BOARD BOOK - Llama Llama Hoppity-Hop by Anna Dewdney

Illustrated by the author

2012 Viking/Penguin Young Readers

$5.99 - 7 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 3.89 - 441 ratings

My rating: 5 stars

My comments:  I've not read many board books in my time, and I read this one during our Baby Time at the library this week.  It's absolutely delightful!  Rhyme and rhythm.  Easy actions that kids can do as they read along (hop, jump, thump, touch, tap, clap, stretch, bow and hug!) Perfect.  Simple, sweet, and oh-so-rhythmic. Gotta find some more Llama Llama books!

Goodreads:
Llama Llama TOUCH!
Llama Llama TAP!
Llama Llama Red Pajama
CLAP, CLAP, CLAP!

Can you move like Llama Llama? Watch Llama hop, stretch, touch, and tap in this third board book by Anna Dewdney. Then you can do it, too!

POETRY - Autumnblings - Douglas Florian

Illustrated by the author
2003, Greenwillow Books (Harper Collins)
HC $15.99
TPPL 811.54
48 pgs.
Goodreads rating: 3.95
my rating: These are really super poems, I like them hugely! (4.5)

Endpapers:  Bright orange
Title page:  2 x 3 tangerine-colored rectangle of a boy somersaulting
in the leaves.

29 poems about Autumn and the time leading up to winter and colder weather.  This includes lots of poems that can be used as examples of poems that kids can write:

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT AUTUMN

Apple picking
Frisbee flicking
Falling leaves
Bracing Breeze
Flying kites
Cool crisp nights
Trick or treat
(Sweets to eat)
Pumpkin pies
Clear blue skies
Fireplaces
Relay races
Football games ---
I love that autumn has two names.

WHAT I HATE ABOUT AUTUMN

Summer's done
Not much sun
Back to school
Air's too cool
Winds that gust
Rains that rust
Chilly nose
Woolen clothes
Birds don't sing --
I hate that autumn's far from spring.

AWE-TUMN

When summer's seams
Have come undone,
Then greens to reds
And purples run.
A palette falls
To forest floor,
And autumn leaves
Leave me in awe.

BIRDS OF AUTUMN

Woodpecker,
Chickadee,
Crow,
And Owl.
Screech owls screech
Horned owls scowl.
Starling,
Sparrow,
Cardinal,
Jay.
Guess the others
Flew away.

WHAT TO DO WITH AUTUMN LEAVES

Kick them.
Catch them.
Pick them.
Snatch them.
Romp them.
Stomp them.
Hurl them.
Heave them.
If you want to,
Even leave them.

I Call My Grandma Nana – Ashley Wolff

Illustrated by the author

2009, Tricycle Press

24 pages

HC $15.99

Rating:  Well, I have to say I love it!

Endpapers:  front, brown “bag” paper, with a large name tag that says underneath:  I call my Grandma ________________ and everyone can see/ that I love spending time with her/ and she loves being with me.

Back cover:  a list of grandmother names from around the world (again, on the brownish paper bag-looking background)

First line/s:

“My grandmother from China

Is visiting today.

Class, please welcome Nai-Nai,”

Said Miss Alexandra May.

The story, in lovely rhyme and rhythm, goes on to have each of many kids introduce their grandmothers and tell what they call them:

“Abuelita is my Grandma.

She’s teaching me to sew.

The doll we’re making

    Looks like me---

Blue dress, black braid,

     White bow!”

or

“My Mamie likes the hummingbirds.

I always look for jays.

I carry her binoculars

On our bird-watching days.”

                (I love this one, my kids called their paternal grandmother, my mother-in-law, Mamie…)

In all, fourteen children tell about their grandmother in a four-lined quatrain.  What a great model for a writing lesson!

This is the second Ashley Wolff book I’ve read in as many days.  It’s time to check her out a little more thoroughly.  I know I’ve read her books before, but it’s time to really examine her retinue!  Ashley Wolff lives in San Francisco, California.

King Hugo's Huge Ego - Chris VanDusen

Illustrated by the author
Candlewick Press, 2011
HC, $16.99
40 pgs.
Rating:  4.5
Endpapers:  Yellow with darker yellow crest/shield with a slightly darker "H"
Title Pages: Full page illustration (a castle atop rolling green hills)

"Long ago, when people spoke
with words like "thou" and "thee,"
there lived a king named Hugo
who was only three foot three.

And though this mini monarch
stood no higher than an elf,
his ego was enormous --
he thought highly of himself."

Rhyming a b c b
Alliteration
Rhythm
Great vocabulary

Favorite illustration:  Tessa (a sorceress), after being bumped into the river, is grubby, shoeless (a dog is sticking out from under her haystack), she has a bedraggled frog on her head and a turtle on her rear....

Incredibly haughty King Hugo is poxed by a farm girl and his head grows and grows...and grows each time he brags.

Tree Ring Circus - Adam Rex

Harcourt Inc., 2006
"the first book he's written"
$16.00
32 pages
Rating: 4.5
Endpapers: Thick, vertical two-tone yellow stripes

"One seed in the ground,
three miles out of town.
One dark little rain cloud,
then two clouds,
then three.
One fast-growing trteet where the seed used to be."

And ok, what a tree. As more and more animals -- and a clown -- perch in the tree, we see a traveling circus arrive. Now eight cages of circus animals get loose and join the tree-sitters. What happens next made me snicker out loud.

The way that Adam Rex illustrated the chanting, rhyming verse of all the animals together is a sight to behold.

"a cat who climbed up but can't find her way down,
3 chipmunks,
two sparrows,
a whopping big bee,
five mice and a raven
all live in the tree."

Cats Night Out - Carolyn Stutson

A Foot-Tapping, Finger Snapping Counting Book
Illustrated by J. Klassen
Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster, 2010
$15.99
ages 4-8
32 pgs.
Endpapers: Mustard

This sing-songy musical book is catchy and fun and uses great words. In twos, and adding more and more at each turn of the page, pairs of cats dance. It becomes a counting book that counts by 2's!

"Six cats tango in red capes....up and down the fire escapes."
"Sixteen rumba in the dark, twitching silk bottoms through the park."

We see cats doing the samba, boogying, tap dancing, line-dancing, doing the twist, fox-trotting, doing the polka, the conga, and even the waltz...until neighbors complain.

The illustrations are dark - it's night after all - in numerous shades of browns and creams with just a subtle touch of pink and pinky red here and there. No white.

Exceptionally cool book.
I want to read it aloud!

The Middle-Child Blues - Kristyn Crow

Illustrated by David Catrow
G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2009
$16.99
32 pages
Endpapers: Pale blue
Rating: 3.5

Okay, this one's fun.

Lee comes between Ray and Kate. He feels forgotten and confused. he's either "too big" or "too little" for much of what his siblings do. But then he pulls out his guitar and starts to sing the blues about this problem -- and draws a crowd of other "middle" kids. Lee ends up struttin' and happy. Cute and quirky. Illustrations cover the full page. Great fun....do I know any middle kids to share this with?

Stick Man - Julia Donaldson

Illustrated by Axel Scheffler
Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholatic, 2009 US, 2008 London
$16.99
32 pages
Endpapers:Red with white line drawing of the stick family in many activities

I really liked this book, but I can't really tell you why. It's sort of stupid, actually. But it has great illustrations, rhyme and rhythm, and shows someone that faces hard times come out on top.....and in this case, with the help of Santa! There is a lot of clever writing, rhyming, and HUMOR. So I guess I CAN tell you why!

Stick Man lives in the family tree
With his Stick Lady Love and their stick children three.
One day he wakes early and goes for a jog.
Stick Man, oh Stick Man, beware of the dog!

SPOILER ALERT: After all sorts of trials and tribulations, Stick Man does return to his family.

All the World - Liz Garton Scanlon

Illustrated by Marla Frazee
Beach Lane Books, 2009
$17.99
40 pgs.
Rating: 5
Endpapers: light lime
2010 Caldecott Honor Book!

"Rock, Stone, pebble, sand
Body, shoulder arm, hand,
A moat to dig,
A shell to keep
All the world is wide and deep."

Simple and lovely, this gentle picture book shows a couple of families....from the beach in summer, to a farmer's market, climbing trees and in downpours, eating out and settling cozily in -- family members from young to old. Wonderful illustrations, some full page, some like little vignettes, tell so much. Hunt and look closely. There's so much to see!

"All the world is you and me
Everything you hear, smell, see
Hope and peace and love and trust
All the world is all of us."

See also: Twenty by Jenny Review.

Bubble Trouble - Margaret Mahy

Illustrated by Polly Dunbar
Pub 2008 in UK, 2009 in US
$16.00
Rating: 5
Endpapers: Blue, Green, White Bubbles in the sky

"Little Mabel blew a bubble, and it caused a lot of trouble...
Such a lot of bubble trouble in a bibble-bobbly way.
For it broke away from Mabel as it bobbed across the table,
where it bobbled over Baby, and it wafted him away."

Page after page of adventure, rhyme, and rhythm, as the entire town starts to chase after the baby floating in the bubble. Nineteen four-line stanzas. What a perfect production for a class to practice tongue-twisting, alliterataive, rhythmic verse. For MY class to practice, to memorize, to perform. I can't wait!

The illustrations are definitely cute and go well with the story, but it's the words that grabbed me here.....words to love (especially the verbs....) bobbed, bobbled, wafted, quibble, dribble, reeling, bellowed, groveled, babble, hobble, squable, tattered, tartan, gabble, gibbering, goggling, vanish, hovel, cavorting, aloft, huddled, grapple, topple, clambered, nefarious, plunged, gargles, quiver, drivel, shrivel, wilt, swivel, divested, dumbfounded, rebounded, prattle. Wowee!