Pied Piper Pics

What Puppies Do Best is an adorable picture book from bestselling author Laura Numeroff and illustrator Lynn Munsinger. Numeroff is best known for the classic If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and similar titles like PaIf You Give a Pig a pancake. This puppy book is also part of a series. Numeroff and Munsinger’s other books include What Mommies Do Best/What Daddies Do Best and What Aunts Do Best/What Uncles Do Best.

The illustrations are my favorite part of this book. The dogs are a variety of breeds and all bursting with personality. Their faces and body positions are very expressive. I especially like the illustration accompanying the words, “Puppies can go on walks.” A girl is twisted up in the leashes of two dachshund puppies that look very determined to run in opposite directions. The children in the book are different races and ages. Some have siblings, while others care for their puppies by themselves.

What Puppies Do Best is realistic about the joys and challenges of puppy ownership. These dogs wake people up with their howling, track mud into the house, and chew on pillows. However, they also give kisses, snuggle, and play outside with their owners. The responsibilities of dog owners are highlighted as well. Three sisters train their puppy to sit and shake hands, and a boy cleans up when his dog makes a mess of mud, feathers, and spilled milk in the living room. This sweet book is sure to be enjoyed by children who have a puppy or who just like dogs. It is a great read-aloud to share with a group or one-on-one. Since it has a simple text in a large font that usually appears on a white background, What Puppies Do Best is also an excellent practice book for children who are beginning to read by themselves.

Check the WRL catalog for What Puppies Do Best.

Miss Rumphius is a classic created by one of America’s most distinguished illustrators of children’s books. During her career of nearly sixty years, Barbara Cooney illustrated more than 100 books and won numerous awards, including the 1983 National Book Award for Miss Rumphius. She was known for traveling extensively to research the different settings in her books in order to make her illustrations as detailed and realistic as possible. About this book, Cooney said, “Miss Rumphius has been, perhaps, the closest to my heart. There are, of course, many dissimilarities between me and Alice Rumphius, but, as I worked, she gradually seemed to become my alter ego. Perhaps she had been that right from the start.”

This book tells the life story of Alice Rumphius, who wants to travel to faraway places, spend her old age living by the sea, and do something to make the world more beautiful. The illustrations in Miss Rumphius are lovely and charming. Cooney chose a horizontal format to allow plenty of space for her expansive landscapes. She used acrylic paints and colored pencils, and filled each page with tiny details. I can see little hairs on the neck of a camel, smoke rising from the chimneys of faraway houses, and black flecks representing lupine seeds. Reading this book transports me to a simpler time and to exotic locales around the world.

Cooney’s inspiring story is filled with rich vocabulary and graceful turns of phrase. Children will learn new words like conservatory and cockatoo by hearing them read aloud in context and by looking at the pictures. This book is best shared one-on-one to give children plenty of time to examine the illustrations. Its length and subject make it most likely to appeal to children in kindergarten and above. I remember reading Miss Rumphius when I was a child, and still think of it fondly every time I see a patch of lupines.

Check the WRL catalog for Miss Rumphius

This is a wonderful book to share at a toddler or pre-school story time after a storm or for a weather themed story time. The story is written and illustrated by Nancy Tafuri who won a Caldecott Honor award for Have you seen My Duckling? Her animals are delightfully detailed and realistic.

The Big Storm is indeed a very soggy counting book. One by one, animals try to escape from the dark black clouds. Bird flies to the hill hollow. He is number one. He is followed by Mouse who is number two. Lightning starts to crack and Rabbit runs for cover making three animals seeking refuge together. Thunder starts to rumble and grumble – Woodchuck, Raccoon, Opossum and Red Fox all run for cover. The children at story time enjoyed calling out the various animal names. Finally the number ten animal joins them. It is skunk!

“10 Critters huddled together” are escaping from the storm. Suddenly there is a different Rumble and Grumble and they all realize at once that some other creatures are in the cave with them. Can you guess what they are?

The story is great for a large group reading as are her other books including The Very Busy Little Squirrel and Spots, Feathers and Curly Tails. A good enrichment activity addition for this book would be a little flannel board of the hill hollow and figures of the ten animals. The flannel board could be demonstrated as the story is told or demonstrated after the story is told.

Move Over, Rover by Karen Beaumont has a similar storyline with a very different surprise ending. You might consider programming them a week apart. Encourage the children to identify things that are the same or different.

Check the WRL catalog for The Big Storm: A Very Soggy Counting Book.

Soggy Saturday is a very simple story that younger and older preschoolers really enjoy. Phyllis Root got the inspiration for this book when she was nearly washed off the road while driving during a torrential rainstorm. The heroine, Bonnie Bumble, lived on a farm. One Saturday, a soggy Saturday, it rained so hard the blue washed right out of the sky. It rained “blue” on all the farm animals – the chickens, the cow, the sheep, and the pig–the grass and trees too. Finally the rain stopped but now everything on the farm was blue! The chicken’s eggs had turned blue and even the cows’ milk was blue. Bonnie had to paint everything on the farm back to its original color – “the sheep all creamy and white and the pig all shiny and pink!”

This is a good addition to a weather-themed story time!

Bonnie Bumble is the star in these other humorous books by Phyllis Root: Meow Monday, Turnover Tuesday and One Windy Wednesday. They are all illustrated by Helen Craig with her playful, signature illustrations.

Check the WRL catalog for Soggy Saturday.

Here is a very fun “happy” book about rain. Split! Splat! encourages the reader to go out and embrace the rain. This book is ideal for a preschool or kindergarten audience. It features funny, rhythmic rhymes with lots of onomatopoeic words.

Pip Pip Pip Pip
Drippy drop drop drip

The well known illustrator, Steve Bjorkman draws large happy, smiling faces of children and dogs as they are running in puddles with raincoats and umbrellas and mud! The rain does not bother these kids.

A no-shoes, toes-ooze,
Slip-slap-and-thud song.
Oochy sploochy woochy woosh!

The kids will love this one and will recite the words back to you.

Check the WRL catalog for Split! Splat!

Kids love joke and riddle books, and this one is great for a large group. It’s not so much a picture book as a “quipture book.”

On the first page, we meet Mr. Putney, a balding, middle-aged guy with a mustache. He owns a veritable menagerie, whose names the reader is invited to guess. For instance, an armadillo stands on the bedside table next to a snoozing Mr. Putney. “Who wakes Mr. Putney up in the morning?” the book asks. The answer: An alarmadillo.

Mr. Putney holds a (somewhat worried) small boy next to a gorilla. “Who does Mr. Putney use to see how tall his nephew is?” A goruler.

You get the idea. Agee’s illustrations are huge and well-defined, so they are easy to see from the back of the room. And after the first few riddles, kids will be eager to guess the rest. I’ve used this with kindergarten through fourth grade, and it was a hit. And it’s a good one to slip between stories.

Check the WRL catalog for Mr. Putney’s Quacking Dog.

Last summer I brought this book to an outreach storytime where I would be reading to kindergarten through third grade students. When I arrived, I found out that the fourth and fifth graders would be joining us. “Uh oh,” I thought. But I needn’t have worried. Press Here saved the day.

Press Here is the pop-up book that isn’t a pop-up book. On the first page, readers are instructed to “Press here” on a painted yellow dot and then turn the page. On the next page, a second yellow dot has “magically” appeared. On ensuing pages, the reader is instructed to press dots, shake the book up and down or turn it sideways. In response, the dots change color, slide to the edge of the page, or change size. Pressing a whole row of dots “turns out the lights,” making the background turn black. Blow on the book and the black ink gradually (with more blowing), flows back off the page.

It’s irresistible.

This book is particularly fun to share with a group of about 20, because you can carry it around and let the kids can take turns following the directions. If you have more children than pages, it’s okay, because a couple of the instructions—clapping and blowing—can be done by the whole group. You’ll get spit on when everybody blows, so maybe don’t try it during flu season.

Check the WRL catalog for Press Here.

An exuberant orange and black tabby invites kids to guess his favorite color in this super book for babies and toddlers.

“Is it Yellow?” he asks. “Yellow is the sand on the sunny beach.”

“Is it Red? Red is the rug where I snooze by the fire.” The simple text on these double-page spreads is always accompanied by the cheery cat and another sort of animal. A mouse naps next to the cat on the red rug. Crabs scoot along yellow sand. Bats swoop through a black night sky.

The book bounces along easily, with just enough going on to generate a conversation with toddlers. Cabrera’s illustrations are big and bright, so this is a great book for storytime. And the simple conclusion is satisfying and perfect for little ones.

Check the WRL catalog for Cat’s Colors.

Memoirs of a Goldfish is a book about a little fish who lived alone in his fish bowl  happily swimming around all by himself. Then things started to be added to his fishy home, a bubbly man, plants, a cranky crab, a slime eating snail and even a pirate ship! What is a poor fish to do?

Devin Scillian and Tim Bowers have teamed up to make the book Memoirs of a Goldfish a keeper. This book is a fantastic read aloud for all ages. Anyone who has ever stood in the fish tank section at a store and thought “I need more stuff!” this book is for you.

Check the WRL catalog for Memoirs of a Goldfish.

This book is about the friends you find when you were not looking and how your life is richer for them, have fun.

Marshall Armstrong is New to Our School is the story of a new classmate who just doesn’t do things the way the other kids do, he is just different from the way he sets up his desk to what he eats at lunch Marshall Armstrong marches to his own beat. When the class is invited to Marshall’s birthday party no one thought they would have a good time but Marshall and his parents have planned a great birthday and the class has a great time.

This is a book about acceptance and how to be a friend to someone different then yourself.  This would be a great book for teachers or parents to read as a back to school book.

Check the WRL catalog for Marshall Armstrong is New to Our School.

Peanut Butter and Homework Sandwiches by Lisa Broadie Cook, is about a boy trying his very best to get his homework turned in and all the unfortunate things that happen to those assignments. Any child or adult who has had a homework assignment will be routing for poor Martin and his homework problems.

Read this with your favorite school age child. Have fun!

Check the WRL catalog for Peanut Butter and Homework Sandwiches.

Baby Pie by Tom MacRae is a book you cannot judge by it’s cover! At first I was curious as to how the author would be able to tell the tale of 3 trolls wanting to make baby pie and searching for a baby to put in it. It sounded a little gross to me but as I kept reading, I kept assuring myself, there was no way any author would write a picture book where the baby actually gets cooked! Of course Tom MacRae kept the baby safe and the trolls were in for such a surprise when they finally found the baby!

I plan to read this book to school age children, they will be able to be a little scared and then laugh at what happened to the trolls at the end of the story.

Check the WRL catalog for Baby Pie.

In the book Don’t Wake the Baby by Dawn Apperley, Lily-Lu is busy playing all through the day when every mishap she makes has the potential to wake the baby. There are s lot of  CRASHES and SLASHES all the youngest listener’s will enjoy and of course, the repeating words Don’t wake the Baby! I plan to use this book often with our baby storytime crowd.

Check the WRL catalog for Don’t Wake the Baby.

Patricia MacLachlan has such a beautiful way with her words. Her book Who Loves Me? is the very simple story of a little girl asking her cat, who loves me? The cat tells the little girl all of the ways her family loves her until they are both tired and they snuggle up together and fall asleep. This is a wonderful way to reassure any child as to who loves them, young children will love thinking of way each of their family members love them too.

Check the WRL catalog for Who Loves Me.

Hush Little Polar Bear is a very sweet bedtime book that you will just have to sing.

The artwork is big and little ones will have no trouble following the little polar bear as he travels all over the world until it’s time to settle down and sleep soundly in bed.

This is a great book for a bedtime storytime, Jeff Mack is the author and illustrator and he’s created a beautiful book.

Check the WRL catalog for Hush Little Polar Bear.

Alan MacDonald has created a very funny twist to the classic 3 bears story, in his book Beware of the Bears!

Like all stories with the 3 bears this one starts out as the bears go  for a walk and come home to find their house a mess but then decide to give Goldilocks a taste of her own medicine. The bears have a blast with a food fight, pillow fight and water battle. Goldilocks comes home to a very funny conclusion, poor Mr. Wolf.

Have fun reading this one to all you storytime friends, it’s a great read for all ages.

Check the WRL catalog for Beware of the Bears.

This book is for any family who has a child who wants a pet, an unusual pet!

Petunia LOVES skunks and that’s what she wants, of course her parents say no and that’s when the adventure starts. Petunia tries to convince her parents how wonderful a pet skunk would be and tells them all the ways she will take care of it, but of course, they say no.

Petunia decides she can no longer live with such “mean” parents and runs away to live in the woods, she doesn’t get far before the wanted pet crosses her path and Petunia finds out why skunks do not make good pets.  Petunia heads for home and decides she likes her stuffed pet skunk best but not before declaring real skunks are Awesomely Stinky!

This is a fun storytime book, I’ve used it for a mostly school aged crowd but will work for any age as long as they have some experience with Awesomely Stinky Skunks!

Check the WRL catalog for A Pet for Petunia.

Eula is a square cat whose shape sometimes makes her life difficult. Her favorite round skirt won’t fit, getting up after a fall isn’t easy and mouse holes are impossible. Things get so bad Eula eventually loses her purr. Enter Patsy and Maude, two round cats, who try to help Eula feel round. Eula tries hoop earrings, eating doughnuts and skipping in circles and just when she starts to feel round she tips over. “Which as you know isn’t good for a square cat.” Pick up this book at the library and find out what Patsy and Maude do to become square cats just like Eula and how Eula realizes that being square has its advantages too.

Check the WRL catalog for Square Cat.

Alison Jay has managed to start with a book about colors, a beautiful book about colors, and by combining that with Mother Goose rhymes has ended up with a spectacular book you will want to read over and over again.
“Little boy Blue’s asleep in the hay. His sheep and his cow have run away.” “Poor Humpty’s purple from his fall. These men will try to mend it all.” “The Owl and the Pussycat set to sea…in a beautiful boat as green as a pea.” Each page, like the examples above, will combine a rhyme and a color and give you the chance to search for the hidden character, recall and recite the rhyme and talk about all of the other colors on the beautifully illustrated pages.

Check the WRL catalog for Red Green Blue: A First Book of Colors.

One red square equals infinite possibilities. Each day of the week the square meets a different fate. It’s cut into pieces, poked full of holes, torn or snipped, and yet instead of feeling ruined it reinvents itself into something beautiful. At first glance you might think this is a book about shapes and colors and you’d be right but there is also a message about making something out of everyday difficulties. Our square is a perfect example of the “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade” philosophy. What will happen on the last day of the week when the square is left alone? Will it find one more way to reinvent itself?
You’re going to enjoy this book’s easy text, simple illustrations and eye catching colors. You may even be inspired to get a square of your own to investigate its infinite possibilities.

Check the WRL catalog for Perfect Square.