, all good. They loved it. I feel my confidence come back a bit. Then my next book. Starts out fine, but I look over and there is a kiddo under my flannel board. I was going to let it slide, but another kid joined him. I made them move saying it wasn't safe and made one of them cry. That sucked, especially since he is a regular who shook his sillies out for the first time ever! Agh! Anyhow, I tried to finish the story over the talking and the running and the general mayhem.

I was now pretty rattled. I started in on my next group of songs and couldn't find the O to my flannel BINGO set. Where was it? Oh some kid had it. I got it back after. I attempted to sing without and messed up my clapping once, not a big deal, but I know that I have a tendency to do this, which is why I have the ding dang flannel letters. Next up, Old MacDonald. I forgot the tune and lyrics. That might have been the lowest point! My only consolation is that I knew this embarrassing thing had once happened to Joanna (sorry for sharing that Joanna!).

Next story? BOMB! Honestly? There were children climbing on the tables!!! And their parent's weren't stopping them! At that point I knew that the nice new people who decided to give my storytime a try were never ever ever coming back.

After my goodbye songs I said for the kids to put their hands on their heads and come up and get a stamp for the craziest storytime ever (i said this with jazz hands. OK, no I didn't). One nice mom said that she had enjoyed my stories. Then she proceeded to tell me that she and her son go to a lot of storytimes and mine is his favorite. Ahhhhh. That made me feel better. My storytime is a bit rowdy, but this was over the top craziness that was not normal.

Can't wait to see what excitement awaits me next week!